#5 - What Do You Sell?

Former Disney guest service manager, Christos Provistalis, reveals the key to Disney's exceptional customer service lies in selling not just a product, but an emotion. Drawing from his experience at Disney and his subsequent role as a speaker and thought leader, Christos emphasizes the transformative potential of genuine connections and kindness in the service industry. He recounts a magical moment at Disney where technology facilitated a connection between a little girl and Cinderella, illustrating the profound impact of emotional engagement. The discussion extends to family-run businesses, like the speaker's restaurant, emphasizing the sale of a sense of family over mere food. The core lesson revolves around understanding what a company truly sells and how to evoke the desired emotion, a critical factor in determining success. The conversation concludes by exploring strategies to create unforgettable customer experiences through emotional connections, highlighting the importance of making customers feel valued, fostering loyalty through personal touches, and unleashing the power of emotional connections in business.

Guest Information:
Christos Provistalis - www.christosspeaks.com
Phone: (860) 428-9314
Email: info@ChristosSpeaks.com
Linked In  - Christos Speaks

Host Information

Bill Buter – Contact Information

Direct – 952-208-7220

https://butlervetinsurance.com/

bill@butlervetinsurance.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbutler-cic/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What makes Disney Disney Us, the people. And we only sell one thing we sell an emotion that people desire is the only thing that we sell.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprint podcast brought to you by Butler Vet Insurance. Hosted by Bill Butler, the Veterinary Blueprint podcast is for veterinarians and practice managers who are looking to learn about working on their practice instead of in their practice. Each episode we will bring you successful, proven blueprints from others, both inside and outside the veterinary industry. Welcome to today's episode.

Speaker 3: 0:43

Welcome to this episode of the Veterinary Blueprint podcast. My name is Bill Butler and I'm your host for this episode. And again, veterinary Blueprint podcast is a podcast where we bring business entrepreneurship to the veterinary community and business insights, and I could not be more excited for this episode of the podcast to bring our guests to you. I happened to meet this gentleman at industry mastermind event. I was out working on myself in self improvement and I was meeting with a number of insurance agents earlier this year and I had the privilege of hearing our guests speak and uh had the opportunity to hear him again this weekend. We're coming to you from a live remote in San Diego, so if you hear some background noise in this episode, we are close to the uh naval air station on Coronado, so you might hear some jets in the background, but we are in sunny San Diego and I just um, our guest actually just got off the stage as a keynote for the event I was attending and I knew that I had to bring him to the veterinary community.

Speaker 3: 1:49

Um, I would like to call this, uh, this gentleman, my friend now. Um, we've had the opportunity to connect on a number of occasions and and he is just a really genuine great guy, um, and I'll let him tell his story, cause he's got a great one, and share some of his insights. But his name is Christos provistilis and he is just, uh, really genuine and kind-hearted person. So welcome to the episode, christos. Thank you for having me, bill, awesome. So for those of our guests, uh, for those of our listeners today, why don't you just kind of share a little bit about who you are and what you're doing now and then what you how you came to to be a speaker and a thought leader for business owners and industry leaders?

Speaker 1: 2:33

So, bill, I'm a former guest service manager for the Walt Disney company and I had the pleasure of working at their flagship resort, uh, for some years in Orlando, florida, and there was one day that made me really realize what my purpose there was and helped me create, uh, my future. I had an executive come into my restaurant that was a restaurant guest service manager and looked at me and said, christos, what do you sell? And and I really thought I was like, man, you can't read the menu. So I just, I just turned around and I started firing off everything that we sold. And he said, christos, I can read the menu. What do we sell as a company? And I still didn't get them. And I just tried to say theme park tickets, hotel rooms and shirts. And he's like, christos, that's not what we sell. And then he asked me what does Nike sell? I go to sell sneakers, because that's not what they sell, but this Rolex sell. And I said watch this. He's like that's not what they sell. He goes, christos, anybody can duplicate Disney. Granted, you would need a lot of money in Orlando, though they're 46 square miles, but anybody could. So you need a lot of money in land and land, you know, but he's like in all reality he goes. We don't have the best theme parks, we don't have the best resorts, we don't have the best restaurants. He goes. What makes Disney Disney? And I was like he goes us, the people. And we only sell one thing we sell an emotion. That people desire is the only thing that we sell, and he goes. Everything you see around this, those are our props that we use, and he goes.

Speaker 1: 4:20

I asked you what Nike sells, you said sneakers. He goes. They sell motivation and inspiration is what they sell. I asked you what Rolex sells? You don't see. Uh, their commercials say we have the best metal. Check out this. Our watches keep time like nobody else's business. Our time is more accurate than anyone's. You see a well-dressed person coming out of a very expensive car. They sell status and success, but he goes. We're lucky. We sell the most desired human emotion that there actually is. We sell the emotion of happiness. And when you know and understand what your company sells, your whole business actually changes. And when you know and understand what you actually sell, your job is to evoke the emotion you want your client to feel. And that bill made me realize that a lot of companies focus on stuff they don't actually sell, because it's an emotion that a company sells through their product. Yeah, you know, you just got done speaking to a room full business profile.

Speaker 3: 5:22

I really appreciate that you started with that and shared that. You know your family was in the restaurant business, is in the restaurant business and you talk about that and you say, look, we don't sell people that. You say we look, we don't sell pizzas. What do you sell at the restaurant?

Speaker 1: 5:38

We ended up finding out after years that we actually sell. A sense of family is what we sell at our restaurant.

Speaker 3: 5:46

And you know, it's going to be different for every restaurant, right? Correct? Hey, we sell a party in a good time if you're a bar, correct, so the best party and good time in a bar. But you know, it's that interesting, um, that piece that I wanted to share today with our, our veterinary blueprints community, was it's it's not just pet services that they sell, or animal health, it's it's you have to figure out what you sell.

Speaker 3: 6:07

In the message that you brought to um the professionals that you spoke with today, that I had the privilege of of sitting in for the second time, hearing um, hearing you speak was that connection is energy and that that you know, as an insurance professional, somebody in a white collar business, right, like, I don't sell insurance products, I sell safety and security, or I sell peace of mind. If I think I just sell a piece of paper that talks about all the things and all the benefits and features that insurance policy is, you know, yeah, I can make some money doing that, but I'm not going to have that connection. So why don't you talk about the connection as the energy is peace? Because that was, I think that was. It was very interesting for me to hear.

Speaker 1: 6:52

A lot of people need to understand how we connect as human beings, and the definition of human connection is that it's an energy, and that energy is formed between people when they feel seen, when they feel heard, when they feel valued and when they feel understood. And when those things happen, you create a bond, whether you know it or don't know it, and a lot of companies need to create a better connection with their customers and their employees.

Speaker 3: 7:26

Yeah, the employee piece, I think, for the veterinary community is really key and that was that was why I wanted to talk about the connection and energy is, and connection is energy, peace. Because when you, when you talk today, you mentioned that when you have a bond or emotional connection with someone, you're willing to overlook issues or problems. Right, you talked about at Disney. Right, you tell a story about Cinderella.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So I was working at one of their restaurants and it was a table service restaurant at the Grand Floridian, directly right next to Magic Kingdom, and there was a couple from Michigan. They came in with a little girl and the little girl was maybe six or seven years old. She was wearing Cinderella's dress. It was eight in the morning. She ordered chocolate milk. She spilled the chocolate milk all over herself and she was devastated that Cinderella's not gonna want to see her.

Speaker 3: 8:21

I mean, why would Cinderella want to see a little girl covered in chocolate milk, right I?

Speaker 1: 8:25

mean that was her mind. My day at Disney is ruined.

Speaker 3: 8:28

I've been thinking about this day for months, of course.

Speaker 1: 8:31

So I you know. When in my office I sent a text message to all my friends that are leaders and I said who's with Cinderella right now? I need some help? I, you know. And one of my friends said I'm with her. I said can you please, you know, have her handler, you know say have her help me 30 seconds. I went to Emily's table, I slit my cell phone, my cell phone right in front of her, and here comes a FaceTime call from Cinderella, and Emily was a little girl's name answered it and and I said Emily, do you know Cinderella? And she's like no, here's Cinderella. And Cinderella's like hi, emily, it's Cinderella. I just want to let you know that I spilled chocolate milk all over myself today as well. You know what? Just go upstairs, change and I'll see you tonight for dinner. And then Emily said well, okay, you just hung up on her, you know it completely changed the conversation.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Emily was back to Emily's fine and their parents started crying. And you know I can't just pull Mickey and Minnie out of my pockets for everybody. I'm like, oh man, one party's this and I gotta take care of them. But the point that I was making is so if Emily and her parents left my restaurant and went to the ticket and transportation center and somebody there give them less than perfect service when they got their tickets, they wouldn't have noticed. And when they went next door, they went inside the park and purchased a bottle of water and somebody give them less than perfect service, they wouldn't have noticed.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Because the more someone is emotionally invested in you, the less critical and less objectively observant they become about you. And the perfect example and I use that some people like oh, and I said, when you get married or I'm not married when you fall in love. When you fall in love, you have blinders on till. Somebody says, hey, listen, this person you're dating is wacko. And then you go what, yeah, what are you talking about? She's amazing. It's the same thing personally as is professionally. And I use this example.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Let's just say you send a text message or an email to your client. That could be misconstrued, you know, because text and emails. They lack emotion. Doesn't matter if you put a little smiley face or anything like that, they still lack emotion and they have no tone in there. So if they're emotionally invested in you and you send them something like that, that would be misconstrued. They won't. They'll accept that as something positive. They really won't, because they're emotionally invested in you. So you, you, you, you, you. So the 738, 55 it's a rule of communication is what it is and basically states that only 7% of our communication between human beings is Verbal.

Speaker 3: 13:20

So only 7% of what our communication with everyone else in the world is what we're saying and you would think it's like 60, 70 or 80 the words that we're saying.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Yeah, you know, when years ago and I learned this I Was like there's no way. I'm like I thought all communication is us talking and the 38% is tone and pitch of our voice and Then 55% is our you're doing a great job, chris so exactly your tone is everything you know and yep, the usually the Higher pitch your tone is and pitch, the better the service that you're giving.

Speaker 1: 13:58

We do that naturally right. We do that without wanting to. I know there's some people that I know we don't sing happy birthday in a low correct.

Speaker 2: 14:08

We don't do that right.

Speaker 1: 14:10

You get all excited we sing it high and happy, absolutely so. But One thing that we need to pay attention to is the 38, and the 55% has to always Substantiate the seven so what was the fifth?

Speaker 3: 14:24

so we didn't talk about 55, so 50 body language.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Yes, so you know our body.

Speaker 3: 15:32

We're visual people right as humans and our body reacts immediately.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Right, so our body, so we're in the subconscious, right there. You just do things without knowing because our subconscious lives in the now. It doesn't think so if you've got a terrible poker face, you just yeah, you're your, your facial tone, your facial reaction.

Speaker 3: 15:56

You talked about smiling if you, if you're, you're, you're. You told the story about speaking at a conference and, and if you're, if it's a natural smile, you've got crow's feet now. Usually record the episodes on video as well as, but because we're doing a remote, you can't see what we're doing right now. But if you have a genuine natural smile, it should show crow's feet. And you were talking about. You were speaking at a Convention where everyone had.

Speaker 1: 16:21

90% of the people had Botox interface. And while I was talking, everybody just looked at each other and I was like can you see me? Can you see it? Can you see it? Am I smiling? And I was like what are they talking about? And then everyone just started laughing, having a great time, and I had no idea. And then, with some, someone said almost everyone in this room has had Botox, so we can't do any of those things see the crow's feet.

Speaker 3: 16:41

But the point is, if, if you're giving away what your, your tone and pitch of your voice and and your body language and what your body language is conveying needs to match that 7% of the words You're saying, and if there's incongruence, if the if the words you're saying doesn't match the tone and pitch of your voice and the body language, people are gonna catch that right away.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Absolutely. Sometimes we do that without wanting to. We contradict the seven instead of substantiate.

Speaker 3: 17:10

This is so hard for me, people walk around. I Was in the military for 12 years. Some of our listeners know that Very serious all the time and I look serious all the time and people say what's the matter, bill? Is everything okay? I have this very scowl, like if I furl my brow and I scowl and I'm looking and say, everything's fine. Why, what are you asking me? My tone and pitch are low and angry. Everything's fine and what I'm saying is everything's fine, but my tone and pitch and my body language are not showing that, and so when we're talking with our team and we're talking with our clients, our tone and pitch and our body language need to match the words we're saying absolutely it does, because a lot of times we naturally do that, we naturally Do that and even though we're saying something, our tone and pitch is not telling you that that's right.

Speaker 1: 18:02

And especially if it's over the phone. You know all you have is your 38% in your seven. You don't have the 55, so make sure that's why the tone and pitch is even more important. And then so important Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 18:12

So important. So you talked about Customers at Disney and that was a very interesting piece as well, and you talked, it told a story about customers and guests, and guests can be Any host of things. You know, if you think about a veteran practice of your clients they're also your team members and Just give the difference between a customer and a guest at Disney. That was fascinating when.

Speaker 1: 18:37

I first started working at Disney as a leader. You know, the facilitator asked me in my class, said, chris, how do you treat a guest? And I said a guest like a guest in my house. So I'm like, yeah, just a guest. And I go.

Speaker 1: 18:50

Well, if I have a guest at home, I want to make sure they have their favorite beers or their favorite drinks, their favorite snacks, their favorite food. I want to make sure they're comfortable. I want to make sure they're happy there. I'm going to make sure they're just, they need anything possible. And I gave just a whole bunch of lists of stuff and he's like, oh so, um, how would you to carry a customer? And I was like, well, I just want to make sure that you know the customer you know is happy and just gets what they need. And he's like you just gave me a list of six things that you would do for your guest and a couple of things for your customer. And he goes here at Disney. Our customers are our guests. So the way you just described your guest and what you would do for them, that's what we do for our guests and it just made that alone just made me just shift my mindset a little bit as to just how to think.

Speaker 3: 19:41

You know well and and when we convey that back to Emily. And you kind of relayed this during the story of Emily, right, like all you did was send a text out to six people saying, hey, who's with? Who's with Cinderella right now? Now, number one, being in a job where you get to send a text with who's with Cinderella right now, I mean I don't get to do that, so, but who's with Cinderella? And you get a text message back and you set up the FaceTime and then Cinderella's in the thing. Now, emily, as you kind of tell the longer version of this story, emily couldn't have really cared much after she saw Cinderella and, like she's on with her day, I'm going to go change and we'll do them at Disney.

Speaker 1: 20:18

She hung up on her.

Speaker 3: 20:20

That's right. Literally she hung up on Cinderella and but the parents? That was where you developed the emotional connection and you said over the course of your career at Disney you've had people write letters up to executive level and connection and thanking you and trying to tip you at different spots because of just the very small, simple things you did, and a lot of these are not. So it's about being present in what we're doing to see and identify the opportunity, because the smallest things sometimes matter the most. Just be thoughtful and intentional. That's right. You did mention that. As well as being intentional and not just being so focused with blinders that we're worried about ourselves and I think, into a society it's so easy just to focus on us.

Speaker 3: 21:05

The sessions that we were in you've been here for the whole conference. Everyone's listening to that radio station, wii FM. What's in it for me? And our team is listening to that radio station. What's in it for me, our guests.

Speaker 3: 21:21

If you're at Disney or thinking about what's in it for me, how is this going to impact me and as leaders in our role, what we're doing? We have to not listen to that. We have to purposely turn this. We're always going to listen to that radio station, but probably turn the volume down on that radio station and be intentional about what we're listening to and think about how we can impact other people's lives and build connection, because that connection, as you talked about well, people will let some things slide that they might not let slide, but also build deeper connections. So you've got really a tribe of people who are all working the same path and passionate clients. I mean, how loyal are the customers at Disney? They're very loyal. I mean they come back year after year after year. Absolutely, cruises. We're in San Diego and we had a Disney cruise ship come in. Did you see the magic? Yeah, the magic, and it blew the horn. It blew the Disney theme as it goes.

Speaker 3: 22:16

I've never heard that, um, but everyone sees Mickey Mouse and they've. They know what that is and it evokes happiness. So you know, kind of tying it into your overall message, that that you presented to the group was what do you sell? You know you ended with what you sold and I'm going to read the quote that you ended with. And so you know, I think, as a veterinary practice number one, you have to figure out what you sell to your clients. You have to figure out what you sell to your team. But I'd like you to explain what you mean by this, because you really, you really hit this home. You said touch your customers on such a level that your competition has no understanding of it. They don't even speak the same language. What does that mean to you? You know, that's your quote. But when you say that from the stage and you say, and you, you know you're teaching on this what do you mean by that?

Speaker 1: 23:10

So it's really. It's not necessarily about the product or the service that you sell. It has to do with how you make your customers feel. It doesn't matter if you're selling bricks, if you're selling cars, if you're selling tables, if you're selling veterinary services. It's how you make your customers feel and everything. We go to certain places, your favorite restaurant or your favorite, this, your favorite for a certain reason.

Speaker 1: 23:43

So when I said that, be so intentional and thoughtful with your customers, do things for them, understand their personal life. If you can be involved in their personal life meaning knowing what's going on, sending a card, doing something for them, especially in their time of need, touching them on on such a deep level like not just hey, listen, uh, here's a free soda while you sit here waiting for that's. That's not service, right, that's not service. How are you going to touch them that they don't know what's going on? How are you going to touch them that they tell their friends right, one of the purposes of a business is to create a customer that creates customers one of your purposes Because they your customer talking about you.

Speaker 1: 24:31

they have no skin in the game.

Speaker 3: 24:33

They're just that can also go for team members, right, Like you want your team members so loyal and passionate about working for you that they, their friends, are coming to like hey, I work for the best veteran practice in the Twin cities metro area or the state of Minnesota the state of Wisconsin.

Speaker 1: 24:51

So your number one customer Is your employee. Yeah, you know, that's your number one customer. So everything that I talked on stage, everything that I talk about, you remove the word customer and you put employee. It's the same values, it's the same points, it's the same intentionality right intentionality.

Speaker 1: 25:09

You know how do you make your own people that work for you feel yes, salary is great. You can ask him a little what could be better here? Oh, I could get paid more. Everyone says that. But do they feel important? Do they feel special? Like I mentioned to you, one of the six human needs we all have is the need to feel significant. That's right. Whether you can admit it or you can't, it is who doesn't want to feel. You asked me to be on this podcast.

Speaker 3: 25:35

You said feeling seen, feeling heard, feeling loved and feeling significant, and I'm kind of glumping some things together there, but I think that's. That's a theme of People just want to feel like they belong somewhere, of course, and as part of that tribe right, like we're tribal people, I mean that's. It goes way back. We're not a solitary no deal. We, I mean the last three days together. I mean we've shared some meals, it's all this to.

Speaker 3: 26:01

People aren't walking around alone at this conference. There's always a group of three, four or five people. I think the smallest dinner I had was the first night here with my wife. Otherwise it's like a group of eight people going to dinner. And how much fun are we having doing that.

Speaker 1: 26:14

It's a great culture. So you know, back to the significance. You know, like you asked me to be on this podcast. I'm excited to be on this. You know like it makes me feel great, it makes me feel special to be on it. You know I love it. No, don't take it for granted. You know I was telling a couple of my friends. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna be on this vet podcast. I'm like this is I've never done this before. I mean even walking into the room.

Speaker 3: 26:39

Right, we're recording this in my hotel room and I got the whole set up and the microphones. I think, and you walked in you kind of stuff. He said, holy cow, you got the whole professional setup here and it's like we do but.

Speaker 3: 26:50

But that's the but. That's how can you translate that to your team? How can you translate that to your customers? How can you translate that To what you're doing? And I mean what you're doing in your personal life, at your home, at home? If you don't, if your spouse doesn't feel significant, they're gonna identify every issue and problem. But if they feel significant and they feel loved and Bill doesn't throw his you know his dirty clothes down the laundry chute, or you know Shannon doesn't park her car in the garage the right way, I can overlook that. Because she's such a great person, I love her so much, right? And so how do you translate that to your professional life, to your personal life, to your team? You got very emotional on stage a couple times because this is a very emotional. I don't think there's a dry in the room we were going down. Actually, I know one person like I didn't cry, but there's always one who doesn't cry.

Speaker 3: 27:46

But for those people who had heard you speak before, they were prepared and I told Shannon, my wife, because she's here on this trip, and and I said you should bring some tissues down, make sure you have some. She's a why, why, why do I need to teach? I'm gonna, but this. But that's the part of emotion, right, we're evoking emotion versus just giving rote information, facts and figures. And the one, the one story that you told that I think really had a lot of impact with with the audience was the story of your restaurant. I'm just gonna share a little bit of this.

Speaker 3: 28:18

But you, your restaurant you did For bursts and funerals. You would show up at somebody's house. You, you were, you were kind of respond. Your brother was the back office of the back of house, he was responsible for the restaurant stuff and you were kind of the community engagement guy. How can we, how can we be involved in the community? What? How can we be involved in people's lives? Taking that experience at Disney, right, and and the, the funeral piece, why don't you just describe what you did as a rest, so as a restaurant? It was easy for you to do this because it was just what you did every day, but the impact it had and if you wouldn't mind sharing that story.

Speaker 3: 28:55

I think we'll kind of you know, wrap up with this.

Speaker 1: 28:57

In the course of your daily service, it may feel normal to you to do something in the normal course of service, but how it impacts people's lives is so unique and special so one thing that we would do and it's tough to do it for everyone because I wouldn't be able to pay attention to everyone, but you know I would follow, you know our Social media, all the people that were connected to to our restaurant.

Speaker 1: 29:22

We love every single one of our customers because without them, we, we have a space with restaurant equipment and a phone that doesn't ring and a lot of pizza dough, and so one thing that I'd like to do is like, and when times of like Just really big emotion, emotional parts of people's lives, that like having a baby right like, I would love to try to always Call either their parents or their brother and be like, hey, listen, when are they coming home? I'd love to meet them at your house with their favorite pizza and a couple days worth of food, Just so they can have, you know, some food to eat the next couple days, instead of having to eat junk food or whatever the case may be. And when somebody would pass away, we would and we would pay attention. Like I said, I couldn't get to everyone.

Speaker 3: 30:10

If I saw it, you know, I would call you were intentional and you did what you call it.

Speaker 1: 30:15

Yeah, that's intentional and you know I'd call somebody and I'd say, hey, listen, I'm sorry to hear that your partner or your sister or someone passed. You're expecting people at your house. Um, can I, can we stop buying pair respects? Yeah, how many people are you expecting? 30, 40, 50? Well, we're gonna bring food for everyone, just so you can be with them, and you know I'll, my family will feed them. And I never really thought anything of it, right, I really didn't. We're just cooking pizza and yeah, there's this.

Speaker 1: 30:47

We do this every day. It's nothing. And these people just lost someone in their family. I'm just cooking food for 40 people to drop it off. It's literally nothing right. And Then, a few days before my parents were planning on retiring and moving down to down south, my dad unexpectedly passed away. Um, and we had to close our restaurant For the first time, without like it being a vacation and what our neighbors or customers or friends, what they did? They filled our house with food and drinks and gifts and cards. I mean a lot, a lot of stuff. And for the first time, I looked at my mom, my brother and I go. Is that how they feel? Mm-hmm, is that?

Speaker 3: 31:44

Cuz we thought we were just delivering pizzas and food. That's all. That's not, and that's to us.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Yeah, you're just. And then I was like, oh my god, now I know the impact we have on them and that's why our little pizzerias so busy.

Speaker 3: 32:02

I mean you told the story about they had the best pizza. Is in Connecticut Best? Like a contest, yeah, and you came out top three.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Yeah, absolutely In the entire state of Connecticut.

Speaker 3: 32:12

Mm-hmm, you had people all over the place.

Speaker 1: 32:15

Yeah, just voting for us.

Speaker 3: 32:16

Voting for you guys because you had such raving fans, because you had built such deep, meaningful emotional connections to the community, to your customers, to the community and this happened after your father passed away.

Speaker 1: 32:30

Yes, it happened this year.

Speaker 3: 32:32

It happened this year and then you had the. When you were in the top four it was like the sweet 16. They started at 800 and then they were down, and when you got to the top four the TV station came and interviewed your mom.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 32:45

And it was like she was so joyful and it was really yeah, it was nice.

Speaker 1: 32:49

It was the happiest we saw her since our dad passed away. Like she was, you know, having a camera crew and these anchors that you normally see at six o'clock on the TV hanging out with us and eating some good food. I mean it was amazing. Like, do we have, like, the best pizza in Connecticut? Maybe, I don't know, I don't, and then, but it really has nothing to do with the pizza Bill. Yeah, and that's the point, right. Like it almost has nothing to do with the product. You know, I can't tell you how many people when they come in, when my mom was working in the front of the restaurant how they'd call her mom Ten-year-olds, 30-year-olds, 80-year-olds. Why are they calling her mom? Do they not have one? Do they have a bad relationship with one? Do they miss them? We don't know, right. So we sell a sense of family at our place. We threw food, sure, you know.

Speaker 3: 33:47

It's the vehicle, but that's not yeah we don't sell food, you know.

Speaker 1: 33:50

We sell a sense of family through food and a lot of companies need to know and understand what they actually sell. That's what they think they sell.

Speaker 3: 34:00

And I think you know for my industry. You're out here. You know this is for an insurance event. That's the industry I'm in, but you spoke to three other groups out here prior to the meeting that you were at, because I think there's such a hunger in today's society to figure out how we can connect with people and we're so isolated on our devices and we're in our own silos and our team members show up and they're on their device. I mean, it's just, it's the world we're in right now.

Speaker 3: 34:28

Talking down the street, zoned out, looking at their phone, and building a deep emotional connections with people is something that I think was done a lot in the past probably, and we've gotten away from and it's somehow unique. But you know, there's other theme parks, there's Six Flags, there's all these things. But when you talk about theme parks, I mean Disney's the top of the list, because Six Flags doesn't sell happiness. Disney sells happiness. And so how do you set yourself apart as a business in figuring out what you sell? And I think figuring out, as a veterinary practice, what's your product or service it's not veterinary services, it's what, and that was the question you left us with is what do you sell?

Speaker 3: 35:19

And so if you were going to say something to a veterinary practice right now or trying to figure that out what would you say to them?

Speaker 1: 35:28

I would say you need to really look within, deep in your company, and understand why are people coming to you? Because other companies offer the same service, but why are they really coming to you? What emotion do you evoke from your customers? Figure out what you actually sell, and every vet practice might sell something different. Might sell confidence in their services, might sell a sense of family, might sell something else, but you don't sell veterinary services.

Speaker 3: 36:02

Yeah, just like Nike doesn't sell shoes and Rolex doesn't sell watches, correct, they don't.

Speaker 1: 36:07

They sell something through that product or service. So it's really important for any company you know, especially vet, you're dealing with you know, especially the people that don't have children, that have pets. Their pets are their everything, absolutely Right, so they're everything I mean. So I think it's really, really important to know and understand what emotion you want to evoke from your customers that are bringing in their children. Basically, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 36:38

They're family. I mean they're, they're bringing their family to you 100%. Yeah, I know, my little buddy Louie is my cat at home and whenever we bring him to the vet I mean he's my little buddy Louie I'm bringing my, my wife and I don't have kids. So we, you know, we're bringing Louie to the vet. Well, christos, I've really been looking forward to having you on this podcast.

Speaker 3: 36:57

I logged my microphones and everything all the way out here to San Diego and I was so excited to have you on for those people who want to connect with you After this podcast, after this hearing this podcast, where can they find Christos?

Speaker 1: 37:13

online? Oh, you can. They can follow me on Facebook and Instagram on just my name, just Christos Provestilis, and if they want to contact me for anything, my website is ChristosSpeakscom.

Speaker 3: 37:26

That's pretty complicated ChristosSpeakscom, so we'll have all that in the show notes for you. Man, I just since meeting you in Utah earlier this year, we've connected. It's been so much fun. I was looking forward to seeing you again here out in San Diego and I'm so grateful to have you on the podcast. Nice Well, thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1: 37:47

This was this was a lot of fun. We have a. We're looking forward to seeing you again here out in San Diego.

Speaker 3: 37:49

We have a. We're looking out the balcony at the beautiful view of beautiful view of San Diego. Well, as always. Thanks for listening. Make sure to like, click and review this episode. Share it with your friends. It helps with all the algorithms and we just love to get this message of business, entrepreneurship and business ideas out to the veterinary community. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the Veterinary Blueprints podcast. I'm your host, bill Butler, and I look forward to connecting with you soon. Thank you Next time.