Customer Service, Entrepreneurship, and Teaching Kids the Value of Money

The Ruben and RyLee Podcast is back with a conversation about how customer service can make or break your experience, the dos and don’ts of entrepreneurship, and how they’re teaching their five daughters responsibility, business, and financial literacy through chores and allowance. This episode is packed with practical advice, honest conversations about parenting and marriage, and plenty of laughs.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Everybody, we're back.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

We're back.

SPEAKER_04 0:07

We made it here. It's been a long few months.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Two months.

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Still few months.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Been longer than two months.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

Yeah. When was it? April? May? I don't know. It's July. Welcome back. We're back. After a long time.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Back.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

We're back. Welcome back to R Time with Ruben and Riley, where we chat about marriage, family, parenting. What else? And have our weekly events and have a weekly event session.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

We're excited. We're finally settled in our new place. We moved states and we're ready to get our podcast really going. In hindsight, we kind of were premature launching this podcast with all the chaos that we had going on. But you know, it's okay. It's okay to be messy at first.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

And hopefully we're really premature. I mean, we had a lot of things happen in the last few months, which made it so we couldn't do it. But I feel like we did it how we were supposed to do it. Right? Yeah, life happens.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Life happens and we're trying to be more consistent. And we're gonna dive right in to our sweet and salty. And I want to start with my sweet. Can I just kick us off? Because we it's crazy to me that our last episode was literally three months ago. So it's kind of crazy. We're trying to get more consistent with it and really be here weekly. Um, especially because we've had so many amazing friends and family, and people online tell us like, hey, we love your podcast. When are you doing it again? We're waiting, we're listening. Um, and that just means so much. It makes me feel like, okay, we need to be motivated.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

People listening still. So we're doing it for the few. If you are listening right now, stop it.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Don't downplay it. Thank you. Don't downplay it, okay? We I just feel like there are people who actually care about this podcast, okay, other than ourselves. And I'm excited about it. Our friends gave us the these um spatulas because we typically have been using spatulas. Thankfully, not the knife. That's retired. No, we'll not. Anyways, they put R and R on it, and right now we have it upside down. So let me show you. Show the camera. Show the camera.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

R and I.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Isn't that so cute?

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Yeah, so cute.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Choose our spatulas, and then we've had another friend make us coasters. We just got back from a reunion this last weekend with Ruben's family and his uncle. Man, I don't know how many times he was like, get the podcast going. Get the podcast going. So, Malu, it's for you. This episode is dedicated to you. And he was like, Okay, everybody like all their stuff, share it, and we appreciate that. So, this is our plug.

SPEAKER_04 3:09

No, like literally, that means so much. He's like, guys, look, Ruben and Riley, they have a podcast. If you don't follow it yet, you need to go follow. Hit that like button, subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Yes, so we're telling you all.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

So if you haven't done that yet, please.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

If you haven't done that yet, what are you waiting for? Like, subscribe, comment, share it with your friends and family. Um, we're gonna be here every week. That's the goal.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

That's the goal.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

All right, what's your suite? That's my suite.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Do we go back and forth? See, it's been so long, I don't remember. Um, my suite is we got to go to Disneyland in May. I had um I had a work meeting conference. It was our third time since I've been with this company that we had our work conference conference, annual conference at Disneyland. And the reason why it's my suite is just because it was a perfect time for us. Our girls, okay, so our three oldest girls, Livvy, Emily, and Ruby, they had the hardest time leaving Vegas. And they were so sad. And honestly, more they cared about it a lot more than I thought they would. Well, they're still so young, they'll be okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

But rightfully so. We've been there the last seven years. They don't really remember anything different.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

They grew up there. That's like, and they had really good friends and do a lot of things, and and honestly, it surprised me how much they cared, like literally crying daily, you know, up until we moved. Um, and so we had an opportunity, and I had a work conference there, it was at Disneyland, so we brought the three oldest with us. We left Emily and and um sorry, we left Elsie and and uh Mela with my with my mom and sister. But to me, it was just a special moment to be able to spend some time with them there and and really you know have some fun with them at Disneyland. And anyways, that was my sweet. I I th I felt like that was a special time to just be able to spend with our older three girls and to be able to be there at Disneyland, the most magical place on earth, and and just have some time with them.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So yeah, Disneyland was really fun, and I actually feel like it was the perfect time. It was kind of a crazy time because they finished their last day of school, and then a couple days later we left to Disneyland, and then we came back from Disneyland the next day we moved. So fortunately for us, Ruben's work um moved us, and so we didn't have to stress excessively about moving and packing and everything, which was a big help. So it gave our kids like something to look forward to, right? And like in a previous episode, we mentioned glimmers amongst triggers. So like the triggers for our girls was moving, like the boxes, the the transitions that were happening, right? But then Disneyland was a glimmer for them, and it allowed us to just like focus on those older girls where usually we're pulled with our three-year-old and our um at the time like nine-month-old, and so our attention could be on them, and it was the best time, really like catering to them, and we just had the best time as a family. And oh, another thing is we had a couple friends from Vegas surprise us at Disneyland, yeah, and they showed up like none of us knew and hung out with us on our last day, which was really fun too. They're friends from Vegas.

SPEAKER_04 6:45

Not even Riley and I knew about them coming, they just showed up in Disneyland, and these are these are uh basically the the soccer families that we had. They're our oldest three's best friends, you know, and so that was yeah, that was another sweet. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, that was so sweet, and really we we just felt so loved and blessed. Like we did a going away party for the girls, and we just felt so much support and love there.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

That too, actually. Uh oh my gosh. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah, we didn't have an episode on this, but no, we didn't have an episode because we've been so busy.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

But we we threw a going away party basically for all the girls' friends, and we just had them send out invitations in their school and send them out to their classmates and their soccer team. Oh my gosh. I came in a little bit late because I had to go get the pizza and the food and stuff, and we just had them all meet at this park.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

We had we had dirty sodas and we had um which our friend catered, she just she did like a whole dirty soda bar, and it was so cute.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Sending us to Utah because that's a Utah thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Yeah, but when I showed up, I was like, Holy cow, are all these kids here for our girls? Yeah, like it looked like and not just kids, there were adults and families, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I hope we have enough food because there were so many people there, and honestly, that just warmed my heart being able to see all those people there, like just in support of our girls, and honestly, like gonna make me cry and our family, right? Like we were we're moving, and these are people that we've and that our girls have learned to love over the years of being in Vegas, and they just all showed up there. And oh my gosh, it was that was yeah, that's definitely another sweet that we had to add.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, I wish I wish I took more photos um to scrapbook of that that day because that was so sweet, and we just felt like man, we love Vegas and we love the Vegas because of all the people that we've been able to meet and cross paths with while we were there, and it makes me emotional because we love them, and that was very sweet, and there's just a lot of support for our family.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And now we're here in Utah, we have no friends. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

No, we we we I don't know, we could talk about this a whole lot, but we went through a lot in Vegas, and and that was just the perfect send-off for us.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

We felt so much send off, and our girls were really feeling emotional because they missed like their last couple days of school because we were trying to make it to soccer trouts here in Utah, and so it was nice because a lot of their school friends came, we had their yearbooks, and they were able to get like sign their yearbooks and give them their numbers. Like a giant recess, right? And it was so fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

So to all of our Vegas peeps out there, we love you guys, truly do. We truly they've already moved. They've already moved. Truly are grateful for for each of you, and and anyways, thank you. So that's that's that whole thing was my sweet. That's my sweet. All right, what's your salty?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Uh salty. I mean, now we're kind of recapping the past couple of months that we've been gone, but um my salty is soon after we moved here. Well, thankfully, not right after we moved here because we jumped into soccer tryouts and the girls made the teams, which was great, and so they're making new friends. Um, and we have a dancer and she's on a new team, which is so fun. Anyways, like a week or two later, no, maybe a month. I don't know. Anyways, we all got hit with the stomach bug, and it was like a 24-hour lots of throw-up, all the kids throwing up. The blessing in that is Ruben was at literally going to leave town. He was at the airport, his flight kept getting delayed, so he just canceled that trip, and that's the night everybody started throwing up.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

And I was so glad that you canceled your work trip. And I'm being because it was insane.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Like literally all the children were barfing, and that's I'm really the only one that didn't get sick either, right? Well, you got sick, but it was like a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

I don't know if it was even the same thing, but no, but let me continue because it got worse. It was worse, and then it got worser. So um, we had all of them doing that, and our friends from Vegas were going to surprise our girls again here in Utah. And um, so our kids didn't know about it, and I warned them. I was like, just so you guys know, they're all throwing up, like just to warn you, because they were staying at our house, like some of them, and and they're like, Oh, it's I'm sure it'll be fine. So they came at the weekend a few days later, and then we have all of them throwing up, and so we have like they came from Vegas. We had one really, really fun day and half a day on Friday. We had a fun day, and then the next day they were all throwing up and so sick at our house, and we felt really bad about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

So not only were we throwing up, we had everybody else throwing up, and it was really bad. And we haven't done throw up in a while, but man, when you have five kids and they're all throwing up, it is like the end of the world. It is crazy.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

But at least it happened on like the last day.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

We are yeah, at least we had that one really big party day, but it yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, so that's kind of my salty thropes, no fun.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Um, okay, my salty. I talked about Disneyland as my suite. There was a salty moment that we had though in Disneyland, particularly the California park. And anyways, before I share the salty, I kind of wanted to set up, I want to ask you guys what are what your thoughts would be in this situation. So I'll tell you what the situation was, or I'll try to be neutral in it. I don't know. You help me with this though.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Okay, I don't know if I can help.

SPEAKER_04 12:56

My face tells no lies. I don't want to like sway anybody in in the in how they should act. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

Um but I I kind of want to come at the set the scene. I kind of want to come at this at the perspective of the employee. Okay. Um, so we had an incident with one of the Disneyland or group, or I guess California, Grand California, not Grand California, Disney California Park, California Adventures, California Venture employees, um, particularly at the cars ride. Okay. So be honest. This is the situ uh tell us what you think after I give you the situation.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

And and if you're familiar with the cars ride at um California Adventures, then you know, like the line's always really long.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Um yeah, it's one of the most popular rides.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Uh the fast passes go pretty quick, right? Or do they not even do that?

SPEAKER_04 13:51

No, you have to pay separate to buy the fast pass for this. So the regular fast pass doesn't even work on this ride. You have to buy uh just a pass pass fast pass only for the car's ride. Right. It's that popular. They they and people pay it.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

So yeah, we actually usually do. But this was the day that our friends surprised us. Yep, and so the one day they're there, and here we're also like, man, our friends spent a lot of money to come here, you know?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

And so all of our friends were there. So we had a big group, and so that being said, we didn't really want to pay the fast pass, I think, because it was like that's a lot. That's there was a lot of us.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Well, okay, let me get to the situation. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so and I'll tell this like a well, you know the situation. You're the employee, okay, you're working for the cars ride, you're there, the park is closing down, and yeah. When did it close? Nine o'clock, we'll say. So the ride closed, the park closes at nine. The policy is that as long as you get in line by the closing time, you can ride the ride. But as soon as it hits 9 01, no one else is allowed to get in line for the car's ride. But everyone that was there, you just go through the line and you finish.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

So really pretty standard.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Pretty standard. The ride doesn't really close until the last person in line gets in, right? So you're the employee, you're there, the line is moving, you know, you have the a group that's there at the end. That's a group of 15 people, okay. 13. 13 12. Sorry. That doesn't matter. But there's a big group of people.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Well, it matters actually later.

SPEAKER_04 15:35

There's a group of 12 people at the end of this line. Okay. And it's closing. They're about to get on the ride, and all of a sudden, three more people that are part of this group, this big group, show up. But they showed up late. They did it, they weren't there.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

And there was no employee at the front of that line making sure they couldn't come. Just to clarify, like there was no one there. They just like came to join us at the ride. At the ride. As we're because we're the last people there.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

You're the employee. What do you do?

unknown 16:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Your policy says those three extra people, according to policy, cannot get on the ride, right? They got in line well after, we'll say 30 minutes after, right? By the time this last group was able to get on the ride, it's like now 9:30. Okay. And then all of a sudden, three more people come in to get in with this big group at the end. Okay. So what do you do as the employee? Policy says they shouldn't be allowed to get on the ride. Okay. So what do you do? That's my question, I guess. And I'm really genuinely interested, like, like what people's perspective is on this.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

As the employee, what would you do in that situation?

SPEAKER_04 16:56

In that situation. You know, according to your policy, you're not supposed to be, you're not supposed to allow them on the ride.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Okay, wait, there's two other people there as well. That matters too. So we had a group of 12. You could have six people on the ride at a time, right? So our group of 12 takes up two cars, but there was a couple who wanted to be the very, very last people there.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

So they're so they were letting everyone go in front of them and yeah, and there were two other people.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So naturally, when you do the cars ride, there are two cars that go out of time. Okay. So this couple was also uh going and they were going by themselves. So that means there's like an empty car. So it doesn't make the ride run extra. Like it's it doesn't take any extra time to allow these three people to go, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

Yeah. So you're kind of influencing their but that context matters. It does. Okay. So this obviously was us. Okay. We had this big group of people. We were there in line. We got in line before nine o'clock. Okay. Well, when we got in line, the wait time said two and a half hour wait. And we were like, you know what? We're here. We're not going to be back here for a long time. We'll wait two and a half hours. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

And I honestly didn't plan on that.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

We planned on that. We thought that it would actually last two and a half hours because the line was huge.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

And because of that mindset, there were people, not just us, lots of people going out of the lines. And that should be allowed. And I think it is allowed because people have to use the restroom in that duration of time. Besides, some people are getting snacks, bringing it back to their group. Like that was a normal thing that was happening for everybody in the line. But the line ended up moving really quickly. Really quickly. Like maybe under an hour.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

No, like literally 30 to 40 minutes max.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah, that's why I said under an hour.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

I honestly believe they said they they said the line was gonna last two and a half, two and a half hours to deter people from getting in the line.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Yes. So our so we had a couple people who left. Um uh two of our friends, so adult friends, they're married, they left, and our daughter, they she went with them, and they went to go get a snack or something, and then they were coming back to come with us, and they didn't realize and didn't anticipate that the line would move so fast, and we would already be at the front. Now, when the park had closed, there was nobody at the front, so they just came right up to us and were like, Yay, perfect timing. We can jump on with you.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Right. And that's when the employee at the ride was like, No, they're not allowed. They didn't get out of line, they weren't part of the group, you know, they weren't with you guys when you got here. And so, anyways, I got heated.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Well, first of all, I got heated. So, so first of all, the employee was not gonna let them go. And my first of all, I see my friend's face and she looked upset and felt really bad. And I felt really bad and felt like I needed to advocate for her, not only her, but also my daughter, who is nine and in tears. And I go down there and I'm like, look, when we said that we they just got out of line, we thought it would be longer. People were doing that all day. She was pretty firm on no, well, sorry, they got out of line. I said, Okay, well, at least let me switch my daughter. And she wasn't even gonna let me do that. She wasn't even gonna let me switch my nine-year-old, which first of all, that doesn't make a difference.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

That makes no sense.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

That makes no sense. Second, my oldest daughter who gave the headcount, gave the headcount of 15, which is our entire group. So they had accounted for these three missing people. And and she said, Nope, sorry. And I said, Can I speak speak to your manager? So then we had somebody come over and I explained the situation, and they kind of like, uh, no, we don't really do that, but fine. And so they got in line with us, and then Ruben comes in.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

No, well, even before that, I'm yelling from the front from the ride, right? Because I went down to the employer, and I'm like, look, it's three people, just three people. And I and I even told her, I was like, look, well, you guys eventually they reluctantly let you through, and that employee came walking to stand at the end of the line with us, and I was talking to her, and I was like, Look, she was huffing and puffing. I was like, look, I get you have a policy, I understand you need to have policies to protect you know yourselves and you know the integrity of the line or whatever, but we're at the end of the line, it's three people. You can make a judgment call here, right? And she's like, No, it's our policy, no, it's our policy. I'm like, I get it's your policy, but you don't have to always follow it, especially in this moment, and you. You especially don't want to create a bad experience. Yeah, it was the last day.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

And and like we know, but also like okay, context too is Ruben was trained by Disney employees this week. That was part of his business um trip. Well, I don't know if you call it business trip. Business trip. Conference. Conference. Business conference. Um this that was part of his conferences. They were trained by some Disney employees saying, like staff, like how we the vibe and the and what we want to set the scene and how we want to make people feel while they're at Disneyland. And I had a lot of friends work for Disney, and their whole goal was to make people feel happy and joy. And that's what they're supposed to do. But in this moment, this employee was giving absolutely zero of that. She was very upset and very argumentative towards us and wouldn't even really listen to what we were saying. We were saying, look, we already accounted for them. It doesn't make it run extra. Like we are, there's an there's the same amount of cars. It's not gonna make you stay later. You know, we're the last people here. We get that, that's policy. But like this, there's just three people. And it's not gonna affect anybody else behind you, right? Because nobody else was behind us.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Right. Right. And I and I feel like in that situation, the response should have been this. Look, you got the three people come. You say, look, you know, it's really our policy that people should cannot join the line again, you know, after they leave. And we need to really, you know, well, explain the policy and the reason behind it. But say, but in this case, take advantage of it.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

And I understand you have to have the policies. But explain it, but then say, look, just don't let it happen next time. Yeah. Right? Like, please just don't let it happen next time, but hope you have a great time on the ride. Yeah. You know, enjoy the rest of your night here at Disney because it's don't make it this huge deal where now you're having a little girl cry and people yelling, and like at the end of the day, we have policies, of course, to protect ourselves, which protect the company, but you gotta focus on the experience too. And what what is the experience you know that you're providing to your customers?

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Anyways, I feel like the end of the story. Did you want to tell the end of it?

SPEAKER_04 24:24

Well, I mean, uh we got off the ride and she came to close like the end of it, really. And she, you know, and I and I tried to apologize. I'm like, look, I know I got heated, I'm sorry, but let me just tell you why I'm gonna be able to get the phone.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

And I think in that moment, too, we felt defensive for our friends, like who had just traveled all night to like early morning to come surprise us at Disney. They spent hundreds of dollars to be here for this one day, you know, and and I think without that even cons like that context, like people are spending a investing a lot of time and money into Disney, period, you know. Yeah, and and and so I think we were on the defensive a little bit because we're like, let our friends experience this, right?

SPEAKER_04 25:10

You know, but I I tried to apologize, like and tell her, you know, like I'm sorry I didn't mean to like and I didn't yell at her. I was pretty like visibly obviously upset, but I wasn't like rude or anything. But I did want to like at least let her know, like, I'm sorry I didn't, you know, but hoping that she would also like be like, look, I get it. I hope you guys had a good experience. But no, she held firm. Like she was like, nope, you guys, like she was like mad that they actually ended up being able to come on the ride. Yeah, she couldn't. So that just pissed me off too.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

She kind of doubled down and was just even more rude. And I was like, Are you actually serious right now? You're missing the whole point. And then at that point, like you're still almost arguing with her because you're like, I tried to apologize, but I want you to see what we're saying. And she just wouldn't. She wouldn't, and she thought like we shouldn't have been able to go. And um, I think she was kind of mad that like she her judgment got overruled by the manager. And then we had another guy who saw this who seemed to be like lead, say, I don't know what they call him, but say he's like the lead shift or whatever. I don't know. He seemed to be the one in charge.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

Yeah, even over the manager, even over the manager.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

He stepped in and was like, Are you guys okay? Like, what happened? Were you guys able to go? We're like, Yes, we were able to go. He was like, Good, I'm glad you were able to go. He kind of gave more of what the Disney experience you're supposed to have.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

Yeah, very nice and handled it very well. Very well, obviously, why he's in the position he's in. But I guess the concept, too, that I was trying to get across to her is that um, and this comes, this is a concept that's actually taught in a book that we're reading in our company. It's called Unreasonable Hospitality. If you haven't read it yet, um, and you you work for a company or you have a company or business, you should read it. Um, it basically talks about how every every business is a hospitality company, not just hotels, not just resorts, not just Disneyland, but everybody. And we're in I'm in healthcare, I work in healthcare, and we're a hospitality company. You know, we're a hospitality company that also does healthcare. And so, anyways, we were reading this book. One of the concepts in the book that I really love is he talks about, and it's by Will Ghidara, and he teaches that basically one of the things he says is being right is irrelevant. And the in the example that he gives, um, so just some other context, Will Ghidara owned 11 Madison Park, the number one rated restaurant in the world. And he talks about how he got his restaurant into the top 50 in the world, and then eventually into number one, and it all was around hospitality. But he talked about an experience in one of his restaurants where a server, you know, um took it took a steak order from the customer. The customer wanted medium rare. Okay. And um, so he puts in the order, server puts in the order, the steak is done, it brings out the steak, and the steak is medium rare.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Medium rare.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Right? And uh and and the customer's like, no, this is not medium rare, this is like rare, you know, and in fact, the steak was actually medium rare, right? They cooked it perfectly, it was actually medium rare, and the mistake that the server made is he said, No, it is medium rare, but do you want me to get you medium instead? That was the mistake. You're invalidating in the feeling and seeing. And he basically teaches that like their perception is our reality, right? So maybe he said medium rare, of course it's medium rare. Maybe he doesn't know it's medium. All you need to know is that that steak is not cooked how he wanted it.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

So go fix it.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Just go fix it.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah, you know, create a good experience so he'll want to come back.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Right. But that server really didn't want to like admit that he was wrong. And that's right, and it's like or not admit, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

He didn't want to admit, he didn't want to let the customer know that he did something wrong because when he really's probably a few reasons why that comes about, right? Pride for sure. But also I think it could be like a uh-oh, like treble type of mindset. Like, I don't want to be in trouble, so I'm gonna tell you that I actually did it right. But that's the wrong mindset, you know, because I think sometimes it is that hesitation of like that fear of like, oh, I'm doing something wrong, but you just made it worse, you know. You just made it worse.

SPEAKER_04 29:53

Yeah, now you're making the customer feel dumb.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yes, and that's not good. It's better for you to feel dumb.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

That's not their that's not, you don't want, and again, it's the experience that matters, right? So in that case, you say, Oh, I'm sorry, it's not cooked to your liking. Let me go get this, get a new one for you, or cook it some more, you know. Right. Um being right, trying to educate the customer, whatever, is irrelevant, right? We just focus on the experience and make sure that they have a great experience, right? So, anyways, going back to the cars thing, sure, she was right. We did not follow policy, but that was irrelevant, right? The the the point of the perp her goal should have just been to let us have a good experience.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Well, and that's okay if you want to let us know what the policy is. I don't think there's anything wrong in that. Like, um, and right, like I think that's good. Yeah, I mean, a little different from the stake one in that way, because I think it's okay to be like, look, this is what it is, but I totally see where you're coming from. You guys can do it right now, but let let's try not to do that again because we have to stick to this policy. And then we would have been like, Okay, perfect, thank you so much. We totally get that, you know?

SPEAKER_04 31:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah, it's not like we were intentionally trying to cheat the system by any means.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

And again, you have to, and that's the hard part too. I get when you're such a big company like Disneyland, you have to have all these policies, right? Because not everyone makes good judgments and they need something to fall back on, like policies to know what to do. But at the same time, like as an employee or as someone who works in hospitality, you have to have good judgment and you have to know at times when maybe you need to bend the rules just a little.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

And I would rather err on the side of generosity in life. Like, I would rather err on the side of giving people benefit of the doubt that they're just genuinely doing the right thing and didn't know. Like, I would rather err on that side than being so stickler that you're creating like a negative environment for people.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

Really, and and honestly, sticking to policy only and just saying and saying the phrase, oh, that's just our policy, it's lazy. Right? Like it's you're just you're just using that to fall back on.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

Like you're it shows you don't want to deal with any situation, right? Like, or like think outside of the box or or be empathetic. I think that even in parenting, right? Like we can have rules, and rules are important, and it's important to be consistent with rules and with consequences, but there are nuances, there are circumstances where you can see where your child's coming from, you can see why they did the things that they did and be a little bit more empathetic in your response, right? You can still have a good conversation, but I choose love over policy. I choose love over, you know, like I'm not saying let them get away with everything, but it's important to know that they are loved and valued and heard. And then you can have a discussion about why that behavior was inappropriate or not okay. Like, I think that will go so much further if they feel loved and respected than you just having set strict rules and not hearing them out and their mindset and their way of doing things, right? And I think that also goes for marriage.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

Like, I feel like you have to have this in the parents. You know, we have this that's my life.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

No, but really it does because there's there's times in marriage, right, where you're like, I really hate it when, or I this is what we've discussed over and over again, right? But if you can like step outside of that a little bit and see where they're coming from, then you're gonna be a lot more receptive to what they're going through, right? Like we have this, we had a situation just last night where I was kind of in a complaining negative mood. Okay. And at first, I think you were guarded up and a little bit taking it personally. And then when I just like explained why I was feeling the way that I was, why I was feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated. And it wasn't actually about anything you did. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just kind of how how it is. And I think I can live in a way that's like I can be grateful for my life and overwhelmed by it. Those two things can coexist, right? And like when I explain that to you, it removed this, like, oh, she's, you know, she's just lashing out on me or us, or it's not about anyone in particular. It's just life gets overwhelming sometimes, and my behavior is not the best sometimes because of it, right? And that's on me, and I apologize for that. But like me explaining to that, I feel like you kind of relaxed and then you were like, Oh, okay, I'm sorry, what do you need? instead of like on the defense a little bit, you know? Yeah, and so I think context matters, right? Context matters, and if you err on the side of like understanding and love, it's gonna get you a lot further in life and your life's gonna be better, right? Besides, you know, in business but in personal relationships as well.

SPEAKER_04 35:18

Yeah. So all right, well, good time. So, anyways, that was that was my salty, but you know, can I give a shout-out though?

SPEAKER_02 35:29

I wanted to give a quick shout out because um I was reminded as you were talking about that and you're talking about like companies. I want to give a shout out to this company who gave you your hat.

SPEAKER_04 35:40

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We are sponsored by no, we're not.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

We're not, they don't know us.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

We don't have sponsors, so let's just take this moment to say but I wanted to give a shout out. If you want to sponsor us, we can spend like one, two minutes talking about your product, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

This one's for free. You know why? We have people watching this, so this one's a free one, a free shout-out, okay? To Wooden Grail, this hat company. They do a variety of hats. This one's a Tongan hat, but um, and it's suede. I got it for Ruben for his birthday. See, he's a good good hat model because I was reminded about it. So we went into this store, large extra large size right here. There's extra large in the Tongan and Samoan hats. Um, and then they have like Utah school, like university hats. Anyways, they have some cool hats. But I had seen their hats around and uh and Ruben loves hats. And so I went into their store while he was working out of town and I was trying to get him a hat for his birthday. But it's really hard to surprise Ruben for his birthday because he does our finances and checks all the expenses, like regularly, which is great, but it's hard to surprise him because he sees where things are going from, what stores we shop at, all the things. And so I had my kids and they have some, they had some money on their Apple watches from grandma and um some other chores and things like that. So they had some money on their watches, and I went in and I was like, girls, can I have you guys buy the hat and I'll pay you back? So basically Ruben's buying it for himself, but I'm like, I'll pay you back, but can I have you buy it on your Apple Watch? So then dad doesn't see it and it's a surprise. And so they were all for it, they were so cute. And so these hats, I don't know how much they are. Say they're around $50. Okay. Um, I don't remember exact numbers, but say it was around $50. Good quality hats. They're great. They say that's expensive, but they're very good quality. It's super good quality. And um, say it's around $50. Well, one of my daughters had $42 on her watch, the other one had like $30. And so we went in and we're and so we found the hat. The guy there, I don't know his name. I should have got his name. But um, he got us the hat, got us the size, and I was like, is there any way we can do this on Apple Pay and split between payments? Um, and hopefully this doesn't get him in him in trouble by any means.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

We'll still pay the extra.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

Because we will be back, like, okay. So we were like, is there any way we can split between payments? And so he's like, Yeah, no problem. So he was trying to figure it out and he couldn't figure it out. He couldn't figure out how to do the Apple Pay with two payments. And so he's like, How much did you say she had on hers? The one who had the most money on hers, and it was like $42. And he was like, Okay, I'm just gonna charge you that. That's great. And I was like, No, no, no. Are you sure? Like, I can pay with card, it's not a big deal. We just were trying to like because I he had heard, like I explained, we were trying to surprise my husband, and that's why we're doing it this way. And he was really trying to help us out to make it a surprise for you. And I was shocked that he was just like cutting the price by like $15 or whatever it was. And I was like, that's so nice of you. Are you sure? Like he's like, Yeah, yeah, no problem. Anyways, I in this moment he chose what did you call it? Uh, unreasonable hospitality. He chose unreasonable hospitality over policy in that moment, you know, and it meant so much to me because I never can surprise you. And I thought it was so sweet because my girls were trying to help. Like, we it was like a group event to buy this one hat, and that's all we got him for his birthday. Um, anyways, I just thought that was so sweet of him to do that. That I was like, I will be back, like for sure. I'm gonna recommend you to all the people. I will be back. My husband will get more hats, I will get him more hats. Like, we're big fans. So that one experience with that one employee made me be like, love this company, and you get a free shout out.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

And if you want to sponsor us more, let us know. But I think I should explain too great. The book is called Unreasonable Hospitality. That might sound like a bad thing, but it's not. Will Godard coined the term unreasonable because reasonable hospitality is expected, right? Like everybody should be expected to give reasonable hospitality, reasonable customer service. So unreasonable hospitality are things like extra extra, going above and beyond. You don't have to do that. No one else really does that, but you just do it because yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

I mean, I think in the normal, and that's the other thing about this small company, okay? A small company, it's not a huge company, and they're giving more than like you know, big companies who have more money and they're like, nope, sorry, too bad, you know. And we have this small shop who's probably that would hurt them more, you know, to give bigger discounts, right? And they were giving me unreasonable hospitality. And I just was like so caught off guard by it, and it's something I won't forget because I was like, that meant so much to me to be able to surprise you for your birthday in that way. And he it was because of this employee, he made it happen, you know? Yeah, so we'll probably be back this week.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

That's what the cover says, okay. Unreasonable hospitality, the remarkable power of giving people more than they expect.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

Right. Because expected is just what everyone is customer service, everyone gives expected customer service. But this is just saying the bars, like everyone's bar is here, but really it should be up here, right? Like you don't do things just because like you can go above and beyond, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Yeah. And how many times have you read this book?

SPEAKER_04 41:58

Twice.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Oh, I thought it was more than that. I thought you read it twice and then listened to it or something.

SPEAKER_04 42:05

No, twice.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Yeah. All right, cut that out.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

That's not what we're about to just do.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Please.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

It's a good book. Everybody go read it.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

This is a great book. I am gonna read it again. This time I'm gonna mark it up.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Yes, mark it up.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

One of my co-workers, he's like it's like his second Bible. He's got it all marked up and everything. And um, but he tabs. He he recommended this book like long before years ago. Yeah, the author came and spoke to us at one of our conferences in the spring, or sorry, in the fall in uh Park City. So we got to hear and actually that was yeah, that was after the first time I read the book.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:43

He came and spoke to us, and that was just amazing. So, anyways, very bright guy, very intentional. Yeah, very intentional about everything. Uh I don't know. We could talk a lot about it, but it's just it's just a really good book. Go read it if you if you're interested, but I think everyone should.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Give people unreasonable hospitality, and I think that comes with just in our normal everyday interactions.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

You know? Woo! That was a lot. I think that could also cover our wait that's interesting section, don't you?

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Because I feel like I had one, but we can skip it, I guess. Your spot's blank. You did not. I didn't type it in there, but I have one.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Okay, go for it. This is our next segment called Wait.

SPEAKER_04 43:29

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

All right, go.

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Um, okay, so this is I mean, I've I've kind of seen a couple posts like this um on Instagram, but it I don't know, maybe you've seen them too. And I don't know if maybe you sent me one too. But basically the idea is is saying you c like, for example, it'll say you complain about traffic because you have a car. Like basically saying you should like there's things we complain about. But we should be grateful for right. So one of so one of them said, You complain about traffic because you have a car. You complain about working because you have a job. You complain about repairs because you have a home. You complain about exercising because you're able to.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:20

You complain about having to cook because you have food in your house, in your fridge, right? And so and I've seen a few other examples too that people have written. Um I can't remember all of them, but basically the concept is like, yes, we complain. It's natural to complain. You know, not you're not always going to be happy, you're not always going to be grateful. But I think it's important to always, when that's happening, take a step back and realize the reason why you're complaining. Like how blessed you truly are. You know, we complain about noisy kids and having to go to soccer and dance and do all these things because we're able to, you know, because we have our favorite thing. Because we have five beautiful daughters that are active and want to do things, you know. And so how great is that.

SPEAKER_02 45:14

And how great is it that we can support them in that.

SPEAKER_04 45:17

Right. So, anyways, that was my I th I saw just because I saw a few different examples of that on my feed and Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

So I actually haven't seen that, but um, I think it kind of goes along with what I was saying, like just barely about like I felt very overwhelmed last night and I was sharing that with you, but I truly like feel grateful at the same time that like my body is physically able to like go, go, go right now, even though it feels like a lot. And like you're out of town right now, but like a year ago I couldn't have had you out of town, you know?

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

And so I I really truly I acknowledge that and I feel grateful for it, but that overwhelm feeling can coexist with the gratitude feeling. But I think it is good to keep that in mind, like to keep that in mind because it did help anchor me a little bit. Like, yes, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Yes, I'm feeling a little panicky about life, but also in the same breath, like, I'm grateful I can do it right now. Like last year I couldn't have, you know. I'm grateful I can you know, physically be able to do this when my health was so bad last year I couldn't. And I think that helped me be like, look, let me just dump on you because I need someone to dump on. Because I don't want to dump this on anybody else because I truly have so much to be grateful for.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

But it's okay to feel overwhelmed. It's okay to feel those things.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

And that's that's that's that is important to note too. It is, it is important to feel those things. It is important, it is okay to complain every now and then.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

Yeah, it is as long as you have as long as you have context, and as long as you're like remembering how blessed you really are. Like it's okay to feel overwhelmed by life, but you have to. Do you know what I've learned about gratitude? Gratitude is like a muscle, like it can be developed. Like the more you practice gratitude, the stronger it gets. And I keep a gratitude journal because I feel like typically growing up, I've been kind of a glass half-empty kind of person. I don't know. And in one way, in one way, I'm like half full, like I'm a party, but um I I feel like the gratitude journal does help that keep in mind because at the end of a busy day, I sit down and I have to write three things that I'm grateful for. It like makes you say in the morning, you write three things you're looking forward to, and then in the evening you write three things you're grateful for that day. And I do that pretty regularly. And I'll have to link it for people, but it has helped me a lot. So I feel like there are days where I'm overwhelmed, but that gratitude is always in the back of my mind. And I think that gratitude journal helps, also just praying and expressing gratitude often helps to anchor you when you do feel overwhelmed. So you can those two can coexist because otherwise it will be all-consuming, you know. Yeah, but yes, good to keep in mind, good to remember. Okay, my weight that's interesting is um I saw this reel the other day and I don't know how I feel about it. So, and I'm not gonna reshare it because again, I don't know how I feel about it, but anyways, it was it, it was like had a lot of engagement on it, and it was pretty viral. And I don't the mom was like sharing, like, we don't pay kids for chores, we pay them for achieving goals. And I don't think it's like a bad thing to do. However, I also feel like wait, does that take away the intrinsic motivation to set a goal and obtain it? If you're always getting rewarded for achieving set goals. So, like, for example, our kids, and I've been thinking about it a lot too, just because of chores and like an allowance and stuff, because it's summertime and our kids do more chores in the summer. Uh, they have like regular chores that they do every day, and we were trying to figure out together like how much to award, give them for like an allowance. And we grew up differently in that way too. But I feel like the way I grew up, I thought allowance was great because it it forced me to like manage my money. And like if I didn't have money for something, my parents just weren't gonna give it to me. It was like, well, did you save up for that? Did you buy it? Do you have money rather than just like give me money for when I needed it? And so for my kids, there's some like base allowance that's pretty minimal, and then they can have opportunities to earn more, right? Anyways, part of their regular routine chores that they don't get paid for is a physical component of it, which is like practicing juggling or footwork for soccer, or like my dancer's like, well, what can I do for physical activity? I'm like, you can dance, like I don't really care. It's just a matter of like getting in the habit of moving your body every day. Um, because I feel like that's important and we should be better at that as well. And so that's part of their like routine, right? But this mom is basically having her kids do that same type of thing, but she's paying them for it for the soccer juggles, for the which I guess brings up we do have like an incentive for one of the soccer juggles, but anyways, for like obtaining certain jolt her coach said don't do that. So yeah. For obtaining certain goals, anyways. I just it it's not really a weight that it was a weight that's interesting because I was like, oh, that's interesting. Does that take away the intrinsic motivation? And I don't think I have an answer to that. I just was pondering on it. I don't know how I feel about it.

SPEAKER_04 51:11

I thought you said yours are short.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

I know, sorry, I'm just rambling.

SPEAKER_04 51:15

But like no, no, no. I I think because there's actually a lot to that, and I'm sure a whole episode could be on allowance and just people there will be people listening to this that have their opinions too.

SPEAKER_02 51:28

For sure.

SPEAKER_04 51:29

Which are good. Uh my and I don't even fully know what my opinion is.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Right. Um that's where I'm at. I just saw that, and I was like, does that take away from internal motivation?

SPEAKER_04 51:44

So I guess we could talk about the things that I think are important. One, I think it's important for our kids to know that just because they're part of our family, they have a responsibility and they do those responsibilities, and it's not necessary they that they're getting paid for those things, which you just said, right? Like we don't pay them for doing regular chores around the house that they just need to do because they live here.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

Right.

SPEAKER_04 52:11

And it's part of like cleaning your room, part of being a part of a family, part of being part of our family, like taking care of a home, taking care of a home, cleaning up, like that's just you know, whatever the chores are, that's just part of living in our house. Right. And being part of the family. Um, but even paying them for extra chores, like things that maybe they don't necessarily need to do, but are a good help to us.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Right.

SPEAKER_04 52:38

Like even that I'm kind of mixed on on the I know.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

We kind of have our we kind of have a little bit different views because we grew up differently.

SPEAKER_04 52:46

Well, because I think it's important to learn that your value is the your value is e should be equal to the value you're bringing to your to uh how do I say this?

SPEAKER_02 53:00

I mean, that kind of sounds like my kids could nothing they could do.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

No, it's not that.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

It's like No, I'm saying their value is so high.

SPEAKER_04 53:10

Like, I think it was good telling Livy, like, look, you can paint your these pictures and draw these photos, draw these pictures and go out and sell them.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:20

That's how you make your money.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Right. And she did.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

And she did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Like as a four-year-old, she had an art sell.

SPEAKER_04 53:28

Yeah, and and I think that I mean, I'm not an entrepreneur, but I think the mindset of an entrepreneur is a good one. Like figuring out how and your mom was an entrepreneur, right? Yeah, she definitely was. I feel like learning how to do something that will bring value and make people want to pay you for it is important. Not is a valuable thing to learn how to do, is a valuable skill. And I think if you can tie money to something to like to like that, where even we can pay them by their things or whatever, but not necessarily to their duties. Like their duties are just their duties, that's just what they do, like that's just part of life. We have duties, we have to but when you if you want to make money like I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 54:21

You have to hit the bill.

SPEAKER_04 54:23

I'm still trying to like form my own opinion on that.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

There's things that we do as parents. Our our kids will always need money, right? They'll need money to go with their friends to the movies to go get ice cream, whatever. Kids need money to be able to do things sometimes, okay? Or to get squishies. Squishies are really popular right now. They need money in order to buy squishies or whatever the thing is that they're interested in. I believe that kids should have an opportunity to earn money, whatever that is. Yes, I think there's a huge value in being an entrepreneur, setting up a business and really going for it. And I think our kids have that mindset because they'll ask me for these extra chores. I personally like them because it helps alleve some of my burden for them to do extra work. It also, and yes, there's sometimes I just ask for extra help. But I think it's also a way for me to provide a couple things where they can earn some money. And if they want to earn even more, then that's when the business comes in because I can't continue to provide odd jobs. Like there's only, there's like kind of a limit. There's only so much I can do. But then at the end of the day, it's like, oh, I want this squishy. Like, what can I do? They're thinking, what can I do? And sometimes I have a job. That's like going door to door and being like, hey, is there anything I can do to serve, like to earn money for you right now? Like people do that too. That's also part of a business. Like, what can I help you do? Yeah, that's a good thing. So that you can pay me. And like my grandma would hire kids all the time. My grandma hired me to clean her house. My grandma hired me to to clean up pine cones around her home. Like they provided opportunities for me to be able to earn my own money, which then growing up, I had to, I had to buy my own school clothes. Like that's what I had to do. But my mom provided a way for me to earn the money to provide my own school clothes. But I still at the end of the day felt like I did that, you know? Like, and one time, we won't get too much into it, but one time I earned the most money I'd ever earned. I was in middle school. I cared a lot about clothes. I wanted a lot of clothes. I think I earned around $400 to $500. And my dad was telling me it would be a good investment to buy a horse. And so I bought a horse, like an actual horse. I bought a horse coal. Okay, so I bought a horse. And then, and then he's telling me, like, okay, after this horse grows, you can sell the horse. Because this is what my dad did. So my dad was also an entrepreneur in that way. Like, he also had horses. That was like a side business for him. He bred horses and then he'd sell them. And sometimes I I would help him sell them. Like I would walk the horses in the horse cell. And sometimes the auctioneer would give me a couple extra bucks or something because I was showing the horse. And, anyways, I bought this horse, and then it was then I had no money for school clothes. I had no money for school clothes because I bought a horse because down the road it would be a better investment. That's something I learned in middle school. Like I think that's valuable, you know? And then I had I had an uncle who heard that and was just so sweet and gave gave me the same amount. Like that's a mercy concept, right? That's like he gave me the same amount in a gift card to old navy that I spent on that horse. So I still got my school clothes. So that was just like a, he's like, that's like a match. Like I'll he matched it, which was so kind. But it like, I'll never forget that lesson. I'll never forget that I earn enough money to buy a horse, you know, as a middle schooler. But I wouldn't have earned that money if my parents didn't provide these jobs.

SPEAKER_03 58:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

You know? So I think there's a way to like support our kids in with extra jobs, but then encouraging that entrepreneur side of things, you know.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

Yeah. No, I uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

Yeah, did you buy a horse growing up?

SPEAKER_04 58:30

I ate the horse.

SPEAKER_01 58:36

No.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Story for another time.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

No. That's not a story. Stop.

SPEAKER_04 58:45

No, I I like that. I I think I think that's important. I and I do think if they can see the value that they're bringing, I guess, I guess that is a good that is a good point. Like they are working to bring value, right? Versus just working because that's their responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:04

Like added value. Not that they're not valuable to us like. But anyways. Yeah, I like that. I think that's I get what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 59:15

I just I feel like I have more of that entrepreneur. I mean, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say I have more of that entrepreneur spirit in me than you do. I'm not saying that's a bad thing or a good thing. I'm just saying I feel like at a young age, it kind of helped me be like, if I want something, there's things I can do to earn it. Like there's things I can get creative enough to make this work. If I work hard enough and get creative enough, I can get what I want. That's that's like what it taught me, you know, as a kid. And I think that's what pushed me to like like, you know, start purposeful toys and do all these things and make itself sensory kids. Like it just gives me this mindset of like jumping and like it'll all work out. And if it doesn't work out, it's a learning opportunity, you know. And I just have more of that kind of mindset of like we can do this, you know, we can make it work. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

Yeah. I guess if you want to compare it to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

So you're better than me, I'm not saying that's better. I'm just saying I think that's why I am the way that I am.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

Partially because I agree, I think like what my you have done a lot. Yeah, I think, yeah, that that's a great example of the kits that you sold.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Yeah, I haven't told our kids that story. I probably should. We've been talking for a long time because there's been a lot to catch up on. So instead of jumping to like a completely new topic, um, maybe let's just like continue down this a little bit of like customer service entrepreneur path because we're already on it. Okay. Just roll with me. Okay. Okay. Just roll with go with the flow here, okay?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Okay, I wanted to bring up a story I had about customer service in Seattle, Pike's Market. We always we were wanting to share that on the on the podcast, and we never did. We never did. That was the episode we started recording and then we fought, and then we never shared it. We're just gonna roll with this because we've been so heavy on customer service and entrepreneurship. So if you've been to Seattle, there's Pikes Market, and we were meaning to share this, but Ruben's sister lives in Seattle, and we were there a few months ago visiting them, and so we went to Pike Pikes Market, and um Parkes Market is kind of like an art market, I'd say. It's kind of more art, food, handmade items, yeah. And and it's kind of like a farmer's market almost. And so you go there and everyone has their booth and they're trying to sell you things. Well, my experience was I saw this guy who was selling tops and like tops that you spin, wooden tops, all different shapes and sizes, and I kind of have like a collection growing of tops, and so I've shared this with purposeful toys, but like I'm really passionate about like handmade toys. And I saw these tops and I had already made up my mind that I was gonna buy one. I was like really excited about it. I'm like, I'm gonna buy a top from this guy because I'm just kind of like almost collecting them at this point. I think they're really fun. So I was like literally the perfect customer. I'm the perfect customer. I already decided I was gonna buy one, and not only that is like he didn't even know this, but I'm like, I have an Instagram page, like, yeah, I don't do as much now, but like I share toys all the time. And a lot of my audience likes my toy recommendation, you know? And so genuinely I feel like I'm the perfect customer. Well, I get there and he has some out on display. Typically, that means try it out, right? So, like he has like this some tops out, and so I pick one up and I start spinning it. And the way I was spinning it is I'd spin it and it it would drop on the table and spin. And I I did that like two times and he didn't really say anything. He looked almost agitated, and I was like, that's kind of weird. I was just getting a weird vibe from him. He looked almost annoyed, and he just said, Don't drop it. And I was like, What? Like, is he talking to me? Like I was kind of caught off guard, and he and I spun it again, and it kind of falls and spins, and he said, Don't drop it. You're supposed to do it like this, and he was very stern, not happy, not charismatic, and made me feel like I did something bad and wrong with this top, like I was doing it improperly, which I had never known that. Like I didn't know that's how you were supposed to do it, and I would have loved to learn. Like, if he would have just been like, oh, actually, it works better and it protects the top if you just spin it like this, right? Like already on the surface. If he would have explained that to me, no big deal, give me a top. Like, I want to buy one. But because he was so short with me, like and kind of curt with me and made me feel icky, I did not want his top. I did not want to buy it. I didn't want to be a customer, I didn't want to be in his presence anymore. I just wanted to leave that situation. And I was like, you know what? This guy really messed up. I don't know how many tops he sold today, but my guess would be not many if he was acting like that. Because I was the perfect customer. Literally, I was planning on buying one without even trying it first. He didn't even have to do much to sell me on it, you know, but the way he made me feel and that experience made me not want one because every time I would have looked at that top, I would have been reminded of how he made me feel. And it was not good, you know. So, anyways, I just I feel like kind of going along with that unreasonable hospitality is your experience and your feelings of something is everything like in sales, right? Like how you make a person feel is literally everything. And it made me not even want to purchase his item, and I was literally the best customer that he could have had.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:39

Total missed opportunity, total missed opportunity, and like who knows? I don't know if this would anything would have come up at, but sometimes I recommend some things, and my ROI is pretty dang high for custom for companies. Like sometimes a lot of like my followers love my recommendations and would have supported his business. Like, I don't know that. Maybe that's like ambitious of me to say, but you never know, you know, who you're talking to.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:09

Yeah. And it's a balance, right? He really cared about those tops. He did not want them to break.

unknown 1:06:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

But at the same time, if I was gonna buy it anyway. How do you I think he really could have been like I said, like he really could have just been like, oh, actually that kind of could hurt the top. If you just spin it like this, it's better for it, and then it's not damaging it when it drops. Like, there's a way to say that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:38

Well, and I think customer service is a skill, you've got to work on it. Kindness comes naturally to some people, but you've got also to others, you've got to work on it. Like it's something that you don't just like take lightly, you've got to work on you.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

Might be the most talented artist, craftsman, right, whatever, and your business is not gonna be good if you don't have people skills.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:03

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

Unless you sell it to somebody. Okay, what's your experience at Pikes?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:12

Uh no, I mean, yeah, I kind of forgot about this, but I'm glad you brought it up. Um, so we're we're sitting, we we we parked, we got there, we're walking through Pikes Market, and of course we have girls, and I've got five girls. My brother has four girls, okay, and they're all together. They're all together, and of course, girls, they see something shiny, jewelry, jewelry, stopping at every booth. You know, they're gonna stop, and we're trying to just get to like a bathroom, I think. And we passed this booth. This lady makes all this beautiful jewelry, great stuff, has jam, little rocks, little um I can't remember all what all the jewelry was, but anyways, it caught the eye of our daughters and they stopped and they wanted to look, and so we let them look.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Yeah, they had like necklaces, bracelets, right? Right, different jewelry with gems.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:06

Yeah, and the and the owner was there, you know, help letting them try things on. She was very kind. She had great people skills, great people skills, and she was letting the girls touch them, she was letting the girls try things on.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

So nice to the kids, very nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:19

And and my brother, and I'm like, now get girls, we're not buying anything, okay? Just look. Walk away. That's all we're doing. Run. Just look. My brother was a lot nicer and was like, hey, look, okay, maybe I'll buy something for the girls. So he asked the lady and he says, Hey, well, she says, Look, I can give you three, let's say three for $25. Okay. They're like $10 each, maybe $15. And she's like, look, I can do three for $25 or whatever. She was giving us a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

She said, I would give you five dollars off if you buy three.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:50

Or something. Yeah. So she was already given a discount. My brother asked for an additional. So he said, Is that is that the best you can do? I'm gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

He said, he said, what can you do for me if I buy? And so I think uh with our it was mostly the three girls, or no, LC2, probably. So probably a total of like eight, like eight pieces of jewelry. He's like, What can you do for me if I buy eight? Like, he's like a great customer. He's like, I'm gonna buy a quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:21

Well, even more. I think he was gonna buy multiple for for each of them. And so he was like, Look, I'm gonna buy a lot. What can you give me a deal? She already gave a deal. He's asking for another deal. So in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, what do you do as the business owner? Little small shop, jewelry business owner. You're giving a deal, and maybe you're using a sales tactic and it's not really a deal, right? Like you're just presenting it as a deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:50

Right. You highlight.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:51

But you highlight them. Um but what do you do? Like at what at what point do you you value uh you know how do I ask this? It's a simple question. I'm trying to think what that is. At what point do you bring down the value or the price of your item? Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

For a sale.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:15

For a sale. Like without devaluing the your actual work, like devaluing devaluing yourself, the effort you put in, your items. Like you don't want to devalue that, right? But it didn't look like she sold much, or maybe she just had a lot, you know. There's that dilemma, and I'm sure business owners, you know, come across this all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:47

Even if she gave like 20% off or whatever, she probably would have made like a hundred dollars or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:53

Well, here's the caveat is we don't know what she would have made. Right. We don't know. True.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

Not like you don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:02

So maybe it was a and she didn't, she didn't give him an extra discount, so he didn't end up buying anything. She was so that was the end of the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

She was firm firm on like, I'll give you five dollars off. That's it, like five dollars off.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:18

Yeah, so maybe good on her for valuing herself and valuing the work that she put into making this jewelry. Or maybe she missed an opportunity. She missed an opportunity, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

We'd and only she knows that, right? And only she can tell herself that. But I will say, like, I guess anybody who's ever sold anything, like you've probably experienced something similar. Um, there are times just like as an influencer where I would do content for free, like all the time. I do it at when I was starting out, I do it in exchange for product, right? And a lot of companies go there first, probably most will go there first. They'll try to get you to do content in exchange for um for product. And at first, I like needed product to create content, and so I did a lot of that, and that was great. But then there comes a time where I'm like, I'm really undervaluing myself here. Like I am putting a lot of time and work, and then I was giving photos for perpetuity at like the lowest rate, and I learned that I was really undervaluing myself, and so I set my rates really high, and then I wouldn't budge like at all because I was like, nope, this is my value. This is how much like I have to value myself. And that wasn't great either for a while, because then I I would, I think I almost lost a lot of opportunities that way too, because I was a little um unwilling to negotiate the terms, or at least be like, okay, look, I'll give you this for 30-day rights rather than perpetuity, right? Or like something like change the contract up a bit. Um, and so then I got I learned that how to like do that a little bit better. But um, I think that only comes with like experience, right? With like trial and error a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:05

Yeah, and I think you sometimes you just gotta make a decision and do what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:10

And there's and there's times I say no. There's times I said no, and I feel so good about it because I will not undervalue myself anymore, you know? And like when people reach out and just ask, like, hey, will you do this for free? I'm like, no, you know, and it's and and I feel good about it because I know that the time, energy, work, and the quality I'll provide is higher than what that they're undervaluing me right and my time.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:35

So what I think this lady probably could have done is sold her value better.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:41

So if she wasn't gonna come down in the price and she wasn't gonna give an extra discount, she could have talked about how good of quality her things were, and so talked about how much time and effort she spent, right? That way, my brother hopefully would have understood, like, oh wow, these are really good pieces. Oh, there's a reason why there's a price to this thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

And maybe he had a bop, maybe not, right? But at the end of the day, it's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Rather than her fit seeming like she was unwilling to negotiate or talk to us about it. Like she was great, she was super friendly, don't get me wrong. But when it came to that, she didn't really have much of a conversation about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:24

No, not a lot of conversation, but I do think, yeah, and that's probably my mindset around this experience itself is if you're not gonna if you're not gonna bring down your price, good on you, you know, know your value. But your job then at that point is to sell your value. Like really help people understand the value behind yourself or what you're selling.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

Yeah. But what would you say in regards to unreasonable hospitality in this situation? Because you don't want to be like, you don't want to undervalue yourself and you don't want to like have people take advantage of you.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:03

Yeah, but but I I think that's just a different thing though, because unreasonable hospitality doesn't have an agenda to make it sell, right? Like it's not the point of unreasonable hospitality. Yeah, the unreasonable hospitality portion is just we treat people you treat people right, you go above and beyond, give them a great experience, whatever the business follows. Yeah, you know, and so I guess in this case, like I wouldn't say she wasn't kind, I don't know what she could have done extra as far as unreasonable hospitality.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:37

Yeah, because I feel like she was nice, she just didn't talk to us much about when he was trying to negotiate price.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:44

I don't know. I think I think that's maybe more of like a sales conversation, which we're not in there so but I mean kinda, but no. We talked a lot today about experiences, we talked a lot about kindness, treating people the right way, using good good judgment. Like I feel like I don't know, those are all good, and you related that to parenting and and marriage. With people, and and I think yeah, I mean I just feel like kindness goes a long way, and there's no reason to be unkind.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:29

Can I share a quote?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:30

Sure. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved. So you show love first rather than trying to fix a problem, or rather than enforcing policy, right? Like you show love first. Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved. And that just that just like comes in my mind often. It's like one of those quotes that like I think in the busyness of motherhood, as I'm cleaning, as I'm cooking, as I'm doing things, as like I'm trying to like get stuff done, and my kids are constantly interrupting me. That quote comes in my head a lot of like, whoa, wait, never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Take a minute, show love first, you know. And I actually saw this reel, and I thought was actually really amazing. Is one of the guys that was being interviewed said, never walk past your child without having a I don't know what he called it, but like a moment of engagement. He's and so he's like or acknowledgement, like never miss an opportunity to just like touch him as you walk by, or like just to say one thing to him, how's the book? You know, as they're reading, you know, or like pat him on the head, pat him on a moment of contact, you know, and that makes them feel seen, loved, and heard, even if it's something so simple. And I also think that goes with marriage too, like in our relationship, it's easy to get in the roommate phase, it's easy to just be both doing our things, you know, and to take a minute and be like, okay, I should whoever I pass in my home, in my family, make a point to have contact, you know, whatever that may be, whether it's a touch, whether it's like a simple like, hey, what's up, you know, or I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:27

That well, that concept, I I think you sent me that reel.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:31

I probably did.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:31

Yeah, because it sounds familiar. Um, but I was thinking about, and then we're going back to business because in my workplace, um, one of actually the founders of my company, he said, if he ever walked into one of our buildings and every single person that he walked past acknowledged him, said hi, smiled, or did something, that there would be some sort of grand prize for that building, for that facility. And it wasn't just to acknowledge that he was the CEO founder, right? It was to the concept was like we're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

Like, have you taught your staff to acknowledge people?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:08

Have you taught your staff to acknowledge people? You know, do you are your staff kind to those that are coming in to visitors? We've got patients, we've got family members walking through all the time. Um, and that's something that I always thought of and something that I I always taught as an administrator is like when people walk in the building, acknowledge them. Say hi, smile, look at them, make eye contact, even if you're just passing, right? Um, and that was and for that reason, right? Like when people how do I mean how do you feel when you walk in to an establishment? You know, you maybe you don't even know where to go. And no one acknowledged it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:49

Honestly, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. And it makes me not want to go back. Like, if we go to a restaurant and I and nobody's acknowledging, they they don't have to serve me right away. If they just say, hi, welcome in, I'll be with you in one minute. All it takes. Just acknowledge, just acknowledge my presence. So I am like, oh yeah, no problem. Well, and the other thing they see me.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:08

The other thing in our industry, too, which we teach on the side, is like it's also a security thing when you have people walking through. Like, you gotta acknowledge everyone that comes through because maybe there's someone that's walking through that shouldn't be coming through. Yeah, you know, and so it's also a security thing, but also it's also a kindness thing. Yeah, like be kind and to even to the point where my company rewards um our staff for being friendly. We have a friendliness rating where surveys are sent to every single patient or their family after they discharge from our facilities, and we ask them specifically how would you rate our friendliness on a scale of one through ten. And if we get like a 97% or above friendliness rating, then we reward our employees with like a cash bonus. So, like we incentivize to be friendly and to be kind, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:02

And so I think that says a lot about the company you work for, that that's what they're emphasizing, you know, is like this matters, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:12

It does, it does. So, and that's another that's just one little thing that's could separate you from your competition, right? A focus on kindness and a focus on something that you might not even think would matter to your business. Yeah, right. So, anyways, we talked about a lot of things. I feel like we've got a lot of good conversation in today.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:35

A lot of good conversation. Thanks for joining us after three months, especially if you're still trying to tune in. Um, we've been kind of MIA, but hopefully we'll be here more regularly. Leave us a review, like, comment, share. You know, all the things we appreciate that. Wait, let me read one review real quick. Because I actually we could have read this before, but I think it's just been on here and we've never read it. Um, all right, we've got Des Burb. Thank you. Uh Riley and Ruben are laugh out loud, funny. I feel like I'm hanging out with two of my favorite people while working on my laundry. I love their canon conversations and genuine connection. And if we said that review last one last podcast, no, we did it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:21

We've got a lot more things to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:23

Leave us a review.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:24

So stick around.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:26

Yeah, that wasn't even what was on the schedule today.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:29

No, we've got a lot more things to cover.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:31

So we've just missed you. We have a lot to say.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:34

We'll be back more regularly, but thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:37

See you next week.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:39

Peace.