Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
Navigating Business as a Believer
the big one's gonna have.
Speaker 4:I bought those at Lowe's last year.
Speaker 1:The big one's gonna have to come out. We're either gonna have to split that one or just get rid of it. It's way too big and I don't know if you split it.
Speaker 4:I think he's just coming late.
Speaker 2:I think it needed down deeper.
Speaker 1:Yes, that shrub. That's over there, that strawberry hydrangea shrub. You can't dig any further. I don't know if that's over there, that strawberry hydrangea shrub. You can't dig any further. I don't know if that's the footer of the building, but when you dig you hit and it's a block. It's a cinder block, so it's going to have to be moved at some point too.
Speaker 4:So your future plants. You probably can't get big bushes or anything, because you're supposed to have a big, deep hole.
Speaker 1:I don't want anything that has to be maintained. The original plan was hedge clippers. I can come through with a hedge trimmer. Cut it all back, and that's that. Well, that's escalated quickly, oh yes. Well, we want to pull the plastic out before we do any mulch, yeah, so yeah, it's a good idea.
Speaker 2:He's waiting the next spring then no, we're gonna start.
Speaker 1:We're at least gonna pull the plastic this year, and then I think what we're going to do is we're going to re-level the mulch for this year and then next year we're going to lay a layer over top of what's currently there, because it's already packed down so tight, rather than trying to scrape it all out.
Speaker 3:There's Nick, you made it I elected to take Maggie to her friend's house at the last minute. Oh geez.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you can't do any turning. I came over Indian Hills, so that's what Bethann called me.
Speaker 4:I'm like I don't know you were able to.
Speaker 1:You can turn left from Yerkesville to come in, but you cannot turn right from southbound.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so, and then you can't turn. What is it? You can't turn, what is it? You can't turn when you're coming back from like McDonald's or you can only turn right out of there, can't you? Yes.
Speaker 1:And it changes every couple of days.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I don't know if you know what it's like to wait on a 14 year old girl.
Speaker 2:Who's?
Speaker 1:getting ready for a sleepover to boot. Yeah, who's getting ready for a sleepover to boot. We're on. How many pairs of pajamas do I need to pack? How many pairs of shoes? Do I need.
Speaker 4:You leave Maggie alone. Okay, nick Michael's here with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like this topic. Welcome back.
Speaker 4:Hopefully we'll reel you back in. I don't know, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to steal Roger from you. That's true I am. Listen, if we don't get working on that sound or any of that stuff soon, we're not going to be over there before Christmas. I can tell you that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1:Well, if we wouldn't keep changing the plans. Listen, hey, did I make it easier this time? No, I made it easier. You made it harder. Well, if you wouldn't have changed the plans, we wouldn't have had to make it harder. So we're working on the sound booth that's in the gym space right now. So by the time I got here, roger had the outside frame done and we were running the supports up the middle and I was standing on it and I said to him I said does it really need to be 16 inches higher, or are we okay with the eight inches high, because it's one step rather than two steps? He goes well, if we do eight inches, we don't have to build a step. Saves us some labor right.
Speaker 1:So we were short on a couple of the boards anyway, so we're going to have to go buy boards. I was like, let's just so. I called Dan sound tech and I was like is there any reason we need to be up 16 inches? He's like well, it's nice, he's like, but the speakers are up really high in there. He said so it really doesn't matter. I said eight inches, it is. So Roger and I had agreed that we were done building the base. We need to start laying the floor so then we can start framing the walls. But we do all the math to frame the walls, we figure out all the stuff we're doing and we turn around and we look and I start to laugh and he said what?
Speaker 2:There's a door for the ball pit what we call the ball pit, where you keep the basketball and all the dodgeballs in the wall.
Speaker 1:He had cut that off so that it would open inside of the 16 inches. So now there's a great big gap in that hole.
Speaker 3:So now, we're drywalling it. Was there any doubt in your mind? It would be your fault, Roger.
Speaker 1:Nope Well, he said to me's. I said, well, we can just rebuild the door, he goes. No, we just need to drywall it, which is what we said we needed to do in the first place, right, right but we didn't want to do it, so because, neither of us like to drywall no one likes.
Speaker 4:He says to me.
Speaker 1:He says I'll hang it if you finish it. I'm like that's the point I don't want to do. I'll hang it.
Speaker 4:That's not the problem. You can uh call dan dan the drywall man.
Speaker 1:I can yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't know if he's still around.
Speaker 1:actually, Well, dan Burway does drywall too.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, well, there you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who else.
Speaker 2:Casey.
Speaker 1:Casey does drywall.
Speaker 4:Ricky McDaniel. He's a little goofy but he does the best work he really does.
Speaker 1:We had a guy that did that whole back wall, skim, coated that whole back wall for us, did a bunch of work.
Speaker 4:Love him but he works the same place. Casey does Skyline yeah.
Speaker 1:And I text him to have him originally do that, and he's like yeah, I'm not doing side jobs right now, it's just too much. And I was like well, we ain't drywalling it then.
Speaker 2:How about the guy down from you Dawn? Does he still do it anymore? Down from your dad? Here's the thing. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 4:At this point.
Speaker 1:Roger and I are hanging drywall it's a 4x4 sheet, it's a tiny square Finishing it to feather it out and get it right. Then we have to prime it and paint it. It's just an ordeal.
Speaker 4:We can talk somebody else into priming it and painting it.
Speaker 1:Tyler, if you're listening painting it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, tyler, if you're listening, tyler's chief painter, he's the paint foreman. So when you guys are doing all this work, are you thinking?
Speaker 1:are we arguing with each other?
Speaker 4:no, are you being advocates of the christian lifestyle oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm trying.
Speaker 1:No, we don't have, we don't have any, uh like when we anytime work on this stuff, like we don't really have.
Speaker 4:You're not F-bombing it.
Speaker 1:No, no. Now do we get to the point where we're like all right, that didn't work. And we sit there for 20 minutes staring at each other like we're going to just leave.
Speaker 4:We're just, we're quitting and never coming back.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, we felt victorious. Today when we got to the floor, we're like, oh, we're done, since we're only going to go eight inches.
Speaker 2:And then we realized, yeah there's a big hole, big hole in the wall.
Speaker 1:Eight by 38 by 48 hole. Now it's 48 by 48.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, well, michael, do you want to introduce this topic, since you were very excited?
Speaker 1:I don't remember exactly how you phrased it.
Speaker 4:Well, it's right here. What does it look like to be a Christian in the business world?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I like this one simply because it's my life, it's what I do. I live in the business world and I'll tell you it's interesting, even since I agreed to come on just the stuff that changes and what your attitude looks like towards those things. Um, I'm fortunate. I work for Beth. You're in this kind of same situation. Um, I work for an organization that was founded by three men who were all on staff Actually, two of the three were on staff at a local church local large, local church. They um were volunteers in media ministry, like creative design, senior leadership roles, so we're fortunate in that aspect. However, it's interesting to watch the cycles in businesses who come from the church world, which is why I wanted to share. So we started out as a family business. It's dad and two sons running a theater. Basically, the theater world is what they know, it's what they do, they know how to make people laugh and they know how to pop popcorn.
Speaker 3:Right, so to be clear the theater came first.
Speaker 1:The theater was the first. That was the brainchild, and here's how that happened. They realized that there's nothing to do in Amish country after five o'clock and so they went to a friend of theirs and they said hey, listen, we want you to write, produce and be in shows at this theater. They rented an old warehouse and they renovated it to look like the inside of a barn. So if anybody had ever been to the old theater, that's it was in a giant warehouse, basically. So then there was an opera.
Speaker 1:They kept talking about the idea that you know, we can entertain them. What about, like, we're driving revenue for all of these hotels in the area. It'd be nice if we could get a piece of that pie, basically, yeah. So the dad, one of his brothers said to him hey, I know a lady that's selling a piece of land, interested in buying it, like basically brokered a deal for him. So they bought a huge piece of land and started putting together plans to build a hotel.
Speaker 1:Well, in the midst of building the hotel, they decided to just attach the theater. Now they own the building versus leasing it. They could do whatever they wanted with it and they get kind of a fresh start. And in the midst of that they decided well, why don't we build an event center? Then we can feed them, house them and entertain them. And so they built this complex basically it's three buildings all attached that you can come in and book a room, go oversee a show. And it used to be that we would feed you, we to be that, we would feed you. We don't feed you anymore that's a whole nother.
Speaker 1:That's when you, that's when you lose your religion food service, I think anybody who works in food service. I don't think it's possible for them to be christian no, no, no. Me and beth are like no, that's health care I'll be honest, like I've never in my life, I've got some traumatic stories from food service. I watched a girl this is not a joke spill an entire pot of soup in the middle of the lobby of the hotel, trying to take it up the elevator, and hit one of the uneven spots in the tile and just tipped over?
Speaker 3:Was she okay?
Speaker 1:Oh, she was fine. No, she was fine. No, she was behind it pushing it on a cart. Hit the bump.
Speaker 1:Thing just spills all over the floor. And now you've got 120 people that you're about to try to feed and you're down an entire container of soup. Guess what Doesn't end. Well, no, so they built the building Theater still thriving Hotels, though not something that they're super familiar with so they had hired me in 2018 to come on as their AGM, and I actually passed on the opportunity because I had just taken a leadership or taken a class in Tuscarawas County called Leadership Tusk, which was a fantastic class for me, and I had to remain in Tuscarawas County to be in the class, so I didn't want to leave. Plus, my company had paid for it. So I was like, no, I'll wait. Then 2019 rolled around and I became senior pastor here. When that happened, I knew I couldn't stay at the job that I was at, because, I mean, I was. It's not a joke.
Speaker 1:Me being very honest right now, which is kind of the fun of this and you shared this before. Yeah, I shared this plenty of times Every day. Okay, my boss was very particular about when we arrived and left from work. It doesn't matter if your work is done. You didn't leave until 5 o'clock. You came in at 9 and you worked until 5. Sometimes you came in at 8 and you worked until 5, but you didn't leave until 5 o'clock ever.
Speaker 1:So at 4 o'clock I would go over to the bar we had in the hotel. I'd get myself a bottle of Stella Rosa Black. I'd take it back to my office, I would open it and I would finish the entire bottle before I left. At five o'clock and I realized I cannot live like this and decided I was going to leave like that was just that. So I resigned from that position. I put in a four week notice and three or four days after I put in that notice, those owners called me again and said hey, listen, we've got an opportunity to have some. We need somebody to help us fill in at the theater. Would you be interested in doing that? My wife and I went and saw a show which was an Elvis impersonator. It was terrible by the way.
Speaker 4:It was really bad. It was so bad.
Speaker 1:And then they hired me to come on, basically in more of a consultant's situation, Like I wasn't going to be full time, I was going to be part time. Long and short of it. Within a couple of weeks I was running the whole hotel. Just happened very quickly. I don't know how it happened, but so we? There was really no knowledge on their side from the hotel standpoint, and so I was coming in. I don't want to say to rescue it, but to like give them some footing. They would ask me questions like well, how long should it take to clean a?
Speaker 4:hotel room.
Speaker 1:Anybody know the answer to that?
Speaker 4:Is it like three minutes, no Longer?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's a lot longer than three minutes To clean a whole hotel room.
Speaker 4:Let's hope so To flip it.
Speaker 2:To flip a hotel room 25 minutes.
Speaker 3:What is it? 10 minutes 13.
Speaker 2:Nope Half hour.
Speaker 1:It's 28 minutes.
Speaker 4:Cindy used to do it, but I don't know if she ever knew that.
Speaker 1:Now, that also is an average based on the size of the rooms and the time that it takes. But anyhow, how much money should it cost for one person to eat breakfast on any given morning? The average price for breakfast? $10. $10. The average price is $10. So when you pay $189 for a hotel room, $20 of that. If it's two guests, $20 of that they account for breakfast and then they account for. We pay our housekeepers per clean, so they get paid based on the number of units that they clean in a day's time. But we basically take that and we break it down and then whatever's left over at the end of the day after you've paid gas, water, that fun stuff anyhow. Um, so I was there for a short while. Then we started buying cabin properties. Cabin saved us during covid. It was what kept us alive. But I say all that to get us to where we are today. Um, we so you operate three ways. You operate as a family business, which are three guys who know how to run a theater.
Speaker 4:So they're still in the theater running it all.
Speaker 1:They are still in the entire business running it all, do they?
Speaker 4:focus more on the theater. No, okay.
Speaker 1:So you ask the question now are they owners or are they owner-operators? Do they want to be owners and step out and let other people run it, or do they still want to operate some of the business? And it's a tricky question that they haven't yet been able to answer for themselves. But the challenge is we operated as a family business for a long time, which meant you move fast and you make decisions on the fly and if you don't like it, you change it later.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. So that's, you have the ability to do that. It's kind of how we operate right now in the church. We'll make a decision, we're going to run with this. We don't like that, we're going to change it.
Speaker 1:It's because we're still small enough that we can do that. But as you start to grow in size you have to adjust your mindset and how you operate. So then you move from family business, small business mode into what I have deemed church mode. So the church mode is it's a little bit slower, it's a little bit methodical. You don't hold people accountable because you don't want your volunteers to quit. You don't correct anybody because you don't want to hurt feelings. You try to like just we just overlook it, unless they're burning something down, we don't really say anything and everybody gets really complacent and really like laid back. And you start showing up to work in blue jeans or maybe even shorts and a tank top, and you start showing up to work in blue jeans or maybe even shorts and a tank top.
Speaker 1:Like life, just it gets different. And then you grow to the point to where you can't operate like that anymore because stuff's starting to burn.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Like things are changing and you're like we don't.
Speaker 1:We're not holding anybody accountable, and so they're not getting better. The business isn't getting better and now we're getting stagnant. When you're down 10%, you ask why? Well, it's because we didn't do any marketing, because we haven't had to do marketing, and you start to get in this weird spot. So then you move into business mode, so you really start to talk about like board of directors. You start to talk about CFOs, ceos, coos, presidents, things like that.
Speaker 1:That's a huge shift, going from small business where I thrive, because again you can move fast and you make a decision. You don't like it change it when you get through church mode. Then you get to the, the new business mode. It changes a lot because you're still methodical about your decisions, because you want to look at the overall good of the business, but sometimes it slows you down to the point of being detrimental. So those three guys came from church world and so it was easy for them to naturally operate in church world. Now, when we've moved into business mode, there's a there's.
Speaker 1:I don't know this. If they ever listened to this, they'll go. Yeah, it's probably true, but it might sound a little harsh.
Speaker 1:There's a trust issue. This is our baby that we have birthed and we have held on to and we have run for all of these years. How can I trust you, who is not family, to run this? Because what if you decide to leave tomorrow? If you leave tomorrow, I don't have somebody to backfill your role. If I leave tomorrow, who's going to do this or who's going to do that? We're going to have to get re-involved and we don't want to be in that pain point, and so one of the things that being a Christian in the business world is you have to operate, absolutely operate with integrity at all times.
Speaker 1:And that's the hardest thing to do. It is so easy to take shortcuts. It's super easy to go. You know what I don't feel like being here today. I'm gonna go home at noon.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, especially with your job, for me, yeah.
Speaker 1:I go home at noon and nobody would know I was gone. I can still get my stuff done.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But then when you're not there and something goes sideways, honest to goodness, it's not a joke. I took a vacation. I don't take vacations very often. I took a vacation. First night I was gone, one of our units caught on fire. No joke, oh my gosh. One o'clock in the morning, my phone rings. I answer it it's my customer service manager and she goes. Well, I don't really know how to say this, but there's one one of the units is on fire.
Speaker 1:I'm really sorry to bother you. I'm like no, this is what you're supposed to bother me for, Like you can't make that stuff up.
Speaker 3:Right Disengage. Yes, something happened.
Speaker 4:I'm dealing with that right now I'm going on vacation next week and I'm like it's like Nick says, all the time it's like is it even worth going on a vacation?
Speaker 3:No, it's painful when I come back it is yeah and I'm still.
Speaker 4:It takes weeks to get back into I'm prepping them to be ready for when I'm gone. It doesn't matter back, and I know I'm going to be ticked off. I agree.
Speaker 2:I'm still trying to dig out of the hole. They don't cover me but yet you'll cover for them.
Speaker 1:I have a great team my hotel GM that runs the two hotels. Fantastic. My customer service manager. She can run the cabins by herself, they don't need me. But there are things that I have to decide that are basically still sitting on my when I get there and there's a stack of mail on my desk about this thick, because it has to be sorted, separated, coded, before it can be sent to accounts payable.
Speaker 2:That's not fun.
Speaker 1:And you got a whole day of that, and it's the task that I hate the most. Every credit card charge, I have to go through them line by line.
Speaker 4:Ain't nothing. I hate more than those kinds of Do you guys have your? It's funny you say that because my doctor was just saying he said when he cause he just got back from vacation and he said you know the since auto pay it's gotten so much easier. He said I used to dread the first day back because that's the he said. Anytime I would not be with a patient, I would be going through all these bills on credit card statements and you know, just making sure everything's paid on time. But he's like, but now with auto pay it has significantly declined so so you've already thought this is well.
Speaker 1:We've got auto pay set up to make payments uh-huh the problem is is when you have a maintenance team of six and seven guys and every day they're sliding their car to buy bolts, nuts, screws yeah, door hinges, whatever.
Speaker 1:all of that has to be coded to the proper project property and you're doing that. It is my job. Why? Well, it's not my job to code it. They code it in a system called Expensify and after they're done it comes to me for final approval before it goes to the accounting department for them to actually code it in the system. So once that's done, then they run all of those numbers in the P&L and then you can look at your maintenance line and all of that fun stuff. But you would be surprised. So we have this is just like a one-off. We have a category that's called supplies and that category is designed specifically for things that you would buy for general use.
Speaker 4:If you buy a box of screws that is not necessarily for a specific project but that you're gonna use, that would be a supply If you buy furnace filters, that would be considered a supply.
Speaker 1:However, if you're buying a door hinge for a specific property to repair a maintenance work order, that is repairs and maintenance, everything's repairs and maintenance to them. Everything, and so it's a constant chasing of that, and I'll tell you, that's when I need Jesus.
Speaker 4:And you tell them several times the difference between the two.
Speaker 1:I send an email every quarter, at the beginning of every quarter. Hey, friendly reminder, here's how this works, doesn't matter.
Speaker 4:That's how I used to have to watch the hygienist would make the new appointment for the person.
Speaker 4:Like whoever is sitting in their chair right now, they would make their appointment and pin it for the next appointment and I'd have to see who was due for what. And typically, if your gum screening is this six months from now, then the alternating six months you're going to get your x-rays done. They could not get that process for the life of them, so then I'd have to correct them every single day. I'd have to go, look and see, and it came to a point where they would see me in the hall and they'd think I'd be coming to correct them.
Speaker 4:I'm like that's not my only job. Do you think I want to do that?
Speaker 1:No, It'd be nice if you could just do it right the first time. If you could just do it right, exactly. You won't have to see me Operate in the spirit of excellence, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's that integrity as Christians that when you get back on vacation. It makes you dig in with your heels to say okay, I know I got to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, and you just do it and you know it might take you, however long it's going to take you, but because a lot of people would just say, well, I'll get to it when I get to it, I really don't care for weeks behind.
Speaker 1:Well, that was. That was part of my struggle. So I took the week of the fourth.
Speaker 1:I didn't take the whole week off I worked monday, tuesday, and then I took wednesday, wednesday, thursday, friday off. I took two of the boys to great wolf lodge on wednesday. We drove up wednesday. They swam, did magic quest, did all of our things, spent the night. They swam most of the day thursday, and then we drove home on Thursday. Obviously Friday was the fourth. Nobody was in the office so I just stayed home. I still worked like even when I was at Great Wolf Lodge, cause I don't swim. So I was like, I still worked a little bit. But during that week some things had happened at work that I didn't even tell my wife about initially, and it was during our Monday executive meeting. And this was the realization that we've gone from church mode to business mode. So the girl who reports to me is now running our operations meeting, which doesn't feel good, right, like she's, I'm her boss, like that should be my job.
Speaker 1:I should be running this meeting, I will say this she is far more gifted at it than I am, and now you are now like this is my baby.
Speaker 2:Yes, no, no, I'm not even this is my baby. No, no, I'm like okay, am I?
Speaker 1:about to lose my job Seriously, because now we're going from what we called an executive team the three owners and myself reporting to them directly to now me and two other people reporting to them directly. So I used to have a once a week meeting with them. Every Monday I would meet from 9 930 till 10. I would meet with them and then the rest of my team would join them from 10 to 11. And it would be task oriented. We'd be going through projects and whatnot and like really running down the thing. And so I'm saying all of this.
Speaker 1:I'm not proud of any of this because you know, this is modern day. This is happening this week as we're speaking. We had our first round of meetings like that this week on Monday, and I walked in slightly unprepared because I had been out for four days, so they had been sending emails kind of discussing what it was going to look like, what that meeting structure was going to look like. Now here's the thing I don't like to meet for the sake of a meeting. If we're going to be in a room together, it needs to have some value. There needs to be. I want decisions made, I want to move on. So we get into the meeting and we're talking about, like, our core values and which do you most align with. And I get all of that is good, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 4:Our mission statement yes.
Speaker 1:It is an absolute waste of my time is how I feel Like, yes, it is an absolute waste of my time. Is how I feel Like if you don't know this about me already, why are we here? Right, yeah, but that that was that shift from church culture to business culture.
Speaker 1:And, like I saw, I knew I had to be engaged, but I was not happy about it I wasn't happy that I lost my my half hour meeting, because there are things that I go in there and say that I can't say in front of everybody.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:And now I have to wait three weeks, really four weeks, to get to, and so now I'm mad right, and everybody around me knows.
Speaker 1:I'm mad. When I walk into my office, I shut the door behind me. I always work with my door open because I love to talk to people when they come through. Nope, not this week. Shut the door. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to get my work done. I'm going to get up, I'm going to leave. I won't talk to any of you and I'm not mad at like. I'm not mad at any of the individuals. I don't like the direction.
Speaker 2:I'm confused and I'm scared, right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a fair statement. Yeah, the problem is is I've allowed that to override.
Speaker 4:You're Christian.
Speaker 1:I don't want to even call it my, but what I know God has called me to do, because he hasn't called me to worry about those things. He hasn't called me to stress about it Now. Did that force me to brush up my resume? Yup, sure did, and I'm not afraid to say that, like, if my owners and when I get to meet with them, we'll have that conversation, I'm gonna be absolutely. This is where I'm at.
Speaker 1:I'm not comfortable with what's happening. It worries me that I can't have an honest conversation with you, because if I feel like, if I do, it feels like or looks like I'm telling on somebody and, quite frankly, I don't know that I trust any of those other people.
Speaker 1:You're meeting with sure yeah like yeah I don't know what they're saying to you. If they're trying to, like, take your job, maybe and I don't even think that they would intentionally be trying to do that but, like, well, I've asked for this and didn't get that. Like, I also have tasks that I do during the day. So there's like this reel of thoughts that go through my brain, and all of that comes from not having trusted my previous boss, who said I had to stay until five o'clock every day. You had to be in by nine. You had to stay until five. You couldn't blink wrong without her saying something. She would show up. She would like there was no knocking on office doors. If your door was closed, she's just coming in.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, it was her building. As far as she was concerned, it didn't matter how you felt, what you thought like there was no boundaries and you think this, all your feelings come.
Speaker 1:Oh, a hundred percent. I have zero trust. I don't trust anybody in the business that I'm in, like in the organization that I'm in, let alone thrive. And I've done both of those things. Like you watch. People come in and within six, eight months they're gone. Because we move fast and we're really, really direct about certain things. And then we get to church mode where we become less direct and we become complacent and we don't make fast decisions and we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. And now, as a business, we're back to moving fast and we're going to have to hurt people's feelings. One of the things as Christians that I feel like we fail at and I feel like we fail at this in the business world too is the window of accountability. You screw up. I need to tell you you screwed up and you need to be able to hear it Right.
Speaker 2:Like you screw up.
Speaker 1:I need to tell you you screwed up and you need to be able to hear it right, like if I don't like what you're doing, I need to be able to say to you I don't like what you're doing, this is not how I envisioned this, this is not what I wanted, and you have to be okay with that, right like that's a constructive criticism. Yeah, and I shouldn't have to sugarcoat it for you so the problem is sometimes my again, the again, the community that we're in, that we're based in is incredibly passive anyway, and so we don't like to be direct.
Speaker 1:The problem with not being direct is then there's always this confusion on am I doing a good job? There's no feedback loop.
Speaker 4:Right but until it's been a year Until something goes wrong.
Speaker 1:Over a year and all of a sudden sudden, now we don't like any of what you did last year. We don't like what happened here and you know, whenever this happened, you did this instead of doing that. And it's this like dangerous place. Because now you question everything right, like am I in the right place? Is this what I want to do the rest of my life? So I think we have to shorten that window of accountability, not just in the business world, but in our friendships and in our relationships. From a Christian standpoint. If we are not direct with one another, if we are not honest with one another, I'm allowing you to knowingly sin or knowingly manipulate or dilute, whatever the truth is it's not good for anybody?
Speaker 1:No, it's not good for anybody, and you?
Speaker 4:have to be. When you're a leader, you have to be willing to say is it's not?
Speaker 3:good for anybody? No, it's not good for anybody and you have to be. When you're a leader, you have to be willing to say, sometimes that's my fault.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:It's my fault, oh, for sure.
Speaker 3:If you know like you screwed up or you know when you have people working under you and they screw up. Ultimately it's actually better because I think most time for me when I accept that responsibility I'm not as stressed about it because I feel like because you owned up to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah because, it's like I'm already like taking charge of it yeah, like I'm not saying okay, yeah, I know my, my driver did this, or he didn't you know he made a mistake here, whatever, but that's on me maybe I didn't explain it to him well enough.
Speaker 4:Maybe you know, at the end of the day it's on me Just because you're showing quote unquote weakness, which I don't think is weakness. Yeah, it's like, I'll take care of it.
Speaker 3:I think you're still taking charge of the situation, so that usually helps me the hard if I get right to it and just say you know what? No excuses. I'm not going to give you an excuse why that didn't happen. I just missed it. We'll take care of it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I had a hard one just not long ago. I have an employee who I think is underperforming and I was sitting in an executive team meeting and I voiced that very loudly. I was like you guys don't see this, I see it every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the one owner looked right at me and goes well, if you're not leading them, well, that's what's going to happen. Can I leave now? Do you know what I mean? Like that's a hard statement to hear.
Speaker 1:But my thing is is that person requires a different style of leadership than I'm accustomed to. I'm accustomed to run, move fast, send an email, make a statement, move on. I don't need to hold your hand. But this person requires a little bit of handholding. They require a little bit of I don't want to say coddling, but it is a little bit of coddling they have to. It's that constant reminder, that constant check-in, that like, hey, how was it going? I don't, I'm not that person, I want to, just I've got another task.
Speaker 2:I need to move on to.
Speaker 1:And so I have to adjust my mindset and I have to be more relational with those people, and I don't like it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But there's definitely situations where you know you've explained everything properly. You even get to the point where, yep, I trust my people to do what they do. They do a great job. But there's always those moments where you have to be like, if I don't go down there and show my presence?
Speaker 3:and at least make sure everything's going the way it's supposed to be. It's not going to end well. Sometimes you have to take that extra accountability to say, yep, I'm sure everything's fine. But I think I need to go down there and at least be present.
Speaker 1:And that show of presence is a big driver for strong employees too. They're like, okay, he does care, he is here too here.
Speaker 3:yeah, he's not just sitting in his office making us do all the work, and you know yeah the hard part for me in that exact situation is um.
Speaker 1:So there's a. It's a new personality profile. It's called the working genius and I don't remember all of the things, but one of the roles is being able to basically drive people and create excitement behind a particular project. That is not me. I'm a wanderer. I want to see like I have the grand vision of where we go in five years. I'm the visionary for like wow, we could improve that process by doing X, Creating that like mindset of all the long.
Speaker 1:Yes, I can build the system and then I can hand it off. I don't want to have to check in. Are you following the system? I don't want to have to. I need somebody else to come alongside me and do that. The problem is is, if you don't have that person, it has to be you.
Speaker 2:You have to do it flat out.
Speaker 1:You have to pick it up to the business.
Speaker 4:I still hate it. I was going to ask was that you Did. You have anything to do with it, but by the sounds of it it had something to do with just those three?
Speaker 1:No, so I do think that I had something to do with it, but I think my having something to do with it may have been adverse.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I think they were seeing that. Okay, so remember, when we first did this, I was the only guy right. I was running a hotel and, at the time, 32 cabins, something like that. And as the cabins grew and we continued to acquire more properties and we started building a customer service team and all of these other things, it was almost impossible. I was allowing the hotel to be run by the AGM and I was there. I would pop in and my office was there and I would ask lots of questions and do deposits and whatever, but ultimately was not in day-to-day operations. So they realized I couldn't do it by myself and we really needed to hire a permanent hotel GM and then I could overall kind of like-.
Speaker 4:Oversee it all, oversee the whole kit and caboodle.
Speaker 1:Then we bought a, a second hotel, and so now he's running two hotels and customer service is kind of the missing link at this point. We've got one guy who's in a more senior role, but he's not super great at it, and I'm trying to develop the team, but as long as this guy's on the team it's harder to do, yeah, and so ultimately we decide to hire the girl who's now managing customer service and she does a bang up job. She is an HR whiz, like. She knows how to say. She's corporate jargon to a T. She has her own um coaching business that she does on the side. So very like profesh which I don't like.
Speaker 1:I love her to death, but I don't like, because that's not me. I want to be able to have a real conversation with you. I don't need to talk about metrics. Can we just talk about numbers?
Speaker 4:yeah, right, like the conversion.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what I'm saying, like yeah, and I get it that there's value in that around a boardroom table and maybe, but her and I don't talk like that whenever we're yeah we, but when we get to the, we get to the room in quotations, because that's what we call it we all get in the room. Um, she does that so much. She's more eloquent than I am like I want to stomp my foot, yell a little bit. I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to preach yeah that's what I want to do. I want to preach. They don't want to hear that sermon. So I think what happened is they were starting to see that I was not able to effectively manage all of those departments and keep them all operating well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is a fair statement, because you know, we're buying a property in another state right now, so I'm focused on that. There's a huge project being undertaken to redo all of the photography and all of the units and I'm spearheading that. There's a potential laundry overhaul and I'm spearheading that. So all of these like properties, projects that are happening yeah, I'm trying to manage those, but also manage a maintenance team, customer service team.
Speaker 4:You can't oversee it all. It's not possible. No, it's not.
Speaker 1:But you know that's okay, right? I do know that that's okay, but I don't like it. And that's the part that I but that's a me problem.
Speaker 4:That's a me problem.
Speaker 1:And so. But I's the thing. They'll tell you that, like my biggest asset to them is, I'll take the hill. It doesn't matter what they do, it doesn't matter what they say. If they say to me hey, we're going to buy another hotel, we're going to close in three days, can you handle that? Yep, got it. Kick in the front door, fire everybody, hire a whole new staff and straight hours on a desk shift. I'm going to make this happen.
Speaker 1:They know that about me and it's probably one of my biggest assets, but I can also build a team, but here's where I fail, and this is the biggest failure. I fail at building culture. I can build a team, I can build the system, but culture to me is second. It's second nature to me and it should be second nature to everybody else. So our um mission statement is to create magical moments, and magic is an acronym and it stands for all of these things oh yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like and it's cute and it's wonderful and it's, it's lovely, but at the end of the day, you have to have integrity. If you don't have integrity, none of those things matter, true? I?
Speaker 3:mean there's a lot of people that are willing to put in their time, like, say, I'll show up at nine, I'll leave at five, but in between those hours it doesn't mean they care.
Speaker 4:Correct yeah.
Speaker 3:Correct, and it's really. It's really. That's a failure of mine too. It's hard for me to understand why people don't care.
Speaker 1:Yes, but how do we, how do we get them to care? Because in my opinion now this may not be the case for you and it's certainly not the case for you guys, and I don't know, like company culture for where you work. Do you know your mission, vision, values for where you work?
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm out there on my own in my car.
Speaker 1:Well, that's my point. Yeah, so are 70% of my employees. Yeah 70% of my employees don't have office space. They don't have a place that they report. Housekeepers and maintenance don't have a landing spot.
Speaker 4:They're out on the road all day long, right? So how am I?
Speaker 1:going to get them to care about mission vision values? How do you do that? Yeah, a front desk employee who is a they're not minimum wage, but they're an entry level employee yeah, how do you get them to care about mission vision values? Right, because they might only be here for six weeks. Care about mission vision values? Right, because they might only be here for six weeks. We had one girl who worked for us phenomenal, loved her to death. We don't offer health care right we don't have 401k.
Speaker 4:We don't have like well, and I feel like if you want an overnight stay at 40 off I? Got you boo. Yeah, well, maybe that's where the missions and values start. You know, maybe if you, if they would invest in it, can't, honestly, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3:You can actually say to them that you know you're not always going to work here. This is only your first job. But if you don't do well at this job, you will not get the next job that helps you climb that ladder. Even when you explain all that to them, it doesn't always sink in Well because here's the thing, the workforce is so slim right now it truly doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:I have a girl that we're this is.
Speaker 1:I wish this were a joke, but it's not. She used to work for me at one of the hotels and she had a mental health crisis and had to leave. She developed a stutter because of this mental health crisis, couldn't answer the phone, like there were things that she just couldn't do her job. Now, when I say mental health, I'm talking like this was like scary stuff. Okay, she leaves, she starts to get better. She gets a job at another hotel in the area. Now I know she's working there because I pretty much know all of the people. I get the call like hey, do you know this person? Yes, I do. Would you hire her? Probably not Now. Here's like and I can't share why I would just say probably not. Well, now I'm out of the hiring. Now she works at our other hotel. She's been through four hotels, but we are so desperate for help on the front lines that you just basically hire whoever you can get. Do you think that person cares about mission, vision, value, a warm body?
Speaker 1:yes not at all, and so then we have to embody it. So I am those of you who know this about me it's my pleasure you say thank you or you say yes. You say thank you, it's always my pleasure. I never say you're welcome, I never say no problem, it's always my pleasure. I learned that at another company that I worked for I worked for h Gregg. You had to say that before they would even let you on the sales floor. It had to be natural. I've never looked back. We tried to instill some of those things at the front. Just very small. When you hear the door open, stand up and smile.
Speaker 3:Simple, right, can't do it. I know you go through drive-thrus now it's very difficult to get eye contact.
Speaker 1:I won't go through a drive-thru. I mobile order and I go to the counter and I pick it up.
Speaker 4:Because I can't. You know what, though? You want to hear something that I've heard. You are now eliminating your chances to speak the gospel and speak the word.
Speaker 1:I hear you. I hear you, we're doing self-checkout. I. I hear you. I hear you're doing self-checkout. I hear you I'm going to take it. I'm sorry, I'll find another way to do it. Do I need to go stand on the street corner to make up for it Because I'm sorry? I'm sorry. At least then I can check my bag before I walk out. And the problem is, is nobody operates with a spirit of excellence?
Speaker 1:When we talk about businesses and how we should operate from a Christian standpoint, the first thing that we should teach every employee that we have, every employee that walks through the door, is all I ask of you is that you do your absolute best every single day. Your absolute best is not sitting on your cell phone, that's not your best you can do better.
Speaker 1:I promise you you can do better without trying. But then we don't have a window of accountability. We're like, well, yeah, I know she was on her phone all night, but we really need somebody to cover that night shift. So if we say something, she might quit yeah, she might, and she might take two other people with her. But you know what, if we're still not hitting the bar, if we're still not making the, what is the window of accountability? And then you have people who kill themselves, that you can't reward because now everybody wants a participation trophy, right? So like I can't give a raise to somebody on the front desk because they might start making more than somebody else, because if they talk about it, everybody wants a raise.
Speaker 4:But they're not supposed to talk about it In the state of Ohio. That is not illegal.
Speaker 1:It is not illegal, I'm saying it's you should just know not to talk about it. I encourage people to talk about it, and let me tell you why.
Speaker 3:hey, I've I've asked to discipline people for things like being on their cell phone and that, and they're like well, yeah, if you, if you do that to him, then we have to do it to everybody else. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, darn skippy.
Speaker 1:Here's the reason I tell people to talk about their wage, because when you come to me and listen, this has happened with a girl one time she walks into my office she sits, she's honestly, she sits down at my desk. She starts the conversation with and this is always the wrong way to start any conversation with me is I am never doing that again about a specific job that I had given her. And I looked right at her and I said oh, so you don't work here anymore. And she said excuse me. I said what you just told me is you don't work here anymore. And she said no, I'm just telling you I'm not doing that. And I said right, so you don't work here anymore.
Speaker 1:And she got quiet and she goes well, only do it if I get a raise. I said okay, so I can send you your termination paperwork now or you can fill that out in person. Like I can email it to you, you can fill it out in person. Which would you prefer? She said are you firing me? I said no, you just quit. You told me you're not going to do your job. Well, not unless you pay me more. So you're quitting. Am I understanding you correctly?
Speaker 1:she's not getting that, you're not getting a raise right and so the thing was was she had heard that somebody else. She heard that somebody else had gotten a raise and she thought she could just come in ask for it and get it not how it works. You're half the performer. They are right. So if you want to know why somebody else is making more money than you, it's because they're doing twice the work, or they're doing.
Speaker 4:They're picking up the work that you're not doing.
Speaker 1:Right. So in all honesty, in my world, in my mind, people who work at the front desk at a hotel not busy all day- no. Yeah, you answer the phone maybe 10 times a day during your shift. You make room keys like there's little things you might have to do, but why can't you mop the floor? Well, that's housekeeping's job, is it run the sweeper because I mop the floor?
Speaker 4:I feel like that should be a part of their front. It is, it was on their checklist. So then, why isn't it? Because, because there's no window of accountability, my friend, because that was when I was the one receptionist at the dental office that was yeah, and my little, you know, own, I don't know checklist that was to stock the fridge and this and that and make sure if there was any crumbs on the floor to sweep it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, buddy, and check the PlayStation and make sure there's no you know little kid smear marks and blah, blah, blah. We also had a rule that you had to clean the bathrooms and they just couldn't do it.
Speaker 3:Just couldn't do it. I asked the kid behind the front desk. First of all, is there a good place to get pizza around here?
Speaker 3:I don't know, Deliver it to the hotel. I don't know there's lots of hotels. Pretty much told me to look it up online Google it. So then I finally figured all that out. Got to pizza. We needed plates and napkins. So I go back down to asking if he's got any plates and napkins. He points behind the desk. He's sitting behind the desk, he points to it, so I go around to the desk and get it myself. It's the truth, though.
Speaker 1:Help. The level of service has come down so far and it's because you can't find people who are willing to do it. And I'll tell you, it used to be that when you worked at a hotel, when you worked at the front desk and you had to physically hand somebody a key, and they registered in a little paper book and you had to do all of the things. Life was different, right.
Speaker 4:Slower. You wanted to have a conversation. Where are you coming from?
Speaker 1:Yes, I was standing at the front desk of my hotel one of the hotels yesterday and there was a guest trying to check in and their room wasn't ready. It was way before check-in, it wasn't you know, it wasn't time to check, so it wasn't a problem that their room wasn't ready. And they're like, well, we've driven a really long way and we just really need to, and so he turned around. I said to the front desk agent are there any other rooms of that same type open that we could put them in and then move somebody else to their room who's not here yet? There are ways to do this, it's not hard, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they wanted a specific. That's managing. Yes, they wanted a specific room type and I was like, okay, well, you know, all six of these rooms are exactly the same. Do you have one of those empty?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm chatting with him hey, where are you coming from?
Speaker 1:Oh, we're coming from Columbus area. I said oh, where at, I've lived down that way for a little while and they're like well, we're from Pataskala. I said oh, ironically my mother-in-law used to call it Patalaska because she said the word was too big to read on the sign as you drove by.
Speaker 1:And so he said well, you know, know, a lot of people down that way like they go to go to Newark and and they don't, they just don't say it right. And I'm like, right, it's Nurk. And he laughed and he's like, exactly. And so now I formed a connection with this guy. It was really that easy his wife is laughing because he and I are making fun of these. Like the way people say these things, and I shouldn't say making fun, but like yeah pointing out that culturally he was talking about.
Speaker 1:we were talking about Worcester and Worcester. Is it Worcester or is it Worcester? It's Worcester, it's 100% Worcester. But we were just chatting while she moved that room. Do you know how easy that is? He felt valued. His time was important. He wasn't just standing there watching you play at the computer he was computer right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was being I don't want to say entertained, but there was something that was engaging him. We've lost all of that. It's the same. At the drive-thru. There was a kid at this mcdonald's one time. He still works there. I went into, I went to the drive-thru and all I got was a large coat. Now I watched the car in front of me as he was handing them their stuff and he handed them the drink and then he hands them the straw. Just as they go to grab the straw he pulls it back right.
Speaker 1:So he's being funny right, so I was like I got him I got his number so I knew he was gonna do it to me. So I pull up to the window and just as he goes like as he puts it out I wait for a second snatched it out of his hand real fast and as I did it he was trying to pull back. I said I saw you do it to the guy in front of me and he laughed. I laughed and off I went. That's the dumbest thing to remember about a McDonald's trip.
Speaker 1:That order was probably wrong Chances are that order was not right, but that wasn't his job, but even then, even then, because he was willing to engage in some fashion. I didn't care. I don't remember if the order was wrong. I remember that he made a joke and it was funny.
Speaker 4:And you didn't care, unless they screwed up the Coke.
Speaker 1:Oh, if that would have been a diet Coke If it was root beer or something Throwing it back through. No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 3:Driving around, throwing it back through the window. We have to remind ourselves that it's not unchristian to expect somebody to do their job that they agreed to do Correct. You know when somebody gets hired, typically there's no surprises.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:No, you're not. You know it's not like you're like well, we'll hire and then we'll see.
Speaker 1:And then we'll tell you what your job is. Yes, yeah, you want this job. It's a secret job. Yeah, I mean you've interviewed that person, you've had a discussion with them, so they know what to expect going in, and then all of a sudden we don't prepare them for what we actually expect of them. We're like, oh, this job's really not that hard. You're just going to answer a couple of phone calls and and and make some reservations.
Speaker 2:It's really not that hard, yeah Right? And then, when they get, there.
Speaker 1:I think that's there's a checklist that's three pages long of tasks that they're responsible for. I, yeah, not quite what I signed up for. Honestly, we did a job posting this is not a joke and this was not me. I had nothing to do with this. We posted a job posting for an overnight position and it said love Netflix, watch it while you're at work. Tons of applications, because on night audit not a lot of stuff happens. So literally they're sitting at the front desk. Someone's propped up Watching Netflix.
Speaker 3:Like our guys do at work. They're running the saw, or whatever, and they got it propped up watching their golf.
Speaker 1:It's nuts. It's nuts and it worked, it worked. But then they get there and they realize oh, I don't just get to watch YouTube or Netflix because there's a wedding in house and these guests are not back in their room at 1130 at night. Now they're running down the hallways and I've got noise complaints.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:So then that expectation changes and now they're like well, wait, this isn't what I signed up for. I thought I was going to be an after hours Netflix watch this isn't fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not as fun as you make it sound, it's not as fun anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, back guys um the the parable about the the servants who, uh, were entrusted with the bags of gold. I want to be very, very clear that it is no shame to make money for other people yeah there is no shame in that.
Speaker 1:So so many people feel like they have to start their own business or they have to. If I'm cousin eddie, I'm holding out for a management position, cousin Eddie, I'm just I'm holding out for a management position. Honestly, it is no shame to go work at McDonald's. There is no shame Like if you are in need of money. And I told my wife this. I said if I ever lost my job, I promise you I would have a job the next day, and it may not be making the money that I'm making today, but we're not going to lose our house. We're not going to lose it. Well, we can't lose our cars paid for, but we're not going to lose the things that we have because I lost my job. We're going to learn to button down and we're going to survive on the money that we've got and we're going to figure this out.
Speaker 4:I guarantee you I could walk over to McDonald's right now and be hired before I left that building.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I might only be making minimum wage, but I'll tell you what I'll put in as many hours as they'll give me Right? That's the difference in the mindset of being willing to work for what you have, being willing to earn.
Speaker 3:You know, and right now, of course, we're going through a scare of all these people that are losing their benefits. They're already trying to figure out ways to skate the system. Yeah, to keep this going, instead of saying you know what, maybe, just maybe, I need to go out and get a job and actually you know support myself, yeah, but yeah because I've we were, we were taking, we were walking.
Speaker 3:We actually heard a couple having that very discussion like oh, we could do this, we could do that, and we kind of like, can you believe it? Like people just they will not give up on that lifestyle of handout.
Speaker 1:No, no, they just won't do it I, so I there's no shame in earning money for other people. I look at my three owners and they are. It's not like they're millionaires or anything like that, but they're wealthy men.
Speaker 1:Good for them. Two of them are younger than I am Really good for them. Right, you know they're going to be able to retire. Their kids are going to be able to have all of the things that you know whenever their parents are dead and gone. They're going to have a wealthy inheritance. That's wonderful for them. Just because they have it doesn't mean I should be angry about it and not want to earn more.
Speaker 3:No, and when you're young you tend to look at those people like must be nice. I hear how hard it is to run your own business or create your own business.
Speaker 1:They have all of the risk If all of those businesses were to fold today. They lose their houses. They lose their cars. They're on the line for everything.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm on the line for Nothing.
Speaker 1:I'm going to walk out unemployed and go get a job at McDonald's this afternoon and not to mention.
Speaker 4:Everyone says to Chase oh, it must be so nice being your own business owner and I'm sure same for jarvie and it's like, and it's like yeah but I can't ever clock out you know, I'm the one doing the scheduling, I'm the one yep that's on call and I'm the. You know, like there's never to clock out like it. It comes probably with more stress than yep, a normal like yeah, quote, unquote nine to five job, yep, you know, because at five o'clock you clock out Right and maybe if he worked for Roto-Rooter.
Speaker 1:He might have to be on call where there's an emergency call. He might have to go out twice a week.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not 24-7.
Speaker 1:Not 24-7. Now the beauty is he can decide to answer his phone or not, right. But at the same time, a good business owner is going to take the money when you can get it, because it's not promised tomorrow. Yeah, and do you really want to leave somebody with sewage, right?
Speaker 4:he just texted me.
Speaker 1:He said well, as soon as you get home.
Speaker 4:I immediately have to leave. He's going to a customer which happens to be his father-in-law sure so, but still I'm sorry, grandpa yeah, and law, a customer is a customer.
Speaker 1:So here's what he did. Thanksgiving two years ago, day before Thanksgiving, I texted him. I was like, dude, I got a problem. He's like what's that? I'm like sewage coming up out of the floor drain in my basement and he's like oh yeah that's not good and I was like I could call Roto-Root emergency appointment.
Speaker 1:It's going to be stupid expensive. I said could you come on Friday? And he's like no, I'll just come tomorrow. He's like I got to load the thing up on the truck so I don't want to come today because it was already late in the evening. He's like I'll just come tomorrow. I'm like dude, you don't have to do that. It's like it's Thanksgiving. He's like no, I'd rather do it and just get it out of the way.
Speaker 1:Dude comes the snake down the drain. Now I'm down there watching him, which I think he should charge more for. When somebody stands and watches, he should be able to charge more for that. But I'm chatting with him while he's doing it and I'm watching him doing. He's telling me he's like I've had my shirt get caught in this thing. I'm trying to keep my cool, pull my shirt out of it because it's like constantly twisted. Anyhow, he gets up, he finishes. He gets up, he leaves, leaves an invoice and it was. It was like 350 bucks the the last time I had Roto-Rooter there on a standard visit it was like $900. I can't imagine what they would have charged me for Thanksgiving to do that. And I always tell Chase I don't want a discount, I want to pay you what you're worth, because you can't find plumbers.
Speaker 4:A sewer job, a sewer job call that is 350. So he didn't.
Speaker 1:I told him I, that is 350 yeah, he didn't, that's and that's I told him. I never want to discount. When I call you, I'm not calling you because I want you to do it for cheap.
Speaker 1:I'm calling you because I want to keep your business. I want to keep your business going like yes, I still need him to put a water softener in my house, but we'll get to that when we get to it, I guess well, as you said, you can make the choice of not to answer his phone or not right that's what.
Speaker 4:You don't answer it, and then, and then that person will say well, yeah, I called him hours and he didn't answer the phone exactly you're telling somebody else that and they're like well, I won't, I won't bother calling them, and there's times when I'll call people and say, listen, it's not going to be for like a week and a half, like right now, when weitely declining yeah you know like, and if you want to wait a week and a half, I'm happy to take the job exactly if you need it done now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not gonna happen, yeah so when I was on vacation, clayton's phone he's got two phones. They're always ringing, always ringing. I'm like can you just put them away?
Speaker 1:no, he, he sells real estate. That's what makes his money.
Speaker 4:If I don't answer those phones, the next person will. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Then, as we're on the airplane on the way home, he said you know you fuss about that phone, mom, but I sold four houses while I was in Florida.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying and how much money does he make doing that? You know what I mean? Yeah, and it's the same way for me. Again, unit catches on fire. Guess what You're answering the phone? Get a drunk kid knocking on a neighbor's door at three o'clock in the morning. Guess who's answering their phone.
Speaker 4:This guy.
Speaker 1:It's part of the deal, but I look at it as I want to treat other people as I would want to be treated If it were my business, if this were me operating, then I want to be able to operate. I wish somebody would treat me. And I go back to just ministry. I talk a lot about how Florence and I the connection that we used to have, and I could look at her and know what she wanted. She could say something so small to me and I would know exactly what it meant.
Speaker 3:You value those things so very much and you, just when you don't have it, when you you're missing that, you realize how valuable it truly is hey, our shop manager was on vacation this week and I don't meddle in the conduct of the shop workers like I have my drivers and people directly under me, so I take care of all that as far as shop, people usually don't meddle in anything sure yeah but I was already kind of tired it was monday, I hadn't slept well, so that might've had a little to do with it.
Speaker 3:But I looked down, clear down the aisle, and there's these two kids and they're wrestling each other like picking each other up, pushing each other, all this stuff. So for some reason I went all the way down there and I got to him like, if you guys want to wrestle, take it outside, you can go home. And one kid goes oh, we can go home. I'm like, yeah, you can go home.
Speaker 1:I said you're not gonna get paid for it, but you're home, you're not coming back.
Speaker 3:He kind of looked at me like, oh, I never really done that it was almost like a challenge I can go home, yeah yeah, but then I followed it up with a little bit of to at least let them know like, look, I'm not just coming down hard on you yeah I said you guys got to understand. So the last thing I want to do is call one of your mothers and tell them that you dropped somebody on top of this beam with a huge sharp plate sticking out of it and now I gotta call her and tell her you've been impaled on this beam yeah said that's not something I want to do.
Speaker 3:No, and I don't think you want that to happen either I said you guys got to think about stuff like that. I said it can happen really quick.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, horseplay is not necessary, not here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can get hurt really bad, and it's just like so sometimes you know, and I guess my thinking always is, if you people can take it or leave it you know, if you you can inst instill discipline but you can give advice at the same time, most of them ain't gonna take it. Probably when you walk away they're gonna laugh about it or what an idiot, what an idiot.
Speaker 3:Or you can't tell us what to do. He's not our boss, yeah, but it's like, okay, take it or leave it, but at least I know that I did what I thought was the proper thing to do, right, and the christian thing to do yeah yeah, and it's up to them if they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if one of them decides to get impaled on the plate, guess what? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Guess what it's like you know, I tried to tell you guys. That's why I told you Because I care about you Right. I don't want to see anybody, you know. Yeah, no, I don't want to experience that. So that's kind of how I think. Just it's so hard to get especially younger people to understand anything and to take any sort of accountability. But you still got it.
Speaker 1:You still you can never say well, there's no point doing that, there's no point in saying anything yeah, yeah, you still have, you still have to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's a hard one for me, because the one person that I have that I feel like underperforms. I say to myself all the time there's no reason to say anything yeah, because they're not gonna yeah, it doesn't matter what I say, because it either gets downline, vetoed like they're like right or whatever, and it just doesn't get done, then I'm mad, but we can't do anything about it.
Speaker 1:So but I have to overcome that. I really do like it's hard, say it, just to say it, and the best thing you can do is, when you do say it, explain why you're saying it like yeah hey, I really feel like we need to do this, that or the other, and here's why I feel like this is more productive or this is more efficient. It's so hard, though, to get people to pick it up.
Speaker 3:And I feel like too, if they do respect you again, like when you're busy and something really important is happening and everybody else is in on it.
Speaker 3:If you're down there working with them happening and everybody else is in on it, if you're down there working with them most of the time, you'll gain their respect, and then when you do say something, they'll listen to you, as opposed to the guy that, well, we never see him. He just spends most time in his office and only comes out when you know, yeah, so that's most time when you're never going to get them.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because you're disconnected.
Speaker 2:You're building a relationship, yeah, yeah so you lead by example basically yeah you lead by example.
Speaker 3:Even then, it's still very hard. Yeah, like I said, it's still it's hard. It's hard to win, you know, these, these young people's uh, you know acceptance and their approval into where they think, oh you know what you might have a point. Yeah, you know it might be worth something to you know, because most time I'll tell, because I tell them all the time. I said my guess is you don't always want to work here well, that's what I was about.
Speaker 3:You're gonna want to move up the ladder. If you're gonna get married, have kids, have a life for yourself. You don't want to be stuck at this. Uh entry level job.
Speaker 2:For the rest, of your life, right? How are you gonna live on that?
Speaker 3:yeah, so you know, you gotta, you gotta show them that it's like and I and that's sometimes what I have a problem with it's like yeah, I can I work outside the shop, I'm a working manager but say, after I unload a truck, yeah, I can go in my office, shut the door and I got air conditioning. Hey, there have to be perks, right. But and a lot of times I feel bad, the first, the first year I worked there, I would not turn that air conditioner on because I didn't want anyone to think I was getting special privilege, because I thought I'd lose them.
Speaker 3:But I've got to the point where I'm like you know what. You've earned this position.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:You didn't get here because you didn't care because you weren't willing.
Speaker 1:Your dad doesn't own the business and you just got that fun air-conditioned office.
Speaker 3:So you know that's been hard for me to just be like yeah, you can enjoy some of the perks of your position because you've worked hard for it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:So you know you don't have to feel guilty about this.
Speaker 4:No, beth, what were you saying?
Speaker 3:You remember it's gone now, darn it. Sorry, that's okay.
Speaker 4:She's not talking into her microphone anyway, so it doesn't matter. Michael, I have to ask because I was talking to beth a couple, two days ago, day and a half, about my situation at work and I said, you know, it's just so discouraging because I feel I was going to ask you like, do you feel like your job position? Do you feel like that was coming from god?
Speaker 4:like do you think that was an answered prayer, or maybe not even an answered prayer, but you're like this was all god because that's your position that you like I'm doing right now three or four years ago, when you oh yeah, 100, but now you're looking at it like wait a minute no, I here's, here's the okay.
Speaker 1:so I'm mostly over what's happening right now, like I was able to like really decompress and like think about it and like you know what, if it is what's going to happen, you know what I'm not going to be without a job, right.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:Like, I'm not going to be so for you. When did I start with them? I started in 2019.
Speaker 4:So I guess six years.
Speaker 1:So when I started that job again, I had put in a four-week notice. It was three days into that four-week notice when I got the email or the text message saying hey, we've got this thing that we want you to come do for us. So I had a job lined up, but my plan was full-time ministry.
Speaker 1:And then I learned real quick the church can't afford full-time ministry, not with five kids. They sure can't. So we knew I was going to have to do something at least part-time. And we knew I was going to have to do something at least part time. And that was just to make ends meet. And then we so when I started out there, and then it just continued to evolve and evolve and evolve One of the things that I always did anytime I was offered a promotion or any type of change of status.
Speaker 1:They would say slide to the offer letter. What?
Speaker 4:do you think?
Speaker 2:And I'm like well you know what I think Like more money is always better. Right slide you the offer letter.
Speaker 1:What do you think? And I'm like well, you know what I think More money is always better. Right, I'm never going to tell you no for more money, but it is going to take away from my family and I would say I need to talk to my wife first. I would step away and I would call my wife and we would talk, and then I would usually send them a follow-up email like hey, chatted with my wife, here's what I think. And then we would always we're always able to come to an agreement.
Speaker 1:I think what's changing now is doing two things. It is preparing me Okay, this is going to sound like a lot, this is going to sound like a lot. It is preparing me for not always being on top, because I have been on top in literally everything in my life. For how many years? Senior pastor of the church, I am my mom and dad's boss. My dad is my congregant. I don't have a level of like a checkpoint. I don't have a checkpoint. So I think it's him preparing me for that. It's humbling me just a little bit, but I also think it's preparing me for the next season of life, which, in ministry again, I'm just kind of laying some stuff out for you. I don't know how long I'll be here. I'm not saying I'm leaving. To be clear If he calls me out of here tomorrow, that's going to change my life and I think he's preparing me for that next. Whatever that next season is the way that I take care of my family, the way that I take care of my kids, being able to be present with them.
Speaker 1:I would have never taken three days off in order to take my kids to great wolf lodge by myself, right like if my wife ain't going, I ain't going. Right, so there's this. I can. I know, I can feel that there's a shift, so I think he is preparing me for something that is something far beyond anything that I could even comprehend good, bad or indifferent. I think he's preparing me for something, something different.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, that's a good way of looking at it, cause I, that's what I'm struggling with. I'm like you know, and you guys were here through it I'm like this is, this is coming from God, like it was 11 years ago. I was doing the shadowing there and I'm like oh well, I I wish I could work here, full time.
Speaker 4:And now I'm like, oh my gosh, maybe I shouldn't have even taken this job, Maybe I should have just stayed at the post office. But I guess, you know, I just need to look at it differently and maybe it's all about perspective.
Speaker 1:It really is all about perspective, because you're right. What's the next season? Maybe the next season is another office job. The doctor might be worse, but the right, the benefits may be better right whatever. And so you're preparing yourself for your mindset, so that you can handle those challenging situations.
Speaker 4:Yeah again.
Speaker 1:I don't like where I'm at right now, I don't like what's happening, but I'm ready to embrace it. I'm not ready to love it but.
Speaker 4:I'm ready to embrace it. It's coming at you whether you're ready or not, and here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I'm either gonna swallow it or they're going to force feed it to me.
Speaker 4:So it's my decision.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to stop progress.
Speaker 4:Right, it's yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, improve, you know to better yourself. But as long as you're here, keep doing the good job that you're doing. Keep doing everything you're supposed to be doing. Don't get involved in shop drama and all these negative things that guess what that could affect what happens next. So keep doing what you're capable of doing. When it's time, you'll find that next job. That could be the job that you're supposed to be at. But if you don't do that, you may not end up there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you know, like I was telling beth, like you know, maybe I just need to suck it up because you know I am getting my weekends off. I am, you know, getting those sundays off that I wanted so desperately, and so I just have to look at it with a different mindset.
Speaker 4:And you know, it's not like it's I say all the time, like if I was doing this five days a week at this and you know, and the one girl that I work with, she's like Sid I don't know how you do it and I'll say it right in front of the doctor, like he's kind of lingering too and I'm like I mean I wouldn't do it, but it's two days a week, you know, and then I'll come in like a third day for probably six, seven hours and honestly, I feel like the pace is just as fast because I'm trying to get as much stuff as done in a shorter window and yeah you know.
Speaker 1:But yeah, maybe it's just like the way that you look at it the what I, what I have been putting through my own brain, is that when I look at my attitude towards the situation, that I'm dealing with you know, I go in my office and shut my door. What am I worried about those people doing when they go to meet with the three owners, whenever I'm not around, I'm worried about what they're saying. When I shut myself in my office and I'm not talking to them, what do you think they're saying?
Speaker 3:He's really distant. I don't know what's the matter with him. He's really he seems angry all of a sudden, like what happened yeah and it's out of nowhere, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I'm only talking to you when we have business to attend to and I'm not like we're not associating outside of that so I'm in my.
Speaker 3:I'm not helping myself by maintaining that like they might be worried they're gonna lose you right, that's what I'm saying, like they might be looking at like oh, what's going on with him? Is he going to walk out today? We don't want that. Yeah, what's on his mind?
Speaker 1:Maybe they'll offer me more money.
Speaker 4:It's not always the answer, michael.
Speaker 1:Well, I was just you know, you can always hope, though, right yeah?
Speaker 2:I truly believe that we are all where we're supposed to be.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it takes a while to figure out why.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, I agree yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, sometimes you look at that, you know shop worker, that just you know they come in. All they got to do is go to their station and do their job. Nobody hassles them, nobody asks any more out of them. You think, man, that must be nice. Yeah, their job, nobody hassles them.
Speaker 1:Nobody has any more out of them, do you? Think, man, that must be nice, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But then and then you do it and you're looking for value in life, right, but it's like but we wouldn't be leader if we're the leaders we're supposed to be, yeah, we're not going to be in that role it's just right. Right, we were in that role and guess what? We moved out of it pretty quick because that's kind of better for ourselves it's just that's who, who we are, especially Christian people. I mean, you're always looking to exceed and do better, and be an example.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, you're going to be picked out of the bunch, to you know. Take care of the next thing, given a little more responsibility, I worked for Walmart for many years.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, they hired me when I was 17 years old, but you couldn't work there until you were 18. So they didn't know. I and I was 17 years old, but you couldn't work there until you were 18. So they didn't know. I mean, it was on my application, they had my birthday, but apparently that person couldn't do math, I don't know. So they offer me a job and then they call me like four hours later and they're like hey, I'm sorry, but we can't actually hire you for another six months until you turn 18. So on my 18th birthday I started working at Walmart, just selling like I didn't have that. That was where they put me okay, cool, whatever.
Speaker 1:Um wasn't there very long before they were moving me to was department 82. At the time it was basically all the checkout, the candies, all of the like the um impulse buys at the front end. Then I became the grocery department manager and then I became the inventory manager and so I inventoried all of the or managed all of the inventory in the store and I did. I piloted a new inventory management system with Walmart. I got to go to Bentonville, arkansas, to pitch it. I mean it was super cool all of the things that I did. And then I decided I didn't want to work for Walmart anymore and I quit, with no perspectives, and I just took some time off, just didn't work for a little while and the store manager from the new Philly Walmart at the time she's retired since she called me in October and she said I need a favor. I said okay, what's that? She said I need you to come and run the electronics department through Christmas Electronics. Count me in. Heck, yeah, right, that was the year the Wii came out.
Speaker 1:I was stoked to get to go do that. They forgot to tell me that they hadn't told the department manager he had been fired. We're going to leave that up to you. He did not yet know that. So I come in and I don't start as the department manager, although they told me this is what I'm going to do, Like we're just going to have you just get the lay of the land. So I do, and I know the department manager. His name was Mike. Mike was a wonderful guy on the slow side, Like. He just was like very methodical about everything he did and was not in a super big hurry. There were TVs in the back from like 1997.
Speaker 1:I mean it was rough stuff for a little while. We were still selling a handful of regular screen tube TVs at the time. Okay yeah, rear projection was kind of like the in deal and plasma was the newest technology at the time, okay. So it was some weird, it was a weird time. And so they finally told him and he came out and they just demoted him. They did not fire him and he's like do you care if I stay on? I was like no man, stay on, all you want, cool, great, wonderful. He only lasted about four days and he was just like I can't, I can't do this.
Speaker 2:It's not because people were like wait, you're not the department anymore, he's the department.
Speaker 1:It was like it was uncomfortable for him in that moment when I got that phone call that they asked me to come back and run that department. I will never work a basic job.
Speaker 1:It's not in me right, Like that's the leadership skill that I have and even if you try Right and I have I have. When I came to the company I'm working at, it was supposed to be to consult on streamlining their housekeeping and breakfast departments, and it was supposed to be three days a week and then, all of a sudden, I'm working five days a week and now I'm managing an entire empire of hotels and Airbnbs. How does that happen? Because you don't know when to stop. That's how it happens and I like, if I went to McDonald's today and I got a job at McDonald's, I am not tooting my own horn, I'm saying it's just the way that it is.
Speaker 1:I actually scared a lady with that. I did a job interview for a cash advance company and she said so why should we hire you? And I said well, probably because you need help doing your job. And she said what I said. Here's what I've learned You'll hire me to do whatever the job is that you hire me for. Give me three months and you'll have me traveling, helping you with whatever tasks you need help with, because I can't stay put. And she laughed and hired me and guess what?
Speaker 3:That's what you did.
Speaker 1:It was true, it was absolutely true. I won't tell the other part of that story, just realizing how stupid I was at the beginning of that job. Oh Lord, help me. All right, how long was that episode?
Speaker 4:an hour 13 minutes had a feeling we ran over a little bit. All right, I do got to get going.
Speaker 1:Chase has a septic system oh to go pump whatever does he really want to do it? No that's the question.
Speaker 4:So the longer we are but he should because they're family. So is that why? Yeah, he'd do it anyway? Um, whose turn is it to pray?
Speaker 1:not mine, not mine, that's true not mine special guest. Not mine, okay all right, all right I'm over here trying to bid on MacBed, do you mind? I thought you got kicked out. Not yet, not yet.
Speaker 4:Wait a minute. They've definitely forgotten. Now what are you doing? Wait a minute.
Speaker 3:You got kicked out of MacBed.
Speaker 4:We're not going to talk about it. I can't tell the story.
Speaker 1:Not yet, because it hasn't been resolved.
Speaker 4:It's an ongoing investigation.
Speaker 1:Yes, the investigation is ongoing and my wife still doesn't know, she doesn't.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, okay, Where's that integrity?
Speaker 1:Okay. So here's the thing. Well, because it's a surprise, it was meant to be a surprise during baptisms, but it was a surprise. Well, because it's a surprise, it was meant to be a surprise during baptisms, but it was a surprise, and it was a surprise to me instead, so I'll put it this way I bought something that was a little on the expensive side, but it was going to benefit everybody.
Speaker 4:Okay, our sweet tooth. Yeah, it was going to benefit a couple of us. That's how he's going to start, and Sid and I.
Speaker 1:No, this is how I'm telling the story to my wife too, by the way.
Speaker 3:Michael, remember when I said it's okay to say it's all my fault.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is my. This was 100% my fault. Don't drag it Sid. No, no, he drug me into it. I did, I did, I did before I had a business proposition.
Speaker 4:Because you may or may not have bought blank.
Speaker 1:So, um, Bethel Belongings, Sid's company, was going to help me recover some of my loss. However, the thing didn't work, and so it's a total loss.
Speaker 4:And so it's a total loss. Oh, and so it's a, it's a.
Speaker 1:So now he's with macbeth, yes, trying to get it, trying to get it resolved with them and if you go about it in a way that they don't like, they will um suspend your account. So but then I'm just going to bid as Sid. So it doesn't matter, bid as Sid, bid as.
Speaker 4:Sid, I think you should use Dan's, because he's got free membership.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got. I bought it too. Oh, you did yeah, because I bought a bunch of stuff in. Akron. I had to have it transferred down.
Speaker 2:So this very expensive thing does not work. It does not work.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing it was listed as like new, factory sealed, factory sealed. It was not factory sealed and it was not like new when we opened it.
Speaker 2:But you can't return it.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing you can, but they were giving me a hard time about it because of the length of time that had passed, because we bought it but we didn't. We picked it up, but we didn't open it for four or five days it's a three-day window and so they absolutely would not let me. As a matter of fact, they said to me well, you should have opened it while you were here, which would have been impossible. It took us 20 minutes to get it open here with tools.
Speaker 1:We would have never been able to get it open there and it appeared to be factory sealed Did it not. Yes, it did, but it 100% was not.
Speaker 2:Wow so.
Speaker 1:There we are. There's the story. Push the button, get me out of here, because now I'm going to get in trouble. We're editing this out, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, as long as you know how.
Speaker 1:Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and we thank you for your presence in this place. Lord, I just want to continue to lift up the businesses in our community. Lord, it is not easy to be a small business, lord, it is not easy to be a big business. Father, I pray that you give guidance and wisdom to all of those who are leading people inside of our community and in industries that are just sometimes difficult. Father, I pray that you just continue to guide us, as we speak, into the lives of people around us. Lord, lift us up, allow us to lift up others, but, lord, allow us to lift up your name more than anything. Allow us to show the love of Christ in all things business, social, lord, whatever it may be. We thank you and we praise you. We give you all the honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Amen.
