[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_138":-5,"_139":-5,"_140":141,"_142":143,"_144":145},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/3112/for-smart-product-expansion-follow-your-customers","id",3112,"title","For smart product expansion, follow your customers","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.160\nwhen we had online data and we could see where did our customers go after they\n\n2\n00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:09.960\nshopped with us and where did they go well 16% of the time they were going to\n\n3\n00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.880\nthis place called Harry and David that was the next stop on to finish the\n\n4\n00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:20.200\nshopping list and so we yearned to buy Harry and David for a decade and then\n\n5\n00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:23.480\nfinally it was purchased by a private equity firm they took it through a\n\n6\n00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:27.640\nbankruptcy and we had the opportunity we we seized it and so just a great brand\n\n7\n00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:31.720\nand and that got us into agriculture who knew that this kid from Queens would\n\n8\n00:00:31.720 --> 00:00:31.880\nbe\n\n9\n00:00:31.880 --> 00:00:37.740\nconcerned about snow cap in southwest Oregon to get us through the growing\n\n10\n00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:42.680\nseason in the melt but we have 5,000 acres of agriculture production there\n\n11\n00:00:42.680 --> 00:00:46.320\nand we've owned that company now for 10 years and it's just a terrific company\n\n12\n00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.920\nwith a really wonderful product and good people but that's what we did we\n\n13\n00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.720\nfollowed our customers\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",1823698,"end_time",1874429,"keywords","Product, expansion, Harry and David, customer feedback, customers","slug","for-smart-product-expansion-follow-your-customers","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","01CDXkT00jMC8ONfzrO6Brqp9FuxLvYHNvH01QPK15V59A","mux_asset_id","A0261WcvFt4g00N02qYH7Dvxh021e8dFioI15YaSwYhTjFs","leader_id",253,"episode_id",405,"updated_at","2025-11-13T16:45:02.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/3112/for-smart-product-expansion-follow-your-customers","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_106":107,"_25":108,"_109":110,"_61":111,"_58":111,"_112":113,"_68":114,"_39":115,"_116":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_117":118,"_90":119,"_44":120,"_121":122,"_123":124,"_46":-5,"_125":126,"_127":128,"_94":129,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":-5,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":89,"_90":-5,"_46":-5,"_91":92,"_93":-5,"_94":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Find a way to connect","find-a-way-to-connect","Listen to this leadership podcast with Jim McCann, former CEO of 1-800-Flowers, and discover the power of intentional connection.","summary","

Jim McCann didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. He was a social worker and bartender before finding his way into the floral business. But no matter what he did, he always found a way to connect with people.

That instinct eventually led him to build 1-800-Flowers, where he expanded the business strategically, turned it into a household brand, and tapped into the power of customer relationships long before it became a buzzword.

In this episode, he shares the lessons that have carried him through decades of reinvention – and why, no matter what technology disruptions may come, smart leadership always comes down to connection.

You’ll also learn:

A simple philosophy for a smart product expansion strategy
What it means to be an “engineer” of culture (and why it matters)
Why working with teenagers gave him a crash course in leadership
The #1 thing you need to do now to prepare your team for the disruption of AI

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080\none of my uncles suggested, \"Well, maybe you ought to look at this bankruptcy\n\n2\n00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.280\nthing where you can\n\n3\n00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:08.820\nshed all that debt.\" And my grandmother looked at me and gave me the Irish\n\n4\n00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:10.080\nfinger, David,\n\n5\n00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:13.760\ncoming to them. And she called me into the dining room and she just said to me,\n\n6\n00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:16.880\n\"That bankruptcy thing? We don't do that. Figure it out.\"\n\n7\n00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:26.750\nI got to imagine that Valentine's Day is your biggest day. Am I right on that\n\n8\n00:00:26.750 --> 00:00:26.960\nor?\n\n9\n00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.480\nWrong. Wrong. What is it? Well, remember, we're flowers and gifts and we have\n\n10\n00:00:32.480 --> 00:00:33.200\nthree categories\n\n11\n00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.730\nof gifts, all about floral product or things you would find in the greatest\n\n12\n00:00:36.730 --> 00:00:38.720\nflower shop experience.\n\n13\n00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:41.870\nWe have food gifts and we all leave brand and our food gifts category is Harry\n\n14\n00:00:41.870 --> 00:00:42.560\nand David.\n\n15\n00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:47.210\nSo we grow pears and peaches and apples and kiwis and grapes and et cetera, et\n\n16\n00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:47.840\ncetera,\n\n17\n00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:52.490\nand make wonderful gift boxes and gift baskets and prepared foods. And then we\n\n18\n00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:53.360\nhave a newest\n\n19\n00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:56.470\ndivision, which is called Personalization Mall. Things are remembered. So it's\n\n20\n00:00:56.470 --> 00:00:57.120\nall gifts that you\n\n21\n00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:01.040\nwould personalize, like some of the knickknacks you see behind you there. We\n\n22\n00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:02.720\nwould manufacture\n\n23\n00:01:02.720 --> 00:01:06.050\nthose. So if there's a couple getting married, you might send them the\n\n24\n00:01:06.050 --> 00:01:07.360\nchampagne flutes with their\n\n25\n00:01:07.360 --> 00:01:11.390\nnames on it and the date of their wedding, all those kinds of things. Now we\n\n26\n00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:12.480\nhave a big push on\n\n27\n00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:18.400\nphotography. So if you and your daughter had just finished your round of tennis\n\n28\n00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:19.520\nand someone snapped\n\n29\n00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:22.480\na picture of you and you just loved it, you might send it to her this afternoon\n\n30\n00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:23.840\nand already framed\n\n31\n00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:28.880\nor emblazoned on a mug for her to put with her collection. That's great. So\n\n32\n00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:30.000\nthat's to say that\n\n33\n00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.320\nValentine's Day is a busy holiday, particularly for the floral brands and our\n\n34\n00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:34.320\nchocolate brands.\n\n35\n00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:37.940\nBut the biggest holiday in our calendar is the Christmas season. This fourth\n\n36\n00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:38.880\ncalendar quarter,\n\n37\n00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:43.050\nour second fiscal quarter, because all of our food gifts, this is their quarter\n\n38\n00:01:43.050 --> 00:01:43.920\n. Harry and David,\n\n39\n00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:48.100\nthis is their quarter. Cheryl's cookies, the popcorn factory, all of those\n\n40\n00:01:48.100 --> 00:01:49.040\nbrands are biggest\n\n41\n00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:54.150\nin the fourth quarter, the Christmas holiday season. Then for flowers, the next\n\n42\n00:01:54.150 --> 00:01:55.520\nbiggest occasion is\n\n43\n00:01:55.520 --> 00:02:00.660\nMother's Day, the biggest floral gift occasion. And Valentine's Day is very\n\n44\n00:02:00.660 --> 00:02:01.760\nbusy, but about half\n\n45\n00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.430\nof Mother's Day, because apparently there are a lot more moms than there are\n\n46\n00:02:04.430 --> 00:02:05.120\nsweethearts.\n\n47\n00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:12.160\nI love it, boy, I was ironic on that. But I bet you, you might have a story.\n\n48\n00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:12.800\nWhat's your favorite\n\n49\n00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.300\nValentine's Day story? Well, there's, there's ones I can tell and there's ones\n\n50\n00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:16.640\nI don't,\n\n51\n00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:22.400\nI choose not to tell. But it's amazing. We used to encourage people to order\n\n52\n00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:23.040\nearly because it's\n\n53\n00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:26.860\nsuch a crush at Valentine's Day. It comes in the last several days, whereas\n\n54\n00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:28.000\nMother's Day stretched\n\n55\n00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.240\nout over a two-week period of time. And of course, the Christmas holiday starts\n\n56\n00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:32.160\nbefore Thanksgiving\n\n57\n00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:35.680\nand runs right through the month of December. But Valentine's Day is a crush.\n\n58\n00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:36.640\nAnd we guys are\n\n59\n00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:40.160\nknown for not being advanced planners. I don't know if you've ever heard that.\n\n60\n00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:40.960\nAnd sometimes we\n\n61\n00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.960\nforget that Valentine's Day is sneaking up on us. So we'd always encourage our\n\n62\n00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:45.840\ncustomers to order\n\n63\n00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:51.900\nearly. And I remember taking a call from a gentleman at a quarter of nine on\n\n64\n00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:53.360\nFebruary 14 saying,\n\n65\n00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:57.570\n\"Can I get this delivered by noon?\" I said, \"I can't do it for you.\" And he\n\n66\n00:02:57.570 --> 00:02:57.760\nsaid,\n\n67\n00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:03.820\n\"Well, you said to call early and this is pretty early.\" So what you say, you\n\n68\n00:03:03.820 --> 00:03:04.800\nthink you understand\n\n69\n00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:09.360\nhow people interpret it, but then you find out otherwise. You know, after being\n\n70\n00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:10.000\nin business for\n\n71\n00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:15.680\n50 years and helping millions of people send flowers, what's a moment with a\n\n72\n00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:16.320\ncustomer that\n\n73\n00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:21.280\nreally captures what you think 1-800 flowers really is all about?\n\n74\n00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.290\nWell, I think what we're all about and what we've learned, let's say in a\n\n75\n00:03:24.290 --> 00:03:25.520\nrecent bunch of years,\n\n76\n00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:29.600\nDavid, is that we think we're in the flower business, but we're not. We're\n\n77\n00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:30.160\nreally in the\n\n78\n00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:34.160\nrelationship business. That is, we're in the business of helping people express\n\n79\n00:03:34.160 --> 00:03:34.800\nthemselves\n\n80\n00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:39.450\nand connect with all the important people in their lives. And I think of a\n\n81\n00:03:39.450 --> 00:03:40.160\nstory from,\n\n82\n00:03:40.160 --> 00:03:44.160\nyou mentioned my queen's roots, well, not in Queens, but next door in Brooklyn.\n\n83\n00:03:44.160 --> 00:03:45.680\nIt was a lady,\n\n84\n00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:49.850\na name was Teresa, and they lived in a semi-attached home, which would be very\n\n85\n00:03:49.850 --> 00:03:51.040\ncommon in Bensonhurst,\n\n86\n00:03:51.040 --> 00:03:54.960\nBrooklyn, the neighborhood that she lived in. And she lived right next door to\n\n87\n00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:56.160\nher adult sister.\n\n88\n00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:01.520\nAnd they each married, had their own families. And Teresa wrote to me a story\n\n89\n00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:02.480\nafter she had ordered\n\n90\n00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:06.650\nflowers from us. And she said, \"My sister and I haven't spoken in seven and a\n\n91\n00:04:06.650 --> 00:04:07.600\nhalf years.\"\n\n92\n00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:12.250\nAnd she says, \"I'm not even sure what the argument was about anymore, but it's\n\n93\n00:04:12.250 --> 00:04:13.040\nso bad that if we\n\n94\n00:04:13.040 --> 00:04:18.210\npass one another on our common stoop, so one stoop, two separate front doors to\n\n95\n00:04:18.210 --> 00:04:20.000\ntwo separate homes.\"\n\n96\n00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.490\nShe said, \"We just turn our heads and walk the other way.\" She said, \"I read\n\n97\n00:04:23.490 --> 00:04:24.400\nsomething you wrote\n\n98\n00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:28.570\nrecently, and I took a chance, and I sent my sister, I called 1-800 flowers,\n\n99\n00:04:28.570 --> 00:04:29.520\nsent her flowers,\n\n100\n00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:33.440\nand just signed the note saying, 'I still love you,' and I signed it to Teresa.\n\n101\n00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:34.160\nAnd a day went by,\n\n102\n00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:37.680\nI didn't hear anything, and there we were. I was leaving the house, and I was\n\n103\n00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:38.480\njust locking the door,\n\n104\n00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:42.730\nand I turned, and there's my sister.\" And she said, \"She didn't say a word to\n\n105\n00:04:42.730 --> 00:04:44.240\nme. She just came up,\n\n106\n00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:48.850\nwe hugged, and we cried, and we forgot what we were mad about, and it just was\n\n107\n00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:49.920\nthe icebreaker we needed.\"\n\n108\n00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:56.560\nI love that story. And I really want to dig into how you built this incredible\n\n109\n00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:57.360\ncompany of years,\n\n110\n00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:01.270\nbut let me take you back a little bit first. What's the story from your\n\n111\n00:05:01.270 --> 00:05:01.920\nchildhood\n\n112\n00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:06.000\nthat shaped the kind of leader you are today? I grew up in a household. My dad\n\n113\n00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:06.720\nwas a painting\n\n114\n00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:12.150\ncontractor. The business was started by his father, Queens, New York, and he\n\n115\n00:05:12.150 --> 00:05:13.600\nhad two brothers.\n\n116\n00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:19.220\nMy grandfather passed when my father was only, I'm going to say, 19 or 20 years\n\n117\n00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:20.320\nold. So he just\n\n118\n00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:25.850\ncame out of graduate high school, went to college for a year, was drafted into\n\n119\n00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:27.040\nthe military, but it\n\n120\n00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:31.330\nwas late in the war, so he was too young to have gotten into combat in World\n\n121\n00:05:31.330 --> 00:05:32.960\nWar II. So now he's home,\n\n122\n00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:40.810\nand he's playing football semi-professionally, and his mom, his dad passes, and\n\n123\n00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:41.920\nhis mom came to him\n\n124\n00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:45.510\nand said, \"This is pre-social security, David.\" So there's no safety net, and\n\n125\n00:05:45.510 --> 00:05:46.240\nshe said, \"Look,\n\n126\n00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.970\nI have to keep this business going, so I need you to return to the business\n\n127\n00:05:49.970 --> 00:05:50.720\nthat you'd worked in\n\n128\n00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.320\npart time as a kid, and I need you to be the face of the business,\" because he\n\n129\n00:05:54.320 --> 00:05:55.520\nwas the oldest of his\n\n130\n00:05:55.520 --> 00:06:02.420\nthree brothers. And so my little five-foot-one Irish grandmother, I ran this\n\n131\n00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:03.440\nbusiness out of a home,\n\n132\n00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:06.960\nand it had shops behind the home where they kept the trucks and the paint and\n\n133\n00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:07.840\nall the ladders and\n\n134\n00:06:07.840 --> 00:06:11.860\nall the equipment. And so from 20 or 21 years old, my father was, quote unquote\n\n135\n00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:12.960\n, \"the boss of the\n\n136\n00:06:12.960 --> 00:06:17.610\nbusiness.\" But my grandmother's house, which was only a few blocks from where I\n\n137\n00:06:17.610 --> 00:06:18.560\nlived, was a place\n\n138\n00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:21.160\nwe hung out all the time. It was our home, and it was also corporate\n\n139\n00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:21.920\nheadquarters.\n\n140\n00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.160\nThe hot kitchen table in the morning would be my father and his two brothers,\n\n141\n00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:26.560\nand they'd be\n\n142\n00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:31.210\nplanning job sites where they're going. And I learned everything I needed to\n\n143\n00:06:31.210 --> 00:06:32.320\nknow about business\n\n144\n00:06:32.320 --> 00:06:37.010\nthen, and to get me started by being a fly in the wall at those kitchen tables,\n\n145\n00:06:37.010 --> 00:06:38.080\nlistening to those\n\n146\n00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:40.770\nconversations, and when they came back from all their jobs late in the\n\n147\n00:06:40.770 --> 00:06:41.840\nafternoon, and they might\n\n148\n00:06:41.840 --> 00:06:46.080\nstop for a drink and talk about what's going on before they each headed home.\n\n149\n00:06:46.080 --> 00:06:46.880\nBut listening to my\n\n150\n00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:51.050\ngrandmother really being charged, but subtly letting them think that they were\n\n151\n00:06:51.050 --> 00:06:52.000\nreally in charge,\n\n152\n00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:57.430\nwas a great education for me in small business, business in general, and\n\n153\n00:06:57.430 --> 00:06:58.960\npersonalities.\n\n154\n00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:02.800\nExplain that. Talk a little bit more about that.\n\n155\n00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:06.040\nWell, you're just sitting there and you're listening, and you're here with the\n\n156\n00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:06.560\narguments,\n\n157\n00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.640\nall the pressures of jobs, and having a whole couple of dozen employees, and\n\n158\n00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:14.240\nall the things they\n\n159\n00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:19.760\nhad to deal with, none of which related to the business, always personal. And I\n\n160\n00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:20.960\nremember this is\n\n161\n00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:25.680\na long time ago, I had just bought the company that had in it the 800 number,\n\n162\n00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:26.560\nand I was commuting\n\n163\n00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.360\nback and forth to Dallas where the company was based, and I had a terrific\n\n164\n00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:30.880\npartner, a local\n\n165\n00:07:30.880 --> 00:07:35.530\npartner there who worked with me the first year or two. What happened was, I\n\n166\n00:07:35.530 --> 00:07:36.320\nhad been in business\n\n167\n00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:40.390\nnow for 10 years, I had opened up a bunch of flower shops, one at a time, every\n\n168\n00:07:40.390 --> 00:07:40.880\nsix months\n\n169\n00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:43.370\nhad opened up another shop, then every three months, and after 10 years, I had\n\n170\n00:07:43.370 --> 00:07:43.920\na whole lot of\n\n171\n00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:47.950\nflower shops. So I able to leverage that to put down two million dollars\n\n172\n00:07:47.950 --> 00:07:49.360\nborrowed against those\n\n173\n00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:54.000\nto buy this company to get at the 100 number, company had failed.\n\n174\n00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:58.650\nAnd being a smart aleck kid from Queens, I figured, \"Why would I spend money on\n\n175\n00:07:58.650 --> 00:07:59.600\nlawyers,\n\n176\n00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.680\naccountants, bankers? Why would I spend that money?\" Well, I now know why you\n\n177\n00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:06.640\nwould spend that money,\n\n178\n00:08:06.640 --> 00:08:11.290\nbecause I didn't do due diligence, I did due negligence, and I signed the\n\n179\n00:08:11.290 --> 00:08:12.320\npurchase agreement\n\n180\n00:08:12.320 --> 00:08:16.050\npersonally and assumed all of its debts. And because it had failed, it was\n\n181\n00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:16.480\nreally\n\n182\n00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:19.630\nno one around to tell me that they had accumulated seven million dollars in\n\n183\n00:08:19.630 --> 00:08:20.960\ndebt that was undisclosed\n\n184\n00:08:20.960 --> 00:08:26.240\nto me. And I remember discussing this at my grandmother's kitchen table with my\n\n185\n00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:26.800\nfather and his\n\n186\n00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.450\nbrothers, and one of my uncles suggested, \"Well, maybe you ought to look at\n\n187\n00:08:31.450 --> 00:08:32.640\nthis bankruptcy thing,\n\n188\n00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:37.680\nwhere you can shed all that debt.\" And my grandmother looked at me and gave me\n\n189\n00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:39.600\nthe Irish finger, David,\n\n190\n00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.200\ncome into them. And she called me into the dining room, and she just said to me\n\n191\n00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:43.200\n,\n\n192\n00:08:43.760 --> 00:08:47.680\n\"That bankruptcy thing? We don't do that. Figure it out.\"\n\n193\n00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:53.840\nThat was it. That was the extent of our conversation. It was one way, and it\n\n194\n00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:54.880\nmotivated me to go back\n\n195\n00:08:54.880 --> 00:08:58.480\nand forget about bankruptcy and just figure out how to work out of this debt.\n\n196\n00:08:58.480 --> 00:08:59.120\nAnd it was\n\n197\n00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:03.770\ngreat advice, but the whole idea of I was part of something bigger, not just\n\n198\n00:09:03.770 --> 00:09:04.800\nmyself. It was part\n\n199\n00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:08.970\nof a family, a family that had a brand reputation. And when she said, \"We don't\n\n200\n00:09:08.970 --> 00:09:09.600\ndo that,\"\n\n201\n00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:15.920\nit was end of discussion. I love it now. And one of your first jobs, Jim, was\n\n202\n00:09:15.920 --> 00:09:16.960\nas a social worker\n\n203\n00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:21.680\nrunning a boys' home in Queens, what was the biggest lesson that taught you?\n\n204\n00:09:21.680 --> 00:09:27.760\nOh, so many lessons, David. In fact, I hadn't been back there in 15 or 20 years\n\n205\n00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:27.760\n,\n\n206\n00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:33.040\nand I was privileged this year to be asked to be the commencement speaker at St\n\n207\n00:09:33.040 --> 00:09:33.520\n. John's\n\n208\n00:09:33.520 --> 00:09:38.240\nUniversity here in Queens. A wonderful institution with great people doing the\n\n209\n00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:39.920\ngreat work of educating\n\n210\n00:09:39.920 --> 00:09:46.820\nmostly first time to college. And there was a lady in the audience who's the\n\n211\n00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:47.680\nexecutive director\n\n212\n00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:51.460\nat St. John's home for boys where I had worked for many years. And I didn't\n\n213\n00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:52.640\nknow, because I hadn't\n\n214\n00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:57.170\nbeen connected to it in the last decade or so. And she had a son graduating,\n\n215\n00:09:57.170 --> 00:09:58.000\nand she wrote me a note\n\n216\n00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.490\nsaid, \"My son's been quoting you for the last two months now since the\n\n217\n00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:02.560\ncommencement.\"\n\n218\n00:10:02.560 --> 00:10:06.430\nAnd so it gave me the nerve to sit down and write you a note and invite you to\n\n219\n00:10:06.430 --> 00:10:07.200\ncome home.\n\n220\n00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:12.210\nSo this is in Rockaway Beach, Queens, the St. John's home. So I made a trip two\n\n221\n00:10:12.210 --> 00:10:12.640\nweeks ago\n\n222\n00:10:12.640 --> 00:10:17.440\ndown there to visit. It looks physically the same, but it's very different in\n\n223\n00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:17.840\nterms of the\n\n224\n00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:21.330\npopulation of kids they take care of. But I spent a good part of a day down\n\n225\n00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:22.160\nthere and\n\n226\n00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:26.240\nsat down for lunch with about 14, 15 of the guys, and just had wonderful\n\n227\n00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:27.760\nconversations about\n\n228\n00:10:27.760 --> 00:10:31.750\nfuture, their futures, their perception of the future. And it was just great to\n\n229\n00:10:31.750 --> 00:10:32.640\ngo home.\n\n230\n00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:36.720\nBut the lessons I learned there over the 14 years I worked there were just\n\n231\n00:10:37.280 --> 00:10:42.960\ntremendous, I started there as a living counselor, evening counselor in one of\n\n232\n00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:43.520\nour group homes,\n\n233\n00:10:43.520 --> 00:10:49.200\n10 teenage boys myself. And I'd be the only one on at night from, I'd started\n\n234\n00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:50.480\nfor when the other\n\n235\n00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:54.450\nstaff had lived by 6, 6, 30, and then I'd go to bed around midnight, get up in\n\n236\n00:10:54.450 --> 00:10:54.800\nthe morning,\n\n237\n00:10:54.800 --> 00:10:58.530\nmake sure I got them off to school, and then I was off during the day, school\n\n238\n00:10:58.530 --> 00:10:59.280\nor whatever was\n\n239\n00:10:59.280 --> 00:11:05.890\ngoing on. And I learned so much from being very bad at that work, to then\n\n240\n00:11:05.890 --> 00:11:06.960\ngetting\n\n241\n00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.910\ncounseled, the fellow who was the executive director was a member of a\n\n242\n00:11:09.910 --> 00:11:10.640\nreligious order of\n\n243\n00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:15.390\nbrothers and priests. And again, I've just reconnected with him in the last\n\n244\n00:11:15.390 --> 00:11:17.200\ncouple of weeks. He reached\n\n245\n00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.030\nout out of the blue to say, you know, it's been too long and we had a wonderful\n\n246\n00:11:20.030 --> 00:11:20.800\nconversation.\n\n247\n00:11:20.800 --> 00:11:26.640\nBut he taught me so much about people, motivation, skills, and when I told him\n\n248\n00:11:26.640 --> 00:11:27.120\nI was going to be\n\n249\n00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:30.640\nleaving, he said, no, you're not leaving. You have a passion for this work. And\n\n250\n00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:31.920\nlet's look at what\n\n251\n00:11:31.920 --> 00:11:35.250\nyou're doing and what other people in other group homes or our main home where\n\n252\n00:11:35.250 --> 00:11:36.560\nwe had 170\n\n253\n00:11:36.560 --> 00:11:41.840\nboys, what the good leaders are doing and what you're not doing. And one of the\n\n254\n00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:42.400\nfirst things I\n\n255\n00:11:42.400 --> 00:11:45.150\nlearned is the people who are really good, the men and women who are really\n\n256\n00:11:45.150 --> 00:11:46.400\ngood at running their\n\n257\n00:11:46.400 --> 00:11:51.050\ngroup homes, they came to work with a plan every day of what they wanted to\n\n258\n00:11:51.050 --> 00:11:52.560\naccomplish. And I didn't.\n\n259\n00:11:52.560 --> 00:11:56.730\nAt first, I'd go and I'd just react. It was an incident with the police. I take\n\n260\n00:11:56.730 --> 00:11:57.040\ncare of that.\n\n261\n00:11:57.040 --> 00:12:02.400\nThere's a problem in school. I deal with that. So I was bouncing around with no\n\n262\n00:12:02.400 --> 00:12:02.960\ninfluence or\n\n263\n00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:07.200\ncontrol over the environment other than reacting to what happened. But the\n\n264\n00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:08.160\nreally good people had\n\n265\n00:12:08.160 --> 00:12:12.030\na plan. Whether or not they stuck to the plan or were able to was immaterial,\n\n266\n00:12:12.030 --> 00:12:12.640\nthey had a plan.\n\n267\n00:12:12.640 --> 00:12:16.440\nThey were going to affect what was happening that day, that evening, that week,\n\n268\n00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:17.040\nthat month,\n\n269\n00:12:17.040 --> 00:12:21.060\nthat school year. And that was one of the first lessons I learned. And the\n\n270\n00:12:21.060 --> 00:12:22.960\nother one was something\n\n271\n00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:28.090\nI've heard you talk about a lot. I tried to have a relationship with a group of\n\n272\n00:12:28.090 --> 00:12:29.200\n10 guys.\n\n273\n00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.730\nYou don't have relationships with groups. You have relationships with\n\n274\n00:12:33.730 --> 00:12:34.400\nindividuals.\n\n275\n00:12:34.400 --> 00:12:39.680\nAnd I had to find a way with good counseling and coaching from my boss, my\n\n276\n00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:40.400\nimmediate boss,\n\n277\n00:12:40.400 --> 00:12:46.120\nand from Brother Tom, the executive director of the home, about finding your\n\n278\n00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:47.360\nway to connect.\n\n279\n00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:52.010\nAnd with 10 different boys, I had to find 10 different ways to connect. I had\n\n280\n00:12:52.010 --> 00:12:53.760\none young man,\n\n281\n00:12:53.760 --> 00:12:59.910\nhis name was Joe. And he had a beautiful head of black hair, straight and an e-\n\n282\n00:12:59.910 --> 00:13:00.480\ncoment. And\n\n283\n00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:06.000\nit was meticulous about it. And he put the gel in it. But Joe had some issues\n\n284\n00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:06.560\nbased on his\n\n285\n00:13:06.560 --> 00:13:10.170\nbackground. And his issues were, you couldn't touch him. I mean, if you brushed\n\n286\n00:13:10.170 --> 00:13:10.800\nup against him,\n\n287\n00:13:10.800 --> 00:13:15.800\nit could be a holy war going on. And I had to find my way to build a\n\n288\n00:13:15.800 --> 00:13:17.120\nrelationship with him\n\n289\n00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:21.770\nbecause he was volatile. And he could really set the whole house off and get\n\n290\n00:13:21.770 --> 00:13:22.560\nquite physical too.\n\n291\n00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:27.310\nWell, I invested so much in my relationship with him. What happened between us,\n\n292\n00:13:27.310 --> 00:13:27.760\nI'd get\n\n293\n00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:32.420\nthem to work. I started four o'clock, get there by three, 15 or so. If I didn't\n\n294\n00:13:32.420 --> 00:13:33.360\nfind my way to go\n\n295\n00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:38.920\nfind Joe in the house and mess up his hair. Now, if anyone else had done it,\n\n296\n00:13:38.920 --> 00:13:40.800\nthey might have died.\n\n297\n00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:45.510\nThe bond we built, the relationship we built, the trust, the caring that was\n\n298\n00:13:45.510 --> 00:13:46.320\nevidence,\n\n299\n00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:50.280\nit got so that if I didn't go and find him, there'd be trouble because he\n\n300\n00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:52.160\ncomplained he did it again.\n\n301\n00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:56.330\nThis is ridiculous to be in the mirror, combing his hair back. And he loved it.\n\n302\n00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:56.800\nHe loved the\n\n303\n00:13:56.800 --> 00:14:01.430\nattention. He loved it. It was our thing and that he complained about it. But\n\n304\n00:14:01.430 --> 00:14:02.800\nit was our way of\n\n305\n00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:08.510\nbonding and me giving him our special personal halo. And you had to find a\n\n306\n00:14:08.510 --> 00:14:09.200\ndifferent way with\n\n307\n00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:14.750\neach of the young men to build that bond. Was I successful every time? No. But\n\n308\n00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:16.320\neight out of 10,\n\n309\n00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:20.190\nfor sure, we developed a special relationship. They knew I cared and they knew\n\n310\n00:14:20.190 --> 00:14:21.360\nit was individual\n\n311\n00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:26.800\nand customized and personalized between he and I. That's great. And I've heard\n\n312\n00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:27.520\nyou say that if\n\n313\n00:14:27.520 --> 00:14:32.400\nthe boys saw fear in you, they'd take advantage of it. That's an example of a\n\n314\n00:14:32.400 --> 00:14:33.360\nsituation where you\n\n315\n00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:40.250\nwere terrified inside, but you couldn't show it. I had my second group home in\n\n316\n00:14:40.250 --> 00:14:40.880\na neighborhood\n\n317\n00:14:40.880 --> 00:14:47.840\nonly 10 blocks from where I grew up, but a million miles away in attitude. And\n\n318\n00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:48.880\nI had a young man who\n\n319\n00:14:48.880 --> 00:14:53.880\nwas, I'm sure he was developmentally disabled, although not properly diagnosed.\n\n320\n00:14:53.880 --> 00:14:56.800\nBut he was unbelievably\n\n321\n00:14:56.800 --> 00:15:03.260\nwell built. And he had a scowl. He looked like one tough ombre. And he was. But\n\n322\n00:15:03.260 --> 00:15:04.560\nhe was very limited.\n\n323\n00:15:04.560 --> 00:15:10.720\nAnd he'd get into trouble a lot in the street. And he got into an incident with\n\n324\n00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:11.280\nthis\n\n325\n00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:15.930\ngang. And it wasn't, he wasn't very far from the group home. I could see it\n\n326\n00:15:15.930 --> 00:15:17.120\nbrewing a block away.\n\n327\n00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:23.200\nSo I go running up there to try and intercede. And he got into a fight with\n\n328\n00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:24.160\nthis one guy. And I\n\n329\n00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:29.220\npulled Tony up off of this guy. And this guy had a knife and they didn't know\n\n330\n00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:31.040\nit. And he cut Tony\n\n331\n00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:36.500\nacross the abdomen. The good news, it wasn't terribly deep. So he wasn't\n\n332\n00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:37.840\nterribly hurt by it,\n\n333\n00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:43.500\nbut a lot of blood. And then I had to try and stand down this gang who wanted\n\n334\n00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:44.560\nto finish the job.\n\n335\n00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:50.560\nAnd I'm telling you, mine, I was, I was shook. I had not seen anything like\n\n336\n00:15:50.560 --> 00:15:51.840\nthis. I felt responsible\n\n337\n00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:56.950\nfor having pulled Tony off this guy down on the ground. But I had to stand this\n\n338\n00:15:56.950 --> 00:15:57.760\ngang down. So\n\n339\n00:15:57.760 --> 00:16:00.340\nnothing helped. Else happened to Tony, I can get away and get him to the\n\n340\n00:16:00.340 --> 00:16:02.240\nhospital. And just in a\n\n341\n00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:06.450\nmoment, I didn't realize how frightened I was until I was walking away from the\n\n342\n00:16:06.450 --> 00:16:07.280\nsituation that\n\n343\n00:16:07.280 --> 00:16:11.010\nhad deescalated and they were moving in another direction. And all of a sudden\n\n344\n00:16:11.010 --> 00:16:11.600\nthe magnitude of\n\n345\n00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:16.600\nwhat just happened. And here I am 21 years old. I have this young man, I'm hob\n\n346\n00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:18.000\nbling, carrying,\n\n347\n00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.600\ndragging him back to the house. So I can get an ambulance or get him into our\n\n348\n00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:23.120\nstation wagon back\n\n349\n00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.850\nthen and get him to the nearby hospital. And it will suddenly, the magnitude of\n\n350\n00:16:26.850 --> 00:16:27.600\nit hit me. And I\n\n351\n00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:34.560\nsaid, I'm playing in a different league now. You know, in this age where today,\n\n352\n00:16:34.560 --> 00:16:35.120\nit seems like\n\n353\n00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:39.000\neverybody's talking about vulnerability, being the big thing you need to show\n\n354\n00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:39.760\nas a leader.\n\n355\n00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:45.480\nDo you believe that leaders need to mass the fear that they have? How do you\n\n356\n00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:46.000\nthink about it?\n\n357\n00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:51.920\nI don't know. It's not something I've thought a lot about. I think\n\n358\n00:16:51.920 --> 00:17:03.560\ngenuine being genuine is critically important. But I think having a temper on\n\n359\n00:17:03.560 --> 00:17:04.640\nyour highs and\n\n360\n00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:08.370\nyour lows is appropriate too. I don't think you need to have everything out on\n\n361\n00:17:08.370 --> 00:17:08.960\nyour sleeve.\n\n362\n00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:17.610\nAnd so I think having a good sober, genuine behavioral pattern is what I'm\n\n363\n00:17:17.610 --> 00:17:20.080\ncomfortable with.\n\n364\n00:17:20.080 --> 00:17:25.080\nYou know, I understand you also worked the nights as a bartender. What did that\n\n365\n00:17:25.080 --> 00:17:26.720\nexperience teach you?\n\n366\n00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:32.530\nWell, it was deliberate on my part and to this extent, David, you've been in\n\n367\n00:17:32.530 --> 00:17:34.560\nthe hospitality industry\n\n368\n00:17:34.560 --> 00:17:41.210\nyour whole life. If you're a shy person, and I was, I'm still in recovery. One\n\n369\n00:17:41.210 --> 00:17:42.640\nof the things that I\n\n370\n00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:46.960\ndid to help me overcome my challenges is I worked in a retail store. I worked\n\n371\n00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:47.760\nin a men and boys\n\n372\n00:17:47.760 --> 00:17:50.870\nclothing store and you worked for a commission. Well, if you're a shy and you\n\n373\n00:17:50.870 --> 00:17:51.680\ncan't interact with\n\n374\n00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:56.800\nthe customers, you're going to stop. But you had a role and it was easy to get\n\n375\n00:17:56.800 --> 00:17:58.000\ninto character\n\n376\n00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.010\nto play your role to service people. And that helped me to be comfortable\n\n377\n00:18:03.010 --> 00:18:04.480\nworking with people.\n\n378\n00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:10.560\nAnd we had a, so we had a lot of older guys on this staff, when I say older\n\n379\n00:18:10.560 --> 00:18:11.840\nguys, I'm in my\n\n380\n00:18:11.840 --> 00:18:16.490\nteens and then twenties working this job, they taught me the value of using\n\n381\n00:18:16.490 --> 00:18:16.960\nhumor.\n\n382\n00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:23.850\nSo these guys I worked with, they were salesman for their brand. Levi's, the\n\n383\n00:18:23.850 --> 00:18:24.880\nshirt manufacturer\n\n384\n00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:29.530\nis on Obama, where all these salesmen. And because we were a big account, my\n\n385\n00:18:29.530 --> 00:18:30.320\nboss would say to them,\n\n386\n00:18:30.320 --> 00:18:35.510\nokay, you're not busy for Father's Day, because you're done selling. Part of\n\n387\n00:18:35.510 --> 00:18:36.560\nthe deal is all places\n\n388\n00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:39.210\nolder with you, but I expect you to come here, work here the week of Mother's\n\n389\n00:18:39.210 --> 00:18:39.840\nDay, because I can\n\n390\n00:18:39.840 --> 00:18:43.150\nnever get enough talent to help. And you're a professional salesperson. So\n\n391\n00:18:43.150 --> 00:18:43.920\nthese were all the\n\n392\n00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:49.370\nguys and, and salesmen. And so they all had these crazy personalities. And I\n\n393\n00:18:49.370 --> 00:18:51.520\nlearned from them the\n\n394\n00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:55.280\nbent there. There's something I do all the time that I learned at 16 years old\n\n395\n00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:56.160\nfrom one of these\n\n396\n00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:59.890\ncrazy sales guys would be in once or twice or three times a year to work with\n\n397\n00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:00.240\nus.\n\n398\n00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:05.360\nAnd, and he said to me one time, I don't care what everyone he says about you.\n\n399\n00:19:05.360 --> 00:19:05.680\nI don't think\n\n400\n00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:12.800\nyou're that bad. I still use that line. I learned it from Irv back 100 years\n\n401\n00:19:12.800 --> 00:19:14.800\nago. And I learned the\n\n402\n00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:21.260\nbenefit of using UMO to break the ice, to get quicker into a relationship, to\n\n403\n00:19:21.260 --> 00:19:22.400\ndisarm people,\n\n404\n00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:25.120\nto give you an atmosphere of genuine interaction.\n\n405\n00:19:25.120 --> 00:19:31.180\nHow did you end up, you know, the social working, bartending, you know, how did\n\n406\n00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:31.760\nyou end up in the\n\n407\n00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:38.650\nflower business? Well, it goes back to bartending. So I got my job in a, in a\n\n408\n00:19:38.650 --> 00:19:39.680\ngroup home, my first\n\n409\n00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:43.870\njob, because I'm working, being an Irish Catholic kid from South Queens, I had\n\n410\n00:19:43.870 --> 00:19:44.960\na genetic requirement\n\n411\n00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:49.000\nto be a bartender. And I'm working in a neighborhood pub. And one of my\n\n412\n00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:50.240\ncustomers, a friend,\n\n413\n00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:55.100\nran this particular group home. And I'd ask him about it all the time. And\n\n414\n00:19:55.100 --> 00:19:55.680\nfinally, he said,\n\n415\n00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.330\nyou know, you seem interested. Why don't you come have dinner with me next\n\n416\n00:19:58.330 --> 00:19:59.360\nWednesday night\n\n417\n00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:03.090\nat the group home? So I said, great, I did that. And after dinner, he says,\n\n418\n00:20:03.090 --> 00:20:03.840\ncome on downstairs to\n\n419\n00:20:03.840 --> 00:20:07.330\nmy office for a few minutes. And said, Jim, do you think you'd like to give\n\n420\n00:20:07.330 --> 00:20:08.160\nthis worker a try?\n\n421\n00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.800\nAnd I said, yeah, Bob, I think, I think I'd like to give it a try. He said,\n\n422\n00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:11.840\ngood. He flipped me his\n\n423\n00:20:11.840 --> 00:20:15.650\nkey ring and said, can you do me a favor? I have no one to work tonight. And I\n\n424\n00:20:15.650 --> 00:20:16.800\n've worked like six\n\n425\n00:20:16.800 --> 00:20:20.530\nnights in a row besides my day shifts. Can you do me a solid work tonight? And\n\n426\n00:20:20.530 --> 00:20:21.520\nthat's how my\n\n427\n00:20:21.520 --> 00:20:26.660\ncareer started there. Well, fast forward. I'm now the administrator of the home\n\n428\n00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:27.680\n, you know, so we had\n\n429\n00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:32.960\ngroup homes and we had a main campus with a bunch of services and all there and\n\n430\n00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:33.680\na few hundred people\n\n431\n00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:37.640\nworking there. And it's a very young man, I'm the administrator. And I'd\n\n432\n00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:39.520\nmarried young. And\n\n433\n00:20:39.520 --> 00:20:45.600\nunfortunately, I made I won the lottery there. And we had kids right away. And\n\n434\n00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:47.120\nit's very rewarding\n\n435\n00:20:47.120 --> 00:20:51.340\nto work in the not-for-profit social services field, except financially. It's\n\n436\n00:20:51.340 --> 00:20:52.400\nnot very rewarding\n\n437\n00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:57.170\nat all. So back to bartending to supplement my income. I'm not 24/7 anymore. I\n\n438\n00:20:57.170 --> 00:20:57.760\n'm Monday\n\n439\n00:20:57.760 --> 00:21:01.780\nor Friday. So I'm working Friday and Saturday nights at a pub on the Upper East\n\n440\n00:21:01.780 --> 00:21:02.800\nSide, you know,\n\n441\n00:21:02.800 --> 00:21:06.560\nflipping bottles, you know, the place where they filmed the movie Cocktail with\n\n442\n00:21:06.560 --> 00:21:07.280\nTom Cruise.\n\n443\n00:21:07.280 --> 00:21:11.360\nAnd one of my customers, again, stayed late on Saturday nights and we chat as\n\n444\n00:21:11.360 --> 00:21:11.920\nwe were wrapping\n\n445\n00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.410\nup to close up for the evening and he owned a flower shop across the street.\n\n446\n00:21:15.410 --> 00:21:16.160\nAnd I'm thinking\n\n447\n00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:20.120\na flower shop. There's a back in Queens, there are a couple of flower shops\n\n448\n00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:21.200\nthat seem to be pretty\n\n449\n00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:24.690\nsuccessful and seem to be making a good living. And it's working with the\n\n450\n00:21:24.690 --> 00:21:25.680\npublic. I've worked in\n\n451\n00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.240\nretail. This seems pretty easy. So I said, Nick, do you mind if I come work a\n\n452\n00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:29.920\ncouple of Saturday\n\n453\n00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:34.190\nafter noon in your flower shop before I come into the bar? Because he told me\n\n454\n00:21:34.190 --> 00:21:35.200\nhe was thinking of\n\n455\n00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:39.850\nselling. So he said, sure, but why? I said, well, maybe I'm a buyer. So I did\n\n456\n00:21:39.850 --> 00:21:40.960\nthat for a couple of\n\n457\n00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:45.010\nfew Saturdays and I really, really liked it. And so I said to him, Nick, I'm a\n\n458\n00:21:45.010 --> 00:21:46.480\nbuyer. So that's\n\n459\n00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:53.380\nbartending led to my two career kinds of jobs. One 800 flowers and St. John's\n\n460\n00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:54.000\nhome.\n\n461\n00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:57.730\nWhat do you like about the working in that shop? Well, here it is. The Upper\n\n462\n00:21:57.730 --> 00:21:58.960\nEast Side of Manhattan.\n\n463\n00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:03.320\nI'm from Queens. I think I know everything. I don't. And I think Manhattan is\n\n464\n00:22:03.320 --> 00:22:04.160\njust this big,\n\n465\n00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.070\none big neighborhood. And it's not. It's all these little micro neighborhoods.\n\n466\n00:22:08.070 --> 00:22:08.720\nAnd our little\n\n467\n00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:12.510\nflower shop, and I said, little, it was little was the centerpiece of our\n\n468\n00:22:12.510 --> 00:22:13.760\nlittle community of maybe\n\n469\n00:22:13.760 --> 00:22:17.930\nfour square blocks. And I got to meet people I didn't even know existed before,\n\n470\n00:22:17.930 --> 00:22:18.240\nyou know,\n\n471\n00:22:19.360 --> 00:22:24.400\nall different kinds of characters. I found out what a walker was. You would\n\n472\n00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:25.360\nknow David, of course,\n\n473\n00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:29.360\nbut I didn't know what a walker was. A walker was very tall, very distinguished\n\n474\n00:22:29.360 --> 00:22:29.680\nlooking\n\n475\n00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:32.940\ngentleman who looked great with his salt and pepper hair. And I'm told he's a\n\n476\n00:22:32.940 --> 00:22:34.320\nwalker, which means\n\n477\n00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:40.480\na rather wealthy lady is going to go into the fundraising dinner. And she wants\n\n478\n00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:40.960\nsome\n\n479\n00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.450\nappropriate date with her and she's not no longer married or husband's deceased\n\n480\n00:22:44.450 --> 00:22:45.120\n. And\n\n481\n00:22:45.120 --> 00:22:48.960\nthe walker'd be called upon. And that was his career. And he was very good at\n\n482\n00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:48.960\nit.\n\n483\n00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:52.080\nThe original plus one.\n\n484\n00:22:52.080 --> 00:23:00.160\nWhat I learned was we were this. So this is 50 years ago, soon to be 50 years\n\n485\n00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:00.720\nago.\n\n486\n00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:04.210\nAnd we had 50 customers who made that business work. We had more than that in\n\n487\n00:23:04.210 --> 00:23:04.720\nterms of customers,\n\n488\n00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.250\nbut it was 50 who would come in all the time and they'd make themselves a cup\n\n489\n00:23:08.250 --> 00:23:09.360\nof coffee and\n\n490\n00:23:09.360 --> 00:23:14.010\nthey'd comment on the work we were doing. You ask about, you know, when the\n\n491\n00:23:14.010 --> 00:23:14.880\nrestaurant around\n\n492\n00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:19.220\nthe corner is going to be reopening and any good shows, I got some friends\n\n493\n00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:20.080\ncoming in town,\n\n494\n00:23:20.080 --> 00:23:23.330\nwhat are you hearing about what the best shows are? So we were like the little\n\n495\n00:23:23.330 --> 00:23:24.240\nfocal point of\n\n496\n00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:28.880\nour community. The irony is fast forward, we now have 50 million customers. It\n\n497\n00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.320\n's 50 years later.\n\n498\n00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:34.490\nAnd the only way we can try and mimic that relationship we had with our\n\n499\n00:23:34.490 --> 00:23:35.280\ncustomers back when\n\n500\n00:23:35.280 --> 00:23:40.560\nwas one store and 50 who made it go is to use technology to get personal and to\n\n501\n00:23:40.560 --> 00:23:41.040\nserve those\n\n502\n00:23:41.040 --> 00:23:44.920\ncustomers better and better. So the lesson learned back then was still trying\n\n503\n00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:45.680\nto apply today.\n\n504\n00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:51.440\nHi friends. How good is this conversation with Jim McCann? I love his energy. I\n\n505\n00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:52.000\nlove that he's\n\n506\n00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.020\nfrom Queens and I love that he loves flowers so much and just making people\n\n507\n00:23:56.020 --> 00:23:57.200\nhappy. Be sure you\n\n508\n00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:00.830\nstay tuned to the very end of this conversation between David and Jim McCann\n\n509\n00:24:00.830 --> 00:24:02.000\nbecause he and I,\n\n510\n00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:05.760\nDavid and I are going to debrief this conversation and give you some really\n\n511\n00:24:05.760 --> 00:24:06.800\npractical ways that\n\n512\n00:24:06.800 --> 00:24:10.530\nyou can take the key learnings from their interview and apply them to your own\n\n513\n00:24:10.530 --> 00:24:11.280\nleadership, to your\n\n514\n00:24:11.280 --> 00:24:15.930\nown life, and to your own work. And we can talk about flowers, which is just\n\n515\n00:24:15.930 --> 00:24:17.040\nreally fun. I hope\n\n516\n00:24:17.040 --> 00:24:20.670\nyou enjoy the rest of this conversation with David and Jim McCann and be sure\n\n517\n00:24:20.670 --> 00:24:21.680\nyou stay tuned for\n\n518\n00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:28.960\nthe debrief. You mentioned earlier that you acquired the 1-800 flower name for\n\n519\n00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:29.680\ntwo million\n\n520\n00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:36.350\ndollars and then you had the dude negligence story. But how did you get hooked\n\n521\n00:24:36.350 --> 00:24:38.240\nup with that 1-800\n\n522\n00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:42.410\nflowers name to begin with? Well, I realized after 10 years of building up a\n\n523\n00:24:42.410 --> 00:24:43.760\nchain of flower shops\n\n524\n00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:48.800\nthat it wasn't working. What I mean by that it was there was no economy of\n\n525\n00:24:48.800 --> 00:24:51.680\nscale. There's a reason\n\n526\n00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:58.440\nwhy we florists are oftentimes, very oftentimes, family businesses. And you\n\n527\n00:24:58.440 --> 00:24:59.600\ntouched on it early on,\n\n528\n00:24:59.600 --> 00:25:04.640\nDavid. That is we have these peaks and valleys, Christmas, Valentine's Day,\n\n529\n00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:06.400\nEaster, Secretaries\n\n530\n00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:10.130\nWeek, Mother's Day, Father's Day. We have these spikes. Well, those are\n\n531\n00:25:10.130 --> 00:25:10.880\nterribly, you know,\n\n532\n00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:15.050\nwe'll go 10x normal week to holiday week, 10x. How do you how do you step for\n\n533\n00:25:15.050 --> 00:25:15.760\nthat? Well,\n\n534\n00:25:15.760 --> 00:25:21.560\ntraditionally how we step for that was Uncle Barry works for IBM, but he takes\n\n535\n00:25:21.560 --> 00:25:22.880\nhis personal day,\n\n536\n00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:27.520\nthe Wednesday before Thanksgiving, to deliver flowers for us because he wants\n\n537\n00:25:27.520 --> 00:25:27.920\nto be invited\n\n538\n00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:32.230\nfor Thanksgiving dinner. And that doesn't happen when you work for the XYZ\n\n539\n00:25:32.230 --> 00:25:32.800\ncompany.\n\n540\n00:25:32.800 --> 00:25:38.080\nAnd so what happened was we got up to 30 or 40 flower shops and I ran out of\n\n541\n00:25:38.080 --> 00:25:39.200\nfamily and we didn't\n\n542\n00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.550\nhave that economy of scale any longer. So I was looking around, how else can we\n\n543\n00:25:42.550 --> 00:25:43.440\ndo this? I wanted\n\n544\n00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:48.630\nto build something bigger. And everyone, 800 numbers were very new at that time\n\n545\n00:25:48.630 --> 00:25:49.440\n. And everybody was\n\n546\n00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:56.100\nspending money on TV campaigns to get people to remember their 800 number and\n\n547\n00:25:56.100 --> 00:25:58.000\ntoll-free numbers\n\n548\n00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:01.490\nmeant. But by the way, a long distance call was very expensive then. People\n\n549\n00:26:01.490 --> 00:26:01.840\nwere very\n\n550\n00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:05.420\nreluctant to make a long distance call if they didn't have to. Remember, hurry\n\n551\n00:26:05.420 --> 00:26:06.080\nup, it's long\n\n552\n00:26:06.080 --> 00:26:11.700\ndistance. That's right. So this was a new concept that the company you're\n\n553\n00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:12.720\ndealing with pay your bill\n\n554\n00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:16.780\nand in the flowers. And so I went around and I said, you know, I think people\n\n555\n00:26:16.780 --> 00:26:17.760\nwould like to use\n\n556\n00:26:17.760 --> 00:26:21.250\ntheir credit cards and like them to be able to call 24 hours a day. And\n\n557\n00:26:21.250 --> 00:26:22.320\neverybody who was smart\n\n558\n00:26:22.320 --> 00:26:26.970\nand knowledgeable about the flower business said, that's crazy. People want to\n\n559\n00:26:26.970 --> 00:26:28.080\ncome into the shop.\n\n560\n00:26:28.080 --> 00:26:30.760\nPeople that they're going to call, they want to put it on their house account.\n\n561\n00:26:30.760 --> 00:26:31.360\nThey don't want\n\n562\n00:26:31.360 --> 00:26:34.950\nto put it on their credit card. And they certainly don't need 24 hour a day\n\n563\n00:26:34.950 --> 00:26:35.520\nservice,\n\n564\n00:26:35.520 --> 00:26:39.730\nall of which we now know was wrong. But common wisdom was none of those things\n\n565\n00:26:39.730 --> 00:26:40.880\nwere necessary.\n\n566\n00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:46.160\nBut I just felt that convenience was the key factor there. And if we could be\n\n567\n00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:47.840\neasier and more\n\n568\n00:26:47.840 --> 00:26:54.730\naccessible to our customers to enable them to act on their thoughtfulness, that\n\n569\n00:26:54.730 --> 00:26:56.080\nwould be a winning\n\n570\n00:26:56.080 --> 00:27:01.700\nproposition for us. So you had Sheridan hotels out there with singing dancing\n\n571\n00:27:01.700 --> 00:27:03.680\ngirls and chorus lines\n\n572\n00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:09.870\ntrying to on the commercials, trying to get you to remember 800-325-3535. There\n\n573\n00:27:09.870 --> 00:27:10.880\n's only one person\n\n574\n00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:15.600\nwho remembers that and that's me. And it's not even Mr. Sheridan. But I thought\n\n575\n00:27:15.600 --> 00:27:17.120\nit is a better way\n\n576\n00:27:17.120 --> 00:27:23.250\nif you could just remember that the corresponding numbers flowers is 356-9277.\n\n577\n00:27:23.250 --> 00:27:24.880\nThat that would be\n\n578\n00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:28.370\nan easy way to remember. Well, lo and behold, this company had already gotten\n\n579\n00:27:28.370 --> 00:27:29.280\nthe hold of a telephone\n\n580\n00:27:29.280 --> 00:27:33.930\nnumber. And they launched this business. I called out to them and said, I'd\n\n581\n00:27:33.930 --> 00:27:34.240\nlike to be\n\n582\n00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:37.740\nyou of a filling partner for the New York City area. They said, great. We\n\n583\n00:27:37.740 --> 00:27:39.600\nstarted that. And for\n\n584\n00:27:39.600 --> 00:27:42.750\nabout a month, it was good. And then it just went to zero. And I called, they\n\n585\n00:27:42.750 --> 00:27:43.680\nsaid, you know,\n\n586\n00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:48.240\nwe only had so much money and we had some marketing ideas and they didn't work.\n\n587\n00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:49.280\nSo we're closing down.\n\n588\n00:27:49.280 --> 00:27:55.840\nSo I got on a plane, flew to Dallas, became best friends with American Airlines\n\n589\n00:27:55.840 --> 00:27:57.920\nand wound up\n\n590\n00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:01.030\nbuying a company for the aforementioned two million down and assumption of debt\n\n591\n00:28:01.030 --> 00:28:01.200\n.\n\n592\n00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:04.480\nAnd while it was a terrible business decision, it was something I was\n\n593\n00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:05.520\nembarrassed about for a\n\n594\n00:28:05.520 --> 00:28:09.300\nlong time having put my family in everything we'd worked seven days a week, 24\n\n595\n00:28:09.300 --> 00:28:10.080\nhours a day for,\n\n596\n00:28:10.080 --> 00:28:17.440\nand had good luck in the pursuit was now in jeopardy. But so many times the\n\n597\n00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:18.240\nworst decision\n\n598\n00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:22.410\nturned out to be the best decision because we became a brand without any money.\n\n599\n00:28:22.410 --> 00:28:23.760\nAnd in the next,\n\n600\n00:28:23.760 --> 00:28:30.210\nI was in 1986 by 1992. We were the leading player in our category. And then we\n\n601\n00:28:30.210 --> 00:28:30.800\nhad some really good\n\n602\n00:28:30.800 --> 00:28:33.840\nfortune come our way that helped us to become a national brand without having\n\n603\n00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:34.400\nthe money to close\n\n604\n00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:37.950\nit to happen. And you really went after the franchise model? How did you get\n\n605\n00:28:37.950 --> 00:28:38.480\nexcited and\n\n606\n00:28:38.480 --> 00:28:43.130\nlearn about the franchise model? By accident and default, I didn't have capital\n\n607\n00:28:43.130 --> 00:28:43.520\n. I didn't\n\n608\n00:28:43.520 --> 00:28:46.560\nknow how to raise capital. I didn't know what private equity was. I didn't know\n\n609\n00:28:46.560 --> 00:28:49.120\nabout financing\n\n610\n00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:52.880\nand all. I was on educationally. I was on my way to be a New York City\n\n611\n00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:54.080\npoliceman when I\n\n612\n00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:57.570\nstarted working in social work and then just putting off going to the police\n\n613\n00:28:57.570 --> 00:28:58.000\ndepartment until\n\n614\n00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:01.920\nit was too late. So I didn't have a business education other than sitting\n\n615\n00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:04.160\naround Grandmother's\n\n616\n00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:08.810\nkitchen table. What I did was I had all these stores and I needed capital and I\n\n617\n00:29:08.810 --> 00:29:09.280\nknew that they\n\n618\n00:29:09.280 --> 00:29:13.460\nwere better run by families than by a company. So I started selling those\n\n619\n00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:14.640\nstores off to raise\n\n620\n00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:18.960\ncapital to franchisees. And that's how we got into the franchise business.\n\n621\n00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:23.610\nHow did you make a decision that you talked about a little bit earlier? You're\n\n622\n00:29:23.610 --> 00:29:24.080\nnot just the\n\n623\n00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:28.380\nflower business now. You've really expanded. How did you make that decision to\n\n624\n00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:29.200\nexpand beyond\n\n625\n00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:35.660\nflowers? So many times businesses get in trouble because they aren't focused\n\n626\n00:29:35.660 --> 00:29:37.360\nand they go too broad.\n\n627\n00:29:37.360 --> 00:29:42.010\nBut you really found the right way to do it. What do you think made it work for\n\n628\n00:29:42.010 --> 00:29:42.320\nyou?\n\n629\n00:29:42.320 --> 00:29:47.200\nWell, if you think of what we as a florist would do, we merchandise our store\n\n630\n00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:52.800\nin different ways seasonally. So Christmas, it's going to have one look in a\n\n631\n00:29:52.800 --> 00:29:53.520\ndifferent mix of\n\n632\n00:29:53.520 --> 00:29:58.280\nmerchandise. You get the Valentine's Day, it's used to chocolate and flowers\n\n633\n00:29:58.280 --> 00:29:59.200\nheavily. And then\n\n634\n00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:03.850\nMother's Day, it's used to different color flowers, different gifts. A lot of\n\n635\n00:30:03.850 --> 00:30:04.720\ngift baskets come into\n\n636\n00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:09.100\nplay for Christmas and gift baskets for Mother's Day. And then Father's Day is\n\n637\n00:30:09.100 --> 00:30:10.160\na very different mix.\n\n638\n00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:14.810\nIt's chocolate, it's gift baskets, it's hobbyist baskets, very little in terms\n\n639\n00:30:14.810 --> 00:30:16.000\nof flowers. So we\n\n640\n00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:20.650\nwere used to changing our mix for the appropriate season and the holiday that\n\n641\n00:30:20.650 --> 00:30:21.840\nwas next to come.\n\n642\n00:30:21.840 --> 00:30:26.880\nAnd then we started when especially when we had online data and we could see\n\n643\n00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:27.840\nwhere did our customers\n\n644\n00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:32.900\ngo after they shopped with us and where did they go? Well, 16% of the time they\n\n645\n00:30:32.900 --> 00:30:33.680\nwere going to this\n\n646\n00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.850\nplace called Harry and David. That was the next stop to finish their shopping\n\n647\n00:30:37.850 --> 00:30:39.760\nlist. And so we\n\n648\n00:30:39.760 --> 00:30:45.440\nyearned to buy Harry and David for a decade. And then finally it was purchased\n\n649\n00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:46.240\nby private equity\n\n650\n00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:49.480\nfirm, they took it through a bankruptcy and we had the opportunity and we\n\n651\n00:30:49.480 --> 00:30:50.720\nseized it and it's just a\n\n652\n00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:54.630\ngreat brand. And that got us into agriculture. Who knew that this kid from\n\n653\n00:30:54.630 --> 00:30:55.520\nQueens would be\n\n654\n00:30:55.520 --> 00:31:01.280\nconcerned about snow cap in Southwest Oregon to get us through the growing\n\n655\n00:31:01.280 --> 00:31:03.520\nseason in the melt.\n\n656\n00:31:03.520 --> 00:31:07.010\nBut we have 5,000 acres of agriculture production there and we've owned that\n\n657\n00:31:07.010 --> 00:31:07.760\ncompany now for 10\n\n658\n00:31:07.760 --> 00:31:11.500\nyears and it's just a terrific company with a really wonderful product and good\n\n659\n00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:11.920\npeople.\n\n660\n00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:15.160\nBut that's what we did. We followed our customers while they wanted to buy\n\n661\n00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:15.520\nchocolate,\n\n662\n00:31:15.520 --> 00:31:20.400\nso we bought a couple of different chocolate companies. I was flying to Dallas\n\n663\n00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:21.520\non a four-mentioned\n\n664\n00:31:21.520 --> 00:31:25.790\nAmerican Airlines and in the little food box they gave you, there was a cookie.\n\n665\n00:31:25.790 --> 00:31:26.720\nAnd I'm not a big\n\n666\n00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:30.770\ncookie eater but I opened the clear wrap on the cookie and I tasted the cookie\n\n667\n00:31:30.770 --> 00:31:31.760\nand it was delicious.\n\n668\n00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:36.800\nThere's buttercream cookie with this icing on top. And I took the label after I\n\n669\n00:31:36.800 --> 00:31:37.440\nfinished the cookie,\n\n670\n00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:42.080\nstuck in my pocket and I called it Sheryl's cookies in Columbus, Ohio and said\n\n671\n00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:42.480\nthese cookies are\n\n672\n00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:46.210\ndelicious. I think our customers will like them. We begin selling their cookies\n\n673\n00:31:46.210 --> 00:31:47.040\nand several years\n\n674\n00:31:47.040 --> 00:31:50.650\nlater Sheryl came to me that she had some health issues and she wanted to sell\n\n675\n00:31:50.650 --> 00:31:51.680\nthe business and\n\n676\n00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:55.300\nwe were by far her biggest customer would be be interested. So that's how it\n\n677\n00:31:55.300 --> 00:31:56.400\nhappened. And it\n\n678\n00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:00.270\nhappened with a popcorn factory and Sheryl's and Schauff and Burger chocolates\n\n679\n00:32:00.270 --> 00:32:01.760\nand simply chocolate.\n\n680\n00:32:01.760 --> 00:32:06.760\nWe either started them, bought them or certainly tried to grow all of them. But\n\n681\n00:32:06.760 --> 00:32:08.000\nit's all giftable\n\n682\n00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:12.330\nso our products are primarily users gifts. You know about 20% self-consumption\n\n683\n00:32:12.330 --> 00:32:12.640\nbut\n\n684\n00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:18.220\nmostly gifting. And then finally a few years later my a few years ago my\n\n685\n00:32:18.220 --> 00:32:19.760\nbrother Chris who\n\n686\n00:32:19.760 --> 00:32:23.660\nsucceeded me as CEO at the time thought we should be in a personalization\n\n687\n00:32:23.660 --> 00:32:24.880\nbusiness because so many\n\n688\n00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:28.370\npeople wanted us to do other things for them. So he bought the personalization\n\n689\n00:32:28.370 --> 00:32:28.960\nmall and then we\n\n690\n00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:33.650\nbought the things remembered brand just a couple of years ago. So personalized\n\n691\n00:32:33.650 --> 00:32:34.320\ngifts all these\n\n692\n00:32:34.320 --> 00:32:39.500\ndifferent kinds of food gifts and wine and off-lower gift baskets. I love that\n\n693\n00:32:39.500 --> 00:32:40.560\nphrase followed your\n\n694\n00:32:40.560 --> 00:32:43.690\ncustomers. You followed your customers that took you into these different\n\n695\n00:32:43.690 --> 00:32:44.720\ndifferent categories.\n\n696\n00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:49.040\nWas there ever a time that you realized that if you if you didn't innovate you\n\n697\n00:32:49.040 --> 00:32:50.480\n'd get left behind\n\n698\n00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:54.260\nor it's just innovation and expansion always been something you've naturally\n\n699\n00:32:54.260 --> 00:32:55.280\ndone? Well if you go\n\n700\n00:32:55.280 --> 00:33:01.750\nback to what the point is just on which was 1986 I got a hold of that telephone\n\n701\n00:33:01.750 --> 00:33:02.080\nnumber.\n\n702\n00:33:02.080 --> 00:33:06.320\nI started selling off stores to raise capital to invest in this idea to get it\n\n703\n00:33:06.320 --> 00:33:07.200\nto become a brand.\n\n704\n00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:11.850\nAnd we had success at that and at some point I thought you know we could sell\n\n705\n00:33:11.850 --> 00:33:12.160\npretty much\n\n706\n00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:17.160\neverything if it if it had flowers on it. And so we launched a catalog of gift\n\n707\n00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:18.400\nable products and\n\n708\n00:33:18.400 --> 00:33:22.430\none of the lessons I've learned from you on leadership is the importance of\n\n709\n00:33:22.430 --> 00:33:23.200\nletting people\n\n710\n00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:27.370\nknow that you make mistakes and it's okay to make mistakes. And I was taught\n\n711\n00:33:27.370 --> 00:33:28.400\nthat lesson by a lady\n\n712\n00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:32.610\nwho was our chief merchant at the time and I walked into the office and people\n\n713\n00:33:32.610 --> 00:33:33.520\nwere giggling\n\n714\n00:33:33.520 --> 00:33:38.520\nand I was thinking what's going on here and finally they took me over. She had\n\n715\n00:33:38.520 --> 00:33:39.360\ntaken a couple of\n\n716\n00:33:39.360 --> 00:33:44.220\nbookcases, three of them and put them together and she made a sign. Jim's Wall\n\n717\n00:33:44.220 --> 00:33:44.800\nof Shame.\n\n718\n00:33:44.800 --> 00:33:50.860\nI have a few of those, not one. These were all my product ideas that didn't\n\n719\n00:33:50.860 --> 00:33:52.320\nwork and in the center\n\n720\n00:33:52.320 --> 00:34:00.800\nof those three bookcases was a Chinese satin jacket that I had that had a big\n\n721\n00:34:00.800 --> 00:34:01.200\nbeautiful\n\n722\n00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:05.070\nembroidered rose on the back of it. And I thought this is going to be a killer\n\n723\n00:34:05.070 --> 00:34:05.600\nitem.\n\n724\n00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:08.810\nDavid, if you're interested, there's probably a warehouse someplace that still\n\n725\n00:34:08.810 --> 00:34:09.680\nhas a few boxes\n\n726\n00:34:09.680 --> 00:34:13.410\nof them left if the moths haven't finished them by now. But the lesson I\n\n727\n00:34:13.410 --> 00:34:15.120\nlearned from her was\n\n728\n00:34:15.120 --> 00:34:19.290\nit was funny and it was making fun of me. But what the lesson she was teaching\n\n729\n00:34:19.290 --> 00:34:20.160\nus was\n\n730\n00:34:20.160 --> 00:34:24.030\neveryone in the company now knows of course you're going to make mistakes and\n\n731\n00:34:24.030 --> 00:34:24.560\nyou shouldn't be\n\n732\n00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:28.330\nembarrassed about them. You should celebrate them and turn it into a joke and\n\n733\n00:34:28.330 --> 00:34:29.520\nit's a lesson there.\n\n734\n00:34:29.520 --> 00:34:35.160\nAnd I think that contributed to our culture of being early and being risk t\n\n735\n00:34:35.160 --> 00:34:37.280\nakers. So to the\n\n736\n00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:41.020\nevolution you talked about, when we had found this, so we had the chain of\n\n737\n00:34:41.020 --> 00:34:42.240\nstores, retail was our\n\n738\n00:34:42.240 --> 00:34:48.700\nfirst wave, second wave was the 800 number. But then 1992, three, four, I'm\n\n739\n00:34:48.700 --> 00:34:50.560\nworking with my friend\n\n740\n00:34:50.560 --> 00:34:57.020\nSteve Case and Bob Pittman and Ted Leonzus at AOL. And we think this online, my\n\n741\n00:34:57.020 --> 00:34:57.520\nbrother Chris had\n\n742\n00:34:57.520 --> 00:35:01.010\njoined the company by then at a university. And he's doing all these new tech\n\n743\n00:35:01.010 --> 00:35:01.680\nthings. And we're\n\n744\n00:35:01.680 --> 00:35:05.740\nsaying, wait a minute, if these guys from Queens with no money and no business\n\n745\n00:35:05.740 --> 00:35:06.880\nexperience created\n\n746\n00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:13.010\na national brand by embracing a new technology, an 800 number, what was going\n\n747\n00:35:13.010 --> 00:35:14.400\nto be the next\n\n748\n00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:19.760\ntechnology wave that would push us aside? So if we're going to be disrupted,\n\n749\n00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:21.520\nlet us be by us was\n\n750\n00:35:21.520 --> 00:35:26.170\nhis motto. And so when the internet, the online world, then the internet came\n\n751\n00:35:26.170 --> 00:35:27.280\nalong, we were early\n\n752\n00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:32.050\nto it very early. We had a website in 1992, nobody cared. We were the first\n\n753\n00:35:32.050 --> 00:35:33.680\ntransaction of any kind\n\n754\n00:35:33.680 --> 00:35:38.520\nyou could do on AOL. That was important to us, sort of relationship with Bob\n\n755\n00:35:38.520 --> 00:35:40.240\nPittman and Steve Case\n\n756\n00:35:40.240 --> 00:35:48.560\nand Ted was extremely important. So, and then frankly, the next wave was during\n\n757\n00:35:48.560 --> 00:35:49.120\nthe financial\n\n758\n00:35:49.120 --> 00:35:57.590\ncrisis in 2008 and '09, which was damaging to us. It really hit us like it did\n\n759\n00:35:57.590 --> 00:35:58.960\neverybody.\n\n760\n00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:03.830\nBut we didn't stop investing in, we maybe had 15, 16, 17 developmental projects\n\n761\n00:36:03.830 --> 00:36:05.280\n. We said we can\n\n762\n00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:09.160\nonly afford to do two or three. What should they be? And we said mobile is\n\n763\n00:36:09.160 --> 00:36:10.160\ngoing to be huge.\n\n764\n00:36:10.160 --> 00:36:14.150\nAnd social is going to be aided and embedded by mobile. So let's invest in\n\n765\n00:36:14.150 --> 00:36:15.200\nthose two things and\n\n766\n00:36:15.200 --> 00:36:20.550\nlet's invest in our new tech stack. The other 14 projects we're going to put\n\n767\n00:36:20.550 --> 00:36:21.680\naside, we can't afford\n\n768\n00:36:21.680 --> 00:36:26.330\nto do them now. And that was a good decision on our collective parts, because\n\n769\n00:36:26.330 --> 00:36:27.200\neverything social\n\n770\n00:36:27.200 --> 00:36:32.240\nmobos are fourth wave. And then I think my brother might be the first person I\n\n771\n00:36:32.240 --> 00:36:32.880\never heard used the\n\n772\n00:36:32.880 --> 00:36:38.160\nterm conversational commerce, which he coined about 10 years ago. And now this\n\n773\n00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:38.960\nwave that's breaking\n\n774\n00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:45.090\non a shore, which is being aided by everything AI, is frankly the most exciting\n\n775\n00:36:45.090 --> 00:36:46.000\nwave in our\n\n776\n00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:49.990\ncareer's history. And I think it'll be the most transformative in terms of how\n\n777\n00:36:49.990 --> 00:36:50.640\nwe relate with\n\n778\n00:36:50.640 --> 00:36:54.510\nour customers, the tools we can bring to them to help them in their\n\n779\n00:36:54.510 --> 00:36:56.240\nrelationship development,\n\n780\n00:36:56.240 --> 00:37:00.270\nour marketing has already changed from buy my stuff to, hey, let me engage with\n\n781\n00:37:00.270 --> 00:37:00.720\nyou.\n\n782\n00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:06.870\nI started writing a newsletter every Sunday in the first months of COVID. We\n\n783\n00:37:06.870 --> 00:37:08.640\nnow have 14\n\n784\n00:37:08.640 --> 00:37:14.000\nmillion subscribers to that. I get to do our podcast and talk to unbelievably\n\n785\n00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:14.320\ninteresting\n\n786\n00:37:14.320 --> 00:37:18.640\npeople like you. And what we write about in the newsletter is not buy our stuff\n\n787\n00:37:18.640 --> 00:37:18.960\nor his\n\n788\n00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:23.810\nour product, but we write about relationships. And we have a group of experts\n\n789\n00:37:23.810 --> 00:37:24.720\nwe turn to on a\n\n790\n00:37:24.720 --> 00:37:32.440\nregular basis. And we use the calendar as an excuse for our community to think\n\n791\n00:37:32.440 --> 00:37:32.960\nabout\n\n792\n00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:37.980\nusing their power to express and connect. So if it's grandparent's day, which\n\n793\n00:37:37.980 --> 00:37:38.960\nit was last month,\n\n794\n00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:43.610\nand we write, I write for a couple of weeks about grandparent's day. And as a\n\n795\n00:37:43.610 --> 00:37:44.400\ngrandparent,\n\n796\n00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:49.420\nI remind my other grandparents, don't just sit back and wait for the call or\n\n797\n00:37:49.420 --> 00:37:50.560\nthe note or the card\n\n798\n00:37:50.560 --> 00:37:55.210\nor the gift or the attaboy. What are you doing? What's your responsibility as a\n\n799\n00:37:55.210 --> 00:37:56.000\ngrandparent to do\n\n800\n00:37:56.000 --> 00:37:59.270\nsomething for your grandkids? How do you choose to give them a gift of some of\n\n801\n00:37:59.270 --> 00:38:00.240\nyour time with them\n\n802\n00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:05.050\none on one? And so we talk a lot about that and the engagement, David, I know\n\n803\n00:38:05.050 --> 00:38:06.080\nyou won't be surprised\n\n804\n00:38:06.080 --> 00:38:10.950\nbecause you were the king of engagement. It's just magical for me now because I\n\n805\n00:38:10.950 --> 00:38:12.320\n'm no longer the CEO,\n\n806\n00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:17.600\nI smart enough to fire myself back in May and hire a real CEO. And now I get to\n\n807\n00:38:17.600 --> 00:38:18.560\nspend my time on\n\n808\n00:38:18.560 --> 00:38:23.210\nengagement and content and community building. And I've just never had more fun\n\n809\n00:38:23.210 --> 00:38:23.280\n.\n\n810\n00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:28.560\nYou know, imagine you're leading a CEO roundtable on AI, which you probably\n\n811\n00:38:28.560 --> 00:38:29.360\nhave done.\n\n812\n00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:33.280\nWhat would be the top one or two insights you'd want everyone to take away?\n\n813\n00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:37.200\nI think number one, we don't have an excuse. We don't have any choices. You\n\n814\n00:38:37.200 --> 00:38:37.920\nhave to embrace it.\n\n815\n00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:42.640\nIt's going to change everything. And the second thing that I think about is I\n\n816\n00:38:42.640 --> 00:38:43.920\nthink about AI in\n\n817\n00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:49.680\ntwo clusters. One is efficiencies that I can understand. It's going to make\n\n818\n00:38:49.680 --> 00:38:50.160\neverything more\n\n819\n00:38:50.160 --> 00:38:54.710\nefficient. If you have 12 people in legal, if you build a small language model\n\n820\n00:38:54.710 --> 00:38:55.120\nin there,\n\n821\n00:38:55.120 --> 00:39:00.210\nyou could probably get by with nine or six people in legal a couple of few\n\n822\n00:39:00.210 --> 00:39:01.600\nmonths from now because\n\n823\n00:39:01.600 --> 00:39:08.060\ncontract reading, smart contracts, auto mat paying, is just going to be built\n\n824\n00:39:08.060 --> 00:39:08.800\ninto the system and\n\n825\n00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:12.340\nalready happening and we're already using. So efficiencies, I can understand\n\n826\n00:39:12.340 --> 00:39:13.760\nthat. Then the\n\n827\n00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:17.930\nother thing is capabilities. What kind of things do we not imagine being able\n\n828\n00:39:17.930 --> 00:39:19.040\nto do that AI will\n\n829\n00:39:19.040 --> 00:39:24.530\nallow us to do? And I'm not a super smart technologist, but I do understand\n\n830\n00:39:24.530 --> 00:39:25.840\nfrom our business point of\n\n831\n00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:30.990\nview that for the last four or five years at New Year's time, I write to our\n\n832\n00:39:30.990 --> 00:39:32.560\ncommunity about\n\n833\n00:39:32.560 --> 00:39:36.330\nresolutions. And I encourage our people not just to do a resolution about I'm\n\n834\n00:39:36.330 --> 00:39:37.360\ngoing to exercise\n\n835\n00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:42.010\nmore. I'm going to read a book every a month. I'm going to do this. I asked\n\n836\n00:39:42.010 --> 00:39:43.360\nthem to build a\n\n837\n00:39:43.360 --> 00:39:47.560\nrelationship resolution. And I asked them to make three groups on their\n\n838\n00:39:47.560 --> 00:39:49.280\nrelationship resolution.\n\n839\n00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:52.300\nThis is a group of people I have relationships with and I want to continue and\n\n840\n00:39:52.300 --> 00:39:53.600\ninvest in those.\n\n841\n00:39:53.600 --> 00:39:57.770\nIt is a group of people who I have. Maybe the relationship is waned. I haven't\n\n842\n00:39:57.770 --> 00:39:58.320\nseen them in a\n\n843\n00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:01.430\nyear or so, but they used to be important to me. I'm going to reinvest in those\n\n844\n00:40:01.430 --> 00:40:02.240\nrelationships.\n\n845\n00:40:02.880 --> 00:40:05.890\nAnd then there's a group of the third column is people you don't have a\n\n846\n00:40:05.890 --> 00:40:06.880\nrelationship with,\n\n847\n00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:12.260\nfamily, workplace, community, that you're going to be deliberate about building\n\n848\n00:40:12.260 --> 00:40:13.120\nbridges to them\n\n849\n00:40:13.120 --> 00:40:18.640\nto try and develop a relationship. But now our team and the AI and our AI\n\n850\n00:40:18.640 --> 00:40:19.760\ndevelopment team\n\n851\n00:40:19.760 --> 00:40:25.600\nhas written an app for me that automates that. So it asks you to proper\n\n852\n00:40:25.600 --> 00:40:26.400\nquestions about those\n\n853\n00:40:26.400 --> 00:40:30.150\nrelationships and prompts you to think about them. And now it says, would you\n\n854\n00:40:30.150 --> 00:40:31.040\nlike me to help you\n\n855\n00:40:31.040 --> 00:40:37.440\nto follow through on your on your resolution? So you said you wanted to get to\n\n856\n00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:37.760\nknow David\n\n857\n00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:42.560\nNovak that it will David Novak was just honored by the institute he created on\n\n858\n00:40:42.560 --> 00:40:43.280\nleadership for all\n\n859\n00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:46.090\nthe work that he's done over the last couple of years. And his article that was\n\n860\n00:40:46.090 --> 00:40:47.840\nin the Louisville\n\n861\n00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:51.330\nGazette about that, you might want to drop David a note congratulating him on\n\n862\n00:40:51.330 --> 00:40:51.600\nthat.\n\n863\n00:40:51.600 --> 00:40:55.160\nAnd then it comes back a few months, I just said, you know, you said you wanted\n\n864\n00:40:55.160 --> 00:40:55.760\nto invest in your\n\n865\n00:40:55.760 --> 00:41:00.000\nrelationship with David, but I haven't seen any correspondence either text or\n\n866\n00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:01.440\nphone calls or messages\n\n867\n00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:05.400\nto him. Here's something else that just happened in his life. You might want to\n\n868\n00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:06.480\ntake note of that.\n\n869\n00:41:06.480 --> 00:41:10.720\nSo it prompts you to do follow through on the things you said you were going to\n\n870\n00:41:10.720 --> 00:41:11.520\ndo in areas\n\n871\n00:41:11.520 --> 00:41:15.550\nthat are a little esoteric, a little bit more esoteric than diet or exercise\n\n872\n00:41:15.550 --> 00:41:16.880\nregistrants. So I\n\n873\n00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:22.790\nthink the capability side of the is the really exciting side of what's going to\n\n874\n00:41:22.790 --> 00:41:24.160\nbe efficiencies,\n\n875\n00:41:24.160 --> 00:41:27.920\nI understand, the capabilities of whether real magic is going to happen.\n\n876\n00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:34.080\nYou're such a people person and you're highly regarded for that and building a\n\n877\n00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:34.640\nculture where\n\n878\n00:41:34.640 --> 00:41:41.570\npeople are valued. How do you prepare your team about the efficiency side of AI\n\n879\n00:41:41.570 --> 00:41:42.000\n?\n\n880\n00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:46.650\nIt's a tough question. One that we've been deliberate about, I mentioned I\n\n881\n00:41:46.650 --> 00:41:46.960\nhired a\n\n882\n00:41:48.800 --> 00:41:53.450\nmy board and I hired a new CEO. We started a maze and name is Adolfo Vigigomez.\n\n883\n00:41:53.450 --> 00:41:54.960\nA terrific guy,\n\n884\n00:41:54.960 --> 00:42:00.640\njust extremely qualified and boy, if there's one good choice I've made in the\n\n885\n00:42:00.640 --> 00:42:01.360\nlast\n\n886\n00:42:01.360 --> 00:42:06.000\na last bunch of years, it seems like Adolfo is it. But we've been talking about\n\n887\n00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:06.560\nthe fact\n\n888\n00:42:06.560 --> 00:42:11.210\nduring the recording process, when I was trying to lure him here in those many\n\n889\n00:42:11.210 --> 00:42:12.080\nmonths before he\n\n890\n00:42:12.080 --> 00:42:15.810\nstarted, we've been talking about the efficiencies and the impact it's going to\n\n891\n00:42:15.810 --> 00:42:17.040\nhave. And what we\n\n892\n00:42:17.040 --> 00:42:21.110\ndecided as a team internally with Adolfo's input long before he even came to\n\n893\n00:42:21.110 --> 00:42:22.800\nwork with us is we\n\n894\n00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:26.040\nhave to be very honest with our team and say when we can't say, hey, don't\n\n895\n00:42:26.040 --> 00:42:26.880\nworry, we're going to\n\n896\n00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:31.530\nprotect you. Evelyn's job is if can't do that, it's not realistic. But so we're\n\n897\n00:42:31.530 --> 00:42:32.000\nvery honest and\n\n898\n00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:36.650\nwe say disruption is going to happen. We'll be as transparent as we can with\n\n899\n00:42:36.650 --> 00:42:37.520\nyou about that\n\n900\n00:42:37.520 --> 00:42:42.700\ndisruption. But there will clearly be disruption. Now Chip Cutler in the Wall\n\n901\n00:42:42.700 --> 00:42:44.000\nStreet Journal back\n\n902\n00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:48.080\nin June wrote a piece where he talked about all of the Fortune 500 companies\n\n903\n00:42:48.080 --> 00:42:48.400\nand now\n\n904\n00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:53.200\ncollectively have lost 3.5% of their headcount in the last three years. And\n\n905\n00:42:53.200 --> 00:42:53.840\nthey're all projecting\n\n906\n00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:59.120\nto have smaller headcounts in the years ahead. And the mantra in business has\n\n907\n00:42:59.120 --> 00:42:59.840\ngone from,\n\n908\n00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:04.490\nDavid, I can't keep up with business. It's growing so much. I can't hire enough\n\n909\n00:43:04.490 --> 00:43:04.560\npeople\n\n910\n00:43:04.560 --> 00:43:11.100\nto being proud of being able to say we can do more with less. So the attitude\n\n911\n00:43:11.100 --> 00:43:12.720\nhas changed. So\n\n912\n00:43:12.720 --> 00:43:16.640\nwe're honest with our team. And what we did was we said, let's reinvest in\n\n913\n00:43:16.640 --> 00:43:17.360\nsomething we created\n\n914\n00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:21.410\na few years ago called Fresh University. So what we say to our team is there\n\n915\n00:43:21.410 --> 00:43:22.640\nwill be disruption.\n\n916\n00:43:22.640 --> 00:43:26.130\nAI is going to disrupt us in ways we can guess that now in ways we can't\n\n917\n00:43:26.130 --> 00:43:27.520\nimagine, but it will happen.\n\n918\n00:43:27.520 --> 00:43:32.880\nAnd our investment is going to be in you. We're going to give you all the tools\n\n919\n00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:33.520\n, give you all the\n\n920\n00:43:33.520 --> 00:43:38.520\nopportunity to learn these new capabilities and tools. We'll have coursework\n\n921\n00:43:38.520 --> 00:43:39.520\nonline, we'll have\n\n922\n00:43:40.080 --> 00:43:44.400\ntrainers in person, we'll give you the opportunity to develop as best you can\n\n923\n00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:46.240\npersonally and professionally.\n\n924\n00:43:46.240 --> 00:43:50.240\nAnd so that's our commitment to you. So even if you do get disrupted here, if\n\n925\n00:43:50.240 --> 00:43:51.520\nyou've learned these\n\n926\n00:43:51.520 --> 00:43:56.250\nskills, you're going to feel that you have options. You can certainly go to\n\n927\n00:43:56.250 --> 00:43:57.200\nwork for someone else\n\n928\n00:43:57.200 --> 00:44:00.780\nbecause you're very employable. You can hang out your own shingle and create\n\n929\n00:44:00.780 --> 00:44:01.680\nyour own business.\n\n930\n00:44:01.680 --> 00:44:07.200\nYou can become a consultant or you can just use these tools in your own life.\n\n931\n00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:11.930\nBut and a new board member of our Shelley Palmer did some research at the\n\n932\n00:44:11.930 --> 00:44:13.680\nPalmer Group about\n\n933\n00:44:13.680 --> 00:44:19.600\npeople who really do embrace and learn these AI tools. They feel very confident\n\n934\n00:44:19.600 --> 00:44:20.000\n. They're not\n\n935\n00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:25.280\nworried about losing a job because they know they have superpowers now. And so\n\n936\n00:44:25.280 --> 00:44:25.920\nthat was the\n\n937\n00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:29.410\nevolution of our thinking here. We can't say we can't protect you for the\n\n938\n00:44:29.410 --> 00:44:30.400\ndisruption, but we'll be\n\n939\n00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:35.470\ntransparent about it and the timing will be obvious to you. Secondly, we're\n\n940\n00:44:35.470 --> 00:44:36.720\ngoing to invest in you\n\n941\n00:44:36.720 --> 00:44:40.210\nso you have all the capabilities you need to be successful, personally and\n\n942\n00:44:40.210 --> 00:44:40.800\nprofessionally going\n\n943\n00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:44.670\nforward. And that was our decision. That's how we communicate. The third\n\n944\n00:44:44.670 --> 00:44:46.320\nelement of that, David,\n\n945\n00:44:46.320 --> 00:44:53.210\nis we said resume is not a noun. Resume you should think of as a verb. And you\n\n946\n00:44:53.210 --> 00:44:53.920\nshould be thinking\n\n947\n00:44:53.920 --> 00:44:58.660\nabout resumaying all the time. And toward that, we put in a transcript system\n\n948\n00:44:58.660 --> 00:45:00.720\nhere, like a college\n\n949\n00:45:00.720 --> 00:45:03.960\ntranscript. Only now we record not only everything you did in college and\n\n950\n00:45:03.960 --> 00:45:05.120\neverything you did before\n\n951\n00:45:05.120 --> 00:45:10.270\nyou got here, but we asked you to record and we record for you any of the\n\n952\n00:45:10.270 --> 00:45:11.840\ncourses and certificates\n\n953\n00:45:11.840 --> 00:45:15.390\nthat you earned here. We even asked you to fill in things like, what do you do\n\n954\n00:45:15.390 --> 00:45:16.400\nwith your volunteer\n\n955\n00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:21.400\ntime? What do you do with your vacation time? So if you have two people, one\n\n956\n00:45:21.400 --> 00:45:22.480\ngoes to the Caribbean\n\n957\n00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:29.420\nand sits on the beach drinking corona's in the afternoon. And snoozes a lot.\n\n958\n00:45:29.420 --> 00:45:30.000\nGreat, one full\n\n959\n00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:33.110\nyou're entitled to your decision. But then you have someone else that takes\n\n960\n00:45:33.110 --> 00:45:34.640\nthat same week vacation\n\n961\n00:45:34.640 --> 00:45:39.700\nand they go down to Honduras and they work with the round hut people building\n\n962\n00:45:39.700 --> 00:45:40.960\nthree round huts\n\n963\n00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:45.200\nfor communities that have been devastated by the most recent hurricane. And you\n\n964\n00:45:45.200 --> 00:45:45.840\nimmerse yourself\n\n965\n00:45:45.840 --> 00:45:48.800\nin Spanish and tried to sharpen your Spanish skills and you get this wonderful\n\n966\n00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:50.400\nletter of thanks from\n\n967\n00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:56.460\nthe charity you worked with. And that should be on your transcript, too, part\n\n968\n00:45:56.460 --> 00:45:57.280\nof your resume,\n\n969\n00:45:57.280 --> 00:46:01.200\nbecause it indicates to you and to anyone else would be interested in future\n\n970\n00:46:01.200 --> 00:46:02.000\nemployers at all,\n\n971\n00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:06.650\nwhat your makeup is? What's important to you? What are you doing to invest and\n\n972\n00:46:06.650 --> 00:46:07.360\nsharpen your own\n\n973\n00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:10.490\nskills? What are you doing to give back to the community? What are you doing to\n\n974\n00:46:10.490 --> 00:46:11.440\nbe the best\n\n975\n00:46:11.440 --> 00:46:15.890\nfully rounded individual you can be? So that's that's our program. Be honest,\n\n976\n00:46:15.890 --> 00:46:16.560\nit's going to\n\n977\n00:46:16.560 --> 00:46:21.210\nimpact us. You should be if you're not working on AI tools to solve the things\n\n978\n00:46:21.210 --> 00:46:21.920\nthat you shouldn't\n\n979\n00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:25.410\nhave to spend your time on that gives you the capacity to do the things that\n\n980\n00:46:25.410 --> 00:46:26.720\nonly humans can do,\n\n981\n00:46:26.720 --> 00:46:30.800\nbe assured your voice is thinking about it. And then finally, we're going to\n\n982\n00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:31.520\ninvest in you and\n\n983\n00:46:31.520 --> 00:46:35.770\ngive you all the tools while you're here to help you to be the best person and\n\n984\n00:46:35.770 --> 00:46:36.480\nthe best professional\n\n985\n00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:40.520\nyou can be. I love the idea of making your resume a verb. I think that's\n\n986\n00:46:40.520 --> 00:46:41.840\nfantastic. And\n\n987\n00:46:41.840 --> 00:46:46.560\nyou know, you released a book a little over a year ago, or last year called\n\n988\n00:46:46.560 --> 00:46:47.200\nLoadStar,\n\n989\n00:46:47.200 --> 00:46:52.960\ntapping into the 10 timeless pillars of success. What's a pillar every leader\n\n990\n00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:54.080\nshould know more about?\n\n991\n00:46:54.800 --> 00:46:59.520\nWell, the book I did was with Apartment. His name is Dr. George Everly. George\n\n992\n00:46:59.520 --> 00:47:00.560\nis a gift\n\n993\n00:47:00.560 --> 00:47:05.220\nto the world. He's a wonderful guy. And I met him because at the beginning of\n\n994\n00:47:05.220 --> 00:47:05.680\nCOVID,\n\n995\n00:47:05.680 --> 00:47:11.740\nhe wrote an article in Psychology Today about what he thought the impact of the\n\n996\n00:47:11.740 --> 00:47:12.400\nlockdown was\n\n997\n00:47:12.400 --> 00:47:16.700\ngoing to be on relationships. Major relationships, familial relationships and\n\n998\n00:47:16.700 --> 00:47:18.160\ncasual relationships,\n\n999\n00:47:18.160 --> 00:47:22.180\nwaving to your regular friend at Pizza Hut when you visit there on Friday\n\n1000\n00:47:22.180 --> 00:47:23.680\nevenings with your family,\n\n1001\n00:47:23.680 --> 00:47:28.000\njust waving to them. It's a social contact, even if it's just a familiar way.\n\n1002\n00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:28.640\nAnd I wrote him a\n\n1003\n00:47:28.640 --> 00:47:33.290\nfan letter and I said, \"George, this is really good work. This is terrific.\n\n1004\n00:47:33.290 --> 00:47:34.000\nThis is how I became\n\n1005\n00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:36.990\nfamiliar with you. It was an accident, but I just hope we have a occasion to\n\n1006\n00:47:36.990 --> 00:47:38.080\nchat someday.\" So he\n\n1007\n00:47:38.080 --> 00:47:40.720\nwrote back to me. He said, \"Well, I'd love to talk to you. Why don't we make it\n\n1008\n00:47:40.720 --> 00:47:41.520\nhappen?\" And we\n\n1009\n00:47:41.520 --> 00:47:44.380\nbecame friends. Now, for the first couple of years, we were COVID buddies. We\n\n1010\n00:47:44.380 --> 00:47:45.600\nnever met in person.\n\n1011\n00:47:45.600 --> 00:47:48.470\nBut I was getting all these questions to our newsletter, which is called The\n\n1012\n00:47:48.470 --> 00:47:49.440\nCelebrations Pulse\n\n1013\n00:47:49.440 --> 00:47:53.400\nthat I do every Sunday. People asking about, \"What do I do with my kid? He's\n\n1014\n00:47:53.400 --> 00:47:55.520\nnot in school. He's not\n\n1015\n00:47:55.520 --> 00:47:59.520\nparticipating in sports. I think he's deteriorating. He's socially unconcerned\n\n1016\n00:47:59.520 --> 00:48:00.720\n.\" I wasn't qualified\n\n1017\n00:48:00.720 --> 00:48:04.470\nto answer these questions, but I was qualified to collect a panel of people who\n\n1018\n00:48:04.470 --> 00:48:06.000\nwere. And George\n\n1019\n00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:12.610\nwas the first to join us, our celebrations advisory panel. And so he called me\n\n1020\n00:48:12.610 --> 00:48:14.000\none day. I was traveling\n\n1021\n00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:20.720\nin Florida, my wife and I on vacation. And he called and I answered it on the\n\n1022\n00:48:20.720 --> 00:48:22.400\nphone and a car.\n\n1023\n00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:25.030\nSo my wife could hear and he said, \"Jim, I'm loving the work we're doing\n\n1024\n00:48:25.030 --> 00:48:26.000\ntogether. It's really\n\n1025\n00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:29.980\nexciting stuff. I love the other people you've assembled. This is a really\n\n1026\n00:48:29.980 --> 00:48:31.040\namazing panel. And I\n\n1027\n00:48:31.040 --> 00:48:34.290\njust enjoy the interaction. I have a suggestion.\" I said, \"What's that, George\n\n1028\n00:48:34.290 --> 00:48:35.360\n?\" He goes, \"Why don't we\n\n1029\n00:48:35.360 --> 00:48:39.650\nwrite a book together?\" Now, my wife perhaps thinks I'm a little overcommitted\n\n1030\n00:48:39.650 --> 00:48:40.240\nand maybe\n\n1031\n00:48:40.240 --> 00:48:44.210\ndon't balance my time properly. She was about to hit me when I said, \"George, I\n\n1032\n00:48:44.210 --> 00:48:44.720\n'd love to.\"\n\n1033\n00:48:44.720 --> 00:48:49.040\nAnd that was a two and a half year project of working together, writing\n\n1034\n00:48:49.040 --> 00:48:50.400\ntogether. And for me,\n\n1035\n00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:55.200\nDavid, an opportunity to learn from a really brilliant man. But in answer to\n\n1036\n00:48:55.200 --> 00:48:55.840\nyour question,\n\n1037\n00:48:55.840 --> 00:49:01.420\nso George has taught at Harvard and spent the last 20 plus years teaching at\n\n1038\n00:49:01.420 --> 00:49:02.480\nJohns Hopkins\n\n1039\n00:49:02.480 --> 00:49:06.080\nUniversity, where he's a meritist on the faculty now at the School of Public\n\n1040\n00:49:06.080 --> 00:49:06.640\nHealth,\n\n1041\n00:49:06.640 --> 00:49:09.950\na Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a medical school. And he's a\n\n1042\n00:49:09.950 --> 00:49:10.640\npsychologist,\n\n1043\n00:49:10.640 --> 00:49:14.820\nand he's wonderful. But he tells a story that I think is a lesson for all of us\n\n1044\n00:49:14.820 --> 00:49:16.560\n, both as individuals\n\n1045\n00:49:16.560 --> 00:49:22.500\nand as leaders thinking about your organization. And that was he was undiagn\n\n1046\n00:49:22.500 --> 00:49:24.800\nosed ADHD and dyslexia.\n\n1047\n00:49:24.800 --> 00:49:31.920\nHe's a junior in high school and the great advisor to guidance counselor calls\n\n1048\n00:49:31.920 --> 00:49:32.560\nGeorge's father,\n\n1049\n00:49:32.560 --> 00:49:37.840\nwho's a very successful CPA in a small town in rural Maryland, outside of\n\n1050\n00:49:37.840 --> 00:49:38.320\nBaltimore.\n\n1051\n00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:44.780\nAnd he said, \"Look, George is an okay kid, but he's not very bright. And he's\n\n1052\n00:49:44.780 --> 00:49:46.000\ncertainly not\n\n1053\n00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:49.920\ngoing to college. And he's probably not going to graduate from high school. So\n\n1054\n00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:50.960\nwhy don't you take\n\n1055\n00:49:50.960 --> 00:49:54.520\nhim out of school and see if he can get him a job in a filling station or a\n\n1056\n00:49:54.520 --> 00:49:55.200\nfactory or in a\n\n1057\n00:49:55.200 --> 00:50:00.470\nwarehouse someplace? Because then he beat his graduating buddies to the place\n\n1058\n00:50:00.470 --> 00:50:01.280\nhe maybe he'll\n\n1059\n00:50:01.280 --> 00:50:07.980\nalready have a job. George's father told George that story, not then, but many\n\n1060\n00:50:07.980 --> 00:50:09.520\nyears later,\n\n1061\n00:50:09.520 --> 00:50:14.720\nat the lunch to celebrate George's first of several PhDs. And George said to\n\n1062\n00:50:14.720 --> 00:50:15.280\nhim, \"Dad,\n\n1063\n00:50:15.280 --> 00:50:19.010\nwhy did you never tell me that story?\" And his father said to him, \"I didn't\n\n1064\n00:50:19.010 --> 00:50:20.080\nwant it to become\n\n1065\n00:50:20.080 --> 00:50:24.370\nself-fulfilling.\" And that's one of the, when you ask me, I learned so many\n\n1066\n00:50:24.370 --> 00:50:25.360\nthings working with George,\n\n1067\n00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:29.230\nbut that one sticks in my head. So whether you're an individual or a person,\n\n1068\n00:50:29.230 --> 00:50:30.320\nwhat you imagine\n\n1069\n00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:34.400\nand what you realistically think you can achieve is likely to be what you do\n\n1070\n00:50:34.400 --> 00:50:34.800\nachieve.\n\n1071\n00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:40.110\nBut if you're told that you're good for nothing and you'll never amount to\n\n1072\n00:50:40.110 --> 00:50:41.040\nanything,\n\n1073\n00:50:41.040 --> 00:50:44.800\nwhether it was 10 boys I lived in a group home with for years or it's the\n\n1074\n00:50:44.800 --> 00:50:45.760\npeople I get to work\n\n1075\n00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:50.090\nwith today, my job is to help them achieve the most that they can achieve, to\n\n1076\n00:50:50.090 --> 00:50:52.480\nform groups that\n\n1077\n00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:58.320\ngive them the benefit to be conscious of the social construct in our companies\n\n1078\n00:50:58.320 --> 00:50:59.840\nso that it gives\n\n1079\n00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:03.480\npeople the opportunity to perform it their best. Working at St. John's home\n\n1080\n00:51:03.480 --> 00:51:04.080\nback then,\n\n1081\n00:51:04.080 --> 00:51:09.840\nI remember I promoted a lady who had just returned to work to run services. So\n\n1082\n00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:11.280\nthat would be maintenance,\n\n1083\n00:51:11.280 --> 00:51:17.190\nhousekeeping, dietary, purchasing, and her experience was she had just raised\n\n1084\n00:51:17.190 --> 00:51:18.000\nnine children.\n\n1085\n00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:22.480\nAnd the youngest of which was off the college, so she could return to work.\n\n1086\n00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:27.140\nAnd everyone said to me, \"You're out of your mind.\" She was terrific,\n\n1087\n00:51:27.140 --> 00:51:29.360\nabsolutely terrific.\n\n1088\n00:51:29.360 --> 00:51:32.480\nAnd she'd walk through the maintenance department and there'd be all these\n\n1089\n00:51:32.480 --> 00:51:33.440\ngrizzled guys there\n\n1090\n00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:38.090\nand they're mumbling under their breath about this woman thinks she's going to\n\n1091\n00:51:38.090 --> 00:51:38.960\ntell us what to do.\n\n1092\n00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:44.560\nAnd she taught me the lesson of selective hearing. She says, \"You don't need to\n\n1093\n00:51:44.560 --> 00:51:45.280\nhear everything.\n\n1094\n00:51:45.280 --> 00:51:50.720\nJust smile and whistle and go about your work.\" So my job today, like your job\n\n1095\n00:51:50.720 --> 00:51:51.840\nwas for so long,\n\n1096\n00:51:51.840 --> 00:51:56.010\nis to create an environment where everyone could achieve their best possible\n\n1097\n00:51:56.010 --> 00:51:56.800\ndevelopment self.\n\n1098\n00:51:57.680 --> 00:52:03.040\nThat's great. And you also say that leaders are cultural engineers, but they\n\n1099\n00:52:03.040 --> 00:52:04.400\ncan't control it.\n\n1100\n00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:08.160\nThey can influence, but can't control it. Say more.\n\n1101\n00:52:08.160 --> 00:52:12.460\nWell, when you were building young brands, you couldn't control every\n\n1102\n00:52:12.460 --> 00:52:13.840\nenvironment. And certainly\n\n1103\n00:52:13.840 --> 00:52:16.990\nit was a culture in one restaurant would be different than it would be in this\n\n1104\n00:52:16.990 --> 00:52:17.600\nregion than\n\n1105\n00:52:17.600 --> 00:52:20.300\ndifferent it is in this country than different it is in this hemisphere. It's\n\n1106\n00:52:20.300 --> 00:52:20.960\ngoing to be different\n\n1107\n00:52:20.960 --> 00:52:25.610\nevery place. So you had a few dials as a cultural engineer of young brands that\n\n1108\n00:52:25.610 --> 00:52:26.480\nyou could turn that\n\n1109\n00:52:26.480 --> 00:52:31.370\nwould influence that culture. What you choose to reward, what you choose to\n\n1110\n00:52:31.370 --> 00:52:33.040\nignore, what you\n\n1111\n00:52:33.040 --> 00:52:38.480\nchoose to punish, who you choose to hire, what standards you set for behavior,\n\n1112\n00:52:38.480 --> 00:52:39.520\nhow you compensate\n\n1113\n00:52:39.520 --> 00:52:44.520\npeople, what you celebrate. And those are your dials. So you have to be careful\n\n1114\n00:52:44.520 --> 00:52:45.200\nwith those dials\n\n1115\n00:52:45.200 --> 00:52:49.160\nbecause that's signaling to this enormous organization you built, what our\n\n1116\n00:52:49.160 --> 00:52:50.320\nvalues are,\n\n1117\n00:52:50.320 --> 00:52:56.130\nwhat our core principles are, what you value, what you celebrate. And that's\n\n1118\n00:52:56.130 --> 00:52:56.960\ngoing to dictate\n\n1119\n00:52:56.960 --> 00:53:00.110\nand influence the behavior, but you cannot control. There'd be a rogue store\n\n1120\n00:53:00.110 --> 00:53:01.600\nevery once in a while.\n\n1121\n00:53:01.600 --> 00:53:05.330\nThere'd be a rogue employee every once in a while. Overall, as a cultural\n\n1122\n00:53:05.330 --> 00:53:05.840\nengineer,\n\n1123\n00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:09.840\nyou have to be conscious of what your limits are and what your dials are.\n\n1124\n00:53:09.840 --> 00:53:14.840\nGreat, great points. And you know, you really are a change agent and you've\n\n1125\n00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:16.000\nmanaged the company\n\n1126\n00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:21.280\nthrough so many different changes. And you seem to be a huge lover of\n\n1127\n00:53:21.280 --> 00:53:22.560\ntechnology.\n\n1128\n00:53:22.560 --> 00:53:30.160\nYou know, how have you led your teams through these changes without\n\n1129\n00:53:30.160 --> 00:53:31.280\noverwhelming them? You\n\n1130\n00:53:31.280 --> 00:53:35.260\nembrace it. You know, this is something that you love, you know, but people don\n\n1131\n00:53:35.260 --> 00:53:36.400\n't like change. So\n\n1132\n00:53:36.400 --> 00:53:43.300\nhow have you brought your people along with you as you've visioned the success\n\n1133\n00:53:43.300 --> 00:53:44.640\nand the direction\n\n1134\n00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:50.700\nfor this company? Well, I would blame my brother Chris for a lot of that. We\n\n1135\n00:53:50.700 --> 00:53:51.280\nworked together for\n\n1136\n00:53:51.280 --> 00:53:55.590\n40 years. He had a retire a couple of years ago for a health issue. And he\n\n1137\n00:53:55.590 --> 00:53:57.760\nalways pressed us to\n\n1138\n00:53:57.760 --> 00:54:02.640\nbe early to new technologies. He thought it should be part of our culture. And\n\n1139\n00:54:02.640 --> 00:54:04.000\nhe always encouraged\n\n1140\n00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:09.120\npeople to be early in first. And when we had those victories of recognition, he\n\n1141\n00:54:09.120 --> 00:54:10.400\n'd really celebrate it.\n\n1142\n00:54:11.040 --> 00:54:19.170\nFor example, I remember we had no idea. But Mr. Zuckerberg at Facebook, then I\n\n1143\n00:54:19.170 --> 00:54:19.760\ndon't think it was\n\n1144\n00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:26.650\nmeta yet, was introducing a voice bot. So was that seven or eight years ago?\n\n1145\n00:54:26.650 --> 00:54:28.480\nAnd the first thing\n\n1146\n00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:33.990\nthat he did that he ordered online through this voice bot was he called and\n\n1147\n00:54:33.990 --> 00:54:35.120\nplaced an order with\n\n1148\n00:54:35.120 --> 00:54:40.510\n1-800 flowers on stage with a worldwide audience. We had no idea was coming. It\n\n1149\n00:54:40.510 --> 00:54:41.360\nwas news to us.\n\n1150\n00:54:41.360 --> 00:54:44.850\nBut we had someone on my brother's team who'd been working with them. And what\n\n1151\n00:54:44.850 --> 00:54:45.600\nwe said to the\n\n1152\n00:54:45.600 --> 00:54:50.610\ntechnology companies, we're a good, we're a good poster child for you. We'll\n\n1153\n00:54:50.610 --> 00:54:51.680\ntry your new\n\n1154\n00:54:51.680 --> 00:54:55.170\ntechnologies. We like to be early. We like to be first. And then when we have a\n\n1155\n00:54:55.170 --> 00:54:55.600\nvictory,\n\n1156\n00:54:55.600 --> 00:54:59.470\nwe like to really celebrate the heck out of it. And so we had someone on his\n\n1157\n00:54:59.470 --> 00:55:00.240\nteam who'd been\n\n1158\n00:55:00.240 --> 00:55:04.110\nworking with the Facebook team and convinced them that we'd be a good partner\n\n1159\n00:55:04.110 --> 00:55:04.880\nto try that with.\n\n1160\n00:55:04.880 --> 00:55:08.450\nAnd he did that over and over again, whether it was with AT&T in the early days\n\n1161\n00:55:08.450 --> 00:55:09.600\n, whether it was\n\n1162\n00:55:09.600 --> 00:55:14.600\nFacebook or Amazon, whoever had the new technology, we'd like to be early. We\n\n1163\n00:55:14.600 --> 00:55:15.440\n'll be a great\n\n1164\n00:55:15.440 --> 00:55:19.520\napproving ground view. And when we have a victory, we'll celebrate it. And so\n\n1165\n00:55:19.520 --> 00:55:21.600\nhe helped knit that\n\n1166\n00:55:21.600 --> 00:55:27.010\ninto our culture that encouraged everyone. And everyone had any exposure to a\n\n1167\n00:55:27.010 --> 00:55:28.160\nnew technology\n\n1168\n00:55:28.160 --> 00:55:33.440\nto be early, to be first, to be early, make some mistakes. I remember we had a\n\n1169\n00:55:33.440 --> 00:55:35.200\nappearance on 60\n\n1170\n00:55:35.200 --> 00:55:39.290\nminutes one time when someone's robot that we were working with delivered\n\n1171\n00:55:39.290 --> 00:55:40.640\nflowers in some community\n\n1172\n00:55:40.640 --> 00:55:44.130\nin California. And of course, the robot crapped out in the middle of the\n\n1173\n00:55:44.130 --> 00:55:45.600\ndemonstration. But we\n\n1174\n00:55:45.600 --> 00:55:48.950\nsure celebrated that. We had that robot in the office. We had pictures of the\n\n1175\n00:55:48.950 --> 00:55:49.920\nrobot everywhere.\n\n1176\n00:55:49.920 --> 00:55:56.010\nSo I'd lay that blame on him for us culturally being people who embrace\n\n1177\n00:55:56.010 --> 00:55:57.280\ntechnology, be early,\n\n1178\n00:55:57.280 --> 00:56:02.480\nbe first, make mistakes, but accelerate every step of the process.\n\n1179\n00:56:02.480 --> 00:56:06.560\nAnd this celebration seems to be the key. Indeed. You know, this has been so\n\n1180\n00:56:06.560 --> 00:56:07.840\nmuch fun. And I want\n\n1181\n00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:11.330\nto have some more with my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this?\n\n1182\n00:56:11.330 --> 00:56:12.480\nWe'll see.\n\n1183\n00:56:12.480 --> 00:56:18.240\nThe three words that best describe you. Curious, improving, passionate. If you\n\n1184\n00:56:18.240 --> 00:56:19.040\ncould be one person\n\n1185\n00:56:19.040 --> 00:56:23.690\nfor a day beside yourself, who would it be? I like the new Pope. Your biggest\n\n1186\n00:56:23.690 --> 00:56:24.960\npet peeve. Risk\n\n1187\n00:56:24.960 --> 00:56:29.600\ntaking drivers on the road. Who would play you in a movie?\n\n1188\n00:56:29.600 --> 00:56:34.640\nSomebody with a better hairline. What's your favorite flower to have on your\n\n1189\n00:56:34.640 --> 00:56:35.840\nkitchen table?\n\n1190\n00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:38.230\nThere's so many, you know, when I started in this business, the amount of\n\n1191\n00:56:38.230 --> 00:56:38.640\nflowers we had\n\n1192\n00:56:38.640 --> 00:56:42.370\nthat range and variety was really embarrassing. And there's so many more\n\n1193\n00:56:42.370 --> 00:56:43.440\navailable today. But at\n\n1194\n00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:47.680\nthe end of the day, David, and I love to play with flowers at home, you know, I\n\n1195\n00:56:47.680 --> 00:56:48.800\nusually take one\n\n1196\n00:56:48.800 --> 00:56:53.050\nvariety at a time. I don't like a mixed bouquet. And I like to see how long I\n\n1197\n00:56:53.050 --> 00:56:54.480\ncan stretch the shelf\n\n1198\n00:56:54.480 --> 00:56:59.520\nlife and an Astromeria. I can get two, three plus weeks out of them at home.\n\n1199\n00:56:59.520 --> 00:57:03.680\nBut at the end of the day, a rose is a rose is a rose.\n\n1200\n00:57:03.680 --> 00:57:09.200\nWhat's the best part about being a co-owner of the New York Mets for a decade?\n\n1201\n00:57:09.200 --> 00:57:13.200\nThe best part was family. I worked with some wonderful people, Fred Wilpond, a\n\n1202\n00:57:13.200 --> 00:57:14.080\nprincipal owner,\n\n1203\n00:57:14.080 --> 00:57:19.840\ngood friend. But for the 10 years, we were owners and on the board there. My\n\n1204\n00:57:19.840 --> 00:57:20.640\nthree children\n\n1205\n00:57:20.640 --> 00:57:26.080\nare local here on Long Island, seven grandchildren. We had a box set. The fact\n\n1206\n00:57:26.080 --> 00:57:27.440\nthat my grandkids are\n\n1207\n00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:32.020\nsuch avid Mets fans and we'd go to spring training, spend a weekend down there,\n\n1208\n00:57:32.020 --> 00:57:32.720\nthey'd get to meet\n\n1209\n00:57:32.720 --> 00:57:38.160\nplayers and wander around the training fields. The fact that my 13-year-old son\n\n1210\n00:57:38.160 --> 00:57:38.960\nhad to call me\n\n1211\n00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:42.690\nthis year to ask my forgiveness because he wasn't going to play baseball this\n\n1212\n00:57:42.690 --> 00:57:42.960\nyear.\n\n1213\n00:57:42.960 --> 00:57:46.970\nBecause all his buddies were on the lacrosse team and he wanted to play lac\n\n1214\n00:57:46.970 --> 00:57:48.320\nrosse in the conflict that\n\n1215\n00:57:48.320 --> 00:57:52.610\nthe best part was family get together as we'd get my broader family. I had the\n\n1216\n00:57:52.610 --> 00:57:53.280\noldest of five\n\n1217\n00:57:53.280 --> 00:57:57.270\nto get my brothers and sisters, their kids, their grandkids together at a met\n\n1218\n00:57:57.270 --> 00:57:58.160\ngame was just\n\n1219\n00:57:58.160 --> 00:58:02.480\nmagic. We still do it, but not as often. What's the one thing you do just for\n\n1220\n00:58:02.480 --> 00:58:02.960\nyou?\n\n1221\n00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:07.600\nExercise. Besides your family, what's your most prized possession? Friends.\n\n1222\n00:58:07.600 --> 00:58:12.320\nIf I turn on the radio in your car, what would I hear? A podcast. What's\n\n1223\n00:58:12.320 --> 00:58:13.360\nsomething about you a few\n\n1224\n00:58:13.360 --> 00:58:18.640\npeople would know? Well, we're going to keep it that way. What's one of your\n\n1225\n00:58:18.640 --> 00:58:19.600\ndaily rituals?\n\n1226\n00:58:19.600 --> 00:58:23.130\nSomething that you'd never miss? I start with a list for the day. What do I\n\n1227\n00:58:23.130 --> 00:58:23.920\nneed to get done that\n\n1228\n00:58:23.920 --> 00:58:29.200\nday? You took that planning mode right with you. We're out of the lightning\n\n1229\n00:58:29.200 --> 00:58:30.160\nround. Great job there,\n\n1230\n00:58:30.160 --> 00:58:36.320\nJim. You've been married for 50 years. You said you hit the lottery and your\n\n1231\n00:58:36.320 --> 00:58:37.200\nwife has always been\n\n1232\n00:58:37.200 --> 00:58:42.800\nsupportive. How have you two navigated all the ups and downs that come with\n\n1233\n00:58:42.800 --> 00:58:44.640\nentrepreneurship?\n\n1234\n00:58:44.640 --> 00:58:49.290\nWell, I'll take it back to my friend, George Everley. He gave me the vocabulary\n\n1235\n00:58:49.290 --> 00:58:49.680\nto develop\n\n1236\n00:58:49.680 --> 00:58:52.510\nsome comprehension. First of all, I married a woman who's completely\n\n1237\n00:58:52.510 --> 00:58:54.000\nunderstanding and has been\n\n1238\n00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:58.000\nterrific. We saw at the very beginning, she'd work with me. We'd go into the\n\n1239\n00:58:58.000 --> 00:58:58.880\nstore on Saturdays and\n\n1240\n00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:05.520\nSundays. I quickly learned that I'd rather stay married than work together. I\n\n1241\n00:59:05.520 --> 00:59:06.640\ntried the whole\n\n1242\n00:59:06.640 --> 00:59:10.900\nidea of you can't work with family. Well, that's obviously silly because we\n\n1243\n00:59:10.900 --> 00:59:12.160\ndidn't. We do.\n\n1244\n00:59:12.160 --> 00:59:16.240\nGeorge said to me a few years ago, we were talking about work-life balance. He\n\n1245\n00:59:16.240 --> 00:59:16.480\nsaid,\n\n1246\n00:59:16.480 --> 00:59:21.130\nwork-life balance is a joke. He said, \"What do you want? Is good work-life\n\n1247\n00:59:21.130 --> 00:59:22.080\nintegration?\"\n\n1248\n00:59:22.080 --> 00:59:28.540\nI think the gift that we discovered that my wife gives to me is she knows I'm\n\n1249\n00:59:28.540 --> 00:59:29.200\nin business and\n\n1250\n00:59:29.200 --> 00:59:32.510\nshe knows I have passions and she gives me lots of rope and I earn it more and\n\n1251\n00:59:32.510 --> 00:59:33.360\nmore every day. The\n\n1252\n00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:37.530\nrope she gives me and she knows I want to expose my kids to all different kinds\n\n1253\n00:59:37.530 --> 00:59:38.080\nof people and\n\n1254\n00:59:38.080 --> 00:59:42.800\nbusinesses. I think understanding that I'm in business and it's part of my life\n\n1255\n00:59:42.800 --> 00:59:43.360\nand it's never\n\n1256\n00:59:43.360 --> 00:59:47.610\ngoing to be different. To come to that understanding, which George helped me to\n\n1257\n00:59:47.610 --> 00:59:48.480\ncome to just in the\n\n1258\n00:59:48.480 --> 00:59:53.280\nlast few years, is work-life integration is a gift and you should be working at\n\n1259\n00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:54.080\nit and tuning\n\n1260\n00:59:54.080 --> 00:59:58.730\nit all the time. You've grown up believing and you obviously continue to\n\n1261\n00:59:58.730 --> 00:59:59.920\nbelieve that everything is\n\n1262\n00:59:59.920 --> 01:00:06.410\npossible. How do you help your teams, your kids, see the world with that same\n\n1263\n01:00:06.410 --> 01:00:08.000\nlens of possibility,\n\n1264\n01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:14.680\nparticularly in an environment where there seems so much negativity and divis\n\n1265\n01:00:14.680 --> 01:00:15.440\niveness?\n\n1266\n01:00:15.440 --> 01:00:18.680\nYou know, I mentioned to you that I returned to St. John's home a couple of\n\n1267\n01:00:18.680 --> 01:00:19.440\nweeks ago and spent\n\n1268\n01:00:19.440 --> 01:00:25.360\na few hours, several hours there and had lunch with a group of guys. I was\n\n1269\n01:00:25.360 --> 01:00:26.320\nreminded of my first\n\n1270\n01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:30.970\ncouple of weeks working in that group home, which was just, as I say, 10 blocks\n\n1271\n01:00:30.970 --> 01:00:31.840\nfrom where I grew up\n\n1272\n01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:36.560\nand I said it was a million miles away. Speaking with those young men,\n\n1273\n01:00:36.560 --> 01:00:42.520\nabout what their futures might be was frankly depressing because their\n\n1274\n01:00:42.520 --> 01:00:44.160\nperception of opportunities\n\n1275\n01:00:44.160 --> 01:00:51.060\nis so different than mine. I remember one of the most important, when I was\n\n1276\n01:00:51.060 --> 01:00:51.760\nrunning a group home,\n\n1277\n01:00:52.480 --> 01:00:57.360\nsome of my main job was to make sure I got each of my kids a job for the summer\n\n1278\n01:00:57.360 --> 01:00:58.640\nbecause A, they'd\n\n1279\n01:00:58.640 --> 01:01:01.750\nbe tired. B, they'd have a couple of bucks in their pocket and it wouldn't be\n\n1280\n01:01:01.750 --> 01:01:02.480\nout all night\n\n1281\n01:01:02.480 --> 01:01:06.650\nbecause they had to get up to go to work the next day and they learned things.\n\n1282\n01:01:06.650 --> 01:01:07.760\nThey saw things.\n\n1283\n01:01:07.760 --> 01:01:12.410\nSo I remember one young man. I got him a job in a hardware store that was\n\n1284\n01:01:12.410 --> 01:01:13.360\nnearby in Far Rock\n\n1285\n01:01:13.360 --> 01:01:19.240\nWay, Queens called the Empire hardware store and Norman worked there and he's a\n\n1286\n01:01:19.240 --> 01:01:20.080\nblack kid\n\n1287\n01:01:20.080 --> 01:01:25.500\nand there's a vendor who would call on them, a tool vendor, also African\n\n1288\n01:01:25.500 --> 01:01:27.360\nAmerican and Norman\n\n1289\n01:01:27.360 --> 01:01:32.800\nstruck up a relationship with his tool salesman and he had this big truck and\n\n1290\n01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:33.680\nhe was a nice guy\n\n1291\n01:01:33.680 --> 01:01:37.920\nand he took a liking to Norman and Norman discovered that you could have these\n\n1292\n01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:39.040\njobs. He would never\n\n1293\n01:01:39.040 --> 01:01:43.210\nthought of selling tools going around to different mechanics and hardware\n\n1294\n01:01:43.210 --> 01:01:44.000\nstores and selling\n\n1295\n01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:48.860\nspecialized tools and one of the great success stories of my social services\n\n1296\n01:01:48.860 --> 01:01:49.920\ncareer was running\n\n1297\n01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:54.920\ninto Norman 10 years later and after he finished high school and he did two\n\n1298\n01:01:54.920 --> 01:01:55.840\nyears of community\n\n1299\n01:01:55.840 --> 01:02:00.460\ncollege, he wound up buying that route from that guy he met in that summer job\n\n1300\n01:02:00.460 --> 01:02:01.440\nin a hardware store\n\n1301\n01:02:01.440 --> 01:02:08.080\nand he had a home in Queens and in Cambria Heights and he had two kids and he\n\n1302\n01:02:08.080 --> 01:02:09.040\nwas happy and healthy\n\n1303\n01:02:09.040 --> 01:02:13.840\nand he was a big active member of his church and I said to myself, wow, what a\n\n1304\n01:02:13.840 --> 01:02:14.720\nsuccess.\n\n1305\n01:02:14.720 --> 01:02:19.370\nYeah, that's great. But it wouldn't have been if he didn't have that exposure\n\n1306\n01:02:19.370 --> 01:02:19.920\nbecause those 15\n\n1307\n01:02:19.920 --> 01:02:24.570\nkids I spoke to two weeks ago had no clue. The closest idea to someone being in\n\n1308\n01:02:24.570 --> 01:02:25.360\nbusiness was a\n\n1309\n01:02:25.360 --> 01:02:30.010\nyoung man said, I think I'd like to be a barber. I said, oh yeah, why? Because\n\n1310\n01:02:30.010 --> 01:02:30.880\nif you have a barber\n\n1311\n01:02:30.880 --> 01:02:33.870\nshop, that's where everybody hangs out, you can have a whole bunch of friends\n\n1312\n01:02:33.870 --> 01:02:34.720\naround. But no one\n\n1313\n01:02:34.720 --> 01:02:41.180\nelse had a perception of a real opportunity. School, career, no, their role\n\n1314\n01:02:41.180 --> 01:02:42.480\nmodels were very\n\n1315\n01:02:42.480 --> 01:02:46.780\ndifferent. How do you give? How do you tackle that? Well, I think St. John's\n\n1316\n01:02:46.780 --> 01:02:47.680\nhome is trying to do\n\n1317\n01:02:47.680 --> 01:02:51.550\nthat. They've been doing that for 100 years now where they give them exposures\n\n1318\n01:02:51.550 --> 01:02:52.720\nand give them,\n\n1319\n01:02:52.720 --> 01:02:56.890\ngive them, expose them to other people and other opportunities with job\n\n1320\n01:02:56.890 --> 01:02:58.480\nprograms, with education\n\n1321\n01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:02.550\nprograms. They used to have a singing group that would tour around and go to\n\n1322\n01:03:02.550 --> 01:03:03.680\ndifferent\n\n1323\n01:03:03.680 --> 01:03:07.290\nevents and they meet people and someone take a liking to them and hey, you know\n\n1324\n01:03:07.290 --> 01:03:07.680\n, if you're looking\n\n1325\n01:03:07.680 --> 01:03:11.410\nfor a job, I got something for you. So it's taking them out of a really bad\n\n1326\n01:03:11.410 --> 01:03:12.080\nenvironment,\n\n1327\n01:03:12.080 --> 01:03:16.320\neven if it's just for a short period of time, getting them righted, show them a\n\n1328\n01:03:16.320 --> 01:03:17.040\npath where they\n\n1329\n01:03:17.040 --> 01:03:21.110\ncan increase their exposures and change their perception because their\n\n1330\n01:03:21.110 --> 01:03:22.800\nperception is handcuffs.\n\n1331\n01:03:23.440 --> 01:03:28.800\nWhat do you see as your unfinished business now, both for your company and\n\n1332\n01:03:28.800 --> 01:03:29.600\npersonally?\n\n1333\n01:03:29.600 --> 01:03:33.090\nWell, from the company point of view, this is very exciting for us. This is a\n\n1334\n01:03:33.090 --> 01:03:33.600\nfoundational\n\n1335\n01:03:33.600 --> 01:03:37.880\nyear for us. We have to change a lot of things. We have to embrace new\n\n1336\n01:03:37.880 --> 01:03:38.880\ntechnologies.\n\n1337\n01:03:38.880 --> 01:03:42.080\nBut I think we have a chance of becoming a company I've always wanted it to be\n\n1338\n01:03:42.080 --> 01:03:47.440\nand didn't have the way with all to get there. But now we do. So we're changing\n\n1339\n01:03:47.440 --> 01:03:48.160\nhow we relate to\n\n1340\n01:03:48.160 --> 01:03:50.740\nour customers, how we serve our customers, how we communicate with our\n\n1341\n01:03:50.740 --> 01:03:51.920\ncustomers, how we message\n\n1342\n01:03:51.920 --> 01:03:56.640\nthem. So this is unbelievably exciting opportunity for us. And for me now to\n\n1343\n01:03:56.640 --> 01:03:57.600\nstep aside to do what\n\n1344\n01:03:57.600 --> 01:04:03.180\nonly I can do and allow real managers and professionals to re-engineer our\n\n1345\n01:04:03.180 --> 01:04:04.000\ncompany and\n\n1346\n01:04:04.000 --> 01:04:07.490\nto get it ready for this exciting growth era in front of us is terribly\n\n1347\n01:04:07.490 --> 01:04:08.800\nexciting. And a personal\n\n1348\n01:04:08.800 --> 01:04:15.310\npoint of view, the things I think about most are what I'm proudest of is my\n\n1349\n01:04:15.310 --> 01:04:16.960\nkids and my in-laws,\n\n1350\n01:04:16.960 --> 01:04:22.480\nour three of them are all good parents. I think about I want, merely when I\n\n1351\n01:04:22.480 --> 01:04:23.440\nwant our kids to\n\n1352\n01:04:23.440 --> 01:04:27.680\ngrant kids to remember us. And so we want to be deliberate about giving them\n\n1353\n01:04:27.680 --> 01:04:28.240\nexposures.\n\n1354\n01:04:28.240 --> 01:04:34.000\nI think grandparents can and do play an important role in kids' lives. And I\n\n1355\n01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:35.520\nwant that to be\n\n1356\n01:04:35.520 --> 01:04:41.040\nsomething they remember fondly and have appreciation for long after we're gone.\n\n1357\n01:04:41.040 --> 01:04:45.360\nAnd I'm sure they will. Last question here. What's one piece of advice you'd\n\n1358\n01:04:45.360 --> 01:04:46.320\ngive to anyone who\n\n1359\n01:04:46.320 --> 01:04:51.360\nwants to be a better leader? To be deliberate. Read about other people. You've\n\n1360\n01:04:51.360 --> 01:04:52.000\nhad great\n\n1361\n01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:55.730\nleaders on your show. Steve Case, you had on your show. I listened to him back\n\n1362\n01:04:55.730 --> 01:04:56.240\nin August,\n\n1363\n01:04:56.240 --> 01:05:01.240\nI think you had him on. He's a very different than me, but a great leader. You\n\n1364\n01:05:01.240 --> 01:05:01.760\n've had Jamie\n\n1365\n01:05:01.760 --> 01:05:07.680\nDiamond on. Jamie's a friend. And as is Steve, and I've learned so much from\n\n1366\n01:05:07.680 --> 01:05:08.240\nhim. I'm a couple\n\n1367\n01:05:08.240 --> 01:05:11.850\nof years older than Jamie, but I still have learned so much from him. I\n\n1368\n01:05:11.850 --> 01:05:12.960\nremember one time my\n\n1369\n01:05:12.960 --> 01:05:16.220\nbrother Chris and I were having lunch with Jamie, and he got very critical of\n\n1370\n01:05:16.220 --> 01:05:17.360\nme. And I really\n\n1371\n01:05:17.360 --> 01:05:22.640\nappreciated it. He told me I spent way too much time evangelizing. What do you\n\n1372\n01:05:22.640 --> 01:05:24.080\nmean, Jamie? He said,\n\n1373\n01:05:24.080 --> 01:05:27.830\nyou want everyone around you to get it. They don't need to get it. They're not\n\n1374\n01:05:27.830 --> 01:05:28.960\nall capable of getting\n\n1375\n01:05:28.960 --> 01:05:34.020\nit. But if you get it, all they need to do is understand that you have a dream,\n\n1376\n01:05:34.020 --> 01:05:34.800\na passion,\n\n1377\n01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:38.530\nand a plan. And if you're in pursuit of that, they know if they move their\n\n1378\n01:05:38.530 --> 01:05:40.160\nneedle from here to here,\n\n1379\n01:05:40.160 --> 01:05:43.420\nand everybody around them moves their needle appropriately, it'll crescendo\n\n1380\n01:05:43.420 --> 01:05:44.720\ninto this beautiful\n\n1381\n01:05:44.720 --> 01:05:47.830\nnew idea. But if you spend all your time evangelizing, you're going to frust\n\n1382\n01:05:47.830 --> 01:05:48.560\nrate yourself,\n\n1383\n01:05:48.560 --> 01:05:50.750\nand you're going to weigh yourself out, and you're going to spend your energy\n\n1384\n01:05:50.750 --> 01:05:52.000\nin the wrong direction.\n\n1385\n01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:56.020\nAnd I was such good advice, and I'm still guilty of it. But I try and corral\n\n1386\n01:05:56.020 --> 01:05:56.880\nmyself because...\n\n1387\n01:05:56.880 --> 01:06:02.160\nYeah, but doesn't that evangelization, doesn't that evangelizing get that\n\n1388\n01:06:02.160 --> 01:06:03.520\nperson to want to move\n\n1389\n01:06:03.520 --> 01:06:06.800\ntheir needle from point A to B? I'm not sure I agree with Jamie.\n\n1390\n01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:11.600\nIt's a degree. If you spend all your time and energy evangelizing and expecting\n\n1391\n01:06:11.600 --> 01:06:12.080\nthat everyone\n\n1392\n01:06:12.080 --> 01:06:15.570\nwill get it, you're wasting your time, and you're wasting your resources. But\n\n1393\n01:06:15.570 --> 01:06:17.280\nif you spend more time,\n\n1394\n01:06:17.280 --> 01:06:22.880\nlike I expected, Dafo has and will, understanding what everyone's metric needs\n\n1395\n01:06:22.880 --> 01:06:23.680\nto be, what their\n\n1396\n01:06:23.680 --> 01:06:26.700\nparticular job is, what their goal is, and here's your goals, here's your\n\n1397\n01:06:26.700 --> 01:06:28.320\nmetrics, everyone's watching,\n\n1398\n01:06:28.320 --> 01:06:32.050\nand if you deliver, we'll all deliver and we'll get, I think, the balance is\n\n1399\n01:06:32.050 --> 01:06:33.360\nthe point he was making.\n\n1400\n01:06:33.360 --> 01:06:39.200\nSo it was great advice 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and it's, I think, still\n\n1401\n01:06:39.200 --> 01:06:39.840\ngood advice today,\n\n1402\n01:06:39.840 --> 01:06:42.800\nand every once in a while, I have to say to myself, I'm doing it again.\n\n1403\n01:06:42.800 --> 01:06:47.970\nAnd I tell you what, in the role that you're in, you're doing it is a pretty\n\n1404\n01:06:47.970 --> 01:06:49.040\ngood idea,\n\n1405\n01:06:49.040 --> 01:06:53.840\nand I would be more balanced than that than the other side of the equation.\n\n1406\n01:06:53.840 --> 01:07:00.320\nYou're awesome. I really appreciate it, and thanks for being on the show. It\n\n1407\n01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:01.360\nreally was fun.\n\n1408\n01:07:01.360 --> 01:07:03.360\nThat's a treat to talk to you, David. Thanks so much.\n\n1409\n01:07:03.360 --> 01:07:14.960\nThis 1-800-Flowers interview touched my soul in a very, very special way.\n\n1410\n01:07:14.960 --> 01:07:17.600\nWhy is that? Tell me about this. Why?\n\n1411\n01:07:17.600 --> 01:07:20.830\nBecause when you think about, like think about the last time you got flowers,\n\n1412\n01:07:20.830 --> 01:07:21.360\nor the last time\n\n1413\n01:07:21.360 --> 01:07:25.600\nsomeone sent you flowers, it just makes you feel good, like deep on the inside,\n\n1414\n01:07:25.600 --> 01:07:26.240\nbecause people are\n\n1415\n01:07:26.240 --> 01:07:29.350\nthinking about you, and you didn't know they were thinking about you, until you\n\n1416\n01:07:29.350 --> 01:07:29.840\ngot flowers,\n\n1417\n01:07:29.840 --> 01:07:31.920\nprobably from 1-800-Flowers.\n\n1418\n01:07:31.920 --> 01:07:36.570\nWell, what happens if you're dating somebody and you don't get flowers on\n\n1419\n01:07:36.570 --> 01:07:37.520\nValentine's Day?\n\n1420\n01:07:37.520 --> 01:07:39.040\nAren't you expecting that day?\n\n1421\n01:07:39.040 --> 01:07:43.720\nYeah, well, hopefully they would call up Jim McCann and say, \"I forgot to get\n\n1422\n01:07:43.720 --> 01:07:44.160\nflowers.\n\n1423\n01:07:44.160 --> 01:07:45.920\nCould you please help a brother out?\"\n\n1424\n01:07:45.920 --> 01:07:50.570\nAnd they do everything they can, because they know how important it is for you\n\n1425\n01:07:50.570 --> 01:07:51.120\nto save that\n\n1426\n01:07:51.120 --> 01:07:55.040\nrelationship. And it's a relationship business. I love that, didn't you?\n\n1427\n01:07:55.040 --> 01:07:59.680\nDidn't you love the fact that he sees them not in the flower business, not in\n\n1428\n01:07:59.680 --> 01:08:00.160\nthe gift-giving\n\n1429\n01:08:00.160 --> 01:08:05.600\nbusiness, but in the relationship business? The best leaders always define\n\n1430\n01:08:05.600 --> 01:08:06.400\ntheir business\n\n1431\n01:08:06.400 --> 01:08:12.310\nin a broader way. This also is compelling and gives people a noble cause of why\n\n1432\n01:08:12.310 --> 01:08:13.200\nyou go to work.\n\n1433\n01:08:13.200 --> 01:08:17.850\nWe're out there every day. We're trying to build relationships, make the world\n\n1434\n01:08:17.850 --> 01:08:18.560\nhappier,\n\n1435\n01:08:18.560 --> 01:08:22.470\nbring people together. I love that. I thought that was great. And he's a great\n\n1436\n01:08:22.470 --> 01:08:23.360\nguy. I mean,\n\n1437\n01:08:23.360 --> 01:08:28.000\nhe's a guy who you can see him, the fact that he loves making people happy.\n\n1438\n01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:31.920\nAbsolutely. Him talking about being in the relationship business reminded me a\n\n1439\n01:08:31.920 --> 01:08:32.880\nlot of\n\n1440\n01:08:32.880 --> 01:08:36.160\nyour interview with Whitney Wolff heard when she says that at Bumble, they're\n\n1441\n01:08:36.160 --> 01:08:36.880\nin the business of\n\n1442\n01:08:36.880 --> 01:08:41.530\nlove. They're in the business of connecting people and promoting love. And\n\n1443\n01:08:41.530 --> 01:08:42.480\nobviously,\n\n1444\n01:08:42.480 --> 01:08:47.480\nthat's not the functional thing that they offer. But I just love that it allows\n\n1445\n01:08:47.480 --> 01:08:48.240\neverybody who's\n\n1446\n01:08:48.240 --> 01:08:52.410\npart of that company to buy into something that is deeply meaningful and that\n\n1447\n01:08:52.410 --> 01:08:53.920\nactually moves you.\n\n1448\n01:08:53.920 --> 01:08:57.600\nYou make a very good point. That's not the functional thing that they offer.\n\n1449\n01:08:57.600 --> 01:09:04.640\nAnd see, the best marketers in the world, they understand what functionally\n\n1450\n01:09:04.640 --> 01:09:05.120\nthey do,\n\n1451\n01:09:05.120 --> 01:09:09.150\nbut then they connect with their customers by putting it in an emotional\n\n1452\n01:09:09.150 --> 01:09:11.360\ncontext. They create\n\n1453\n01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:17.360\nlove. They're in the love business, okay? And I think that's fantastic.\n\n1454\n01:09:17.360 --> 01:09:21.330\nI do too. It's such a fun way to kind of reposition your business, especially,\n\n1455\n01:09:21.330 --> 01:09:21.680\nI think,\n\n1456\n01:09:21.680 --> 01:09:25.170\nyou know, for your people. And as you try to recruit people and retain people,\n\n1457\n01:09:25.170 --> 01:09:25.360\nthat's\n\n1458\n01:09:25.360 --> 01:09:30.010\nmuch more compelling than, you know, hey, we have something that you can access\n\n1459\n01:09:30.010 --> 01:09:30.960\non your phone.\n\n1460\n01:09:30.960 --> 01:09:34.800\nI love also an interview with Jim David when he talks about how they have\n\n1461\n01:09:34.800 --> 01:09:41.360\nhow they expanded over time from flowers into other gift items like chocolate\n\n1462\n01:09:41.360 --> 01:09:42.320\nand cookies.\n\n1463\n01:09:42.320 --> 01:09:46.880\nHe uses this great phrase of it. He said, \"Follow your customers.\" And he tells\n\n1464\n01:09:46.880 --> 01:09:47.840\na story about how,\n\n1465\n01:09:47.840 --> 01:09:53.200\nyou know, when they first launched 1-800-Flowers, all of his customers were\n\n1466\n01:09:53.200 --> 01:09:54.400\nbuying flowers and then\n\n1467\n01:09:54.400 --> 01:09:59.050\ngoing to Harry and David to complete their gift buying for the holiday season.\n\n1468\n01:09:59.050 --> 01:09:59.920\nSo he calls up\n\n1469\n01:09:59.920 --> 01:10:03.080\nHarry and David and says, \"Hey, all my customers are coming to you. We'd\n\n1470\n01:10:03.080 --> 01:10:04.800\nactually like to buy\n\n1471\n01:10:04.800 --> 01:10:09.450\nHarry and David so that it's the one-stop shop for people to go buy all their\n\n1472\n01:10:09.450 --> 01:10:10.080\ngifts.\"\n\n1473\n01:10:10.080 --> 01:10:13.600\nAnd he would have never known that if he didn't follow his customers. What's\n\n1474\n01:10:13.600 --> 01:10:14.400\nthe real\n\n1475\n01:10:14.400 --> 01:10:18.130\ninsight there? I think the real insight is understand your customers, know what\n\n1476\n01:10:18.130 --> 01:10:18.640\nthey do,\n\n1477\n01:10:18.640 --> 01:10:23.440\nand then if you can, you know, buy adjacent businesses that are similar in\n\n1478\n01:10:23.440 --> 01:10:24.160\nterms of what they\n\n1479\n01:10:24.160 --> 01:10:29.570\noffer in the end, they have that emotional benefit that you're really trying to\n\n1480\n01:10:29.570 --> 01:10:30.240\ndeliver,\n\n1481\n01:10:30.240 --> 01:10:33.760\nyou're going to really be successful. If you try to do something for your\n\n1482\n01:10:33.760 --> 01:10:34.640\ncustomers that's\n\n1483\n01:10:34.640 --> 01:10:38.960\noutside of what they want, it's really difficult. You're swimming up, you're\n\n1484\n01:10:38.960 --> 01:10:39.600\nswimming upstream.\n\n1485\n01:10:39.600 --> 01:10:45.280\nBut what he's doing is that he's diving off that diving board because he's\n\n1486\n01:10:45.280 --> 01:10:45.920\ngoing to have a\n\n1487\n01:10:45.920 --> 01:10:52.380\nperfect 10 because he understands what his customers are buying and why. And he\n\n1488\n01:10:52.380 --> 01:10:53.920\ngoes out and, you know,\n\n1489\n01:10:54.400 --> 01:10:58.570\nfigures out how to take advantage of that. He also did it with this cookie\n\n1490\n01:10:58.570 --> 01:10:58.960\nbrand\n\n1491\n01:10:58.960 --> 01:11:03.440\nsomewhere in the Midwest, like Sheryl's cookies, I think it was. Delicious.\n\n1492\n01:11:03.440 --> 01:11:09.120\nJim's career is an interesting one. He was in social work and, you know,\n\n1493\n01:11:09.120 --> 01:11:12.050\nthought he was going to be in the New York City Police Department and then ends\n\n1494\n01:11:12.050 --> 01:11:12.960\nup at 1,100\n\n1495\n01:11:12.960 --> 01:11:16.690\nFlowers. And in the interview, when you ask him about it, he says, \"Resume is\n\n1496\n01:11:16.690 --> 01:11:17.360\nnot a noun,\n\n1497\n01:11:17.360 --> 01:11:22.210\nit's a verb.\" And that's really a philosophy that they try to ingrain into\n\n1498\n01:11:22.210 --> 01:11:23.360\ntheir people at\n\n1499\n01:11:23.360 --> 01:11:28.410\nthe 1-800 Flowers company. And I love that resume is a verb. It's one of his,\n\n1500\n01:11:28.410 --> 01:11:28.800\nyou know, more\n\n1501\n01:11:28.800 --> 01:11:34.480\nquotable phrases. How do you balance pursuing those sort of resume building\n\n1502\n01:11:34.480 --> 01:11:35.440\ngrowth opportunities\n\n1503\n01:11:35.440 --> 01:11:41.170\nwhile also doing your current job really well? Oh, I think you're growing. You\n\n1504\n01:11:41.170 --> 01:11:42.400\nknow, it's just\n\n1505\n01:11:42.400 --> 01:11:45.980\nlike the flowers, you know, you got to grow. And, you know, while you're doing\n\n1506\n01:11:45.980 --> 01:11:47.600\nyour job, the only way\n\n1507\n01:11:47.600 --> 01:11:51.770\nyou're going to really do your job well is to grow by learning how to do it\n\n1508\n01:11:51.770 --> 01:11:53.200\nbetter each and every day.\n\n1509\n01:11:53.200 --> 01:11:57.280\nSo I don't think they're two separate things. It's intrinsically linked\n\n1510\n01:11:57.280 --> 01:11:58.000\ntogether.\n\n1511\n01:11:58.000 --> 01:12:03.040\nAt 1-800 Flowers, they have developed this training program and they call it\n\n1512\n01:12:03.040 --> 01:12:04.240\nFresh University,\n\n1513\n01:12:04.240 --> 01:12:09.040\nwhich, by the way, I love that name because you want your flowers fresh,\n\n1514\n01:12:09.040 --> 01:12:09.680\ntherefore,\n\n1515\n01:12:09.680 --> 01:12:14.330\nFresh University. Anyways, he talks about the importance of offering skills\n\n1516\n01:12:14.330 --> 01:12:14.720\ntraining and\n\n1517\n01:12:14.720 --> 01:12:18.960\ndevelopment opportunities to his people, especially as all these new AI tools\n\n1518\n01:12:18.960 --> 01:12:20.160\ncome into play. He\n\n1519\n01:12:20.160 --> 01:12:24.230\nwants his people to feel confident in them so that, you know, when all these\n\n1520\n01:12:24.230 --> 01:12:24.800\ncompanies lay\n\n1521\n01:12:24.800 --> 01:12:27.910\npeople off because their eyes are placing their job, at least he's offering\n\n1522\n01:12:27.910 --> 01:12:29.360\nfolks a way to get\n\n1523\n01:12:29.360 --> 01:12:33.440\nreally good and comfortable using all these tools. So I just love how their\n\n1524\n01:12:33.440 --> 01:12:34.880\ndevelopment,\n\n1525\n01:12:34.880 --> 01:12:39.120\nhow their commitment to developing their people is a real guiding force.\n\n1526\n01:12:39.120 --> 01:12:43.840\nYeah, he's been a, he's been a head of technology for a long time, you know,\n\n1527\n01:12:43.840 --> 01:12:45.440\nfrom the 1-800 Flowers\n\n1528\n01:12:45.440 --> 01:12:54.000\nbuying that brand to now AI. And, you know, he really makes some great points\n\n1529\n01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:54.640\nin this interview\n\n1530\n01:12:54.640 --> 01:13:00.320\nabout how to deal with AI. Be totally 100% upfront with your employees. Yes,\n\n1531\n01:13:00.320 --> 01:13:01.280\nthere could be some\n\n1532\n01:13:01.280 --> 01:13:05.840\nproductivity gains that could mean some people lose their job. But we're going\n\n1533\n01:13:05.840 --> 01:13:06.560\nto develop you\n\n1534\n01:13:06.560 --> 01:13:12.480\nwhile you're here. And so that if there's a reason that your job goes away, you\n\n1535\n01:13:12.480 --> 01:13:13.280\nknow,\n\n1536\n01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:21.280\nwe're going to prepare you for the next job. And that's part of his resume as a\n\n1537\n01:13:21.280 --> 01:13:21.760\nverb.\n\n1538\n01:13:21.760 --> 01:13:25.490\nWe're just going to keep building your capability, building your skills so you\n\n1539\n01:13:25.490 --> 01:13:26.640\ncan be the best\n\n1540\n01:13:26.640 --> 01:13:32.150\nbest you can possibly be at our company. But if for some reason, you know, your\n\n1541\n01:13:32.150 --> 01:13:33.200\njob is eliminated,\n\n1542\n01:13:33.200 --> 01:13:36.710\nyou can go out and be a consultant, you can go work somewhere else, but we're\n\n1543\n01:13:36.710 --> 01:13:37.520\ngoing to prepare\n\n1544\n01:13:37.520 --> 01:13:42.170\nyou to win. And I love that because, you know, when you lose your job, a lot of\n\n1545\n01:13:42.170 --> 01:13:43.200\ntimes, you know,\n\n1546\n01:13:43.200 --> 01:13:48.320\nit's not because of any fault of your own. You are a winner and you can win.\n\n1547\n01:13:48.320 --> 01:13:49.760\nYou're not a loser,\n\n1548\n01:13:49.760 --> 01:13:55.040\nokay? And I think that it's his belief in people and their capability that\n\n1549\n01:13:55.040 --> 01:13:56.320\nreally is the impressive\n\n1550\n01:13:56.320 --> 01:14:03.600\nthing here. Jim is also really funny. And he talks about humor in the episode\n\n1551\n01:14:03.600 --> 01:14:05.040\nas being kind of a\n\n1552\n01:14:05.040 --> 01:14:09.330\ncompetitive advantage in the leadership space, especially if you aren't\n\n1553\n01:14:09.330 --> 01:14:11.360\nnecessarily super extroverted\n\n1554\n01:14:11.360 --> 01:14:15.320\nor really social. And humor is this concept that I'm honestly surprised it\n\n1555\n01:14:15.320 --> 01:14:16.240\ndoesn't come up\n\n1556\n01:14:16.240 --> 01:14:21.520\nmore on this podcast because you've got some jokes, David, but it is a powerful\n\n1557\n01:14:21.520 --> 01:14:22.640\nleadership tool.\n\n1558\n01:14:22.640 --> 01:14:27.440\nAnd I'm curious, like, do number one, do you think you're funny? Number two has\n\n1559\n01:14:27.440 --> 01:14:29.360\nhumor helped you\n\n1560\n01:14:29.360 --> 01:14:32.960\nin your career or get things that you might have not otherwise got?\n\n1561\n01:14:32.960 --> 01:14:35.520\nI don't know. I don't know what he's ever asked me if I thought it was funny\n\n1562\n01:14:35.520 --> 01:14:36.000\nbefore.\n\n1563\n01:14:37.200 --> 01:14:42.880\nI think I have a good sense of humor, okay? And I love to laugh and I love to\n\n1564\n01:14:42.880 --> 01:14:44.240\nhave a good time.\n\n1565\n01:14:44.240 --> 01:14:51.360\nAnd I think that when your humor is self-deprecating, you know, and not at the\n\n1566\n01:14:51.360 --> 01:14:52.400\nexpense of others,\n\n1567\n01:14:52.400 --> 01:14:57.530\nI think it can be very powerful because it makes you very relatable. But when\n\n1568\n01:14:57.530 --> 01:14:59.920\nyour humor digs in\n\n1569\n01:14:59.920 --> 01:15:04.800\nand other people and makes them feel less about themselves, that's when you\n\n1570\n01:15:04.800 --> 01:15:06.160\nhave a problem.\n\n1571\n01:15:06.160 --> 01:15:12.560\nAnd, you know, I have to tell you, you know, I've done both. When you think you\n\n1572\n01:15:12.560 --> 01:15:12.880\n're funny\n\n1573\n01:15:12.880 --> 01:15:18.960\nor you think you have a good sense of humor, you can do it in ways where it\n\n1574\n01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:20.000\nreally does release\n\n1575\n01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:23.510\nthe tension and makes people feel better and everybody laughs and it gets you\n\n1576\n01:15:23.510 --> 01:15:24.400\nthrough the tough\n\n1577\n01:15:24.400 --> 01:15:33.600\ntimes. But then I've used my humor in a way that, you know, at times, you know,\n\n1578\n01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:34.480\nhasn't lifted a\n\n1579\n01:15:34.480 --> 01:15:41.020\nperson up. And when I do that, I'm at my worst. So I think humor can be very\n\n1580\n01:15:41.020 --> 01:15:42.080\npowerful\n\n1581\n01:15:42.080 --> 01:15:52.040\nprovided it's generic, okay? It's not personal to other people. It's more if\n\n1582\n01:15:52.040 --> 01:15:52.480\nyou're going to make\n\n1583\n01:15:52.480 --> 01:15:56.240\nfun of anybody, make sure you make fun of yourself so that you're more approach\n\n1584\n01:15:56.240 --> 01:15:57.840\nable and people feel\n\n1585\n01:15:57.840 --> 01:16:02.050\ngood about it. But I just think it's great to laugh in the marketplace. I just\n\n1586\n01:16:02.050 --> 01:16:03.120\nthink it's great to go\n\n1587\n01:16:03.120 --> 01:16:07.120\nto work with a smile on your face. I think it's great. I think it's great to\n\n1588\n01:16:07.120 --> 01:16:07.680\nhave fun.\n\n1589\n01:16:07.680 --> 01:16:15.530\nAnd it's hard to do that without having some laughter out there, you know. And\n\n1590\n01:16:15.530 --> 01:16:16.080\nit's kind of\n\n1591\n01:16:16.080 --> 01:16:20.400\ninteresting, you know, I mean, this has nothing really that revolutionary. But,\n\n1592\n01:16:20.400 --> 01:16:20.720\nyou know,\n\n1593\n01:16:20.720 --> 01:16:27.290\nif you smile, it's kind of tough to feel bad. It's so true. I mean, try it. I\n\n1594\n01:16:27.290 --> 01:16:28.720\nmean, just smile.\n\n1595\n01:16:28.720 --> 01:16:34.560\nNow, when you smile, I'm going to come on, it's kind of hard. You're almost\n\n1596\n01:16:34.560 --> 01:16:36.000\nlaughing at yourself,\n\n1597\n01:16:36.000 --> 01:16:39.490\neven if you're not feeling good about it. But just try it. You know, try to\n\n1598\n01:16:39.490 --> 01:16:40.320\nsmile and see what\n\n1599\n01:16:40.320 --> 01:16:44.640\nhappens. I definitely don't feel bad. And by the way, when you do that, you\n\n1600\n01:16:44.640 --> 01:16:45.360\nconnect with other\n\n1601\n01:16:45.360 --> 01:16:50.010\npeople because people want to be around positive people. I would say positive\n\n1602\n01:16:50.010 --> 01:16:51.040\nenergy lifts you up,\n\n1603\n01:16:51.040 --> 01:16:55.710\nnegative energy brings you down. So when you can have a smile, you can have\n\n1604\n01:16:55.710 --> 01:16:56.640\nsome humor,\n\n1605\n01:16:56.640 --> 01:17:01.360\nyou know, I think it allows you to connect. And I think what you, if you listen\n\n1606\n01:17:01.360 --> 01:17:02.160\nto the podcast\n\n1607\n01:17:02.160 --> 01:17:08.280\ncarefully with Jim, he uses self-deprecating humor. You know, sometimes it's\n\n1608\n01:17:08.280 --> 01:17:09.280\nfunny, sometimes\n\n1609\n01:17:09.280 --> 01:17:13.930\nit's not, but you know, he's got his heart in the right place. Absolutely.\n\n1610\n01:17:13.930 --> 01:17:14.880\nAbsolutely. And I\n\n1611\n01:17:14.880 --> 01:17:19.610\nthink it also helps him connect in a more meaningful way with the people that\n\n1612\n01:17:19.610 --> 01:17:21.200\nhe surrounds himself,\n\n1613\n01:17:21.200 --> 01:17:24.440\nwith his family, with his friends, and certainly with the people that he leads.\n\n1614\n01:17:24.440 --> 01:17:25.040\nSo,\n\n1615\n01:17:25.040 --> 01:17:29.230\nnow, great example there. I said, sometimes he's funny. Sometimes he's not. Now\n\n1616\n01:17:29.230 --> 01:17:29.920\n, when he hears\n\n1617\n01:17:29.920 --> 01:17:34.270\nthat, he's going to go, \"When am I not funny?\" You know, did I really need to\n\n1618\n01:17:34.270 --> 01:17:36.640\nsay not? No,\n\n1619\n01:17:36.640 --> 01:17:40.420\nI didn't, you know, it's, you know, and he's really funny. Yeah. That is really\n\n1620\n01:17:40.420 --> 01:17:40.960\nfunny, you know?\n\n1621\n01:17:40.960 --> 01:17:44.960\nI thought it was hilarious. Yeah. So I didn't just need to say sometimes you're\n\n1622\n01:17:44.960 --> 01:17:45.520\nnot, but that was\n\n1623\n01:17:45.520 --> 01:17:50.170\njust me just like trying to be funny and not being funny because that wouldn't\n\n1624\n01:17:50.170 --> 01:17:51.360\nhave lifted him up.\n\n1625\n01:17:51.360 --> 01:17:56.080\nI love that as a, as a filter. And you're, you, I would say that you're funny.\n\n1626\n01:17:56.080 --> 01:17:57.920\nSo you can say that\n\n1627\n01:17:57.920 --> 01:18:01.440\nI asked you, and I think the answer is yes. Again, I think it's very important\n\n1628\n01:18:01.440 --> 01:18:02.400\nfor others to be the\n\n1629\n01:18:02.400 --> 01:18:07.690\njudge of that. All right, David, well, that does it for our episode of How\n\n1630\n01:18:07.690 --> 01:18:09.360\nLeaders Lead Today.\n\n1631\n01:18:09.360 --> 01:18:13.090\nHey, if you're feeling down, call 1-800-Flowers and just send somebody some\n\n1632\n01:18:13.090 --> 01:18:13.840\nflowers to say you're\n\n1633\n01:18:13.840 --> 01:18:17.570\nthinking about them. And thank Jim McCann for his great leadership and for how\n\n1634\n01:18:17.570 --> 01:18:18.800\neasy it is to do that.\n\n1635\n01:18:18.800 --> 01:18:20.800\nAbsolutely, let's do it.\n","is_pinned",false,"pinned_at","is_featured","featured_at","mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL5345336547.mp3","dx_media_id",2572,"video_media_id","thumbnail_image_media_id","published_date","2025-11-13","itunes_episode_id",265,"youtube_id","AobTcbxfXz8","2025-11-13T16:26:51.000000Z","dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/18OJS10rUDyZ08OiiJQ7q9uVR9w1Am3KgHTLHOzd.mp3","dx_filename","18OJS10rUDyZ08OiiJQ7q9uVR9w1Am3KgHTLHOzd.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","P3YM02rIoWnkks2KEo01w6EFr300jiiXJe7RfS4VTOs58o","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/2572.json","video_url","video_mux_playback_id","duration",4701117,"thumbnail_url","https://img.youtube.com/vi/AobTcbxfXz8/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_image_url","dx_media",{"_13":66,"_95":79,"_96":77,"_97":-5,"_31":81,"_33":98,"_99":-5,"_100":83,"_86":87,"_101":-5},"video_media","thumbnail_image_media","filename","url","status","n7Io8uk8WretwFlf16B004P4MfIIGJwIILv1IY200ZdhU","mux_upload_id","waveform_url","preview_media_id","first_name","Jim","last_name","McCann","job_title","1-800-Flowers, Founder","Jim McCann, CEO, ecommerce, 1800flowers","external_links","https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim1800flowers",0,"image_media_id",2542,2543,"2026-07-20T20:40:22.000000Z","send_push_notification_at","image_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/Q7d88g7M5J18kpSlBsgTG4nQZRsMKcX9GO5lpE4J.jpg","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/23sMkXKVvuZhRvrBDOl7WpAx4pAhBfAqAObq1bfi.jpg","https://www.howleaderslead.com/leaders/253/jim-mccann","industry_id",4,"industry",{"_13":122,"_133":134,"_135":137},"industries",[132],"image_media",{"_13":113,"_95":131,"_96":118,"_97":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_99":-5,"_100":-5,"_86":-5,"_101":-5},{"_13":114,"_95":130,"_96":119,"_97":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_99":-5,"_100":-5,"_86":-5,"_101":-5},"23sMkXKVvuZhRvrBDOl7WpAx4pAhBfAqAObq1bfi.jpg","Q7d88g7M5J18kpSlBsgTG4nQZRsMKcX9GO5lpE4J.jpg",{"_13":122,"_133":134,"_135":136},"name","Retail and E-commerce","pivot",{"_35":36,"_121":122},{"_35":36,"_121":122},"user","token","favorites",[],"collections",[],"env",{"_146":147,"_148":149,"_150":151,"_152":153,"_154":155},"GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID","644017954836-qpllhu38r0tsrtfq85ukntcvsb0akbht.apps.googleusercontent.com","APPLE_CLIENT_ID","com.howleaderslead.webapp","APPLE_REDIRECT_URI","https://www.howleaderslead.com/auth/apple-callback","APP_URL","https://howleaderslead.com","GTM_ID",""]