February 21, 2024 • 36 mins
There's something special about Chris from Kenny & Ziggy's. We find out what it is and what it takes to continually provide excellent customer service. Thanks to Mattress Mack and Gallery Furniture for sponsoring the Dana Tyson podcast!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So you go into Kenny and Ziggiesand you're gonna find chocolate cake this big.
But it's not the chocolate cake thatI love so much. It's one
of the waiters, Chris, whois the most delightful man. And I
know he works with Mattress Mac.He just has an incredible customer base because
of his humility and something special.We're gonna find out what that is.
He's my guest on my Dana Tysonpodcast. And speaking of Mac, yes,
(00:21):
Max's always sponsoring this podcast. Thankyou Mac and Gallery Furniture for your
generosity. So anyone who goes toKenny and Ziggie's, they're going to be
confronted with the most like. It'slike this most delightful man who has mastered
customer service. So I welcome you, Chris to the Dana Tyson Podcast.
(00:43):
How did you learn how to bethe hostess with the mostest? I don't
know that I've I've learned that I'vekind of I learned every day from meeting
those nice people. And so Iwill say that without a doubt, I
got to give Mster. Caraba hasdefinitely due just because I worked at Carabas
(01:07):
on Kirby back in the day,Aaron, they miss Rosie, and those
groups of people definitely had a senseof wanting to tell you how to help
people and then getting interested in peoplebecause a lot of times in the business
you can kind of start thinking ofpeople as numbers and not as people.
(01:27):
And they showed you how to lookat people as people. And it makes
a big difference, especially when you'rekind of vested with meeting people and knowing
things about them. It's kind oflike reading a book almost, if you
will, Right, but how didyou What did they teach you? Because
you know, you can just youcan sense a certain I mean, there's
(01:49):
a genuineness to your You just youlike you feed the soul of someone.
I mean, it's crazy. Well, I mean one particular thing is they
definitely you know, made it aboutfinding out about people. I mean,
I mean if people are interesting,right, and if given an opportunity,
(02:09):
they can they can be very interesting. And like I say, like a
good book, you start to seethings about people and and and and you
I don't know, it's just you. You you start to want to help
people. It's kind of like Iguess, like anything they say, like
(02:30):
when you give you get a goodfeeling and so it kind of just you
learn to do those things. It'slike, uh, wanting to help people
out. I don't know if you'reborn that way or if it's a technique
that you have mastered. So Iwant to go through the process because you
know, they say the number onething people fear the most is public speaking.
(02:53):
Okay, all right, so you'rein close quarters with people, you've
got to get their orders out.You want to make sure. I mean,
Kenny and Ziggy can be really crazyduring lunchtime. I met Chris at
the one on, you know,his big new location in the Galleria area,
and right off the bat, likeyou don't even know if you had
a tough night or a horrible morning, you are full on in customer service,
(03:17):
like genuine customer service mode. Youknow. Most restaurants try to talk
to you about being on stage whenyou walk into to the door, which
is something that you have to takeinto consideration every time you walk in the
door, is that it's the jobis to be like an actor and to
(03:38):
be on stage because people are watchingyou, and so they talk about that
all the time and making sure thatyou're doing those things that people would want
to see if you go on stage, like if you're watching it again as
you were watching a good book,the details or the devil are in the
details. So that's something that youkind of look forward to to try to
(03:58):
try to see, well, whatis this gonna what's gonna be with this
book at this time because you needyou need great people like your son who
and his friends and you you findout about different things that that I I
personally wouldn't have even had an opportunityto be part of if I didn't have
these people that come in and youknow, are able to bring something special
(04:21):
to me as much as I ifI'm bringing something to them. So that's
always a great delight too. It'sit's a lot of people come to Kenny
and Ziggi's and have maybe they dotheir weekly meeting, maybe a motivational meeting,
and that's what you're talking about.Bobby and his buddies, they're in
real estate and they love to cometo that location. And I know mattress
(04:42):
Mac well, he comes when hecomes up to speak at iHeartRadio, he
goes to Kenny and Ziggie's and hasan amazing breakfast and probably an incredible experience
with you as well. Well,yes, and uh, and I hate
to say it, like there's whatI've been thinking about this online. There's
a little bit of a selfishness toit too, because again, when you
(05:08):
give something to somebody and and theygenuinely enjoy it, you get kind of
a rush or high if you will. Yes, and so there's a little
bit of that because when you whenyou have people who are appreciative of but
you do, it's it's a it'sa very spiritual I think it's the only
(05:31):
way I can really kind of putit as because you get to there's people
who come in and they have abad day and sometimes you know, talking
to them, you can they changetheir whole day. Or sometimes you come
in I have a bad day andpeople bring something. There's like that see
me every week and know, hey, what's going on with you today?
(05:53):
And so I mean some of it'sa little selfishness too. So I will
admit that. You know, Macalways says the essence of living is giving,
and I mean that just covers everything, right, it really does.
It's amazing. What would you say, Chris to people who might be shy,
say they're going to a party ata social event, or they've got
(06:15):
to be sitting at a restaurant andthey've been seated next to someone they don't
know. What's a great icebreaker?What have you learned to kind of get
the conversation started. You've got tohave this mastered, you know. I
would think that the age old thingis hey, how you doing? I
mean, that's that's to me thebiggest icebreaker of anything, because people are
(06:38):
either going to tell you in twoseconds horrible, or they're going to tell
you doing great, or they lookat you kind of like they didn't hear
you like that. You get threeresponses. Either they didn't hear you,
like huh, like they don't expectyou, say hey, how you doing?
Or they're like horrible, or you'relike, hey, it's great,
thanks for asking me. So hey, how you doing? Is always mine
just going on, hey, howyou doing this? And so that's always
(07:00):
It seems to me it would bea great thing when you when you're learning
about each person each book. Arethere certain areas that you go to that
seem to be successful? Have youbeen burned with kind of going in certain
other areas? How do you approachit where you're very diplomatic and yet you're
(07:23):
still learning. So I think,like with anything that comes with practice,
and when you've done things, whenyou do things almost all the time,
it becomes certain levels of second nature. And I've been in the restaurant business
for twenty years, and then yougot somebody like, for example, Kenny
(07:44):
and Ziggi's who've been in the restaurantbusiness like their whole lives. They if
you've ever been in when like Ziggycomes in, he's you know, just
as anytime you see him, He'llwalk to everybody, he'll say hello,
he says how you doing. Andso when you have a boss that comes
in and is that way, itkind of starts from the top up and
then comes to the bottom. You'relike, well, I have to be
(08:07):
that just as much more if ifthat's what that person's bringing, because I've
worked the bad bosses and there yourenergy is high when they come in to
want to speak to people and orfind out about people. And I think
it translates because people sometimes I mean, and I hope this isn't kind of
(08:28):
changing it, but sometimes even ifI don't have a good read on somebody,
I can bring Ziggie over to them, and that moment instantly changes because
they're like, oh, well,the owner's taking this a moment to say
hello to me. And I've beenguilty on capitalizing that more than an occasion
or two. Very smart strategy,though, very smart strategy. I've been
(08:48):
reading this book and goshtarn it,Chris, I wish I remembered the name.
It's the founder of the shake Shackand the shake Shack all over Houston
now, But it was just alittle shake shack at sarah Toogus Springs horse
Park. And his whole goal wasgoing beyond delighting his customers. I mean
he was like if he found outa couple was having an anniversary and the
(09:13):
wife is like stressed out that sheleft the champagne in the freezer and she's
like to the waiter, is itgoing to explode? You know what he
does, give me the keys toyour home. I'm going to go there
and I'll get it out of thefreezer. And he left like flowers and
a gift card. I mean thatwas extraordinary customer service. So the gentleman
you're talking about is Danny Myers.Yes book called Setting the Table. Yes
(09:35):
and Setting the Table is a bookwhere he goes into it about how he
remembers his first things as far aslike the restaurant business, food and then
service, and he found out thatagain, I consider it in kind of
a little bit of a selfishness thatwhen you provide people with these and if
(10:01):
I can't remember if it's a quotefrom that book or if it's a quote
from another book, but it's astatement that says, people don't remember what
you did for them, but theyremember how you made them feel. And
if you leave them feeling good aboutwhatever you've done, that's one of the
things that they're working towards in thatif I remember correctly, in that book,
(10:22):
and so he really set the stageand he talks about again being on
stage. Whenever you're dealing with themassive crials that you may deal with,
you just kind of always have tolet you know that people are looking at
you and sometimes even looking up toyou. I mean, you know,
it's again, I know, Ikeep saying this is kind of a selfishness,
(10:45):
but you know, for someone whodoesn't have a degree, and doctors,
lawyers, people who are dignitaries areasking me, so what do you
think about this dish? And they'relooking for me to give them a response
in a a you know, dependingon what the environment is, because you
know what some people are. It'sa strictly business and they need to be
(11:07):
hey, I need this, andthen to be left alone. And there's
some people who wants, well,you know, I've got this dietary restriction,
you know, knowing the ingredients ofwhat it is that might have to
be be an ingredients, especially whenwe're in this particular case, we're a
kosher style deli and people some peopledon't even know that what's the difference between
(11:28):
kosher and not kosher. Anybodys say, well, we're technically not kosher,
so you know some of the thingsthat we have to know, so that
when of those people say, oh, so I can't order da da da
da da, or like you havea gluten analogy, knowing okay, well
you can't get this, but wedo have these alternatives. So there's there's
(11:48):
a lot of having to know thosethings to come with that as well,
which makes the customer feel so takencare of and so relieved that you cared
enough to know these things, soI can feel comfortable in coming back to
you all. Because Kenny and Ziggy'sknows my needs, right. I know,
it's so true, the presence ofyou. There's a lady that out
(12:13):
in I live in the Belleville areaand there's a place called twenty two North
Holland and chef Cody got his trainingin Vermont, which is where I'm from.
So I feel this connection to him, and I'm like, now we're
in Belleville together. But his girlfriend, who is the lead hostess, Laura,
she just has such a way.You know, they wouldn't even have
(12:33):
to serve food. You just wantto go just to get a hug from
Laura. I mean, that's thepower that a person you are entertaining us.
You know, you've got the amazingfood and drink and then the people
that make up the restaurant. It'sso important. I don't know if the
food and drink could do it alone. Well, to be honest with you,
(12:56):
I know it wouldn't because I knowmany. I mean if it if
it were just food alone, wewouldn't have things like yep and these open
table meetings where people will say,hey, great food, bad service.
I'm never going back there. Yeah, I mean you never hear the reverse.
You always say, you know,the food's not that good, but
the service is great. I'll givethem a second chance. So and some
(13:18):
people kind of, especially in today'ssociety, forget that those things are what
sets them apart from one place oranother. Is hey, you could go
to you know, you can goto a particular fast food restaurant. I
don't want to really put out names, but when you're going through their drive
(13:39):
through and you can get in intwo to three minutes, and you always
know that no matter what happens,they have somebody out there with their little
reader outside and you can move fastand it's gonna be it's thirty people in
line, but for some reason,they get you in and out in six
minutes. You go to other restaurantconcepts and there's one person there and you're
there for fifteen minutes. And thisis this is that same kind of feeling
(14:03):
that you have if when you comeinto these places and they don't give you
a good system. She was like, Oh man, I'm I'm just I'm
here for lunch. I'm already anxiousbecause I gotta get back to from lunch.
My boss has been on me.You know, I would like somebody
to come up here and not belike he can I help you, Hey,
(14:26):
that's going Can I bring you adoctor Brown's Little Black cherry or something
like that, or maybe even likenow, we have a bar. If
you ever if people come in there, we have a bar, and people
come in and have a mimosa,have a have a maybe a bloody Mary,
take some of the edge off whenthey're having the meeting. Right,
So right, I have to saythe place that you're talking about. I
(14:52):
know the lady who was responsible,her marketing company was responsible for bringing that
place to Houston. Her name isTina, and her philosophy is I want
you to leave here feeling better thanwhen you came in. Just like you
said, it's the same feeling.And it's just that if the world was
(15:13):
able to capture that and we alldid that, can you even imagine no
road rage, we wouldn't be quittingjobs. I mean, it would just
be amazing. Yeah, it wouldbe. It would be And you know,
I think that there are places thatcapture that, and I think people
gravitate to those places that they feelthat way, and those places tend to
(15:35):
be fairly more successful than others.Sometimes you don't realize it, though,
so when you verbalize it, youknow what, every time I leave Kenny
and Ziggy's, I feel better thanwhen I went in. I didn't even
notice that. It's just like Ialways felt good. And maybe it's because
Chris met you at the door andtried to make your morning or your lunchtime
(15:56):
or your afternoon a delight. Andthe food. I don't even know how
you can go to work every dayand not just eat everything. Well,
I mean, I'm just the foodthing. But isn't that the same reason
that your listeners tune into you everyday or listening to your podcast because you
make them feel a little bit betterabout anything or everything that's going on.
(16:17):
On our Fridays, we even callit a feel good Friday. Yeah,
so you think, okay, it'sFriday, which you're kind of excited about
Friday already, right, but youstill have the boss and stuff that you
have to deal with in the kids. So we try to share a story
that made you feel good and thenthat you don't even realize. Like,
people be driving Chris and they'll smile. They could be alone in the car,
(16:38):
and I'm like, that's my goalthat if they were to put a
mirror in front of themselves, they'dbe smiling because of what that caller just
said. So then if I may, what has prompted you to be able
to do that the same way youasked me? Because is that something that
you learned or is this something thatwas in you? Isn't that a that's
(17:00):
yeah, I've never had that questionasked to me. I do know that.
Oh, and I've been at Sonnyfor you've been in the food,
in waiting or just in the businessfor twenty years. That well, I've
been in probably customer service all mylife, but in the restaurant for twenty
years because I sold cars at onepoint time, did customer service on phones
for at one point time. Soyou're interacting with people. I've been at
(17:23):
Sonny for thirty almost thirty four years. And so you graduated. You did
that as soon as you got outof the crib. You just kind of
started walking. You were I justwalked into Sonny as a little girl.
And I'll tell you, I thinkI have a helpaholic personality. Okay,
(17:44):
I just like to help people.I was going to say that you've got
this humility. We have got listenersand it's just the craziest thing. Chris,
who are the kindest people that Iwish I could be them. So
that's just a gift given to meby God that we have the I guess
it's the sunny format that attracts incrediblepeople. Now, if there's someone having
(18:10):
a bad day, this is whatI was taught. And you know who
taught this and kind of confirmed itfor me. I may have been taught
at years ago. I amc theHPD cadet graduations. Troy Finner is the
HPD. He's the top cop,he's the chief. He's also been there
thirty three years. He tells thecadets, you are going to meet people
(18:33):
on the worst day of their lives. They're not calling you to say,
hey, hey, come on overfor a cup of coffee. They're calling
you because there's distress. I wantyou to give them dignity. And when
I was like, what like whenyou think of that concept? So then
I might have an angry listener who'ssimply having a bad day, And so
(18:56):
I don't get offended. I usedto, and I go, you know,
let's back up a little bit,and I try to just try to
connect with them where they are andI always apologize if I offended someone always
because it's live. You sometimes sayreally stupid things, you know, and
I did this. I did thislearning from being on the radio. You
(19:21):
know, when you go and youpay for someone's coffee in the line,
Yeah, okay, if that doesn'tmake you feel so good, you have
no idea if they're going, ohmy god, I can't believe you know
that that person just because I knowit happened to me once and I thought,
that is so freaking nice. Whycan't I be that nice? Right?
(19:41):
There is a person who I wouldalways try to leave every Sunday morning
I did at Starbucks. I'd alwaystry to leave, and this one person
chased me down to say thank you. So you do these things, and
I think it just continues to grow. And then you do it, and
then you feel good. And thenyou do it and you see what it
makes other people feel good, andyou're like, it's like a little pebble
(20:03):
just it just makes life so muchnicer. And then you don't even know
that you're bummed out about something,and it gives you this joy to get
through the day, maybe the weekend, maybe the entire week, And then
you have an opportunity to do itagain, and it's just an amazing.
It's an amazing I don't even dynamic. I guess you would call it.
(20:26):
Now. Let me ask you this, because you said you've been on the
radio for thirty three years and dealingwith people in these scenarios. Can you
recall like a time that you justknow that you just someone came in and
you just were able to change theirmove from like a I don't want to
see a bad but maybe say theywere maybe down or something, and you
(20:48):
were able to like you know what. Let me just whether it was saying
a prayer or maybe you played asong, or maybe you just mentioned something
that happened to change their because likesometimes like for example, people will come
in and you hear them and you'redown a little bit, and you know,
Ziggy's kind enough to let us beable to take certain liberties. So
(21:11):
for example, that people who werekind of upset, maybe had a passing
or something like that, and I'mI'm allowed at the idea, I'll bring
them over a dessert and you couldsee just their whole like even though they
may still be sad, you know, they're just like thank you for noticing.
And I was just wondering if there'sa moment in your mind that may
stick out that you say you couldjust you've changed somebody and you weren't necessarily
(21:36):
meaning to, but you were justtrying to help out. And it's like,
wow, you know, I'll tellyou what I did this. I've
done this several times. There wasa lady who called in. She just
found out that her husband had terminalcancer. And she's a longtime listener.
She just would call in all thetime, and then for whatever reason,
she just called me this day andI was like, okay, and this
is when Katie was. This wasyears ago, and Katie was like Kingslynd
(22:00):
Boulevard was Katie and then Pinoak Boulevard. And she goes, well, I'm
out on Pinoak. I'm going,oh my god, that's like far out
in the middle of nowhere. Herhusband loves Jack in the Box, so
I said, I will bring itbecause he listens all the time too.
So I got them Jack in theBox for lunch. I brought the little
(22:21):
bag of Jack in the Box totheir home and we lay in his bed
and watched movies eating Jack. Ihad never had Jack in the Box.
And we're laying in there and I'mgoing this is crazy, but it was
just like a human to human connectionand it was beautiful, and it was
just beautiful. You know. I'mso glad you used that term human connection,
(22:45):
because, especially nowadays, we oftenforget about the human connection. You
know, you get so wrapped upinto to this and sometimes I know it's
easy to forget that it is somebodythat's emotionally going through whatever they make going
(23:07):
through that day. And and Ithink that the toughest thing to try to
break through is that, especially aswe've gotten older, we put up these
walls sometimes and so we tend tothink that if someone's taking an interest on
us, it's for a negative impact. And even though you may have a
good intention, sometimes your good intentioncan be misconceiving and you have to really
(23:33):
say no, I'm just no,you're okay. And so having that human
connection and seeing that that person hasa I guess the best way to say
is the need to have somebody tobe that just takes a moment to care
for them, you know, ismissing in a lot of things, you
know, and it's only yes.And that's again the reasons why I still
(23:57):
stay in this business too, isbecause I know I keep refers first into
books, but I've seen people growup from kids to adults and so,
and you see them do these differentthings. Like I've worked for Kenyan Ziggi's
(24:18):
for seven years and I have aparticular family that I've seen their son from
when he was born till he's likeseven yard now, and you know,
he runs up and gives me ahug, and you know that's another like
exactly. So I don't have kidsin my own, but I mean I
have these types of moments. Imean, seeing your grandkids come in with
your son a couple of times andjust are adorable to see him. And
(24:45):
can I just say this, justyour your grandkids to your son are such
a tall tale of the person thatyou are because you your son shines exactly
the same way you do. Youknow, he's always just comes in and
he's he's he's you know, veryjust a joy to be around and sitting
here talking to you for as longas I have. Now you see where
(25:07):
he gets that from, you know, so, and then seeing how he
even talks to his kids, it'slike hey trying to teach them. And
so when you get to see thosekinds of things, it really brings in
an opportunity to to to remember that, hey, you know what, we
are human beings trying to do humanthings every day. We every day we
have a struggle, but we're morealike than we are unlike, you know,
(25:33):
and sometimes it's easy to forget that, you know, because you get
news going on about that war andthis war over there, and it's like
kindness and generosity and that book thatyou had mentioned, I mean that that
man is like to the extreme oflistening to people and delighting people. And
(25:56):
generosity doesn't have to be money monetary. It could be just your time.
And I think that's probably the mostvaluable just to stop. And I have
a hard time just stopping and listening. And when you come into the room,
you know, I think so manypeople I know I experienced that.
When I first met you, Chris, I just was like, wow,
(26:19):
huge, you are a human connectorhere. You you are special it.
I just thought, why wouldn't Kennyand Ziggies want you to just you just
are a big hug. You're justa big hug for people. I appreciate
that, and I think that's whatwe can you imagine to be. It's
(26:40):
money, our our promotions director MelissaBresner. She just resigned after thirty three
years. Do you know what herjob was. You don't even know her.
No one knows her. She's behindthe scenes. You know what her
job was. All the amazing prizeswe give away, she curated them.
Okay. She's responsible for bringing experiences, lifelong memories to families. And that's
(27:03):
what I told her. I said, Melissa, do you realize, like
you give me Blake Shelton tickets foropening night at the Rodeo, I get
to give them to this precious littlegirl who wanted them so badly. I
even had her parents on my podcast. That's all they were to think about.
A family in the car driving toschool. Okay, Okay, Dana's
got the Blake Shelton ticks ready,it's our nearly impossible question. Melissa got
(27:25):
them. She has to go throughall the channels to get these prizes that
I'm blessed to give away. That'swhen I go, man, that's a
cool job. But someone behind thescenes was making that happen. Like you,
you're bringing out this amazing food thatI'm gonna love so much, the
salmon on the bagel. Someone preparedthat in the kitchen. I don't know
(27:45):
who they are, but if youknew the steps that it took for them
to get that salmon, that isa it's a tedious job. There's a
guy and he literally he has tohave a very sharp knife. He has
(28:08):
a piece of salmon, you know, this large and so probably twelve to
fifteen inches that he painstakingly has tojust keep a very even hand and just
literally go back and for slicing eachpiece all the way to the end.
And then he has to eyeball eachone of those pieces to take off,
(28:30):
and he imperfections on that because youknow it is a piece of meat.
And then he has to put thatin the wrapping paper without messing that up
and then be able to he hasto store it long enough for it to
be put onto the sandwich. Thatit is a pretty pain taket. So,
like you say, the people whoare behind the scenes are the people
(28:52):
who make things like us shine aswell. Because again, even though I
may have said like services, whatbrings people back? People? Do you
want good food? And when youhave a product that is representation of that
and you have someone that presents thatlike yourself. Given that the young lady
the shelter, the blake shelting tickets, and then having someone in behind the
scenes that was able to get thosetickets, because again, that wasn't an
(29:15):
easy thing to do. And Imean, it doesn't matter how many connections
you have, sometimes you have tojump through some hoops to get those.
Yeah, that's that's what people,I think need to realize that there are
there's so many people making this allwork. So if you're going to be
short tempered, impatient, it's kindof like, no, I choose to
(29:37):
not. I did a story onthis woman. She was a dear I
can't remember which Wich school district.Her name is Cherry Cherry Moody. Cherry
Moody. So she's this lady.You've probably seen her, saw her in
the news. I didn't know shewas local. She's the woman who got
sick when's the emergency room for dehydration, got sepsis, wakes up. All
(30:03):
her limbs had to be removed tokeep her alive. She wakes up with
a smile. I am so gladI'm alive to be with my husband and
my kids. She's got Sherry Moodyon Facebook her daily progress. She has
no hands no feet, and shemakes sure she's got her sister and all
(30:26):
her friends and her husband. Sheposts pictures of her beautifully dressed exercising whatever
it takes to show you I havechosen hope and happiness. I will not
go down that pit. That's amazing, right, very much choices. It's
all choices. So if that doesn'tmake if you're having a crappy day,
(30:47):
Chris, if that doesn't make yougo, what the heck am I worried
about? Right? I've got thisamazing job. And I think so many
of us could just say I've gotthis amazing job. Even if you don't
have a job, or if you'velost your job, what next? What
do you want me to do next? That's that's that's a that's a big
question. And I mean, yeah, and and people like that are again
(31:12):
I think they're, like you've pointedout is is are definitely motivators because you're
like, if that person can doit, I don't have a reason,
or even if I do, Ineed to change my attitude about what I'm
thinking about. And you know,we need people like that it, you
(31:33):
know, and if you wonder ifyou wanted to ask that young lady because
again, like you said, sheshe came out and she was still able
to say, you know what,this is a blessing. It might not
be the blessing I asked for,but it's a blessing and understanding that,
you know, without getting any typeof religious that sometimes they say that you're
(31:59):
God doesn't give you anything that youcan't handle, and sometimes that we we
don't exactly we're going through those things. Those words aren't that. I know,
when you come out on the otherside of it and you look back
on either what you've learned from itor the strength that you developed it to
go into the next situation, it'sit's real. It's really easy to forget.
(32:23):
Muscle is built by pressure, andyou know, someone like her is
unfortunate. Is that as that happened, you know, being able to be
someone that we can look at andsay, you know what, I have
to do it because if that personcan stay happy, I have to.
(32:44):
You know, it blows. Sheliterally glows. You need to You need
to check on her, and Chris, I'm telling you you need to.
Next time we talk, I wantyou to tell me that you started writing
your book. Okay, okay,So I don't know if I necessarily want
(33:07):
to write a book, but Iwould like to try to figure out a
nonprofit situation because I would love totry to go through and help kids learn
for how to build their future.Well, I guess that is a book,
So I guess that is I guessyou're right. You know what you
do is start out, start outdoing. You know, Bobby, who
you you appreciate, is constantly sendingme videos of motivational, incredible concepts that
(33:36):
people have learned through pressure which ledthem to success. That might be an
area that you might want to startdoing. Like you put together these concepts
that you've learned, simple concepts thatyou've learned in dealing with people from all
walks of life in the restaurant industry. And you know, Houston being the
(33:57):
town that we're a foody town.We love talking food and part of the
experience is you serving us the food. And you could share, Oh my
gosh, Chris, you could shareso many stories and bits of Mattress machisms
because that's what he does. Youknow what he does. You know,
he's at that store calling his customersfrom the previous day to find out what
(34:19):
their experience was like. That's whathe does Magics Max is to me the
hometown hero along with JJ Watts,because I will never forget that when we
had that storm, he so graciouslyopened up his stores and said, if
you don't have a place to stay, you come stay here. I mean,
and he's another person that you knowwhen he comes in. I had
(34:42):
to say this like this, butI still get boys schools crush on him
because again, for someone to dothat, and I mean, you know
this guy, I mean, comeon, he's got everything for him to
say. I don't care about that. You people need help, Let me
help you. I've seen him doit. It's true. It's true.
(35:04):
Well, I tell my viewers rightnow, if you first of all,
Kenny and Ziggie's is amazing, andthe piece of chocolate cake is so it's
like the size of your body,so you can split it. But go
in and learn about an incredible experiencewith Chris and everyone there, and I
just I just had to pick yourbrain. I had. I needed you
(35:25):
to encourage me and inspire me soI can go another thirty three years being
bringing good customer service to our listenerslike you do to the patrons at Kenny
and Ziggy well, you've already gotthe most important thing. Part of that
is the big bright smile. Soyes, that that helps just in it
comes through. So I mean,I thank you for taking the time to
(35:47):
talk to LOW mean, to pickyour brain. It's not little. It's
that humility. I'm telling you what. It's that humility. You're just a
delight and I thank you for allyou do. I always like talking to
people who delight our community, andthat's exactly what you do. Keep it
up. We see you, we'rewatching you, and we appreciate you.
Chris Well, thank you. Iappreciate it, and thank everybody who's made
that possible. And again I do, I really appreciate you taking the time
(36:12):
to talk to me. It's mypleasure. We'll talk to you. We'll
see you soon, yes, ma'am. All right,
So you go into Kenny and Ziggiesand you're gonna find chocolate cake this big.
But it's not the chocolate cake thatI love so much. It's one
of the waiters, Chris, whois the most delightful man. And I
know he works with Mattress Mac.He just has an incredible customer base because
of his humility and something special.We're gonna find out what that is.
He's my guest on my Dana Tysonpodcast. And speaking of Mac, yes,
(00:21):
Max's always sponsoring this podcast. Thankyou Mac and Gallery Furniture for your
generosity. So anyone who goes toKenny and Ziggie's, they're going to be
confronted with the most like. It'slike this most delightful man who has mastered
customer service. So I welcome you, Chris to the Dana Tyson Podcast.
(00:43):
How did you learn how to bethe hostess with the mostest? I don't
know that I've I've learned that I'vekind of I learned every day from meeting
those nice people. And so Iwill say that without a doubt, I
got to give Mster. Caraba hasdefinitely due just because I worked at Carabas
(01:07):
on Kirby back in the day,Aaron, they miss Rosie, and those
groups of people definitely had a senseof wanting to tell you how to help
people and then getting interested in peoplebecause a lot of times in the business
you can kind of start thinking ofpeople as numbers and not as people.
(01:27):
And they showed you how to lookat people as people. And it makes
a big difference, especially when you'rekind of vested with meeting people and knowing
things about them. It's kind oflike reading a book almost, if you
will, Right, but how didyou What did they teach you? Because
you know, you can just youcan sense a certain I mean, there's
(01:49):
a genuineness to your You just youlike you feed the soul of someone.
I mean, it's crazy. Well, I mean one particular thing is they
definitely you know, made it aboutfinding out about people. I mean,
I mean if people are interesting,right, and if given an opportunity,
(02:09):
they can they can be very interesting. And like I say, like a
good book, you start to seethings about people and and and and you
I don't know, it's just you. You you start to want to help
people. It's kind of like Iguess, like anything they say, like
(02:30):
when you give you get a goodfeeling and so it kind of just you
learn to do those things. It'slike, uh, wanting to help people
out. I don't know if you'reborn that way or if it's a technique
that you have mastered. So Iwant to go through the process because you
know, they say the number onething people fear the most is public speaking.
(02:53):
Okay, all right, so you'rein close quarters with people, you've
got to get their orders out.You want to make sure. I mean,
Kenny and Ziggy can be really crazyduring lunchtime. I met Chris at
the one on, you know,his big new location in the Galleria area,
and right off the bat, likeyou don't even know if you had
a tough night or a horrible morning, you are full on in customer service,
(03:17):
like genuine customer service mode. Youknow. Most restaurants try to talk
to you about being on stage whenyou walk into to the door, which
is something that you have to takeinto consideration every time you walk in the
door, is that it's the jobis to be like an actor and to
(03:38):
be on stage because people are watchingyou, and so they talk about that
all the time and making sure thatyou're doing those things that people would want
to see if you go on stage, like if you're watching it again as
you were watching a good book,the details or the devil are in the
details. So that's something that youkind of look forward to to try to
(03:58):
try to see, well, whatis this gonna what's gonna be with this
book at this time because you needyou need great people like your son who
and his friends and you you findout about different things that that I I
personally wouldn't have even had an opportunityto be part of if I didn't have
these people that come in and youknow, are able to bring something special
(04:21):
to me as much as I ifI'm bringing something to them. So that's
always a great delight too. It'sit's a lot of people come to Kenny
and Ziggi's and have maybe they dotheir weekly meeting, maybe a motivational meeting,
and that's what you're talking about.Bobby and his buddies, they're in
real estate and they love to cometo that location. And I know mattress
(04:42):
Mac well, he comes when hecomes up to speak at iHeartRadio, he
goes to Kenny and Ziggie's and hasan amazing breakfast and probably an incredible experience
with you as well. Well,yes, and uh, and I hate
to say it, like there's whatI've been thinking about this online. There's
a little bit of a selfishness toit too, because again, when you
(05:08):
give something to somebody and and theygenuinely enjoy it, you get kind of
a rush or high if you will. Yes, and so there's a little
bit of that because when you whenyou have people who are appreciative of but
you do, it's it's a it'sa very spiritual I think it's the only
(05:31):
way I can really kind of putit as because you get to there's people
who come in and they have abad day and sometimes you know, talking
to them, you can they changetheir whole day. Or sometimes you come
in I have a bad day andpeople bring something. There's like that see
me every week and know, hey, what's going on with you today?
(05:53):
And so I mean some of it'sa little selfishness too. So I will
admit that. You know, Macalways says the essence of living is giving,
and I mean that just covers everything, right, it really does.
It's amazing. What would you say, Chris to people who might be shy,
say they're going to a party ata social event, or they've got
(06:15):
to be sitting at a restaurant andthey've been seated next to someone they don't
know. What's a great icebreaker?What have you learned to kind of get
the conversation started. You've got tohave this mastered, you know. I
would think that the age old thingis hey, how you doing? I
mean, that's that's to me thebiggest icebreaker of anything, because people are
(06:38):
either going to tell you in twoseconds horrible, or they're going to tell
you doing great, or they lookat you kind of like they didn't hear
you like that. You get threeresponses. Either they didn't hear you,
like huh, like they don't expectyou, say hey, how you doing?
Or they're like horrible, or you'relike, hey, it's great,
thanks for asking me. So hey, how you doing? Is always mine
just going on, hey, howyou doing this? And so that's always
(07:00):
It seems to me it would bea great thing when you when you're learning
about each person each book. Arethere certain areas that you go to that
seem to be successful? Have youbeen burned with kind of going in certain
other areas? How do you approachit where you're very diplomatic and yet you're
(07:23):
still learning. So I think,like with anything that comes with practice,
and when you've done things, whenyou do things almost all the time,
it becomes certain levels of second nature. And I've been in the restaurant business
for twenty years, and then yougot somebody like, for example, Kenny
(07:44):
and Ziggi's who've been in the restaurantbusiness like their whole lives. They if
you've ever been in when like Ziggycomes in, he's you know, just
as anytime you see him, He'llwalk to everybody, he'll say hello,
he says how you doing. Andso when you have a boss that comes
in and is that way, itkind of starts from the top up and
then comes to the bottom. You'relike, well, I have to be
(08:07):
that just as much more if ifthat's what that person's bringing, because I've
worked the bad bosses and there yourenergy is high when they come in to
want to speak to people and orfind out about people. And I think
it translates because people sometimes I mean, and I hope this isn't kind of
(08:28):
changing it, but sometimes even ifI don't have a good read on somebody,
I can bring Ziggie over to them, and that moment instantly changes because
they're like, oh, well,the owner's taking this a moment to say
hello to me. And I've beenguilty on capitalizing that more than an occasion
or two. Very smart strategy,though, very smart strategy. I've been
(08:48):
reading this book and goshtarn it,Chris, I wish I remembered the name.
It's the founder of the shake Shackand the shake Shack all over Houston
now, But it was just alittle shake shack at sarah Toogus Springs horse
Park. And his whole goal wasgoing beyond delighting his customers. I mean
he was like if he found outa couple was having an anniversary and the
(09:13):
wife is like stressed out that sheleft the champagne in the freezer and she's
like to the waiter, is itgoing to explode? You know what he
does, give me the keys toyour home. I'm going to go there
and I'll get it out of thefreezer. And he left like flowers and
a gift card. I mean thatwas extraordinary customer service. So the gentleman
you're talking about is Danny Myers.Yes book called Setting the Table. Yes
(09:35):
and Setting the Table is a bookwhere he goes into it about how he
remembers his first things as far aslike the restaurant business, food and then
service, and he found out thatagain, I consider it in kind of
a little bit of a selfishness thatwhen you provide people with these and if
(10:01):
I can't remember if it's a quotefrom that book or if it's a quote
from another book, but it's astatement that says, people don't remember what
you did for them, but theyremember how you made them feel. And
if you leave them feeling good aboutwhatever you've done, that's one of the
things that they're working towards in thatif I remember correctly, in that book,
(10:22):
and so he really set the stageand he talks about again being on
stage. Whenever you're dealing with themassive crials that you may deal with,
you just kind of always have tolet you know that people are looking at
you and sometimes even looking up toyou. I mean, you know,
it's again, I know, Ikeep saying this is kind of a selfishness,
(10:45):
but you know, for someone whodoesn't have a degree, and doctors,
lawyers, people who are dignitaries areasking me, so what do you
think about this dish? And they'relooking for me to give them a response
in a a you know, dependingon what the environment is, because you
know what some people are. It'sa strictly business and they need to be
(11:07):
hey, I need this, andthen to be left alone. And there's
some people who wants, well,you know, I've got this dietary restriction,
you know, knowing the ingredients ofwhat it is that might have to
be be an ingredients, especially whenwe're in this particular case, we're a
kosher style deli and people some peopledon't even know that what's the difference between
(11:28):
kosher and not kosher. Anybodys say, well, we're technically not kosher,
so you know some of the thingsthat we have to know, so that
when of those people say, oh, so I can't order da da da
da da, or like you havea gluten analogy, knowing okay, well
you can't get this, but wedo have these alternatives. So there's there's
(11:48):
a lot of having to know thosethings to come with that as well,
which makes the customer feel so takencare of and so relieved that you cared
enough to know these things, soI can feel comfortable in coming back to
you all. Because Kenny and Ziggy'sknows my needs, right. I know,
it's so true, the presence ofyou. There's a lady that out
(12:13):
in I live in the Belleville areaand there's a place called twenty two North
Holland and chef Cody got his trainingin Vermont, which is where I'm from.
So I feel this connection to him, and I'm like, now we're
in Belleville together. But his girlfriend, who is the lead hostess, Laura,
she just has such a way.You know, they wouldn't even have
(12:33):
to serve food. You just wantto go just to get a hug from
Laura. I mean, that's thepower that a person you are entertaining us.
You know, you've got the amazingfood and drink and then the people
that make up the restaurant. It'sso important. I don't know if the
food and drink could do it alone. Well, to be honest with you,
(12:56):
I know it wouldn't because I knowmany. I mean if it if
it were just food alone, wewouldn't have things like yep and these open
table meetings where people will say,hey, great food, bad service.
I'm never going back there. Yeah, I mean you never hear the reverse.
You always say, you know,the food's not that good, but
the service is great. I'll givethem a second chance. So and some
(13:18):
people kind of, especially in today'ssociety, forget that those things are what
sets them apart from one place oranother. Is hey, you could go
to you know, you can goto a particular fast food restaurant. I
don't want to really put out names, but when you're going through their drive
(13:39):
through and you can get in intwo to three minutes, and you always
know that no matter what happens,they have somebody out there with their little
reader outside and you can move fastand it's gonna be it's thirty people in
line, but for some reason,they get you in and out in six
minutes. You go to other restaurantconcepts and there's one person there and you're
there for fifteen minutes. And thisis this is that same kind of feeling
(14:03):
that you have if when you comeinto these places and they don't give you
a good system. She was like, Oh man, I'm I'm just I'm
here for lunch. I'm already anxiousbecause I gotta get back to from lunch.
My boss has been on me.You know, I would like somebody
to come up here and not belike he can I help you, Hey,
(14:26):
that's going Can I bring you adoctor Brown's Little Black cherry or something
like that, or maybe even likenow, we have a bar. If
you ever if people come in there, we have a bar, and people
come in and have a mimosa,have a have a maybe a bloody Mary,
take some of the edge off whenthey're having the meeting. Right,
So right, I have to saythe place that you're talking about. I
(14:52):
know the lady who was responsible,her marketing company was responsible for bringing that
place to Houston. Her name isTina, and her philosophy is I want
you to leave here feeling better thanwhen you came in. Just like you
said, it's the same feeling.And it's just that if the world was
(15:13):
able to capture that and we alldid that, can you even imagine no
road rage, we wouldn't be quittingjobs. I mean, it would just
be amazing. Yeah, it wouldbe. It would be And you know,
I think that there are places thatcapture that, and I think people
gravitate to those places that they feelthat way, and those places tend to
(15:35):
be fairly more successful than others.Sometimes you don't realize it, though,
so when you verbalize it, youknow what, every time I leave Kenny
and Ziggy's, I feel better thanwhen I went in. I didn't even
notice that. It's just like Ialways felt good. And maybe it's because
Chris met you at the door andtried to make your morning or your lunchtime
(15:56):
or your afternoon a delight. Andthe food. I don't even know how
you can go to work every dayand not just eat everything. Well,
I mean, I'm just the foodthing. But isn't that the same reason
that your listeners tune into you everyday or listening to your podcast because you
make them feel a little bit betterabout anything or everything that's going on.
(16:17):
On our Fridays, we even callit a feel good Friday. Yeah,
so you think, okay, it'sFriday, which you're kind of excited about
Friday already, right, but youstill have the boss and stuff that you
have to deal with in the kids. So we try to share a story
that made you feel good and thenthat you don't even realize. Like,
people be driving Chris and they'll smile. They could be alone in the car,
(16:38):
and I'm like, that's my goalthat if they were to put a
mirror in front of themselves, they'dbe smiling because of what that caller just
said. So then if I may, what has prompted you to be able
to do that the same way youasked me? Because is that something that
you learned or is this something thatwas in you? Isn't that a that's
(17:00):
yeah, I've never had that questionasked to me. I do know that.
Oh, and I've been at Sonnyfor you've been in the food,
in waiting or just in the businessfor twenty years. That well, I've
been in probably customer service all mylife, but in the restaurant for twenty
years because I sold cars at onepoint time, did customer service on phones
for at one point time. Soyou're interacting with people. I've been at
(17:23):
Sonny for thirty almost thirty four years. And so you graduated. You did
that as soon as you got outof the crib. You just kind of
started walking. You were I justwalked into Sonny as a little girl.
And I'll tell you, I thinkI have a helpaholic personality. Okay,
(17:44):
I just like to help people.I was going to say that you've got
this humility. We have got listenersand it's just the craziest thing. Chris,
who are the kindest people that Iwish I could be them. So
that's just a gift given to meby God that we have the I guess
it's the sunny format that attracts incrediblepeople. Now, if there's someone having
(18:10):
a bad day, this is whatI was taught. And you know who
taught this and kind of confirmed itfor me. I may have been taught
at years ago. I amc theHPD cadet graduations. Troy Finner is the
HPD. He's the top cop,he's the chief. He's also been there
thirty three years. He tells thecadets, you are going to meet people
(18:33):
on the worst day of their lives. They're not calling you to say,
hey, hey, come on overfor a cup of coffee. They're calling
you because there's distress. I wantyou to give them dignity. And when
I was like, what like whenyou think of that concept? So then
I might have an angry listener who'ssimply having a bad day, And so
(18:56):
I don't get offended. I usedto, and I go, you know,
let's back up a little bit,and I try to just try to
connect with them where they are andI always apologize if I offended someone always
because it's live. You sometimes sayreally stupid things, you know, and
I did this. I did thislearning from being on the radio. You
(19:21):
know, when you go and youpay for someone's coffee in the line,
Yeah, okay, if that doesn'tmake you feel so good, you have
no idea if they're going, ohmy god, I can't believe you know
that that person just because I knowit happened to me once and I thought,
that is so freaking nice. Whycan't I be that nice? Right?
(19:41):
There is a person who I wouldalways try to leave every Sunday morning
I did at Starbucks. I'd alwaystry to leave, and this one person
chased me down to say thank you. So you do these things, and
I think it just continues to grow. And then you do it, and
then you feel good. And thenyou do it and you see what it
makes other people feel good, andyou're like, it's like a little pebble
(20:03):
just it just makes life so muchnicer. And then you don't even know
that you're bummed out about something,and it gives you this joy to get
through the day, maybe the weekend, maybe the entire week, And then
you have an opportunity to do itagain, and it's just an amazing.
It's an amazing I don't even dynamic. I guess you would call it.
(20:26):
Now. Let me ask you this, because you said you've been on the
radio for thirty three years and dealingwith people in these scenarios. Can you
recall like a time that you justknow that you just someone came in and
you just were able to change theirmove from like a I don't want to
see a bad but maybe say theywere maybe down or something, and you
(20:48):
were able to like you know what. Let me just whether it was saying
a prayer or maybe you played asong, or maybe you just mentioned something
that happened to change their because likesometimes like for example, people will come
in and you hear them and you'redown a little bit, and you know,
Ziggy's kind enough to let us beable to take certain liberties. So
(21:11):
for example, that people who werekind of upset, maybe had a passing
or something like that, and I'mI'm allowed at the idea, I'll bring
them over a dessert and you couldsee just their whole like even though they
may still be sad, you know, they're just like thank you for noticing.
And I was just wondering if there'sa moment in your mind that may
stick out that you say you couldjust you've changed somebody and you weren't necessarily
(21:36):
meaning to, but you were justtrying to help out. And it's like,
wow, you know, I'll tellyou what I did this. I've
done this several times. There wasa lady who called in. She just
found out that her husband had terminalcancer. And she's a longtime listener.
She just would call in all thetime, and then for whatever reason,
she just called me this day andI was like, okay, and this
is when Katie was. This wasyears ago, and Katie was like Kingslynd
(22:00):
Boulevard was Katie and then Pinoak Boulevard. And she goes, well, I'm
out on Pinoak. I'm going,oh my god, that's like far out
in the middle of nowhere. Herhusband loves Jack in the Box, so
I said, I will bring itbecause he listens all the time too.
So I got them Jack in theBox for lunch. I brought the little
(22:21):
bag of Jack in the Box totheir home and we lay in his bed
and watched movies eating Jack. Ihad never had Jack in the Box.
And we're laying in there and I'mgoing this is crazy, but it was
just like a human to human connectionand it was beautiful, and it was
just beautiful. You know. I'mso glad you used that term human connection,
(22:45):
because, especially nowadays, we oftenforget about the human connection. You
know, you get so wrapped upinto to this and sometimes I know it's
easy to forget that it is somebodythat's emotionally going through whatever they make going
(23:07):
through that day. And and Ithink that the toughest thing to try to
break through is that, especially aswe've gotten older, we put up these
walls sometimes and so we tend tothink that if someone's taking an interest on
us, it's for a negative impact. And even though you may have a
good intention, sometimes your good intentioncan be misconceiving and you have to really
(23:33):
say no, I'm just no,you're okay. And so having that human
connection and seeing that that person hasa I guess the best way to say
is the need to have somebody tobe that just takes a moment to care
for them, you know, ismissing in a lot of things, you
know, and it's only yes.And that's again the reasons why I still
(23:57):
stay in this business too, isbecause I know I keep refers first into
books, but I've seen people growup from kids to adults and so,
and you see them do these differentthings. Like I've worked for Kenyan Ziggi's
(24:18):
for seven years and I have aparticular family that I've seen their son from
when he was born till he's likeseven yard now, and you know,
he runs up and gives me ahug, and you know that's another like
exactly. So I don't have kidsin my own, but I mean I
have these types of moments. Imean, seeing your grandkids come in with
your son a couple of times andjust are adorable to see him. And
(24:45):
can I just say this, justyour your grandkids to your son are such
a tall tale of the person thatyou are because you your son shines exactly
the same way you do. Youknow, he's always just comes in and
he's he's he's you know, veryjust a joy to be around and sitting
here talking to you for as longas I have. Now you see where
(25:07):
he gets that from, you know, so, and then seeing how he
even talks to his kids, it'slike hey trying to teach them. And
so when you get to see thosekinds of things, it really brings in
an opportunity to to to remember that, hey, you know what, we
are human beings trying to do humanthings every day. We every day we
have a struggle, but we're morealike than we are unlike, you know,
(25:33):
and sometimes it's easy to forget that, you know, because you get
news going on about that war andthis war over there, and it's like
kindness and generosity and that book thatyou had mentioned, I mean that that
man is like to the extreme oflistening to people and delighting people. And
(25:56):
generosity doesn't have to be money monetary. It could be just your time.
And I think that's probably the mostvaluable just to stop. And I have
a hard time just stopping and listening. And when you come into the room,
you know, I think so manypeople I know I experienced that.
When I first met you, Chris, I just was like, wow,
(26:19):
huge, you are a human connectorhere. You you are special it.
I just thought, why wouldn't Kennyand Ziggies want you to just you just
are a big hug. You're justa big hug for people. I appreciate
that, and I think that's whatwe can you imagine to be. It's
(26:40):
money, our our promotions director MelissaBresner. She just resigned after thirty three
years. Do you know what herjob was. You don't even know her.
No one knows her. She's behindthe scenes. You know what her
job was. All the amazing prizeswe give away, she curated them.
Okay. She's responsible for bringing experiences, lifelong memories to families. And that's
(27:03):
what I told her. I said, Melissa, do you realize, like
you give me Blake Shelton tickets foropening night at the Rodeo, I get
to give them to this precious littlegirl who wanted them so badly. I
even had her parents on my podcast. That's all they were to think about.
A family in the car driving toschool. Okay, Okay, Dana's
got the Blake Shelton ticks ready,it's our nearly impossible question. Melissa got
(27:25):
them. She has to go throughall the channels to get these prizes that
I'm blessed to give away. That'swhen I go, man, that's a
cool job. But someone behind thescenes was making that happen. Like you,
you're bringing out this amazing food thatI'm gonna love so much, the
salmon on the bagel. Someone preparedthat in the kitchen. I don't know
(27:45):
who they are, but if youknew the steps that it took for them
to get that salmon, that isa it's a tedious job. There's a
guy and he literally he has tohave a very sharp knife. He has
(28:08):
a piece of salmon, you know, this large and so probably twelve to
fifteen inches that he painstakingly has tojust keep a very even hand and just
literally go back and for slicing eachpiece all the way to the end.
And then he has to eyeball eachone of those pieces to take off,
(28:30):
and he imperfections on that because youknow it is a piece of meat.
And then he has to put thatin the wrapping paper without messing that up
and then be able to he hasto store it long enough for it to
be put onto the sandwich. Thatit is a pretty pain taket. So,
like you say, the people whoare behind the scenes are the people
(28:52):
who make things like us shine aswell. Because again, even though I
may have said like services, whatbrings people back? People? Do you
want good food? And when youhave a product that is representation of that
and you have someone that presents thatlike yourself. Given that the young lady
the shelter, the blake shelting tickets, and then having someone in behind the
scenes that was able to get thosetickets, because again, that wasn't an
(29:15):
easy thing to do. And Imean, it doesn't matter how many connections
you have, sometimes you have tojump through some hoops to get those.
Yeah, that's that's what people,I think need to realize that there are
there's so many people making this allwork. So if you're going to be
short tempered, impatient, it's kindof like, no, I choose to
(29:37):
not. I did a story onthis woman. She was a dear I
can't remember which Wich school district.Her name is Cherry Cherry Moody. Cherry
Moody. So she's this lady.You've probably seen her, saw her in
the news. I didn't know shewas local. She's the woman who got
sick when's the emergency room for dehydration, got sepsis, wakes up. All
(30:03):
her limbs had to be removed tokeep her alive. She wakes up with
a smile. I am so gladI'm alive to be with my husband and
my kids. She's got Sherry Moodyon Facebook her daily progress. She has
no hands no feet, and shemakes sure she's got her sister and all
(30:26):
her friends and her husband. Sheposts pictures of her beautifully dressed exercising whatever
it takes to show you I havechosen hope and happiness. I will not
go down that pit. That's amazing, right, very much choices. It's
all choices. So if that doesn'tmake if you're having a crappy day,
(30:47):
Chris, if that doesn't make yougo, what the heck am I worried
about? Right? I've got thisamazing job. And I think so many
of us could just say I've gotthis amazing job. Even if you don't
have a job, or if you'velost your job, what next? What
do you want me to do next? That's that's that's a that's a big
question. And I mean, yeah, and and people like that are again
(31:12):
I think they're, like you've pointedout is is are definitely motivators because you're
like, if that person can doit, I don't have a reason,
or even if I do, Ineed to change my attitude about what I'm
thinking about. And you know,we need people like that it, you
(31:33):
know, and if you wonder ifyou wanted to ask that young lady because
again, like you said, sheshe came out and she was still able
to say, you know what,this is a blessing. It might not
be the blessing I asked for,but it's a blessing and understanding that,
you know, without getting any typeof religious that sometimes they say that you're
(31:59):
God doesn't give you anything that youcan't handle, and sometimes that we we
don't exactly we're going through those things. Those words aren't that. I know,
when you come out on the otherside of it and you look back
on either what you've learned from itor the strength that you developed it to
go into the next situation, it'sit's real. It's really easy to forget.
(32:23):
Muscle is built by pressure, andyou know, someone like her is
unfortunate. Is that as that happened, you know, being able to be
someone that we can look at andsay, you know what, I have
to do it because if that personcan stay happy, I have to.
(32:44):
You know, it blows. Sheliterally glows. You need to You need
to check on her, and Chris, I'm telling you you need to.
Next time we talk, I wantyou to tell me that you started writing
your book. Okay, okay,So I don't know if I necessarily want
(33:07):
to write a book, but Iwould like to try to figure out a
nonprofit situation because I would love totry to go through and help kids learn
for how to build their future.Well, I guess that is a book,
So I guess that is I guessyou're right. You know what you
do is start out, start outdoing. You know, Bobby, who
you you appreciate, is constantly sendingme videos of motivational, incredible concepts that
(33:36):
people have learned through pressure which ledthem to success. That might be an
area that you might want to startdoing. Like you put together these concepts
that you've learned, simple concepts thatyou've learned in dealing with people from all
walks of life in the restaurant industry. And you know, Houston being the
(33:57):
town that we're a foody town.We love talking food and part of the
experience is you serving us the food. And you could share, Oh my
gosh, Chris, you could shareso many stories and bits of Mattress machisms
because that's what he does. Youknow what he does. You know,
he's at that store calling his customersfrom the previous day to find out what
(34:19):
their experience was like. That's whathe does Magics Max is to me the
hometown hero along with JJ Watts,because I will never forget that when we
had that storm, he so graciouslyopened up his stores and said, if
you don't have a place to stay, you come stay here. I mean,
and he's another person that you knowwhen he comes in. I had
(34:42):
to say this like this, butI still get boys schools crush on him
because again, for someone to dothat, and I mean, you know
this guy, I mean, comeon, he's got everything for him to
say. I don't care about that. You people need help, Let me
help you. I've seen him doit. It's true. It's true.
(35:04):
Well, I tell my viewers rightnow, if you first of all,
Kenny and Ziggie's is amazing, andthe piece of chocolate cake is so it's
like the size of your body,so you can split it. But go
in and learn about an incredible experiencewith Chris and everyone there, and I
just I just had to pick yourbrain. I had. I needed you
(35:25):
to encourage me and inspire me soI can go another thirty three years being
bringing good customer service to our listenerslike you do to the patrons at Kenny
and Ziggy well, you've already gotthe most important thing. Part of that
is the big bright smile. Soyes, that that helps just in it
comes through. So I mean,I thank you for taking the time to
(35:47):
talk to LOW mean, to pickyour brain. It's not little. It's
that humility. I'm telling you what. It's that humility. You're just a
delight and I thank you for allyou do. I always like talking to
people who delight our community, andthat's exactly what you do. Keep it
up. We see you, we'rewatching you, and we appreciate you.
Chris Well, thank you. Iappreciate it, and thank everybody who's made
that possible. And again I do, I really appreciate you taking the time
(36:12):
to talk to me. It's mypleasure. We'll talk to you. We'll
see you soon, yes, ma'am. All right,
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