Corporate Kindness

The KC Clown Car addresses the challenges of corporate culture and kindness.

Episode Transcript

(00:20):
welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
Thank you for holding your mudon that one.
I really appreciate it.
The owl.
Stop that.
Uh, once again, welcome to theclown car.
We got Michael Dempsey with usagain this week.

(00:41):
Hello.
We got, uh, Steve Brown.
Hello.
Fresh off of, uh, whatever hedoes.
We got the intern, Jeff here.
Thank you again.
And we're gonna be talking aboutcorporate kindness, contraction,
and expansion.
Wow.
And speaking of contraction andexpansion kg, sounds like my
waistline.
Yes.
Yes sir.
Emphasis on the expansion.
Hello?
Exactly.

(01:02):
Um, I wanna start first,however, a couple of weeks ago I
was at, I failed to talk aboutthe.
Masonic Children's Hospital WineFest, the big gala that they
have at the depot in downtownMinneapolis.
And one of the people that got abig award for the work that they
do, uh, for children was our oldfriend, Dr.

(01:23):
Shanti.
Oh, wow.
Nara ha so cool.
Haha.
I'm not even gonna try andpronounce her last name, but she
could not be sweeter.
Yeah, she tracked me down.
To get a picture taken with me.
Really?
I felt like kg.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Aw, you're the miracle.
The, I wasn't the mayor of the,of the gala.
I could have been Well, you, youcould have been.
I could.

(01:44):
Did she remember you from thepodcast?
Yeah.
You could do that.
Yeah.
She came up and she's, yeah.
Wow.
I, I think that's amazing.
But what I am like less amazedabout because it's becoming a
habit, the guests that you haveon these shows.
They, they emerge in otherplaces.
How many times have, have, Iheard Parker Fox.
Oh, recently.

(02:04):
Oh my goodness.
He's omnipresent in the, in the,in the, in the last couple of
years.
You guys had him on like, wait,like probably right when he was
leaving Northern, right?
We were still waiting.
I was also at an event with, uh,one of K G's buddies.
Did we talk about this?
Did we talk about seeing Yeah,we did.
We talked about Ryan Carter.
You know, it'd be great if youguys could get somebody that

(02:27):
someone has actually heard of onthis podcast.
That would be terrific.
Uh oh, speaking of which kgwhere are we calling you at?
I'm at home with the puppies in,uh, Minnetonka, Ben, William,
and Brooks.
Uh, had a nice walk thisafternoon.
Can I ask a question?
Kg we're in between Canterburyand the wild.

(02:47):
Um, I, I hear you on thesepodcasts.
What do you, what do you likefill the time with in this
short, tiny, little window?
Culver's.
Okay.
Nah, well, Culver's is not thewrong answer.
There's one stones throw fromwhere I'm sitting right now and
it might be calling my nameafter we get done recording, but
no, I mean, there's about a twoand a half to three week gap and

(03:10):
it's great because after all thetravel and you know, all the
running around, which is great.
Love the hockey season.
There's a different cadence toCanterbury and so everything
shifts and you know, we do acouple things out there.
We, we do a bunch of commercialsfor social media, so we'll
record that.
Um, we'll get a couple things inthe can that we use on our
broadcast Yeah.

(03:30):
At Canterbury on a daily basisthat we'll put in the can.
But truthfully,, there's stuffto do around here and I'm gone
so much all the way through theend Ofoff, which is usually
right around.
So we did the big garagecleaning, uh, last week.
We're in the process of donatinga bunch of, uh, after Chrissy's
mom passed away, we took on alot of her stuff and furniture.

(03:51):
So we're doing that.
Mother's Day was very emotional,so, you know, family stuff.
And yeah, John mentioned thetrip to Madison.
But no, it's been great.
I'm ready to go.
I'm ready for Canterbury to, toopen up again.
But, um, yeah, it's a nicecouple week break for sure.
That's great.
I have one more follow onquestion.
I heard you on, uh.
One of our favorite radiostations recounting a Roy story

(04:13):
about wearing a suit andsweating through that suit.
We talked about that on ourshow.
Oh, did you guys?
That was our show.
It, it was here, it was there ashow, but it was a funny story
maybe.
And, and, and, and Roy made somecomment because, you know, you
were sweating so bad.
Uh, I thought that was a funnystory.
But I'm curious why the suit atCanterbury, why is it that you

(04:35):
guys wear a full suit to do whatyou do out there?
We only do it on very rareoccasions, and that particular
event was back when we hostedthe claiming crown, which ended
up being, um, our feed gotpicked up nationally for that.
So we had to, if you come out ona regular basis and see a
Canterbury, I, I should besponsored.

(04:58):
Short sleeve button down.
Got it.
They're comfortable.
I wear those almost every raceor race.
Um.
His point was a valid one as assweaty and as gross as
everything was that day.
There is probably not a daywhere Patrick Roy imagined he'd
ever wanna be Kevin, go boxershort.

(05:20):
So I kind of walked into thatone and he kind of put me in my
place.
So, so KG you could say that.
Your normal everyday wear atCanterbury in the summer is
something out of, uh, GeorgeCostanza's father's, uh, uh,
cabana wear the, the beachattire.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward.
You know, when you see me, itlooks like I'm getting ready for
shuffleboard Okay.
In Boca Raton.

(05:41):
But, uh, you know, I listen,it's a welcome change after
wearing the suits.
Yeah.
Uh, for what normally 85 90broadcast.
I, I don't love wearing a suit.
I get why we do it, especiallyat the ice arena.
Totally fine with it.
But I don't know how you guysfeel.
And I know, John, you were alldecked out when you went to your
charity event.
That's right.
I was, uh, recently I, I don'tlove wearing, uh, all that dress

(06:04):
up garb, but some people enjoyit.
I do not.
Well, speaking of dress up garb.
Yeah.
The topic for today's show is,kindness in a corporate setting.
Yeah.
And, you know, there's TPSreports and there's all those
things and it's, you know, yougotta address a certain way.
I am not, there's a not guy.
Yeah.
There's a culture, you know,sometimes the, the, the clothes

(06:24):
that you wear, it helps definethe culture.
Yep.
The, my, the, the, the guy thatused to run the show where I'm
at right now, he used to wear asuit every single day.
Yeah.
And I would say to him, youknow, do you like when you walk
on the beach, do you wear wingtips and black socks?
And he told me that he's neverowned a pair of shorts.

(06:45):
So can you imagine what those.
Pasty white legs.
No kidding.
Like Elmer's glue sticks.
So what is it now, John, whathave you enacted with a group
there?
You know, I like to wear a, uh,I look like I'm going golfing
every day.
A polo shirt, you know, poloshirt, you know, sometimes I
wear a quarter zip, you know,usually very highly fashionable.
Yeah, I've seen the quarter zipin a lot of photos, a lot of
darks, to, I dunno, cover up thesituation that's taking place

(07:08):
underneath the clothes.
You don't need a towel kg.
I was golfing with some guys theother day and.
I said, Denny, you guys everwear just a white shirt?
And they're like, why would youwear a white shirt?
You know?
I don't wanna see wheresomebody's belly button is.
Oh, oh my.
But I'm serious.
It's disgusting.
I would agree with that.
Yeah.
Men should wear nothing but darkshirts as I look around.

(07:31):
Okay.
We're all doing okay here.
Yeah.
Yeah, leave the white shirts.
I'm with you on the dark shirts.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, just I think the cam,that's the tip.
I think pro tip, I, I thinkthinking that it's camouflaging
something is, you know, a bit ofa misnomer, but it helps, you
know, I, I like it.
It doesn't hurt if the room'sdark, the lights are out.
It sure does.
But other than that, I don'tknow what we're hiding.

(07:52):
So, of, for kindness of all ofus here, the, the one who's
probably most into the corporateworld at this point in life is,
uh, is Michael.
Yeah, KG, you have sort of apseudo corporate gig, I guess I
kind of have a thing.
You got a thing I did theintern, he's outta work.
So he's got, but he's got a lotof experience.

(08:12):
Major corporate guy.
Can I piggyback on that?
Of course you can.
So one of the things I learnedfrom our CEO for which I worked
19 years, mark Benioff and Ilook up to, and I have a lot of
affinity for,'cause I love thestory, but he always would talk
about the Japanese word calledhin.
Which means a beginner'smindset.
So I'm happy to be your intern'cause I'm learning a lot,

(08:34):
watching and listening from you.
Jeff is kind of a new study.
He's been really kind ofscouring all these episodes,
kind of binging the KindnessesChronicle episodes.
This is, uh, what episode one40.
It's become, it's become my jobin a way to just take notes.
Hi.
That is I so sad.
So have you, have you noticedthat, have you noticed a
cancellation issue with us, uh,on the line there?
there's a, that'd be hard foryou to tell.

(08:55):
It's, it's what's funny that'scoming to mind.
Sorry, Michael, for a, anothermedia reference.
No, but I can't help it.
But have you seen, there there'san SNL skit where it's like
white guys that have a podcastand they, they want to hear
themselves talk.
And so when he said, we justlike to hear ourselves talk and
nobody's really listeninganyway, there's a skit.
Exactly like that.
Yeah.
And they give them a FisherPrice podcast set.

(09:16):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That's what basically what wehave here.
Yeah.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Well, we don't have listeners.
No, well John does.
'cause they call him about itall the time.
I, I, I think you guys arehilarious and that's why I'm
sitting here.
I just am trying to like.
Add, uh, the straight personWhen I brought the topic up, it
really wasn't about, uh, visitsto hr.
Yeah.
I mean, that wasn't, that wasn'tthe basis of the, the, the basis

(09:40):
of the topic was, um, as theeconomy sort of, uh, constricts
a little bit or, you know, all,all of the time the economy's up
or down and corporate Americaexpands and contracts and as
they're expanding, they reallywant to lean into.
It's about our culture.
It's about our values and, youknow, we wanna embody these

(10:02):
cultures, this culture, andthese values and kindness may be
in there and integrity andhonesty and all of those things.
But the question is, does thatgo out the window when the
economy goes down and how hardto hold onto that.
Yeah.
And how Holt Right.
And, and, and do they holdpeople accountable to it?
'cause I, I, I have, uh, variousexperiences with that.

(10:23):
I, anecdotally, for me.
I think it depends on the leaderfor whom you work there are some
that are steadfast and willstay, uh, will have integrity
through thick and thin.
But I, I also see behaviordepending on who you're dealing
with, um, survival behavior and,you know.
The targets on your back andthose kinds of people start

(10:44):
gossiping.
So it sort of depended'cause wewere a 70,000 person
organization.
Right.
And um, and now you're 69.
9 99.
No, it's, um, I, and, and Ihave.
Nothing but gratitude andpositive things to say about
that company and learned a ton.
So you won't hear any negative,uh, things.

(11:05):
Good decision.
Yeah, but I, but I got his pointwhere it's like they have their
mission, vision, values, andit's a, it's a, they
indoctrinate that, and Iunderstand why they have to have
it because Right.
It kinda sets a tone foreverybody.
But are they, do they alwayshold onto that when, when all of
a sudden, you know, the trust inyour job?
We had massive layoffs atTarget.
Right.
And like what we thought we hadthis.

(11:26):
Sweet little culture here andeveryone was helping each other.
And before, you know, like wholeteams of people are gone.
It was just me and my formerboss after these huge layoffs in
marketing.
It was just me and my formerboss who, that was just my
coworker.
And we had to take care of allthe work that Right.
10 people did.
And it was a really odd thing.
And I felt exactly what you'resaying.
I felt that kind of like, well,what happened to that happy
culture?
We, we, we, I thought we saidfamily all the time.

(11:48):
Yeah.
This is not what you do tofamily it fast, right?
Yeah, it does.
Um.
Uh, I, I want to get back toyour commentary'cause you, you
mentioned leader right now.
When you say you, you're talkingto Jeff.
Jeff, yes.
Yep.
Thank you.
Thanks, John.
Yeah, thanks John.
Cameras are on right now.
This is not a visual medium.
Yeah.
Jeff, you, you mentioned leader.
Thank God.
I thought that was, uh, aproposbecause the, the leader of the

(12:10):
team, the group, theorganization.
They do set the tone right andthey, they, they, they offer
permission to be empathetic,right.
And to be respectful.
And they hold people accountableif done right.
So let's look at a CEO amongstus.
'cause there is one That'sright.
There is, how do you, oh,looking at you, John, how do

(12:31):
you, how I, I mean, do you takethis on, do you think about
this?
I mean, how does this Oh,absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
The thing is.
The better you treat the peoplethat work with you, the better
they're going to be for the, youknow, I always think that the
bottom line isn't alwaysnecessarily driven by the dollar
signs, right?

(12:52):
The bottom line is driven by theway that your people treat the
customers true.
And if they treat theircustomers well, that's gonna
ultimately serve the ultimatebottom line.
Better than anything.
But of course, you know, timesare tough.
Right?
And this past year, cost ofliving went way up, right?

(13:14):
And, you know, we gave everybodya 4% cola because that's kind of
what the cost of living did, andthat hurt the bottom line.
But, we gotta be fair to ouremployees I just wanna switch
gears to, to, to make this aboutsports for just a second.
Good.
For, for kj.
Oh, you just woke up.
Yeah.
No, in all sincerity, imaginethe coaches for the wild and

(13:35):
you've got these young kids thatmake the team and they're
playing, on the big team andthey get sent back down to Iowa.
tell us about the feeling thatpeople have in that sort of
corporate environment because ahockey team is a business and
Yeah.
I would imagine that, if you'rewinning, yep.
You got a sale, you got salesgoing, but what do you hear

(13:58):
about that?
Are there some coaches that arebetter at letting people down
than others?
It is a really fine line thatthose coaches have to walk and
the general manager, because Ithink it's a, it's a group
decision, not different than anoffice.
On the corporate side, you havemultiple people making a
decision.
It starts with Bill Garrin and,and the head coach John Hines.

(14:19):
And it's a, you know, it's veryimpactful for these, for these
players because, you know, we'veseen, like locally a guy like
Sammy Walker, who was a prettyhigh respected prospect in this
organization.
As recent as two or three yearsago and he would get
opportunities to play with thewild and, and even though he was
producing in the AmericanLeague, that didn't always

(14:41):
translate to what you got at theNHL level.
And the hard thing was he was anincredible kid, so he was great
in locker room.
You could put him on any spot onthe rink and he is gonna kind of
blend in and very best translatethe success had.
Huge because when he gets sentdown, it's a different pay

(15:03):
structure.
So you go from making NHL moneyto American League money, and so
it's a big demotion.
And for prospects that getdrafted and have plans and build
homes, uh, think about theemotion involved in that
decision.
Oh man, they don't take itlightly, but again, the
Minnesota Wild, they're abusiness and they have to put
the best team on the ice everysingle day and sometimes.

(15:27):
Those decisions they have tomake and they sit down, they
call the guy into the office,they have a conversation, and
then the wild travel guy takesover and then they make all the
accommodations to go back andforth.
And sometimes, you know, withMatt Boldy, he was in Iowa for a
couple of months, stood out likea sore thumb, got to the NHL,
and the rest is history forothers.
You know, Marco Rossi kind ofwent back and forth and, and

(15:49):
obviously Sammy Walker's thestory on the.
He's kind mired now in theAmerican League and likely will
not get back up anytime soon.
Sammy's a Edina kid, right?
Yeah, he is a great kid too.
And it's, you know what it, it'snot your typical, and I hate to
label aina because we, we hearEdina and we think, you know,
these rich families, these bluebloods that have generations of

(16:10):
millions of dollars.
That was not the case with SammyWalker.
You know, he was a kid thatplayed in Edina.
And, you know, his family was, Iwould say, middle class at best,
and they found a way to get himinvolved in the game of hockey.
He turned out to be a greatplayer, played for the
University of Minnesota afterplaying Edina.
But, um, you know, the, the NHLcareer just doesn't look like
it's in the cards, so I can'timagine, you know, how tough

(16:33):
that is to hear.
But, you know, from, from thewilds perspective, John Hines
and Bill, they've gotta do whatthey've.
You know, when, when they talkto those players, they, they're
very empathetic to the emotioninvolved.
But, um, you know, just that'spart of the, the gig I have.
Uh, just kind of some, somethoughts too as I was listening
to KG and, and you John, um, whydon't you share them?

(16:58):
Yeah.
So edit this, silence out as Icollect my thoughts here.
No, it's good.
I mean, those are very, for apodcast, silence is, silence is
great on a podcast.
It's not.
what happened at Salesforce, um,I, I'm it's way above my pay
grade to really truly knowwhat's going on in the C-suite,
the c the CXOs that have to makethese decisions, and it sort of

(17:19):
trickles on down.
Um, but, with the advent ofartificial intelligence, it's
really disrupted the technologyindustry big time.
We had some activist investorscome in and, and this is new to
me, but they, they came in andsaid, you know, I don't know the
full story, but they, theydefinitely took hold of the co

(17:40):
company, not full control, butthey, they got some seats on the
board and shook it up anddisrupted it quite a bit.
And, and it, I think it.
Took probably two years totrickle down, maybe a year and a
half.
As I look back at the, thechronology, and they had to, you
know, then, then a newperformance culture got enacted
where you had to jump through acertain number of hoops just to

(18:01):
kind of, you know, stay within.
Ranks.
And I, I just came to a point inmy life where luckily, because I
didn't live high on the hog andI saved my money, and I said,
you know, this has been a greatrun.
I, I wanna make a change though.
And I stepped away proactivelyand now I'm networking and I'm
kind of having to reinventmyself.
So hence this podcast, which I'msuper grateful to be on, but.

(18:23):
My, I it for what it's worth,save and invest your money and
don't live beyond your meansbecause you never really truly
know what's gonna happen.
And I'm really glad I did thatbecause now I can kind of be
patient and think about it andtalk and network with people.
So I I I just want to, uh, tiethese, uh, two stories together
because I, you didn't say it,but I think what you were trying

(18:44):
to say was the culture hadchanged.
It got more intense for sure.
The culture had changed.
It didn't line up.
And so you said you made thedecision.
It, this, this just does notfeel like it lines up.
And so Michael, it's been a,it's been a journey for me for,
for a few years.
Yeah.
Where I was, I, it, it hadstarted off awesome.

(19:05):
I joined him in 2005 and justthe, the, over the 19 years, it
was great.
And it ebbed and flowed, youknow, there's, there's times
when it's better than others,but there was a, the last few
years there was something insideme kg I actually heard an
interview.
Um, this is gonna sound like I'mstalking you, but I was just
trying to learn everybody, don'tlearn everybody's personality

(19:28):
and Jesus, you, you, you, youtalked about during covid, how
you took a job, uh, selling carsand I did, you were giving some
advice and wisdom to whomeverwas interviewing you.
Like, do what you love.
You know, do definitely do whatyou love.
'cause I had to take a job.
And it was definitely not a fit,and you were unhappy and it
reminded me exactly of what I'mgoing through.

(19:49):
And I took that to heart and Ithought, that's good.
I, I'm hearing this multipletimes through multiple people,
um, that you should really takean inventory of your values and
what you want to do and whatyou're good at, and then figure
out how to monetize that and gofind a job doing it.
I, I think I couldn't agreemore.
If you find something.

(20:12):
It doesn't feel like work.
Like I'm counting the days downuntil Canterbury starts.
When the wild season comesaround in the fall, I'll be
counting the days down untiltraining camp starts and the
people at that Walzer Toyotawhere I worked were incredible.
Like the, the silver lining was,there were two.
Number one is the people I gotto know a whole new set of
friends.
I still connect with a lot ofthose folks.

(20:33):
Awesome people.
And they were so helpful'causethey knew I was in over my head,
not a car guy, not doingtechnology.
And that was the whole job.
Um, but there, you know, I dohave the salesmanship to at
least get my, you know, my gameon and try and I did and I tried
real hard, but it wasoverwhelming and mm-hmm.
You know, it, it was also areminder of how blessed I've

(20:54):
been now for.
19 years covering the wild, andfor 25 years working at
Canterbury to have these jobs.
Very, very lucky.
Um, because when you look at me,and this is, you know, we joke a
lot on the show here, but whenyou look at me, you don't
automatically think, well, thisguy should be on tv.
And so been very blessed.
I've never thought that, no.

(21:14):
That, that Toyota gig, if youguys could have seen me, I'll
give you one example.
My daughter, Maddie, God blessher, she came in to get a car
and she needed a new car and Iwas gonna be her sales guy.
And you know, I, I wasn'texactly light in the world on
fire during Covid there, at thatdealership, but she came in and
most guys, you know, when theysell a car, you know, we do the
financing and, and walk throughthe whole thing.
The pros over there can do it inprobably an hour and a half, two

(21:36):
hours.
It took me eight and a halfhours to sell that car to
Maddie.
Oh no.
It was just painful.
It's your daughter now.
She still has that RAV4 and it'sa great vehicle.
Oh, nice.
I got her a good car.
But I'm telling you that day,the mistakes and the, just the
stress, it should have been a,a, like a, a double Seinfeld
episode where you.

(21:58):
The Curb Your Enthusiasm episodewhere Larry gets a job selling
Toyotas.
Oh, I didn't.
It's the best.
Oh, come on.
My God, it the best.
So funny.
The kj, you have to watch thatone.
His, his wife shows up at thecar dealership and she's like,
what are you doing?
Doing?
And he's like, all his friendsdid too.
So I'm trying to sell some carshere.
And the guy doesn't knowanything about vehicles.

(22:18):
No.
The other day I was at, I'venever gotten gas at Costco.
And my wife is like, we're goingto Costco.
Oh boy, we need gas.
Get some gas.
And they've got a guy that's inthere that's directing people
in.
Super nice guy.
Yeah.
And he goes, oh my God, ToyotaLand Cruiser.
I love these cars that got thefive, seven, the eight two,
whatever, whatever.

(22:39):
And I said, yeah, 5, 7, 5 8.
You have something like that.
But if I were trying to sellcars, it would be.
Let's look at the colors.
Oh, you know, I mean, I don'tYep, me too.
That's what you had to havebeen.
I, but you know what, the factthat you did that just says
everything about you, I mean,you're willing to kind of, I

(22:59):
try.
Swallow your pride and, yep,yep.
I, you know, I, I do wanna, I, Iremember a couple days I was,
you know, Saturdays was always abusy day at.
You know, there's a, it was areally busy place.
It's right on 4 94, uh, inFrance.
Very, very popular location.
And, you know, people would comein and once in a while, you

(23:22):
know, there's a line of uswaiting to, you know, we kind of
line up, oh, a bunch of come inand all of a sudden I, I would
get these people that would comein.
And they'd be hockey fans andthey, they, they would pick me
only because Nice.
They wanted to talk about thewild and how much they missed
hockey and professional sports,and the other guys would just
shake their head because they'dbe like, these people have no

(23:43):
idea.
What they'd just gotten into wasthis guy in cars.
It was so bad.
Can I ask you this a little bitbad kg, did anybody buy a car?
Because of your hockey thing.
Like, did anybody throw a boneat you?
Just'cause they, you know, it'skg I bought a car from kg.
No they didn't.
Um, and, and I think the, thebeauty of that place is I got a

(24:07):
lot of sit downs with hockeyfans.
I had a lot of test drives andstuff like that, but truthfully.
When you, when you work withpeople that know everything
about cars, and I would watchthe, you know, they had the
videos to watch and the trainingstuff, and I'd read all the
books.
You can't fake it though.
Like I learned, you know, Idon't care.
I was there for a little lessthan a year.

(24:29):
You just, either you know it oryou don't.
And it's so complicated.
And the hardest part of that jobwas, like I mentioned, one of
the rare dealerships where.
And you're going througheverything.
I just, it was a, it was a very,very.

(24:51):
Incredible experience, but yeah.
Humbling to say the least.
I, I, I, I just wanna, I, I'mgonna make one car sales, uh,
comment about salespeople.
'cause I always got a kick outof this.
And then I wanna go back tocorporate culture.
Just super quick.
This is still corporate culture.
It is, it is, it is.
We're gonna go back because Ithink all this, we're there.
Yeah, we are selling car, we'resocial, corporate.

(25:11):
It is.
I always liked when I would, uh,go to buy a car, uh, and the
sales person would say, well,let's go take a look at the, you
know, f blah, blah, blah.
And you would go, and the firstthing they would do is pop the
hood.
And I Oh, yeah.
And I, I just would go, what?
There's an engine in here.
Are you serious?
Yeah.

(25:31):
Is this, oh my God, this is justgot an overhead cam.
Wow.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
I take a look at that engine.
Yeah.
And I would be like, you have noidea.
That is a, I didn't, you know, Igot here, it's warm, and I
thought there was gonna be noengine.
Yeah.
And there's an engine in there.
You know, how much can I giveyou if they did that to me?
And I've had that happen.

(25:52):
Yeah.
I would say you should probablyjust close that.
I wanna see, I wanna see howcomfortable the seats are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's ultimately what am Igonna fit in this car
comfortably?
Yeah.
Now what do you ask?
Yeah.
What, what do I ask?
You ask about the theft proofissue.
Uh, concerns.
Yes.
Yeah.
Tell me about your theftproofing.
Um, do you remember when GeorgeCostanza bought the car that

(26:15):
belonged to John Voight?
Yes.
And he could prove it because ofthe bite marks on the pencil.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Okay.
We digressed.
So that's corporate culture.
The, the corporate culture, the,the, the tie in, in the
corporate culture, um, is, it'sinteresting you mentioned
Salesforce and the culturethere, and you were talking

(26:36):
about your role as CEO and, andKG when you were talking about
going, you know, moving peoplefrom the minors to the NHL and
the consternation.
It, it leadership.
I think it always goes back toleadership.
I think it always like, what,what are you instituting?
And do people want to be a partof that?
That's where the culture reallyemanates.

(26:57):
It's not, you know, the bannersand the slogans and the flip
side is the, the look at theDenver nuggets firing their
coach a week before theplayoffs.
I mean, and now they're playingbetter.
Crazy, right?
But I mean, using the sportsexample again.
Mm-hmm.
There is somebody who didn'tcreate.
A culture where people said, Iwanna come every day and to give

(27:19):
110% because I feel like I'm apart of something bigger.
No, I come and I get the crapkicked outta me and I get yelled
at and berated and, and it wasso bad.
It was so bad.
They fire that guy a week beforeand now they're killing it.
I mean, so leaders, I think,whether appointed leaders or
emergent leaders, uh, within anycorporate, they're the ones that

(27:41):
set the tone for kindness.
As a part of the culture, Idon't, I don't think it's a
slogan.
And, and if you buy into that,you're gonna be sorely
disappointed.
I, well, and I agree.
I can tell you that one of theways that I kind of measure the,
the vibe in my office is I lovehearing people laugh in the
office.
Ah, yeah.

(28:02):
The other, just today.
Just today.
Uh, my new CFO has, uh, youknow, his team of all the
finance people, and they aremeeting in the conference room
that's right next to my office,and I can hear'em in there
laughing and I'm like, it's agood sign.
That's a great sign.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It really is.
And I am blessed to have, the,the tenure of the people that
work.

(28:22):
Uh, on my team, so to speak.
The 24 directors and managers.
I think the, the shortest tenureis nine years.
Oh geez.
Other than the, they've seen theshift.
Yeah.
The culture's been great formany, many, many years.
It has very, you know, my jobwhen I went in there is not to
screw it up.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's kind of how I looked atit.

(28:43):
Stewart, how are you doing?
And the other thing is, is yeah,is it working, empowering the
people?
Well, you know.
Empowering the people.
You know, I am not an expert in,in nursing or senior care, any
of those things, right?
We got people for that.
When they ask me, you know whatmy job is as the CEO, I tell'em,
my job is to be an advocate forthe things that you wanna get

(29:04):
accomplished.
And my job is to separate theboard from the money to get your
things accomplished.
But.
It all starts with them.
Well that's setting the tonethat, that's what I'm talking
about when I talk aboutleadership.
That's setting tone.
It's funny that you put bottomline.
Number three.
It wasn't number one.
That's, that's notable.
I just have a just a, a, acritique or a like a, some

(29:28):
advice.
I don't work for you.
You're gonna be kind.
You're gonna be kind.
He's gonna be kind.
I don't, I don't work for you,John, but I wanna know, um, in
your listening, uh, ability.
Is it often that you stopsomeone and say, is this gonna
be a long story All the time?
You do say that at work.
I do it all the time.
And you still get good ratings?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Alright.
That shows appreciation andgratitude.

(29:48):
No, and, and you know, part ofit is, part of it is, is, is I
do believe that there'ssomething to have a jocular
relationship with the peoplethat you work with.
Yeah.
People will come in and they, Ithink that most of them get me.
In fact, I'll, I'll give you anexample.
We were talking about thescholarship presentations that
are taking place on the 21stYeah.

(30:09):
Of, that, that would betomorrow.
Yeah.
Uh, the 21st is tomorrow.
Yeah.
Anyways, I said we were talkingabout the, the how, the names of
these students and how we can'treally ask'em to give us a
phonetic pronunciation of theirnames.
And I said.
We will just do our best.
And Beth, who is the director ofour scholarship program, she

(30:33):
says, please don't do accentswhen you see names like
Rodriguez.
And she said, she goes, Iunderstand.
Good advice.
Good advice, but, but like, ifyou don't get me, you know, and
there's an Indian name on there.
And if I were to do an Indianaccent, uh oh, that would offend
people.
Yes.
Unless you know me and you wouldknow that it's meant to be joy.

(30:55):
Joyful.
Well, that's the line.
You gotta, you gotta, it's becareful.
You got some advice for me?
I'm not gonna do it.
No, I don't.
Um, I, I just wanted to circleback because, um, I think the
leadership and Salesforce.
Culturally, uh, leadership wise,especially if you go Mark
Benioff, he and he invented thisthing that informed how we went

(31:16):
to market and it was called a Vtwo Mom, and it stood for
vision, values, methods.
How are you gonna execute on thevision?
By the way, did the, how did thevalues, what's important to you?
Inform our vision, what we'regonna be out, what obstacles are
you gonna run into on?
And then, uh, how are you gonnameasure your results?
And, and every department downto the individual employee had

(31:41):
to do a V two mom and it allrolled up.
And I thought that was awesomeand a great experience to just
be a part of it.
And I'm just gonna borrowanother, a line from a Zig
Ziglar.
Was that a movie when Zig Ziglarwas a, a professional speaker?
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
But I remember he would sayZiglar falls in these tapes.
Um, what's inside a person?

(32:02):
You'll, you'll know whenpressure sets in of what comes
out.
I think he used an, an analogyof an orange when the, when the
orange is getting pressure andhe used even re Ronald Reagan
when he got shot.
One of the first things that hedid when he got rolled into the
hospital and he was literallyon, on life support, was gonna
die.
But he said, I hope you're allRepublican to the doctors.

(32:24):
Fantastic.
He heard that and said, that'smy president.
That's, that's, I wanna see thatoptimism.
So my point is, I think.
There are different levels ofpeople that that can be a leader
and, and can withstand thatpressure and some buckle under
pressure and some don't.
Yeah.
And they there, when you getbig, like 70,000, there are

(32:44):
gonna be some that just aren'tas advanced as others that in
the leadership world.
So that's all I wanted to sayis, um, it was a great 19 years,
but go ahead.
And one of the things that Ialways remind people, especially
that are on the administrativeside of things is it's like
nothing that we do.
Is really life changing, right?

(33:05):
Yeah.
You know, don't get so wrappedaround the axle.
Now, the people that are, youknow, in the nursing home, the
nurses and stuff like that,that's different.
I mean, that is very different.
But to get stressed out aboutthings that really, in the grand
scheme of things are kind ofnonsense.
Having perspective, it's justperspective is so.
So important.
Don't forget the kindness.

(33:27):
Well, and I mean, it, it allreally boils down to that,
right?
I mean, I, you know, there the,you've heard of the golden rule,
you know, do unto others asyou'd want them to do unto you.
Um, you're familiar with theplatinum rule.
Do unto others as they want youto do unto them.
Because when you look atsomebody, you gotta kind of.

(33:48):
Empathize with the way thatthey're gonna react to things
and they're not necessarilygonna react to things the same
way that you do.
Yeah.
So think about how they wouldrespond, put up in their place a
little bit and put yourself intheir place.
Don't put them in your place.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Does that make sense?
You gotta read the room a littlebit.
That makes sense.
Well, I mean, that's why onThursdays you bring the donuts,

(34:09):
right?
Tuesdays.
That's why Tuesdays from theDonuts hut.
Oh, oh.
Tuesdays, I'll be theretomorrow.
Www donah.com.
Yeah.
Anyways, pre-order.
We've uh, we've been on for along time.
Does anybody have any finalwords of wisdom?
No, I don't.
kg Good, good wisdom from youthrough that interview.
Whenever it was.
I saw it, but that was excellentto hear in my perspective.

(34:30):
So I wanted to just let youknow.
Thank you very much.
That's all nice.
look at the kindness.
one last thing when I hear aboutartificial intelligence.
I look around the studio and Isee a lot of artificial
intelligence in here.
Why don't you have your mic upto your mouth anymore?
That was a good laugh.
Yeah, it felt almost legit.
Wow.
Like it was genuine.

(34:50):
It was a, it was a mock mockinglaugh.
It was a mocking laugh.
Yeah.
Okay.
With that, off we go.