February 21, 2024 • 57 mins
A growing business (stores in 7 states & soon to be more than 1200 grocery stores) run almost entirely by Special Needs Heroes (Autism, Down's Syndrome, etc.)
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Catch the Global #ConsciousSHIFT Show as Tom Landis
joins Host Julie Ann Turner for a thought-provoking dialogue
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with all fellow ConsciousSHIFT-ers! Thanks!)
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* HOWDY HOMEMADE: Ice Cream for Dreamers
with Founder Tom Landis Howdy Homemade Ice Cream
Julie Ann's ConsciousSHIFT guest Tom Landis is CEO & Founder of Howdy Homemade Ice Cream (stores in 7 states & soon to be more than 1200 grocery stores), staffed almost entirely by employees with special needs (Autism, Downs Syndrome, etc).
Today in the US, only 20% of those with disabilities, including autism, are employed - and most never dreamed of having a real, sustainable job like those provided by Howdy - where they greet and serve customers, run the cash register, open and close the store, and more. Tom sees special needs employees as the solution to employee turnover and customer service needs of all industries, and hopes hiring them becomes the norm, not the exception.
Howdy’s mission is to reshape how society - & especially business - views individuals with unique disabilities – to see them as the capable, responsible talents they are.
Join Julie Ann and Tom to discover how Howdy operates using two top principles - Grace and Love, and how leadership pillars of Put People First, Lead By Example, Be the Best and Push the Limits help stretch the limits of what these Special Needs Heros thought was possible for them. Tom envisions his employees moving into management, and even owning their own Howdy Homemade franchise one day. See HowdyHomemade.com for locations, grocery stores & franchise information.
Julie Ann Turner's ConsciousSHIFT with Julie Ann Turner Radio Show is broadcast worldwide to more than 980,000+ global followers and growing, where Julie Ann interviews the visionaries leading Conscious SHIFT unfolding across the globe - like Marianne Williamson, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Adam Grant, Don Miguel Ruiz, and more - as we all realize we are the only ones who can consciously choose to CREATE the world we wish to see.
REGISTER at www.ConsciousSHIFTShow.com
(IT'S FREE)
(Receive Show Details + Access to GIFT > Genius Guide + Audio)
* TOMORROW/WED., 2/21! 2pm Pacific! > Join LIVE @ www.ConsciousSHIFTRadio.com
REGISTER at www.ConsciousSHIFTShow.com
(IT'S FREE)
[Receive Show Details + Access to GIFT > Genius Guide + Audio]
Catch the Global #ConsciousSHIFT Show as Tom Landis
joins Host Julie Ann Turner for a thought-provoking dialogue
(just crossed 980K+ global subscribers - celebrating
with all fellow ConsciousSHIFT-ers! Thanks!)
REGISTER at www.ConsciousSHIFTShow.com
(IT'S FREE)
* HOWDY HOMEMADE: Ice Cream for Dreamers
with Founder Tom Landis Howdy Homemade Ice Cream
Julie Ann's ConsciousSHIFT guest Tom Landis is CEO & Founder of Howdy Homemade Ice Cream (stores in 7 states & soon to be more than 1200 grocery stores), staffed almost entirely by employees with special needs (Autism, Downs Syndrome, etc).
Today in the US, only 20% of those with disabilities, including autism, are employed - and most never dreamed of having a real, sustainable job like those provided by Howdy - where they greet and serve customers, run the cash register, open and close the store, and more. Tom sees special needs employees as the solution to employee turnover and customer service needs of all industries, and hopes hiring them becomes the norm, not the exception.
Howdy’s mission is to reshape how society - & especially business - views individuals with unique disabilities – to see them as the capable, responsible talents they are.
Join Julie Ann and Tom to discover how Howdy operates using two top principles - Grace and Love, and how leadership pillars of Put People First, Lead By Example, Be the Best and Push the Limits help stretch the limits of what these Special Needs Heros thought was possible for them. Tom envisions his employees moving into management, and even owning their own Howdy Homemade franchise one day. See HowdyHomemade.com for locations, grocery stores & franchise information.
Julie Ann Turner's ConsciousSHIFT with Julie Ann Turner Radio Show is broadcast worldwide to more than 980,000+ global followers and growing, where Julie Ann interviews the visionaries leading Conscious SHIFT unfolding across the globe - like Marianne Williamson, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Adam Grant, Don Miguel Ruiz, and more - as we all realize we are the only ones who can consciously choose to CREATE the world we wish to see.
REGISTER at www.ConsciousSHIFTShow.com
(IT'S FREE)
(Receive Show Details + Access to GIFT > Genius Guide + Audio)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Conscious Shift with Julianne Turner brings insightsfrom leading voices and visionaries across the globe
to guide and inspire you to createyour own conscious shift into your true power
and singular greatness. Through her expertise, author, speaker, and social innovator,
Julianne Turner, a world authority onthe creative process, guides you to
discover how to consciously create the life, work, and world you most desire.
(00:27):
And now here's your Conscious Shift hostJulianne Turner. Welcome conscious shifters from
all across the globe. This isJulianne Turner. You are listening to Conscious
Shift and we're so glad you're here. And if you're new, we do
have a special kind of welcome giftfor you. If you go to Conscious
(00:51):
shiftshow dot com you will be ableto get a special Conscious Shift Genius Guide.
Came out of an interview I didwith Seth Godin about genius and about
how you can share your gifts withthe world. Would love for you to
have that, So just go toConscious shiftshow dot com and you'll also be
(01:12):
notified about all of our shows whenyou sign up and get that gift.
Today's show, I feel is veryspecial personally to me, and it's also
going to be very important and significantfor you listeners. It is about purpose
driven business in a world where weoften think about business and profits, and
(01:38):
that's about as far as we go. There are businesses that make a difference
in the world, and more andmore our consumers are looking for businesses that
have a meaning and a purpose behindthem. And our Conscious Shift Show guest
(01:59):
today, Tom Landis, has acrosshis career been a champion of purpose driven
business. He is the CEO andfounder of Howdy Homemade, purpose driven business
staffed almost entirely by special needs employees. And we're going to talk about Tom's
(02:23):
career, his vision, how HowdyHomemade was birthed, and the principles that
can help other businesses become more purposedriven. Tom such a warm and joyful
welcome to Conscious Shift. Hey,thanks for having me on. As I
(02:44):
said, this is a special interviewfor me because I have had the privilege
of following Tom's career literally since hecame out of college and actually helped recruit
him to advertise an agency in Dallaswhere I was working straight out of college
University of Texas at Austin, bothof our alma maters, and as I
(03:08):
told him as we were preparing forthis interview, the instant I met Tom,
I could feel his energy, hispassion, his potential. He was
going to be a great force inthe world. And it has come true
every step of the way. Uh, Tom, I want to start with
(03:31):
like your like the origins of yourof your visionary self, like your I
think your parents had an influence onthat. Maybe we just start with that.
Yeah, yeah, you know what, gosh, I think my mom
just a huge impact. She hadpolio, one of the last he had
(03:53):
polio, and but she taught inAnacostia. You know, we didn't have
a car, public transportation, andshe just always stayed positive and always saw
the best in people. And thenmy dad, you know, gosh,
(04:14):
I you know, I don't knowif people remember where they were August twenty
eighth, nineteen sixty three, buthe was a young banker and in Washington,
d C. And they shut thebanks down and everything. They said
a bad guy was coming to townto talk about a lot of bad things
and cause a bunch of trouble.But he didn't listen, and he got
to hear doctor Martin Luther King Juniordeliver up I have a dream speech lot
(04:40):
and as a result, you know, he did a lot to help black
owned businesses in d C get started. And I just I think I kind
of always looked at those two thingsand thought, Okay, gosh, how
how do we kind of approach thisfinal frontier, this this business place where
(05:05):
there oftentimes is the least amount ofinclusion, especially for people with with with
idd with special needs developmental delays.How can we make a change there.
Yeah, I can see that theseeds were sown all the way back,
you know, with your parents.But I also noticed that as you were
(05:30):
starting your first restaurants in Dallas,you were always uh with Texadelphia and Pizza
Patrone. You were always looking tonot only have a thriving business, which
you did, but also looking athow you could enable and empower your employees
both from a leaderships like from aleadership standpoint point, and also from an
(05:51):
education You you created ESL classes andfor your for your Hispanic employees, and
you also were able to see likethe business principles that would make this a
success, like really enabling us strongleadership educated Hispanic workforce for restaurants was a
(06:17):
huge opportunity from a business standpoint attoo at the same time, right,
yeah, it really was. Youknow, it just seemed to make all
the sense in the world. Ifif you have sort of too you have
an offense and the defense, youhave a front of the house, and
you have a back of the house, and front of the house is maybe
(06:40):
your cashiers and your weight staff,but your back of the house is your
your kitchen staff. And that waslargely hispanic at the time. And the
turnover was with the front of thehouse, not the back of the house,
and that gosh, how could wemove the back of the house to
the front of the house. Well, the simple ingredient and missing was English.
(07:01):
And we didn't need Shakespeare. Wedon't need to speak and I am
that pentameter. We need some ofthe basics of frame. And so we
looked at and we were able totransform restaurants into classrooms between lunch and dinner
during the downtime with a simple oneway video where they could see a video
(07:21):
on a TV screen and in atwo way audio with the speaker system and
create English as the second language programs. And you know, quickly we're able
to the front of the house thatwas constantly turning over. Move the back
of the house to the front ofthe house. And I think thirteen of
my employees really were able to movethe front of the house, move into
(07:45):
management positions and eventually, you know, purchase their own home and that start
to move into that American dream.Yeah, and that that trajectory, Tom,
is know why, like what you'vebeen abled in your businesses is just
why I've always so admired and cheeredyou on. And it's it sounds to
(08:09):
me like whilst you were enabling allof those amazing employees in your initial businesses,
you met a young man who hadspecial needs that impressed you. Can
you tell us that story and howit kind of started the birth of Howdy
Homemade? Yeah, you know,it's just gosh wanting to kind of always
(08:33):
look for that underdog and root forthat underdog. There was a time in
my restaurant we had a whole groupof football team in eating and you know,
we're just the staff is just completelyslammed. It's just a really busy
(08:54):
time. And a guy named ColemanJones just a great smile and kind of
came up and said, what canI do to help, and he happened
to have Down syndrome, and Isaid, gosh, you can help run
some plates out and and take careof chips and caso, and you know,
he started doing that, and anduh, you know it, that
(09:15):
was kind of one of the veryfirst things made me think, well,
wait a minute, gosh, whereI don't I don't see enough of this
in the world. I don't seeenough of people with special needs with with
Down syndrome in the in the restaurantindustry. And then how do we create
the the ideal uh uh, youknow sphere for them? And and I
(09:37):
think part of that looking at itmeant, okay, speed is a factor
in the restaurants, right, wewant speed. You've got an hour for
lunch. You can't tell your boss, hey, I took extra time or
whatever. Well, speed was oneof those factors that was hard to get
around. So we started looking atdifferent things. And that's really where we
started to hone in on ice creamis it's it's just not thing where you're
(10:01):
in a hurry for. In fact, when I would take my daughter to
go to an ice cream place oreven a doughnut place, you almost wish
it would take a little longer,right, You're just you're trying to have
that daddy daughter time and and andyou know, and and and so and
then you have look at everything froma safety standpoint. You know, there's
(10:22):
one knife and all of howdy homade, there's no fryme, you know,
real hot grease for someone there's notin the oven. To really reduce down
so that the broadest spectrum of peoplecould work and and succeed there and and
(10:43):
and really the stars that that belongon this show, or you know are
are are are the employees. Andyou know how much pride they have and
in their their key chain because it'sgot a key to the shop and they
open it and close it, andyou know they they it's humbling because I
believe they take their job more seriousthan I do. You know then I
(11:07):
take mine. It's humbling. Well, I know, Tom. Another principle
that you've always used in your businessesis to put others first and to let
your employees speak for themselves. Andso it's it's amazing to see your employees
in interviews for Hodah and Jenna onthe Today's Show, you know, uh,
(11:35):
speaking for themselves. And also youknow whether it's local or regional or
national news, and to give themthat voice and that in that platform that
they haven't had has had it.It shows us all what the potential is.
It makes it helps us all seewhat magic is in each one of
(12:01):
us, you know, in specialneeds individuals as well. And it also
has to give them an experience anda confidence that they haven't had the opportunity
many times, maybe never in theirlives up until the time they get that
opportunity to speak or have that keyand open the doors, you know,
(12:22):
and to come home with a paycheck. I think, you know, I
looked up some numbers in preparation forour conversation. It's like, I think
like sixty plus percent of adults withspecial needs are unemployed. So just the
fact that they can have a placewhere they can work. Lots of parents
(12:46):
have dreamed their whole lives and neverbelieved that their child, their special need
child, would would be able tohave a place to work. And that's
really the higher purpose and vision ofof Howdi Homemade is to start this cascade
throughout all of our business industries tosay, let's employ these people. They
(13:11):
have special gifts as well, andthey can do things that once we begin
to understand, they can do thingsbetter than we can in a lot of
cases. I also know that youare a bit inspired by not a bit,
like really inspired by coach Gene Stallingsa book that he wrote about his
(13:33):
son Johnny. And I noticed inthe title Tom Another Season, a coach's
story of raising an exceptional son.You know, I've always like that word
exceptional. These people are exceptional.We all are in our unique ways.
I've always kind of had a problemwith disability, a disability. I know
(13:58):
that there are some limitations, butI kind of liked that word exceptional.
How did that How did that bookinspire you? Alongside meeting someone like Coleman
and others to launch Hollie Homemade.Yeah, Coach Stallings, his wife Ruth
Ann and and then their son Johnny. It just is phenomenal what they did.
(14:20):
Their son was born in June twelfth, nineteen sixty two, in an
era when America treated people with Downsymdrome very differently. The term then was
mongloyd. It meant that there wasa scientific terma, meant wide eyed,
and often they were either left onthe table or just institutionalized. And it
(14:43):
just the honesty in that book justwas just it jumped off the pages,
and what really jumped off was,gosh, he spent twelve years coaching with
Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys,and during that time no one offered his
son a job. And if we'rehonest in a lot of ways, I'm
(15:07):
not sure I'm seeing a lot ofreal change and improvement out there. I
see a lot of room for it, and we're proving it up. But
if would we say, okay,turn and look to where are those other
places, and we're realistic about itand look at it in the top proper
reflection of what our society, whatwe have, we have a lot of
(15:30):
room for improvement. But you know, it was interesting. There was actually
three books in a row that Ithink kind of brought this vision to clarity.
And the first one was called TwelveMighty Orphans And a guy named Rusty
Russell wanted to coach football the nineteenthirties. The only job he can get
was at the Fort Worth Masonic Lodge. He was coaching a bunch of orphans.
(15:54):
They had no pads, and onaverage they made less than thirty five
pounds less than the guys across thefield. So what did Rusty Russell do
with these group of orphans with nopads that were, you know, way
smaller and weaklings compared well with smashmouth football. So what did he do?
(16:15):
He spread them out so they couldrun little fast guys. So Rusty
Russell invented the spread offense that everyNFL team uses today. Rusty Russell did.
And I say that because that mademe start thinking like, all right,
if I'm serious, then I'm notgonna see disabilities. I'm gonna see
abilities. What are they not asgood as? But what are they better
(16:37):
at? And I'm a grumpy guy, right, you come into my ice
cream shop and on the wall,I've got basically two things. What one
scoop costs and two scoop costs?And if you come in and ask me,
oh, what does it cost?I'm sorry, but part of my
mind and my mind's gonna be hey, it's right up there, right.
(16:59):
But that's why you don't want mebehind the counter. That's why you don't
want most of America behind the counter. That's why the rotation behind the counter
were more regular customers than the employeesare. At a lot of fast food
places, there's now hiring banners everywhere, but they're still not considering people with
special needs in the realm that Iwould like to see it. The second
(17:22):
book was then Junction Boys, aboutJeene Stallings and a group of guys at
Texas A and M in nineteen fiftysix. When Bear Bryant went there to
coach, he didn't like what hesaw. He took one hundred and twenty
six aggies to Junction, Texas forten days, came back with thirty five.
He was so tough on him therest quit. From one hundred and
twenty six to thirty five. Oneof those tough guys that made it through
(17:45):
was Stallings, and it made methink, who is this coach? Who
is this guy? And I thinkthat you know, they just God have
prepared him to truly make a changein this world, and that, you
know, if you want to reallymake a change, I'm not sure it's
one brilliant idea or one one simpleact, but instead maybe it's just a
(18:06):
million nice little things. And andfor eight years that I've been involved with
special needs, almost daily I meetsomebody that's that's affected by special needs as
a family member, as a child, and you know, thirty thirty five
percent of the time they've had aconversation with coach Dollings, not they met
him at a gala or something.No, like he's had. He's reached
(18:26):
out to them personally to say,hey, you know what, what I
thought was something that I didn't liketurned out to be the greatest blessing of
all and that's my son, Johnny. And you know, to honor a
guy like coach s Doallings, Idon't want to look at him in the
eye and say, oh, let'stalk a little bit about that, but
let's get back to football or whatever. Now. I want to I want
(18:49):
to use, you know, usefootball to help carry this message of special
needs. And it's great because nowwe've got coach Stallings in our corner.
And then a guy that caught sevenpasses for eighty one yards at the University
of Alabama in nineteen ninety two undercoach Stallings, wasn't sure what he was
(19:11):
going to do after college. Stallingssaid, why don't you try coaching?
And he just re negotiated his contractfor one hundred point three million. At
Clemson, it's coach Dabosweeney and he'sopening hotels that will be thirty percent staffed
by people with special needs. Sowe're starting to see this trend and this
(19:33):
change, and really, I thinkultimately where it comes is, you know,
when I can sit down with otherrestaurant owners and say, gosh,
you know, before you all complainabout not being able to find good help
and da da da da da,I want to let you know that I've
got a wait list of one hundredand thirty two people they want to work
at my shop. And there's threepoint two million Texans that desperately pray for
(19:59):
what you and I take for granted, and that's a job. There's sixty
two million Americans and that that thatthat are looking for work, and almost
every stat that you look at forspecial needs employment I think is just off.
It's just not it's it's less thanthat, and maybe it's their unemployed
(20:19):
or underemployed. One of my favoriteauthors is Malcolm Gladwell and The Tipping Point
and Blink and and in there hetalks about that you know, they know
if they're going to hire you inthe first ten seconds of a job,
that it's not these multiple interviews orgroup interviews or first ten seconds, it's
(20:40):
how you you handshake, how yousmile, how you look them in the
eye. And I think that goesto why ninety percent of those with autism
are underemployed or unemployed, because inthose first ten seconds they're gonna send up
some red flag that an HR execor HR pro is going to just say,
okay, that that guy didn't giveme eye contact, or he looked
(21:02):
a little off, and and andand and and therefore I don't think he
was telling me the truth. Andif we do not change the way we
hire, then we won't change theway we hire. I mean, right,
it's that simple, and and andand I feel like too many times
big companies will say, oh,go to our portal or our website or
(21:23):
something, and and it's almost likethey're saying, yeah, we're we have
zero interest employing somebody, you know. And then also, I mean,
if we look at it a restaurant, a new restaurant comes to town,
a couple of weeks before it opens, it puts a now hiring banner up,
and then it's basically saying we're gonnaput in thirty forty hours of training
somebody. They'll stay probably four months, they'll start getting disfrontled and quit and
(21:48):
two months later. And why wouldwe even spend any time or effort training
new people. Now, what ifwe took a new model and said,
Okay, we're not gonna have thatconstant rotation of everyone else. We're gonna
take people and we might need totrain them for three or four months,
and in fact, we've got totrain them different than honestly what we're used
to. Right, it's busy.We're gonna yell, we're gonna dot dot
(22:11):
no. You know what, We'regonna try and bring two words that most
men will never ever ever bring intobusiness. Love and grace. Right,
Hey, you know what, loveyou man? I love you, man,
But you gotta make eye contact,right, and then you know what
you didn't You didn't make eye contact. You know, I'm gonna give you
the grace. Right. It's justlove and grace such an incredibly powerful things
(22:34):
that that that it don't exist inour business world. And I think they're
the two most powerful things we haveat our disposal because if you give them
love and grace and over time andthen they they they they they they you
know, they will take a bulletfor me, right, and and they
will stay and and you know,I had one of my employees has been
(22:56):
me with me forever. His hisdad, in kind of almost a poetic
way, December thirteenth, two yearsago, drops his son off. It
that that howdy he leaves, howhe walks out and has a stroke.
Three days later he passed. Andand and but but almost like that baton
(23:17):
passing of okay, I've I've trainedup my son. Is this is he
ready for the world? Now?This is this is his independence? Can
he do this? And and andIt's interesting two things on that. One
his son has just flourished phenomenally,And the second is I can remember that
(23:37):
going in and visiting with his dadon his deathbed, and and and and
and and looking at him and tellinghim, you know, doctor O'Brien,
I will look after your son.And I've realized since that that time too,
two and a half years ago,that that I got it wrong.
(23:59):
It's it's his son is the onethat you know, I know when he's
there, he's taking care of me, but he's also you know, the
son is the one that you knowwhen when we go get a burger with
with my son or or or oror or my daughter, that that you
know, this is an employee thatwill turn look at me and say,
hey, you know what, ifsomething ever happens to you, I'll take
(24:22):
care of your my kids, right, And I mean it's just who doesn't
want that in this business world?Right? And then it's interesting too,
just gosh, is is you knowwhat is the correct perspectives to have on
life? Is it one of pureintelligence? And you know, and and
and and and who can get themost and I I don't know, but
(24:48):
those kind of go hand in hand, right, intelligence and and and and
all that, And then gosh,you you you know you you you spend
time with someone with special needs ina workplace environment, and you leave better.
You leave a better man, youleave a better husband, you leave
a better father, you leave abetter friend because you're you're realizing the gosh,
(25:12):
the moment is the place to beand these guys know it. Yeah.
Yeah, well you do some specialI love that you call your employees
heroes and you do some hero trainingfor them to help them with things like
eye contact Tom. And then youalso talk a little bit about how you
(25:34):
help them like stretch their limits,push their limits a little bit, to
expand what they feel is possible.Yeah, you know, we talk all
the time about Gosh, I'm notgoing to ask him to do something that
I know they can't do, right. And so whether it's getting up and
speaking in front of a thousand people, or you know, whether it's it's
(25:59):
gosh, working the register right,that intimidation of the money right, and
and how to how to work thatand uh, and then another big one
is gosh that you know that thatand and we we we kind of love
to have these debates and and thingson it, but everyone says, Gosh,
you know, you really want towork towards a very regimented schedule.
(26:22):
People with down cinder autism they lovea regimented schedule. So my first thought
is, okay, let's blow upthe schedule. You know, I want
them to have to learn to reactto a rural world situation. And again,
I don't know if those are alwayscorrect, but but I will say
this, I don't know how youdefine autism in a lot of ways that
(26:47):
they don't know what causes it,right, they don't know. And and
and this is what is. I'veseen an autific kid nonverbal for his whole
life, and then he spends thesummer listening to the Jersey Boys soundtrack and
by the end of it, he'ssinging everything and starts talking. Now,
(27:07):
does that mean Jersey Boys a solutionto autism? No, of course not.
But what it does mean is,you know what I feel like.
I'm like, I want to belike Nick Saban or one of the other
you know, great coaches out there. Give me to your kid, and
you know what, let's not putthem in an environment where they're the only
person with special needs trying to work. But man, they are in a
(27:29):
group where it's us versus the world, right, and they know we're different
something there's something about us that's different. And we know when when we're behind
the counter, it's love and it'sgrace. And we can be whoever we
want. It does not matter whatthe world's taught us. We can be
whoever we want. And we canbuild this up. When we can,
we can do things that people didn'tthink were possible, right, I mean,
(27:53):
and I mean you think that theparents of a child with special needs
their whole life, they're told theirchild can do anything. But then when
it comes time to a job,right, money time, that that does
evaporate down and they start to goaway. And I mean, I you
know, some of the greatest thingsin the world are you know the times
(28:15):
when a mom has called me upand you know, just in tears,
and she said, you know what. A friend of mine called and she
was a roommate of mine in collegeand she flies into Dallas a lot for
layover and every time she does,we meet lunch and I bring along my
daughter because she loves my daughter,and she doesn't have a job set And
(28:36):
she called in said I'm coming intuesday, and I said great and hung
up. And then I realized,no way, my daughter has a job.
And I call back and I said, we can't meet you because my
daughter has a job. And itwe just spent the next five minutes on
the phone crying because both her anda friend deep down inside thought there may
(28:57):
never be a job now that theirtheir schedules are being readjusted because one of
them has a job. And andagain, like that's a how much of
us take it as a what abirden? Why is this one day,
you know, the day we haveto work we can't have it off,
right, versus people celebrating that thatchance and that opportunity. Yeah, Tom,
(29:22):
I know that, Uh, thatkey that you talked about has some
special meaning. And and uh,the fact that you you might tell an
employee you know, uh, somebody'ssick. I need you, I need
you tomorrow, right, that hasa very special meaning for these employees.
(29:45):
Can you talk about that? Yeah, and you just hit the word.
The words, their words matter.And and it's need to be wanted,
right, it's need to be wanted. But gosh, it is, it
is, and I believe for forfor many employees, they have not necessarily
perhaps ever been needed before. Right, Hey, I need you to show
(30:06):
up tomorrow, right. And sometimesthe parents don't understand I'll show up late
whatever. And no, no,no, this place doesn't open. I
need you. I need you tobe here. I need you to perform
well, I need you to greetthe customer. I need you to be
clean. And and and it's interestingbecause sometimes you feel like they're their their
chests almost rise so big, thebuttons are gonna pop off because they're so
(30:32):
proud of it. And you know, it's interesting because we're really dealing with
people that have been so overlooked they'realmost invisible, right, I mean people
that when I've said before things likehey, you know what next week,
Let's go fishing. Let's go fishing. I'll have to go fishing. They
don't know how to respond because they'rewondering if I'm maybe setting them up for
(30:53):
a joke. I'm setting up thatOh you know, no, it's just
you're the you're the baby, orwhat you were something. It just it's
it's it's it's amazing, and it'sit's sad because if we look at what
our culture and I think, Ithink there's tremendous change and inclusion and opportunity
coming and acceptance right and that thereis all of that, and I almost
(31:18):
say it's up to and included highschool. And then it stops and and
and there's this sacred ground and it'snot the church. It's our job.
It's a place we're working that weare just not bringing people with special needs
into. I mean, and I'deven say this, if your church will
(31:40):
not put someone with special needs behindthe pulpit, you don't have an inclusive
church. And and and almost tothat point, you know, if you
say, what was the sermon youheard three weeks ago, I bet a
lot of people are like, oh, you know, whatever, whatever,
you put someone with special needs behindthat pulpit and people will remember that for
(32:00):
the rest of their lives. Itand and that's true in in and I
think in business, in in youknow, speaking to schools, in in
in in creating true inclusion opportunities.And that's what that's what howd he is
trying to do. It's it's it'snot about the ice cream. Absolutely well,
(32:24):
Tom, We're going to take ashort break and come right back and
talk a little bit more about theamazing growth of Howdie Homemade and h some
of the future potentials there. Uh, this is Conscious Shift and we'll be
right back. H. If youlove the voices and visionaries shared here on
(33:17):
Conscious Shift with Julianne Turner, fromspiritual guides like Marianne Williamson, Barbara Marx
Hubbard and Don Miguel Ruiz, tocreative sparks like Julia Cameron of the Artist's
Way, and inspiring business gurus likeSeth Godin and Daniel Pink, then you'll
love being able to grasp their wiseguidance and apply their step by step wisdom
(33:39):
to the new Conscious Shift Notes actionguide series, a version of Cliff Notes.
For each Conscious Shift show. WithConscious Shift Notes, they not only
give you the engaging full audio interviewsfrom each Conscious Shift visionary and the full
written transcript. But now they've alsotaken each Conscious Shift Show interview and stilled
(34:00):
it down to its essential essence,so you get each Conscious Shift Show summarized
on just a few colorful visual pageswith bullet points, highlights and key quotes
so you can grasp the key pointsat one glance. Want to know the
best news, Conscious shif host JulianneTurner wants you to experience the inspiration of
their new Conscious Shift Notes absolutely freefor a limited time with her free gift
(34:24):
of their first Conscious Shift Notes actionguide and audio series with Seth Godin.
Go to Conscious Shiftshow dot com toreceive your free gift now. In your
free gift, Conscious Shift Notes,set multiple New York Times bestselling author and
creative visionary Seth Godin shares in detailexactly how you can discover and profit from
(34:45):
your own unique genius and start doingwhat really matters to you and to the
world. Your first step is togo to Conscious Shift show dot com right
now to receive your free Conscious ShiftNotes action guide and audio along with their
conscioush Show updates from their growing globalcommunity of fellow visionaries. Most important,
(35:05):
you'll also get to see how youcan access all their Conscious Shift Show wisdom
in their brand new Conscious Shift Notescollections around transformational topics they've shared like prosperity,
life, purpose, creativity at work, transformational leadership, and many more.
In fact, their first Conscious ShiftShow Notes collection on prosperity is available
now and includes Mary Ann Williamson onlove, divine compensation, Julia Cameron on
(35:31):
a Prosperous Heart, Dan Pink onto Sell as Human, and Adam Grant
on give and Take, how trueleadership starts with a giving mindset and much
more. Go to Conscious shiftshow dotcom right now to claim your Conscious Shift
Notes, action guide and audios toguide you step by step to make your
(35:51):
own conscious shift into your true greatness. Today. Welcome back everyone. This
(36:37):
is Conscious Shift with Julianne Turner,and you are listening to a show about
purpose driven business with Tom Landis,the founder and CEO of Howdy Homemade,
which creates amazing ice cream and employeeseven better people, especially step aft with
(37:00):
special needs employees. And Tom,can you talk to us a little bit
about the growth of how do YouHomemade? It's it's like picking up momentum.
And you've got some different franchise locationsnow, and you're getting in lots
of stores. What's the latest counton that? Uh, yeah, you
(37:25):
know, it's it's it's been crazy. Is we opened our first store in
twenty fifteen, and but gosh wherewe just signed our seventh franchise in Kansas
City, so kka T swizzle,we'll be there. And but then,
(37:46):
gosh is I entered an HB contest. Hib is a grocery store, a
big grocery store in Texas, largestprivate employer in Texas. And I entered
a contest there to get my icecream in and I didn't win. So
I entered a second year and Ididn't win. I entered a third year,
(38:07):
I did not win. I earneda fourth year and I didn't win.
And I think they the fifth year, they took me from like a
stalker list to all right, givethis guy a chance. And but that
that got us our entree into retail. We're now one hundred and thirty five
hbs and then going into we're alsoin tom Thumb and Albertson's and Randalls.
(38:31):
But then March second, which iscoach Stallings's birthday, We're going into one
thousand, two hundred and seventy eightPublic's grocery stores and I'm just I'm really
fired up about that, mainly becauseit's two hundred and fifty thousand employees,
the largest privately employee held business inthe US. And you know, if
(38:57):
you look at those number, there'sprobably about eighteen thousand of those families.
Of those two hundred and fifty thousands, they have a family member with special
needs, and if they could getto work with their parent or sibling,
and that's the biggest obstacle to someonewith special needs getting a job, I
think we could really revolutionize their workforceand truly bring a different element into the
(39:25):
grocery store aisles that hasn't been therebefore. And frankly it's something that HV
with its central markets. The bestthing they have in there is their food.
Eats people that tell you about theirfood. And I really think the
very best people, hands down todo that are people with special needs.
(39:50):
And I know that because last yearI spent about sixty thousand dollars going to
more than one hundred grocery stores withmy employees doing stampling and very clearly the
consumers said, Tom, you don'thave that good of a sampling. You're
never gonna be or not. Butyour employees rock and we sell out,
(40:15):
and the numbers and the stats andeverything prove itself. And that's our Our
goal is for every grocery store wego in, we would create two jobs
for people with special needs. Yeah, that's phenomenal. Tom. You know,
one of the other things I loveis that you've got some we can't
(40:36):
we can't part without you talking aboutthe flavors. You've got some signature flavors.
But what I love about it isyou actually kind of do the you
know, creative you know exploration ofwhat flavors should we should we launch by
you know, working with the specialneeds? Uh uh kids? How does
(40:59):
that work? Yeah? You knowwhat it's greatness is. I don't think
we'll ever need you know, chefsor flavor experts or something. I mean,
you know it. We want tobe Willy Wonka. We want to
be off the wall. And youknow it, Right when we first were
getting open, you know, oneemployee says, you know, hey,
(41:20):
I love ice cream, and anotherone says, yeah, but I like
doctor Pepper Moore, and another says, well, yeah, I like chocolate,
and so we combined him and wecame up with Doctor Pepper Chocolate Chip,
which is by far our best sellerfor the last eight years. And
uh and you know it's it's it'sjust hilarious h to you know, in
(41:43):
fantastic let people, you know whatto let people who aren't afraid of what
others think to be creative to bearound people who aren't creative, what other
things to be creative? And andyou know and and you know it and
(42:04):
also that their dreamers, right,they truly dream that their ice cream could
be in thousands of grocery stores.I'm surrounded by a lot of intelligent people
M B. A. S orwhatever. But you know what, I
don't know how many people actually havea dream, right, have a dream
that is almost even more than welllay cows da da da retire or whatever
(42:27):
like no like and and you know, we're trying to show with people all
the time, what is your dream? Right and if if, if you
don't have one, man, spenda little time put that thing in check,
right, like what are you doingwith your life? But man,
what's your dream? And then writeit down and then you know, be
bold enough to share it with somebodyelse, right, and and and and
(42:47):
and and then kind of see wherethat that that goes. But you know,
that's that's that's howdy. I mean, we we call it ice cream
for dreamers. And you know,I love to be around you know,
my employees who are are are athey're not afraid to dream, but they're
also not gonna, you know,take the wind out of my sale of
(43:15):
my dreams. That's right. Yeah, You've got a whole team of dreamers.
And uh, there are some leadershipprinciples that you have infused into HOLDI
Homemade that are really impressive. TomUh, talk a little bit about about
uh, you know what those principlesare for leadership. They're at howdy.
(43:40):
Yeah, you know what I thinkit really almost all comes down to this,
and you know it's why we werewe wanted to, you know,
mortgage the house, put it allon the line. Was really too for
ourselves but also for for our kidsto say, all right, let's let's
(44:01):
just try and put others first.Let let's put the needs of others in
front of our own wants and andyou know, you think about it,
Gosh, it is such a difficultIt's such a simple principle, that's so
so difficult to do. But youknow, you want a good marriage,
put your your spouse first. Youwant, you know, to be happy
(44:24):
in life, you want to reallybe happy and find joy in life.
Put others first. But but wheredo we really learn that? Where is
that really and in business, whereis that ever really modeled exemplified, or
that you can turn to something andsay, well, shouldn't I put myself
first? Shouldn't I put you know? It it it and and and and
(44:46):
I don't know, you know,I I honestly I don't know if the
always the crept. But I willsay this is that I think this,
this day to day, this thislife we have, this is kind of
our one shot to take a risk, one shot, like I don't know,
because if you, like I don'tknow, you go to heaven,
(45:07):
what do you you get a little? You know, you can jump from
one cloud to another or whatever.But even then, like you're not gonna
fall the other heaven doesn't have peoplefalling, right, so whatever, So
this is your one shot to toyou know, to take a risk and
to say, okay, you know, let's let's let's see if if these
these rules are are true, thatwe're supposed to to love others and treat
(45:30):
others the way we want to betreated. You know it, I don't
think I see that out there inthe business world a lot. But now
part of what I want to dois shake up a broken industry. Right.
The restaurant hospitality industry employees more thananyone else, and yet it's got
the worst turnover record. Three turnoverrecord in a restaurant is not unheard of,
(45:57):
and and and and what we're youknow, I I think that the
new type of fusion food or whatever, right that was all made, They're
not making any more new food outthere. It's we we've forgotten the basics.
And the basics are just businesses,people and people. Is it's love
and grace and and two things thatyou know, if we think about it,
(46:21):
where is that on Wall Street?Right? Where's the intersection of love
and grace on Wall Street? Right? It's it's we're not trained like that
to even think like that. ButI do believe that what we're seeing now,
and and you know, and infact, I mean I look at
(46:42):
a step back like okay, yeah, howdy, is is is way bigger
than me. Now it's it's takingon a momentum and a force. Uh
and uh and and and it alwayswas from the start, and you know
you can and I think it goesback to like, gosh, when you
know, we really look at whatare the things that that that we covet
(47:07):
that we would like to have,and then we open up our hands and
let them go and and and passthem on to someone else. And I
think what comes back to us isis bigger at the end of the day,
I don't want to go down auh you know, uh, a
(47:29):
green circle or a blue you knowsquare or a black diamond ski slope,
right, I want to go downthe path that no one's gone down before.
And and that's going to have somerisk and some uncertainty, but you
know, I want to do itand and and frankly, maybe even it's
(47:51):
that guys, I don't even knowif I want to do it. I
want to have a team of people, right, I mean, and maybe
in the end it's kind of likethis, right it is. I love
to fish. And there's a greatstory about guys fishing all night. Right,
They're fishing all night on one sideof the boat. They don't catch
anything right. And in the morning, this guy's like, hey, nope,
(48:13):
fish on the other side of theboat. And these guys are fishing,
and they need to fish for aliving. They're not out just for
a hobby. They need to butthey listen and they fish on that other
boat and they get more than anythingthey ever could. And I think,
man, that is the restaurant industryright there. We're fishing on this and
it's most industries, if we're honest, it's you're trying to pull the same
(48:34):
people from the same industry, whetherthey have one, five, ten or
twenty years experience, they all havethe same guardrails on them of what they
can and can't do and whatever.And we've got this cycle of of just
turnover. But well, on theother side, flip, were pulling people
with special needs, people that havenever been given a chance before, and
(48:57):
there's no turnover. And it's anentire workforce. And it's people that I
mean, that are so excited toget an apron. Right, they've got
their their uniform, but there maybethere hasn't been an apron and with all
like man, and they are firedup about their apron and you know,
and and they they they treat everycustomer well and they just they to me,
(49:22):
it's amazing. But they're the future, not just to the restaurant industry.
But but I say this that almostthe common denominator of the thing that
people like least about their job isredundancy. Doesnt matter if you're CEO,
you're making a lot of money,a little money, whatever. People do
not want to do the same jobover and over again. They just and
(49:45):
and and then there's people on theautism spectrum or special needs, and you
know what they love to do.They love to do that same job over
and over again. Potentially, we'vegone to the the factory that makes our
ice cream, uh and the employeeshave gone through the tour and seen the
ice cream made, and at theend they'll raise a question say something like,
(50:07):
wow, that was fascinating. ButI noticed when you put all the
pints in, they were all facingin different directions. Wouldn't you want them
all facing west? Like? Andthe plant managers like man, I never
even thought about that. I thinkwhen we can tap into those not not
disabilities, but abilities, right,there's those strengths that they have, we're
(50:30):
gonna see all sorts of changes outthere. And employers scrambling to tap into
the special needs work force. Absolutely, Tom, you hit on it.
You know this is a a phenomenalopportunity for restaurants to address employee turnover and
(50:53):
excellent customer service with a ready madeaudience that will rejoice at having a job.
And you are pioneering initially but alsostarting a wave hopefully of other not
only restaurants, but other industries recognizingthis resource. Uh, and the uniqueness
(51:19):
and gifts and exceptional individuals who areready to be part of our workforce and
thriving their lives. And I knowthat your goal is that that your employees
will eventually run your restaurants and andeven own your restaurants, be franchisees of
your restaurants, and Uh, Ithink that that's just the start. Honestly,
(51:45):
I think that's just the start.Thank you so much for being here
on Conscious Shift. I love yourmessage. We are fans of Houdi HomeAid
and will share your message far andwide as much as we can. And
it's been such a joy to haveyou on Conscious Shift. Thank you,
Tom. Thank you have a greatday, and we will be right back
(52:13):
on conscious if you love the voicesand visionaries shared here on Conscious Shift with
(52:53):
Julianne Turner, from spiritual guides likeMarianne Williamson, Barbara Marks Hubbard and Miguel
Luiz, to creative sparks like JuliaCameron of the Artist's Way and inspiring business
gurus like Seth Godin and Daniel Pink. Then you'll love being able to grasp
their wise guidance and apply their stepby step wisdom to the new Conscious Shift
(53:15):
Notes action guide series, a versionof cliff Notes for each Conscious Shift show.
With Conscious Shift Notes, they notonly give you the engaging full audio
interviews from each Conscious Shift visionary andthe full written transcript, but now they've
also taken each Conscious Shift Show interviewand distilled it down to its essential essence,
(53:36):
so you get each Conscious Shift showsummarized on just a few colorful visual
pages with bullet points, highlights andkey quotes so you can grasp the key
points at one glance. Want toknow the best news, Conscious Ship host
Julianne Turner wants you to experience theinspiration of their new Conscious Shift Notes absolutely
free for a limited time with herfree gift of their first Conscious Shift Notes
(54:00):
action guide and audio series with SethGodin, go to Conscious Shiftshow dot com
to receive your free gift now.In your free gift Conscious Shift Notes,
said multiple New York Times bestselling authorand creative visionary, Seth Godin shares in
detail exactly how you can discover andprofit from your own unique genius and start
(54:21):
doing what really matters to you andto the world. Your first step is
to go to Conscious Shift Show dotcom right now to receive your free Conscious
Shift Notes action guide and audio alongwith their Conscious Shift Show updates from their
growing global community of fellow visionaries.Most important, you'll also get to see
how you can access all their ConsciousShift Show wisdom in their brand new Conscious
(54:45):
Shift Notes collections around transformational topics they'veshared like prosperity, life, purpose,
creativity, at work, transformational leadership, and many more. In fact,
their first Conscious Shift Show Notes collectionon prosperity is available now and includes Mary
Anne Williamson on love, divine Compensation, Julia Cameron on a Prosperous Heart,
(55:07):
Dan Pink on to Sell as Human, and Adam Grant on give and take,
how true leadership starts with a givingmindset, and much more. Go
to Conscious shiftshow dot com right nowto claim your conscious shift, notes,
action guide and audios to guide youstep by step to make your own conscious
shift into your true greatness today.Welcome everyone, We've just had a phenomenal
(56:07):
Conscious Shift show with Tom Landis,the CEO and founder of Howdy Homemade ice
Cream. And just a reminder,if we've been talking about everyone having exceptional
gifts, everyone having their own uniquegenius, I believe that that is in
each one of us. If youwould like to find out more about your
(56:30):
genius and your uniqueness, you cancheck out my signature Genius workshop at my
Genius workshop dot com. We'd loveto have you come through there, and
again, thanks for being fans andfollowers of Conscious Shift. We'll see you
next time. You've been listening toConscious Shift with your host Julianne Turner,
(56:55):
if you're ready to make your ownconscious shift to awaken the power and singular
greatness already within you, Julianne isyour expert coach and trusted ally, your
passionate professional guide to create your highestpurpose, profitability, and potential in your
life, work in world. Justgo now to Julianne's website www. Dot
(57:16):
creators guide dot com and fill inthe special pop up. You'll instantly receive
free access to invaluable resources and bonusesthat will guide you forward. That's www.
Dot creators guide dot com. Justgo there now and fill in the
special pop up. Now is thetime to shift into your greatness.
Conscious Shift with Julianne Turner brings insightsfrom leading voices and visionaries across the globe
to guide and inspire you to createyour own conscious shift into your true power
and singular greatness. Through her expertise, author, speaker, and social innovator,
Julianne Turner, a world authority onthe creative process, guides you to
discover how to consciously create the life, work, and world you most desire.
(00:27):
And now here's your Conscious Shift hostJulianne Turner. Welcome conscious shifters from
all across the globe. This isJulianne Turner. You are listening to Conscious
Shift and we're so glad you're here. And if you're new, we do
have a special kind of welcome giftfor you. If you go to Conscious
(00:51):
shiftshow dot com you will be ableto get a special Conscious Shift Genius Guide.
Came out of an interview I didwith Seth Godin about genius and about
how you can share your gifts withthe world. Would love for you to
have that, So just go toConscious shiftshow dot com and you'll also be
(01:12):
notified about all of our shows whenyou sign up and get that gift.
Today's show, I feel is veryspecial personally to me, and it's also
going to be very important and significantfor you listeners. It is about purpose
driven business in a world where weoften think about business and profits, and
(01:38):
that's about as far as we go. There are businesses that make a difference
in the world, and more andmore our consumers are looking for businesses that
have a meaning and a purpose behindthem. And our Conscious Shift Show guest
(01:59):
today, Tom Landis, has acrosshis career been a champion of purpose driven
business. He is the CEO andfounder of Howdy Homemade, purpose driven business
staffed almost entirely by special needs employees. And we're going to talk about Tom's
(02:23):
career, his vision, how HowdyHomemade was birthed, and the principles that
can help other businesses become more purposedriven. Tom such a warm and joyful
welcome to Conscious Shift. Hey,thanks for having me on. As I
(02:44):
said, this is a special interviewfor me because I have had the privilege
of following Tom's career literally since hecame out of college and actually helped recruit
him to advertise an agency in Dallaswhere I was working straight out of college
University of Texas at Austin, bothof our alma maters, and as I
(03:08):
told him as we were preparing forthis interview, the instant I met Tom,
I could feel his energy, hispassion, his potential. He was
going to be a great force inthe world. And it has come true
every step of the way. Uh, Tom, I want to start with
(03:31):
like your like the origins of yourof your visionary self, like your I
think your parents had an influence onthat. Maybe we just start with that.
Yeah, yeah, you know what, gosh, I think my mom
just a huge impact. She hadpolio, one of the last he had
(03:53):
polio, and but she taught inAnacostia. You know, we didn't have
a car, public transportation, andshe just always stayed positive and always saw
the best in people. And thenmy dad, you know, gosh,
(04:14):
I you know, I don't knowif people remember where they were August twenty
eighth, nineteen sixty three, buthe was a young banker and in Washington,
d C. And they shut thebanks down and everything. They said
a bad guy was coming to townto talk about a lot of bad things
and cause a bunch of trouble.But he didn't listen, and he got
to hear doctor Martin Luther King Juniordeliver up I have a dream speech lot
(04:40):
and as a result, you know, he did a lot to help black
owned businesses in d C get started. And I just I think I kind
of always looked at those two thingsand thought, Okay, gosh, how
how do we kind of approach thisfinal frontier, this this business place where
(05:05):
there oftentimes is the least amount ofinclusion, especially for people with with with
idd with special needs developmental delays.How can we make a change there.
Yeah, I can see that theseeds were sown all the way back,
you know, with your parents.But I also noticed that as you were
(05:30):
starting your first restaurants in Dallas,you were always uh with Texadelphia and Pizza
Patrone. You were always looking tonot only have a thriving business, which
you did, but also looking athow you could enable and empower your employees
both from a leaderships like from aleadership standpoint point, and also from an
(05:51):
education You you created ESL classes andfor your for your Hispanic employees, and
you also were able to see likethe business principles that would make this a
success, like really enabling us strongleadership educated Hispanic workforce for restaurants was a
(06:17):
huge opportunity from a business standpoint attoo at the same time, right,
yeah, it really was. Youknow, it just seemed to make all
the sense in the world. Ifif you have sort of too you have
an offense and the defense, youhave a front of the house, and
you have a back of the house, and front of the house is maybe
(06:40):
your cashiers and your weight staff,but your back of the house is your
your kitchen staff. And that waslargely hispanic at the time. And the
turnover was with the front of thehouse, not the back of the house,
and that gosh, how could wemove the back of the house to
the front of the house. Well, the simple ingredient and missing was English.
(07:01):
And we didn't need Shakespeare. Wedon't need to speak and I am
that pentameter. We need some ofthe basics of frame. And so we
looked at and we were able totransform restaurants into classrooms between lunch and dinner
during the downtime with a simple oneway video where they could see a video
(07:21):
on a TV screen and in atwo way audio with the speaker system and
create English as the second language programs. And you know, quickly we're able
to the front of the house thatwas constantly turning over. Move the back
of the house to the front ofthe house. And I think thirteen of
my employees really were able to movethe front of the house, move into
(07:45):
management positions and eventually, you know, purchase their own home and that start
to move into that American dream.Yeah, and that that trajectory, Tom,
is know why, like what you'vebeen abled in your businesses is just
why I've always so admired and cheeredyou on. And it's it sounds to
(08:09):
me like whilst you were enabling allof those amazing employees in your initial businesses,
you met a young man who hadspecial needs that impressed you. Can
you tell us that story and howit kind of started the birth of Howdy
Homemade? Yeah, you know,it's just gosh wanting to kind of always
(08:33):
look for that underdog and root forthat underdog. There was a time in
my restaurant we had a whole groupof football team in eating and you know,
we're just the staff is just completelyslammed. It's just a really busy
(08:54):
time. And a guy named ColemanJones just a great smile and kind of
came up and said, what canI do to help, and he happened
to have Down syndrome, and Isaid, gosh, you can help run
some plates out and and take careof chips and caso, and you know,
he started doing that, and anduh, you know it, that
(09:15):
was kind of one of the veryfirst things made me think, well,
wait a minute, gosh, whereI don't I don't see enough of this
in the world. I don't seeenough of people with special needs with with
Down syndrome in the in the restaurantindustry. And then how do we create
the the ideal uh uh, youknow sphere for them? And and I
(09:37):
think part of that looking at itmeant, okay, speed is a factor
in the restaurants, right, wewant speed. You've got an hour for
lunch. You can't tell your boss, hey, I took extra time or
whatever. Well, speed was oneof those factors that was hard to get
around. So we started looking atdifferent things. And that's really where we
started to hone in on ice creamis it's it's just not thing where you're
(10:01):
in a hurry for. In fact, when I would take my daughter to
go to an ice cream place oreven a doughnut place, you almost wish
it would take a little longer,right, You're just you're trying to have
that daddy daughter time and and andyou know, and and and so and
then you have look at everything froma safety standpoint. You know, there's
(10:22):
one knife and all of howdy homade, there's no fryme, you know,
real hot grease for someone there's notin the oven. To really reduce down
so that the broadest spectrum of peoplecould work and and succeed there and and
(10:43):
and really the stars that that belongon this show, or you know are
are are are the employees. Andyou know how much pride they have and
in their their key chain because it'sgot a key to the shop and they
open it and close it, andyou know they they it's humbling because I
believe they take their job more seriousthan I do. You know then I
(11:07):
take mine. It's humbling. Well, I know, Tom. Another principle
that you've always used in your businessesis to put others first and to let
your employees speak for themselves. Andso it's it's amazing to see your employees
in interviews for Hodah and Jenna onthe Today's Show, you know, uh,
(11:35):
speaking for themselves. And also youknow whether it's local or regional or
national news, and to give themthat voice and that in that platform that
they haven't had has had it.It shows us all what the potential is.
It makes it helps us all seewhat magic is in each one of
(12:01):
us, you know, in specialneeds individuals as well. And it also
has to give them an experience anda confidence that they haven't had the opportunity
many times, maybe never in theirlives up until the time they get that
opportunity to speak or have that keyand open the doors, you know,
(12:22):
and to come home with a paycheck. I think, you know, I
looked up some numbers in preparation forour conversation. It's like, I think
like sixty plus percent of adults withspecial needs are unemployed. So just the
fact that they can have a placewhere they can work. Lots of parents
(12:46):
have dreamed their whole lives and neverbelieved that their child, their special need
child, would would be able tohave a place to work. And that's
really the higher purpose and vision ofof Howdi Homemade is to start this cascade
throughout all of our business industries tosay, let's employ these people. They
(13:11):
have special gifts as well, andthey can do things that once we begin
to understand, they can do thingsbetter than we can in a lot of
cases. I also know that youare a bit inspired by not a bit,
like really inspired by coach Gene Stallingsa book that he wrote about his
(13:33):
son Johnny. And I noticed inthe title Tom Another Season, a coach's
story of raising an exceptional son.You know, I've always like that word
exceptional. These people are exceptional.We all are in our unique ways.
I've always kind of had a problemwith disability, a disability. I know
(13:58):
that there are some limitations, butI kind of liked that word exceptional.
How did that How did that bookinspire you? Alongside meeting someone like Coleman
and others to launch Hollie Homemade.Yeah, Coach Stallings, his wife Ruth
Ann and and then their son Johnny. It just is phenomenal what they did.
(14:20):
Their son was born in June twelfth, nineteen sixty two, in an
era when America treated people with Downsymdrome very differently. The term then was
mongloyd. It meant that there wasa scientific terma, meant wide eyed,
and often they were either left onthe table or just institutionalized. And it
(14:43):
just the honesty in that book justwas just it jumped off the pages,
and what really jumped off was,gosh, he spent twelve years coaching with
Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys,and during that time no one offered his
son a job. And if we'rehonest in a lot of ways, I'm
(15:07):
not sure I'm seeing a lot ofreal change and improvement out there. I
see a lot of room for it, and we're proving it up. But
if would we say, okay,turn and look to where are those other
places, and we're realistic about itand look at it in the top proper
reflection of what our society, whatwe have, we have a lot of
(15:30):
room for improvement. But you know, it was interesting. There was actually
three books in a row that Ithink kind of brought this vision to clarity.
And the first one was called TwelveMighty Orphans And a guy named Rusty
Russell wanted to coach football the nineteenthirties. The only job he can get
was at the Fort Worth Masonic Lodge. He was coaching a bunch of orphans.
(15:54):
They had no pads, and onaverage they made less than thirty five
pounds less than the guys across thefield. So what did Rusty Russell do
with these group of orphans with nopads that were, you know, way
smaller and weaklings compared well with smashmouth football. So what did he do?
(16:15):
He spread them out so they couldrun little fast guys. So Rusty
Russell invented the spread offense that everyNFL team uses today. Rusty Russell did.
And I say that because that mademe start thinking like, all right,
if I'm serious, then I'm notgonna see disabilities. I'm gonna see
abilities. What are they not asgood as? But what are they better
(16:37):
at? And I'm a grumpy guy, right, you come into my ice
cream shop and on the wall,I've got basically two things. What one
scoop costs and two scoop costs?And if you come in and ask me,
oh, what does it cost?I'm sorry, but part of my
mind and my mind's gonna be hey, it's right up there, right.
(16:59):
But that's why you don't want mebehind the counter. That's why you don't
want most of America behind the counter. That's why the rotation behind the counter
were more regular customers than the employeesare. At a lot of fast food
places, there's now hiring banners everywhere, but they're still not considering people with
special needs in the realm that Iwould like to see it. The second
(17:22):
book was then Junction Boys, aboutJeene Stallings and a group of guys at
Texas A and M in nineteen fiftysix. When Bear Bryant went there to
coach, he didn't like what hesaw. He took one hundred and twenty
six aggies to Junction, Texas forten days, came back with thirty five.
He was so tough on him therest quit. From one hundred and
twenty six to thirty five. Oneof those tough guys that made it through
(17:45):
was Stallings, and it made methink, who is this coach? Who
is this guy? And I thinkthat you know, they just God have
prepared him to truly make a changein this world, and that, you
know, if you want to reallymake a change, I'm not sure it's
one brilliant idea or one one simpleact, but instead maybe it's just a
(18:06):
million nice little things. And andfor eight years that I've been involved with
special needs, almost daily I meetsomebody that's that's affected by special needs as
a family member, as a child, and you know, thirty thirty five
percent of the time they've had aconversation with coach Dollings, not they met
him at a gala or something.No, like he's had. He's reached
(18:26):
out to them personally to say,hey, you know what, what I
thought was something that I didn't liketurned out to be the greatest blessing of
all and that's my son, Johnny. And you know, to honor a
guy like coach s Doallings, Idon't want to look at him in the
eye and say, oh, let'stalk a little bit about that, but
let's get back to football or whatever. Now. I want to I want
(18:49):
to use, you know, usefootball to help carry this message of special
needs. And it's great because nowwe've got coach Stallings in our corner.
And then a guy that caught sevenpasses for eighty one yards at the University
of Alabama in nineteen ninety two undercoach Stallings, wasn't sure what he was
(19:11):
going to do after college. Stallingssaid, why don't you try coaching?
And he just re negotiated his contractfor one hundred point three million. At
Clemson, it's coach Dabosweeney and he'sopening hotels that will be thirty percent staffed
by people with special needs. Sowe're starting to see this trend and this
(19:33):
change, and really, I thinkultimately where it comes is, you know,
when I can sit down with otherrestaurant owners and say, gosh,
you know, before you all complainabout not being able to find good help
and da da da da da,I want to let you know that I've
got a wait list of one hundredand thirty two people they want to work
at my shop. And there's threepoint two million Texans that desperately pray for
(19:59):
what you and I take for granted, and that's a job. There's sixty
two million Americans and that that thatthat are looking for work, and almost
every stat that you look at forspecial needs employment I think is just off.
It's just not it's it's less thanthat, and maybe it's their unemployed
(20:19):
or underemployed. One of my favoriteauthors is Malcolm Gladwell and The Tipping Point
and Blink and and in there hetalks about that you know, they know
if they're going to hire you inthe first ten seconds of a job,
that it's not these multiple interviews orgroup interviews or first ten seconds, it's
(20:40):
how you you handshake, how yousmile, how you look them in the
eye. And I think that goesto why ninety percent of those with autism
are underemployed or unemployed, because inthose first ten seconds they're gonna send up
some red flag that an HR execor HR pro is going to just say,
okay, that that guy didn't giveme eye contact, or he looked
(21:02):
a little off, and and andand and and therefore I don't think he
was telling me the truth. Andif we do not change the way we
hire, then we won't change theway we hire. I mean, right,
it's that simple, and and andand I feel like too many times
big companies will say, oh,go to our portal or our website or
(21:23):
something, and and it's almost likethey're saying, yeah, we're we have
zero interest employing somebody, you know. And then also, I mean,
if we look at it a restaurant, a new restaurant comes to town,
a couple of weeks before it opens, it puts a now hiring banner up,
and then it's basically saying we're gonnaput in thirty forty hours of training
somebody. They'll stay probably four months, they'll start getting disfrontled and quit and
(21:48):
two months later. And why wouldwe even spend any time or effort training
new people. Now, what ifwe took a new model and said,
Okay, we're not gonna have thatconstant rotation of everyone else. We're gonna
take people and we might need totrain them for three or four months,
and in fact, we've got totrain them different than honestly what we're used
to. Right, it's busy.We're gonna yell, we're gonna dot dot
(22:11):
no. You know what, We'regonna try and bring two words that most
men will never ever ever bring intobusiness. Love and grace. Right,
Hey, you know what, loveyou man? I love you, man,
But you gotta make eye contact,right, and then you know what
you didn't You didn't make eye contact. You know, I'm gonna give you
the grace. Right. It's justlove and grace such an incredibly powerful things
(22:34):
that that that it don't exist inour business world. And I think they're
the two most powerful things we haveat our disposal because if you give them
love and grace and over time andthen they they they they they they you
know, they will take a bulletfor me, right, and and they
will stay and and you know,I had one of my employees has been
(22:56):
me with me forever. His hisdad, in kind of almost a poetic
way, December thirteenth, two yearsago, drops his son off. It
that that howdy he leaves, howhe walks out and has a stroke.
Three days later he passed. Andand and but but almost like that baton
(23:17):
passing of okay, I've I've trainedup my son. Is this is he
ready for the world? Now?This is this is his independence? Can
he do this? And and andIt's interesting two things on that. One
his son has just flourished phenomenally,And the second is I can remember that
(23:37):
going in and visiting with his dadon his deathbed, and and and and
and and looking at him and tellinghim, you know, doctor O'Brien,
I will look after your son.And I've realized since that that time too,
two and a half years ago,that that I got it wrong.
(23:59):
It's it's his son is the onethat you know, I know when he's
there, he's taking care of me, but he's also you know, the
son is the one that you knowwhen when we go get a burger with
with my son or or or oror or my daughter, that that you
know, this is an employee thatwill turn look at me and say,
hey, you know what, ifsomething ever happens to you, I'll take
(24:22):
care of your my kids, right, And I mean it's just who doesn't
want that in this business world?Right? And then it's interesting too,
just gosh, is is you knowwhat is the correct perspectives to have on
life? Is it one of pureintelligence? And you know, and and
and and and who can get themost and I I don't know, but
(24:48):
those kind of go hand in hand, right, intelligence and and and and
all that, And then gosh,you you you know you you you spend
time with someone with special needs ina workplace environment, and you leave better.
You leave a better man, youleave a better husband, you leave
a better father, you leave abetter friend because you're you're realizing the gosh,
(25:12):
the moment is the place to beand these guys know it. Yeah.
Yeah, well you do some specialI love that you call your employees
heroes and you do some hero trainingfor them to help them with things like
eye contact Tom. And then youalso talk a little bit about how you
(25:34):
help them like stretch their limits,push their limits a little bit, to
expand what they feel is possible.Yeah, you know, we talk all
the time about Gosh, I'm notgoing to ask him to do something that
I know they can't do, right. And so whether it's getting up and
speaking in front of a thousand people, or you know, whether it's it's
(25:59):
gosh, working the register right,that intimidation of the money right, and
and how to how to work thatand uh, and then another big one
is gosh that you know that thatand and we we we kind of love
to have these debates and and thingson it, but everyone says, Gosh,
you know, you really want towork towards a very regimented schedule.
(26:22):
People with down cinder autism they lovea regimented schedule. So my first thought
is, okay, let's blow upthe schedule. You know, I want
them to have to learn to reactto a rural world situation. And again,
I don't know if those are alwayscorrect, but but I will say
this, I don't know how youdefine autism in a lot of ways that
(26:47):
they don't know what causes it,right, they don't know. And and
and this is what is. I'veseen an autific kid nonverbal for his whole
life, and then he spends thesummer listening to the Jersey Boys soundtrack and
by the end of it, he'ssinging everything and starts talking. Now,
(27:07):
does that mean Jersey Boys a solutionto autism? No, of course not.
But what it does mean is,you know what I feel like.
I'm like, I want to belike Nick Saban or one of the other
you know, great coaches out there. Give me to your kid, and
you know what, let's not putthem in an environment where they're the only
person with special needs trying to work. But man, they are in a
(27:29):
group where it's us versus the world, right, and they know we're different
something there's something about us that's different. And we know when when we're behind
the counter, it's love and it'sgrace. And we can be whoever we
want. It does not matter whatthe world's taught us. We can be
whoever we want. And we canbuild this up. When we can,
we can do things that people didn'tthink were possible, right, I mean,
(27:53):
and I mean you think that theparents of a child with special needs
their whole life, they're told theirchild can do anything. But then when
it comes time to a job,right, money time, that that does
evaporate down and they start to goaway. And I mean, I you
know, some of the greatest thingsin the world are you know the times
(28:15):
when a mom has called me upand you know, just in tears,
and she said, you know what. A friend of mine called and she
was a roommate of mine in collegeand she flies into Dallas a lot for
layover and every time she does,we meet lunch and I bring along my
daughter because she loves my daughter,and she doesn't have a job set And
(28:36):
she called in said I'm coming intuesday, and I said great and hung
up. And then I realized,no way, my daughter has a job.
And I call back and I said, we can't meet you because my
daughter has a job. And itwe just spent the next five minutes on
the phone crying because both her anda friend deep down inside thought there may
(28:57):
never be a job now that theirtheir schedules are being readjusted because one of
them has a job. And andagain, like that's a how much of
us take it as a what abirden? Why is this one day,
you know, the day we haveto work we can't have it off,
right, versus people celebrating that thatchance and that opportunity. Yeah, Tom,
(29:22):
I know that, Uh, thatkey that you talked about has some
special meaning. And and uh,the fact that you you might tell an
employee you know, uh, somebody'ssick. I need you, I need
you tomorrow, right, that hasa very special meaning for these employees.
(29:45):
Can you talk about that? Yeah, and you just hit the word.
The words, their words matter.And and it's need to be wanted,
right, it's need to be wanted. But gosh, it is, it
is, and I believe for forfor many employees, they have not necessarily
perhaps ever been needed before. Right, Hey, I need you to show
(30:06):
up tomorrow, right. And sometimesthe parents don't understand I'll show up late
whatever. And no, no,no, this place doesn't open. I
need you. I need you tobe here. I need you to perform
well, I need you to greetthe customer. I need you to be
clean. And and and it's interestingbecause sometimes you feel like they're their their
chests almost rise so big, thebuttons are gonna pop off because they're so
(30:32):
proud of it. And you know, it's interesting because we're really dealing with
people that have been so overlooked they'realmost invisible, right, I mean people
that when I've said before things likehey, you know what next week,
Let's go fishing. Let's go fishing. I'll have to go fishing. They
don't know how to respond because they'rewondering if I'm maybe setting them up for
(30:53):
a joke. I'm setting up thatOh you know, no, it's just
you're the you're the baby, orwhat you were something. It just it's
it's it's it's amazing, and it'sit's sad because if we look at what
our culture and I think, Ithink there's tremendous change and inclusion and opportunity
coming and acceptance right and that thereis all of that, and I almost
(31:18):
say it's up to and included highschool. And then it stops and and
and there's this sacred ground and it'snot the church. It's our job.
It's a place we're working that weare just not bringing people with special needs
into. I mean, and I'deven say this, if your church will
(31:40):
not put someone with special needs behindthe pulpit, you don't have an inclusive
church. And and and almost tothat point, you know, if you
say, what was the sermon youheard three weeks ago, I bet a
lot of people are like, oh, you know, whatever, whatever,
you put someone with special needs behindthat pulpit and people will remember that for
(32:00):
the rest of their lives. Itand and that's true in in and I
think in business, in in youknow, speaking to schools, in in
in in creating true inclusion opportunities.And that's what that's what howd he is
trying to do. It's it's it'snot about the ice cream. Absolutely well,
(32:24):
Tom, We're going to take ashort break and come right back and
talk a little bit more about theamazing growth of Howdie Homemade and h some
of the future potentials there. Uh, this is Conscious Shift and we'll be
right back. H. If youlove the voices and visionaries shared here on
(33:17):
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(33:39):
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(34:00):
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(34:24):
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(34:45):
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(35:05):
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Notes, action guide and audios toguide you step by step to make your
(35:51):
own conscious shift into your true greatness. Today. Welcome back everyone. This
(36:37):
is Conscious Shift with Julianne Turner,and you are listening to a show about
purpose driven business with Tom Landis,the founder and CEO of Howdy Homemade,
which creates amazing ice cream and employeeseven better people, especially step aft with
(37:00):
special needs employees. And Tom,can you talk to us a little bit
about the growth of how do YouHomemade? It's it's like picking up momentum.
And you've got some different franchise locationsnow, and you're getting in lots
of stores. What's the latest counton that? Uh, yeah, you
(37:25):
know, it's it's it's been crazy. Is we opened our first store in
twenty fifteen, and but gosh wherewe just signed our seventh franchise in Kansas
City, so kka T swizzle,we'll be there. And but then,
(37:46):
gosh is I entered an HB contest. Hib is a grocery store, a
big grocery store in Texas, largestprivate employer in Texas. And I entered
a contest there to get my icecream in and I didn't win. So
I entered a second year and Ididn't win. I entered a third year,
(38:07):
I did not win. I earneda fourth year and I didn't win.
And I think they the fifth year, they took me from like a
stalker list to all right, givethis guy a chance. And but that
that got us our entree into retail. We're now one hundred and thirty five
hbs and then going into we're alsoin tom Thumb and Albertson's and Randalls.
(38:31):
But then March second, which iscoach Stallings's birthday, We're going into one
thousand, two hundred and seventy eightPublic's grocery stores and I'm just I'm really
fired up about that, mainly becauseit's two hundred and fifty thousand employees,
the largest privately employee held business inthe US. And you know, if
(38:57):
you look at those number, there'sprobably about eighteen thousand of those families.
Of those two hundred and fifty thousands, they have a family member with special
needs, and if they could getto work with their parent or sibling,
and that's the biggest obstacle to someonewith special needs getting a job, I
think we could really revolutionize their workforceand truly bring a different element into the
(39:25):
grocery store aisles that hasn't been therebefore. And frankly it's something that HV
with its central markets. The bestthing they have in there is their food.
Eats people that tell you about theirfood. And I really think the
very best people, hands down todo that are people with special needs.
(39:50):
And I know that because last yearI spent about sixty thousand dollars going to
more than one hundred grocery stores withmy employees doing stampling and very clearly the
consumers said, Tom, you don'thave that good of a sampling. You're
never gonna be or not. Butyour employees rock and we sell out,
(40:15):
and the numbers and the stats andeverything prove itself. And that's our Our
goal is for every grocery store wego in, we would create two jobs
for people with special needs. Yeah, that's phenomenal. Tom. You know,
one of the other things I loveis that you've got some we can't
(40:36):
we can't part without you talking aboutthe flavors. You've got some signature flavors.
But what I love about it isyou actually kind of do the you
know, creative you know exploration ofwhat flavors should we should we launch by
you know, working with the specialneeds? Uh uh kids? How does
(40:59):
that work? Yeah? You knowwhat it's greatness is. I don't think
we'll ever need you know, chefsor flavor experts or something. I mean,
you know it. We want tobe Willy Wonka. We want to
be off the wall. And youknow it, Right when we first were
getting open, you know, oneemployee says, you know, hey,
(41:20):
I love ice cream, and anotherone says, yeah, but I like
doctor Pepper Moore, and another says, well, yeah, I like chocolate,
and so we combined him and wecame up with Doctor Pepper Chocolate Chip,
which is by far our best sellerfor the last eight years. And
uh and you know it's it's it'sjust hilarious h to you know, in
(41:43):
fantastic let people, you know whatto let people who aren't afraid of what
others think to be creative to bearound people who aren't creative, what other
things to be creative? And andyou know and and you know it and
(42:04):
also that their dreamers, right,they truly dream that their ice cream could
be in thousands of grocery stores.I'm surrounded by a lot of intelligent people
M B. A. S orwhatever. But you know what, I
don't know how many people actually havea dream, right, have a dream
that is almost even more than welllay cows da da da retire or whatever
(42:27):
like no like and and you know, we're trying to show with people all
the time, what is your dream? Right and if if, if you
don't have one, man, spenda little time put that thing in check,
right, like what are you doingwith your life? But man,
what's your dream? And then writeit down and then you know, be
bold enough to share it with somebodyelse, right, and and and and
(42:47):
and and then kind of see wherethat that that goes. But you know,
that's that's that's howdy. I mean, we we call it ice cream
for dreamers. And you know,I love to be around you know,
my employees who are are are athey're not afraid to dream, but they're
also not gonna, you know,take the wind out of my sale of
(43:15):
my dreams. That's right. Yeah, You've got a whole team of dreamers.
And uh, there are some leadershipprinciples that you have infused into HOLDI
Homemade that are really impressive. TomUh, talk a little bit about about
uh, you know what those principlesare for leadership. They're at howdy.
(43:40):
Yeah, you know what I thinkit really almost all comes down to this,
and you know it's why we werewe wanted to, you know,
mortgage the house, put it allon the line. Was really too for
ourselves but also for for our kidsto say, all right, let's let's
(44:01):
just try and put others first.Let let's put the needs of others in
front of our own wants and andyou know, you think about it,
Gosh, it is such a difficultIt's such a simple principle, that's so
so difficult to do. But youknow, you want a good marriage,
put your your spouse first. Youwant, you know, to be happy
(44:24):
in life, you want to reallybe happy and find joy in life.
Put others first. But but wheredo we really learn that? Where is
that really and in business, whereis that ever really modeled exemplified, or
that you can turn to something andsay, well, shouldn't I put myself
first? Shouldn't I put you know? It it it and and and and
(44:46):
I don't know, you know,I I honestly I don't know if the
always the crept. But I willsay this is that I think this,
this day to day, this thislife we have, this is kind of
our one shot to take a risk, one shot, like I don't know,
because if you, like I don'tknow, you go to heaven,
(45:07):
what do you you get a little? You know, you can jump from
one cloud to another or whatever.But even then, like you're not gonna
fall the other heaven doesn't have peoplefalling, right, so whatever, So
this is your one shot to toyou know, to take a risk and
to say, okay, you know, let's let's let's see if if these
these rules are are true, thatwe're supposed to to love others and treat
(45:30):
others the way we want to betreated. You know it, I don't
think I see that out there inthe business world a lot. But now
part of what I want to dois shake up a broken industry. Right.
The restaurant hospitality industry employees more thananyone else, and yet it's got
the worst turnover record. Three turnoverrecord in a restaurant is not unheard of,
(45:57):
and and and and what we're youknow, I I think that the
new type of fusion food or whatever, right that was all made, They're
not making any more new food outthere. It's we we've forgotten the basics.
And the basics are just businesses,people and people. Is it's love
and grace and and two things thatyou know, if we think about it,
(46:21):
where is that on Wall Street?Right? Where's the intersection of love
and grace on Wall Street? Right? It's it's we're not trained like that
to even think like that. ButI do believe that what we're seeing now,
and and you know, and infact, I mean I look at
(46:42):
a step back like okay, yeah, howdy, is is is way bigger
than me. Now it's it's takingon a momentum and a force. Uh
and uh and and and it alwayswas from the start, and you know
you can and I think it goesback to like, gosh, when you
know, we really look at whatare the things that that that we covet
(47:07):
that we would like to have,and then we open up our hands and
let them go and and and passthem on to someone else. And I
think what comes back to us isis bigger at the end of the day,
I don't want to go down auh you know, uh, a
(47:29):
green circle or a blue you knowsquare or a black diamond ski slope,
right, I want to go downthe path that no one's gone down before.
And and that's going to have somerisk and some uncertainty, but you
know, I want to do itand and and frankly, maybe even it's
(47:51):
that guys, I don't even knowif I want to do it. I
want to have a team of people, right, I mean, and maybe
in the end it's kind of likethis, right it is. I love
to fish. And there's a greatstory about guys fishing all night. Right,
They're fishing all night on one sideof the boat. They don't catch
anything right. And in the morning, this guy's like, hey, nope,
(48:13):
fish on the other side of theboat. And these guys are fishing,
and they need to fish for aliving. They're not out just for
a hobby. They need to butthey listen and they fish on that other
boat and they get more than anythingthey ever could. And I think,
man, that is the restaurant industryright there. We're fishing on this and
it's most industries, if we're honest, it's you're trying to pull the same
(48:34):
people from the same industry, whetherthey have one, five, ten or
twenty years experience, they all havethe same guardrails on them of what they
can and can't do and whatever.And we've got this cycle of of just
turnover. But well, on theother side, flip, were pulling people
with special needs, people that havenever been given a chance before, and
(48:57):
there's no turnover. And it's anentire workforce. And it's people that I
mean, that are so excited toget an apron. Right, they've got
their their uniform, but there maybethere hasn't been an apron and with all
like man, and they are firedup about their apron and you know,
and and they they they treat everycustomer well and they just they to me,
(49:22):
it's amazing. But they're the future, not just to the restaurant industry.
But but I say this that almostthe common denominator of the thing that
people like least about their job isredundancy. Doesnt matter if you're CEO,
you're making a lot of money,a little money, whatever. People do
not want to do the same jobover and over again. They just and
(49:45):
and and then there's people on theautism spectrum or special needs, and you
know what they love to do.They love to do that same job over
and over again. Potentially, we'vegone to the the factory that makes our
ice cream, uh and the employeeshave gone through the tour and seen the
ice cream made, and at theend they'll raise a question say something like,
(50:07):
wow, that was fascinating. ButI noticed when you put all the
pints in, they were all facingin different directions. Wouldn't you want them
all facing west? Like? Andthe plant managers like man, I never
even thought about that. I thinkwhen we can tap into those not not
disabilities, but abilities, right,there's those strengths that they have, we're
(50:30):
gonna see all sorts of changes outthere. And employers scrambling to tap into
the special needs work force. Absolutely, Tom, you hit on it.
You know this is a a phenomenalopportunity for restaurants to address employee turnover and
(50:53):
excellent customer service with a ready madeaudience that will rejoice at having a job.
And you are pioneering initially but alsostarting a wave hopefully of other not
only restaurants, but other industries recognizingthis resource. Uh, and the uniqueness
(51:19):
and gifts and exceptional individuals who areready to be part of our workforce and
thriving their lives. And I knowthat your goal is that that your employees
will eventually run your restaurants and andeven own your restaurants, be franchisees of
your restaurants, and Uh, Ithink that that's just the start. Honestly,
(51:45):
I think that's just the start.Thank you so much for being here
on Conscious Shift. I love yourmessage. We are fans of Houdi HomeAid
and will share your message far andwide as much as we can. And
it's been such a joy to haveyou on Conscious Shift. Thank you,
Tom. Thank you have a greatday, and we will be right back
(52:13):
on conscious if you love the voicesand visionaries shared here on Conscious Shift with
(52:53):
Julianne Turner, from spiritual guides likeMarianne Williamson, Barbara Marks Hubbard and Miguel
Luiz, to creative sparks like JuliaCameron of the Artist's Way and inspiring business
gurus like Seth Godin and Daniel Pink. Then you'll love being able to grasp
their wise guidance and apply their stepby step wisdom to the new Conscious Shift
(53:15):
Notes action guide series, a versionof cliff Notes for each Conscious Shift show.
With Conscious Shift Notes, they notonly give you the engaging full audio
interviews from each Conscious Shift visionary andthe full written transcript, but now they've
also taken each Conscious Shift Show interviewand distilled it down to its essential essence,
(53:36):
so you get each Conscious Shift showsummarized on just a few colorful visual
pages with bullet points, highlights andkey quotes so you can grasp the key
points at one glance. Want toknow the best news, Conscious Ship host
Julianne Turner wants you to experience theinspiration of their new Conscious Shift Notes absolutely
free for a limited time with herfree gift of their first Conscious Shift Notes
(54:00):
action guide and audio series with SethGodin, go to Conscious Shiftshow dot com
to receive your free gift now.In your free gift Conscious Shift Notes,
said multiple New York Times bestselling authorand creative visionary, Seth Godin shares in
detail exactly how you can discover andprofit from your own unique genius and start
(54:21):
doing what really matters to you andto the world. Your first step is
to go to Conscious Shift Show dotcom right now to receive your free Conscious
Shift Notes action guide and audio alongwith their Conscious Shift Show updates from their
growing global community of fellow visionaries.Most important, you'll also get to see
how you can access all their ConsciousShift Show wisdom in their brand new Conscious
(54:45):
Shift Notes collections around transformational topics they'veshared like prosperity, life, purpose,
creativity, at work, transformational leadership, and many more. In fact,
their first Conscious Shift Show Notes collectionon prosperity is available now and includes Mary
Anne Williamson on love, divine Compensation, Julia Cameron on a Prosperous Heart,
(55:07):
Dan Pink on to Sell as Human, and Adam Grant on give and take,
how true leadership starts with a givingmindset, and much more. Go
to Conscious shiftshow dot com right nowto claim your conscious shift, notes,
action guide and audios to guide youstep by step to make your own conscious
shift into your true greatness today.Welcome everyone, We've just had a phenomenal
(56:07):
Conscious Shift show with Tom Landis,the CEO and founder of Howdy Homemade ice
Cream. And just a reminder,if we've been talking about everyone having exceptional
gifts, everyone having their own uniquegenius, I believe that that is in
each one of us. If youwould like to find out more about your
(56:30):
genius and your uniqueness, you cancheck out my signature Genius workshop at my
Genius workshop dot com. We'd loveto have you come through there, and
again, thanks for being fans andfollowers of Conscious Shift. We'll see you
next time. You've been listening toConscious Shift with your host Julianne Turner,
(56:55):
if you're ready to make your ownconscious shift to awaken the power and singular
greatness already within you, Julianne isyour expert coach and trusted ally, your
passionate professional guide to create your highestpurpose, profitability, and potential in your
life, work in world. Justgo now to Julianne's website www. Dot
(57:16):
creators guide dot com and fill inthe special pop up. You'll instantly receive
free access to invaluable resources and bonusesthat will guide you forward. That's www.
Dot creators guide dot com. Justgo there now and fill in the
special pop up. Now is thetime to shift into your greatness.
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