December 14, 2025 • 29 mins
TrulySignificant.com presents Bob Campana, author of Don't Look Down!
Learn the inside story on this entrepreneur, Dad, Grand Dad and Great Grand Dad.
Hear about his lessons in life, his resilience, grit, and how he emerged from adversity.
Be inspired by Bob's humility, humor and perspective on a life lived significantly.
Purchase Don't Look Down! on Amazon, B&N, BAM and whereever you shop for great books.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
Learn the inside story on this entrepreneur, Dad, Grand Dad and Great Grand Dad.
Hear about his lessons in life, his resilience, grit, and how he emerged from adversity.
Be inspired by Bob's humility, humor and perspective on a life lived significantly.
Purchase Don't Look Down! on Amazon, B&N, BAM and whereever you shop for great books.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And welcome back to truly Significant dot com. I am
Rick to'keenny. We appreciate you joining us on this show
this morning, and our very special guest is author Bob Campana.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
His book is Don't Look Down.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's a personal chronicle that I think would be useful
for any family, and we are so glad to have
you on.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Mister Campana.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Rick, thank you so much for inviting me to your show.
I'm honored.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yes, sir, we'd love to hear your backstory, and then
we're going to ask you the whole host of questions
about you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah. Well, the backstory basically why I actually wrote the
book or whatever, is when you get to my age.
I'm going to be seventy two in January, you start
reflecting on your mortality. You know how much longer is
it's going to go. And I have eight grandchildren. I
wanted to kind of chronicle what my life was like
for them. You start reading the things that after one
(01:04):
generation people don't even remember who you are. You know,
ten years after your name probably not even there. And
I wanted to let the kids know who I was. Well.
Writing the book, I had a help or a ghostwriter
with me. I don't want to make it sound like
I wrote this thing myself, but he helped me. He
was an editor for Ink magazine and Entrepreneur magazine and
(01:25):
just happened to be wanting to have him for this
entrepreneurial story. And after he wrote the book, he said,
you know, we should submit this to a publisher. And
I go, come on, man, I was going to get
like five copies for my mom and like maybe another
ten for the kids and call it a day, you know,
And he goes, no, no, no, we should submit it. Well,
(01:47):
and behold Greenley said they take like seven percent of
or submittals or whatever, and they said, we want to
go with you and publish this book. So that was
the good news. The bad news was that the book
was written more or less as a memoir and they
wanted to write it more in an entrepreneurial vent. So
we had to rewrite the book after we wrote it
(02:08):
the first time, to draw the lessons out that they
felt was more appealing to a wider audience. And just
my story weaves in of the story. But what lessons
I've learned pritten it to the chapter that you're reading,
and then I'm seeing, this is what I drew out
of it kind of thing, you know, is how it
ended up.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
As outstanding having just moved into my own seven point
zero version, also known as turning seventy. What happened to
you emotionally when you turn seventy and what wisdom can
you share with others that are at the brink of
(02:48):
that next chapter?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, you know, I've always been a researcher. You know,
in any business, you got to learn what's going on.
And I'd always be reading books and different things. And
I'm starting to read about agen and people and what
happens as you I guess group of friends starts to
shrink and all of this kind of thing. And I
didn't want that to happen. And I think I was
(03:10):
really focused in on making a life a purpose and
I wanted to help people change lives at this point
in my life and being able to do that. It's
a kind of a weird vehicle. But in the book
we talked about I was in the construction business for
the first part of my life, and then the second
part of my life I went into the restaurant and
(03:31):
hospitality business, and when COVID came along, I basically crystallized
in my mind what part and what role a well
run restaurant can play in the community and how that
interacts with people. And I'm using that as a vehicle
to where I'm in contant contact with so many people
(03:51):
and keep my mind open as to how I can
approach people and talk with them, and the restaurant enables
me to do that. As the owner, I can walk
up any table, I can start a conversation. But I
bring joy to people's life by recognizing them and taking
them and it gives me recognition as well for creating
an environment that they use. And our restaurants are more
(04:14):
geared towards escapism. From a standpoint of their fine casual
restaurants are very tasteful, but when people go there, they
kind of get like two hours of a rest bit.
I'm into acoustics, lighting and all this blah blah blah.
But at the end of the day, I'm able to
interact with people on a daily basis, and I think
that that gives me a reason to get up in
(04:35):
the morning. And a lot of people that are getting
older seem to have a shrinking their contact with people,
and I think that people should make a large effort
to expand that reach exchange with people. The humid connection
is so much important to our lives and it's so
important for our happiness and fresh bibles, great happiness with
(04:55):
others because I feel that being able to bring joy
to other people's lives is the res that you get
for having joy in your life.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Absolutely, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I am a member of a club that we have
committed each other to never retire for all of the
reasons that you just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They're very valid reasons. I don't know, you know, in
this research thing and reading about people, you read about
these guys that work for fifty years, retire and like
one year they're dead, you know, a heart attack or something.
Because now I've sold, I've built and sold several companies
(05:35):
along my way, and when I have done that, their
identity is so tied to that particular vehicle at that
point in your life, and your identity is all around
that company. And making a decision to sell a company
and move on to the next level is kind of
(05:55):
trepidation to a certain point, because once you sell that company,
your identity goes away. People that would look at you, oh,
you're the guy that in the pool destiny or whatever.
Now you're like Joe lunchbucket, just like whoever. And being
able to adjust to that until your next venture comes
along is something that is truly rewarding because that reinvention.
Now you have time to reflect after a change in chapter,
(06:19):
whatever it is, and then try and make the next
chapter more interesting and more vibrant than the one before.
And that's kind of my journey at this point. And
I've discovered that interaction with people and bringing people give
them happiness and serve them is the most rewarding use
of my time right.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, that's right, That is marvelous. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Okay, let's start with a definition at almost a seventy
two of how you would define success versus significance.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, well, you know, significance I believe gives you the
toe hold to be successful. So you have to have
an impact on people's lives to be able to in
your own. I guess what you would say judgment of success.
And I think we're all in this pursuit of tomorrow.
(07:15):
We're in pursuit of a lot of people grew gave successes,
how others look at them. Whereas true success as an
eternal piece of harmony with yourself and balance with everything
that's going on and not be distracted by things that
are not important. I remember reading a book years ago
(07:37):
about telephone cold calling, and this guy with his name
was doctor Gary Goodman, and he would basically made the
difference between important and urgency, and being able to distinguish
the differentiation between importance and urgency is kind of like
the same thing as being able to distinguish between significant
(07:57):
and success. You could have a phone ringing in your
room and it's irritating. Is it important or is it urgent? Well,
it depends on what the call is. If you pick
up the phone, you're being distracted from what you're focused
on now. But then when you find out what the
message is on the phone, it could truly be important.
(08:18):
So it's kind of like a conundrum. We're on this
constant quest to be significant, and that significant basically is
I guess our barometer is how successful we are.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's interesting as we're both that was a striking answer
as grandfathers that we are both are. I'm wondering what
you are doing as a grandfather to pass on wisdom
to your grandchildren about focusing on the way and not
(08:50):
the me, you know that is I.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Think in a lot of respects the role of a
grandparent of a maturity of that. So by my oldest
grandchild is twelve and my youngest is like four months.
So I have a twelve or ten and a nine
year old which are in one family, and we'll go
over and we will. I have a wood shop at
(09:13):
my house, and they're very intrigued about making things. And
you know, young children are full of love and full
of innocence, and they really want to show and give gifts,
at least my grandchildren do. They're very interested in that
and when they could create something on their own. So
while we're working in the shop and standing on some
(09:35):
wood or whatever it might be, we might have a
little bit of a conversation of how they feel at
that point in time making something to give to their mother,
to their grandfather, or to other teacher at school. And
I ask them to reflect on that feeling and remember
it as they go forward to when they're creating things
for others. It gives them great joy.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
There's nothing like a grandfather. They're in a wood shop
to do that. What a wonderful setting to share life lessons.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, the nine year old told me about a month
ago that he loved me so much because I was
the only person in the world that would let him
use power tools. His mother would not let him have
anything that would plug in. It's just an orbital sander,
but still that was a big significant thing for him.
He would have a tool that actually plugged in.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's good, and.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
An orbital sander. The ones that I've had in the
past can vibrate and just shake a kid.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Like you know, so yeah, oh yeah, they love.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It depends on which one you're using.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Okay, you've owned several businesses, You've been in different industries.
I wonder I want you to talk about your inner
compass and how your compass has helped you stay focused
and tied to your core values through your journey.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
So like when you start out as a young man,
When I started out, I just needed to find a
way to make money, you know, So like that was
kind of like a little bit of a focus. And
I had just took my trip around the world for
about five six months, sold everything I owned, and I
had a lot of time to reflect on what I
(11:14):
never knew, how big the world was. I've gone to
like I think it was fourteen fifteen countries. And this trip.
The thing that struck me which has been a lifelong
guiding light for me. It is the promise of America.
And when I was traveling, everybody in almost every country
(11:39):
looked up to our country and looked up to it
as a shining light, like President Reagan would say, the
shining light on the hill, and they all aspired to
go there, and they all had these envisions of California
and so forth to what have you. But when I
came back, I realized the wealth that our country had
and the opportunity that our country had, and I didn't
(12:01):
want to squander that. I didn't want to basically not
trade my time for money or whatever it is. I
wanted to create something where I employed people and I
was a leader, and I wanted to do that. My
father was a small business person his whole life. And
I came home after that trip and announced that I
was going to go into small business. And he looked
at me like it was the dumbest thing I ever said,
(12:22):
because he had I had was completely clueless as to
what I was stating. You know, at that point in
time to run a company. But from there it drove
into fear of failure. The fear is a big motivator,
and I was always afraid to fail because of the
social consequences and the shame of it. Like my kids
(12:43):
were in private school, we were close with families, and
being able to persevere and be successful in your own
independent company was something that I wasn't going to I
wasn't good to fail. It's just not going to happen.
But even though several different instances, through circumstances and bad
(13:04):
decisions on my behalf obviously put me very close to
that in a lot of different cases. But just not
giving up is probably the key indicator for your compass.
You have to basically set it course. If you have goals,
then those goals are a rudder and they give you
a direction and which way to go. But with not
goals that he stated goals or anything, you're like rudderless,
(13:26):
just go like to the next shiny, flashy object, whatever
that might be. There's no real outcome to that type
of life.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's solid thinking in my perspective. Bob then, our special
guest is Bob Campana. His book is Don't Look Down.
We're going to cut to a commercial Bob, and I'll
throw it to you first. Tell us how where our
listeners can buy your book and learn more about you.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Well, you know it's on Amazon, So all they have
to do is go on Amazon, look up Bob campaign
a Bobcampa and I'll come right up there and you
can order a copy of that book. And I'd be
most grateful if you would do so. And I think
that anyone that read.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
The book that has aspirations of self determination, setting goals
and moving forward, you can see the pitfalls that that has,
but also the rewards that it has. In my journey,
I dish out failures in that book as well as successes.
But you don't learn from success, you learn from failure.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That's right, Owen, Okay, we'll be right back with Bob
after this quick messog.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
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(16:07):
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Speaker 1 (16:14):
And we are back with Bob Campana, who is the
author of Don't Look Down. Hey Bob, I'm on the
board for a restaurant chain and I wanted to read
their mission statement and get your reaction to it.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Okay, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I didn't realize you had such deep roots in the
restaurant industry.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It came from PepsiCo and general mills primarily, but here
it goes. Our mission is to celebrate life and its
opportunities with our families and our customers. The pursuit of
happiness gives us our daily ambition to create, innovate, and
serve our local and international customers by assuring the best experience,
(17:01):
constantly adapting to a fast changing world, and still always
striving to share our wisdom and knowledge with respect, honesty,
and integrity. So we make our firm steps into maintaining
our reputation. Tell me your thoughts about that mission statement.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I think it's very good. Actually, it's something to aspire
it to. And I think that the word experience that
is voiced in a multiple occasions is that what we
are creating as the product. A lot of people may
think it's the food in the restaurant industry, and that's
a part of the pie, but the experience is what
(17:42):
people are seeking now from a standpoint. And that's when
I briefly mentioned I don't know what restaurants those were particularly,
and I'm in the fine casual category in that area.
We have a lot of celebrations of life where we
have like birthday parties and anniversary and weddings and people
come to the restaurant to reward themselves for that, and
(18:04):
that reward they're looking for a certain experience, and that
experience is the connection that they will have with the
people at their table. They're connecting with that they're eating with,
and then the interaction of being served and have a
wonderful meal in that compilation. I think one of the
things in my book I talked about a guy I
(18:26):
try to give everybody credit. His name was Jan Carlson,
and he wrote a book about how he transformed Scandinavian
Air Systems from losing like seventy million dollars a year
to making like seventeen million dollars a year in like
twenty four month period, and he basically wrote down the
business transaction into two key components. One we're called memory moments,
(18:49):
and a memory moment was any time a customer had
an opportunity to judge the business. And then the second
component was the moment of truth when the customer was
asked about their experience and what was memorable to them,
and that moment of truth usually could end to be
an endorsement for the business if the memory moments added
(19:09):
up to all positive or at least a certain way.
So in my pool business, what I would do was
segment down how many memory moments there were in the
construction of a pool. And a memory moment was something
like this, did they show up on time, Was the
work done in a clean and neat manner, was my
property respected? Was there any garbage or debris left on
(19:35):
the site, or whatever it might be. Did they communicate
with me in the right way. So in a pool
the customer that was the biggest deal in their life
at that particular point in time. You know, you're buying
a swimming pool. So you go to work, you're around
the office, school, or yeah, we're getting a pool built.
It's kind of like little status saying. And then when
they go home, they'd run into their backyard and they
would look at what work had happened that day. Well,
(19:57):
if that work was clean and knee and there was
a note, well then there was a positive memory moment.
They go, oh, my god, these guys are really doing
a good job for me. Well, if they came in
the backyard and there was garbage all over the backyard
and the gate was left open, and the dog was
running around outside of the and the neighborhood. Well, that
was a bad memory moment for them. So the thing
(20:17):
is that what I did is I said, bended it
down to where I had like around forty or fifty
actual definable memory moments in the construction of a swimming pool,
and I manage those moments. And then the moment of
truth came. And the moment of truth came when they
were having their barbecue, when the neighbors and friends were
coming over. The birthday party was happening, and they were
cooking the hot dogs, and the neighbor went up to them.
(20:39):
They said, you know, Larry, our family's been thinking about
building a pool. Would you hire that company again? And
how did they do? At that point, the customer's brain
scanned all fifty memory moments at whatever was negative, they
blurted it right out. Now. On the other hand, if
it was a bucket, like I'll give an example concrete
(21:00):
cracks swimming pools, they have the concrete around him. People
focus on the imperfections of something. So a crack in
a pool deck on a car, if it's a seventy
thousand dollars swimming pool, the value of that crack is
seventy thousand dollars, I mean, what are we gonna do
about this thing? So the thing is, if somebody comes out,
(21:20):
I would get a call on occasion and they would say,
I've got a crack on my concrete. I want to
come out look at it. And I'd come out and
look at it, and I would ask them one simple question.
I would say, what do you think we should do
about this problem? Because concrete cracks, and the customer, if
they weren't unreasonable, if they'd say, I like you to
take it out and put a new piece in, that
was an easy enough thing for us to do, was inconvenient,
(21:42):
but we would happily do it. And I would basically say, well,
then that's what we're going to do. So now, at
the moment of truth, a guy sitting there in front
of the barbecue and he tells the concrete crack story.
He goes, look, I had a crack of my concrete.
I wasn't happy about it. I called Baba. He came out.
They replaced the concrete without any questions asked. They do
(22:03):
what they say, Give them a call. They're good company. Yep.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
There it is.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
By managing the memory moments, it came to a point
where I'm a freaking order taker. I didn't know because
the customer came in and said, you built Larry's pool.
They tell you right off the deck, that's why you're here.
And he told us that you do a trade up job.
This is what our family wants. We make our pool out,
We do it, and I just write the order. So
over a period of time, getting a reputation of managing
(22:31):
those memory moments and understanding the process and then being
able to respect the customer when an issue came up
and let them and that they were really unreasonable. That
was the easiest question to ask, what do you think
we should do about it? Well, I think a lot
of times they just say, well, you know, I wanted
an extra little bench over here. If you could throw
that in, then I'd be fine, you know. Like, And
(22:53):
what it was was they're answering their own problem, and
by granting that again, it made me feel good, and
it made them feel good, and there was no conflict,
and they were kind of like upset or a little
bit initially about the particular problem initially, but then after
that resolution was made, then it was even a stronger
bought and reinforced. The day had made a good decision.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Those are two provocative points that I want our listening
audience to let that kind of wash over you. It's
a memory moment, and it's a moment of truth or
what we've called ziemot zero moment of truth, because when
that customer is about to say something about you or
your business, maybe that's it you either that's your future
(23:41):
right there, depending on what that customer is about to say.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So it's a beautiful one hundred percent. And I don't
care a digital ticktok It doesn't matter one way or
the other. If you're a brick and mortar business inside
of a community. Word about is key?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It sure is all right, mister campaign a question. What's
the next chapter and seven point two version of Bob
Campaan are going to look like?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Well, at the end of the book, it talks about
how sold my restaurant to I was actually approached by
the Mormon Church because they were building a temple dex
to me, which was going to be costing about one
hundred and sixty million dollars, and my property was directly
(24:28):
adjacent to the colonnade that was approaching this temple, and
they made me an offer. I couldn't refuse a multiple
of the praise value in the business. So I had
a decision to make that was I going to sell
this extremely successful, popular restaurant. I negotiated twenty months of
(24:50):
free rent to figure out what I was going to
do with the restaurant. In that point in time, a
large multi national billion dollar development company found out about this,
which I was unbeknownst to me at the time that
the leader president of the local part of this multinational corporation,
(25:11):
it was her favorite restaurant. She came to be an
approach to me and said, I would like to move
your restaurant to my development, which was twenty two miles
down the freeway. He physically chopped the restaurant up, put
it on wheels. Who did twenty two miles down the freeway.
And now we are building a brand new building and
(25:35):
we are going to incorporate the old restaurant into the
new building with the new restaurant and become a part
of a subdivision is going to ultimately have fifty thousand
residents and the charter and the job of this restaurant
is to become the third place and weave into the
community through use of the high school and a culinary
(25:57):
school that'll be inside the restaurant. A weddings and venue
will be there, and the restaurant will be very eclectic.
And my design talents and so forth are sending me
to China next month to acquire all types of interns
for this building. And when I get it completely finished
and done, we will have the River Islands Dinner Club,
the River Islands Travel Club, where I will be taking
(26:20):
selected guests to culinary experience throughout the world and living
the human connection and the biggest, possible, brightest way I.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Can wow, that is that's an extraordinary future. That's what
I'm talking about. Bob campaigna thank you so much for
being on tree.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
If we have a little bit of a moment, I
was going to add one more thing to it if
I could, Yes, sir, Yeah. It was the significance and
the success was the reason that that story was able
to be told because I had made a significant impact
(26:58):
on my community. I'd built something that was very rare
and unique to a community, and all restaurant owners, no
business owners, have the opportitude of the same thing. Through
managing those memory moments, in those moments of truth to
where you never know where your next opportunity will actually come.
And for the listeners, always be aware of your surroundings.
(27:21):
And it's amazing how some little significant things that you're
doing on a regular basis can have an impact on
people's lives. But I mentioned they were in the fine
casual business and one of the biggest things. So like,
on any given day in my restaurant, I'd have probably
five to six eight people that were having a birthday,
and they would always when I'd come up to the table,
there's always announce it. I had gone on a trip
(27:43):
to Vietnam and I bought a gong in one of
the only gong stores I had ever seen in my life.
It was a ceremonial gongs and ceremony gongs and ceremonial drums.
So I buy this gong, I bring it back. My
wife's not going to let me play with it in
the house, so I bring it to the restaurant and
I decide what I'm going to do is I'm going
to make up this story where it's your birthday, you
(28:07):
come up, you hit the gong, the noise goes out
into the ethosis space, and the gods grant your wish.
It was a non dominant denominational birthday thing, or I
could bring over the entire staff and we would squeak
out happy birthday with rubber duck parks your choice, which
one do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
You know?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
So they would ultimately always do the gong, and you
would hear this gong hitting inside the restaurant in different places.
And it became to where I would have like seventy
year old women, eighty year old people never hit a
gong for the birthday ever, And it was a memorable
experience that I had created for those people. And I
think that in any business person that creates something that's
memorable and special that they can do for their customers,
(28:46):
as was reference in that mission statement, some kind of
a specific act other than just a global overview that
you can do, that you can make yourself. Memory will
pay you in spades as a small business person. Thank
you so much for letting me exposed by thoughts on.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That you are most welcome. It's been a pleasure to
have you on. That was Bob Campana and his book
is Don't look down.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Make sure and buy it and read it today.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Folks, thanks for joining us again, and as we always say,
We wish you well on your journey of significance, but
along the way pay attention to the significance.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Have great we
And welcome back to truly Significant dot com. I am
Rick to'keenny. We appreciate you joining us on this show
this morning, and our very special guest is author Bob Campana.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
His book is Don't Look Down.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's a personal chronicle that I think would be useful
for any family, and we are so glad to have
you on.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Mister Campana.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Rick, thank you so much for inviting me to your show.
I'm honored.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yes, sir, we'd love to hear your backstory, and then
we're going to ask you the whole host of questions
about you.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah. Well, the backstory basically why I actually wrote the
book or whatever, is when you get to my age.
I'm going to be seventy two in January, you start
reflecting on your mortality. You know how much longer is
it's going to go. And I have eight grandchildren. I
wanted to kind of chronicle what my life was like
for them. You start reading the things that after one
(01:04):
generation people don't even remember who you are. You know,
ten years after your name probably not even there. And
I wanted to let the kids know who I was. Well.
Writing the book, I had a help or a ghostwriter
with me. I don't want to make it sound like
I wrote this thing myself, but he helped me. He
was an editor for Ink magazine and Entrepreneur magazine and
(01:25):
just happened to be wanting to have him for this
entrepreneurial story. And after he wrote the book, he said,
you know, we should submit this to a publisher. And
I go, come on, man, I was going to get
like five copies for my mom and like maybe another
ten for the kids and call it a day, you know,
And he goes, no, no, no, we should submit it. Well,
(01:47):
and behold Greenley said they take like seven percent of
or submittals or whatever, and they said, we want to
go with you and publish this book. So that was
the good news. The bad news was that the book
was written more or less as a memoir and they
wanted to write it more in an entrepreneurial vent. So
we had to rewrite the book after we wrote it
(02:08):
the first time, to draw the lessons out that they
felt was more appealing to a wider audience. And just
my story weaves in of the story. But what lessons
I've learned pritten it to the chapter that you're reading,
and then I'm seeing, this is what I drew out
of it kind of thing, you know, is how it
ended up.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
As outstanding having just moved into my own seven point
zero version, also known as turning seventy. What happened to
you emotionally when you turn seventy and what wisdom can
you share with others that are at the brink of
(02:48):
that next chapter?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, you know, I've always been a researcher. You know,
in any business, you got to learn what's going on.
And I'd always be reading books and different things. And
I'm starting to read about agen and people and what
happens as you I guess group of friends starts to
shrink and all of this kind of thing. And I
didn't want that to happen. And I think I was
(03:10):
really focused in on making a life a purpose and
I wanted to help people change lives at this point
in my life and being able to do that. It's
a kind of a weird vehicle. But in the book
we talked about I was in the construction business for
the first part of my life, and then the second
part of my life I went into the restaurant and
(03:31):
hospitality business, and when COVID came along, I basically crystallized
in my mind what part and what role a well
run restaurant can play in the community and how that
interacts with people. And I'm using that as a vehicle
to where I'm in contant contact with so many people
(03:51):
and keep my mind open as to how I can
approach people and talk with them, and the restaurant enables
me to do that. As the owner, I can walk
up any table, I can start a conversation. But I
bring joy to people's life by recognizing them and taking
them and it gives me recognition as well for creating
an environment that they use. And our restaurants are more
(04:14):
geared towards escapism. From a standpoint of their fine casual
restaurants are very tasteful, but when people go there, they
kind of get like two hours of a rest bit.
I'm into acoustics, lighting and all this blah blah blah.
But at the end of the day, I'm able to
interact with people on a daily basis, and I think
that that gives me a reason to get up in
(04:35):
the morning. And a lot of people that are getting
older seem to have a shrinking their contact with people,
and I think that people should make a large effort
to expand that reach exchange with people. The humid connection
is so much important to our lives and it's so
important for our happiness and fresh bibles, great happiness with
(04:55):
others because I feel that being able to bring joy
to other people's lives is the res that you get
for having joy in your life.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Absolutely, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I am a member of a club that we have
committed each other to never retire for all of the
reasons that you just mentioned.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
They're very valid reasons. I don't know, you know, in
this research thing and reading about people, you read about
these guys that work for fifty years, retire and like
one year they're dead, you know, a heart attack or something.
Because now I've sold, I've built and sold several companies
(05:35):
along my way, and when I have done that, their
identity is so tied to that particular vehicle at that
point in your life, and your identity is all around
that company. And making a decision to sell a company
and move on to the next level is kind of
(05:55):
trepidation to a certain point, because once you sell that company,
your identity goes away. People that would look at you, oh,
you're the guy that in the pool destiny or whatever.
Now you're like Joe lunchbucket, just like whoever. And being
able to adjust to that until your next venture comes
along is something that is truly rewarding because that reinvention.
Now you have time to reflect after a change in chapter,
(06:19):
whatever it is, and then try and make the next
chapter more interesting and more vibrant than the one before.
And that's kind of my journey at this point. And
I've discovered that interaction with people and bringing people give
them happiness and serve them is the most rewarding use
of my time right.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Now, that's right, That is marvelous. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Okay, let's start with a definition at almost a seventy
two of how you would define success versus significance.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, well, you know, significance I believe gives you the
toe hold to be successful. So you have to have
an impact on people's lives to be able to in
your own. I guess what you would say judgment of success.
And I think we're all in this pursuit of tomorrow.
(07:15):
We're in pursuit of a lot of people grew gave successes,
how others look at them. Whereas true success as an
eternal piece of harmony with yourself and balance with everything
that's going on and not be distracted by things that
are not important. I remember reading a book years ago
(07:37):
about telephone cold calling, and this guy with his name
was doctor Gary Goodman, and he would basically made the
difference between important and urgency, and being able to distinguish
the differentiation between importance and urgency is kind of like
the same thing as being able to distinguish between significant
(07:57):
and success. You could have a phone ringing in your
room and it's irritating. Is it important or is it urgent? Well,
it depends on what the call is. If you pick
up the phone, you're being distracted from what you're focused
on now. But then when you find out what the
message is on the phone, it could truly be important.
(08:18):
So it's kind of like a conundrum. We're on this
constant quest to be significant, and that significant basically is
I guess our barometer is how successful we are.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's interesting as we're both that was a striking answer
as grandfathers that we are both are. I'm wondering what
you are doing as a grandfather to pass on wisdom
to your grandchildren about focusing on the way and not
(08:50):
the me, you know that is I.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Think in a lot of respects the role of a
grandparent of a maturity of that. So by my oldest
grandchild is twelve and my youngest is like four months.
So I have a twelve or ten and a nine
year old which are in one family, and we'll go
over and we will. I have a wood shop at
(09:13):
my house, and they're very intrigued about making things. And
you know, young children are full of love and full
of innocence, and they really want to show and give gifts,
at least my grandchildren do. They're very interested in that
and when they could create something on their own. So
while we're working in the shop and standing on some
(09:35):
wood or whatever it might be, we might have a
little bit of a conversation of how they feel at
that point in time making something to give to their mother,
to their grandfather, or to other teacher at school. And
I ask them to reflect on that feeling and remember
it as they go forward to when they're creating things
for others. It gives them great joy.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
There's nothing like a grandfather. They're in a wood shop
to do that. What a wonderful setting to share life lessons.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, the nine year old told me about a month
ago that he loved me so much because I was
the only person in the world that would let him
use power tools. His mother would not let him have
anything that would plug in. It's just an orbital sander,
but still that was a big significant thing for him.
He would have a tool that actually plugged in.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
That's good, and.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
An orbital sander. The ones that I've had in the
past can vibrate and just shake a kid.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Like you know, so yeah, oh yeah, they love.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It depends on which one you're using.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Okay, you've owned several businesses, You've been in different industries.
I wonder I want you to talk about your inner
compass and how your compass has helped you stay focused
and tied to your core values through your journey.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
So like when you start out as a young man,
When I started out, I just needed to find a
way to make money, you know, So like that was
kind of like a little bit of a focus. And
I had just took my trip around the world for
about five six months, sold everything I owned, and I
had a lot of time to reflect on what I
(11:14):
never knew, how big the world was. I've gone to
like I think it was fourteen fifteen countries. And this trip.
The thing that struck me which has been a lifelong
guiding light for me. It is the promise of America.
And when I was traveling, everybody in almost every country
(11:39):
looked up to our country and looked up to it
as a shining light, like President Reagan would say, the
shining light on the hill, and they all aspired to
go there, and they all had these envisions of California
and so forth to what have you. But when I
came back, I realized the wealth that our country had
and the opportunity that our country had, and I didn't
(12:01):
want to squander that. I didn't want to basically not
trade my time for money or whatever it is. I
wanted to create something where I employed people and I
was a leader, and I wanted to do that. My
father was a small business person his whole life. And
I came home after that trip and announced that I
was going to go into small business. And he looked
at me like it was the dumbest thing I ever said,
(12:22):
because he had I had was completely clueless as to
what I was stating. You know, at that point in
time to run a company. But from there it drove
into fear of failure. The fear is a big motivator,
and I was always afraid to fail because of the
social consequences and the shame of it. Like my kids
(12:43):
were in private school, we were close with families, and
being able to persevere and be successful in your own
independent company was something that I wasn't going to I
wasn't good to fail. It's just not going to happen.
But even though several different instances, through circumstances and bad
(13:04):
decisions on my behalf obviously put me very close to
that in a lot of different cases. But just not
giving up is probably the key indicator for your compass.
You have to basically set it course. If you have goals,
then those goals are a rudder and they give you
a direction and which way to go. But with not
goals that he stated goals or anything, you're like rudderless,
(13:26):
just go like to the next shiny, flashy object, whatever
that might be. There's no real outcome to that type
of life.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That's solid thinking in my perspective. Bob then, our special
guest is Bob Campana. His book is Don't Look Down.
We're going to cut to a commercial Bob, and I'll
throw it to you first. Tell us how where our
listeners can buy your book and learn more about you.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Well, you know it's on Amazon, So all they have
to do is go on Amazon, look up Bob campaign
a Bobcampa and I'll come right up there and you
can order a copy of that book. And I'd be
most grateful if you would do so. And I think
that anyone that read.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
The book that has aspirations of self determination, setting goals
and moving forward, you can see the pitfalls that that has,
but also the rewards that it has. In my journey,
I dish out failures in that book as well as successes.
But you don't learn from success, you learn from failure.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That's right, Owen, Okay, we'll be right back with Bob
after this quick messog.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
This is Marcus Aurelius reappearing to proclaim that truly significant
conversations with big hearted people is a rare piece of literature.
This book reminds me of one of my more stirring quotes,
waste no more time arguing what a good man should be?
(14:53):
Be one if you're stepping into your next life chapter
of your career and questioning what lies beyond success. This
book is for you. Dive into forty soul stirring stories
from luminaries like doctor Jane Goodall, Ed Asner, and Emily Chang,
(15:14):
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Truly Significant will challenge your view of success and ignite
a life of impact. Order now at TinyURL dot com
(15:36):
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Speaker 2 (15:42):
Maybe your epitaph.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Will read she gave outrageously extended grace unceasingly and lived
to help others so that death found her. Empt visit
truly significant dot com and celebrate the most truly significant
people in your life with the truly Significant community. How
(16:07):
bold of you to make your next chapter matter and
be truly significant.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And we are back with Bob Campana, who is the
author of Don't Look Down. Hey Bob, I'm on the
board for a restaurant chain and I wanted to read
their mission statement and get your reaction to it.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Okay, wonderful.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I didn't realize you had such deep roots in the
restaurant industry.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
It came from PepsiCo and general mills primarily, but here
it goes. Our mission is to celebrate life and its
opportunities with our families and our customers. The pursuit of
happiness gives us our daily ambition to create, innovate, and
serve our local and international customers by assuring the best experience,
(17:01):
constantly adapting to a fast changing world, and still always
striving to share our wisdom and knowledge with respect, honesty,
and integrity. So we make our firm steps into maintaining
our reputation. Tell me your thoughts about that mission statement.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I think it's very good. Actually, it's something to aspire
it to. And I think that the word experience that
is voiced in a multiple occasions is that what we
are creating as the product. A lot of people may
think it's the food in the restaurant industry, and that's
a part of the pie, but the experience is what
(17:42):
people are seeking now from a standpoint. And that's when
I briefly mentioned I don't know what restaurants those were particularly,
and I'm in the fine casual category in that area.
We have a lot of celebrations of life where we
have like birthday parties and anniversary and weddings and people
come to the restaurant to reward themselves for that, and
(18:04):
that reward they're looking for a certain experience, and that
experience is the connection that they will have with the
people at their table. They're connecting with that they're eating with,
and then the interaction of being served and have a
wonderful meal in that compilation. I think one of the
things in my book I talked about a guy I
(18:26):
try to give everybody credit. His name was Jan Carlson,
and he wrote a book about how he transformed Scandinavian
Air Systems from losing like seventy million dollars a year
to making like seventeen million dollars a year in like
twenty four month period, and he basically wrote down the
business transaction into two key components. One we're called memory moments,
(18:49):
and a memory moment was any time a customer had
an opportunity to judge the business. And then the second
component was the moment of truth when the customer was
asked about their experience and what was memorable to them,
and that moment of truth usually could end to be
an endorsement for the business if the memory moments added
(19:09):
up to all positive or at least a certain way.
So in my pool business, what I would do was
segment down how many memory moments there were in the
construction of a pool. And a memory moment was something
like this, did they show up on time, Was the
work done in a clean and neat manner, was my
property respected? Was there any garbage or debris left on
(19:35):
the site, or whatever it might be. Did they communicate
with me in the right way. So in a pool
the customer that was the biggest deal in their life
at that particular point in time. You know, you're buying
a swimming pool. So you go to work, you're around
the office, school, or yeah, we're getting a pool built.
It's kind of like little status saying. And then when
they go home, they'd run into their backyard and they
would look at what work had happened that day. Well,
(19:57):
if that work was clean and knee and there was
a note, well then there was a positive memory moment.
They go, oh, my god, these guys are really doing
a good job for me. Well, if they came in
the backyard and there was garbage all over the backyard
and the gate was left open, and the dog was
running around outside of the and the neighborhood. Well, that
was a bad memory moment for them. So the thing
(20:17):
is that what I did is I said, bended it
down to where I had like around forty or fifty
actual definable memory moments in the construction of a swimming pool,
and I manage those moments. And then the moment of
truth came. And the moment of truth came when they
were having their barbecue, when the neighbors and friends were
coming over. The birthday party was happening, and they were
cooking the hot dogs, and the neighbor went up to them.
(20:39):
They said, you know, Larry, our family's been thinking about
building a pool. Would you hire that company again? And
how did they do? At that point, the customer's brain
scanned all fifty memory moments at whatever was negative, they
blurted it right out. Now. On the other hand, if
it was a bucket, like I'll give an example concrete
(21:00):
cracks swimming pools, they have the concrete around him. People
focus on the imperfections of something. So a crack in
a pool deck on a car, if it's a seventy
thousand dollars swimming pool, the value of that crack is
seventy thousand dollars, I mean, what are we gonna do
about this thing? So the thing is, if somebody comes out,
(21:20):
I would get a call on occasion and they would say,
I've got a crack on my concrete. I want to
come out look at it. And I'd come out and
look at it, and I would ask them one simple question.
I would say, what do you think we should do
about this problem? Because concrete cracks, and the customer, if
they weren't unreasonable, if they'd say, I like you to
take it out and put a new piece in, that
was an easy enough thing for us to do, was inconvenient,
(21:42):
but we would happily do it. And I would basically say, well,
then that's what we're going to do. So now, at
the moment of truth, a guy sitting there in front
of the barbecue and he tells the concrete crack story.
He goes, look, I had a crack of my concrete.
I wasn't happy about it. I called Baba. He came out.
They replaced the concrete without any questions asked. They do
(22:03):
what they say, Give them a call. They're good company. Yep.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
There it is.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
By managing the memory moments, it came to a point
where I'm a freaking order taker. I didn't know because
the customer came in and said, you built Larry's pool.
They tell you right off the deck, that's why you're here.
And he told us that you do a trade up job.
This is what our family wants. We make our pool out,
We do it, and I just write the order. So
over a period of time, getting a reputation of managing
(22:31):
those memory moments and understanding the process and then being
able to respect the customer when an issue came up
and let them and that they were really unreasonable. That
was the easiest question to ask, what do you think
we should do about it? Well, I think a lot
of times they just say, well, you know, I wanted
an extra little bench over here. If you could throw
that in, then I'd be fine, you know. Like, And
(22:53):
what it was was they're answering their own problem, and
by granting that again, it made me feel good, and
it made them feel good, and there was no conflict,
and they were kind of like upset or a little
bit initially about the particular problem initially, but then after
that resolution was made, then it was even a stronger
bought and reinforced. The day had made a good decision.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Those are two provocative points that I want our listening
audience to let that kind of wash over you. It's
a memory moment, and it's a moment of truth or
what we've called ziemot zero moment of truth, because when
that customer is about to say something about you or
your business, maybe that's it you either that's your future
(23:41):
right there, depending on what that customer is about to say.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
So it's a beautiful one hundred percent. And I don't
care a digital ticktok It doesn't matter one way or
the other. If you're a brick and mortar business inside
of a community. Word about is key?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
It sure is all right, mister campaign a question. What's
the next chapter and seven point two version of Bob
Campaan are going to look like?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Well, at the end of the book, it talks about
how sold my restaurant to I was actually approached by
the Mormon Church because they were building a temple dex
to me, which was going to be costing about one
hundred and sixty million dollars, and my property was directly
(24:28):
adjacent to the colonnade that was approaching this temple, and
they made me an offer. I couldn't refuse a multiple
of the praise value in the business. So I had
a decision to make that was I going to sell
this extremely successful, popular restaurant. I negotiated twenty months of
(24:50):
free rent to figure out what I was going to
do with the restaurant. In that point in time, a
large multi national billion dollar development company found out about this,
which I was unbeknownst to me at the time that
the leader president of the local part of this multinational corporation,
(25:11):
it was her favorite restaurant. She came to be an
approach to me and said, I would like to move
your restaurant to my development, which was twenty two miles
down the freeway. He physically chopped the restaurant up, put
it on wheels. Who did twenty two miles down the freeway.
And now we are building a brand new building and
(25:35):
we are going to incorporate the old restaurant into the
new building with the new restaurant and become a part
of a subdivision is going to ultimately have fifty thousand
residents and the charter and the job of this restaurant
is to become the third place and weave into the
community through use of the high school and a culinary
(25:57):
school that'll be inside the restaurant. A weddings and venue
will be there, and the restaurant will be very eclectic.
And my design talents and so forth are sending me
to China next month to acquire all types of interns
for this building. And when I get it completely finished
and done, we will have the River Islands Dinner Club,
the River Islands Travel Club, where I will be taking
(26:20):
selected guests to culinary experience throughout the world and living
the human connection and the biggest, possible, brightest way I.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Can wow, that is that's an extraordinary future. That's what
I'm talking about. Bob campaigna thank you so much for
being on tree.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
If we have a little bit of a moment, I
was going to add one more thing to it if
I could, Yes, sir, Yeah. It was the significance and
the success was the reason that that story was able
to be told because I had made a significant impact
(26:58):
on my community. I'd built something that was very rare
and unique to a community, and all restaurant owners, no
business owners, have the opportitude of the same thing. Through
managing those memory moments, in those moments of truth to
where you never know where your next opportunity will actually come.
And for the listeners, always be aware of your surroundings.
(27:21):
And it's amazing how some little significant things that you're
doing on a regular basis can have an impact on
people's lives. But I mentioned they were in the fine
casual business and one of the biggest things. So like,
on any given day in my restaurant, I'd have probably
five to six eight people that were having a birthday,
and they would always when I'd come up to the table,
there's always announce it. I had gone on a trip
(27:43):
to Vietnam and I bought a gong in one of
the only gong stores I had ever seen in my life.
It was a ceremonial gongs and ceremony gongs and ceremonial drums.
So I buy this gong, I bring it back. My
wife's not going to let me play with it in
the house, so I bring it to the restaurant and
I decide what I'm going to do is I'm going
to make up this story where it's your birthday, you
(28:07):
come up, you hit the gong, the noise goes out
into the ethosis space, and the gods grant your wish.
It was a non dominant denominational birthday thing, or I
could bring over the entire staff and we would squeak
out happy birthday with rubber duck parks your choice, which
one do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
You know?
Speaker 3 (28:23):
So they would ultimately always do the gong, and you
would hear this gong hitting inside the restaurant in different places.
And it became to where I would have like seventy
year old women, eighty year old people never hit a
gong for the birthday ever, And it was a memorable
experience that I had created for those people. And I
think that in any business person that creates something that's
memorable and special that they can do for their customers,
(28:46):
as was reference in that mission statement, some kind of
a specific act other than just a global overview that
you can do, that you can make yourself. Memory will
pay you in spades as a small business person. Thank
you so much for letting me exposed by thoughts on.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That you are most welcome. It's been a pleasure to
have you on. That was Bob Campana and his book
is Don't look down.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Make sure and buy it and read it today.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Folks, thanks for joining us again, and as we always say,
We wish you well on your journey of significance, but
along the way pay attention to the significance.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Have great we
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