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Topsail Insider
John Formica, The "Ex Disney Guy"
Today, we’re talking to John Formica, the “Ex Disney Guy”! John, known as "America’s Customer Experience Coach," is a sought-after speaker and business coach who draws on his extensive experience with Disney to help organizations create magical customer experiences and dynamic workplace cultures. He offers insights into Disney's leadership, hiring practices, and team-building strategies to help businesses stand out, engage their staff, and build lasting customer loyalty. John's engaging and entertaining presentations aim to inspire organizations to implement Disney-like excellence and create memorable customer experiences.
Website: https://johnformica.com/
He’s also written a Book: Making the Customer Experience Magical Now!
Look for John’s seminars in the Topsail area with Cape Fear Community College’s Small Business Center in conjunction with the Topsail Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
Find and Follow John Formica on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn!
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Topsail Insider is also Sponsored by Surf City Line! Come out for Beachin’ Bowls, Margaritas, Live Music, and enjoy your meal on their top deck with Ocean Views!
Visit SurfCityLineNC.com for their full food, bar, and brunch menus!
Topsail Insider is edited by Jim Mendes-Pouget | jimpouget@gmail.com
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Welcome to Topsail Insider, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns in the greater Topsail area of North Carolina Coming up. When you think of great customer service, surely at the top of your list is Disney. Well, today we have the ex-Disney guy and America's best customer experience coach and a leading authority on tourism and hospitality sharing how he can help you and your team transform your existing service level into something magical for your customers. Stay tuned we have Mr John Formica in the studio today on Topsail Insider.
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Speaker 1:Hello everyone and welcome to Topsel Insider. My name is Krista and I am your host. Today we are talking to John Formica, the ex-Disney guy. He is America's best customer experience coach and the top 10 global thought leader and influencer on customer loyalty, with over 4,000 keynotes and seminars around the world. And we have him here today sharing the Disney philosophy success model with us. His seminars are high energy and he has a captivating personality. You will be inspired by his enthusiasm. I know because I've attended. I did repeats actually. I attended this seminar, loved it so much was completely blown away. I came home like raving to my husband like you won't believe what I just learned. And then I went back and took it again a couple of years later because I knew that I needed it in the new space that I am in right now business-wise, and then also one-on-one, because I did have a coaching session with him. So one-on-one. He is highly focused on listening to your needs and helping you accomplish your goals. Welcome, john, and thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2:It is an honor to be here today. I've heard so many great things about this podcast and to be on it. I am just fired up and excited.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, you were in Surf City today, right? That's correct and you were doing it wasn't the same class, it wasn't customer experience, but you were doing another small business class through the Small Business Center of Cape Fear Community College.
Speaker 2:right, that's correct. We did a program today called how to Find, interview and Hire Magical People Eight Steps to Never have a Bad Hire Again.
Speaker 1:I love it. I would like to talk about what you do and why you do it. So you are called the ex-Disney guy for a reason. You have over 25 years working in the hospitality industry and 10 of those years was Disney World right.
Speaker 2:That's correct. I'm kind of old there, Many, many years. I started when I was three years old, I think something like that. But no, my background is I grew up in New York and as a child I always wanted to be a park ranger. That's what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I want to hang out with Smokey. But I was a city slicker boy from New York and got a scholarship to play soccer at West Virginia University.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:And Chris, I didn't even know West Virginia was a state. It was so far out of my comfort zone and they convinced my dad and I to take a recruiting trip. We drive 15 hours to Morgantown, west Virginia, and soon as I pulled in I totally fell in love with the campus, the state, the people, and I tell everybody that's when I became a country boy, because I was no longer a city slicker.
Speaker 2:And they had a great recreation and parks program In fact top five in the country so I figured I'd get a great education as well, but unfortunately it never happened. When I graduated, I got a letter from the National Park Service telling me that 350 people would have to die before I ever became a park ranger. So that's a long time to wait, and I was an ambitious young person so I floated around with some campgrounds that I was helping manage and then I finally got the opportunity to work for Hyatt Hotels.
Speaker 1:How did you get to Hyatt?
Speaker 2:I was a general manager of a pretty large campground, thinking, okay, you're pretty high up there, but when I wanted to join the hotel industry, I started from the bottom and I was the assistant manager on duty on third shift. Think about, you know, they need anybody to fill that shift and they felt sorry for me, I guess. But it was a great learning experience and Hyatt was a great company and I just worked my way and I kept doing different things and managing different department levels, different size hotels. They kept moving me around in the Washington DC area, but I had this strong ambition that I've just been always anything I've done as a child. Even today, I just want to be the best at what I can do, which means I got to learn. I got to be a sponge and I wanted to be Hyatt Hotel's youngest general manager. That's what my goal was and I was just pedal to the metal. That's what my goal was and I was just pedal to the metal. That's what I'm going to do, until my boss told me that wasn't going to happen. It was pretty disappointing, but it wasn't that it wasn't going to happen because I wasn't good enough. It was. There's some things you have to do before you become a general manager. And I said what do I have to do? Tell me what I have to do, because I want to be a general manager someday. And he said, john, the best thing to do is we love you here. You're doing a great job, but there's a there's sort of a progression that you need to follow. He said if you could open up new hotels for Hyatt, when they open up new hotels and you can get on that task force, it's pretty good because not only is it a lot of work, but corporate gets to know you and if you don't screw up, they get to know you. And then you open up another hotel and your name gets out there. So luckily, there was a new hotel opening up right outside Washington DC. It was called the Bethesda Hyatt in Bethesda, maryland, which is a suburb of DC. So I opened that hotel. They gave me this task.
Speaker 2:I was in charge of the outdoor public areas and garage, so my job was to make sure they were ready to go look clean. From that standpoint I said okay, take me down. So you know the construction that goes on in a hotel. The garage is like the last that anybody even cares about, because that's where the construction goes in. They store things that don't belong. It's hidden.
Speaker 2:But yet, man, every night I would be washing down, I would sweeping, I would throw trash away this garage. Sweeping, I would throw trash away this garage. You could eat off the floors. It was awesome the grounds outside in front of the hotel, which was not a lot of grounds anyway. And I run across the vice president of Hyatt Hotels, senior vice president, and he says he sees me at 1130 at night and I'm in a broom sweeping the garage. And he said what are you doing? And I said I'm in charge of making sure this garage stays clean and it's these construction people are just tearing it up and I want to make sure it's clean. He said this is the cleanest garage I've ever seen. So we I met him, we talked a little bit and it turned out to be great.
Speaker 1:Did you know who you were speaking with?
Speaker 2:No at the time.
Speaker 1:I didn't know who I was speaking to.
Speaker 2:But, lo and behold, I found out, which was a great experience. But he then put me on the task force to open up the Park Hyatt Hotel, which is their first five-star hotel, and I was in charge of housekeeping of the entire property. Where was that one? In Washington DC as well? And so I opened up that. And then they had me open up the Grand Hyatt, which is a huge, large convention hotel attached to the convention center in a different aspect of it, and they got to know who I was. They shipped me off to Chicago. That's where the home office was. They had some projects for me. They wanted to be close by. Everything was great and then, out of nowhere, that's when the Disney company came calling. So it was a great experience. Opening a hotel is exhausting because you get very little sleep, because you're under a deadline, got to get it open and just things are going to go wrong, they're going to go wrong, and so it was a great learning experience. And it was true, I got exposed.
Speaker 1:So I'll take you back. Like you said, you were in Chicago and then that's when Disney came along.
Speaker 2:Tell me about that meeting, Krista. I can remember this day as if it was yesterday.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:I was a manager managing the front office of the Hyatt O'Hare at the airport in Chicago.
Speaker 2:It's a huge, it's a factory 1,100 rooms, 400 check-in, 400 check-out every night. It's just massive. Just coming and going, I'm doing that and check out every night. It's just massive. Just coming and going. I'm doing that and I get a call. It was February, it was 17 degrees below zero and I got a call from someone from Orlando Florida. What's your first thing when someone from Orlando Florida calls you? The first question they asked was how's the weather in Chicago? I don't know who this was, krista. I said who is this? I'm freezing my butt off. Why do you want to know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Next thing out of their mouth oh, this is the Disney company, the Disney company. And they called specifically for you, for me and it was just an initial call from the HR just to find out if I have interest, if there's something I'd be thinking about doing, and they said we're about to explode in the resort division. We're looking to expand and hire from outside. We've heard great things about you that you've opened up hotels before.
Speaker 1:From whom?
Speaker 2:It's not your it can't be your bosses, I later found out that Disney hired another manager who was on the task force of one of the hotels. And so they asked him hey, do you know anybody we're going to need to fill these positions and being in the right place at the right time. And so they said would you be interested in joining us? If it's right and I was what? 17 degrees below zero in Chicago.
Speaker 1:How long did it say? Let me think about that. Yes, can I pay you to hire me?
Speaker 2:So after grueling interviews, literally I had an HR person in the initial phase. Then I had an HR person who asked me more of those HR type questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then they invited me to Orlando for two and a half days of interviews.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I go to Orlando for these interviews and, lo and behold, I find out I have eight interviews on one day, every hour, on the hour, and eight interviews on the second day.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh One hour on the hour, ranging from hourly employees, a panel of hourly employees, to the senior executive, vice president of Disney, and I'm thinking I guess I'm not working here because I can't fool 16 people. I can fool maybe five, I can't fool 16. And it was exhausting, but it was a great experience. But it really taught me that Disney, they're going to make sure it's right.
Speaker 2:They're not going to just hire anybody, and I use that in my coaching and my training programs. Think about you as a business. If you're known out there to just hire anybody, guess who's going to show up Anybody. And you want to hire a quality candidate, make them know that we don't just hire anybody. You got to want to really work here and prove to us that you can, and so it was grueling. I actually left. Didn't think I got the job.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you something about this interview process? So I've seen you give your presentations and you seem like a man with zero fear. You get up there, you're very confident and you exude that confidence when you're speaking and you're doing over 4,000 speaking engagements. I have to think have you always been like this, or is this just over the years, gaining that confidence?
Speaker 2:Like, how did you feel in that moment speaking with the top executives of Disney? Great question I've always felt comfortable. I guess I have the gift, the gab. I think I just got it from my mom, used to be a professional singer, was on radio in New York many years ago in the 40s, and maybe I got it from her. But I've always been easy to talk to in front of people, so maybe maybe that was pretty good. I've always, from the training perspective and being doing keynotes and everything else, I always felt comfortable doing it. I did training for my own staff, even as a general manager I would do training orientation parts because I wanted them to learn from the right way of doing things.
Speaker 2:Did I ever think I'd be doing this professionally? No, that wasn't ultimately what I fell into. But so I felt comfortable. But I got to tell you it was intimidating when you looked at the list and I just said this is all gravy. It's not like I wanted, really wanted the job. I applied and I couldn't go. If I can get this job, it's great. If not, I have a great career with Hyatt and so.
Speaker 2:I'm going to fulfill my dreams of being a general manager someday. I looked at it that way. But everybody asked some questions. I thought the panel with all the hourly employees were probably the most unusual, because I'd never been in front of something like that. But they were. They knew what they were doing. They weren't just ask weird, stupid questions, they were focused because they're looking at it as if you're going to be our boss. If you're going to be our, we want to make sure.
Speaker 1:I was wondering why they were doing that. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2:A lot of questions on team and culture, and how do you deal with this situation and those sort of things? It wasn't that. Oh, they're just hourly employees. I can really snowball them, don't they know who I am?
Speaker 2:It was boy, I had to really give them the respect because they did their homework and they knew what they were doing. And it was funny that the last person was the senior vice president and you think you'd be a little nervous and I was, gosh, this is pretty cool, but it was the last one and this is what he said to me. He said so you survived? And I said yeah, pretty thorough, I'm impressed. And he said I guess if you got this far, you must have done a few things right. The bellman will be down in the lobby. He's going to take you to the airport. Thank you very much, and he shakes my hand.
Speaker 1:That's all you got.
Speaker 2:That's all I got, and I'm thinking, did they already make up their?
Speaker 1:decision that I'm not going to get the job. So he's not wasting his time. So he didn't spend time asking you questions. He didn't.
Speaker 2:Wow, which was really surprising, because everybody else was real thorough and asked some things and I was on the plane flying back to Chicago thinking I didn't get this job Because he would have said I don't I was interpreting what he said and how he said it. And three days later the HR called me and said we'd like to give you an offer.
Speaker 1:Three days. I was wondering how long that took. Yeah, three days later.
Speaker 2:Again, it was a great opportunity. I was impressed, excited. Again. It came to a point where I was gosh. I always wanted to be in recreation and parks and now I'm in the biggest recreation and park in the world right.
Speaker 1:The world.
Speaker 2:yes, and the other thing was that I was dating at the time my wife. We weren't married, but my challenge with our relationship was we met in Washington DC and then they moved me to Chicago. She's in DC. She says I'm done waiting for you. She moves back to Philadelphia would be with her family.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And I kept telling her I'm going to try to get back to DC and even the regional people at DC said John, we'd love to bring you back, I don't have anything for you, just be patient. But one of the things about Hyatt hotels and many hotels like that Marriott no different is they're going to move you from city to city. So think about raising a family where every two years you're moving.
Speaker 1:If you're climbing the ladder, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And if you want to climb the ladder, what are you going to do? You're going to say because they're going to move you from a, let's say, they give you a general manager job. It's going to be a small hotel, small Hyatt brand, and then a medium, and then a large, and then a resort. They're going to move you around based on now, you can probably say no if you wanted to, but that's all you're going to do. We're here at Disney, they're going to build all these hotels, but yet I don't have to leave. I can just stay in Orlando because I'm not going anywhere. And so it was a great way of looking at that opportunity, and Disney is one of the best. I wanted to learn from the best, and how'd you get your girlfriend back?
Speaker 1:I?
Speaker 2:told her I'm moving back to the East Coast and she was excited and I said but it's a little farther South and I didn't even tell her I was going through the interview process because I didn't want to make her think anything crazy or whatever or dump me right there on the spot what are you doing? And it worked out. And then we dated a little bit and then she came to Disney actually on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and New Year's Eve is like one of the busiest. If you're in a hotel, it's one of the busiest days.
Speaker 2:I would imagine Because of all the parties and New Year's and we had a little gypsy table with all the spouses and girlfriends and boyfriends and husbands and whatever that were not part of the hotel. They would stay and have dinner and we were all working our butts off.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then the next day on actually New Year's Day is we drove to Tampa, florida, which is just about an hour away, and I proposed to her when the sun was setting oh my gosh, that's romantic. And luckily she said yes.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:She moved and lived in Orlando for many years and it was a great experience.
Speaker 1:So I want to hear about Disney and how you progressed through those resorts. But I will say that while you were at Disney, you achieved the highest guest satisfaction rating among all Disney World resort hotels, which is amazing, and you were also selected to co-chair and you assisted in the company-wide rollout of the Disney Guest Satisfaction Program. You were all about that. Guest satisfaction, customer experience Was it from the beginning or something that you picked up in the Disney career, when you first started with them and then you got better at it throughout the years?
Speaker 2:Having the hotel background with Hyatt, which is a top-notch hotel and I was at their full service hotel and I was at their full-service hotel.
Speaker 2:So hospitality and customer service and yes, sir, yes, ma'am, all that making sure your hotels are pristine. So I already had that aspect of it. Disney puts it on steroids because they're going to make sure. Now at Hyatt I dealt with the business traveler, the convention guest, and if something went wrong obviously you fix it. You try to apologize as best you can and maybe give them some drink coupons, but they're never coming back again because they were just there for business or they're just there for a convention. At Disney you can't have anybody go away unhappy because that's a memory of our lifetime. You can't have anybody go way unhappy because that's a memory of our lifetime. So Disney takes the customer experience and puts it on steroids because the whole show is the experience and it's all got to be top notch, it's got to be the best, it's got to be memorable.
Speaker 1:It's got to be magical. When you leave the park, the magic doesn't stop just because you're back at the hotel. The magic continues in the whole hotel experience too.
Speaker 2:That's right, and so when the interesting thing was when I opened up Disney hotels. When I first got to Disney, we had four hotels on a campground. That was it, but we had 16 brand new hotels on the drawing board. Oh my gosh, and my job was to open up each of the new hotels.
Speaker 1:All, 16? All 16.
Speaker 2:Hire the staff, train the staff and then build a team. That would create great experiences. So I learned from the ground up what an experience is, from what it needs to look like, what people have to act like, what they have to respond to good, bad and ugly. And so it was an overdose of this experience. But yet I was a sponge. I think I'm a born server. I always love serving people, maybe to a fault because people take advantage of me sometimes, but I don't care. I've been born to serve people and if I do that I feel good. I can sleep at night.
Speaker 1:Is there a Disney bootcamp?
Speaker 2:It's great training and you learn from the best. But no, there's not a. You don't go away on a bootcamp or anything like that Great idea. Maybe I should fix that. But you just learn. You learn from the past. You learn. Before the hotels opened, I would spend time with hourly cast members at the other hotels that were already open, learning exactly what they do and how they do it. I would clean rooms with housekeepers. I would slug luggage with bellmen. I'd park cars.
Speaker 1:I would serve coffee in restaurants. That was the boot camp.
Speaker 2:It's part of my training. But you learn. You want to know why everything happens and it's all choreographed to be part of the show, so you just can't be good at one and not have a bad experience somewhere else. It's all seamless and so learned a lot from that aspect. But it was how I got these awards. It wasn't me, it was. I tell people we had great success. Was it because I was a great manager? No, we had a great system and we had great people and you put those in place. You don't need great managers. You just need people to help them and knock down those barriers and support them and encourage them and troubleshoot anything that's going to possibly go wrong, to make their jobs easier. That's really your role as a Disney manager.
Speaker 2:In one way, to a fault, a general manager of a Hyatt Hotel is so different than a general manager of a Disney hotel. A Hyatt Hotel is freestanding. You need to put heads in beds. You are the marketing. You are everything. You're in the community. You got to worry about conventions. You've got to worry about conventions. You've got to worry about rate management. You've got to worry about sales. You have a sales director. It is crazy. At Disney, as a general manager. There's departments that do all that. All I have to do is manage the hotel, make sure everything is running right and the guests are satisfied, your employees are satisfied, the building's satisfied. That's it. I didn't have to worry about sales. I didn't fill the hotel.
Speaker 1:Did you find that your life was easier?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, less pressure to do that, because I could just do what I do, naturally, and that is take care of the customer experience. Again, I was just very fortunate. I tell people as a leader and I teach this and I coach this. Your success is based on two things as a leader, the people you surround yourself with and the ability to get things done through others. And at Disney, hire great people and then, as a leader, create an environment where they want to do it, not have to do it, and they'll get things done.
Speaker 2:And how do you nurture that environment? How do you create that whistle while you work environment so that employees feel like they own it and they want to do it. It's not a J-O-B not doing it because my manager says I have to do it, they truly want to do it. You hire the best people from that perspective and then let them do the job. They know how to do it and I just knocked down those barriers. I get, in a way. When I achieved the highest guest satisfaction ratings, I was at the Yacht and Beach Hotel, which is on the Epcot side of things. Again, great team, and I already had managed. When I say managed, I managed a department front of the house, guest services, housekeeping of the Grand Floridian, which is their five-star hotel.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, beautiful. And if you're a movie star, sports figure, you got a lot of money. That's where you're going to stay.
Speaker 1:That's where you're going to stay.
Speaker 2:That's where they're going to take great care of you, and so when we opened up the Yacht and Beach Hotel, that was like Disney's second best hotel, but the staff wanted to be the best, so they were driven that we don't. The Grand Floridian snub up their face.
Speaker 1:We don't. They think they're good.
Speaker 2:But we're better. They were just determined and we did our guest ratings sometimes beat them.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and in fact the best guest rating was typically, when you fill out a survey at Disney, one of the questions they ask would you return on a future visit and stay at this hotel? That's typical. You're measuring loyalty right. Did you do a good enough job that they would want to come back, believe it or not? Because we were building so many hotels every year two hotels a year or whatever. In some cases, people took that question differently and they said we love the hotel, but we want to go to that new hotel.
Speaker 1:We want to try the other ones too.
Speaker 2:So, on a scale one to 10, 10 being the highest, many of us in all the other hotels we would get like an 8.5, an 8.6 score. Now, every other score and everything else are 9.8, and you're doing great. But it would be. It's not anything to panic. We understand why they're doing that yeah.
Speaker 2:At the Yacht and Beach, I got 98%. Wow, and how did you do that? I said we're just giving them great experiences. And it really caught the eye of the Disney Institute, which is their professional development team. They were wanting to put a program together called Customer Loyalty, disney Style, that they could teach the professionals all over the world. And they said can we pick your brain? We want to put this together. What are you doing? Because you achieved the highest guest satisfaction ratings ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And so I gave them some things that we were doing and then they asked me if I would be part of their pilot program and it was a great experience. But because of some of those things and again then I could be part of that chairmanship to roll out the program, because we are walking the talk, but again it wasn't. John for Micah, I didn't make the beds, I didn't check people in, I didn't serve coffee. My staff did. But as a leader, if you can get them to do the things you want them to do and they do it great, you're going to be in better shape. So that's what we did from that standpoint you also do.
Speaker 1:You give seminars that are just for the leaders and teach them how to be great leaders.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because it's all part of the formula. The Disney success model is one piece made up of a lot of pieces, and those other pieces support the model so you can have a great. For instance this is a typical scenario I'll do a training program for, let's say, all the staff and managers on creating a great experience in their business, their organization, whatever it might be. And then a lot of times, the leaders will come up to me and say, john, this is great, I love this, I can't wait, I love your ideas. I never thought of that.
Speaker 2:But, john, how do I get my people to do that? That's a leadership perspective, and so I teach Walt Disney's leadership strategies on how, at Disney World, we got 75,000 people to be all focused on one common goal and that is to make people happy, right, and so those skill sets are different than anything else and many people move up Owners. Business owners are great at business, owning the business, but they don't know how to manage people. Or maybe a new manager doesn't have those skills, so I try to help them do that process.
Speaker 1:I imagine that might be a little hard to hear for the leadership to say oh, that's a you problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've told many leaders don't blame it on your boys all the time. What are you doing as a leader? Are you not doing as a leader? And leadership is about constantly learning. Walt Disney said once you stop learning, you stop leading, meaning that Walt Disney and the company itself gave us lots of opportunity to grow and learn and take seminars and get books for free. Oh, really, because they want leaders to learn.
Speaker 2:That's cool because you get stagnant and you think you know it all and how do you handle this situation and what do you do here? And employees are all different and, yes, we had great employees at Disney, but 75,000 of them they're not all great. There's going to be some challenges and how do you deal with those, and all of those things were part of that learning process. But that's what Walt and the company invest in their people, and I try to tell owners of businesses you need to invest in your business, invest in people, because they're the greatest asset, and invest in yourself. Be a better leader. That you can do, and a lot of it boils down to that purpose.
Speaker 2:What is the why? Why do you want to work for Disney? Why do you get hired to work at Disney? Because people ask how do they maintain it? How do they sustain this magic all the time? How do you get your employees to do this? John right, it's.
Speaker 2:The purpose is that you get hired to make people happy, and if you don't want to make people happy, then you're not going to be a good fit at Disney. You won't be able to work there and if I, as a leader, can't help you grow by making people happy and give you the tools and the resources to make people happy, you're going to be a frustrated employee. So it's all boils down to that. That's what Disney focuses so much on, and when I try to work with businesses or even share in my presentations, what is your purpose? Why are you hiring people? Why are you building these things? Why do you have a restaurant? Is it your purpose? You just want to make money? Okay, but what if you really dove into a purpose? The outcome will get you the money, but you got to believe in and your employees have to believe in that. And if your employees don't believe in it, then you're in the babysitting business.
Speaker 2:And then that's got to be a real frustrating job for a leader.
Speaker 1:You were telling me you were speaking at the seminar and you were saying that everyone, from top to bottom at Disney, is involved in creating that experience, even to picking up a piece of trash on the floor.
Speaker 2:Disney has core values of things that are non-negotiable and it's talked about during the hiring process. It's decided in the selection process and Walt Disney said everybody that gets hired at Disney has to do two things make people happy and pick up trash. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:I didn't know he had boiled it down to two things. He boiled it down to two things. Now there's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2:But if you do those two things and Walt was a true believer of walking the talk and he picked up trash and it's amazing People say Disney is so clean. How do they keep it clean? You might remember this from the workshop I tell people there's 75,000 people that work at Disney. How many of those are hired to pick up trash? And people say 10,000 people or 20,000, because I figure there's a lot of people that pick up trash and I tell them 75,000, we all have to pick up trash.
Speaker 2:And if 75,000 people pick up trash, what are you and I going to say about the park? It's so clean, it's clean right. And when I was at Disney, Michael Eisner was our CEO. We saw him pick up trash and he didn't do it because people were looking. He did it because he's a fellow cast member and we all do it.
Speaker 1:Love that.
Speaker 2:It's the message that the owner, the leader, the manager, the supervisor has to understand is I don't want you to do it, to say there's not anything. I wouldn't do that I'm asking you to do Because that sounds like it's selfish. No, you do it because it's the right thing to do and I'm part of the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't have a title. I'm a cast member as. Michael Eisen would say, because we didn't call them employees, we called them cast members. And that's part of that model that I try to help businesses understand that if you create a purpose that is so great, people do it because they want to, not because they have to.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. So what led you to transition from your highly successful run at Disney to becoming a highly sought-after coach and speaker?
Speaker 2:It wasn't something that I always dreamt of doing. It wasn't something that was always on my list to do. Basically, I left Disney to become the general manager of the largest convention hotel right here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:And it was. I don't know do I want to leave Disney, for that I don't sounds good, it's an ego thing. But everything fell into place between family. Moving to Charlotte was a great opportunity. My wife's family lived in Charlotte, her sister, so we had cousins that could grow up together. So there was a lot of things that fell in line. But my intriguing thing that made me want to take on that position was does the Disney model work outside of Disney? Can I take everything I learned at Disney, and even Hyatt, for that matter? Can I create my own John Formica Hotel at this hotel in downtown Charlotte? Can I make that work? And so that's what made me make that step as a career, to say, okay, can I do that?
Speaker 2:But I didn't realize it was one of the most dysfunctional hotels I've ever seen. I don't even know how they made any money, I don't even know how they were. It was terrible, so terrible, and I didn't know how bad it was. But I still thought I can do this, I can do this. And it was so bad, krista, that the first couple of days I'm walking around the hotel and I'm looking at the front desk clerks and they're when during checkout they would never ask the typical hotel 101 question. When you check out, you ask how was your stay? Was everything okay? That's that I think the motel six even asked that question. Okay, and here it is the largest conventional hotel. They wouldn't ask this question. So I'm walking around. Okay, it's not just one person forgot to ask it, this is nobody's asking. So I went up to the front desk staff and I huddled them together. I said I noticed that nobody asked this question. Is there a reason?
Speaker 1:And they all looked at me and said oh yeah, we were told not to ask that question.
Speaker 2:Really why? Because of the answer that the guests were going to give, which meant it was a bad experience, which meant then they felt bad, they might've wanted some compensation. So their general manager just said don't ask the question, we don't have to worry about it, which is terrible, right? How do you operate a hotel that way? And so I said guess what, starting today, we are going to ask that question and I gave him my business card and if anybody has a problem with their stay, you tell them. General manager will come contact them, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:So it was changing the mindset. It was getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and getting making sure people are in the right seats. It was all of those. They had no training, they had no attention to detail, cleanliness was deplorable, but yet they were the best. They were the largest convention, which meant if you had a large convention, that you want to house all of the guests in one place and have the convention all in one place. There was no other place in North Carolina to do it. Right, but they weren't coming back.
Speaker 1:I think now I understand what you said earlier, Like it is easier to step into a hotel from scratch than it is to come in and fix it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because you have to change the culture.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so some people bought into it and others didn't. And it wasn't that they were bad people, but if we're going to do it, this is what we need to't. And it wasn't that they were bad people, but if we're going to do this, this is what we need to do, and it took two years. I was afraid to ask you how long Two years of blood sweat, long hours and almost a divorce because my wife was like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:You're never home. But after two years one of the measurement tools because you don't know I hope we're doing okay. We won the pininnacle Award for the top conventional hotel in the state and top five in the Southeast. So now we're competing against hotels in Atlanta. And so that was like wow, the model works, the model works, and I was fired up and excited to take it to the next level.
Speaker 2:Let's go for our four star, four diamond, because it wasn't even rated. I think there were three, maybe, but and unfortunately the owner didn't and I did not see Ida. He could care less. He just wanted heads in beds and how much money is in the checking. Right, that's all he cared about. So that's when I said okay, I've done my job, it works. I got offered to work for another hotel company that opened up multiple hotels and I was their regional person, so I would, as they opened up, I would hire general managers and we do all that. And then I got believe it or not, I got asked by an assisted living company and this owner says I heard great things about what you do. I have an assisted living company that we're about to burn it down because it's so bad. We're on probation. Do you think you can fix it?
Speaker 1:Now you're the guy who can turn it around.
Speaker 2:I didn't know what assisted living was right, so I said let me use the Disney model. He goes I don't care what you do, but if it doesn't work, I'm burning the building down.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2:It was again another challenge. Challenge, because it it was. You give a score F through A F, you're out of business. They were a D. They were a D Wow, they were on probation and the ombudsman actually moved her office to the location because she was there almost every day with violations that were happening, complaints, all kinds of stuff, and you're talking about people's lives.
Speaker 2:Our senior population, yeah, Hotel has a bad guest, okay, we fix it. Somebody could die in an assisted living. If it's not, if they're not cared properly, right? So it was a whole nother world that I had to learn, but I become the administrative executive director Of course you did. And we went from 38% to 92%. In how many years?
Speaker 1:Two years, two years.
Speaker 2:We did it in two years and it's still standing today. They never blew up the building. It's still great.
Speaker 1:Did they keep your system in place?
Speaker 2:For the most part. Yes, they've gone through some changes. Every once in a while I get a call, but again, it's sustainable if you can put the time and effort and want to sustain it Right, and unfortunately, you get turnover and they come up with their new systems. I think this is better, and so a lot of that gets watered down. But and that's when I realized, krista, that gosh, I'm enjoying helping all these companies, but I'm an employee. Can you imagine if I can go on my own, I can do whoever I want, whenever I want, maybe even make better living, whatever it is, control my own hours, do that stuff, and I can maybe be trainer or speaker. I've heard about those kinds of people. Maybe I can do that too. And that's where I took that leap of faith and said all right, this is what I'm going to do. But because I had no clue how to do it, and so I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and tuna fish out of the cans.
Speaker 2:Oh, bless your heart, my wife wondering when are you going to get a real job? I'm supporting us. We got kids growing up and honey hanging there and eventually I surrounded myself with a great mentor who took me under his wings and taught me the business of speaking, coaching training. Without him I would probably have gone back to managing hotels, but he helped me get over that learning curve, make it shorter and really taught me about the business that I could grow and help so many more people. And that's where 4,000, it's hard to believe 4,000 speaking coaching clients and training and I just love it and I just love what I get to do because it's not a job anymore. It's not a job.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the services that you offer for business coaching and for the keynote speaking and so forth. Tell me a little bit about those services.
Speaker 2:It's interesting, krista, because it's turned into a business model for me. I love speaking at conferences, being a keynote speaker, being in front of people. I've been fortunate and grateful to be largest audience was 12,000 people at a keynote in Vegas. It's a big rush, it's great. You feel good. I won't lie. Financially, it's a great win as well, right.
Speaker 2:For those big conventions. It's exciting. But what I found was once I would give a keynote, people in the audience would say come up to me and say could you help me? I have a company that needs help, or I love you to do training for my staff or my leaders need that, whatever it might be. So company that needs help, or I love you to do training for my staff or my leaders need that, whatever it might be. So it turned into the next phase of my business, which is training and coaching.
Speaker 2:So keynotes I have lots of different keynotes. I try to make them high energy, high impact. I don't do PowerPoint nausea, they're all fun stuff. I learned from the great and my mentor was Walt Disney. Never met the guy, of course. He died when I was 10 years old, but I always lived up to his philosophies and constantly, even to this day, always still learning. And Walt Disney said something. He said people learn more when they're entertained. I can't juggle, I can't sing, I can't do any magic tricks, so I don't. The only way I know to entertain them is to give my energy, have fun, exciting. So they're going to get some great content when I do keynotes and those sorts of things, but they're going to have fun and we're going to be engaged and I throw out magic wands at the audience.
Speaker 1:I was going to say we're totally engaged.
Speaker 2:It's interactive.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's me, that's my personality, I want to do that, that's what my keynote is, and then I guess people think that would be great. Can you come to my business? So then that might lead to training or seminars, and I'll do workshops for any kind of organization. I tailor them to be to their industry, anywhere from auto service repair shops to car dealerships, to restaurants, to all kinds of ones. I've done the small business centers, whatever it might be, because, again, I'm a server. There's so much that I've been through, I've learned, I've made a ton of mistakes. I don't want anybody else to make those same mistakes. So I love those workshops and so I love doing training works. We know training workshops could be anywhere from an hour, two hours, half day, full day, whatever they might be. I can do any of those. But the next challenge is okay, do you want me to come in, roll up my sleeves, we'll do a great workshop and then go home? Or do you want to create a culture? You want it to stick. We all want training to stick.
Speaker 2:A lot of times, how do you get training to stick? Now you're relying on the leadership to make sure they reinforce it, they recognize it, they talk a lot about it to their staff to keep it going. We know leaders get busy. They're doing their job, they're doing their tasks, they're working on budgets. Training gets dropped. So I come in, I do all this and then it goes away. I feel bad, but there's nothing I can do. I'm not there.
Speaker 2:That's where the coaching came in place. So then I might offer, with the training, would you like some coaching to go along so I can coach your staff, I can walk them through, I can be there, I can evaluate what's working and what's not working. I can be your resource. I could be your person to ask about or do things, or how did they, disney do it, whatever. So now we can help you, and so sometimes the training might work into coaching or I do individual coaching where they might not have been any of the training workshops.
Speaker 2:But I just want to help them in aspects of their business, whether it's helping them in succession planning, marketing, hiring the right people. Sometimes I'll walk through an entire journey of their customer experience and we'll rewrite their journey Every touch point. We're changing it because all they're doing is what everybody else is doing. I want to differentiate them from everybody else and that's the key. That's what I talk about in my keynotes and workshops. You got to differentiate yourself. How do you do that? Our product's better? The consumer doesn't know that. They think they're all the same. Oh, but we do that. Yeah, they don't know that. So you have to be different. And when you're different, then all of a sudden you become that top of mind awareness.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I try to coach people through that process.
Speaker 1:And people will pay for that customer service rather than there may be a cheaper product out there. But if I'm coming in and I'm getting treated well as a customer, then I would pay more for that the rule of thumb is 84% of people will pay more for a better experience.
Speaker 2:We all know that. We know that 84% Will spend more and more often for a better experience. So if you have a better experience, 84% of people say gee, that's higher than that, that doesn't give me such a great experience, but it's cheaper. 84% of people are going to say I'll spend the money on the experience. I'll give you a perfect example. My wife and I come to the beach. We've been to Wrightsville Beach. We've been to Topself Surf City. We've been to Sunset Ocean Isle. We've been to all the out of banks. We've been to them all. I love them. Many of them are my clients, so I love to go there and just see how things are going.
Speaker 2:But a beach is a beach, they're all the same. They all have waves and seagulls and sand and sunburn, right, that's it. So it's not what's the beach that matters, it's what the experience I get while I'm at the beach, right? So now, how do I interact with your business or your restaurant or your adventure program or your, whatever it might be? That's the experience that makes me want to come to, let's say, top Sale or City Area. So helping them understand that it's not just about products and services and amenities, it's about the experience you can give them.
Speaker 2:And when I go through, give me the touch point when they make a phone call, then what do you do next? And they come into your store. Let's say what does the storefront look like? What does your driveway look like? What does your windows look like? What's on the windows, what shouldn't be on your windows? And we go through this whole process because I want it to be Disney-esque. I'll go into businesses and I'll see papers and posters and scotch tape to their windows and doors. Krista, if I ever scotch taped anything to a window or door or a wall at Disney, I'd be fine.
Speaker 2:They'd let me go.
Speaker 1:They'd say you need to get some help because you lost it right.
Speaker 2:But yet business owners don't know that. That's what Disney calls good show, bad show, right. So I know what good show is supposed to look like, and it doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money to do it.
Speaker 2:But there's certain things Could you put it on a plaque or on a podium or a little stanchion or something. There's better ways of communicating to your customers without flapping a piece of paper on a because what's happened? The glue gets stuck, it's crooked, the weather it's terrible. It's terrible, right? So I teach them how to do that in my coaching programs. We walk through it, we redesign it and then we look at each one of those touch points and I go how would you like to make each one of those magical?
Speaker 2:So now you're going to elevate your experience even more, whether it's they don't know how to market and I'm not a marketing goo'm nota, I don't consider myself a marketing person, but I've been there, done that. I know a lot of my clients. There are a lot of marketing techniques and strategies that you can use. It's not just putting a great facebook page together or facebook ads. Yeah, those things are important, but there's so many other things in marketing. But think about this, krista if you create a, an experience that is so great and your customers love you, guess who's going to do the marketing for you?
Speaker 2:the customers and that is cheaper. The referral word of mouth they're going to come back over and over. Boy, you can reduce your marketing expenses by creating great experiences yeah and that's the rate of return on investment.
Speaker 2:If I come in and do a workshop, people like, yeah, been there that we had customer service workshops before. They don't do anything. But if I can help you increase your profits, do that experience. Would that be something you'd be interested in? And most business owners said sign me up. They don't want the fluff, they want the result, and that's the result of what the experience can be. So again, so coaching. I love rolling up my sleeves one-on-one. A lot of my clients. It depends on how much do they want of me. Some want a lot of me, some want less of me. They don't need all of me, but I just want to be there and I know I give them way too much because I'm a servant. So they call me anytime I got a problem. I say let's go.
Speaker 1:How do you figure out if it's the right fit?
Speaker 2:I always look at my coaching staff. The people that I coach have to have four criteria. They have to be resourceful. In other words, it's not easy what you got to do, so you got to be. If you're going to run into a roadblocks, are you resourceful to go around it or figure things out? Most business owners, they can figure it out. That's why they got to be a business owner. But I want them to be resourceful. I also want to be coachable. I'm going to teach them things. You got to try to do those things. You got to want to be able to do that. You got to be coachable. Listen to my ideas. I'm not perfect. Maybe. I want to listen to your ideas, but you got to be coachable.
Speaker 2:The third thing is you got to work hard. I don't have any magic formula. I might throw out magic wands, but I'm sorry to tell everybody they don't work. You got to make them work right. You got to put a little bit of effort into that. So I want them to realize that there's some work to do and I'm going to hold them accountable to that work if they want me to. If they don't want me to hold them accountable, that's fine, it's your business. And then the fourth thing is my coaching members are assets to the community. And what I mean by assets to the community? We've created a mastermind of my coaching members who all help each other and nobody's after each other. And you might be in an auto service repair shop, somebody might be, let's say, you're in the podcast, and so you might be on a coaching call with a bunch of other of my coaching members and we're all talking about things and you go. Have you ever thought about being on a podcast to help market your business?
Speaker 1:Interesting yeah.
Speaker 2:And that person in the auto service repair shop goes. I never thought of that. So you didn't do it to be on your podcast, because that person might be in Ohio and your podcast is not going to reach Ohio yet. I'm sure it will someday, one day. That's right. But you're giving them the idea because you're a giver. So if everybody gives ideas, or let me share that with you, or I tried that it didn't work, but let me tell you what I did that made it work. So those are the four criteria and if anybody falls into those, I promise you I will give them a hundred percent they will be successful, or I give them a hundred percent of their money back. Wow, because I can't sleep at night knowing that I shortchanged you in some way, shape or form. But again, I can't do it for you, right?
Speaker 1:Is there a consultation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do a free consultation. I call it the discovery call. What I try to do is solve your biggest challenge. Let's see if we can deal with that one first, give you some ideas and then you realize, gosh, what if he could help me solve some more of my problems. Maybe I can't, and problems maybe I can't, and I just love to do that and again, I just want them to be successful, but I can't do it for them. They have to be able to want to do it and once they realize that there's opportunity to get the results they want, I wish I mean somebody helped me years ago. If I didn't get that help, I would not be here today. Mentorships, coaches they're not all about a business model. They're there. If you get the right one, they're there to make you successful so we have talked about the customer experience.
Speaker 1:What are some of the other topics that you cover?
Speaker 2:look we shared earlier. Sometimes it's on leadership and we want to make sure you can lead the right people. So it might be leadership and coaching, finding and hiring the right people, because that's a big thing. It's the elephant in the room today. Right, you can't find people that want to work and there's so many jobs and how do you get those people? So I teach how we hired 75,000 people at Disney and so hopefully you don't need 75,000 people, you only need a few, but it's part of that.
Speaker 2:Or how to build relationships, how to connect, be likable and memorable, and the program I call you can do that in 30 seconds and so that people will remember you or your staff, or maybe even you're a leader, you can be more likable as a leader so that you can get things done through others, creating a whistle while you work environment. There isn't any owner I know out there that doesn't work really hard and their team works really hard At Disney. I tell people it was the hardest job I ever had in my entire life. It was exhausting and it never ended it. Just, you're always full, you're always busy, but I loved it and I had fun and I always made sure my staff had fun, and there's a difference between having fun and being funny. Being funny sometimes is not the right thing to do, so how do you have fun at work? How do you create an environment where people want to do it and they're excited about doing it every day? Imagine if you can have your staff come to work whistling while they work right, and people at Disney would whistle when they came to work because they just love what they do. Was it hard? Absolutely, but we just made that environment and I even have some motivational topics that can be used for, whether it's inspiring a team, or even I've shared it with businesses or entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:It's a program called Dream, dare, believe and Do, and it's actually a quote from Walt Disney and I share it about dreaming big. Right, if you are an entrepreneur, you got to dream big. Right, if you're a student, you got to dream big. If you're on a team, you want to dream big. You want to win that championship. That's the big dream, right? If you don't want to win the championship, why are you even playing, right? It doesn't mean you're going to win it, but that's the ultimate goal. Maybe there's some other ones along the way. So you need about dreaming big.
Speaker 2:And what happens, krista, when we get older? What happens to our dreams? They die because work gets in our way life, kids, family and what happens? We don't think it's possible anymore. And then why do we stop dreaming? We stop dreaming because we've heard all the people tell us you can't do it, yeah, and then maybe they're right. Maybe you can't do it, yeah, and then maybe they're right. Maybe they're right, I'm sure. Maybe people told you you can't do podcasts, right, you don't know anything about that. What are you going to do? Their intentions are good, but they squash your dreams. So I show them how to overcome those challenges.
Speaker 2:The daring part is you have to take risks and that it's not going to be easy and it's going to be out of your comfort zone and you're going to learn things. You might eat peanut butter, jelly sandwiches, that's right. And so you got to dare yourself to take those risks, because the reward is going to be great. Believing is about believing in yourself. Affirmations, visualize yourself already being successful. Hang around good people, read good books and podcasts and literature. That's going to keep you going. And then, lastly, nothing happens unless you do it. You got to take that first step and that's sometimes that's the hardest.
Speaker 2:So it's a fun program from that. I do a lot of colleges and universities with that one, but I'll tailor any program. A lot of companies will say could you do a little of this, a little of that? Yeah, the answer is yes. All the time. The goal has got to be what they want and I work with all budgets, anything from a 45 minute to all day. It doesn't make a difference. I just add more stories, more activities, more engagement, more exercises, more fun the more time we have to make it a great event.
Speaker 1:All right, you have a book. Let's talk about the book for a minute. It's called Making the Customer Experience Magical. Now Tell me about your book and when you wrote it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, it was part of my journey of being who I am today and trying to do what I wanted to do. And my mentor said, john, you need a book. And I was like book, I'm not an author, I don't know how to write a book. And he said doesn't make a difference, you need to write a book as an author. It brings credibility to a speaker, trainer, coach. We know that. So I said I don't know where do I even begin. He said you've already wrote your book. And I said what do you mean? I already wrote a book. He said just take one of your workshops, have it transcribed. Oh, and it's a book. And he said and believe it or not, you're doing people disservice by not writing a book because once they hear you, you're gone. Give them something they can take away from you that they can continue to learn and grow and help them.
Speaker 2:So the book is called Making the Customer Experience Magical. Now, so it's all about how to create that experience, but I also focus on how to succeed in business and beat out your competition. And you beat out your competition by giving a better experience than your competition, right? So it all parted in there. It's a simple read. I tell people it's more of a training guide. It's not a book you read and put on a shelf. After each chapter are exercises and activities that you can do as a team. You can do it as a business owner. I wrote it so simply that you could give it to an employee and say you teach chapter four in the book.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that and they can do that because there's exercise that you can do as a group, and so that was my goal, because we all know books we read, and then what do we do with these books? Right? So I wanted a book to use. From cover to cover you can go back and forth and so that's where I wrote the book. It's not going to win a Pulitzer Prize, but it became a top seller. I think I've sold over 25,000 books, oh my God. And since it's been there. But again, the goal is I just want to give them a resource to do that and to learn. So that's where it came from. I got another book in me.
Speaker 1:You do.
Speaker 2:I bet I've just been too busy to get through that, but I hope to do that.
Speaker 1:You know what it's going to be about. It's going to be more of.
Speaker 2:If Disney ran your business, what would? It look like and it's going to talk about it.
Speaker 1:When are you going to start on that one?
Speaker 2:It started. It's just, unfortunately, I've been busy, which is a good thing.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, you've been busy.
Speaker 2:Which is a good thing. But again, I'm a perfectionist from a standpoint. I want it to be really good. I don't want to be the same book I just did so. It's got to be different things, but we'll see. We everybody can be a coach, I get it. Not every client's going to turn into a coach, I get that. But I want to do whatever I can to continue the journey of learning. So the book is one way they can continue to do that.
Speaker 2:Another thing I've created was my newsletter blog. It's called the magic minute and it's just something you could read, watch or whatever in 30 seconds or less, maybe a minute, maybe if it's a little long one. But it's just a quick, something you could read and you can say wow, we could do this in our company, we can do this in our business, or sometimes it's are we doing that in our business? So it gives thought to what's going on. I've had some. I try to do it once a week. It goes out sometimes every other week, based on my travels and what's going on. But I get people that say when's the next one? Because I'm having a meeting coming up and I use your magic minutes for meetings. So they'll share something that I talked about, and it could be anywhere from creating a better, magical experience, it could be on hiring. It could be on hiring, it could be on leadership, it could be about marketing, it could be on all kinds of things.
Speaker 2:In fact, I was asked to do an interview on how is AI affecting the customer experience and, as a top 10 global thought leader, people think I know all the answers and I said I got to tell you. Ai is new to me too. I'm high touch, not high tech. So there's ways that we could use AI that will enhance the experience. There's no doubt. But I also tell anybody and I'll still stand this to this day the human connection is still king and people want touchy-feely.
Speaker 2:I want to be able to know who I'm talking to, and now I don't even know who I'm talking to because of AI. Is this a bot? Is this a AI person? Is it really Krista on the phone? I don't know. We can't be afraid of it. We have to embrace it, use it to our advantage. But we just say, we can't say that's going to be the answer for everything, because our clients, our customers, are all different. Some are going to be very AI literate, others are going to be. I don't even know what AI stands for, right, so we want to make sure we have that happy mix. So I try to be fresh and current. But it's just a great way. They can just go to my website, which is just johnformicacom, that's J-O-H-N-F-O-R-M-I-C-Acom, and you just scroll down, you can sign up. And to encourage you to sign up, I give you three training videos on top of that because I really want you to get this magic minute because it's going to help you.
Speaker 2:So the training videos are free, the magic minute's free. I don't sell you anything, but it's just a great way to continue the journey, because we all know we get busy. If I can be a feather in your hat to help you through this journey, that's what those are for. All right, john.
Speaker 1:So we've gone through all that you offer. Are there any future plans that you can share with us?
Speaker 2:Besides the book hopefully coming out before I'm dead maybe I don't know, but no, it'll come out. But my future plans is again just trying to realize that there are so many other industries out there that I don't even know that I could help and I'll share with any business owner. You need a niche. Don't be too wide and broad in what you do because then you're not considered that expert. Everybody could use your services, sure, but who really needs your services? And that's what I focused on and really made my business successful.
Speaker 2:But I want to focus on other areas that I can be more of a service and help people be successful, and it may not just be business, it could be nonprofits, it could be organizations. That the cause is great. I've actually picked up a couple of coaching clients who are nonprofits and I want to help them build their nonprofit organization. But we have to run it like a business and they don't know how to run it like a business, so I'm helping them through that process. I do a lot of things for schools and universities and because there's a lot of similarities, so that's my goal is try to figure out who else I can help. I want to continue to help small businesses and organizations and tourism communities, but there might be some other people that I don't even know yet and I need to help them.
Speaker 1:All right. So I like to finish off my episodes with something called final thoughts, and this is your chance to just tell us that one thing, that one takeaway that you want the listeners to have, whether it's about you, john for Micah, or your coaching, or your services that you offer.
Speaker 2:Krista, I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to give you two.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll take them Two quick ones.
Speaker 2:The first one is my final thought on people, on persons. Anybody listening today, I don't care, you run a business, own a business, you just happen to be lover podcast and you're just listening to it, which I highly encourage you to do it. I want you to think about what your purpose is in life. What is your biggest passion? What is it that you love to do, and figure out a way how you can continue to do that. Maybe it's a hobby, maybe that hobby might turn into a business. Perhaps we only get one chance in life to do what we love to do. I'm grateful. I'm living my dream. I'm doing this. I want you to do it too, but sometimes we get so busy we don't even think about it. And so find out what is your purpose. What do you love to get up in the morning and do? Can you make a living out of it? Then that's something to think about. But even if it's just something you do more of, then I want you to do more of, and it could be volunteering for a church, it could be doing the homeless shelters or whatever it might be, or it could be.
Speaker 2:My mom used to do knitting and crocheting, and she just as old as she got. That's all that kept her really active. That was her only thing, but she loved to do it. She made little baby blankets that we donated to hospitals. Again, it was. She loved to crochet. It was something that she it was worth her living because she kept saying that I got so many more to do. I got so many more to do, and that's what keeps us all young. It keeps us vibrant.
Speaker 2:So think about what it is, because, if you can do, even if you're an hourly worker, be passionate about what you do. Be the best hourly worker you can do. If you're a restaurant server, be the best server. If you wash dishes, be the best dishwasher. If you drive an Uber, be the best dishwasher. If you drive an Uber, be the best Uber driver. Be the best. Don't just go through the motions because, again, you only get one time in life to do that. So, personally, think about that, that and then, and take pride in what you do.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is, as a business, don't be afraid to ask questions and don't be afraid to get help, and I'm not talking about help from me, I'm talking about help from so many other resources out there. The learning curve will be shorter, but nobody knows all the answers. I don't know all the answers. Nobody knows all the answers. So what can you do to learn? Maybe it's get some help, and help could be a book, it could be listening to a podcast, it could be attending seminars and workshops, it could be hiring life coaches, business coaches, health coaches whatever it is.
Speaker 2:I learned early on that I think I would have been even more successful had I done that early on. Ask for help. Ask for help.
Speaker 2:Luckily, I had really good mentors in my career who I had, some tough mentors that used to kick my butt and say you don't have a clue, john. You got to get out there. What are you doing? What are you stupid? But you know what I needed it. I needed to be kicked in the butt, and then I had others that took me under their arm, around me and said it's going to be okay. I know you're frustrated, let me help you through this process, and I needed that combination and so I try to be that as a coach and I know there's so many great other coaches out there and people that are willing to give up their time to help others. Don't be afraid to ask help and it's business owners. I found it's that ego, it's a sign of weakness. No, it's a sign of strength, and the relationships that I've made with people that have helped me and that I've helped them, I think, make you live a really well-rounded life and career.
Speaker 1:Let's give out that contact information for John for Micah. The phone number is 704-965-4090. You can email John at info at johnformicahcom. The website again is johnformicahcom. While you're there, go ahead and sign up for that newsletter the Magic Minute and then you can find and follow John for Micah on all the socials Facebook, Twitter or X, YouTube, LinkedIn and I'm going to have the website and the social links there in the show notes for you, like I always do. So go there for clickable links and thank you, listeners, for joining us today. I appreciate you tuning in each week and thank you, John, for being on Topsail Insider and telling us all about your business and coaching and training programs. I really appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2:My pleasure.
Speaker 1:Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsail Insider, please show your support by clicking the follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast listening platform. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Please also go to topsoulinsidercom and join our mailing list by clicking on the Make Me a Topsoul Insider button. While you're there, you can click the Send Me a Voicemail button and let me know exactly what you're thinking your message just might be on an episode of Topsail Insider. You can email me at Krista at TopsailInsidercom, or call or text me at 910-800-0111. Thank you for listening and supporting Topsail Insider and our local businesses and nonprofits. These are our neighbors and our friends, and together we build a mighty and a beautiful community I'm super proud to be a part of. I'll see you around Topsail.
