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Entrepreneurial Insights: Mastering Follow-Through and Communication
83 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, join host Brent Oberlink with Travis May, Jon Keck, and Jay Keppler as they jump into the critical importance of follow-through and communication in entrepreneurship. Drawing from personal experiences and insightful anecdotes, they explore how effective communication and diligent follow-through can make or break business relationships and endeavors.
From the challenges of managing customer expectations to the nuances of different communication styles, we navigate the intricate landscape of modern business interactions. Our guests share valuable insights into the impact of clear, consistent communication on customer retention, business growth, and personal reputation.
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the art of follow-through and communication in entrepreneurship, and gain actionable insights to enhance your business practices and personal leadership skills.
#landscaping #TheBetterContractorPodcast #Lanracorp #landscapeblog #treecare #arbor #entrepreneur #podcast #TheBetterContractor #BusinessEvolution #CompanyCulture #Efficiency #EntrepreneurshipPodcast #Entrepreneurship #TheBetterContractorPodcast #TheBetterContractorblog #communication
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Transcript
Intro & Importance of Follow-Through
00:00:12
Speaker
Well, guys, welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today, I'm joined by Travis, who finally has a nickname, the Quote Master. Good afternoon. That's pressure. I'm going to come up with a quote for this. Give me a moment. Let me look at the book. I've got the Bean King. Bean King has not been on for a while, Mr. John. Hello. How's everybody doing? Doing well.
00:00:37
Speaker
Jay, you do not have a nickname yet. It's probably a good thing. It means you're harder to make fun of. I'll take it. But today our topic, um, importance of follow-through and doing what you say.
Landor Corp's Success with Follow-Through
00:00:51
Speaker
So, and I look back at kind of so personal journey with Landor Corp. One of the things we did early on, we didn't have any money. One of the things we did early on was we followed through better than probably anyone else at that time.
00:01:04
Speaker
Meaning you shoot me an email, you get a response, you call me, you get a call back. Whatever it is that you wanted. I had some sort of answer, usually within an hour or two, and this is weekends included. But that got us a lot of business because our competitors were not doing that. They'd ignore the call, wait too long to call back or start the sales process.
00:01:27
Speaker
And then, you know, once that initial contact was made, then they, Oh, I'll get you a quote on Tuesday, by close of day, Wednesday. Hey, where's my quote? With us, I would set the deadline of Tuesday, but I would tell the customer end of day, internally, I would do noon. So they always had everything early. It's just little stuff like that, that lets the customer know, number one, it looks like they're going to follow through on my stuff. And then number two, it was establishing us as someone they could count on.
00:01:56
Speaker
So I think that's hugely important, kind of the beginning of kind of what got Atlanta Corp where it is. Then also it was a pet peeve of mine and still is, you know, and these guys can attest to that. Like Atlanta Corp is a big deal that we reply. Like we try to really quick for the most part. I think most of our customers have realized the most part, no matter who I send an email to Atlanta Corp, I'm getting a response. I'm getting an answer.
00:02:22
Speaker
But even, you guys can attest to this, I'm sure. A lot of my day is spent, honestly, usually with customers that are not following through. I gotta send a reminder email, hey, I need this word to do this quote, or hey, I need this for that, you know, in order to move forward. So internally, we try to not be those people. But anyway, so trying to relate that to like a self-improvement type topic, gosh, it is important to do what you say you're gonna do.
00:02:53
Speaker
So... And you said one thing in the beginning there that when you were starting Atlanta Corp, you didn't have a lot of money. How much money did it cost to be quick to respond? Exactly. Yeah. It was one of those things I knew, hey, this is free. It's just time. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And even now as we choose... So we've spoken on other podcasts about your procurement process not being low bid, which we do not do at Atlanta Corp. It's actually...
00:03:19
Speaker
Not even the thing I look at. I look at this in the ballpark. You know, if I think, you know, this one bill is going to be between 100 and 150, as long as it's in that range, but I'm not going to go with the 100 person just because of price. If somebody's at 140,000, I'm probably going to go with them. If I have the relationship, I know their follow through. I know their customer service is next level. So even with us, we'll choose vendors sometimes based upon, I don't want to name drop the podcast, but because they reply.
00:03:48
Speaker
And we know, hey, if we need them, they are going to reply and going to answer the call.
Communication Strategies & Military Analogies
00:03:53
Speaker
They're going to help. You know, we have one as a herbicide vendor. The dude's awesome. I mean, whatever you need and he's what, two states away. He'll be here if he can. Yeah. And he'll help. He'll do whatever. He covers his huge territory. Yeah. Yeah. So it's selecting vendors, you know, key staff to make sure that that your company is doing that follow through. So Travis thoughts.
00:04:17
Speaker
We're pivoting maybe the conversation to communication a little bit, but that's an integral part about the follow through follow up is whether you're communicating to customers, receiving communication back in the military. It's often referred to in everybody knows the fog of war. Essentially that's.
00:04:37
Speaker
disorganization, things that you have partial information. You don't know what's going on. You can't make decisions because things either appear or don't appear the way they truly are. And it's just confusion. It's chaos. And you can't make decisions. You can't make accurate decisions out of you.
00:04:58
Speaker
And you're always trying to reduce that whenever possible. Some of it's accepting it, but it really comes down to how important communication is. And it is one of the first things that we look for in the battlefield is to disrupt communication on the enemy side, whether we're intercepting it. And there's tons of really cool stories about espionage and intelligence, counterintelligence.
00:05:20
Speaker
revolving around communication, whether you're deliberately skewing things or preventing them from being
Impact of Technology on Communication
00:05:27
Speaker
able to communicate. But a lot of times on the onset of war, you're looking to disrupt communication on their part because it does increase the fog of war. It increases chaos. They can't communicate to their character parts. They can't find out what's going on. There's delayed reaction times. Maybe you're making partial decisions or incorrect decisions.
00:05:45
Speaker
to their detriment because they don't have the information or they can't coordinate with their other team members, but how important it is. And I think we can translate that to any part of our life and when we go into business as well, when we lack communication and it's become more acute too with technology. I do remember a time without cell phones. We're maybe the last generation that we do, we remember that as a part of our daily lives.
00:06:14
Speaker
You think nowadays, if you left your cell phone at home, and you weren't deliberately trying to do that to try and unplug, you almost feel naked and like, man, what if somebody has a problem? What if my wife needs something with her kids? And oftentimes when I find myself inept at it.
00:06:34
Speaker
How did we ever do it before? And we, we, we dealt with it. Like with this business, like we've talked about that, like, cause our guys work remotely. Like I couldn't imagine they leave out, you call from their hotel room or whatever in the morning. And your next conversation is maybe when they get back, if they decide to call you or they happen to be in their room when you call their room, but otherwise I'll talk to them at all. So it also.
00:06:59
Speaker
gave them a lot more decision power because they had to make decisions without texting or calling us to say, hey, what should I do in this regard? Yeah, that is a totally different world. We've talked about it before. Would it be better or worse? I don't really know. There's arguments on both sides, but it does highlight the communication component of we expect to be able to communicate.
00:07:20
Speaker
It's a departure from the point that we're trying to make here but there is some power in not having that constant back and forth because it does empower decentralized leadership gives them some leadership capital that then go out and do things but as far as being able to orchestrate a complex thing or in business or for those critical
00:07:40
Speaker
times where we need to relay information to each other, how important it is for you to be able to communicate and to follow through. And for a business, yeah, I mean, especially from the supplier and the buyer type relationship, that's so important. I mean, I just try maybe dial it down to a personal level, I mean,
00:08:07
Speaker
When have we tried to buy something or had an issue with something or purchased a service and you can't get a response back from how do you feel? And so you as the business, you from the personal or the consumer side of things, how do you think you're perceived if you're not doing that? And I mean, you take us to all levels, but it really communication and following through doing what you say. I mean,
00:08:33
Speaker
If you don't do that or you do do that, it's definitely a differentiator for positive or negative. If you don't follow through on what you said you were going to do, or you do developing a positive or negative reputation. And then in today's day and age, if any of that is off with the speed of communication and every online forum and amplification method that they have to tell the world about their bad experience with you.
00:09:00
Speaker
It happens at light speed, and to try and get that reputation back is really tough. And I think there was some study that was done here in the last six months or so, but it was talking about these younger generations. And it even goes into the 30s and 40s that they will rely more on some obscure feedback post on a website than most other methods of
00:09:30
Speaker
Even they have no personal relationship, have no idea if this is a credible source, but they're going to look at those reviews. And if you have any negative stuff in there, it doesn't matter where it came from. There's no vetting process. They're relying and making decisions on whether to do business with you or continue the relationship or start the relationship based off of these reviews. So it's so important to manage every aspect of that and not let negative experiences come out there because it will impact you quick.
Effective Communication Systems in Business
00:10:00
Speaker
Oh yeah. And I think from a customer retention perspective, like you may make the sale, but during that, or the process of you, you know, as a, as a company, don't follow through. Are they going to be your customer the next time? Probably not. I mean, I wouldn't.
00:10:17
Speaker
I can think, you know, as far as work goes or personal, there's a lot of companies I won't do business with even personally, because of the experience, because I had to follow through. Hey, are you coming to do this today? I haven't even scheduled today. You know, you had me on your schedule, or whatever it is, you know, so. That's so important, like that from the business standpoint, every department has to be in the same line too, because
00:10:40
Speaker
that your sales department can nail it. If your team doesn't follow through, right? You know, we hear it all the time. Some companies have great customer service. The rest of it's not that great. You know, yeah, or vice versa. Yeah. I think you nailed it to Travis on communication. Communication is so important. You know, a lot of this is actually what this is, you know, so if you told someone, hey, I'll be there tomorrow, or I'll be there by close of business, if something comes up,
00:11:09
Speaker
Don't just don't do it. Tell them, hey, I'm still, I haven't forgot about you, but this came up and I do need 12 more hours before I get this to you. Like most people are fine with that. They're not fine with just being ignored though. Left in the dark. Yeah. Yeah. And I've seen so many too. So we use a lawn care landscaping. It's actually a, so we use for pest control. It's a different company. We were for,
00:11:33
Speaker
It was a separate entity that was doing the yard and the maintenance, and then a separate entity for doing the aeration and weed and feed and stuff like that. I've consolidated that with one company. And it's a stark contrast. One, the tools and the customer service component of communicating. So the ones I've really appreciated have systems and processes in place. I get a text message the day before.
00:12:02
Speaker
Hey, just want to let you know we're coming out. This is what we're planning on doing. Or we're probably not coming out. There's rain or what. So that's a text message. And I can text that entity back. It's not a one-way communication. I feel like, hey, you know what? I noticed XYZ that needs to be addressed. And I'll get a response back within a few hours from them. And then when they show up, the technician or whoever's usually knock on the door, step back, and like, hey, I just want to let you know I'm here.
00:12:32
Speaker
And like, do you need anything for me? Like, no, just wanted to let you know, I'm here, about to get started. This is what we're planning, goes and does it. Some of the times they come back and knock on, I just want to let you know I'm all done. Do you have any questions or you need to stay off this part for six hours or, but just that communicate was super beneficial. And I was, there's hardly ever anything that I needed to actually instruct or that I really needed, but it really,
00:13:01
Speaker
felt like they were on top of things. They were professional. I knew what was going on versus other ones where you guys still coming out today. I haven't seen you. I mean, were you planning on doing, I saw we missed yesterday, probably through the rain or something. And just those, the contrast experiences where I don't want to do, I'm trying to follow up and communicate and find out what's going on. And I feel like I am,
00:13:30
Speaker
not being serviced in any way. I'm managing their schedule. I'm doing their planning and operation. It's just such a horrible experience, and especially in contrast to those. And that's probably true in every industry, in every line of business. There's somebody out there that's crushing, that's doing well. And if you're not, you've got somebody that's contrasting you, and you probably won't maintain that business.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, we've got a, just personally, a company that does, it's a national franchise. They do our mosquito and tick control at the house. They're like what you talked about. Like they literally, I get a text when the technician leaves, I get another text when they've arrived. And then when they leave, I get another one. He leaves a little door hanger. Hey, it was a little thank you card. Hey, just wanted to say we finished up. We did this, it was out of here at 2 0 5 PM.
00:14:24
Speaker
Appreciate
Growing Through Consistent Follow-Through
00:14:25
Speaker
your business. And then literally I'm talking like 206. I have an invoice in my, in my email with like one click. I'm like, there's probably some people are like, Oh, I don't need all this. Uh, please let me alone. But for the rest of us, it's such a value add that it makes up for any of those that might not like it.
00:14:46
Speaker
I think there's a sweet spot with different people. So some people like more communication than others. Some want to engage you and engage your services. They want to trust you, let you do your job, and never hear from you. Others want to be notified when you're there, when you left. They want that constant feedback or constant
00:15:11
Speaker
That's what I'm looking for. It's a constant communication. Yeah. You could always dial up. What's the ad is overdress. I don't know if it's still true in today's invite but overdress for any unknown meeting. You can always dress down take the pie off take the coat off. You can't add it back.
00:15:29
Speaker
maybe the communication, maybe that holds true to you in that you don't dial it back, but stop. Yeah, if you didn't have those systems and processes in place, it's going to be really tough to add it after the fact. So it's going to impact your, you know, your business is going to impact your sales. You know, if you guys are working for someone else else is going to be impact your career, obviously. And it impacts personal. I mean, you need to be someone that people can count on period, you know, personally, professionally, whatever. That's really what leadership is all about.
00:15:59
Speaker
you know, is being someone that people know, hey, I can call Jay, John or whatever. And I know, hey, I'm getting a response. It's actually gonna be a worthwhile response. It's not gonna be a kick the can down the road response. They're actually gonna help me solve a problem that I need. And honestly, it gives your bark some bite.
00:16:16
Speaker
You know, so when you do need to be a little bit rougher, if you need to be, they know, Hey, you're probably going to follow through on this. You know, so it's such an important aspect. And I think it's overlooked in this society. And I think a lot of that is because I don't know. And I love back since COVID. It just seems like there's so much more communication in the last like five years. Like we're inundated with it nonstop, which gives you an opportunity though.
00:16:43
Speaker
to get some systems in place and be the company that does not allow that inundation over communication that bogs us down in the office to still deliver that to the customer though, you know, like that tech system, that's probably a super simple software that honestly probably is fully automated, you know, and that's probably implemented for a few bucks a month. Yeah. You know, but for people like me that want to know what in the world is going on, because of Mosquito spraying,
00:17:10
Speaker
I have no proof he was there. I mean, the mosquitoes are a little bit better than it used to be, but I can't physically see that he came. You know, in our current lawn company that we're using this year, like they communicate in their full service, but they communicate every time they come leave. I know what's going on, which is for me, important.
00:17:29
Speaker
So all this makes me think of two, I'm not going to name them by name, but we've had two customers early on that we actually grew a bunch of our workload with back in our earlier years in Lanacorp, but they gave us a little bit of work and they gave us a lot more because of our follow through. Like that was their exact words. I don't have the time to ask for information. I want the information. And this is before we did anything close to what we're doing now. Like it was,
00:17:56
Speaker
The standard then was still high, but it wasn't, we weren't delivering like we do now, but we got more business out of those customers and grew it probably by the one 200% and the other one about 100% growth in one year because year one, the first year on the job, we followed through at a different level than they were used to. So it's not just like your current sales. It's also retaining and then growing those client, that clientele.
00:18:20
Speaker
But you also got to know your customer. So, you know, John had an example. We were not recording about a customer in house. We won't name by name, but you know, you've got to know that customer. But the key to it is the customer must also, so I'll let John tell the story, but the takeaway at the end.
00:18:39
Speaker
is they trust us with follow-through either way. But John, I'll let you tell the story. Follow-through and transparency. We've got a lot of systems in place where we keep track of what we do. We build maps and record pretty much everything you can record in our industry.
00:19:03
Speaker
our customer knows that if they ever need that information, they need to know where we were on sets and such date last year, two years ago, we have that information available. So they have the trust factor in us knowing that we can go out, do our job, do what they want because we've worked for them before. We know what they expect and they expect our level of execution
00:19:32
Speaker
and they let us go. Now there are other customers who want to know what we're doing every day and you know you just have to you have to communicate with your customer
00:19:46
Speaker
Ask them what they want. Ask them what level of communication they expect. If they don't, you know, you can usually gauge after things get going. You can start at a level and, okay, this maybe feels like they're not paying attention to every communication bit that I send them or send them more. If they, you know, keep asking questions, just do it more often.
00:20:09
Speaker
and have the systems in place to be able to do that though. Yeah. You know, so a lot of ours, you know, if they don't want stuff, we can easily knock it back. Yeah. And it helps us in the house not to send quite so much stuff. But you know, you can tailor it. But the point is like, have the system so you can give the customer what they want. Well, the key, like we were talking about offline, the key is that communication up front, like we are very good about the
00:20:32
Speaker
When we're starting a project, we talk to them. We let them know what they're going to get from us. And then we may start sending it. And then they're like, well, I don't need all this. Scale this back a little bit. But then you got some, like you said, some of them want it daily. They want daily communication.
00:20:48
Speaker
all the details and then others just want to know when the project's complete. Getting to know your customer in the beginning is key. The follow through piece, I'm probably pivoting the conversation for what you're about, but the follow through piece, the other half of that in that you have to be able to do, and that goes back to the brand and the reputation and things. What's the adage of your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying.
00:21:17
Speaker
So if you don't actually follow through, you'd have the best communication, the best representation, the best reviews. And then if you don't follow through with it, it's going to ring hollow for them and you'll lose whatever ground you captured. So you have to have both sides of it. Yeah, sure. Yeah. And a lot of our listeners are people, it appears to be in like a leadership position.
00:21:41
Speaker
You know what I mean? So I think this is such a huge, important thing that some people don't put enough effort into is the follow through in doing what you say. I know I wouldn't want to work for someone or under someone that I did not think I could trust them. You know what I mean? Trust them to do their portion of a project. You know, it kind of goes back to those group projects in school back when you were in college. You know, we all had like one or two people in a group that did their stuff. The rest of them may or may not even show up.
00:22:08
Speaker
So don't be those people. Be the dude, be the gal that gets the stuff done, that people know, hey, I am glad Travis is in my group. Because you know what? The dude says what he's going to do, and he actually does it. So be that dude. Be like Travis, the quote master.
Insights from 'Tribe of Mentors'
00:22:26
Speaker
Travis, you got any other words of wisdom as we wrap this one up? I don't. We'll splice it in later. Did I get some quotes? Gosh. He earns the name quote master.
00:22:37
Speaker
And that's the first podcast he does not have the quote. I can, I can source one. I don't have one that I can whip out. I didn't.
00:22:56
Speaker
I didn't have a lot of quotes in the back of my mind about follow through and communication. Do it. Just do it. Do it. Dan, our safety guy, we used to always have a thing where when, when's the time to do something? And the answer was now right now is when you do it. Don't, don't put your due list. If you can do it now, knock it out. No time like the present. You never know what the next two hours or the challenge that I have is I want to do everything.
00:23:25
Speaker
So time management becomes a big problem for me in that some tools and systems help with it. But there's I need you need to get it. So books, we can't go without recommending a book. So Tim Ferriss has one tribe of mentors. So he essentially took 11 questions and he he articulated to the beginning of the book how he came up with these and he poured over and
00:23:54
Speaker
really put a lot of thought into the questions and then organize them in a certain
Work-Life Balance Realities
00:23:59
Speaker
way. And he sent it out to, I don't know, 300, 400 people.
00:24:03
Speaker
grandiose personalities, presidents, Dalai Lama. I mean, there was nobody off-limits, somebody who he thought was influential from all different walks of life. And it was a bunch of really good questions about deeper, and he structured them in a way that they couldn't just yes or no, and that he articulates how he didn't put all of their answers in, and he wanted them to be able to give some feedback. So one of the top three books that, instead of what's your favorite book,
00:24:34
Speaker
which could be very short or could not have a lot of context. What, what, what are the top three books that you give out the most or what's been the most impactful book in your life? So, so things like that. But one of the questions was in there is what have you, as you've gotten older, I'm paraphrasing a little bit of the instruction, but what, as you've gotten older, what have you gotten better at saying no to? And
00:25:00
Speaker
Like that one definitely makes you think, and especially for a personality like my work. I'm curious, I want to do things. I think I can do it all. And time management becomes an issue is trying to get better at saying no to things. What's priority? Prioritize and execute, but what's priority? And then that goes back to, I think, what we were saying on a couple of other podcasts, goal setting. Really getting a clear understanding of who you are, where's your place, where you want to go.
00:25:29
Speaker
And then being able to align your objectives and your priorities underneath that. Without knowing those goals, it's easy to say yes to everything. And it's hard to say no. You think that everything is going to, maybe you can always see that the silver lining and that everything can probably get you in that direction. But being able to clearly set your goals, understand what you're trying to achieve, but then you can start parsing through a lot of those things of, is this truly going to get me closer further away?
00:25:59
Speaker
And maybe it's not entirely a no, but maybe you can find another avenue to help that initiative that doesn't maybe involve you directly pouring your time into it. And that's become even more relevant as I've gotten older and have more opportunities and access to things and then kids. And you really want to be there for your kids and there are several
00:26:22
Speaker
personalities or books and things, and we mentioned it on one of the podcasts there with Josh at Oak Bros of Balance. And there is no such thing really as balance. You try and do it, but everything is always going to be off balance a little bit, and that you're going to have more family time and more quality things and more things in your life, in your personal life that gets more attention, but then something will rise here where it's demanding more time for business or certain initiatives, and it's just concentrating your
00:26:52
Speaker
you're balancing in a degree, but it's never this work-life balance where everything's just even and you've got the perfect amount of engagement on any one
Time Management & Follow-Through
00:27:02
Speaker
area. And that's what we're really trying to achieve.
00:27:05
Speaker
probably completely unrealistic, but I think so. We were talking about this actually today. No one I were about like, um, you know, the balance kind of a cliche word right now, but you know, really it's more about turning things on and off. So being fully present. So whatever it is, you completely all in, be fully present. Um, be intentional in that now when you're done with it, turn it off, move on to something else, but go all in on whatever it is.
00:27:34
Speaker
That's multitasking and task switching so that there's definitely been some psychological work. I think here in the last 10 years, I've really dived into that in that we're not really good multitaskers as a species in that we don't really truly multitask more than maybe a couple of things.
00:27:56
Speaker
I mean, you can juggle stuff and some of the stuff can be relegated to subconscious and your primitive brain handling some things where you're not, but it's really about task switching. Can you fully switch and how fast can you switch and engage? And there's also, you're being present. So that's something that's come in maybe like the last year or six months or so for me of
00:28:19
Speaker
I'll find myself not, and being fully present in whatever it is, whether it's a conversation, you're listening to somebody, you're in a meeting, and you find your mind drifting. It's probably a problem for everybody, but trying to be deliberately present and engaged fully if you've chosen that, if you've chosen that, that you're fully engaged. And if you're not,
00:28:50
Speaker
Maybe you don't, maybe you need to exit that. I guess it goes back to the value thing in that maybe you found yourself in a conversation or situation that is not aligned with your goals or objectives and you find yourself disengaged. Well, maybe you do need to disengage from that and pivot. But yeah, being present, I think that's starting to come up more. And once you're aware of these things, you find
00:29:19
Speaker
you think about them and you can see them in your life, the balance, the priorities, say no. That's definitely, as that's kind of entered into my mind about something that you need to start looking at. But we were saying that it backs up even more. How can you say no if you don't have goals? You don't know where you're trying to go. So like, there's definitely, and we're probably not the first ones to discover this with the better contract. There's probably a strategy and formula here that
00:29:48
Speaker
has been discussed for centuries. It's not anything new. You brought up time management, which at first doesn't really seem like it's on topic, but really it is because a lot of times follow through issues just because you've over committed yourself.
00:30:04
Speaker
So time management is actually really, really important. And if you think, okay, how do I manage my time? Well, you manage your time by having core values personally, having goals personally, and then saying, okay, I got 10 items to do today. I can't do 10 items a day. I can do eight. So pick those eight based upon, Hey, do these eight get me to this outcome? And if all, you know, if there's two that don't, or they can wait to tomorrow and you communicate to someone else, say, Hey, these two items, I can't do these two today. I'll do them tomorrow.
00:30:35
Speaker
but you're hitting the things that are important that are actually moving you forward. So that time management I think is super, super important. I don't think enough people do that in order to make sure they're following through. Did we have the Wyoming story where we were recording during that? I don't think we were. I think we were talking about that. Yeah. So that is one of the customers I was talking about though when I said the two customers that gave us a lot more work. Wyoming was the first one.
00:31:02
Speaker
the time management, and so since some people, hey, we need you out here two days, sure we can do it. And if you didn't follow through, we're three days. We didn't manage the cruise and the time, so all the other systems and processes, so you communicated great.
00:31:26
Speaker
set it up initially, they need you out there. And if you didn't follow through on what they needed you to destroy it all. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the one story on the one customer, they were out in Wyoming. But this also goes into pre framing your conversation a little bit too. So one of the things they called us and we were still very young and new. We'll know if we could do a project Wyoming. For those listening, we're in Illinois. So Wyoming is a long way away. And young and hungry me was like, Sure, we'll do it.
00:31:53
Speaker
Well, I said that and I'm like, shoot, I got to make sure I have all this stuff to do. We did. And they wanted us to start basically within like two or three days. Here's where the pre-framing comes in. So one of the things I had told that customer was, just so you know, I'm going to be honest with you, we've never worked in Wyoming. I do need to check some DOT law. I need to check, you know, getting our equipment out there.
00:32:15
Speaker
I got to check hotels. I know they're more, they're not nearly as frequent as they are in Illinois. Here you can, you know, we live in Southern Illinois, but still there's a hotel every 20 miles in interstate. So that is not the case in Wyoming. Um, so I let them know upfront, we're going to be there, but please expect a few hiccups as we figure stuff out. But we know you need to start immediately. We're going to start immediately, but be patient. So it set the tone. Hey, they're, they're delivering, but.
00:32:42
Speaker
Expect a few hiccups. So I pre-framed all that to let them know, hey, expect this. That is also an important aspect, which is way off topic from following through, but an important aspect of all this is part of communication.
Digital Communication Challenges & AI
00:32:52
Speaker
I think that'd be communication, communicating upfront, setting those expectations, realistic expectations upfront. I'm sure it helps.
00:33:01
Speaker
had you not thought through that and had you not communicated that upfront as the hiccups occurred, they just think you're incompetent. Yeah. Oh yeah. He just accepted this blindly without any. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I was very much letting them know, this is new. We're going to do it, but I will do my best. One thing you brought up earlier Travis was communication style. You know, you brought us like, cause you're nice just being honest. It's different. You know, you're more likely to send me an essay. I'm more likely to send you bullet points.
00:33:31
Speaker
You know, so we know this now when we first got started, I'm not going to lie. There was one time you sent me a long email and I sent it to Katie. I was like, Hey, can you, uh, can you take this down? This into five bullets that I can remember.
00:33:47
Speaker
But I appreciate the detail because it's not something I would have necessarily done. You know, so I think we've done a good job, you know, of working through, you know, those different styles, you know, and tailoring the message appropriately to each other. And it works good in the podcast. You're more likely to tell a story. I'm more likely to summarize it. So, but anyway, all this communication is knowing the customer, the other person's style, knowing what they need, knowing what they want, and delivering upon it. Delivering upon it means doing what you say, following through. Even if it's different for customer A versus customer B.
00:34:19
Speaker
Final thoughts Travis, you gave yours, Jay, John, final thoughts? Stories, anything? Communication is a big part of following through. You can't really follow through on something you haven't communicated. One thing that I think is changing is
00:34:42
Speaker
how people communicate. So I've noticed this with my kids, sending text messages back and forth. You can write something in a text message or in an email for matter of fact.
00:34:59
Speaker
you may mean one thing, but the way it's read means something totally different. And back before text messages and even emails, I remember those days, and everything was verbal, you know, on the phone or in person. And I think that it's very important to
00:35:24
Speaker
craft your words or articulate your message appropriately and make sure you build it or put it together in a way that it conveys the message you're wanting to convey and not something totally different or something that's going to be misinterpreted and could be detrimental to what you're trying to achieve. And that there's there's so much to spend. It's really the rise of the Internet.
00:35:52
Speaker
in that communication style and how it's morphed, but there's been tons of courses and classes about effective communication and negotiation and things that I'm pulling the percentage out of the air, but 80% or whatever, a high percentage of our communication is nonverbal.
00:36:11
Speaker
we pick up on subtle facial expressions or tone and different things beyond just the words has been so ingrained in our communication style for the majority of us that lived before the digital avalanche. Some of that might be changed but we're still the human species going to gravitate towards communication multiple styles but the emails and it coming across you don't have the benefit of all of those other subtle
00:36:41
Speaker
indicators to understand all the context, to understand what those words might mean in digital form. And most of the time it goes to the negative and it seems more curt. It's saying it sounds frustration or stress and that's not what you meant. But when you're just, it's just black and white with no other context coming across, you could be in the best spirit when you wrote it, but the way it's received in the text message or whoever's reading it,
00:37:10
Speaker
could be in the frame of mind they're in, not necessarily what you intended and truly trying to articulate. But what's even crazier is the emoji and picture world is... I think that's why they came about. And just like, you know, I love you. Here's a heart. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And the younger generations now coming through high school and stuff,
00:37:35
Speaker
have even shorthand even that to where there's even shorthand lol and brb whatever these three letter and acronyms and things it's evolved to that beyond that to where it's just a it's a series of like three emojis like the hell does that mean but the like is it all subculture is that so it's even migrating away from that to short for and it's as we evolve into
00:38:04
Speaker
species is still going to need to communicate and business. There's definitely a clash of cultures in there and truly understanding and paying attention to how we communicate with the various different forms and things is going to be so, and maybe that's where AI starts to come into. We could not have an episode where we didn't talk about tech. Maybe that's where AI will help translate between all of
Conclusion: The Power of Communication & Follow-Through
00:38:29
Speaker
this stuff. I mean,
00:38:31
Speaker
cross-culture, cross-language, adding context. And it has been showing a lot of improvement in being able to add the humanizing, the interaction and adding emotion and adding things where maybe we're deficient or it can see how it be perceived on the other side. It can translate the six emojis into some sort of textbook that me as a 43-year-old or whatever would
00:39:00
Speaker
would actually understand, but it's definitely, yeah, that communication, what you're talking about, you have to pay attention to how is somebody, like it might be how way I communicate, but how is somebody actually going to receive it? And how will they interpret this? So important. Jay, any final thoughts? No, I think timing a fall through is key. Yeah. Say you're going to do something. You've committed to it. Can't get it done. All through same day. Communicate. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:28
Speaker
Alright guys, that is a wrap. Thank you for listening. If you liked it, share it. If you didn't, click it off. Until next time. Thank you. See ya.