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Neen James: Creating #ChampagneMoments and Redefining Luxury
13 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of The Unfolding Thought Podcast, Eric Pratum speaks with Neen James—leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and author of Attention Pays and the soon-to-be-released Exceptional Experiences. Known for her “sassy Aussie energy” and straight-talk frameworks, Neen challenges traditional ideas of luxury, arguing that it’s not about money or things but about moments of human connection.
She explains the research behind the four luxury mindsets, why empathy and conscientiousness matter for leadership, and how small, repeatable acts of attention can create what she calls “champagne moments.” From systemizing thoughtfulness in everyday life to thinking like a concierge instead of a bellhop, Neen reveals practical ways to elevate both client experiences and team culture.
Topics Explored:
- Why luxury is less about expense and more about experience
- The four luxury mindsets and how they shape behavior
- How empathy and attention underpin exceptional experiences
- The role of conscientiousness and systemized thoughtfulness
- Scaling luxury: making exceptional experiences profitable and practical
- Creating “champagne moments” in daily leadership and life
Links:
- Pre-order Neen’s book Exceptional Experiences: https://neenjames.com/books/
- Get Neen’s first book Folding Time for free: https://neenjames.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Book-Folding-Time-NeenJames.pdf
- Find all of Neen’s research and resources about luxury mindsets: https://luxuryisamindset.com
- The Business Meditations Neen mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-WyDzPVJzUqWSGGIM0lSxqk4T-TBmsrQ
- The discussion with Alan Fine: https://unfoldingthought.com/28-alan-fine-exploring-the-inner-game-to-grow/
For more episodes, visit: https://unfoldingthought.com
Questions or guest ideas: eric@inboundandagile.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Neen James and Her Work
00:00:02
Speaker
Neen, thank you for joining me. Where does today's recording find you? Well, g'day gorgeous. I am in the gorgeous Tampa, Florida. So I'm home at the time of our recording, which is such a treat for me.
00:00:15
Speaker
So you mentioning being home in Tampa, Florida. I feel like I have encountered in your book, so Attention Pays, I read, I listened to the audiobook for what it's worth, so I listened to you narrating that book. I appreciated that.
00:00:33
Speaker
And I think it's in that book. I believe I recall in your new book, Exceptional Experiences, you talk about it because you talk about house guests. But I think I've encountered you talking about, dare I say, your love of Florida or maybe the heat or something like that.
Cultural Comparisons: Weather and Perception
00:00:50
Speaker
ah You have a great memory. Yes, because I'm originally from Australia. And so I feel like the temperature in Tampa with the insane humidity and the palm trees and all of the crazy critters and some of the cuckoo-cuckoo crazy people remind me of where my parents live in Australia. And so I i do love the warmth.
00:01:13
Speaker
for For nearly 15 years, Eric, we lived on the East Coast, to halfway between Philly and New York. And so the ice and the snow was just a little bit too much for my husband after 15 winters of shoveling snow and ice. I loved where we lived because it was all four seasons.
00:01:30
Speaker
Tampa definitely does not have four seasons. That's a privilege of travel. I get to see the world, but I don't have to have as many winter coat clothes as I used to have to have. You know, you're reminding me as well that, so I lived in Germany twice. And one time lived in a building with quite a few Australians.
00:01:51
Speaker
I think they were all from the Sydney area. And they would talk about how cold it was when over there, of course it was in Celsius, but the temperature would be 70 degrees, 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:02:04
Speaker
And they would talk about how cold it was. And to me coming from, at the time, Northwest Washington, I felt like it's hot. is This is really hot. 75 degrees. You have to remember in Sydney, honey, it might get to like 32 or what is their equivalent of zero, maybe like once a year at midnight. Like they just don't understand. In Australia, we don't have that level of cold like we do in parts of the U.S. And it's certainly not equipped for that like we are in the U.S. as
Career and Stage Presence of Neen James
00:02:34
Speaker
well. And so as I travel around, I still obviously need to keep a winter wardrobe with the kind of travel that I do for clients I get to serve.
00:02:43
Speaker
But there is something lovely about wearing flip-flops and shorts in January in Tampa. I will say, I know that it's been quite a while since you moved to the U.S. s from ah Australia. But I recall my friends in Germany saying that if they had ever seen snow, it was in the Blue Mountains, I think is what they're called. Yeah, I remember as a kid, we went to the mountains to see the snow and it's such a novel thing. Whereas when you live in parts of the US, for example, where we're recording this, ah snow is just a part of people's lifestyle. And I remember having to learn to drive in snow, shovel snow, and snow is so pretty when you're inside with the fire burning and everything's cozy in that first snow, everything's quiet.
00:03:32
Speaker
But then it comes ugly and slushy after a few days. And so, yes, I love the novelty of snow, but I hate being cold. So that's why I'll take the heat any day of the week.
00:03:44
Speaker
I hear you. Well, you have touched a little bit on an answer to this question in talking about places that you've lived and all that. But I suppose if someone asks you, what do you do?
00:03:57
Speaker
Or to describe yourself, what's your answer to one of those questions? Meeting planners always describe me as the energizer bunny. And so if you're listening to this and you haven't actually seen it, i am four, ten and a half. I am frequently in pink. I know I sound like I'm five, but I get hired for the energy that I bring to stage. I am generally the business speaker that follows the CEO update. You know, the CEO always does the state of the nation at the conference.
00:04:26
Speaker
I tend to be the business speaker that follows. so
00:04:32
Speaker
credible clients around the world across a multitude of industries. But yeah, most meeting planners refer to me as the energizer bunny. And you've had sort of a it seems like an evolution in your career.
00:04:47
Speaker
If I look at your book, Attention Pays, for example, which i I will let you do much better justice to the description of that book. But if I look at that And then your most recent book, which hopefully you'll describe as well, it seems like there's a different focus, but I can also feel like because your personality comes out so much, and if you look what you've shared in social media over time, I feel like there's a pretty clear line.
00:05:16
Speaker
I'm just curious what, as you talk about meeting planners, not just you know deeper into what it is that you do, but also what the evolution of your career or specialty has been over time.
Luxury as Personal Experience vs. Elitism
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, if you go back even way before Attention Pays, i remember writing a book called Folding Time. And what the premise of that book was, and we can make that available to everyone as a PDF, Eric. It's an old book, um but still one of the favorites of my clients. I'll share with you a PDF that you can put in the show notes.
00:05:47
Speaker
When I wrote Folding Time, declared to the world that you can't manage time, but you can manage your attention. And that's when I was really speaking a lot about attention management.
00:05:58
Speaker
The evolution of that is one of the books you mentioned, Attention Pays, and yes, I do narrate the book. And I wrote Attention Pays because what I realized was... It's our intention that makes attention valuable.
00:06:12
Speaker
And I've always said attention is about connection, right? And so, you know, I'm known for that. And i have always had this mission of helping people feel seen and heard.
00:06:23
Speaker
And so that's a through line of everything I do. So when I got to work with so many more luxury and legacy brands, what i noticed that luxury brands do phenomenally well, Eric,
00:06:34
Speaker
is they know how to personalize and customize. They make people feel so special and seen. And so i started to do some deep research into that industry. As you know, i have the only research study of its kind in the world into luxury as a mindset.
00:06:50
Speaker
And that became the premise of the book, Exceptional Experiences, Five Luxury Leavers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business. Because what i realized is we can't manage time, we can manage attention.
00:07:04
Speaker
Attention is about connection. Luxury is about human connection. And so you're right about that through line. And every piece of work that I've published is always about helping people feel seen, heard, and valued.
00:07:18
Speaker
And what I've learned from working with luxury leaders around the globe is how they make their guests, the people who are in their retail space, how they allow them to have like this hospitality to me is like a system of care.
00:07:34
Speaker
And so in the book, we have systems of elevation. I am known for systemizing as much as I can in my life. And so that is definitely a common theme too. So you're right. There has been an evolution of my body of work, but look, just between you and me,
00:07:49
Speaker
The self-message of the book is still, how as a leader do you help people feel seen, heard, and valued? I wrote down ah statement that you made about helping people feel seen and heard in part because i I like that. But also you reminded me of, there's a gentleman, Alan Fine, who has coached athletes in the Ryder Cup, Davis Cup, PGA Tour, I believe Olympic athletes. I interviewed him in maybe episode 30 or something of my podcast. I was really excited when I got to speak with him. And he has a quote that I'm not going to get exactly correct
00:08:29
Speaker
that I think the finest service we can give another human being is to make it safe for them to explore their own experience. I realize there's some difference here between your statement and that one, but I feel like they are quite complimentary.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I feel like not just what you said, but also as I'm thinking about his specialty is coaching, that it becomes so much clearer, actually, to me, having read an advanced copy of your book, what you're trying to do in talking about luxury.
00:09:08
Speaker
So I really like that statement for what it's worth helping people feel seen and heard. So thank you. I appreciate that. i think luxury is a divisive word, Eric. I think people think it means expensive or elitist or unapproachable. And, you know, perhaps historically it has.
00:09:25
Speaker
So part of my mission is to change that because as you've read in the book, and I was so glad you had an advanced copy, ah is that I think luxury is inclusive and exclusive. It's inclusive because I believe people deserve luxury every day. It's for everyone.
00:09:42
Speaker
And it's exclusive because you can roll out the red carpet experience to anyone. You don't have to have a luxury product to provide a luxury level of service. And so my clients, they go from manufacturing, media, you know, medical. I've applied these principles to hospital systems.
00:09:59
Speaker
And so regardless of where this recording finds you, luxury for some means very different things. And so I guess another mission of mine is to help everyone feel and know they deserve luxury. It just looks different to different people.
00:10:15
Speaker
I was reminded early in your book about maybe the difference between luxury and decadence. And I have perhaps a, I don't know if this is an unusual understanding of this, but I did my first master's degree in Germanics.
00:10:34
Speaker
And I, my master's thesis was on this gentleman, Stefan Georg, who, was in some respects a forerunner of Nietzsche, but not so much in the philosophy space as much as just, you know, he did a lot of poetry basically, but he was generally referred to as a decadent. And I recall at the time, not really understanding what was decadence and a brief way that my thesis advisor put it to me was it was ornamentation or it was decoration for the sake of that decoration and now
00:11:20
Speaker
Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds to me a little bit like what some people will attribute to luxury, what they will call luxury, might be more my understanding of decadence, which is just something being expensive for the sake of being expensive or it being exclusive for the sake of being you know only for those people.
00:11:42
Speaker
And I think both in your book, but even better now for me as we're talking, I think what I'm hearing from you is it's It's really about the experience and maybe that anyone can have that.
00:11:55
Speaker
Is that
Defining Luxury: Mindsets and Consumer Behavior
00:11:56
Speaker
right? Yes. And one of the things that's really interesting, Eric, is I have a dear friend. he is very wealthy. He's very generous. He's a philanthropist. And ah I remember him saying to me when I was in the early stages of my research and writing, he said, mean, luxury is unnecessary.
00:12:13
Speaker
Now, I could have responded because what I said to him and what I thought were very different, but I said, okay, tell me more. And what we explored together is that he has top-tier status in the airlines.
00:12:25
Speaker
He has top-tier status at hotel chains. He loves to leverage the fast lanes on the freeway that save him time but cost him money.
00:12:36
Speaker
Where we got to in our debate, because of the curiosity, was his luxury is time, Eric. And I think people listening to this, it could be the same as my friend.
00:12:48
Speaker
He sees ah his time is very valuable. And so if he can have services or products that save him time, that allow him to do other things, that's a luxury.
00:12:59
Speaker
And so I think what we are... trying to do, especially with the book, is to help people understand that I think luxury is for everyone. But like I said, you don't have to have a luxury product to provide a luxury level of service.
00:13:13
Speaker
That experience people have of you, your brand, your product, your service, your leadership. The same things apply to leaders. If you really read the book in the way that I think you did, you're you start to see it's not just for brands to be able to apply this. It's leading teams. It's the experience that your internal clients, meaning your team members have of you, not just your external clients, guests, patients, members, students, right? So the application, the way I wrote it was I'm hoping that people will realize it's also a leadership and sales book, but it's about where you can personally and professionally apply for the experiences you create for others.
00:13:51
Speaker
In your research, you found these four different mindsets, I believe, around luxury. Would you mind describing those to me and helping me better understand what they were and what they mean, how they show up?
00:14:04
Speaker
Sure, i I would be honored to share. And as people are listening to this, I would invite you to consider which of these might resonate the most with you. And Eric, what we'll do is I'll give you a link to a free self-assessment that people can take. It'll take less than five minutes. We'll pop it in the show notes so people can take it.
00:14:22
Speaker
And it will send you an email response with all of the information you can enjoy about your luxury mindset. Sure. I've always believed, Eric, that luxury is a mindset. I just made an assumption everyone else thought the same. So when I went to Google, of course, I asked Mrs. Google, tell me what is luxury as a mindset. Tell me all the research studies that you can find for me. And she came back with none. There were no research studies on luxury as mindset. Now, Eric, there's plenty of studies on how luxury makes people feel.
00:14:52
Speaker
But I consult to CEOs of massive brands. I can't just walk into a sea off CEO's office and go, so luxury is the mindset, okay? No, they want evidence. They want data. They need research.
00:15:04
Speaker
And so I commissioned the only research study of its kind in the world where we interviewed hundreds of people. And what I wanted to know, Eric, was how do they think about luxury? How does luxury impact their decisions?
00:15:15
Speaker
How does it affect their confidence, professional development? How long does it take to make a decision? At what price point? Who influences that? And so I wanted to do a really deep dive into luxury, which is what the luxury mindset study did.
00:15:30
Speaker
And when the research firm audience audit came back to me, Susan Bayer, the founder, did a readout for me. And she said, well, Neen, there's not one luxury mindset. There's four.
00:15:41
Speaker
And so they are at the highest level. The first is like my friend, the reluctant and removed. The reluctant and the removed luxury mindset, Eric, they say, you know what, luxury is hard.
00:15:53
Speaker
Brands don't understand me. And they feel guilty about spending money on luxury. These are the people who are very overwhelmed and very, very busy. So if you want to speak their luxury language,
00:16:05
Speaker
you need to share how your product or service is going to save them time and hassle. That's how you speak the luxury language of a reluctant and a removed mindset. And so they make up about 28% of the survey.
00:16:16
Speaker
Interestingly, most every mindset was very even in the 20s across the four. The second of the luxury mindset is the pro-prioritizer. We use the word pro, short for professional, because they see luxury as power.
00:16:31
Speaker
But what that means to them, Eric, is luxury is used to advance their career or reputation. They are really interested in working with brands who have longevity, authenticity, and especially they want to know about the environmental or societal impact that your brand makes.
00:16:49
Speaker
If you want to speak the luxury language of a pro-prioritizer, You want to share with them the longevity of your brand. Tell them and the the origin story about your company. But they want to know about your sustainability initiatives.
00:17:03
Speaker
Have them on your website, your collaterals, and in your conversations so they see that you are a contributor to the society in which you're living and working. That's what's important to the pro-prioritizer mindset.
00:17:15
Speaker
Then we have the third of the mindsets, that is the confident and the content. The confident and content says luxury. I'm good. don't need luxury. you know how they use it?
00:17:26
Speaker
They use it to create memories with people they love. So if you want to speak the luxury language of a confident and a content, you want to share how whatever you are offering is going to create more memories with people who are important to them.
00:17:42
Speaker
That's my confident and content. And then we have the fourth of the luxury mindset. This is the luxury lover. The luxury lover says luxury. Oh, yes. Luxury is for everyone every day because I'm worth it.
00:17:56
Speaker
You can tell a luxury lover. They can wear luxury. They talk about luxury and not because they're showing off, but because they appreciate craftsmanship, heritage, origin story.
00:18:07
Speaker
And if you want to speak the luxury language of those who have this mindset, you want to use words like exclusive, behind-the-scenes access.
00:18:18
Speaker
They love the red carpet treatment. They love to know they were first. They love when your store opens early so they can shop. They love meeting the chef at a restaurant. They love that exclusivity.
00:18:31
Speaker
So when you're thinking about all four mindsets, One's not better than the other. They're just different. And as people are listening to this high-level overview, not only can you take the assessment, but you can also find on my website, neandjames.com, you can find the Luxury Language Dictionary to help speak to those particular mindsets.
00:18:53
Speaker
Because if you're in sales or business development and you're trying to attract a certain kind of client, this is going to help. But I would give you a little secret, Eric. The luxury lover has a big mouth.
00:19:06
Speaker
This is the person who will scream about you on social media in a positive way. They will tell their friends to buy from you. They will write you testimonials. The luxury lover also happens to be the most influential across all four mindsets, meaning they can influence a reluctant and a removed to invest in luxury, a confident and content and a pro-prioritizer.
00:19:29
Speaker
So as people are thinking about the business development that they're doing, you may want to consider who are the luxury lovers that you could start to target if you want to grow your business because they're an extension of your sales and marketing team.
00:19:43
Speaker
So these mindsets, and I've done this all over the world for people, It's really interesting to me there are some professions that find themselves gravitating to a certain kind of mindset.
00:19:55
Speaker
And so as you're listening to this, I would love you all to consider what's yours and then how is that influencing the way you show up as well? Because we often communicate from the luxury mindset we have.
00:20:06
Speaker
But what we need is the flexibility to know all four. In reading your book, one thing that I think is really important for people to to think about is, you know, how applicable this might be. You were talking about how this is quite applicable, I think different words, but quite applicable to management and leadership.
00:20:29
Speaker
For sure. Applicable this is in a number of different scenarios. If you can get past how you see luxury and understand maybe you do, maybe I do fit into one of these groups. And if I can understand that I do, if I can accept that, then maybe I can understand the value of speaking to someone else's perspective.
00:21:00
Speaker
on time, attention, memories, whatever it is. Yeah, I have the privilege of working with a lot of luxury travel advisors around the world. And interestingly, so many of them fall in the confident and the content because they, if you think about their profession, their job is designing itineraries for people to create memories with people that they love, Eric, right?
00:21:23
Speaker
But one thing I challenge my travel advisors to think about, and this goes for other people who are listening to this today too, don't make decisions from your own pocketbook. We have to have the flexibility of as leaders to really think outside of maybe what we would do or what our experience tells us.
00:21:41
Speaker
And we have to think about the person we stand in service of, what's best for them at this point in time. Interesting too, Eric, while there were four mindsets in the luxury mindset research study, two things came up that everyone agreed to.
00:21:54
Speaker
I was fascinated to hear that everybody agreed luxury is a reward for hard work. I thought that was really neat. But the thing that I loved the most out of the research study is it validated something I had suspected my whole life, and that is that luxury is about experiences, not things.
00:22:14
Speaker
It's not about the expensive handbag or the fancy car or the watch that you wear. It's about the experience.
Crafting Meaningful Experiences
00:22:20
Speaker
And we all get to elevate those experiences every day for the team that we serve, the customers, the patients, students, members, whatever community we are in, we get to give them a luxury experience.
00:22:33
Speaker
What we might even do is give them a champagne moment. You remember me talking about that in the book. Neen, do you think that empathy is ah prerequisite or is required for creating these exceptional experiences, as the book is titled, or for ah making use of luxury, if I can put it that way?
00:22:55
Speaker
I love this question because i was giving it some thought. it's It's hard for me to say what is and isn't required, right, for people because that is very, very personal.
00:23:05
Speaker
But I would say yes. If you want the ability to create something special for someone because you believe they're worth it, I do think that that is a part of the conversation.
00:23:18
Speaker
When you think about the professions we choose, people that choose careers that involve hospitality, are people that want to be able to help others in their career or in their lifestyle.
00:23:29
Speaker
And leaders often do the same. I think about some of my hospital executives or people on the front lines. They're choosing a career where they get to stand in service of someone else and make their life better.
00:23:40
Speaker
So yeah, I do think that. And when I even think about some of my retailers, they love service. They love the opportunity to do that. And so, yeah, I think it is definitely a trait I would love the world to have a lot more of But in luxury, it is definitely something you can apply.
00:23:58
Speaker
mean, you... referenced this sort of earlier and I really wanted to ask you about it. You you said something about luxury not necessarily being tied to the price tag.
00:24:20
Speaker
and that Those weren't your words, but it it sounded like that to me. And what I was wondering is
00:24:29
Speaker
you know, or could you state it explicitly for me? Is it possible for something that's low cost or maybe even if I put air quotes on this cheap, ah a low cost product or a cheap product or service to still create a luxury experience?
00:24:45
Speaker
one 100%. Luxury is not about money. It's about moments. So one of the things that we think about, if you think about the experience of it, there are no cost luxury moments too.
00:24:56
Speaker
If you've ever walked into your favorite coffee shop and the barista smiles at you and recognizes you, maybe even uses your name, that feels like what I call a champagne moment in that particular interaction.
00:25:07
Speaker
You're taking something ordinary like a visit to your coffee shop and you're making an extraordinary by them... letting you know that they see you, they hear you, they value you. So you can have no cost luxury experiences, like the simplicity of using someone's name, of looking up from your device, of giving someone the gift of your undivided attention to some that could be luxury, right?
00:25:30
Speaker
I think everyone wants our attention, Eric, not everybody deserves it. So we can be the recipient of those luxury moments, those champagne moments too. The simplicity of a handwritten note, be it a lovely piece of stationery or a post-it note to say, i see you, I appreciate you, thank you for that.
00:25:48
Speaker
And in our digital AI world, Eric, now more than ever before, i believe that luxury is about the human connection. So what can we do that will make beat people feel seen and heard? And so it could be Things that cost nothing. if Some retail stores, when you use their changing room, they write your name on the outside of the changing room. So they say, hey, Eric, I know you want to try these clothes on. This is your dedicated space.
00:26:15
Speaker
You're like, yes, it is. That feels great. I'm going to pop in there and get whatever I want. You feel good about that. That's a lovely thing, right? And so it could be the simplicity of, i love to have my morning matcha in a Tiffany teacup, which sounds very pretentious, but it's the one teacup that I love. It has a special memory for me.
00:26:35
Speaker
And it's that moment where I celebrate the matcha is good for me. It makes me slow down and I love it. And so maybe for people listening to this, instead of saving all these things for the good things or for the important thing, or what if you just did it every day? What if you used the beautiful china? What if you wore the fabulous clothes? What if you opened the bowl of champagne that's been sitting in your fridge waiting for people to come over?
00:27:01
Speaker
So I think that there are ways, and I'm not saying that things are cheap. It could be even no cost. But yes, I think if you're looking to elevate the experience, remember,
00:27:13
Speaker
Luxury is a reward for hard work. So whatever hard work means to you, it could be the simplicity, Eric, of you had a beautiful business meditation that I did as one of the previous episodes and I highly recommend everyone go back and find them.
00:27:29
Speaker
But that could be the luxury. Cost me nothing but listening for 10 minutes and thinking very systematically with true clarity. That could be the luxury. so While I'm not a big fan of the word cheap,
00:27:45
Speaker
ah let's say inexpensive. There could be a way that you could bring luxury into your world or create your own version of a champagne moment. Hashtag champagne moments is what lots of people have been tagging around social media. yeah They've been taking a photo of their own champagne moment because I challenge the reader in the book to find these every day at the end of every chapter as an homage to Madame Clicquot because we talk about champagne in the book.
00:28:09
Speaker
I invite people to find a champagne moment and those can be little tiny things you do every day.
00:28:17
Speaker
It sounds to me like some of the
00:28:22
Speaker
um of the behavior you would advocate for, um those are things like, okay, I think you described you walk into the coffee shop or whatever it is, and someone says your name, or they even just take the moment to say hello and that there are a lot of things that you didn't have to do and they don't really, in many respects, cost you anything.
00:28:50
Speaker
And by by making it part of your standard practices, by taking the time to think about, you write in your book, you know, something that is fairly well known.
00:29:02
Speaker
think you wrote in your book, at least about this, that the most beautiful word in the human language is your own name, more or less. Yes. yes Just remembering that and recalling that when i slack a coworker, for example, maybe asking, how are you doing before jumping right into work and other things?
00:29:24
Speaker
and It doesn't have to be all of these. You know, we don't have to add too many pieces of flair to our communication necessarily, but I think what I hear you saying is it doesn't have to always be that the top 1% of our customers get something special, but rather that everyone can feel special because we treated them like a person perhaps.
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, you know, your top tier clients, they are receiving a certain level of service that might be different to everyone else for sure. And that is deliberate and important. And I absolutely think that, you know, that is something we want to think about.
00:30:01
Speaker
And I would add to that. And it was actually Dale Carnegie in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in the early 1900s, where he says a person's name is the sweetest sound, and I've never forgotten that.
00:30:14
Speaker
And so I will try and use it in my conversations. Now, think about even how you get to work. Some people drive, i fly. It's really the same. It's just a different form of commute, right? ive I find myself every week in multiple airports.
00:30:28
Speaker
to fly to my clients. So I have systems in place to be thoughtful, what I call systemized thoughtfulness. So I make sure that I'm never on my phone as I'm walking to the gate so that I can scan my boarding pass, look the person in the eye and say, thank you for taking care of us today.
00:30:42
Speaker
Because that moment when everyone's ignoring them and they're trying to rally all those people down the jetway, just want them to know I appreciate them. In the same way, when I get off the plane, I will always say to the crew, thank you for taking care of me today.
00:30:55
Speaker
And so one of the things I think it's important for us to do is we can have these easy, systemized thoughtfulness things that we do every day, but it just becomes a habit. But that also requires us to make choices.
00:31:07
Speaker
It means I choose not to be on my device when I'm standing in the line at the grocery store or I'm standing in the line waiting to board a plane. Because the people around me deserve attention too.
00:31:18
Speaker
And so what I want to just challenge people to think about, you're always going to have email. There's always going to be meetings. There's always going to be a to-do list, right? That's just the life in which we lead. But what I want people to consider is that if you just take that moment and make that a champagne moment, you might be making someone's day. And that then has a ripple effect across the other people that they have the privilege of serving too.
00:31:41
Speaker
You talk in your book about being really curious about your house guests and ensuring that when they come to visit, you have taken one or more steps to make them feel like you paid attention and you really care.
00:31:59
Speaker
And it seems to me, at least for you, if not also maybe for people who will find creating these exceptional experiences for others, that that kind of conscientiousness, that kind of, I'm the kind of person that pays attention and I'm the kind of person that is willing to put in just a little bit more effort.
00:32:22
Speaker
It seems to me like if you are highly conscientious, it must make this easier. I would suspect everyone who is listening to this, 99.9% of your listeners have that.
00:32:36
Speaker
treat because why would they be listening to a podcast with such deep conversations if they themselves were not conscientious as well? So I'm going to make an assumption that everyone listening to this has that same level of consciousness, but conscientiousness because of what you're demonstrating. We're attracted to people where we resonate with their ideas.
00:32:56
Speaker
I also believe that there are so many people that have a mission, they are on this planet to do something, call it a calling or your meaning, whatever resonates with you.
00:33:08
Speaker
If you know that my mission is to create these significant moments for people, so everyone feels seen and heard, the level of consciousness or conscientiousness i is like fun for me.
00:33:22
Speaker
So hospitality to me is a system of care. So when people stay in my homes, I want them to have five-star experience as if they were staying in a luxury hotel, from the robes I've set up from them, from their welcome amenity.
00:33:36
Speaker
In advance, I want to know about their food intolerances, the things they hate. I even want to know their shoe size because I make sure I have slippers in the room that they can take home if they wish, they can wash and travel with.
00:33:47
Speaker
But I'm always thinking about What could I do to make this experience really special? Sometimes it's just customizing the magazines that I put in the room for them based on their own interests or things that I know about them.
00:33:59
Speaker
Maybe it's the treats they enjoy and knowing their favorite candy or their favorite kind of fruit and having that available. But it's a very easy thing for me to do. And um i actually even have it on my desk because I have guests coming. I literally created a checklist.
00:34:14
Speaker
So every time I have someone come to stay with me, I print out my checklist and then it's confirming certain things. It's understanding or it's checking about certain things. Because what I want is for them to go,
00:34:26
Speaker
This is like a retreat. Our house gets called the James ah Resort and Marina because people love to stay and I love hosting people. And maybe you don't host people in your home. Maybe you love cooking for people. Maybe that's your form of showing that you care about people.
00:34:44
Speaker
Perhaps it's taking people to your favorite restaurant or on your boat or whatever it is. But I feel like To me, being able to give an experience to someone else, especially for me, one of my favorite things, Eric, which no one has asked me about on the podcast, but I love giving people their firsts.
00:35:04
Speaker
I love, I'm a champagne girl. And so I love to open champagne. And so I love someone, if I'm in a restaurant and I'll say to someone who's with me, have you ever tried this champagne? they say no. And i was like, well, that's definitely what we're ordering because I want you to have it as a first.
00:35:17
Speaker
And so for me, giving people their firsts is really fun as well. And so sometimes I'll ask people, is there anything you haven't done in this city that you've always wanted to do? Or is there anything here that would be great for you to do?
00:35:30
Speaker
And so sometimes we can, pretty easy to do that, right? But that comes back to that curiosity. I wish we could teach curiosity, Eric. I wish the world was more curious.
00:35:42
Speaker
And if we ask questions of each other rather than made statements about each other, and think the world would definitely be a kinder place. I want to loop back a little bit to something I think we were starting to touch on right before this. mean and something you were i was thinking when you were talking about houseguests, for example, I was also thinking about Not so much in that realm, but rather
Integrating Luxury into Business Operations
00:36:13
Speaker
in business. I think that, you know, some of these behaviors that we might undertake, you know, providing a champagne moment for a customer or, you know,
00:36:28
Speaker
if you, if we try to make a standard practice in our coffee shop that we say hello and ask someone's name or whatever it is, some of these things seem much easier to scale than others.
00:36:42
Speaker
And so not just when you we were talking, but also when I was reading the book, I was wondering about how we make the idea of some of these exceptional experiences and and bringing them out in the world, how we make that align with how we generally think about growth or scale or even being profitable in work or business nowadays.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, even think about the people who are delivering that profitability and growth. If you think about my home as the environment I like to host people in, translate that to the office.
00:37:18
Speaker
When you think about people who are working on premise with you, think about all of those spaces Is the car park safe? Does it have the lighting that people need? Is it free from weeds and is it safe?
00:37:29
Speaker
Is the reception area one that is welcoming or do you have ugly old dusty plants and old out-of-date magazines that nobody's going to read? In the staff lunch area, is it well lit? Do they have access to snacks?
00:37:41
Speaker
And a variety of products. Or do you have one of those dirty old coffee machines that nobody wants to drink from? So it's also about investing in your people and knowing about your people.
00:37:52
Speaker
Some of the clients that I have, they invest significantly in making sure that the fridges are filled with snacks or a variety of beverages. And that they have not just one particular kind of milk, but they have a variety to cater for the team members there.
00:38:07
Speaker
The simplicity of that, does it cost money? Yes. But if we're investing in our team experience by what's going to happen is the ripple effect is those team members feel seen, heard and valued.
00:38:18
Speaker
Therefore, they want to deliver a great client experience. As a client experience expert, I know when we take care of our team, it has a ripple effect, which means if our team is more engaged, if they feel more seen and valued,
00:38:32
Speaker
The morale will be higher. The productivity will be higher. The care of our clients will be higher. Therefore, they can't help but go out and represent our brand. So pay attention as a leader to the physical spaces that you're providing and ensure that people feel important and that they feel valued.
00:38:51
Speaker
They will then, i think, give a better level of service. How does it apply to growth and profitability? What I know to be true is if you apply the experience elevation model in the book, which goes everything from capturing the attention of potential clients all the way through to having those same clients be advocates of you.
00:39:10
Speaker
If you have advocates out in the world, whether they're team members who advocate for your brand, so they recruit new talent, or whether they're clients who are advocates who are telling the world about why they should be doing business with you, that will drive profitability.
00:39:25
Speaker
It drives revenue every time. So think of it as, think of capturing attention mindshare, being top of mind. Think of creating advocates as driving revenue, market share, top of market.
00:39:38
Speaker
So it's top of mind, top of market. So you can absolutely apply this. But it's still about the human connection because it's still a human delivering that level of service. You can operationalize it, systemize it.
00:39:50
Speaker
You can streamline it. You can make things more efficient. But the reality is it's still a human. It's a human to human business that many of your listeners are involved in. mean, if you were going to go into, let's say, some sort of small local business, a residential construction company, and they they build houses, and they bring you in for some consulting.
00:40:20
Speaker
And are there things that you would ask them or things that you would look for in your experience to help diagnose or make a prescription for how they could begin to execute some of these things in their work?
00:40:36
Speaker
Mm, 100%. I would mystery shop them first. So I would walk into their office or in their car park or into their building with a fresh set of eyes as if I was a brand new client. What do I notice? What do I see?
00:40:48
Speaker
What distracts me? What feels like luxury? What doesn't feel like luxury? Because sometimes we have to also find what are all the conflict points. Is it the automation? Is it the dirty windows? Is it the weeds growing in the garden?
00:41:02
Speaker
and so one way that businesses can easily do a quick audit is what doesn't feel like luxury, right? Because when we're in the business, we're not often focused on what the business is, what it looks like outside. So I would mystery shop first, right? So that's an easy thing to do is just to get a sense of what is my experience as a brand new client walking into that space.
00:41:23
Speaker
But yes, I would be looking at the customer journey and meaning from the moment that I was on their website, what are their digital assets looking like? If I was physically in the office they had in my community, what does their physical office look like?
00:41:37
Speaker
How are their staff dressed? How do I get treated? What sort of words do they use? Are people looking at me when I walk in? These are things that cost a business, nothing. But that level of giving that level of care to someone who walks in.
00:41:53
Speaker
What I often prescribe to people, especially small business owners who don't have big budgets to bring in consultants or to, you know, have keynote speakers at their events, I suggest to them, get your team to go and order a coffee in a luxury hotel lobby.
00:42:10
Speaker
And ask your team member and give them the money to do it. Ask them to sit and watch what happens around them. Think about the whole process from the moment they order the coffee to the moment they're served. Watch the people around them.
00:42:22
Speaker
Watch the atmosphere and look at all five senses because when you engage the five senses, the smell, the taste, the sounds, the sight, the touch of everything, you could elevate any business by applying the five senses. It doesn't have to be a luxury hotel.
00:42:39
Speaker
So what I would ask people to think about is an easy way as a leader or a business owner, an entrepreneur or a solopreneur or an infopreneur, whatever you are, think, are you engaging all the senses?
00:42:53
Speaker
Because that's an easy way to bring a little luxury touch. If someone listens to this and they can start thinking about themselves or they can take action on one thing, hopefully, of course, they buy the book.
00:43:09
Speaker
It's out on October 14th. Yes, please buy the book. Before I continue, I will say, It was very clear to me very ah early on in your book.
00:43:20
Speaker
There are a few people for which I will buy this book. and and So ah hopefully that's a little bit of an endorsement. Not just that you hear that, but everyone else hears that. yeah Most definitely there are a couple of people that I will give this book to, but also I liked it.
00:43:34
Speaker
And then beyond buying the book, I'm thinking about you walk away from this conversation or you hear some of your other appearances. What can you do, listener, to start thinking about or executing upon this?
00:43:52
Speaker
Let's stay with the hotel analogy. If you've ever watched a hotel, the bellhop is one of the most vital roles in the hotel. They are going to greet you. They're going to move your bag so quickly through that lobby and up to your room because they're about efficiency. It's a transactional opportunity for them to get you through that hotel.
00:44:11
Speaker
A bellhop is vital. And I think So many people are acting like bellhops. They're crossing things off their to-do list. They're running from one meeting to the next. They're trying to get to the bottom of their to-do list. And managers and leaders listening to this, you might be thinking like a bellhop.
00:44:27
Speaker
But what I want to challenge you to think about is, can you think like concierge? Because Eric, a concierge is the go-to person in a hotel. The concierge is a revered position.
00:44:38
Speaker
They know the great restaurant. They know things you don't even know. And they anticipate needs you don't even know you had. So what I want to challenge our listeners to think about is think like a concierge, not a bellhop.
00:44:55
Speaker
What can you do to personalize and customize that experience? You see, personalization, Eric, that requires information. We need to pay attention for that. Customization requires connection and really wanting to connect to that person who's in front of you.
00:45:10
Speaker
But fascination, that requires anticipation. And I think as leaders, if we can apply this easy concept, and I use the word leader because if you're listening to this podcast, you're a leader in your home, church, temple, community, wherever you stand up and serve.
00:45:25
Speaker
But if you think like a concierge and anticipate needs people didn't even know they had, that is going to help you elevate every experience for anyone who you have the privilege of spending time with.
00:45:38
Speaker
What you just said really locked in for me the yeah Some of what is, i guess, similar or related between, you know, trying to, i guess, be that concierge. that If I'm a business owner, I certainly am going to ask my employees to You know, use your brain when you're so talking to the client, make them feel like I can actually pay attention to them. you You're not going to bend over backwards all the time, you know, but whatever the ah specifics that I'm going to say are, but, you know, really treat them like a human being.
00:46:19
Speaker
But then but where things clicked into place for me is relating to being a leader, manager of people or whatever else that you It's entirely possible I'm not doing that for my people.
00:46:35
Speaker
And now I see so much more clearly, i think, how this is, i don't want to speak too grandly, but really very universal or this thought process perhaps can be applied, not just in terms of providing a luxury product for client, but rather about finding that human connection perhaps.
00:46:59
Speaker
Correct. And that's why the book is called Exceptional Experiences. And that's why I say luxury is about human connection. and you're 100% right. Because imagine if we were all just curious enough to know, to question like, did you know we offer this? Did you know i could do this for you? Did you know there are options available to you?
00:47:20
Speaker
That goes back to the curiosity you and I have been talking about. And sometimes as leaders, we make assumptions that everyone knows about our product, our service, our offering, that our team know and have all the training.
00:47:32
Speaker
But imagine if we were just one more curious and said, As a concierge, thinking like concierge, did you know we have this? Did you know I could do this for you? Did you know I could help you with that? Sometimes our clients don't even know the things that we offer. And so I feel like if we could all as leaders really challenge ourselves to say, okay, how do I think like a concierge?
00:47:53
Speaker
How do I anticipate needs people don't even know they have? What's the exceptional experience I can give in this moment, right here, right now? What would that look like? I think the world would be a different place.
00:48:03
Speaker
I agree with you. Neen, I want to ask you two questions, I think, unless anything else
Conclusion and Further Exploration of Neen's Work
00:48:11
Speaker
comes up. And one is, where do you want people to go, whether it's to connect, learn more, buy the book or anything else? And two is, maybe we just talked about it, maybe not, but do you have any final words of wisdom or things that you want a listener to know?
00:48:30
Speaker
Sure. Neenjames.com is the best place for everything. You can download the Luxury Mindset Research. You can buy the books. You can connect with me. You can follow my adventures on Instagram every day or reach out to me on LinkedIn. And if you do reach out on LinkedIn, make sure you say it's because of this podcast and Eric is our connection. I would love that.
00:48:49
Speaker
You know, I think the wisdom that is the best, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from my five-year-old friend Donovan. And I'll never forget what Donovan said. And it's a reminder to every one of us listening today. And I'll never, ever forget him say to me, well, challenge me actually.
00:49:05
Speaker
And he said, Neen, listen with your eyes. And I think that's a beautiful reminder to each of us that we don't just listen with our ears. We listen with our eyes. We listen with our heart. We listen with our soul.
00:49:18
Speaker
So my final words of wisdom really are from my five-year-old friend who said to listen with your eyes. I like that. And I will throw in here that if you want to explore that recommendation, I suggest you read Attention Pays because you talk about that in that book.
00:49:37
Speaker
Yes. Neen, I can't tell you how much I've really enjoyed this conversation. You've been a spectacular guest. And I mentioned to you before we started recording, I am fairly certain that we met, gosh, probably 15 years ago or so. But if we did, it was just in passing, you know, like friend to friend sort of thing at a conference or something of that nature.
00:50:04
Speaker
I might be wrong, but I have... seen plenty of what you've done over the years. So not only do I appreciate that I was able to talk to you, but you've been ah great guest. So thank you for being here. And I hope that the book launch goes well.
00:50:21
Speaker
Thank you. It was my privilege to serve. And thank you for everything you're doing in world to get us to think differently as well. Thank you. That's very kind of you.