think that we are really living in
probably the most exciting time in the
history of communication and the way
that we talk to each other way we
interact with each other the way that we
can create communities the way that we
communicate the way that we connect and
I think that it’s changing really
rapidly and I think that basically over
the next five 10 15 20 years we don’t
even we can’t even really grasp or
understand the degree and the speed at
which things will continue to change and
to continue to evolve and technology’s
role in all of that at the same time I
think that we’re living in an era where
nothing has changed
right and I think that the intersection
of that place that place of rapidly
changing technology and communication as
well as a place where nothing has
changed the intersection where those two
things collide for me is a really
interesting place to find magic to build
communities and to build businesses
doing the things that we love and in
order to kind of flesh that out which is
what I want to talk about today which is
that place where everything is different
and everything is the same I want to
tell you a couple of just quick stories
about my own family my ancestors are
from Lebanon I’m a proud Lebanese
American and when my ancestors came to
the United States of America they
settled in a place called Peoria
Illinois which was a small city about 3
hours south of Chicago about 250,000
people and in that town of pure Illinois
my great-grandfather my grandfather and
my uncle they started a business
Lebanese people are very entrepreneurial
and spirits and they started a they
embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and
they started a business and that
business was probably one of the sexiest
cutting-edge on-trend businesses you
could ever imagine it was a local
grocery store so as you can imagine that
was something that they were very proud
of and that grocery store without
knowing the language without knowing any
people without having really any
connections to America whatsoever
became a very successful grocery store
very
well known grocery store and was in
business for I think close to sixty
years so I didn’t have the good fortune
of meeting my grandfather because he
passed away before I was really old
enough to know him but here’s what I
knew about him but the thing that my
father was most proud of was that my
grandfather’s funeral was one of the
most well attended funerals of any
funeral in Peoria Illinois so I got to
thinking okay that’s interesting a lot
of people loved my grandfather cool and
then his brother who was my great uncle
his name was his name was uncle Ralph
and uncle Ralph was a mentor to me and
aside from my father he was one of the
most generous hard-working value-driven
men that I’ve ever met in my life and I
was really blessed to know him when he
passed away we received a letter from a
woman who was a past client of the
rachet family grocery store and the
letter basically said this you guys
don’t know who we are but we wanted to
write you this because we just heard
that Ralph passed away your father so my
grandfather this is this letter was
written to my father your father and
uncle Ralph every single night for
almost two years
set aside food for our family my husband
and myself couldn’t find work we had two
kids we had to support and we had really
no way of paying for any food and for
every single night for two years your
uncle and your father put aside food and
that literally saved our life and it
literally was the reason that we were
able to keep going and then eventually
this man went on to get a job and he
ended up actually repaying my uncle and
my grandfather all the equivalent of
what two years of food would have been
so when I when I heard those two stories
I thought to myself it’s really
interesting like what is it about these
two men and this this rash of family
this local grocery store that made them
last 50 60 years that left this
incredible legacy of people showing up
to the funeral and writing these letters
so I wanted to know more so I asked my
dad dad what do you think that the
reason
is that the grocery store was successful
like and my dad basically had three
really fast answers he said your uncle
and your grandfather were better than
anyone else at three things number one
they worked every single day all day
long right and that’s something that
like all of us know like I don’t know
anyone in the world that is successful
that doesn’t work a lot or and that
hasn’t worked a lot persistently every
single day consistently every single day
for many many years so that part I was
like all right I get it but part two and
part three I think we’re actually more
interesting to me which were number two
he said and they knew every single thing
about the lives of their customers huh
interesting okay and number three they
cared more than anyone else in the city
about the lives of those customers so
when I pushed him a little bit more on
that I came to learn that what that
meant was and I think that this is this
is the idea of really like real timeless
customer service what that meant was
they learned about you so so they worked
hard right and the number two was they
knew their customers better than anyone
else and what that meant for in a
practical sense for these four my
grandfather my uncle and the local
grocery store was they knew your name
they knew your wife’s name or your
husband’s name they knew your kids names
they knew that Johnny had a fifth
birthday party coming up this weekend
they knew that Sally was getting her
first communion they knew what kind of
meat you wanted when you walked into the
butcher shop right they knew how many
eggs you made for your family on a
Sunday morning brunch they knew
everything and that in and of itself I
think is something that’s pretty much
becoming a lot oh but then what was even
more interesting to me about that was
then they would do something about it
right so for Johnny’s fifth birthday
party there would be four patties that
uncle Ralph would give Johnny’s parents
right they would send a dozen more eggs
for Easter morning brunch and I think
that when I when I really think about
what made these guys successful I think
it was two and three together right so
the hard work plus the knowledge plus
the actual
taking that extra mile step of the
action and when I think about my
grandparents right which is the part of
my that I opened with that says
basically nothing has changed I think
about our time today I think about the
way that we do customer service today
and I think we applied a lot of that to
the world today we would see a lot of
success what I think is fascinating
about everything changing which is the
second part of how I open this
conversation is that we have it so much
easier than our grandparents did all
right so like if you think about what it
took to build a business 50 or 60 years
ago let’s just stick with the practical
example of the rational gamma grocery
store you stood in a grocery store for
16 hours a day and waited for people to
walk in so you could slice up their ham
or serve them the pork chop or give them
the eggs right and then if you didn’t
care enough about Johnny Smith burger
burger you give us some hamburgers the
first thing that knows that John and
Jill have Johnny right and what that
means is you have to talk to John about
what that means you have to actually
physically be in a supermarket every
single time that John and Joe walk in so
you can talk to them about their family
you can learn and you know a two-minute
conversation here you have a
three-minute conversation here and a
month or week or a year goes by and you
finally get to know someone and then by
the time you actually do something nice
for them what happens John and Joe go
home and have five hamburger patties and
they say what they say to their cousin
or their friend or the next-door
neighbor hey the Russian hummingbird
Easter they’re cool and he was spot
hamburger patties for free for Johnny’s
fifth birthday party and that’s where it
ends right it was so much harder to
scale that carry 50 years ago even 20
years ago
fast forward to today
and we’re living in what I said is the
most exciting time to build businesses
and be a communicator and build
communities ever because what happens
now is I don’t have to be standing at a
family grocery store I don’t have to be
in a physical location acting literally
from the comfort of my bed scroll
through and know everything about your
life as my customer or your life is my
client or your life is my community or
your life is my friend in about five
minutes on my cell phone because you’re
posting about Johnny’s birthday party
you’re talking about your family you’re
talking about the things that are
important to you and then I can
implement with really rapid speed and
action that third part right
I can literally know what matters you
can act surprised and delay
I’m literally in my company right now
had just hired someone that I’m calling
the surprise and the length officer or
their entire job is to scan every single
post that goes into my social media
world and figure out what’s important
those people and we send them things
right because that is the digital world
that is the world we live in now and so
now what happens this is what’s really
cool is check this out
now if I give Johnny and Jill five
hamburger patties for Jonathan’s fifth
birthday party or they do instead of
going home and telling their friend or
you know aunt chauhan or uncle Brian
about Russian grocery store they go home
and if he is something or they do a live
video with Johnny and spit birthday
party and they say thanks so much to the
ration family groceries
or donating your lunch today and now I
defer a thousand people or two thousand
people or three thousand people or ten
million people just because they gave
you five three hamburger patties right
that’s just never ever ever been an
option for any business for any
community building in the history of
community building and for me that is
the interest that is the intersection
and that is the fun right so you don’t
have to be in one place of every single
time that someone writes me a message on
facebook someone says being 300 someone
PM’s ministry and sends me an email
literally in my mind what I’m thinking
is they’re entering my grocery store
they’re entering my family grocery store
and I get to know about them and care
about them work hard anyone else and
surprise and delight them and when you
can do that right when you can combine
this old-school customer service with
this new school way of scaling caring
that’s what I call the digital
granddaughter right the grandfather love
and care and concern with the digital
advancements and I think that when you
can do that I would every single person
s you are the reason that I will be able
to stay in this deep or 60 or 70 years
but more importantly maybe your shelf in
life here and more importantly maybe
your right knee or my children or my
grandchildren
my great nephew or niece a letter that
says hey you don’t know me but your dad
saved my life so I hope that I treat
every single person that walks into my
store with the same amount of love and
respect and dignity that my grandparents
treated the people that walk through
their door I hope that my grandparents
and my uncle Ralph are looking down on
me today saying I am so proud of how
that kid how that guy reits the people
that walk through his door and I hope
there is proud of the way that I treat
people that walk through my door is I am
of the way that they treated people that
walk through theirs thank you very much [Applause]