Oh, to be in the 6th Grade Again!

by | May 26, 2011 | Sales

Last Friday I was invited to speak at Career Day to the 6th Graders at Bear Creek Intermediate in Keller, Texas.  Of all the speaking gigs I have had recently this one is the “coolest” adventure I’ve had in a while.  Did you know that 6th graders will ask you ANYTHING?

In preparation for this awesome opportunity I decided that it might be fun to help these young people write their own business plan to better understand what they wanted to be when it came time for them to speak on career day. I took a chapter from our Great Leader’s Series and did a short, Values-Vision-Mission exercise with these young people. Now you might be thinking that this was over their heads! No way… You might want to do the exercise for yourself.  Here’s a link to the simple sheet they filled out.

I had them do the first exercise and then ask them who wanted to share the stuff they really liked.  In uncovering their values or what they valued I asked them what really made them happy.  When you ask a bunch of 6th graders if they want to share their answers, be prepared for every hand in the room to fly up!  I did not take enough prizes… There were 7 classes with about 20 to 25 students each!

This 20-minute exercise was awesome. These young people are full of vision. I had students who wanted to be Doctors, Professional Athletes, Ninjas, Game Testers, and my personal favorite-“A Turtle Savor”.  That’s how she wrote it. I thought she meant savior but now I believe she meant, one who saves turtles. We talked about how a vision was different than just dreaming because lots of people made wishes or dreamed about being this or that.  Those with a mission-or the “how will I get to be in a position to save turtles” are the people who get to do what they want to do.

I then asked these bright students to guess what I did.  So if you’ve looked at the sheet you can see that I put my title, CEO of TrainerTainment at the bottom.  After about 4 guesses, a student would say, “You are a CEO!”  I love enthusiasm.  Spend some time with 6th graders and you’ll see plenty of enthusiasm.  They were pretty excited to hear that I got to work at family fun centers.  I was amazed at the questions these guys asked.  Among my favorites were:

  • How much do you make? I told them that as the CEO I don’t always get a paycheck. Sound familiar business owners?  I explained that I participated in the profit of the company and had been very lucky in the last six years to grow the business every year.  I told them how much revenue our company had brought in each year and that I got to keep about 28-32% of that money.  The math teacher LOVED that answer and they all went to work on the math.
  • That leads me to the next question which was, “How do you use Math in your business?”  Great question; and so I got to talk a little about P&L and they loved figuring the percent of profit.  I thought it was really cool to watch them get excited over understanding how math worked in a “real world” application!
  • Another scholarly question was, “Do you use Social Studies in your job?”  Since I had been to Dubai recently I was able to talk to them about Dubai a little. And the fact that I get to travel all over the United States and Canada gives me the opportunity to discover differences in people, food, culture, and many other things.  Honestly it was a fun thing for me to think about in having to answer their question. I’m so glad no one asked me about geography since I ALWAYS have to look at the map to understand where I am!
  • A very uncomfortable question came in the last class when a young woman asked, “How many people have you fired?!”  I really had to think about that and couldn’t come up with a number.  I settled on 10; and answered that I didn’t have any positions in the company that were “just a job”.  I hate firing people and it was very disconcerting to stop and think about.

They asked a lot of other great questions.  I think my most favorite moment came when one young man who was guessing what I did raised his hand with great assurance and said, “I know what you do, YOU are an …. “emotional speaker!”  Now he stumbled trying to find the right word – but I believe he meant to say motivational speaker… I think his version was probably more accurate.

I am very emotional about what we do.  I love helping you!  As we move into the summer time I hope you’ll reach out and ask us for anything you need!  And hey, if someone asks you to come speak on Career Day, you should say yes immediately.  It was awesome and you might learn something about your job that you didn’t even know you knew!

What have some of your Career Day moments looked like? Tell us below in the comments section!

Can Your Job be Your Party?

by | May 10, 2011 | Sales

If you ask Mai Pastor, you’ll get a resounding yes. I just completed my third annual around-the-world training event in Dubai at the DEAL show. I was so taken by the energy of this group of symposium attendees. Mai is not your average party person. Let me explain how employment happens in FECs in the Middle East.

In Dubai, they recruit people from India and the Philippines to work the front line positions within the center. Last year, I met the corporate folks from Fun City. Fun City has grown from three locations in 2004 to 17 in 2011. So you can imagine the growth and learning they’ve gone through in the last seven years. Last year, Fun City adopted the TrainerTainment audition process because the recruitment had been very difficult. They would spend one weekend in the Philippines or in India talking with more than 300 candidates and tried to hire them based on a short interview process.

Mai was one of those rare finds seven years ago. She was identified and recruited as a party host at the time. Mai has a real passion for parties — and that is such an understatement. I can’t even find the right words to tell you how great this woman is at her job. She would give the energizer bunny a run for his money. Early on, the leadership in this organization noticed Mai’s attention to detail and commitment to making every party the best one any family had experienced. She was often requested to host parties and families would wait or change dates if Mai was unavailable.

Mai credits her direct manager at the corporate offices with the promotions that took her from a store level position to the corporate leader she is today. I think she gives him too much credit. Mai has tenacity and focus like I’ve never seen. I taught on Monday in Dubai. During the break, Mai ask me a lot of questions. When training was over she wanted more. Mai wanted to know how she and I could spend more time together and made me promise that we could have coffee or lunch on Tuesday after the second session was over. I’m pretty sure that “no” is not in Mai’s vocabulary. I also know that I learned more from Mai than I could ever teach her.

It is incredible to have someone so hungry to learn and so eager to improve the guest experience. I’m sure that Mai was thinking about her own path and career progression, but I believe those thoughts were and are secondary to how to improve the guest experience. She’s obsessed with making Fun City parties the best they can be!

In Dubai, they call it customer care not guest service. I really like that. I believe the world in general would be a better place if we understood that we are truly in service to one another. However, when I think of the idea of customer care, that seems to really fit what we are all trying to do. I know that Mai is an extreme example of care. She cares for her company and her family that is in the Philippines. She is completely devoted to Fun City and gives her all every day. As Mai explained it to me, most ex-patriots who come to work in the U.A.E. region only work for companies for the length of an initial contract that may only last 12 to 18 months. Once they have some experience, an employee typically moves on to another company using that experience to springboard him or her into a new and better paying position.

Mai’s commitment to Fun City seems to be founded in the fact that she was given a lot of leeway to get creative with the position. She loves costumes and entertainment. Even today as the corporate leader of the party programs for all 17 centers, Mai will participate in an event just because she likes to be with the customer. She still gets requests today to do parties and will step into that role once in a while to give the kind of customer care that Fun City guests have come to expect.

My point this month is that the Mai’s of the world are out there. People can be passionate about your business when you are passionate about them. Give your team the opportunity to succeed. Encourage growth and responsibility. Use good systems for selection. I recommend the audition process 100%. You get a chance to try before you buy. The Fun City folks said their new hires with the audition process were 100% better than the staff they hired using traditional interviewing techniques. I’m pretty excited about that. Spend the time you need this year selecting the right people and watch your business grow. Eric Harvey says it better than I can: “The problem with selecting the wrong people is that you end up having to live with them, fix them or fire them. All three are lousy options.”

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