David is a performance excellence coach focused on teaching, consulting and executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses, including many restaurants.
David spent six years as a business/excellence coach for Pal’s Excellence Institute. Pal’s – or Pal’s Suddenly Service – is a drive-through only 31-location restaurant chain located in northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. The restaurant is known for its speed, hospitality, cleanliness and people.
Pal’s relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. That word-of-mouth allows Pal’s to spend roughly half as much on marketing as some of its similar competitors.
According to David, COVID gave restaurants a second chance to make a first impression. Restaurants that were struggling before the pandemic were struggling after the pandemic, pointing to an internal flaw that contributes to that struggle.
Some restaurants used the pandemic as a chance to reset and improve themselves to make a second first impression and win over new customers after the pandemic ended.
Quotes
“What we see now is a lot of sculptures and spokescharacters have been discontinued. Architecturally speaking, we’re getting modern boxes that don’t have much life.” (Joseph)
“If you look at the new (restaurant) designs, they’re all basically the same. You really want to stand out in a sea of sameness.” (David)
“How often in life do you get a second chance to make a first impression? If customers are coming back (after the pandemic), we have a chance to win them over and leave all that past behind.” (David)
“If people aren’t buying it, it’s because they don’t want it.” (Joseph)
“If you think about a restaurant and what it does, it’s really a manufacturing operation. You’re manufacturing food in real time for a specific order based on your menu.” (David)
“Systems are one thing, but activating them tends to be where the rubber meets the road and where most people hit the road.” (Joseph)
“Twenty percent of the effort is putting a system in place and 80% of the effort is sustaining it. You have to make it a habit. You have to change in a way that it’s harder to go back than it is to go forward.” (David)
Transcript
00:00.91
vigorbranding
Everyone today I’m joined by my friend David Jones he’s the president of a company called the excellence advisory which we’ll get into in a little bit. Um, but before we do David why don’t you say hello and give a little bit of backstory.
00:11.50
David M_ Jones
Well hello joseph and thanks for having me on today I considered a personal and professional honor to be here with you speaking to your audience and I’m actually an engineer by training 25 years in corporate America and then I had the great blessing and ability to work with. Pals through their business excellence institute which I hope we get to talk about and did that for 7 years and ah and today I do teaching consulting and coaching executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses including a lot of restaurants.
00:49.83
vigorbranding
That’s awesome. Yeah, so pals is um, essentially what prompted our connection on Linkedin. Um, and honestly it’s a concept I had never heard of they’re they’re not here in Georgia or in Central Pennsylvania so I just never come across them. But what really grabbed my attention and prompted our discussion was. Um, pal’s sudden service is what it’s called has these amazing huge sculptures on their buildings sculptures of their food like hamburgers and drinks and all kinds of things and this just struck me as such an amazing thing. Um. Before we get into why they’re doing that can you give us just a little bit of a rundown about what pals is all about.
01:28.79
David M_ Jones
Oh absolutely. Yeah, it’s so it’s a drive through only 31 unit chain in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia they are known for their speed their hospitality, their service, their cleanliness, their value. And they’re people. They’re amazing at what they do and if you were to gain access to their numbers their data which you know obviously they’re privately owned so it’s not public information but they are off the charts in their performance. It’s just amazing. What these folks do and they’ve got a very. Very loyal and strong following here in in this area and um, they impressive in a lot of ways. Let’s just leave it at that.
02:18.85
vigorbranding
Yeah, no I love that um, and so from an outsider perspective. You know 31 units. It’s respectable. Obviously it’s its and it’s nice footprint for an snb. Um, but getting back to I think what draws people in them and you can’t miss these things. You can’t miss these sculptures. So can you shed any light as to how those sculptures even came to be um, were they a relic of when pals first started or are they integrated into that’s just what we are and how we do things.
02:46.10
David M_ Jones
Yeah, it’s a great story I appreciate you asking that. So um, pal opened his first pals back in the 1950 s and after he opened his second one in Kingsport Tennessee. He was at a a trade show somewhere and they they had these these they they were called muffler man it was a big fiberglass man holding a muffler and pal went up to the vendor there and he said could you make one holding a hamburger and the guy said well sure. So.
03:07.50
vigorbranding
Um, m.
03:15.92
vigorbranding
Love it.
03:18.20
David M_ Jones
They made one with a hamburger they shipped it across country pal put it up on his second store and didn’t do anything else. Didn’t change any other marketing or advertising and his sales went up 25% the next month he knew he was on to something fast forward 25 years into the ah.
03:29.47
vigorbranding
Oh wow.
03:37.64
David M_ Jones
Early eighty s he decided he was going to open drive through only because the first you know in the fifty s there were walkups and so in the eighty s s I’m going to open some drive throughs. He had other restaurants. He had a fine dining restaurant. He had a a dinner theater so is very entrepreneurial.
03:45.78
vigorbranding
Um.
03:56.34
David M_ Jones
And he was having dinner one night with a good friend of his Tony Baronei who is an artist and a restaurant designer and he just mentioned to Tony that he was going to open. He was really thinking seriously about opening drive through restaurants and Tony says oh I’ve always wanted to design a drive through here’s what I would do. And he grabbed the napkin on the road on the napkin pal was across the table from him so he drew it upside down so pal could see it right? This is how talented he was. He draws upside down this concept for a restaurant with the giant hot dogs and the frenchy fries and the and the shakes.
04:23.13
vigorbranding
Um, ah.
04:33.49
David M_ Jones
And pal says I love it and and Tony Grabs another nap and says well let me give you another idea and pal says no stop I want this today that napkin is framed in hanging on the wall in their corporate offices. It’s a wonderful school.
04:46.50
vigorbranding
I love it. So it’s very much by design I mean that’s a very 1950 s um hate to say it. But it’s it’s kind of relegated to the 1950 s I mean you you see it with um architecture all over from that era. Um, you know even things like Las Vegas like old Las Vegas with the grandiosity with these huge.
04:53.57
David M_ Jones
Are.
05:04.35
vigorbranding
Glowing bright signs and the cowgirl kicking and the and the cowboy tipping his hat and all that stuff like this is um, this is what it was all about and and I think it’s derivative of the um, the road tripping culture. That came with the advent of the automobile you know hop in the automobile drive down down route 66 ah these roadside attractions um of which there are many of those 2 which are kind of in the same vein like the giant dinosaur the giant ball of yarn. All these roadside attractions but we’ve we’ve gotten away from that.
05:19.67
David M_ Jones
Are.
05:30.48
David M_ Jones
Um, right.
05:37.20
vigorbranding
In a lot of ways. Especially architecturally speaking you know a lot of architects would snub their nose at this and what we see now is a lot of these um, ah these sculptures but also these sort of like spokes characters have been um, discontinued. I think Ronald Mcdonald kind of sticks around but he certainly isn’t the most prevalent part of Mcdonald’s any longer and then architecturally speaking we’re getting modern boxes that sort of just don’t have much life to them. They may be aesthetically pleasing in some ways but they certainly don’t have.
05:59.57
David M_ Jones
Um, right.
06:07.26
David M_ Jones
Um.
06:12.49
vigorbranding
What pals has um what? what are your thoughts on that trend and and do you think Pals continues to see success with embracing these roots.
06:22.41
David M_ Jones
Yeah, it’s interesting. You bring that up. My wife and I were just talking about this the other day if you look at the new designs. They’re all basically the same they all they it’s It’s very similar. It’s ah it’s a muted brown with a muted red and ah Square and.
06:37.90
vigorbranding
Maybe a pop of color. Maybe yeah.
06:38.58
David M_ Jones
I don’t know. Um, yeah, maybe maybe a little bit taco bells got their purple now and and whatnot. But um, yeah, they’re all starting to look the same so you know you really want to stand out in a sea of sameness when when um. You know you’re basically serving the same thing even if it’s either tacos or pizza or burgers. You’re you’re serving ah a need that the customer has to eat and so why not stand out. Um pals is very big on their brand and you you are a branding expert so you understand this that. They want to um, do everything consistent with their brand when you do something that’s inconsistent with your brand then you confuse the customer and you know what? Donald Miller says if you confuse you lose so they’re always very consistent with their brand.
07:24.20
vigorbranding
Um, that’s right.
07:31.66
David M_ Jones
Keep their menu simple and they deliver every single time with all due respect to marketers your best form of marketing is what word of mouth right? Your customers become your marketing department when you do a good job and that’s what pals does in.
07:41.85
vigorbranding
That’s right? yep.
07:49.70
David M_ Jones
In Essence they spend they spend roughly on a percentage of sales basis roughly half of what their like competitors spend on advertising because they have such good word of mouth.
08:02.92
vigorbranding
Um, yeah, and that comes from the like is a consistency the quality of the food. Um, but 1 of the things that they have in their advantage is um, what what these sculptures deliver is awareness. You can’t miss it so many brands spend a ton of money.
08:14.17
David M_ Jones
Um, yeah, absolutely.
08:20.28
vigorbranding
Just trying to get attention which is the first step before you’re even talking about a purchase and that’s where a lot of frustrations come from with advertising and marketing dollars being invested. It’s like spending all this money and our discussion usually is yeah we’re just trying to get people to know who you are. You know? and so that’s why the needle doesn’t look like it’s moving because people aren’t ready to buy yet. They didn’t know who you were you know? So. It’s not just about saying hey we’re you know David Jones Burger factory we make burgers. Ah you know hey we’re David Jones like you haven’t heard of us so we have to give him a reason to pay attention. We have to give them. Um.
08:36.22
David M_ Jones
Um, if he.
08:55.37
vigorbranding
A reward for paying attention with you know, good content or good stories something that they want to share and all of this is happening and there’s no purchase yet. Um whereas this approach is like I’m driving I see these big sculptures I know what the food is um then it becomes a little bit more of.
09:05.70
David M_ Jones
Um, it’s right.
09:14.27
vigorbranding
Why should I try your food over my current favorite. Um, which is essentially you’re going to have to tell them. They’re wrong in some way that their current favorite is not. In fact, the better choice and that’s very delicate I think a lot of restaurants yours forget that.
09:17.61
David M_ Jones
Um, yeah, and.
09:30.20
David M_ Jones
What happens with pals is you know they have a strong local following. Obviously they’re they’re local here. Um, absolutely so when someone new moves into the market. They inevitably.
09:34.31
vigorbranding
Yeah, and longevity in market. Yeah.
09:45.54
David M_ Jones
See a pals and say what the heck is that and they go they ask somebody right? They ask their neighbor or their cowork say what’s the deal with this and then the gushing comes out it say oh you gotta go to pal You haven’t tried to oh you need to go there and then they try it and we got another fan and they.
09:57.50
vigorbranding
Um, right.
10:05.14
David M_ Jones
Keep coming back and keep coming back. The average pal customer visits 3 times a week the average Mcdonald’s Wendy’s hardies you know their competitors, their global competitors visits 3 times a month so it’s 4 x.
10:12.34
vigorbranding
Um, oh wow.
10:20.68
vigorbranding
Um, yeah, that’s fantastic. Um, so kind of going into some of these strategies I noticed on another podcast. You had a profound statement.
10:22.83
David M_ Jones
The repeat business. Yeah.
10:33.94
vigorbranding
Um, one that I agree with profusely so we won’t get into any kind of juicy argument here over this but I wanted to talk about it and he said something along the lines of in the wake of the pandemic restaurant operators have a second chance to make a first impression on returning guests and staff. You know we all know the adage. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. But.
10:51.78
David M_ Jones
Um, rent.
10:52.40
vigorbranding
Um, you definitely flip that on its head I agree but can you expand on what you’re thinking and how can operators and brands make sure that second chance has a lasting impression in a good way. Not in a bad way.
11:03.40
David M_ Jones
Yeah, really good question and and how often in life. Do we get a second chance at a first impression so whenever you have an inflection point and covid certainly was an inflection point things change things tend to change one way or the other and we’ve seen that with the labor market. We’ve seen that with a.
11:16.29
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
11:22.28
David M_ Jones
All kinds of aspects of our lives and what I’ve noticed is one the the brands and the organizations the restaurants businesses that were struggling before the pandemic are struggling after the pandemic. So what that tells us was it’s not the pandemic. That’s causing their problems. It’s something inside. It’s it’s the way they operate and so if we have this chance at a and a new first impression as customers come back and and we’re pretty much at this point almost beyond that point where everybody’s kind of. Back out and about. But if that customer is coming back. We have a chance to win them over totally um and leave all that past behind and so hopefully the organizations that.
12:03.42
vigorbranding
Um.
12:18.49
David M_ Jones
Took stock during the pandemic and and really say all right. We’re going to hunker down. We’re going to improve what we do. They’re seeing the results now they’re seeing the different um and a lot of it comes down to actually 2 brands.
12:24.88
vigorbranding
Right.
12:35.37
David M_ Jones
1 is your your marketing brand the brand of of your business but the other is your employer brand and that often gets ignored by businesses. They don’t think about their reputation as an employer. They’re just they’re too busy.
12:40.95
vigorbranding
Boom.
12:51.96
vigorbranding
Yeah, trying to get the business trying to get the money. Yep.
12:52.88
David M_ Jones
Doing stuff right? They’d been exactly exactly and and so when um, when somebody thinks Gee Do I Want to work at that restaurant because restaurant you know restaurant is it gets in your blood people just you know they get in and they want to you know, certain people. They want to stay in it. They love it. But the question then becomes well which restaurant and if you have a good reputation your employer brand then you’re going to be attracting people to you rather than having to go out and draw them in.
13:13.47
vigorbranding
Right.
13:30.99
David M_ Jones
So it becomes more of a a selecting process than a hiring process where you get to choose There was a great example recently a chick-fil-a in Southern Florida advertised 1 job 1 position and they had over 400 applicants for that job and and what they do was they said that look this is ah ah the schedule is flexible. You’re going to work 3 12 hour shifts and you can do the morning or the evening. Um.
13:52.27
vigorbranding
Wow.
14:04.72
David M_ Jones
Um, but you’re going to get your full work week in in three days they have 400 people line up to take a shot at getting that job. So when you have a good strong employer brand when you provide more than just paying benefits. That’s that’s on the surface that’s sort of like table stakes. Um.
14:11.59
vigorbranding
It’s amazing.
14:23.21
David M_ Jones
If You have good working Environment. Flexibility is a key item these days. Um, you know a lot of people want to work from home course you can’t do that in restaurant business So much. Um, but that’s the the flexibility aspect. Um you know, great coworkers. Advancement Opportunities personal development and growth all of that plays into your employer brand and so if you have a strong brand you will attract people to you and that’s what we continue to see post pandemic down.
14:59.70
vigorbranding
Yeah, and I think we see a lot of you kind of mention a lot of brands making the same mistakes all over again. They just reset right back to where they were without learning any lessons and it’s not that the pandemic itself was a teacher of lessons. But what our reaction to the pandemic as as ah as a globe. Provided a situation to be a teacher. Um, in that you you kind of got to shut down. You know I mean even though you still provided food All the dining rooms were closed and all that stuff and it should have been could have been a really good opportunity to take on a stock of what just simply. Isn’t and wasn’t working anyway and there’s no better way to test that stuff especially with like the product mix for instance than online ordering and delivery if people aren’t buying it. It’s because they don’t want it and you know what I mean like and and people are not especially going to buy it.
15:49.10
David M_ Jones
Um, granted.
15:54.40
vigorbranding
Plus Delivery fees plus service fees unless they really want it and yet we still have brands out there that went right back to their old menus with all the items on it because God Forbid you remove something um and they’re they’re just ill-equipped to make the tough decisions that that actually could reposition them for um.
16:07.26
David M_ Jones
Um, for him.
16:13.69
vigorbranding
Strength today strengthen the future and strong growth and like you said the other product is how am I treating the employees. Why are we still subscribing to an employee experience that like you said is table stakes in in the table Any of that great. You know we’re not talking about a high roller table here. We’re talking about the penny tables. Um. From from top to bottom and the prevalent um takeaway is they just want more money and people don’t want to work and while there may be some of that we’re coming into a point now economically speaking where whether people want to work or not doesn’t even matter anymore. Their credit cards are maxed out their bank accounts are low and they got to work.
16:41.20
David M_ Jones
Um, yeah.
16:51.70
David M_ Jones
10
16:53.41
vigorbranding
So you know the realities here. That’s what we know were why we’re seeing a shift away from the great resignation. The great reclamation almost um, the question becomes Well what kind of experience are these people going to have are you going to put them back into the muck. Expect them to work crazy hours. Um, burn them down drive them down with no future growth or.
17:00.99
David M_ Jones
Um.
17:12.58
vigorbranding
Are you going to create that path of the things that they really want and most people want to grow. They don’t want to feel like they’re at a dead end and I think that’s something that the restaurant industry in a lot of ways has provided is simply a dead end. This is what you’re doing today. It’s what you’re going to be doing next year you need to find a way out or this is what you’re going to be doing when you’re. Thirty forty fifty sixty and beyond. Um, so let’s let’s kind of shift gears here or not to really shift gears but let’s kind of get into what you’re doing I think to help companies and restaurants. Um. Do better and so so tell me a bit about the excellence advisory and maybe it starts with what you were doing with pals which was a subdivision of pals and you can maybe start there.
18:01.72
David M_ Jones
Yeah, so pals. Um, they won the baldridge award in 2001 which is like the national medal of honor for business. You don’t get any higher recognition. It’s given out by the president or his designee and ah it.
18:11.54
vigorbranding
Um.
18:17.80
David M_ Jones
If you win the baldridgege award and it’s not just for restaurants. It’s for all businesses municipalities education institutions if you win the baldridge award. You are among the best of the best there’s no question about it. Only 2 restaurants have ever won that award palace was the first the second was k and n management.
18:21.99
vigorbranding
Well.
18:36.93
David M_ Jones
Out of Austin Texas and they were a client of pal’s business excellence institute so there’s a very strong connection there um correlation and causation and and so pals in their typical pal’s fashion said well you know.
18:41.35
vigorbranding
Wow.
18:55.90
David M_ Jones
We’re getting a lot of people coming to us even before they won the award that said you know hey you guys are doing something special here. Could we come by and learn from you could we? you know could you give us a tour could you show us around um and not just restaurants but businesses of all kinds so pals in their own fashion said well you know, let’s let’s be systematic about this.
19:07.35
vigorbranding
Oh.
19:14.75
David M_ Jones
Let’s set up an institute where we have people there who can teach our principles and practices and then we can keep running restaurants because that’s what we do best we’re we’re not. We’re not um, business trainers. We we need somebody that can do that for us. So.
19:24.46
vigorbranding
Um, right.
19:34.14
David M_ Jones
They partnered with David Mcclasky and then as that grew David contacted me and said hey I need another person who can consult who can teach classes who can coach executives when you come on board and so I did that for 7 years it all sort of ended around the pandemic time time that started. Ah, David still runs of consultancy. It’s the Mcclasky Excellence Institute I do the excellence advisory we’re both focused on the same things we’re still good friends and colleagues in many respects and the whole idea is to help.
20:03.25
vigorbranding
Um, sure.
20:10.69
David M_ Jones
The organizations that really want to be extraordinary at what they do to help them find the ways to get there. Most organizations. Don’t they just want to get by today and it’s very unfortunate There’s only about only about 10% ah, business owners and leaders really want to step back from the day to day working in the business and work on the business to help make it better and stronger. Um to go back to pal just a little bit here. They have 31 stores.
20:46.76
David M_ Jones
But they do triple the sales and triple the volume of their like peers. So on the books they look like a hundred stores but they only have to run 31 to get those returns and so the better your performance the easier your life becomes.
20:51.80
vigorbranding
Um.
20:53.89
vigorbranding
Well.
21:05.90
David M_ Jones
And most people think Wow Gosh to be highper performing. It must be hard and you too difficult I’m I’m I’m just not going to go there and it’s the opposite when you start eliminating those things that keep you on that treadmill that keep you doing firefighting all day long.
21:15.86
vigorbranding
Um.
21:23.27
David M_ Jones
When you eliminate those your life gets better. Your phone doesn’t ring after hours as much you can take a vacation. You can go somewhere and not worry about your restaurant and you have better Returns. So. I work with the people who see that who have a mind for that and want to make that happen and not just restaurants but a lot of restaurants I have a lot of friends in the restaurant business. A lot of clients and ex-clines. But um I I get the chance to work with governmental agencies.
21:49.78
vigorbranding
You’re right.
21:58.49
David M_ Jones
Savannah Bananas If you’re familiar with them. They’re they’re a blazing entity right now and a lot of restaurants as well. So.
21:58.71
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean if there’s any place where there’s tons of fires restaurants would be the industry as well. I mean we we know what the spinning plate syndrome and all the adages apply to the restaurant industry. So. It sounds pretty fantastic and and there’s ah so many consultants out there. Um for restaurants. Um some are fantastic. Some are mediocre some I’m sorry to say are snake oil salesmen. You know they they worked at a restaurant for x amount of years and they feel like that they they can apply things and I’ve seen a lot of bad. Ah, systems mono better processes in their wake um promises of excellence and you know the time runs out and they’re onto the next like a locust and I know it sounds pretty vicious. But I’ve just seen some terrible stuff. Um, and systems are 1 thing but activating them.
22:46.41
David M_ Jones
Um, Facebook.
22:55.36
vigorbranding
Tends to be where the rubber really has to hit the road and where most people hit the road something tells me that your engineering background has positioned you well for identifying the issues creating systems and then helping them activate it. Um, how how does that look from your perspective.
23:10.20
David M_ Jones
Yeah, so if you think about a restaurant and actually what it does if you sort of step back for a minute. It’s really a manufacturing operation. You’re manufacturing food real time to a specific order based on your menu and and.
23:21.26
vigorbranding
Um.
23:27.91
David M_ Jones
If you look at front of house back of the house. They’re really all based on systems and processes and and the more you have those dialed in the smoother things go everybody’s you know, known what they’re supposed to be doing and it it like I tell you if if you look. In the kitchen of ah of a very high performing organization. It will look like ballet they’re they’re just moving but but you know it wasn’t scripted because you don’t know what that next order is going to be but they just there’s a fluidity to it and there’s a camaraderie and a harmony and synergy going On. That’s just.
23:48.97
vigorbranding
E.
24:03.82
David M_ Jones
Really from a nerdy perspective. It’s a thing a beauty to watch. It’s it’s amazing. You can you can feel it and so that doesn’t happen by accident. You know the natural order of the universe is to tend toward chaos and so you have to put those systems in place. And like you said putting them in place is 1 thing but sustaining them is another and it’s it’s like 20% of the effort is in putting it in place 80% is sustaining it so you have to make it a habit you have to you have to change in a way that.
24:25.65
vigorbranding
Pray.
24:40.66
David M_ Jones
It’s harder to go back than it is to go forward because if it’s easier to go back Human Natures We’re going to go. We’re going to tend toward the easier so you make the new ways easier and you eliminate the possibility. Wherever you can of it actually going back by the way you make the change so we can only do it the new way that becomes our best known way and it’s not our best practice because best practice sort of implies. You can’t get any better.
24:58.55
vigorbranding
Right.
25:14.40
David M_ Jones
But if you call it your best known way then that leaves room for improvement and all of these organizations The the pals the chick-fil-aes in and out they didn’t start at the top of their game.
25:19.36
vigorbranding
Um.
25:29.19
David M_ Jones
They started where everybody else starts and they work their way up to it. It’s an incremental process so you take small and sustainable steps and you just keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that here’s the thing though. That’s not really. Sexy. It’s not Attractive. It’s not headline making it’s not going to go viral. Let what would you rather have if if you have um, you have all these ideas in your head. We’re gonna make all these improvements we’re gonna go charging In. We’re gonna make all this stuff Happen. You got a hundred things on your list.
25:48.93
vigorbranding
Right.
26:04.62
David M_ Jones
Which would be better for you to do 100 things 3% complete by the end of the year or 3 things 100% complete and and so that’s the approach in it’s counterintuitive because you got a hundred things on your list got to work on them all we got to do all this I can’t.
26:13.95
vigorbranding
That’s right.
26:23.24
David M_ Jones
I can’t leave the 97 to work on just 3 but actually you’re better off if you do and so you sort of dial back those John Wayne Bruce Willis intentions you know we’re gonna ride in and we’re gonna shoot them all and we’re gonna round them up and we’re goingnna drink all the whiskey and then we’re gonna go on to the next one and we’re going to just systematically methodically one at a time make things happen and make sure we don’t fall back to the prior ways.
26:52.89
vigorbranding
Yeah, and what what you started off saying too is so profound I Want to reiterate It is the fact that that humans in general in everything that we do. We will find the path of least resistance we will find the easier way of doing things. Um, it’s just it is in our nature. It’s in. Everyone’s Nature. You know why go the harder route and then you see it play out. Um, maybe not as a macro leader. But if if you get into the trenches and and put on the disguise What you’ll find is when you’re getting trained. You’ll hear things like well this is the way you’re supposed to do it but we do it this way because it’s better or it’s easier or it’s Simpler. You know? and and I think in there. Um,, there’s a lot of ah domineering leaders that would say oh that person has to get corrected and and or ousted but it’s like wait a second like take a second and like what are they doing Is it easier. Is. It.
27:28.43
David M_ Jones
Um.
27:46.65
vigorbranding
Making it better. Is it making it faster is is there is there some sort of efficiency that results in either the same result or better. Maybe it’s time to iterate and I think I love that you you have ah an unsemented word. That’s still really strong which is this is our best known way of doing it. But that leaves the door open for iteration which is innovation. So when leaders say they’re innovative I’m like okay when’s the last time you changed your process and if it wasn’t in 10 years and then no, you’re not you just? ah, you just did a thing once. Um so I think that’s quite brilliant I love that I love that nomenclature.
28:13.43
David M_ Jones
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, and and so if you’re a business owner or leader and you see a frustration on an employee doing things the way. That they’ve been taught, but they’re frustrated well then that’s a sign that they know of a better way or they know there must be a better Way. Let’s go in and look at it. So Let’s not um, say oh my gosh I got all these frustrated employees I Wish they would just do their work but actually take that as a signal that hey. There’s an opportunity for improvement. Let’s go in and see what’s causing this frustration.
28:51.60
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that? Well so this next question may cause you frustration, but it is possibly the most important question of all if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat where would you eat it and why.
28:58.47
David M_ Jones
Um, okay.
29:06.91
David M_ Jones
Oh goodness. Well I’ve got a lot of friends and and clients in the restaurant business be like saying what’s your favorite child. So um, let let me just say this. Um I wouldn’t want it to just be a meal.
29:24.47
vigorbranding
Sure.
29:24.57
David M_ Jones
I’d want it to be an experience and so um, would probably be something like um maybe a burger and a hot dog at Historic Grayson Stadium watching the Savannah bananas play or something like that.
29:42.90
vigorbranding
I Love that? Yeah, it’s amazing. Um, there’s so many good answers that I get from that question too I think it’s one of my favorite questions to ask because of the nature of food and how it does bring people together breaks down barriers. It sort of smooths out something.
29:49.48
David M_ Jones
Um, that’s a good one. Um.
29:57.00
vigorbranding
Ah, that may have be a friction point like food is just the great connector truly? um well David this has been great and thank you for being so generous with your time and your thinking and your past um how can people connect with you where where do they find you.
30:10.75
David M_ Jones
Sir the best place to find me is on Linkedin and you can do a search there. it’s it’s David M Jones I’ll send you my link if you want to put that in the show notes. Yeah so um Linkedin I’m posting every day on performance excellence.
30:18.15
vigorbranding
Um, you will have that in her. Yeah yep.
30:28.60
David M_ Jones
What you can do to take your business to the next level and to the next level today then just keep doing that and also have a website the excellencevisy.com and 1 more thing sorry to interrupt. Um, um, wait here some more. Um.
30:37.59
vigorbranding
I Love it. That’s great. Well oh yeah, good. Yeah, but wait. There’s more.
30:47.80
David M_ Jones
I’ve got a book coming out this fall.
30:47.17
vigorbranding
Oh how could you save that for last okay tell me about the book real quick. This is great.
30:51.15
David M_ Jones
Um, okay, it’s It’s called signs of excellence and it’s based around 52 up sayings you you might say but they actually appear pals I don’t know if you’ve um, if your audience knows But. Pals has a ah signboard out in front of the each store that they change their message every day and and a lot of times. It’s you know, um, feed your piggy bank or hug your grandma or something like that. But a lot of times. It’s something more business related like.
31:17.11
vigorbranding
Um.
31:28.94
David M_ Jones
Be a good listener or be a leader things like that and so what I’ve done is I’ve taken 52 of those that are business related and I’ve made each one a chapter and made it very hands on very accessible to the average person because.
31:40.40
vigorbranding
Um.
31:48.29
David M_ Jones
Business excellence is not rocket science and no rocket science to it at all. It’s it’s more about discipline and perseverance sticking with it making it happen. So um I touch on mindset skill set and action set for. The business owner in Liga.
32:08.79
vigorbranding
I love that? Um, we’ll have to have you back on when that launches so we can dive a little bit deeper into it into second episode because that sounds fantastic.
32:13.72
David M_ Jones
I’d love that. Yeah, so um I don’t know when when people are going to be listening to this but it’ll be out fall of 2023
32:19.10
vigorbranding
Great yep, excellent! Well, we’ll get that on the books again. Thanks for being so generous with your time David and we’ll talk to you real soon.
32:27.70
David M_ Jones
Um I Martin do if awesome.
