Episode 295: The Bottom Line - Typhoon Lagoon

So the big question is this: how do small business owners like us grow our leadership, develop our teams, and scale our business in a way that allows us to get our products and services out to the world yet still remain profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Bradley Hamner, and this is the Club Capital Leadership Podcast. Welcome to The Bottom Line, a new weekly podcast series that we drop every Thursday to complement our weekly Monday podcast interviews with the industry leaders. These podcasts are gonna be designed to give you short, impactful, and value-driven information that you can start using right away in your business. I value your time and attention and will do my very best not to waste it.

Just get what you need and go.

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Hey everyone, so a few weeks ago I was in Disney with my kids and, uh, we were, uh, we went Typhoon Lagoon, did Epcot, you know, did the whole Disney experience. But on day 2 or 3, I believe, we went to Typhoon Lagoon. It was my second time to go, but my kids are— my daughter just turned 9 and my son is about to turn 13, so they were at great ages to be able to ride all the rides and just do all the things. Well, so we're at Typhoon Lagoon and we're going to ride one of the rides and— or one of the water slides down. We've just done a couple with my son and we're doing side of the one, and there's actually a fairly decent line. And so I'm thinking, okay, well, because the other ones really didn't have a line, that this one may be pretty good. And so as we're standing there, I can look down on the pool whenever you get off of the slide, and you can see— I think there was two lifeguards there, and they're just standing there, and we happen to kind of see people coming down the slide. And if I could remember the name of the slide, I would, I would certainly tell you, but Anyway, uh, so we're going there and then all of a sudden I see somebody who is in a, uh, just a bathing suit but has a t-shirt on and goes into the water and they're flailing around. And for the first, well, it probably was 5 seconds, maybe 3 seconds, but these thoughts go through the process, through your mind of, oh my gosh, this person's really having a hard time to stand. They, they can't get up. And her arms are flailing all over the place, etc. And so the lifeguard blows the whistle, dives into the water, has the, you know, the flotation device, gets over there. But I see— I then see a smile on her face. And so she's taking it serious, but she's not going at the pace that I expected her to be able to go out. I mean, initially, yes, she gets over there, she kind of helps the person to the side and walks walks over and blows the whistle again. And then I realized, oh, it's a training exercise. And I later on— or actually, when we got to the top, I ended up asking someone, is that something you all do on a regular basis? And they said, yes, but we don't know when it's coming. And the idea is that we're going to always be on our toes, uh, so that we don't fall asleep in what we're doing. And so here's the lesson: role play is great. If you have a sales team, you have thought about role play, and many of you probably do an incredible job at role play on a daily basis. The whole idea of how many times do you practice, how much do you practice, the NFL analogy of, you know, we practice X amount, we play this many games— I get it all. But it made me think, what if there was a way— it's a good reminder to do real play in with your teams, especially your sales teams. Actually have maybe somebody who's a mystery caller to come in and architect that into your training process where you maybe have a friend. I know there's companies that do this, but you could have a friend that's maybe not with you or with another whatever call in to be able to get a quote or an estimate or to be able to have a sales conversation regardless of whatever it is you sell. And then have them ask these specific questions and see if they hit on these things. And then that will give you the absolute best. Maybe you have a family member that lives in a different state and could call in, right? They're not in your CRM yet. And I thought, man, what a much better way to be able to give real-time coaching and feedback to someone based off what they think is an actual exercise or an actual sales call, as opposed to in the morning, you can simulate as much as you want. And it's coming up on football season. And right now, as I'm recording this, it's in the middle of, you know, training camp for the NFL, or if it's, you know, two-a-days or I guess they don't really do that in college football anymore, but it's fall practice for all the colleges. And they're going to simulate as much as they can what it's like to be real time in a stadium. But it will never be the same. It will never be the same as what it's going to be like in Jordan-Hare Stadium or Bryant-Denny Stadium or, you know, whatever college you or NFL team you follow. It's never going to be the same. It's not the same as 75,000, 80,000 fans in games that actually count. And I thought that was such a good reminder to actually see that happen. And I thought I would share with all of you. And it made me think, man, what are the ways? How would you actually architect that? And I think maybe once a month is a good way to be able to do that. I don't think it's necessarily like Disney where it's once a day. For many of us, lives are literally not at stake as it is at Disney. But I thought it was a good parable, a good reminder for me as well. So real play, in addition to, not in exception of, but in addition to roleplay. Hope this serves you well. All right, everyone, till next time, lead well.