Rick Whittington, Whittington Consulting

So, Rick, thank you for hopping on for a difference makers discussion. So I've got my buddy Rick with me, and as I told you, Rick, we'll put the link to you and Winnington Consulting below. But we were talking about. You just asked me, like, do I look okay? And so the first thing I wanted to say is, I didn't. I still have my pajama pants on.

Nice.

Like, from here up, I'm Zoom ready. And I put eyeliner on for this. For you. My other difference makers discussion, I was like, yeah, you know, like, Bill doesn't really care, all of that kind of stuff. But I feel like, because for listeners, Rick and I used to work in, like, neighboring offices until he actually stole my office, which is whole nother conversation. But most of the time, would you say you found me in sweatshirts, Rick, or was I, like, in full business attire?

You're in full business attire. So this is. This is actually. There's a term for this now. There's the Zoom mullet, which is the business up top, and party down below. So that's. That's a term that I heard a few days ago, and I'm adopting that, too, because I'm in sweats. Other than a nice pullover, what's the.

Term when coffee comes out of your nose because your buddy makes you laugh while you're taking a drink? That was uncool. And it's like wheatgrass coffee. So it's like, not even. Oh, that's so bad. So bad. But, I mean, that's the point of us having these discussions is just like the good, the bad and the ugly of running a business right now. And I had said to somebody, this may make you feel better because I know you have kids. I was late for a Zoom call, and I signed on to the call, and I was waiting to be admitted, but I didn't actually, like, turn my computer or turn my video on or turn my audio on. And So I was 23 minutes late, and I came back and turned everything on, and they're like, everything okay? And I said, yeah, I just had a co worker that had a little bit of a meltdown. So we were dealing with some mental awareness and mental wellness and all of that kind of stuff. And then I had this smile on my face, and the team on the other side of the Zoom is like, you think that's funny? And I was like, my co workers, three. So it's kind of expected.

Yeah. I also had a conversation yesterday where the person I was talking to, their kids were throwing rocks at the dog, and they had to stop the conversation. So what I understand. Yeah.

Is this. Do you see this? This is cool. Look at my cup.

I do see that.

Is that the same? So the green screen just doesn't. It's so selective. You haven't picked up on the cool, like, green screen trend yet?

I've got. No. I haven't done the green screen thing yet. I'm still using the cheesy zoom backgrounds when I want to be in San Francisco or on the beach.

Do you choose the San Francisco or do you choose the beach?

I'm usually just gonna go with the wall behind me, so that's usually my best choice.

What's the degree up there? Is that a degree?

It's not actually just a picture. So it's a picture of Virginia Tech memorabilia.

So you went to Virginia Tech. I'll allow you to plug Virginia Tech. I'm not from here, so I don't have the whole rivalry. I couldn't even explain it to you. But if you have a Gotek call out, I'll allow it.

That's my. It's. It's a very subtle call out. So Gotek.

Okay. Well, when I tell people that I went to U of A, they think I say uva, and, you know, I live out towards uva, so I've just stopped correcting people. I think somewhere gives me credibility that I may have gone to school if Virginia, but I definitely didn't. I definitely went to school in Tucson, Arizona, so. Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Okay. How's your sanity?

It's this been a really interesting time. So we're at this point, we're at six weeks in to this quarantine. And, you know, I thought we were getting used to working at home and all of that. I thought we were already used to it because I already did one or two days a week at home, and so did the team. And the first several weeks, like, you know, as a business owner, you're just adjusting to what's going on with. For us, it was clients. You know, like, some people had to cut back. Some people couldn't pay. Some people just wanted to go away altogether. And it was a period where, as a business owner, you have to make ends meet. You have to do what you have to do. And so it was just an interesting time where I spent a lot of time showing grace to clients. But I also spent a lot of time preparing and being transparent to employees because I knew that there were a lot of fears about are we going to have to let people go or Are we going to have to cut back hours or are we going to have to cut pay? And we've had to do none of those things, luckily, anticipate that we will. But I just wanted them to be 100% confident. Right. Just. You want your team to be very confident that they can focus on work, not having to focus on the fact that their payroll, you know, the pay is going to be cut or something like that. So we had a lot of preparation ahead of this for a recession, so we're actually handling this pretty well. But then, you know, I guess in the last week or so, last two weeks, I realized that I spent so much time focusing on everyone else that I haven't spent enough time focusing on me. And it can be. In a lot of ways, I found this somewhat similar to a grieving process or to, you know, like, you handle what needs to be handled. And then when you have a chance to sit back on the couch and relax and close your eyes and think, you realize, wow, what has just happened to me? What has happened to our business? What has happened? You know, with all of the things in the world going on around us right now. And it can be a little overwhelming, I think, you know, emotionally, but, you know, also just. I'm more of a logical person than an emotional person. But, you know, it can. It can be somewhat emotional. So, you know, I've tried to get out a lot. For me, being outside is the place to be. So I spend a lot of time in the yard, spend a lot of time with my. My son at the baseball field, throwing in baseballs. Spent a lot of time in a kayak, fishing. And that's definitely a social distancing activity that I enjoyed prior to social distancing, because sometimes you do need to get away and just be on your own and let your thoughts go wild.

Yeah. Yeah. I have joked that the horses are tired of me because they've never gotten so much exercise in their entire lives, because it's like, that's all, you know, that's my escape. I can't surf where I live right now, and so that's my escape. The big thing for me is that moment that I sit down on the couch is I feel like sometimes I don't necessarily get a break. And so I have to be super conscious about it because I sit down on the couch and then my other co workers crawl on top of me and I can't. You know, my oldest says, mom, has the flu gone away yet? And, you know, so it's. It's not as I. Whereas I used to drive into town and go to the office two days a week and then work from home the other days. I don't have that distance. I don't have that drive anymore. So finding different ways to kind of help click out of that mental awareness. And one of them has been the fact that I'm not going to put energy into putting actual pants on. I'm just going to save that energy and, you know, use it for other spaces. But that's. It's. As a business owner, the past couple weeks, it's been, file this application, make sure they got the application. No, wait, there's no one to check to make sure they got the application. File this new application. Okay, you filed the application. But just kidding. We're all out of money. Like, and then handle your clients and put out all their fires. And then handle your. Your team and put out all their fires. And then, you know, there's no one that really is stopping to say, like, hey. Well, I actually stopped and said, hey, Rick, how's your sanity? So there's that for you. And then I don't know about you, but my immediate response, because I have, you know, well, I won't. I won't name drop on our difference makers discussions. But he had sent me a text and he said, how are you doing? And, yeah, I was like. And I knew it wasn't one of those emails that was just like, hey, I hope your family and you are good. Like, I knew he genuinely expected an answer. And I was just like, don't ask me that. Like, don't. I don't want to. I don't want to go there. And I'm the mental health business guru. And it was not easier, but it was just that moment where it was like, okay, so I took some time and kind of. I think I took about a day and a half and really decompressed. I unplugged from everything. And that's when I actually wrote that book of how to stay sane during insane times, because I was standing out on the front lawn of our property. We don't have a lawn. We have. We have property. So I don't know what. I'm from Southern California. We have lawns. So I don't know what this is called in the country on our acreage. And we had our shoes off, and we were just sitting there, like, squeezing our toes in the dirt. And I was just like, when's the last time I've done this? You know, where nothing else is rolling through my brain? So I'm sure that was the moment of you throwing the ball back and forth with your son or being in a kayak. But that's. Yeah, it's just an interesting dynamic as the business owner, when somebody. How often do you get asked, rick, how are you doing? And not in a. You're getting coffee, and I'm getting coffee. And this is just a polite thing to say. That's my thought.

Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, I think that the challenge, too, from working from home is that you pass. For me, at least I pass my desk when I go to the kitchen or, you know, when I go to bed at night. And, you know, for me, passing my desk means I've got to check one more thing. I remember one more thing that needs to be checked and one more thing, and that turns into one more and one more. You know, I found myself spending 12 or 13 hours a day at my desk. And that wouldn't happen if I was going to an office, which is why I have an office. And, you know, it's even got me considering now, like, should I. Should I just forget about this quarantine and just go back to the office? Because I can do that. And it's. It's kind of something I'm considering right now, just to kind of separate the two things. Because you do kind of fall into a trap when it's so easy to go to work. Even though you're not really going to work. You find yourself working all the time, especially when there's a lot to do. Like there is right now.

Yeah. Well, you know, I fully support you going back to my office. It's a good office.

It's a great place to be.

It is. It's a great place to be. So. Well, so we've discussed sanity. We've discussed, you know. Can you hear Victoria? She just knocked outside.

Hello?

I'm here, Victoria. Rick says hi.

I may have the same problem here in a few minutes.

She's pretending to be a cat. And this morning, that's what she's pretending to do. So she's scratching on the door like a cat, which is funny. Cause all we really have is, like a barn cat. And so we don't really have a good example of what a cat is supposed to act like. So I'm just wondering where her influences are from a cat. So I'm gonna let you go in a second. I wanted to ask you what is something that you've seen or stumbled upon or a funny story that we can end this with? And. And I'll give you a little bit of time to think about that because I'm going to tell you mine first. So my kids love Moana, the movie, and we don't always watch it, but because of where we live, we listen to the soundtrack on the drive all the time. And my husband found a sing along that it was Dwayne Johnson who plays Maui with his daughter sitting on his lap. And they're watching the movie and he's recording her reaction with like him sitting behind her at the part where Maui is singing, you're welcome. And so Dwayne Johnson's like singing the whole song. And the caption was like, she's seen this 15 million times and still doesn't know it's her dad. And I was laughing so hard because I'm thinking about that. I mean, just like I can picture the actor in my head that plays Olaf and he was in Beauty and the Beast. And then I can picture the girl from the woman from all of the Enterprise commercials that plays Anna. And like, how trippy would it be to just all of a sudden realize that your parent is the person that you're like imitating? It just seems so funny. I don't know. It was funny to me.

That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, so I've already told you about the Zoom mullet and I told you about the five year old throwing rocks at the dog during a call. It's not funny, but it's funny that he had to interrupt the call and just say, hey, don't throw rocks at the dog. But you know, I think the thing I take away from this is that I've seen, despite all of the, which I don't really want to get into this, the political piece of this has been, I mean, there's such division around right now. I think the good thing that I can take away from this is that I've seen neighbors supporting neighbors. So we've had neighborhood powwows in the cul de sac out here where everyone will bring a chair. And you know, it's not, it's like three or four or five or six of us at a time. But it, you know, we're spread out, but we're able to talk. We've been able to connect with neighbors that we don't know well. We've been able to do a food drive. There's just a lot of things that I've seen that are, that are positive. And it kind of, you know, it takes you back to 9, 11, if you remember what that was like. I mean, everyone was with everyone else. We didn't have so much division. And I just think that there, you know, we have to get back to those times where it's a simpler life. We don't have as much to do, we don't have as much to think about. I think we need to get to know our neighbors. I think we need to care for them and treat them really well. And I think in doing that, it will sort of heal whatever we're going through, you know, in our business, all the struggles that we have day to day when we put the focus on someone else. So I just think that that's kind of something that I've seen and observed here in our neighborhood. And you know, just even in the world today, I've seen this. I've seen this in other places too. And it's just, it's pretty encouraging to me.

Well, I mean, I came out of the gate with a Maui story and you just went really deep and profound like to like Pope Francis level. So I don't know where to go from there other than to thank you for joining me for a difference makers discussion. And, you know, I appreciate that you and I hadn't talked for a couple months because I didn't see you at the office because I had moved to my office location and I reached out and you were there. And so, you know, similar to what you just said is to keep those connections going because you're going to help me get through this and hopefully there's something I can do to help you get through this. And hopefully that this discussion and vulnerability in humanity between, you know, friends and colleagues that's going to be shared with the rest of the business community can help heal the individuals that are listening to this just a little bit. So thank you for making a difference.

Yeah. Well, listen, thanks for the conversation. It's good to see another face. It's good to have a conversation and I really appreciate all you do.

Thank you. I'll talk to you soon.

Yeah, take care.