118: Be a Daymaker

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What is it that you do? Maybe it's how you get paid, maybe not. But it has you so joyful and giddy that it's contagious to everyone around you, where you are just in the zone doing what you do best, something you're highly skilled at. And then the second part of it is how can you be a day maker? How can you deliver what you promise? Or the ways that you help people solve problems or create transformation in their life in a way that doesn't just get the job done. It's not just functional, but it's totally fun.

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In New York City, you see and hear all kinds of crazy things in the course of a typical day or week. In this case, I'm sitting at home and I hear a buzzsaw in the background. Normally there's always construction sirens, helicopters buzzing overhead. One morning I was even on the terrace having coffee and a friggin drone passed over my head. I don't know if it was a police drone because there was a helicopter not too far away, but yes, a drone was circling kind of hovering in the area. They might have been looking for someone, I don't know. I even woke up one morning to criminals on the lam hopping over fences in the backyard. It was still dark out, the sun hadn't fully risen yet and cops were yelling get down. Get down. There was Ryder, where he sleeps on this tiny terrace that we have, just sitting there watching all this commotion, thinking nothing of it. Well, it turns out the cops were arresting like 15 people in a crack cocaine dealing ring or some crazy thing that then made the news. So suffice it to say that I've woken up to all kinds of wild Things in my days and nights. Living in the city for over 11 years. This story that I'm about to tell you was one of the most delightful, hilarious, joyful noise days that I have experienced yet. And it started with this buzzsaw. And I didn't know quite where it was coming from. I thought maybe it's just house construction down one of the backyards. I actually live in a brownstone in New York, so they're kind of crammed together wall to wall, and then they all have facing backyards. And so I'll link to a really interesting YouTube video in the show, notes about different types of dwellings in New York City, in case you want to geek out on that like I did. But it explains exactly why you can measure 20 city blocks with a mile. It's partly because of the brownstone layout. So we have one floor and a room and a terrace in a brownstone, and the backyards all face each other. Turns out it was a guy, an arborist, I would say, removing a tree. And I didn't know until I started to see these big branches falling. And I'm kind of sad to see this tree go. It was a big tree, but apparently maybe it was dying or half of it was dead, and they didn't want it to be a hazard for the people living in that building or that maybe they're redoing the building across the way. And this guy was really friendly. So here he is climbing this massive tree, and yet he would turn and smile and wave. I didn't think too much of it. This was early morning. By the time I get to my desk just below, so the windows below the terrace, my desk faces out to the backyard to this beautiful tree. This man had taken his shirt off, okay? And here he was, the most ripped, tan, just glistening man climbing this tree in the backyard. He had cut down enough of the branches that I had a full view of what he was doing. And he kept turning and waving and smiling. And at one point, I tried to go up to the terrace just to say, what you're doing is incredible. Oh, my goodness. Like, way to go. It's so impressive. And I couldn't quite hear what he was saying back over the noise, but I could not focus. The entire day was just me trying to focus on the meetings that I could see on zoom on my computer with him in the near not too distance, shirt off, glistening in the sun every now and then, smiling and waving. And here he is climbing trees, chopping things down, has his harness around his waist, and it was 90 degrees and humid. So I understand why he took his shirt off. There was also a gay couple maybe one floor up, filming him and waving and talking to him all day. So it is so funny in the pictures that I took because, you know, I took some pictures of this day that you see this couple with their morning coffee. Their coffee cup is in hand, in one hand, and then their phone is filming him with the other. And they were closer to him in the action, so I could tell that they were kind of talking back and forth. This arborist would even turn and wave at the babies down on the ground level who were playing in the backyard. And he was hilarious. So not only was he super skilled at what he was doing, but I call him the Day Maker. This guy made everybody's day. I even ran and got Michael, and I'm like, michael, Michael. You gotta see this. My husband, Michael. So Michael comes back kind of begrudgingly because he was in the middle of something. He comes back to my office and his jaw drops and he goes, what? Just when you think you're safe in your own house, you know, there's this, like, glistening, gorgeous man with an eight pack chopping down a tree right outside the window. And that cracked me up so much that even Michael was like, just when you think you're safe in your own home. Oh, my goodness. I was on a Mastermind call with friends and I turned my laptop around and I go, you gotta see. You gotta see what's out the window. But the reason that I'm recording this episode because what on earth does this have to do with business? Is that this guy sparked joy all day long.

We'll be right back just after this.

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He was Again, super skilled, but also super friendly and entertaining. I swear, he was doing his job with such joy and entertainment. Like, you could almost picture his inner kid just, like, loving the fact that he grew up to be able to just climb trees and of course, sadly remove trees. I don't think anybody really wants that to happen because it's sad to see the birds don't know where to go. And then even the following day, oh, there was this little squirrel that was trying to climb down from the roof across the way and he was looking for his tree and his tree wasn't there and he got stuck. He didn't know where to go. So I'm kind of bummed. It took away a lot of shade and a lot of the birds that would mate chase each other across town, different trees. So I'm feeling the gap. It's not all good, but the silver lining of this story is this guy totally in his own new genius, totally entertained and entertaining, waving, talking, knowing I'm sure he knows the entertainment value that he provides, like being smoking hot, no shirt on, in the 90° New York City, summer, hot, humid weather. He's working so hard and stopping all of us in our tracks to wave, to watch, to take video, to take photos, to tell our family, hey, you gotta come see this. To tell the friends that I was on these zoom calls with, this guy is a day maker who just radiates joy and good cheer. As my friend Leanne said, he was totally playing to his strengths. And here is somebody who I'm pretty sure he owns this business, that this is his business, because again, you know, I did a little bit of Googling. Some of the workers are wearing T shirts of the company names. So of course I wanted to look it up and just see, what's this company all about? Just, it struck me that they take pride in their work. They have fun while they're working. They're interacting and engaging with anyone and everyone who's around. And it's the kind of moment that broke up the monotony of even my day. I don't know why I didn't just cancel all my calls and get my cup of coffee and go out to the terrace and truly watch the show all day, because I was sad. By the time my meetings were over, the whole thing was done. And I don't really want to watch anyone chop down more trees. But the lesson that I'm taking from all of this, the reason that I'm sharing it with all of you here on the podcast, is twofold. What is it that you do. Maybe it's how you get paid, maybe not. But it has you so joyful and giddy that it's contagious to everyone around you, where you are just in the zone doing what you do best, something you're highly skilled at. And then the second part of it is, how can you be a day maker? How can you deliver what you promise? Or the ways that you help people solve problems or create transformation in their life in a way that doesn't just get the job done. It's not just functional, but it's totally fun. This totally could have gone viral. I wonder if the guys across the way have video, what they did with it, if they posted stories on Instagram or anything. I wonder if it gets back to the arborist and his company. You know, of the kind of fun, social discussion element of it. Just the contagious kind of glee and wonder of all of us just watching how he works. And again, like, how this guy was interacting with everybody. This isn't even above and beyond. This is like putting on a show. I took Kris Jenner's masterclass on personal branding out of bed. Sheer curiosity. And one of the things she said is that she sees it as there's really two main types of content. Of course, there's probably more, but she said you could either be informing people, in which case you need to be really an expert at the top of your field, or you're entertaining people. And she said she and her family know they are entertainment. They don't need to be the end all, be all expert on anything. They are entertainment. Their job is to provide entertaining stories and storylines. They don't always have to look good. They just have to be entertaining. And so this guy, the day maker, the arborist, was that beautiful intersection of expert at what he does. And I know he knows what he's doing because I saw how methodically that huge tree came down again, methodically and sadly. And he is total, pure, blissful, memorable, unforgettable entertainment. And that truly, truly stands out. Sadly, I didn't catch this guy's name. I would have just said, thank you for making everybody's day something simple like that. So, Daymaker, wherever you are, thank you.

If you've listened this far, you get a gold star.

Thank you.

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