208: 😇 Delight Is in the Details

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What are the Brown M and Ms. In your business?

This is your time. How can we earn twice as much in half the time with joy and ease while serving the highest good? That is our guiding question here at the Freetime Cafe, your home for heart based business. I'm your host Jenny Blake. Join me for conversations with authors, friends and fellow business owners as we explore ways to free your mind, time and team to do your best work. Now onto today's show.

What do manuka, honey brown MMs, chocolate milk, vanilla gelato, rose petals, Fair trade bananas and Twizzlers have in common? No, these are not ingredients for the most bizarre ice cream sundae you've ever heard of. I'll tell you later in this episode, but first I want to give a very big shout out to two reviewers. Crystal shared on Spotify in the episode comments for episode 200, Crystal said, I absolutely loved this format. Having all these permission slips in one go. A great way to get a pick me up or a much needed reminder. I will definitely add this to my favorites listen. Yay. Thank you Crystal. And thank you for being one of the early pioneers of the per episode comment feature. I just love it so much because podcasting can feel so one directional. Not a pun for the band, but I love being able to hear your thoughts on specific episodes of what your AHAs or top takeaways were or how something lands. It's super helpful. So even if Spotify isn't your main listening app, just know that you can always go to a specific episode and leave me a note. I do see every single one, although right now Spotify doesn't tell me when they come in, so sometimes I see them a little bit late. I also want to give a big thank you to Showao from Portugal who said five stars. A must listen for smart, savvy business leaders today. In a review Hugh wrote, there's leadership training and then there's this amazing podcast that fills all the blanks in between. Thanks to Jenny and her thoughtful resources, insights on how to delegate inspiring guests that teach you to run your business in a way that loves you back and how to actually take a month off to do something you've always wanted to do. These are just some of the takeaways I've implemented from the episodes I've listened to thus far. I also love the emails she sends with relevant and easy links to find important resources. I cannot recommend this podcast enough. Thank you Jenny and big thanks right back. I love when these reviews come in. I love hearing your thoughts. Thank you so much for taking the time and awesome to know that you're listening from Portugal. My husband is on a 400 plus day Duolingo streak of learning Portugal. So that's present in our house every single day, at least once a day where he's practicing his Portuguese Bon Dio. Is that how you say good morning? In any case, back to the topic of today's show. Question for you. Have you ever had an experience with a company or even a contractor where you just knew they weren't all there? Maybe they had something going on, they weren't paying attention, missing small details. Maybe their business was just a disorganized mess and you kind of see the writing on the wall. You're not even surprised when you find out that they go out of business a year or two later. Hey, maybe you've even been this person at one point. We probably all have. Larry David in season 10 of Curb youb Enthusiasm comes to mind as he's checking out his soon to be rival Mocha Joe, his new coffee shop that Larry had suggested after Mocha Joe had a coffee cart at some Hollywood backlot. He goes and at his first visit he starts griping about cold coffee, rickety tables, and two soft scones. This is one of my all time favorite scenes from Curb youb Enthusiasm. I will link to the very hilarious Pissing off Mocha Joe clip in the show notes. In case you haven't seen it, these are examples of what my friend and I call botching the basics. Let me read you a brief Excerpt from Chapter 26 in Freetime where I introduce this concept. By the way, make sure you get your copy of Freetime if you don't already have it. The limited edition hardcover is going quickly and I don't know when I'll do another print run. So if you don't even have that version, maybe you've listened on audio or you've read it digitally. I encourage you to get your collector's edition hardcover. You can get the links to buy it from any retailer of your choosing@itsfreetime.com book okay, chapter 26 answer less every question lives three lives.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it immediately or in the long run. The chapter begins Disorganized documentation around common questions in your business triples the work and the frustration for you, your team and your customers. Consider my friend's experience upon embarking on a year long project with a decidedly undelightfully tiny team. Every time they asked a question about this company's process or for a timeline on what to expect next, the company failed to answer clearly. When they did, it was with brief answers trapped in one off emails providing scanned information without any forward looking guidance. This spawned dozens of clarifying follow up questions for my friend to get the answers they needed. The team regularly missed delivery deadlines and the work quality was poor. Fed up on all sides, my friend escalated these collaboration challenges to the senior level leader who had promised the world before they signed on. Eventually, the company's team relented and sent a document with minimal details to outline next steps. This is something that a could have easily been spelled out in advance for a smoother onboarding experience, b could have been posted to an internal webpage or project management system for future customers to reference rather than sent as a one off attachment and C should have already existed to save the company's team members from annoyance at repeatedly answering the same customer questions via one off emails. This company caught a case of botching the basics, failing to deliver the baseline minimum expected customer experience, cementing it as a deal breaker for my friend and me to refer future clients. The company's team members are probably not much happier with many missed documentation opportunities. It's likely that they too are struggling with overwhelm, inefficiency and frustration. Festering frustration.

That closes out the book. Excerpt back to this topic at hand. That's the thing about details. They're small, but missing the small ones adds up. It erodes trust and it does not bode well for the bigger, more important tasks. So if you or somebody on your team are botching the basics, you you are not going to be trusted for future clients or repeat business from your current clients. And definitely not for referrals and word of mouth marketing. You may be familiar with the phrase the devil is in the details, but I say let's flip it for heart based business. Since we're not really conjuring devils here, why not call it Delight is in the details or the angel is in the details. This phrase originates from the earlier God is in the details, conveying the idea that what might seem simple at first glance often turns out to be more complex and require more time and attention to accomplish correctly over time. It became a variation on that phrase God is in the details to the devil is in the details. Similar idea, but with a more cautionary tone. This one suggests that if you don't pay attention to the details, problems can and do arise. So the devil in this case is a metaphor for unexpected troubles or difficulties that might only become obvious to you when you look at those more nuanced aspects of your business, your process, how you work with customers and community. And now, hey, maybe we're going to bring in wave three. Delight is in the details because why not have some fun with this John Wooden, who is called the wizard of Westwood. He's a record breaking, just renowned basketball coach from my alma mater ucla. Go Bruins. Was famous for his pyramid of success and super inspirational management techniques. Starting first and foremost with how to put on your socks, he's quoted as saying.

I think it's the little things that really count. The first thing I would show our players at our first meeting was how to take a little extra time putting on their shoes and socks properly. The most important part of your equipment is your shoes and socks. You play on a hard floor, so you must have shoes that fit right. And you must not permit your socks to have wrinkles around the little toe where you generally get blisters, or around the heels. It took just a few minutes, but I did show my players how I wanted them to do it. Hold up the sock, work it around the little toe area and the heel area so that there are no wrinkles. Smooth it out good. Then hold up the sock while you put the shoe on. And the shoe must be spread apart, not just pulled on the top laces. You tighten it up snugly by each eyelet, then you tie it and then you double tie it so it won't come undone. Because I don't want shoes coming untied during practice or during the game. I don't want that to happen. I'm sure that once I started teaching that many years ago, it did cut down on blisters. It definitely helped, but that's just a little detail that coaches must take advantage of because it's the little details that make the big things come about.

Just look at how nuanced he is in his description of something that most coaches would take as obvious. What I'm not working with 5 year olds, I'm working with college students. But that's what made John Wooden so famous and so notorious for not just the inspirational elements of the pyramid like integrity and values and showing up and doing your best every day, but the tiniest details down to tightening up snugly by each eyelet on the shoe after you've put on the sock correctly. Can you imagine if our manager manuals for our businesses had this level of detail for new team members to learn from and implement?

We'll be right back just after this.

Here's a quick podcast for all you true crime fans. The Case of the Missing Reeses it was me at the store with my mouth Motive. Um, they're Reese's. What was I gonna do? Stop myself? Tune in next time to see if I do it again. Spoiler I will.

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One of my favorite places to observe this principle in action are leaked celebrity or musician riders. Riders spelled R I D E R. These are so fun. The backstage riders are usually presented to promoters by every touring act. Let's say in the case of musicians, detailing specifications on stage design, sound systems, lighting and the artist's wish list for their green room. It could be everything from travel and billing to their dressing room accommodations meals. These can be pretty simple and straightforward with just specific food and drink requests to stock the room. But where they get really fun is when they have a lot more detail or really quirky things about the surrounding environment to ensure ultimate comfort for these celebrities. You even get a little bit of this snapshot if you watch the reality show Below Deck of which I fell in love with at some point where you see what these charter guests preferences are for their stay on these luxurious yachts. Whether or not you think these requests are over the top or well earned, that's for you to judge. So I'm going to share some of my favorites with you of course, aided by ChatGPT with a few caveats. Sometimes these are exaggerated or misinterpreted. Sometimes they're put in place by their management and not actually the celebrity's personal preferences. And then sometimes it might have been a one time thing a decade ago. Like if Taylor Swift makes a request in 2008 and it leaks and that's now the example celebrity writer that we are looking at. I mean she has evolved, she's grown and matured in the years since they went up. Nonetheless though, these still provide quite an interesting peek into a listers ranging demands around the details.

For example, Madonna requested a new toilet seat for every venue she performed at. Barbra Streisand needed rose petals in her toilet bowl. Janet Jackson wanted a full on living room setup with sofas, lamps and a rug. Mariah Carey reportedly asked for a room filled with furniture in a specific shade of pink. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez requested a white room with white flowers, white tables, white drapes, white candles and white couches. I would be so scared and inevitably stain any one of those things. Things Stevie Nicks wanted a white colored room with a black rose arrangement. Bono needed a large arrangement of fresh flowers but no chrysanthemums. Meanwhile, David Bowie requested his dressing room be filled with wild lilies. Katy Perry wanted white and purple hydrangeas, pink and white roses and peonies. Who doesn't love a peony? But how are they going to get those year round if those flowers aren't available? Perry will settle for quite quote a selection of seasonal white flowers to include white orchids. However, promoters are advised absolutely no carnations. That warning is of course underlined. Britney Spears required that all her food be labeled in alphabetical order. Jay Z requested good quality peanut butter and jelly. Nicki Minaj had a 45 page writer that reportedly included baked chicken, no thighs, lots of salad and veggies and Snapple. Cardi B asked for golden fried chicken from fast food chains, while Jennifer Hudson needed plenty of chocolate milk and Froot Loops cereal. Selena Gomez asked for pickles and incense. Such an odd combo. While Mick Jagger wanted a room with an exercise bike and a TV tuned to sports channels. Who would have guessed? Coldplay asked for fair trade bananas and a fridge to store white wine, while Dolly Parton wanted a low fat low sugar menu and a list of nearby shopping malls. You couldn't pay me enough to go to a shopping mall while I was on a tour. Aerosmith wanted assorted fresh fruit and veggie platters. Sting wanted assorted organic fruit and veggie platters and a jar of Manuka honey. Justin Timberlake requested an entire floor of a hotel for himself and fresh baked cookies. Yum. The Beach Boys wanted a fridge stocked with vanilla ice cream. Tom Petty asked for a room for his yoga instructor. Duran Duran requested six Yoga mats and a selection of vegetarian foods. While Santana wanted a meditation room with an assortment of candles. Taylor Swift requested Starbucks coffee and a bag of Twizzlers. Pearl Jam asked for a case of local craft beer, and the Eagles insisted on three kinds of soda, but no Pepsi. Don't get that confused with John Mayer, who wanted an assortment of soft drinks but no Coca Cola. And according to the Smoking Gun, they write, how can you not love a guy who requires a copy of the New York Times and one box of a kid's brand cereal? Either Cap' N Crunch, Count Chocula, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp or Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Finally, Van Halen, possibly one of the most famous rider requests of all time. They request no brown M and Ms. In their dressing room. Now, this wasn't just a quirky demand. It's not that the M and Ms. Tasted any different. Depending on their color, it was included as a way to check if their technical specifications were being read and adhered to down to even the smallest tiny details.

So for your own foray into this world, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to the Smoking Gun's ever growing list of 100 plus backstage writers. And as much as I hate to invoke his name during the trial for Elaine Maxwell, with regard to the Jeffrey Epstein stuff, one of the court documents that leaked that is now posted online that you know I'm going to link to is their 60 page household manual for his Palm beach estate. So there was so much fascination and speculation as people on the Internet were pouring over this because kind of like that John Wooden quote, they're going down to the tiniest details of how to run this household. Now, we probably each have all our own quirks. For example, on the airplane, I always book Delta Comfort plus window seat. I don't want to have to get up mid flight, no matter depending on my seatmate's needs. I don't want to be in the first row because I don't want to have to put my stuff up in the bin just for takeoff. I don't want to be in the last row because it often doesn't recline. Nor do I want to be near a bathroom that's usually a flight filled with slamming doors, bad smells and accumulating lines where you get bumped by everyone trying to navigate these tiny aisles. In my home, I have quirks. I have not communicated these to our wonderful cleaning person yet, but the toilet plunger, sometimes after she leaves, it's turned so that the white cover is facing the back of the bathroom and I see the plunger and I don't like it. So every time after she leaves I twist the plungers around 180 degrees so the white cover is showing. So weird. Sometimes after she leaves the microwave plate is not lined up properly and so it's rickety if I don't go in and double check that. And now Michael and I usually have a chuckle like how's the microwave plate going to be? And he knows this about me. That's just one of my quirks that I look for. And then in my business, you know my philosophy, if you've read free time, every question lives three lives. So I'm really adamant that if there are details about how we do things or if a team member needs to ask a question, I don't want my answer to live and die in an email. And we rarely use Slack or there it needs to be documented in our manager manual as per the Fiji test, so that someone coming in the future doesn't have to repeat that same question and I don't have to repeat that same answer. Think of all this like having and building your own either personal manager manual. You can have one for your travel preferences, you can have one for your home, and I certainly hope you have one for your business. As far as the delight in the details, you might even add this to your hiring process where you vet applicants according to attention to detail by asking them to include a specific phrase in the subject line of their email or even if they submit a two minute video to say a certain phrase toward the end of the video, something that would just indicate this is a person who loves detail, is good at paying attention to details, and is following your request for detail in your hiring process. And I'll be the first to say, sometimes the visionary the CEO of the business is not detail oriented. That's what makes some of us really good at imagining things and inventing new streams of income. For another fascinating take on a peek into the super rich kind of post luxury market, I I'm going to put a link in the show notes to an episode of the really Rich podcast with Nicholas Crown. He interviewed this fascinating guy, Ray Flemings, and the title of the episode is Buying what Isn't. For post Luxury and Kindness, you'll hear Some really interesting 5 levels of how to work with super rich clients. Let's talk systems. Now. Start by adding sections to your manager manual if you don't already have them. This could be around home cleaning, including laundry how tos because we all have our particularities of how we like things done. You could include your travel plans like I do, how you want an assistant or somebody on your team to help. Or maybe you like to do all your own booking, whatever's required on that front. And again, for the business, you gotta have a manager manual in place, an externalized mind. Tiago Forte calls it a second brain. If you want a done for you Dashboard, I encourage you to check out the Free Time Operations Dashboard. I have put years, years into learning how to do this and building it and so I would love to save you the time. You can visit itsfreetime.com dashboard now. You know what Manuka Honey Brown M and Ms. Chocolate milk, vanilla gelato, rose petals, Fair trade bananas and Twizzlers have in common. It's a fun party trick for you to ask someone the next time you're at some conference or networking situation, but you might have noticed again, that one is not like the others. The point of the Brown M and Ms. Was not because they tasted different, it was so the band knew who was paying attention and who wasn't. What are the Brown M&Ms. In your business?

You hereby have permission to be picky about the details and to be incredibly detail oriented in your documentation. Bonus. I encourage you to create your own form of a celebrity writer. Imagine yourself as an A list musician or a list movie star. What are all the details that would go into creating a delightful experience for you when you travel? Let's say on the day of a big speaking engagement. Maybe you do VIP days with clients and you want to roll out the red carpet for them and have all these delightful features leading up to an event, the day of the event and following the event. Be really detail oriented. I have friends who are very specific about this of if they do a two day on site with a client, exactly how they set up. They stay in a hotel for three nights even if it's in their home city. They might order fresh fl, get a manicure, get a blowout. This is if maybe if you're one of the ladies men, be grateful that you don't have to do all these things. These don't need to go on your checklist necessarily, but just what would you want to put in place to ensure success? To ensure your comfort? And I encourage you to go a little wild with this. Figure out what your must haves are, but then figure out your ultra delightful details. I can't wait to hear what you try around all this. Thank you so much for listening and have a beautiful rest of your day.

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