Episode 281: Winning at Business and Life with Lewis Chaney

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.

My name is Lewis Chaney. I am with Get to the Damn Point LLC. That is how to Say Less and Be Heard More sort of kind of fits right in the wheelhouse here of your format. And it's all about communication soft skills of what it can do for your business.

Well, Lewis, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show, and you're absolutely right. It's a perfect fit for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Question number 2, what is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?

I'll tell you, it's just like I think anybody who works in any sort of an industry. If you're a leader of any type, maybe even the coworker, it is what I call those light bulb moments. When you dispense something, and if you're a part of Clubhouse, I don't know if you are or not, getting in there and you throw out something that you think is so commonplace for your business and you hear the response from somebody that just lights up their world and opens their brain up to possibilities they never even thought of, that never gets old. It absolutely never gets old.

Oh, I love it. And I can hear the passion in your voice. It's absolutely great. Question number 3. I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Well, selfishly, I think a lot of them should read the chapter on soft skills. You hear a lot of this. You look it up on Google. It's what bosses are looking for, both coming into the workplace. It's what they're looking for, for their succession line inside the workplace. And the biggest thing that I think they overlook or what I call the wallflowers, the people who don't have that skill set that may be in your meetings, that may be in your team, that have great ideas. And man, they could bring so much to the table, but they're sort of overlooked. And I think that's something they paid attention to and taught them how to talk. Because even in Clubhouse, people don't even want to come up to the stage and talk because they're like, I'm scared. If you taught these people not to be and taught them how to present themselves better, you could get ideas from them that possibly would blow your socks off. It's just you overworking.

Absolutely. And it's so true because, uh, you know, when people just stay quiet, you think, well, how come they're not participating? Well, you know, that's why they say there's introverts and extroverts. But I've seen it in many, many cases where introverts who have the confidence, they will contribute very insightful comments to the meeting. And it's— you just have to figure out a way to tap into that, right?

Absolutely. I mean, you talked about earlier real quickly about how I worked in some independent film and things. When I've worked in the independent film world, we've told everybody who's worked as a PA up, if you see something on set we're doing and you have an idea, please let us hear it. We may not take the idea, but we certainly won't if we don't hear it.

Love it. Love it. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

This one is an easy one for me because I've actually been in this situation. Stop looking at that piece of paper from a college they had whenever that might have been. There are so many people out there who have what I refer to as a doctorate of experience. And you're overlooking that because you're looking at a piece of paper they might have had, in some cases several years old, but even coming straight out of college, you know, as I do, coming out of that, you're not going to know everything. It's all the on-the-job training stuff that you get. And I actually had a business one time wanted to hire me. Said I was perfect, I was a perfect fit for it, could do the job, but we want you to go get the degree. Spend 2 years getting the degree, pay your money, go to that. By the time I'd have gotten the degree, I'd been doing the job for 2 years. And I'm like, I don't think so. Not just to get a piece of paper. And I think you're overlooking a great segment of the workforce that could be great for you because you're limiting yourself. Take a page out of Elon Musk's book. Don't worry about that. Look at the people, not at the paper.

And I couldn't agree with you more. Even though I'm a professor, I tell you that there have been so many cases where I've seen students that didn't complete their degree, but went on to have just spectacular careers. And if you're looking for a particular talent, the school of actually doing it is so powerful because the application of concepts as opposed to just the theory and memorization is what really counts. Is that what you've experienced as well?

Yes, exactly. And right now I've got a son who's going in to be an ALS interpreter. He's learning sign language and he can do it well. The kid's got an eidetic memory. He does very well, but he needs the fluency. And the good thing about it is he's got a co-worker, which what led him into this, who is deaf, and he communicates with him all the time. So that combined with his schoolwork is really stepping his game up, something other kids may not have when they're going through school. But if you're doing that, find a way to get into that game so you can improve at that level.

Great insight. Thank you so much. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

I will acknowledge a business leader, but I don't think they'd be on your podcast because I'm pretty sure it's not the thing they do. But I'm also— you may have looked up and seen that I am a mentalist and magician and I perform at a restaurant on a weekly basis. The owners of that restaurant are all family. And they have been doing this since the 1960s. They've had this restaurant in our area since the 1960s, almost 50 years now. And it's very successful. They have 3 of them. And I admire them. I really, truly admire them. And I look at them and they even call the pizza place that I work in, it's like Pizza University, because they've taught other people how to do business that have gone and opened up even competing restaurants against them. But they teach and train that. And what better place could you work for than a place, the business, a business like that, that believes in that. And if you look on Clubhouse, you would find tons of people, I'm sure, who'd love to be on your show. But as far as a business person I admire, it's that family.

I wonder if that's so, so great. And I totally agree with you. And what's the family name?

The family name? Are you going to put me on the spot here? Because it's going to get my mind— it's like, God, you're asking me a question now though. You hadn't asked me that question, I could have told you. And right now it's Tom is the owner's name. I can't tell you the, the last name of the family because it's It's just gone.

No worries. No worries. I'll go ahead and look it up. So not a problem. Sorry for putting you on the spot there because I got—

One of those things, man, is my mind is just not there and I feel bad that I can't come up with it. Turner. Tom Turner. Thank you. It's the Turner family.

Yay!

Woo! I got saved. Perfect.

All right. And our final question, question number 6. Please tell me about your first job.

Oh, yeah. First job. Dude, I could have gotten rich in my first job. I was making a whole $2.62 an hour as a student worker at 17 years old, working for Ponderosa Steakhouse. I remember one day standing there waiting to bus the table. That's what I started off as, as a busser, made it up to cook. And there was a GM of some sort who was like a regional manager or something that came in. And as he passed by me and a guy that I just met that was a friend, he goes, gentlemen, Y'all are doing a heck of a job holding that wall up. I'm like, thanks, I appreciate it. But it really taught me work ethic. It's one of those things that I worked my butt off for that $2.62 an hour, and I want to never forget it. I've got the pay stub somewhere because I want to remember where I've come from and remember that there's people out there who are still struggling, and I never want to treat anybody different because of that.

You know, it's so interesting that you say that because I remember my first, uh, first job being a a busboy, and yeah, it was $2.50 an hour, minimum wage. And, you know, so yeah, so you were making a lot.

So I had you beat by a little bit there. I thought you were making more than me, but you said $2.50. Yeah, I was, I was just, you know, I could buy a car where you couldn't. I mean, on that whole $0.12 an hour extra that I was getting there, you know.

Well, it's true. And the thing was, is we were supposed to get tips, but the Waitresses usually took all of those and left us in the kitchen out in the cold. So what are you going to do?

I understand that completely.

Mr. Lewis, thank you so much for being on the show. How could people find you?

It's really simple. Just go to gettodamnpoint.com and you'll find out all about me there.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.