Well, good morning. How is everyone? 

Well, this is gonna be a fantastic conversation. Just to introduce myself, I'm Michael H. I've been with Chick fil A for the last thirteen years, but started my career there over twenty years ago. And so I've had a front row seat to Dan Cathy's leadership, uh, model, and he's my leadership hero. So I'm so excited to spend time with Dan. And then, of course, I also had a front row seat to Dan and Horst's relationship as we were reinventing what hospitality looks like at Chick fil A. So I gotta tell you, I'm more excited than you are about this conversation. It's gonna be it's gonna be a lot of fun. But what we're gonna do is just just have a conversation around Dan and Horace's thoughts around hospitality. I'll get a chance to introduce and just talk to them. We're gonna intersperse questions throughout the time instead of waiting to the end, though. So I want you to be thinking about what do you wanna ask Dan, what do you wanna ask Horst, And then we'll take pauses throughout the time and just get your questions, um, so that we can make this be a more of a dialogue versus us, uh, just talking to you. So with that, again, I'm very glad to, uh, uh, to be here with Dan. Dan, um, again, former CEO of Chick fil A, and I got to see Dan reinvent our hospitality model at Chick fil A, reinvent our model of our customer digital experience as Dan spearheaded the launch of the Chick fil A app. So you think about how technology intersects with hospitality. I got to see it all. And then Horace, of course, is the the father of modern hospitality. He brought my pleasure into the mainstream, and then we integrated that at Chick fil A. And, um, I'll tell this to to brag on Horace. At Ritz Carlton, when when Horst was there and founded it, when he was there, they won the Malcolm Baldrige service award two years in a row. That's winning the Super Bowl back to back in the service industry. And so he is, uh, he is the goat as they say. So, um, the greatest of all time. So with that, I just wanted to go ahead and get started. And, um, Horace, maybe just start with you first. Um, and you always talk about at at the Ritz Carlton, it was ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Can you talk a little bit about your your the methodology that you deploy? 

Well yeah. But first of all, I have to respond to something you said. You said that Dan, uh, great was kind of in hospitality. I I don't think he changed. I think I think I really mean it. I think Dan is changing the world. Only of course, he's actually changing the world. And maybe I have changed hospitality, but he's changing the world. There's nobody more creative in in in in creating the few creating the future. The people may be more creative painting. I don't know about that, my man. Maybe they even create more creative, uh, playing the trumpet some people, but not in creating the world's the future of the world. He is. Anyway, yeah, I started I'm everybody knows I I guess I started this call. By the way, I created another hotel company, which is now rated number one in the world. That's called Capella. The reason you don't know it is because there's none in The US. And the philosophy about Capella and a number of other companies I've worked with is very simple. It's very, very simple. Understand what the understand what the market what your what your market wants. What do they want? What do they expect? I can I can't I'm telling you, unquestionably, they don't only expect your product? They expect to be respected, honored. Any customer that walks into your store and into what or you deal with, doesn't matter, in your office, whatever you deal with. So so why would you only give him the product? Why wouldn't you give him the other things he or she wants? That was the knowledge. And we had that knowledge, and I work with behavioral analyst, everybody how to give it to them. And then once you know that, then you need employees who want to do that for the customer, not not have to do it. Management is making sure that they have to do it. But you have to have leadership that creates environment in which they want to do it. And all of this process and right works. So if I have employees who want to take care of the customer, including the need to be respected and be honored and the timeliness and all the things they expect. And and but most companies, the problem is most company only manage their product. And that's why okay. Now you want me to go on? I'm gonna have 

to go. This is I told you 

we're gonna have a lot of fun. Okay? 

I'm gonna have a bit. I oh, get get carried away. 

I wanna make this very easy for you because I'm I could just sit here and talk 

to a horse. 

But, hey, I just love what he said. I'm I'm always pick up a little chance from him. I hope I got my mic. I got a green light right here, so that's up to the whoever's on the mixing board to pull up the light and however you wanna do so. Or we might have a weak battery. So we'll try that. (678), 910-1112. How about that? Is that better? Yeah. Okay. But I think what what he just said is a real note taker, something to put down a note that people expect to be respected. Uh, I just my first meeting this morning was with the, um, one of the senior vice presidents of the US Soccer Federation. US Soccer Federation is building a national training center, 400 200 acres, 17 pitches, 27 national teams, 400 corporate staff. And in our conversation this morning was all about what is the onboarding process look like? What will be the process when we have this beautiful, incredible facilities that we're building? It will literally be the one of the largest and one of the finest soccer slash football, if you're European as horses over here, uh, facilities in the world. And when I say in the world, I I was on a plane to London and to Paris to look at some of the finest, uh, football complexes, if you will. Uh, and then we worked with Gensler and Brasfield Goury, our contractor, to kick it up a notch. And it's all about showing respect from a facility standpoint. But if the software doesn't match up with incredible precision shot side that's been hauled out of South Carolina as we speak right now, you know, we'll we'll undo all of it. Um, I was just last week, I had the privilege of, uh, serving 4,000 cadets at US, uh, military academy, West Point. And that whole place, Horst, is all about respect. It's learning the language of respect. Uh, and that's the lost language that we are we have to come back to. Well, how do we show respect? Um, one of the funny stories I got from my dad, um, is we jumped on the elevator at the Chick fil A office together, and I had a hat on. And we the elevator stopped at the Second Floor. A lady got on the elevator. Uh, we were going to the Fifth Floor, she got off at the Fourth Floor. So I'm standing on the cab with my dad with a hat on, and a lady gets on the Second Floor, she gets off at the Fourth Floor. And as soon as that door closed, my dad looks at me, he says, don't you know that you always take your hat off when a lady steps on the elevator? I said, no. If you didn't teach me that, you know, how was I supposed to know something like that? So, you know, there's there's, you know, respectfulness is expressed through actions, as you well know. It is expressed through language and conduct and attentiveness and on and on. So it is it is a skill to be to be taught. But based on what you just said that, you know, people are starving for acknowledgment, for respectfulness, and to be treated respectfully. 

Well, Dan, talk a little bit more about that. Um, again, at Chick fil A, it's baked in every part of the culture. You see these name tags. The spirit is everyone, team member, operator at the support center wears a name tag because that immediately connects people, helps people feel known and acknowledged, creates respect. And talk more about the spirit of second mile service at Chick fil A, the hospitality model, why we say my pleasure. Where did all that come from and maybe even connect it back to some of your relationship with horses? 

Well, I'm building a whole new community south of, uh, our Chick fil A support center called Trillip, which is a big movie studio. It's the largest movie studio complex now in North America. And I'm dealing with a lot of first generation retailers there, and I'm running a big campaign to get name tags on. I said, now why why are these name tags? And I said, important we explain why. The why is that we seek to have an a relationship with our customer. And if it makes it easier for them to identify with us because we have a name tag on, you'll notice that in any well run hospitality, uh, business out there, whether it's a Delta Airlines or it's a Marriott Hotel or it's a Chick fil A restaurant. What what's the common denominator there? Well, it it provides a potential opportunity to have an engaging conversation with someone. They get to call you by night. It just makes up just a just a little bit more personal. So it's that desire, a real desire that it's not about me. It's about you. You know, I'd love to know who you are. I'd love I can better serve personalized service, which I'm sure horses are gonna talk about, who I can at least call you by name. And so when we onboard, you know, staff members, team members, people that these new restaurant tours that I'm dealing with, they have this single sermonette speech with them. You know, it's it's it's about, you know, making it easy for people to connect. It's not about you. It's not about us. It's about how can we make it easy for them. If they got an issue, they can say, hey, Joe. Hey, Susie. Hey, Jack. Whatever. You know, you know, can I get an extra cup of coffee? You know, whatever it might be. So it's about opening that up. It's it's a real you folk it's a respectfulness focus. Yeah. You know, I care about you personally. I want to care for you personally. I want to be it gets easy as I possibly can for you to get to know who I am. At least call me by night. 

So building on that, we talked about this a little bit before, Horace. Connect the dots here though because, I mean, a lot of this audience works in business to business. So, I mean, does this stuff does this stuff actually apply in business to business as well? 

That's a wonderful term, isn't it? I he loves that term. I think. 

I absolutely hate it. It's it's just so and and but if you really think about it, business b two b, business to business. Have you ever seen a business talking with another business? And I mean, it it is really there is business a and business b dealing together. There's a human being who've and the other deals with a human being and and and and a. And the opinion in the whole company, a company, is based how one person maybe was dealing with them in the other company. It it the opinion is built by relationship. We have to know that in everything. If you have a hardware store, the customer will go buys a hammer. He goes home and tells his neighbor, man, I've got a great hammer. No. But he may say, gee. I mean, this heart was started. They treated me as if it was a rich garden or whatever. You know, it's relationship that creates it. And and and in fact, here here here it is. You have to get that. Please get that. Let it really sink in. Whatever you deal with, whatever you do, a recent survey, and you may know about it, but let let me repeat it. A recent survey, only two years old, about two to three years old, studied the American consumer. And the American consumers, 80%, that means everybody, 80% said, I will deal with you if you're nice with me even if I could buy the same product next door for less. So it's not a product that creates loyalty that we all talk about in customer satisfaction. It's how you are treated, which we call service. And service and I I deal with service companies, and I ask them to define service, and they cannot. I mean, because they never looked and said, jeez. I mean, the service what is my process to so they cannot even define it. If I had to find it for you for a minute, service starts somewhere and ends somewhere. So looking at that way. So start service has to start the instant, not a half a second later, that instant when I make contact with the customer. That maybe on the Internet, that instant, on a telephone, of course, in person more important. So it starts at instant. So it has to start with a great, caring, respectful, greeting, welcome, not hi. If I say hi, I'm saying be equal. No. No. And it depends what business you're in. You wanna be more relaxed. I understand. But if I say, welcome, ma'am. How are you today? I'm saying already I respect you. But at the same time, I'm saying, you can trust me. I'm professional. So the instant is that instant you you are listen to me. Not only your business, you yourself are defining yourself the instant you make contact with the customer. What do you want them to think about you? That's the question. And you have to answer it by what you do, how you look, by your by how you and everything. Sorry. The first step of service is a great welcome. That's it? The next step of service, and please forgive me, is that you do your absolute best for the customer relative to your product. You help them to get the most out of the moment when they deal with you. That's the second step. And the third step is farewell, and you can process that. And, of course, that has to be done by great people, but even great people, it can be processed so you have great people. And that is that's your end. What I hope for you remember here is that the instant you con you have contact with the customer, be it in person, be it in writing, be it anyway, you yourself are defining yourself. Of course, by it, you also define your company. And if the company has a great name, it defines you back. That's even if they a rich company employee looks for a job, and and my next company is a much better company, Capella. Honestly, a much higher rated now. But if a Ritz Carlton employee looks for a job, the hundred others, the Ritz Carlton employee form gets it because he or she are defined by a great name that they created in turn. So you're sharp. You don't define yourself while you watch TV at home, guys. You define yourself mostly based on most of your vacant life where you start at work. So to become conscious, I'm here to define myself, changes everything. 

Taurus, can I I wanna ask ask Thomas the question because this is a privilege for me to be I mean, this is I I I've named five mentors in my life that had a profound impact on my professional life other than my dad? And, uh, the list of names, I'll tell you who the five are. They were five people in Atlanta that was on my bucket list. I got a chance to spend some time with it. Had a profound impact on my life. Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, co founders of Home Depot, all kind of stuff I learned from each one of them. Tom Cousins, uh, with Cousins Properties who redefined, uh, Urban Living Force and Eastlake Community, personal communities, horse schlots, and Andrew Young. And I could I could speak on each one of them about how profound their impact was on my life. Multidimensional, not just one thing that I got, but multiple principles about life and business and sustaining great performance and scaling it. Overall, really scaling it. Um, Horace, uh, talk you mentioned the words trust. And so connect the dots. So why is trust so important in the customer experience? And how do how do we create trust? 

Yeah. And like I told you, the survey earlier said, if you're nice to me, I deal with you rather than even if I could buy the same item next door. Why is that? Well, uh, I I worked a lot with behavioral analyst in the University of Colorado, University of Frankfurt. Those things have all been studied, by the way. That's nothing new that I gave you here. If I am nice to you, you start trusting me because I'm nice to you, because I treat you with respect. So why should I go next to or to people that I don't know even though they may sell it the same? But but I I know I can trust them. I can trust you. The trust is just again, trust is created by consistency and by being nice. That's how the trust is created. Be sure. Understand any relationship starts with distrust. I don't there is a suspicion in the moment. It moves to neutral and then moves to trust. So and and so you have to make sure that the person's in front of you, you create trust in them by paying attention to them, by responding to them to pay go to the amid and everything. Even if the if the person in front of you has a problem, wants to complain to you about something, wants to complain to you about your company, something but you do it did. You you can turn this around and move it to major trust. Let me get tell you one a a real example, which by the book a real example. The guest comes hotel guest comes in a in a cafe in the morning, and the busboy said, good morning, sir sir. I hope you have a you had a nice stay with us. And the guest said, in fact, I didn't. In fact, I didn't because my t TV didn't work. So he comes in already was angry and want to get rid of a problem they had. He is not trusting anybody in the moment because he had a problem with the TV. But he looks at the bus, and the bus looks and pays pays attention and apologize and said, please forgive me, sir, for my TV. He said, well, but don't don't worry. I know it's not your TV. Yeah. But, sir, it's it's my hotel. It is my TV in many ways. Please forgive me. I feel so bad. I will buy you breakfast. That that customer who would have left as an as a terrorist against that comp that our company because he would have talked back about us. He would have still told told his travel agent they were bad and I lost their business. He would have been a terrorist. Instead, he leaves as an ambassador because we cared for him, responded when took it serious what he had to say. So so when when we had those experiences, in fact, we certified every employee in the company, 24,000 are in five continents, and and told them, you know, in in a nutshell, if you get a complaint, you listen. If you don't pay the attention already, distrust. Number two, pay have empathy. Number three, apologize. Number four, make amends, and you moved somebody who was negative about your organization to trusted customer. But trust by the way, you can kill trust. The number one once you have to establish trust, by by the way and and and the study showed the number one killer from trust is timeliness. If you if you don't respond to an email, if you let people say I see you at at 09:00 and you show up at quarter past nine and so on, kills trust right there. The trust is a key element of your customers won't deal with you. Why would they deal with you if they don't trust you? So why wouldn't you develop trust? It it is this is so crazy to me. Now how do you do it again? That's the thing. How do I make sure my doorman in Shanghai does it? That means I have to have the right processes. And so I'm so that that's why how that's how it work. Trust is a key element of your business. I guarantee you. Yeah. I I 

feel like the more I know about people, the more I can trust them. Yeah. Uh, if I know who runs a business. So my a real action item I would suggest following you to consider is to let people get to know you. Who are you? Who are you as a person? What are your interests? Uh, what's going on with your family? What's happening with you personally? Uh, I I know that when I go to restaurants or whomever, and I know something about the people that run that business or know that business, I don't even care what the price they charge me. That that neutralizes price for me when I know the business that I'm doing business with. Because I I trust the family. I trust the owners. Uh, if they make a nice profit off of it, I know something about them. I know they're doing something good with the profits they make. Uh, I may be the only one in the room that kinda feels that way, but, you know, when I go to the varsity, you know, I don't care what they're gonna charge me for onion rings. It doesn't make any difference. You know, I know Nancy Sims and your father, Frank Gordy. Um, you know, I know stuff about their family and so forth. Uh, the more I know about Ed Bastian, you know, at Delta Airlines, you know, price becomes less less an issue for me. By the way, I thought it was just brilliant. Talking about trust. I was on a extended flight just week before last, and they do a playback of Ed Bastian's. If you've not seen it, I'd I'd reckon putting this on your bucket list. But it's Ed Bastian's presentation at the Sphere in Las Vegas that took place a month or two ago perhaps now. About an hour and forty five minute program takes up a lot of good time when you find an airplane. But I got to know I already knew Ed, had some wonderful what's going on relationships with himself. But the more he freely shared with us what's going on and it was a real in house program for his staff and employees that he's put up. He was opening up the whole the whole kimono, so to speak, to customers to know what their issues are, what their performance is, but really, really good transparency about how they're thinking about how they're gonna be taking care of us over the next ten years. So, uh, in in that whole trust bucket, um, is that the more people can get to know us, more we can proactively let them know a little bit about history, what got you where you are. I think more people have trust and confidence in you that you're gonna be able to deliver a great experience service experience. Absolutely. I wanna leave some space. Questions in the audience leaving spark from you guys that you wanna ask Dan 

and Horace about? 

Are you gonna comment on that, Rebekah? 

No. I I just want to again, that that whole trusting is so important. Again, it's how do that if you deal with them, how do you make sure they trust you afterwards? Well, just what do that's one thing I said you want to accomplish when you deal with any customer. Well, look at yourself. Are you are you is your is your grooming such that you I can trust you? Do you look me in the eyes or are you disinterested in something else? Are you there? Are you do I feel that you want to help me with your product really or do you want to just push something at me? You develop trust. You It's not other people. Look at our you the problem is we don't learn that in in the country because the the whole society is blaming each other. It's them. It's them. No. It's you. It's you. You define yourself and in and including establishing the trust with anybody to deal with, period. So don't don't kid yourself. Let's get over this blaming blaming each other here. And then all of a sudden, oh, they because I am that because they did that. You come on, buddy. You in who is in charge of you? You or or or I I I see a couple friends of mine, dear friends dear friends getting divorced. And I said, why? Why we don't feel? Who is in charge of the feeling? The feeling is in charge of you, but, I mean, you are in charge. And if it doesn't work, it's you. Excellence is no accident. Excellence is the result of a high intent. What is your intent when you meet somebody? What's in your your intent in your life? What's your intent in your marriage? What is your intent? And then you make decisions. Once you have a high intent, you will find the decisions. You will make decisions to accomplish the intent. Your destiny is easy. Decisions that you make. It's you. And once you accept that, everything else becomes easy. 

So just a quick follow-up on this. We can ping pong on this all day long because he's very passionate. You see his passion sitting up in the chair, you know, his zeal for this, he got in my face twenty five years ago. We're sitting in his office in Buckhead, Rich Carlton. He was in his prime, still is in his prime from my standpoint. But in terms of launching Rich Carlton around the world, and he looked at me and said, you are the I said, we're better than McDonald's. We're better than Wendy's. We're better than Burger. He's looked. He's rubbish. You you you're just you're just the best of a bad lot. You got nothing to be tried. 

That's In fact, I said lousy lot. Yeah. Yeah. 

But let me tell you why I took it so personally from him. Because I knew also that he was a Christ follower. He had standards. He would not allow any pornography in any Rich Carlton hotel anywhere in the world. Even though we got a lot of pressure from all kind of ownership wanting to have as a profit margin. But I trusted him. And because I trusted him, I took his what he said directly to heart. It was a piercing arrow for me to hear that twenty five years ago. But I I knew he was right. I I knew there's some there's an opportunity we had to dramatically distinguish ourself from McDonald's and Burger King. It wasn't because we had a super limited time only milkshake either. But there was something far more sustainable that could really differentiate us. And he sent me on a two year trek to try to figure it out. What would we do? And it was related to this idea of respectfulness. And so we not only said started saying my pleasure, and we, at the time, we had about a hundred thousand heathen barbaric teenagers who never said my pleasure. And it's quite a story about ten years from my dad drilling that into us. But then there's also fresh flowers on our tables. You know, plastic flowers, first mile, yes, got second mile. Second mile is what they don't expect. And it was all about pepper grinders, you know, for entree salads. You'd expect to get it when you paid $50 for lunch at a Ritz Carlton. That's no that's for a small. But in a fast food restaurant, you know, at a 9 or $10 price point, average check average, you wouldn't expect fresh flowers or or pepper grinders. Uh, on a rainy day on a rainy day. I mean, you can count on a rainy day one every two weeks or so, but you pop out there with a Chick fil A big Chick fil A umbrella to escort a busy mom that's trying to wrestle with two little toddlers to get inside that restaurant. 25 of the cars see you out there with a Chick fil A umbrella escorting somebody in. I'm telling that, that is a game changer right there. I can confidently bet my life in the fact that when I pop that umbrella, I'm eliminating the competition. It's a simple thing. What does it cost us? Zippo. But it does start with an idea that we wanna we wanna treat a starving, stressed out mom with two little kids and we pop that umbrella out for them, that is a game changer. You think they think about price when she comes in? That's the last thing from her mind. Because that was the most best thing part of her day was when we treated that way. And we're limited only by our imagination, how we can creatively do have an endearing moment. I asked my wife right last night. I saw I listened to a podcast Sunday from The Daily from New York Times. Thirty you may have heard about that. 36 questions you can ask that guarantees you'll fall in love with someone. In that 36 deal, there's a little exercise in is you look into the eyes of someone for four minutes. Now it gets really scary to look in somebody's eyes for four minutes. I asked my wife, Rhonda. I told her this. I said, Rhonda, could I just have sixty seconds, just one minute that I could look into your eyes? We've been married. If we can make it August 11, it'd be fifty two years. You know what she told me? I said, just sixty seconds. No. But we talk about the core four, you know, we talk about eye contact and so forth. But to horse about attentiveness and respect, imagine if we really learn how to really look into someone's eye. It it is, uh, it's a moving experience, you know, for me when you have that kind of genius with someone about it. There's a, uh, authenticity. There's a vulnerability even about it. Uh, I'll love to tell the story. I was going through a Chick fil A drive thru for breakfast and I was off for for a busy day and this lady handed me told me how how fast this can happen. And she looked at me with most of the series. She said, I hope you have a really good day today. And there was so much heart and beating what she said to me. I thought about that the rest of the day. And you've heard me say this a bunch of times. And I I always get moved emotionally when I when I talk about it because it meant so much to me in that moment. So Andrew's talking a lot about moments. You know, what's a moment? You know, are we creating moments? Memorable, buzzable, tweetable moments that are such a refuge, you know, to to the lives that we live. 

He got that from my book. 

I get everything from his book, from his time. 

So, I mean, don't miss. I just I could listen to Dan and horses talk all day. Dan, one thing I wanna call out for the group is a leadership lesson that I've learned from you. Dan used to tell us, hey. Leaders need to be wearing oxygen masks because they have to go from 30,000 feet. And you talk about people who know strategy. I mean, Dan can he can talk strategy. He can talk future. He can talk about economics in the marketplace, but leaders need to be able to have an oxygen mask to go from 30,000 feet to the ground floor immediately. And the way that Dan talks about the details and the behaviors, he had each one of us on staff memorizing and understanding how do we make eye contact and share a smile and speak in a friendly tone and say my pleasure. I mean, getting down to those detailed levels. And so, again, I think it's such a great leadership lesson. Horace, I want 

I I agree with the with the of that fully, but at the same time, I have to say, when the word leader comes up and everybody talks about leader and manager, a leader has purpose Purpose. A leader doesn't just fulfill function, does work. Yeah. You know? Listen. Then some people are, uh, look look at, uh, you want to become a ceiling manager? You seem to like a. I know. Anyway, listen here for a moment. Would be better. You're gonna get something out of this. A leader has purpose. You do things for a higher intent. You don't just fulfill a function. Listen. The chair on which you're sitting is fulfilling a function. You are a human being. You're fulfilling a function for something higher. That makes you a human being, not just fulfilling function. And in this moment, when you follow a purpose and make sure that your purpose is good for all concerned, that maybe your employees, the the customer, the investors, society, your purpose has to be good for or concerned. Then you follow that purpose. You do your functions for to accomplish a purpose that is high. That's makes you a human being and and just fulfilling a function. Some and that's what people do. They got to work for a function. The chair on which you're sitting is fulfilling a function. That means you're saying to be nothing more but a chair. But in everything you do in life, how what is your purpose in your marriage? Uh-huh. Are you just being married or is your purpose to honor your wife, guys? Have you asked her how to be a better husband, for example? Have you ever asked about to fulfill your purpose, to have a higher purpose? And what is your purpose? Part that everything should have a purpose. That makes us human and not just living something or falling for function. And that is leading. That's leading yourself. And that's how you lead an organization, a group, your family, by establishing high intent. Purpose and leadership in implies you're leading some place. Where is it? Where is that place? In everything you do at work, in a friendship, in a marriage, where is that place? 

So I wanna leave some time for questions, but 

I can't help myself. Horace, I'm gonna press in a little bit. We talked about this beforehand. But, I mean, come on. Artificial intelligence has come and technology's changing. Hospitality is gonna go the way the dinosaur. Right? 

Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. I tell you that. I made a speech to to classic hotels. And in front of me was a lady who runs a good hotel. I meant to say that. And she said, everything new. Forget everything in all. Here. And she had her her iPad, uh, iPhone. Here. Here. Technology, uh, a one. Everything's new. Now I understand that. Forget everything you know. Everything she said it 30 times. I was the next speech speaker and said, no. Listen very careful. Nothing is new. And I took my iPhone and said, if this doesn't help to respect and care for your peep the people, it it is worthless. This technology is worthless. All that stuff should help us to respect our customer, care for our employees, support be be good for all concerned. And if it doesn't, all that technology, then you're using a drone. 

Thank you. And amen. Mike Mike and I know exactly what to say to light light this guy up. We can light this. We can hit his button real quick. We know 

it. Alright. What questions from the audience? What questions do you guys have for Dan? I've got one oh. Oh, sorry. I'll get you next. 

So, um, you guys, you know, hit on a big subject, which is this idea of trust. Right? This trust is a much talked about, in my opinion, wildly misunderstood idea. And you have built, you know, brands that that have inspired trust. So if I go stay in the Ritz Carlton or Capella, obviously, next time I go to Europe, um, I expect certain things because of the brand trust that they've engendered. Right? Well, you know, Dan, when I go Chick fil A, I kinda know what to expect, and and I expect that I will get, you know, great food and great service, all that kind of stuff. So that's brand trust. Right? But the room is probably full of people at an earlier part of the journey. Right? Small, mid sized start ups, growth companies who've got limited, uh, resources. So if you if you only had one thing you could say to those people that would help them generate trust, one thing, and, Horst, you can't say be nice. Okay? Because peep because people can fight that. Right? What what's that one thing that that you would advise the group to do? 

Anytime we can we can dramatically dramatize, I'm I trust you. Uh, anytime we can do that as leaders, we can communicate, vulnerability to be more transparent, to let people know what we're wrestling with, uh, then you're you're you're conveying a sense of trust. I know in raising my two sons, I had to do some things early on that communicated them. I trust them. Uh, I got them I intentionally got them, uh, pocket knives when they're four, five, six years old, BB guns, all this local stuff that we do, the guys do. But I intentionally wanted them to get it before any of their other friends did because I wanted them to know that I trust them. Even though they were only eighteen months apart, they would fight like cats and dogs. I never had one of them running to the other saying, you know, Ross threatened me with a knife or Andrew threatened me with a gun and so forth because they knew I was trustworthy. So as I as I lead, I try to lead with a lot of disclosure, a lot of transparency, a lot of accessibility. Uh, I'm a let Horst respond to that. But to demonstrate that, if y'all want to turn you on on your AirDrop, I will trust you. I'll give you all my contact information. Um, and so if you go to if you got an iPhone if you don't have an iPhone, ask Santa Claus to give you an iPhone. But but if you go to general under settings and you'll turn AirDrop on, that's the quickest way I know how to share my contact information with everybody. So, Horace, how would you respond to that? 

Uh, I a sublease and trust. Be nice. But okay. But now you have to define I I have to I put be nice means many things. The key moment to be nice, and I again, behavioral analyst will teach you that, is when you make the first contact. And that contact, the ideal moment is is, uh, three meters, about about about nine or 10 feet. In that moment, because if you like it or not and the behavioral analyst, they don't like so, but that's what they have have studied. By the way, in all cultures, that's interesting. When you come within the first time at ten ten feet, you are if you're not or not, you will make a subconscious decision about them. But wait a minute. They're making one about you. So that is a key moment of establishing trust. We know and sorry. We we started that and we and like in Ritz Carlton, we looked at at Chetty Power took 400,000 customer comments. 400,000 and analyzed that. Whenever the first contact that in our case that meant reservation doorman or front desk was excellent, never ever 100%, no exception did a complaint follow. Whenever that first contract, there was an issue, always several complaints followed. Because in that first contract, I would tell you, you established a key trust. You that lasted for about three days. After three days, it faded away. But so when that first contact is exceptional, you look him in the eye and welcome and so on or whatever you do on telephone or whatever however you set up your your your computer, your online banking, whatever it is, if that is excellent, it creates subconscious trust. You know, if you you it it happens to you. You look at somebody. If you know it or not, you have a subconscious decision made, and that is either trust or distrust part of it. So that first contact, I would teach the first thing, make sure. That's why when you walked into a rich garden, I don't know today. When you walked into a rich garden, never did you come in by anybody within 10 feet without them looking at their eyes saying, welcome. Good morning. How are you, sir? Never. Because that's when they left. They said, everything is so perfect. They didn't they by the way, in in many years, by millions of customer comments, not one comment about the furniture, about the curtains, all about people and nice. Yeah. 

Of course, Tony, one time, the first forty hours of a person's work experience is when you make an indelible cultural print in the mind of that new employee, cast member, if you're at Disney, associate if you're, you know, at Walmart, Home Depot. And I would add to that, it's not what they hear management say during those first forty hours, but what they see management doing during those first forty hours. So I think we, as leaders and I know Horace did this for many years. Uh, he personally did the onboarding process for Ritz Carlton Hotels all over the world. And it was a remarkable inspiration for me because it was something I got to see that was far more powerful than a than a video. We've got time for one more question. One more question. Simple question, David. It's it's nice to see you all. 

Restoring broken trust, how do you restore broken trust? If trust has been broken, how do you restore broken trust 

in your your your family, your relationships, 

your business? 

Quickly say that if you can usually people that let you know that you've disappointed them are activists. You know? They they are pretty transparent. They'll let you know that they had a bad experience. Meaning, that if you can solve their problem, then they become an advocate rather than an adversary. And so with these devices that we've got social media, you know, everybody's got a microphone now, and they can they can really talk big time about their experience. So but it's there is a high sense of urgency that we respond to those customers that tell us that we've missed to order waffle fries as they went to the drive thru, and they let us know about it. We gotta we gotta move on that. Quickly the quicker we can resolve it, the more trust. A funny story, I went in I had gallbladder surgery. I'm on my way home from Piedmont Hospital. Honest truth. I had a hankering for a quarter pounder with cheese and a frappe, a caramel frappe from McDonald's. I went through two McDonald's on my way home from recovering from gallbladder laparoscopic surgery, neither one of which had the ice cream machine that was working. 

That's right. I I can vote for that. 

So I sent a so I sent a fun text to Chris Kempinski, who's the CEO of McDonald's. And I told we have a little tit for tat. We go all fun and games with each other. So I I told him my situation. And about an hour later, I got a knock on the door with a sack full of quarter pounders and four, uh, caramel frappes. And, uh, so he recovered, and here I am telling you a nice experience, you know, you know, of that eating at McDonald's. 

Well well, I I I said it before. Just say, forgive me. Forgive me. That's why we taught everybody. Look them in the eye. And first of all first of all, listen if there is some. Listen to them. Show some empathy to the situation. We we certified every employer around the world, and but we we also empowered our employees because I don't want any customer to become a a terrorist against my company. I wanna be sure that everybody's an ambassador. So we, in fact, empowered every employee and you could they could make a decision up to $2,000, a buzz by anybody to take care of a customer that was not happy. Be be sure you cannot afford customers to go out and go on the Internet like Dan said. So we we we and then we certify them how to listen. Look in them now. Listen to the company concerned. The part we know that ninety six percent of people who complain have a problem, All they want to do get rid of their frustration. And if you don't accept it and don't apologize, their frustration goes up. If you accept it and say, I'm sorry. Please forgive me about your TV even though about my TV, even though the guest knows I haven't he has nothing to do with the TV. In that moment the customer becomes embarrassed that they even complained. They become embarrassed. 96%. We know that. So why not look at us and please forgive me. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I would have been upset too. Please forgive me. I apologize. So listen. Have empathy. Apologize and say, in fact, I feel so bad that's why how we empower them. If I feel so bad, I will buy a breakfast. No. No. No. I don't need it. No. No. Yes. But but I feel bad. In that moment, that customer, as I said, becomes an ambassador. You you overcame the the the distrust that was developed. You overcame that, and and everyone is responsible to do that. It's you are charged by it. You're saying you're dealing in that moment again in how you are defined because you're dealing on the definition that is exist that will exist for your company. 

I don't know about you all, but I could sit here all day and just listen to Dan and Horace go back and forth. Um, unfortunately, we're out of time. This has been so such a refreshing, um, time to hear from both of you. In the midst of so much change in the marketplace, so many things going on to hear timeless truths of how to interact and care for 

one more word. You see what he said before? He he no. He said something early. He's working on this soccer thing, the best in the world. I'm telling you, this guy is changing the world. Not only on soccer and all kinds of he's I mean, you have to look what he did. The the the largest movie we still Drillers is an example for future development of cities, guaranteed. Everything that's happening there, he's changing the world. I was happy to be pretty well involved in changing hospitality. And one last word about hospitality is. Let me tell you what it really is. What is the first teaching on hospitality? Listen to it because you in hospitality is when you deal with the customer. It doesn't matter what and what business you're in. Again, if it is a hardware store or a dental store or hotel or whatever you do, when you deal with the customer, you are in hospitality that moment. And what is the first teacher of hospitality was saint Benedict. He wrote a letter to his monasteries in Europe where people stayed saw shelter overnight that traveled in Europe. He said, if a guest arrives, treat him as if it was Jesus himself. With other words, treat him, every one of them, as if it's the most important person in the world. And he said, not only that, bow down. And and he said to to the to the head of the monasteries, even if you're on a fast, if the guest is by himself, break your fast and give company. But before dinner, wash their feet. No. No. That is hospitality. Now I have to say to myself, how close can I come to that? That's what I have to ask myself. To to to show all respect for that human being that comes into your store and wants to buy nothing but a hammer. So what? You want him to go back and talk positive about him, become loyal for you. 

Will you join me in thanking Dan Cathy and Horst Schulze?