Employee Empowerment: Jon Grannis & Bob Chonka Build Cultures Fueling Growth | Ep. 158

Jon Grannis: 00:00:00

It's empowering, right?

If somebody feels like they have knowledge, they feel like they have power and because they can use that knowledge to not only help the organization, help themselves. Because the more we invest in our employees, the bigger return we're going to get. It's really simple, but it's really powerful.

Bob Chonka: 00:00:19

But I am the world's biggest super fan.

Bob Chonka: 00:00:21

You're like a super fan.

Bob Chonka: 00:00:23

Welcome to the Business Superfans podcast. We will discuss how establishing business superfans from customers, employees and business partners can elevate your success exponentially.

Learn why these advocates are a key factor to achieving excellence in the world of commerce. This is the Business Superfans Podcast with your host, Freddie D. Freddy.

Bob Chonka: 00:00:45

Freddy.

Freddy D: 00:00:59

Hey super fans.

Freddy D: 00:01:00

Superstar Freddie D. Here. Welcome to episode 158 of Business Superfans, the Service Providers Edge podcast.

In this episode we're joined by John Grannis and Bob Chunka, the powerhouse duo behind Show Love, an award winning workplace learning company that transformed how more than 5 million employees grow, lead and connect. John and Bob tackle challenge every service based business faces. How to make training truly stick. Too often learning feels like information overload.

But their E I C formula, emotion plus information equal communication, flips that script, turning training into transformation. From their early days together at American Media Inc. To building a global impact brand.

John and Bob show how blending heart and insight drives better communication, stronger teams and lasting results. Welcome John and Bob to the Business Superfans podcast show. Great conversation that we had before we got started recording.

We had a little bit of a glitch on another platform. So we went to a pivot pack and went to a backup platform, old fashioned zoom. So welcome to the show guys and.

Jon Grannis: 00:02:21

Thanks for having me.

Bob Chonka: 00:02:21

Thanks for having us.

Freddy D: 00:02:22

Yeah, so we started a little bit about talk. You shared your story. So let's go back to that. Let's go for our listeners here.

How did you guys meet and then more importantly, how did you guys come up with the educational programs and systems that you do working with small and medium to large sized companies?

Jon Grannis: 00:02:38

Yeah, it started for me way back in the early 90s. I say way back, but in the early 90s. And I started off, my first job was in the mailroom at a training company.

And it just so happens it was just down the street here from where we're at in our offices and really got into how these videos and these resources were helping organizations and started getting involved in the sales process of it just so I could understand more. And then after I left that company, started a different company. Bob calls Me and one summer and says, hey, some help with this training company.

tial. And so that was back in: 2011

Bob Chonka: 00:03:27

d in the training industry in: 1989

And what was impressive to me about John is that his passion for the it side of things, he also had a great appreciation and understanding of the people side. So sales and marketing, and I've never met anybody like that at that point. So when I had asked John to help me, I was consulting with the company.

John and I saw what this company was trying to do, and they were failing miserably. But we said, we can make this work in the training industry with this new vision, this new passion.

And it was just unbelievable how we both had the same vision, same passion.

And we came up with a formula that we follow by It's E plus I equals C. And that is E stands for emotion, I stands for information, and C is communication. So when you put emotion and information, you can truly communicate.

And what we want to communicate are all of these key learning points that will help a person, an employee, change their behavior for the better so that they're not reacting, they're responding. They're not making bad ethical choices, they're making good ethical choices. They're not negative leaders, managers, they're more positive leaders.

Reinforcing and developing great cultures for people to enjoy when they come to the workplace, helping them to change their behavior, to be more aware and recognize any behaviors that are inappropriate, unprofessional, and illegal, and being able to address those and to promote other employees to be as watchful as well. So that's our passion, is to use the formula E plus I equals C. And we coined the phrase. Now we call it dramatic edutainment.

So how we create situations at a very Hollywood level. And one of our strategies, Freddie, is that look at everybody today. Hulu, Disney, Prime, Peacock.

You got all of these entertainment channels available to everybody, and they're putting out incredible high quality.

You put a training program out there where there's a person standing there going, I'm here to tell you about sexual harassment and how wrong it is, you've lost them. There's no emotional engagement.

But when you can dramatize it, just like Netflix and Prime, you're engaged emotionally and now you're like, what's going to happen? What is this character going to do? What's the other person going to say? Now they're emotionally engaged? Well, guess what we're doing?

We're providing information inside of there because now we show how to respond, not react. We show how to lead, not tell people what to do all the time. So ultimately we're communicating with them.

And the bottom line is knowledge gets transferred. And when that happens, wow, look out. You empower employees. That is a powerful thing to do.

Freddy D: 00:06:37

Yeah, I mean, an empowered team is unstoppable. I use an analogy a lot of times of a sports team.

You see a team that's gelled together and they got the energy, they come out on the field, whether it's football, baseball, whatever, you can almost determine who's going to win the game. Just in the beginning, just by the attitude of the players.

The guys that are relaxed, having fun and everything else, and they're just having a blast playing the game, they usually win. And the guys that are tensed and going, man, we gotta win this, we gotta win this.

They're not gonna win because they're operating from a reactionary versus a responsive, just like you said. And so I wanna use that sports analogy because that's a great way for people to visualize and understand it.

Because what you said there, Bob, was a very key thing, is teaching people to respond versus react. And the other thing too that you brought up, both of you guys, was the fact of really the leadership part of the equation.

Because a lot of times leaders are promoted and don't have any leadership training. And so now they all of a sudden are, I'm the boss. And so they have the attitude of I'm the boss and you're going to do what I tell you to do.

And that's really the worst possible kind of management you can do because that person's going to be begrudgingly doing what they need to do because they're not empowered. As we were talking. And so they're just going through the motion at best.

Bob Chonka: 00:08:06

There's a true story. And I was going to a community college. I wanted to get my associates and then go on to get my undergrad.

Well, while going there, I was working at a retail store and they had a 90 day probation period. When you're hired less than 45 days. They said, congratulations, Bob, you're now the new manager of this department.

And I basically, I said, why am I getting promoted? And they said, because you show up on time and you do your job. But I have no management skills whatsoever. Think of it as a young person.

What managing of anything that I have to do. The only thing I had to manage was when I needed to study and that was about it.

And because of that situation, I actually changed my degree and it's in management. That's what my undergrad is in. So it was set up for failure, realized that because they just saw that I had these qualities.

Therefore you're a good manager. That's not necessarily true. You need the skills.

Freddy D: 00:09:07

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Freddy D: 00:10:30

yself but if you remember the: 1982

into the computer industry in: 1980

Here's the manual and good luck. Figure it out. I could use CAD and I knew how to design. Go from 3D thinking to 3D design and eliminate the 2D step.

But I didn't know how to teach because I was an engineer. And that's why I got hired, because I had the credibility to understand this stuff.

I get sent to a company in St. Louis and my training was okay, got the manual here. All right, Bob and John, we're going to click on this command and we're going to click on that command.

Bob Chonka: 00:11:38

Okay?

Freddy D: 00:11:38

You guys do that. I'm gonna read up ahead here to make sure what the next command state. That was my training, okay? And I shared this.

Cause I shared it before, but that was okay. Cause there's just one guy in the room. Then I go to this other company up in Milwaukee, huge company, and I do the same style training.

And at the end of that first day, the manager and again, I didn't know what I was doing. The manager came over to me and said, that was the worst effing training I've ever seen in my entire life.

And he goes, I'm gonna give you till tomorrow and if you don't get it figured out, I'm gonna call your boss and have your effing rear end terminated. I slept very well that night. And I invented engagement training out of. Just out of necessity. And that was okay.

I'm gonna put this command string here to design the box. John, is this the correct command string you'd say?

Freddy D: 00:12:31

I think so.

Freddy D: 00:12:32

Bob, do you agree? No, it's missing this syntax and this type of stuff. And I got everybody in the room started talking.

And the reason I share that is because I came up with that out of necessity because I wasn't trained. And then when I got into.

But when I got into sales in 86 was my first year in sales and I got the plaque on the wall, top sales guy, the training made a big difference.

Bob Chonka: 00:12:55

Oh, absolutely.

Jon Grannis: 00:12:57

It's empowering, right? If somebody feels like they have knowledge, they feel like they have power.

And because they can use that knowledge to not only help the organization help themselves. We talk a lot about maximized leadership in the sola. And one of the key components of that is not yelling at somebody, but redirecting them. Sure.

Well, that means having a one on one or in a group setting saying, hey, this is what we did. We found out the results didn't work out, let's do something else, let's try it this way.

And Freddie, to your point, with the syntax on the whiteboard, people know as they're empowered to make decisions, as they're ask their input, they're going to make better decisions. They're going to make the right decisions and they're also going to excel. And that's a big part of the whole equation of training employees.

It's to build them up. Right. Because the more we invest in our employees, the bigger return we're going to get. Really simple, but it's really powerful.

And as that investment goes in and the dollars come back out, you start hearing things like, hey, man, like you said, I love working at this company. Why don't you come over and check us out?

With the employment situation as it is right now, with very few people available in the employment pool being able to attract and retain employees, this is going to be irregardless of if we have a slump coming up, a recession or we have a job, unemployment goes up.

If you can retain folks and you can attract the folks through people who already work in the organization, you're saving thousands and thousands of dollars per employee brought on. So a lot of benefits.

Freddy D: 00:14:31

Oh, yeah. I worked with the company a couple years ago, and they had the mindset, so they used a lot of contractors.

They had a team and they used a lot of contractors. So for the contractors, their mindset was, these people should be grateful that we're giving them a job. That was their mindset.

And I'm going, well, like, wait a minute, they're the ones going to the job site effectively, if I think this correctly, that's the front line.

And you're treating the front line like garbage, in a sense, for lack of a better word, but probably an accurate word, because the mindset of they should be grateful that I'm giving them work is completely the wrong mindset, because that person should be going out there and says, oh, yes, I represent such and such a company. What a great company. I'm excited to work with them and everything else.

And now you've got yourself a salesperson out of that contractor that's promoting the great company that they're working with, which makes the customer say, okay, we're dealing with the right company on top of it from that perspective. So it goes back to the little things are really the big things.

And that's a little thing to recognize that contractor, because even though they're not an employee, they're still part of the team and they should be treated as part of the team.

And when I took over that company as general manager, one of the things I did was I started recognizing our contractors because that was the force that was going out the services that they're providing. Every month we recognize a contractor in a newsletter and that got everybody started to change their mindset.

These people actually care about us, and that's to get a momentum going. And that's how we scaled this company. And it's a small type of business, but we scaled it by a million dollars in one year.

Bob Chonka: 00:16:15

I just couldn't help but laugh. They actually care about us. Going back to the basics, the simplicity of life is show respect, show that you value them.

That mindset, how horrible that you should be lucky that we gave you a job versus thank you for going out there. Thank you for being out on the front line. We appreciate you so much.

Freddy D: 00:16:37

Yeah.

Bob Chonka: 00:16:38

And when you describe the analogy of like a football game, football season coming on, you can tell when that momentum shifts because of that team's, their energy, their attitude, how they're supporting each other. And so you have to ask yourself, how do we get there as an organization? And I'm such a firm believer that it's all top down.

So if the leaders are expressing that gratitude, helping people feel valued, feel they can contribute and their contributions are welcomed, that just starts going down and gets into the organization.

And when you have the lower levels that are interacting with the customers, acting with the, interacting with the contractors, that's when you'll start seeing that momentum shift.

Freddy D: 00:17:21

That's what goes back to my quote. My book is people crawl through broken glass for appreciation and recognition. And unfortunately, it's not given enough.

But what you're just talking about there, Bob, is really recognizing that person. And I had a guest on a show a while back and really talked about the front line is really the relationship. They're the front line.

So they were the face of the business. And so their goal was the most important person in the company. The present wasn't the most important.

It was the actual person that was doing the customer support, that was talking to prospective customers, everything else that was the most important people in the company. Basically, they flipped it all upside down. It wasn't the CEO of the company, wasn't the most important. It was the front line.

Jon Grannis: 00:18:04

Yeah. And the generations that are entering the workforce right now, they won't put up with it.

The hierarchy that we grew up in, from an organization organizational structure standpoint, isn't jiving with the folks that are entering the workforce right now, the millennials.

Janae, those employees, which actually is making up the largest bulk of employees in the workplace from now and for the next 20 years, they're not having it. They're moving on.

I know my kids, I have a 19 year old, and we were talking the other day at dinner and we got on the jobs, so and so is working here. So and so. And my daughter said, yeah, one of my friends, she's on her sixth job, she's 19. And I said, honey, what do you mean?

She said, she worked at one place for two weeks. They made her stay late two times, 15 minutes. She didn't like that she left. And I said, Wow, 15 minutes, that's not bad. Maybe they needed the help.

And my daughter then says, yeah, and another place, they asked her to clean the bathrooms. She said, nope, this is what I wanted to do. So you have these kind of perceptions and that's not necessarily bad.

I'm not trying to make fun or be bad against the generation. But that's the reality that we're in, right?

The expectations that coming in the workforce come in, we got to rethink and retool as an organization how we approach them and what rewarding elevation. Those are all motivating factors for everybody, but specifically the generation that's in the workplace right now.

And I think another thing that's important is setting the expectation. Here's my expectation. As your team leads, we need to do this and this. And if you have an issue, come to me, come talk to me.

Let's have this two way conversation. Don't post on social media that you're unhappy and that you're leaving. Come talk to me. Let's figure this out.

We need to be flexible in how we work with each other and not immediately go straight to the you did bad, you can't do this. Let's talk about redirections, talk about making the workplace respectful and echoes in both directions. Is that just for everybody. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:20:06

One of the things that I was fortunate enough is I also went through Dale Carnegie leadership training years ago. And one of the things that I've implemented when I've led teams was that they created their own job description.

That was one of the things that Dale Carnegie taught you. And so they wrote their whole sop, what their expectations was. So it wasn't me directing anything. You wrote this down.

So my job now becomes to helping you accomplish what you said you were going to do. So my whole role changed. I'm not the leader. I'm now to help you facilitate and accomplish what it is that you want.

And so now they have 100% ownership of the position because they defined the position and the timelines that they were going to do. And to your point there, John, is I don't think businesses are leveraging that. They're Saying, this is your job description.

This is what we expect you to do. So you got no buy in. You got no say in the matter. And because it's a directive versus the other approach, hey, this is what it is.

And what are your ideas? How do you anticipate? There's a multitude of different ways that you can really empower people. And empowered people are unstoppable.

And I utilize the analogy of a racing rowing team, okay. If you think about it, and I saw this in Chicago when I lived there in the Lincoln park, people racing the boats, they got one oar, not two, one.

And there's eight people. And there's somebody keeping the pace. If they're not in sync, that boat's not even going in a circle.

If everybody's doing their own thing, that boat's just wobbling like this. So you've got to get everybody in synchronization. Everybody's got to get buy in. Okay? And everybody's got going into one direction.

So there needs to be leadership, needs to set the goal of what? This is our goal, this is our vision, this is where we want to go. And then get everybody to buy into it.

And once you get that team in sync and flowing, it flies through the water.

Jon Grannis: 00:22:07

It's true.

Freddy D: 00:22:08

Yeah.

Jon Grannis: 00:22:08

I think one of the things that we as organizations, as managers and leaders, we need to understand that our teams are getting bombarded with communication inputs. And those messages are often not delivered the way they are intended.

Because when things are happening and to your point, with rowing, as the message gets refined, whether it's coming from, I love the term leader slash facilitator, as those messages are getting refined and sent in, consistency is key, regardless of platform or where the delivery is coming from. But consistency is key. And so somebody who gets a message and understands it is empowered. And we talked about empowerment.

We've talked about all that this morning. Talked about empowerment. Moving mountains is the result of empowered employees. And so a lot of that communication essential.

Bob talks about this all the time. We gotta make sure the message is refined and easily understood. And it needs to be delivered relatively quickly.

You're not gonna be talking on and on about, we call it micro messaging, micro learning in our cataloger portfolio. But the key thing is consistency in the message itself. Powerful to good leadership and organizational success.

And that might be verbal, non verbal, might be electronic, might be through memos, faxes, who knows? But the organizations that can communicate and communicate consistently are the organizations that continually get elevated. Right?

Their staff and team are elevated, absolutely.

Freddy D: 00:23:39

Because like that Company. I said that I grew by a million dollars. One of the first things we changed was we created a mission statement.

And it was in a mission statement and they had it plastered all over the place. It wasn't that we were going to be this. It was, we are this type of a company and we need to act like we are this type of a company.

And that changes the mindset. Because if we are working to being the best or whatever, you're not there, then so your mindset's I'm not there yet versus we are this organization.

And so therefore we need to act like this organization. And everybody, all of a sudden there's a mind shift that takes place. You go, yeah, we are badass. And that really transforms into an attitude.

And that transcends to tonality. When they're talking to prospective customers and coworkers and everything else.

Bob Chonka: 00:24:30

Tap into that. When John talked about teams, organizations, they form teams now for everything. It's like, we need a team to do this, a team to do that.

Now imagine three of us, we don't know each other. And let's just imagine Freddy here, the IT person, John is the product development and I'm in the marketing.

And we're going to have to integrate some system to bring in all the different divisions. So we have one ordering system, one TR tracking system, et cetera. Now, we don't have that mindset.

You're just the IT guy, product development, marketing. I don't know you, I don't trust you. I don't know what your capabilities are. We've been told this is what we have to do.

What are we going to give the company? We're not going to give them our best. And I'm personally dealing with a grandparent that's near death.

You're dealing with there's weddings and financial burdens that are hitting me. You got three daughters that are all one or back to back, et cetera, those kinds of things.

Got all that stuff going and now we're thrown together where this team ain't gonna happen.

But back to that point where you're saying, freddie, if we had that mindset and if we had skills, knowledge, the three of us would sit down and would say, all right, all three of us, we belong to a kick ass organization and we know instinctively we get recognized for what we do. The three of us are all going to say, let's knock this one out of the park.

Oh, the mind of our VP of what we did and how fast we did it, and we're going to Say, okay, now because we've been given skills. Tell me about your workload. How much time and effort will you be able to put towards this project?

Are there going to be any hindrances that we need to be aware of? Because we don't want to burden you more if there's other things going on. The same with me, the same with John.

We would learn how to really work together and gel as a team and look at the outcome. It would be phenomenal. And I love that. Empower people. Anything's possible.

Freddy D: 00:26:33

Yeah. And that brings me up a great point here, guys.

Can you share a story of a company that you guys walked into with your training programs that were, for lack of a better way, but an accurate way, probably a train wreck going around in a circle.

And you guys helped transform that company to where they're now a super fan of you guys, and they're one of your biggest promoters of the services and the training programs that you provide.

Bob Chonka: 00:26:59

I've got one. John, you got some, too. Here's one. We can't say their name, but they're a very large, recognizable auto manufacturer.

They traditionally have approached the sexual harassment training with the very boring. Sexual harassment is inappropriate. It is illegal. Do not touch, do not say. And the employees, there was no change, no impact.

And they were really trying to reduce their risk and also trying to promote a more healthy environment where people can feel comfortable coming to work. Because you can imagine in manufacturing, there's where a lot of things can go sideways on you real quick.

Freddy D: 00:27:40

Sure.

Bob Chonka: 00:27:41

So they used one of our programs that John and I.

We said, we've got to tie into that emotion that E +I equals C. When you engage them emotionally, then you can give the information, and then you communicate to them. You're communicating knowledge that transfers. They love the program.

They came back to us two weeks later and they called and they basically said, Bob had to be on the phone. And Bob, are you sitting down? And at first I'm like, oh, no, what went wrong? And the HR person, she said to me, this has never happened before.

But employees that have taken your course are telling other employees, wait till you get to go through the sexual harassment training. You're going to love it.

Freddy D: 00:28:26

You turn them into superfans of those employees, and they're already selling everybody else. And that's the power of really creating superfans. You get a momentum going, and it's unstoppable and it's organic.

Bob Chonka: 00:28:38

Yeah, yeah. It was great transformation, and it was fast.

Jon Grannis: 00:28:43

My case study of Shout out is a Little bit different. They've been a customer for a long time with us in the southeast of the United States.

And they came to us and said, listen, we don't have a lot of staff. We have a few trainers who have never really trained before.

We're looking for some material and content that kind of picks up the heavy load so that we can at least get some compliance training done this year, if we're lucky, maybe a quick leadership training program. Do you have anything? And we said, absolutely, let's sit down and talk.

We talked with them, talked to both the facilitators that they had, and they were green.

But we said, listen, the way we've developed these materials, after two to three hours of working through the material, going through the workbooks, going through the leader's guide, you'll be able to implement this class. So they said, that's impossible.

I said, no, I'll go over with it once with you, and then you take a look at all these other components and resources and take and see what you can do. So went through it.

They said, yeah, you know, can this step by step approach, these icons, all, you know what these questions and responses and expectations and when to jot stuff down. Okay, this might work for us. Let's go ahead and implement it. They implemented it that first month or so after our initial contract.

Since then, those two folks have put out almost 500 sessions.

Bob Chonka: 00:30:01

Wow.

Jon Grannis: 00:30:02

Without any experience. And for me, what that means is all she had to do is just give them a little bit of a push, right.

A little bit of confidence, build and then let the good materials do their work and feedback from them. We get it all the time, man. This session was great. We ended up working with the fire chief and the fire team.

We talked about emotional intelligence and it was a great session. And they've already told the police department about it. And that's for me and Bob.

We love these kind of stories because it just goes to show that if they have the desire, they can make mountains move.

Freddy D: 00:30:39

Right?

Jon Grannis: 00:30:39

Those two things are really important. And so part of our goal is to help push people along, redirect if we need to, but give them the tools they need to be successful in their jobs.

And that's really what people want. They want to be successful. 90%, 95% of the people in an organization are, want to excel, they want to achieve, they want to make an impact.

And you have to be able to facilitate that. And if you don't, as an organization, it's like a windmill that's sitting there and doesn't spin right. It just stays there.

There's potential energy there.

But until that thing starts moving and the electricity on that generator goes down into the line and out to the power supply, it doesn't mean anything. It's just a hunk of metal in there in the air.

So those are some of the things that we try to do in order to get that momentum going and get that energy generated and then changing lives.

Freddy D: 00:31:34

Yeah. So you're creating super fans out of all those individuals and that becomes your sales force.

As just mentioned before, with that one automotive company, they were already selling the sexual harassment training as man, you can't wait. This is going to be the best thing you've ever seen. That's a super fan that's already promoting it and getting everybody else excited about it.

And to your point, I want to share a story that was shared with me from a guest was in a hospital janitor. And what they did was the management team there work sat down with janitor and basically said, you've got the most important job in this hospital.

You need to be keeping areas clean because you are saving lives. And when the person had asked him what was his job, the janitor basically said, my job is to help the doctor save lives. Different mindset completely.

Jon Grannis: 00:32:33

Yeah, yeah.

Bob Chonka: 00:32:34

I'm going back to the other story too that you said Freddie about. They realized that you actually care.

And when you're talking about our success stories, sometimes when we talk to clients, they don't know what to do with John and I because we're so passionate and we started asking so many deep questions, probing questions, because we care. We actually want to help them. And it's a fresh of breath air for sure. But at first it takes them off guard.

They're like, are you two for real or like. Yes. And you'll see. And that was one of our philosophies early on when we started soul. We just have a passion to partner with people.

We want to journey with you and we will help you all along the way and we'll cheer you all along the way. We'll support you all along the way. It's just amazing.

You go back to the simple things of life where you treat people with respect, you show that you value them, that you truly want to help them. I think it. Was it Carnegie or Zig Ziglar. Somebody said, I can't remember which one.

You can have anything you want when you help people get what they want.

Freddy D: 00:33:41

Zig Ziglar. Yeah. Yeah. That's basically how you help enough people get what they want. You don't have to worry about yourself. You'll be taken care of.

Bob Chonka: 00:33:47

Yep.

Freddy D: 00:33:48

And the other thing, too, that I want to toss in there is the fact, and it goes back to the little things are really the big things. And I think organizations, and I've seen it, is they miss the little things that really make something big for somebody. And that is that.

Okay, Aunt Lucille is having an issue, and in the hospital, you only have so many vacation days or something like that. You can't go now. It's cheap money. Let them go. Let them be with their Aunt Lucille, visit the hospital and pay them for it. It's a day's wage.

It's not lots of money. But what you're going to do, it's a little thing.

But what you're going to do to that person is going to go, wow, my company is paying me to go see my Aunt Lucy. I'm not being docked for going there. Huge difference. It's a little thing. But to that person, that's monumental.

And they're going to tell everybody, everybody about what a great company that they're working at. And then the other employees are going to go, did you see what they did for Sally? This is a cool company. And it's a quick mental shift.

And I've seen it happen. All of a sudden, everybody just goes, wow, these people really care about us. And this is a cool company. And the attitude shifts.

It's a complete attitude shift. And everybody starts going back to the racing rowing team. Everybody starts getting in sync, saying, yeah, I love doing this job.

And they got a bounce in their step.

Bob Chonka: 00:35:17

I worked for M and M Mars years ago, and when I would walk in to, like, a grocery store like Kroger, I'd go into their buyers. So the way the food industry worked, it would be buyers. And they would buy all types of products from the different vendors.

When I would walk in and they saw my M and M Mars bag, Hershey, Nestle, Wrigley, it didn't matter. That's the Eminem Mars guy. He works for Eminem Mars. How did we get to that place? This is how they did it.

They would send us to sales meetings, fly us to wherever, and they would tell us, we have taken you away from your family for this. And because of that, you go out and you go to the most expensive restaurant that you want.

You take care of yourself, because we have put this extra burden on you to take you away from your family. It was all of those things at all times. Like the example Let that person go visit their end.

Jon Grannis: 00:36:19

Think of the option. It's about $37,000 to replace an employee at minimum.

Doesn't it make sense for that one day wage to empower that employee to go visit their idiot versus three weeks later that employee says, company doesn't care about me. I don't care about them. I'm going to their competitors.

Freddy D: 00:36:37

Happens all the time.

Jon Grannis: 00:36:38

$37,000 was the last stat that I saw. I think that came out of ATD or somewhere. But that's not chump change, right? 37 grand, you lose 10, 15, 20 people.

And it doesn't matter if it's small organization or large, that stuff starts adding up. And that's real. They could have implemented a new HRS system or a new interviewing system or things like that.

So there are dollars that you can tie to the notion that treating an employee or treating a team member or treating a team poorly will cost you in the long run?

Freddy D: 00:37:10

Oh, absolutely. As we got close to the end, great conversation. We could probably talk about this all day and probably all week, but we gotta keep it in line here.

Jon Grannis: 00:37:20

So how can people find you solar.comS-O-L-L-Com and from there you can take a look at some of the programs that we have. And don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to help and we love our jobs. That's the easiest way to get to us is just great. Going out to the web.

We're on social, so if you type in SOLA on all the social media platforms will pop up there as well.

Freddy D: 00:37:42

Bob?

Jon Grannis: 00:37:42

Yeah.

Bob Chonka: 00:37:43

When they poke around, as John said, we've developed a library so you can poke around and see everything that we've created. We put our money where our mouth speaks. We show what we actually create.

Freddy D: 00:37:54

Cool.

Bob Chonka: 00:37:55

I was just going to say the reaction is great. They just say they recognize right away. Wow, this is high quality.

Freddy D: 00:38:02

One thing I'm going to change in what you said, John, you don't have a job. You're empowering people. So I would lose the word job and that because it's not a job. A job is something I got to do.

You guys are passionate about what you guys do. You don't have a job.

Jon Grannis: 00:38:15

You're empowering people like that.

Bob Chonka: 00:38:17

After this podcast, I'm going to go speak to an association of CPAs about transitioning from employee to a boss. And I am going to hit them with everything I have to employ, empower them, to encourage them, so I can accelerate them into being a great leader.

Not just a manager, but a great leader.

Freddy D: 00:38:38

You want them to create super fans? Yes, that's the thing.

Guys, it's been a great conversation, enjoyed our chat and I look forward to having you guys on the show down the road again because this is an important topic that we need to really elevate on. Not even a national, but a global aspect. What a powerful conversation with John and Bob from Sala Interactive.

The story shows how combined emotion with information, what they call E I equal C can turn ordinary training into real communication that sticks.

Freddy D: 00:39:12

For service based business owners, that's a.

Freddy D: 00:39:15

Game changer because when your message connects on an emotional level, your clients don't just understand what you do, they feel it. And that's what builds trust, loyalty, and yes, superfans.

Freddy D: 00:39:28

If you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure.

Freddy D: 00:39:30

To hit subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Thanks for tuning in today. I'm grateful you're here and part of the Business Superfans journey.

Every listen, every action you take gets you one step closer to building your own superfans. Remember, one action, one stakeholder, one superfan closer.

Bob Chonka: 00:39:52

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans podcast. Join us on the next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.