Well excellence is, all non-negotiables have to be accomplished with excellence. Well, let me put it this way. A greatcompany understands the expectation of their market relative to their product. See, it's not about me. It's about the market. So we had careful studies done by JD Power, in fact. What is the expectation in the high market segment for an excellent, fora luxury hotel? What is the expectation of experience? Then we determine those expectations. There was, things that you can imagine. For for example, exception cleanliness. So if there's exception cleanliness, I had to say, how do I make sure and what are the processes to assure that I have the cleanest rooms in the industry? If I wanna be the best in the world, I have to have an expectation like that superior to my competition.

Yes.

So I actually created a team to say, how do we create a room that is actually cleaner than anybody else's room? And I know my hotel's room is better, cleaner than anybody else's room. I know that, based on the process that we created. We know that the customer seemingly unimportant thing, like, one of negotiate number sixteen. I know the numbers too. Number sixteen was if a guest asks for direction, never point. Take them there.

Take them there.

And and so we developed twenty non-negotiables of which were called gold standards or service principles, whatever. I call them non-negotiables. And, we made sure every employee understood them, and then we kept them alive. We repeated them. Once a day, we discussed them. And and or when I called non-negotiables because I happened to call my early on at that time, my general manager in Shanghai because something happened. And, the general manager said, well, Horst, you don't understand Shanghai. Yeah. I said, and I don't want to. That's why I have you there. But those twenty points are non-negotiable. No matter where you are because that's what Ritz Carlton is. So and so instead of Gold Standard, I call them non-negotiable. They cannot be negotiated.

Well, Horst, and I'm thinking to myself, it's the feeling that you're leaving with your guest. So I know that I read this somewhere. It may have been in your book or something else. But even when someone pulled up, you know, the people that were helping with the luggage would look at the luggage tag.

You read it in my book. Yes. You read it in my book. Yeah.

The friendliness.

You know, what is the expectation of a customer? The customer wants to have good service. What is service? What is service? And and and, you know, I talked to I'm a consultant with a lot of people now and talk to a lot of people. And many companies I work with that are actually the service industry, when you ask them to define service, they cannot. Service starts to instantly make contact. It it it doesn't matter if that is on the Internet or in person. It doesn't matter. That instant when they contacted us in any form should be an exceptional moment. Excellent. So service starts with the exceptional greeting. Welcome. Not hi. If I say hi to you, it's every equal.

Right.

But if I say good morning, ma'am, welcome. How are you today? I'm saying I respect you. At the same time, I'm stating though that I'm professional if I said that, if I treat you right. The first step of service is a fine greeting. The second step of service is it's all about you. It's me helping you to make the best decisions about my product. I'm helping you relative to my pro, I'm here for you relative my product. And that's the second step. And the third step is for about thank you for allowing me to serve you. That's the moments of service. And and and that first impression, by the way, is an essential one. Welcome.

Next, I was honored to get to speak with Joni Eareckson Tada, who shares how the Johnny and Friends ministry goes beyond providing wheelchairs and holding family retreats by establishing Joni's Houses in sixteen locations worldwide to meet the holistic needs of people with disabilities. Joni, I just wanna mention this for our listeners. You have got so many ministries. I was telling my husband this morning, you've got Wheels for the World. You've already kinda talked about that, but I think you've given over three hundred thousand wheelchairs so far, maybe more than that. You've got the family retreats, the getaways, an international family retreat, an internship program, the Joni's House programs that are all over the world. Tell us more tell us a little bit about that, Joni.

Well, giving wheelchairs is great. And, of course, holding retreats, for special needs families in Peru or Thailand or El Salvador or, Eastern Europe, Cuba, Africa, Uganda. It's great to hold family retreats. I mean, these people live in such dire conditions that they need more than a wheelchair. They need much more than a week of rest and respite. They need medical supplies. They need to be scholarship for a surgery. They need hygiene kits. They need diaper pads for their, incontinent child with cerebral palsy. They need so much more. And so we have sixteen Joni's Houses, located around the world in places like Nepal and Uganda and Serbia, Brazil and more. And these are places that are usually located near a hospital. We scholarship children with disabilities to have surgeries. We provide food for the family. We provide the necessary medical supplies, such as chucks and diapers and urinary care products and things of that sort. We do bible studies and bible counseling for, husbands and wives who are having a tough time. We also do micro enterprise so that young people with disabilities can learn a trade. In fact, in our, Joni's House in El Salvador, there are young adults with Down syndrome who pack up our coffee bags and are part of shipping them out. So we really try to address the holistic, needs of those with disabilities. And it's the legacy program at Joni and Friends. It's got my name on it, and I can't, I can't believe, I am so privileged, so honored, so grateful. What did I do to ever deserve something like that? You know, to help the least of the brethren, the most unfortunate is just to me, it's wonderful.

It is wonderful. And I'm just, oh, I'm teary eyed just listening to you. But, again, but God.

But God.

But God. Right, Joni? He has plans that are more than we can hope or imagine. So, I am I'm just grateful to you. Well, let me ask you just this, and then I wanna get into your ,I just want you to talk a little bit about your latest book. But, you know, you've been at the helm of Joni and Friends for a long time now. You know, what are some of those key leadership lessons that you've learned leading this organization?

Well, I have served as the CEO of Joni and Friends for well over four and a half decades. And in that time, I have had to forget everything. Everything about personal power leading to effective leadership. Because confidence and charisma and chutzpah, it counts for little in the long haul. It really does. The most effective leaders, they don't rise to power in spite of their weaknesses. They lead with power through their weaknesses because they have yielded, as you put it, they have surrendered themselves wholly to God. And I think the better that a leader tells his story of grace in his life, the better a leader is transparent with his executive team and with his staff, the more he invites others to consider their own stories of redemption, and the more he endears himself to those he is leading. So I think those are the two biggest lessons, And, of course, how God loves to leverage weakness and minimize power to get his work done so that when the work is accomplished, he gets the glory. Yes. He gets the glory. You said that earlier, and I love it.

In our last clip, Michael Staenberg, founder of The Staenberg Group, explains that his company's philosophy is rooted in being good partners and giving locally to enhance the community. So, Michael, I know that you and Carol in twenty twelve formed The Staenberg Group. What is TSG's philosophy, and what does it mean in practice?

You know, our philosophy is to be, good partners. You know, live locally, give locally, be part of the community where you are. I always had that, feeling. You know, it's important because, you know, it's nice to make money. I like making money, but I also think it's important something bigger than just making money, what you do with the money, and how you can enhance the community you live in. And, I could live anywhere in the United States. I choose to live in St. Louis and, you know, it's a region in, twenty I guess, twenty years ago, twenty five years ago, somehow someone asked me to join the Regional Business Council, Kathy Osborne. Yeah. It changed my life again. You know, another opportunity to to be part of the region. Like, really, I like that, and that's what TSG is about. You know, it's great to have these shopping centers, and, yes, I have two million square feet in, you know, Chesterfield, and I built The Factory. But how do we, you know, help people? You know, like a little unknown fact is that we give away a hundred thousand dollars a year to, nonprofits. I call them the orphan nonprofits from The Factory. Every concert we, you know, have people, we donate money, you know, so we can make a difference. I don't have to do that. I don't know any concert venue in America that does this. At all.

So The Factory gives away a hundred thousand a year? I did not realize that. The Factory, for those of you because we have people all over the world that listen, Michael. For those of you who do not live in St. Louis, The Factory is such a cool concert venue. Beautiful, beautiful in Chesterfield. I love that venue.

I do too. And, you know, I'm proud of it. But Yes. Again, you know, as I said, I can't write, but I can certainly figure things out. And I, you know, I feel like I'm an artist. I can be the artist and the framer. I like being the artist. But, you know, I built this from scratch, and then people, you know, looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when I did this. And, you know, I think it's important to give back. I think it's important to enhance people's lives. You know, I was watching Jimmy Valvino's speech the other day. You know, it's, you know, it's, I think, the twentieth anniversary. Maybe it's even the fortieth when he passed away. And, you know, he said he wakes up and does three things in the morning. You know? Those aren't the three things I would do, but you know what? Pick three things that make a difference. You know what? That's really what I try to do, and that's one of the things about TSG. How do how do we make it a better place? How do we enhance, you know, if it's Firestone, Colorado, we give money up there. How do we do things? You know? I mean, I don't wanna hear that MODOT or that, CDOT doesn't maintain something. Let's go out and clean it up. Someone to do that and put art and, you know, art invokes emotion, things like that. But more importantly, you know, the savings, when I do, you know, I'm good at development. So a lot of these nonprofits, I'll go in and do the development and I've saved these nonprofits three or four hundred million dollars. You know? They would have to go raise. And then I've raised, you know, three hundred million because if I step up and they see my name on it, they say, well, we should give. You know, there was a, a mentor of mine by name of Tommy Green, and he said one day, well, stop giving anonymously. Put your name on it so people can see. And that's really what's important to me, and that's what I'm trying to get people to, you know, I call it the converging ripple theory. I'm in the art, so I built this piece of art that's forty foot by forty foot in Omaha on a blank wall, and it moves in the wind. It's, road signs that Boris Bailey did, and he said to me, well, what do you think we should call it? I said, converging ripples. And he looked at me, so what do you mean? I said, well, it's like a still pond. You know, you can take a little pebble and throw it in, it creates a ripple. Take a boulder and throw it in, it creates a ripple. It doesn't matter how big the ripple is. It's the fact that you do a ripple, and you make a difference. And that's all I ask. And that's what I'm I'm trying to encourage people to make a difference and help people's lives.

Thank you for listening to today's show. Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production. Copyright Technology Partners Inc two thousand and nineteen. For show notes or to reach Lisa, visit t p I dot co slash podcast. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen.