Kay:
Well, hello Mentorship Questers, and welcome to Episode 105! Today’s quote comes to you from a BA female mentor, the one and only – Marie Forleo!
Shi:
The perfect #FriYAY quote today goes, “I win or I learn, but I never lose.”
Kay:
Now we sound bubbly today, and that’s because we’ve had enough time off of the lesson that we’re about to talk to you about…But, we had an instance recently where we did not win, but we learned…
Shi:
We definitely could have taken the L, and had it be a loss for sure. And, if you are familiar with our story or follow us on social media, you probably saw our epically public apology about the failure of Mother’s Day at our brunch restaurant.
Kay:
Mother’s Day 2020 will go down in history as one of THE worst days our restaurant company has ever had. And, not because it was too slow…And, not because it was just hard, or because one location had an issue…but because all five of them (that were allowed to re-open) got completely overwhelmed with volume, and completely crushed with orders that we just couldn’t capably handle. And, we certainly learned a LOT from that painful experience!
Shi:
It was definitely painful. Every single location had dozens of pre scheduled orders getting canceled, and people waiting two to three hours, and it was just NOT good. And, you know what? We gave people a reason to be upset for sure. And, some of them didn’t handle it so prettily, and that just made the day even harder, especially on our staff…They were getting cussed out, their food was getting grabbed out of their hands, they were getting yelled at and screamed at…and that’s really tough for anybody to weather.
Kay:
Yeah. Well Shila and I don’t work in the stores any longer. But, at about 10:00 AM we started to get phone calls from our staff and see the emails pouring in from angry guests. And so, we knew that action had to be taken. And, when you’re in the thick of it, the only way OUT is through. So at 10:00 AM the first distress calls started coming in, and we had to just let them keep on chugging until 2:00 PM. But, we did our phone rounds, and afterwards Shila and I got on the phone with each other (because we’re trying to respect social distancing as much as possible), and the first question we answered on that phone call together was how were we going to change our methods in order to make this better?
Shi:
Right! We went straight into learning mode, because there’s no way you can go through something that big and just let it be a loss. I mean…you can, but that’s just not a winning formula. It’s a loser’s mentality. AKA: the opposite of winning formula. So, you take this huge debacle and you say, what CAN we do? What do we need to change? How do we make sure our team, and our guests, never go through something like that again? And, we started taking action! A LOT of action…
Kay:
So, the tactical things that we did will help to prevent this sort of “mess” in the future. But, we also understood that there was an emotional side that needed to be rectified. And so, we got out there and made a big public apology. Shila wrote a very captivating and heartfelt letter apologizing to everyone for the day that we’re sure was disappointing to so many. You know, we serve thousands of people through our restaurants over the weekends, and so we had thousands of disappointed people on that Mother’s Day, 2020. And so, what could have been a loss (if we didn’t get ahead of it), ended up turning into a win. Which…by the way...not ALL of your losses will turn into wins…Some of ’em are just lessons period. But, this one actually ended up going above and beyond and turning into a win for us.
Shi:
It was a painful investment that is really paying off. And, all of that action that we took, is preventing our team from drowning under things now, and in the future. So, we made some of those tactical maneuvers, but the PR effort of the public apology, and the followup email to our loyal guests (which is over 60,000 email addresses), was a major part of it as well. And we just said – Hey, if you dined with us, or tried to dine with us, yesterday was a bad day and we’re so sorry…And our promise to you is that we’ll make it better, and we appreciate your support and love….And, that we were learning through this – and, you know, the outpouring was HUGE! And then, the posts we did on social media got hundreds of shares, and hundreds and hundreds of comments and reactions of people just saying that this is a time when we need to practice compassion, support, grace, and forgiveness. And that they wanted to support our business for being so authentic!
Kay:
Now, we’ve had this belief (and this isn’t an automatic belief – we’ve had to work up to it) but, for a few years now, we’re shared this underlying belief that life is happening FOR us, and not TO us. And so, every time we come into difficult situations…even when we’re crying at each other (I mean, there’ve been a couple of times where I’ve looked at you Shi, in tears, and been like, “I know it’s happening FOR me, but it’s still HARD”)…we try and approach life with this opportunity and idea that it is for us. And, when you do that, you start thinking, “Okay, well I’m going through the hard things. So how is this FOR me?” And sometimes things happen that are tragic. You lose a loved one, or you experience heartbreak, or something just happens, and it is to you. But, the FOR you part sometimes looks like – an experience that’s provided you contrast, or provided you gratitude for your loved ones, or maybe those losses are being turned into lessons, and serve as blessins!
Shi:
Blessins on blessins! Or, maybe it strengthens your faith or grows your gratitude, like Kay said. So remember, today’s quote was from Marie Forleo and she said, “I win or I learn but I never lose.”
Kay:
SO – today’s quest for you is to: Think about a lesson that you’ve lost out on in the past…Where have you lost? And go back and take a look at that L and see if you can reframe it, and figure out a way where it was really a W. Or, maybe, not a lesson...but a blessin...in disguise 😉
Shi:
You know, I bet if you hold up a mirror to an L, you could make it be a W. That’s how you learn, and make it a double L…which turns into a W…So there you go!
Kay:
Figure out how to do that, and please post it in the QUEST Life group! We would love to hear from you!
Shi:
Yep! (*Sings*) Living Your QUEST Life!
Kay:
All right, gang, we’ll talk to you soon. Happy questing!
