Leadership That Smiles: Conor Cunneen on Humor, Recognition & Retention

Freddy D: 00:03:23

Hey super fan. Superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 125, we're joined by Connor Kinneen, better known as Irishman Speaks.

Connor is a former marketing vice president turned award winning keynote speaker and business humorist who made it his mission to improve people performance and productivity with a smile.

Now happily exiled in Chicago where the Guinness is good and the green beer is questionable, Conor brings a unique blend of business savvy storytelling and sharp Irish wit to every stage he graces.

He's been named Chicago Humorous speaker of the Year for his speech in customer service in San Quentin prison no less, and was honored with the President's Gold Medal for volunteer service for his work with the unemployed. A two time cancer survivor, a rock music enthusiast, Metallica anyone? And now the creator of a brand new program on using humor in presentations.

Connor offers a real world insight with a healthy dose of laughter. Get ready for some business blarney and a bit of bs. The good kind.

Freddy D: 00:04:36

Welcome Connor to the Business Superfans podcast. We had a great conversation before we started recording, so let's continue that conversation for our listeners.

Conor Cunneen: 00:04:44

Thank you Freddie. Delighted to. And Sean, thanks for the invitation.

Freddy D: 00:04:48

So Conor, let's go back to the beginning. What's your complete backstory? How did you come up to being the Irishman Speaks Briefly Freddie I worked.

Conor Cunneen: 00:04:58

In Ireland and UK for a number of years for a large multinational Unilever and I was VP of marketing for the food service business.

And Unilever was looking for someone to manage the marketing of the food service business here in the United States and they offered me that position.

One of my friends in Ireland who actually worked for a competing company, he said to me, tanner, I see you're going over and out to mess up the US business. Although he didn't use the word mess, I gotta say. All right, so I came over here to the US with the intention of spending just a few years here.

It got extended and then after a while Unilever wanted me to go back to Europe, but for family reasons I didn't want to do that. So as I say, I told Unilever to get stuffed. They told me, get stuffed. And with mutual stuffing I can understand.

One person cannot dictate what the HR policy for an organization is. But I didn't want to mess up my daughter's education again.

So I left Unilever, did some consulting initially on the food service side, offering advice about the US market to European clients, was asked to speak at a number of conferences and got good reaction to those. At the same time Actually just decided, all right, I'm a good talker, maybe not necessarily a good speaker. So I said, let's see what we could do.

So I heard about Tolus Masters, joined Tolles Masters, and there's a few very good clubs here in the Chicagoland area.

Got involved in competitive speaking and I won Chicago district on a number of occasions for regular speech competitions and humorous speech competitions. I do a lot of work with people who are in job search. Technically.

After I left Unilever, I was in job search, but I was really just searching for my own vision of what I wanted to do.

As I morphed into that, I gave a lot of time to helping people in job search and realized I had good messages that connected well with people and was motivational. So all of those eventually morphed into Irishman Speaks. And the mission now, Freddie, is to improve people performance and productivity with a smile.

And every single organization wants to improve their people, improve their productivity. And if you can do it with a smile, it's going to be even more effective. So that's what I offer to my clients.

Freddy D: 00:07:11

That's a great story. And I am familiar with Unilever, having been in the industry for many years.

One thing that you bring up that I'd like to talk about is having a business lifestyle that makes you smile. We get caught up in businesses, especially a lot of businesses are so busy working in their business, they're not taking the time to actually.

Because they can't take the time because they haven't learned to delegate, they haven't learned to empower people. So they're basically called what we can call a glorified job, but they call it a business and. Right.

Conor Cunneen: 00:07:43

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:07:43

You're doing is helping people really understand that there's more to it than just business.

Conor Cunneen: 00:07:50

I understand that when you're in a large corporate, the key thing is to get the business done. You've got to do it in a professional way.

But I also do believe though, that there are times when you actually can bring a little bit of humor and levity to the presentation or the business itself. And here's what I believe about humor, actually, Freddie, is that I believe humor is a competitive advantage for salespeople.

Freddy D: 00:08:13

Absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 00:08:14

And the reason why I say that is because the purpose or the benefit of appropriate business humor, as far as I'm concerned, is not to make your client laugh or your audience laugh. The benefit of appropriate business humor is to build connection with your client or audience by making them laugh in an appropriate manner.

So I'm pushing That concept quite aggressively right now when I'm speaking to sales teams and business development leaders.

Freddy D: 00:08:41

Oh, absolutely correct.

As we talked before we started recording, I used to be an engineer, and then I transitioned into sales, and I worked myself up to be in charge of global sales and being able to break the ice with prospective customers at the time. And that was to get to laughing a little bit about something. Sometimes I would make fun of myself, and that was one. It showed that I was a human.

And second of all, it lightened the room up. And then everybody just is a lot more relaxed. So humor is very, very important in sales.

Conor Cunneen: 00:09:13

Yeah, absolutely. Critical. People say to me a lot of the time, oh, Connor, I get the concept, but I'm not funny. And my response to that is, you don't have to be funny.

People kind of go, what?

But the basic logic I'm putting to people is that over the last few days, you've said something funny to put a smile on your client's face or on someone else's face. What was that? Just capture it.

And sometime over the next day or week, when you're presenting to another client, it's possible you might be able to drop that line in. So a very simple example, I'll give you Freddy. When I'm introducing myself to people or people ask me my name, and I say, connor.

That's spelled with one N. My parents couldn't afford two Ns back in Ireland. Okay, so you're smiling at it. Everyone else smiles at it as well.

It's a simple line that I can use every single time I'm introducing myself to a client. And it works.

And I'm sure everyone who's listening or watching this, if they think about it, have got a few lines that have put smiles on people's faces that you can actually use again and again and again. What it does is it just gets the neurotransmitters going in the brain. The dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins, et cetera.

And people that feel good. Chemicals.

And if you can make your client feel a little bit better, you're connecting better with them, and you have a much better chance of being able to seal that deal.

Freddy D: 00:10:36

Oh, absolutely. Because you build a connection.

There's an energy that's created, and people get much more relaxed, and now they're more receptive versus the arms crossed where I'm not listening. You get people to laugh, they gotta uncross their arms, they gotta become more relaxed.

And that goes even further than just sales, because I think Leaders need to incorporate that into their business environment.

You got to get the team to laugh, you got to get into the organization because that gets everybody together, that builds the team transcends because everybody's a salesperson at the end of the day. Right. You've got the person that's talking to the prospective customers, the salesperson.

But then when that deal's done, you've got someone that does the customer onboarding. Well, that's sales as well. It really is all tied into the whole ecosystem was what you're really talking about.

Conor Cunneen: 00:11:27

Absolutely. Humor is really important in the sales and business development. It's important in the overall corporate feel as well.

But I also do feel, Freddie, that so much of this is down to the individual leader or to the site manager or the director involved.

Because if they don't buy into the concept that a little bit of humor can help to grease the axle and motivate people that more, it's not going to happen because it's just going to be poo poo by the leader and then it just trickles down. You can't have a joke with that guy around kind of thing. No, I'm not talking about comedy.

I'm just talking about putting a smile on people's face, price, treat them with respect and you're going to get a much better response from your team or from your sales team.

Freddy D: 00:12:11

Well, one of the things I talk about, Connor, is the little things are really the big things.

And what you're talking about is a little thing that really is a big thing of the impact that it happens and does for an organization, for prospective customers, for existing customers and everybody in the equation.

Conor Cunneen: 00:12:32

Yeah, I'm glad you used the line there, the little things, because one of the core concepts I talk about, Freddy, is micro goals to build better connection and better teamwork. And the reason why I refer to them as Michael Goes and they actually spell an acronym, CHAP C H A P S which we maybe explore in a few minutes time.

But what I say is that I ask my audiences, how do you feel when you achieve a goal? And so if I was to ask you, Freddie, how do you feel when you achieve a goal?

Freddy D: 00:13:02

I'm excited, I'm fired up. Like, boom, I got it right.

Conor Cunneen: 00:13:05

I like it. I like a super fan kind of stuff.

So the idea is that if I can suggest five daily micro goals that you can achieve that will get you fired up and get your people you're involved with fired up as well. It's a win win situation. So the five micro Goals I talk about. The first one is we've referenced some of them prior to the call.

But is it fair to say, Freddie, that if someone compliments you or your podcast, you feel kind of yabba dabba do?

Freddy D: 00:13:32

Absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 00:13:33

All right, so if we were to turn that around, is it fair to say that if you compliment someone else, they're likely to feel yabba dabba doo as well?

Freddy D: 00:13:40

Yeah, absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 00:13:41

Right. So the micro goal I put to people is that compliment one team member a day, just one.

And if you can get into the habit of complimenting one team member, when you compliment that person, you'll hear yourself say, hey, I've achieved my micro goal. I feel slightly better.

The dopamine is kicked in, but the person that you've actually complimented, they're feeling way better as well, and they're appreciating you more. So that's the first micro goal of the CHAPS concept that will help you to build better teamwork.

And also, if you're on the sales side, if you can walk into an account and have some reason to compliment that customer or client, you're well on the way to getting the business as well. So the second one I know you were really intrigued with was the second element of the CHAPS acronym is hear. Thank you.

And the idea here, Freddie, is that if I set myself a micro goal, that I will do something deliberate to actually hear the worst. Thank you from my team workers or colleagues or from a client. I mean, to do that something deliberately here. Thank you.

I've got to do something positive. That's when I hear the worst. Thank you. The dopamine kicks in. Hey, Connor, you've achieved another micro goal.

And the client you've done something for or the team worker you've done something for, they're appreciating you more because you've done something for them.

So they're just two little micro goals from the CHAPS acronym that will help you to build better teamwork and appreciate your clients, build connection with the clients, appreciate your team as well. So the third element of the CHAPS acronym, A is for address, not Freddie.

That by address, I don't mean that little pink chiffon dress that I was seen wearing on Facebook over the weekend that should not have been published. Okay. Buy eggs with their name. Address your customer with their name when you're in conversation with them.

I would say the most powerful word when you are speaking to me, Freddie, is Connor, I'm speaking to you is Freddie. And it's the same with everyone else as well, it really does have to build a visceral connection with your people.

I go through it in a bit more detail in my presentations. But if you can get into the habit of once or twice in a conversation addressing people with you bond better with them in business development.

Freddy D: 00:15:59

Absolutely. And I want to really emphasize this because that is on a global scale, that is very, very important.

And one of the things that I think people overlook and shorten people's names. So if your name is Robert and you turn around and say Bob without permission, you're insulting that person.

And especially in other cultures, it's really, really important because it's looked upon as a negativity. In some cultures you don't call somebody by their first name. It's Mr. Dudek or Mr. Johnson. And they say, you know what, you can call me Connor.

Conor Cunneen: 00:16:39

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:16:39

Or you can call me Freddie, but otherwise it's Mr. Dudek. And so you don't want to really take the deliberty.

Good salespeople and people that are engaged, I'll use that word, will recognize that and ask permission. How do you prefer to be called?

Conor Cunneen: 00:16:55

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's really just showing respect for the client and for the customer. I mean, another little simple example.

I go crazy when people put two ends in Connor or there's no logic to it. But I do go crazy. I'm sure if someone spells your name, you spell Freddie with a Y. Yes. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:17:13

Well, I go by my business. My factual. My first name is Ladislas. Nobody can pronounce it. So I go by my middle name, which is Frederick, which is really my business name.

On my pod guy is Freddy D. Yeah. But the point is that I get people to turn around and it's written Frederick and they'll say, hey Fred. And it's like, wait a minute, can't you read?

Conor Cunneen: 00:17:33

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Business development and sales. There's so much that is illogical to it. Why the heck do we get.

Do I get so upset when someone puts another N into my name? Yes, I know, Fred. It's annoying, isn't it?

Freddy D: 00:17:47

Yeah, totally get it.

Conor Cunneen: 00:17:48

Right.

Freddy D: 00:17:49

It's even worse when you actually introduce yourself as saying, hey, my name is Frederick. And he turned around and says, oh, hi Fred.

Conor Cunneen: 00:17:55

That's true. So the good salesperson does listen, obviously very well. So the chaps concept, you compliment people, you're going to build relationship with them.

You hear the words thank you because you've done something positive for them. Building the micro goals, address people with their name.

And I really do think that, as I indicated, I did not favor the work of people in job search and still help them with a pro bono work. I don't get look for a fee for it, but I do tell them that this chap's concept works very well in the interview situation.

And if, for instance, you can go into an interview and find some reason to compliment the company, you probably hear the words thank you as a result of that, address your recruiter with their name once or twice. You're going to connect better with them. The recruiter is going to say, hey, this person's got a good bonding.

They're not really sure why, but it's actually happening. The neurotransmitters are kicking in. So we got compliment, hear the words thank you, address people with a name. P is for positive.

And the idea here is that I would have a micro goal that I would use positive words or positive phrase at least once when I go into work tomorrow.

And the way I address this is if you take this line with the other CHAPS elements is that if you can get into the habit of using positive words like amazing, brilliant, cheerful, delightful, energetic, friendly, Guinness, I tell my audience that Guinness is a positive word for Irish people.

What's going to happen is that you're starting to create an atmosphere where people will start saying things about you or the atmosphere that you create. And it's amazing, brilliant, cheerful, delightful, energetic, friendly. Let's go for a Guinness or whatever beverage of choice is.

But it happens because you've taken a deliberate decision that I'm going to implement a goal to use a positive word.

So when I hear myself saying something to someone like, hey, that was excellent, I realized, hey, I've achieved my micro goal to use a positive word today. I feel slightly better, but the client, the customer, your work colleague feels better as well, because you're using again, positivity.

And the final element of the CHAPS acronym that really does help to build bonding is, yes. And the goal here is, I will put a smile on someone's face today. And if I put a smile on someone's face, I'm going to smile back.

Obviously, the dopamine and the other neurotransmitters are kicking in again. The little brain is working saying, hey, another goal achieved. Well done, Connor. Well done, Freddie.

And as a result of that, you're again building the overall vibe and making people feel valued.

CHAPS is a concept that's very simple to remember, relatively easy to buy into, but not always easy to implement because you got to do something specific. Each day. But it is implementable and I know from clients that it works really well in changing the atmosphere and the vibe in an organization.

Freddy D: 00:20:49

Oh absolutely.

I couldn't agree more Connor, because you know, as I mentioned before we started recording in my book Creating Business Superfans, one of my quotes is people will walk through broken glass for appreciation recognition. So you can actually apply your CHAPS approach to give that person the appreciation and recognition that they deserve for their efforts.

By applying all those things that you just said with the CHAPS acronym that is transformative for the individual, the recipient, it becomes transformative for them and it's transformative for you because you're doing, you're going to feel good about it. But you just made that person's day.

Conor Cunneen: 00:21:31

The appreciation and recognition that you're speaking about, Freddie, it ties in with a core belief of mine I regularly push out to clients. As a leader, unless you're a loan mosque, you cannot significantly improve your employees net worth. I mean it's very, very difficult to do that.

However, as a leader you can substantially improve people's self.

Freddy D: 00:21:53

Absolutely correct.

Conor Cunneen: 00:21:54

And how they feel about themselves. An appreciation and recognition like what you're talking about works.

If you compliment people, if you hear the worst thank you from them, if you address them, which is recognizing them again a more formal way, using positive words and putting a smile on people's face, you're going to build the self worth for that individual.

Freddy D: 00:22:12

You're going to transform them into a super fan. You're going to transform them into a super fan of you as a leader. And one of the things I used to do is recognize my team's birthdays.

I would recognize customers birthdays and how I created superfans because nobody else recognized their birthday but this guy.

Conor Cunneen: 00:22:33

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:22:33

And a little recognition, but that made them feel, wow, my sales guy from this technology company recognized my birthday. How cool is that, right? Yeah.

Conor Cunneen: 00:22:44

And what you were doing, Freddie, I don't know what the technology you were actually selling, but you were probably selling technology that wasn't substantially different to other competitors out there.

What you were doing though was you were differentiating yourself ever so slightly by using small little elements that made a difference on the connection with your client. And that's the essence, I think of good sales people as well.

Simple little things they understand can make a difference in building that connection and having people sign on the dollar.

Freddy D: 00:23:13

Yeah, we would do. I was selling manufacturing software in the 90s and right.

The tool and die shops in the Chicago area up in Rockford and all those Places and the whole state and other states. And we would do a software presentation. The people from the shop floor would come in.

I've told the stories numerous times, but it's applicable here again. And management and everybody on to take a look at this technology. And we talked about the business, I always talked about business goals and etc.

But anyway, when we were all done with the present day, I made sure I had everybody's contact information and there was no email back in the early 90s. And so I sent out thank you letters. Goes back to your chaps. Okay. Thank you Connor for taking the time out of your busy day to sit into our meeting.

I really appreciate your input for our presentation. Your feedback was greatly appreciated and more importantly, thank you. Were excited to work with your organization to implement the technology.

So I did a couple things there, if you noticed. One was I thanked you appreciated your input. But I also assumed the sale and we would win the orders over the competition.

And I would ask afterward what was the deciding factor and overwhelming most of the time it was we felt after the sale you and your team would provide the best support.

Conor Cunneen: 00:24:37

I like it. And again that ties in with something I strongly believe, especially in the manufacturing technology that you were involved in.

You probably didn't get the sale after the first call. So what I say to people is that your objective at the first call, consider this.

My objective is that when I leave the room, I want people to say I would like to do business with that person. So you've got the product, you've got the service, you've got the quality, etc. But it's similar to other people.

What is it that makes the potential client say I would like to do business with that person?

Basically goes back to some of the things you're talking about creating super fans, listening well to the client, repeating some of the things that they have said that are obviously of importance to them, dropping those follow up notes, et cetera.

And at the end of the day, the product, while it might sell itself to a certain extent, it's their chemistry between the buyer and seller at the end of the day that really will determine whether or not there's a contract that happens.

Freddy D: 00:25:42

Oh, absolutely correct. And what I was going to interject was that I turned my customers into superfans, so they were my sales force.

So yes, I did make sales on the first call because Jack, I would get a phone call and says oh, Jack, and that's his real name, had a shop in Rockford because I need to get this because we're doing overflow work. What's it going to cost me? How fast can you get it? Here was the conversation. There was no sell.

Conor Cunneen: 00:26:06

Right.

Freddy D: 00:26:07

Because my superfan sold me already because of exactly what you did. I built relationships and focused on business growth. And the thingamajig is a thingamajig.

Conor Cunneen: 00:26:21

Yeah. And superfans in other way, I refer to them sometimes as a brand ambassadors. So you've got people out there selling for you.

You're not actually reimbursing them, but because of the reputation that you have created, they're out there selling for you and referring. You're absolutely right with the overall superfans concept.

Freddy D: 00:26:37

Yep. Superfans, cool name the brand advocates.

Conor Cunneen: 00:26:40

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:26:41

So share a little story of how you work with somebody and you really transform that whole organization or that individual.

Conor Cunneen: 00:26:48

Well, let's see, I just finished work with about three months ago was actually a food manufacturing client. They were in the meat business.

And if you work in the meat business, I mean it's a tough business, low margins, huge turnover in staff and people on the factory floor. And I was asked to come in and speak the five plants around the country to speak to their supervisors and team leaders.

And basically what I did Freddie, was I took him through. I've got a process called the gift of gap which is about goals, attitude and behavior.

And where I encourage people to macro goal as I call it is I would say to these supervisors and team leads, what do you want to be famous for? Okay, so what is it you want your work colleagues to say about you when you're not in the room?

And if we can try and get some clarity of what that is, then we can start working on the five chaps concepts.

And what I found really interesting Freddie, was that when I asked people to write, I give them a little exercise, little notepad, post it notes, write down three words you would like your work colleagues to say about you when you're not in the room. And you get words like professional and efficient, etc. But one or two words, two words will consistently turning up were kind.

So the team leaders and supervisors saying they want to be seen as being kind by their work colleagues and the people they're leading and also compassionate. Okay.

Because it's this crap job working on the factory floor in wet cold conditions, you making just cutting corn meats day after day after day after day.

And what I found intriguing about that was that the job spec for those team leads and supervisors never use the word kind, never use the word compassionate. Yet if you want to Actually build a relationship and have your people follow you. I think they've got to believe that you have got their back.

That you can be caring and demanding is fair enough, but demanding in a fair way and treat them like cliche. You would like to be treated yourself. But I actually forwarded to photographs of those post it notes.

I've got them on my icloud and it shows that kind, caring, compassionate, regularly coming up against from hard nosed team leads, male and female, in a tough, tough industry. So that to me was, and I've been pushing that now, finished up with the tenable four or five months ago.

They've come back and they have said quite categorically that their retention rates have improved dramatically. And that's kind of the best testimonial I can get from a client.

Freddy D: 00:29:32

Oh, that's an excellent story. And you're absolutely right because it goes back to the little things are really the big things.

And what you did there was really get them to understand that these little things have a profound impact on the rest of the team.

Conor Cunneen: 00:29:49

Yeah, and I'll give you one other specific example from that type. I did the presentations to the supervisors initially and I went back to the plant that was down in the one of the red belt states.

I went back to the plant a couple of weeks later and one of the team leads, who would be underneath the supervisor said to me, she was talking about her supervisor who was a woman, let's call her Mary.

She specifically said Mary was down at the line the other day and we let a couple of new people come in and Mary addressed the new people by their name. After Mary left, the team lead was approached by the two new people and they said, how does she know her name?

Just that simple little thing made a difference to the two new people and it meant that they were more engaged and involved in their work. Which leads me to another real strong belief of mine. And I was pushing this hard with this client as well.

When you're onboarding people, what is it that you want the new people to say when they go home after the first day?

Freddy D: 00:30:52

What a great company, I'm going to like this job. All those of them, they'll walk away. They made a good decision by joining that company.

Conor Cunneen: 00:31:01

All right. The work is hard, but they made me feel valued. Those are the kind of things I do think that a team leads.

Supervisors, managers need to pay more attention to that. What is it you want Billy or Marie to say when they go home and speak to those spouse or their parents?

Well, did you like the place, no deadly dull kind of thing, or they just didn't care about me, or hey, the work is hard, but they made me feel welcome. And you can do that by taking the CHAPS concept, for instance, as one example to make it happen.

Freddy D: 00:31:33

Oh, absolutely.

Conor Cunneen: 00:31:33

But you gotta be intentional about doing all of this. And I know you talk about that with super fans as well. It doesn't happen by chance.

Freddy D: 00:31:40

No. Because the first impression, their first day is their first impression.

And when you onboard somebody, I mean, that's the most important day because that sets for that whole person's work environment.

Conor Cunneen: 00:31:54

Yeah, most definitely. It doesn't happen by chance.

It has to be an intentional environment and decision by the organization to make this person feel that, hey, we care about you, you're not just a piece of meat.

Freddy D: 00:32:08

Yeah.

Because you got to get the team as well to acknowledge and welcome that person so that they automatically start feeling, wow, this is a good environment. I feel good because I think what you're bringing up here kind of. I didn't really think of that.

But you know, when they go home and they speak to their significant other is going to be either this looks like it's going to be a good opportunity or this is going to be tough, but I got to suck it up because I need this job.

Conor Cunneen: 00:32:35

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:32:36

Two different mindsets.

Conor Cunneen: 00:32:37

Yeah, different mindsets, absolutely. Within the same company, one team lead might make a person feel valued. They're going to hold on to the people better.

The other team leading another section might be, come on, get the job done. And it's not creating.

I think that is really important in jobs that are dirty, messy, not particularly well paid, where a person is getting that much more than minimum wage. If you can make them feel valued and build their self worth, it is a really good tool to improve retention.

Freddy D: 00:33:10

Oh, absolutely. You know, I heard a story that was shared on a previous, so I'm going to replay it, I'm going to paraphrase it.

In a sense, you think of a janitor in a hospital, that's the lowest job that there is.

But the way this person shared the story was they told that janitor that they had the most important job in the hospital because they were saving lives, because they were making sure that the place was clean so people didn't get infections and everything else. Their job was paramount to the success of the hospital and more importantly, for a positive outcome for the patient.

So they completely changed the framework of how that looked at his job. So it's the same thing. You got somebody that's in A meat factory.

You can turn around and says, do you understand that what you're doing is feeding millions of people your job and making sure that the food is safe, it doesn't get polluted. I can't think of the right word right now. And so now all of a sudden, that person goes, oh, wait a minute, you're right.

You know, shoulders pop up, head pops up. I'm an important person in this whole operation because if this food gets infected, it's going to kill millions of people.

Conor Cunneen: 00:34:30

Yeah, indeed. And you said you spent a lot of time in Chicago. So you're familiar with Eli's Cheesecake, his brother big Chicago cheesecake brands.

I saw a conversation with the CEO of Eli's Cheesecake. This goes back 12, 15 years ago.

So I can't remember the guy's name, but he was actually saying that the most important person in a restaurant is the busboy. Okay. Because if the bus boy gets a wrong, everything else goes wrong kind of thing as well.

So it's about just making sure that every single cog in the wheel is appreciated and it knows that they can make a difference to the organization. Now, the chef might not necessarily believe that the most important person in the restaurant is the boss buy.

And you can argue the validity of it, but the concept is absolutely right. Everyone's job is critical to make the place.

Freddy D: 00:35:18

Absolutely. And those take get it. Their businesses are thriving and their teams are happy and their retention rate maintains.

And they get repeat customer business because of the fact that the experience is a good experience.

Conor Cunneen: 00:35:34

Yeah, they're creating the super fans, the brand ambassadors, et cetera. And in an organization. So you get this onboarding that we were talking about.

What does Billy or Marie say when they go home for the first time after the first day? That's important. But they're probably going to be down in the pub or the coffee shop or the Dunkin Donuts later in the week. How's it going?

And if they say good things about it and market that is tight in terms of employment, you better chance of getting new people in as a result of that. That's how you create super fans, or brand ambassadors, whatever you call them, are really critical.

Freddy D: 00:36:07

Yeah, I mean, I look at it, imagine if you had 15% of all your stakeholders, everybody in the equation, being a super fan and promoting that business. Just like you said, they're with their buddies or gal pals and they're sitting.

Conor Cunneen: 00:36:25

There, hey, how's this car?

Freddy D: 00:36:26

Oh, man, I love this company. It's different. They're going to say wow, okay. And that just continued.

Once you get that machine rolling, those businesses explode and it doesn't cost them. What you and I are talking about isn't investing in tons of money.

It's just changing your mindset to be able to deal with people in an appropriate way. That elevates everybody in the equation.

Conor Cunneen: 00:36:50

Absolutely.

And as I'm repeating myself now, the team supervisor, team lead cannot improve their employees net worth substantially, but as sure as heck can improve their self worth. And when you buy into that, you can make a difference in your organization and quite likely in the larger companies.

If someone is appreciating their self worth of people. You've got a very, very good working department there.

Maybe just 20 yards down the road in the same building where the manager's totally different style, you've got disgruntled people, unhappy people, etc. Why? Because they're not paying attention to the self worth of their team and their people.

Freddy D: 00:37:30

Absolutely. And that affects productivity and that affects that energy. And you can't fake it.

I mean if you're disgruntled and you're talking on the phone with a prospective customer, an existing customer, supplier, distributor, the tonality is going to. You can't hide it. I tell people it even cross in emails because there's a choice of words you're going to utilize. You can be curt and versus. Oh man.

Hey Connor, great that you called. What can I do to help? Whole different attitude.

Conor Cunneen: 00:37:58

Versus.

Freddy D: 00:37:58

Yeah, Connor, what do you need now?

Conor Cunneen: 00:38:01

Yeah, and you know that actually brings me to my favorite groans if we can call it that way that receptionists in an organization can have a huge impact on the way people perceive the organization. I don't know what happens with doctor's offices, but this my experience, they get the most disgruntled looking unhappy people on the reception.

This is my experience anyway.

And I've decided that the reason why they have these unhappy seeming people who just kind of grunted yours because the doctors have realized that if the patient kind of sees these people, patient will get depressed, they will actually get sicker. So they'll prescribe more medicine. That's my theory on medicine.

Freddy D: 00:38:41

Now Freddie, you're right. I mean you've gone into offices and they're pleasant, they're excited to see you and it's a good experience.

And then the other ones, it's like just another number.

Conor Cunneen: 00:38:52

Oh yeah. Again, it goes back to all the little simple little things that can make the difference.

So for instance, what I would say I've done business with one small medical practice a couple of months ago and what I actually hit them with was to the receptionist and everyone involved in the team, what is it you want the patient to say about you after you've left the room? And you sure as heck don't want them to say that you look disgruntled or unhappy, etc.

You want to say, well, I would hope that that person is leaving, feel that they were cared for. They were leaving because they're leaving and they're leaving with a smile on their face because we help them to feel better, kind of.

But the question what do we want to be famous for? I think is a powerful question that not enough organizations or onboarding teams pay attention to fully agree.

Freddy D: 00:39:42

So kind of as we come close to the end here, how can people find you?

Conor Cunneen: 00:39:46

Well, the brand is Irishman Speaks. Surprise. But again, maybe a bit like you. I didn't come up with Irishman Speaks like that.

It was over a period of time as I was developing what my concept was. I know how I could differentiate myself. So what I say to people is that developing your brand and your positioning does take time.

But if you keep working on it, you're going to find something. So I mean, you've been able to own the superfans tag. I've been able to own Irishman Speaks.

And the mission is to improve people performance and productivity with a smile and everything really in terms of social media is Irishman Speaks. The website is Irishman Speaks. All one word. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram is basically Irishman Speaks.

Freddy D: 00:40:34

Okay, well, thank you so much for your time, Connor. It's been a great conversation. You and I could probably talk for this for hours.

Conor Cunneen: 00:40:40

I love my brother. Yeah, yeah. Freddie's been a pleasure. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:40:44

And next time I come to Chicago, we'll have to have one of those Chicago dogs and a beer or two.

Conor Cunneen: 00:40:50

And Eli's cheesecake maybe.

Freddy D: 00:40:52

Hi my friend. Thanks.

Conor Cunneen: 00:40:53

Pleasure.

Freddy D: 00:40:55

Before we wrap, here's your quick debrief. Each episode in this nine part series zooms in on one powerful pillar of my superfans framework.

Nine proven steps designed to turn your business from a flicker of potential to into unstoppable, scalable prosperity. The pillars are S strategize U unite P propel E elevate R rally F finance a automate N nurture s sustain.

Each week we spotlight one pillar, extract a game changing insight from today's guest and close with your superfan success Spark A bold 24 hour action you can take immediately to move your business forward. Follow along through all nine episodes.

Collect each spark and you'll have a step by step playbook to create super fans who fuel rave reviews, rocking referrals and rising revenue.

Then we reset the cycle with nine brand new Sparks, fresh guests, and even more strategies to help you scale with clarity, purpose and unstoppable momentum.

Freddy D: 00:42:14

Ready?

Freddy D: 00:42:15

Here's this episode Spark Superfan Success Spark E Elevate Design Wow Experiences at every touch point for your staff, customers and allies. Here's a top insight from today's episode.

If you can make your client feel a little bit better, you're connecting better with them and you have a much better chance of being able to seal that deal. Connor Kanin so here's your action step in the next 24 hours.

Pick one customer or a team interaction today and add a personal touch that sparks a smile. Whether it's a thoughtful compliment, compliment, a bit of humor, or using their name with care.

Outro: 00:43:00

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans Podcast. The path to success relies on taking action, so go over to businesssuperfans.com and get your hands on the book.

If you haven't already, join the accelerator community and take that first step in generating a team of passionate supporters for your business. Join us on the next next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.