Oct 8, 2019
Speaker 1: The chains of habit are too light to be felt, until they're too heavy to be broken. I'm Richa Sigdel, and I'm Tri-City influencer.
Speaker 2: The more unsuccessful you are at staying on your priorities, the more detailed you must plug them into your schedule. Put in meeting prep time into your schedule every week before your meetings.
Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's a Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast where Paul Casey interviews local leaders like CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so that we can all benefit from their experiences. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success.
Paul Casey: Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Keith Moon. He's the owner of Tumbleweeds Mexican Flair on Stevens Drive in Richland. A fun fact about Keith, as he said, he turns everything into a song. Keith, give us an example.
Keith Moon: Well, what I was saying is, if somebody says, "Brr, it's cold outside," I'll snap into the, "It's as cold as ice." That's something I genuinely do, and turns out it's genetic. My five year old does that quite a bit as well.
Paul Casey: Awesome, awesome. Well, before we begin, let's check in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor.
Neal Taylor: Hi, my name is Neal Taylor. I am the managing attorney for Gravis Law's commercial transactions team. I have Josh Bam with me here today. Josh, say hello.
Joshua: Hi, I'm Joshua, and I am one of the attorneys with the commercial transactions team, which has been growing very rapidly, because a lot of the clients really appreciate the really reliable services we provide at extreme value. For example, we provide really business savvy legal services by paying special attention to a client's current situation, their long and short term goals, and the best legal plan to get them to where they want to be.
Neal Taylor: We provide an initial consultation for $100, then we produce a business and legal plan with your goals on top, and legal costs that are a thin schmear of your benefits. And if we can't deliver on the thin schmear rule, then we will not want your business. But you will learn a lot through the consultation. Let's get started on protecting and accelerating your business today. Give us a call at (509) 380-9102 or visit us online at www.gravislaw.com.
Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome Keith. I was privileged to meet you a few years ago. It was at a West Richland Chamber meeting, wasn't it?
Keith Moon: Yes, sir.
Paul Casey: Yeah. We had a good connection after that, and been able to do some team building with your staff there, which has been a fun thing to do. So let's start out with question one, which is what did you aspire to be when you grew up, and maybe how that morphed through the years to where you are today?
Keith Moon: So that question was interesting. When I was young, the only thing in my head was that I wanted to be a police officer. People sometimes are surprised to hear that. I don't know exactly why, but I always was curious about police cars racing down the road with their sirens, and wondering what's going on, where are they going, is everybody okay? I think through that, it's kind of showed that I just want to help people, and that's my self discovery, that what that was showing me was I just genuinely want to help people the best that I can. So I tried to pursue that path. I went to Tri-Tech Law Enforcement. I toured the academy in Spokane.
Paul Casey: Cool.
Keith Moon: I basically got scared away, and since then have a pretty good feel for the law enforcement that they have-
Paul Casey: Healthy respect for them?
Keith Moon: Healthy respect to say the least.
Paul Casey: Yeah. So then how did you end up at Tumbleweeds?
Keith Moon: So, Tumbleweeds is a family business that opened in 2000. At the time I was just a wee lad. My first day was in 2003, and it kind of happened all of a sudden. My mom called me from work and said, "We had a couple of people quit. We need a body in the store to hold the floor down." I left school immediately and went there just to help. Since that day, there hasn't really been a week on the calendar, unless we're on vacation, that I haven't worked about 40 hours a week at least.
Paul Casey: Wow. Since 2003?
Keith Moon: Yes, sir.
Paul Casey: Well, who have been your mentors and advisors along your journey? You sort of got thrust into leadership along the way, and I know you're a learner, so who's been a help to you?
Keith Moon: Well, to use your word, I'm a learner. I definitely try to learn as much as I can. Because like you said, I did get kind of thrust into it. In my job, I do a lot of working by myself in the morning when I'm doing prep, and so I became a little bit addicted to talk radio. Personally, I love the aspect of learning a little bit of pop culture or politics, just knowing what's going on. So I'd have to say that one of my mentors, while I've never met him, is actually Glenn Beck of Blaze Media, and it just is born from a... He just has a passion to help people, and I sympathize with that, and I connect with that. It's proven in his leadership with Operation Underground Railroad, which is... Their mission is to kind of save children from the sex trade industry. They've saved over 2,000 children, and helped put away more than 1100 traffickers.
Keith Moon: So he's a big advocate for that. But probably the biggest thing that he showed me was a book. He interviewed an author from a book, and I can't recall, it was years ago. But the book's written by Bob Burg and John David Mann, and the book is called the Go-Giver.
Paul Casey: Good one.
Keith Moon: Have you read it?
Paul Casey: Yep.
Keith Moon: Nice. I just, ever since I read that book, had a whole new outlook on life, generally, but business as well. The basic premise of the book is, it illustrates the aspects of giving as a main function of business. It's been definitely a main aspect of our business ever since I learned that.
Paul Casey: Yeah, yeah. So how do you try to give in your business? By the way, that that's a great book, The Go-Giver. I think there's a couple spinoffs from that book by Bob Burg. It's cool to have mentors from afar and mentors close. So I think we all have got our mentors from afar, these authors and speakers that inspire us. But how do you give back in your business?
Keith Moon: Well, giving back can just meet so many things. There's the go-to, which is monetary donations to community things.
Paul Casey: Sure.
Keith Moon: Like baseball teams, the YMCA, things that sort of make a difference in the community. But then there's the aspect of giving, which another mentor of mine, which I'll talk about in a second, just kind of taught me and showed me to just not miss that opportunity. That you have a few people within your direct circle, there's people that you can't really affect, and there's some people that you can, in your direct circle. And the lesson that I learned from him was just don't miss the opportunity, because you have that opportunity, and maybe somebody else doesn't. If you don't take that opportunity, it will be a missed opportunity. And that's sad, especially when you want to help people.
Paul Casey: Yeah. What a great point. Don't miss the opportunity, because you may be the only one that has that opportunity to help that person out.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: That's great. Other mentors?
Keith Moon: So, that particular person, who asked that I not name him, he's just a regular customer of ours. He comes in on the daily. Something that he does that is just remarkable is just these subtle things. So for instance, there'll be a group of firefighters sitting in our dining room, and he'll walk up and give them all glass hearts, and say, "Appreciate your work."
Paul Casey: Wow.
Keith Moon: "Just know that you're loved."
Paul Casey: That's so cool.
Keith Moon: I've seen him do that on more than one occasion, but we had a personal exchange. I had an employee who, without naming, she was the type that was the just getting by type, struggling type, and she drove a van that had a broken out window in the back. And she had a kid, she had a child. I walked by it every day, and I just thought to myself, "Darn. That's unfortunate." But I just did nothing about it. Well, after months of her working there, this gentleman I'm talking about, he said, "I'd like to know the make and model of that van. I'd like to get that fixed for her."
Keith Moon: Ultimately, in trying to do that, he ended up finding out that not only was the window broke, but the brakes were worse than the window. The tires were falling apart. He ended up replacing the back window, all the brakes, and all the tires on that vehicle. No doubt her life was impacted by that tremendous act. But certainly mine was, too, because that was sort of my lesson. Which was, gosh, I really felt like that was a missed opportunity. I felt a little bit ashamed of myself that I didn't act sooner. That was my shot, and I learned. I sort of vowed after that that I won't miss that opportunity the next time it comes around.
Paul Casey: Wow, that is so cool. I've wanted to do more of the paying for people behind me in the drive through.
Keith Moon: Right.
Paul Casey: But, this guy was true Good Samaritan.
Keith Moon: Yes.
Paul Casey: I mean, literally discovering that it was a worse off vehicle and saying, "Nope, I'm going to plunk all this money down-"
Keith Moon: Right.
Paul Casey: "To help this person out." Man, that is just phenomenal.
Keith Moon: You know, one of the followups that you outlined here is how did that affect you? I just brought a little example that I wanted to share with you. You get this, this is a gift.
Paul Casey: Ooh, I get a gift today.
Keith Moon: But I just wanted to show you that this was an idea that spawned from that, which was a sort of spontaneous act, not missing a beat. So what this is, is what I call kindness cards, and we give out two a day at Tumbleweeds. It's a relatively new idea, but basically... Well, I'll let you open it. It's a gift to you.
Paul Casey: Okay, so on the cover it says, "Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give." Inside, it says, "Congratulations, you are today's recipient of our Random Acts of Kindness Award. Whether you did something extra special, or you were extra smiley, one of our people thought that this should go to you today. You have received two $10 Tumbleweeds gift cards today. We hope you used one for yourself and give one to someone else as a way of spreading kindness. Have a wonderful day. Tumbleweeds Mexican Flair." That is so cool.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: How long you've been doing this?
Keith Moon: So that's a relatively new thing of ours, but it's evolved into that. It started with me just getting these little $5 gift cards and spontaneously dropping them into people's bags. But it just evolved into a, "You know what? We also don't have to wait for the opportunity. We can create this opportunity as well." So that's just something I'm super proud of, and happy to say that wouldn't have happened if I didn't have those experiences-
Paul Casey: Yeah.
Keith Moon: I'm so happy for the mentors I had.
Paul Casey: Yeah. Way to go to learn from that, not just go, "Oh, that was sort of nice."
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: But actually you took it and you applied it right away.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: Which is, since I know you, you do that with everything good that you learn.
Keith Moon: Thank you.
Paul Casey: What's the best team you've ever been on? So you've been on... Probably most of your teams have been Tumbleweeds related teams, right?
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: But what made it so special, and what did it teach you about leading a team?
Keith Moon: So, my situation's unique just like everybody's. I've been on a series of teams with different people, but I've been on one core team basically my entire life. So regardless of if I was in a position of leadership, like in the beginning I wasn't, or now that I am, even if you have examples that aren't the best, you're still learning through that, "That's a good idea of what not to do." Making a mental note, and evolving as a leader in that respect. So I can't say that it's always been a fantastic team, but I definitely have made little notes, carry my notebook with me everywhere, and make little notes and try to learn from that.
Paul Casey: So making notes to yourself of either what not to do, or what to do better.
Keith Moon: Yeah. There's learning lessons in both of those. Those notes usually correlate to a monthly meeting that we have at our store, where I share those notes or little tidbits that I learned along the way that meant something to me. Even if they don't mean something to them, at least in sharing it, it just might. You know?
Paul Casey: Yes, yes. That's part of people development.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: So you take those notes, and then you turn it into an action item.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: Yeah. I like to say that-
Keith Moon: That's right.
Paul Casey: Especially if it's a complaint, is to turn a complaint into an action item.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: Instead of just being grumbling and grumbling.
Keith Moon: Right.
Paul Casey: But turn it into something positive. So there's a lot of adjectives that we could use to describe leadership and entrepreneurship. If you had to pick three adjectives in a nutshell, what would you say they are and why?
Keith Moon: Well, I'm going to be honest, I had to Google, "What's an adjective?"
Paul Casey: I always remember language arts class.
Keith Moon: I'm sorry about that.
Paul Casey: Oh, you fell asleep in that one, didn't you?
Keith Moon: I was very focused on, honestly, getting out of school and getting to work. So I apologize about that.
Paul Casey: All right, all right.
Keith Moon: However, the three words that stuck out to me are principled, honest and trustworthy. Even if those aren't definition adjectives, I think they're-
Paul Casey: They're good, they're good.
Keith Moon: Somebody who's principled is just going to be intentional with decision making. Decisions are going to have a meaning. They're not just going to be empty decisions. So that's something that I think is good. You're acting with a clear moral compass, and and so clarity's good there. Trusting is just something that, in my opinion, is acquired over time. It's hard to have trust right away. It's something that's earned. But trust is definitely necessary. I don't think it's possible to lead a team that doesn't trust you, or to expect a team to follow or to go with you if there's a lack of trust.
Keith Moon: Then honesty, which, honest and trust are kind of one and the same to me. You just have to know. There's a quote that I recalled, as soon as I saw that question, by Immanuel Kant, who said, "There are many things I believe I shall never say, but I shall never say the things that I do not believe." That, to me, kind of sticks out. That's something that I heard listening to talk radio. So it's just a little note that I made. It's something that's sort of etched in my memory. So just remaining honest in your acts, that helps to build some integrity and admirable traits.
Paul Casey: Yeah. Those three all relate to one another.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: What happens when a leader has not earned his team's trust? What have you noticed maybe just by watching others, or watching staff on your team trust, or not trust, even one another? What happens? What's dysfunctional that happens when there's no trust.
Keith Moon: Well, dysfunction is definitely a product of a lack of trust. But I really just try to be an active integral part of it. So if there is a lack of trust for whatever the reason, just talking to one another, trying to get an idea for myself if there's something that I can interject. Is it just that this new hire is a bad egg, and they're just not cutting the mold, and there is no trust there? Or is it that we had a busy Taco Tuesday, we fell apart, and we hate everybody now? We have to rebuild after that, you know?
Paul Casey: True, true. And I know sometimes being principled, even for you, has been difficult in the last couple of years. You've had to make calls that were really, really hard, but you stood on a moral compass to make that. Was that really hard?
Keith Moon: Definitely. It's hard to say, "There's such thing as an easy decision," because in politics, there's adverse consequences. You're acting with the best of intentions, but sometimes it has consequences that span the reach of your understanding that you just don't know. So then you have to deal with those situations, and you undo Pandora's box, and-
Paul Casey: That's right.
Keith Moon: "Oh, no."
Paul Casey: Under that rock, there was something else.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: It takes courage for sure. Leaders have to see around corners. So, Keith, what do you do to look ahead and envision the future? Because you're in a very responsive business. There's customers coming in that door, you've got to be ready for them. They're coming up with all sorts of asks to customize orders and things. But you also know that you've got to have vision for next week, next year.
Keith Moon: Right.
Paul Casey: What do you do? How do you do that?
Keith Moon: Well, when I saw that question, another thing came to mind. I had heard an interview with Mark Cuban. He said, in this interview, I don't know exactly what they were talking about. The thing that stuck out to me was, "As an entrepreneur, you should be working daily. There's somebody working twice as hard to take it all away from you." That's kind of a little bit a motivating factor, because if you think there's someone over here who's just waiting for you to make your wrong move and they're going to scoop in there and take it from you. But as far as seeing around corners, I think about things that are happening with, say, changes in laws, labor laws is one of them. I think about food trends. It's hard to stay focused in any one direction, but as food trends change, there are things that can be on your menu, at least in our industry, that are irrelevant. We're not selling a lot of their things.
Keith Moon: So one thing that we've done is taken advantage of a service that Sysco offers, which is our food distributor. They invite you to their headquarters in Post Falls and let you tour their warehouse-
Paul Casey: Cool.
Keith Moon: Meet with one of their executive chefs, you get to sit in a commercial kitchen with a lounge chair, bottles of water. You're sitting there with your sales rep, the president of the company, and five star chef, and you're talking about what's working, what's not working. As long as you're open minded to changing, there's so much valuable information in those meetings, because you know you're getting good information from a chef, from an executive, from somebody who's seen market trends in the food industry beyond the walls of Tumbleweeds. We tend to get kind of caught in our wheel, you know what I mean? And some of the best products that we've had on our menu have come as a result of those meetings.
Keith Moon: So those are intentional, worthwhile, happy time for me, to schedule those, and it makes an impact in our business. When I look down the road and I see some things that are coming, too, another thing I do is try to see how I can prepare for that. So with changing labor laws and things like that, it just has to be, in a business owner's mind, is, "How am I going to adapt to it?" Not necessarily, "How am I going to deal with it?" "How do I adapt to these changes that are outside of my control?" One of those ways that I'm doing that is just trying to remove some of the unforeseen expenses. So like, we have older equipment. I'm repairing and replacing these pieces of equipment now, so that it won't be that kid in the corner waiting to jump when I least expect it.
Paul Casey: Yeah.
Keith Moon: So that's been something that's on my mind, recently, as well.
Paul Casey: I love the road trip to Idaho, to that next level business, so that you can stay on the cutting edge.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: You take other people with you on that?
Keith Moon: I take my wife and my five-year-old. Typically my older son is in school, so I like to not pull him out, but it's also excellent family trip-
Paul Casey: Yeah.
Keith Moon: I don't get a lot of that time, and so we make a family trip out of it.
Paul Casey: Yeah, I'm trying to do that too, whenever I have a business trip, to bring my wife along, and you get a date out of it as well. But to see the next level, a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck in their own little world, and they don't see what can be. They can't see around corners, because they're not visiting that next level up. But it sounds like you do a good job of that. By the way, do you see other businesses as competitors, or do you try to stay in your lane, and go, "We just need to be as excellent as we can?"
Keith Moon: I have a unique approach to business. I want to help people. Generally, that's at the forefront of my mind. So that applies to customers, that applies to employees, that applies to other businesses. I sympathize with a struggling business, who... I'm observant, I can see that their business is not working. I can see things that I would change. I cannot help but stop in there and say, "How's it going? Let's take a taste. Let's see what you're offering." By doing that, I develop relationships with other business owners, and I've been a part of integrating change in other businesses. Because I'm interested... Tumbleweeds is our bread and butter, you know what I mean? It is all I know, as we've outlined earlier. So it's so important to succeed, that failure's not an option.
Keith Moon: When I see a business close, it literally brings tears to my eyes, because I'm thinking about that entrepreneur, that business owner, the people who worked there, the families around them, their children, and the rest of their life, thinking, "How are you going to deal with that? What are you going to do?"
Paul Casey: It is so sad, yeah.
Keith Moon: Because what would I do? When we're closed for a day, I will send business to other businesses. One example of that is we had to be closed for a repair. We were closed for five days. We had to replace our hood fan, and it was a major construction job. A friend of that owned a pizza place down the street, he said, "Can you send some business my way?"
Keith Moon: And I said, "You know what? I think I can." So I got on my little email marketing and text club, and I said, "Hey, we might be closed, but this place down here and makes a mean taco pizza." I made a point about injecting our flair in there, if you will.
Paul Casey: Nice.
Keith Moon: "And you can give them a try." That was their busiest week. I felt so good. And you know what? Our customers came back next week and they said, "You know what? That was such a good thing that you did for that other business, and you took care of us." I negotiated a deal that he could offer to my customers. I said, "Tell him Tumbleweed sent you," and they got a special deal. So it was like this cultural, beneficial thing all the way around. It blessed a business owner, it blessed my customers, it blessed me because I could tell my customers where to go instead of feeling like, "Oh, what's going to happen if they show up and we're closed? They're going to be so disappointed."
Paul Casey: Yeah.
Keith Moon: It was awesome.
Paul Casey: It's so Go-Giver of you.
Keith Moon: I love it. I know.
Paul Casey: I mean it. It's so part of you and your integrity.
Keith Moon: I know.
Paul Casey: Yes.
Keith Moon: Thank you.
Paul Casey: I also like the piece where you're trying to replace equipment now when times are good, so that it doesn't become an emergency later. For all those in entrepreneurship that might be listening today is to think about what systems could break later, that there's something you could do now to make it stronger. That's really wise. So before we head into our next question to ask about Keith's ideal day, let's shout out to our sponsors.
Paul Casey: Jason Hogue, American Family Insurance. Jason, what is the biggest pushback you get about life insurance?
Jason Hogue: Hey, Paul. Yeah. One of the biggest pushbacks I get for life insurance is from folks that are single. They're usually ask me, "Why do I even need this? I don't have kids, I don't have any dependents or a spouse. Why do I need this?" Ultimately, whenever you pass on, there's going to be somebody there to pick up the pieces. There's going to be somebody to deal with your affairs. I would say it's your responsibility to make sure that there is funds, that there's money there, so that person can take the time needed to go through it properly and not make it their responsibility.
Paul Casey: Awesome, Jason. So tell us, how can our listeners get in touch with you?
Jason Hogue: You can swing by our office on Road 68 in Pasco, or give us a call at (509) 547-0540.
Paul Casey: So Keith, let's talk about your leadership rhythm. What does your ideal day look like?
Keith Moon: So, I listened to a few of your other podcasts and kind of see what other people said, and I was shocked at the similarities. I am an early person. I can't wait to get up in the morning, to be quite honest. Oftentimes, I beat my alarm by five minutes. I do set my alarm for 4:00 every morning. It is kind of early. I understand that. But I need personal decompression time, and I find so much value in those first hours of the morning. So I definitely try to... I call it, get ready, be ready, and be at the ready. I try to do that before 5:00. I leave my house usually 10 minutes before 5:00 every day. I definitely could not function without a cup of coffee. I do my part about trying to visit local businesses. So on my way to work, I only live five miles away, but if I can mention other businesses' names, if you don't mind-
Paul Casey: Sure.
Keith Moon: I pass Indulgences, Barracuda, I pass Roasters, I pass Li'l Firehouse. There's Coffee Bean. I have-
Paul Casey: You're surrounded by coffee.
Keith Moon: I have so much coffee. I love coffee. I do tend to go to one more than the others, but I do like to kind of share in that. So I get my coffee every morning, I get to work, and I usually sit in the parking lot in my truck for about 30 minutes before I walk in the door. As I was reflecting on this question, I realized, "Wow, that is something that I do every day." The reason I do that is because the minute my foot walks in the door, it's go.
Paul Casey: Off to the races.
Keith Moon: It's go, go, go, and I won't have that time. So I use that time in the morning to sift through emails, respond to people whom I might have a forgot about yesterday, or didn't get to back what I wanted to do. Then I also use that time to evaluate what's coming on this day. What do I have to look forward to, what kind of deliveries are we anticipating, what kind of ordering, or what do I need to do today? Then, like I said, I'm usually by myself doing prep until about 7:00 when my mom Eve gets there, who works for me. In that time, I'm listening to talk radio, just learning as much as I can, and then our first employees start to get there around 10:00 and 11:00. I take a solid 30 minute break every single day at 10:00 sharp. It's just part of my schedule.
Keith Moon: I eat lunch, I call my wife. I make sure that things are good on that side of the fence. And if there's any assistance that I can be immediately when I get off work, or if I have to leave sooner based on what's going on in our lives. I work our lunch rush. I'm happy to be actively involved in our store. Customer interaction, making foods, just seeing to be as much help as I can in all the positions. But not necessarily working any one position. That's my favorite. I use the last hour of my day between like 2:00 and 3:00 to do my paperwork. But probably the most important day of the week for me is Sunday. We are closed on Sunday. One of the biggest decisions that I made, and one of the first ones, is to close on Sunday. It was a risky decision at the time, because I was all about, "Squeeze as much juice out of each day as possible."
Keith Moon: But when I made that decision, it was a bit of a commitment to my wife. I said, " In taking on this role, I'm going to be married to this business, and I appreciate your support, but what I'm going to do is make sure that I have at least a day off." So while it may have not been for religious reasons for me, it's in honor of religious reasons that my employees might have, but also just to guarantee a day off. In this industry, you get overworked, and totally burn out, and it was necessary. It is my most efficient day on the week. I make over 1,000 taco shells every Sunday to prepare for Taco Tuesday. I get all my ordering done, my inventory. I grab my family, we go to breakfast, we do shopping at Cash&Carry. I'm done by about noon. It's not work on Sunday. It's just actions, and I love it. I love it. It's the best day of the week, I love it.
Paul Casey: Yeah, and if you're an achiever, like many of us that are listening, even on your day off, you're prepping for some things that's going to make everything else better.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: So, like you said, it's not work, doesn't feel like work.
Keith Moon: It doesn't.
Paul Casey: Especially... But you've given that off to your employees, so that they can worship if they want, or just rest. That's that principle of Sabbath. When Sabbath was originated back in biblical times, it's a revolt against slavery. When the Israelites got out of Egypt, it's this principle God put into place of Sabbath. We get slaved to our jobs if we don't take that full day off. I'm still working on myself on that as well. Love your motto. Get ready, be ready and get at the ready. I'm sure you said that to your-
Keith Moon: Be at the ready.
Paul Casey: Be at the ready. Sorry, yes. Yes.
Keith Moon: Get it right.
Paul Casey: And you probably have said that many times to your employees.
Keith Moon: Yeah. In life, I just want to be... If I'm in my house, and I'm awake, and someone knocks at the door, I just want to be ready to answer that door at the very least. You know what I mean?
Paul Casey: Yeah.
Keith Moon: At the very least.
Paul Casey: That's right.
Keith Moon: If I'm not presentable, that's not good.
Paul Casey: Keith will always be in sweats if you knock on his door.
Keith Moon: Yep.
Paul Casey: So you're constantly energizing others on your team. You have to as a business owner. So how do you recharge your batteries? You've said a few of those things already that gets you pumped up for the day ahead. Anything else you would add or you would reinforce?
Keith Moon: As far as energizing others?
Paul Casey: Energizing yourself.
Keith Moon: Energizing myself. Well, another commitment that I made to my wife is, while it might not be a daily thing that we're doing, we definitely love our annual vacations. It's something that is so seriously important, and I never really understood until I'm in this position, that it is so unbelievably important. So I made a commitment to my wife that we're going to take a vacation a year. What that has turned into is this, talk about our trip coming up all the time. And so we sort of plan incrementally through the year. We plan it super early, we talk about it, we look forward to it, we're researching about it. So wherever we're going, we're learning about what's going to be there, what we're going to do, and that is so much fun. So we might see a commercial on TV, and it's Mickey Mouse, and I can tell my son, "Oh, we're going to meet him. We're going soon. Are you excited?" Or we see an airplane, "Oh, we're going to get on an airplane." It's just like, those little moments are just so awesome to me. So I really enjoy that.
Paul Casey: So I've learned from you already. You take breaks, you take your day off, and you take vacations.
Keith Moon: Yes.
Paul Casey: Good stuff. Good stuff. As leaders, we know we must change in order to grow. So how do you handle change? Do you like change? Do you resist change? And then how do you lead it in your organization, your business? Because not everybody likes it.
Keith Moon: I have learned that about people-
Paul Casey: Early?
Keith Moon: In this position. I accept change as a necessary. I am open minded to change. I think that if you're not, it's just not going to work out. Because culture changes, trends change, so many things change. It's hard to teach somebody or coach somebody into, "This is okay, it's going to be okay." Oftentimes it's just this jiving them up, "Okay, it's going to be okay. Watch." One thing that we do, we might think, "Oh, we should put a fish product on our menu or something like that." And we think, "Oh, where is it going to go in the hot holding?" Or, "How are we going to prepare it?" Or, "We're so busy already, how are we going to integrate this new menu item?" So something that we do, I don't know if it's pertinent to this question, but it just came to mind, that we do this thing, and we're doing it recently, called Tumbleweeds Cares
Keith Moon: So what we're doing is we're giving our employees an opportunity to develop a brand new menu item with pretty much no rules, and we're going to sell it for a period of a week, and it gets to benefit a charity organization of their choosing. So I have no input at all besides if it's fresh lobster tail, I'm like-
Paul Casey: That might affect the budget.
Keith Moon: "Let's think about something else." So they bring that product to me, I price it out in a way that's fair, that's going to benefit the charity, that's going to not put us in the hole, and it's just overall such a good thing. It also enlightens us to, "Oh, it's not so hard to deal with a new product, and I think we can." So we become a little bit more courageous when a change does happen that we can deal with that. Because we did. One of the most recent examples was this almond milk horchata, which takes days to make. It has to soak overnight. You have to blend it, strain it, store it, stir it. It was overwhelming to think about. But when you accept that this is going to happen, and we're going to do it, so let's figure out how to do it. Just putting people against the wall, it usually works out.
Paul Casey: Wow, what a great way to stimulate innovation, and have employees own something cool. I was at a local coffee shop when I heard two of the employees coming up with new flavors for a coffee drink, as well. I just think that's a great idea. But leadership isn't always roses, as you know. So you've got disappointment in leadership and being an entrepreneur. How do you bounce back from that?
Keith Moon: Disappointment is rampant in leadership. But I heard a long time ago that you can't change what happens to you, but you can affect how you react to what happens to you.
Paul Casey: Absolutely.
Keith Moon: And I just think I subscribe to that so entirely, that when something's happening that's outside of our control, while I couldn't recite it, I heard you mention in another podcast, but it's the serenity prayer, where you just accept this, "I have no effect on, so what's the best way to deal with this? Then let's move on." Because what good does it do to drain our energy on something we can't change?
Paul Casey: Amen, yeah.
Keith Moon: That is something that's always in my head as we're coping with things like that.
Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). At the end of your time at Tumbleweeds, what legacy do you want to leave behind? What do you want to see accomplished?
Keith Moon: That is a really interesting question. I had never actually thought about that before seeing it on your questions here. I don't really know. Because I have gone back and forth. I went through this mental gymnastics of, "Oh, I want to have a Tumbleweeds in every zip code, and what's the best way to do that?" You know what I mean? I admire Roasters like you wouldn't believe, because of what they've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. It's just mesmerizing to me. But then when I think about it, I think, "Oh, I don't know." You know what I mean? So in that regard, I might not be the best leader. But I do like what we're doing. I had to sometimes come to terms with, "I'm happy, I'm cozy, our family's cared for, and things are going well. Maybe we don't have to be this conglomerate corporation spanning the globe. Maybe we can just have a little Tumbleweeds and do our part."
Paul Casey: Yes. And keep doing these caring things that you're giving back with.
Keith Moon: Yeah.
Paul Casey: Very cool. Finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?
Keith Moon: For me, I loved your podcast with Holley Sowards. I was moved by that so much. She said something in there that I believe, I just had never vocalized or thought about. And that's just to accept that people have the best of intentions around you. Because sometimes you get in decision makings and maybe not integrating the people around you that are there to support you, and sometimes if something doesn't go right, you could be quick to think, "Why do they want to ruin my day?" It's like, "No, they actually wanted to do the best thing possible, but they were just a little bit misguided or whatever." So I would just say, care for your customers, care for your people. One of my other mentors that we didn't get to, his name is Marcus Lemonis, and he's a Lebanese business man, but he owns hundreds of businesses. One of his credos is the three P's, which is people, product, process. But it starts with people. You just have to take care of your people, gain some trust, provide some leadership, and I really think it's going to be okay.
Paul Casey: Cool stuff. Well, Keith, how can our listeners best connect with you?
Keith Moon: You can definitely swing by the store anytime. We're not open on Sundays, but-
Paul Casey: What are your hours, what are your hours?
Keith Moon: We're open Monday through Saturday. We're open 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Monday through Friday, and we open at 10:00 AM on Saturday, close at 8:00 PM. We're pretty much known for our Taco Tuesday, half price tacos every Tuesday, which pretty busy. So if you want a casual atmosphere, don't come on that day.
Paul Casey: Well thanks for all you do for this Tri-Cities area, and keep leading well.
Keith Moon: Thank you.
Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Josh Toner, Basin Pacific Insurance. Applications for productivity. Josh, the app man, what do you got for us today?
Josh Toner: Hey Paul, thanks for having me here today. Today I'm here to talk about Habitify. This is a habit tracking app. This app is on iOS and Apple devices, so it's not on any of your Android devices, but there is a ton of apps like this. So if this one doesn't work for you, please go look around. But this is a habit tracking app used to monitor the habits you're either building or breaking. When working on habits, consistency is the name of the game, and repetitive action seals in a new habit that you're working on. So being able to monitor those tendencies is a really cool thing to have in your pocket, and be able to pull out your phone and tick items off that you finished, or be able to go in and see your tendencies throughout the week. As an example, I start off the work week really strong, and then tend to get tired and less consistent towards the end of the week.
Josh Toner: This app is good for things like 30 day challenges, working on exercising, stop eating at 7:00 PM, daily walks at 10:00 AM if you're trying to get a break during the work week, smoking habits, brush your teeth three times daily. If you want to use it for work, you can cold call 10 people a day, if you're trying to get two referrals throughout the week. But really you're not working on anything, you're not monitoring and tracking. So this is a good app if you're trying to get out there and maybe start a new morning routine, a nightly routine, or just have clear, more focused goals.
Josh Toner: Stay on track, monitor goals and your tendencies, keep notes on your progress, and then show progress in tables or charts. There's good monthly progress, things like that you can check out. Other apps to check out are Momentum, which creates a chain-like experience. So as you tick things off, it creates a chain, and if you miss those habits, it breaks your chain. There's apps like Habitica, which makes the habit tracking into a game where you have a character who gains points and armor, things like that. New ones come out daily, so check out new ones if none of those work for you.
Paul Casey: Habits are the key to your daily success. Thanks, Josh. How can people get in touch with you to talk more about apps?
Josh Toner: If you want to get a hold of me, you can reach me at jrtoner... T-O-N-E-R... @basinpacific.com, and that's B-A-S-I-N-P-A-C-I-F-I-C dot com.
Paul Casey: And don't forget to consider patronizing our sponsors of Tri-City Influencer, Gravis Law and Jason Hogue, American Family Insurance. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Mark Twain says, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." Keep growing forward.
Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this podcast, or it piqued your interest in learning more about leadership and self leadership, you can continue to glean from Paul and his Growing Forward services. Check out Paul's blog and the products, tips, and tools, on his website, at www.paulcasey.org, and opt into his Target Practice inspirational e-newsletter. You'll get his 33 top tips for becoming a time management rockstar when you subscribe. And consider buying one of his three books, the most recent one being Leading the Team You've Always Wanted.
Paul Casey: This podcast has been produced by Bonsai Audio at Fuse Coworking Space.