where did that come from? But where did that come from?

Yeah, so what the warm cookie effect is, because we curated the entire experience.

So you're right, Steve, in that I couldn't do all these things on my own.

I had to develop a team.

I had to figure out how to attract people to this rural place where there's no Niagara Falls or a giant ball of string to come and see.

You are there to unplug.

I'm not joking.

Like, give us a feel for what you kind of hit on in the book.

But first, in case our listeners haven't heard back to episode 402 and got the intro, give us a quick origin story about how you got to owning your own coaching and consulting business, and then we're gonna jump in.

All right.

There's a people theme throughout my life, honestly, of Kaizen Coaching and Consulting.

Kaizen means continual improvement, and that's a theme of my life, and also people.

So I started as a young one, got my master's in education, and taught middle school for 13 years, and loved it.

I loved middle school.

That's where I really got my feet wet with the weirdness.

[laughs]

Is there like a, I don't want to call it a crisis, but a lack of people that have this opportunity? giving mindset or, you know, being able to communicate? Is this a communication issue? Is there a way to perhaps maybe your employees, you don't feel they're the most extroverted, not that they have to be, but can you train people in this manner that perhaps you feel might not be anywhere near it today?

Oh my gosh, that is a brilliant question.

I did not lead the witness here.

But particularly when hiring for front-facing customer service jobs, there's a specific God-given gift that you look for.

People have it or they don't.

And believe me, I'm speaking from experience because I super desired to fill a position that I very much needed to have filled.

And I knew this person.

pants.

plants that were planting seeds in each one of these pots.

And there's the attraction.

We attract the right people.

And I can tell you a story about me attracting the wrong person.

Learned a school of hard knocks there.

There's training, which helps people to feel valued and helps them to know what the path is and what the expectations are.

But if we just leave the training with the SOPs and the checklists and things, and we don't have that retention section or plant or bucket, the retention is where we really work on continually educating our staff, getting their ideas, helping them to feel valued and respected, and that they are leaders within the company.

What's step number two past the attraction phase?