Who's Driving
Who's Driving with Wesley Turner & Steven Merck is all about the entertaining stories we share and brainstorming topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip. Come along for the ride as we check in with friends & offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things Home and Garden.
Who's Driving
Who's Driving- Behind the Wheel: Q&A Roundup S3E24
Wesley and Steven dive into a Q&A session answering listener questions about their friendship, business partnership, retail experiences, and more.
Don't forget to join our online community at WhosDrivingPodcast.com
Join the conversation by calling their hotline at 864-982-5029 with your own stories or topic suggestions, and experience the authentic charm of two best friends who truly never know who's driving or where they're headed.
Look For The Water Bottle! Tap Here For Hidrate Spark water bottle.
Visit www.WesleyTurnerLiving.com to find so much more about all the things we do!
Follow Steven on Instagram at @Keepinupwithsteven and follow Wesley on Instagram at @WesleyTurnerLiving. Shop our online store at TheNestedFig.Com Find The Nested Fig on Instagram at @TheNestedFig
We mentioned The Nested Fig App in this episode. You can Tap Here to get our app and join our live sales
.
Come on and get in. It is burning up, it's summertime You're in Hawaii.
Speaker 2:I mean, you don't know if it's burning up. It's probably like a mile 72 or something. Yeah, I don't even know. It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Welcome to who's Driving. I'm Wesley Turner.
Speaker 1:And I'm Stephen Merck. We're two best friends and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendship and business.
Speaker 1:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss, as two best friends would on a long road trip.
Speaker 2:Along the way we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media and all things home and garden.
Speaker 1:Buckle up and enjoy the ride. You never know who's driving, or?
Speaker 2:where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride. On this week's episode, we are doing something we haven't done in a while. We're doing a Q&A roundup, so a question and answer. A Q&A roundup, so a question and answer. I put up a box on Instagram a while ago and got in lots of great messages and questions, and so I'm going to read down through them and we'll just keep it moving and see what we get to. There were some good ones. I haven't looked in a while so I can't remember what they were, but I'm pulling it up so we can. It's going to be a surprise. It's going to be a surprise. It's going to be a surprise to all. Do I start at the bottom or the top? Work my way from the bottom up.
Speaker 2:That's always the question that is always the question and actually the one at the bottom, randomly all the way down here is how did you and Stephen meet? Oh, which we've talked about. If you really want to know the long answer, go back to the very first season one, episode one. We talk about how we met.
Speaker 1:Basically he opened. The first store he opened was at the end of my street and actually the reason I came in there my neighbor came in and bought me a plant? Yeah, because your cat had died.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and I can remember like she stopped in and was like oh, my neighbor's having a hard time, His cat died. I just wanted to do a little something and I potted it right on the spot.
Speaker 1:That's something and she said, oh, these gay guys open this store at the end of the street. It's called roots. And I said, oh, I thought that was like a head shop to like buy weed paraphernalia. And she, no, it's this cute little plant store. You should stop in.
Speaker 2:So I did so. Stephen stopped in as a customer and it was on his way home and he started stopping in and hanging out at the end of his day and Daniel and I were there, because when we opened the store Roots the original garden shop that's all we had and it was Daniel and I opened it and Daniel and I worked it. We didn't have any employees when you first met us.
Speaker 2:That was it, that was it, and then from there we got our first designer and then grew and then so we would be there. You know, it was new business, so we were. I mean, hell, we still put everything into all of our businesses, but it was that one that was our baby. We would stay after hours redoing displays and stuff and Stephen started coming by and just hanging out and I would be like, well, if you're here, you got to help me with this display, and slowly we fell in love as best friends.
Speaker 1:It bloomed.
Speaker 2:It bloomed from there and I taught you a lot about displays. And Well, I had never worked.
Speaker 1:I had never worked in retail and well I had never worked. I had never worked in retail right. My whole life had been in mcdonald's right, um.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of funny, the retail that I, I know I learned basically for nine years before I was a part of the business right, and so with that like, sometimes it would be like I got all these orders because we did potted arrangements that's what we still do but you know, at the time it's just me doing them and so I'd be like here, help me with this, and he'd be like I don't know how to do it. And we would just I'd be like, yeah, you do, Just do it, basically, and we would talk through it and just became best friends.
Speaker 1:And that was like and you either you know that's a job, that that whole thing you can either just get back there and do it with some guidance some basics.
Speaker 2:You're either going to get it or you're not.
Speaker 2:And that's when used to like hiring designers. Can you remember like a couple of times I had I would have interviews? Can you remember like a couple of times I had I would have interviews? Ok, I like these three people. And then I would bring them all in and say, ok, you can go around the store, like it sure is, and create me any arrangement that you want, here's your pot to put it in, and I could tell instantly who was going to have you know, and that. You know there's definitely things you can do to tweak it. Tweak it to have your look, our signature look as a brand. But if they don't get the basics from the beginning of seeing scale and seeing texture, especially scale, scale is the hardest thing, scale is always.
Speaker 1:to me, scale is the hardest thing in any design, like if you're doing interior design, if you're doing landscape design, if you're doing plant design in a pot. Scale is what always screws it up.
Speaker 2:Even with cut flowers doing scale having a tall vase and then it just out of scale. Scale is the hardest thing, but yeah, stephen luckily had the talent in there and learned it all.
Speaker 1:And, coincidentally, very weirdly, I was an idiot when I was in college and I thought that horticulture classes in landscape design classes would be so easy because I loved it. So all my electives were in horticulture and so it all just kind of plays in together. Yeah, I mean I had enough knowledge to be dangerous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you just picked it up and you really. So if you don't know, I mean, we've talked about this. Stephen basically helped me as a pretty close to full-time employee, because we would do things after hours for Nine years. Nine years with no paycheck Never.
Speaker 1:I want some money.
Speaker 2:And that's how he ended up. When I was changing the business, we were moving the home store and everything was growing and I wanted this bigger picture.
Speaker 2:And that's when you became an owner in the business, but before that he treated it like it was, I treated it like it was mine and I could trust him with everything. So anyway, that's how it, because I really wouldn't. If you're thinking about opening a business, I really would not recommend having a business partner. I mean, I know it works out a lot Sometimes you have to and that sort of thing, but if you can avoid it, don't?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to tell you from my perspective, but it has worked out for us, but we knew what we, we knew how we worked together before you became a business owner, you have to have the same basic business philosophy, Right?
Speaker 1:And what I've seen is most people do not share that. Wesley and I happen to come from different industries, but we had the same sales building and customer service philosophies. Yeah, you know we have differences, which you know we.
Speaker 2:And we both have different strengths in the business. Absolutely Like I love all the technology parts and keeping us up to date with that. I love the marketing side of it and all of that, and so, anyway, it all worked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll say this too In McDonald's. What I also learned is and you can't have partners in McDonald's, you either have spouse or children. That's your options. Yeah, you can't have a split but I'll tell you what I learned in McDonald's from especially when you had husband and wife that were both owners and active in the business and running it as business partners, it doesn't work like 98% of the time. Yeah Well, that's why divorce rates so high. Yeah Well, that's why divorce rates so high.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it's hard to leave it at work too when there's differences in the business. You take it home and you hold a little grudge.
Speaker 1:But the one thing with McDonald's, though I mean I don't know how it to me that's a hard one not to do together, because it just engulfs your whole life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but maybe you need kind of separated responsibilities as husband and wife so you have an understanding that you're working towards this One's in the stores and one's in the office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that way, and that's hard in itself.
Speaker 2:All right. Next question is and again this is going to be random mix what's y'all's take on Coldplaygate? Should Andy Byron be able to sue? No, so you know, a few weeks ago he's a dumbass. That was, I mean, you couldn't have missed this, but he was at a Coldplay, they were having an affair, he got up on the Jumbotron, whatever. No, I don't think he should be able to sue because you're in public first of all.
Speaker 1:So you have no right to privacy. There's no expectation of privacy. Yeah, you're a dumbass, you're yeah, if you were gonna have an affair.
Speaker 2:Go to a motel, keep it hidden. Go to the no-tell motel. You definitely don't go to a concert, but damn, can you imagine? Oh, that would be my look if you were in their shoes. Though, like you just think yeah, we're going to that concert, I'll tell Nobody will see us. I'm with my buddies. Yeah, I'll tell so, and so you book, you get tickets with your girlfriends and I'll get tickets with some of my buds and it'll be us there together. You know it's out of town.
Speaker 1:We'll spend the night together.
Speaker 2:Was it out of town?
Speaker 1:we'll spend the night together. Was it out of town? I don't know. I don't know. You're just saying the scenario, yeah, and then end up worldwide viral. And the thing is, if they had just played it cool, it would have been not a big deal. Yeah, Dumb asses. No, I don't feel sorry for them. I think you know that was just stupid. They're stupid. Yeah, he, you know. Especially, I don't know if she's married or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were both married.
Speaker 1:Well, they're idiots.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I feel like she got out of it more than he did. Maybe because he's the CEO or was, but she was head of HR, but maybe because he's the more powerful one. I mean, you know, like whatever you want to call it, I don't know why, but he seemed to have gotten. But they're both dimensions for that. Anyway, let's see, steven, the McDonald's in my neighborhood was remodeled. Does corporate pay for that Not?
Speaker 1:a damn dime Every now and then, I don't know. No, typically they don't pay for any of it. If the owner rebuilds the store, the owner fits the bill. Now I will tell you, there have been times when McDonald's. Mcdonald's is kind of like the mafia, but there's been times where they've wanted to bully owners into voting a certain way, into voting a certain way, and they've said, if we can do, I'm just going to pull something. I remember an accurate one. This is it. If you will vote and approve breakfast all day which I knew that was a mistake, I was against that which I knew that was a mistake, I was against that. If you do that, we will. Mcdonald's corporate will pay for all of your digital menu boards. That was a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was their way of pushing their controlling yeah. Yes, but you were like heck, yeah, I mean that's what I'm in for.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, yeah, so they don. That's what I'm in for. Yeah so, yeah, so they don't. Even when they tear down the store, the owner, the franchisee, the owner pays for all of that out of pocket, which you. That's also kind of part of the reason. I think you wanted out when you did, you were like my stores. If I don't get out now, I'm going to have to reinvest so much in remodels.
Speaker 1:A million dollars.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to reinvest so much in remodels A million dollars that it's going to. I'm either get out now or I'm going to have to stay in X amount of years to recoup my reinvestment Right I was going to have to do two major remodels.
Speaker 1:One of mine was done, but I was going to have to do two major remodels that were it was going to cost me like a million dollars plus you know, or remodels that were it was going to cost me like a million dollars plus you know. So, which means if I had done that, I could have gotten a million dollars more for my package.
Speaker 2:but then it's a wash, yeah, so you were like that. I sold them as they were. So, yeah, that is interesting. Let's see what else is on here. Will Steven this is kind of will Steven ever get back into the fast food industry?
Speaker 1:No, no, and it's funny. I don't know if I mentioned this to you yesterday or not, but it's weird. Like yesterday, for whatever reason, on my news feed was three different quick service restaurants shopping for franchisees that showed up on my feed. I thought that was very. They were tracking you White. Castle was one. I can't think of the other two, mm-hmm. And no, I mean, if it were a situation where I financially had to, yes, I would. Am I looking to? No.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so he won't be flipping burgers anytime soon, if he can help. It is what it sounds like. Correct For Wesley this question would you like to get more involved with the flower business? Well, we have our flower shop, the retail, and that's where I get my flower business. But maybe you're referring to, like the flower farm business, propagating, but for that part, no, not, no, no, no, I was trying to tie it in together.
Speaker 1:That's not your passion.
Speaker 2:First of all, I love the flower farm, Huge supporter of it. We do have a project that we're working on that kind of gets me more involved in the flower farm. But I love that Daniel has his own baby, his own business, and I have mine and we can talk about it. But it just gives us our own space there and I love like helping him in his business, like promoting it or designing with the flowers and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Making suggestions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but my degree. I don't love growing things from a like oh, I got to plant this, I got to nurture it, I got to grow it. I like flowers and plants from a design standpoint and that was always, even when I got my horticulture degree. It should have been in like I should have been a florist. But see, that was too gay back then. You know what I'm saying. But that was your passion, that was. I liked the design of it and I didn't know at the time. But like Mississippi State where I went, there was only two schools at the time I don't know if it's still true today that offered retail floristry management as an actual degree. But I didn't realize I mean, I didn't really need that either, because I naturally get and understand business and marketing and design. So I do feel like having the horticulture degree was the biggest benefit because I understood the scientific growing of the plants Well, and it made you learn Right Too, because it is important to know Right how the proper care and that helps.
Speaker 2:I feel like it does help with design and that sort of thing. But as far as my love for flowers and plants and that stuff, I don't like the growing scientific side of it. I like the design.
Speaker 1:Daniel loves it.
Speaker 2:Daniel loves it. But when we opened our garden store Roots, the whole concept was using living potted plants to make cool arrangements out of. That's what we started the business on. We didn't even sell fresh flowers or faux flowers. When the store opened it was all potted living arrangements and of course it's grown into bigger and more and diversified since then. So I do not have the desire to be out in the field with the flowers. I like walking through the field with the flowers. I like walking in the cooler and grabbing a bucket full of flowers.
Speaker 1:I will tell you this what Daniel does, you have to be smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and patient, because there's a lot of you know planning that goes behind it and there's a lot of oh. I got to get this planted between this date and this date or it's not going to bloom in time.
Speaker 2:And then if something goes wrong, like weather, like we've had crazy hot this summer, no rain If something goes wrong it takes a whole, most time year, to try again to correct it. So it you know I don't have patience for that, I mean, and I'm a very patient person, it's just not. It is not my cup of tea, but he does have a fun project coming up that kind of puts me back into it a little bit more. But so I guess that answers the question. And see, that's why I like our retail garden shop. We got the pretty plants.
Speaker 1:We got pretty flowers.
Speaker 2:They're already in the cooler for me, that sort of thing Fun to design, okay. Um, next up behind the scenes at market and all about amanda, live girl, laugh out loud. So we've kind of talked about market. The behind the scenes is a y'all would be.
Speaker 1:I just wish y'all could see, you wouldn't believe. You would not believe the time lapse and the work and effort it takes to do a live.
Speaker 2:Yeah, from market. I wish you could really see that is one. If a film crew came it's like we want to film and make a one-hour show I would say film me at market and what it takes to get the live sales going, because the market is huge. We're running from showroom to showroom. We're picking out the products in real time, sending them back to the office, lisa's getting them on. We get to the showroom, we got to refine the products, we got to get on live and act like woo-hoo. We haven't just been through a whirlwind tornado.
Speaker 1:And then Cash and Carrie, we photograph it, we get it online, we gather it and bring it home. So it's.
Speaker 2:It's very it's controlled chaos and we have I don't know how we've gotten our system down so well on that part of it, and we keep it the way that we do it because of our size mainly, yeah, because we are so big and complicated.
Speaker 1:Now, honestly, we have to keep it very organized. So in order to keep it organized, it takes a lot more work behind the scenes.
Speaker 2:It is crazy. Sometimes I get back you know I'll get back to. We have friends that are in the boutique world and they come and they shop and they're back to the hotel at like five o'clock and they go out for dinner and they're like oh, I went back today and took a nap in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2:And we get back to the hotel like we've gotten there at like 10 in the morning and we're getting home at like 10 at night, not even had dinner yet, sort of thing. But we love it. Are we crazy? Absolutely, do we love it? Absolutely? Should every retail boutique business owner be doing live sales? Yes, you should be doing. If you're a boutique owner, you should be doing your form of a live sale, because where else can you? It doesn't even matter if you only have 10 customers that come to a live sale. That's like 10 people walking in your store at once and you have the opportunity to sell them something. But I know, not everyone has the personality or the want to be in front of the camera and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:And Live Girl, amanda, live Girl, amanda, live Girl started out as a contract employee basically. She is now a lot more than a contract employee. She's a dear friend, you know we love her and she's just a great part of our business now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's so good. So we needed we had the need to have a girl in our live sales from time to time, because when we go to market we like to do a variety of lives, some of the things that we wouldn't stock, like purses and handbags or certain jewelry and that sort of thing, and now Dylan's really come in and helps with that because he loves that too. But we needed a model for that and someone. Sometimes when we're out of town, we might have Amanda on or whatever.
Speaker 1:And she gets us.
Speaker 2:She gets us, we get her. We're just, I don't know, we just love her so much. And when we're at market and she's doing her own live sales or whatever and we're crossing over and I'm like, hey, let me send you this file, you can do that, like we work so well together and share things and that girl is a hustler.
Speaker 1:She's one of the hardest. Seriously, I truly love her. She's like of the hardest, seriously. I truly love her. She's like a little sister to me. She is one of the hardest working women I've ever known. Yeah, and I respect that, yeah for sure, I mean she's a great mom, she's a great human, but a workhorse.
Speaker 2:So she lives in the Atlanta area. I think she said it takes her about 45 minutes to an hour to get to market. So she's there regularly and that's a good resource for us to be able to say can you do a live for us? Or you know, she'll even call us and be like hey, I was shopping the mart in between I found this. I think your customers would like it, you know. So she helps us source things and all kinds of things it works, it works.
Speaker 2:It's a great little partnership there, so it is so good. Well, this is a random one that I hadn't read, but I guess we've kind of talked about it. But thoughts on chat GPT. So you know we've been loving some chat GPT, we love it. It is scary to see where it goes At market. If one of you selects an item for the shop and the other disagrees, who has the final say? We neither it's, whoever wants it or doesn't want it.
Speaker 1:If one of us feels strongly about it, we order it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we never get mad about products or that. So what we'll do if we're shopping together and a lot of times we'll break up Like Stephen's like I need to go order from this vendor and I'm like okay, well, while you're doing that, because I know you got that I'm going to go order from this vendor and he's like okay, and then we'll meet back up and then a lot of things we shop for together as well.
Speaker 1:We like shopping together when we can, because we balance each other.
Speaker 2:And we play off of each other, and then I might say, oh, what about this item? And he might be like, hmm. And then usually we have this I don't know language Nonverbal. This nonverbal language, and usually when he says that, it makes me reassess the item and I'll be like, oh, you're right, yeah, we can get this from so-and-so, or I see what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:But we don't say those words ever, no, no. Like we go, like you'll go.
Speaker 2:Like I know, we know what each other's yeah, we know what that means right, and so we just know and the here's the thing, at market there's, I don't know, millions, billions of items.
Speaker 1:So if if he doesn't like it and I do, then we just move on because there's gonna be something or if we feel real strongly because you may have something in your mind that you're not going to discuss with me at that time. But for tom's sake, a project and you're going to go. No, we need this for the and I okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then we each override each other. Sometimes I'll go, what about this? And he's like, and I'm like I'll take 96. Yeah. And then he says, well, we always need something for a sale or the outlet store. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then sometimes I'm like no, we're getting it because I want this.
Speaker 2:Yeah and it's fine. Yeah, yeah and it's fine. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal 98%.
Speaker 1:We agree on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's not a thing. And that goes back to being business owners together and co-owners and why I wouldn't have it because I wouldn't have a co-owner if I could help it unless I truly knew, knew when I, like I said back in this episode, when Steven became an official partner in the business, I already knew we had been buying together for years doing the same thing. He was, he would go with, we would go together to market.
Speaker 2:I spent your money, then he spent my money then. But we go to market and we see store owners together and they're like in this huge disagreement over one damn ornament, and we're like there's millions of ornaments, why are you even giving this a?
Speaker 1:minute conversation and the reps are like oh my God, well, reps always tell us like oh my God, it's so great working with y'all, because we were in one showroom and it was like five women, which is not being ugly I'm not saying anything about women, but that's a nightmare because it gets very emotional. Right, and we're standing there and we order. Literally it is a nonverbal. Oh, I mean, we speak a different language. Yeah, when we're in showrooms, we don't even notice it.
Speaker 2:um, or see, or I'll be like, oh, I really like that over there, and I'll point to something and then steven to pick it up and he'll go. I'm like, oh too pricey. Yeah, he gives a little whistle and I'm like, mm-hmm, got it, move on.
Speaker 1:We were in this showroom and these five women this is the first time I've ever seen it so in my face Do you remember they were shopping for Christmas.
Speaker 2:Ornaments dude.
Speaker 1:Ornaments and every person got to vote.
Speaker 2:Do you know how much time that takes? Think about going into your local boutique, even a small one that has two trees. How many different ornaments on there If you had to vote on each one.
Speaker 1:If you do not trust me to shop for us, we don't need to be in business together. Trust me to shop for us. We don't need to be in business together. And like the one, the one market I didn't go to, which was the biggest market, which was Christmas one year you went and did that without me because my mother was sick. Not once. I mean, my mind was, you know, hugely preoccupied, but not once did I go, oh, I hope he didn't mess christmas up.
Speaker 1:I knew and no, you, but you were more nervous because we weren't there to go back and forth to each other. But I never thought and, and then when it did come in, I didn't go. Well, you really messed this up. Yeah, like you know, we will joke and tease each other but not serious.
Speaker 2:But we've been there in store owners or whatever they are, or FaceTiming someone. Do you like this one?
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't like it Like virtually what about this one? Okay, there's pink, blue and white. What do you think?
Speaker 2:And I just look at the rep and I'm like, seriously, yeah and I told wesley I said I'm never doing that as long as I live, never, oh my gosh. All right. Next one please tell me you moved out after daniel found this huge snake in your house. I got a lot of snake questions and answers. We haven't seen the snake again since then so far. Where did he take it? I have to ask him. I think way down our driveway. Yeah, I mean he got on the golf cart and took it somewhere, so hopefully it's not back anytime soon. Again, he left the door open, so it's fine, it's fine, let's see. What do y'all meaning both of us like?
Speaker 1:to do when you aren't working. I get that one a lot.
Speaker 2:We're always working. For me, working is a lifestyle. We've talked about that and I enjoy working on work. That is my hobby, Like everything I do like, even around the farm. If I'm going to arrange flowers, that goes back to work. I don't look at it that way, I'm just saying like oh, I'm using our pretty flowers from the farm, I'm going to use a vase from our store, or whatever.
Speaker 2:And if I'm not working, working, I am doing office work or doing something pertaining to this and you have downtime and stuff like that too, but you're not like oh, when I'm not working, I'm out playing video games or something.
Speaker 1:No, I will say both of us, you know, if we really want some relax. We both love to go get a nice massage or you know, go to a nice spa and get pampered?
Speaker 2:Do you and Steven have a SSB, a secret single behavior like on Sex and the City, behavior that you only do when you're alone? Ie Carrie eats saltines and reads Vogue. Do you have anything you do alone.
Speaker 1:Well, actually there is a favorite pastime we both share. Probably not appropriate for this podcast. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:And we'll walk right into that one. I don't think I have a I like. Okay, I do not watch TV, and not for any particular reason. I've just over the past few years Now it's been like five or six I stopped watching TV, but I do watch big brother in the summertime, like it's on right now. I love big brother. That's my only tv that I keep up with.
Speaker 1:I love dateline like the dateline kill he loves the sinister, yeah something I like out yeah, something Snapped. Yeah, anything that they've killed and buried dug up, moved, that's.
Speaker 2:The DNA and the mystery and the investigation. He loves that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love so, for you know my few minutes of alone time in the morning and Wesley, you like this. We both love good coffee. Oh, yeah, coffee, good coffee, a good coffee. We both have the same bougie coffee machines and we love bougie coffee. That, and then my other snack time at home that I love is I love the Chobani sugar-free yogurt, mm-hmm, like strawberries, my favorite, yeah. And then I like to just put some whipped topping, oh, like Cool Whip on it. No, not Cool Whip, the not full of crap, yeah, on top, and that's like I need to try that. It's so good and it's so healthy.
Speaker 2:I love a good yogurt. I just started liking yogurt the last year. It's really good. Yeah, I'm trying to think. Is there any other?
Speaker 1:And I like to look through my coffee table books from time to time.
Speaker 2:I'll sit there and drink coffee, speaking of coffee, so we were at market, as you know, for 10 days at the Marriott Marquis. If you ever want to find this near a market, do you know? I don't know how you got ready. You get ready and go get your coffee right, yeah, I can't do all this up and down.
Speaker 2:If you saw me, you didn't see me in the morning time. I roll out of my bed at the marriott marquee like I am rolling out of my bed at home, and I throw on whatever clothes are in the floor that I took off from the night before. My hair is sticking up, bad head and everything and I just walk down there to the, the Starbucks, like I'm in my own kitchen. Get my coffee.
Speaker 1:People are.
Speaker 2:I know they're looking at me. I don't like to leave until I don't, but see, I can't get ready and motivated till I have my coffee.
Speaker 1:It's the only thing.
Speaker 2:They need room delivery.
Speaker 1:I need no, I need a Jura. We should pack ours and take it with. They should.
Speaker 2:Zura should make a travel version, a more compact version. I need a whole coffee bar set up there if I were a celebrity, that would be my that would be on my rider. I need a Zura coffee maker.
Speaker 1:I just need a coffee stock coffee bar and I'll be good with.
Speaker 2:And I hate when you go to market and they try to have a little coffee bar coffee bar and I'll be good with and I hate when you go to market and they try to have a little coffee bar set up and it's the cheap creamers and the little peel back. You know, like god knows only knows what's in that got like cheap gas station coffee creamer sweeten it or nothing like just don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's white paint oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Um, how do you decide what to buy? Is it always a compromise? Do you always agree? And how much to spend? Um, so we kind of touched on that, but I think the difference here always.
Speaker 1:We consistently always spend too much. That's where we, that's what we do. We just spend too damn much.
Speaker 2:We don't go with the budget like we should. We go on, feel and gut for most everything, even on what to buy. Okay, we've talked about it. We have our quote menu of our stores. We got a garden store, so we have to buy what pertains to that. We have our furniture home decor store, so we have to buy what pertains to that, and then online, which gives us a whole open to sell whatever we want. But we go off of what's sold. Our customer like, oh, they really like this, so this is the cousin to that. They're going to like this you know kind of thing. Or oh, that item didn't do as good, so they're definitely not going to like this one. So you gotta have, you gotta be in touch with your customer and what's selling and go on gut, because again goes back. We've said it before it's just like gambling. You got it's a gamble. What?
Speaker 1:are they gonna like it's kind of an art with us now too, like we know?
Speaker 2:I don't know we just know, did ste Steven ever get a new car because of the ding that he was going to get fixed? No, no, he's going to play this off. I got it repaired, he got it repaired, and he never drives the car because it's damaged.
Speaker 1:No, I don't drive it. I don't drive it. I haven't been just driving it because of my back, really. But no, I'm not getting a new car. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:We're going to skim over that. Okay, we'll skim over it. Oh gosh, Did Steven and Dylan get engaged?
Speaker 1:Yeah, been engaged, but I said we had to be together. I said we had to be together 10 years before I would get married.
Speaker 2:Yeah God, the time is really ticking. He thought he was kicking that ball down the road. I thought I was.
Speaker 1:What year are y'all Six? No, we're now going into year, starting on year seven. It's going to be here before we know it. But you know I mean honestly. We are pretty much for all practical purposes now we're married, everything's fixed. So I wanted him to feel secure so he doesn't ever have to worry about anything. Right, yeah, he will have a home car retirement. He's good, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Paris social relationships. I need to look that up. We know y'all, but you don't know us.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's weird. It's weird and we love meeting you guys. So I love meeting you and seeing your name, because you know us but we do not know you.
Speaker 2:I think that's the only weird part for me. I think that's the only weird part for me is because we've been doing this for so long and used to. It started out like getting recognized in public. I would just know you were a customer from our retail store, Like I'd be grocery shopping or something. But then the whole social media came along and now here we are with live sales and the podcast and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:The awkward part it's not weird for me anymore or anything is just introduce yourself. When you say like, hey, I'm so-and-so, I follow your podcast or hey, I'm so-and-so, I love your live sale, or whatever it may be, Because I feel weird, because you do know so much about us when I have to, then I feel like I'm ruining that moment when I have to say, and who are you or what's your name or where are you from? Because then that to me I feel like then that clicks that moment out of when you're meeting me or us or whatever to like, oh, I don't know who the hell you are and it's not like that. I just want to know a name, because I do recognize names from live sales, comments on Instagram and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Well, one person did it really well with me and she got me before you at market and I thought it was very clever the way she did it. She came up and she said hello, and at first I didn't, I didn't think she knew me. Yeah, yeah, I thought she, like most people, think I work there. And I said hello, and she said you do not know me, but I know you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've had that before and I said okay, well, tell me who you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was fine, that flowed perfectly well, because she prefaced it with okay, I know you, you don't know me, and and it was fine, you know, and now I really don't care. It is comical to me, because now I can be in certain places and I hear somebody calling my name and I'm like yeah, what then?
Speaker 1:one lady was doing it and she was like screaming my name and I was with a large group of friends, yeah, and I was like you know, oh, and first it used to be McDonald's people, yeah, customers or employees, and so I stopped and she was like, hey, I follow you guys. And then she was with her family and they thought she was crazy, so I had to meet the whole family. But it was fine, we really enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love meeting people and I say the other weird thing is I don't not weird because that sounds bad, because I don't care if you do it or not, but sometimes, like I'll be at Mark anywhere, and then I'll get home and someone will message hey, we were sitting in the restaurant next to you, but I didn't want to say hello and I'm like, oh my gosh, why didn't you? Then I'm like because I really enjoy meeting people, it makes me feel good that you recognize me and I love talking to you or whatever. And then I'm like oh. Then I'm like, oh God, what was I talking about?
Speaker 1:Well, I had people, dylan and I had walked. We walked downtown like twice a week and have dinner and walk home. And so a month or so ago I get a message on Instagram hey, I just saw you and Dylan, we're here visiting out of state, yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh why did you? Not say something? Well, I didn't want to yell at you. I was like, oh my gosh. I was like we're having dinner here, Come by and say hello, but they would not bother me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm like don't be silly, bother me. Like it's not a bother, I enjoy it. Yeah, like, be comfortable enough to say yeah, especially if you're in my city, come and talk to me. I'll tell you what you need to go do, yeah.
Speaker 2:But I do like it when you say hello and I like it when I can. Sometimes I'll be walking, like at market. I'll be walking to someone and I see it on their face that they recognize me. You know, you may I can read that they're like, oh, there he is. That's what's going across their face and I'll be like do you know me? Or something like that. And that's the icebreaker, and they'll be like I do, oh my gosh. And I'll be like and who are you Sort?
Speaker 1:of. Thing.
Speaker 2:But anyway. So there's that. Do you decorate for Christmas, even if you will be out of town? Yes, so we're always out of town for Christmas because I usually go back to see my family, or I always go back to see my family, but I still decorate because I enjoy it the whole season. Well, we're in town, but we decorate. Yeah, but we decorate even if I'm going to be out of town and still enjoy it.
Speaker 1:You still enjoy it 98% of the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes I've decorated and then taken it down right before Christmas because I'm leaving, like, oh, I got time to go ahead and take it down and I'll, you know, pack it away or take it back to the warehouse or wherever it's going for that. So, yes, I definitely decorate. Who is this person? This person must be new, but thanks for your your question. Who is the main decorator in both of your homes?
Speaker 1:who is the main decorator in both of your homes, me and Wesley.
Speaker 2:Yes, daniel hadn't decorated anything he's like, but he likes that Like he's like. I'm glad you do all that or whatever. And then Dylan's I mean Dylan, stephen's home.
Speaker 1:Dylan is Stephen be like put that back, dylan. It was funny, I said yesterday. Dylan said oh, this turned out really nice because I did another wall. And I said he said something. I said well, if we weren't together, wouldn't you hire me to decorate your home? He said I couldn't afford you. I said well, let's pretend you could. He said yes, I would. I said enough, said home. He said I couldn't afford you. I said, well, let's pretend you could. Yes, he said yes, I would I said enough said yeah, next question customers gone wild.
Speaker 2:Most dramatic slash entertaining customer stories mcdonald's or the next thing?
Speaker 1:well, well, that's a book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've told a couple on here, I will say not the most. I got a PSA.
Speaker 1:How about?
Speaker 2:let's start it off there. Let me tell you and not just with our business, any business If you are writing in for a customer service issue, Maybe your item arrived broken, Maybe it wasn't what you wanted. Whatever it may be, something happened to your order and you get it. Maybe you go to a hotel and the room's not what you want. The least responsive thing you can do for the people on the other side is be dramatic and start off your conversation email, phone call with I'm so disappointed.
Speaker 1:This is the worst day of my life. This has ruined my week. Yeah, don't do that. Don't do that.
Speaker 2:Don't do that, because you are not the only person that's ever had a problem with whatever it may be. No one wants to hear that. No, you don't want someone coming to your job and telling you that no one wants to hear that. So what you're going to do to get your way because this gets your way better If you go oh my gosh, I just got my order and I'm having this problem with it. Here's, pictures included. Let me know what I need to do next. That's all you got to do. The business is going to take by. Telling the business how disappointed you are or how it ruined your life does not get you better results, if anything. When I'm checking emails, those are the ones that sit there. I'm like we'll get back to you.
Speaker 1:I'm very conscientious, like the few times it's happened when I order something. I am very careful when I send pictures and respond. Hey, I know you guys are so busy. It's such a busy time of year because it's usually during the holidays. This is not the end of the world. I would like a replacement whenever possible. Thank you so much. Happy holidays.
Speaker 2:Can you let me know when that will be? And they're so nice.
Speaker 1:You get it like that, I get it just like that and they send me the nicest response Because I'm not being an idiot, right?
Speaker 2:And if you're ordering things online, like our online store, once it leaves our warehouse, it is not in our control. So if that box comes in looking like a pancake, we didn't send it like that. We didn't send it like that. We don't want to deal with you. We want to sell you something and we want you to be happy. Is the thing? We didn't send it like that. We didn't send it like that. We don't want to deal with you. We want to sell you something and we want you to be happy. Is the thing? We didn't send it there like that. So don't write an email. Oh my gosh, it was smashed. I can't believe you sent it to me this way. It came in like that.
Speaker 1:It ain't our fault. Listen, I always say we're not curing pediatric cancer, right? Say, and we're not. We're not curing pediatric cancer, right. No children are dying here, we. It is not. You do not need to act that way, right? And I always used to say on the mcdonald's side, since they mentioned it is, I really want to get to the point in life where my biggest issue is that pickle on my cheeseburger.
Speaker 2:That's left on there.
Speaker 1:I mean calm down. I know the biggest meltdown I've ever had. I've only had one meltdown on the retail side, one meltdown, and it takes a lot. I'm very. I'm a very nice person. We're dealing with customers. I'm very, very nice. But when I have told you like 18 times, this is our policy, I'm bending the rules for you with this, but I'm not doing this About the 18th time Too many times.
Speaker 1:I've just about had it. And so one nutcase from not in Greenville but came to the store and she completely pushed me completely off the cliff over the edge and um. Thankfully there was no other customers in the store, it was just you know. Thank god for that. But I snapped, I kicked them out of the store. I threw I threw her door basket across the park.
Speaker 2:I'm so disappointed I wasn't there for that.
Speaker 1:The funniest thing is I mean I had a. I was like get the hell out from here and I threw the basket in the parking lot. The funniest thing was all the employees were like oh my God, Because they had never seen that side. And then I was like, okay, let's get back to it. But you know, if I react that way, you're a nut. Yeah, you're a nut and you should not ever come back. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But just on any customer service, because you got to realize we're doing that all day. Customer service that's, like you know, 80% of the job. Don't be dramatic. Just write and get to the point. You know. If FedEx crushed your box, just say oh, fedex did it again. Send a picture. Look at this my box is crushed, so sorry, everything in it was damaged. Let me know what you need from me so we can get this handled. We're not going to stiff you for your money. We're not in the business to stiff you for your money. We're either going to send you a replacement or we're going to refund it if we don't have one. There's nothing else to it. There's no reason to be so disappointed and your life is ruined and you have to tell us how horrible we are, how horrible the product was because it got broken there, how horrible it was packed, how horrible it was.
Speaker 1:I'm just devastated.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing. This is my very dramatic thing.
Speaker 1:We read these. If you send emails like that to us, we make fun of you, we do.
Speaker 2:And, like I said, the ones who are the most dramatic. I leave sitting there, not usually not to be like oh, I'm going to leave that sitting there because that's going to take that much more time, because you're already dealing with the tone, dealing with this big problem of it ruining their life. In the situation, instead of being the ones who write in direct to the point you know, all you got to do is say I'm so sorry, this did this. I'm checking inventory. We have more. It will ship out tomorrow. Let me know if something happens.
Speaker 2:And this doesn't make it there as well. Thanks so much for your business. We appreciate you shopping with me. And done the ones that are dramatic. You have to write, oh my gosh. Then you have to try to explain yourself and then you got to try to make them feel better about themselves and your business, plus, get the replacement done. It's a whole unnecessary ball of wax. But the ones that really get me are the ones who are dramatic and they think they're writing lisa, for example, at the warehouse. And then I respond because we're all in the email. It's just that.
Speaker 2:It's all one email y'all and then I respond in their tone is totally different. Oh my gosh, I knew you would take care of me Like it went from way up here. How horrible we are.
Speaker 1:That's even worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's even worse, so anyway, just be nice, nice to the point, send a picture we're going to take care of you.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you and we're going to take care of you it's the same thing at the plant store on, say, on a retail level, is the people who come in and you know, and I think a lot of times with that, they know they're in the wrong, but for whatever reason, they want to be in the right and it's like um, my plant died and I just got it and it's, you know, I need a replacement.
Speaker 2:It was a bad plan and we look it up and it was three weeks earlier it was three weeks earlier and it's got flies coming out because it's so waterlogged that the roots are rotting and we're, like you killed it in three weeks because you and probably your housekeeper both watered it. It weighs 200 pounds and it smells like sewer because it's rotting there. So no, this wasn't our fault.
Speaker 1:And you didn't just get it honey. Yeah, I love it when they say I just got this last week.
Speaker 2:And it's like two months. Yeah, I'm like no, we can see your sales.
Speaker 1:Two months ago Anyway.
Speaker 2:Let's see what else.
Speaker 1:One more, I'm hungry.
Speaker 2:Oh, one more. Oh, we don't.
Speaker 1:One more.
Speaker 2:Oh, we got so many um to do. Will Romeo and Cleo have babies? I think?
Speaker 1:there's pregnant. There's what coming, fingers crossed. Cleo is going to have a little, leo Is that what we're going to call it I don't know. What if it's a girl, I mean Flo, flo, what we're gonna call it, I don't know what. If it's a girl, I mean flow, romeo, cleo and little flow all right, we're gonna wrap this baby up, since steven is hungry.
Speaker 2:I'm hungry, oh my gosh. That was like an almost an hour worth of Q&A and I didn't even get through all of it. Well, we'll do more. We'll do more next time. Well, we'll be talking about your Hawaii, hawaii, hawaii trip, hawaii.
Speaker 1:Still hoping that's a Southernism.
Speaker 2:Still hoping you've survived your helicopter tour. Hawaii. How are you, hawaii? How are you? Remember to join our members only community. If you haven't done so, you can do it. Who's driving podcastcom? You can go there and watch our podcast or you can listen to free. You can listen to all the previous episodes If you want to go back to the very beginning, day one, and really learn how Steven and I met and how Daniel and I met and all of that. Go back to the very beginning. It's all right there. It's all there. You can listen to anywhere you get your podcasts. Remember to share us with your friends. It really helps us out. And leave us a review wherever you're listening to your podcast, as long as it's a good one. Yeah, that's it. We'll see you next week, thanks.