Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello there, friend. Angie Austin and Scott Montgomery. He is back. He is an author. He is a business owner. And we just find topics we find interesting that are in his area of expertise and have discussions. And welcome back to you, Scott.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, thank you, Angie. Angie Austin, I love this opportunity you give me. And to be with you on your show is so fulfilling for me. Every month we’re getting to do this, so I couldn’t be more grateful. And thank you for having me.
SPEAKER 04 :
I feel kind of like we’re fraternal twins. It’s so bizarre. It’s like we’re both happily married. We’re both about the same age. Our kids are exactly the same age. We each have three children. There’s a couple that already have their driver’s licenses. One’s getting a driver’s license. We have pets. We have rental properties. It’s like I run my own business. You run your own business. It’s just so crazy. It really is. It’s so nice. We found each other. Separated at birth. It’s just a crack up to me. I remember the first time we did an interview, and you’re like, oh, me too. Yeah, I got a fit. Oh, yeah, I got a 16-year-old. Yeah, I got a kid started in college. It was just like hilarious. All right, so my son started an internship this summer. We’re going to talk a little bit about your intern. I have a really great relationship with an organization here called ARC, and they deal with people with – cognitive deficits, developmental disabilities, and so Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, et cetera. And when my friend started as the president and CEO about 20 years ago, around the time just after his son was born who has Down syndrome, He left the big business world that you’re in, and he’d gone to Booth Business School, one of the top business schools in the country. And he said, you know what? I’m going to devote my life now to doing things that will help my son and people like him. And they went from having five ambassadors who are differently abled to over 500 ambassadors. And my son was working for them in a different capacity. And he met with the president and CEO and said, I’m really interested in finance. I’d love to go to your same business school for my MBA. And then he called me back. He’s like, I just wanted to shadow him for a day. And he gave me an all summer internship paid to be to work in finance and all that. He’s gone to all their big meetings. He gets to present with like the head of finance and other department heads. He gets to give his fee because he’s worked in the stores. He’s worked in the cash register. He’s a thrifter, as you know, so he has his own business. So he knows how their POS system works. He knows about the pricing of other thrift stores and how they price. So it’s been so cool for him and so many of the people that I know in the organization have reached out to me and like, Oh, your son is great. He’s really meshed with us. And I’m like, this is a dream come true for a kid. That experience for him, and he’s hoping to do it every summer, is so invaluable. I can’t even tell you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, no, you just did tell me, and I feel that passion, and I understand exactly what you’re saying. And it’s amazing for me to hear what you’re saying about the opportunities kids get to actually learn leadership at an earlier age, right? So a lot of what I like to do in my passion projects and in my leadership development piece is, as you know, I wrote the book and I’ve done a companion guide, but I like to pay it forward with opportunities for people to exercise how to be better leaders, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
So today we were talking a little bit about… And like we said right there, learn leadership. They’re not just in there being like a cog in the machine. They’re learning how to properly present ideas, how to make those ideas come to fruition, to ask for extra responsibilities, to say, hey, Scott, I know I’m your intern, but could I head up such and such? Like my son’s had some like excel projects that were like in the IT department where they’ve allowed him to like work alongside them and do things that really like he’s benefiting them rather than being just like this pain in the rear kid that’s shadowing you well that’s the thing and that’s the thing I think where I was also we had talked a little bit but like how do leaders make themselves available if they’re busy during the day internship is the first thing that comes to mind for me as an owner of a firm and
SPEAKER 02 :
The interns come in, and I’ll actually allocate an hour of time with them to talk about various subjects that are related to leadership and not task-oriented work like you’re talking about, right? You’re not going to be a cog in the wheel, but I say to them, it’s noted that you come in 10 minutes early. It’s noted that you tucked in your shirt and that your belt is looped in and that you look nice. It’s noted that you’re making eye contact with me. And in return, you get the opportunity to meet my CFO, meet my CHO. You get to work in these other departments, and then you have a resume billed. And you are seeing how I respond to you, so you’re better at communicating when it’s not me you’re working with in the future. You’re learning the nuances.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s so interesting that you’re saying about, you know, the shirts tucked in, that you’re shaved, that you look good. Because Bea initially told our son, you know, maybe it’s not fancy in the office, maybe a polo shirt, you know, a golf-type shirt and tacky pants, right? Yeah, that’s what I’m wearing right now. Yeah, but then as he – they actually went against the grain of us that, like, the president and CEO wears jeans. And then my son has an earring, which I’m not a fan of, but it’s a thing for the young guys now. And he took it out. And one of the bigwigs there said, hey, you don’t need to take out your earrings. I don’t know. My parents said they do that. They’re not they’re not into tattoos and earrings, which he doesn’t have any tattoos. But we wanted to address a certain way. And in this organization, he started that way, but they actually told him, hey, that’s not how we operate here. Don’t worry about that. You can wear jeans and a CU college sweatshirt from your school. That’s fine. Clean hair combed, clean shave, but the other stuff, they’ve let him be more relaxed. But you just reminded me to remind him that, hey, by the way, you might have to change your manner of dress depending on the organization. Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, and the fact that the leadership told him is exactly the thing that I think is what we were going to try and talk about today, and that is how do the leaders make themselves available, right? So first of all, give the instruction. Second of all, pay attention to the new guys that might not know what’s going on. And third of all, the culture of an earring or not or a tattoo or not spelled out for these guys is such an important skill a leader of an intern can bring to that future generation because – Whereas I’m in a polo shirt and khaki pants right now, I also have a quarter-sleeve tattoo that is literally showing. In my organization, that’s how we roll. If your shirt was untucked and you weren’t shaven and you looked disheveled, it only is made worse by that versus – Art and style and earrings. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes. And like you said, the fact that it was presented – okay, if you have an intern and he or she is coming in saggy pants, no belt, flip-flops or – Yeah, flip-flops. And, like, way too much. And, you know, people are going to say, oh, you’re a sexist, Angie, but, you know, too much cleavage at work, you know, dressing in a manner that’s maybe distracting for what you’re trying to do. Maybe you’re in customer service. And, you know, people are like, whoa, what is that lady wearing? I’m not saying that once you get established, like I think of Erin Brockovich and how she worked alongside an attorney and then eventually she was taken seriously. But initially people are like, what on earth are you wearing? You look like you could be working as an adult dancer. You know what I mean? Right. You have to earn the ability to dress the way you completely want to, and the business sets the tone. So you have to go along with whatever the tone is of the organization until you’re running the place and you can dress however you want. We see billionaires now wearing flip-flops and shorts, but you have to read the room perfectly.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think what we talked about too, and one of the things I want to describe for today’s conversation was how do leaders make themselves available, right? So we’re talking about the duty of a leader trying to be a mentor, trying to be a coach, trying to lead by example. And so whether it’s flip-flops or not, one of the key things you said was that leadership told your son, you don’t have to take out the earring. That’s an opportunity for the culture and the mentoring and the coaching and the How do you make yourself available to the next generation? Don’t overlook that as a leader of an organization, these are key skills and needs that these guys have. So whether or not you’re putting in or taking out your earring, the communication of leadership to the next generation can be found easily in an internship. There’s also clubs. There’s also ways to go to like the Boys and Girls Club of America and sign yourself up as a mentor there. And there’s different programs companies can execute and initiate on. There’s my guidebook, my companion guide, my how did you get here book. There are different ways that people can do this. But I think sometimes leaders get a little overwhelmed. Well, how do I lead if it’s not just task and work-oriented, like spreadsheet-based work? And you just had some perfect examples on small talk, make yourself available, say the culture, express the culture, don’t be passive-aggressive, and don’t just assume it’s understood. And people like you and me who might lean a little more conservative on their appearance, right? Like I know I’m artsy and I have my tattoo, but I would never do that if I went into a client site. That might be more the norm of the next generation, and you and I might have a little learning to do there. But saying and talking about it is the leadership. It is where you can start to pay it forward.
SPEAKER 04 :
And, you know, I think about – you know, the sometimes perceived hassle of having a younger person in the workplace who’s shadowing you or you’re doing an internship. First of all, a kid needs to say what they’re capable of and I can handle more so that they become invaluable. Like a lot of news interns did that for me where they ended up working in the latter because they were so awesome. And then there were some I couldn’t wait to get rid of. And also, though, that we as the potential leaders are need to take on that little bit of hassle like we might you know it’s our responsibility to mentor you know the next generation of leaders so it might take a little bit of extra time and then when you if you are the kid the intern and you’re given a difficult assignment like my son was given a pretty intense excel project he stayed really late doing that so he stayed like eight or ten hours that day and worked on that and his shift per se and his internship is four hours So really go above and beyond to show them that you’re the type of employee either they want to hire or that they’re going to give a really great reference for when the time comes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Exactly. And so I have an intern that I just hired, actually. They started Monday this week. And it’s, to your point about having the kids in the same age group, it’s one of my son’s college friends. And so he was looking for a more satiating job than he had for the summer. The hours he was working were getting reduced. I own a company. I see it as an opportunity to run him through my program, my leadership development book, and my companion guide. And I also took a shine to him as my son’s friend. And one of the things we’re doing, and we did it today, we went over his assignment. His first assignment is to read my book. And in the chapters of the book, the way I laid it out, are the leadership skills that I have proven to be trained on as a leadership coach with the International Coaching Federation. It’s what I’ve experienced as a business leader. It’s what I developed as my sort of guideline to good leadership, goal setting, habits, leadership development, communication, self-care. And so his assignment is to read the book. And we are then to go over the book chapter by chapter for an hour and every day that he works on the internship here in the office. So today we went over chapter one. And I said to him, what comes up for you as we talk about the different styles of partnership one might encounter? And he said, well, I couldn’t figure out the difference between a kite and a string, the way you define your relationship and partnership. And I said, well, one’s a visionary and one’s more of a task-oriented type person. So what I want for you is to be aware of the difference between and decide which is your preferred style, and then look for what complements that, and our work here is done. And it was so fulfilling for me, and it was so clear-headed for him because he was trying to answer, it was a little bit of both, and I’m like, no, no, we are all a little bit of both. This isn’t a test question. This is about awareness. This is about figuring out what kind of partner you want to be in relationships going forward if you’re interested in being a leader either at a developmental level development level or as a CIO or CEO of an organization. And so for me as a mentor and a leader, I really get excited about the opportunity he’s providing me to be able to do this. And I know our goal today was to say to the leaders out there that are interested in doing it, look at how interesting that opportunity is. And it’s in my lap when I come to the office.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I love it that you are going through your book, and so people can find that and maybe read it themselves. Give us the info where we can find that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So my book and my companion guide and my availability, my coaching, all that is available through HowYouGoThere.com. And we’ve got email addresses. We’ve got links to the book, links to the podcast, links to the audio book, my companion guide, and how to sign us up for workshops. It’s all in there, and you can get all or some of it. And I think the book is a great place to start for people to put context around the topic.
SPEAKER 04 :
Excellent. Thank you, Scott Montgomery. Thank you so much. Hello there, friend. Angie Austin and Jim Stovall. We’re talking about his winner’s wisdom column today titled Media Overload. Welcome, Jim.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome. It is always a pleasure to get to visit with you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I saw this headline and I thought, well, this is probably a good one for the majority of us. But having worked in media for, you know, that’s how I’ve made my living. I’m curious about your take on this article.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I meet so many people that are living with fear and trepidation and stress, and they are in total media overload. And for better or worse, there is just 24-hour access to everything. And it is just there all the time. And the media, they provide a very important service. I would not want to live in a society without a free press, and they are free to do all kinds of things, and it’s better than the alternative. But we have to control that. We have to be able to say, here’s how much of this input I want in my life, and here’s where I want it to end. One of the great influences in my business in starting the television network I built, Narrative Television, was Ted Turner, and we lost him this last week. And I remember he and I were working together, and he got a lot of criticism, 24-hour news. And people today don’t realize how absurd that was at the time. You got a 30-minute newscast in the evening, and that was it. And he said, no, we’re going to go 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I remember we were doing a press conference, and a quite belligerent reporter said, well, you know, that’s just way too much for people. And, you know, it’ll put them into what we’re talking about today, media overload. And Mr. Turner said, I’ve never yet seen a television that didn’t have an on and off switch. I mean, we’re making it available 24 hours. You have to decide how much of it you want and when you want it and how you want it. And so that’s our fault. It’s never the media’s fault. It’s our fault. And, you know, I think we need to do that. And we also need to realize the media gives you by the nature of what they do, a distorted picture of the world. They take the unusual, strange things, and they make it the headline. If there’s a plane crash today… it will be the headline. And you’ll hear about it everywhere. And if you look at all of those, you will think, wow, it’s dangerous to fly in a commercial airliner. Actually, it’s many times more dangerous getting from your house to the airport than it is to fly on the plane. It’s one of the safest things we do, but all you ever hear is they crash all the time. And you don’t hear about the millions and millions of people that fly in And totally safe. Everything’s great. And so, you know, you get that. And these things, and you think, you know, everybody’s getting murdered all the time. And I thought it was fascinating. I read a deal. You know, people think that murders are so common. They happen all the time. And suicides are rare. You very rarely hear about them. In reality, twice as many people, unfortunately, God bless. help them, twice as many people die of suicide as are murdered. But the media blows it up, and you just think, wow, people are getting murdered all the time. And my late great friend Paul Harvey, I remember him saying that the biggest bias in the media is not telling the story falsely, it’s deciding which stories to lead with and which ones to leave out. And you’ve got to realize the news is things that happen, but they’re the oddities, they’re the rare things. What really happened, the news of today is that good people all across the country got up and loved their families and went off to work and did the best they could to create value in the world and came home and enjoyed time there with neighbors and friends and and got up the next day and did it again. And that’s the news. That’s what happened all day today. But you don’t hear about that. It doesn’t make the news. And so I think all of us need to put ourselves on a bit of a news diet. You need to decide, how much of this do I want? And pick out the sources and what you want. And then you need to get some sources of positive things. And I am preaching to the choir a bit here, but good news with Angie Austin is a great way to go. Because, you know, you can discuss the issues of the day, but as we all know… You know, I’ve read the end of the book, as we all have, and, you know, the good guys win. We’ve just got to get from here to there. But I know how this thing turns out, this thing we call life on earth. And, you know, we all win. So it’s just a matter of keeping it in perspective and using the media as a tool and not letting it rule your life.
SPEAKER 04 :
And Ted Turner, he came up with such a wild idea, as you mentioned at the time, and really so innovative and really changed the news business. And I was just actually eating at his restaurant last night, one of his, Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants. And I just really enjoy it and food. And, you know, there’s always such healthy options. Of course, they have bison and he’s got a lot of ranches not far from where I live, not too, too far. And yeah, just a really interesting life that he led. I know he was a handful and very feisty, but he did some really wonderful things, you know, with his life. And in terms of media, I agree with you. Like I think people can get overwhelmed on the negative and that there has to be a balance. And, uh, so, you know, reading positive things like list or listening to my radio show, reading, you know, your winner’s wisdom column, finding other things that bring you joy, or even just searching up good news. I do that a lot just to find stories that I find it to have, you know, some redeeming qualities to them. All right, Jim, you’re going to be, uh, 66 books working on the ninth and 10th movie, I guess now. And, uh, The best place to reach you?
SPEAKER 05 :
Jim Stovall, S-T-O-V-A-L-L, jimstovall.com. Awesome. Thank you, friend. Thank you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, changing gears now, if you’re just joining us, this is Angie Austin with the good news. Well, I’m sure many of you are, let’s be honest, Amazon junkies like I am. We often need to get items quickly, and other than running to the store yourself, Amazon delivery is about as fast as it gets. And now it’s getting even faster, if you can believe that, ultra fast. Joining us is Lindsay Hamilton, Senior Communications Manager with Amazon to explain. Welcome, Lindsay. Thanks so much for having me. All right. So I have to admit to this, like a little bit of addiction. When I see how much money I’ve saved with the shipping or whatever, I think to myself, oh, my gosh, how much money have I spent? If that’s how much money I’ve saved, I don’t even want to know. But we have a couple of rentals we’re flipping right now. And I’m literally ordering everything like the light fixtures came the next day, the vanities. But one thing I always do is I make sure you guys are shipping it and it’s not coming from another shipper. And I know that’s totally biased. But your policies are so good. Like if it gets lost or someone takes it off the porch or I’m on vacation or if I have to return it, like my girlfriend found me a vanity. I’m like, girl, I am not having that ship or whoever that is shipped to me. Only Amazon, only Prime.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I’m a little obsessive. I appreciate that. We’ve got that A to Z guarantee. You can closely track your eyes, you can get support, you can get your free returns. So you are using it the way we mean for people to use it. We appreciate that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, with a family of six, let’s be honest, I have a lot of returns. And a lot of places say they’re good with returns and they exaggerate because I only trust returns with you guys. But anyway, I want to know what you’re announcing today.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Well, with a family of six, I think you’re really going to like this one. We are announcing the rollout of Amazon Now, our new ultra-fast delivery service that brings thousands of items to customers in around 30 minutes or less. We are live in parts of the Denver area. We’re available to millions of customers across the U.S. today, and we’ll be reaching tens of millions of customers by the end of the year. And we’ve got that selection of those things that you really want and need urgently, like fresh groceries, household essentials, other locally relevant or need-it-now items. So I think I think you and your family are going to like this one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I’ve seen like a lot of the centers, you know, getting constructed. And then interestingly enough, Lindsay, you’re going to laugh because one of the delivery ladies came recently. My husband says everyone knows me by name, but that’s not true. They don’t all know me by name. But I stopped her and I said, OK. She’s the same age I am. And she goes, yeah, I’m like a soccer mom and I do Amazon Flex. And so I just have an app. And then when there’s availability, I deliver things. And she told me about how much she makes an hour. I’m like, are you kidding me? I told all my kids that are old enough to drive, you know, like 18 or over. And I said, you know, this is such a cool thing that this soccer mom, whatever she feels like, it just signs up to deliver. So how are you guys able to deliver so quickly? I know these big warehouses have been built, and you have a lot of stuff nearby, but how does it work?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and Amazon Flex is actually a part of it, so thank you for mentioning it. But the way that we’re able to do this is by putting that collection that customers really want even closer to where they are. So for Amazon now, we have a network of new smaller fulfillment locations that put those couple thousand items that customers are shopping most frequently and need most urgently closer to where people live and work. And that’s how we’re able to deliver in around 30 minutes or less. Some of our fastest deliveries have been in eight minutes, which is pretty unbelievable. We do work with our Amazon Flex drivers. They can make their own schedules. They can, you know, deliver on their own calendar and have full control on that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s so cool. She showed me the app, and I just thought it was amazing. And she only does it, like, when the kids are at practice or when she has time to do it. And I’m like, how cool, because then you tell her, hey, I’ve got the need, and she’s like, hey, I’m available. And then you have a driver, like, boom, within minutes, you know, on the app. So it almost reminded me of, like, Uber or something. Yeah. Let’s talk about how we see it like on the website when we log into the app or on the website itself. How do we know it’s an Amazon Now?
SPEAKER 03 :
So you’ve got a couple of options for this. So if you open the app and you see a 30-minute delivery option in the banner, you can click into that, start shopping that 30-minute Amazon Now collection right away. You will also see it as you search throughout the website. And you can also go to Amazon.com slash now to see if you’ve got coverage. And if you don’t see it yet, keep checking back because, like I said, we are rolling this out. We are rapidly expanding it. So if it’s not there yet, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be. So please keep an eye on it. We’re in parts of Denver today and hoping that more and more customers will have that access as time goes on.
SPEAKER 04 :
And are you expanding this? Obviously, you’re expanding to other cities. And then will you expand it to additional items as time goes on? Like right now, let’s just say it’s like 1,000 or a few thousand. Then will it be like 100,000? Is that the aim?
SPEAKER 03 :
So these are smaller locations. That said, we have already started expanding that selection based on what customers are telling us what they want and need. Amazon now will be several thousand items available for that 30-minute delivery option. But we also recently announced that we have one-hour and three-hour delivery that’s expanding around the country from our same-day delivery sites where we’ve got 90,000 items. So we have a lot of options to get things from Amazon quickly. And same-day delivery for folks has millions of items available. So we’ve got a lot of selection at those really fast speeds.
SPEAKER 04 :
So does it cost more? Because I have recently noticed, like, get it faster, and then it’ll say, like, a price, like $2.99 or something. I’m just guessing. But just for a little bit more, I can get it faster. Will it be like that for now or not?
SPEAKER 03 :
There is a delivery fee for Amazon now. That’s $3.99 for Prime members. And for customers who are not Prime members, it’s $13.99. So you get that good savings if you’re a Prime member. And it’s $3.99 for that under 30-minute time frame.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then, Lindsay, where do we go to get more info? Where’s the best place for us to go?
SPEAKER 03 :
Check out Amazon.com slash now to see if you have the service. You can also go to our Amazon News website where we’ve got a whole article explaining it up. So lots of ways that you can get more information or click into that 30-minute delivery option in your app if you have it. And like I said, if it’s not there yet, keep checking because millions of customers today, tens of millions, that’s our plan, by the end of the year. Very excited for folks to get this and try it out. We’ve seen a great response.
SPEAKER 04 :
I have to give you one more kudos because I accidentally – because I return so many things, let’s be honest, because I buy so much with all the kids. And so I returned something, and I had the wrong code, right? So I had it in the bag already. They scanned it at UPS. Then you guys get it. I actually got this note that said, hey, you put the wrong item in the bag, but we see the item you actually returned. You bought it from us, so we’re giving you a return amount that’s even higher because what I put in the bag was worth more than –
SPEAKER 03 :
What I thought was in there. That is awesome. I love to hear those success stories. Another cool thing, by the way, those returns codes now, you can put them in like your phone’s wallet section. So they’re super easy to scan. So that’s another thing that we’ve been rolling out. We’re just trying to add convenience everywhere we can.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, Lindsay, I know that one already. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s just fun to talk to somebody where, you know, a service I use so much and, you know, I’m so happy with the, you know, what you guys do for me and the Amazon warehouse. I think you call it something else now, but I’ve told so many of my friends about that because if it’s open box, I’ve gotten so many pairs of shoes for my kids that someone else has returned and they’re brand new in the box and I might pay a significant amount less. So that’s also appreciated by family. So thank you for that. Have a great day, Lindsay. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You bet.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
