Service Superstar Chris Campa and the Zombie Apocalypse

Service Superstat Chris Campa (and me!)
at the Donut Bar in San Diego

Imagine a zombie apocalypse.

 

It’s on.

 

End-of-day mayhem everywhere.

 

You run out into the open grid of chaos and see a Hummer approaching from the distance. It’s full of humans like you fleeing for their lives. Your heart beats with hope.

 

In panicked desperation, you frantically wave your arms, praying they will slow down and let you jump in.

 

(End scene)

 

Back to reality.

 

In a zombie apocalypse, would strangers save you?

As they fled, would they risk their lives and stop for you?

 

What if they'd interacted with you- even for a moment- before the upheaval?

 

How had you treated them?

 

In the apocalypse, would they see your face and associate it with negativity (e.g., “Don’t stop, that person’s a jerk...drive faster!”)

 

Or would they remember that you were kind and, in turn, slam on the brakes, open the door, and pull you aboard?

 

If you’re 21-year-old Chris Campa from San Diego, they’d definitely stop and even high-five you as you hopped in.

 

Why? Because Chris proactively creates his zombie apocalypse good karma every day.

 

I met Chris at The Donut Bar, where he works. This magical little (donut) hole-in-the-wall has two of my favorite things on the menu: designer donuts and tasty mimosas. Visiting the Donut Bar is part of my San Diego routine; I go there often.

 

On every visit, without fail, a tall, vibrant young man at the cash register, Chris, greets me with the warmest welcome and biggest smile. Every time.

 

He doesn’t save his sunshine just for me. Chris greets everyone this way. No matter how busy the shop is (it’s always busy), and no matter what mood they bring, every customer is greeted with genuine kindness.

 

Chris's love of life and people is so authentic that it’s impossible to ignore. This guy radiates positivity. When paying for my usual order on a recent San Diego adventure, I asked Chris to tell me his secret. I wanted in—how did he stay so upbeat? I was ready to order whatever he was selling.

 

Without pause, he told me his story about the zombie apocalypse.

 

In the story he created, he wonders if the Hummer would stop because they remembered he was a good guy, or would they speed on by? He wants to be sure they'd stop. He treats everyone with kindness...you just never know when your paths will cross again.

 

Obsessed with great customer service and now intrigued with him, I took a chance and asked if I could interview him after his shift. Lucky me, he agreed and later that day, Chris wowed me with his customer service secrets. No surprise, he has no secrets, just a consistent way of showing up for others, regardless of whether he’s on the clock.

 

Here are more highlights from the interview, including the audio clip of him telling the zombie story in his own words.

 

 

On energy:

“Love is a limitless currency. I want to give as much as I can.”

 

On happiness:

“Nothing makes me happier than seeing someone smile!”

 

(I nudged him a bit here, and he admitted that being the cause of that smile, especially if someone isn’t having a good day, makes him pretty darn happy, too.)

 

On rude customers and disappointments:

“People can be mean for a minute, but life is still awesome.”

 

When asked if he ever has a bad day:

“Honestly, no! I love my life. It’s like this, if you have $100K and someone steals two bucks, does that ruin the whole stash? No way! You still have so much!”

 

Three words he’d like others to use to describe him:

·  Open-minded  

·  Kind-hearted

·  Fun

 

Pet peeves:

People making others feel less than, bullying of any kind, .... and he admitted he gets bugged when the light turns green and people don’t go. (Proof that he’s human!)

He's a natural-born leader:

Chris has been demonstrating leadership skills since he was a kid. As he tells it, he’s always had the ability to scan a room, find the person who felt like they didn’t belong, and get them connected with others. He told me about an experience that was worthy of a John Hughes film.

When he was in ninth grade and stumbled upon a foreign exchange student, Sungjae, hiding alone in the boy’s restroom stall, eating his paltry chicken-wing lunch. Chris immediately took him to the cafeteria to sit with him and his friends. Fast forward: Sungjae became one of Chris’s close friends, he became quite popular, stayed at the school, mastered English, and graduated successfully. The principal of the school even acknowledged Chris for doing what he’d been unsuccessful with—helping Sungjae fit in and thrive. WOW! (He was 12 or 13 at the time!)

 

In summary, I learned so much from Chris! What a phenomenal, inspirational person! I can hardly wait to see what he does with the rest of his life. This guy is going places, and he's creating tidal waves of positivity along the way.

For now, in the spirit of Halloween, whether you are in a customer-facing position or not, when the zombies come, let's be like Chris. Let’s be the kind of people that strangers would save in a heartbeat. While we each still have a heartbeat.

Because we just never know. 🧟‍♂️

Hear it in his words! Listen to Chris tell the zombie story here:

Zombie Interview with Chris Campa

Head Tilt #86: Adventure is out there

I broke up with Disneyland.

 

The Last Ride

After nine years of being an annual pass holder, I let my pass expire today.

 

When things were good between Disney and me, they were so good!

 

For years I have loved Disney’s commitment to excellence. It was apparent everywhere. I studied their leadership, took their classes, and visited the California parks an almost embarrassing number of times.

Cliché as it was, Disneyland was my happy place. In my eyes, Disney provided manufactured perfection. It was clean and safe. The cast members were always kind.

 

Then slowly, gradually, we both changed.

 

Disney changed their ticketing, pricing, crowd-control, attractions, customer service, and processes. All changes were strategic and well-intended, but not favored by me. Where before I saw magic, I now see dollar signs.

 

But I changed too. While playfulness is still a priority, my patience has waned. I long for Disneyland as I knew it, and I don’t have an interest in learning to love Disneyland as it is now.

 

A few weeks ago, my son and I took one last visit while I still had my pass. (I mean, if I was breaking up with Disney, I wanted to do it in person.) We had so much fun. We experienced several Disney magic moments. Twice, I got the giggles so hard -- I thought my face would break. We made great memories.

 

We noticed all the things that bugged us, too, but still, we focused on the good.

 

For our last ride, we chose King Arthur’s Carousel, one of the attractions from opening day in 1955. Since watching his daughters ride the merry-go-round at Griffith Park in LA inspired Walt’s vision of Disneyland, this carousel seemed like a perfect selection to end not only our visit but also our era as pass holders.  

 

Late at night, the crowds were light. We were at the tail-end of the line, and most of the outside carousel horses were taken. Since there was no one behind us, I kindly asked the attending cast member if we could wait until the next ride.

 

“It would make my job easier if you didn’t,” she grumped.

 

Oof! Further evidence of change, this was not quite the Disney service standard we knew and loved.

 

I guess I was feeling a bit rebellious; this was my last ride for a while. We stepped to the side and quietly waited anyway. We chose the horses we wanted and enjoyed the ride. We slowly meandered down Main Street and exited the park when it was over.

 

Thank you, Disneyland. I am grateful for all the memories my family and I have made on your properties. I love the Disney lessons I’ve worked into my career. I’ll still visit every now and then, it’s just not a priority anymore. As Charles Muntz said in the Disney/Pixar movie, Up, “Adventure is out there.” I am off to find my next one.

 

Head Tilt #85: Keep their clothes on!

🦋 Do you have a big presentation to give?

🦋 Are you feeling nervous?

🦋 Just picture your audience naked.

 

Yeah, sure... that’ll put you at ease... 😳

 

Can you even imagine??

 

That advice has been around for decades. When I tried to track the source, I was blown away to find it is often attributed to one of the world’s most revered orators... Sir Winston Churchill. 🎩

 

Churchill was not a naturally gifted speaker. He struggled with a stammer and lacked confidence. Rumor has it that to ease his nerves, he imagined his audience naked. I suppose for him it leveled the playing field.

 

Regardless, this is not good advice for today’s presenter! It disrespects your audience and disconnects you from them. Disrespect and disconnect...those are the last things you want to do when communicating!

 

Since glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, still ranks among the top global phobias, we need effective strategies for quelling those butterflies.

While there are many solid strategies for reducing speech anxiety, academic research consistently touts what is called the communication orientation—thinking less about yourself and your fears, and more about your (clothed) audience and how you can relate your topic to them—as one of the most effective methods for building presentation confidence.

 

Your audience members are co-authors of your presentation. How can you connect with them? What will they do once they hear your speech? How can you make information that’s important to you important to them? The more you focus on those things—the less you’ll worry about your performance.

 

So please, don’t think of your audience naked! But if you insist, and I’m in your audience, please apply a good filter. 😉

Head Tilt 84: I'm a pro (crastinator)

 

I hate to brag, but…

I’m a master procrastinator. 🏆

Yeah, valedictorian-level. 🎓

I know I might make it look effortless, but I have an advantage.

Thanks to Tim Urban’s 2016 TED Talk on procrastination, I’ve learned that I have an Instant Gratification Monkey in my mind.

Don’t be fooled by his cuteness. He grabs the attention of the Rational Decision-Maker (me?) every time I try to do something productive. 

That little monkey takes me down the rabbit hole of perusing online retailers (I’m looking at you, Revolve), searching Instagram for updates on Noodle the Pug (It’s a No Bones Day! I must sleep in!), and reorganizing the books on my shelves by color… because those things are instantly more gratifying than whatever important task is at hand. 

MORE. DOPAMINE. PLEASE! 🙏😳

Luckily, Tim taught me that I also have a guardian angel of sorts, a red Panic Monster, who wakes up and freaks out anytime deadlines are closer than they appear in that little side mirror of my mind. He scares the Instant Gratification Monkey away and forces the Rational Decision Maker-me to get sh!t done. 

And the thing is, I always do; I always get things done. Admittedly, it’s often at the expense of lost sleep and a bunch of extra pressure on myself and those who live in my house, but I deliver the goods. And they’re good. 😎

Now here’s the part of the post where I tell you how I’ve overcome my procrastination, and I now plan everything out months ahead of due dates.

*sigh*

But that hasn’t happened. 

You can’t unring a bell, and you can’t dumb down an expert. 

If you’re like me, you might be trying to keep that little Instant Gratification Monkey well-fed but in line. It’s a constant effort. I have grown to accept that I actually work best and get more creative when a deadline is close, though. Now instead of kicking myself for putting things off, I trust that I’ll get things done when the need nears. I always do.

I encourage you to put off whatever you’re supposed to be doing right now and watch Tim’s TED Talk. You and your IG monkey will be glad you did.

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator

Head Tilt #83: Remove the (listening) barriers!

What is getting in the way of your listening skills?

I'm always skeptical when someone tells me they're a great listener.

Why?

Because after teaching a semester-long college listening class for 15 years, I know that being a good listener is arduous work.

One thing I recommend to improve your listening skills is to identify what gets in the way of being an excellent listener.

This is not an exhaustive list (!), but take note of the ones that apply to you:

• Daydreaming (too much downtime or drifting off-topic)
• Stereotyping the speaker; judging the speaker before they even start talking
• Formulating your next response (remember: The purpose of listening is to UNDERSTAND, not to REPLY)
• Communicating from locked roles/scripts (I say this, and you say that... it’s the way it always is)
• Knowing too much or too little about the subject and tuning out accordingly
• Listening only for information that is congruent with your beliefs (selective listening)
• Listening defensively (with the goal of defending your position or crushing theirs)
• Not hearing anything you don’t want to hear
• Not liking the subject
• Problems listening to/comprehending the message because of the speaker’s enunciation, accent, organization, clarity, speed, volume, tone, inflections, emotions, differences, or appearance
• Problems with the communication channel (for example, face-to-face vs. phone)
• Problems with the motivation for communication (for example, does your job or relationship depend on it?)
• No time to listen/no bandwidth/no patience
• Assuming it’s the same story you’ve already heard and tuning it out
• Fatigue—being too tired to really pay attention
• Hunger—(having low blood sugar that makes it hard to pay attention!)
• Interrupting

To remove less-than-effective habits, try this: NOTICE-PLAN-PRACTICE-MEASURE

First, we notice what gets in our way. (You just did that! Well done!). Next, we create a plan to eliminate or reduce the ineffective habit. We then practice our plan and measure our improvement. Change doesn’t come instantly, but it is certainly possible and worth the effort.

For example, if you notice that you always tune out during an afternoon meeting because you’re hungry, you can plan to hydrate and eat a small healthy snack before the meeting. You could practice this plan and measure the results (see if it helps you pay attention), thus breaking through a listening barrier.

TOP TIP

Being a great listener takes time and presence. When you are short on time or attention, be prepared to communicate openly by respectfully saying something like, “I’d like to listen to you, and I only have five minutes right now… can we make a plan to meet later when I can give you my full attention?”

I know I always have areas to improve upon! Meanwhile, how will you improve your listening skills?

Awesome pic from pixabay ❤️