(Season 9) - [EP 247] Robert Williams (District Manager, DM Trainer) Starbucks Coffee Company

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To a dose of glad joy and caffeine with a tube Building communities with a bunch of new concerns (music) This is Robert Williams and you listen to a dose of glad joy and caffeine Absolutely, welcome one and all to another episode of the dose of glad joy and caffeine We cannot be any more thrilled to continue season 9 with amazing episodes And I have to tell you on today's show we have someone that is not only a leader But a mentor and also an author So I'd like to welcome to our podcast, "Individuals that Dops Deat" into the lives and stories of individual extraordinary individuals Today I'm thrilled to have Robert Williams on the show Who's a seasoned retail executive with a heart for people With over 18 years of experience under his belt And probably a little bit more from internships Robert has held key positions at major retailers such as Starbucks Sam's Club, Target, and BJ's whole sale club And not to mention when he was in the gutta That's a new one I've been using at Foot Locker Really learning about retail It is instrumental in opening new stores, launching company pilots and also shaping organization culture When it comes to some of his former colleagues they've mentioned that Robert is an exceptional leader Somebody that is able to really naturally have the ability to engage his team Build talent around him and identify when to pass success onto others Which is so much of what a servant leader is So please join us in welcoming Robert as he tells his journey And you learn more about his leadership philosophy And discover the stories that have shaped him into the inspiring individual He is today, welcome to Dosa Black Join Cafe It's man, the pleasure is all man to do 100% You say it's nothing on those intervals And I really appreciate you for that man That's part of the verbal caffeine right there That you're delivering man, I appreciate that I'm excited to be a man Absolutely man, you know I'm really excited to have you here too I think especially as we think about the world of retail I mentioned some heavy hitters there, Starbucks, Sam's Club, Target, BJ's, whole sale club But you know what's not actually mentioned on your resume is Foot Locker And I think you working at Foot Locker at such a young age But I bring that up to say you know where you stand today Do you see how that really prepared you in the very early stages of your career To really dive into this world of retail? Oh absolutely If you can't get to the top of the stairs And I'm not there yet without the first step and the first step And that was literally the first company that gave me my dose into leadership And I was like you said I was young, I thought 18 years old in college, Alabama, and in university Just wanted a job And they saw me in me that I could do a little bit more Or they knew that I was going to pick up them retail hours It was either one or the other And so I accepted it man And the journey started there, my passion for people, customers, people that I've developed I wasn't doing too much development at that time being honest Just more self-development Sales man, I learned so much at Foot Locker Foot Action And we were slaying some shoes, we were We got to take it back to shoe wearer When we used to measure people's size at a foot They don't do that no more When we had that pointy metal thing y'all were able to say So we were slaying shoes man, I was excited about that I met a lot of great people I'm still connected with too Yeah absolutely, and even at that stage you were a leader in your own right Now today if you had to define your leadership aesthetic What would you say it takes to truly be a leader? I think what is really simple is authenticity You're leading people and one of the unique things about humans Is we are filtering information a million times a minute So from a leadership perspective, not only do you have the role model The values of the company and all that But you just got to be authentic I think the bridge of connection for me was never being afraid to showcase who I am Whether it was a witty joke, an honest statement And being able to balance not to cross the line Of course because you want to put yourself at risk but a company at risk So if the people that you serve in can't feel that authenticness They're not going to react to your response to you And I've heard that in an early age Yeah absolutely You know when you talk about leadership One thing that you have led so many of the different companies that I mentioned And as I mentioned, I'm going to say them again Because I mean they're really some heavy hitters I mean it's closed Target, BJ's, wholesale club is that you have led these companies through holiday season And by the time that this episode would have launched We'll be in the peak of holiday season What would be your advice to retailers truly making it through holiday season I mean it's amazing that you've been able to jump to various different categories With retailers but what's one key ingredient when it comes to retailers Making it through holiday season and making sure that their customers receive The satisfaction that they're looking for That's a good question to do and thank you for having me remember all those holiday seasons And the retail knife I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know you probably have some best friends And maybe a little upset wife Oh yeah, a September way from family and all of that So I'm going to tack it on two ways One, how do you work non-retail I mean how do you work non-holiday Is the same way you work holiday Is literally one project at a time, one customer at a time It's wild because we think that the traffic is high, the expectation is high That we got to go in the frenzy in order to meet expectation And the truth of the matter is you only can do what's in you And so ensuring that you take it one customer at a time One moment at a time will help you get to that And the second piece I say is figure out a way personally to plan for the holiday time that you're going to miss with family So we all know that thanksgiving on follow on that Thursday So make plans to do your friends give in your family connections Same thing for Christmas, if you've got to work We had times when we were working on Christmas, not Christmas day, thanksgiving day So just plan to have a family around that And so one customer at a time and then specifically plan for that personal time is to cruise Absolutely And we know that one of the things I think through your personal time that you are really, really great at is fitness And you love fitness I believe it's orange theory correct I believe it's absolutely that they really drive you and I think that that self care is so important But I really love to know between orange theory and P90X with Tony Horton, which one is the hardest? I have Ripper X But anyway, what's the question P90X is the hardest? So even at this better age of fitness that I'm in, I was playing around with P90X back then I probably wouldn't be as successful with it today So which one is hardest? P90X? Which one is better for me and my wife is definitely orange theory It's so cool because orange theory helps you do something that I think is critical Which is track your performance right in a world where data drives decision Sometimes we don't put data on our own personal self care and orange theory helps with that So like shout out to my wife because she want to put me on She got over 600 classes with orange theory and I'm knocking at 400 classes with orange theory So I love it because you can keep up with it and it's all around You go to one location, you can go to the other And orange theory, I'm gonna need my check for this marketing No, orange theory, cut the check Please don't worry Monday like but you know what I think it's good and you know your check may come in a different way because our listeners are mad and you know they may grow and they may do better work but I think if anything what I'm hearing from you is really being able to put health and fitness you know into your you know overall well-being as well as your your you know day-to-day plans while you're working it is a great district so before you went into that you made a good point on the day-to-day plan one of the things that I learned first of marriage is a beautiful thing let me put that out there and my marriage is especially and beautiful in the same light and the reason I say that is because one thing my wife do is she plans her workout before she plans anything else so work out of weight family time got a weight I got a weight unless I'm joining joining her and I picked up a little bit of that so you can I can't do it in full because of my work schedule but at least two three times a week uh working out as first is a primary and in life we only got a few real priorities and for iHousehold help this one up and so we looked at the top of the plan of this I mean I think that everybody should do that you know I was just going to mention that we're on the heels of 2025 and I think that there are so many people that are having those new years resolutions so I think that you kind of giving us that reminder is definitely helpful in setting a lot of people up for success so I have to ask saying that we're on the heels of 2025 as you think about you know the retail industry as it sits right now and going into 2025 are there any areas that you're just kind of telling yourself hey we better be on a lookout for this end or that you're going down a rabbit hole on when it comes to different trends that are happening that you think are really going to take off going into next year absolutely absolutely I think we have to truly and a lot of my peers and myself and my leaders are doing this but we have to truly get back to real customer service I mean full-on making through the the first five feet of that customer in the last five feet of that customer accident because with the world we live in the day choices here we had online shopping and Amazon is returning anything so you just got an attraction to go ahead and purchase there but if someone uses their energy their time to go inside of a facility you have to respect the fact that they are volunteering their money and their their energy and we have to meet and exceed that so of course we a lot because of the state of the economy a lot of companies are chasing the sales chasing the revenue but we have to put customer first and if that's not first then it's an opportunity and that's what I mean and when I say that I say put customer first when we think about the future but yeah the truth of the matter is if you can't put the customer first unless your partner is at first but to stay ahead the thought process we got to put our customers first I love that you bring that up because number one it's true and also two I think it's understated because you are working you are working so hard you're doing so much for the customer without really considering them even just to talk a little bit about social media you know social media platforms have now even been looked at as a customer service tool and we we of course know that or you know airlines but a lot of brands are now starting to really put more you know revenue into customer service support to respond to the comments around it so I appreciate you bringing that up oh absolutely that responsiveness on social media for certain companies is a lot faster than calling a curse customer service number so that's for sure absolutely well I have a question do you want to take a trip oh yeah let's do it let's do it if you happen to be stranded on Mars we're going to take a trip to Mars and you only had the disography of three black music artists that you can listen to for the entire time that you are on Mars which three black music artists are you selecting the entire disography to take with you easy Tina Turner Kanye West okay what I mean any is so you're gonna say hi the whole time I mean what what Tina Turner she can she can cheer you out a little bit uh what's what's what's what's going on or I can't stand a rain some pocket music for Tina Turner but I've always been a big Tina Turner fan I always connect to the there's two two portions of music you got the art and then you got the art test I got to fall in love with both of them now Kanye West is a love hey relationship but it's more love at this point than anything but Tina Turner I'll talk I'll fall in love with both her is the artist her story her background her art the music fantastic miss that I never got a chance to go see her live oh yeah man that's that's tough uh Kanye West um you can sound like this one of the most influential artists of the last 15 years if not the most influential artists in the last 15 years when we when we talk about impact global reach uh okay I literally uh my favorite shoes is a pair of yeasies and some jewelry ones but uh how did how did how did a backpack hip hopper from Chicago Illinois greatest city on earth um start a clothing line and get shoes that's worth more than in Air Jordan that's huge I don't think we give them credit for that and then Kendrick Lamar prior to the not like us priors of 2024 were you taking over um I've always been a fan of real rap always gonna say uh uh uh uh artist who is going to infuse art in any I'm talking about whatever he does there's art in and man I just love it a real life artist all three of them listen we'll take that well so you all have heard it here first whenever you're having a jam session or you have some downtime make sure you you know kind of rediscovered those amazing artists and you're right I mean I personally cannot wait to see what Kendrick Lamar is going to do at the Super Bowl oh yeah yeah really really excited about that so you know we talk about artists such as Kendrick Lamar and then you also mentioned Kanye West and then you also mentioned Tina Turner and there's so much creativity uh within all of them at what age did you kind of identify the creativity within yourself oh man oh I grew up in Chicago Illinois and I can remember I was one of those kids where when when family came over my mom's friends came over I was one of those kids that my mother will put out in front and say do you have a dance that you was doing early do you have a dance and so I was literally have been a entertainer my entire life uh class clown growing up uh my friends always joke and say Robert was the class clown and he was the top of the class at the same time grace class and so they blame me for ensuring that they had bad grades but now creativity has been part of my life uh forever and it translated into the work world as well a lot of the reasons I was able to grow and navigate was through creativity and a lot of people may not see the blend between creativity and retail but it's there because anytime you're dealing with people you're dealing with creativity um when you look at the exploration of what what infuses people the most they want to be able to tell their own story they want to be able to feel um what they like to feel as far as day to day and that's creativity right uh personalization authenticity all of that so my creative buzzman been here since my mom put me out there dancing man but I I appreciate you uh bringing that up I know personally I've always admired that about you because you are very business driven and I I think right brain left brain is something that you have not shyed away from but I think it's a nice reminder for our listeners that sometimes you know are told that they need to put themselves in a box or that they have to pick a lane not at all if you utilize both to truly be successful then I think it's missed quite often that's real it's it's it's too missed one of the things that happened and it's it's it's it's one of the things that encouraged me and influenced me to write the book on it's Tito it's really raw guidance a whole series of just thousand ideations but turn interviews to offers is Tito turn interviews to offers and what happens is people are afraid to bring their authentic sales into so many environments because we in fear of not being received you know I mean and I know you're not shy today and I can tell some stories but I'll say some face but please the awesome part of uh use it please I said oh yeah no no no I said please don't tell the story okay one of the things that has to happen is you are working with a company and we have to rephrase that concept of thinking you working for a company with a company you're bringing energy ideas thoughts you are scaling that business whether you know it or not and because they would hire you if you wasn't. And so it's very paramount that you bring your hold and fool self, the beauty about being a human, as you can do both. Like you said, left brain, right, right. You can be authentic and also stay in business practice, right? You can share both of those yinging yangs in life. And that was one of the motivators of, how can I tell that story that it's okay for you to apply for a job that they say, you're not qualified for. When you've ran individual stores and you want to apply for a job that's multi-unit. 'Cause I've been there and the recruiter continues to double down and ask, what have you, have you laid multi-unit before or what's gonna be your biggest challenge? Leading people is leading people. If you can lead people in processes, it don't matter if it's single, double, multi. And as long as you, I call it the three C's, as long as you have capacity, as long as you have confidence and as long as you commit it to endure whatever's there, you can literally learn everything. But the book specifies it with a lot more, like you said, business mind, operational process and ways for you to truly prepare yourself to get that off. And the other thing too is, what I really love about what the book is gonna offer is the valuable insights into career advancement as well as relationship building, which is all a part of that. When it does come to Tito, turning interviews into offers, how can people actually get their hands on it? What's the process? When is it coming out? Let us know. - So my, my expected release is prior to true, now that's a FY25 business break. Prior to 2025 sweet for lunch. I'll have it on my social media for sure platforms and create a unique reach for it, I'll be out there. My social media is three Robert Williams, three Robert Williams on our platforms, Instagram, all of that cool stuff. But yeah, I'm excited about it. I think it's gonna be one of those ones that people don't expect because it won't follow the traditional processes of a book. It's gonna get, I call it the chat GPT of books. It goes right to the, right to the source. And if you want to explain the breakdowns after where it you can, if not, it gives you the meeting potatoes right out of bed. - Definitely, thank you so much. And also huge congratulations. We love and exclusive on the podcast. So I'm excited that you have had that drop, but I'm really, really excited about that. And you know, just to give us a little bit of an appetizer for the book, what truly does land the offer? Because you know, I think that there are so many tips ahead of the offer to when you get the resume right, you get the website right, you make the connections, that's right, you show up and you know, the right attire, you're saying the right things, but the offer still doesn't come. Is there a key that you feel like? This is what absolutely really kind of nails the offer. - Yeah, great question. I'm a top top tough question and a broad question. - No, I love it. So what I believe is that there's three different type of interviewers. You have the one person as being interviewed, they are truly just answering the questions as they come. The second is where most people need to be, where you are controlling the interview. Right, it is dynamic dialogue that's going back and forth, but not over reaching. So you can ensure that all of the questions get action to process the flow. But then the third one, that's the most impactful that lands that offer is it gotta just be a conversation like you and I are having. And the only way to get to that point is you have to prepare to the point where you know yourself so well that when that voice is heard, there is no questions as that this person can do this job and beyond. And so that's really what gets to offer. If you're not having a conversation in an interview, it may not, it's a possibility, we'll work. But if you have a conversation in interviews, I had a chance that you're gonna get at least moved to the next level and get that off. - Oh man, no, thank you so much for sharing that. That's gonna be great. Now, we talked so much about work and we'd like to talk about work on here on a Dose of Black joint caffeine, but we'd also like to talk about play. You have now reached the point of the show where we remind our listeners to take those out of office days. Robert, what was the last great vacation you went on? - Oh, for sure. Tarks and Kiko's man, oh yeah, my wife, she turned the grade 40 with the hashtag 40 weird because she ain't got 40 nowhere. Well, her intellect exceeds 40, but we went to Tarks and Kiko's and just incredible, the bluest waters. I mean, you walk into the water and it's like the most, and I wouldn't say war, but you don't have that, that shelling shield when you go in the water. And we broke it down from the ecosystem standpoint because they had three bests. They had the best water. They had the best produce and they had the best desserts, man. I'm talking. And we feel like all of it comes from the water because the water was man and we horseback row in the actual water. And man, it was alive as they say. It was really fun. So I definitely did use that take office. And here's a plug, take the day before all and the day after all because what it is. Absolutely. And you know what? I know that not only did you have a great vacation, but you also kept her excited. We talked about your first book, but you're also writing another one that's titled Keeping Her Excited and I know that that vacation probably did, but can you give us a little preview of that book as well? Absolutely, so you know, if you follow us on social media, you gotta follow her because my page is private intentionally. But if you follow her at Taisa Shameil, you will see that we have a ball. Like we have literally from just two people karaoke nights to we like to look good when we go out. We love a good restaurant. We love a bit travel, a bit trip. She put together the best social media reels and I love to surprise her as well. For Valentine's Day, I'm surprised to have a saxophonist in the house when she came back from a trip, rose petals on the ground. He playing Kim, it's a vibe, a home chef in here. So relationships follow this, I can't pronounce it, but I know what it means, it's like pedodonic clip where over time, the things that you truly enjoy, humans lose lustre over time. And so to keep that lustre, you gotta always keep the relationship exciting. And what better way is with surprises, you know what I mean? So she never knows when she go around the corner, what's gonna be there. So she's always in anticipation. It's like how they hook you in a movie. That's how you work the relationship. You just gotta keep it exciting, man. - Listen, we love that. And with excitement comes so much joy. And shout out to the both of you. I definitely love seeing the rules and what the next spot is. And probably the number one influential creator couple on Instagram definitely, so shout out to y'all, man, for sure. - We're not appreciating that. - He can enjoy every guest that comes on this show. They bring their own dose of joy. Now we've had two over 240 doses of joy. - I'm great to do it. - Come too, thank you so much. But when it comes to the professional world as well as individuals that are in the world of marketing and business and retail, it really like the rigour morale, as they like to say. - Yeah. - You are audience, a dose of anything that you think the industry currently needs or is lacking. What would you like to give our listeners a dose of? - Absolutely, I do, and I think you live this in full. A dose of permission. I give the listeners a dose of permission to truly live your life to the fullest potential. - Listen, we will take that. We will take that. Robert, it's been great having you on the show. For those of you that are listening, I'd be remiss to say, this is my best friend. I didn't have your mom, man, and I also have to thank you, too, because next season is gonna be our last season, and the Cleo, Cleo by Muse, recently did an article on the podcast, and I had to shout out, "Self Go Out" radio of. - Got to believe it. - This has started and where things have came, and a lot of people that are listening, I think it's important to also talk about the history of the show and the foundation, and honestly, if you're an effort for that, a dose of black joy. and caffeine would not exist today. Just period, full stop. So thank you so much for coming to show and everything that you continue to do. - Thank you so much for this ado. I truly appreciate it and I can't wait for what's next for you and I'm gonna keep on following you and being inspired by you. Thank you, good brother. - And thank you, I appreciate it. Listen, before we get out of here, what's the best way that people could get in contact with you? I know that you mentioned Instagram, but are you okay if people happen to listen to your story, wanna learn more and reach out to you on LinkedIn? - Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And LinkedIn too is, it's, LinkedIn is unique, search Robert Williams and search District Manager Starbucks. - Okay. - And you'll find it because typically I send out the link that we can add the link here if necessary, so they can click on it. But Robert Williams, stop up. I'm a bit like Robert's on profile. - I mean, yeah, there you go. As always, you're up in this state, drink a glass of water or remember that you deserve a dose of light-joying caffeine. Until next time, I am a dude.