Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Kyle Willis

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brook, that gratitude guy with another special guest on the gratitude interview pandemic. We're talking to people, a gratitude podcast interview, I should say. And I was thinking about my next guest, which I'll introduce in the second. Kyle Willis, I've known a number of years. And I was thinking it always concerns me. And I know people that are a lot younger than me, they're that much smarter than I am. It just always makes me just a little intimidated. But nonetheless, a great guy and he's just become a good friend

and somebody who I really count on for a lot of things too. So Mr. Kyle Willis

Kyle, welcome to the podcast. Hey, thank you so much, David. Glad to be here

You bet. You bet. So what I'm doing is, when I'm doing these interview podcasts or podcast interviews

is just to really kind of see if we can help some people out there that might be struggling

that might aren't as well equipped, maybe they handled. So my first question for you is, what is your best coping mechanism to deal with this pandemic

I think the first thing that I keep. reminding myself is that this isn't the end. I think the reality that there is light at the end of the

tunnel, as dismal as it is, as hard as it is, as it is, as painful as it is for a lot of people right now

we're not going to end here. This isn't the end of our story. This isn't the end of our lives

This isn't the end for everyone. I know not everyone can say that's safe. But for myself right now

the reality that what feels negative, what feels painful, what feels rough right now

I'm going to get through this and I'm going to become stronger at the end of it. Yeah, yeah

And you know one of my, if not my biggest subject, only subject is gratitude

Have you noticed, since we've gone into this, we were just saying it's about four or five weeks into it

What's you're grateful for? Has it changed from then to now? Is it the same thing

Is it something different maybe as we've gotten into this and what you're grateful for

I think two things that I would highlight. I'm going to start simple to begin with, and then I'll get a little deep in a moment

The first thing, I think, when it comes to simplicity is the aspect of time. We have a lot of time right now to just be present, to be available, to be real, and be around

And, you know, my wife, she owns two hair salons. And so she's forced to stay at home right now

And it's been tougher. Like she's telling me yesterday, she said to cancel almost 400 appointments

one salon because of the stay-at-home order and no real clue yet of when she's going to get through it

But that aspect of time has allowed her to just be present be home with our two kids My two almost two celebrates her second birthday here on Saturday And it allowed me to look at what I do with my you know I run a digital marketing agency

And so we've had the fortunate privilege that a lot of the work we're doing is online

So it doesn't require a physical store presence. Certainly some of our clients have been affected, but it's allowed me to look at my schedule and say

what can I put off right now? Where can I just be present and be real and available to the things

family, as I don't get this much face time with my wife normally, she's at the salon most every day of the week

And using that time to go on family walks to do some spring cleaning, we organize the garage and crawl space, and then just be, you know, I've been taking my little two-year-old out on little mini-adventures, whether it would be just driving to go to the post office or just walk her around the block and just be present as a family

and grateful for that aspect of I don't normally get this much time with them

but I get to enjoy now. Right, right, exactly. Now, I think back on knowing you, and one of the things I would say

you always have a ton of things going on. And there's just all sorts of juggle. I say juggling the balls a lot, because that's my favorite way to describe it

That's one of the reason why you and I connected. There's always the mind just going 100 miles an hour, it seems

But not everybody is that way. And so when you've got people that are sheltering at home

what's some thoughts or ideas or, maybe some concepts or something that somebody could be doing why they're stuck at home during this time

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the big thing for me is I love to find a way to stay connected

You know, as we're doing here on Zoom, the ability that, you know, you and I see each other about once a week when we're at the office space or our life in general, and we get the face-to-face time

And if we can't have that like this, and hey, how do we stay connected in things like Zoom

Last night, we did a Zoom game night with another family where it was kind of a game, I think it's called Quiplash

it's like an apples to apples type of a game. We did a pre-in-chair, played this game with another family

and like we would have face-to-face, they were over at our house for a dessert and game night

We all had our drinks and had our food and spent an hour or so playing together as two families would

And then, you know, trying to just other ways, staying connected in the old school way of just helping people feel valued and loved

We did a bunch of handwritten cards to friends and family from my two-year-old

It little handprint on the card has a family all wrote little notes to my parents and other friends around the country and then just sent off those cards and just say hey we all know we sitting around doing nothing right now or doing what we can right now

Just know you're in our thoughts. We love you. I hope you're making the best of this time right now

That's cool. And you know, when they first came up with social distancing, they kind of corrected it later to say physical distancing

You know, so we're apart physically. But again, as you say Zoom, and I rely on FaceTime

I FaceTime my younger son in San Diego. And it's just there's all this technology, which is really one of the big silver linings through this

entire pandemic and where the whole world is involved. But some people, again, aren't quite as creative

And that's why I was curious too. And speaking in that, Kyle, in the digital marketing world, but just in your world altogether

this is going to end at some point. We don't know when, but it will end

And there will probably more likely be a new normal to what we're going to do. But being as motivated and as driven as you are, what's

What's some thing or things that you're doing right now that kind of hit the ground running when this thing moves on to the next phase

We're not in our homes. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, the businesses that are flourishing in this time are the ones who laid the groundwork to build ways to stay connected to their audience, to their customers

And I get it. A lot of businesses have that brick and mortar presence

They have a harder time being able to stay connected as well

if I can't, you know, one of our clients is a car dealership. It's a little hard to sell cars right now

Right. But one of our clients is a hair salon. As I mentioned my wife, you know

they're working with her, like, all right, well, what can you do right now? Well, people can't get

haircuts right now. They need to know how to, what can I do to protect my roots or protect my

hair as my roots grow out and I can't color my hair. Well, she put together a little root kit

she called it. Oh, nice. She could sell for 20 bucks, mail off to people to say

here's some root conditioning treatment you can do until we get out of this mess and you can come back into the salon

You know, those in this time, what a business can do really well is start working on what is the things that they've kind of been putting off for a lot of businesses, just a content creation of your blog, updating your website

If you don't have a website, now it's trying to take time to build one. We're building like eight websites right now for clients because it's that time of, well, I got nothing else to do right now

I haven't really built that digital presence online. Maybe I should get started

Right. Yeah. You know, who knows if we ever go through a pandemic like this before

Let make again let make sure you prepared And so you have a way to stay connected If you not built an email list now time to build that email list and get connected And then the important aspect of that is

just be human. Don't have to just sell all the time. Stay connected. How can you serve in the midst

of this? And I hate the buzzword of value, but I think that aspect of how can you support your

customers as much as they want to support you, there's nothing wrong with being willing to say

hey, here's where I need support. If you buy this item, this helps keep our lights on when we come back

And this is going to help you when you're sitting at home. And so finding a way that there's a mutually beneficial exchange of what you can provide to your customer base

and what they can do to help keep you in business. Right

That's a great point. And I think your earlier point, too, I have a feeling that a lot of to-do lists are getting done

that have been put off for a long time. They're way down the priority list

but now here we are stuck. So great input. So Kyle, last question

Do you have sort of a mantra, a quote, a saying, a philosophy that is kind of represents how

you move through life and certainly through a tough time like this

I mean, I asked somebody and they said, well, this two shall pass. But do you have something that's kind of been at the sort of overarching for you as you've

gone through life? Yeah. You know, whether your audience is religious or not, I think this is

this concept will apply. I've always held on to that truth comes from the Bible where in the New

Testament, the author is talking about love. And he says, you know, love is patient, love is kind

And I always love that aspect about love believes the best. And that's something that I've been

holding on to in this time with that, all right, I believe the best. I believe that as, you know

as stutter, because I don't want to get into too negative a topic, but I had a friend

lose their father due to the COVID illness. And as I've been trying to just encourage and support them

it's really helped me think of just, what is love right now? How do I love them in the midst of this time

How do I love my family in the midst of this time? Start off by believing the best

As hard, as painful, financially, relationally, emotionally, emotionally as this time has been for a lot of businesses and individuals

I'm going to believe the best. We're going to get through it. We're going to be stronger in the midst of this

And how can we unite? Love is what unites us. Right. Oh, that's great. That's great. Well, of course, as I expected, quality content, speaking of content creation from Dr. Willis

So thank you so much. I really appreciate you being on the old gratitude podcast interview

I'm honored for the invite. Thank you so much, David. You bet. Thanks, Kyle