The Bounce Rate Podcast

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Happy. Well, welcome to The Bounce Rate. How are y’all doing?

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How are my co-hosts doing? Eric? I’m good. Yeah.

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What about some? I’ve got more than that. That was like the fakest I’m good

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I’ve heard in a long time. It doesn’t sound genuine.

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That’s not true. It’s genuine.

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There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot going on. Yeah. So it’s not bad.

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It’s just there’s a lot going on. I had to process.

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I wanted to give you an honest answer with some real analysis.

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Yeah. I’m good. But you were feeling ill last week. You’re feeling better now?

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Me? Yeah. Yeah. My stomach bug after a dose of antibiotics is gone.

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Awesome. Good Lord. What about you? I’m falling apart. I had to go see my PCP,

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my general practitioner or internist, whatever they call them now, my doctor.

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I’m like, oh, this hurts my knee.

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I’m worried about this. And she’s like, yeah, you’re in your 50s.

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She’s like, suck it up. Well, there’s a lot of bugs going around,

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not least of which is the love bug.

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And that is because it’s Valentine’s Day. This episode.

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Bow, bow, bow, bow. That’s the wrong. That was the Sanford and Son.

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Yeah, that’s Sanford and Son. But there is definitely love between Fred Sanford and his son.

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But Valentine’s Day is all about that connection. And today’s episode is all about Valentine’s Day.

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Our hottest Valentine’s Day takes from cheap candy to the value of commercialized

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holidays to showing love to your local businesses.

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What are some local businesses that have loved you and you want to love them back?

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Now, I was going to ask if anyone has any Valentine’s Day plans,

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but I realized that your spouses might listen to this.

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So we better not. No, it’s fine. Well, one, we have no plans.

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So she’s not going to be surprised. All right. Got it. Yeah.

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Yeah. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s. But if you’re a business,

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I hope you have a good loyalty program to leverage it as much as possible.

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I bet. i bet roger has plans yeah that’s

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a good question roger do you i have got business plans i do

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not have personal plans and i asked monica the other day i

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said do you want to do something or do you want anything

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and she was like i don’t know and i was do you want me to

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make some steaks and she’s like yeah that sounds good so

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have you got to the point in your relationship where you actually tell each

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other the truth right like there’s no hidden message behind

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it like like no i’m fine i don’t need anything yeah

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but you know the thing about and so now this is a

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relationship podcast which is it’s so

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fascinating how the biggest lesson is picking your battles because there’s certain

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like some moments where it’s like is this a moment that i need to exert myself

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and you have to say like yeah it is a moment that it’s worth having a discussion

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and then there’s other moments you’re like, no, this isn’t.

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And so basically it’s like, to me, I think a healthy, healthy relationship is

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two people taking turns being the difficult one.

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There’ll be one day where she’s being difficult and I’m like,

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all right, she’s a difficult one today.

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And there’ll be a day where we’re neutral and then another day where I’m the difficult one.

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I don’t think truer words have ever been spoken about what a relationship really

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is. It is not about harmony.

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It is about offsetting each other. Yeah, absolutely.

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Or as they say in the musical Rent, I’m just looking for baggage. that goes with mine.

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Oh, that’s, yeah, that’s a deep pull. That’s a good pull. Yeah.

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Well, we want to talk about local businesses. So Valentine’s Day,

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you mentioned loyalty before.

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We have a loyalty program that has rolled out recently.

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And we, like, around our office, we’ve been thinking a lot about it.

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And, of course, whenever Valentine’s Day comes around,

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you get this surge of emails of

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of different promos offers i’m not

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proud of this but one time i used a valentine’s day

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offer like a two-for-one offer just with

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myself at a restaurant hey you can love

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yourself yeah that’s rule one right i was like

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you know what you know what would how i would really love

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myself is getting a pizza and a

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burger it didn’t it didn’t feel like love after but

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in the moment i did it but obviously valentine’s

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day is a great day first question is where are

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you going to get a pizza and a burger oh well it

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was the studio movie grill okay okay because to me that’s the way to watch films

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is like a king is with silverware exactly clanging on the plates that’s that’s

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the time to watch well they get little plastic baskets and stuff okay do you

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do you prefer the theater no no i like i like like i pick,

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movie grill all that stuff yeah i think it’s very so yeah let’s talk a little bit about.

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Promotions what promotions do you want to see on a valentine’s day,

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you know jewelry what what what are helpful wow good question i mean i think

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it’s a for a business it’s a great time for a touch point right so any business

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can you can most businesses you can have a message on or around Valentine’s.

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I think it’s also, it’s, it’s, you know, that my inclination is to say,

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you know, something different, right.

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And, and I, I think it’s kind of like the old joke about, well,

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nobody goes there. There’s too many people.

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Yeah. So, so it’s kind of like someone’s going there. Yeah. No.

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So, you know, can you, it doesn’t make sense for every restaurant to send out

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a Valentine’s, Hey, have Valentine’s with us or, you know, special deal for a single or whatever.

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Yeah, I think it does. I mean, because it works and because a lot,

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a lot of people are going out this Saturday.

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I mean, a lot, a lot of people are going out. Yeah.

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Even though Eric and I don’t partake, we’re a small percentage of the population. Very small.

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We’re a minority. I’m tired of

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getting stuck by the man. Like you don’t partake. Yeah, I do not partake.

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So this raises an interesting topic, which we We should talk about this just

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in its own episode, and that is the Google or the Gmail tab system.

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You’ve got your main mail, you’ve got your promo mail, and you’ve got your social mail.

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So it’s very interesting because…

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Google implemented these because they want to make it easier for you to sort

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emails and you’re not all jumbled up.

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But it can cause issues. For instance, if I’m trying to authenticate something

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on TikTok and that’s going to the social email, I’m like, well,

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that’s not social. I’m trying to authenticate the business center.

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Or, you know, LinkedIn will go there, but that’s a business thing.

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It’s interesting because i think that back in the

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day i don’t know when the day would have been but

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when i first started doing email marketing in two

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and twenty two thousand

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let’s say 2011 or 12 okay 2011 or 12 yeah 2011 or 12 i remember my first marketing

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job was for a company that did a email marketing plugin for point of sale so

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like you you know someone to make a point of sale and then you can capture their

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information and send them an email.

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And even as early as 2012, or even as late as 2012, sending an email,

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email marketing was like an edge that you had over competitors.

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You had this channel that they might not be thinking about.

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Today, in my opinion, I think that it’s almost a necessity because on Valentine’s

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Day, if someone’s looking for a restaurant, they’re going to get a bunch of different messages.

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For me, I scroll through my promos to see what kind of pizza deals I have or

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what kind of offers I have.

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And I might not remember you if you are not in that list.

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Now, obviously I have my favorites that I’m like, oh, you know, this is super fun.

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Their food is great and they’re exceptional service.

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But in terms of competition, I think it could be hard in this current landscape.

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We were making SMS feel pretty left out here. Just all this email talk.

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That’s true. That’s true.

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Hey, what about me? Well, there’s the voice of reason. Oh, wait. SMS reason.

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Has the voice of reason been a little SMS message this whole time?

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Maybe. Maybe. And that’s true as well. I’ve only gotten two or three SMS messages. Really?

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For, yeah, for this weekend. Oh, okay.

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For this weekend. Of, you know, hey, do this or that. But I don’t opt into a lot of SMS. Gotcha.

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Yeah. I think it’s not imperative. it’s

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not a foundation of businesses today that you

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have to email out or you have to do it kind

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of depends on the business if you’re connecting

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with your customers so i will say and i’m

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hoping i i think i i actually talked

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to him and and i’m going to do a little little bump here

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and a kind of teaser for a future podcast we may

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actually get johnny caraba from carabas

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to come i met him because they opened up a new restaurant in bel-air

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mia’s table it’s not a new restaurant but new location

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for them fantastic food he was

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out there right guy owns how many restaurants is crazy busy

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and so forth but he was out there meeting and pressing palms

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kissing babies doing everything you know whether they’re sending me a card or

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not but may not be critical or may not be foundational for their business but

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it couldn’t hurt it could not hurt for them to grab my email and send me something

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every now and then because I will forget that. Oh, yeah. Mia’s table.

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It’s right around the corner. I should go there.

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I guess that’s a good good thing to think about, like the risk reward. Right.

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I look at a lot of things in life, like what’s the risk reward or what’s the

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opportunity cost reward?

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It’s very easy to do and it’s not going to hurt you. It can only help. Yeah. Right.

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Yeah. It’s not going to hurt for sure. Right. That’s yeah. Even I mean,

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the only well, I might be out some cash if I’m paying for some program.

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Gosh, you know, the upside is so high on that, just getting somebody to come back.

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I mean, much like relationships, like if you’re not doing those touch points

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on a regular basis, you’re not doing check-ins.

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I will say this happened to us since COVID because during COVID,

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we got into the, my wife’s a school teacher, so she was off for a little bit,

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not off, but she was doing virtual and had more time.

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So we started walking every morning and every morning is where we do our download

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to each other of what went on.

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It is funny. I will come home. I’ll have had a big day. Stuff will happen and so forth.

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I get home. We don’t talk about it at all until the next morning.

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And then we go on our walk. And then I’m like, oh, yeah. And this happened.

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And this is what James said. And can you believe, Roger?

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That’s really how that conversation goes all the time. Can you believe how audacious he was?

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Yeah. Well, so I think you hit on probably what we should say was the center

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of this, which is a relationship.

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You know, the fact that the owner, the founder?

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Was at a new restaurant opening. And I have a friend who also does that.

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He opens a chain of restaurants. Every time there’s an opening,

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he is there introducing himself to people.

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And it’s interesting because it can be easy whenever you’re trying to market

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locally to look at the community around you and kind of treat them like a faceless

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mob of, why aren’t they coming in?

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Instead of that, it’s better to think of it as, okay, I’ve connected with this

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person. I’ve connected with this customer.

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I have 200 more to go in order to have my base that’s going to keep this thing profitable.

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Because when you’re a local business and you were relying on those people,

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there has to be a connection.

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So do we have time for a little…

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What will become an iconic Eric Schaefer little story. Yeah,

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absolutely. Do we have time for this? Yeah.

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Okay, so I have a technical background, right? So I had computer science.

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That’s where I started. I programmed and so forth.

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And there’s been this discussion, because I still read a lot of technical forums

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and so forth, and there’s been this discussion about AI coding.

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And somebody about my age posted in there, they said, you know,

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the game has changed so much with AI programming Because for 30 years in their

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career, this guy’s been doing technical stuff, building, you know,

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knowing this arcane knowledge, you know, being able to do things people couldn’t do, all this stuff.

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And now, really, anybody can do it.

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And, and I, and I, and I really felt that I was like, oh yeah, I mean, I,

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I, it, the game has changed these, this, the, at least one set of skills that

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I’ve developed over decades is on the verge of becoming irrelevant.

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And I was reading through the forum. The forum’s all hacker-type people.

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In fact, it’s called Hacker News.

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And somebody posted, and they were like, you know what?

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That’s just not what the hacker ethos is about. It’s not about you being the

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only one that can do this thing.

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You’re supposed to be Prometheus coming down from the mountain, bringing the fire.

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And they were really emphasizing. And a bunch of people jumped on that bandwagon

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about, it’s about the fire giving.

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It’s about the connecting with people. It’s about the delivery.

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So kind of tying into what you were just saying, if I have a nail salon,

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hair salon, a car wash, whatever, it’s not about just turning out,

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doing a good car wash or doing a nice manicure.

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It’s about connecting with that person and having that person feel like,

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hey, I got an experience. There was something that happened here.

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It was about changing that person’s life, not just that journey.

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Of course, I pointed out, yeah, but the mountain’s gone. I mean,

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like, or we have roads and ski lifts going up to the top of the mountain.

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Now everybody, so I don’t feel special giving out the fire anymore,

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and nobody even cares about the fire.

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Sort of a sad story there. But that’s, I think it’s that connecting with people

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that really gives you value. Absolutely.

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And it can be so easy to get wrapped up in all the work that goes into how do

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I get the eyeballs versus a competitor or how can I get the eyeballs within my budget.

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But the truth is, once you get the eyeballs, that’s when the relationship actually starts.

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And then getting them to come back and to remember you and to hold you in a

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high regard, that is the key to…

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Longevity well what what fast food restaurant

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is going out of business in houston

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have you seen where they’re having a number of locations close have you noticed

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in bel-air i don’t know everybody what’s here can you give a jack in the box

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really they are really struggling they’re they’ve closed down i know three locations

00:15:42.664 –> 00:15:47.784
in houston that have closed and that is a pretty nameless transaction.

00:15:48.184 –> 00:15:51.924
Have you ever gone into a jack-in-the-box and felt a bond with jack-in-the-box?

00:15:52.264 –> 00:16:01.004
Now, contrast that to what is debatably one of the most prosperous and majorly

00:16:01.004 –> 00:16:03.184
growing fast food restaurant chains.

00:16:03.444 –> 00:16:05.564
Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A. What’s that experience?

00:16:05.844 –> 00:16:08.484
Right. I mean, I will tell you this. Okay.

00:16:09.004 –> 00:16:14.084
My mother and my wife and her mother have a table at Chick-fil-A,

00:16:14.264 –> 00:16:19.164
I’m not saying that they have a table because they go to Chick-fil-A and that’s their table.

00:16:19.484 –> 00:16:24.664
The operator of Chick-fil-A got a plaque with their name on it because they

00:16:24.664 –> 00:16:29.084
come out so much and they spent so much time talking, the staff talked to it.

00:16:29.184 –> 00:16:33.424
When we traveled, we had to pick up a key chain for one of the employees because

00:16:33.424 –> 00:16:34.444
he’s like, oh, you’re going here.

00:16:34.544 –> 00:16:39.124
I would love it. I mean, that’s the kind of relationship that Chick-fil-A has with its customers.

00:16:39.884 –> 00:16:42.124
And when did you last get that out of Jack in the Box?

00:16:43.206 –> 00:16:47.146
I mean, Jack and the Box has a special place in my heart because I grew up right next to one.

00:16:47.426 –> 00:16:51.386
And then when I tried to live out in California, I lived off their like,

00:16:51.466 –> 00:16:53.866
they had two tacos for 99 cents.

00:16:54.046 –> 00:16:58.066
But you’re right. That’s what. They’re kind of dead to me now because I don’t

00:16:58.066 –> 00:16:59.806
even notice. You know what I mean?

00:17:01.126 –> 00:17:07.326
Well, for me, that’s heartbreaking. One, because I was an early admirer of their marketing.

00:17:08.886 –> 00:17:12.446
Two i like their brand positioning as

00:17:12.446 –> 00:17:16.286
we are the late night stoner thing

00:17:16.286 –> 00:17:19.126
we’re gonna have menu items that are

00:17:19.126 –> 00:17:24.106
a little bit off the wall we’ve got sourdough toast we’ve got egg rolls they

00:17:24.106 –> 00:17:29.626
used to have those toasted raviolis yeah but if you go in yeah drive-through

00:17:29.626 –> 00:17:33.526
is fine you go into one you kind of get that feeling it’s it’s going away i

00:17:33.526 –> 00:17:36.766
don’t want to be too harsh but like Yeah, well, I mean, it just is what it is.

00:17:36.866 –> 00:17:43.726
I mean, it’s funny, Whataburger, one of my favorites, has a much more personal feel to it, I think.

00:17:45.166 –> 00:17:50.386
And one of the Whataburgers that we go to, they closed down the old location, they opened a new one,

00:17:50.566 –> 00:17:56.586
and somebody spent some time at Chick-fil-A looking at it because the lines

00:17:56.586 –> 00:18:01.166
now allow for a person to be out, like during lunch, taking orders and having conversations.

00:18:01.366 –> 00:18:05.066
I always had conversations with the groups there. So it’s, I think it’s,

00:18:05.066 –> 00:18:08.226
it’s, it’s very telltale much like Valentine’s day.

00:18:08.406 –> 00:18:11.886
You need to work on that relationship. Well, not just on the one day. Yeah.

00:18:12.106 –> 00:18:14.586
Speaking of relationships, I’m going to switch gears just a little bit here.

00:18:15.566 –> 00:18:19.666
Say you start up a relationship with somebody, are you going to sit back and

00:18:19.666 –> 00:18:22.486
wait for them to reach out to you to get that next engagement?

00:18:22.646 –> 00:18:25.566
Or are you going to, you know, are you going to be proactive and,

00:18:25.566 –> 00:18:29.846
you know, stay in contact with them? You know what I mean? So yeah.

00:18:30.346 –> 00:18:32.286
Are you actually asking? Cause I have an answer.

00:18:33.430 –> 00:18:36.690
So my wife makes me a better person every day.

00:18:36.870 –> 00:18:40.450
That’s somebody that I want to be in contact with. We need to touch base with

00:18:40.450 –> 00:18:44.590
because she makes me a person, better person, every single day.

00:18:44.970 –> 00:18:50.830
Now, God forbid, if something should happen to her first, I am good enough at that point.

00:18:51.610 –> 00:18:56.010
I am marrying somebody half my age plus seven. We’re going to the same vacation

00:18:56.010 –> 00:18:59.230
locations that I’ve already been to because I don’t want to work at it.

00:18:59.370 –> 00:19:05.890
And I’m done. this has been you’re derailing my analogy here so to answer like

00:19:05.890 –> 00:19:11.170
second wife is very different from first wife that’s true very very very true to pivot back.

00:19:12.086 –> 00:19:17.626
We might come back to that. But to get back to your point, I had that same thought today.

00:19:17.646 –> 00:19:21.126
I was looking at an internet comment that someone was being a creep.

00:19:21.306 –> 00:19:28.126
And I was like, whatever happened to poetry, to actually like trying to woo someone, pitching woo?

00:19:28.286 –> 00:19:32.486
And it’s, you know, it’s old term.

00:19:32.566 –> 00:19:36.686
I am familiar with that. I haven’t heard it in a while. Pitching woo. Yeah. It’s true.

00:19:36.846 –> 00:19:39.486
And it’s, you know, I’m sure they’re, you know, they had creeps back in the

00:19:39.486 –> 00:19:45.586
day as well. but just the poetic language. And I’m not advocating any brands

00:19:45.586 –> 00:19:47.046
do that for local marketing.

00:19:47.166 –> 00:19:49.506
But what I am saying is you’re absolutely right.

00:19:50.066 –> 00:19:56.626
You learn as you start to date that you must be clear and you must put yourself out there.

00:19:56.706 –> 00:20:01.186
If they’re the ones that are just putting themselves out there every time, they lose interest.

00:20:01.326 –> 00:20:03.906
They’re like, well, you know, they’re not that interested in me.

00:20:04.286 –> 00:20:07.326
So you’re absolutely correct. You make that connection.

00:20:07.546 –> 00:20:11.266
You got to put yourself out there. So they might, like, just sitting back and

00:20:11.266 –> 00:20:14.466
waiting, that’s your punch cards, loyalty.

00:20:15.186 –> 00:20:18.986
That’s your point system. You gave them a card. You’re like,

00:20:19.066 –> 00:20:21.686
hey, if you want to come in, I’ll give you a punch. I’m so cool.

00:20:22.026 –> 00:20:25.386
Like, you know, you probably just want me. So whenever you’re ready,

00:20:25.486 –> 00:20:27.486
just come in. I’ll punch your card if you want, whatever.

00:20:29.826 –> 00:20:32.786
Versus, hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. Let’s get together.

00:20:33.346 –> 00:20:40.106
You know? I like that. You know, we have a designated Casanova on the podcast,

00:20:40.106 –> 00:20:41.606
and it is definitely James.

00:20:42.146 –> 00:20:49.066
Yeah, certainly. Yeah. So speaking of pitching woo, I happen to know that James

00:20:49.066 –> 00:20:51.966
wrote a song for his wife. Well, well.

00:20:52.848 –> 00:20:57.608
I did some prompting. He wrote a song in the way that modern people write songs

00:20:57.608 –> 00:20:59.488
now. I mean, I put work in.

00:20:59.888 –> 00:21:02.928
I didn’t write it myself. I was impressed. You prompted.

00:21:03.168 –> 00:21:06.208
I prompted and prompted and prompted, put some good stuff in,

00:21:06.728 –> 00:21:12.968
got it to a point where I was happy, and then used another system that Eric showed me to turn it in.

00:21:13.068 –> 00:21:16.168
I created lyrics in this system, turned it into a song.

00:21:16.528 –> 00:21:20.888
And it was funny because Eric was doing it with work stuff, with his lyrics.

00:21:21.188 –> 00:21:24.108
It was just really funny. so i was like oh i can use this

00:21:24.108 –> 00:21:27.108
so i turned to the song my wife and i were driving somewhere

00:21:27.108 –> 00:21:30.128
over the that weekend i put it on and it

00:21:30.128 –> 00:21:32.928
was like i couldn’t i was messing with it it was

00:21:32.928 –> 00:21:36.028
a country song i made it a country we’re not really big country people

00:21:36.028 –> 00:21:38.768
and with funny enough my wife was sitting there in the passenger seat

00:21:38.768 –> 00:21:41.528
fiddling with something and then a minute in she’s like

00:21:41.528 –> 00:21:45.508
i can’t do this song she’s like

00:21:45.508 –> 00:21:48.988
we got changes and i’m like okay i was like hold

00:21:48.988 –> 00:21:51.948
on just listen to the words i’m gonna start it over just

00:21:51.948 –> 00:21:55.088
listen to the words and she’s like oh crap all right fine yeah

00:21:55.088 –> 00:21:59.868
and then and then she keeps looking at me because it you know and i’m like trying

00:21:59.868 –> 00:22:04.588
to avoid contact and then she’s like almost in tears right because it was like

00:22:04.588 –> 00:22:08.848
she was so she was impressed she was really impressed i made i made a i i thought

00:22:08.848 –> 00:22:11.688
that was really great and i thought i’d reach out and do one for my daughter

00:22:11.688 –> 00:22:13.928
and the first line is we’re not your real parents.

00:22:15.786 –> 00:22:18.626
Thanks. I’ve got some information I need to share to you. But I did it with

00:22:18.626 –> 00:22:20.146
a house beat, so it was all right.

00:22:20.266 –> 00:22:22.986
I mean, we did EDM and, you know, she… Very cool.

00:22:23.086 –> 00:22:28.446
I can’t, I can’t… I come from a family of musicians, so I can’t use AI.

00:22:28.606 –> 00:22:31.206
They’ll all be really upset if I don’t record… See, that’s the mountain.

00:22:31.306 –> 00:22:33.866
That’s what I’m talking about in coding, right? The mountain’s gone.

00:22:34.466 –> 00:22:36.746
Everybody can drive up to the top of the mountain and get the fire.

00:22:36.806 –> 00:22:37.886
It’s just laying around.

00:22:38.126 –> 00:22:40.406
It’s the same thing for music. It’s the same thing for coding,

00:22:40.526 –> 00:22:41.986
right? This is what we’re losing.

00:22:42.106 –> 00:22:45.846
We’re left with just our personal connections. And I think that’s the message

00:22:45.846 –> 00:22:51.526
behind Valentine’s Day and this podcast is there’s no better personal connection

00:22:51.526 –> 00:22:54.766
than a commercial one where you’re transacting with money.

00:22:57.406 –> 00:23:00.766
There may be others, but what we will. And Valentine’s would agree.

00:23:01.206 –> 00:23:04.206
Yeah. Yeah. Especially the Council of Valentine’s. Yeah.

00:23:04.846 –> 00:23:10.406
All right. Any controversial, any hot takes before we close this episode about Valentine’s Day?

00:23:10.646 –> 00:23:14.586
I have one. And I think that candy is not half price enough after Valentine’s day.

00:23:14.806 –> 00:23:21.666
I think it gets to get half price quick and needs to be spend less time, 70% or 20% off.

00:23:21.966 –> 00:23:27.166
Got to get down to 50% off. I remember back, back in the mid two thousands,

00:23:27.866 –> 00:23:29.506
that was some aggressive bargains.

00:23:29.606 –> 00:23:34.666
When it just consolidates now, right? Like the grocery store will drop it,

00:23:34.826 –> 00:23:38.486
you know, 20% and then it just disappears. And it, I guess it goes to their

00:23:38.486 –> 00:23:41.046
B grade grocery store or some other place.

00:23:41.326 –> 00:23:44.986
Back then, there was probably like a few ingredients of the candy.

00:23:45.446 –> 00:23:50.106
Yeah. And it probably actually went bad. But now, you can eat it 50 years later,

00:23:50.106 –> 00:23:53.906
so why don’t they just hold on until the next year? Yeah, maybe. Yeah.