Move Over Dos Marcos, Tres Leches is Here

Yo, what’s going today? Okay, so we are currently at the nationwide show nationwide in Phoenix, and I can’t help uh, Sam, I’m a little frustrated. The main reason I’m frustrated is because I flew all the way out to Phoenix just to end up hanging out with other people from China. I don’t know. Like, we could have just done this, like, two hours away at my house. Right? But actually, I’m sitting, I’m here with some guys that I didn’t know 24 hours ago, that I know now actually, that’s not true. Because I’ve we’ve met a little bit, but we haven’t gotten to really know each hours, 4848 hours. And we already have like team names going on. And all of these other things. That the the best thing about this is how much synergy is between these guys. So sweet dreams. And also unrelated. Plus, Batman plus. Dreams for all right. And so we got a lot of stuff to talk about. So let’s start with Keith, tell us about yourself, man. Who are you?

Keith Moneymaker

I am Keith moneymaker. Dad. First off, I have three boys, twins, almost six and an almost one year old who looks like he’s a five year old. So he’s practically my wife size at this point.

Doug Stewart

Your wife looks like a five year old.

Keith Moneymaker

And my kids size up my wife and she’s five foot tall. He’s like 27 pounds. And he turned one and two weeks is four teeth and he climbs all the stairs and he runs. And he’s dangerous.

Greg Law

He runs a lot, please a lot.

Keith Moneymaker

And he just learned how to clear our blockades. He knows how to climb on things nice. Anyway,

Greg Law

do you pick them up and throw them across the room

Keith Moneymaker

rest of them the kids starting to and they better start to because he’s gonna be bigger than them. They better need to like go and take charge now. I am I am an advocate for local businesses and in my town I grew up in Moore County Family Business took it over 10 years ago it’s been in business 20 years. You’re in a cool coincidence later on I’m sure about how we’re all here together. And I sell mattresses for a living and that’s it pays the bills and I love doing it and I really found was fascination in dealing with people and building relationships and then trusting you enough to buy whatever it is 1000 $15,000 product, they’re trusting me enough to trust us inside that white rectangle. So I feel developing relationships and important are super important. These people have to trust you and they’re coming in right off the street. So Sweet Dreams, mattresses and more established in 2002. And then six years ago we fruition came to have dreams for all which came from a flood that affected an area in our town or area in our state. We started taking beds after seeing a huge need of people lost everything in a real high poverty area. So we took beds down to an area 45 minutes away. Sad mattresses that were returned. When you buy a new mattress you get no bed back. That’s how our industry works. Every retailer gets beds back. So I just found a nice place for him. And now in six years we’ve had our official 501 C three, we’ve redistributed 1000s of mattresses have a partnership with 10 per Sealy who gives us new beds, who worked with homeless shelters fire departments. We I mean we we cover all the bases and in first in the most amazing part about this is that this is an industry problem. And Greg Greg law here and then Andy Schussler madman are here. And we’re also conjoined in this cool moment that they believed in us enough to become our first affiliate help take his vision to to not just a statewide operation to a nationwide this is an industry wide problem that nobody is just taking the cloud and just ready to just get their hands dirty and deal with us mattresses because it’s something nobody wants to touch, throw it in the dump. That’s easy, which is like net Well, life shouldn’t be easy. You should have challenges and that’s an thing we just constantly have done. So we found a place for it and created a system and and give back to the community and builds a hell of a community around are our businesses here a beast? I love it. Oh,

Doug Stewart

Beast, Greg Phoenix.

Greg Law

Doug, thanks for having me. My name is Greg law. And I’m just excited to be a part of this industry. Yeah, I’ve met the love of my life at Florida State University in 2000. We met in 1998 and got married 2002 started this family business Sweet Dreams, mattress and furniture. We started the Sweet Dreams mattress in Morrisville, North Carolina in 2002. And we started that with my parents. My whole life I’ve been the recipient of a lot of grace and a lot of luck and a lot of a lot of favour and I love being A part of the nationwide marketing group and aligning with other local businesses and people like Keith moneymaker. Everybody in our industry just hearing the stories and the passion that comes behind it. How do I take what what people have entrusted me with and believes in me and pay it forward? I feel like sweet dreams is a gift, my family’s gifts, all my friends and relationships that I have. So I just want to turn that and do something meaningful with it. To I love living life fully charged with with that in mind.

Doug Stewart

That’s awesome, man.

Andy Schlesser

Oh, howdy chatty. I use the word chatty. My name is Andy Schlesser. So chatty. I’ll just say I’ll preface chatty is Chow and howdy put together it’s a North Carolina Aloha. Not really. But it’s my you know? I’m one of those people that fell into this industry, and just never looks like never looks back. Excuse me. I was recruited out of college in 2006. To North from Illinois, to North Carolina, Greg and Katie, you know, they were coming home during events, like Christmas and stuff, telling me about their bed business and how positive it was and how much it was growing. And they just came and recruited me. So I really look back. I’m just turned 40. And you know, probably the first 20 years of my life. And I really, I knew I wanted to do something fun, do something great, but I just didn’t know what. And then even in my first tenure of the mattress and furniture industry, it didn’t really click. But then these guys linked up with folks like nationwide, which were just amazing. They taught us core values. They taught us the importance of your team and your people. Things like the 95% share, which really changed your perspective. And folks like Chris Cousteau that we worked with that really taught us a lot of skills that we have now. And so that suddenly evolved into my name is Andy Schlesser. And I have a Droid phone. But I also parade around as a giant, undersized, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that wears his fit backwards. I’m Matt man, sir. capes a lot. I put capes on everything. I’m the comfortable cape crusader. I fight the things that keep you up at night. By the power of the pillow the might of the mattress in the shirt of the sheets. We have your game plan for better sleep, so you can fall asleep faster. Get a good night’s rest and see what you’re capable of. Because when you sleep like a superhero, you can learn to be awake like one.

Doug Stewart

Holy hell, man.

Andy Schlesser

Yeah. Yeah, like these guys just awaken my superpowers have fun and creativity. I like to be very, I like to give the unexpected experience. I think that’s what makes us very unique in our local market is Taylor. So absolutely, yeah. When people’s jaws drop, like,

Keith Moneymaker

what fun story I had before. I mean, I saw him always on this thing. So I I paid a teenager and I had one of my local mattress companies make this like ghetto mattress costume just to send it’s been assigned. We never like use it as a brand like you have. We just had a random dude out there. And like in the middle of the summer, people will come in like you make him stand out there. I don’t make them doesn’t voluntarily and he gets paid. So anyway, but I never thought of using the mattress costume is like a Thing. Thing is I haven’t done it in five years and people still come out. So you’re the person with the sign guy by the road. I’m like, Yeah, we haven’t have somebody out there in the past five years. It’s crazy how people remember things like yes, that’s important. Oh,

Andy Schlesser

like pre pandemic. Friends in the networking side of Lake Norman. We’re just north of Charlotte, North Carolina. In Lake Norman in the new ways, Andrew or Andy for five, six years. Pandemic happens. We don’t see each other for like a year, come back. It’s like Hey, Matt. Hey, Matt, how you doing? So Highest Paid compliment of? That’s great. That’s great marketing?

Doug Stewart

Well, I think it’s, I think you’ve touched on something really important, especially in an industry like ours, where I think from the outside looking in, it could be really interesting. Because it doesn’t it doesn’t seem like it doesn’t seem like it would be that complicated, right? You sell mattresses, like they all kind of look the same. They’re for the same purpose. Right. And in a lot of ways, there’s a lot of people and we’ve known some of these people that think they can just come in you open storage or some beds and you’d be successful. Right. But, you know, there really is an element of can you be remarkable in some way? And if the answer’s no, it’s a short tenure. And I don’t think I mean, obviously it’s not just the betting business, right? It’s it’s any business

Keith Moneymaker

passion behind it, you know, reason of investment. Yeah, sure. But something expected to work. Don’t invest in your community and your people.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So okay, so help me understand this sweet dreams, sweet dreams. Two companies completely unrelated that were founded in the same year in the same state. So we

Andy Schlesser

had no idea anchor divine energy, dreams mattress and more. Greg law Sweet Dreams, mattress and furniture or in Boston Fancher.

Keith Moneymaker

So, Greg, how did your name come to fruition and I’ll tell share mine. My parents took the setting every night. And that’s what they would say sweet dreams. And we were looking for a place to have in our business. We put a business plan together and my dad actually brought that up as sweet dreams. So my parents survived on us furniture antiques, like they bought houses and sold furniture for a living. That business burned down in 2001. It was 15 it was their livelihood. So my dad was determined to work for himself again. Well, the fire was the biggest fire more County and had at that point in 2001 15 out of 16 departments were there. And several articles were in the paper about like the fire and things like that. It was an old building. So asbestos was an issue. There was a lot of like things. And one night he was like fiery nightmare turns into sweet dreams because he had opened that store about six months later. And that’s how that name came to fruition.

Greg Law

That’s beautiful.

Keith Moneymaker

That’s awesome, isn’t it? He had just started selling mattresses towards the end of the life of the store. He chose to anyway because they were watching it burn. We gotta call it what parents building common fire so yeah,

Doug Stewart

that’s amazing. So it came from so yours came from the way your parents tucked you in at night. And yours came from Travis. A real like a real real tragedy. Yeah, that’s incredible.

Keith Moneymaker

He just started selling reliable bedding or Sutherlin or something with like because people were buying antique beds and a mattress so he started selling something super cheap. So when he determined to find something else to do like we open a little 15 bed like store and because there’s nobody else in the area we had this guy’s I won’t say the name but there’s only place people choice from a town that wasn’t that great to deal with. So anyway, so a couple years after we opened they went out of business

Doug Stewart

talking about my family business

Keith Moneymaker

not that they were letters of the alphabet mattress discounters they didn’t I mean we didn’t but it was like it was it was it was your show I don’t I’m not I’m not big on talking about the business of course no Where’s like though people are glad that unless something else opened up and then we got we moved out of that building we moved into another building I was bigger we’re the placeholder one nice restaurant was getting built in this the very first car as another cool like little connection. My dad’s his dad. His first job was at the first car dealership in Moore County which was in the building where our store moved to to converting to a restaurant so is this really old like cool looking building is turned into the sly fox and that’s where like our store was a placeholder when the economy went tanked Inouye my dad kind of just like we had to move out we had to get him on location so we picked he picked a big location he sold a lot of assets things and put a lot on the line to the location right now which we now own because our landlord believes in us and believes in my story and I kept asking just like please don’t sell out because Master Sherman warehouse both came in and tried to buy a building off my dress wow

Doug Stewart

that’s incredible. Okay, so so you guys know each other a little bit better you guys know each other better than I know you guys right? So what would you say are some of like the synergies like obviously the name is the same the drive that so So like what are like the main like, because I also say this growing up in the business I know that like I can remember people that were our competitors like we were friendly with like relatively friendly but not friendly enough to like sit and hang out and have a beer with and like do a podcast with or even be a part of the same like buying group or whatever. So like, what is it that I mean you guys in for all intents and purposes have some reason to be less than friendly with each other? Because both of you could go They stole my name. Right? If they were

Andy Schlesser

they weren’t bothered. They were trained at the same Simmons plantains, same my manager

Greg Law

when they met No way.

Andy Schlesser

Yeah, in 2002 That’s when they met each other. The first time was at we open

Keith Moneymaker

up and I was like two weeks later I’m walking through the Simmons plant and I see a stack of beds for Sweet Dreams and Pineville on my on her primary get a lot of each other’s bills and also got people each of our merchandise a lot like people kept screwing it up. So like send him your invoice orders and and he’d get my bills or vice versa.

Greg Law

You were getting a much better deal. Yeah, it was good. I got it. That’s hysterical.

Andy Schlesser

I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you a little bit about the leader who taught me how to lead and this is Greg law. When I started working for Sweet Dreams, basher, some Under Greg would encourage us to go and be very friendly with local competition, just anyways. So even if, even if Keith was closer, or Keith was literally round the corner, we would still have this connection if he’s two hours away. So I mean, great. We don’t overlap too much. But then that was the fun of it. I’ve been in I play music. I’m a musician. I’ve been in bands before where if you play in other bands, it’s like girlfriends, like, you can’t have two girlfriends, they find out about each other. And then you don’t have any girlfriends. They get mad. And then I always like to play music with multiple, multiple musicians because you learn so much in as much knowledge. And that’s what Greg was seeing is it’s like, yeah, I know, you’re a competitor, I just want but I want to know what you do. Well, I want to share what I do well, because together we can just make where we live a better place. And so then, you know, like, it’s just natural that when he met Keith, or saw those things, there was no animosity, there’s no, there’s no ego getting in the way. That’s not how Greg law works. Greg law is, you do I mean, like is this is this thing that just is a very good nature, a very straight arrow. And we forged relation with Keith, Greg actually brought Keith to Morrisville in 2021, early 2021. And that’s first time I met Keith. And these two sitting there talking about leadership talking about drive talk. That’s why ice cream drive. Because if I sit next to to Keith and talk to him about dreams for all kids about to fill my head with like 65 minutes worth of fast talking like I always want to do. I sit next to Greg and tell him like, Hey, man, I just want to like, look, tell me about developing somebody’s professionalism. I’m about to get sit through 65 minutes. Fast talk. And here’s. So they had they share that same drive, and passion of of like, what can we do for others? How can we put others first, Greg likes to put his team first and in the community. And same thing with Keith, he likes to put people he’s never met that just need knee pads at first. And that’s one of those those, the chain that binds? Yeah,

Keith Moneymaker

you know what I’ve heard this passed around from start with Mike Whitaker, nationwide, Michael introduces to death, Marcus. We’re making friends. It’s becoming like a fraternity of workers said he’s one of us. Or she’s one of us, like, you recognise and people desire to do something significant. With what we’re doing. You know, a lot of people say like, you’re selling mattresses or another mattress store. We don’t look at it like that. We’re like, man, we’ve been given a gift. Like I said earlier, how do we have to do something awesome? How do we go make a difference? And every person that works for us, every person that we get to meet? How do we hear their story and like help each other out? That’s really what it’s all about. How do we how do we do more together? Yeah, it

Doug Stewart

reminds me so so my grandfather told me this story. And it was actually substantiated by the by the other party, there was a guy right after my grandfather had sort of gotten a little bit of success, I think he was at his on his third store. And there was a, there was a there was a local guy that decided he wanted to get into the business as well. So he comes to visit my grandfather at the furniture store. And he sits down with him. And he goes, he goes, Hey, I’d like to, like have a partnership, right? I want to I want to buy in and we can really expand this thing. And I think I can do this well, and you can do that well, and my grandfather sits there and listens to him. And he looks at him and he goes, he goes the only ship that won’t sail is a partnership. You don’t need a partner, and neither do I. You go be my competitor and we’ll support each other. And that’s what the guy did. And he ended up being a very, very successful Lazy Boy franchisee, in fact, and they were competitors, you know, until the day my grandfather passed away. Right? And and and that’s exactly what you’re what you’re talking about. It’s like, it’s almost like there’s something even more special by embracing your competitor. And it’s like, who was it? Mark Quinn said this in a keynote probably seven years ago. I really I remember it vividly, where he would say he was at a furniture day today conference. And he was like, you know, we are not in competition with each other. We’re in competition for the customers attention against every other category. Right? We should be embracing each other more than more than you know what I mean.

Keith Moneymaker

Even competition that we’re competitors like, false. Yeah, I

Doug Stewart

don’t believe in that. Yeah. I also remember my grandfather had a plot of land right across the street. My friend from the flagship furniture store in Raleigh, and it was like, you know, something like 12 acres or something like that. And he reached out to rooms to go corporate and offer to give them the land. If they would build a store there. I’ll give it to you. If you’ll build one here, I’ll give it to you. And I remember thinking like what they’re like a big move he’s got he has lost it like it’s time to move on grandpa like retirement is looming. Let’s go. Yeah, but he like he was like, look, the more the better. Like his his idea was like, it’s kind of like chums up the water. Right? The more people are thinking about this, the more opportunity is for everyone, it’d be great for him because I know

Andy Schlesser

your level and your effectiveness levels very high. With your people with your marketing. Yeah, I’m gonna get a shot at that, that right at that, at that. Whatever. So like, yeah, like, bring it up. Yeah, that’s what did they say

Greg Law

to them? What do they have in the store? Now,

Doug Stewart

they wouldn’t take it. Competition. I mean, my grandfather also also know, knew that if people came in, and they had a different they had a choice between a relational experience and a corporate experience, then they would always choose right. And, you know, it’s not to say like, a company like rooms ago can’t give a relational experience that’s down to the individual salesperson, right? But he knew that that someone, either him or someone from his bloodline was going to interact with every single customer. Every single time right jeans. Yeah, I mean, and, and we knew that the consistency was bulletproof. Right? And we were all we all spoke the same language. And we all would rake each other over the coals at dinner, if it went sideways, you know what I mean? And, you know, it’s like, are you able to, to be remarkable? Are you able to do something that is worthy of a remark? Right. And, and that’s really the, the, in a lot of ways the competitive advantage that independent retail, you know, has,

Keith Moneymaker

we have to embrace our other independents. And no, we’re not in competition in the mindset of that has to change. Like, as the tide rises, we all I’m friends with every single furniture store in my town, I tag them on Facebook, I go see them at their stores, I take pictures of them. I promote they sell mattresses, right? Cool. Like they sell beds to like, it’s okay. But you know what, there’s enough pie to go around the grid doesn’t even exist, you know, and there’s always going to be competition. As you can see this competition, you could see it as as your ocean rising. I mean, I got Ashley furniture, and I have a sigma roping up in the next six months of my town. Was it like, that’s right? I do. They’re, they’re both gonna open up my town. Am I excited? Am I like, I wasn’t when a mattress firm opened up. I was definitely worried. But I was happy that they did it. Fact actually, it’s like numbers an attractive place for them to come. You know what they’re gonna pump the advertising dollars into place and promoted, they’re going to build more people to the marketplace, just like the bento box category. Am I going to be the man? Am I going to be on the show floor a lot more like when they first? Absolutely. Am I going to spend a lot more on advertising? Absolutely. Am I going to drive home my message? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to get business. Right? But like, I’m not going to stop them. But we can as a collective. Embrace what we do best and quit worrying about the competition and just embrace what you do. Why do you do it? What’s your passion and your purpose, you embrace your purpose, and you advertise your purpose and not your 50% off sales and not your free box springs. If you embrace wire and business and you tell people that people get the message and we are going to a more storytelling industry, Amazon’s their Walmart’s here, this place is always going to be there. But as you’ve seen, like we have X amount of growth in nationwide as independent retailers. People are investing more time in relationships. It’s hard to this online, just jazz, like I mean, it’s going to be there. It’s going to exist. But people are buying a product. They’re spending a lot of money. They want to trust us they want to build a relationship and not with a web chat. Yeah, there.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. So when you guys think about storytelling, in terms of the customer experience, like how do you think about that?

Greg Law

Think about say it again?

Doug Stewart

How do you think about storytelling, like when in terms of like the customer experience?

Keith Moneymaker

Yeah. Andrew and I were just Matt man and I were just texting back and forth during this conference. And he’s, he said, If you were to sum up, in one word, what you would want our customers to say about us after shopping with us. And I think it was

Andy Schlesser

like one of their one word being if you’re Googling us that it was one of the questions posed to us by Chris Kieser. And an MLA, a nationwide learning can recession is just the view if you could write the script of what it says on Google when you write in something something near me, like what is that? What is the one word you would hope arise to describe your business?

Keith Moneymaker

For him, his answer was aspirational. Yeah. I like that. So well. customers to come in and feel like they’re part of something special. And same with our employees to your sweet dreams, our vision is to help as many people as possible, achieve their dreams. And I always tell our team like the dream team, it starts with you know, we’re gonna invest in you, we want you to, we want to be, we learned this from a friend in the industry, we want to become a learning and development company, not a mattress and furniture company. So how are we investing in our people so that they can make remarkable experiences. And just part of what we train on is this is mattress and furniture shopping, it’s all about you, the customer. So how do we find out what’s important to that person, and dig into it, and then share our core values and what we stand for. And they’re gonna see that we’re aspirational about serving and giving others they are tenfold. It’s amazing outside of our partnership, today, a day in the week to week the things that they do like to give back to the community like I’m do great with our dreams for our foundation, but it’s admirable that the amount of work that they did in their town, and I mean, it’s a lot No Kid Hungry. I see all kids all kinds of different things that that sweet treats that Greg and Andy are themselves directly doing, who run the store who run the company and do all the other things. But they just don’t get back in support. Dreams for all they I mean, I mean, bikes, food, organisations, 5k, blah, blah, everything. I mean, they’re just he’s on top yet it’s very admirable to add all those things to your give back. But just to find your purpose and you know your heart.

Andy Schlesser

You can’t wear a cape and not save things that makes you a poser. I’m not a poser. I’m asleep superhero. Yep, I give blood to save lives. We feed people we make sure that everyone everyone even our worst enemies deserve a place to sleep at night. That just that just holds up and holds up every if everyone’s sleeping good. And you and you extend that to even people you just don’t want you would normally think are like the the bad guys. Like Tyrannosaurus Rex. He needs a good place to sleep. The sleeping bandit. He needs a good place to sleep.

Keith Moneymaker

There’s a T Rex out of bed, though. Very carefully. You gotta roll. gotta roll. Right. Rolling Hills, I

Andy Schlesser

love it. Any arms that you really just use your legs? So

Greg Law

yeah, yeah, it’s about storytelling, like, part of our training with our sales team is if there’s not a story to tell, there’s only price to sell. You know. So like that. We, we realise that adjustable bases. There’s so much to offer there. But most consumers hear the word adjustable base. They don’t know what it means. They don’t resonate with it.

Andy Schlesser

Or they think it’s like a hospital old person thing.

Greg Law

So we changed the name. We call them game changers. Yeah. We call it game changers because of how much of an impact is made in people’s lives. My friend, his wife just had her second surgery in the last couple of years. He’s like, Yeah, you call him the game changer. We call him the lifesaver. And the stories that I’ve heard similar stories, other people have loved reviews like this saved my life. Yeah, so that’s just one example. It’s the story is different with each individual that we serve, and catering to that and catering to that person and showing that we’re genuinely trying to help them. That’s that’s where the storyline is. It’s different every day. And that’s what I love about what we do.

Keith Moneymaker

Can I borrow the name game changer? Actually.

Greg Law

Well, so what are you gonna do? Yeah, you know? I want to like, be part of a fun experience. Yeah. But then when it gets down to it, they want to know that they’re the, they’re the reason why we’re doing what we do. Yeah, it’s not about me, it’s not about us. It’s about the customer that we’re trying to serve.

Doug Stewart

Well, that’s the interesting thing, right? Is that as I think a lot of times, personally and professionally, right, we think that words mean a specific thing, when when words are really tools for us to name and give value to two things, right? And so most people going no, well, that’s an adjustable base, well, if you want it to be, or it can be this other thing, right? And so, language, I think that’s something we missed, not not just in marketing, because we certainly miss it in marketing a lot. But we also miss it in the sales process. And in in relationship building. It’s like words really matter and how we pick our words to describe the outcomes that we that we’re trying to communicate. It really friggin matters. So going, Hey, this is an adjust. Would you like to try an adjustable vase? Versus Hey, can I show you a game change? Danger.

Andy Schlesser

What’s a game changer?

Doug Stewart

Exactly? It’s a completely different, it’s a completely different thing. And then the customer gets to decide whether this is a game changer or is this is something out this is something a place that you lay down to die. You don’t I mean, right. And

Greg Law

then then when I say, Well, I find when I just tell people about it, they don’t get it until they feel this on their bag. Lay down once you feel this, right, right. And they’re like, oh, man, I’m I’m part of something cool here. Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Yeah.

Keith Moneymaker

I can make this bed. We’ve been working

Andy Schlesser

on this. We’ve been working on the snaps. It’s good. Yeah, he’s, he’s doing great. He had a waist

Greg Law

level off. Hey, yeah.

Andy Schlesser

And like, you know, this was this was natural. He’s really

Doug Stewart

good. That was a good one. I

Greg Law

have no musical talents.

Doug Stewart

So we have a thing in our house called the mommy snap. Right when my wife when my wife snaps like the whole place? Oh, stops Yeah, it’s like The Matrix. Like solid Oh, snap. And it’s like, the middle name. We’re all in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s, it’s really, it’s really interesting to think about, like, how in a sales process, how do you use language to impact a person’s like, willingness to, to think about something in a way they never have before? You know, because I can, I can remember, you know, I’ve, I’ve been in retail more of my life than I haven’t been, you know, and it’s like, people come in and this is this is a big problem. And I’d love your your perceptions on this is I can remember when I first started like, I started out on my grandfather’s retail for window floor when I was 12. Like, I was 12 years now. I was like, you know, six, five, you don’t mean but I also weighed 80 pounds. You don’t need shoes over here. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I can remember customers would come in holding the newspaper that we advertised in right and they were coming to ask specific questions about specific products right because we had the information and they there was nowhere else they could go to find out the information about specific products they would come in and like really want our information and as technology has advanced, people have more information than they’ve ever have. Right so So knowledge has been commoditized to a certain extent to a major extent and so customers don’t feel as if they need the same type of knowledge from salespeople

Andy Schlesser

I need oh my god sorry yes no, go go no you’re right. Because like well you when you when you say that I just feel like I don’t need to explain coil counts to person right i LDS have a phone

Greg Law

right ever again.

Andy Schlesser

Oh, wait if I ever have to I’ve done I’m doing a terrible job what I’m doing

Doug Stewart

Yeah, yeah, because information has been commoditized closes at half

Andy Schlesser

I’m so glad it’s been commoditized though because doing what we do is a lot more fun when as madman I focus on people’s bed times and what they what they do before bed or when they wake up. And that’s how we improve people sleep 670 versus 920 versus 1180 does not make any difference. I you can buy a nice pair of shoes that feel awful. You can buy a wonderful pair of shoes that looked terrible, but don’t probably were the ones that look terrible if that makes me feel good. So we just got to like you know, custom filters. So I’m very very happy what you said

Doug Stewart

Yeah, but most people aren’t though, right? Most so many salespeople aren’t because they want to be able to feel smart by having the information that the customer doesn’t have to go well this is the coil account and this is the this is what’s in the fabric and this is this is the this is the you know whatever is what so many of my customers say that this is the best mattress but it’s like oh yeah, except that has a two star review. Let’s let’s

Andy Schlesser

take let’s take let’s teach these guys we’ll just we’ll just do a little teach to learn. Can you just rattle off a few? Few a few of these match respects to me please take a ticket. Take it like a 1299 something off your floor just telling how many coils have

Doug Stewart

oh it doesn’t have coils and it’s even better because it’s all memory foam and this is two inches of memory foam on the very top that’s your comfort layer that has Unicorn tears and and and raccoon shavings in it and then under that is your base foam that has a

Keith Moneymaker

ray scan in it too he just bought one

Andy Schlesser

so what

Doug Stewart

so what well well because because that’s why it cost 1299 is because it has all this great stuff in it

Andy Schlesser

so what and then by the time you rattled off nine of those specs yeah one thing that would actually get me to buy the bed I’m not listening anymore right if I’m a sponge have already been over absorbed in everything else is just like not working. So like you know listening to the customer or did like focusing more on sleep and getting the test the products, way more fun than doing that five times because they’re going to try to three, maybe five beds. So you got to do that every single bed. Oh my god.

Greg Law

It’s amazing. Amazing how things come when you’re supposed to really hone in on a message, isn’t it amazing how like, usually it will come up like three times in a row. I just joined the last year I joined a Men’s Fitness group called f3. Oh, yeah, fitness, fellowship and faith. And on Friday mornings, we have like a little leadership group where we get together and talk about things and talk about our work and how to be better leaders. And this last Friday came out where the quote from Nelson Nelson Mandela came up and said, if you speak to somebody in a language they can understand you win their heads. If you speak to them in the language and their language, you win their hearts. How’s that? Man? That’s good that is tailored relates to what we’re talking about, like, customer doesn’t care about any of the Unicorn tears. Right? Yeah. But what does matter to him? How do we relate it back to them and language that they use?

Doug Stewart

Yeah, one of my favourite quotes, one of my favourite quotes is a quote by Dale Carnegie, where he says that people will always support a world they helped create. Right, so the question is, in the sales process, yeah. Are Are we are we allowing them to have a voice in the conversation? And are we really considering them? And if we are, they will always support a world that they help create? Right? And so it’s, it’s so often that we see that people don’t really do that, right? They want to be, I want my company to be the hero, right? I want my company to be like, the best thing instead of going like, No, we’re here. So that you can be the best thing. Right? Like it. This is this is really about about you. So yeah, how do so how do we do that? Instead of going, this is how great I am. Come Come buy things from me because I’m so awesome. It’s like no,

Greg Law

like, nobody cares.

Doug Stewart

Nobody cares.

Keith Moneymaker

Our industry job if you look at any major company or industry does a bad job at communicating that message, though. It says retailer said wanted to define that. Because the retailers are consistently concerned with marketing, the marketing that’s 50% Offer, it’s a free boxspring. Or it’s it’s talking about the things that I mean, yes, talking about price, and price does matter. But how many more people will buy from you, if you actually talked about what you invested in, you talked about your employees, you talked about what you do for the community, you talk about why your business exists, you talk about who your business supports, you talk about other, I’m not reflecting on things that I currently do, but I just feel like the the industry, they set ourselves up for that they talk about price, they push things like that they talked, so what do people expect, like, you know, or consistently worried about an 899 match or what’s got the best 899 matches when you pull it back from the company if you if you’re researching online, like that’s the industry and the manufacturers message is what’s leading people in the wrong direction, because they’re the ones who have all the power in the marketing dollars, right. And it’s not the right message, you’re trying to sell a number and a product and a price all to compete and we’re not trying to sell sleep. When the industry the manufacturers finally figure out what they’re actually trying to deliver and sell sleep. What’s more important to the customer not who’s trying to win the Best 899 pillowtop. And there’ll be a little more successful in the consumer will have better expectations but right now we’re explaining things because we we get some we set ourselves up for right industry is set ourselves up for people to come in and consistently look at stuff like that.

Doug Stewart

Yeah, yeah, there’s there’s been a couple of something comes to mind. There’s, there’s there’s been a couple of like training programmes that I’ve I’ve, I’ve written for a couple of different organisations. And there’s this thing that I’ve always put in called the three C’s, right? So when it comes to your message, anything you do in the company, that you have to have an affirmative to these three C’s. Right, so the question is, is it good for the customer? Is it good for the company? And is it good for the compensation of the sales team? Right? And if you say yes to those things, that is something that you should do. Right? And if there’s a no in any of those areas, you know, it’s like, it’s like this when it comes to like the 899 selling on selling on price only when people go well, it works. And that’s the problem with that model. Right? Is it actually it does work, right? It does work, but like so does dictatorship. But does that mean that it should be something that we do? Right? So does it work is only the first question that we’ve got to ask like, of course it works, right? But you can also make a lot of money by robbing a bank like that works. But is it something that you should do? Right? And I don’t know that We ask those questions quite often enough,

Keith Moneymaker

argue with you a little bit contract a trick that I believe that it is putting the client first but I firmly believe is putting your employee first.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. Well, that’s part of the three C’s, this is a good for the customer. Is it good for the competence company? And is it good for compensation? Are

Keith Moneymaker

you next point compensation? I do feel people have to make a living, they have to survive, right? People can switch jobs and get 20 bucks an hour? Sure. I mean, now a lot of jobs. But if your employees invested, they’re not going to leave for the compensation, how many? How many jobs are offered? I think it’s more based on the culture and the environment, you create that? Yes, it covers those kind of bases. Maybe I’m not contradicting what you’re saying as much as just saying like, I, I always I mean, yes, this is easy, saying the customer’s always right. But unfortunately, big companies have abused that power. And the expectation of the public, for example, Amazon Chick fil A place like that one, no matter what it is, even if the client or the customer is wrong, Amazon’s if they’re just going to give them something for free. And so we’ve derived a society that just expecting something no matter if they’re right or wrong. So they’re taking it out on the little guys. And I firmly don’t believe in that, because I will take my employee side way before I take when necessary the consumer side, if I feel that, that that gentleman is spoken differently to my female manager than he spoken me, while he’s not going to get addressed, he’s not going to get taken care of because I just don’t really agree with that. I’ve had in different instances where the delivery guys a gentleman of all quote this verbatim. I had a customer ask what colour the guys you sending to my house? Oh, and I said, Ma’am, their names are Adam and Steve, it doesn’t matter who I’m sending your there are people that I trust and people invest in my company. And needless to say, like, we had kind of a debacle and and I end up just refunding your money. So because it’s just not, that’s how I jive. But putting your employee first and listening to your employee that’s invested goes above and beyond, and then equally taking care of your customer because they’re respectful and they’re wrong. They’ll get a lot more done than if they’re, if they’re right in disrespectful. Right.

Doug Stewart

Right. Yeah, I agree. And I actually have the, I actually have the belief that your, your team members, your salespeople, your delivery drivers, your back office, people, they are your first customer, right? Because because they impact the way the real customer experience, right? Because if if you’re not if we’re not as busy, so business owner perspective, if we’re not serving them as if they are our customer, then they’re not going to serve the end user, the end customer, the way that we would ultimately like our business to represent itself. Right. And, you know, I think, you know, one of the things that, that I really learned in my experience in retail was just how important every single layer of the business was, especially, especially as a small business. You know, it’s like, the marketing message matters, right? So the customer when they walk in the store, if their expectations aren’t set in some way, and they’re disappointed or like, Oh, I didn’t think it would be like this, this isn’t as good as I thought it would be. Right? People used to do that. You may remember when like, business websites became popular, like years ago, like you’d have all these stock images of like store and customers and product, and then you walk in and be like, That’s Is this the same place? Like this doesn’t look like what I saw on the internet, right? And so they would come in, and they would start with a with a distrust of the of the experience because it’s so much different, right? And then and then it’s like, if they don’t get an exceptional, if the if the sales team doesn’t get exceptional experience from leadership, then they don’t give an exceptional experience to the customer. If they don’t give an exceptional experience to the customer, the customer doesn’t buy anything. If they don’t buy anything. The delivery team never shows up. If the delivery team doesn’t give an exceptional experience when they show up, then the customer is left with a bad taste in their mouth. Right. So like, what’s the most important touch point?

Andy Schlesser

Things just went wrong in that delivery? And that that’s that process sell?

Doug Stewart

Yeah, like all of them.

Keith Moneymaker

The most important part of that process is they’ve gotten part of the trust and get it delivered as the delivery team. People under invest in that. And if you don’t take care of your delivery team if you don’t like yes, compensation is important. A lot of guys have talked about compensation is most important. I actually the programme I did to get deliveries around perfect was I do hourly, and a bonus system. I do a per delivery bonus per guy. But if something’s messed up or forgotten, and it’s on them, they lose the bonuses. It’s an infraction where they lose the bonus for the day. So nobody wants to lose their their money, right? So I’ve done that for the past three or four years. Well, a couple months ago, I took it away. I put the autonomy back into their hands, because I’ve had a delivery team trained like that. So now I’ve reversed it to where I’m not going to take you back As a way, there’ll be a, if there’s something that does happen, we’ll address it as needed. But I give a quarterly bonus at our quarterly all hands meeting to whoever went above and beyond. And that’s not set to just delivery team members. So they’ll never get anything taken away, they never have to worry about losing something. So they know I’m trusting in them to make sure things are done right. And you have to empower them and show them and let them do things. We will try to empower people to kind of figure problems on their own. Like the whole I feel like I’ll figure it out is one of my favourite sayings. Like, I can go back and forth with a manager or salesperson back and forth on something but I’ll figure it out, teaches you things because you’re figuring it out in your in your delivery in a headboard isn’t quite work on the whatever you do on how you set up with the frame of the gestural base, like, get creative. And I’ll say call the store, all the store and the lets you know we have to go back make three trips, calling customer, you don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll figure it out. Like I’m giving you autonomy to just take care of it. If it costs a little bit of money, take care of it, like give your delivery team autonomy, they’ll move a lot smoother, they’ll get a lot more stuff done, and have a lot more quality of life. And

Doug Stewart

that’s, that’s a living breathing example of people will support a world they helped create, right? Because if they feel like they have they have a seat at the table, right? People People will always take more ownership and something that they actually have some ownership in.

Greg Law

Absolutely right. Yeah.

Keith Moneymaker

Yeah, it’s correct. In our dreams, for all process, we take us beds back now, like the goal is like, you know, for years, we’ve thrown beds on the trucks and our whole industry has this now. We want we’re driving your process because we want and I think the Dream Team, it switches mesh furniture to doing this longer than I have. But you’re moving that US mattress because we’re going to give it to a family in need treat that mattress like you were giving it to your grandmother, or your mother and have more care and take care of it, not just sling it, drag it, lean it sit on the grass, bag it take care of it. So giving them giving things slip by just like empowering them and in making relatable situations where they can relate to.

Doug Stewart

So let’s talk about dreams for a second. So So you were in business for a certain number of years. And then you realise that there’s some some other need other than just selling mattresses, because there’s mattresses out there that are also coming back every time you sell a mattress, a mattress normally is being replaced. So something has to happen with that other mattress. So where did it before

Keith Moneymaker

it came to fruition? When I was on the sales floor all the time trying to wear all the hats, people will come in with three, four or $500 budget by bed. And then if kids were them, and like he just couldn’t get much even five years ago, you couldn’t get much of a bed for three 400 bucks. So on several occasions, I’d be like, you know, I’ve got a nice use bed in the back. We picked up I just kind of saved the really nice stuff. And I was like, jubilant that like that’s something you’d be interested in like, Yeah, well, like I mean how much though like nothing for free. Like, here, they are willing customers spend $500 in my store. And I’m giving them some for free and not charging them for it like totally blown away. So I never really thought about it. I just did that on occasion. But the power came from that hurricane hit southeastern North Carolina. And every house in highest poverty region in the southeast had a mattress out front. It’s expensive. And unfortunately, there’s no credit check programme, no offence to those businesses or anything. They don’t set people up for success. No credit check companies like cars and stuff. They end up upside down in cars payments and upset and furniture, they get furniture repoed. So it puts them in bad situations. So furnishing your house the most expensive thing to do if you just lost everything. Now you back in your house, you’re going to go in debt again, for furniture when you have kids, you have to feed them you have to clothe and things like that. So I saw Ben from every house, so I just made a Facebook post. Don’t recommend that for anybody starting up Facebook posts like hey, reach out to me if you need a bed and you get back in your house. Oh my goodness, it swarmed. I took about 300 beds down there without an organisation Korea without a name just two beds on there. We got big oppose families come back and take it to the address matters. So after that, it kind of came to fruition like the idea of like dreams for all our sweet dreams, like dreams for all just made sense. It just like just clicked in my head one day, drew for all because no one deserves to sleep on the floor. Yeah, because no one’s there to sleep on the floor. That’s kind of my saying that’s what I’ve been rolling with. And so I just started saving beds. I created a nonprofit, which became an official nonprofit in 2017. And just realise there’s way more need than that our industry is living up to its manufacturer. It’s not their responsibility to do that. Even though there should rely on some of that. But they’re putting a new bed into the system and leaving in a bus to drop it to, to deliver that new bed. Well that obits got to go somewhere. And I think putting it in the dumps the easy way out. And I don’t like the easy way out. You figure things out when you don’t take the easy way out. You create change, create ideas. So I just started saving beds and from here to there, people started reaching out and I delivered people burning out of their house. I’d do new beds to local fire departments, homeless shelters, evacuation centres. I mean, you name it like I’ve given a bed to it in a cool, quick story. I don’t know your time and stuff. We’re good. Yeah. So a first annual charity event and 20 So we just have fourth 120 21 So that would been 2017 I had my first event, the guy that was doing my drone footage for the event and this will give you a chill so the I was doing my drone footage back down to the last minute so I made a post on Facebook. I was looking for somebody to do drones any drone footage I wanted to promote the first event get people out to my fundraisers for serving on a fundraiser for the charity like dreams frog was a thing people were aware of it. It wasn’t that big yet. So I reached out somebody Messrs. A hand at this guy, Bobby Hancock, who, who does drone footage reach out to him I message him say, Hey, Bobby, I texted him. Hey, dude, I’m I’m really into drone. But my events tomorrow, like the guy just dropped out on the last minute. And I was like, Okay, sweet, awesome tomorrow, like I can settle up with you let me know how much I owe you. And I got the text message. Still to this day. I said, Hey, he’s like a million dollars. Just kidding. My dad’s house burned down a month ago, and you gave them beds. I’m not charging you anything. Wow. And do so I referenced a story quite a bit along with several other situations that’s happened. And it just shows how things come around. I don’t do it for the return. I don’t do it. Because there’s always going to be chromatic return. Sure I don’t do it for that. I just do it because it’s the right thing to do. And we’re getting used beds back. So find a place for them to go. And it’s an industry wide problem. And Greg and Andy and Katie all believed in this and they paid attention and listen to those Marcos that’s how we all came to fruition of like, bringing this idea to them and their their, you know, risk. There’s no really rescue doing this, but they like believes in it enough to like we’re in it. Let’s do it. And so which led to literally today where they get a call from a hotel and what 300 beds to be donated to the organisation. I guess what we’ll put in the corner, we got to figure this out. So yeah, that’s what we’re gonna do.

Greg Law

I was thinking about when he said that earlier, like you just, you know, take the easy way out of you figure things out. That’s not an easy task, go pick up all those beds, but we got to figure out how to do it and how to help a lot of people,

Andy Schlesser

it just would suck if we didn’t try. It’d be easy to not try. Yeah, that is least trying

Keith Moneymaker

the first time it happened to me. I just happen to be connected to a church or tornado, to a community Robins, North Carolina War Two, NATO had kind of randomly touched down in a bad storm and it tore a lot of people lose off their houses ruin a lot of the furniture. So I literally like from taking all those beds and just trying to figure out what to do with 100 beds from my first hotel. It took 40 beds to that church 40 plus, and then since then I’ve taken numerous loads of 1020 at a time. There’s places for these beds ago, we just have to find them before their storage issues are always been but it’s just figuring it out. And I’ve kind of figured it out. Like you know, we’re I’m years ahead of anybody’s out in the industry, because of just the right thing to do. That’s it.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. And you know, something that just comes to mind for me is like, not only is it the right thing to do, but like there’s there’s a lot of mattress manufacturers that talk about how they have like zero waste or zero carbon footprint, right? And it’s like in there in the manufacturing process. Yes. But then what happens? I mean, mattresses are made to last for a gazillion years and the components do last for a bazillion years. Right? So if you’re not okay, you go because I see the fire in here. So the beer distro

Keith Moneymaker

does Marcos podcasts about this and they were nice enough to mention our organisation and starting about the sustainability of our industry. manufacturers do have a sole responsibility. That’s great that there’s your waste, but you’re adding another mattress to the cycle. Right not taking it out. Now I’m going to give a lot of credit to TSI, who’s believed in this and I’ve been talking about it and asking about it for years about about how they’re going to help me and assist me so recently, TSI made retail value of about a million dollar donation in TempurPedic. Smile organisation on top of committed mattresses every quarter based on my sales without taking away anything else to my organisation because right now, when I do fire departments or I do like people have halfway houses or places where they’re helping out homeless, there’s always a caretaker there and they always do you prefer something on the newer side of things? Sure. So I’m always so when that happened, I was paying for it in our pocket, buying new things is expensive, man. But you know, even before we got committed the timber ceiling I was spending a lot of money on new beds to fill need like so we took this this whole thing with CSI is huge because now I have new beds, I can save up the inventory when I have these big fire department needs. On top of that, like we just started working a big thing is like have a stockpile so when you get a big order big load like this coming on, if you have a place you can find our organisation it’s going to help you a warehouse company find the manager and he’s won’t donate space to you. It’s huge if you could store them because now we can attend. I don’t know seven to 10,000 refugees come stateside myself in the past six weeks. I’ve taken 100 beds out to refugees, new and used. Charlotte they just had they have 65 family waiting list of people trying to move in homes and they reached out and they were like, Hey, do you have anything available? Do you work in the Charlotte area? I was like it’s a beautiful thing. I have a partnership with a store in Charlotte. So I passed that relationship over it just shows How this programme this thing works.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. So what’s that? What’s the vision? Where do you see where do you see this in five years, 10 years, I’m not gonna

Keith Moneymaker

say I’m never gonna fix the problem. But in three years like, so are 2022, three years, I like to be a committed dealer in every state. I’d like in I’m strictly focused on Independence like and local guys that care about their town, this, I’m not taking this as a way to go after the big entities. That’s not my goal. But this will set you apart if you’re looking at how to set yourself apart in the industry, giving back as a way to do it and you’re going to get in the US beds back, you’re just taking the easy way out, throwing them in the dump, taking the easy way out and do something for your community that matters. Don’t just hand cash to somebody that comes in because they want to donation figure something else out. And this is the beautiful part of the programme already getting a product. It’s a free product.

Doug Stewart

So keep Greg there’s a there’s a tonne of things you guys could have done, right? There’s like a tonne of different like, philanthropic things are ways you could have given back but you partnered with this character right here. So like, why this?

Greg Law

You know, I like what how you explained that. And I listened to your your TED Talk. It was really good. I like how you said, you sometimes the worst teacher is experience.

Doug Stewart

That’s right. Yeah. Experiencing the teacher falls.

Greg Law

Yeah, yeah. So you don’t have to do figure out everything from scratch yourself. It’s actually a lot smarter A lot of times to learn from somebody that’s already figured it out. Okay, how do I take what Keith has already figured out and get there faster and better and smarter in our local market. So I heard him on the desk Marquez and I was like, Man, that’s your core values are dreams dedicated to God and greater good. Responsibility, energy, effort and excellence. All about the team measure growth and partnerships service, both self dedicated guide and Gregor that he’s getting it done. He’s he has been getting it done for eight years. We’ve always been about that in our market. And you know, it’s kind of hard to do. We try to do as much as we can. We do a lot. But we like how this is kind of in our everyday efforts. You know, we’re delivering new beds, we’re bringing this back, we have the capability to be able to do this. I dig it, I think it’s gonna be fantastic to learn from this guy and how he’s already figured out all kinds of scenarios and situations and then be able to do it better in make a real impact in our community. Yeah,

Doug Stewart

it reminds me so there’s this, there’s this parable that I tell my kids a lot actually it’s, it’s, it’s this Buddhist parable about this, this old lady that would carry fire and water everywhere that she would go, right. So she was like the matriarch of this village, right. And so she would carry a torch and a bucket of water everywhere she went. And people, people in the village had no idea why and then so one day this this, one of the younger kids got got up the nerve to go ask her like, why is it that you walk around with firewater? All the time? So he asked her and her answer was so that I can quench hell with the water. And that I can, that I can incinerate heaven with the fire so that when I do good, I do it only because it’s good to do. Right? So so often in business, we take this is easy to take the other route and go, I’m only going to do this good thing, because there’s this massive return on investment or so I will get so the so the so the so the news channel will come out and they’ll cover me on this thing, or they’ll do this. And are those good things to happen? Like of course, right. But I think so often we’ve got to check our motives, and go, Why are we doing it? Like are we doing it? Because it? You know, because we get heaven? Are we doing it? So we don’t get hell? Or are we just doing it because it’s good to do? Right? And that that parable comes up to me. And it’s come to mind for me three or four times we’ve had this conversation because it’s like, and sometimes or most of the time if you’re doing the things just because it’s good to do, then everything else kind of kind of like works itself out. You know,

Keith Moneymaker

everything always fall into place. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Do what’s right, like, everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer in it. And just, again, I’ll say it again, I don’t do it for the chromatic turns literally, of the social responsibility and I felt so much investment into a mattress business that I can impact people’s everyday lives like the look you get when you’re given a free bed away like and it’s a free better way when you’re giving somebody a place to sleep. The men have dignity in it strives right into mental health, mental health, to like somebody gets a new home. But then like man, like they just got out of a homeless situation. They got a house. They have Second Life. For me desperate messages I get on a weekly basis that people are afraid to ask me. And I just for you reinforce the message of like, you know, I’m happy to do even people come in and like, try to buy something like, Listen, if you need help, like, don’t buy a bed, I will give you one. Yeah, don’t put yourself in a position. Just, let’s work something out. If you if you’re okay with the US bed, we take care of them. I’ll just give you one for free and do like people just face turn white. And just it’s every time.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. That’s amazing. It reminds me there was there was this one time and we were you know, we were downstairs earlier talking about, you know, war stories from from retail and stuff like that. But I can remember there’s this one time when I was a kid, I was a kid. I was probably 16. I was working at my grandfather’s furniture store over the over the over the summer. And I remember this one lady comes in, she’s like, newly single mom, she’s got like, four kids, and they’re just like wrecking the store, like racking the store. Yeah. And we’ve we’ve all been there, right? Like, the kids come in. And they’re like, all of a sudden, it’s a trampoline store. You know what I mean? Like everybody’s losing their minds. And there was something my grandfather didn’t do this a lot like so I don’t want to paint the picture. Like he’s like, this is something he did a lot. But he did it. He did it at least once that I know of, and it really made an impact is this lady was having such a hard time. She was struggling but she needed furniture. Because she had just she had just gone through a divorce. She was trying to figure out her life she’d been a stay at home mom for I forget how long but a long time and like she’s she’s trying to figure out her job trying to figure out her income trying to figure out our housing, trying to figure out what she’s gonna do with these four kids. Right? So she’s like, she’s a wreck. And so my grandfather realised that these kids were behaving poorly not because they were bad kids or poorly parented because they’re all of them are going through a lot, right? And so this lady ends up buying a one of the most inexpensive bedroom suits that we had. And then she couldn’t afford the bed. So she bought mattresses all mattress only for the kids for the four kids, because they’re going to be in the same room. And it was like, solder if you if you remember, I guess solder still around, right? But it was a solder dresser, nightstand and chest. And then four of the most inexpensive twin size mattresses we could we could sell. So she bought it. And my grandfather took her money, right? Which I saw, like the compassion on his face, and I was like, I know he’s not gonna take the money. Like, I know, he’s just gonna like he’s gonna bless this woman and he didn’t, right. And I delivered it. And when I’m putting it in this woman’s house, yes, I’m I’m putting the dress the nightstand and I really the nice thing, those drawers were not made to like fit properly. If you’ve ever seen a solder nightstand, you know, they’re not meant to fit properly. And as I’m carrying it in the nightstand comes out. And it was cash exactly what she paid for it was in the nightstand of this kids thing. And I remember thinking like, like, why else would you be in business? You know what I mean? Like, if you can’t do some stuff like that. And then I saw I got back and I told my grandpa’s like, Hey, I saw the money in the nightstand. And he was like, You talking about no money. You know what I mean? Like, completely denies the whole friggin thing. And I was like, You know what you mean, but he didn’t want it. But and it’s like, people will find out when you do the right thing for the right reason. You know, it’s like one of one of our mantras in, in my wife and I’s business is like, you do the right thing. for the right reason you expect the right result with no attachment outcomes, like yes, that’s the four things that we base everything we do one. And when I do that, really good things happen. And when I don’t really good things happen. But it’s like you do the right thing. Because Because in you guys know this, right people a lot, they do the right thing, but they do it with the wrong motive. Or they do the wrong thing with the right motive, right. And they always expect themselves to get the best. And they have attachments to the timing of the of the outcomes, right. But when you do the right thing, you do it for the right reason, you can expect the right result with no attachment and timing outcome. Right. That’s right. And it works every you know, 60% of the time it works every time.

Greg Law

I really find that number three there. Extra interesting. That’s like faith. Right? Expect the right results. Yeah, yes. Yeah. You’re going you’re moving forward with faith and you’re doing the right thing.

Doug Stewart

Expected. Yeah. Yeah. Because we try to manipulate outcomes. Right. So the question isn’t will this Give me a great result. Now the question is if I do this type of thing consistently, will it be better than not doing this thing consistently? Right? So it’s like, do I want to be kind all the time? Well, no. But if I am consistently kind, well, I get a better outcome than when I’m, if I’m not, right. It doesn’t mean it’ll be the same. It’ll you know, we’ll always get the same outcome, because we won’t like sometimes you do the right thing. And you get, you still get a shit outcome. Like you still get it. Right. But if you do it consistently, you get a better outcome in general than you would get otherwise. Yeah. Right. And I think it’s, it’s easy to, it’s easy to kind of lose sight of that

Keith Moneymaker

is, every dealer I’ve talked to, like I spend a lot of my second event come into. I don’t take the mic. Sorry. But dealers have talked to you like to the questions I get asked a lot are like, aren’t you worried about like, who doesn’t need a mattress, or Yeah, and set on set thing is like the extra work it’s going to take because it’s going to take work. If you want people to support your store, this is going to balance your business, it’s your business is going to balance your business. So yeah, you are going to have to put some sweat equity in it. I’m going to go up there and help them figure out how we’re going to do with these 300 beds. I’m going to personally figure this out. But like the other part of that is like the people like the dealers like Aren’t you worried about who doesn’t deserve it? Or people that have donated money? Who doesn’t? Like how do you know who needs a bed really against that? Like, if they’re asking for a bed, they’re that people you’re talking about are going to sell it because they need money. At the end of the day, if the homeless guys sideroad and he wants 20 bucks for booze, we give him 20 bucks for booze, like they’re gonna figure out a way to do it one way or the other. But I know in good faith that I’m doing it for the right reason I don’t worry about who doesn’t quote unquote deserve it. It’s like, but nine out of 10 times those people need it. Yeah, I first time a couple times doing this. I judged a couple times. I’m not gonna lie. Like you shouldn’t wonder. This guy sent out a message. One of my good friends owns a salon to help to help his friend who just went through a divorce. What’s up three really nice mattress sets to this woman’s parents house was a million dollar home and a high end community. Tell me who would not? Why don’t we bring in beds in the house? Yeah, you know what that woman was choosing emotional wreck. She was restarting over. She’s living in her parents house. But like, I’m not putting you know what people like? Why don’t the manufacturers and one of the government do something? Well, why don’t the parents Why don’t you do something? Right but blaming and we think other people are going to take care of it. I don’t let I don’t worry about if the government locally is going to SuperPro our local fire department and give them a nicer beds. I’m just gonna give them nicer beds. I’m not Yeah, they could take care of it heighten our taxes. You know, that takes six months to a year. And I can just do it. And I have the power to just do it. You have an industry where like, we have a little a pretty big thing that’s in every aspect of life and everybody sleeps and it’s important. So just put the scapegoat out there is like what thinking somebody else doesn’t deserve it. That’s not your title. Yeah, figure

Doug Stewart

that out. Yeah, but but but Keith man that the government in the state is is so well known for help man, they manage money. Well, they work programmes really well. And they’re always really successful. Right? I’m really like any dead? Yeah, like I had, I had a mentor once they would, they would always say like, every every tax dollar, every tax dollar we pay is a result of the community not doing their work. Right. So So are those are those programmes? Good? Like, yes, but are those programmes necessary? Well, no, like, I’ve got a pass a friend this a friend of mine is a pastor that, that that he would say every every, every dollar in new programme that that that is legislated is a result of the church’s failed efforts in not doing what they’re supposed to do for the community which I think is such an interesting thought right? So like if we took care of ourselves, we wouldn’t have to put money in a pot somewhere that we don’t even control to then go and take care of the people that were unwilling to care for right or to support and we

Keith Moneymaker

can also we can always blame the government we can always blame somebody else that’s again that’s an easy way out we can always just throw the bed in the dump Yeah, I chose not to take the easy way out and about a year and a half two years ago is when I decided it was you know is thought in my head be cool to take this across the US across the nation yeah to ship beds overseas after torrential like hurricane or tornado or something hits another state like like the endgame the goal like there’s no endgame like this. Is this continuous? I’ve shipped bed overseas to soldiers that are shipped sleeping on shit. Four inch cardboard. Yes. Yep. So there’s really no limits with this. And this was like just talking about yes, this was coming to fruition like this is a is a repeatable programme, because this is an industry wide problem. Yeah. And it’s up to us as a collective, especially with nationwide bringing us all together as a collective that we can address this.

Doug Stewart

Yep. Yep, it occurs to me, it seems like this is really the difference between fault and responsibility. Right? Like his fault is easy to recognise. Right? It’s it’s their fault. Like the fact that there’s so many mattresses and landfills or Like, whatever whatever problem you want to come up with, like, it’s easy to identify fall into place blame. And a lot of times, I think we don’t make the delineation between fault and responsibility, because we think if it’s your fault, if it’s someone’s fault, then it’s also their responsibility to fix it when that’s almost never true, right? There’s a difference between fault and responsibility. So fault for should be an identification. Oh, this happened because of that. Responsibility is a completely different thing, which is the question of, okay, now, what can or should I do about it? You know, like, like, I recognise this. So, I have a very complicated relationship with my grandfather, like, he’s the greatest of all, like, he’s, for me, he gave me more than anyone. And he also probably traumatised me. Like, at the same time, you know, he’s a really complicated situation. But I can remember, and Keith, I was telling you this telling you this earlier, when we were talking is like, one of the reasons I left the furniture and bedding industry for cash six years, is because when I was in high school, I can remember my grandfather telling me if you don’t stay in this business, you’ll never make it in life. Right. And so that, like, that made me crazy. Wow. And so it’s at a point, I was like, okay, so I left the business to prove it to prove that I could make it but I stayed in the furniture industry, right. I stayed in the bedding industry. And then I was, like, I felt good about that for a little bit. And then it’s like, Yeah, but you’re still in the industry. Like, you’re still like, you’re still in the business. Like you haven’t proven him wrong yet. So it’s like, okay, well screw this, I’m going to leave the whole thing. So I leave the whole thing, and I’m out. And then I realise, this is like, it’s like, 2000. Oh, my gosh, just like 2020. And I look around, and I’m like, my grandfather passed away in 2009. And I’m still trying to prove this thing to him. Like, was it his fault that I felt this way? Like, maybe because he said it right. Maybe it was his fault. But is it his responsibility to fix it? Like, he’s not even here? And I’m expecting him to like, somehow affirm the fact that I’ve done it, you know what I mean? Right, but like, no, is it okay, was it his response? Really? Yes. Probably. Should he have said it? Probably not. Right. But whose responsibility is to fix it? Well, it’s mine. And it has nothing to do with him. You know what I mean? And so that, and that’s one of the primary things that brought me back to the business was like, Wait a second, I’m staying away from this industry that I actually enjoy. Like, I actually love the business. But I’m staying away. Because I feel like someone’s at fault. And someone that isn’t even alive anymore, and hasn’t been alive for a decade is supposed to be responsible to fix something they can’t fix, right? Instead of doing what you guys are doing right now. And going like, yeah, okay, that there’s some fault here, we shouldn’t be doing this. And instead of like, oh, we need a government programme to fix it, or we need legislation to fix it. Or we need some one of these massive companies to fix it, or these management met massive manufacturers, like no, let’s take responsibility for what we can. And that’s how things get fixed. Like that’s how the world gets better. Take a couple guys take accept

Keith Moneymaker

responsibility to figure it out. Yeah, if a couple guys can figure it out, and people making millions of dollars can’t that’s when you know, like there’s there’s obviously issues. So we can either blame those guys with all the money and let them figure it out. Or you accept responsibility and make a change. Yeah, because a little change, which I thought was just like a couple bands here and there is like, you know, something a lot more. It’s something a lot bigger,

Doug Stewart

especially if those guys are North Carolinians. Right. Like that’s that’s the That’s right. Right. Like that’s the thing, right?

Keith Moneymaker

We’re on fire baby. Yeah, flywheel spinning, it ain’t stopping. Alright,

Doug Stewart

so So let’s, let’s start let’s start wrapping this thing up. Cuz I’m because because Matt Nan’s in a trance,

Andy Schlesser

I’m gonna transfer.

Greg Law

No, I’m not just being a good listener.

Andy Schlesser

Yeah. It’s very odd for me to or to just be here listening. I realised you guys might think that’s odd, but I do enjoy.

Doug Stewart

Well, you have the glasses on. So tell them it’s like a weekend Are you sleeping?

Andy Schlesser

No. time yet?

Keith Moneymaker

You don’t have a bedtime movie.

Doug Stewart

So you’re gonna like this. I thought about this from from your podcast, and yeah. Oh, so this. Yeah. Now you’re paying attention because we’re talking about your podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so. So I know you you have, you have a pretty good reputation for storytelling. So I have a story that I told my daughter that I think you’d be proud of as a matcher superhero. So there was a time my daughter didn’t want to go to bed. And it was like every night she’s coming out of her bedroom. So we decided to tell her a different story about about bedtime, that that gave her something that she wanted. She didn’t want to go to bed. So we asked him Me and my wife we asked herself Okay, so what? What story can we tell her that will change the way she thinks about going to bed? So, we thought about it, we and we figured out that her favourite thing, her favourite like her favourite, especially meal, her favourite meal of the day is breakfast, the girl loves breakfast. And we do like breakfast is like a big deal in our house. Like we always we do it, we do it big. And so we changed the name of bedtime. We change the name to bed time to time machine to breakfast. And we never had another problem with coming up. All right, so it’s not your bed. That’s not a bed. That’s a time machine. And that is a time machine to write language speaking her language change

Keith Moneymaker

the way she saw it. It’s beautiful. To change something I like to change the way to think about

Andy Schlesser

it. I like a time machine to lunch.

Keith Moneymaker

I like every day for all three meals a day.

Doug Stewart

Yeah, right.

Andy Schlesser

That’s a very creative solution to problem that I think a lot of people have. Yeah, it’s got to be you said the expectation of beds. And then she’s like, Oh, you’re gonna make me go to that thing. And instead, it’s like we’re calling someone else. The same way we call game changers game changers. You’re calling bedtime machines? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that’s how you do it.

Doug Stewart

Well, that’s the thing, right? The thing was, you can have

Andy Schlesser

I say that back sleepers in when I’m when I’m talking to somebody, I tell them that sleeping on your side is awful. So because you’ll never go to bed seeing the same thing you wake up to. Because you always be looking at a different wall or you’ll have moved. But when you when you fall asleep in your back, and you get your feet Raise your head raised. You fall asleep and you wake up six hours, seven hours later, you’re seeing the same thing. That’s that’s time travel. You move seven hours in the future. It didn’t

Greg Law

matter, man, those mountains. That’s fantastic.

Doug Stewart

That is good. It is good. All right. So let’s So let’s wrap this thing up. So tell us tell us where we can where we can find out more where can people connect with you? And just parting words, what would be what would be your parting words manga first,

Andy Schlesser

sure. Where you can find me you can find me on fam dot news. You can find me on Apple podcasts and you can find me on Spotify, The Adventures of madman that is my story that I tell about the ways that maximising my sleep has improved my life and changed the way that I just view the world in general. But in case you wanted to, you can go to shop Sweet Dreams calm and and just like check out our website stuff be all cool there. And, and if you ever need to put up the math symbol, there’s like a text Texas number. So if you if there’s if there’s a cause or there’s a 5k and you need my help you just you just text those numbers there and you’ll find us

Greg Law

Keith, Greg, about yeah, I’ve really been enjoying LinkedIn lately. Yeah, so follow me on LinkedIn. Greg love. Look forward to connecting with you. Yes,

Keith Moneymaker

it’s beautiful. So I’m pretty big on social media. I don’t have Twitter or anything like that, but Instagram. If I have three platforms we can find out a lot about do but just by following my main platform, which is Keith dot mattress, dot therapists where I will solve your sleep problems. Mattress therapy baby, we give you a mattress you’re going to sleep on, you know we’re going to take care of you and our dreams for all foundation. There’s just that on Instagram too. And then our website is where people can contribute to dreams for all Foundation, and earmark whether you’re whichever dreams for our location you’re supporting but whether you’re donating a match either match or you’re somebody in need. I don’t care where you’re at like there’s inquiries about it. It’s there’s a need somewhere for somebody. So sweet dreams and see calm. Slash dreams for all will have a national website up soon. Once I get everything rolling.

Doug Stewart

Yeah. Nice. So so we’ll link everything in the description. And like Final shout out to fam dot news for making this happen. Like this connection. Tequila. It’s a trace LeChase. And yeah, now Now trace let Chase which is which is horrifying. And I feel i

Keith Moneymaker

By the way, I want to I want to help. I don’t want to give a shout out to those markers because they’re the ones who fostered a lot of these relationships. Yeah, and this led us all down a lot of these paths. And Casey Williams, my TSI rep who led me to the DOS Marcos who has came to fruition with everything else I met Casey today. Hey CK has Starbuck in our corner to make a lot of stuff possible with TSI and get your heads donated and all the stuff he’s done so

Doug Stewart

yeah, so so it’s not just my fault, so shout out nationwide. Shout out fam dot news. Shout out Casey. And because of all of this, this happened now we have Cieslak Hey guys, honest to goodness final affirmation from you for you you are you are a credit to the industry and to humanity. Thank you for what you do

Greg Law

right back atcha Yes, for sure.

Andy Schlesser

Thank you, Johnny, Johnny

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