****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Dustin James 0:00

Hi, I'm Dustin James and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:19

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me Shark. I am a keynote speaker, a strategist, a shark diver, host of this show, and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:31

If you were to rent a tuxedo, then what would matter more the shirt? Let's call that your marketing. Or would it be the jacket? Let's call that your sales. Or would it be if it were available on time; if it was clean when you got it; if they were nice when you picked it up? That would be the bow tie and let's call that your customer experience? Well, they would each look kind of silly if just worn on their own. But we so often talk about digital experiences that the big boys and girls at Fortune 500 brands are doing. It's worth a reminder though, that 99.9% of all businesses in the US are small businesses. The point is that there's still a lot to learn from SMBs from a sales, marketing and CX perspective. And those lessons are well worth learning if you want a more formal way to elevate the everyday in your business.

Kenneth Kinney 1:17

Dustin James is a keynote speaker specializing in motivating sales and leadership teams as well as the owner of Moments Tux Shop, a formal wear and tuxedo shop servicing the Quad Cities markets in Iowa and Illinois.

Kenneth Kinney 1:30

And on this episode, we will discuss the formal layer business being a top 20% performer in a knot top 20% market, disrupting your market and taking the product to the customer, caring more for your customer and less about the competition, elevating the everyday black tie moments. Great advice for those coming up to consider with sales marketing and CX connecting with customers. The Quad Cities in the fifth Beatle Iowa movies black tie moments for bonds Dumb and Dumber, formalwear, corn country favorites and a lot lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 1:59

So let's tune into a moments leadership and tux shop owner with a shark who obviously looks great at any moment of black tie on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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Kenneth Kinney 2:14

Dustin Welcome to A Shark's Perspective. If you would tell us a little bit about your background and your career to date.

Dustin James 2:20

Well, I appreciate being on the show here shark 46 I've been blessed and cursed to do a lot of great things in life challenges obstacles. Currently, my wife and I, we run three very successful businesses. First one is we've got one of the top swimwear dealers in the country. Second one's a branding company. And then our third one is our professional speaking business. So it keeps me in the everyday you know that reality, the struggles, obstacles, challenges, where spend your marketing dollars, how to how to provide that customer experience. So I've been blessed to be a top performer for different industries. And really kind of a culmination of that I've got two awesome kids and just trying to navigate life every day.

Kenneth Kinney 2:58

Well, and it keeps you humble. Very much. So you know, we're friends. So I'm going to Josh with with Dustin here. And the show is evergreen, so he'll be 46 every year for the next 16 years on the show. But you know, we've talked about this a lot. And I wanted to kind of dive into the formal way your business in your tuxedo shop. So you're in the top 20% across the country, right nationwide in all tuxedo shops, but you're not in a top 20% size Metro market.

Dustin James 3:28

No, we're not.

Kenneth Kinney 3:29

So why do you think that is?

Dustin James 3:31

Well, you know, part of it, I think is just really previously I had a graduation business selling caps and gowns and classrooms. And we were in schools. And it was just another product line where we came up with this idea to create a mobile tuxedo business. Right, especially working with the rural communities. Now the Quad Cities were located. It was about 450,000. I mean, it's not a major Metroplex. But, you know, we've got a lot of schools, a lot of blue collar community. And when you build your business, we've all we've always no matter what industry we're in, really tried to provide a service, right and the world was kind of okay, with antiquated, being antiquated and mediocre. We'd like to do things a little bit different. And when we created that mobile tuxedo business, we were going into the communities, right? And when we came over the business, we were just really wanting to do prom season and just like any entrepreneur, right, we do your homework and you you try to prepare and you think you know everything and it was we were just gonna walk to the brown business. And you know, by creating a business where you can go into the school for one night Let the guys order their bring their dates, their mothers, right the those who have the credit cards, so those moms or grandmothers and have an opportunity to order at the school and then deliver it the week of prom and pick it up. We were really eliminating like a six hour purchase cycle. And we were bringing it to the customer and schools turned 18 turned into 20 eighths and we created this market disruption not really knowing the entire formal orient district we were in after prom season because we were already in this Schools had relationships. How do you expand product? How do you extend it, maximize those touch points with customers. And we didn't realize that there's big box retailers, there's a third generation, local place. And we didn't realize their problem was kind of their Christmas vacation. Right? We were doing it as a business, but we really kind of upset our competitors, but our customers loved us. So our business philosophy is really at the end of the day, I try not to really worry too much about our competition. As long as our customers love us, that's all that matters. And we're always trying to enhance that. Because if you look at the big picture of selling the least in the form of our business, if we can get them as juniors, and seniors, we're going to get them again, when they get married. And now being in the business seven years, we're starting to see that. And it's really exciting when somebody comes in, and then they're like, you put my my husband in his prom tuxedo seven years ago, right? So we really maximize those touch points, and it is on the retail side of it and customers coming in? And how can you enhance that experience? How can you make that moment count? You know, a lot of times in business, we might think it's, you know, product product, profit margin. But if you can really win that customer over and provide a good experience, why would they go somewhere else?

Kenneth Kinney 6:12

Well, if you think of where I'm originally from, a lot of people get a tux to get married before they graduate. So it depends on the order, but very much so well, when you think about kids today, you know, but in a small business like this, we get it, we're grownups, it's all the things go together. But if you sort of had to pick a point as to what's propelled your growth the most, do you think it's been more sales or marketing or more focused on customer experience? And again, they all work together,

Dustin James 6:43

I was just gonna say they're they're all intertwined. But I know, when we moved into the business, we always approached it as what do we want? Right? What would be that great customer experience? Not? It's a it's a very traditionally antiquated industry, right? You pick yourself up on Friday, you know, we've worked with the top manufacturer to get our stuff on Monday, we want people to come and pick their stuff up on Tuesday or Wednesday. And in most of our weeks, even with weddings, we're done with wedding parties and Prom by Wednesday of that week. So we can already start working on that next week. In really understanding that that customer experience like I, I truly I my competitors, I don't really look at what they do, because we want to do it the right way if we were that customer, and it gives me a chance to reflect even when I got married, you know, plenty of years ago, we'll just leave it right long before I was in the firmware business. My jacket sleeve was long, my jacket was baggy, and somebody let me walk out of that store, not knowing what it's supposed to look like, somebody just didn't care. At the end of the day, like, that's what really, in any business, we want our customers to know, we care. And when they can see that authenticity. It really enhances that experience. Because if somebody knows you care, you're touching hearts, you're making moments, you're making memories. And, you know, for some people, prom might be the biggest day of their life. For some people, weddings might be the biggest day life. For some weddings, we might have guys come back two or three times. I don't wish that on anybody. But but you know, it's nice. The it's nice to be there for those moments that

Kenneth Kinney 8:17

Your tuxedo when you got married, did it have ruffles?

Dustin James 8:21

It did not have ruffles. I'm not that old.

Kenneth Kinney 8:24

Well, I want to lean back into that. Because when the reason I ask that question is because you touched on all three of those when you were kind of describing the business. When you think of all the conversation that's out there, in particular about digital experience, where do you think that contradicts with? What is the experience you live in that most businesses live in throughout the world? I mean, I think we all think that everything's bought online, everything goes through Amazon, and all the advice is there when most of the businesses may have a website and a storefront, but they're not Yeah, they're still a big huge chunk of it is some kid or some adult coming in to get a tuxedo?

Dustin James 9:03

Well, and that is always the the golden answer that everybody wants to know, where does it all come from? Right. And we we as a small business are very strategic when people come in, like, do you hear about it? What What brought you here? Was it referral? Right? I mean, we invest in search engine optimization, right? We want, we want to steal if people are searching there, we want to come become top of mind and be at the top of the list. But it really in today's world, I think you have to be everywhere. But it was a small business. You can't afford to be everywhere all the time, right. You know, I was just having a conversation with my wife. We had somebody walk in and said, Hey, we heard you on the radio. And my wife's always joke like radios nice, but it was never the big. It's never that one where they come running in. And we've never had anybody say that even though we do it kind of seasonally based on seasons. And on Saturday, somebody comes in and we heard on the radio all the time, right? So it's like, Alright, we've spent investment on I'm trying to get to the top or trying to do this. And, you know, I think we're just at an interesting place from a consumer standpoint, right? We've got you know, some people are hate to say it they don't want to look on their phones they're gonna go wherever dad or grandpa to come right or, you know high school students that they're gonna go shop online tuxedos Quad Cities who pops up? Where are you at? Right? So it's important that we're still relevant in all those areas. And it's hard to just say, it's just this, we do know that we're not like in a mall location, right? So we're not, we're not with window shoppers, we're a destination. So when people need a tux for prom, or weddings, hopefully we come to the top, you know, some will drive by car sign. But I think it truly is kind of a, it's a really hard question to answer exactly. But I think it's all important it is it's not you can't just sit back. And you know, even with our manufacturer, they joke because we're an aggressive business, right? We want to, we want more trade shows, we want to, you know, do social media, we want to be at places we want to be in schools, coupons in all the really out colonies of everything. But it's just important that you're that you're relevant so that when somebody does find you, they come in and you maximize it. We're really strategic when you deal with a customer, and they're happy in the store. But let them know, hey, they're in their car, we text them a link, right, right there on the spot, fresh top of mind. And it keeps us that for 8495. Google review, because it's important, all of it, all of it is intertwined. Its business. So we're not just a sales, we're not just a retail, we're just not customer experience, like we that we need customers to rent or purchase. Right? We need those customers, how do you drive demand? And it really is, you know, it's a puzzle. And when you the more pieces you have, the better the picture. And hopefully it keeps increasing sales.

Kenneth Kinney 11:54

I know you get pitched on LinkedIn, we all do. But sort of you and your wife combined with the sales pitches that come to you. I'm curious, because you also work as a speaker. What are most of the pitches about? Nobody like comes in and tells you how to optimize your retail shop? You know what I mean? Everybody's got, oh, we're gonna produce content for you. Or

Dustin James 12:14

yeah, I think it's, everybody gets, we'll get more leads hundreds of leads. I mean, there's only so many people in the Quad Cities that are getting married or, or going to prom. I mean, that's the reality. You know, we do an extremely good job once again, when a customer comes in what graduation year, are they right? We just had somebody who came in who was a junior, but they went to prom as a sophomore. But if you get him as a sophomore, a junior and a senior, right, they're gonna they should come to you come from season. So it's, you know, it's trying to build that word of mouth. With the pitches. Yeah, everybody, you know, the top, you're gonna get leads, you know, as a small business, you're, I mean, sure, it all sounds great, right. But when you get 10 of them, everybody's an expert. In today's world, you can claim to be an expert without being an expert. It's a free title that many people use and use. It's not really a badge of honor that I used to be.

Kenneth Kinney 13:09

So you work a lot with teenagers, and particularly, we were talking about people that go to the prom, that your daughter is a teenager, what's the one piece of advice you would give to someone in sales in marketing and customer experience that's going to help them succeed in business as they move forward throughout their career?

Dustin James 13:30

I would say the number one, in my opinion is connecting in no matter what customer comes through the door Big or small, whether it's a single tuxedo for us, or it's a massive wedding at 25. Right? It's having more than just a business conversation. Yes, I can get to this. Tell me more about who you are to really establish a rapport. And when you're having that conversation, shut up for a second, let them talk, analyze what was said, where they've where they've heard about you where they are in the process, because there's a lot of information that can be exchanged in that customer experience. And as much as we can move into a digital world and that human connection, that human conversation is extremely valuable. I think we get caught up too much in churn and burn, right, get the sale and move on, instead of really trying to win over a customer through conversation. And for us, we were very we're a diverse company, right? We've got our tuxedo company, we've got a brand new company speaking company, right many times by helping us we have to tell our story and get to hear their story what it is they do for a living create new lead opportunities. As you know, it's remarkable how many weddings we've had, where we're just having conversations, who's the next guy in the wedding party gonna get married? And they'll tell you who the next guy is. And when that guy comes in. You better have antennas. Ready, click, click, click. He's the next lead and it just created itself. I think we just yet, I believe data and analytics is extremely important for business. But we cannot forget the human connection of conversation. I do believe there's a lot of value in that people want to talk people want to be acknowledged, people, they want to be heard. And we need to do a good job as business owners, as salespeople as marketing, whatever our backgrounds are, is really listening to a customer, because they're going to tell you a lot of what's going on their bad experiences. Oh, you had a bad experience? They'll tell you where it was. Okay, great. Like, we need to know that that's the you know, that was their hot button. How do we prevent that? I just, I think we, we just we live in a fast paced world, sometimes we just need to slow things down when we do have an opportunity with the customer, to gain as much information as we can and not just listen to it, process it, how can you make your business better? And we'd be more creative in our marketing? Do we need to be more social? Do we need to? All of those are questions that our customers will tell us if we live?

Kenneth Kinney 16:06

So then how do you go about elevating the every day? Because I know that one, that's one of your keynotes. So I said to use it. Yeah. And to, it can be a slog going in to a business every day waiting for somebody to come in and get a talk, sir, you know, in any other form of business, but it's not easy to create everyday excellence, if you know what I mean.

Dustin James 16:28

Yeah, yeah, it's not. And the reality is, if you want to be successful in business, it's still going to be hard work. No matter what you do. I mean, it's a life's a grind, right? We grind for the green, the glory of growth, right? There's nothing wrong with wanting to make a lot of money. I like nice things. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. It's the crazy things you can do to damage with money. Right? Or your Brandon, is you want to grow, right? What does that professional growth? Are you grinding for titles? You know, the every day to me is really being hungry to want to be better at what you do. And sometimes we get caught up in comparing ourselves to other people. Like for us, the former business has taught us a lot that you know, what happens if your competitors are good, right, we put this bar of where our competitors are, but what if they're not good? You know what, one of my competitors is third generation. He's just a grumpy old man who doesn't want to do marketing doesn't want to be creative. He's just mad people won't go to him, because he's been there for three generations. That doesn't entitle you to business, right? We're gonna go out, we're going to hustle and we're going to have fun doing it, we're going to be creative. We're going to do trade shows differently. You know, that everyday is just realizing, when you get caught in mediocrity, or you want to settle, you can gripe that you're going to get passed over, or somebody else is gaining market share, right? There's always going to be adversity, there's always going to be market trends that may not play in your favor. Well, how

Dustin James 17:48

can we, you know, I hate to use the word pivot, because I hate it. I believe in diversification, like, what can we do differently? What

Dustin James 17:56

do we need to do to stand out? And the world is hungry for different? Right? They are. Maybe it's having fun at a trade show. Maybe it's just just thinking differently in your marketing what? What hasn't been done. As wild and crazy as it might be? It can be the golden goose for you. And a lot of times, so I'm doing things differently. You can do them very affordable. Like as a small business. We don't have the, you know, we don't have a Men's Wearhouse or a national bridal or any of that marketing budget. We have marketing. Yeah, but we got to be cost efficient. We've got to be effective with it. We got to be memorable with it.

Kenneth Kinney 18:31

A greeting. Good point. All right, Dustin, I ask everyone who appears on the show. What is your favorite kind of shark and why?

Dustin James 18:38

Ooh, that is a great one. Wow. I should I should have been prepared for this one.

Dustin James 18:45

Probably the great white because I think I think the great white is the Great White is the biggest one probably the meanest one serious one. It's aggressive. So you know, at least that's what the movies tell you. So I don't know. I know you as as the shark. But I don't know my I don't know my science behind a shark. But I do know the great white is it's got a great name. So why not be the great shark.

Kenneth Kinney 19:09

It's not the biggest whale shark is. But if I keep eating at the pace of meeting, I may pass and so all right. Dustin says special time the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting important questions you're going to be asked today. Sure, go for it. Sure. All right. Best Movies that represent Iowa. Build of dreams. Yeah. Or Bridges of Madison County.

Dustin James 19:35

Field of Dreams. Yeah, that was that was a bit

Kenneth Kinney 19:38

of a softball with a pun intended

Dustin James 19:41

that it was an open ended question. So if you caught me I was hard to see and field attorneys for choices in this game. I appreciate you.

Kenneth Kinney 19:48

Alright, you also talk about black tie moments. So let's talk about black tie moments is the James Bond character who had a better black tie moment. Daniel Craig or Sean Connery is Jay Same spot.

Dustin James 20:00

Sean Connery. Shawn Connery. Yeah, sorry. Sorry. That's

Kenneth Kinney 20:05

very fair. All right, this is a Quad Cities question. And because you live in Bettendorf Iowa, which is technically was not it's like the fifth Beatle Yep. So bettendorf came in after what Davenport, Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island. I did my homework.

Dustin James 20:22

Yeah, you did do your homework. That's, that's an interesting one because nobody most people are like, bettendorf is like one of the biggest ones. How's that? It just happens to grow.

Kenneth Kinney 20:31

quintuple cities didn't have quite the ring. So let's talk a little bit about Beatles not the fifth Beatle because nobody remembers any of the fifth Beatles most people don't. Favorite Beatle? The music of Paul McCartney or John Lennon?

Dustin James 20:43

Ohhhh, man. So. John Lennon.

Kenneth Kinney 20:49

Yeah, I would say I'd give the nod to Paul McCartney because he married a woman that's like 50 years younger than him.

Dustin James 20:54

Yeah. Yes. That wasn't part of the question.

Kenneth Kinney 21:00

It was a little bit of a question with twist. But yeah, I would agree. All right, number four, who looked better in a tuxedo? And this is obviously a Dumb and Dumber reference. Jim Carrey in the orange tuxedo with a rifle or Jeff Daniels in the baby blue.

Dustin James 21:20

I think Jim Carrey just because the orange was obnoxious. The baby blue wasn't as obnoxious of a color. So I would go with just they were both horrible. But the orange is more horrible.

Kenneth Kinney 21:34

Yeah, a great nothing. Nothing sucks like the big orange. So yeah, it's more of a Tennessee reference. Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're going to be asked today is biscuits or cornbread. Oh, man. corn bread. Okay, well, you are in corn country so

Dustin James 21:54

well, you didn't say in biscuits and gravy. You just said biscuits or cornbread.

Kenneth Kinney 21:58

It's yeah, it's whatever you want to add to it. Alright, so Dustin? Where can people find out more about you elevate the everyday with those black tie moments keep up with what you're doing in the tux business, the speaking business and everything else?

Dustin James 22:11

Yeah, well as a small business try to say everywhere, but are in touch shoppers moments talk shop.com. So if you're ever in the vendor of quiet city area, and I know you've got listeners all over the country, we can do Tux direct shipment though to their doors. So we can actually have weddings anywhere in North America if need be just based on somebody's measurements online. But you can find that a moment stuck shop.com otherwise the most leadership is my speaking business. So always find me at moments leadership.com and have a lot of work with a lot of companies, businesses, especially in the world of sales, entrepreneurship, really kind of sharing the story, that customer experience. So super blessed to 46 to be able to do a lot of great things. And you know, hopefully I brought some value here to your show and just a little guy from bettendorf Iowa, in the world.

Kenneth Kinney 22:59

Yeah, absolutely. Dustin, thank you very much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Dustin James 23:04

Thank you.

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Kenneth Kinney 23:11

So that was my conversation with Dustin James, a keynote speaker specializing in motivating sales and leadership teams as well as the owner of Moments Tux Shop, a formal wear and tuxedo shop servicing the Quad Cities markets in Iowa and Illinois.. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 23:28

First, if you want to find an experience that fits you, that don't always measure what they are doing, and don't look too much at your competition, focus on what you do well and enhance that experience, as Dustin said, and I quote it, if you can really win that customer over and provide a good experience, why would they go somewhere else. Find a unique experience that fits you and help your customers remember that not just what the experience is in relation to someone else. And let's be careful that inseam if you know what I mean?

Kenneth Kinney 23:57

Second, we primarily spoke today about sales and marketing to create a customer experience. But never forget that it's all the touch points, and how they all work together that will create a great experience. We spend so much time often way too much in my opinion, thinking about the digital experience and how it improves CX and I'm a digital kid, I get it. But the smile you give a customer as they pick up a tux on a time for what will likely be one of the biggest days of their lives. Put you in the mindset. Remember that nothing about that is digital, and nothing that would try to replace it would ever be worth more.

Kenneth Kinney 24:32

Third, no matter what customer comes through the door, a physical door or a digital door. Take the time to connect with him if you can build some rapport. And then most importantly, shut up for a second listen. As he said, your customers will tell us if we will listen. And I've spent much of my own career and lead generation client acquisition but I've tried to spend just as much or more on connecting with the ones that I've got. For many it goes back to going too much after the new customer but not connecting enough. With the current ones, because the current ones if you treat the well will more often stay much longer than those who don't. In short, slow down a minute when you have that minute to connect.

Kenneth Kinney 25:10

Got a question, send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 25:15

Thank you again for the privilege of your time and I am so thankful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 25:19

It's time to elevate your everyday especially if that day is today. But when it's tomorrow, join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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