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

Patrick Henry 0:00

Hi, I'm Patrick Henry, and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

(Music - shark theme)

Kenneth Kinney 0:20

Welcome back, and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective. I'm 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 0:32

Creating a great customer experience and building customer loyalty is hard when you really get into the weeds. It's not just about the packaging and what you try to tell customers what it is. It's what they feel. And there's so many moments that create that narrative. So how do you go about achieving that experience for your customers and helping them feel that connection, especially in a crowded marketplace, where you're trying to show people that the grass is greener on your side? And for better results, how do you go about connecting CX to loyalty?

Kenneth Kinney 1:02

Patrick Henry is the President of Monarchchem, the makers of the ecofriendly herbicide Lonarch, a speaker, a former Nashville songwriter, and a humorist who was featured on the SiriusXM Radio Comedy Channels.

Kenneth Kinney 1:14

And on this episode we will discuss professional speaking, herbicides and organic Lawn Care, differentiation in the market, better CX and the extra inch method, how first and sixth Virginia governor's affect SEO, Nashville songwriting, Sirius XM and some GooGoo Clusters, replacing canceled speeches with a new business, where Mardi Gras was invented, "The Pancake Principle", Orange Beach sunsets after a few libations, monarch butterflies, wrapping pallets, Old Country versus new and newish, the IHOP, menu, Margaritavilles, and a lot, lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 1:44

So let's tune into a country music humoristic herbicidal president with a shark who occasionally says something funny on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 1:57

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

Patrick Henry 2:03

Well, thank you for having me, Kenneth, the professional speaker and a business humorist. And three years ago, I started a company with my college roommate. And so I'm the president of Monarch Kim, we manufacture an eco friendly herbicide that's safe for the environment safe for people, pets and wildlife. And you'll notice that I called it herbicide where most of the world calls it herbicide. But if you spend five minutes with an Alabama store owner or South Carolina Peace Tree grower, it becomes herbicide real quick.

Kenneth Kinney 2:36

Absolutely. So let's talk about you then an SEO obviously, the show is going to help elevate you to the top in traffic and search traffic. But what's it like to compete as somebody who's out there as a personal brand? With one of the you know, what's considered one of the founding fathers for a little name recognition? I mean, give me a Keynote or give me death is got to be a little bit of a tough spot unless you're running for governor in Virginia.

Patrick Henry 3:01

Well that's right. It's It's funny, you mentioned that because he that got really messed up my search engine optimization. So I guess I gotta...

Kenneth Kinney 3:11

the nerve

Patrick Henry 3:12

The nerve. So I tell people is if you want to Google me put humorous speaker or comedian afterwards and you'll and you'll and you'll find me. But I was speaking early in my speaking career. I spoke in high schools exclusively. I love speaking to young people, and spoken over 1000 high schools made hundreds of dollars. And I was speaking at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia. And I was introduced to the students. And they started to giggle as you imagine they would. But it was afterwards that a young lady walked up to me and and she said Is your name really Patrick Henry? And I thought this is a student of history. My name really is Patrick Henry said Did your mom name you after the mall? Class?

Kenneth Kinney 4:02

No way. The mall was the most kids they would probably think the founding fathers or the Jonas Brothers and Eminem. And yeah, LL Cool J man. They don't think about that. But so you worked as a national songwriter?

Patrick Henry 4:17

No, I did. I was after college. Well, let me back up during college. That's when I started playing music. I didn't grow up as a musician. I just wanted to be that guy sit on a barstool planes in the buffet songs. And so my sophomore year of college I got rid of my television. I borrowed a guitar from a friend of mine in the fraternity and I kept it for two years and I learned every song are good and I became that guy who played music and and when I graduated, I just couldn't imagine doing anything else but moving to Nashville to see if I could make it as an Artist and I'll tell you had tick tock existed then I would never have tried. I see so many amazing singers and songwriters on Tik Tok. But back then the barrier to entry was a lot greater and involve packing your car up and just heading up to Nashville, which is what I did. And so I got a job waiting tables and eventually started writing for a publishing company and never really hit it in the in the entertainment business. I mean, although I played, I played in bands all over the country had a ball a ball. But it wasn't until I left Nashville after I met my wife that Sirius XM Radio had started to become a thing. And so did a comedy album of funny songs and stories that I'd put together. Every songwriter has a funny song, by the way. And so I'd kind of become known for the songs, the funny songs that I had written. And so I put together a comedy album and just sent it into Sirius XM Radio, and they absolutely ignored it. So I sent it in again, the next month, they ignored it. And then I sent it in with a box of Google clusters. And then for those of your listeners who aren't from the so yeah, your good cluster is a kind of candy. And so with a note that saying I'm gonna keep sending this thing until we both agree, it belongs. And the guy thought that was funny, the programmer and he put me on and for years, I was a regular performer on the Blue Collar Comedy Channel, and laugh USA and, and I loved it.

Kenneth Kinney 6:38

Well, you're still you're happily married with three kids, right?

Patrick Henry 6:43

Yeah.

Kenneth Kinney 6:43

Well that's why you weren't a successful Nashville songwriter. It's not about the quality me unless you're divorced living in a trailer. I mean, it's all the jokes go. But so when did you get into professional speaking?

Patrick Henry 6:56

So it all started for me at the Bluebird Cafe. I don't know if you've heard of the bluebird cafe. It's long small songwriters joint in Nashville, and I play every month or two. And the way the bluebird works is not about the artists that play there, although some really famous artists got their start there. But it's more about the songwriters, the people who write their songs, and so we would sit in in a circle in the middle of the room. It's called a writer's round, and the crowd would gather around us and so I'd play a song, but I'd also tell the story about how the song came to be. And so I like to tell people that I wrote good songs, but told great stories. And so that's where I really learned how to blend story and song and start to build in laughter. And, and so it was after a performance one evening, a man approached me. And he said that he was with the Tennessee Farm Bureau, had no idea what that was. But he said they were having a convention the next month in Nashville, and he would love it if I came and performed. And I was so excited and honored that he would ask that I agreed, didn't talk money. In those days, I played for free. And, and so I put together about 45 minutes of songs and stories. And afterwards, he approached me and he said, Patrick, everybody loved your speech. And I thought speech, what's he talking about? Speech? I'm not a speaker, I'm a songwriter. And then he handed me a check for $500. I said, I'm glad you enjoyed that speech. And so but what I realized shark is, you know, there's a place in the meetings industry, you know, there's a place for entertainment, there's a place for humor. And I think that that, you know, people are more willing and able to take in content after laughter after laughter. And so, Jeffrey Gitomer says the height of learning happens at the end of laughter. And so, over the next number of years, I started to develop content around customer experience. And so even now, when I give speeches, I play my guitar, I tell funny stories, but it all leads towards that message of creating an emotional connection with your customers, with your clients, with your co workers. And so I believe that I think it was Maya Angelou said there's power in the gathering. And I believe, you know, now more than ever after COVID We realize how powerful it is when we get together in person. Zoom calls, just don't cut it. There's power when people get together. And I believe when people get together they might as well be laughing.

Kenneth Kinney 9:45

Agreed. So the obvious transition from singing and songwriting and then to speaking and then to what in the hell made you want to start up a organic lawn care business.

Patrick Henry 9:59

So Um, I have learned more about EPA compliance and alpha hydroxy acids than I ever in my life thought I would. So it was 2020. I remember it was February 28 of 2020, that I had my last speech for the next two years. And so I mean, you're a speaker, you know how it goes? I mean litterally within a week...

Kenneth Kinney 10:21

I also hated Zoom as much as possible.

Patrick Henry 10:23

Oh gosh. I mean, I love Zoom, as far as sales meetings go, you know, meeting

Kenneth Kinney 10:29

Or podcasts?

Patrick Henry 10:30

or podcasts? Absolutely. How easy is this? How easy is it for me to connect with, with my sales team and do a 15 minute update without having to fly somewhere. But it was 2020. And within a week and a half, I had probably a year and a half of work disappear off the calendar. And, you know, you got the same calls, you know, we're having to cancel our meeting. And nothing made me laugh more than hearing them say, can we have our deposit back? That's a hard no see in two years. But. But anyway, I gave a few deposits back. But my role was if they didn't give all the deposits back, they didn't get mine, if they get if they got if all the speakers got their deposits back or or you know, but anyway, so here I was sitting in my office going, oh my god, what am I going to do? And so it was about a month later, I get a call from my college roommate. And we didn't keep in touch a whole lot. We kind of lost touch. But but we had started talking and he said, Hey, I've got an idea that I want to include you in. So he's one of these serial entrepreneurs. He starts businesses sells businesses, both of my college roommates became multimillionaires, to go follow my dreams to Nashville might have been one too. But so he just had a has a an eye and a heart and a head for business. And so he had met a guy who is in his Mardi Gras, group club, whatever they call it together. They all live in South Alabama. A lot of people think that Mardi Gras was invented in New Orleans wasn't, it was mobiel. And so all along the Gulf Coast, Mardi Gras is huge. And so they have all kinds of social groups attached to it. So there's a guy in his Mardi Gras group, who was a chemist, and he's in his 70s, he had retired, spent his career in the chemical business in Texas and concrete, hidden Vin knock kinds of curing agents and different kinds of products that went along with concrete. And his what he loved to do was create organic products that wouldn't harm the environment. Because you know, when you're building roads, I'll tell you, what a lot of them do right now is, you know, they clear clear the road. And before they lay the asphalt, they spray it with weed killer, so nothing will come up through. Well, what a lot of them do or have done in the past is just spray diesel fuel, because diesel fuel will kill weeds. But it's also not incredibly legal to spray that. And so but anyway, I digress. So lawn had retired, and had approached use of my college roommate and said, Listen, I've got this product that I've been working on for about six years. It's an organic weed killer. And I've gotten seven stores in Alabama. I need help making it bigger. So use have called me and said what do you think? And I said, Well, I think roundup just got sued for $10 billion. I think this may be the perfect time to try to bring a natural product into the market as long as it works. And so I got him to send me some samples. And sure enough, the product works. And so I spent the next two months doing nothing but studying EPA compliance, state registration protocols. I realized that our product was not a true organic because there's a chemical in there. Well, actually, we had to change chemicals because it didn't qualify for the 25 B exemption. That means we don't have to go through EPA approval, because all of our ingredients had been deemed minimum risk for the environment. And so but because of that we had to have, we had to have certain ingredients in our formula, or actually we couldn't have ingredients that weren't on a list. So I helped tweak the formula. And we started going to market we started going to market with distributors. We've got an Amazon presence now we're selling on tractor supply.com We're meeting with the box stores and so it's just been a heck of a journey. You know, go I have to say, is the active ingredient in Roundup, and that's what's getting causing all the problems. And you'd be surprised Kenneth how political that conversations gotten. I've had guys show up old men show up my booths, and I've been using this stuff for 30 years ain't done a thing to me. And I always tell them the same thing. I'm not trying to change your mind. But why don't you want to an alternative for your customers who are looking for an alternative? I'll give me three cases, you know, so, but I mean, it's amazing how political conversations gotten. But a year ago, glyphosate because all the factories in China where it's manufactured, all those factories are shut down, were shut down. They were allocating it and so distributor distributors couldn't get get it. And so we're getting orders for truckloads of product. I mean, I had a truckload like 150,000 or truckload going out the door. And the guy called me and said, it does work, right? You know, that. So anyway, but now glyphosate has come back down, actually, it's shot straight down to the bottom. And so we're having to kind of alter our, you know, alter our strategies. You know, what was the guy's name he was the father of the man and management guru, Peter Drucker, Peter Drucker said, every company needs to ask themselves a fundamental question. And that's what business are you in? And so we had to ask ourselves, you know, who's our customers? You know, is it the farmer? No, it's we decide to it's not the farmer, although we have a lot of farmers who use our product. But farmers are care care about two things cost per acre, and does it work. And as long as glyphosate is cheaper, most farmers are going to go for the cheaper product. But we identified homeowners are our customers, municipalities, because a lot of municipalities are going towards more natural solutions. And so once we identified who our customers were, that began to shift, which distributors we reached out to which sales verticals, we attacked, and so it really kind of helped helped us. Give us a Northstar.

Kenneth Kinney 17:16

There's so much to unpack out of that one. I was just, I was laughing earlier thinking about the whole what I lovingly refer to as the Redneck Riviera, which was Biloxi to Panama City. But if that had really if Mardi Gras had moved south, I can't imagine if we were making trips to Orange Beach, and Pascagoula instead of New Orleans, but I'm kind of glad that settled in in New Orleans for the most part.

Patrick Henry 17:38

Yeah.

Kenneth Kinney 17:38

But I remember when we met, it was one of the few times I've probably come up to someone and said, Hey, I used to work at TruGreen. So with that background, it does a lot of what you're what you're talking about resonates with me, and especially how many at least at the time, I was working there, and it's still that way, but especially millennials and even Gen Z now are so hyper focused on the environment and the world we live in. And these kinds of products really resonate with them. And it's it's in particular, that audience, it's so dialed in, but to that point, with the chemicals and everything, this becomes such an issue with trying to compete against the behemoths like a TruGreen, which owned well over a third of the market at the time I was even there. But it's it's really tough. So how do you go about differentiating your product, even though it is a organic chemical, if you will, to really stand on its own? There's chuck in a truck in every corner of the country that does some form of lawn care, but with your product, it's hard to really break through to an audience without knowing that audience well.

Patrick Henry 18:41

Well, it's it's about the way we market ourselves. We, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, we have we have negative marketing, we don't talk about how well our product kills weeds. That's an assumption. Any bottle you pull off the shelf, the assumption is it's going to kill weeds. Does it always, I mean, I'm nuts about our product, but you know, not always, but the assumption is there. So we don't talk about how our product kills weeds. We talked about how our product won't kill your dog. We talked about, about how, you know won't harm your children. People love their kids, but they're nuts about their dogs. 78% And this is why the the younger generations are especially metropolitan, there's Atlanta, you know, landscapers around Atlanta going nuts over our stuff because they have homeowners saying do not spray what they call it round up, you know, obviously product but but you know, it's like Coke, you know, that represents all soft drinks that they call everything round up, do not spray roundup around my yard. And so they're actively looking for an alternative. But, you know, 78% of Americans own a pet. You know, most own dogs. Some of them cats, and then there's those weird people don't fish not kidding. But um, you But they, but so that's kind of that's kind of our value proposition is, is yeah, we kill weeds in a sustainable way. But but we're, we're safe for people, pets, wildlife, including fish, you know, we did tests on fish. And because we want to be able to tell people, we can spray it around shorelines that's important to us. So anyway, that's kind of how we go against, you know, the competitors is not talking about what it will do but talk about what it won't do.

Kenneth Kinney 20:32

You weave some of these stories into what you talk about with customer experience. But give me a broad overview of what your position is on customer experience and how we go about improving it.

Patrick Henry 20:43

Yeah, for sure. So. So one of the things I talk about, and I got when I deliver a speech, for instance, I'm I'm, I'm always using the guitar. And I've already Keep going. Keep on by my desk at all times. And so I talk about, you know, my job as a musician, is in any any musician is to create an emotional connection with your audience, you know, and my wife and daughter just walked out of the house to head to Dixie Dixie Chicks concert. I took him a few weeks ago to Taylor Swift. I couldn't afford three tickets. So I sat in a hotel room while they went to the concert. But, you know, you can take artists like Taylor Swift, and Garth Brooks, two of the big Taylor Swift, one of the biggest in the world, Garth Brooks, was just as big, you know, back in the day, and I look at him and say, Were these guys? Are they the best singers out there? And the answer is no. And, but but I guess what their superpower is, is they create that emotional connection with an audience. I've never seen an artist connect with 14 year old girls better than Taylor Swift does. And and Garth Brooks, if you've ever seen him live, you could be in 60,000 people you think he's singing to you? And it's asked where it's a superpower. And so, and I talk about four chords and four ways to build that emotional connection with your customers. And one of them is called the extra inch mentality. And I tell a story about how you know, when I was a kid cutting grass, and you know, back in the 80s, we didn't have big landscaping companies that Nip Tuck and lipo suck your yards, you had a probably at a 12 year old kid pushing a lawn more around cutting grass. And so you know, long story short, without telling the whole story. My dad was inspecting one of the yards that I'd mowed and, and he saw that I missed a little space. And he told me I need to go back and finish it. And I told him, nobody gonna see that from the street. And it became an argument. And finally, he got the mower took it and cut that grass. And when he got back to me, he said, Have you been paid? And I said, Yes, sir. He said, Good, go give it back. And the lesson that he was trying to teach me, and I didn't realize it till 25 years later, was we've all heard the phrase go the extra mile. But truly connecting with your customers truly building that experience is about the extra inch is the small ways that we differentiate ourselves that I think truly creates our brand. We're judged by how we meet expectations. But we're known for how we exceed those expectations. And so as a speaker, there are three opportunities for us to exceed expectations, before the speech, during the speech and after the speech. So, you know, what I tell other speakers is how are you connecting ahead of time? What kind of partner? Are you in the six months or three months leading up to the speech? Are you creating opportunities to connect with the audience ahead of time? And obviously, during our presentation, we need to be brilliant. I mean, if they're gonna pay us, they better be worth it, and how are you differentiating yourself there. And then after the speech, I always recommend other speakers to the client to continue to try to serve their needs, needs. And so, you know, I guess for your listeners, there are three opportunities to exceed expectations for your customers, you know, before their customers, you know, how are you engaging in the community in the, in your advertising? You know, one of my friends up here, we call him chub. He's a DJ. And he's always, you know, you always see him doing events. And it was the this is what when my kids were in elementary school, during testing, you know, let me back up. So they always have student volunteers who stand in the line opening doors for kids to get out. Well, during testing, they go in so the dads would volunteer. And so they're going into their big testing, and so I'm out there volunteered open up doors. cuz we're all firing the kids up for the test and chub is got his DJ booth set up in the line, and he's getting people fired up. But also his trailer is right at the front of that line with his name, you know, DJ chub on it. And so I'm 100% convinced he's not doing it for the advertising. But he's connecting. And that's how, you know, when people are having parties for their kids or whatever, who do they think of the guy who's connected with the community ahead of time. And so there's those three opportunities to connect with our cause. Obviously, the job we do our expertise is crucial. I mean, if we don't do the job, we're going to lose the customers. And then, you know, opportunities afterwards,

Kenneth Kinney 25:48

How do you do that with your own company now? Because so many of us do that on stages talking about it. And I think you're one of the few people I know, that didn't just curl up in the fetal position and cry for a few years when COVID hit. But you actually,

Patrick Henry 26:00

No, I did.

Kenneth Kinney 26:01

you did? Oh, I did too.

Patrick Henry 26:02

It was a few weeks?

Kenneth Kinney 26:05

Well, but you went and actually started to accompany it with a group and very few people that we know, very few actually went out and did something in the business world like that, and started a company. But now that you're also a practitioner, with your own company, how do you sort of think through, and it's not a chance to necessarily sell the great experience we love with monarch Kim. But you know, I mean, I'm sort of curious what you've learned on that journey.

Patrick Henry 26:30

And this was a great way for me to, you know, to kind of put, put into practice what I've been talking about, you know, and, and so first of all, what really shook me out of my core was the first time I did a virtual presentation, there's 500 people on the other side of the screen. And I'm trying to be funny to a blank screen. It was absolutely gut wrenching. But so, you know, the extra inch mentality, and this is something we talked about was, was how to how are we going to do it differently, we don't want to just be a weed killer. You know, there's a ton of weed killers we want, we want to stand out in the marketplace. And so you mentioned Orange Beach, Alabama. My partner has a place in Orange Beach, Alabama. And if you look at our label, it's the exact color palette of the Orange Beach, Alabama sunset, after three bourbons, and so a little bit blurry on the edges. But everything on the label is intentional. From the color palette, to the monarch butterfly, which represents a healthy ecosystem to the crown. I mean, in this, this is not so much me, this is more use of he's kind of that's the way he thinks, but everything has purpose. You know, one thing that we do, as far as exceeding expectations are going the extra inch in our trade shows. And we don't do it for all trade shows. But like for the real big ones, like we're in Las Vegas last year. For a trade show. We brought up these, these cigar rollers from Miami. It's father son, they have a company that they do cigars, I don't smoke cigars, but it was Las Vegas. And so we put them in the booth. There was the old man's rolling cigars, the sons out there educating people, we're giving away cigars that have the Lanark band around it. And, you know, vendors are coming up to us going we've never seen this before, we got 50 people gathered around our booth, getting cigars, I'm talking to their wives selling them weed killer. And so we also you know, this is a small thing we do, we wrap our pallets in orange shrink wrap, that's part of our color palette, that orange. But that doesn't seem like much until you go into a warehouse. And everything looks the same, except for that orange pallet that just is popping on the floor. It's a psycho psychological connection. But we wanted to stand out our warehouse guys. And then we don't have many of them now to get rid of one up, but we take them to trade shows. Now, there's a couple of reasons that I like these guys to go to trade shows. One. I don't like lifting heavy stuff anymore. But But mainly, I want them to see the results of their efforts in the marketplace. I want them to think of their job more than just putting juice in bottles, packing boxes, I want them to interact with the customers. It turns out some of our great salesman, even though I had to buy one of them shoes because all he owns is workbooks. But it's also a way to reward them with a trip to Orlando or Las Vegas or places that they've never been before. And so I mean, those are small ways that we can And there's more that I want to do. But honestly, sales have to pick up. It's hard to, you're making decisions that cost $50,000 or whatever. It may not be a big deal six months, months from now, but it is now because we're self funding this whole thing.

Kenneth Kinney 30:15

Sure. Well, so we talked earlier about a possible conference we may be doing together. So when you get to that point, I definitely want you to learn the theme to jaws on the guitar. I've never heard it played on an acoustic guitar, but that would be a good intro for me. So Patrick asked everybody who appears on this show. If you spent any time as you have down in LA, lower Alabama, or the rest of Riviera. What's your favorite kind of shark and why?

Patrick Henry 30:43

Favorite kind of shark? Little mini ones.

Kenneth Kinney 30:48

Well, Patrick, it's a special time of the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked today?

Patrick Henry 30:55

Okay, let's go for it.

Kenneth Kinney 30:56

Alright, number one. You have three choices here. New country music like Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton. I'll say medium ish new, like Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw, or old country like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams?

Patrick Henry 31:11

Okay, so if I was going to play it cool, I'd say old country,

Kenneth Kinney 31:16

but there's no beating Johnny Cash.

Patrick Henry 31:19

Yeah, I love those guys, obviously. But honestly, I love 90s country. And you mentioned Luke Bryan and Chris Stapleton. Two very different artists.

Kenneth Kinney 31:29

Very different yeah. At least I didn't say Taylor, which, sadly enough people don't even remember that she started in country.

Patrick Henry 31:35

That's right. But I remember Chris Stapleton when he didn't have a beard, and he was the most but I love I love 90s country. I mean, I love the you know the 80s and 90s. The George straights the Garth Brooks Allen's Clint Black. I mean, that's just what I cut my teeth on.

Kenneth Kinney 31:52

And Tim McGraw is still trying to look like he was when he was 20 and his skinny bedazzled jeans.

Patrick Henry 31:57

Hey, listen, brother. That is CrossFit. Every day I would kill for those abs.

Kenneth Kinney 32:03

Yeah, no kidding.

Patrick Henry 32:04

I do everything but diet.

Kenneth Kinney 32:06

Well, speaking of diets, you wrote the pancake principle. You know, one of our greatest five star restaurants in the world is is obviously IHOP. So if you were going there taking the family for a little breakfast, then would you pick the chocolate chip pancakes, or the strawberry banana pancakes?

Patrick Henry 32:25

I prefer the strawberry banana pancakes. I believe chocolate and breakfast ought to be separated.

Kenneth Kinney 32:34

All right, and we're going to talk about weeds. I have the pretty Swedes on my block. Which I wear with a lot of pride but which is better for an organic eco product to kill. Obviously monarch Kim works with both of them. But which one do you think works better with, dandelions or crabgrass?

Patrick Henry 32:52

dandelions? Crabgrass...crabgrass is tough.

Kenneth Kinney 32:56

Crabgrass is like a cockroach. You cannot get rid of it unless my lawn care company burns your lawn. Yeah,

Patrick Henry 33:01

Yeah. I mean, not to get too in the weeds. No pun intended. But you know that crabgrass? I mean, the way those roots go. I mean, you gotta, you gotta really work it.

Kenneth Kinney 33:12

Well, you talked about Jimmy Buffett songs. So I want to ask you because you're close enough to both of these. I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little bit of a pivot. Would you rather go spend a week vacation at the Margaritaville in Nashville? Or the one in Pigeon Forge?

Patrick Henry 33:31

Oh, gosh, Nashville is becoming more and more like Pigeon Forge every day. It's not the same Nashville that I

Kenneth Kinney 33:37

No, it's more like Atlanta with the traffic.

Patrick Henry 33:39

Yeah,

Kenneth Kinney 33:40

And less freeways.

Patrick Henry 33:42

You know, I don't I don't know. I mean, Pigeon Forge is I'd have to say Nashville, obviously. I'll tell you what, I'm sure you've been to Key West. I've never been to Key West and that's actually the vacation. I'm planning. You know, my wife and I've been all over the world together. But I'm like, you know, we got one of the greatest places, you know, right here in our own country. And I just want to go do a one of those tours. We eat your way down, down the coastline, restaurants.

Kenneth Kinney 34:11

Well, the day before I met you, I was down close to Miami in the waters down there and they've done a lot of stories this year. They're they're heating way up. I was diving a 91 degree water and it was it was painful. So it's it's obviously a beautiful place to go. But anyway, number five, and the most important question that you're going to be asked today, this gets a corporate

Patrick Henry 34:33

I'd have to say cornbread. Okay, um, I'm a son. I grew up in Alabama, so and the question another question would be Sweet Cornbread or, or non sweetened cornbread? All depends on what you're eating it with.

Kenneth Kinney 34:49

Well, So Patrick, where can people find out more about you about your speaking career about Monarchem and more?

Patrick Henry 34:56

Yeah, well, thank you for asking that. My website patrickhenryspeaker.com is a good place to kind of see what I do. And obviously, if anybody has a meeting, they're looking for a speaker, they can contact me through that.

Kenneth Kinney 35:11

And if you're in the place where they're we're talking about the first or sixth Governor of Virginia, you're in the wrong website.

Patrick Henry 35:17

Yeah, right. Wrong one. He's, he's doesn't do as good as

Kenneth Kinney 35:21

He's dead to me. So

Patrick Henry 35:25

He's dead to me. In our as far as the Monarchem is monarchchem.com, MO, N, AR CH EM. But you can also look at, get us on Amazon, we just reactivate our Amazon account that was a strategic move to go what they call Fulfilled by Amazon rather than drop shipping ourselves. And so we're finally back up and we're starting to push product now. It's great,

Kenneth Kinney 35:51

Patrick, thank you again, for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Patrick Henry 35:55

Oh, it was a pleasure. Thank you Kenneth.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 36:02

So there was my conversation with Patrick Henry, the President of Monarchchem, the makers of the ecofriendly herbicide Lonarch, a speaker, a former Nashville songwriter, and a humorist who was featured on the SiriusXM Radio Comedy Channels. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 36:19

First, differentiation doesn't mean simply repeating the label. Many times it's what it doesn't do, like in his case, an organic based lawn care product that doesn't hurt pets don't always get caught up in the what you do versus what they do. Argument. Sometimes the value proposition and differentiation is simply something your customers care about, that's going against what your product won't do.

Kenneth Kinney 36:42

Second, love the point of building a connection with your customers truly connecting like it's all the small ways that we differentiate love the mowing the lawn story from his childhood and the lesson from the extra inch method. It reminds us that we're known not for how we meet expectations, but for how we exceed those expectations at a minimum.

Kenneth Kinney 37:00

Third, I love the point of the before, during and after I speak about this on stages as well all the time. It's one of my favorite topics. Take the time to define in your business in here, take a piece of paper, draw three columns and have a before, during and after section. Now to find out how you meet, exceed or fall short of those expectations of your customers in that experience. We get lost in the customer journeys. But when you boil it down to all customers, it's in those three areas that you'll find many opportunities to improve, see where you fall short, find balance, and again, exceed their expectations.

Kenneth Kinney 37:35

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 37:40

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

Kenneth Kinney 37:44

Another thing I love about the ocean, no lawn care, no weeds. I'll never have to mow underwater. So let's dive deeper. And please join us on the next episode of a sharks perspective.

(Music - shark theme)