Lonnie Mayne created Red Shoes Living while serving as president of InMoment. What began as an internal initiative to define and give structure to the company’s culture morphed into a force of its own that could provide support for a necessary, but often neglected, factor pivotal in building successful, customer-centric organizations: The human factor.
Mayne, of course sporting a pair of red shoes, talked about the 5 Pillars that he believes are imperative for any brand or any person’s life during his session, “Using Red Shoes to Find the ‘Sole’ of Your Company,” last week at the 10th annual Loyalty Expo.
Mayne, who spent 18 years spearheading corporate turnarounds, told attendees that change “deletes the soul” of companies.
The concept behind Red Shoes Living revolves around standing out in everything you do from how you interact with customers, to the products that you build and sell, and, perhaps most important, how team members treat each other internally.
“Standing out in everything you do or living a life of mediocrity,” Mayne said. “The soul of some of these businesses is being challenged.”
Brands such as Nike and Starbucks “get it,” Mayne noted due to their “incredible cultures” and “incredible red shoes leaders.”
But, Mayne said, “most of us aren’t doing what we wanted to be when we were young.”
The human factor is the key, Mayne said, and the Red Shoes living concept doesn’t just live and breathe inside of a business. But it’s something that becomes very personal to people and they take that home with them.
And it applies to executives, all the way to frontline employees and everyone in between.
At its core, it’s a reminder to not lose your soul, both in a business and as an individual and to keep that soul of the company alive as you work with your clients, customers, and employees.
Mayne shared a story about his late father, a professional wrestler who went by the name of “Moondog Mayne.” He used to attend wrestling matches with his father at Madison Square Garden in New York City and would walk with his father before his matches. At a certain point, his father went through a door, and Mayne stayed behind, but he could hear the roar of the crowd as it greeted his father’s entrance into the ring.
After the match, Mayne met his father when he returned and a line of people was waiting to meet him, and his father graciously spent time with each and every one, being himself, Mayne’s dad, and not his Moondog Mayne character.
“He turned back into himself and not Moondog Mayne,” Mayne said. “You treat people in a certain way. You have to be human along the way.”
What does Red Shoes represent?
Mayne offered his 5 Pillars that he lives his life by and tries to help others to as well.
Pillar 1: Awareness Witness a Red Shoes moment or participate in one. Acknowledge people. Be authentic. People play their own personal music every day.
Pillar 2: Gratitude Be grateful for everything in your life every day. Focus on what you’re grateful for.
Pillar 3: Everyone Has a Story Everyone in the world is going through different stages of life every day, and going through different things in their lives
Pillar 4: Respect (Kindness) Seems simple, but is incredibly important
Pillar 5: Put Yourself Out There Mayne said that when you fly, invariably, there are always a few people that struggle with getting their carry-on luggage into the overhead bins. Do you sit and do nothing? Think about it, but wait for someone else to? Or just go and help?
“Surprise one person a day in business or your personal life with a call,” Mayne said. “The greatest gift of all is the gift of time.”
Tim Harris was a recipient of the Red Shoes Award, which exemplifies all five pillars. Harris, who has Down Syndrome, dreamed of owning his own restaurant and achieved that when he opened “Tim’s Place” in Albuquerque in October 2010. The sign outside the restaurant, which closed after five years because he moved to Colorado to be close to his girlfriend, said: “Breakfast, Lunch, and Hugs.”
It was also billed as “The World’s Friendliest Restaurant.”
Harris gave out more than 60,000 hugs and always put a smile on everyone’s face who ate at his restaurant.
“These pillars become the island, the home you go back to,” Mayne said. “Sustain it by the people you surround yourself with. Don’t choose mediocrity. Stand out like a pair of red shoes.”
Presented by Loyalty360 – Association for Customer Loyalty, Loyalty Expo has earned the reputation of being one of the industry’s premier events.