Season 3 - Episode 8 - John's Parents Jooge and Rae!
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Cousin Bill 0:01
From the books and podcast one, this is give them the business boot CEO John Tabis news girl Katie Rotolo doesn't build like a mouse, like about giving the big human added value like ROI, like, gonna do stuff on a Wednesday.
Jooge Tabis 0:34
Please welcome your host the passion flower of Pittsburgh, the force from Fox Chapel. The little John that's better than
John Tabis 0:41
okay.
Jooge Tabis 0:42
My cousin our captain John.
John Tabis 0:46
Hey, okay. Where's the best little John? Let's see. That's mine.
Cousin Bill 0:52
Okay.
John Tabis 0:53
What do you got? Oh, bills pretty good.
Unknown Speaker 0:56
Oh.
John Tabis 0:58
Katie's like an 80 year old woman. You ever there get off my lawn. Katie roll John's made everyone def
awesome. Good times. Welcome back, everybody. Give them the business. What's up? What's up? We are the podcast that brings startup reality, the human side and a little bit of fun to the business world. Who even knew that was possible before we came along. Thank you, everyone for supporting us in our little tiny pirate ship in this vast ocean. That is called podcast. We so appreciate it. If you do like us, remember you We need you to subscribe. We need you to rate only if it's five stars. leave a nice comment about how great Katie and Bill Are you can say whatever you really think about me. And please check out our sponsors the books company Bo u q s dot calm best flowers in the world. And by the way, guys Casamigos tequila brought buy a bottle of free tequila for us. Because they heard that we were begging Firestone they knew they were like, Hey, we know you like Firestone beer but do you like Casamigos tequila So guys, we are ripped over here halfway through this bottle. Casamigos so because amigos like guys like it's the best president ever. So appreciate it. But seriously, check out the books check out Casamigos because they were so cool to bring us this free tequila. Sorry, Bill. You can't You can't have any from the east coast. But how are you doing? Cousin bill?
Jooge Tabis 2:28
I'm good. Please save me some of that because I'm gonna partake whenever I get back.
Katie Rotolo 2:32
No,
sorry.
John Tabis 2:34
Katie has finished the handlebar.
Katie Rotolo 2:35
So it's vegan and gluten free. So you know, I
John Tabis 2:40
drank it. All right, and they recycled the bottle 17 times before they put the liquor in it. Katie Rotolo How are you?
Katie Rotolo 2:45
I'm okay. Um, you know,
Unknown Speaker 2:47
Wow,
John Tabis 2:48
that sounds great.
Katie Rotolo 2:50
A little tired from being honest. Like my energy. My energy level is a little low.
Unknown Speaker 2:54
Uh huh.
Katie Rotolo 2:54
I know for me, that's weird.
Unknown Speaker 2:56
Yeah.
Katie Rotolo 2:57
But yeah, I don't know. I'm, I guess I'm just kind of just a lot going on. And everybody's doing okay, out there Veterans Day.
I mean, this is Yeah, this is gonna air long after that. But yeah, yeah, there's just a lot going on. And I just brings it down. Right. Yeah. But I also feel very privileged that thank goodness, my family is safe. And you know, I just I just my heart goes out to everybody out there that.
John Tabis 3:23
Yeah, it's a little weird that this is so delayed, because we've talked about the news, but like, a lot of our news stories are not like,
Unknown Speaker 3:29
they're not likely. Yes. Yeah.
John Tabis 3:31
Yeah. So yeah, we we were in the midst of some of the worst wildfires in the history of California right now. I have personal friends, some colleagues that have had to evacuate.
Katie Rotolo 3:44
Yeah, my friend lost her home.
John Tabis 3:45
Yeah, everyone safe so far. But homes are at risk. And so it's a really tough time in LA. So definitely sending our best out there in real time, to everybody there and are sure
Katie Rotolo 3:56
and also they'll need you know, recovery for so yeah,
John Tabis 4:00
we're doing some stuff here in the office tomorrow to try to raise some money and get some some help. And hopefully, we'll get get a lot of help here for for folks in California. So certainly, certainly, our thoughts are there. But actually, speaking of safety, it's sort of a good dovetail into what I was thinking about, which is, and this is actually a really interesting guy to check out. So if you're listening, and you take any of our references, you know, we talked we've talked about books and articles and stuff like that. There's this epic dude named Simon Sinek. I don't know if either of you have heard of or seen or anything but Simon does it spell his last name? Si n ek. I'm pretty sure there could be two ends, but um, I know there's no there's at least one. But Simon is one. There's at least one. At least one. I knew there wasn't three, Google so I know his name was sin, Nick. But Simon had this great TED talk about how you get organizations excited. about what you're doing, and that the people come to work for the why not the water, the how, and often, you know, new leaders or not great leaders focus on the water, the how not the why. And, and he had this great talk on Ted originally about that, I would highly recommend that for anyone who's trying to figure out how to drive an organization towards a goal. It's a really great talk. That's not the one I'm gonna talk about. He has another great talk, that that all the great talks is sort of like the follow up to the first great talk. Well, the first one about the why was what made him famous. He's this really quirky, smooth way of talking. And, and he's just a natural presenter. And so he was really great in this original talk about the why and finding your why. And then he did the second talk, which is about how great leaders help people feel safe. And that's the one that I want to talk a little bit today, mostly because it at least in my early days at the company, and I'm starting to get better at this, but it's still something that, you know, doesn't necessarily naturally come to me right now. In the early days, I was super transparent about what was needed for what and, and what I mean by that is, you know, we would raise money. And generally speaking, if you're a startup and you raise money, on the other side of it, you have 12 to 24 months before you run out of money. Most of the time, that's not everyone, it depends on this company stage and the business model and how frugal the founder is, and all these things, we always had 12 to 24 months before we ran out of money. And I was always super transparent about one way we didn't spend a ton of money on things because we don't want to waste it. And we wanted to make it to the other side of that 12 to 24 months. But also, I was very clear with everyone that if we didn't do certain things, that wouldn't be enough money. And what that did was it instilled fear. And that was then motivating for people, I have had a fear of failure and a fear of not winning since I was born. So for me, that actually is motivating. If you tell me like, hey, the fires coming, you need to escape it to live, that's very motivating for me, I'm not going to get stuck down and like afraid of it, I'm going to go react and move. But it turns out that in the corporate setting, at least, this is what Simon Sinek said, you should check out this search about leading from a place of safety rather than fear is that that actually can paralyze organizations. And it can make people so nervous about what might happen, that they can't do anything about preventing that thing from happening. And so really great leaders lead from a place of joy, or, more specifically, from Simon's talk, lead from a place of creating a safe place where people feel that they are covered that someone has their back, that there aren't that they have a leadership team, and a founder or a CEO or whatever that's on their side. And it's about them first, and it's about the team first. And then all the other stuff sort of comes with it. And that was my mistake early in the business, which is one where my reasoning, which was very rational, I thought at least you can tell me if I was full of it was that if if we don't make the business work that no one has jobs anyway. So it's sort of like we had to put the business first. Because if we didn't put the business first and with the business needed, then we wouldn't have jobs and the team wouldn't exist, which is all very true. But it was backwards, at least according to what Simon says, hmm,
Unknown Speaker 8:13
haha.
John Tabis 8:13
Awesome. I didn't even I didn't mean to do it, folks. So naturally, this podcast thing comes to me. But anyway, what Simon said was, you know, it's about making people feel safe, so then they can be free to do the best work they can possibly do. And, and you know, as this company has evolved, and I've watched our culture evolve, and everything, I've understood this more and more. And I don't think I've gotten great at it yet. But I'm really trying to get great at this idea of, it's about letting people know where you are, where you're going. So there's a firm grounding and an understanding, you don't want to not be transparent. You want people to understand the situation. But at the same time, they have to see a path to see where they're headed. So that makes them feel safe, that there's clarity on where you're headed. Whereas my old point of view is one of like, hey, if we don't get a bunch of stuff done in next six months, it's over. Which may actually literally be true. But it's not where you want to focus, right? It's about where are you headed? And and how are you going to get there? And what are the plans? And what does everybody needs to do to sort of be in lockstep to make it to the promised land? And it's really this idea of safety. So if you're interested in this talk, Google Simon Sinek Si, Mo en si NDK. But we'd love to hear if any of that resonates with you know, the to you know, you
Katie Rotolo 9:29
can we will we will remember the mic.
So it actually reminded me when you're talking about it of the in yoga, we often and just in mindfulness practices and stuff we often talk about scarcity versus abundance mindset, and kind of living in a place of fear and, and scarcity is not good for anybody, obviously and like manifesting that and you you can trigger like you're it also reminded me when you said Like the running thing, like triggering your fight or flight, like you're, you know, like, oh, gosh, like, I don't want to be here. I don't feel safe, you know. And so,
Unknown Speaker 10:09
yeah,
Katie Rotolo 10:10
I don't know, exactly advice, but I'm trying to say, Yeah,
John Tabis 10:14
you're super normal lifestyle.
Jooge Tabis 10:18
Totally. And I've had both kinds of bosses where I've been just on edge and like afraid to screw up because that person's gonna flip out or yell at me and like, whatever. But I've also had the, say, the boss that motivates, which we're talking about, and my fear, not my fear, but my concern is more of like, I don't want to disappoint them. Because they've been so good to me. And fair to me that, like, I want to, I want to keep the ship moving forward, not like oh, my God, don't screw up, you idiot, you know, I mean, you're gonna do better work
John Tabis 10:49
that way. Have you even read it, like my wife, and I, you know, try to be better parents will read about how, you know, positive reinforcement, focusing on the right behaviors, more than focusing on punishing the bad behaviors, right leads to a much more well adjusted, happier child that can develop more fully and everything. So this isn't just in sort of the corporate world, but it's just in life. But it's one of those things. And, you know, there's always been this adage of, you know, five way to goes for everyone. What the hell's right, or, or feedback loops, if you will, maybe that's better than what the hell. But that's always been the ratio that everyone says it's 5151. And, and so, you know, it's something that I'm not, I'm honestly not there yet. Like, for me, that's not necessarily like, I grew up in a time and in a world where it was like, get your shit together and make it happen, or it's not going to happen. And that actually works for me like that. That is fine. Like, if someone comes in, well, under pressure you're sucking right now. I'll be like, Oh, thank you, what do I need to do better, so I can be better that doesn't put me in the tank. It doesn't make me feel nervous. So I can't do something next. But but that's not normal. And it's also a previous generations way of thinking. And so, you know, this, the current startup world, especially where you have to be sort of progressive in the way that you think about everything, you know, the office space, the the way that you think about innovation, the way you think about technology you have to be or you're losing, is a world where you have to sort of always think about that next layer, even if it's not natural. And so it's one of those challenges that I'm forgiving myself. And I'm trying to give myself the same challenge my kids like, I'm definitely like a, you know, don't do that kind of person. Like don't punch your brother in the face. Yeah. Oh, and you know, today at dinner, by the way, my parents are here as our guests from row Ridge, they're gonna join us here in a few minutes, or dinner tonight. And my son, my three year old son gets frustrated with GE, and takes her face in his hand and pushes it. And I
Cousin Bill 12:58
was like, don't push the face.
John Tabis 13:02
Like no you don't do that. You focus on Avery Jane over here is being all sweet with like her little My Little Ponies like kajabi j so that Oh, and sees the attention goes to her. But anyway, yeah, that was my sorry random Russell. I can't
Katie Rotolo 13:14
I can sort of relate when the bunny goes in the litter box. I go Yay. good money. Yeah, that's where you go potty. Yeah. Evil bunny. Yeah, we adopted a bunny a few months ago. I had no idea. Yeah,
Cousin Bill 13:28
what's the bunnies name?
Katie Rotolo 13:28
Her name is Beans. Beans. Yeah, yeah, well our cats are taco and trucks so naturally.
John Tabis 13:35
Anna rabbit Yeah. Do they like each other?
Katie Rotolo 13:38
They get along Yeah, they in the beginning the cats were not a fan. They were scared of her but she has not been afraid of them at all ever since she came into the house. It was like
John Tabis 13:48
my house rabbits and cats essentially are pets that just ignore everything do they just sit there and just like ignore all each other all they know
Katie Rotolo 13:54
they play they chase each other around? Actually yeah, they engage oh my gosh Yeah, they're really loving
John Tabis 14:02
to cats and the only rabbit that actually like other beings
Katie Rotolo 14:05
I guess so our cats come to the door when you get there and they want to meet everyone and they're really sweet. They think they're dogs and you have a bunny she you can we take them everywhere too. They all have a harness and they go on adventures with us and taco doesn't like long card right car right but
John Tabis 14:22
the next time we take the two cats in the rabbit in the harness, need a video and this has to be on the given the biz. Oh, I
Katie Rotolo 14:27
have tons of video. posting it tomorrow things I'm going I have got to get my bunny
the bunny harness is new. I actually can't but a taco and truck. Oh yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they're really sweet. And
John Tabis 14:44
next one's gonna be halitosis.
Katie Rotolo 14:47
No, we actually we want to keep we want to get a goat. Eventually,
John Tabis 14:51
a house got to be named after the well we've always wanted to be Mexican.
Katie Rotolo 14:54
We've always wanted to name our goat freehold is actually but it's that's beans in Spanish but they won't know you know? really know. But yeah, we name our animals have jerky rabbit
John Tabis 15:07
Bonin
Katie Rotolo 15:08
Now,
John Tabis 15:09
come on,
Katie Rotolo 15:10
she won't, she'll never know
John Tabis 15:11
my name is John and my brother's name is Juan. My mom would be like what the heck my
Katie Rotolo 15:15
mom's name is actually, her first name is Phyllis and her middle name. They couldn't basically they couldn't decide if they were going to name her in English or Italian. So they gave her both. So her name is Phyllis Philomena. So her name is really Phyllis Phyllis.
Cousin Bill 15:29
squared. Awesome. Yeah.
Katie Rotolo 15:32
And her mom spelled it for H YLI. s.
John Tabis 15:34
Hey, hey, Pablo, get over here. Mom. What's one of us?
Katie Rotolo 15:41
Sounds very different to the ear of an animal. I'm
Unknown Speaker 15:43
sure.
John Tabis 15:44
So the cool thing is, is we have two guests today, but it's Ray and judge papen G. My parents from row Ridge, Pennsylvania, they're gonna come in and talk about the house. We're not going to talk about actually a lot of business with them. That's because there's just not a lot of engagement business. My dad's a retired public school teacher. And right I'm not two teachers, good for him and Andre worked in. Well, now he actually runs his own business. Now he does soccer field lining as like a way to stay in shape and get paid. Like he puts on the line. Yeah, soccer teams back and cool. My hometown. And Ray was in medical sales, remote medical sales for a while and then came out of retirement five, six years ago to help me start the books company as our first customer service employee. So let's talk about some of that. And just, I'm excitedabout what you were like as a kid like we do with our guests.
Yeah, actually, you guys, I let you guys ask a lot of the questions. I think it'll be pretty fun. Yeah. Before that, Katie matomo. What is in that? What are we talking about? What
Katie Rotolo 16:45
would you give me a hard time for you? Every episode? What do you say? You're you always go Welcome back. That's every Yeah, every time Welcome back.
John Tabis 16:58
Welcome back.
Cousin Bill 17:00
Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcomeback.
Katie Rotolo 17:03
Coming up on today, Tom Cruise has a new movie and we're going to be talking to him. Hey, funny man. Al Franken will be stopping by for a visit. And Wolfgang Puck shares his recipe for apple strudel. Hey, so stay tuned, because we've got all this and more coming up in the next hour.
Oh, well, nevermind. So Alibaba, which you guys have probably heard of. It's a online e commerce giant. So an e commerce online, you know, you get the idea. And they created a they turned a an unofficial holiday into a huge shopping extravaganza. So basically, this was started in 2009. And last year, they made more than the US Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales combined
John Tabis 17:51
Alibaba alone, more revenue on this fake holiday. So what does
Katie Rotolo 17:56
it take? Well, guess how much revenue if you had to guess just what, what kind of money to combine both Black Friday and Cyber Monday how much they make in 24 hours? Gosh, I
John Tabis 18:06
have no idea what Black Friday is. I'm gonna go with 3 billion, though.
Man 5 Billion
Katie Rotolo 18:15
25 billion with a B dollars.
John Tabis 18:19
Whoa, madness.
Katie Rotolo 18:21
So basically, they took Singles Day, which actually translates to bear sticks holiday. It's a holiday that's rooted in China's one child policy, which it references bear branches, which is a Chinese expression that refers to bachelors who aren't haven't added any branches to their tree of their family. So this was implemented in the late 70s. This is all
John Tabis 18:49
designing my feelings. How dare you? How dare you Alibaba, let's tweet them when we when this goes live. And chastise them for making you feel terrible
Katie Rotolo 19:02
that but yeah, so this was implemented between 1978 and 80. And it was supposed to help with curbing the overpopulation problem. But it had blowback and I'm sure as you guys know, China has a massive gender imbalance. And so just Alibaba CEO studied the market he realized that there were certain highs and lows you know, throughout the year and just decided that it was a good idea to create this holiday and make it a massive online sales explosion thing
John Tabis 19:36
and it's crazy. Yeah, one company outsells Yeah,
Katie Rotolo 19:40
it's crazy. And that now they're saying other companies are probably going to jump on board with Sure. viously Yeah, sure. But yeah, I guess that there were some retail polls which kind of showed their lows and they wanted to exploit this and just really went for it and killed it sales day.
Yeah. All right, daybill
John Tabis 20:01
shop shopping day.
Cousin Bill 20:03
What is that date? Again?
Katie Rotolo 20:05
It's a single.
Single, what's,
Cousin Bill 20:08
what date? What date? Is that a holiday? Oh,
Katie Rotolo 20:11
you know, it falls on last year was November 11. So I gotta check. I wonder if it's the November 11 of every year today.
John Tabis 20:20
Oh, boy, good shop. And Bill. Well,
Katie Rotolo 20:22
though, that's that's how you
John Tabis 20:23
only single people are a lot of shop on the day, by the way, like, they know in their in their massive governmental database that you're not single, they actually reject your credit card. Oh, that's too bad. That's quite sorry.
Jooge Tabis 20:35
They take it all over the place.
John Tabis 20:37
What else is that, Katie.
Katie Rotolo 20:38
So Microsoft has expanded its programming, specifically, it's outside and training program to support military families. So they're launching a tech skills class for spouses and they've created it's called the military spouse technology Academy. And this was started just recently in September, with only 19 students. And basically, it's a program where they're teaching them how to use Cloud and Server Admin skills and prepare them for Information Technology kind of jobs. And it's similar to a program that they already use for veterans and those that are transitioning out of the military. And now they're just opening up to family members.
John Tabis 21:19
That's amazing, pretty cool. Anything for military or veterans is a massively help. You know, one of the things I think we all, I don't think we forget it, but it's sort of one of those things that I think it's really hard to picture, the reality of, especially for military families, is what it's like to be a spouse, and a family with someone deployed, right, because you have, you know, your dad's around or mom's around, and then they're not, and they're not solidly away for a weekend or whatever, they're gone for six months, nine months, a year, whatever it is, and they may not come back sort of the entire time. And this strength that it must take to be knowing that your loved one is in harm's way all the time. And then to also know that when they come home, they're going to be going back out again. Like I was reading the story the other day about this guy who had four tours, and you know, after his third they talked about like retirement but didn't do it on his fourth he passed away unfortunately. And it's like, how do you even deal with the reality of that it's so hard to be away from someone for I go away for like a week and I missed my kids like insane amounts, my wife insane amounts. I'm sure they miss me a lot less. But like, you know, okay, all right. It is what it is. But uh, but but to dedicate your life to that and it is not the decision of just the person that's in the armed forces the full family thing. So love that Microsoft is doing that have a lot of friends that work at Microsoft love the company and love that they're focusing on it not just that's or Arsenal, armed forces alarms, but also the spouses and the families and helping them sort of think through what's going to be best for them as a whole family unit. That's amazing.
Jooge Tabis 23:03
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the more that we can do more that can be done to help veterans, you know, and their their families and military is just goes a long way. I think we need a lot more of it in this country. But it's good on Microsoft for taking that step.
Katie Rotolo 23:17
Yeah, needing more of it. But
yeah, it's a big, big step. And hopefully,
they are helping lots of people. They're talking about graduating. I think this says what did I read? It was they've graduated 1000 students already, so they're hoping now to graduate 1000 more each.
And we're super
John Tabis 23:37
relevant skills and you know, cloud, warehousing, administration, etc, etc. Very cool. Thanks. Kay. vitolo.
Cousin Bill 23:44
Yeah.
John Tabis 23:46
So I don't know what kind of sweet Intro Music We're gonna use for my parents, but I hope it's something like negative bill. Warning, gonna cue that music and I'm gonna go and let them know it's time to come on it.
Cousin Bill 23:58
Cool. We have two guests. We have
John Tabis 24:01
guests. We have two guests. Yes.
Cousin Bill 24:08
I was awful. I love it. Please welcome our two guests.
She's the red rose of rule rich. He's the big pop of the patch. Jay Z and Beyonce asked them how to be a power couple. Jerk and re tap
John Tabis 24:27
to the show mom and dad. Say hello to everybody.
Rae Tabis 24:31
Hi, everyone.
Jooge Tabis 24:33
Hello, everybody.
John Tabis 24:35
So we used to make jokes that it was 10s of people but now we know it's 1000s 1000s 1000s of people are learning from the two of you right now. How's that feel?
Rae Tabis 24:44
Oh, that's
not unusual.
Cousin Bill 24:46
Oh.
John Tabis 24:50
Right. But I'm gonna good stuff. Well, thanks for coming over. So my parents are into visit the grandkids. They don't really visit me at all. They just visit the three the three little ones. I'm just sort of a bonus. Yeah, it's like a bonus program on top of the kids. But I asked them to come by and they were not super thrilled about the idea. But they were like, okay, we
Unknown Speaker 25:10
call them out. Well.
John Tabis 25:12
This is about startup in life reality. Katie Rotolo, we're not i'm not sugarcoating things here. But I thought it'd be fun to have some conversation about, like this whole journey from their perspective. Having had, you know, me being a sort of more traditional career for a while and then make this change. And then I also thought bill, and Katie might have some fun, interesting questions for, for my parents. So we will, let's let's, we typically go back to like the beginning and we go like, wait, like, on this long journey, we're not going to do that. But I did want to just set the stage for everybody, you know, like, tell us about where you were born, sort of what life was like, and where you were in the world and sort of what the era was like, and Don't go, don't go for an hour on it. But just give us a little bit of a feeling of what life was like when you were kids?
Jooge Tabis 26:03
Well, I was born in a very small town called Acme Petunia. And it was
John Tabis 26:12
they made the Acme anvils that they dumped on the road runner.
Unknown Speaker 26:15
And it was probably named by people from what they termed the old country, which my grandparents were from the old country. And they came here with many other immigrants and then started their families and raised them. And then of course, my mother and father raised four of us children in this small town,
John Tabis 26:45
and what did you get for Christmas as a child?
Unknown Speaker 26:50
I got things. Various things. Not too much that I remember. But I remember my father said that during the repressed depression, he received an orange for Christmas, and was very happy to get it. And that was his gift. Nice one.
Jooge Tabis 27:14
However, perspective,
John Tabis 27:15
how about you? What was childhood like for you? mumbly peg? Oh, yes, we
Rae Tabis 27:21
played all kinds of dangerous games. We had very little supervision, and we didn't need it. Kids had a lot of freedom. I lived in the patch bill. Yeah. And there were Woods all around us and we would leave in the morning and our parents would say don't come home until lunch or dinner, depending on who was going to feed us. And there were maybe seven or eight of us in a group and we would leave we would go into the woods and we would you know we would use Tarzan swings and play in the creek and play mumbly peg with knives rescue.
John Tabis 28:05
Um, we peg is this thing. This is a story rail, he sold his game where you put your hand down flat on the ground, and you take an old rusty knife and have to try to move as fast as you can between your fingers before you till you hit your finger. And if you hit your finger, you lose. That sounds like fun. Super fun, right? Yeah. I give my kid a rusty knife every day. And I'm like, Hey, have some fun with mumbling. Hey, guys. It's great time.
Rae Tabis 28:27
Cheap games, they didn't cost us a penny. That's right. Maybe medical bill medical bills. Yeah.
Jooge Tabis 28:33
Doctor, right.
John Tabis 28:34
A lot of tetanus shots.
Unknown Speaker 28:37
So much freedom compared to today's youth. We went, I went many great distances from home and never reported in until I decided it was getting dark. And then I show up. And so we did a lot of things that wouldn't our parents wouldn't approve of, but of course, they didn't know so it didn't matter.
John Tabis 29:03
Right? What um, I
Jooge Tabis 29:04
got a lot of those same experiences in the patch, actually.
Rae Tabis 29:08
Oh, really? Oh, yeah.
Jooge Tabis 29:10
I remember. I remember going out with the McHale brothers and learning how to do the trick with the hairspray in matches if you don't like the match.
Rae Tabis 29:20
Oh, yes.
John Tabis 29:22
Jimmy? Yeah. Jimmy, Jimmy and Chris, right. Yep.
Cousin Bill 29:25
Yep. And Josh.
John Tabis 29:26
Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Jim. Jimmy is in touch. What's up, Jimmy? So tell us about what was what was technology. Like, when you were kids? Like, did you have TVs? Did you have radios were they color like, you know,
Rae Tabis 29:42
the TV. The first time I think was black and white. Of course, it was huge. But it was probably in the early 50s. I was about seven. When we got our first TV maybe eight.
John Tabis 29:57
gonna blow your mind. We're just like, what What in the world is this thing?
Rae Tabis 30:01
No, not really. I think I was so young that it really didn't affect me that way. But everything was new to you when you're six years old, or seven years old. So they would have snow in the morning. On the TV until noon, when the news would snow
John Tabis 30:19
for all you young people, snow is just black and white flecks meaning nothing is showing
Rae Tabis 30:26
not actual white noise. Yeah, white noise. And that would come on at noon. And then it would go off at 11 o'clock at night. And they would play the Star Spangled Banner. And there would be snow again. In between, there was mostly news soap operas. Once in a while there were horror programs like inner sanctum, where they had a squeaky door that they opened. It was terrifying, I believe. They had the forerunner of Mr. Rogers was on what was that? It was something about Kerry's place. He was a foreigner, or he was with her working on that program. But I can't remember. Yeah.
Jooge Tabis 31:17
Can you imagine if all of TV does all of television didn't start till noon? And then it just turned off at like, 11pm. I was like, Can I eat everybody? Here's the flag. That's wild,
John Tabis 31:28
you're gonna do snow, you guys come of age when TV becomes kind of normal. But you've gone the whole gambit from a world where there was no TV in your house to now you know, ubiquitous 700 channels, cell phones with with, with technology? What is that like to have grown up in a completely non digital world to now living in a completely digital world?
Unknown Speaker 31:57
Well, as you get older, and things begin to add up, as you say, the new technology, you accept whatever it is that you want to accept and use, and the things that you're not interested in, you just set aside. And that's probably very much as to the way our lives are. We do what we want. And if you like it, fine. If you don't, that's okay, too. To each his own,
John Tabis 32:33
says judge. Um, so fast forward a bit. I'm born. life gets better. Yeah, everything magically, the rainbows come out every day. The temperature is warmer by 10 degrees. The sun shines on you all. What you know, these guys asked, and so I'll ask for them because they were wondering earlier. It's ascribe to that for them for billing Katie what I was like as a kid.
Rae Tabis 33:06
He never said still. He was always moving. He walked at almost eight months.
Unknown Speaker 33:13
prodigy prodigy people?
Jooge Tabis 33:15
Yeah, just way ahead of the curve. Yeah,
Rae Tabis 33:17
yes. way ahead of the curb. He was very curious. He was very lucky that he had two older sisters who were able to keep up with Him and who taught him a lot taught him
Unknown Speaker 33:31
how to dance like crazy.
Katie Rotolo 33:34
Oh, yeah, dance.
John Tabis 33:35
Oh, I got moves. Oh, only things from the from the late 90s
Katie Rotolo 33:40
like the worm. Can you do the worm?
John Tabis 33:41
I can. But I don't like to do the worm. But I can do some crazy Running Man. That's my that's my goat. Okay, I get to the worm. Yeah, Bill.
Katie Rotolo 33:48
I have seen builds you can definitely do the worm. You got a wedding bill? Was he the worm?
John Tabis 33:54
When when I was whatever, sixth grade, eighth grade, whatever. What did you think I would do as a career. Did you have any guesses or thoughts about this is probably what hill? Based on what you were seeing. I'm sort of who I was.
Rae Tabis 34:11
No, no, because I never figured I was gonna be abject failure.
Unknown Speaker 34:15
I I never had any thoughts about what john would become or what he would do for his lifelong dream or anything like that. We were just interested in was he doing and doing well in school? Did he like school? Did he have friends? Was he having a good time?
Katie Rotolo 34:42
Did he have friends? Or were your friends like john
Rae Tabis 34:45
refund? Yeah, yeah, they were
John Tabis 34:48
Yeah, I mean, I I was sort of the guy who was friends with everyone. But I wasn't really tight with a lot like I had a definitely a core crew. But it abdun flowed over the years like for a while. as friends really tight with this group and kind of friends, this group and I sort of have one, but not a really fun and funny group of friends is still tight with with a lot of them today. So, so fast forward a little bit I have to I have two parts of my life one has questions about the one the biggest one is so i i go to Notre Dame, I graduate from Notre Dame, I go to Chicago, I work for mining company, the economy takes a massive turn in the year 2000, which is when I first left school, and in 2002, I end up jobless, and I'm now walking dogs and coaching soccer, to just sort of keep afloat, and I'm collecting unemployment. Unemployment is like the greatest thing in the world. You guys were worried about it. And I'm curious about what what were your concerns about that time.
Rae Tabis 35:52
I was concerned because you were enjoying yourself too much. just loved it. This is the greatest life there is I'm walking dogs, I'm coaching soccer. I'm getting paid for it. That's wonderful. I get unemployment, I don't need to work. And all I'm thinking about is health insurance.
Unknown Speaker 36:12
And Cobra was
Unknown Speaker 36:14
great. His mother was worried that he would never get another real job. It
John Tabis 36:19
was I mean, it was a pretty sweet life. I think I worked a total of probably 12 to 15 hours a week. And I could pay my rent. And I only ate food from Costco
Cousin Bill 36:33
and
John Tabis 36:34
buy in bulk. When I went out I would drink like five beers before I left the apartment so that I wouldn't have to pay for beer when I
Katie Rotolo 36:40
shopped at Costco for liquor, which is cheapest for everything to get liquor, it was a
John Tabis 36:45
pretty sweet summer, but I was only like four or five months. And then I got a job. Oh, okay, so then so then fast forward godville
Jooge Tabis 36:53
Oh, I was just gonna say it by I think my mom had the same feeling around that time, cuz that's about when I moved to LA to fall down for a living. And I think my mom had the same concerns, like all the stuff she yelled at me for, for doing as a kid, I was gonna go and try to make money out in California. So
John Tabis 37:10
this is one of those things that I think, you know, sort of growing up and having been like, you know, a straight A student and sort of always winning and always making it, I always had this feeling of like, if you don't win, it's like all over. And I was always very afraid of it. And then I sort of lost in the sense that I lost my job. And a lot of people are losing their job. And I sort of made it longer than a lot of people at Bain and company in my class and stuff. But like, you know, at the end of the day, I was I'd lost I wasn't employed. But it was the first time my life were losing actually opened up a really awesome opportunity, which was to just hang out and be an adult, sort of on my own. Because at Bain and company, we work 90 hours a week. So my life, from when I graduated to that moment was essentially work. And then going out with my friends, that was all, all we did, we didn't have a lot of time to like think about who we were what we wanted to do, or any that kind of stuff. And so it was first time my life were losing actually opened up doors and sort of failure as as it were, was a good thing. And so was actually kind of thankful for that for that time. So now fast forward, we judge and I hook up a car to the back of an 18 foot trailer, we drive across the country to move to LA to sort of move, move out here for Business School, and then I go to Disney, and then I leave Disney to start the books company. And that's the other part I want to get your perspectives on. So you know, I have a great corporate career. I'm getting promoted, I'm making good money. And then I tell you all that I want to go into the startup world and start my own thing. And you don't want to start this flower company JP out of Ecuador. And when I broached this with you all, what were your thoughts on on that as parents and knowing that I had a nine month old kid and I just bought a house? Like, did you think I was insane?
Unknown Speaker 39:01
Naturally, we were worried that you were giving up a really good job with Disney to start from scratch with starting a new company, which involves so much of setup and procurement of funds and all of that everything that's involved in that. And but I think you told me that this was something you always wanted to do. And I can understand that. Even though I think it takes a certain kind of person to take that step. And it takes a lot of guts.
Cousin Bill 39:43
That's awesome.
Rae Tabis 39:44
Sounds crazy. It was absolutely out of his mind. He had a baby. He had a wife. He lives in a very expensive area and is going to give out all that up at Disney. At least I knew With JP that you had someone that you could trust that you would work with, which was a little comforting. But otherwise, I thought you were crazy. And you're in Kelly too, for letting you do it.
Jooge Tabis 40:15
Go ahead, Bill. Oh, I was just gonna say, based on both of their responses, actually, it kind of goes back to what we were talking about in the opening burn. where, you know, they might have thought you were crazy, but they still supported you. And like, came from a place of support rather than, than fear, even though maybe they were scared for you.
John Tabis 40:36
Yeah, there was never a Don't you dare do that? Or are you insane? That there was never that? Yes. Questions? Sure. Like, how's it gonna work? And what do you do for money and, you know, etc, etc. But what I haven't told you is this. But one of the reasons I actually decided I wanted to do this was a story that you told me judge. So if I want to characterize the two of you in broad strokes, right now, for a second, you tell me if it's accurate. So Ray, is risk averse, is a planner is the person who ran the money in our household, let's, you know, let's make sure we have every single dollar accounted for let's make sure that the budgets are met that we have, you know, in the bank, we need to have raises solid as a rock.
Unknown Speaker 41:18
That's right. And she ran the money so that I didn't spend it all.
Unknown Speaker 41:23
That's right.
John Tabis 41:25
And judge is a dreamer, who always had like, lots of ideas and lots of things that he wanted to do. And I remember the story about Seville, you'll remember and Harmer Ville and old Freeport row, there's a McDonald's. And at one point, you told me the story. Why don't you tell me a story about how that actually came up for sale, when it was how much it was going to cost, all that kind of tell that story.
Unknown Speaker 41:51
We were living in a small town of brackenridge at the time, and a McDonald's franchise was available for $50,000. And I made 5000 a year and had a couple of kids. And I said to my wife, wouldn't it be great if we could buy that. But of course, we couldn't, couldn't take the chance didn't know how to procure 50,000 we knew the bank wouldn't give it to us. But that particular McDonald's went on to make millions. And it just a dream that you missed out on.
John Tabis 42:34
I remember you telling me that story. And I think the hardest thing for me in this whole journey has been this weird, like Jekyll and Hyde feeling that I have about doing this whole thing, because half of me is Ray, I want to plan it all out, I want to make sure it's all good. I want to, you know, ensure that the risk is, is averted in whatever way possible. But then half of me is judged and I have these dreams. And I want to try these ideas just to see what would happen. And and I remember that McDonald's story where you always said like, man, like if we just couldn't have figured out a way or if we'd give it a shot, you know, what could have been if, and I and that always stuck with me because I was always very nervous to not have the what it could have been if and so anytime there's an opportunity to try anything, I tend to want to say yes. So that I don't wonder later on what would have happened if I had said yes. And and that was part of this when JP and I started toying with this idea. It was sort of like, when else am I going to have a shot at getting a business off the ground with someone that I really trust in a category that I've gotten excited about and think I can actually make it into something big and it may or may totally fizzle and I might waste 6336 months of my life. But but that, you know that story always came back and reminded me like, you know, give it a shot.
Katie Rotolo 43:46
You don't want to have that. What if?
John Tabis 43:48
Yeah, holding over your head, right? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 43:51
I don't know if john has told you this, but he keeps referring to me as Judge. Because my real name is john. Like his. However, since I was a very young boy. They called me by the nickname of judge. And a lot of other things that I'm not going to bring up.
John Tabis 44:15
is a little sister, my Aunt Mary, what's up Hey, Mary couldn't pronounce
Rae Tabis 44:19
Oh, Susan. Younger sister says
John Tabis 44:21
Oh, yeah, sorry. Sorry, older sister, Aunt Mary couldn't say john as a little girl. So she said judge, and that came as a nickname that
Rae Tabis 44:30
you have to remember that. Like Bill's parents been Bill's parents are a lot younger than us. I think Susan's only I don't even 14 years younger.
Unknown Speaker 44:41
The age on here?
Rae Tabis 44:42
No, I don't care.
John Tabis 44:45
Well, not your age. He might care.
Rae Tabis 44:46
Oh, I wouldn't save her age. But she's 14 years younger than me. But we still came from the same era where stability and long term A job and a family were the first things were things that came first in your life. And you didn't think outside the box at all. When I went to college, the only thing available to me at that point was either a nurse or a teacher,
John Tabis 45:19
because you're a woman,
Rae Tabis 45:20
because I was a woman. And because my parents had no concept of how to steer me in any other direction. I mean, I was great in chemistry, what woman in 1963 was going to be a chemist, except someone whose parents really knew what was what, in education and in possibilities,
John Tabis 45:41
and give us some context about where we grew up. I mean, talk about, like, paps job in rural Ridge, and you know, the town what it was like, I mean, it was a, essentially a coal town. And Pap, you know, was a foreman, it was talking about that
Rae Tabis 45:54
a little bit in mining town that we were raised. In fact, Bill's parents lived in the old company store store. Yeah. And we lived in one half a house and my aunt lived in the other. And my father was coal miner. And that's another thing he could have gone to law schools with the GI Bill, and he never did. And he should have because he would have been a great liar. Oh, he could argue for
John Tabis 46:23
days, half
Rae Tabis 46:24
hours and days. Yeah, I can yell to people just didn't break out of that mold that quickly. Yeah, I was born in the 40s. Right after World War Two, so or maybe during I can't remember now. But people just did not. think out of the box at that time.
John Tabis 46:49
Right? And tell us about the town. And now I'm now I'm curious about what life was like, tell us about the town is, you know, you're growing up with pap working with the coal mine, like what did people do? What was you know,
Rae Tabis 47:02
everyone only had one car. If they had one at all, there was a bus that came right down at the bottom of the hill. We could go to cheswick New Kensington on the bus or go to church on the bus that would take us to mass. There were three little mom and pop stores where you could go buy your groceries, and you'd buy it all on tick, you know, on tab. They really didn't do much as far as outside of the family. You make once in a while when I was older, we would go to the movies on Sundays with my mother and my grandmother. But when we were young, we go on picnics, play mumbly, pig, play games, outside it tag, those kinds of things. We had a Model T that was abandoned across the street and everyone would play on that every night until the lights went on on on the street lights. We didn't do much. Yeah.
John Tabis 48:11
Little tiny, tiny towns, couple 100 people. It was sort of the universe. Right?
Rae Tabis 48:15
Right. Maybe 600 people at the most. And
John Tabis 48:20
you went to college, which was actually not normal for everyone at the time. But you went.
Rae Tabis 48:24
But in the 60s, people your plan
John Tabis 48:27
was teacher or nurse because
Rae Tabis 48:29
I had no plan. Just
John Tabis 48:33
judge you you had every job under the sun. I mean, you were a public schoolteacher for, you know, a long time but you know, making it work in the 70s and 80s. I feel like you had every job.
Unknown Speaker 48:43
Well, we didn't have much money because in those days, a public school teacher made about $5,000 a year. And the next year the raise was $100. So the second year, he made $5,900 and so on. And so in the summers, we would do roofs for various people, whatever job we could get ahold of and, and a group of us group of teeth. What
John Tabis 49:12
are all the jobs you've had? all the jobs you've had your teacher roofer No, I
Unknown Speaker 49:17
have to start much earlier. Oh, I was a newspaper boy. I was a pin setter.
Unknown Speaker 49:25
Oh yeah.
John Tabis 49:26
How much you get paid for per pin
Unknown Speaker 49:28
for per game. Duck pins, seven cents. Again. 10 pins 10 cents again. That means 10 times the man would bowl and then when the game was over, if it was 10 pins you made 10 cents.
Unknown Speaker 49:47
Crazy.
Unknown Speaker 49:47
Wow. while adding up the games that you would set pins for and eventually it would amount to $1 and from very young on I took care of myself financially. Basically. I earned my own money and after that, I was a waiter. In
Katie Rotolo 50:09
a restaurant, he should be a waiter. I think everybody should have to work in a restaurant at least once at least once in their life. I think it gives you so much respect and just
yeah, anyway, go
Unknown Speaker 50:19
I'm sorry, I was a waiter in this all male restaurant. Women didn't go there, just men and boys. We all went there. It was called sheeps restaurant, one of the greatest places and times I've ever spent. I was a waiter there. Nobody ever gave you a tip, by the way.
John Tabis 50:40
And you still think it's the greatest? Oh, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 50:42
all my friends were there. Yeah. And I would wait on Him. And they would call me names. And shortly after being a waiter there, I became a short order cook in the same restaurant on Sunday nights. And then the owner of this restaurant, and I became good friends. And he knew that I was gonna wanted to go to college. And he set me up with a job at PPG Industries because he knew the manager. And so I had a job every summer at PPG paint factory in Springdale, Pennsylvania. And I made enough money to put myself through school for four years, and I went to the State Teachers College. And that's how I became a teacher
John Tabis 51:36
on then as an adult with I remember, when I was a kid, you were a surveyor, part time in the summers, I
Unknown Speaker 51:43
wasn't a surveyor, I was the surveyors helper. I was the man that cut through the woods in the weeds, and measured with a long steel chain, in order to put the markers in the ground as to where the surveyor markers should go. You and the other man was a surveyor. He was telling me what to do. You did
John Tabis 52:09
manual labor for people you painted. Yeah, so just a hustler, baby, we just did whatever we need to do, right, judge and I went to one of my first jobs was tarring The, the the track at the local school, there was this this track, and so we would every summer we'd gotten tar all the cracks in it, and paint the fence, it was the most disgusting, it was 100 degrees in the middle of Pittsburgh, and we got hot tar. We're pushing around this track for five or six days, but it was good money, we made money first time I ever made money. So you just do whatever you need to do to make it work. I think, you know, it's one of the reasons why I feel so lucky. And, and excited every day to go to work, because it's like, the alternative is you could be tarring streets, right, you could be doing manual labor, you could be on roofs, and that's really hard. That's hard labor, right, versus, you know, sitting in a beautiful office and with free drinks. And you know, you're you're using your brain every minute. But teaching and coaching was a very rewarding lifestyle.
Unknown Speaker 53:09
So
John Tabis 53:11
sort of last era I want to go through a little bit is sort of now, you know, sort of, what do you worry about with this venture? Now, if anything like and what are your thoughts on it? Like what, now that we were six years into this thing? Oh, and wait, we've actually before we do that, Ray, we got to go back a little bit. So Ray was one of our first employees, I didn't pay you for a while. Because we didn't have any money. I asked you to come out of out of retirement in your late 60s to to do customer service? What was that like? And what did you think about that? And how has that been for you?
Rae Tabis 53:49
It was, and by
John Tabis 53:50
the way, books, customers, they're listening to us, you still may be interacting with my mom. And there's been a couple of people were raised said like, Oh, yeah, my son's the founder, he's the CEO. And they're like, Oh, great. And then she gets in conversations with friends with these people. But it is possible that you might be getting your customer service from Ray. So if for any other reason, if you're just curious, you can reach out and just be like, am I talking to Ray?
Katie Rotolo 54:13
If we're gonna start calling just specifically asked,
Unknown Speaker 54:15
please.
Rae Tabis 54:16
I don't do telephone, email, not anymore. That went up. To refresh your memory. You did not ask me I did not know I offered. Because you had already set everything up with JP and it was in the fall. And you had said something about customer service. And I had retired nine months before and I was starting to get bored. And I said to you, listen if I should do customer service for you, because number one, I care more than anybody else does. And number two, you can trust me And you said, Okay, let's go for it. So we did. I started working for you, which was Nope, you were no problem at all.
John Tabis 55:08
Well, I'm a I'm a brilliant boss.
Rae Tabis 55:10
Yes, we were
Cousin Bill 55:12
like a boss.
John Tabis 55:14
I didn't actually boss Ray on anything. It was like whatever you want to do, you can do right, like exactly what he said. Go ahead. I
Rae Tabis 55:20
didn't know how it was going to be. But Valentine's Day was a real eye opener to everybody. Yeah. Because I was on there eight days a week. 12 hours a day. Yeah, there weren't enough of us.
John Tabis 55:36
Yeah, we were at the time, like five or six people total and all doing customer service. There was one it was our second year it was 2013 to 14, where we got crushed, because we just had way more sales than we had ever anticipated. And I did I remember doing three days in a row for 20 hours straight customer service, I went to bed at midnight, I woke up at 4am. And I went to bed doing emails and customer service. And I was panicking. Because we had, we have 1000s of unread emails, 1000s I mean, and we would work 20 hours a day straight. And there'd still be 1000s we didn't make a dent until a week after the holiday. And it was so much stress because people were just bashing us like, You're the worst. You guys suck.
Cousin Bill 56:13
I hate you.
John Tabis 56:13
You're you ruin my life. My wife hates me, my mom hates me, my sister hates me. And and Ray was toiling away over there for 1215 hours a day, and just grinding away just trying to get back to me while we were doing our best. But we were just this tiny company. And we just blew up and we didn't know how to handle it. We weren't prepared for it.
Rae Tabis 56:31
No, we weren't. Leo helped. Everyone helped. I mean, we there wasn't
John Tabis 56:36
that many every five or six of us and and everyone had to pitch in on it. But that was crazy. But then for you, it's been it's been a journey because you were the person and then we've grown now. And you know, now we have, I don't know, hundreds of people that work on customer service, specially at Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, but you've always sort of been the sage, behind the scenes, you know, helping people out and checking customer service quality. And,
Rae Tabis 56:59
and that's my main concern is is quality. Yeah, because when people are angry, they're angry for a reason. And you have to put yourself into their shoes, to figure out why they're angry.
John Tabis 57:11
They deserve to be a lot of the time, right?
Rae Tabis 57:12
And try to help them. And 90% of the time you turn them around, if they know that you really do care,
John Tabis 57:20
right? And you listen to them. And, and you know, because we're not you know, we're a great company, but one to 3% of the time we screw up. And for those people we're screwing up 100% of the time, right? And for them, it's it's important and it means a lot. So the last thing before we do again, we have a game bill. Yeah, we have a game All right, we're gonna play a game guys. But the last thing before that, I've always loved the advice that you guys have given me over time and I'll call them Judaism's although Ray has had hers as well over time, is like little random tidbits of things to think about in life. And, you know, there's one that I will say for you judge that was he who hesitates is lost. Judge must have said this to me. 3000 times growing up, he who hesitates is lost. And it was always like, Look, if your opportunities there, you will grab it immediately. But give me your favorite ones, whatever, whatever ones still to you ring true this day.
Unknown Speaker 58:17
Life is hard, then you die.
John Tabis 58:20
That's churches favorite for sure. Life is hard. And then you die. I always loved. You always said that I lived in a tree. And I've actually turned that into an advice thing for people like go live in a tree people and explain you what that means. But tell me what you meant by that.
Unknown Speaker 58:33
When you when I say to someone, you live in a tree. That sort of means to me that no matter what you do, what kind of pot of tar you might fall into, you come out smelling like a rose. Because you live in a tree. Because it's
John Tabis 58:52
so weird. You just do things and it works out right? You live in a tree. It's so crazy. It
Rae Tabis 58:57
comes easy.
John Tabis 58:58
Any other any other big pieces of advice for our listeners and things that you would say they should do in their life or not doing their life
before.
Cousin Bill 59:07
If you really
Unknown Speaker 59:09
have a dream, and you can find a way to do it, so that you're not going to ruin your marriage or ruin your life. Go for it.
John Tabis 59:21
Good one church,
Rae Tabis 59:23
I think is work life balance. To make sure that you enjoy what you're doing. But you also enjoy your time off. And your family. It'd be successful at both. I think that's what's the most important thing. Awesome.
John Tabis 59:41
Thanks for coming on the show mom and dad.
Cousin Bill 59:42
That's great. Well, thank
John Tabis 59:43
you Ray and judge everybody. Okay, so we're gonna play are
Katie Rotolo 59:48
we playing Bell?
Jooge Tabis 59:49
Okay, so we we covered it a couple times in the interview. And, you know, that judge was a public school teacher at the high school that I actually graduated from or school district that I graduated from. I never got to be in one of his classes. But he his reputation preceded him You did not, Mr. tab, this is not to be trifled with. So I'm going to give him a pop quiz. Both of you, really, but a lot of the students, dear lakes will be happy that I get to turn the tables and give Mr. Thomas a
Unknown Speaker 1:00:25
pop quiz. That's fine, but my wife didn't have anything to do with her legs.
John Tabis 1:00:32
She's gonna help out anyway. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 1:00:35
she can help me
Jooge Tabis 1:00:38
though this so this is these questions are going to be about a subject you know a lot about john. So I'm gonna ask you questions about john. Oh, boy, we're gonna write down their answers and, and see, see what they come up with.
John Tabis 1:00:51
We're gonna write it down. They're just gonna, they're gonna think it in their heads without saying it so you don't help each other. And then you're gonna be honest and say what it is whether or not you go first or second. Okay.
Cousin Bill 1:01:02
All right. We ready? Boy.
John Tabis 1:01:04
I'm nervous.
Rae Tabis 1:01:04
Yes.
Jooge Tabis 1:01:06
All right. What was John's first official job? his
John Tabis 1:01:14
official job, like a job where I worked for someone else and got a paycheck.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:18
Well, I want I want to talk about his first job. And I told him, your one and only job is to make grades. And he did. That's true. But that's not the question. That's not that wasn't a job for making money. But it was was his first job. That was to me. That was his most important job throughout high school. So
John Tabis 1:01:43
think about first job where I got paid by someone else.
Rae Tabis 1:01:46
first job that you were paid for was I can't remember the name of the family. But they lived at the bottom of Hayes Street and little Deer Creek right there on that ranch. And he had a very steep bank behind his house. And he hired about five or six kids to clean off all the weeds and all the grass. Oh, I remember that. Remember that? I do. Yes. You hated it.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:14
It was pretty miserable.
Rae Tabis 1:02:15
You're a little Yes. You were very little but he paid you.
John Tabis 1:02:18
So think okay, so I think for Bill's purposes for getting the quiz, right? Think about the first job where I got paid by like an entity. Not like a side job for for a friend or family or anything like that. Like think of like, official job. Right? Like I got to pay taxes. What had
Rae Tabis 1:02:40
to be Bay? No, you had summer jobs. You had a job? in Pittsburgh one summer. What was the name of the company federated or?
John Tabis 1:02:52
I don't know how I can't cheat for you guys. It
Rae Tabis 1:02:54
was an investment investing company. You worked for them.
John Tabis 1:02:58
Okay. So racing investing company. Judge, what's your answer?
Unknown Speaker 1:03:03
She's right. I can't recall the name but but I know you gave me a sweatshirt with their name on it.
Jooge Tabis 1:03:10
Bill, what's the answer?
Rae Tabis 1:03:11
He remembered the swag.
Jooge Tabis 1:03:13
Tom was a lifeguard.
John Tabis 1:03:15
I was the lifeguard
Unknown Speaker 1:03:16
Where?
Cousin Bill 1:03:17
the fork shop a golf club.
John Tabis 1:03:19
That was my first real job. two summers I was a lifeguard or was I
Unknown Speaker 1:03:23
we didn't we didn't consider that a job we considered
Cousin Bill 1:03:28
when it was freshman year and sophomore year that was saying
Rae Tabis 1:03:31
where was I? I don't know.
John Tabis 1:03:34
lifeguard Yeah, yeah. Okay. Oh, for one padres.
Jooge Tabis 1:03:38
Let's buckle down. All right, next question. What is John's favorite flower?
Unknown Speaker 1:03:50
Roses, he sends them to his wife quite often. lilies.
Jooge Tabis 1:03:57
Just got that one in throws is all right. All right. 142.
Rae Tabis 1:04:00
All right.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:01
Good job.
Jooge Tabis 1:04:03
So I asked you on these questions beforehand, what was John's favorite job before starting the books?
Unknown Speaker 1:04:12
Well is, I would imagine, he never said but I would imagine that his favorite job was first of all, Bain, Bain and company. And then after leaving Bain and company, certainly it was the Disney Company.
John Tabis 1:04:31
Which one though?
Unknown Speaker 1:04:32
You have to pick one. California? Pick one,
John Tabis 1:04:35
which is my favorite. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:38
I would have to say the job at Disney
Rae Tabis 1:04:43
dog walking.
Jooge Tabis 1:04:45
Judge was so close. It was Bane How?
John Tabis 1:04:48
I did say non official job was dog walking. So I didn't know I said it's true official job was being non official. Java's dogs. We're gonna give it this year. So
Jooge Tabis 1:04:56
we'll give up Yeah, we'll get to that point two or three. Good job. All right. What is the name of the business school john attended at UCLA?
Unknown Speaker 1:05:07
The Anderson School of Business? Oh, dang dang.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:11
Dang. Guess 344
Rae Tabis 1:05:13
that was right.
John Tabis 1:05:14
You guys actually know me you care?
Rae Tabis 1:05:18
Hey, we forget.
Jooge Tabis 1:05:22
Focus Johnson focus similar to impatience. Very close. Very. Yeah, they're kind of the kind of like cousin, like a half, half half appointment. same but different.
Rae Tabis 1:05:32
Okay. Different Bitsy?
Jooge Tabis 1:05:34
Yeah. Yeah. What would john say is his greatest strength as a CEO?
Unknown Speaker 1:05:43
Focus?
Unknown Speaker 1:05:45
No.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:49
I think his greatest strength is finding ways to make his company grow. And also, he's concerned about people in hiring people and giving them a good job. And I think that's part of it. Right?
John Tabis 1:06:14
You passing on this one? I have no strength.
Rae Tabis 1:06:17
I just zoned out.
Jooge Tabis 1:06:18
I'm so great. She fell asleep. She's
John Tabis 1:06:20
so bored. Everybody know.
Cousin Bill 1:06:21
So we do it.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:22
We're almost there. We're almost there.
Rae Tabis 1:06:23
I just zoned out. I'm so sorry.
John Tabis 1:06:26
It was my greatest strength as a CEO. It's like if I have one Ray,
Rae Tabis 1:06:29
your greatest strength is the CEO is caring about company.
Jooge Tabis 1:06:36
All right, the answer was ideas, which I think judge kind of hit on it with this first point. So
John Tabis 1:06:41
growth ideas.
Cousin Bill 1:06:42
Yeah.
John Tabis 1:06:43
And I have too many ideas of anything.
Cousin Bill 1:06:47
Millions of ideas. That's all I got. Tonight, guys. Thank
Rae Tabis 1:06:50
goodness. Oh, yeah.
John Tabis 1:06:52
Here's a good
four or five out of seven.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:57
Some of my greatest times with john, when we go to Vegas, we have three days. Right everybody had a
John Tabis 1:07:06
great time. Thanks, everybody for
Cousin Bill 1:07:08
coming out.
John Tabis 1:07:11
Follow us follow us at at given the biz gi ve m th e bi z. Thanks to our sponsors. The books Company A Bo u q s calm and casamigos tequila. Yeah. And thanks mom and dad are hanging out and hanging out and I say sign off for everybody give me your wittiest Goodbye,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:31
goodbye.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:35
I Oh, Dinah sour, everybody.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:38
Go see y'all next time. Bye, everybody.
Jooge Tabis 1:07:42
Thanks for listening to give him the business podcasts from the books and podcast one. Be sure to download new episodes every Tuesday right here on podcast one on the podcast, one app or on Apple podcasts. And don't forget to rate review and share. also find us on Twitter and Instagram under the handle at give them the biz g i v e m th e bi z
