Pivotal People
Join us in conversations with inspiring people doing amazing things. Their insights and experiences help motivate all of us to find our purpose that fits with our abilities, gifts and life situation. Get a "behind the scenes" look at successful people making a difference in the world and benefit from their advice for the rest of us. Our guests include authors, artists, leaders, coaches, pastors, business people and speakers.
Pivotal People
Kevin Williams on Leveraging Kindness to Change Lives
In this episode I had a fun and inspiring conversation with Kevin Williams, Chick-fil-A franchisee and author of "Irrational Kindness: The Crazy Pursuit of an Extraordinary Life." Kevin isn't just about smiles and holding doors open; he's on a mission to show the world how transformative and profound kindness can be. We explore his philosophy that every encounter is a chance to make a positive change, whether it's through seeing the potential in others, embracing our failures, or turning a fast-food encounter into a life-changing moment.
Kevin shared the remarkable story of Alex Gomez, which started in his birthplace in Mexico to the academic excellence in the United States. Imagine overcoming every obstacle thrown your way to not only succeed but to inspire a city to celebrate "Alex Gomez Day." It's stories like Alex's that remind us of the joy and impact of lifting each other up in a world that too often focuses on pulling us down.
We wrap up with a heart-to-heart on the power of connection and community. This is more than a conversation; it's an invitation to weave irrational kindness into the tapestry of our daily lives.
Connect with Kevin via:
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-williams-90b183151/
Instagram: @irrationalkindness
Order Kevin's book:
"Irrational Kindness: The Crazy Pursuit of an Extraordinary Life"
https://www.amazon.com/Irrational-Kindness-Crazy-Pursuit-Extraordinary/dp/1631952951/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?
Order Stephanie's new book Imagine More: Do What You Love, Discover Your Potential
Learn more at StephanieNelson.com
Follow us on Instagram @stephanie_nelson_cm
Follow us on Facebook at CouponMom
I'd like to welcome Kevin Williams to the Pivotal People podcast. I met Kevin last summer at an event. It was early, it was on West Coast time and Kevin and I are both East Coast time people, so breakfast was still a couple hours off and I was getting my first cup of coffee in the morning and I sat down at a picnic table and Kevin went to get his first cup of coffee and he was wearing a t-shirt of a guy who's been on my podcast. I got all excited. I liked him a lot. There's just something super likable about Kevin. Then I found out that he lives near me he lives in Georgia, which I thought was kind of interesting. So I Googled him later and he's written a book, so I ordered his book. I read his book, which is so fantastic we're going to talk about it today and he agreed to come on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I want to tell you about him from the back of his book. He actually is a Chick-fil-A franchisee and he has three franchises, which I learned is highly unusual. Everyone knows Chick-fil-A, one of America's fastest growing companies. I think it is by far the best restaurant on the planet. Through his impressive business acumen, love of music, adventurous spirit and enthusiasm for failure. Kevin advocates for the unexpected at every turn. He walks the walk when it comes to embracing uniqueness. His book is called Irrational Kindness the Crazy Pursuit of an Extraordinary Life, and one of my favorite people, andy Stanley, pastor and communicator, has this to say about Kevin Kevin Williams doesn't sell chicken. He loves people, and fast food is his conduit to engage a world in need of a rational kindness. We could all learn to be a bit more irrational from Kevin. So, kevin, thanks so much for taking the time. He owns three Chick-fil-A's. It's almost lunchtime in his world, so I know you're making a sacrifice here. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Stephanie, I'm so honored to be here and what a treat to spend some of the time with you this summer, and just thanks for having me on and getting to spend some time learning from each other.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate it because I'll tell you this book. I know I say this about a lot of books, okay, but I'm going to say this about this book I loved it, absolutely loved it, and here's why you're going to love it. It is short, it is a short read. It's a fun read. Heaven has packed a lot of wisdom into a short book.
Speaker 1:How many times do we get a book where you just felt like the person was trying to, you know, meet a certain word count. He doesn't waste your time, he's a busy man. But I was reading it and it was funny and there were funny lines. So I've written a book. I'm like, wait a minute, this book is so well written and it's funny. He's got a ghostwriter, that's what I thought. So I start flipping around the book to see the name of his ghostwriter. There's no ghostwriter. He is this funny, so it's super wise, great lessons. He tells great stories. Kevin, let's talk for a minute about irrational kindness. In his book, irrational kindness is far beyond opening doors or being friendly to strangers. That's just like regular kindness. Could you talk to us a little bit about what do you mean by irrational kindness?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, well, you know, when you talk about the book, I mean one of the things I started doing was just kind of writing down. I have a thing we do called Coffee with Kevin. It's just my time with our team members. It's my home where we have over 400 people that work with us, and I get to tell the 16-year-old, hey, let's grab a cup of coffee and then I can share with them some thoughts. You know, just encouraging them.
Speaker 2:I have the opportunity to spend. You know, to have them, have to encourage them in ways that's not just about selling chicken but about really how they were born original and the beautiful things of that and the beautiful things like of. You know, the challenges in life and that we're going to fail and we're going to mess up and that yesterday's gone and tomorrow's unknown. How do we see the world in a different way and we kind of do that through, you know, trying to be a fast food. I'm nothing, you know nothing, but just a fast food worker.
Speaker 2:But when I see the opportunity and shift my mind to see things from a different angle, I get to really open up a whole world of opportunities and to me it's a little irrational to look at things as the business, a fast food company that thinks they can change the world. But that's what we are trying to do in our community. We really believe, if we look at it through a different angle, the way we treat the person not as a transaction but as a person standing in front of us, a person that could have just found out some terrible news, could have just found out some wonderful news. They could be really going through a struggle that in their life, in relationships, when I start opening my eyes to really try and see that person and help our team to see that same way, then it changes what our business is like and what are the way we're operating and what we're trying to our purpose within what we're trying to do at our Chick-fil-A's in Canton, georgia.
Speaker 1:You know the thought that just went through my mind. I want to work at your Chick-fil-A and then I thought, stephanie, you missed the point. How about if you just are like this in your life? There are so many stories that I want to ask you to highlight. Kevin writes these chapters and they start with quotes from unlikely people. They're great quotes and then he ends every chapter with a question that kind of makes you think. I read the beginning of chapter two to my husband this morning. The whole idea of someone saying I want to flip burgers for the rest of my life says no one ever.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it's never happened.
Speaker 1:It's never happened. And Truett, cathy, some neat quotes. I really did not know enough about him. So you shared his story with us, which was so helpful, but he said as regarding if he was talking to a team member and talking about the philosophy that Kevin just shared with us, people aren't going to remember the price of the chicken sandwich, but they are going to remember how you made them feel in that short interaction.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have a story where one of our team members, alex, who I share with him about Alex Gomez, he's my hero and his workforce for 25 years. We were up visiting the home office and Truett Cathy was clearly tied up and they said, hey, he's really busy, he's coming through, it through and is going to just kind of go to the office. Well, he passes by and he sees us standing over the side and he comes and he spends about 15 or 20 minutes just saying hello, getting to know us, sharing some thoughts, and he said how did that make you feel today? At the end to Alex, I had never remembered this. Alex was sharing with me this the other day. He said how did that make you feel? And of course, alex said it made us feel great.
Speaker 2:You know spending time. He said go do that to your guest, go do that to your community, make you know, see the people around you. And it's just. It's a world that oftentimes fast food is very fast. You know, we're creating mobile through lanes and the innovation that's going on to get people through faster and faster is at an all-time high, because that's what the guests expect and we want to make sure we do that. But at the same time they also want to be seen and heard, and I think that's all of us. We want to use our phone and be technology filled and take the shortcuts, but also we just got to remember to do both the things because we also want to take time and pause and stop and just see what's real in this world, and that's the opportunity me and you have every day. So I'm just constantly trying to remind myself to take time to do these things and look at things from a different angle.
Speaker 2:You know, when I was writing the book, you were saying how I just started writing thoughts. My whole idea was to write like a concept album. That was my weird idea. I was like I wanted an album and every chapter would have a song that went with it in my mind and you would listen to this song and you would catch a vibe and it would kind of cover a different topic. And they didn't have to. You know, I did realize at some point hey, you need to have a point here. Hey, that would be helpful to have a point, kevin, to what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:I thought you had a lot of great points and I've made notes. Okay. So, my poor husband, I get so excited about reading books. You talk about the person who gave you the Love Does book or Bob Goff's book, and you didn't want to read it. We talked about this before we started recording. Same thing happened to me. Someone gave me Bob Goff's book years ago. They're excited about the book somehow. Why does that take away our interest? When someone's excited about a book and they give it to us, I'm like, eh, Anyway our interest. When someone's excited about a book and they give it to us, I'm like, anyway, I let mine sit there too, and then I heard Bob Goff speak and then I read it.
Speaker 2:But I used to say if we'd say, if you give somebody a book they won't read it, but if they pay for it they will. That was always a funny thing I remember him saying, even though he would give you the book. But that's probably true.
Speaker 1:I actually after years we moved, I gave Bob Goff's book to charity. I never even did read it and then I heard him speak at church and then I had to go buy the book, you know. But my point about your book is like, how do I get my husband to read this? Okay, I'm going to tell him one good story and I told him the Alex Gomez story All. And I told him the Alex Gomez story, all the stories are good. But, oh my gosh, could you share his story, just as you explained in the chapter, from his beginning to, and not just him, but your role, taking him to the colleges? I mean, so I'll be quiet and let you tell the story.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a. It's a beautiful journey that really. Alex just shows up one day and and he had a long ponytail and I'm like you can't have that ponytail here. But he didn't speak much English but we were able to kind of navigate that you can't have your ponytail. Well, he showed me how he could tuck it in his shirt and I would never know and he'd put on a hat. So we agreed, ok, as long as I can't ever see it, it's going to work out.
Speaker 2:Well, alex was always kind of quiet but I just always believed, you know, really just seeing where he could go in his life. And so it just started a journey of walking alongside of him. He certainly has a servant heart towards Chick-fil-A, towards customers, towards me, and that started our journey. So along the way I just kept casting a vision hey, you can have an education, you can lead this business, you can lead this business, you can lead your own restaurant. And so that's kind of been the journey we've been on. And one kind of cool thing right now we just wrote a children's book. We're still trying to find somebody to be interested in our children's book. I just want people to be inspired by people that do really hard things, and Alex is one of those, and why I did this children's book about Alex and, by the way, I don't even have it published, I just have it written and I'm trying to see if I can find somebody that has some interest in it right now. But what we did along the way was one of the things was I started sharing.
Speaker 2:He started getting his education. He graduated the highest in his class and gave the commencement speech at his college. He's continued his education. He's got a son about to graduate from Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2:Here's a guy that had, really, when he was five years old, his father passed away and electrocuted in an accident In Mexico In Mexico, that's right, in Mexico. His mother went and said I'm going to go make a better way for my family. So she came to the United States. He was left with his grandmother and his siblings living in poverty for the next 10 years. Just incredible poverty. Incredible, you know, sleeping with rain, rain coming down through the roof, on a tin roof, in a kind of a handmade shack that he would live in. And eventually he got over to the United States and started picking vegetables out in California In the hot California fields, was going up and down to Oregon and to Washington State picking vegetables, living in their car. Yet one day he realized that education is some steps forward.
Speaker 2:So he came to work for us and that started a relationship and a journey that's been going on, but ultimately I could talk all day because there's so many elements to a story but ultimately the city of Canton. They recognized what we recognized. They gave him keys to the city and they call it Alex Gomez Day, may 17th. You've got to come to Canton on May 17th. There is Mexican. If you come, we have Mexican food in the back of the house flying. We have. You'll get your picture made with Alex. Everybody's wearing mustaches because Alex has a signature mustache and we just have a lot of fun celebrating Alex. He's about. He's on a journey to have his own franchisee.
Speaker 1:But oh my gosh, I have goosebumps.
Speaker 2:And the children's story is just an opportunity to kind of lift somebody up. You may have heard it before, stephanie we can't. You know, I can't lift everybody up. I can't figure out what's going on with everything, to change the world. I mean, it's a complicated world. There's plenty of messy stuff to stare at. Here's what I don't want to do. I just don't want to stare at it all. I want to understand what's going on in the world, but I'm not going to get distracted by just sitting there staring at the messy stuff in the world, because there's beautiful stuff happening all around us.
Speaker 2:This is a beautiful immigration story. That's somebody doing something really hard and persevering. And how do I walk alongside those people to really, you know, shine a light on that? They're amazing, they're original. We can walk together, we can lift each other up side by side and do some amazing things, and that's what is a rational to me in the spirit of kindness, and I don't do it perfect all the time, but I'm trying to continue to find these unexpected opportunities, as you were mentioned earlier, that just the people around me that we can lift and partner with and shine a light on them, and I find it's a lot more joy for myself to do those, to spend my time thinking of that, doing those things, versus doing the things that I don't even have control over time over anyway and getting frustrated with those things. I like to focus on the things I actually have control over.
Speaker 1:So you see why I wanted to be his friend after just sitting and having coffee with him. By the way, he didn't tell any of his amazing stories when we were together. He's so incredibly humble. And what I love about the Alex Gomez story and I know you have lots more, but I mean it's such a lesson for all of us. We live in Georgia. We live in a very, very conservative part of the country.
Speaker 1:This was many years ago. A guy showed up with a ponytail to his waist. You are Chick-fil-A. You know what she said. It's okay. You know what. This might be the first time we've ever done this, but it's okay. Go ahead and put your ponytail on your shirt. His English was broken. He wasn't that great with customers yet, and that's irrational, because anyone would have understood why you didn't give him a job. And yet you gave him a job.
Speaker 1:And May 17th is on my calendar. I am so there. I am half an hour from you. How many people are watching? How many Alex Gomez's are watching May 17th and saying maybe I can too, and that's it.
Speaker 1:You had so many great things in this book, people. You had a quote from a teacher a teacher, you know, who just really spends as much of his time teaching the subject he teaches a high school teacher as he does, affirming to his students that they matter, that they are worthy, that they are created, that they have potential giving them that. And Kevin noticed that. And Kevin said something to the teacher. And the teacher said do you know how many seeds are in an apple? Well, fun fact, I didn't know there are five seeds in an apple. I didn't know that every apple had five seeds. And the teacher said but we have no idea how many apples are in each seed. Wow, you have no idea how many apples.
Speaker 1:Actually, kevin's being humble, but he put a lot of time and effort into coming alongside Alex. He took him to colleges. He helped Alex navigate all the stuff. Alex took English as a second language. He didn't know English very well. He got his GED. He ended up going to college. He graduated top of the class. You've heard the story. He's got Alex Gomez Day. And that wouldn't have happened without you. And if you read Kevin's book, I don't think it would have happened without your faith.
Speaker 2:You're exactly right, and Dr Kurt Kevin's book. I don't think it would have happened without your faith. You're exactly right. And Dr Kurt Wheeler is the teacher who, it's very funny, you never know where God's taken.
Speaker 2:These adventures I have found, the more I lean into just seeing things from a different angle and seeing the beauty God says, how beautiful are the feet of those that bring the good news. And so the idea that what me and you are is a beautiful creation of God and that we yeah, we're messy, all that stuff, and we're confused. And I say some days I know exactly what I'm doing, other days I have no idea. I'm like, how did I even, what am I even doing today? But I sometimes say I've been winging it this long, let's keep winging it. Day, you know. But I sometimes say I've been winging it this long, let's keep winging it. But the reality is that's okay, that's you know. God sees our feet and ourselves as beautiful. So how do we look into this different lens? Dr Wheeler? I was saying you don't know where these journeys my son. We adopted our son when he was 12 years old. He is now raising his 12-year-old nephew as a guardian right now.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing story and I share that because his teacher is Dr Wheeler, who says you're worthy today. And that's what he does with all these kids to say you are worthy, you're worthy to be loved. And here's a teacher just saying I'm at least going to get this piece in every. He can't do everything. He's got his history to teach and his classes do, but he's going to take time to make sure every kid knows that they are worthy to be loved. You know, that kind of stuff just gets me, you know, gets goosebumps on me. It makes me like, you know, somebody seeing the beauty that they have in the opportunity they have every day that me and you, stephanie, have. And you know, and we can, we have a chance to just see things and do what we can do in a beautiful light in the middle of the hard stuff and the routines and the things we got to do too. But the beauty is there. It will just take the time to look for it.
Speaker 1:You talk about. It's easy for us to get distracted by looking at the mess in the world, by looking at the news, by getting wrapped up in toxic relationships, by overthinking all of that stuff. It's like an intentional distraction to get us off the good stuff. And you talk about looking up look up.
Speaker 1:Can you talk about that? It's like physically turn your chin up to the sky, look at the stars in the sky. When we see, when we understand the magnitude of how big the world is and how tiny we are, those things kind of shrink and you can almost hear God saying I'm not calling you to worry about that or fix that. That's not your job. Okay, don't worry about that. You say things like look for someone who doesn't have a friend. We can all see people who don't have friends. Be their friend. You know, catherine Wolfe says look for the people who don't have people and be their people.
Speaker 1:Loneliness, I read, is an epidemic in our country. 54% of people in our country identify as being lonely, as defined by not having a true friend or not feeling like they are truly known. Alex Gomez I'm going to keep going back to that walked into a Chick-fil-A just looking for a job and he found a friend right. What a power you can have in someone's life if you say you know what? I can't solve everything, I can't lift everyone up. And Mother Teresa says, hey, you can't change the whole world, but you can change one person's world. So I am totally motivated by your book.
Speaker 2:Look up is everything. You're right, sometimes I have to pick my chin up because I'll stare at a problem and I'm like I'm going to fix this thing and then I realize I don't have that much really control over it and again it's me picking up, I get stuck. I mean, you know, I can, we, we, you know we deal with hard things at work all the time, things that I'm like I just, you know, I don't even know what to do in that particular thing. But I found certainly I want to stare at it and understand what's going on. But if I'll start to look up and take a deep breath, take kind of a pause and look around, you know I'll see all kinds of things. I'll see resources I can move in here. I see people I can pull into the situation, you know.
Speaker 2:I see a chance to say hey, this may be something I can't even control, so I need to. What do I go over here and I can serve this group and that opens up doors. I can ask more questions than I just give answers for. I can sit there and really be more of a curious student, and when I do that it changes everything and I can start to solve hard problems really easy. See, there's not much that I can't solve if I sit there and just take a second to look up, take a deep breath, realize my place in this problem and then pull in other people. And people love to support us, know, support us and figure out. And I find when I look up I see people like, wow, I could pull this person in and and and gain a new insight and gain a new thought or continue to walk alongside different people. So, anyway, look up is such a win in the in the world. Just realize my place in it and not think so your chapters.
Speaker 1:You know so many topics. Lots of people write about the same topics, but what I love about books is that, because each of us is truly unique and individual, everyone has a different spin on it and you're never done learning about these great topics. So when, kevin, he talks about faith, he talks about persistence, he talks about oh I love. He talks about success. You know true, kathy's saying I'm holding on to this he talks about focus on excellence instead of success. Like, let's just be really good at it. If other people decide we're good at it too, that's great, but it's more important to be the best. You talk about a better version of myself than I was yesterday. That's what Alex Gomez did. Every day I'm just going to try to improve. I'm not going to try. I can't be Bob Goff, but I can be a little better than I was yesterday if I'm intentional. And you talk about so many of these concepts. That for me was uplifting. I finished your book and I was like I feel better. I haven't done a darn thing yet today, but I read Kevin's book and I somehow I feel better. And of course I want the people I love to feel better. So they're going to get this book and maybe they won't read it, but that's their loss if they don't. And he also has funny stories.
Speaker 1:So I can't finish this podcast without letting you know that he has sold a lot of copies. I can't tell you how many, but he's sold a lot and that's without a big PR campaign. I think it has sold a lot by word of mouth, because that's what happens, and 100% of the profits of his book are going to support families with foster and adoptive kids. That's where his heart is. I mean, his heart's a lot of places and he doesn't tell you that until the very last page of the book. He's not waving a flag, he's just letting us know at the end that all of the profits. So you can feel doubly good about buying this book. It's on Amazon. I'm not going to tell you the price, but it's inexpensive, and so there's all kinds of wins, so you can order a few.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to have you out. We call it New Ground Farm now and it's based on this property. We did the property back to the 1830s and to really understand you know that the world didn't just start today. You know there's an incredible history of Native Americans and the struggles there and how we, how would this land became? And one of the things we discovered was this guy, doc Pinion, stood on the property and he was talking about new ground that he had created and he was planting a watermelon patch and he was excited about his watermelon patch.
Speaker 2:Well, this idea of new ground is everything to what we're doing. So we're building a community center right here in our community, a place that really can pour into parents of foster, adopt children to really let them know yeah, you love counts, but you also need some skills to go with it. How do we create? You're not alone. How do we create community Because I promise we're not alone doing the hard work we're trying to do and sometimes that look up and see it and to create an environment where people can come and realize.
Speaker 2:You know, I am on new ground today. New ground really is when it was a farming term. When you clear cut something you clear, cut the trees, and that ground is really fertile ground, and I believe that's what all of us can be on today. It's, today is a new day. I have to tell myself that often Today is a new day and I can start fresh today. Yesterday's gone.
Speaker 2:I'm on fertile ground today and how do I really look in a different way today? I don't know what the future is, but I do know what today is and I can take a deep breath and I can change it. Everyone in the world has an opportunity to take that deep breath and all those that we're encouraging, that we're walking alongside, figuring it out together, and that's what we hope this property is for. And so you know, by the end there, you've got to come out and see what is beautiful. There's miniature cows. Don't worry about that. You'll have some miniature cows to pet and hold and have fun really creating what we're trying to create there. So and by the way, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not a builder, or you know. I'm just like taking steps and seeing where God's going to, what God's going to do.
Speaker 1:So I'm super thankful you were wearing that guy's t-shirt that day because I don't think I would have just called out to you to come over and I am so thankful I met you, so that was an unexpected surprise. I'm so glad you just live half an hour away and we haven't said this, but any of my friends will tell you I'm really kind of particular about eating healthy food. There is only one restaurant, only one fast food place I will ever go to and it's Chick-fil-A. Only one fast food place I will ever go to and it's Chick-fil-A. My husband and I drive across the country 21 hours four times a year because our kids live in Colorado and we live in Georgia and we have a dog, so we have to drive in a car and the only consolation to me to that 21 hour drive is that we eat every single meal at Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful, that's beautiful, thank you.
Speaker 1:But you're right, the people are always nice and kind and you know what? I don't know? I'm 60. You said Truett Cathy, really Chick-fil-A, was just getting going. He was just kind of starting at the age of 64. And Kevin first heard Truett Cathy speak and get motivated when he was a teenager, when he was. Was that when he was 64?
Speaker 2:He was 64,.
Speaker 1:yes, and then you became a franchisee when he was in his 80s. So when I say, okay, wait, I've kind of let 60 years go by that I haven't been doing the stuff that Kevin's talking about, well, my gosh, I think we've got a lot of time left to try it.
Speaker 2:You're just, you are just, you are just getting started. I mean, this is going to be the next little something is going to be amazing, stephanie.
Speaker 1:That's right, and I'm so happy that I know a guy who owns Chick-fil-A, because I'm also the coupon mom and when I met him he gave me some free coupons to Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 2:That's a win.
Speaker 1:That's a win for the coupon mom. Well, Kevin, thanks so much. I really appreciate you being with us and I can't wait to see you on Alex Gomez Day, if not sooner.
Speaker 2:I'll look for the next section when this book comes, this children's book I've got to come share with you. It's a story in it that is just it's out of Alex's life that just will blow your mind of a new way to see the world, and in a little kid's book.
Speaker 1:So let's get that book published and then let's do another conversation about that. People are going to love it.
Speaker 2:That sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, you have a great weekend.
Speaker 2:You too Bye-bye.
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