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
Frank Blake's Path to Empowering Others Through Generosity
Frank Blake, former chairman and CEO of Home Depot, is one of the most humble and generous people you'll ever meet. What a privilege to speak with him and have him share his life lessons with all of us.
Frank led Home Depot out of a downturn into seven years of growth with his people-first approach. Frank shares interesting experiences at Home Depot, General Electric and in government, and his ongoing passion for gratitude and generosity, as showcased in his podcast, Crazy Good Turns.
Frank also shares lessons he learned from iconic leaders like George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jack Welch. Learn how a simple habit of writing personal notes, inspired by President Bush, can significantly elevate team morale, and how Reagan's clear communication style can be a game-changer in any organization. Frank also shared Jack Welch's surprising yet impactful notion that generosity is a leader's most crucial attribute, all through engaging anecdotes that highlight the importance of recognizing and investing in the success of others.
Frank shares the transformative power of gratitude and generosity through compelling stories. Tune in for an uplifting conversation that encapsulates Frank’s "Crazy Good Turns" philosophy, emphasizing the impact of kindness and mutual support in both personal and professional spheres.
Learn more at CrazyGoodTurns.com
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 Frank Blake to the Pivotal People podcast. He is the former chairman and CEO of Home Depot, where he served in that position between 2007 and 2014. He led the company in seven consecutive years of growth during a recession. We'll talk about that today. Prior to Home Depot, he worked in executive roles at General Electric. He was the deputy secretary of the Department of Energy. He worked for Vice President George Bush. He served under Ronald Reagan. He went to Harvard. He graduated from Columbia Law School. He serves today as the chairman of the board of Delta Airlines. He's on the board of Procter Gamble. He's on lots of charity boards. He has received awards like the Lifetime Achievement Award and Leadership Character.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you what Frank Blake is a very big deal. However, he would never say that he spends his time making other people feel like a big deal. He spends his time encouraging people. His two life principles are gratitude and generosity and he lives those out. He hosts a podcast called Crazy Good Turns. He has for the past nine years. Everyone needs to listen to it. He tells inspiring stories about generous people who do things for other people. We're going to talk a lot about his podcast today because he has some really neat initiatives within that to help people feel special. Frank, I'm sorry I talked so long, but you are so amazing and I appreciate you being with us, so welcome.
Speaker 2:Stephanie, that's the nicest introduction I've ever gotten. Most of it is way too kind. So thank you. And, by the way, for your listeners, it was a real treat having you on the Crazy Good Turns podcast. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1:That was a lot of fun. Well, I told Frank before I started that I've been studying him. He is fascinating. I actually know about Frank because a good friend of mine used to work for him. Mine used to work for him, so she has been talking to me for a few years about this amazing man who she worked for. I told you that he turned Home Depot around during a recession over a seven-year period. However, he didn't do it in the way you might think executives, kind of the slash and burn approach. He had an extremely people-oriented approach and I'd love to hear you talk about that, Frank. You called it the inverted pyramid approach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, again. Thanks, stephanie, and thank you to your unnamed friend. That sounds like she made some kind of comments. So the inverted pyramid the first thing is to say I definitely didn't invent the concept. In fact, it was one of the elements that was in the book called Built from Scratch, which is the book that Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank wrote about the founding of Home Depot and, as the founders they said, you know, one of the core principles of the company is that the CEO is at the bottom of the pyramid and the customer and frontline associates are at the top of the pyramid. And when I started as CEO, I'll be honest I thought well, that's a nice phrase, it's a nice visual, but that's about what it is a statement of some humility or something. And I came to learn that I think it's actually one of the most profound business or organizational concepts that exist. So I learned a lot in the time that I was CEO, trying to lead from that perspective and, as I say, it's very much connected to the culture at Home Depot.
Speaker 1:I listened to an interview with Frank on a business podcast, so a lot of details that were so inspiring.
Speaker 2:One was. I can go on to a lot of the business implications, but please sorry.
Speaker 1:Well, what I really appreciated, Frank, was how honest you were. You said that you were not a likely candidate to be CEO of Home Depot and I just read his you know a little bit of his bio to all of you. If Frank Blake can have imposter syndrome, I think that gives the rest of us hope, Because not only did he step into the role, but he was highly successful, and you talked about how you were mentored through that, Frank. Can you talk about how the founders of Home Depot really helped you through that transition?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and just on the, I had genuine imposter syndrome and here's why I say that I didn't really have retail experience. While I'd worked at Home Depot for about six years before becoming CEO, what I was working on was mostly the company was involved in buying some businesses and creating a new organization called Home Depot Supply, which was a more industrial and commercial distribution business. That was my principal job. It wasn't interfacing with the retail business and as someone who did deals, I was used to small professional teams that you didn't have to worry a lot about how you motivated them or interacted with them or communicate. Being the CEO of the company was an entirely different matter. I had to know retail or learn retail and had to learn a different way of communicating with instead of a small team, 350,000 plus people Plus. In addition to all of that, no one expected me to be the CEO of Home Depot. I didn't expect to be the CEO of Home Depot. I didn't expect to be the CEO of Home Depot. I was from GE. No one thought that that was good preparation for running a retailer, and I'm a lawyer by training, which surely no one thought that that was good training to run Home Depot. So I was a genuine imposter and had to learn a lot. Just as you said, I had some great mentors along the way. One of the first was my lead director, ken Langone, who was one of the founders of Home Depot, and, critically for me, bernie Marcus, the founder one of the founders of Home Depot and Arthur Blank. And I tell the story. It's an absolutely true story.
Speaker 2:Home Depot, like other big retailers, we have big events where we get all our store managers and other key people together once a year. It's about 3,000 some odd people the very first one of these. So I became CEO in January of 2007. The very first one of these. So I became CEO in January of 2007. We have our store managers meeting in one month later, I asked Bernie Marcus to come to the store managers meeting. Bernie was, as I said, one of the founders and had been very upset about the direction Depot had been taking, and he very graciously agreed to come and speak and it was perhaps, symbolically, one of the most important things I did at the start of Depot. So you can imagine.
Speaker 2:We kept it a secret and 3,000 people, and then we asked Bernie to come out at the start. The place goes absolutely nuts. I mean people are yelling and screaming, grown men are crying. Place goes absolutely nuts. I mean people are yelling and screaming, grown men are crying. It's a huge deal. And Bernie proceeds just to, off the top of his head, give a completely inspiring, amazing talk about the purposes of Home Depot, all the people there and, most importantly for me, in both a literal and more metaphysical way. I put his arm around me and said this guy's OK, which for the folks who were veterans at Home Depot, it made all the difference to me. Because companies are the way they are. You know, we track how people respond to the various events and everybody writes in comments, and the most common comment following the first store managers meeting was well, we don't know this guy at all. But if Bernie says he's okay, I guess we should give him a chance.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. And then subsequently I mean look, I learned a lot from Bernie, I learned a lot from Arthur and I learned a ton from Kent. So I had an amazing group of really terrific mentors just within the Home Depot family, nevermind outside.
Speaker 1:You give so much credit to other people and, as I have listened to your interviews, what strikes me, what I love, is that you are genuinely open to other people's ideas, and I think that it could have been easy for you to come in from a different background and say okay, I'm the new sheriff in town and everyone marched in line, and of course, that's not what you did. You're such a people oriented person. Could you talk about what you did in terms of just getting out in the field and talking to associates?
Speaker 2:So I again, I really appreciate when people ascribe this to some. You know better, angel, of my character. But there is another part to it, which is it was objectively necessary. And it was objectively necessary because I understood the knowledge that I didn't have that I needed, and so I think it's always important to listen, and those are. It's one of the skill sets that any leader needs to develop how you listen.
Speaker 2:But it was critical to me and I had one of my board members that had a phrase that probably changed somewhat now with more digital interfaces on retail. But his comment was all the truth is on the store floor, and that's a great phrase, and one of the things I tried to do was spend a lot of time in the store, try to understand how things were received and what was effective on the store floor and what were on customers' minds. So spending time with our associates, spending time with our customers and acting very much, you know. Back to your inverted pyramid comment when, as the leader, you realize that everything that's important is happening above you in the pyramid, you know that one of the things you've got to do is figure out how do I more effectively listen, how do I spend time at the top of the pyramid, which is your customers and your frontline associates.
Speaker 1:And one of the things you talked about was what you have learned from different leaders in your career. I mean, you've worked for some pretty impressive people and you've talked about little bits and pieces that you took from each one of them. You talked about Vice President George Bush, you talked about Jack Welch, you talked about Reagan.
Speaker 2:Right, I have been really fortunate to work with some extraordinary people and because it was very much a surprise for me to step into the CEO role at Depot. When I did that, I tried to step back and say, okay, now what have I learned from these amazing people for whom I've worked? And George Bush dad I worked for him when he was vice president, which was and it was a great job, because you know, there aren't many people on the vice president's staff so you could see what the person does. And one of the notable things about's staff so you could see what the person does and one of the notable things about George Bush and you could ask this to anybody who has worked with the man is he wrote an incredible volume of personal notes to people. He would come in every day and for at least an hour and I'm dating myself, but this is working on a real typewriter for at least an hour and I'm dating myself, but this is working on a real typewriter. You know, back in the days when you used whiteout and things didn't entirely match, he would spend at least an hour writing notes to people all over the world and I can tell you that as a staff person when you'd get a note from the vice president. It just changed the way the day looked, the way your week looked. You just got a huge lift and I carried that forward at Home Depot of just that habit of trying to recognize people and, you know, do it in a personal way. There's a great guy, david Novak, who ran Yum Brands, which is, you know, all the different quick serve restaurants, Pizza Hut and the like and Taco Bell and he really educated me on that importance of a leader taking the time to thank and recognize the people who are doing a great job within her or his organization.
Speaker 2:So that was the George Bush learning from Ronald Reagan. And I mean this with no, I just happened to have worked in Republican administrations and I'm sure they're equally amazing on the Democratic side. But with Reagan the interesting thing was I was not I mean, I was not a very important person in the grand scheme of things in the federal government. But if you asked me for what my job was do, I think I know what the president of the United States would want me to do. I knew the answer. I knew what he wanted me to do because his communications were so straightforward and simple and powerful that even somebody at my level could go. I know what he wants me to do. And so the other part of the another element of the inverted pyramid is that communication process and having communications that are simple and portable and can move up within an organization. That was absolutely the case with Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 2:And round it off off, since you mentioned these three, jack welch. He was a an amazing person to work for, very scary person, but also in the sense of really holding you accountable and being very direct, but also just a brilliant leader. And so here's the interesting, and when I tell people, tell people this if you were at GE and you had the chance to work for Jack, you both get the surprise and the recognition in this story. So one of the first early calls I made when I became CEO was I said, jack, I need to spend a day with you and you need to give me CEO 101 training. And he said, great, happy to do it. And I flew down and he spent a day with me in Florida.
Speaker 2:And for the next eight years that I was CEO, I did that every year, spent a day with Jack. The last year I asked him sort of the juvenile question that I wouldn't have dared to ask in years before. And I said, jack, what's the single most important attribute of a leader? If you had to sum it all, and his response was generosity, which shocked me and I think my face expressed I am shocked because that isn't. I mean, I could have come up with lots of different nouns and adjectives, but generosity wouldn't have been at the top of it.
Speaker 2:And so I said, jack, I got to tell you that's a surprise, why did you say that? And he said every great leader is fueled by the success of the people who work for him or her. And I thought about it and I thought actually I could see that because, as demanding and difficult as Jack could be, he was always thrilled when I succeeded at something. And he would express the fact that he was thrilled. And I think that notion that as leaders of whatever kind of organization, it's not a business concept, it's anything. If you get a lift out of seeing people do better and you're part of that, that that is the fuel that really helps the whole organization work. I think Maxwell has a great phrase for this, saying you know, if people see you invested in their success, they'll invest in yours, and I think that's a great phrase. As a leader, you got to be invested in the success of the people who work for you, so that's what I learned from Walsh.
Speaker 1:And I think that goes back to your notes. I mean that's what I learned from Walsh and I think that goes back to your notes. I mean I've heard you say on and my friend told me that on Friday afternoon she was a senior executive at Home Depot you had to roll up you know names out of your organization to get to Frank Blake. They would roll them all up so that he could be writing these notes on Sundays and you would write 200 personal notes on Sundays is what I've heard and it's so much fun, stephanie.
Speaker 2:In the end. It was so much fun honestly because for me the notes were at. The process was, as people would see positive things happening in our store or elsewhere in the organization, they'd write a note to, for example, the district manager, who'd send the note on to the regional vice president. They'd send in all the examples to me and I'd write the notes and I'd always try to make them specific. So it would be, instead of just dear Stephanie, you're great, terrific Frank, it would be dear Stephanie I heard that you did and then I'd say what it is they did and honestly, it was uplifting for me to write those notes and say what a great company we have, what great people do we have, what an amazing, beyond amazing privilege is it to lead this organization with people who do this kind of stuff for other people. So it sounds like work, but it was actually. It was actually really fun. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Well, you made a lot of people's days. I remember when I was 25 years old I worked for Marriott Hotels at their headquarters and I got some little I mean really Frank some little peon award, and Bill Marriott wrote a handwritten note, and that might've only been eight words. I'll never forget it, the fountain pen on the linen paper, and I had it framed. Yeah, I'm 60 years old, I still have it.
Speaker 2:Of course, I have kept every note, the positive ones, not the negative. I have kept every note that Jack Welch would have sent me in his big black pen writing. It makes a difference. It absolutely does, and I don't care how old you are, I don't care how sophisticated you are. I was just having a conversation about this actually yesterday, about. It's equally true if you're talking to PhDs in mathematics. It doesn't matter. You want someone to notice what it is you've done that's unique, and you're thrilled when that happens. You're just thrilled.
Speaker 1:And so I started out by saying we can all read your bio and you're a big deal, but you could easily be sitting on the beach drinking a Mai Tai in the Caribbean somewhere and you would be just fine. But that's not what he does. And we're going to transition now to talk about what you've decided to do, which is to take the same concept that you had at your very successful company, which I believe I'm going to making other people feel special, making other people feel valued. And you have your podcast called Crazy Good Turns, and a couple of things from the website. Crazy Good Turns is a platform celebrating generosity and gratitude. It ranks in the top 5% of all podcasts based on number of downloads. If you listen to it, you'll understand why he has some pretty big people on it, and he has some people you've never heard of who are doing really inspiring things. And then he has a program called Thank you Awards and we're going to talk about that next.
Speaker 1:And the website says this quote a small act of kindness is worth a million thoughts. How many times do we all have? Oh, I should send that lady a note. A woman in my neighborhood sent me a note a few months ago a very kind note about this book I wrote. It made me cry, and I've only met her socially. Do you know, frank? She's now my friend project. I've gone over to visit her. I'm going to have lunch with her. Anyone who would take the time to write that kind of a note is a person I want to be friends with. That's what I came away with, and I also want to be like that. So talk to us about Crazy Good Turns. I'd love to hear about some of the guests you've had and what you think some of the most perhaps one or two most inspiring stories are that you've heard from your guests.
Speaker 2:So, first off, I'd say the Crazy Good Turns podcast is much like yours, Stephanie, and very similar. You know, look, we want to. The internet's got a lot of negative stuff in it and you want to tell positive stories and it's an opportunity for people to listen to positive stories and recognize and celebrate people who do good things. So the first thing I'd say to your listeners as I say to everybody at Crazy Good Turns, I mean, it's a thank you to all your listeners for taking their time just to listen to people who are trying to do halfway decent things in life, and I think it's a great thing. I love your podcast. I love what you're trying to do. I loved your book. It's the you're trying to do. I loved your book. It's the same thing. There's great stuff happening out there. We need to be talking about it and highlighting it, and I suspect you also know asking someone who does a podcast. If I ask you, Stephanie, what's your favorite podcast, it's impossible.
Speaker 1:Right right, I'm not going to say favorite because they're all great guests. They. I'm not going to say favorite because they're all great guests.
Speaker 2:They're all great guests, they're all wonderful. I don't know, I assume everybody who listens to your podcast knows your story, but I love your story. I mean, what an amazing story of starting. You know I'm going to compress it probably and do violence to it in the compression, but putting something that kind of you were doing because you had to do it economically in terms of pulling coupons together, doing it with energy and passion, getting good at it and then just the random kindness of strangers putting you in a position where your talent, your passion and your caring to help others gets you millions of followers and is life-changing to people. So just that story.
Speaker 1:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, it's crazy and it's great and I love, and I think, your book. If I'm just going to equally say you had a very nice introduction, but to return the positives, your book is just a constant set of, hey, you know, actually crazy dreams happen and people can go out and help people and figure out what you can do to help, and amazing things happen and you're a living proof of it. And in one form or another, every one of the stories on Crazy Good Turns is like that. I will give you the one that most sticks in my mind because it's the least like every other story and it is a story that we did, oh, now several, many years ago. We did it. It aired on a Christmas, you know, in December.
Speaker 2:The woman actually lives here in Atlanta. There's a woman who she was three years old, living in Baltimore. Maryland Family really had very, very little money. She and her sisters are in an upstairs flat playing around and the mom says I'm going to go out and buy some groceries. And, mind you, this is in the 1970s, so it's quite a while ago. Mom goes out to buy some groceries. The little girl is playing with matches on the sofa.
Speaker 2:At that time, you know they didn't have all the product safety elements and she was wearing cotton pajamas and her pajamas just went on fire like a firecracker, grabs her, rushes her to the hospital and she's desperately in need of blood and desperately in need of some skin grafts. Horrible burns over her entire body. Really everyone thought she is going to die. There's no chance for this young child to survive Again. Back in the 1970s some radio station hears this story and broadcasts the need for blood and a skin donor. A truck driver driving through Baltimore, maryland, stops, donates blood and a skin graft which I'm told is incredibly painful, has that procedure done, gets back in his truck and drives away. The person telling the story is the woman now in her 70s who was the three-year-old who survived, had children, had a wonderful life and you think of for the crazy good turns mostly that we talk about, we have the person who did the crazy good turn to celebrate. He didn't leave a card.
Speaker 1:He didn't touch other.
Speaker 2:He just did this out of the complete kindness of his heart and you go. What I mean for all? I mean, if that story doesn't make you have confidence in us as a race, I mean, you know, the human race is pretty amazing, that's pretty cool. So that story, which is sort of the missing person to celebrate because in our lives there are the missing people to celebrate and thank.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so beautiful. And when you think about you know, I keep going back. I said to my husband today I always talk all about whoever I'm going to be doing a podcast with and I'm so fascinated with your philosophy that is just woven through crazy good turns, it's woven through your career, and I keep mentioning it. But if it's these two simple things gratitude and generosity and I thought, frank, wow, if everyone could, just if we could just focus on those two things, what a different world it would be. I said you know, I've got gratitude down, I really do. But generosity, I could work on that. I mean, imagine, and the truck driver generosity example, that is really something for all of us to aspire to.
Speaker 1:Can we do something generous without needing to be recognized?
Speaker 2:Stunning. So I would. I mean a lot of why I do the podcast is because when I retired from Depot, the podcast is because when I, when I retired from Depot, I said I want to learn more about generosity and I want to be more generous and I want to learn more about gratitude and I want to be more grateful because I recognize deficits in both. And people are amazing and it's great hearing that you know, just as I have the great blessings of. There are some incredibly generous people that I've gotten to know. I've mentioned some of them founders of Home Depot.
Speaker 2:You live here in Atlanta, stephanie. You see their generosity. Ken Langone in New York has done the same with the Langone NYU Medical Center. Arthur and Bernie have supported hospitals here. I joke on the you know the recognition part Bernie Marcus gave the aquarium in Atlanta which is one of the great aquariums in our country it's just called the Georgia Aquarium. I am still at a point in my development where, if I ever had the money to give and establish an aquarium for a city, I think I'd call it Frank's Fish. Everybody would know I did it. But that level of just, I'm generous because it's the right thing to do. I mean. That's what we should all aspire to.
Speaker 1:And I think what you've demonstrated here and I hope everyone is hearing this is that you don't have to have enough money to establish an aquarium. We can be generous with a note. The woman in my neighborhood who wrote me the note. That might've been the most generous thing someone could have done for me. I needed that. Totally right, Totally right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it is that, just express it. If you're thankful, just express it. Because someone said to me and it's a phrase that, boy, it's stuck with me about the weight of unexpressed gratitude that we carry around, and I think that's a great phrase If you don't express your gratitude, it's a weight that you carry, so let's lighten up.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I like that, and so we're going to end with I would love for you to. Well, no, I've got two more things. Could you explain what your thank you award program is on the Crazy Good Turns podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So so out of one of the during COVID, we thought, okay, there's so many great examples of what people are doing to help their neighbors. We ought to just open it up and ask our listeners if they have somebody we want to send $50 to as a thank you. And that went really well. We got a lot of interaction with folks, a lot of incredibly moving notes about what people were doing for others during COVID. And then a good friend of mine was talking about his Thanksgiving habit, and his Thanksgiving habit was every Thanksgiving he would go into a Waffle House. I don't know how many of your listeners are from the Southeast, but if they are, they know what Waffle House is. He'd go into a Waffle House and leave a $50 bill for the server at Waffle House, and I thought that is brilliant.
Speaker 2:And so our thank you note program, which we tend to run around Thanksgiving, is people just write in and say I'd like to send $50 to, and they tell us who they want to send $50 to. Or, and sometimes we just it's, it's a, it's not a $50 bill, it's a $50 prepaid card. And we ask them you know, just give us the reaction of the person and, you know, don't use it to go buy groceries for yourself. Do it to give to somebody else, and people are really good about it and we've gotten great stories from it. But it is exactly just hey, thank someone, you know you're doing an amazing job. Here's an extra tip, thank you. Thank someone, you're doing an amazing job. Here's an extra tip. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Whether it's a server, somebody who works in your community, whatever it is, and I think your website says and it's probably more than that now, but you've sent a total of $40,000 to over 800 people and I have heard an interview of a person who received this from Frank and he's being humble, but what they were most excited about was the note that Frank wrote with it. As you can imagine, you've talked about writing a book. No, you have not talked about writing a book. I think you should write a book, but if you were to write a book, you would said it would be about these stories of your Home Depot associates.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if I wrote a book and I don't, I'm not sure I ever will write the book, but while I was CEO I tried to make an effort, when I visited town, to go and have dinner with hourly associates 14 hourly associates from whatever town we're in, and sit around and everybody would introduce themselves, et cetera. And everybody would introduce themselves, et cetera. And it started, as I'll say it started as just okay, this is kind of part of work, it's part of understanding who the team is and all the rest. And people ask what recharges your battery? In a job it became this is what recharges my battery. And the first one of these was the most important for me. So I said I'm going to try to do this as often you know, I'm going to try to get out at least once a week, or maybe it's once every other week. Whatever I can do, get out, visit stores around the country and have these done. The first one I do.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting next to this woman about my age and I am having some trouble with my back, so I make some complaint about my back. Now, mind you, I've flown in on the company plane. I got nothing to complain about, but I'm saying I have trouble with my back. And she asked some very polite questions about my back problem and I said how are you? And she said well, you know, it's interesting because I've been having my problems with that. I said, oh, okay, what are your problems? And then she went through and she says well, you know, I had I fractured my spine or she did, she'd done something with her spine that put her in a wheelchair, and so she had been working in the store in a wheelchair and I'm kind of being, and so she had been working in the store in a wheelchair and I'm kind of being oh whoa, I feel very small my problem compared to hers. She's working in a store in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2:And she said well, that's not what was really tough about it, really tough, as I work in the lumber aisle and negotiating around the lumber aisle and wheelchair is difficult. Now I'm feeling even smaller. And then she says but that's not what's really hard. And then she says but that's not what's really hard. And I go, oh, what's that? And she said well, when I get home you know, I'm a single mom. My son is now 12. He's developmentally disabled and I have to bathe him every night and lifting him in and out of the tub is just extraordinarily painful and I thought, whoa, I have no reason on God's earth to ever complain, and it is amazing what other people do with their lives, and it's just a privilege to have the job that I have. And it was just a way of saying put things back in perspective. And every single one of those dinners would have many, many different kinds of uplifting stories of you know. I don't know who said the phrase, but be kind to everyone, because you have no idea the burdens they carry.
Speaker 2:And the burdens that people carry, and yet still with a smile. I mean, this woman was not complaining, there was not a whine in here, it was just. This is my life and you know, that would be the book. The book that I would write would be just these amazing stories of people who are out to make their lives better and how they tackle issues with just incredible grace and positivity.
Speaker 1:That is truly inspiring and you talked about, I think, what hit me 75 to 80% of Home Depot managers did not go to college, it's like the ultimate American dream. You said most they didn't expect. They thought this might be a temporary job. I'll work the register, I'll work in the warehouse and then Exactly right, Stephanie. Pretty soon you like it. Pretty soon. You're in this wonderful company with the CEO who's writing you notes and you're thinking I'm not going anywhere. This is great.
Speaker 2:It's an extraordinary company.
Speaker 1:And anyone who goes to Home Depot says yes, yes, all of this makes a lot of sense. So my last question, frank, because you ask everyone this question you've done so many kind things for people. Who has done a crazy good turn for you that you'll never forget?
Speaker 2:Wow. I mean, as you know, stephanie, through your life, you have just an insane number of people who've done crazy good turns for you, and there are lots of different. People have been asked this question before and have given Ken Langone, who is my lead director, as an answer, and I owe Ken so much and he is such an incredibly generous, wonderful person. In this instance, though, I'm going to say my wife, who did a crazy good turn hooking up with me and has just been an amazing counselor throughout my life. So she does crazy good turns, all she puts up with me. She's being kind every day.
Speaker 1:I love that. So, everyone, you can have an extremely successful career and a beautiful marriage too. You just have to know how to do it well, frank, thank you so much for spending time. This is the highlight of my day, my week, my month, my year. It has been so wonderful to get to know you. I told my husband today, frank Blake. Now this is my perspective. This guy is in the same category as Andy Stanley, bob Goff, clark Howard. That's my like A-list. Now, frank Blake, move over guys.
Speaker 2:I'm not remotely in that category. But thank you, stephanie. And and, by the way, I do I when I do, just for your listeners, know that when I had Stephanie on the Crazy Good Turns podcast and I read her book, the her book you have this thing where you get your books blurbed. The people who write the comments on your book and most of them, honestly, I'd never heard of, and your blurbs on your book were from Andy Stanley and Bob Goff, two people who, I mean, they're in the stratosphere from my perspective.
Speaker 2:So that gives your listeners a relative sense of what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been a lot of fun. I appreciate learning from you and I'm going to keep watching and emulating the Crazy Good Turns. Thank you approach. Whether it's public, on a podcast, or just private, I just love it. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you, stephanie, real treat.
.jpg)