MM161 - Give them the Lagniappe | MM Book Study Pt 19

If you want to stand out in the eyes of your customers, students, or troops, give them a little something extra. Give them the lagniappe and they will be back for more.

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[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello, welcome back to you Morning Mindset. I am your host Paul Markel and I'm going to continue right now with the Morning Mindset book study, as we have been doing for this many weeks and today’s section is chapter 19, and it is Give them the Lagniappe, and this is when I get to in introducing you especially you Northern Yankees to a little bit of Gulf Coast, Mississippi, Louisiana Cajun influence little Cajun Creole Ligety there.

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Now I lived all over the United States of America. I lived in the north, south, east and west, and for about 10 years I lived in the south on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, which is right next to Louisiana. So the very strong Cajun Southern Louisiana influence down there, and I started working as a military contractor and I work with a bunch of folks who had lived in that area in the southern area for a while.

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One of the guys I worked with he used to use this phrase Lanny app, and for those of you who are just listening and not reading along. Lagniappe is spelled L-A-G-N-I-A-P-P-E, and if no one ever pronounce that for you. You probably said what is a Lagniappe a and I said to my friend from Bill he kept using the term Lagniappe.

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I said what is that and he said, “Well, loosely translated, it means a little something extra.” If you look it up on the computer Google search, it'll tell you that the origin is from a small present that was gifted by Merchants to their customers and so forth. But essentially what a landing at means is giving someone.

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A little more than they paid for, a little more than they expected, a little bit more than you are required to give them, and that was a fantastic lesson for me and my fellow instructors. When I was working as a military contractor, one of the things that I did is I was a small arms and tactics instructor and I would have every month.

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Well actually every two weeks, but to we would get new classes of students. So I literally encountered thousands of people, thousands of young people and older people in the military over a period of several years. So what I was able to do for those folks in what I tried to do when I would get up on the platform to give a period of instruction or if we were out of the range or if we were out in the field.

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I made it my mission to always ensure that I gave the students, the troops, a little bit something extra. A little bit more than I was required to not just what was in the 3-ring binder or on the PowerPoint, and then that was it because a lot of people will do that. A lot of folks say, well it says in the 3-ring binder that we have to go over A-B-C, 1-2-3, and once I've done that, once I've completed that mission, I'm done, I don't you talk to these people anymore, I'm out of here.

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Or a PowerPoint, you know, it's a 47 slide PowerPoint, and when I finished that PowerPoint my period instruction is over and they can go away and I'm going to go smoke a cigarette or I'm going to go drink a cup of coffee or I'm going to do whatever, right? When I was in the United States Marine Corps many moons ago, and when I was going through infantry School.

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We had a sergeant that was in charge of the assault section, and that's what I was in I was in the assault section and the sergeant that was in charge of us. His name was Sergeant Sizemore Fred Sizemore to be specific and Fred Sizemore. I didn't realize it at the time but he gave us more than he was required to.

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Now in infantry school when you're in a platoon or a section you normally assigned an NCO, a sergeant or staff sergeant and the over see you they're kind of like your babysitter. They make sure you go where you need to go, they you go to the classes you go to the field you have what you need to have they are in charge of making sure that you are where you're supposed to be and that's their prime directive and some of them are also instructors and they teach various periods of instruction whether it's in the field of the classroom.

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But many of them are just now the kind of like glorified babysitters, right? They make sure that you're where you're supposed to be and that you don't get in trouble and all that, but Sergeant Sizemore frequently, in addition to being our overseer and making sure that we behaved ourselves and did we were supposed to do, when we were supposed to go he would sit us down whether it was in the in the barracks or in the field, and he would call what he'd say “School Circle, get over here sit down” and he would lay some practical knowledge on us.

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We were all young. We were 18-19-20-year-old privates and PFCs, and we were brand new to the Marine Corps, brand-new to the Infantry and he'd been there, done that got the t-shirt, and so what he did is he gave us not just what was, you know prescribed to be taught from the 3-ring binder. What the official instruction was, he gave us something extra.

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He would give us Real Life practical knowledge that we could use as we moved forward in our lives. Is it when I was working as an instructor as a contract instructor for the military, I always wanted to our is attempted when I gave a class where they're like I said on the you know in a formal classroom setting or out in the field doing Land Navigation or out on the Range.

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I always attempted to give the students something extra a little bit more than they quote unquote had paid for. A little more than I was required to now you can apply that and I mean in my particular situation is to training and. But you can apply that to the pickle you guys have probably all heard did you know “Give them the pickle”?

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What is that? You know people buy a sandwich and chips and a drink, and they get a pickle wedge, and the pickle wedge is no charge, it’s free and that has become a business technique. Give them the pickle over the years. I've ordered products from several companies, and I get the box and I open the box up and not only is the product that I ordered inside of the box, but there's a little something extra.

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There could be it could be a sticker or a bottle opener or a patch or a note or a little card or something. Some little extra thing one company in particular that I'm thinking of right now, I looked forward to ordering from them because I knew based on experience that there'd be something different in the box every time I placed an order. Some new little pickle, right? Some little Lagniappe.

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A special little gift that I wasn't expecting, and it was just added on as a bonus. So you want to be you want to be a productive individual, you want to be a successful individual, you know to be a successful person in your career and your business whether you're dealing with customers or students or the troops, what have you.

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Take the time to give them the Lagniappe, give them that little something extra. Something more than you had to go. They say “Go the extra mile”, and if you go from Biblical times, go the extra mile give, them that little something extra and you know from my personal standpoint and going back and thinking I was in the Infantry School.

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Many several decades ago and here I am today in front of the black carbon steel microphone 30 years later and I still remember right now Sergeant Fred Sizemore and the fact that he gave us as young students something extra. He did more than what was required of him, and I remember it 30 years later.

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So that really is the effect of the Lagniappe. That is the effect of giving people something extra little bit more than they expected. You never know how long it will go or how far it will go, and may there could be people who you know frequent your business or frequent one of your seminars or sit in front of you and listen and years from now, they'll say, you know, I've been to a lot of training listen to a lot of people talk a lot of instructors and teachers but that one guy that one woman they really gave us something extra.

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Alright, ladies and gentlemen, that is it for today go forth and give them the Lagniappe, give them the pickle, give them a little something extra. I am your host Paul Markel, and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

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*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.