Ep. 103: Steven Schussler on Why You SHOULD Sweat The Small Stuff
In this episode, David sits down with Steven Schussler, CEO of Schussler Creative, Inc., to discuss why you SHOULD sweat the small stuff.
Buy David’s book “Trusted Leader”: https://amzn.to/3luyqf1
Steven’s Bio:
Steven Schussler, well-known as the creator of the Rainforest Cafe® , is an innovator with the passion and artistic vision for conceiving concepts which appeals to the masses. Embracing imagination, Steven and his team create restaurants, retail stores, theatrical venues, attractions, and experiences unlike any other! A master at multi-juggling, Steven is considered the World’s Premiere Branding Expert, a Consultant, Entrepreneur, Restaurateur, Teacher, Motivational Speaker and National Best-selling Author of “It’s A Jungle In There, Inspiring Lessons, Hard-won Insights and Other Acts of Entrepreneurial Daring”.
Steven created one of the most successful themed restaurants in the world, Rainforest Cafe® (A Wild Place to Shop and Eat® ). Opening the first at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota in October 1994, Rainforest Cafe® became the first restaurant to go public with only one unit open. Steven and his public company built and operated 45 Rainforest Cafe ® restaurants in seven years, on three continents.
Schussler Creative’s concepts include The Boathouse, Great Food-Waterfront Dining-Dream Boats, T-Rex, A Prehistoric Family Adventure / Eat Shop Explore & Discover at Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida. Yak & Yeti, An Asian Restaurant Experience at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, Hot Dog Hall of Fame, The Art of Mustard / Frankly the Best Hot Dogs, Sausages, Dumplings and French Fries in the World, Galaxy Drive In, Aliens, Humans and All of our FourLegged Friends Welcome, Made on Earth and Where Hungry People Like to Eat, Green Acres Event Center, An Enchanting Event Center in a Historic Barn.
Steven Schussler was honored with the Innovator of the Year Award by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and in 2016, received the Heritage Preservation Award for his outstanding contribution in restoring a historic barn and rehabilitating it to Green Acres Event Center. Steven has been named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the country by Entrepreneur Magazine, having received over 40 awards in six years including Fortune Magazine’s “Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies”, and the National Retail Federation’s “National Retailer of the Year.”
Steven’s Links:
Website: https://schusslercreative.com/
Event Center: https://www.greenacreseventcenter.com/
Super Heroes with Super Kids Foundation: https://www.superheroeswithsuperkids.org/
“It’s a Jungle in There” by Steven Schussler: https://amzn.to/3QCZi96
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schusslercreative
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Schussler/1181412814
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevenSchussler
Key Quotes:
1. “When you believe in something, just go for it!”
2. “You need to sweat the small stuff because that’s what makes the big stuff work.”
3. “No is yes waiting to happen.”
4. “You’ve got to listen to your gut.”
5. “But at the end of the day, it’s all up to you.”
6. “You can do a lot with a lot less.”
7. “If you’re not studying what other people are doing then you’re doing a disservice to the creative process.”
8. “You need to move as a team.”
9. “Business cards are one of the most important things today.”
10. “It’s all about service.”
Links Mentioned In The Episode:
“It’s a Jungle in There” by Steven Schussler: https://amzn.to/3QCZi96
Super Heroes with Super Kids Foundation: https://www.superheroeswithsuperkids.org/
Buy David’s book “Trusted Leader”: https://amzn.to/3luyqf1
David’s Links:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36AXtp9
Follow us on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2S9O6mj
Follow David on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2BEXgla
Follow David on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2Xbsg5q
Follow David on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2QDFOE5
David Horsager:
Welcome to The Trusted Leader Show. I’m your host, David Horsager. Join me as I sit down with influential leaders from around the world to discuss why leaders in organizations fail top tactics for high performance, and how you can become an even more trusted leader.
Hello, it’s David Horsager with the Trusted Leader Show I’m on with the most creative guy you’ll ever meet in the world. He has created for the most highest revenue producing restaurants in America. He is the creator of the Rainforest Cafe T-Rex, yet Yak and Yeti the boathouse. You’ve been some of these places. We’ve been some of these places. We’ve celebrated birthdays at these places. We’ve dated at these, I’ve taken girls on dates at these places, and we had an amazing time, thanks to you down there not too long ago, celebrating. I was speaking in Disney, and you set us up at a great table with our whole family and celebrating a volcano cake with my son at, at the that was at the T-Rex. But you’re sitting at the boathouse today. His, he’s the CEO and founder of Schussler Creative, and his name is Steve Schussler. Thanks for being on, and thanks for being my friend.
Steven Schussler:
Thank you, David. It’s a pleasure to be your friend. It’s a real easy thing to do.
David Horsager:
Well, Steve and I got to be on a part of a leadership group for the last several years together and kind of a round table leadership group. And anytime I get to sit next to, to Steve, I’m better for it, for sure. So, anyway, let’s get into this. Steve, just tell us a little bit, I, I wanna go into your process of creativity and some of the things you, you do things we were talking about earlier, unlike anybody else in the world. But tell, tell us a little bit, a couple things people don’t know about you, little background. I know your wife is amazing too. Give us a little ba a couple things we don’t know.
Steven Schussler:
A couple of things you don’t know. I’m active, active. I’m a avid tennis player horseback rider, skier any kinda water sports. I love to be active and I’m an avid collector and most people that collect things collect more than one thing. So I collect antique juke boxes. I collect anti cars. I collect anti motorcycles excuse me. And most of these things are used as props for what I create in the restaurant business. Our restaurants, I call them attractions, restaurants and retail stores. So we just don’t have restaurants. We start off with attractions because all of our restaurants have two, three hour waiting lights, so I like to call them an attraction. And it, the boathouse down here at Disney Springs, we have Amfa cars, which were made from 1962 to 1967, and they actually go physically from land and into the water. So that’s an attraction. And it’s next to the restaurant, and it causes a, a great deal of appeal nationwide. So we’re different in a lot of senses.
David Horsager:
Yeah. Yeah. And you’re different people would say in a really mighty good way. But you certainly were willing to take some risks. Risks and everything else. If you haven’t read it, his bestselling book is, It’s a jungle in there,
Steven Schussler:
Inspiring lessons, Hard one Insights and other acts of entrepreneurial daring.
David Horsager:
Let’s talk about that because you were daring, and I’ve read it and, you know, one of the big, big breakthroughs was Rainforest Cafe. It, the, one of the big ones is at the Mall of America. There’s always a wait. We’ve been there multiple times. But tell us, tell us about that journey a little bit. Let’s take that Rain Rainforest Cafe. It’s a, a fun, inspiring story.
Steven Schussler:
Well, I, I decided that it would be fun. I’ve had tropical birds my whole life. Macaws some of the largest birds that there are, and they’re all hand raised domestically read br babies that I actually hand fed and and raised. So people don’t know that about me. And I learned a lot from the tropical birds I had as pets. I learned about deforestation, I learned about the, the plight of the tropical birds poaching you name it. I’ve learned about it and studied it. And that gave me the inspiration to create the Rainforest Cafe because I would come home from work every day and radio and television broadcasting, which was my background. And I would say I talked to the birds. You know, I’d have my Gucci bag in my Gucci shoes, but I’d walk in there and I’d let the birds out and we’d have these conversations and I would say to myself, The world should see the beautiful plumage and, and, and, and the feathers and the colors of these magnificent animals on top of the fact that they’ll outlive us.
You know, they, they’ll live 80 years to to 120 years. So normally people that have tropical birds will, will them. And I pay young lady to come in three hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to spend three hours with the birds. She takes them out of their cages. She talks to them, she plays with them. We get them fresh fruit, fresh water, fresh vegetables, clean their cages. They have their own air conditioning system, their own heating system, their own, their own dishwasher. I mean, we, we’ve gone really far out and, and I love them. And they’re the reasons I created the Rainforest Cafe. And I promise them when we make it with the Rainforest Cafe, that I’d never get rid of them. That they’d be my, my, my compadres for the rest of my life. And that’s exactly what they are now.
David Horsager:
Well, that Rainforest Cafe, that was a time you weren’t maybe as, when you’re taking the risk and now that’s become a, a monumental success, But you weren’t as successful as you are today. You had to take a big risk. You took a house in down there in the south side of the cities to tell people the risk you took and what you did to get that, that sold.
Steven Schussler:
Well I had just come out of a, a place called Jukebox Saturday Night, which I created in Minneapolis. And you know, when you close a place, people wanna know why investors get nervous about investing in a new place. So I decided that I would immerse myself in the rainforest, and I actually built the tropical rainforest in my home. It, it took me a year. And I had the, the, the, the the forage. I had 37 tropical birds. I had 3,700 bright orange extension cords running through my home with free gasoline generators in the backyard. The DEA rated me, they said I had the highest residential electric bill and the state of Minnesota. So they thought I was growing marijuana plants. And in three o’clock in the morning, they rated me, I was in my underwear and they wanted to frisk me.
And I said, What I said there, There’s nothing to frisk. I’m in my underwear. Anyway, at the bottom line is they searched the entire house and they all came out with wet spots in their private areas. They were peeing in their pants from laughing because they thought they, they, they, they, they found a, a drug dealer or somebody growing marijuana plants. Instead, they, they said they found a nut and they all became investors. They all made out really well, and I don’t know if you know this, but we opened up 45 Rain Forest cafes in seven years and three continents. I basically lived out of a suitcase. And it’s been one of the most incredible experiences to teach others how not to give up. And when you believe in something, how important it’s just to go for it.
David Horsager:
You had people calling you, calling you crazy, you know,
Steven Schussler:
Tells and hired a, a, a a psychiatrist. And and the guy would call me every week and he’d say, Listen, your appointments already paid for your, your neighbors all chipped in. They really think that you’re nuts. They heard that you were painting your ceilings and walls black in preparation for your greenery treatment. Cause you wanted to create a canopy for a tropical rainforest. The neighbors thought that I was into black magic and I was going to eat their kids
David Horsager:
. You maybe just should have said Yeah, maybe . So, so tell us about that journey. So actually what I’d like to jump into with our short time together is that process of creativity. Cuz you kind of use the same process all the time. You’re building, building all these, I mean, now you’ve had so many wins at Disney, they’ll take your call, but it wasn’t that way at first. What’s, what’s the process?
Steven Schussler:
Well, the, the process is I have to like, what I’m doing that, that I know that sounds you know trite. But at the end of the day, if I don’t like what I’m creating, I can’t create it. Cause I put 100% of me into it. I don’t sleep real well at night. I think about all the elements. Attention to detail is what we’re known for. Disney has said it quite often that we’ve out Disney. Disney, that’s the best compliment that you can, you can ever imagine. People say, Don’t sweat the small stuff. David and I say just the opposite. You need to sweat the small stuff. Cause that’s what makes the big stuff work. And again, I only create, you know, a lot of people come to us and say, Will you create this for us? Will you create that for us?
It’s hard when I’m creating things for myself and for my partners. So I create things based on what I like. With the Rainforest Cafe, I had tropical birds. It was really easy for me to study and go to libraries for years and learn about deforestation and how it affects the rest of the world. The oxygen levels, all, all the things that go along with it. So I study. I spent a lot of times reading books. I I spent a lot of time doing research and development with other concepts and other people. I travel a lot. I look at things a lot and I determine what I feel I can attribute to and what that concept might be and where it would fit in. And then I have to look for landlords, places to put it. Then I have to look for financing and find the people that are willing to put their money in. So it’s, it’s a very, very, very long process. Each concept I create takes about five years before it’s open from the day, the inception from the day of inception. So it’s a long, tedious process. And as I wrote in my book, it’s a jungle in there, No is yes waiting to happen. And that’s an important thing to, to realize that it will happen if you don’t give up.
David Horsager:
Tell us about that. Most people give up or, you know, don’t persevere through some of the battles you’ve had. Tell us about that experience and how do you keep going?
Steven Schussler:
Well, you gotta talk to yourself. You know, there’s been many nights where, where I’d look in the mirror and ask if I was crazy and the mirror would say, No, you’re psychotic. And then I’d laugh and I’d wake up the next day and I’d get back on the bike. So if you fall off your bicycle, you, you gotta stop pedaling, get your stuff together, and get back on and keep going. And I’ve done many of that. I, I can’t tell you, there’ve been many days that I question my own sanity and then I laugh at myself and, and just keep going, keep going. And people ask me all the time you know, what do you do? And I said, The answer is never, ever, ever, ever, under any circumstances give up. On the other hand, you gotta know when to give up and change your direction. And it tell people all the time that giving up is not an option. But you have to be smart. Change is inevitable. Change is gonna happen whether you and I want it to happen or not.
David Horsager:
How, how do you, how do you decide, because I talk about this, some of the things I’ve been writing on the last few years have been about tensions that we face. So, so like we’ve got I believe, you know, you’ve got consultants that say it’s always like this or it’s always like that. And what do we know? We have to think that you got someone, you could say someone, Oh, the early bird gets to worm, but be patient. Both can be true. We got, you know, persevere or pivot. We got, should we diversify on this? That would be good. Go for everybody. Or should we be homogenous and stay focused on that one? But on that persevere or pivot, How did you know when to pivot? Cuz you see pers people persevere right off the cliff. You see people pivot too early cuz they give up. What do you do?
Steven Schussler:
It’s gut. You gotta listen to your gut. You know, the gut is one of the most important things you could have. Cause it’s attached to your brain. And when, when, when you smell smoke, you know this fire close by and you gotta take all of those, those key elements that make you question what is going on here? Is this right? Is this not right? And your life experiences, I gotta tell you, being part of the Harvey McKay round tables really helped me a lot to get everybody else’s professional perspectives and feelings. But at the end of the day, it’s all up to you. You’re gonna be the failure or you’re gonna be the success. And it’s who you align yourselves with. I talk about this all the time. I hire people that are better than I. And people are afraid to do that.
A lot of people say, Hey, I’m afraid of the competition. They’re coming in, they’re opening up across the street. So what all it does is bring more people to the excitement of the entertainment area that you’re, you’re creating it. And and I spend a lot of money on, on props and learning because I like to use things other people don’t. I, I wanna be an icon. Wherever we open, I want to be an icon and, and, and I wanna be the main guy on the block. And in order to do that, you really know your stuff. And you, and
David Horsager:
You created some of the most amazing restaurants in the world, certainly experiences in the world. Then the pandemic hit Yes.
Steven Schussler:
What,
David Horsager:
What, what you learn.
Steven Schussler:
Well, I learned that you can do a lot with a lot less that, that’s, I think that the number one thing that we’ve learned is you can still continue to be successful and, and wildly successful with less people. And we, we learned to take care of our, our, our team and our staff. We actually made meals for everybody that works for us and the people that they had at home waiting for them, their mom, their dad, their cousin, their brother. So we, we allowed everybody to take food home and we provided an experience for them even during a really bad time. And what that did, it solidified their relationship with us. And when the pandemic was over or things eased up and we were able to go back to business, nobody wanted to leave us because we took care of them. We, we, we became Class X when everybody else laid people off. We found ways to use them. We found ways to do maintenance and other things that we couldn’t do while we were doing a thousand or 15 people a day. And, and it networked out really well for us.
Kent Svenson (Ad):
We understand the frustration of overspending on training programs without seeing long term culture change and measurable results. From decades of working with top brands and organizations. We have seen that building a high performing high trust culture is the only way to create a lasting impact. High trusts leaders make the difference between a flavor of the month training initiative and measurable learning and development. Our community of trusted certified partners is equipped with a suite of tools to build a high performing, high trusts culture where people can perform at their best. So if you wanna start solving the root issue in your organization and produce lasting results, head to trusted platform.com to learn more. And now back to the show.
David Horsager:
You’ve got this creative streak. You’ve also got this restorative streak. You, you restored this amazing barn where you live in the, on the, on the Minnesota property. Tell me about that. That’s one I still, by the way, haven’t seen. And we’ve talked about it a lot cuz we have a, a farm and we want to restore an old barn. But what, Tell me, you know, tell us about it.
Steven Schussler:
Well, I, I was looking for a place for storage for our antique motorcycles, our props, our antique juke boxes, our cars. And, and I read an ad in the paper about Eden Prairie looking for someone to, to buy this property to use for storage only. And they made me sign all kinds of conditions. When I, when I bought it, it’s an interesting story. It, it was up for, for an auction and I think the price was $83,500 and it was a sealed auction. So you had to put the auction amount in that you were willing to bid. And minimum bid was 83,500. I called my attorney, said, Have you seen the place yet? I said, No. He said, Well, maybe you’d go look at it before you bid on it. So I went and I looked at it and I heard that there was over 500 people that have already looked at it and there was a lot of interest in it.
And I called my attorney, I said, I’m putting a bid in. And he said, Are you sure? And I said, Yes. And he said, How much are you putting the bid in for? And I said, said, Well, at minimum bids 87. I said, Let’s put in a bid for 92. And I called him back a half hour later and I said, You know what? I wanna change that. He said, Are you crazy? What are you gonna change it to? I said, To a hundred. And then I called back the next day and I said, I’m gonna change it to 110. And he said, What are you doing? Are you nuts? And I said, Listen, I don’t wanna miss out on it. It’s a closed bid auction. And, and from what I understand this, you know, hundreds of people walking through this place with interest. And at the end of the day, I forgot about it.
And 60 days later, I get a call at 11 o’clock at night from the, the newspaper, the Star Tribune. And they said to me, Congratulations Mr. Shaler. And I said, For what? And they said, You were the winner of this barn in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. And I said, Oh my God, that’s fantastic. And, and I’m licking my chops and, and I’m feeling real good about it cuz I, I had forgot, was two, two months earlier. And they said to me, Can we tell you one more thing? And I said, Sure. And the young lady said to me, You were the only bidder
David Horsager:
.
Steven Schussler:
So I’ve been against myself three times, but I won. There you go. And it took us a year and to two years to restore it. Almost eight months just for the roof of this place. But I love taking things that are old and turning them into using what the charm that, that kept it old and turning it into something cool. And we do over 110 weddings every single year. So there are people that will never forget their experiences at, at this barn. We call it Green Acres Event Center. Green Acres is a place for me. You remember the song? Oh, yes. And, and, and it’s a lot of fun. I, I put artificial cows not artificial, but they, they’re fiberglass cows that I bought in Panama and I had them delivered to Eden Prairie. And I put them all over the place, and people would call me every single day, David, and they would say, Thank you, thank you for making us laugh on the way to work every day. Thanks for taking this barn, that that is a staple in, in Minnesota and saving it. And it feels good besides the fact that it’s successful financially. And it cost a small fortune to save it. And we got parking from the city and we had to pay for that. And all kinds of things that we had to, to make it a world class event.
David Horsager:
It’s beautiful. And I’ve, I’ve heard nothing but amazing or reviews, so thank you. That’s that, that’s fantastic. Tell me this, what are you doing now to innovate? Like, I think, I think you, it comes to, because you’re reading because you’re actively learning, but what are some of the things you’re doing now to to innovate, to be creative, to stay creative?
Steven Schussler:
Well, I, I’m, I’m coming up with other things that no one else has done. I, I don’t like copying things. I mean, there’ll be an element here or there. Oh, that’s a great beer. Or that, that, you know those are great drapes. It’s a good color. I like the way it flows to the left or to the right, but we take ideas all the time. But if you, you’re not looking at new stuff and if you’re not studying what other people are doing, then you’re doing a disservice to the creative process. So I’m constantly on the move, constantly looking at new things, constantly researching on the internet for, for new products and ordering them and playing with them to see if operationally the work. You know it’s one thing to be creative and build and think about things that could be really cool. It’s another thing to make sure that your operations team can make it work.
David Horsager:
What are you doing to lead yourself? You know, we talk about the Trusted Leader show you have, you’re incredibly creative. You’re doing some things, you know, we’ve, at least what I’ve found is people that are leading, others, leading these massive global initiatives that you’re leading. And I haven’t even talked about all of ’em. What are you doing to lead yourself? Is there a rhythm or routine you have, you get up in the morning or you do, What certain things do you do that just help you be better as a healthy person?
Steven Schussler:
The more mountain bike riding I do, the, the more physical exercise that that, that I get, the more healthy my brain and my body is, and the more creative I become. I usually leave a pad in every one of my cars and, and, and a pencil. I, I write things down. Things come to me in the shower. They come to me sometimes two or three o’clock in the morning. I don’t sleep very well. I’m bed at 12 or day know unhealthy. That’s, I get as much physical exercise and as much as I can love learning from other creative people, other people’s thoughts. And then one of the things I’ve learned is, you know, everybody has an opinion. Everybody has an opinion, just like everybody has a but we all sit on buts. But I like to say is, you have a creative idea.
You gotta bring it to the table and you gotta share it with everyone so they hear it. But at the end of the day, you need to move as a team. You’re never gonna get a hundred percent consensus on your ideas. I don’t care who you are. You’re never gonna get consensus when you have a group of 20 people or 10 people. But at the end of the day, you have to ask for consensus and move as a team. And I think that’s real important. And if you show the respect of being able to explain yourself and, and, and explain your idea and your thought process, people that might not disagree, that might disagree with you will go along with you because you’ve given them respect.
David Horsager:
What else do you do? I love that you’re, you know, we talk all about building trust and leaders and teams around the world here at the institute. And, but you have, you have to build trust with big investors. You have to build trust with Disney. You didn’t always have a track record to go from. What are some of the things you did to, to build trust before you were trusted?
Steven Schussler:
Well, you know, little things like shaking somebody’s hand, like, like, like following up with a letter and a phone call. People still like getting things in, in writing. You know, we’re so used to emails that people stopped writing letters. People don’t use stamps anymore. They, they just use email. I think it’s a mistake. I think you need to use all of your resources. So an email is great. A follow up letter, something that’s in with your, your logo and your company on it. And, and your handwritten signature is really important. Business cards, business cards are one of the most important things today. And everyone’s saying, Oh, we’re getting away from business cards, this, that, and the other thing, Everybody loves a business card. My business cards are die cut. So for T-Rex, for instance, I have a T-Rex, a dinosaur, it’s die cut cost me a dollar a card they made outta plastic.
They go through the washing machine, but they’re the coolest looking cards in America. I’ve won all kinds of awards for all of my cards. I spent three months developing every card for every one of our business. People call me from all over the world asking me to send them a sample of my business card. My partners think I’m nuts, cuz every single card costs a buck. So you’re giving away a buck every single time. But I’m the marketing and the promotions guy, so they don’t get rid of my business card. They don’t put ’em in a pile with the other white plain square business cards. They put ’em on their computer, they take ’em home, give them to their kids. So we think out of the box and, and, and we work outta the box.
David Horsager:
Well, so many ways we could go, Oh man, I love your stuff. I love what you do. It’s, it’s a, you’re amazing, no doubt about it. What what’s next? What’s, what’s the big dream? What’s, what’s your biggest hope for the future?
Steven Schussler:
Well, I love working with the Walt Disney World Company. They provide you with, with tens of thousands of people in front of your door. It, it’s not cheap to do business down there. And, and they don’t just accept anybody. So if, if it was up to me, I would stay just doing Walt Disney World Projects. I, I love their philosophy about keeping the place clean. I love their philosophy about how they treat people how they, they teach, how they educate. And it, it’s in my blood. So it it for our, we wanna spend every possible minute of our day creating with the idea that we’d like to put it Disney World. And if it goes somewhere else you know, that we, we believe work that’s Disney World is vanilla ice, mom and dad, baseball hot dogs. It’s, it works for,
David Horsager:
What do you do? You got a team, you know, land the plane here, but you got a team you’ve had to lead and motivate some teams. What, what, what tips do you have? Do you have one or two for, how do you align and lead and motivate that team?
Steven Schussler:
Well, Gibsons is a great example. They’re my partners as well as landres restaurants. And a good example for Gibsons is us. Excuse me for that. Steve Lombardo who’s the proprietor and started Gibson’s he had a party one day that came in. They wanted the cheesecake. Cheesecake wasn’t on the menu. He down the street while were eating and bought cheesecake at a different restaurant, brought it. And the cheesecake to a people will never forget that as long as they live, they’ll talk about it forever. And for what? A $10 investment that you’ve got people that will come back for the rest of their lives. So I, I learned a lot by that. You won’t find a lot of res that are gonna do that. It’s, it’s all about service and the quality of the food. And once you cut one of those two things, you’re not prime anymore. You’re not on top of your game. So we’re very careful to lead by example. And the examples that people that have, have helped me that, that are my partners have really made me a better person.
David Horsager:
Where can we find out more? There’s lots of places to find out about you, but Steve s Shoeler. Where, where can we find out more? Connect with you?
Steven Schussler:
You, you, you can look my name up or Google it. There’s, there’s thousands of articles. Anybody ever wants to call me? They could reach me at my office at 7 6 3 7 4 6 3700. I give everybody time. It doesn’t matter who calls me. There’s entrepreneurs that call all the time. They want some advice, they wanna talk. I I, I love to help because when I was looking for help and I was starving, ok, that weren’t a lot of people out there I wanna be one of those people that are there.
David Horsager:
You are, you’re a trusted example. I’m grateful to know you and grateful that we’ve gotten to be on the Harvey McKay round table together and other events and times together. I’m grateful for the splash you’ve made in our home state of Minnesota and certainly our country and world. There’s lots more we could talk about, but we’re gonna put it all in the show notes. Trusted leader show.com. We’re gonna put out where to get his book, where to find out about a you, he’s even given his phone number out. We’re gonna make some encouragements for everybody to go eat when they go to Disney. And everybody goes to Disney. Make sure you go to one of these great places. Rainforest T-Rex, yet y the Boathouse is amazing. We love that. But it’s the Trusted Leader show. Here’s your last question, my friend. Who is a leader you trust and why?
Steven Schussler:
I, I trust Harvey McKay. I, I trust my partners because they, they have proven over and over and over again, whether it’s Landry Restaurants or it’s the Gibsons Group outta Chicago that they can be trusted that they have high morals. They believe in helping other people. I believe in being charitable. I didn’t even get a chance to tell you about our charitable organization.
David Horsager:
Can jump in right here before we close. Tell us about it.
Steven Schussler:
Well, it’s a 5 0 1 c3. It, it’s called Superheroes with Super Kids Foundation. And we take children that have catastrophic illness and we bring them in their families after being vetted to a place that we built. It’s a superhero command center. And people think they’re coming to look at a new concept that I’ve created for Disney that the public has not seen yet. And we take the young gentleman or, or young lady who has this, this, this terrible disease or sickness. And we give family a tour, this beautiful, and, and it’s called Most gadgets and gears, gg. And everything moves. It’s all built about kinetic energy. And after we give tour, we feed, and all of a sudden, in the middle of Batman in the front in Batman outfit, and who plays Batman, John Pollett with the polled family who wound in Minnesota twins.
And he comes in yelling and screaming, Where’s my superhero kid? And the kid raises his hand and the, and the family’s there, and they’re all excited. And he walks over to the kid, introduces himself, and he says, Please gimme a tour of what you just saw. And the kid takes him by the hand and walks him around the entire place and they, they get to a statue a bust. And a Batman says, Why don’t you take the head of the, and pull it back? And does that, He says, See that button? Press that button. And a that’s on the wall goes up in the air, it’s lit, and while it’s lit goes up in the air and this brick wall opens up and you’re into the superhero command center, which is absolutely on. We spent over a million, we got 17 different life size superheroes made out fiberglass.
We got a huge mural of, of Gotham City. We have a Bat Mobile that I spent $250,000 for. That man brings him into a dressing room, asks him if he wants to get into an outfit, he gets into a a Robin outfit. That man puts him inside the car, presses a button, a huge garage door opens that has a mural of a tunnel. And outside that garage door is the St. Louis Park Police Department, the St. Louis Park Fire Department with trucks and manpower. And they escort the Bat Mobile with Batman and, and, and our superhero kid to another place where they have dessert and they’re on the road, the sirens are gone, everything’s going. And the kid is waving like he’s in a parade. And then they get back after, after having dessert, and we bring him back to the superhero command center, and we give him a bag with a book, pictures all kinds of gifts so that while he’s either in hospice or he is home trying to recuperate, and we also give ’em a 22 scholarship from Wishes and more, which is, are the people that we use that do the vetting?
And they can use that if they make it to college for their college education. And if by some chance they don’t make it the money goes to the family. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. We, we, we like to do at least two a month. They’re incredible. And it’s heartwarming.
David Horsager:
Super heartwarming. We’re gonna put that in the show notes, trustedleadershow.com. You’re gonna be able to find out about the donation. Maybe you want to give to it, but we certainly want to support it. And Steve, this is been fantastic. You’re fantastic. I’m so grateful for you and grateful for the time together. Grateful for that you share with our audience. Grateful that you’re my friend. For now, this has been the Trusted Leader Show. Until next time, stay trusted.