Jim Knight
speaker
90 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Jim Knight’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I don't even care what the product is. And I say this with love in my heart, regardless of people are selling widgets, it's never about the thing. It's not even about the environment. It's about the people. It's about the humans. It's always been about human behavior. The goal is don't focus so much on the thing.
Even if you're first to the market, even if you're crushing it compared to everybody else, the goal is you got to get spectacular people. You know, if you can find some rock stars out there, they will help you perpetuate the brand for all time.
Well, I appreciate it. And I will say that I'm mediocre at a lot of stuff. But one thing I have a strength is I can hold an audience. So at the very least in person, you know, our good friend Warren. Yeah, I'm super happy that he said that. Let's hope it translates to a podcast, right?
Yeah, mine was sort of the same thing at an entry level. Actually, my very first job, although I will still say it's in the service industry, was at a local theme park. So I live in central Florida. I'm in Orlando. We have a lesser known theme park called Gatorland Zoo, which is an actual working gator farm. But, you know, for 14 bucks, you can go in there and there's a whole bunch of fun stuff.
I actually sold fish there. I drove a little miniature train out there. I worked in the alligator boa constrictor area where we would put like a snake around somebody's neck and you can hold on to a baby alligator.
It sounds like it, right? I'm sure we probably crossed paths at some point. I doubt that actually. Mine was probably a little bit before his time, but I loved it. I mean, just having that service mentality, that work ethic really got me into working at a little Italian restaurant here in the States called the Olive Garden. And Olive Garden was a great run for me. I did that for a couple of years.
And although I went to school to be a musician and I was a middle school teacher for six years, my real love was in the hospitality industry. And I started working at a local hard rock cafe. And like you, I worked at a frontline position. I was just a host and loved it. But I got to touch basically 7,000 people a day doing something crazy like $35,000 hours, which is unheard of. hospitality.
But, you know, your skills grow real quick. And, you know, we can certainly talk about the service industry. But I think that that mentality, you talk about that through line has really helped me out in any position. And honestly, I get access to a lot of data.
And I'll tell you, the National Restaurant Association will tell you something like 65% of all Americans will work in that industry as a starting point. They may not end up there. They might not be their career. They're going to go on to whatever it is their school major was or whatever. But you think about in this country, 65% of all people have worked in that industry.
Man, it just really helps out, I think, when you go on to perhaps do something else in a different industry. So you and I have that in common. I absolutely love that industry.
I never really wanted to be a tipped employee, you know, which like you said, as a server, as a bartender, that seems to be a goal. That's where the money is. And then eventually you almost take a pay cut to be a manager, right? Because you're on salary and you're at the behest of whatever the general manager or the brand wants you to be. I never really wanted to be a tipped employee.
Like I said, I really, I liked being around people. I worked in probably the busiest restaurant in the world at that time in the early nineties. But I did think at some point I wanted bigger impact and influence and And so I did make the leap to be a manager.
And I think I was very cognizant of the fact that if I ever was to use my music degree, which I did get, performance and education, and the work that I had done as a middle school teacher, that educational piece, I wanted to pull all of those levers. I knew that I was going to have to be a manager at some point. So I did that really for only about a year, year and a half.
and then transcended over into the training and development world. That meant I came out of the cafes. I was working at the corporate support center. And ultimately, when my boss left to go do something bigger and better, I was just sort of a natural to move into that role and wound up staying out of, I think, the 21 years.
I think I can add up to about 16 being head of the training and development wing and loved it. And then from there, it was cafes, hotels, casinos, live music venues. It was global. And I got a chance to travel to about 60 or so different properties in some 30 different countries.
So, you know, just really, again, that work ethic, like you talked about, Heather, is it really kept me grounded when I became a manager and ultimately an executive. And now I got a chance to, I guess, see the world and hang out with some rock stars. And somebody was paying me to do that and look and be and say whatever I wanted.
So it was definitely a charmed life or at least a career, a lifetime career that I loved, just absolutely loved.
Yeah, great word. Entertainment is exactly what we're about. You're right. You know, I really want to be a rock star. I want to be like a lot of my friends who could play and sing. And I'd always been in community theater. I did when I was in high school. I was in chorus, you know, so there was a choral background. And actually, my degree is very formal.
It's very opera, very church and community theater, if you will. So, you know, nobody invites me up onto the stage when all my rock and roll friends are out doing stuff. But... I will say that performance art side of me was always there. The educational side. And I knew this. When I was at college, I said, geez, for me to really make a living, I think you got to be really good at this.
You got to be a monster musician. And I just wasn't. I mean, I could get by, but I wasn't really just crushing it. So I changed careers. I went into children's education. And again, I really thought maybe I'm going to be a music teacher. To your point, I think somewhere along the line, I get a chance to use both of those. But my real love... was my first job.
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