Most People Don't... But You Do!

Bart Berkey
  • 5.0 (17)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Semiweekly

A journey into the extraordinary. Stories of individuals who have gone above and beyond in their lives and careers. Those who defined excellence & achieved remarkable success. Join Bart Berkey, former Global Executive for the Ritz-Carlton as he sits down with influential leaders, innovators, and visionaries to uncover the key decisions, early influences, and acts of kindness that have shaped their paths. From hospitality legends like Horst Schulze, Founder of the Ritz-Carlton to entrepreneurial trailblazers like Kara Goldin, these conversations reveal the insights and lessons that inspire.

  1. 4d ago

    #238 He Taught Opportunity Recognition, Took His Own Advice | Asif Shakeel, Founder and CEO of Strictly E-Bikes

    Bart Berkey walked into Strictly EBikes with a broken foldable bike that two other shops had turned away. Ten minutes and $38 later, he walked out with a fixed bike and a future guest. Asif Shakeel spent decades building service stations and car dealerships on one principle: compete on service, not price. Then he retired, bought the wrong e-bike online, crashed it, couldn't find anyone to repair it, and recognized the opportunity hiding inside his own problem. Key Takeaways Opportunity arrives disguised as a problem. Asif's entire second act came from a bike he couldn't get fixed. Most people just want the problem solved so they can keep moving. If you solve it and notice that others have the same problem, you have a business.You can only go so far on price. Nobody is looking for the cheapest repair on their car. They're looking for honesty, competence, and transparency. Service is the one place with unlimited room to compete.One lie erases every truth. His father's lesson: get caught once and everything you ever said looks like a lie. It doesn't matter how kind you were or how much money they gave you. Trust is not a feature you can add back.When you have to cut, cut what the customer won't miss. In 2008 Asif cut the muzak, the landscaping, and the shelf inventory. Bart's Ritz-Carlton parallel: newspapers moved from every guest door to the elevator landing, saving enormous money with almost no impact on the experience. The skill is knowing which costs are the experience and which just look like it.Delegate so you can do more, not less. Asif's father insisted on doing everything himself and stayed one location. Asif systemized, built teams, and ran three businesses at once. This episode features Asif Shakeel, Founder and CEO of Strictly EBikes, located at 683 North Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 2022, Strictly EBikes specializes in electric bikes and serves the Northern Virginia community. Before launching the business, Asif owned three service stations and a car dealership, has lived in Northern Virginia for over 50 years, and also serves as an adjunct professor at George Mason University. The company is currently developing a franchise model and is expanding into the adjacent retail space. Learn more at strictly-ebikes.com, or connect with Strictly EBikes on Instagram and Facebook, or with Asif Shakeel on LinkedIn. You can also reach him directly at asif@strictly-ebikes.com.

  2. 4d ago

    #237 Hug Them at Check Out | Kristin Oja, CEO and Founder of STAT Wellness

    A 51-year-old executive was about to be put on a stimulant for the first time in her life. She had spent a decade running things, and suddenly she couldn't focus. Her primary care doctor sent her to a psychiatrist. Instead, she went to STAT Wellness, ran a hormone panel, and found out she was in perimenopause. Nutrients, hormone replacement, a cleaner diet, and the brain fog was gone. No stimulant. She's a Doctor of Nursing Practice, family nurse practitioner, personal trainer, and founder of the nation's first functional medicine and movement practice, with eight locations across Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and two more coming by year's end. While everyone else scales telehealth, she's scaling brick and mortar. Her reason is simple: she wants to hug her patients at checkout. In this live session with Bart Berkey, Kristin talks about the "peace bubble" that keeps her steady while running three kids and ten locations, why her intake goes all the way back to her patient's mother's pregnancy, and the quote that named her podcast and her whole philosophy: little by little becomes a lot. Key Takeaways 1. Keep the peace bubble. Kristin's answer to "what do you do that most people don't" wasn't about business. It was internal harmony. Three kids, ten locations coming, constant fires, and she stays aligned through breathing and a deliberate practice she calls her peace bubble. The external chaos is survivable because the internal state isn't. 2. Scale the hug, not the app. Everyone is scaling tech and telehealth platforms. Kristin is scaling brick and mortar, on purpose, at 1,000%. She wants to meet her patients, hug them at checkout, and be their third space, the place that's neither work nor home. In a world optimizing for frictionless, she's optimizing for presence. This episode features Kristin Oja, Founder of STAT Wellness and host of the Little By Podcast. STAT Wellness offers telemedicine nationwide and complimentary 15-minute consultations. Learn more at www.statwellness.com, and connect with Kristin through the Little By Podcast.

  3. Jul 9

    #236 What's Your Black Napkin? | Guest: Gail Lowney Alofsin, Founder of Leadership at All Levels

    EPISODE SUMMARY Bart reconnects with one of his earliest podcast guests, Gail Lowney Alofsin, speaker, author, URI professor, and founder of Leadership at All Levels, for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like two old friends solving the world's problems over coffee. Gail shares how a childhood of intentional giving, literacy volunteering at 17, and decades of mission work in Haiti shaped her philosophy of abundance: giving freely without expecting anything in return. She and Bart unpack the difference between customer service (what you do for people) and customer experience (how people feel because of you), and Gail introduces her "Black Napkin Theory," a quietly powerful story about a server who noticed what you were wearing before you even sat down. The conversation moves through resilience, dealing with difficult people, the power of using someone's name, and what it means to notice, anticipate, and over-deliver, not just in hospitality, but in everyday life. Bart shares stories of gratitude stones, United flight attendant Nick Pino, and playing the "how many people can we help right now?" game in a coffee shop line. This episode is a masterclass in Humanality, and proof that small, intentional acts of seeing people can change the room. KEY TAKAWAYS The Black Napkin Theory. A great experience is never announced. It is felt. When a server silently swaps your white napkin for a black one because you are wearing dark pants, no words are needed. That is the standard. What is your black napkin moment?Customer service vs. customer experience. Service is what you do for people. Experience is how people feel because of you. Know the difference and train for both.Use their name. Names are free. They are the cheapest, most powerful way to make someone feel seen. If someone gives you their name, hand it back.Abundance is a practice. Gail has given introductions, leads, and opportunities freely since day one, not because she expected anything back, but because she genuinely believes in people. Abundance taught early becomes a lifelong reflex.Bless and release. Difficult people, bad managers, arrogant behavior. Gail's answer is always the same: let them vent, stay grounded, and release it. Do not leave your good job because of one bad season.Four touchpoints by 10am. Want to build a human culture? Start small. Know the name of the person cleaning the floor. Ask the overnight front desk staff how their night was. Four meaningful human moments before the workday starts sets the tone for everything after.Notice, anticipate, over-deliver. It is not a hospitality strategy. It is a human one. Anyone, anywhere, can play the game: look around and ask "who could I help right now?" Learn more about Gail Lowney Alofsin and her work at gail@gailspeaks.com and connect with Gail Lowney Alofsin on LinkedIn. To learn more about her book Your Sunday Is Now: What Are You Waiting For? reach out directly at gail@gailspeaks.com.

  4. Jul 2

    #235 The ACE Ecosystem: How Alignment Beats Hustle | Candice Gaddy, Allegiant Commercial Expert LLC

    Candice built her framework the hard way. After a stroke and brain hemorrhage in 2018 rerouted a decades-long corporate finance career, she gave herself the "graceful pause" to ask where she really wanted to go, and discovered her true gift wasn't the numbers, but being a bridge and connector of relationships. Out of that came ACE: Align your strategy and structure, Connect to the right systems and people, and Expand intentionally. As she puts it, even a great cup of coffee is useless without a container to hold it. Together they get into relationship capital most people never optimize, why you should be "more interested than interesting," and the mindset shift that changes everything: stop checking boxes and start experiencing life. What you'll take away: 1. Alignment before achievement. Most people try to perform their way to growth. Get clear on who you are and what uniquely makes you a blessing to others first, the authentic results follow. 2. Be interested, not interesting. Relationship capital is built in the moment. Lead with "How can I help you?" and let the connection evolve organically instead of pitching. 3. Structure holds the vision. Opportunities mean nothing without the systems and container to support them. Align the team, then connect strategically. 4. Bring in a mirror. You can't see your own "spinach in the teeth." A trusted accountability partner, internal or external, sees what you can't. Refusing feedback is why many businesses stall. 5. Check your patterns. Be a continual learner: pause, read the landscape, spot the pattern, and only make moves that open the next door. 6. Go through, not around. Every challenge, even a horrific culture or a health crisis, is a place to learn. You don't have to agree with how you're treated to grow from it. 7. Stop checking boxes. Living is checking boxes. Experiencing life is staying agile when you end up on a road you never planned to walk. Most people don't realize authentic growth starts with alignment, not achievement. Our listeners do. 🎧 Guest: Candice Gaddy, Allegiant Commercial Expert LLC 🔗 More: https://mostpeopledont.com 📍 Connect with Candice Nicholson-Gaddy on LinkedIn and subscribe to her newsletter, The Strategic Growth Architect, where she teaches leaders how to align strategically, connect to the right opportunities and systems, and expand their impact through the ACE framework.

  5. Jun 26

    #234 Abundance and Picking Positive with Kelly Bishop, Blood Centers of America

    What if treating people like humans, not transactions, was your biggest business advantage? Bart Berkey welcomes back his friend Kelly Bishop, Senior Director of Experiential Strategy & Organizational Engagement at Blood Centers of America, for a heartfelt conversation recorded live in Los Angeles. Kelly is one of the few guests Bart has ever invited back, and this episode is equal parts friendship and masterclass in human-centered leadership. Together they explore the abundance mindset, why being genuinely happy for others is rare and powerful, and "humanality," Bart's term for making people feel cared for, valued, and seen, rather than processed, managed, or ignored. They dig into why so many experiences have become transactional, why a manager isn't always a leader, and why kindness absolutely moves the bottom line. The episode closes on something bigger than business: the "generosity crisis" and the blood shortage where one in three people will be affected. What you'll take away: Abundance over envy. Being genuinely happy for others is a choice that lets you give instead of compete.Humanality defined: making people feel cared for, valued, and seen. "Emotional intelligence on steroids."The signs of people who truly care: they look you in the eye, they listen, and they don't interrupt to make it about themselves.A manager isn't a leader. We promote too many people who were never built to lead, and teams suffer for it.Kindness pays. Engaged people deliver better service, higher satisfaction, and more referrals.Help someone else win and you win too.Most people don't stop. Stop and look. Stop and ask, "Are you okay?"Timestamps:00:00 Abundance and being happy for others02:00 Spotting people who truly care04:00 Defining "humanality"06:00 The generosity crisis07:00 Managers vs. true leaders09:00 The watered-down soup lesson11:00 Kelly's role at Blood Centers of America17:00 "60 Seconds of BCA" on the trade show floor19:00 The blood shortage and the power of stories21:00 "Most people don't..." Kelly fills in the blank Learn more about Blood Centers of America at bca.coop and connect with Kelly Bishop on LinkedIn.

  6. Jun 19

    #233 Why You're Richer Than You Think - Nik Agharkar, Founder of Crowne Point Tax

    Most people see opportunity and hesitate. Nik Agharkar sees it and jumps - even when the timing looks insane. In this episode, Bart sits down with the founder and CEO of Crown Point Tax & Wealth Council, a tax attorney who quit his job with a three-month-old at home, built 122 clients in nine months entirely alone, and eventually discovered that the real gap in the market wasn't just tax strategy - it was someone who actually cared enough to explain it. Nik unpacks the business philosophy he built Crown Point around: client first, always. Not as a slogan, but as a system - every process engineered from the client's perspective, every call returned even when the news is bad, every strategy explained so thoroughly that clients never wonder why they're doing something. He traces that ethos back to law school, to a fiduciary duty he took seriously when others didn't, and ultimately to his parents, who instilled a simple principle that stayed with him: think about the next person in the room. The conversation deepens when Bart asks Nik about what he's learned from working with the ultra-wealthy. Nik introduces the concept of "resulting" - the mistake of judging a decision by its outcome rather than its process, and warns that many people who rode the wave of a hot industry confused luck with skill. Then he flips it: for the person doing everything right but not yet seeing the financial results, his message is equally clear. Time is undefeated. Keep going. Consistency is the strategy. The episode closes on something rare, a conversation about identity, manifestation, and the inner voice. Nik challenges listeners to stop borrowing their parents' programming and start asking what they actually want. His version of manifestation isn't about timelines or vision boards; it's about identity. Who are you? What does that person's life feel like? And are you willing to believe, especially when the evidence disagrees, that you are the kind of person things always work out for? Most people don't believe that. Nik does. And it shows. Key Takeaways 1. See the canoe. Get in the canoe. Nik's signature move is taking action when others hesitate. Opportunity doesn't wait - and most people let it pass by waiting for perfect conditions. 2. Client first isn't a value - it's an engineering principle. Like Apple designing the iPod from the user's perspective out, Crown Point builds every process, every touchpoint, and every communication strategy around what the client needs - not what's easiest for the firm. 3. The inner voice was programmed by someone else. Reclaiming your own thoughts, separate from your parents', your culture's, your industry's -is the work that leads to a life that's actually yours. For more information, contact nik@crownepointtax.com or www.crownepointtax.com

  7. Jun 11

    #232 "No One Is Coming. Shawn Walchef Built a Media Empire When He Stopped Waiting."

    EPISODE SUMMARY For 18 years, Shawn Walchef has run Cali BBQ in San Diego -three restaurant locations including a spot at Snapdragon Stadium and the local Navy base. But the story most people know isn't about brisket and peach cobbler. It's about the media company he built on top of his barbecue business after he sent a press release to 14 San Diego writers celebrating Cali BBQ's five-year anniversary and got zero replies. Crickets. That moment was the pivot. Shawn stopped waiting for legacy media to tell his story, started telling it himself, and 13 years later runs Cali BBQ Media - producer of 15 different shows including Digital Hospitality (nine years running) and Restaurant Influencers (with Entrepreneur Magazine), with brand partners that include Toast, Pepsi, US Foods, Amazon, and Google. In this conversation, Shawn and Bart dig into the courage it takes to look stupid on the internet, the "digital flash mob" metaphor for building an audience from zero, the grandfather lessons that shaped everything (stay curious, get involved, ask for help), why every business - yours included - is secretly in the hospitality business, and the truth that took Shawn five years to learn: no one is coming. If you build it, they will NOT come. The Field of Dreams is the biggest lie ever told to entrepreneurs. You'll also hear Bart's story about Storyville Coffee in Seattle - the $13 coffee where someone's entire job is bringing water to seated customers, and where they ask "What can we create for you today?" - and a tease about Bart's personal "humanality" framework for inserting human kindness into transactional moments. If you've been waiting for the perfect moment to start telling your story, or thinking "no one would care anyway" - this is the episode.

  8. Jun 5

    #231 The Playful Pursuit of Perfection- Jesse Sieff on Music, the Marines, and Mount Everest

    Most people pick a lane. Jesse Sieff built a whole intersection. He's a Pittsburgh-raised classical percussionist who taught himself piano at age six, trained for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in gymnastics, earned a civil engineering degree, and spent five years studying music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania before driving down to Washington, DC, to audition for the United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps — "The Commandant's Own." He won the spot with a composition called Chopstakovich, which is currently the #1 best-selling snare solo in the world with over 700,000 YouTube views. Four years active duty and two reserve years later, Jesse founded Sieff Studios in Annapolis, Maryland — a Veteran-owned media production firm built around a single question: "Who is the most important person in your ecosystem, and how do you need them to feel?" In this conversation recorded live at Sieff Studios, Bart and Jesse dig into the non-linear path (engineering → music → Marines → entrepreneurship), the difference between drive as a push and drive as a pull, what 87 miles to Mount Everest Base Camp does to your relationship with control, the science of vibration and the Schumann frequency, and Jesse's philosophy for high-performers everywhere: the playful pursuit of perfection. You'll also hear Bart's powerful Invisible Backpack exercise for releasing guilt about distant family, and Jesse's vision for using drum circles to rewire audience attention at keynote events. If you've ever made a radical career pivot, struggled with perfectionism, or felt like you were watching life from the audience instead of being on stage, this one's for you. CHAPTERS: 00:30 Welcome to the Studio: Introducing Jesse Sieff of Sieff Studios 02:25 What Most People Don't Do: The Posture of a Student 04:45 Pittsburgh Roots: How Music Found Jesse First 08:52 Hearing the World Differently: How Musicians Perceive Sound 11:37 "Chopstakovich": The World's #1 Snare Solo and a YouTube Phenomenon 14:06 From Drum Corps to the Marines: Auditioning for The Commandant's Own 18:34 Olympic Gymnastics Training and the Physical Test of Boot Camp 20:00 Ambassadors in Uniform: Representing the Marines Around the World 21:44 What Really Drives a Polymath: Pull vs. Push and the Growth Mindset 25:47 87 Miles to Everest Base Camp: Fear, Altitude, and Transformation 31:40 The Invisible Backpack: Letting Go of Guilt and Doing Your Best 37:56 The Playful Pursuit of Perfection: A Philosophy for High Achievers 42:43 What Is Sieff Studios? Feeling Through Media and the Humanality Framework 46:08 Who Sieff Studios Serves: High-Trust B2B and Why Authenticity Beats Credentials 52:42 Drum Circles as a Business Tool: Jesse's Vision for Keynotes That Rewire the Brain CONNECT WITH JESSE SIEFF: Sieff Studios: https://sieffstudios.com Jesse on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesse_sieff Jesse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessesieff "Chopstakovich" snare solo: Search "Chopstakovich Jesse Sieff" on YouTube CONNECT WITH BART BERKEY & THE PODCAST: Most People Don't... But YOU Do! Email: bart@mostpeopledont.com If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you'd like to be a guest or know someone who would, reach out — we'd love to keep these conversations going. #MostPeopleDontButYouDo #JesseSieff #SieffStudios #Podcast #Leadership #Music #Marines #Everest #Perfectionism #Humanality

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A journey into the extraordinary. Stories of individuals who have gone above and beyond in their lives and careers. Those who defined excellence & achieved remarkable success. Join Bart Berkey, former Global Executive for the Ritz-Carlton as he sits down with influential leaders, innovators, and visionaries to uncover the key decisions, early influences, and acts of kindness that have shaped their paths. From hospitality legends like Horst Schulze, Founder of the Ritz-Carlton to entrepreneurial trailblazers like Kara Goldin, these conversations reveal the insights and lessons that inspire.

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