Hospitality Through Organization

Welcome to the Jody Mayberry Show. Last episode, our guest was Teddy Cheek. He does marketing at the escape game. I say that because he's not big on title. So I purposely did that to make Teddy smile. Well, what we do when we have a guest on this show, they come back for a second episode to ask me three questions. Those are three questions that are not encouraged by me, not prompted by me, not planted by me. It's whatever Teddy wants to ask. So welcome back to the Jody

Mayberry Show, Teddy. Hey, Jody. I've got some questions. Alright. Are you ready? Let's do it. We'll see. We'll see if I'm ready. Alright. Question one. Jody, I would say you're a

connoisseur of hospitality. In the last, let's say, three months, where have you received the best, most unexpected, most unreasonable hospitality? Oh my goodness. I like that one. And I'm saying that, one, because I do like that question, and two, to give my brain time to catch up with an answer. So I I'm gonna give two that maybe is cheating because they're in the same category. But my daughter is a senior in high school, and she

did two campus visits recently. George Fox University in Oregon, Washington State University, which hopefully by the name, you know is in Washington State. Well, they did wonderful. The hospitality in that it was different at each place, but so neat to see how they handled it. George Fox University, because it's a smaller school, it was so personalized and so detailed. I thought, wow. That is really good that a university can do that. And they really made my daughter feel special.

So that's one piece of hospitality that I was impressed with. The second, Washington State University as a whole, the way that it was organized and orchestrated that you can have that many students and their parents visiting, trying to make a decision, is this the school for us? And the way that the timing it was done when you had to

and it is a massive campus. If you count students and faculty, there are more people on the campus of Washington State University, which isn't even the biggest in Washington, but there are more people on campus than live in my entire county because I live in a small place. But you would have to cross campus from one place to the other. And the way that it was orchestrated, the way that it was timed, just it was a highlight to me how organization is often overlooked as a piece of hospitality.

Absolutely. Yes. So George Fox hospitality based on people interaction, and that's what we often think of in hospitality, and they excelled at that. But Washington state, the organization of their event in itself was a shining piece of hospitality. I love it. That's a good point. Like, your your website for your company is a great opportunity for hospitality and that it is simple and easy to use and clear. So, yeah, that's a great

example. Okay. Number two. Okay. Question number two. What is something that would surprise me about being a park ranger? You've been a park ranger. Like, what's something I would never guess about that job? The one thing that you would never now

let me say being a park ranger is as awesome as you think it will be. Unless you don't like the outdoors, then it's as bad as you think it would be. It is a great job. What you don't know about being a park ranger is and I say this with love because I love park rangers. I love parks. But it is a giant bureaucracy and all the things you would think are tied with a bureaucracy, you have to deal with that as a park ranger. It's not hugging trees and petting rabbits all the

time. You have to do a lot. And I was a law enforcement ranger. So Did you did you get to pet a rabbit out there? They're pretty fast. No. I I did not pet a rabbit. Like, there's no way. Yeah. No. Well, see, I said it's not all petting rabbits. And and in the beginning say it's never petting rabbits, which is the more accurate statement. But both statements are true. It's just one is a little more accurate. That's fair. Yeah. I like that. It just depends on

your approach. So I was a law enforcement park ranger, which added even more layers of paperwork and all of that. So I would love to tell you park ranger is nothing more than being outside with park visitors, but it's not always true. There's a lot of paperwork. There's a lot of red tape, especially as you move up and you start to supervise. So I fully endorse being a park ranger. If that was your your dream, go do

it. I fulfill the boyhood dream by doing it. And funny enough, the most park ranger y positions are the ones you first get. The entry level, that's when you're out with people the the most. As you move up, you do less of what brought you into it. Mhmm. Well, I was considering becoming a park ranger, but there's just not enough rabbit petting for

me. You know? There's there's no good. Just do that. I do have a lot of interesting animal stories, and I was thinking of them through my head after the rabbit came up, and not a single story involves a rabbit. Dang. I have squirrels and moose and bald eagles and all sorts of things, but never a rabbit. It is awesome. Yeah. That's so cool. Okay. Question three. Jody, I'm not just saying this. You're one of the, maybe, the nicest, like, just

genuinely nice people I've ever met. What's the story behind that? Why? What's the I I don't know. A good granny? Good parents? I don't know. I'm I'm just from the from I'm just a Midwestern middle child. You know, you you figure out how to get by and get along, and and I just I like you, Teddy. I'm rude to everybody else. I just like you. No. It's I appreciate that. I guess there's there's good and

bad to being a really nice guy, I guess. The good outweighs the bad, but sometimes when you're nice to everybody, some people can take advantage of it or then you wonder why someone was rude to you, but it's alright. I would rather have a a good day most days than a bad day most days. Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. That's good. Well, thank you. Those are my questions. Alright. Well, Teddy, since We're cool. We have a little bit of time, I wanna highlight you again because the work Teddy

does at the escape game is wonderful. If you missed last episode, go back and listen to that to hear what Teddy does. And I thought of a couple of things that I didn't ask that. Now I want to ask you Yeah. I mean What brought you to the escape game all those years ago? It's a good question. I

was before the escape game at a digital marketing agency. We worked mainly with artists and entertainers, and it was awesome. I got to work with some musicians. I I really liked. I worked on some album releases that I thought were really cool and had to got to have a lot of really unique experiences. But after doing that for a number of years, you know, I thought, hey, it'd be interesting to work with one company rather than a bunch of them at an agency. Like, really feel a part of a team and

married to the company's success. Because as an agency, it's awesome because you get variety. But at the same time, you don't feel like you're in the actual like, if something goes well, you're not fully part of the celebration. It's not your thing. And so I was looking at companies, and the escape game had opened in Nashville in an explosion, like, instant success. And I just thought it was interesting what they were doing. And I'd heard great things, and they

had great reviews. And I played and thought it was awesome and so clever and, heard they were starting to grow nationally. I thought, that's interesting. I wonder if they've considered, like, building a team. And so the timing was great. They were actually kind of putting together the beginnings of a corporate team. And so I reached out about marketing, and one of the co founders took some time to get some some hot cocoa with me. I'd say coffee, but he's

a hot cocoa drinker. And so we both had hot cocoa that day. And, yeah, we hit it off. Well, I don't know him, but I like him already being a hot cocoa drinker. You would. You would like him. Yeah. Good. That's usually my choice because I'm not a coffee drinker either. Okay. Now as a family man, do you spend any time in parks? Any time in parks? Yeah. Like, do you go to national parks, state parks? You have a great state park system in Tennessee.

Yeah. I love being outside and hiking, and Sam's getting the age where he can he can keep up a bit more. And so, I want to plan a trip, maybe even as soon as this year to get out to our family get out to Sedona. I love the Red Rocks. It's just amazing. But he's done some hiking with me in Hawaii. At first, the first trip, he was on our back. He was too small. And so we did, like, Diamond Head with him on our back and everything else. So, but, yeah, Tennessee has some really pretty spots too. So,

yeah, we we enjoy the parks. I didn't know if you meant, like, theme parks. I was like, we also love those. He's definitely been to Disney, Universal, Cedar Point. So, I like theme parks and national parks. I I saw the look on Teddy's face when I said park. I could see he was thinking themed parks. That's why I had to correct it really quick. And you can tell right away when you ask a person that vague question, do you enjoy parks? You can tell right away what type of person they

are. Are they a theme park person or a natural park person? Yes. Yeah. I like a trip boat. That would be perfect. You know? Yeah. Well, Teddy, speaking of national parks or natural parks, we perhaps need to get to work on a escape room that involves a park ranger. I've not seen one of those yet. I haven't seen that either yet. I wonder if

that exists. That would be fun, though. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I I have noticed on TV shows, I not that I've seen that many, but when a park ranger is used in a storyline, it's quite often, like, he he did something not good. I don't know. Turn we gotta flip the script on that. That's right. We need some good park rangers. The only really park rangers that have had the spotlight in any TV show is Yogi Bear. Do you

know I'm gonna ask you a random trivia question now. Do you know the park ranger's name in Yogi Bear? Bill. Oh, that is such a good guess. It is ranger John Smith. Really? Is it? There has been one president who was a park ranger. Who was that president? K. Okay. Man, I don't know. Herbert Hoover. Not Herbert Hoover. But interesting enough, Herbert Hoover grew up on the campus of George Fox University, which we've we've talked about a couple of times. There you go. That's why I said that. Yeah.

It was Gerald Ford. He was a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park. Nice. Love it. Now we've just gotten into Jody asked Teddy random trivia questions, which could be its own podcast, but we don't need to do it anymore here. Teddy, it's so good to have you back. And last episode, you encourage people to find you online, whether LinkedIn or your website. What is your website again? Yeah. Sure. Teddycheek.com. So teddy, like the bear, and cheek, c h e e k, like your face.

Teddycheek.com or, yeah, LinkedIn. You know, check out our company, theescapegame.com as well. Yeah. That's right. And we

I mentioned last episode that a group of us did an escape room in Orlando, and it it was a a blast. We got Lee Cockrell to go through, and he did a a wonderful job supervising us. So I would say if you have never done an escape room, the escape game does fabulous jobs. They're all over the country, going to be in Seattle soon, which I'm I'm excited about. So definitely check those out, and thanks for coming back, Teddy. Yeah. Thanks a lot. That was awesome. It's so fun.

Thank you for listening to the Jody Mayberry Show. Look. I know he comes from the back of Burke, but you should probably take a captain's cook anyway. It's Sugar Jay.