I hope you’re reading this Red Shoes Living message today as you prepare for Thanksgiving with your friends and family. We all need to remember how fortunate we are in this great country. As we know, if you work hard, with discipline and consistency, there’s opportunity. There’s no place I’d rather be than here.

Lonnie Mayne

In my annual Thanksgiving message, I want to talk about something you might not have heard of, but that serves as an excellent reminder to do better and be better. Recently, I had the honor to host at my headquarters in Orlando, Lonnie Mayne. He’s the leader of Red Shoes Living, a business and a movement.

Before founding Red Shoes Living, Lonnie headed InMoment. It’s one of the largest customer experience optimization companies in the world. Lonnie works with c-suite executives and teams helping them become leaders. In particular, it’s focused on how they treat their customers. And it’s one of the critical ingredients for success over competitors. However, Lonnie’s secret formula is his motivational leadership in telling people that they are helping to create a positive and better world by stepping up.

The Philosophy

Like many visionary leaders, Lonnie is restless because he wants to leave the world a better place than he found it. He came up with the red shoe experience, which is about standing out––as a human being by giving everyone a positive experience. The red shoe philosophy is about being leaders, businesses, and people to make the world a better place; it’s a way of life. Ultimately, the human experience is what defines our lives. How we treat ourselves and those in our lives, or even around the world, is what matters each day.

I write about Lonnie today and the Red Shoes Living way because we live in a world that seems filled with negativity. That has to stop. We have to get back to the place where we all care about each other, no matter where we’ve started in life. Seeing how we spend our days in this country and other nations worldwide, sniping at each other because we have different experiences, religions, ethnicities, gender identities, political ideas, or whatever else is just wrong. Each of us plays a part in bridging the divide, and Thanksgiving should serve as a reminder that we have to treat others with consideration and respect.

Red Shoes Experience

Every one of us can join the movement of the red shoes. As Lonnie says, you can choose to live a life of mediocrity or live by the values that your parents and mentors taught you, which is to be respectful, always to do your best, to be the best version of yourself, to do more, give more and live by the golden rule.

If you were to work on Lonnie’s team, you would get a pair of red shoes and a letter from him on the first day at work. The red shoes serve as a reminder to be the best version of you. They represent the experience (e.g., positive and sound) that everyone wants to have with the people, organizations, businesses, or any other interaction that happens.

The red shoes serve as a reminder of the five truths or realities for living by the values of a red shoe experience.

5 Pillars for Living

The basis of red shoe living follows five ideas.

  1. Awareness
  2. Gratitude
  3. Everyone has a story
  4. Respect (Kindness)
  5. Put yourself out there.

Thanksgiving Day is a great day to reset your life or re-affirm your commitment to being the best version of you that you can be every day, whether at work or in your personal life. Be thankful today for everything you have today. And I suggest that you get yourself a pair of red shoes tomorrow (it is Black Friday after all) to remind yourself to be bold in being the best version and give others the best experience they can have when they are in your presence.

 

Author of “Not Your Father’s Charity: Grip & Rip Leadership for Social Impact” (Free Digital Download)

 

© 2018 Wayne Elsey and Not Your Father’s Charity. All Rights Reserved.