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I remember it.

It was 2009 and I was sitting front row in a Las Vegas keynote room waiting for Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to take the stage. I’m sure it was early morning and I’m equally sure the room was packed after a long Vegas night. Tony was already established as a visionary at this point. Someone who people followed into bathrooms to sneak a chat. 

At that time, I was navigating a new Chief Branding Officer role at an agency I had co-founded a few months earlier. The chance to hear Tony speak about brand and marketing was a privilege. A masterclass. 

Tony was known for reframing how leaders approached business, providing a blueprint where rave-able customer service and WOW experiences were directly tied to increased sales and customer loyalty. Not fluffy "engagement." Dollars.

It was a gamechanger.

Confirmation that brand matters, that service matters, and that if you did those things REALLY WELL, you could create something bigger that also mattered. Delivering Happiness and delivering ROI were not mutually exclusive. Not anymore.

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As you may have heard, Tony Hsieh died on November 27, 2020 from injuries connected to a house fire. He was an entrepreneur, a venture capitalist, and CEO of Zappos until August 2020. The news of his death hit the marketing and business worlds hard. We paid respect to an original thinker and a man who radiated kindness.

I learned important lessons from Tony. In that keynote room in 2009 but also in reading about how he worked and lived. Here’s what I’ll most remember.

1. Service First  

Tony didn’t see Zappos as a shoe company.

It was, and is, a customer service company that sold “other stuff.” Fifteen years ago, when ecommerce sites were focusing on digital to the detriment of everything else, Zappos went old school.

• They put a prominent phone number on each page of the site to encourage calls. Tony saw someone calling an 800 number as a captive 5-10 minute brand experience. Get that interaction right, and it would be remembered.
• There were no call scripts for service reps to follow, allowing for real conversation to flow.
• Reps weren’t penalized for long call times; they were encouraged.
• Shipping was free --both ways—to make purchases risk free. They made it easy for customers to order multiple pairs of shoes and then send back the ones they didn’t want. It came at a considerable financial cost, but one Zappos viewed as a marketing expense.
• Most customers were surprise-upgraded to overnight shipping so their shoes would arrive just hours after they had been purchased. Something that might not seem noteworthy today but, back then, was huge.

Customer service wasn’t something Zappos preached; it was something they lived. It became legend.

Imagine if we all thought about our companies that way? If delighting customers and exceeding expectations sat at the center of everything we did? How might that change the game for your customers and your team?

2. Culture Is Important  

I’ve never liked the idea of hiring for “culture fit.” It feels fraught with bias, discrimination and, equally, a euphemism for “I want to drink beer at work.”

But when Tony Hsieh spoke about culture fit, you got the idea he was actually on to something.

Zappos has received considerable praise for its core values. Ten statements used to hire and fire employees, completely independent of their job performance.

This is their 10.

Live them. Be them. Or leave. If you were unhappy, Zappos would pay you $100 to quit. It’s a hard line to draw, but hot damn, you gotta respect them for drawing it.

What it did is make it crystal clear what was expected.

What it did was get rid of the Toxic Jerk. That person who hides within every company, who is AWFUL to work with, but who is so talented and so good at their job we overlook it. We allow it to the detriment of team morale, to employee retention, and to the growth of the business.

When you’re transforming business, there’s no time for anyone not 100% on the bus. 

Overit has a list of core values—they’re emblazoned in our building. We talk about them and we do our best to live by them. But… could we be doing more? Could you? Maybe that’s something to talk about in 2021.

3. Create Fun & A Little Weirdness

             “How weird are you?”

It's a question Zappos once asked in its hiring process. (Maybe they still do.) You weren’t judged ON your answer, but how you answered.

Zappos wanted to hire people who were comfortable showing their real personality. That’s how relationships are built, when creativity comes out, and when employees are the happiest and the most productive. Being weird is what unites us. Embracing it gives you power. It was the subject of a TEDx talk I gave in 2011. Tony's belief in it connected me to him. The power of weird.

Here's another good hiring question from Zappos:

             “Do you consider yourself lucky?”

Zappos wanted to build a team of people who felt lucky. To break the mold you need people who approach the world from a place of optimism and who feel blessed. I’m not overly hippy-dippy, but there’s something to that. Finding your glass-half-full type of folks. Anyone can identify a problem. It takes someone special to see an opportunity and be brazen to walk toward it. 

4. Be Kind  

Tony Hsieh did more than grow successful companies. He changed the game. He showed us that you could be great and be kind. That businesses could thrive on an obsession to service. That putting people first and optimizing the user experience could lead to revenue gains. That culture could be profitable.

For me, in that keynote room, I learned that while you can’t control brand, your actions can help shape the stories others tell when you’re not in the room. Even in his passing, we’re seeing it. That how Tony treated others and how he lived are shaping the stories being told in his honor.   

Thank you, Tony.

For your vision, your example, and the WOW you inspire in all of us.

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