Author's
Autobio and thoughts
Joseph Leon Stout (autobio)
Son, Father, Grandfather, soldier, Dry Cleaner, Cherokee tribal member, and author
On September 19, 1956 @ 5:15 pm, at Elizabeth Hospital in Prairie Grove, Arkansas--I was born. Or at least that is what the records show, and my Mom tells me. The hospital is not there anymore. The building was there up until a few years ago. Just right across the street form the front gate of Prairie Grove Battlefield Park.I am a role tribal member of the Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians, in Clinton, Missouri. The name I was given by our Tribal Chief, Chief Gray Owl, in a naming ceremony is:meaning "Black Bird".In Latin Script, it is written:gv-ni-ge-i tsi-s-qua.I am the third of seven children born to my mother and father; six boys and one girl.I am of English (from Richard Stout & Penelope VanPrincin Stout, which was one of the founders of Middletown, New jersey. Their story is a history lesson within itself), German (from Peter Groseclose. Thomas Jefferson had deeded him land, which now comprises the community of Grosseclose, Virginia) and Cherokee decent. The schools I attended: T.L. Bates Elementary, M.O. Ramey Jr. High, and Fayetteville High-West Campus, all in Fayetteville, Arkansas. 1976 Graduate of St. Mary's High School-Ft. Carson Campus, Colorado Springs, Colorado.Enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, and served from July 1975-July 1978. My Basic training and AIT (advanced individual training) was taken at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. My permanent duty station was with the 4th Infantry (Mechanized) Division, stationed at Ft. Carson, Colorado. I was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion (Mechanized), 8th Infantry Regiment.During the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991), I was enlisted in the U. S. Army Reserves, serving with 3rd Battalion, 95th Training Brigade, a training and logistic element of the 95th Division (Training), stationed in Barling, Arkansas.During this same time I was serving with the U. S. Army Reserves, I had a brother serving in the U. S. Army, another with the Arkansas Army National Guard, and a cousin serving with the United States Marines. Even though all four of us were serving on active duty, all at the same time (I had volunteered for an active duty assignment during Desert Shield and Desert Storm), the only one that went into Kuwait City to take part in the liberation, was my brother that was with the Arkansas Army National Guard. Some of the jobs I got paid for before I enlisted in the military by the age of eighteen: school custodian, fixed flats at the Washington county (Arkansas) roads department tireshop, summer and afterschool tutor for elementary age children, pizza delivery, turntable at a sawmill, dishwasher, egg hatchery, a bakery, helper in an autobody shop, and mobile home manufacturing.Met someone and fell in love, which I am still in love with today. And because of her, Language of the Heart: such a wonderful and glorious language to speak, and GOD’s Pearl of Great Price: heartfelt love letters illuminating a pearl; a translucent luster in the heart of Princess Mahsa, were born; along with this web site.I have three daughters, a son, and five grandchildren. Since my ETS (Estimated Time of Separation from military duty), I have been employed as a framer in new home construction, auto body shop foreman, supervisor in commercial custodial work, retail sales management, life and health insurance sales, and various levels of management in the Dry Cleaning business.And I have always wanted to write. Not necessarily write books, but just to write out my thoughts. All the work I have done, I have enjoyed and learned a little knowledge from all of them. But the one I feel that has been the most rewarding for me, and have enjoyed the most doing, is the Dry Cleaning business.I started out in the Dry Cleaning business, when my uncle offered me a management in training job. To me, he is the greatest person I know in the Dry Cleaning business. He knew how to service the customer, and keep them coming back. Which is one thing I feel a lot of the owners in the Dry Cleaning business don't understand, because they end up making the business more technical than it really is.This is what I teach: "It is not how much you make off the customer--now, it is how much you make off him/her down the road."If you make your 100% off the customer now, and he/she never comes back---what have you done, establishing for the future sales? Answer: Nothing. Just taking care of the moment. Each customer should be looked at being worth a million dollars. If you make your $10 off the customer now, and he/she never comes back, you have just lost $999,990. And that's just one customer. Can you imagine multiplying that by ten, twenty, maybe fifty or a hundred times?I'm not talking about, "The customer is always right" or "The customer is the boss". Because in reality, the customer isn't always right, and they aren't the boss. As a customer, I haven't always been right, even though I had the right intentions. And anytime you become a part of something (marriage, dating, friendship, employee, civic clubs, a parent, grandparent, including a part of a customer base, nation, or culture), you give up a part of your rights of individuality. It is up to the ones that you are a part of, to give that individuality back to you.If whoever or whatever you're a part of, respects you (parent to a child, child to parent, husband to wife, wife to husband, employer to employee, employee to employer, business to customer, customer to business, etc.) will also allow you to retain your individuality. I'm talking about "developing the business" "creating an environment, a desire for the customer to come back again, and again and again"; putting the customer in the proper position, to be able to make the rest of that $999,990. The customer is going to give that $999,990 to someone, so why not put yourself in the position to "accept" it?Sometimes, managers of Dry Cleaning plants can't do their jobs properly because of all the restrictions that the owners has on them. And there are owners that have a desire for the store or plant manager to take the initiative in developing the business, but the manager doesn't know how to "create". I enjoy, as a customer, walking into a business that is "popping" and in "wonderment" take notice of what the management or team leaders are doing to make it "pop".I have seen employees "blown out of the water", so to speak, by the management team, and then classified as misfits.I believe you can take these so called groups of misfits, and build a business. Simply by "empowering" them in their responsibilities and bringing out their self-worth. Teaching them that they are the professional (noun) in their job.Even though I know more about their job than they do, and could do it better; I put myself in the position of being educated about the professionalism of their job from them. And the customer service attendant (counter person), letting them be "creative" in doing their job. "Creative" in making sure the customer is a retuning customer. Knowing that with each visit, we're collecting another portion of that million dollars; and not our competitors. In growing up in church, and listening to marriage seminar tapes, I was told that the wife is the "thermostat" in the home. She creates the environment.The manager creates a "positive" environment for the employees morale level to be high. Which in turn, creates a "positive" environment for the customer that he/she is a part of: "glad to do business, with".It is the employees that make sure the customers are coming back, not the managers. You, as a customer frequenting a business, how often do you make contact with the manager? More in likely, slim to none. Even though I've had some customers that don't feel that they have been serviced properly, unless they've been serviced by the manager or owner. As the manager, it is my job to make sure the "positive" environment stays high.One of the ways I have accomplished this, is understanding my employees. When hiring an employee, several factors are taken into account. Some common factors are knowledge and experience. But in the placement of an employee, I also believe matching up the personality ofthe employee to the personality of the assigned job.
Yes, you read correct; "personality of the assigned job". I believe not matching up the personality of the employee properly to the assigned job position, may not have a backlash in productivity. But it may not get the "highest" level of productivity available, which is the key in in creating a "positive" environment, reflected from the employees to the customer.Of course, being a manager responsible to the owner for the bottom line, or the owner concerned about the about line, "What do I care about this hogwash, matching employee's personalities with so called personalities of the job positions? I hire people to work!"You know what I use as a measuring tool to see how successful I have been over the year? How many "W-2's" I have to send out at the beginning of the year.If I have only twelve positions to fill in order to have a full staff, which is better: for me to have sent out twenty W-2's or fifty W-2's? Some might say, "The lower number shows that you have done your job better, in the applicant screening process." I don't have any argument there. But I'm also a firm believer in matching a person's personality to "a" personality of the job position.This is the way the manager "creates" business. It is that easy. No magic wand; no fancy words.This is the way I have "created" business. Created an environment; an environment for the employee, which in turn "transposes" to the customer.It is building a team; a cohesion between the management, employees, and the customer.I have worked in various different levels of management in the Dry Cleaning and Laundry business. From reporting directly to the Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of an internationally owned conglomerate of businesses, to overseeing multi-plant operations, to managing a single plant, to owning my own plant, to building retail (home and office) pickup and delivery routes, to establishing (wholesale) routes for a leather cleaner.Contact: Joseph Leon Stout
Joseph Leon Stout PO Box 6042 Springdale, Arkansas 72766-6042 ph (479) 313-2649 
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