The Art of Pickling: Going the Extra Mile

What's going on, everyone? My name is Mary. This is Jill. We are partners in a wonderful business called girls mentorship, where we teach life and personal development skills to teen and tween girls. And what we found, shockingly, is that teen and tween girls aren't the only ones that need to be involved in these conversations. So we basically help people. People better, which is why we're in front of you today, and we are wrapping up an incredible conversation all around the concept of the art of pickling.

Now, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, that probably means you're in the last video of a series of four. So stop what you're doing and go watch part one, two, and three, and we'll wrap up here with this video on the art of pickling. The final idea of this series is it's too truly. I think it's both of our favorites. It's being extraordinary. And not just extraordinary. We like to break it down into extraordinary. Like, you want to be extra? You go to Chipotle, you get the guac. It costs what, ma'am?

That's extra. We're like, we know. So are we. And what extra looks like doesn't necessarily mean that you're allowed and all over the place and extroverted. We are too extroverted. Extroverts. You being extraordinary doesn't have to look like us being extraordinary. So extraordinary. It means that the going the extra mile is never crowded. It never is. And when you think of going the extra mile on a highway, you look around and you're like, it's just me out here. So what does that look like? It means that you take the time to get to know the other person, whether you know them or not.

And I know in a previous video, Mary suggested, even at a Starbucks drive thru, it's asking before you. You order your coffee, and they're asking what your order is. It's, hi, how are you? How's your day going? Just kind of stopping people in their tracks, because I guarantee you no one's asked them the entire day how that person is doing. So it's the little things that can make a big difference, and we get that a lot because it's something that we strive to do with every interaction that we have.

So our point in being on this big, beautiful earth is to raise the group average. We want to make sure that the interactions we have with anyone that we come across is the best interaction of their day. And if it's not, at least we know we tried to make it that way. So the art of pickling with this last little golden nugget being extraordinary, I don't want you to confuse it with us asking you to do anything more. We're not asking you to put more on top of your plate, but what we are asking you to do, what we are asking you to take stock of is looking at what you're doing already.

You're already going through the motions. You're already going through the Starbucks drive thru, you're already ordering that Vente ice mocha chocolata, right? How do you add a little spice to that? By making sure you stop and ask that person how they're doing. Because seriously, we get told all the time, oh my God, nobody's asked me that today. Right? You get in the loop of just doing and there's ten cars ahead of you and there's ten cars behind you. And for whatever reason we get this really uncomfortable feeling when we're in a line and we need to pay.

It's like, no, you get to stop and be the light in that person's day because I guarantee you doing that is going to brighten their you morning. It's going to be something that they carry on with them through their day. And it didn't add any stress to your to do list. So take a peek at how you respond to text messages. What does your emails sound like? What's the tone when someone receives it on the other end? Does it really exemplify or exude your personality and you being authentic in your emails?

It's the little things that can make all the difference. And we're excited to hear how this series was for you so that you can show up as your best, brightest and most confident selves. Pickling people along the way. It's been so fun for us to hear somebody going out to a restaurant and messaging us and being like, I got a free glass of wine because I was so nice to the server. And we're not saying be nice to get free stuff, we're saying be nice for the heck of it. And you'll probably have some sort of reciprocation in you, putting good out into the world, receiving that good back.

So as a quick refresher, the art of pickling is really the golden rule. Treat others how you want to be treated and it includes being present in your conversations with people, not thinking of everything else that you have to do or being a million miles away. Well, standing right in front of somebody, two actively listening to them, not coming up with a response before they're even done talking, not also being a million miles away while you're in the middle of a conversation with them. And lastly, it's this one.

It's being extraordinary. It's going the extra mile because it's never, ever, ever crowded with that said, you got this. Go out and pickle people. We can't wait to hear about it.