And customer service is actually how Steve Vallas and I met. The first time we sparked up a conversation was via his biz Twitter account @thehoneybar, when I was looking for a place in Melbourne to take our agency peeps out for Friday night drinks. I dropped The Honey Bar a line via Twitter because for me, if a business like @TheHoneyBar or Melbourne transport company @YarraTrams is easy to contact via the internet for quick & easy communications that don’t require a lot of conversation or detail then that’s the preferred method for me. The Honey Bar’s Twitter account is a glowing example of how businesses and brand can utilise social media channels for wonderful customer service and personality at the same time.

Seriously, after the podcast is done go check it out and say g’day.. and it’s a wonderful little bar in South Melbourne too. Tell him Dan sent you 🙂

Anyway, soon after our original Twitter chat, I found out that the man was behind the Twitter account was quite involved in the digital and social space and we finally caught up at a Social Media Club Melbourne event a few months back when Nike and 7-Eleven Australia each had their social media manager present to a packed house of social media geeks like myself, who are there for networking and the next generation of community managers who are there to learn and be inspired. Come along next time if you’re keen?

So what I can say about Steve Vallas is that he is a man of action. Wait until you hear this podcast… it’s almost like we’re old friends and to use a turn of phrase I’ve heard on Jay Mohr’s Mohr Stories podcasts, we’re new old friends. Sometimes you get in a room with someone you barely know and it just clicks into gear. Steve and I had barely spent 5 minutes chatting in person previously and this podcast sounds like we’ve known each other for years. That’s the power of kindred spirits and surrounding yourself with people who inspire you, no matter what path you’re on.

I switch-up the questions and banter a little bit today, as Steve is in fact a regular listener of the podcast and knows a lot of the questions so we had to keep him on his toes 😀 Surprise!

We spend a good hour and a half chatting about the challenges Steve’s experienced over the past x number of years with the passing of his sister, his experiences of how differently people treat you as a taxi driver versus being a high-powered litigator, owning your own bar only to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles before you even start and then open doors when the GFC hits… all the struggles of a true entrepreneur and what’s kept him honest this whole time is unwavering persistence and the ability to keep perspective even in the toughest of times.