Lisa Cassidy of Accounting has fraternal twin sons, age 7, who don’t look alike and who have the same names as England’s princes, Andrew and William (though they weren’t named after that other pair). Her husband Byron is a cook at Olive Garden. She has a light, pleasant Georgia accent.

Those are things to remember about Lisa long-term. We can let it fade into memory that she was the Pigger whose family was in the accident outside of New Pig last Friday (described here).

She spoke with me calmly about that terrifying time and even threw in some funny lines. After the accident, covered with mud and with leaves and dirt in her hair, “I looked like a sea hag.” She passed on a comment from Byron that the family all joined the Polar Bear Club together.

They can say that now. But on Friday after getting cleaned up, “We were in shock and just laid around. My husband and I huddled together on the couch. We stayed cold all day.”

Byron went back to work on Sunday, recovering but with his shin and knee still sore. Andrew and William returned to school on Monday. There happened to be parent-teacher conferences that evening, and Andrew remained concerned that a school library book about karate never turned up after the accident. He and William had been looking at it in the car.

“I don’t have any money to pay for it,” Andrew said.

“I’m sure we can work something out,” his teacher said.

The boys aren’t having trouble sleeping but talked about the accident all weekend and in a call to their grandmother in Georgia. “Mommy, you could have died,” they’ve repeated. “You were under water.”

For a moment after the car landed on its roof in the river, there was no water in the car. Then the windshield broke. Here are Lisa’s words:

LISA
Byron had his seatbelt off at once, but I couldn’t get mine off. He lifted me up so my head was out of the water, and I got a breath of air and was able to get my buckle undone. All I was thinking about was the boys.

Andrew got his seatbelt off right away and was standing up on (the underside of) the roof. He said, “Daddy, there’s water in the car.” After it was all over, only his shoes and a little bit of his pants were wet, that was all.

William was dangling from his seatbelt, and Byron was reaching back trying to get it undone. He couldn’t at first, because William’s weight was on the buckle.

Then the back door opened up, and it was Nino. He took Andrew out of the car.

Nino went to help Byron, but Byron said, “Get my wife and kids out.”

Finally, William’s seatbelt opened, and he dropped to the floor (actually, the roof). Nino hauled him out, too, then helped me out. I don’t know if Nino came around the car or what. The one thing I don’t remember is the position of the car in the river.

After Byron was out and we were all standing at the bank, it was like: “What do we do now?” We were in shock, but everyone basically agreed that we were okay to go up the bank.

The boys went into the back of Nino’s car to stay warm, and we went into Scott Diminick’s car (Scott leads the Absorbents product platform). Selesia offered her car at one point, but those cars are where we ended up. We stayed there until the ambulance came.”

(Keith again.) The car was towed within hours. Byron and Lisa’s sister later retrieved a set of house keys that were inside it. The car is likely totaled. There’s a packet of insurance forms to work on.

Lisa has a bruise on one knee. There’s still some stiffness from being thrown around. Some cuts. And lingering nervousness. She’s just as glad not to be driving for a while. She’s been coming to work with Christy Rice of Accounting.

“It’s brought our family closer together,” Lisa says of the accident. “It brought home how quickly you can lose someone. How quickly you can be given something or have it taken away.”

She ticks off ways that her family was lucky, including that the river wasn’t high.  Nino called her home on Friday evening to ask how everyone was. Byron told him they were filled with appreciation for the help and just glad that no one was badly hurt.

Lisa expressed her thanks to the fast-acting Piggers in email. She paraphrased it for me.

“I’ve always heard that New Pig was a great place to work,” she said, “and that it was like a family. Now I feel part of that in a new way. They care about their employees and take care of them.”

Lisa, the whole Pigger family wishes the Cassidy family a wonderful Thanksgiving and full recovery.

This is a long post, but the content is important to me …

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a countdown to Thanksgiving on OINKX (non-Piggers, that’s our company intranet). Here was the graphic today:

When the countdown wraps up and the big day is here … be thankful that you have that day. Here are a few recent reminders that you can’t take tomorrow, or even the next minute, for granted. These incidents hit close to home. One today, literally.

14 days before Thanksgiving, Sue Crostley, who cleans Building 1, suffered a heart attack, was pronounced dead and was revived. Jeannette Shannon (aka, Jet) of Systems has visited her in the hospital. I’m hoping to get there today.

13 days before Thanksgiving, Selesia Byrd (of Systems and one of our bloggers) was in a head-on collision. A car rounded a curve in her lane. Both vehicles were totaled. There appear to be no lasting injuries. The other driver hadn’t had her permit long.

7 days before Thanksgiving (yesterday), a group of Piggers driving to lunch came upon the aftermath of an accident in Tyrone. All they saw at first was an oil tanker and police directing traffic away from it. Then they saw a wheelchair lodged under the truck. This morning’s paper said that the 85-year-old owner of that chair died.

This morning, when snow was making the roads slick, there was a near-tragedy on our doorstep. Lisa Cassidy of Accounting was in an accident with her family rounding the last bend before you get to New Pig.

Everyone’s okay. Shaken up but okay. We’ll hear from Lisa soon. Her husband was dropping her off.

For now, I talked to Nino Vella (CEO) and Dustin Hess (Creative) because they were first on the scene. Here are their words as told to me. You’ll get an idea of what those moments were like.

DUSTIN
I was rounding the last bend in the road approaching New Pig. Nino was right ahead of me. Lisa (I learned later) was ahead of Nino. Everyone was going at what seemed a safe speed for the conditions.

Suddenly Lisa’s car spun completely around, flew into a tree and knocked it over. The car rolled down the bank and into the river on its roof. It was a smaller SUV. Nino and I pulled over.

NINO
At first, I took out my wallet and started to dial 911 like it was my phone. Then I realized that we couldn’t wait for that anyway.

I heard what I thought was a lady screaming. I realized there was probably more than one person in there.

It flashed through my mind: Do I want to open that door and find mangled bodies? Then I just acted.

DUSTIN
Nino was ahead of me going down the bank. He said to call 911. Anahi (Wigfield, of International Sales) was right behind me. I said to her to call 911 and followed Nino over the bank.

It’s about a 10-foot drop to the river. The bank is steep, about 60 or 70 degrees. The car was 2 or 3 feet underwater. People were screaming inside.

Nino was in the stream, knee deep. He said, “Oh, —-.” He got to the back passenger door and opened it.

NINO
When I opened the door, it was like they almost came flushing out with all the water. I don’t know if they acted fast and got their seatbelts off or what. They were panicked.

DUSTIN
There was a man and woman and two boys about 8 and 10.

I don’t think anyone was hanging from the upside-down seats. They may have already unstrapped. I think they were kind of on the floor, or actually the roof.

Nino was halfway in the car. I was standing at the open door. He pulled the kids out and handed them to me. I put them on the bank, which was basically a matter of pivoting to put them in place.

I stayed with the kids while Nino helped the mom out, then the dad. They both were understandably confused and dazed. Not sure what had just happened.

The kids were saying over and over, “What happened? We almost died. We wrecked.”

The mom and dad got to the bank. We asked if anyone else was in the car. There wasn’t.

We stood for a while at the bottom of bank, not really sure what to do.

NINO
After we knew they were all right, I got really still.

I called my wife Diane, a good while later, to tell her what happened.

I also called my son Mike, who’s in medical school and is an EMT and knows all the right things to do. He asked me if I “maintained proper spinal precautions.” Right.

DUSTIN
By the time we got them out, there was a crowd of people at the top of the bank looking down.

We weren’t sure whether to move anyone. They looked okay. The mom had some cuts and scrapes. We did move them to the top of the bank.

We had the older boy go up the bank first, and people helped him up and over. Selesia (Byrd, mentioned above) was one of the ones that helped, and the guy who plows the roads for the town.

I followed up the bank carrying the smaller boy. Then mom and dad came up.
Selesia had the kids get in her car to stay warm. Nino had the parents get in his car.

I called my wife, Shannon, later. We talked a little bit about being thankful and how precious life is.

I’m relieved that they weren’t seriously injured. I was glad that they weren’t trapped, unconscious or really bleeding. I wouldn’t have been sure what to do.

NINO
I changed into gym clothes that I had here. Wore them all day.

DUSTIN
My wet clothes are hanging on my guest chair. I’m wearing Dickies and work boots that I borrowed from the Photo Studio. I really didn’t feel like driving home right then to change clothes.

NINO
It was scary. I felt bad for the family, because the kids were crying and everything. But happy too because it could have been a lot worse.

(This is Keith again) Happy Thanksgiving, in five days. All best wishes to Lisa’s family.

Dustin’s clothes drying

The river after the accident

Sorry I couldn’t embed the video (technical reasons), but click on the image to get to it.

I want to give some background info related to my earlier post about visiting a restaurant with some new products.

With only 7 weeks under my belt as a Pigger, I may be the most excited employee in the company. I’m excited because I’m part of a team (Mark Woytowich, Ray Fedeli and myself) that is promoting the new PIG® Focus on the Food™ products. We’re taking new steps every day to delve into the food service industry.

It should be duly noted that many months of research, development, and testing were completed under the direction of Mark and Ray. Their efforts took place long before I came into the picture.

For over 20 years, New Pig has been dedicated to keeping work facilities clean and safe, because it makes them better for workers and more productive. We’re best known in manufacturing, but the same thought applies to the food service industry. Every commercial or institutional kitchen or restaurant experiences spills, drips, and leaks involving a variety of liquids (cooking oil, soda, water, coffee, etc.).

The Focus on the Food™ products group successfully identified unmet needs in the food service industry that could be fulfilled by New Pig. Mark and Ray found out how restaurants currently clean and absorb spills, drips, and leaks. The answer is paper towels, bar towels, water, mop, bucket, salt, corn starch, cleaning chemicals, and a variety of other things that leave a lot to be desired. To a great extent, the entire food service industry has often, while trying to address leaks and spills, first created a bigger mess—because that’s the only way they know. But that way is not efficient, productive, safe, or cost-effective.

So what’s New Pig going to do about this spill, drip, and leak dilemma? New Pig is changing the way that restaurants absorb liquids! The Focus on the Food™ product group is currently introducing four products: two sizes of PIG® Spill Cleanup Pads, the PIG® Absorbent Flat Mop, and PIG® Spill Control Socks.

Now, here is where I come in … My role in the Focus on the Food™ product group is to begin selling the products to distributors, end users, and anyone else willing to listen to my presentation. The ultimate goal of my field visits is to find answers to three questions:

1. Will restaurants find value in our products?
2. Will they pay our asking price?
3. Will they order them again?

And this is the reason I am excited. After visits to local end users, the answers are:

1. Yes, they find value in our products!
2. Yes, they’ll pay our asking price!
3. Yes, they will re-order our products!

Now, off to the next step in the process! More details to follow. But below is a peek at the products as they look during the launch phase (the packaging is likely to change). Click here to see the products larger.

I have some pictures for you related to the word genuine, and I’ll tell you why that word’s on my mind.

Above is the logo of Genuine Parts Company. If it looks familiar, that may be because its largest division is …

… NAPA! You know NAPA. Get the Good Stuff! For just about a year now, the good stuff has included …

… genuine PIG® Mat in special new packaging for NAPA stores! (The stores also carry other PIG® products.)

Here’s a close-up of the back of one of the new packages:

See? Genuine PIG® Mat.

The reason I’m emphasizing genuine is that there are times when I’m in a store and I see a new product with a brand that I know from somewhere else. For instance, I’ve known about California Pizza Kitchen restaurants, and recently I saw this frozen pizza (which I haven’t tried yet):

Doesn’t that look great? But I can’t help thinking, is that the genuine stuff from California Pizza Kitchen? The same as I would get in California?

Someone who sees a PIG® display in a NAPA store may wonder: Is that genuine PIG® Mat?

Yes! This is the very same PIG® Mat that we offer online and in our catalogs. Have no doubts! It’s made right here at One Pork Avenue.

So many NAPA customers are telling us how happy they are they can now find the PIG® brand through NAPA. Some people just prefer to buy locally. We aim to please!

Recently I had one of those big a-haaaaaaaa moments while reading Emotions Are the Key to Sales Success, an article by Larry Pinci and Phil Glosserman.

They outline “The 3 Feelings that Motivate People to Do Business … the three feelings, universal to the human experience, that people need in order to feel motivated to do business with someone.” They are:

1. Trust. People feel they can depend on you—that you mean what you say and you’ll do what you say.

2. Confidence. They feel you have the goods, the know-how, the competence, and the expertise to meet their needs.

3. The feeling of being taken care of. They feel you have their interests at heart and that you’ll take care of them throughout the transaction and beyond if necessary.

The real a-haaaaaaaa moment occurred when I thought about some recent comments made by customers about their experiences with the folks here at New Pig. Here are a couple examples:

I deal with many vendors but never get the kind of service from any other company that I get from New Pig … Every time I call, I feel like there is a friend on the other end of the phone.

and this one…

I would come to New Pig to purchase even if it cost me a little more just because of the service rep and how she treats me. I may not be a big account with New Pig, but she treats me like I am.

In both of these examples, an emotional bond has been established which in turn leads to sales and more importantly to customer satisfaction. We truly love our customers, and it is genuine and shows. It isn’t just lip service but the real emotional bond that customers value and respond to.

A wise man once said of workers, “You can have their butts, but not their hearts.” That goes for safety, too.

You can implement the most comprehensive safety program there is. You can meet every OSHA requirement. You can have your training up-to-date and have a million videos, trainings and toolbox talks every year. But if safety is not part of your culture, you will lose.

Recently, I met with another safety director at a local business who was trying to improve her safety record and decrease the number of injuries at her facility.

“They are tired of videos and toolbox talks,” was her statement to me.

Of course they are. She has a tenured staff of folks who have been on that job anywhere from 10 to 40 years. These guys could repeat these safety talks word for word. It is not an issue of knowledge. It is an issue that we all deal with on the job—acculturation.

Just because I can repeat the financial numbers does not mean I spend my budget wisely. Just because I can repeat our customer service slogan does not mean I take great care of my customers.

Acculturation is something many workplaces struggle with. It is the concept of having the heart of your workforce—not just their butts.

So how do you get your workforce to believe in the company?

Well, remember … it all flows downhill. Do you believe in your company?

Second, are you present on your floor where safety really matters? Are you building relationship and getting to know your fellow employees?

People do not commit to a thing, they commit to people. They might say they like company X, but that is usually because they have had a good experience with a person at company X.

Your job to get safety moving in the right direction is get out there and talk with the people where safety is most crucial! Give them the knowledge that will keep them safe and the relationship to care about being safe.