Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everybody.
It's your girl, Sonya McQueen, with your mind, your body, your choice.
Today I want to speak to you about spreading a little joy and love on purpose.
And I've spoke about this more than once.
I just think it's warranted for me to say it again.
You know, we're living in a time now.
It's hot here.
I don't know about where you live,
but I have a son who lives in Dallas that's been in the hundreds every day.
And I don't mean a hundred.
I mean in the hundreds, 104, 105, 100, 114.
In Vegas, where I have a plethora of family, it's been 114 when they wake up.
It's almost 100 degrees.
You're talking 3 a.m.
My daughter who lives in Kansas City, it's been in the hundreds there.
I think today the temperature is 102.
And then here I am in South Florida.
We have a cool day today.
It's 94.
We have an overcast.
But still the humidity here, the feel like is 111.
It's been hot.
And because it's been so hot, people have been stuck in the house.
It's almost like COVID.
I was telling a friend of mine when COVID hit in 2020, you know, we were all
confined to the house.
And if you did go out, you were masked and you were scared.
And you know, you just tried to stay in people stop going out to eat and people
stopped Uber eats and what is that door dash and the delivery for your groceries
became phenomenal.
Everybody was getting stuff delivered.
It's like that almost again, because people are scared to go out in this
weather.
And it's so bad.
My husband and I Monday were on our way to go have lunch and I was watching a
homeless guy.
We were on the opposite side of the road, but he would take like a step forward
and then he was stumble one or two back or to the side and he was swaying while
he walked and my heart was breaking.
You know, it's not like I could say, honey, let's go pick him up and take him
somewhere where we're going to take him.
I was so heartbroken.
I was so excited.
I'm going to carry.
I can't keep it in my car.
You know, you can't keep watering your car, but when I go out now, I'm going to
carry water in my car, at least 10 bottles and snacks.
And when I see these homeless people, I'm just going to reach out my window and
give them some water and a snack.
It's the least I can do until my business is up.
You know, and I can start helping these homeless people a bit more.
But anyway, my whole point is spread a little love and sunshine.
I went to Sam's, one of my favorite stores today.
And I spent so much money at Sam's.
My husband's going to divorce me about spending, but I went to Sam's to get a
few items and there's a lady who generally works in the front.
And I see I've been seeing her for years when I go in and I was like, good morning.
She smelled, she was like, good morning, beautiful lady.
How are you?
You know, and I usually just tell, I have a great day and I keep walking.
But today, you know, I moved my headphones.
I had my headphones on and I told her, I said, there goes that smile.
I, I so long for when I walk in the store and she said, yeah, I make sure to have it
for you, beautiful lady, but it'll be gone within the hour.
And so today I stopped and said, well, why?
She was telling me how rude customers can be.
She said, I promise you before nine o'clock and it was about eight, eight, eight or five.
There will be some rude person come in.
They come in yelling, they come in cursing, they take out their anger.
You know, I don't know what's wrong with them.
People are so mean.
I was thinking you just stand here and make sure people have their Sam's card.
She was like, people are so mean and I'm confused.
All you got to do is show her your card when you come in.
But then I thought after I walked away from her, we spoke more.
I can imagine, you know, I have a Sam's plus card.
If you don't know anything about Sam's just in case the first two morning hours from eight to 10,
you have to have a plus card to shop.
There are fewer people.
We can scan the items on our phone.
We don't have to go to a register.
You pay on your phone.
You scan on your phone.
You pay on your phone.
You get the heck up out of there.
I'm usually in and out in less than 30 minutes and I've spent $400 easy.
But I'm picking up the items.
I scan them on my phone.
I'm listening to my music on my head, headphones, and I pay on my phone.
I just go straight to the line.
They look at my phone.
They scan the thing on my phone.
They check a few items to make sure I really paid for them.
Send me on my way.
It's that simple.
But people who come at 10 or later don't have that luxury unless they have plus and they came later.
But it's going to be more crowded.
You know, the parking lot's huge.
They might have to park on the other side of the parking lot, like a mall parking lot.
They, anything can happen.
So I'm picturing people coming in at nine, but they don't have plus membership and she tells them they can't come in.
And they lose their minds or they come in and they don't have a card at all.
And they don't have their purposes and to go to customer service to get one.
So they lose their mind on her, whatever it is.
She was telling me how it steals her joy and how many podcasts have I made about joy stillers, not giving people that ability.
But how hard is it to sit there day in and day out and have people curse you out and go off, but you still try to keep a smile.
You still try to be positive and kind to the next person.
How hard is it when you're in your early 70s?
Because that's what I'm assuming she is in her early 70s to be disrespected by 20 something and 30 something and 40 something when you're just trying to do your job.
How hard is it she was telling me to get out of bed to come to this place?
Based on our interactions with her, not even her coworkers, not even her, her supervisors,
but us, the everyday shopper who all she wants to say is, do you have your Sam's card?
That's simple. So you guys, when you go out, be purposeful, be polite, be kind when you're checking out and you have that, because I'll do it in a minute.
You know, I'm checking out and I'm going to tell you something bad about me and something great about me, the great part.
I can be checking out, let's say a target, which never has happened at Target, by the way, but I'm going to use Target and I'll say good morning.
And the cashier doesn't even speak back.
And I'll say something like thank you and they still don't speak back and I'll ask them, hey, you having a bad day?
And generally they'll say yes. I've even had somebody start crying and say yes.
And I'll say something positive, you know, positive before I walk away.
Now, that's the good part of me, the bad part of me.
I'll say, hey, you know, are you having a bad day?
And they'll just look at me and they won't respond or they'll mumble something and I'll say, you're in the wrong field of work.
Maybe you shouldn't be here, you know, when you have somebody being positive on this side, you're a nasty person because you can change somebody's disposition and get cussed out or still their joy.
And I'll leave letting them know you're in the wrong field of work.
Now, maybe I should just keep my big mouth shut, but I hate horrible customer service when I know I'm being a positive person because I don't bring horrible.
Customer attitude to my locations. I never do. I never come in. I'm rude or I bring whatever might be yelling me into a place with me.
I don't do that. So I hate it when I get it.
I could work on my disposition sometimes when I see horrible customer service because sometimes I say whatever comes to my mind.
Right.
But I am purposeful at being polite. I'm purposeful at being kind. I'm purposeful at keeping the smile on my face. I'm purposeful at just trying to spread a little joy and love when I'm out and about.
I will stop going somewhere. There's this hair supply store I used to go to by a publics.
And they're always rude. And one day the owner was rude and I smiled and said, you never have to worry about me coming to the store again.
And there's no way you will ever catch me in that store again.
I went to a dry cleaners once and I posted a review. The young girl had on some, they're called booty cutters.
Her butt cheeks were hanging out on both sides had on a little half shirt. She was the only one in there working and me.
Now, I know it gets hot in the cleaners, but come on y'all. And I spoke to her. She didn't speak back.
I'm looking. It's only her and I. So I know you hear me and I hear you.
And I spoke to her again and she didn't speak back. And I said, little girl.
Number one, I'll never come back in this cleaners. But number two, when somebody speaks to you, especially a paying customer, you speak back.
She looks scared, but she still didn't speak. I will never go back to that cleaners again.
I have the right to choose where I'm going to spend my money.
But I also have the right to choose who's going to be able to take my joy.
And who deposits joy in my life.
And I love it when I'm out in somebody's polite that doesn't know me. They just do it on purpose.
Told you guys about the lady who told me, you look like a movie star. You got your hat. You look like I was trying to figure out who you were at first.
She said, you walking through here, you look like a million bucks and your smile is a million bucks.
Made my day. I know that lady. I wouldn't know if I seen her right now, but I know her words made such a positive impact on the rest of my day.
Nobody could have taken that joy away from me.
I know when I get ready to leave the house, my husband says, you look gorgeous. That means everything to me.
I know my kids who are grown, who are still proud that I'm their mom.
They post pictures of me talking about this is my mom and something like gorgeous under it or something makes my day.
When my friend who listens to all my podcasts post under each and every one of them makes my day because she listens.
Simple things just push me over.
No phoniness. No extra. Just joy on purpose.
Y'all spread it. Give it. Accept it.
Turn all this negativity around. People are walking around negative on purpose.
We don't know why we don't know what they're going through what they've been through. But don't you don't you suck it out of them.
Don't you take a part of it from them. You let them keep it all. Try to sprinkle a little bit of your joy.
Remember the one rotten piece of fruit in the other fruit. When you leave it in there long enough that rotten fruit turns the rest of the fruit rotten.
The rest of the fruit doesn't turn that one rotten piece. Perfect.
Remember that and go about your day purposely joyful.
Alright. Have a great day on purpose. I'm Sonia M at LeadbyMotivation.com or you can hit us up at LeadbyMotivation07 at gmail.com.
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