Ep. 68 with Santa Claus

Barb McGrath 0:00
Wow, are we in for a treat today. Today’s guest joins us all the way from the North Pole. Fresh out of the workshop. He’s left the elves to attend to all of the last minute details. This is a very busy time of year for our guests today. He and the missus are working non stop so that the elves and Santa and Mrs. Claus can make this a magical time of year. Tune in today to learn about the business and of being Santa. Imagine a global entrepreneur successful from a small tiny destination at the top of the world. Tune in as we interview Our guest today. And here is the man himself. Welcome, Santa. It’s so wonderful to have you here. I can’t believe you had time to make. Make time to be here with us today in good old Saskatchewan.

Santa 1:11
I always have time versus catch 100 Christmas.

Barb McGrath 1:17
Merry Christmas to you, Santa. So Santa. Have you ever had a letter like mine that asked for an interview?

Santa 1:28
Well, there was one time I got one from your premier not too long ago.

Barb McGrath 1:34
Oh, what did premier mo have to say?

Santa 1:36
Well based on what he was asking for I had to make him Mrs. Claus made him a stalking.

Barb McGrath 1:43
Oh.

Santa 1:45
And I need to drop it off later. 23 days, I’m gonna have to drop this off. And I’m gonna have to fill it up with something.

Barb McGrath 1:56
Yeah. I wonder why premier mo might having a stocking this year? Well, Santa, is it pretty common, though, to have some politicians on your naughty list?

Santa 2:08
Yeah, I always get some politicians, you know, this year. It’s been a crazy year, there’s been some craziness going all over the globe. And we’ve kind of just sat back. And you know, we want to be kind to everyone at Christmas. Time for everybody, including the politicians who are doing their damnedest best, better than others. Yeah, to get this crazy time we’re all living in. I am so glad that my business is at the North Pole. And we don’t have very many visitors. One or two scientists, they ever come poking around every once in a while. But

Barb McGrath 2:55
Yeah, pretty well hidden.

Santa 2:58
So they’re never finding us.

Barb McGrath 3:00
So Santa, does the North Pole have COVID?

Santa 3:06
No, we have no COVID at the North Pole. We’ve been even though we have no cases at the North Pole, where social distancing, we’re wearing masks. We’ve got rapid tests that we don’t have to pay for.

Barb McGrath 3:25
Oh, good.

Santa 3:28
We take it seriously. Because you know, me and my helpers, we’ve got to go all around the world in 23 days. So we need to be very careful with what we do. And we’re not going to wait. We want to be proactive and do what’s right for our business. Because as a small business with a global reach, we’ve got to make sure that we can deliver.

Barb McGrath 3:53
Absolutely. So that’s interesting. Santa COVID hasn’t made it up there. You know, I’ve heard some concerns from folks down here that what if Santa turns out to be a super spreader. But if you don’t have COVID, we would just worry about the reindeers catching COVID then,

Santa 4:10
Well, we’re worried about being a super spreader, because as you guys know, we have to go to every little boy and girls house. And that’s a lot. So we don’t want to catch it. And we don’t want to spread it sure that we’re doing the right thing all the time.

Barb McGrath 4:30
So Santa, is your magic gonna protect you on Christmas so you can still eat all those cookies and oranges.

Santa 4:38
Well, I really do look forward to Christmas because of all of that food that everyone leaves out for me. I spend 12 months of the year in our gym. We haven’t closed our gym at the North Pole because we’re COVID friendly.

Barb McGrath 4:55
Yeah.

Santa 4:56
And we make sure that we’re being safe, so where our gym can stay open Because Lord knows I need 12 months of exercise jazz for the one night of the year where I have to eat everything that those boys and girls are leaving out for me. And I wouldn’t miss that for anything.

Barb McGrath 5:13
Good for you, Santa. I was noticing that you looked pretty trim. So it must be that Christmas night. All those goodies that you have that just adds up instantly for you. I’m guessing

Santa 5:25
Well, between Christmas Eve night and Mrs. Claus doing what she does the rest of the time I eat pretty good. So I need to have a good exercise plan. And part of that is a spray of disinfectant on every piece of equipment that I go to because meet between me and the elves. We’re all running around trying to do our thing because we got to get in shape and stay in shape. Because that one day the year is crazy busy for us.

Barb McGrath 5:57
Yeah, I bet it is. Absolutely. So what’s Mrs. Claus been up to what keeps her busy the other, you know, 11 months in 30 days of the year?

Santa 6:08
Well, I need to tell you guys a little secret. Because this is the secret life of entrepreneurs. 

Barb McGrath 6:14
Is it not? Dad’s right. These are Secret Santa.

Santa 6:18
I’ll tell you a secret. You gotta keep it a secret.

Barb McGrath 6:21
Well, it’ll only be you know, you, me and our audience. No one else will know.

Santa 6:27
Okay, well, Mrs. Claus. She’s busy all the time. Because sometimes we’re not good listeners. And we need someone to keep us in line. You know, she makes us tremendous, tremendous food. We eat wonderfully Mrs. Claus. And we’re helping her in the kitchen because she’s the boss of the house. Santa is Wonderland is really Mrs. Claus Wonderland. She’s the one who designed it. She’s the one who keeps it up. I get all the credit for some reason was really is the brains behind our operation. She’s the logistics planner. She tells us when we got to go, where we start. When we got to finish. She’s got the timer on. She’s got the COVID hand sanitizers all over the place. She is really the one doing the really hard work. for some strange reason. I get all the credit. Now I don’t mind that. And this doesn’t mind that either. Because she likes staying behind the scenes. Yeah, but it would, it would not be cool for dear old St. Nick to take all the credit when I know and everyone else knows especially Mrs. Claus. And she’s just over there. She’s watching me that she gets the credit.

Barb McGrath 7:56
Well, you know, that must be quite the operation that happens that hey, Santa, because you’ve got all these boys and girls and all these letters. So Mrs. Claus is the one who’s letting you know who gets what, who’s not getting something this year. And Gosh, I hope your naughty list is nice and short. But so she’s the one T and all that up for you. She lets you know if you’re running behind on your run, she’s keeping track of all that does she also keep track of how much time you’re gonna have to spend in the gym after that NATO running around.

Santa 8:27
Mrs. Claus lets me when I get home on Christmas, Eve morning or evening, after I’ve delivered all of the presence. She lets me Have a good day or two of rest before she gets me back to the gym. And she’s the one who’s proud me always to get back to the gym and stay in shape. Because for that one night of the year, it takes a lot to prepare. And part of that preparation is physical and mental preparation and being mentally ready for the task at hand. And mental health at the North Pole is very important. Absolutely. On the missus and all of our little girl friends.

Barb McGrath 9:11
Yeah, absolutely. So what do you do to mentally prepare for that night? Do you do yoga, meditation? How do you prepare?

Santa 9:21
Well, I did try some yoga one time but you know, a couple of stretches here and a couple of stretches there and a couple of cracks and pops and that yoga just didn’t work out for me that good. I wasn’t too stretchy. To be yoga to become a yoga master.

Barb McGrath 9:39
Okay,

Santa 9:40
So really what I do is I do a lot of walking. I do a lot of talking and then like you know have to lift my hand up it went to Mrs clauses food all the time. And that’s takes a lot of effort to Yeah, running around with the kids all the time. Our elves are crazy. Busy, and they always are looking for extra hands to to help them with their projects, some of them are in school. So we do help them to

Barb McGrath 10:08
Ours,

Santa 10:09
There’s never a dull moment at the North Pole, we’re always going and you know, this year just a little bit different because of what’s going on with COVID around the world. So, you know, that has really created some extra anxieties for our, our business and what we do, you know, and thank God that one of the things we did this this past year, as COVID started to materialize is we had to switch everything to online. All of our online letters all from the kids across the world, we’ve had to get them all via email this year, because we didn’t want paper mail coming in. Because we didn’t want kids and mail people to have to cut touch all of the envelopes. And we didn’t want our workers to have to open in touch all the envelopes. So we’ve really encouraged everyone to go online this year. And, you know, we’re very fortunate, we found this program that helped train us on our online and how to be a lot better online, it was called the get found. And you’d be shocked that we at the North pool needed to get found. But we needed everyone to realize that it’s a different time. And, and we needed to our business and our our clients, our customers, all boys and girls across the globe to find us online. So we took, we sent some of our folks to the training, and it was by golly, pretty good training. And that, you know, we had to do some things different with our website or North Pole website so that we didn’t know what metadata was. And all of a sudden, we’re experts in this metadata and our website is bound all the time. It’s just crazy busy. No,

Barb McGrath 11:55
Holy. So Santa, does that mean that you’re getting even more letters this year from emails from boys and girls,

Santa 12:01
Our inbox is flying. Every morning, we got 1000s of hundreds of 1000s of new emails. And it doesn’t stop. So we’ve really had to streamline how we process all of this because it’s not by hand anymore. But it’s very, it’s working very good. Our folks are really trained up and they’re enjoying what they’re doing. We’re getting found the boys and girls are finding us.

Barb McGrath 12:28
Excellent.

Santa 12:30
I think we’re gaining customers now that they know where we are. They can come and visit us online. And it’s it’s really comforting to know that as a as a global enterprise, but a small business. We’re a local business to the North Pole.

Barb McGrath 12:47
But absolutely.

Santa 12:49
Everyone across the globe can find us and find out what we do. Well, and

Barb McGrath 12:55
You know, Santa, I’d have to guess that there’s very few people who didn’t already know what you did. But you’re right, it’s so important that everyone can find you. Absolutely. Santa is the naughty list. naughty list looking longer or shorter this year?

Santa 13:12
Oh, that naughty list. We never really take keep track of the naughty list because it’s not our favorite list for an in you and your audience can understand that. If you’re on the naughty list, you really need to work hard to get on the other list. That nice. That’s our favorite list is the nice list. But we do have some that are on the naughty list, as I already showed you. Yeah. We have one right in Saskatchewan that’s on the naughty list right now. We’re hoping we’re very much hoping that he’s going to do the right thing. And and if he does the right things, he will get on that nice list. Just like everyone else, they get a second chance. But you got to do the right thing.

Barb McGrath 14:02
Absolutely. Yeah. Right.

Santa 14:05
One of the people on our naughty list was President Trump. Now, we didn’t have to do anything there. The American people took care of that naughty naughty list one for us. We’re thankful because we were hoping we didn’t have to do anything because we didn’t want him to tweet about us.

Barb McGrath 14:24
Do you? Hey, are you on Twitter?

Santa 14:28
Well, we are but we don’t publicize our twitter address and we don’t use it unless we have to. Oh, okay. tweeting isn’t something that Santa or the elves do now Mrs. Claus does a little bit of tweeting. I don’t

Barb McGrath 14:45
Got it. Don’t text not really your thing then Santa.

Santa 14:49
Well, we’re getting a lot more comfortable with technology after we took this get found on Google program. Makes us comfortable with knowing what we didn’t know before.

Barb McGrath 15:00
Got it?

Santa 15:00
No, we got some Brainiac elves that were all over this tech stuff. But even though even they found some benefit to get found on Google, because you know, this Google business, if you’re not on the top of Google,

Barb McGrath 15:14
Your mass will not exist. Right? Exactly.

Santa 15:18
Yep,

Barb McGrath 15:19
That’s exactly right. So since I like, I’m guessing after the big Christmas deliver, you probably go on a nice hot holiday every year. But do you get to go this year?

Santa 15:30
Well, I’m gonna have to be say another secret to your audience.

Barb McGrath 15:36
Okay.

Santa 15:38
You might not want to see this body on a beach.

Barb McGrath 15:46
Now, that’s a very fair point. Now having been on a few beaches, though, Santa, there’s a lot of people out there who maybe don’t want to be public, but whatever. As long as you’re comfortable with yourself, right? I

Santa 15:58
Me and the missus, we we like to, you know, take a little cruise after Christmas is over. We’ll, you know, take the sleigh out, we’ll go on a leisurely cruise around. We go over some of the beaches, but you know, a hot holiday during this COVID season, it’s probably not a good idea. So we’re probably going to take our cruise, well, we’ll fly around, we’ll be socially distance will the missus we’ll get to visit some of her family. And, you know, we’ll probably end right back up at the North Pole in will enjoy family and friends that are there with us in order to be safe, making sure that we’re abiding by all of the rules we have at the North Pole, that we make sure that we don’t, you know, you know, we don’t want to infect anyone with this dreaded disease. Because it’s, we’ve got some, some some of our workers, you know, some of our elves are 500 years old, so we don’t want them to be exposed to this stuff. Well,

Barb McGrath 17:06
That’s a good point, Santa, I actually just read the other day that you just celebrated your 1700 and 50th birthday. Is that right?

Santa 17:15
Well, who’s counting? Whoa, cool.

Barb McGrath 17:18
Well, now here’s something interesting. So is Mrs. Claus still your first wife?

Santa 17:25
The first Amelie?

Barb McGrath 17:26
Oh, well, good for you. 1700 years. Plus, like that’s, that’s a strong marriage to be able to stay together that long stay in shape. Congratulations to you both. Oh, it’s

Santa 17:41
Amazing that she stayed with me this long. I’ll tell you this much. easiest one to get along with all the time.

Barb McGrath 17:49
Oh, Santa, I’m sure. Everybody has their thing, right. I’m sure you do. Know, here’s a question that everyone has been asking me when we were getting ready for this interview today. How does he do it all in one night? So how do you in the reindeer in the house actually get the entire world done in a 24 hour period?

Santa 18:13
Well, Barb, you’re asking a very top secret question. No, I don’t

Barb McGrath 18:20
Think this secret life of entrepreneurs.

Santa 18:24
I don’t know. I don’t think I can share that secret with you and your audience. What I can say is, it takes a team to make it a success. And I have one of the most tremendous teams helping me, not just on the night of Christmas, but every day of the year to make it a success. And I would be remiss to say that it all happens because of me. It all happens because of them. My team is what makes Christmas a success. 366 days of the year.

Barb McGrath 19:03
Excellent. So Sanjay, just a few more questions before we wrap up. One of my audience members asked me what country does Santa get the best snacks from?

Santa 19:16
Oh, Santa always likes Germany because the little boys and girls always leave a pint out. You know when you’re delivering that many presents, having a pint is of ale from Germany is always wonderful. When I get over Mexico, I get a very good taco surprise.

Barb McGrath 19:38
Yeah,

Santa 19:39
Well and there’s nothing better than chicken balls from China.

Barb McGrath 19:45
Oh,

Santa 19:46
It’s so good. There’s no shortage of good food, good drink. As I deliver everything on Christmas. I I’ve never had and this is after 1700 and some deliveries about encounter with food.

Barb McGrath 20:04
Ha ha. Oh, Santa your palate is relatively easy to please. And I suspect based on your comments that there’ll be a few more pints waiting for you this year.

Santa 20:15
Oh pints and perogies the pearl geese from yorkton are wonderful.

Barb McGrath 20:22
Excellent. Okay, couple more questions here here for you Santa. So that was snacks. Is there any country when you think about the baking that you get? Is there any kind of baking that you really enjoy any particular cookie?

Santa 20:39
No, although, you know, there’s lots of gingersnap cookies I love gingersnaps have lots of boys and girls leave me Oh, chocolate chips and oatmeal cookies. Some of them are even leaving me out some cookies that are keto cookies, and I don’t know what a keto cookie is. But they tasted good.

Barb McGrath 21:01
Okay,

Santa 21:02
Sounds good. Oh, cookies all baking tastes good because there’s usually a big glass of cold ice melt that goes with them. So melt wonderful. There’s always cinnamon buns. In rejoin us. There’s a wonderful cinnamon bun place just down the street from you. I think they’re Barb. Yes, there is cinnamon buns at brewed awakenings?

Barb McGrath 21:27
Absolutely. It doesn’t sound like it doesn’t sound like you have to worry about being hungry for a long time after Christmas night then.

Santa 21:39
No, I’m not very hungry for a few days after Christmas Eve night. Mrs. Claus. You know, after I get home on Christmas in Christmas morning, we we have our celebration that evening at noon on Christmas day so that we can celebrate. So I have to save room every time for Mrs clauses cabbage rolls, Mrs clauses ham and Turkey. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh, it’s it’s so fulfilling. I I look forward to that day, because we’ve done our job by that time. And we start business planning for the next year.

Barb McGrath 22:24
Ah, so Santa, you must have a pretty good idea. When Christmas ends one year, you must actually have a pretty good idea what kinds of things that boys and girls are already going to be asking for.

Santa 22:38
Well, I get a kick out of these marketers who say that they the marketers tell the boys and girls what they want. What they don’t understand is we actually influence what the marketers are telling the boys and girls because it’s what we’re planning to do. We’re actually the ones at my workshop. We’re very good at marketing and promotion. So we started are planning for next year’s toys and the most popular things like the Scott modal is going to be a next year run on that one. We’re ramping up production for the Scott modal.

Barb McGrath 23:15
Got it?

Santa 23:16
This is the last year, for example of the Trump doll. We’re not the Trump doll anymore.

Barb McGrath 23:22
Okay.

Santa 23:24
So that’s those are two examples of, you know, toys that are gonna be in demand next year.

Barb McGrath 23:31
Got it? Well, that’s very good to know. So it sounds like just as we wrap up here, is there a message that you’d like to share with boys and girls? Any any final words in terms of let’s get a few more people on that nice list? Or what would you like to wish the boys and girls? Well,

Santa 23:48
I think it’s very important that everyone, given the COVID situation that we all have to work through that it would be very good for boys and girls mums and dads, aunts and uncles, if we could all take care of each other, wear a mask, social distance, be kind to your neighbors. We need to take care take care of ourselves so that we can all get this COVID behind us. Nobody likes the situation we’re in absolutely nobody. But the faster we all pull together to get through it, the faster we’ll all get back to what we consider normal. And we can start doing things the way we want to again. So I think that would be the message. You know, businesses across the world are impacted by this. Big ones, small ones, mine yours. And nobody likes the search situation that we’re in.

Santa 24:46
We got to get through it together

Santa 24:46
And the faster we all work together to get through to do the right things, the faster we’ll get through it, and we’ll stop the hurt that everyone’s feeling right now. Because businesses need to stay in business? My business needs to stay in business, your stay in business to keep people healthy.

Barb McGrath 25:08
Yes. You know what I just heard from you there, Santa was the importance of team again. And you talked about team being so important to be able to make Christmas a success. And I’m hearing from you that we need to pull together as a city, a province, that country and a globe in terms of being a team and getting through this together. Right?

Santa 25:28
That’s exactly right, Barb. We’re all together. We’re all a bit the big team. And the sooner the big team works together plays by the same set of rules has the same goal in mind, the sooner we all get through this, and the sooner we’re back to where we want to get to.

Barb McGrath 25:46
Excellent. Well, Santa, I need to wrap us up for today. But thank you so much for being here with me today. It’s honestly the best Christmas gift that you’ve ever given me. So thank you very much.

Santa 25:59
Oh, you’re so welcome, Barb, thank you for inviting me to be on your wonderful program. Now. You’re gonna make sure you’re keeping all this a secret though, right?

Barb McGrath 26:09
Absolutely. All right, we our audience will know Santa.

Santa 26:13
Okay, so I’m gonna let your husband know. And by the way, he’s a really good fella to extra in your stocking this year.

Barb McGrath 26:25
Excellent. I will take that. If anyone else listening today would like to be a guest on the show. They can email me at Barb at Google girl.ca or even reach out right on our Facebook and Instagram page at Above the Fold. ca. Just a reminder, you can even submit questions in advance of our show, just like folks did for Santa here today. I’m your host, Barb McGrath, local business owner and Google girl. Remember, not just Santa worked hard for a success. So did you don’t keep it a secret. Bye for now.