Brandon's Book Club

00:00We are giving away four children's cooking books, Mimi's Adventures by Alyssa Ganjari from the Buttermilk Ranch. Go to our Instagram page at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Like the page, like Buttermilk Ranch. Share with somebody you'd like to have the books. Go do it now. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We continue our December excitement with random episodes. Like I said, we're gonna do some fun stuff and today is no different. Today we are doing an episode for Brandon's Book Club. So I had this idea like a year ago that I always read books with the leaders of my team and we talk about them and it's kind of fun.

01:04I thought, hey, let's open this up to a lot of people. Maybe we can make a podcast out of it. We'll bring some leaders in. Whoever wants to read the book, they don't have to be leaders, it could be anybody. But you guys come in and then we would discuss it and it'll be fun. So we did that and this is the result from it. We read a book called The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter and today we jump in and we discuss it. You can hear the sirens going by. We're right close to Vanderbilt Hospital. So we're on the main route there. This is what we do. So one of the things we do with Brandon's Book Club is we brought the people in. We brought in today Stephen Smithing. He is the owner of both of my restaurants, The Green Hills Grill and Maribol. Bring in my sister and she is the CSO of the RIPHA. It's a non-profit and we bring in Justin Maestas who is, I think he's the owner of Shared Spirits. I think that's what he is. And then you've got Matthew Clements and Matthew Clements is an insurance agent for Robin's Insurance.

02:06He's our insurance agent. It's so fun to get everybody together in the same room to discuss this. We had four mics and five people so we had to kind of switch them up a little bit and it was just a fun episode. We all got to sit in a room and I thought we had some really good lively conversation around the book. So if you have never heard of the book or whatever, this should let you in on it. It's about getting outside your comfort zone and growing. And it was a lot of fun. We also announced that this next Brandon's Book Club is going to be Will Gadara, his book, Unreasonable Hospitality, which is, I have read it already and I cannot wait to read this book with you guys. Here's the deal, I'm giving away 10 copies of it. So if you guys wanna read this book with me, I will buy you a copy, but then you gotta join us on the show and you can join live. You don't have to be in studio. You can join anywhere in the world via StreamYard and I will put this out there. We have a Facebook page. It's a Facebook group called Brandon's Book Club. Feel free to find it and join it.

03:08We'd love to have you there. And it's just a way to hold you accountable, to read some books, listen to some books, whatever it might be. If you wanna go buy the book on your own, if you wanna listen to it, whatever you like to do, if you're one of the first 10 to message me at my Instagram page, at Brandon underscore NRR, I would be happy to pay for it for you. So there you go. I want to invest in you, in your betterment and joining this book club. We have a lot of fun doing it. So this episode today is gonna be brought to you by Robin's Insurance. It was Matthew Clements who brought this book to me and they wanted to sponsor this. So we're so honored to have Robin's Insurance to be one of our sponsors. The whole episode's gonna be sponsored by insurance companies. If you are out there and you have a restaurant and you work with some national brand that you don't know who your rep is, my main theme here on this show is you gotta have a guy. You gotta have somebody who you can call and we've had some situations in the restaurant where you need to call somebody and I can call Matthew. It's great, I call Matthew and he's like, I'm on it, man.

04:09And he knows the restaurants, he knows what he does and he comes in and dines in the restaurants and it's just amazing. He's just one of those guys who is absolutely not only like our insurance agent but he's also a really good friend and I just can't say enough amazing things about Matthew Clements. You can call Matthew Clements right now. His number is 863-409-9372. Again, he's with Robin's Insurance and if you need any kind of insurance, I think they can totally take care of you. But if you need health insurance, guys, this is a big one. I think I read like three of 10 Tennesseans don't have health insurance, something crazy like that. I think it's even higher in the restaurant industry and that is what my friend Dan Mar is here to do. He is with Southern Health Insurance. His number is 832-816-8602. He can offer you, ready? So if you're in good health, mostly healthy, if you are part of a growing family, this is perfect. You know, if you need life insurance and you do need life insurance, he has that too.

05:09This is health insurance, vision, dental and life insurance. He can set you up. So he can set you up if you're an individual and he can set you up if you're a restaurant, if you have one restaurant or if you have 50 restaurants. He can do it. He has a way, they've got multiple companies that join this big, massive group so you can get discounts. It is affordable health insurance that you can offer your team. This is something going into 2023 that you absolutely need and we are giving away, we're doing a big contest the whole month of December through January the 15th. We're giving away four tickets to a Preds game and we're giving away two tickets to a Preds game and if you call every one of my sponsors until then, I will give you a hundred dollars cash. So there's a lot of small incentives here. We want you to do is we want you to call our sponsors. We want you to utilize our sponsors because these are not only just people who pay to be sponsors. They support me, which helps support you, the locally owned and operated restauranteur as well as it's just, they're amazing.

06:14They're amazing. These people are my friends and I use them all so I can personally vouch for them. Give them a call, let them come in, let them show you what they're doing and let them do a demo. Let them just check out what you currently have, let you know if you're doing, if you got the best stuff you can possibly have. That is Dan Maher at Southern Health Insurance. Again, you can email him at dan at southernhealthins.com. His number is 832-816-8602 and then you also have my good buddy, Matthew Clements. He is somebody who I definitely recommend you call. His number is 863-409-9372. And with that, let's jump into this episode right now with Brandon's Book Club. All right, everybody, super excited to have you here. I don't know who's actually joining us but we are doing Brandon's Book Club today. This is something that, I have a leadership team in our restaurants and every month we read new books. And so I'm constantly reading books with the leaders in our network and it came to me that, hey, we're really cool if I shared this across the podcast network.

07:22So we've done a few books, it's not real organized, it's terrible, but I have a group of people here today who all read Michael Easter's The Comfort Crisis and we're going to go around the table and kind of everybody share who they are and then we're gonna get into the genesis of this book and we're gonna talk about how it's changed your life or not changed your life, whatever the thoughts may be. So we're gonna start right to my left. What I'm asking everybody to do is just kind of tell us a little about yourself, who you are, what you do, and then we'll go back around and share the thoughts on the book. So dragged to my left is Stephen Smithing. I am Stephen Smithing. I own two restaurants here in Nashville. Just celebrated my 30th year working at the Green Hills Grill and have four children, lovely wife who works with us. Things are good. Things are good. All right, thank you, Stephen. Stephanie? Hello, I am Stephanie Still and I am Brandon's sister. And I work at the Rafah Institute, which is a nonprofit here in Nashville that does restorative justice.

08:28And I've spent about 14 years of my life living overseas and like to do a lot of challenging things. So I thought this book was really interesting and I can't wait to talk about it with you all. I can't wait to talk about it with you, Stephanie. First time my sister's been on the pod. So I am Justin Maestas. Spent 10 years in the restaurant business, moved into distribution for about 15. Now I have my own marketing company, Shared Spirits. Got three ladies under the age of 16 in my household. Unfortunately, I lost my wife last year and the comfort crisis really came into my life. I had a really interesting time and a lot. I love it. Justin, I'm glad you're here. I am Matthew Clements. I am an insurance agent with Robin's Insurance Agency here in Nashville, Tennessee, specializing in the hospitality and food and beverage industry. I've been in the food and beverage or hospitality space to some extent my entire life and love what I do.

09:33I am married and my wife and I are expecting our first little one in like, I don't know, six weeks or something. Yeah, so. He's about to get real uncomfortable. Yeah, so. Yeah. 30 years worth of it. Yeah, here we go. So I am rereading the comfort crisis for the second time to get prepped for this new venture. I absolutely love it. Thank you all so much for joining today. And when I first learned about this book, it was because Matthew posted on LinkedIn or wherever it was that he had just. All platforms. All platforms. But he said this book has literally changed my life. And I was like, holy shit, that's the first part of when somebody that I respect talks about a book, I'm like, I gotta read that. And so I jumped in and I loved it. But Matthew, tell me how you learned about the book and kind of how this whole thing started. Sure. So my wife, Erin, she is a pharmaceutical sales rep.

10:35So she's on the road quite a bit going back and forth in middle Tennessee. And she is a kind of a podcast junkie that loves to also listen to books on tape. And she was kind of going through, I think she read Atomic Habits, or listened rather to Atomic Habits. James Clear. Yes, yes. And a few others that I think her manager just suggested, hey, while you're in the car, these have been beneficial to me. I think you might enjoy them. And she listened to The Comfort Crisis. And just kind of knowing who I am, she goes, I think this book will speak to you. I'm a avid outdoorsman, or try to be when I have time. That will probably shorten. I won't be able to do that quite as much here coming up soon. But she goes, I think this book's gonna speak to you. And I am not one to really read kind of self-help type of books. It's not really ever been my thing. But I said, okay, I'm gonna give it a shot. And in my career and life, lots of things can be stressful.

11:40And it was just at a time that there was a lot of change going on. And so I dove right into the book and almost immediately it grabbed me. Partly because of how he tells, it's a story. You're walking through this adventure with him. And then there are excerpts. So it's how he speaks in the book or writes that was beneficial to me. I tried to sell my habits. I didn't really get very far. I got stuck. I want to make sure I end up reading it as an example. But this one, I could not put the book down. And a lot of the concepts in the book I knew, right? I understood. I kinda, you know. But the way he spoke about it, it just, oh my gosh, it just ingrained in my brain. And then I started, okay, I'm gonna implement this. And I mean, I got a pen out and I'm underlining and I'm going to town. And she's like, you underlined that whole page. I'm like, yeah, it's all important, you know? And I'm going back now and I'm highlighting now different spots that maybe I missed or I really want to ingrain.

12:44And I think I'm making it a goal to read it every year. There you go. I feel that way about QBQ. I try and read that like every single six months I try and do that. I feel exactly the same way you did. When I first picked it up, I started listing and I was like, I can't stop. I guess I'm a listener. I listen, I'm always, I like to hike. And it's funny because I was listening this morning and I was kind of, I've re-listened to it also in a little bit of preparation. But one of the things that he talks about is focus mode. He goes, there's focus mode and then there's an unfocus mode. And focus mode, your brain is constantly working. He talks about being on a phone a lot. Even just- I'm on that chapter right now. When we're like breaking, we're bored and we can't not focus. We focus and it's like lifting weights and that unfocus mode is so important. When I go hiking, I like to start listening to a book or something and then when I find my brain wandering, when I get into an unfocus, I turn it off and I just let it go. And I think the biggest thing for Steven and I when we read it, because we, Steven reads all these books with me.

13:46I love him to death for going on all my silly adventures with me. But we both kind of read this book and we went, okay, we're not crazy because we both are most comfortable outside of our comfort zone. Yeah. Right? My personality profile says, likes to live on the edge of chaos. Oh wow. And in a restaurant, that's pretty important because you can push and that's how you take care of the most people most, you know, most properly. But when you think about it in the context of this book, that's part of it too. You're supposed to be uncomfortable. And I'm very comfortable in that outside. When I walk and run and bike, I don't listen to podcasts. I listen to them in the car or books. You know, I'm just out there and get into thinking mode as quickly as possible. I think it's, I love the idea. So if you haven't read the book, this is my favorite concept of the book was he kind of, I envisioned him putting his hands up like I'm doing now. And if you're listening to this and you read the book, if you're watching this right now, I've put in the comments, I put a link, you can join this conversation.

14:47You just have to click that link to StreamYard and it will put you right here in a little green room and I can put you on the screen and you can join us and you can put your own words in. We're happy to have you join us. If you've read this book and you have something you wanna add. But he says that we all live in a potential. Our potential is this comfort zone that we, that's who we think we are is every day we drive down the same roads, we walk in and say the same thing. We hear the same jokes, we eat the same food. We do the same stuff and that we know is comfortable. But there's, if we live in this center of like a dartboard, that center bullseye, our potential is the entire thing. And if we step outside of that, we recognize potentials. The first thing I did, because it was the middle of summer when I read this and it was like a hundred degrees outside, is I turned the air conditioner off and I road drove to work. Just as a dumb, I'm not gonna be sitting in an air conditioned world, I'm gonna be uncomfortable. And it was very uncomfortable driving to work in like a sauna essentially and it showed up to work sweating. But when you walk into work, no matter what the temperature is in there, you're just, you're like, God bless, this feels amazing.

15:53But it changes your perspective when you get uncomfortable and then you step back into something that potentially could be uncomfortable. It's still hot in the restaurant, it's still hot in the kitchen. Everybody's like, this is so damn hot. I'm like, it feels great in here. There's a cliche of you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And in restaurants, when people say, oh, it's so hot in the kitchen, you're like, what? That's the thing. Let me point this out to you. This is how it goes. It's never gonna be 67 degrees in here in the summertime. So Stephanie, you are not in the restaurant industry. You're just an amazing human and you do awesome stuff. What was your kind of take on this thing when you first started reading it? Well, I had a lot of thoughts because I, like your wife, I listen to audio books constantly and almost all of them are like this self-help kind of realm. Yeah. And I listen to them on like double speed usually and kind of try to pick up all the nuggets and then go back. Cause most like atomic habits is a lot of fluff. There's a lot of good information, but there's a lot of fluff. So like I try to pick up what I want and then maybe I'll go back and get that part, those important parts.

16:56And I thought that this book had a lot of amazing nuggets of wisdom, like what you were talking about and so many things that we really need to address. I also thought the book had some problems. Okay. So I'm happy to talk more about that if that is a space for it, but. Of course. No, but what were some of the most important nuggets, the important things you got? Because we both thought that after chapter two, we got the concept. Yeah. After chapter two, I was like. And it said seven more hours left. I was like, oh my God, I got it already. I get it, get uncomfortable. I get it. And we both were kind of like, and then the rest of it, we listened to it, but like the last four or five hours, like did you kill the caribou? Right. Did you get it? Yeah. I'm hanging out to find out at the end of the story what really happened. Yeah, for those who haven't read the book, it kind of juxtaposes the story of him going on a hunt in the Arctic with these different chapters where he's sharing different nuggets of wisdom. I could have probably done without the hunt part of the book for me, but it was fairly well-written and it sounded like a good adventure that he went on.

18:00But intentionally a misogi. And it was hard. To challenge, he did it to challenge himself. And he shares this concept of misogi, which is a Japanese concept of like doing something extremely challenging basically. And he describes it as having two, I don't know, two parameters. And that it's like, you should have a 50% chance of success and you don't die. That's it. He said challenge yourself. The two rules are you have to challenge yourself as much as you possibly can to the edge of your possible extreme. And number two is don't die. Yeah. I felt like that concept really resonated with me as a person who likes a challenge and thought, ooh yeah, what challenges are coming up for me? But then I was like a 50% success rate and don't die, especially if you're giving advice to people who are not- Professionals? Yeah, or rich or ready for the outdoors. That is setting people potentially up for disaster. I have hiked to the entire Appalachian Trail.

19:02I've done a lot of hiking and things like that. Climb Mount Kilmajaro? I have. Mount Fuji, I mean, you've done- I've done a lot of things. If people are not prepared, if they are 50% prepared, that's just stupid. If you're talking about something like this, I understand, if your misogy is, I'm gonna wake up at 6 a.m. and walk my dog every day for a month, I probably have a 50% success rate if I said I was gonna do that. Yeah, exactly. Especially in this weather. Exactly. But if you're doing something really challenging in the wilderness, you're gonna be putting not only your own life or limb at risk, but someone else's, so I just, but I think the concept is really, really good. Just those rules, I was like. And then the other, so you asked what I really liked about the book. I really liked that concept and just getting uncomfortable. And I mean, I think so much about our phones and what it's doing to our brains. I think a lot about our brains, because I have a three-year-old, and I'm also a person who quit drinking, and I'm really interested in addiction and how all this stuff is related, because they are very similar in neural pathways.

20:08So I thought a lot of what he said was really good. However, he also recommends getting uncomfortable by being hungry, and I just looked up a statistic because I work in non-profit, and I happen to work closely with people who work in food banks, and one out of eight people in middle Tennessee is hungry every day. You know, and so this book, I do think, I would have appreciated if he would have recognized at the beginning that he's coming from a place of privilege. Yes. Like if he acknowledged that in the beginning, because I think there's a lot of people who are struggling and maybe would not relate to this book. Like it's definitely written for white males. Well, but he also said, and you're in a room full of white males, but he said people that have that background typically live happier, more enriched lives because they live kind of uncomfortably. So when they do get to be, like the problem is, as white males, we're way, we have the ability to be comfortable all the time. And I think that if you're, like if you grew up with stress, he said those people are able to weather challenges.

21:13A pandemic happens, something happens to them, they're like, I didn't have food for nine weeks, this is a cakewalk, it's about perspective. And even in a privilege, if you can find that perspective, you can go even farther. I think that's true. But there is probably that person also has underlying trauma that may or may not be being dealt with. And so it's just like it's bigger, I think, than when than what he's talking about. But I do appreciate how much research he cites in the book. He basically suggests choosing to go hungry. And a whole lot of people in the world don't choose to go. They would choose not to be hungry. Well, I just think it's important to acknowledge that this is a book for affluent people, you know? Yeah. Just he talked about, you know, the guy who does the sports science, who can make people at the very top of the very top of physical activity better in some way. And that's clearly only a few people in the world have that opportunity even to spend their money on something that could help them. Yeah, absolutely. Justin, to jump in here.

22:14Yeah, you know, I love the book. You got me immediately due to my history with friends going up to Alaska on hunts. I had a couple of friends that went straight out of high school to Alaska to work for a year on boats. And when I described how far this guy went in to the back country, they're like, that is crazy. And he went for how long? Right. That was an intense trip for any individual to take. And obviously, he trained for it and he talked about his training. So it kind of grabbed me immediately from that perspective. But really what got me was in the later chapters when he when he visited Bhutan, which is north of Bangladesh, the southern borders of China, and visited the Kempi Tashi and started discussing the concepts of death. That was really special to me, you know, in looking at how each and every one of us walks to that and we kind of try to get out of that comfort zone and and not pay attention to what inevitably we all reach.

23:34And I mean, that was just a great, a great segment. I really this book actually got me into meditation practices, trying to clean my head from thoughts and and, you know, our first walk together in the park. We were talking about these chapters. I'm like, you know what? I usually listen to books, but now I'm going to take my headphones out and listen to the nature. I think that was also brought up later in the book concerning the parks that Japan has created to help mental. I guess, mental clarity for their their citizens. So that's, you know, my take kind of came in later in the chapters when they were talking about those topics. Well, that's interesting because we just said, do the first few parts of it. We get the picture. But you're saying at the end of the book, there's some of the individual specifics about that that really spoke to you personally.

24:37We don't have to agree with you as well. That that chapter about death and has I'm not sure I pronounce it. Metapha, talk about something like that. I even have that reminder in my phone goes out four times to practice that. And just that nothing is absolute, you know, and just to it kind of takes you out of the stressors of the day and to go, OK, what's really important? You know, what's that? I would agree with you. Top, yeah. Well, there's a there's a concept in like NAA, you know, you talk about like the 12 steps where they say that you've asked a higher power to remove you from your insanity. I guess step three. But like your insanity, what is it? And I think that there's an insanity that most people who drink too much are trying to escape. And what we try and do is we try and control everything. We try and control things that we have no control over. And there's an insanity to that where we try and control things that we have absolutely zero control over and it will drive you mad and it will create resentment and it creates anger and frustration.

25:45And this world is at me. And there's a moment where you meditate, where you just sit alone in your thoughts. And that's where prayer comes in. For me, that's when I pray as I pray, I go, just take this all the things I can. This is really the serenity prayer. And then it's something that you've kind of latched on to. Also, it's an amazing part of Stephen here, just kind of recognizing that concept. But for me, after I take a moment and I pray or whatever it is, I can leave that with clarity and go, I can't control those things. And I'm going to control the things I can in the person that I can. And that helps me every day be able to do the things because I'm not worried about the exterior, all that noise. It's an amazing, amazing thing in life to do. And meditation is not easy. You know, it's definitely uncomfortable at the first time because everything jumps into your head and you're trying to clear it out. Meditation is different for so many people. It's different for everybody and trying to get that clarity. It's it's difficult and it's uncomfortable.

26:46But when you're finished with it, oh, it's bliss. I wonder what sometimes I get done with the meditation. I'm like, where did I just go? Like, what just happened? Anybody else do that? See, I'm not I've never practiced meditation. And I'm actually in the chapter. It said, if that's not your thing. And I probably have not tried it enough and been disciplined enough. But he said, get out and take a walk. And so I call it my my nature's dose of Xanax. So I try to get out and get out and do that. And that just walking and just OK, no phone walking and just looking at the trees, taking in whatever. That is where I get my clarity. You get bored. Yeah. He talks about getting bored. Yeah. Well, I think so much of this comes back to the concept of mindfulness. And I think that the it's really exciting to hear you guys talking about this. These are I've been I've been meditating every day for a long time. And but mindfulness is still a real challenge for me. And it's part of when you go for a walk, look at the trees here, hear what's going on around you.

27:51And again, I struggle so much with the phone because the phone is just a constant interrupter in our lives. And it's gotten to the point where it's really a part of our culture. And so I liked a lot of the stuff that he had to say about that, although I don't know that I felt like I got really good clear guidance on the phone, but mindfulness, especially in the he has a chapter about food. And I think what what he's ultimately saying there is mindfulness with our food and really thinking, am I hungry? What's going on with me right now? And that concept in my life is that's a that's something that I'm really, really working on with so many different things, because any time we're just doing something mindlessly, whether it's sleeping under a roof in our bed at night, you know, if you go camping for three days, you come back. You're like, oh, my God, I have a roof. I have a bed. But could you practice that every day? Just like thinking about that's just gratitude. I mean, just practicing gratitude on a regular basis for some of the things we take for granted. Steven. We're just over here. We talked about the Serenity Prayer and kind of things you can't control.

28:53And I said you earlier in my life, when I swam a lot in a pool, you literally you're going back and forth and back and forth looking at the black line in the bottom of the pool. And all it was was meditation. I mean, your your physical body knows what to do, when to turn. But the ability of your brain is to think about all types of different and you're like, why would I be even thinking about this? But because you're in this enclosed space where your your body is working pretty hard, but your mind doesn't have to. And I think part of this is being intentional with that. Right. So, yeah, that's the with the whole misogy. It doesn't have to be. I mean, this getting your danger zone and maybe I have a very good friend of mine in college who was killed by an amateur hunter. I haven't gone hunting because I don't want to kill somebody accidentally across the campfire from me in Alaska, which is exactly what happened to him. So I don't get that far out of my comfort zone because I don't even know what I'm doing. Never trained. I could go through training and all that. But it's to me, it's really not worth it. I can find something else that's uncomfortable. And I don't think it has to be that dire.

29:53I mean, I think, you know, the other day I'm riding my bike and instead of taking the 28 mile easy route, I take the 42 mile harder route, you know, and when I had 10 miles left, I was like, well, I wish I had taken the easier one, but I really didn't. Right. Well, I think that's reading it for me. I realized how often I'm outside of my comfort zone. Little things that I do. It's kind of said it was kind of confirming that I'm not just a crazy person. Like, oh, these are good things, which was nice because I felt a little more confident, like, OK, so me trying all these insane things isn't because I'm crazy. I crave being outside of my car. I crave learning. I want to constantly be learning that concept of getting a little bit better every single day doesn't happen when you do the same thing every single day. But I think that what it did for me was it made me a little more intentional. You know, when I had a decision to be intentionally bored, we work with the AOS model in our restaurants. We have something called clarity breaks. And it's really important that we schedule managers for regular clarity breaks.

30:56Like, I need you to take two hours and go hiking or do something that's. But not like go be on your phone sitting in your car, like, do something intentional where you think about work or think, you know, you just start walking and start thinking about concepts around scheduling. How can you make scheduling better? So go take a walk, go do something where you don't use your phone, go walk around this trail for an hour and a half. But think about that and just let your brain wander. I think being intentional about doing stuff like that is probably the biggest thing, like taking the easy route or the hard route, like turning your air conditioner on or leaving it off, kind of creating that uncomfortable mode just to see what it does. I think is something that I've tried to do. Is there anything that you, as a result of the book, have started doing differently on a daily basis because of it? Well, I think I think you spoke about the am I hungry? I do think that's I'm like, why? Why am I eating something if I'm not hungry? If there's a kid leaves a bag of Doritos open on the on the counter, should I eat four of those or should I just wrap it up and put it back in the in the bag?

32:02Or shouldn't we have Doritos at all? But that is a big part of is we in the whole starving yourself. That's I don't know the realities of that. It works better and you're probably healthier. But the fact that we don't need to eat all the time, I mean, do I need to take something home from the restaurant at eight o'clock at night? Probably not. Do I need this apple fritter? Oh, it is good. And I'm not eating the apple fritter. I look it looks good. But for me, it comes back to mindfulness. Like I love apple fritters from Donutton. This is one of my favorite things in the world. Hell, yeah, I'm going to eat it. But I'm going to pay attention and try to enjoy it. And then, you know, later on, maybe go, OK, well, I had an apple fritter. So I'm going to go a little easy on whatever else I might eat. And I do one thing that I also want to say just for any ladies who might be listening. He does have a chapter on diet and he talks about intermittent fasting and fasting in general, which I have not really done any actual fasting and I'm interested in. But there is a lot of science about women and that intermittent fasting and fasting can be dangerous, especially if you're a woman who's menstruating.

33:02So that's another reason why I say this book is just it's written for men. They don't take into account that women have cycles and that you probably shouldn't fast during certain times of your cycles. There's a great book called In the Flow and a book called The Fifth Vital Sign that I recommend that women check out or men who are interested in learning about women, people who have periods. Yes. Matthew, we're just we're shocked. Yeah, I think I definitely am a little bit of a freak on this book. I have adopted a lot of the concepts. I'm telling you, when this thing spoke to me and again, these self-help type of books never have just grabbed me. And I think I liked it all the way through, partly because of the hunt. I knew he was going to kill the caribou, but I'm a hunter, so I enjoy it. I'm like, all right. And I wanted to, you know, he was not and I was excited to I have people ask me, oh, I'd love to go on a hunt with you sometime. And I'm like, we'll see. And, you know, I don't know how people are when they've, you know, for me, I'm a hunter, but there's a there's a bit of respect with the kill.

34:09And I'm not a Brown, it's down kind of guy. That's not what I do. I mean, I feel respect for the animal and just you're out there to shoot it, shoot something and take something's life. That's not how I work. Yeah. And so I've always kind of been curious. I have a friend of mine who wants to go and I have a bird dog and we hunt quail and he wants to go with me. He shoots sporting clays and he really wants to kind of go up to to quail. And I'm like, well, have you ever harvested? That's first off. That's how I use the term. Have you harvested a bird before? Have you harvested another animal? No, I haven't. OK, so let's maybe you go with me, watch me do it. Let's see how you feel. But I wanted I was excited to see how he would feel after he took that shot and how. Because Donnie in the book, obviously, I know who he is and have known for a while, and I think his process and his kind of philosophy on conservation is really incredible and he comes at it from the right way, the right position. But versus flying over the flock, the guys, I love the rule in Alaska that you can't shoot the day that you fly right and that like you have to land and then actual hunt because otherwise it's poaching.

35:18You're just you're just it's shooting fish in a barrel. Exactly. And I mean, I probably I don't go to obviously Donnie's extent just because we don't have those those parameters. Our opportunities are different. We live in middle Tennessee. There's lots of deer, et cetera. But yeah, so I was really excited to get the whole book book. And I was so dialed in again. I knew he was going to shoot the caribou. I was excited to see how he was going to do that. So it captivated me through the whole thing. So from the Mactapa to fitness was big for me. You know, I like to think I'm relatively in shape. And then when I read and I cannot remember, I'm excited to get back to that chapter. When I read the chapter on, you know, what is actually recommended. And I'm not hitting that I wasn't to be truly healthy. I'm like, wow, I really need to up my game. So I went out and bought a loop, really trying to be mindful of my fitness and pushing myself because health is wealth. I'm about to have my my first kid.

36:20I want to be able to do all the things with him and have healthy longevity, you know, long, long life with him. And so just being very focused on that portion. The phone was huge, especially in my career. You know, I want to be available at all times for all of my clients. And I do definitely do that, but I have to set some time for myself. And that's where I try to get out in nature, take a walk. It's amazing what that has done for me yesterday. Felt a little stress. So I mean, every day is stressful, but I felt a little extra stress. So I called my wife and said, Hey, I'm heading home. How do you feel about going for a walk right before we go to dinner? She said, that would be great. And so we took the, the bird dog to get some energy out and we went on a walk and I've never found something just because it's mindful. Like, why am I doing this? I'm not going to do, I'm going to get out of my head, you know?

37:21Um, so that was another thing that I've adopted. And then, um, I've gotten better at picking up the phone. I actually put timers on apps so I wouldn't be forced because you're sitting there, you're doing nothing. Your instinct is to pull up that phone, check Instagram. Everything I follow is about the outdoors anyway. So I'm like, you know, what are you doing? Let's just go there. I know what am I doing? Why am I looking at it? Let's go do it. Um, but, um, those are the biggest things that I have, you know, next time you're at an airport, like if you fly Southwest, when there's a, when there's, when they just look around at people in an airport, like you could get away with murder in an airport because nobody's looking around anymore. Every single person is just looking down at their phone. Nobody's looking at anything. They're just like, I'm bored. I want to get this done. But like, I immediately, I thought you put that phone down and you just sit there in an airport and look around the room. I'll bet it's 10 times more interesting looking at that phone, whatever you're looking at. I, I'm going to throw my dad into the bus. Sorry, dad, if you're listening or will listen, um, we're in a, it's Thanksgiving.

38:23We're all hanging out. I have this very functionally dysfunctional family. Um, mom and dad are divorced, both remarried. Everybody gets along. My dad and my stepdad and I all go hunting together. Nobody gets shot. Uh, so it's, it's awesome. Um, but we're sitting in the tree stand. My dad and I just spent some time together. We're going to harvest a dough and he's on his phone. I'm like, you bored? Get off your phone. I was like, I'll have to say it's a comfort crisis. But is this Michael Easter approved? And he's like, all right, you're right. All right. Fair. Um, yeah, there was a point during Thanksgiving where I looked down, myself included, my dad, my stepdad, uh, my brother-in-law and I were all on our phones. I'm like, what are we doing? So I was like, all right, phones on the table. Let's talk. A hundred percent. You know, last time I was in, uh, Chicago at O'Hare and I had a two hour layover. I walked 3.8 miles. Just I turned on Strava and just kept walking till I, you know, toes a half hour left. I better go back and get on the plane.

39:24And it was different than sitting there. Just looking at nothing. Right. Yeah. You should give out free appetizers every time you get eye contact with somebody in a different city. It happens. Yeah. You know, I see people all the time. I'm like, oh, hey. Um, something at the end of the book that I thought was really interesting was the chapter on rucking, hiking, basically hiking, wearing weights. Did you start? I guess I should say, I want to hear about it, but yeah, I, um, I have, I've hiked the Appalachian trail. So I've backpacked. So I have hiked with weight on my back. And when I had the baby, we got a little, uh, baby carrier and hiked with him on my back. But in general, I do, I do a lot of trail running. Um, so I hadn't really ever thought about that concept. And he basically says it's the best form of exercise that you can do, which I had not ever heard anyone say that before. So I felt like that was really enlightening and, um, our mom actually like has started, she's not using weights, but she started walking and like, in the hopes that we can eventually do this. So she read the book.

40:25Yeah. My mom read the book too. And she's like, oh my gosh, I just, she's like addicted now to being outside of her comfort zone, which is, yeah, it's just, I guess it's being intentional, mindful. I thought the rucking chapter was a good bit. I thought it was almost like an advertisement. I mean, it was a little much. I'm like, yeah, we, we get it, but I did buy a rug. So it got me and I've seen several people with the backpacks on and it makes told, but I think most people just getting out and actually doing that three mile walk is baby step it to, you know, putting 50 pounds on your back and doing it. Yep. So I bought a 40 pound weight vest and a 20 pound, uh, it's a sack filled with 20 pounds of sand. I got it too. He got me, man. This book, he just sucked me. I'm like, all right, well take my money. So I do, I do the white trail at Percy Warner park and I probably look like a crazy terrorist because the weight vest looks like a flak jacket and I'm carrying this big old sack and I've got it. Sometimes I got it over my head.

41:26Sometimes I got it on my shoulder because it's, it's a pain in the butt. Do you carry a rifle also just to make the whole thing? Carry a stick across. Like a ninja hat. But you know, it's the working out chapter brings me back to a conversation that I had with a bunch of buddies watching the world cup just recently. And how we all got injured at our, at our, uh, varsity get together during a reunion week. So they get all the varsity players, the alumni, and we play the JV team every year, there's massive injuries and, and we all work out beforehand. We're on treadmills. We go walk in, we go running and stuff, but it's one of the, it's the concept of training that the medicine and the science that's behind training now that we didn't have then, you know, we're all on treadmills, we're doing stadium steps, but the resistance during those is what causes injuries. When you're running 50 miles an hour down a street, going towards the goal and somebody's grabbing onto your arm and tweaking all those side muscles and you're fighting for position, that's a different type of running.

42:39You're not on a treadmill at that time. And I think that's what he was saying. Just being out there in the elements, doing that is the real exercise, the real stuff, but the rucking is really like, I, after about two or three weeks of that and then going back on the trail without any of that, it's like, why am I doing it without that anymore? So I'm the, I'm similar to you, but I'm like the way, uh, I'm, I'm embarrassingly like, I use my wife's weights. So she has like the little ankle weights. Yeah. They're like, they're like pink or purple or whatever. Like I'll put these ankle weights on and then I just take like barbells and I put them in a backpack and I just use those. That's what I started doing. So I'm just like barbells in a backpack and I've got these bright pink ankle weights on and I'm running like, Oh, that's cute. That guy stole his wife's work to come out to the, the trail today. And I don't care. I just, I'm like, you see me go by you and that's it. I don't care. Well, it's definitely, uh, definitely made the, the hikes more challenging.

43:43And I just like all the looks that I get when I'm carrying crazy stuff in the woods. I do have my neighborhood. So I look real weird, like at least they're like, Oh, he's on a trail. He's doing, I'm like in creep hall, Nashville, Tennessee, walking around off the road, like trying to not be on the road and make it more difficult. And they're like, what is wrong with this dude? So at least you're on a trail. You got an Ellington. I do. Okay. I was like, Oh, Ellington. Well, I walk to Ellington. So I'm kind of going all the back roads and they're like, what? And then I get to Ellington. And did you get a vest or did you get one of these back? Did you get a go rock? I got to go wreck vest training vest. Um, and then I have the, I don't take the sandbags with me that like the it's almost like a kettlebell. I don't take those with me, but now I'm going to have to. Yeah. You gotta carry that around. I know. Um, but, uh, yeah. In the book, you know, I found that when, uh, when we had children, we had our first child, I had to shorten my, I didn't have enough time. So to shorten my exercise cycle. And that's when I started to basically learn to run. Cause you can go and knock out, you know, some pretty, in an hour, whereas as a cyclist, you know, it takes three hours to get that much exercise, same as you would get basically an hour running.

44:50Uh, and that was a, it's certainly something we thought about and how are we going to do this? You, I mean, you can also just walk out your front door. Kind of like you said, go run and come back. You don't have to go and figure out, you know, what back road you're going to get on and things like that. Right. Exactly. All right, guys. Well, I think this has been a lively conversation. I think we, I appreciate all of you for being here. Am I missing anything? I think that what I want to do is, it's kind of a final thought is I'd like to go through and have you guys rate the book on a scale of five stars, one being like, I would not recommend it. Don't do it on a scale of five. I'm like, this book changed my life. You should definitely read it. And then I'm going to reveal what the next book is in Brandon's book club. She's a such a humbling name. I didn't know what else to call it. Like, it's so dumb. Uh, who wants to start Stephanie looks like she wants to start. Well, I was just going to suggest, maybe you should call it Brandon's book buds. So you get like more alliteration and it sounds like you have friends.

45:54Well, let's not go too far. Brandon's book buds again, self-awareness. I'll start since I grabbed the mic. Um, I think I would give it four stars. I felt like there was a lot of, uh, really good stuff in there. Again, I mentioned some of the things that I thought were problematic about it, but hearing you all talk about how it changed your life and seeing our mom immediately take inspiration from it. Um, I think that's huge. So I would like after having this conversation, I would definitely recommend it to people. I'd probably give them some kind of a caveat, but it is, I work in a world where like people just don't have enough, you know, and people are really struggling. And so that's always on my mind that this could just really be taken the wrong way. So that's all. We'll just go around the room, Justin. So I would also give it a four star, um, due to the historical references, um, how innovation happens when humans get uncomfortable.

46:59Um, there are modern examples, past examples. I spoke about the book maybe two dozen times to, I don't even know how many people while I was reading it. Um, I don't ever do that with any other book, which is very, very interesting. I would definitely recommend this book. All right. Good stuff, Matthew. So I'm similar, um, don't talk about books often. And it's not my, those guys, these types of books aren't necessarily my cup of tea and I'd give it a five out of five. Um, I'm healthier because of it. I'm both physically and mentally, mentally, probably more so, um, far more mindful, um, which for me in my personality has been life changing. Truly this book, I mean, it was hard. I was debating on if I was going to post about this book on social media. And I'm so glad that I did. Um, you know, I think I've had 12 or so people message me and say, just bought it, just bought it that day, um, which was really neat and I, I stand behind it and it definitely changed my life.

48:08And I'm a better person for it. So, so much that I'm going back and rereading. Amazing. Steven. I, well, I really enjoyed the book, but I'd probably give it three and a half because for me, it was more life affirming than life changing. I'm, I'm a confrontational person by nature. I don't mind getting out of my comfort zone. I, and I also have the means to go and drive my car and take a whole day and you know, bike, you know, two or 3000 vertical feet because I can, and I have a bike that can actually do that. But no, but that also, the reason I'm doing that is kind of a small misogyny every day to be uncomfortable. I like being uncomfortable. I tell my, my son every day is a swimmer and he's a sophomore in high school. So you got to suffer, learn to suffer. Cause that's, that's the fun part. That's really what changes you and makes it better. Gives you perspective. And I think, you know, the mindfulness part was really pretty important here that the choices you're making are the choices you're making and you can make the choice not to do that. Yeah. I feel like this is a book that really anybody can relate to.

49:13Anybody, anybody can read. You don't have to have a certain level of intelligence. Anybody could read it and take something from it immediately in any book that you can practically take and immediately start applying to your life and make changes tomorrow, I think is amazing stuff. That's going to help you propel yourself forward. And the idea, I just keep going back to that little circle that we live in. That is our comfort zone and then our potential, which is so far out there. And that feeling that I get when I get outside my like for years, I mean, just go back to the drinking thing. Like I thought, well, drinking is that's my comfort zone. I live in this comfort zone. And when I stopped drinking, I went like, Oh my gosh, I had all these preconceived notions about what this would be like. And they were all wrong. And so I find it like incredibly exciting and challenging to get outside of my comfort zone, because I never want, like, I'm just hungry to constantly be learning. Uh, so I'm going to give it, I mean, I give it a five star because it did, it did change my life.

50:18It changed my life in that reaffirming way. Like you talked about, I told a ton of people about it. We made it the monthly, that this is the book club book and, um, and I recommend to anybody who feels stuck, anybody who feels stuck, it just lets you, it just opens your eyes to things you can do immediately to start improving yourself. And I think those are the kinds of books that we need out there, not that you should read it, but each individual person read it, look in the mirror and make the appropriate adjustments that you feel like you need to make. There's not like a, I like the fact that there wasn't a, when you get to this point, you're done. Like it's a, dude, you're it's life as a journey and every single day, be mindful and live it, stop and smell the roses, you know, kind of a thing. Can I ask a question? Do we have time? Yeah, go for it. I'm just curious if anybody has, uh, kind of staged a misogi or something like that, that they have coming up. If anybody's doing anything, they feel like it's big. I am going on an L cut. Now that's not because of the book.

51:19This was already planned. Um, but it's going to be pretty big and we'll be light. We could potentially be staying out in the elements, depending it'll be in Wyoming, um, with my dad and my stepdad and a few other, uh, friends of ours. So that will be next this coming October. Yeah. So in about a year, um, it's been, I think three or four years in the making. So that's kind of the big one. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I do not. I have a, I feel like every day there are small masogis that when I feel challenged, I go, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable and I go, let's dig deeper. Like, let's keep going on that. And I was riding bikes with my oldest the other day and he was like, dad, I'm cold because it was, it was on Sunday and it was like, it's day started off at 60 degrees and then it progressively got colder through the day and we left at like 10 AM and we were like an hour into the bike ride and we did like eight miles together, but on the way back, he's like, dad, this is so cold.

52:20And I go, this is where it gets fun. I was like, buddy, this isn't a teachable moment. Like when it's cold, you don't think go farther. This is where you lean into it and build. This is where it gets uncomfortable and this is okay. Like it's okay. It's 50 degrees. It's not like it's 12, you know, but riding a bike in a 50 degree, like the wind starts hitting and it's he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it's like, I knew it wasn't going to be unsafe for him, but I was like, it was a great teachable moment to say, get uncomfortable, get, this is, this is what builds some grit to you. You need this. Like this is something that's good. So I just, I recognize moments more now, but I, I be kind of fun to, to book something like that. Isn't January 18th when I'm having a kid, isn't that the ultimate, you know? Okay. Just making sure. So I have two, I guess. I'm impressed that all of us with children haven't given a ton of unsolicited advice throughout this. We'll wait till we go off mic. Yeah, go off mic and I'll take all the notes. Well, thank you for everybody who's out there watching this.

53:22This is a, you can watch this. If you're listening to this on Nashville restaurant radio, uh, you can, oh, wow, look, we have some comments. Sex find. Oh gosh. We're being spammed. I love that. Uh, if you are listening to this, uh, on Nashville restaurant radio, we encourage you to go, you can watch us all talk about this stuff over at our YouTube page, as well as on the Facebook page. You can watch the video and, uh, next month, this next book club, we are going to be reading will God, Dara has a book and it's called unreasonable hospitality. I'll tell you right now. I'll give it five stars. I've already read the book and it is, it is for me, life-changing. There's more so than this one. Uh, if you're in this industry, if you're in any industry, I think the concept of the book was whatever you're in, you could be in the service industry. It doesn't matter what you do. You can be in the service industry. And, um, I'm really excited to do this book with this audience because, whoo, man, I, I've, I got so excited reading this.

54:34It was, um, it was pretty amazing. My whole leadership team, we've already read it, but like, I want to get everybody else out there and I want to have a conversation like this around unreasonable hospitality because it will change your life too. I think so. Oh, I agree. That's pretty good. It's especially, uh, focused on mindfulness of hospitality and service. Oh, being in any, if you have, if you know somebody who has a birthday, this is a good book, which is everybody, right? And if you know somebody who, if you, I think, I think that the idea of being intentional with what you're doing for people is really cool gift cards are the antithesis of this book. Exactly. Well, and, you know, one of my favorite parts about the book is basically when you have difficult people, don't take it personally, just solve the problem. You can, those are the easiest people to wow. That's an amazing, yeah, it's amazing point. And we're going to talk about that in depth, uh, coming up.

55:35So, uh, Will Gadara in his book is called Unreasonable Hospital. I'm going to try and get Will to come on the show and discuss it with us. Uh, cause he's a, he's an awesome guy. Thank you all so much for joining us today. And, um, I guess have a wonderful rest of the month and hopefully we can do this again next month. All right, guys.