Brandon's Book Club Featuring Steven Smithing, Justin Maestas, and Linda Styll (Brandon's Mom)

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02:32Welcome 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 we are powered by Gordon Food Service. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Today's episode is a special episode titled Brandon's Book Club. We're talking about Will Gadara's book, Unreasonable Hospitality. I know this is a book that everybody is big on right now and we've got Stephen Smithing, the owner of both Maribol and Green Hills Grill restaurants. We have Justin Meistis from Shared Spirits as well as my mom is joining us for the first time on the podcast. Yes, my mom. I am so excited to have my mom on the show. She is, she's one of the most amazing people in the entire world and I will tell you she was a flight attendant for 25 years and so hospitality is something that she understands. She gets people feeling special and some of the stories that she tells today in this episode are just so much fun and I couldn't be more thankful to have my mom join the show. Next month we are gonna be talking about Rory Sutherland's book, Alchemy. So this is a book about marketing, the dark art of marketing and this book is, it just opened my eyes so much. Everybody that I've talked about reading this book, it has completely opened their eyes and I'm so excited to jump back into it with all of you out there. So I would love for you to join Brandon's Book Club. Here's how you do it. There's no obligation. You don't have to join the podcast but my goal here is to have people out there reading books. They're gonna propel them further in this industry. So go to Facebook. There is a group called Brandon's Book Club. Request to join it and I'll be happy to accept you into the group and from there I'll post the link

04:34to how you can join the show. You can message people. We can talk about the book, whatever you want to do. This is just something that I do that is a fun thing that I like to read books. I listen to books mostly in my car everywhere that I go and so I like to read. I read a couple books a month and I would love for you guys to join with me. This one is called Alchemy again by a guy named Rory Sutherland and what he talks about is just why we do the things we do. Why do people respond to different marketing? He talks about one of the questions he says is we had a focus group and we asked everybody why do you brush your teeth? And like 95% of people answered because of health. That's why you brush your teeth because it's healthy and you need to do it. The real reason why people brush their teeth is they want their teeth to look good. Honestly that's the thing that people want their teeth to look good and why did you know Aquafresh which was the first toothpaste to come out with like the striped toothpaste. Why were they so successful? Because people see that and they think oh wow there's ingredients that are working. It's just they just didn't mix the ingredients. It's a crazy thing but that type of marketing works.

05:40Why did there's no company that was able to rival Coca-Cola? Pepsi tried all these other companies tried to rival Coca-Cola but one company did rival Coca-Cola and they took a a drink that in all the different focus groups they did failed. They said it tasted terrible. They did not like it. They put it in a smaller can and they charged like three times as much and that drink is called Red Bull. Why did Red Bull win? Why did Red Bull, why was that the one that made it? He goes through all of that stuff in this book and it's really interesting. It changes your mind. My favorite quote from the book is if you do the logical thing you'll end up exactly the same place as your competition. So if that's an intro to what this book is I hope that you want to join us and I hope that you did read Will Gadara's Unreasonable Hospitality because that's what we're talking about today and I want to jump into that episode here in just a second. I do want to give a couple shout outs because we had such an amazing Valentine's week. I hope that you guys all made a ton of money and that all of your guests were amazing. We had a really really big Valentine's Day out at Mayor Bowl. It was a lot of fun and we had a dinner on Thursday night with Gracie Nguyen from Eastside Bon Meher and Chad and Chris over there. They made an amazing meal that we got to eat at Star Rover Sound and while we were waiting to go into Star Rover Sound we went into the Optimist. My wife was like we got to eat here so we went back and had dinner at the Optimist and oh my gosh both dinners the Gracie Nguyen dinner was fantastic. Our dinner at the Optimist was unbelievable. I want to give a shout out to Blake our waitress. She was so knowledgeable, so patient, just amazing. Got to see a good friend of mine Garth Nash for a really long time ago. Love to get him on the show. Garth was my manager back at the Boundary when I worked at the Boundary in 1998. So big blast from the past. Good to see him. And then we had dinner at the Continental on

07:40Wednesday night. So big week of eating out and if you hang tight next week we will have a new roundup and I will talk about all of these dinners in detail but wanted to give a shout out the Optimist was absolutely amazing. The Continental was top-notch fantastic as well as our chef's takeover of Star Rover which is a Ford Fire restaurant as well and we may be having him on the show here pretty soon so this will be lots of good shows coming up and we hope that you just stay with us. Thank you all for listening. Enjoy this episode of Brandon's Book Club. All right there is everybody. How are we doing today guys? You're great. Amazing. Welcome to Brandon's Book Club. I still say that and I feel like an idiot that that's the title of this thing but I couldn't think of anything better. So Brandon's Book Club. Welcome to the second edition of Brandon's Book Club.

08:41We have an esteemed panel today. We're going to be talking about Will Gadara's book Unreasonable Hospitality. If you are watching out there and you would like to join the conversation we would love to have you. Here is how you do it. You can go to the comments section. If you're watching on Facebook, if you're watching on YouTube, go to the comments section and you can make your comments there or there's going to be a link that is in the comments section and you are welcome to click on that link and if you're in front of a camera join the actual panel. We will put you on screen and you can join the show but now let's get started. I do want to say that this episode is brought to you by Robins Insurance. Robins Insurance is your go-to. If you own a restaurant, if you own a small business, they are a small business insurance company. Personal insurance. They do all kinds of insurance but Matthew Clements is your guy and I don't have his number handy but I will get that for you. Go to robinsins.com and you can check out Robins Insurance. We love them for sponsoring this episode. To my left, looking that way, there he is over there, that guy. This is Stephen Smitting. He is the owner of the Green Hills Grill and Mayor Bowl. Joining us for the second installment. What's going on Stephen? I'm doing great. Good morning. That was a lot. That's good.

10:05Keep working on it. Across from Stephen is a very lovely woman. Her name is Linda Still. I affectionately call her mom because this is my mother and she is and so excited for my mom to join us in studio. Mom, say hi. Hi everyone. Good to be here. Yeah, it's good to have you here. Thank you for being here and then next to my mom is Justin Maestas. Excellent. Well done. Justin, welcome back to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Good to be back. So this book was, I'll tell you the genesis of how I found this book was I was on LinkedIn and we have an amazing woman who does our marketing. Her name is Christine Miles and she had commented on somebody. Somebody had posted about this book and Christine said, can't wait to see it and it popped up on my LinkedIn that said Christine commented on a photo so I saw it and I was like unreasonable. I'm going to check that out and I started reading this book and I just it was almost like somebody had tapped into my brain and was like I've put into words the exact all of the things that go through your mind and one of the lines he says in the book is as I don't have it on the right page now that I've moved it he says it's impossible you know most managers want you to read their mind it's a goal it's a most ranch once you read your mind but you can't you can't read mine you have to communicate effectively and this book I think communicated so many of my thoughts effectively and then I called Stephen and I go dude you got to read this book and then he read it and he's like this is the greatest read ever is this is exactly what we do right what was your it was almost like a religious experience reading this this is what we think about it and this is why we do what we do yeah every day I mean there's a spirituality and service that you get as a group and that this kind of defines it a little bit and talks a lot about it

12:06it really does and it looks like we have another person joining us here just shortly John looks like he's going to come on and once he gets his camera ready we'll bring him on mom you hadn't read this book let's just go around the table kind of and talk about what your thoughts are did you have any preconceived notions going into this book mom no but I love hospitality I live hospitality I am too hospitable it's like I'm the therapy for my hospitality so anyway I enjoyed it very much so let's give a little bit of your back story we know Justin you've worked in the hospitality industry a long time Stephen's worked we all we all know kind of our pasts mom tell us about yourself and kind of just a little bit about your work history all right well I just retired last September the first from the airline industry congratulations congratulations I was an international flight attendant and I started with continental airlines I was based in New York my entire career so I live in Nashville but I had an apartment in a city called Bayonne New Jersey and in the book here he says let's make a restaurant that we want to eat at so and how would you want your family yourself or your mother to be treated at your restaurant and every day I went to work and I love flying so much that I knew 25 years ago that I would either have to pay the airlines to travel or they could pay me so anyway I ended up getting paid for what I love to do but every flight was like how can I make this flight the best flight that you have ever had and I and you did that I mean you you one of my favorite things is sitting on the dinner table listening to her stories about flights that she took and you gotta imagine people that come to restaurants

14:11everybody that comes into a restaurant knows essentially what they're getting into we're going to restaurant there's an anxiety around picking out a wine there's an anxiety around maybe an ingredient they don't understand that we can educate people move them through but you realize she's the general public getting on an airplane and I don't know what percentage of those people are scared to death right or they want they want to sit with different people don't like the person they're sitting with want a different meal want every single person wants there I mean they have first class and then they have I mean there's all these different categories you can do but if you were on that airplane and my mom was your flight attendant you were in first class yes every single flight it was a good way to say exactly what you wanted to do on every flight yes I it didn't matter if you owned the company or by the way at the end continental merged with united so I retired from united airlines but I ended up I used to work excuse me I used to work first class and it got so snooty that finally you could not do enough for the people in first class and I got comments like now remember these were overseas flights so I had a long time to be with these people but we would serve them you know Sundays at the end and people would say well is your hot fudge from Switzerland or Belgium I was like really you know things like that and there was many things Belgium that's from Belgium so I decided since I can't give you enough service I spent most of my career I would do the galley in the back and the galley person really sets the whole tone for the flight because of how good of a galley person you are you send all the people in the aisle well when they were done or when they were in

16:14the aisle I would get to know the people from the back of the plane forward and this started after 9 11 because I was scared to keep working after 9 11 but I thought if I know the people so like in the back row if it was Brandon Steven and Justin I would say I would say now what are your names so that if I needed help I could say Brandon help me Stephen get Justin to you didn't tell them that you just went no I did not tell the passengers that but I'm scared to death right now can you tell me your name well that's why I started and then the people in the back row when the other people would hear me they go well I'm Suzy I'm Jane and so it's like then I started going to the row in front of that then the row in front of that then the row in front of that and eventually I got to wear on a 757 aircraft where we have 159 people in the back I could get all the way up to the emergency exit row then know everybody's name and know everybody's name on a first name basis and they knew each other and they loved it and they felt comfortable and that's all that's unreasonable mom well then I met a girl her name was Carolyn and she loved what I was doing so we would work the same flights and she would take the front of coach I would do the back of coach a couple times we got every single person's name on those flights but and then we would say goodbye to them by name as they left that's pretty amazing isn't that the fun part could you imagine Stephen if we were on that flight if you and I were flying and we were on that flight and the flight attendant learned our names and we saw her learn every person's name would you be like have you ever worked in a restaurant before do you want to stay you want to move to Nashville I mean wow mom that's that's there's there's so many stories like that that I want to get into here in a little bit as we kind of get into the book Justin let's talk about what you do let's let's give a not a

18:17plug but like just tell us about your company what you're doing now and let's let our listeners know and if you're John out there John is click the link get a join you've got to join your camera and your mic and then I will bring you into the studio you've got to hit enter the studio and you got to you got to link your camera and mic and then I can let you in okay if you're out there right now the comment section there is a link you click that link and you can join the show Justin right on I'll start at the beginning you know it started in hospitality doing everything in restaurants from washing dishes to creating a beverage program and everything in between got into distribution loved it due to spirits and now I have a company that specializes in what I call liquid to lips marketing actually helping brands engage customers in getting their brand their liquid into the mouth and getting reactions in this book kind of took me way back to the beginning you know it was a general manager by the name of Nathan Lindley who is in watermark watermark okay I remember how redhead redhead yeah yeah I remember him so he he ushered in me into his management team and it was like hey I need you to read set the table and will mentions this book early in myers Danny Myers book he mentions this book and working with Danny Myers a couple of times within and the passion just I mean it was almost like like Stephen mentioned before it was like religious reading this book and listening to it interestingly enough the concepts in this book go through my entire career I think everybody my previous employment should read it in distribution and how they should bring their employees into every decision

20:19because one of the things that I thought was amazing in this is the frontline people have all the information and the backline people the executives don't and that was a really interesting concept for me I loved this book it was awesome it was there's I have this book right here it's called the unreasonable hospitality workbook this is like a companion book that you can bring to your team at the beginning of the book for everybody who's listening to this who hasn't read the book is like I don't know anything about it I'm going to read this this is like a page and a half two pages and it's a synopsis of the book I think we can jump in Stephen's got a bunch of notes and we'll get into some of the meat and potatoes but if you're if you haven't read the book I'm going to read you a synopsis of it in my best reader voice I like it are you ready absolutely Gooderra Will Gooderra is co-owner of the renowned 11 Madison Park restaurant in New York he makes his non-fiction debut with a spirited manual for leaders drawing on 25 years of restaurant experience including corporate and managerial responsibilities the author contends that hospitality is vital to the success of every firm hospitality in a restaurant means genuinely interacting with the individual you're serving so you can develop an authentic connection which is the result of caring culture that pervades the entire establishment restaurant management must ask the question how can you make your personnel and the people you feel serve appreciated and valued how do you instill in them a sense of belonging how do you make them feel a part of something bigger than themselves how will you put them at ease Gooderra's book arrives in an ideal time the pandemic's after effects along with the economic insecurity appears to have worsened the deterioration and consumer behavior at a time when service-based businesses in particular are dealing with a comeback and demand of labor shortage it's a dreadful cycle but it can be broken Gooderra weaves thoughts and insights into the compelling account of his personal not only genius but also generational shift and what it means to be cared for on a night out the same

22:19person who had phoned them two days prior to confirm their reservation was there to meet them at the door to recognize them on site which is a magical trick for dinner it was the best kind of witchcraft which the server would drop off a gratis bottle of cognac with the check transforming the most stressful part of the evening into the most delightful in attempting to define unreasonable hospitality he stated that anyone has changed the game anything reasonably imaginative has been unreasonable and uncompromising their pursuit of the commodity they developed unreasonable hospitality is the same philosophy applied to how the person feels being served as well as other people the other stakeholder touched along the way many people have never considered the element that their business or the tremendous influence it can have not only in terms of promoting the business in a positive way but also in terms of improving the experience of whatever you do which those two goals collided Gooderra recognized the importance of trust in forming an effective team a leader's responsibility he continues is to identify the qualities of the individuals on their team no matter how buried those strengths may be as well as give praise determine how and when to communicate criticism and encourage participation from all team members finally a leader must understand when to assume command trying to be all things to all people reveals that you lack a point of view and that you want to have an effect you must have a point of view the majority of Goderra's anecdotes revolve around his time as manager at 11 Madison Park which was named the world's best restaurant in 2017 he attributes his success to his daring to his daring to practice unreasonable hospitality going above and beyond impeccable service and great meals to lavish personal attention on each visitor there you go there's a there's a short synopsis if you don't know about the book let's start with Stephen Stephen you've got some notes what are your thoughts on it what are some of your takeaways let's just jump in well I think the difference between you know really great restaurants some restaurants just serve food and some are there to be great restaurants I think the primary difference is that you have to allow the crew member to care and to want to serve I mean you can I've worked

24:23in restaurants my whole life and at times when you systematize everything all the way down which is very important you miss out on some of the awe and wonder and magic that Will talks about in this book and you have to leave that five percent open to be able to do that I've been blessed to work for wonderful people in my businesses for a long time and to learn from some of the best people in the industry Mike Huffler and Phil Hickey and Jerry Hornbeck some of the things that they allowed us to do we had a very tight system you could jump out of the system anytime to wow somebody they just had to jump back in yeah and you couldn't jump out for your own benefit you can only jump out for for the benefit of the guest and there's a difference when people do things so that they can make a higher gratuity or more money for the restaurant it's just not as genuine nor nearly as memorable typically as it is if you jump out just to wow somebody when you walk by a table and you hear somebody say they want something and you just bring it that's the joy of service that if you don't have it you just probably the wrong industry for you I mean that tickles me to be able to do that people are like we didn't even ask for that how did he know you're famous for uh you'll walk by a table and you hear somebody order a decaf coffee and you'll just go make a pot no matter where you'll hear Stephen somebody will say well we can make you a pot I already got it I've already made it for you like what that's awesome he heard somebody say it and he just goes and starts making a pot of decaf because there's never a fresh pot of decaf brewed but he always will go and just brew decaf coffee and they're like no I'm already got it going for you like what it's just there's a insight to that well there are simple things that you know we miss and having decaf on hand all the time early in the shift especially late in the shift is not where it always is always amazes me with service and like just brew the decaf well I mean I'll burn the pot I'll pay for it don't worry about it all day long just keep it going and it works you know one of the things he says in here that really you know got tickles me is all it takes for something extraordinary to happen is one person's enthusiasm and it's kind of what we've been able to do in our businesses is you take really caring and make it cool

26:25I love that you can surround yourself with a couple people who actually care and think it's cool to care it's amazing how it just moves throughout your business in your industry and sadly I think there are businesses out there where that's not allowed and they say oh you have to care but they don't want you to do the things that would show that you care because then they'll think they could get that every time well as I tell people we have a cooler full of food and talented people tell me what you want and I'll see if I can make it we'll figure it out absolutely right I you know what people on the plane one of the little things I did we have to pick up trash once every half hour okay well the people on the plane only have this little amount of space and so when they have you know their little space and they're not done with their drink when you go by and pick it up you know I would note that and I would go back just so they could have their little you know 10 by 10 inches there well the other flight attendants would say Linda what are you doing it's not time to pick up trash yet and I said yeah but I don't want them sitting there with that and they're like yes but then they're going to expect that every flight and I never said this but with me they'll get it every flight and another you're speaking to Stephen and I's heart right now well and then and it's true I mean no I have so many stories that well I mean no that that's I love I like the the term when he said whatever you do for a living you can choose to be in the hospitality business and I liked it when he thought if everybody out there just started choosing hospitality and choosing to be specific in how they take care of people we can change the world and I'm so frustrated because I don't expect service anymore like I don't expect it to be great when I go places because I'm constantly disappointed from what my expectation is and what I think we pull off on a regular basis I just don't expect it so when I get it I'm so excited

28:32and I'm so surprised and it makes me so joyful and I hate that that's where it's come but I mean anybody in any business no matter what you do if you're a dentist if you're a trash man I mean there's so many things that you can do to just go above and beyond and people just to give a little more than what is expected that you can choose to be in the hospitality business don't not because you're getting a tip or whatever and I love to tip people when they do stuff like that that's I hate to tip at Subway but I love to tip people when they go above and beyond when they don't have to does that make sense in random situations that aren't tip jobs I always keep a five dollar bill in my pocket at all times just in case somebody does something cool I'm like hey man thanks I appreciate that well it kind of comes down to when he says it feels great to make other people feel great if somebody's going to take their daily routine and make a part of it make you feel great or engage you or we talk a lot about resting face if you're going to frown at me when I come up to the counter instead of smile at me that makes a difference it does and you have to understand that that's part of your service or part of what your expectation is for that person standing there you have to smile and engage and smile and engage and just that little bit of engagement make that person want to stop at that convenience store again because that person smiled at yeah there are hundreds of jobs industries that deal with hospitality but it's not in their culture and that blows my mind you know you know ace hardware in belmead those guys are some of the nicest guys right here in hillsborough hardware too the same thing I mean amazing and they're they don't care if you're getting one screw or a 400 dollar machine they're going to treat you the same way they're always hospitable and it's an amazing experience ace hardware come on I mean well and what he says is people will remember how you made them feel and that really is the case I mean when they flip that board over you know like they want to tip everywhere you go you're like well how did you make me feel you make me feel like why would I give you the money if

30:35all you're doing is flipping that screen saying give me money yeah it's not just giving me a cup of coffee or you know putting a danish in front of me is not you know not enough at a counter I mean I think and I understand it's basically a labor subsidy nowadays but there should also be some little bit of something that goes along with it absolutely it's funny you say that because you know with the culture right now coffee shops and things like that everybody expects a tip no matter what and I don't tip if they don't engage me if they don't ask me how's your day going did you have a good what's your favorite donut you know something this is this is a different conversation when it comes to gratuities but I think I think there there is an assimilation here between that because I've used the example of honey fire before and I love honey fire and I just did I'm on a podcast today on the Nashville daily podcast that's right and they said what's one of your favorite barbecues I said I love the Diablo Jones sandwich at honey fire it's a great place but you go there and it's not cheap I mean you pay for what you get but like for me a family of four it's like 50 60 bucks for a dinner I don't that's with like waters you know and you ring up 60 bucks they flip the screen around she's like do you want to leave a gratuity and you're like do you do anything and she's like we're giving I'm gonna hand you four empty glasses go get your silverware go get your drinks go sit down we'll bring your food then clean up after yourself and you're like well I have a $60 check that I'm now the option is 18 22 and 25 percent or custom and I'm like so I'm going to give you $12 right now to bring me the food I just paid $60 for when you can go to the greenhouse grill and have dinner for 60 bucks and sit down somebody's going to come over and curate they're going to explain the menu to you they're going to bring you appetizers they're going to bring you drinks they're going to keep your drinks full you don't have to get up and do they're going to bring your food they're going to course it they're going to make sure that everything's perfect they're going to bring you dessert they're going to clean up after you and you're leaving the same amount of gratuity for that level of service doesn't doesn't equate to me yeah like you don't well they're not making me feel good I mean you you

32:41look at that you're like I don't feel so good about you have this tip as long as they engage me and make me feel happy like a good question man I'm giving him something and you can't do what Will talks about in this book at every level of service nor should you have to and I think we're at a crossroads in service where you're either going to intentionally get good service or you're not really going to get any service just going to get somebody giving you something like the check or a Walmart like we should tip them but we kind of move beyond that I think with talking about what some of Will's genius here is and what he's really talking about yes it costs $600 a person generally to eat at this restaurant my brother Peter who's a chef it was a chef in New York City for 10 years and graduated from Culinary Institute of America ate there three different times and it's it's a place where people who care about this type of atmosphere or this type of service actually go as he said he goes some people go here and go to the Knicks game and sit down by the court he goes I can't do both so I'd rather just go to 11 Madison Park and have this amazing service experience but it costs not dissimilar amount of money there's something along with it and as we go and he's at the very pinnacle obviously you're the number one restaurant in the world you can probably charge more than anybody else when you come all the way down to the other side it doesn't mean we still can't do these things every day in our businesses all the time all the time all the time well and like he said you can't do this level of service to every person every day but on the other hand not everyone needs that level of service so like in my case getting to know everyone as I ask them their name I would usually say oh and you know why are you going to Ireland or is this your first time or wherever we were going and they would either say yes no or oh it's our anniversary or oh I'm going for a funeral or you know whatever the occasion is those people that's who needs my attention and love and that's where you can spend your energy I heard the best saying yesterday and it was um spend your energy on things that

34:48bring you delight and spend it like you're a millionaire so anyway um it if if I did come across somebody and it was very rare not even once a flight or people would say I I don't care for you to know my name and anyway on my um napkin because I'd always write down what their name was in case I didn't remember it I usually did but in case I didn't I'd put Ringo that was my name for they don't want to be bothered and but everybody else around them you know knew who they were and I could hone in on those people who did need it so it's not like every person even wants it or expects it but for those people who need it you got it well you know in the restaurant business you have to have a thick skin because you know as you know providing service to people x amount of them don't even want to talk to you and are like why would you speak to me but they have this great little thing that they say which when you're engaging them they say oh we're fine thank you or everything is marvelous thank you and when they say the word thank you that allows you to leave the conversation that's code for don't talk to me anymore and I tell my staff if you say it twice then you're really irritating if you say it three times if they say it three times they're probably never coming back we've all been at a table of five or six people where one guest is just engaging away and somebody on the other side of the table says we're doing great thank you which is your cue to leave and you better leave because that that's probably the person paying the bill we're going to take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors we know there's massive cost in retaining employees and let me tell you one of the most important things that you can do for your staff is to offer health insurance let me tell you improved improved employee retention happier team members means longer 10 years and less training time costs you know when employees take care of their health they're less likely to take sick days this means reduction in lost productivity and revenue for your business improve morals and a healthy workplace with opportunities for growth is a happy workplace encouraging your team's well-being result in higher

36:52morale and better work performance that's what southern health insurance is here to do dan marv at southern health insurance pulls your company with other small companies you can be really competitive in the market and offer your employees that benefit you need to give them a call eight three two eight one six eighty six oh two he's doing amazing things so if you don't own a business and you're just an individual listening to this and you need health insurance he's here for you too he applies the same model he's here to help you get your personal health insurance set up and ready to go that's health vision dental even life insurance and life insurance is so vital you never know you never want to leave your family on the hook if something bad happens to you so southern health insurance dan marv again that's eight three two eight one six eighty six oh two when you hear that sound it's probably too late you need a guy i want to be your guy i'm kevin with course and fire and security and i'm a restaurant territory account manager do you know who's doing your inspections at your restaurant please reach out to me at six one five nine seven four two nine three two and i'll be glad to come out and take a quick look and look at all your fire safety inspection needs if you're building your restaurant we can help with that too as far as kitchen suppression fire extinguishers emergency lights we do it all one stop one shop call kevin at six one five nine seven four two nine three two let me be your guy nashville gordon food service is our title sponsor and there's so much more than that they're friends of mine and they do an amazing job for you out there one of the things i talk about a lot on this podcast is core values and they have something called cornerstone values i'm going to tell you what they are customer is king our customers always come first integrity philosophy of sharing rewards for performance everyone is important networking organization

38:54and my favorite war room mentality these are things i could guess just by knowing the people that work for gordon food service they actually live and believe these core values every single day customers king our customers come first they are 100 partnering with their restaurants to ensure that you are set up for success you need to call paul hunter let me tell you paul hunter has been in this business a really long time and he is somebody who wants to partner with you he wants to ensure that you are set up for success on a regular basis i just love the guy his number is 615-945-6753 if you give him a call today i guarantee you you will not be disappointed x amount of them don't even want to talk to you and are like why would you speak to me but they have this great little thing that they say which when you're engaging them they say oh we're fine thank you or everything is marvelous thank you and when they say the word thank you that allows you to leave the conversation that's code for don't talk to me anymore and i tell my staff if you say it twice then you're really irritating if you say it three times if they say it three times they're probably never coming back we've all been at a table of five or six people where one guest is just engaging away and somebody on the other side of the table says we're doing great thank you which is your cue to leave and you better leave because that that's probably the person paying the bill good point yeah there's definitely cues that you can pick up on in the book one of the main things if you're listening to this and you haven't read the book he talks about personalized service and this i think is a kind of a learned trait that you have to you have to figure out they hired somebody at 11 madison park and they gave him the title of dream weaver so they actually hired they have it they have a rule of 95 5 95 percent of the time we do what we do we execute really well five percent of the time we create this unreasonable hospitality this dream weaver we figure out some way and i wanted to go over a couple of just like the stories that he told

40:55in the book that i thought were really fascinating so one was they realized that where they are there's a bunch of parking on the streets and people would come into the restaurant and then they would leave an hour into their meal and they'd go where are you going i'm feeding the meter so what they started doing was is they started keeping a roll of quarters or i don't know how many rolls quarters they kept but they would ask the people when they came in hi welcome to 11 madison park where did you park your car and they go oh we're just around the corner on a are you in a metered spot yes we are what kind of car is it what's the license plate number and then they would go feed the meter for you while you were eating just that one little we're gonna feed the meter for you while you're eating i thought was just and it's amazingly simple 50 cents is not expensive and it's the easiest thing to do you do have to get the right car you know the color of the license to make sure you're hitting the right thing but if you if you screw up what are you doing you're just paying somebody else's meter worse things than that that's like passing it on in life you're you're going to pay the the fine when they get ticketed but the uh the others some of the other stories were just random experiences he had in the restaurant where there is most famous one he did a ted well did a ted talk on this you can go to youtube and find his ted talk he was walking by a table of foodies and these foodies at the table were talking about all these amazing experiences that they had in new york they went to per se they went uh all they was all the right naming all the restaurants and then they said now we're finally at 11 madison park and they said the one thing that we didn't do was get like a dirty water dog as he calls it a new york city street hot dog and will was busing a table next to them and went oh that's an idea so he with a very he said with a very calm slow walk walked into the kitchen set the dishes down and with a he ran down the street to a hot dog guy and bought a new york city street hot dog and came back in the kitchen asked the chef to cut it into four equal pieces

42:59with a little swoosh of mustard and a smear of ketchup and made it look beautiful on the plate and he then had the servers come and they sat down in front of these people four sections of a new york city street hot dog and that's that's where that's unreasonable but like that's one of those things i look at and i go that's where he's creeping into my brain because that's the stuff that gets me going you know that's like the yes let's do that it just tickles the heck out of you it just oh that was so much fun that was that's more fun than anything else i did today super small stuff we had uh they had they had a family come in from south africa and the family this is my favorite story uh the family came in and these huge windows the front of 11 madison park and it started snowing it was snowing real heavily while they were there and he noticed the family was enamored with the snow so he went by and visited him they said this is the first time they had ever seen snow in person so his family's sitting there watching the snow while they're eating in 11 madison park and he thought that is amazing so this is seven o'clock at night i think he said it was dark but before it maybe was on a sunday but he then sent somebody out to a local store dollar general i don't know what it was ace hardware ace hardware and he bought four sleds and then when the people were done with their dinner he had a black car waiting with four sleds and took him to central park to go sledding it's amazing and like story i know but you hear that and you're like wow we had a party the other day at maribou and they called and they said this is a celebration of life for a woman who's a grandmother and uh in her and i'm talking to the special event coordinator and she goes and the craziest thing they said that in the woman's will they wanted everybody at the funeral to wear pink and she wanted everybody at the funeral to wear pink at her funeral it's just one of the things was in her will and she goes so they're all going to show up wearing pink and i was like

45:00that's crazy that's pretty cool and i go who's on the party she said uh these two servers and i so i went down and i'm gonna say their names i don't want to say their names i know who they are uh but we um went down i talked to them and i said hey do you have a pink shirt they're like why i go well the woman that's passed away the celebration of life tomorrow everyone's wearing pink i think would be pretty cool if we were pink too and they were like i i don't so then i went to cool springs i went to target and brentwood i went to i went to seven different stores and finally found two shirts two shirts there i found the shirts they were just like 150 dollars a piece and i'm like i'm not i'm not i'm not buying that for one event but i did find some shirts and i brought them back and the servers were wearing pink that's amazing for this event and i just wanted that woman to feel that level of like wow they they get it like they understand us this is it this is that moment and it was the funnest thing i think i did all week long going store to store shopping for a pink shirts and then i finally found them on express and the woman goes what are you buying these shirts for and i said well and i kind of told her and she was like oh my god like that that's amazing and i'm like any anybody that heard that could have done that exact same thing but you've got to kind of train your brain to go oh wait what can we do with that that's a really cool thing and we're in a really unique position in marable because we have all this information on every guest ahead of time and they're celebrating events like we can do a lot of really special stuff so we're we're in a really good position there but the other thing um they will never forget that no they won't the other thing that they did which i thought was amazing was they got rid of their host stand they had the traditional wooden stand in the stand you walk up and go hello my name is dr johnson let me look for your reservation dr johnson oh yes i see you have two people oh and it's your birthday they have a mater d there who calls every single reservation

47:01and does an interview with them dr johnson thank you for coming in this evening are we celebrating anything special tonight is it any how many people are coming what is this what is this and then they google the person and find out what they look like so that when you walk in the door they go mr still welcome to levin madison park happy birthday you're like what now i've heard people i've told that story but that's kind of creepy i'm like i think he says people can feel perfection and that's what perfection feels that that's it at that level there's it's different than going into a store and having that happen they expect it or you could reasonably expect that to happen in a place like 11 madison park so then to invent the systems of operation necessary to actually make it happen is also a lot of fun yeah target that would be creepy well and also think about the the the business that they're going to receive financially 600 tab you know how many how many times do you ever do that in life you know yeah a car your tire blows there's 200 bucks bam but actually engage with somebody for three hours where you're going to have some beautiful dinner set the table set everything's served that type of level takes it to that's like ten thousand dollars worth of service there's extra budget in there to wiggle with you know brandon and i ate dinner recently and not that we were trying to price each other out of entrees but he had a ordered what essentially is a four ounce fillet for 120 dollars 148 that that allows you some budget room to run with to make some other things pretty spectacular or detail here to detail there yeah not to be outdone by you you have to but you do have and i got way more than four ounces so but regardless and a sauce and a sauce uh yeah table side made sauce which makes a difference yeah that's great it also reminds me of you know this kind of level of

49:01service if you've seen the documentary of hero dreams of sushi and what he does when he notices the first bite if the guy's left-handed or right-handed is he taking the big the entire piece of sushi or is he having to buy so he makes every single piece of sushi to how that first bite went and that's another level so that's like that's what hobbiger's idea was for the catbird seat i want to be able to make food and watch people eat it and make adjustments real time yep that's what the catbird seat was built on that style of he was making drinks at um what's the place downstairs from it patterson the patterson house and he was watching you make a drink and send it and then watch we'll take the garnish off or move this then he's like oh they don't like the garnish or they take a picture immediately when i do it like this or and so he was able to he's like what if we did that with food that's how the catbird scene happens amazing he's awesome so mom back to you i love your stories i love your stories because we all work in restaurants but hearing things that you did on airplane you were recognized as the top 300 is it 300 or 30 or what is it top 100 for two years i was nominated for the top 100 flight attendants top 100 how many flight attendants are there thousands 26 000 i don't know a lot 26 000 flight attendants you're nominated for the top 100 flight attendants what i kind of want to fly with you now so i want everyone to fly with me here's the thing i love flying so much that if people came on and if i even heard you were scared oh no not on my flight not one person is going to be scared on my flight i'm going to take care of you and i did a hundred percent of the time nobody nobody ever was scared on my flight because i know what to do what do you do when somebody's scared i'm just curious how do you do it well okay magic i can't tell you if i told

51:03you to kill you i know how to make you not be afraid on the flight but the thing is the end result is look a squirrel so what i would do i mean some people were so afraid that like they were throwing up and in 100 of the case i was able to help them so usually it starts before takeoff because if you're that scared i know about it and remember i'm in the back so i'm not one of the flight attendants in the you know greeting you or helping you put away or you know i'm getting the galley ready so i would come out and i would say hi i'm linda first of all you make a connection and you always let the person know where you are like i'm in the back and i'm available to you all the time and especially with like unaccompanied minors you let them know where you are how they so they feel like oh i'm not in this big plane by myself anyway so if this one i'll just say about this one particular person she was the most scared i've ever seen but they were going to a funeral in the united states so this was uh you know coming back from like say ireland coming back and um and so i said hey i said i know you're afraid and i'd love to talk to you about it i said but i said this is going to be a fun flight you're going to be able to do this i said you are not going to be afraid on my flight and i can promise you that i said however right now i'm the galley i work the galley and i need help counting my sodas before we take off this is not true i mean i would just make up anything i don't need to count my sodas so anyway i say could you please come to the back and help me and we can talk about it well i never got around to talking about her fears because it fear that you have of like elevators or flying it's irrational so rationally we cannot help you so what i have to do is distract you so the whole time we're boarding oh my gosh now i have to count my ginger ale whatever it is and on a big plane like that i've got like a hundred of these things one shoot i start over so anyway what i did was

53:06i mean i would make up all kinds of stuff for people but so then she goes oh but i'm afraid to take off but i totally alleviated her fear just sitting there waiting to take off i said oh well here's the thing at 10 000 feet you're going to hear a ding and you do and that's when the flight attendants are allowed to get up but you as a passenger have to wait until you know the cap the no smoking sign goes off so i said at 10 000 feet the flight attendants will get up and at that point i have to take a count up to the pilots of how many men and how many women are sitting on the aisles so i said as soon as we take off you have to start counting i said don't count until we take off because people move so i mean i made this sound real like okay so i would i gave her a napkin and i wrote on it you know men women mw and she just had to count like one two three four five and then i had to come and take this up to the captain so as soon as the flight attendants were allowed to stand up i came and i said did you get it was it you know i i talked to her i said is this accurate because this is for weights and balances and you know i i mean the thing is it has to be something that you have to do it can't be like oh i'll just read this book on takeoff because your mind if you're afraid isn't going to do that so it's like oh look a squirrel like do you understand what i'm saying i i'm anticipating her flight back to the to ireland where she tells the flight excuse me ma'am can i count the men and women in the aisles for you and she's like the hell are you talking about she's like and then she goes oh that woman was good that woman was good and i never i never ever told her it wasn't a thing and then if we had turbulence at all you know i would say oh now it's time for me to count the seven up or whatever it was i you know count all these bags of pretzels in here or something so when she got off she says i don't believe it this is the first time you were right i'm not

55:06scared but so let me tell you about the most lavish thing that i did i was on um but anyway that is how you don't be afraid uh travel with somebody who can distract you and that's the secret there is no rational way for you to not be afraid if you are because it's not rational well because it's out of your control when this is you you have zero control you're sitting there and you have to trust that other you're going to be flying in a tin can in the sky essentially you have no control of what happens so there's no rational way for you to go it's okay this is gonna like you can't do that you just have to trust or be distracted be distracted so one day i was on a um i just come off of a flight and i was going to return home to nashville and they didn't have a seat for me on the plane so i had to take the jump seat which is a little seat in the back that flight attendants are allowed to sit on because you're right by the door should there be an emergency anyway i was sitting back there and the other flight attendants were doing their job and a girl came back to the back her name was olga and she was crying and i said oh honey what's the matter and she says well i live in chile and i was i'm on my way home to chile and i have sent all my bags on in newark but at the last minute they cancelled the flight and so they sent me to newark or to nashville and then from nashville and going to houston but i'm not going until tomorrow and i don't have anything i barely speak the language and i don't know what to do when i get there and i'm scared and one thing i do is i always tell the passenger yes always because it de-escalates so if you ask me can i fly the plane oh yes hang on just a second i'll be right back but i always say yes and then i leave and figure out what i'm going to do so then i'll come back and say oh i'm sorry we don't let passengers fly the plane on tuesdays and it's tuesday now what can i do for you but

57:08because i said yes it de-escalated the whole thing whatever their problem was so to this girl i said don't worry i'll help you so right away it just de-escalates it there's nothing i can do right so anyway i said um i said where are you sitting we'll we'll take care of you and you know it's going to be okay and so anyway i gave her you know drink of coffee or whatever and she went back to her seat and i thought i can't figure out a way to get this person to houston tonight and it was very late so i just i just told her i said honey i'm going to take you home tonight so i took this passenger called my husband when we landed and i said yeah it's going to be me and olga from chile chile and then we're going to i'm going to take her back to the airport tomorrow so i got off and there was a long line of people because of all the cancellations at the ticket counter and i walked up because i'm a flight attendant and i said here's her ticket i said take care of her call me at my house let me know what you've done and i am going to bring her back to the airport tomorrow so i took her home i gave her you know a pair of sweats and a t-shirt to wear and i said these are yours to keep we took her to lovelace the next morning and then i took her back but anyway that's and you know lots of times people go on there because my dad's got a problem and whatever he's he's in he's in vanderbilt hospital it's like come with me we'll get you there we can get you there faster than a taxi so your dad and i have taken people to st thomas to vanderbilt but the night we brought someone home and let her spend the night wow that was my rat because i can't get people off of the plane and take them to central park for skiing or whatever so that's your first you can say that's good stuff mom that is amazing and i think that's you know we sit around thanksgiving and hear these stories about all of the things that she would do

59:11for people your heart is is huge mom i mean how many sponsor kids do you have or have you had like 20 something yeah i've had over 20 at one time but that's because i could go see them and she would go visit them she like doesn't just send money she like went and visited them and met them all and like had relationships with them doing something wow crazy that's awesome that's not crazy mom but that's that's amazing you know everybody doesn't have to fly but everybody has to eat and so when we go to a restaurant you know if you can just it can either be transactional or it can be relationship and it's like if somebody just like steven says smiles at you at the grocery store it can make your day here's what i figured out flight attendants are extremely powerful we can make or break your trip if if i treat you crappy and you get off the plane and i don't care if you're just going for the night or for the week if i've treated you crappy you're gonna say oh that flight attendant you know what she did and three days into your trip in italy you're going to be saying you know that flight attendant did it's like you know what i'm going to ruin your trip basically because i'm hanging over your head like a cloud but if i treat you so nice that when you leave it's like go fly little bird you're not going to think of me because i'm just it was a great experience i made your trip so now you don't have to think of anything bad go so when you go eat at a restaurant it's a part of your day whether it's breakfast lunch or dinner and it's like oh everything's gonna be all right just because someone was kind to you at a restaurant i was really impressed by elisa again jerry who was the partner over at buttermilk ranch when she was on the show she said we have a massive responsibility because we're oftentimes the first people that people interact with in the day i get up in the morning i swing by there and grab a pastry and a cup of coffee yeah if you live by yourself you get up you shower you go you stop

01:01:11there and this is the first person you've interacted with your entire day and if you get a what do you want coffee great go that sets the tone for your day but if we're energetic and we're excited to see you we know your name you may leave there with an extra pep in your step and that makes your whole day better to be cognizant of that to recognize that and then to execute that i think is really special similar what you're saying when people get off the plane italy like and that was a terrible experience it started off bad and then when you walk into the restaurant and the parking lot's dirty and you're like and then it just spirals from that point forth every you just start noticing every little thing it's a similar situation steven you've been awfully quiet over here because we've been talking well i think what do you want to add you know i i want to add a little story about you know one of the things that that we did and it's funny watching this or reading about the hospitality thing we have two guests who come in the restaurant i've been feeding them for 30 years the fenlons and there was a time maybe 25 years ago when the owner of green hills grill at the time decided that he wanted to stop selling budweiser because budweiser was sponsored by ludicrous and quite frankly if you were the owner of the restaurant and you want to stop selling budweiser because they are sponsored because they sponsor ludicrous that's really your business but we had this regular guest who liked budweiser that's what he always had so when he when i saw him pull up i thought oh well how am i going to tell him we don't have budweiser and there's a little stop and go right across street i just ran across there and got a king can and brought it in and poured it in his wine glass like he always had it and throughout the entire time that we didn't have budweiser that's what we did every time he came and one of the crew members goes well isn't that illegal and i was like yeah sure but isn't it better to do what he wants that i mean it's not the end of the world to go get a budweiser and pour it in there we still rang it up we're still paying the tax on it and that was that was kind of a fun thing to do when i read the book i'm like oh well that's something that we we do that kind of stuff all the time we don't do that anymore we just carry budweiser now well we carry some budweiser because

01:03:16budweiser is a funny beer that some people that's just what they want so we always have a we always have a case of or a diminishing case of tall boy budweiser's in the in the restaurant just in case they want one in fact had a guest call me yesterday that's probably what he was telling me was that he was coming and wanted to make sure we had budweiser for his wife by the way budweiser is right next to newark airport or a big budweiser factory huge but you did all the time there that's a great story justin you know one thing that we haven't really touched on is how this book embraces internal hospitality in each other's businesses i think stephen does an amazing job with his restaurant group you know and i think that a lot of industries you know when he was talking about giving the seminars and all of a sudden he looked across and looked at the manifest of what was going on and there are all of these ibm and dell and coca-cola executives taking his hospitality class so that they can bring the culture back to their business i think that is that is really really important you know the the whole idea of listening to your bussers to improve your front door team or you know what's what's happening in the dish station that can take you know breakage down to minimum for everybody you know and and that can be absorbed into all kinds of industries you know my past one with distribution hospitality you know what are my drivers you know how are my drivers interacting with the delivery person at a restaurant because a lot of the time the drivers are interacting with somebody in the kitchen it's not the buyer or an assistant manager so taking taking this hospitality and making people feel good at all levels you know the guys in the back warehouse picking bottles and putting it into boxes for the drivers like how do you take the culture of hospitality all

01:05:20the way through your organization from the very bottom to the very top you you actually keep keep doing it and don't get when you know brandon told the story about the chef slinging the whatever the putting in the guy's face that's not something you can ever do i mean that's so demeaning why would you ever do that people make mistakes you know we have a thing basically you're allowed to make mistakes just raise your hand and when you go to disarm a table you know kind of like you said you you'd say well let me help me count this well the first thing we can really say is i'm sorry we can do better and we will some human made an error and that's why something is wrong and we're going to fix it you know the other thing i tell people which is kind of funny about the airline business people get all excited and you this is terrible and you've ruined my wife's mother's day or whatever else i'm like well we can fix everything in 20 minutes and if they keep going on and on i'm like well have you been to an airport lately what did they do there i mean they stuck the poor woman from chile overnight in somebody else's house without any luggage yes i'm not going to do that to you i'm going to feed you in the next 25 minutes and hopefully probably take care of your meal but hopefully then you know you'll be better and make your day and it's and come back it's just not that hard to make it right and to do it and i feel for businesses where it is that hard and it would be hard but they should care a little more and you know the airline i said they just look at you and say yeah go back sit down it'll be three hours yeah treating your people internally is almost or probably just as important as taking care of your guests well i say the guests come in the front door and the back door well i thought i thought it was really interesting what you said you're just to bring it back to this so we can talk exciting fun stories about things that we've done all day long but actually i thought the best part about this book was him really talking about how he executed it right because it's fun to talk about the end result and these really neat stories but how do you instill that culture right so we have core values that we live by there's a really nice foundation for everything that we do but i really

01:07:23like that he talked about the one minute manager i like to talk about the one minute manager spencer johnson ken blanchard one of the best fundamental manager books and i i love the fact he talked about clear communication you just mentioned clear communication that you have to communicate what the expectations are and that's it i mean that's the thing when you come in as a leader every manager these are a couple quotes that he have every manager wishes his staff could read his mind but in reality we have to clearly communicate our expectations and hold people accountable immediately if we expect results i like the example of the new manager new managers love people to like them they want i want you to like me because they're making that transition from either a server into a manager and they don't want to be the manager that holds people accountable so they go out and have drinks with the staff and then the next day the server who was hanging out with them comes in with a dirty uniform and they're like or an ironed uniform and they're like yeah it's okay it's just one day it's not a big deal they don't say anything and then this goes on and it goes on and then 20 days later they're like it's personal you're not doing this because you hate me and it's like you never told them you never that day one you have to say hey man i noticed your uniform's looking a little little rough can you run upstairs and hit iron on real quick before you hit pre-meal that's a real easy thing to do when a one-on-one thing but people are such they're so afraid of that level of accountability and you've got to do it immediately you can't see it wait on it and then three weeks down the line say something if it's a hot stove you've got to do it in that moment and the one minute manager just it it's so fundamental and it's so easy you got to do the one minute goal setting you got to say exactly these are the expectations i love that he talks about 30 minute pre-meals every day and that that was unwavering we're going to change side work linen folds whatever we have that's where we build as a team it's that clarifying we're all on the same page we're getting aligned this these are the

01:09:25expectations for tonight this is the expectation is everybody on board we chef like it's that french the way and he goes and i could tell how good my lineup was by how they responded back with the we in the french tradition french chef thing we and he goes it's it's amazing because he went to a barber shop he liked it in lineups he liked to tell something motivational inspirational from something that he did and he goes i went to a barber shop and i needed a haircut i just i found some place in brooklyn had the you know barber sign outside the big jars of bar barbicide with the combs in it he was and i got my haircut then after the the meal the guy said or after i got my haircut the guy says do you want bourbon gin or whiskey and he's like excuse me he was bourbon gin whiskey he's like bourbon so he goes who poured him a shot in this little glass like a little tiny like little scope glass you'd see like in a restaurant bathroom you know like just like a little disposable cup gave him a shot of whiskey he was like thanks man have a good day he goes i thought how incredibly unnecessary that was but how and he used the word whimsical he goes but how whimsical that little moment of why did you do that you didn't have to do that that's nothing to do with anything that you do here and it's almost that alchemy side of like just that what why did you do that but it's it's just a neat you take those stories that you experience every day and you share them in your lineups and you inspire people and motivate people but you clearly communicate to your team exactly what the expectations are and then you hold them accountable immediately if you're a leader if you're a leader in this type of and that's what creates the team that's what creates a really good cohesive unit and it's probably the hardest thing that managers do on a daily basis because nobody wants to be the guy that people don't like or i think my favorite term in the entire book was it's cool to care and i think i might make that like a mantra everywhere like it's cool to care it's cool to want to be hospitable it's cool to come in and go what can i do to be a better server what can i do to be a better

01:11:26um steward of our restaurant what can i do to make every guest a repeat guest ultimately right yeah and i just love that it's cool to care like it reminds me the this the conversation about expectations brings a storage to my mind that i've kept through my entire career up until recently and that is um you guys remember f scott's oh yeah he was run by a guy named jerry it was z1 corporation back then their server lineup was right at four o'clock so you had to be there at four o'clock and i get there like 401 and all the other servers they had it was three man teams so all the other servers were ready freaking buttoned up look great they didn't do their side work until after server lineup so i walk in at 401 everybody's sitting there jerry turns around and looks at me he's like man you look great i mean you everything's pressed you look awesome on time is only 60 seconds let's try it again tomorrow and set me on and i'm like whoa i will never be late again and i i took that to my sales people at empire i mean it was it's been a mantra i tell my kids 60 60 seconds all you have to be on time that's it you're either early or you're late period you know one of the we you talked about a story what managers don't like to do when the server calls out and passes their responsibility to the guest and the team onto the manager that's the hardest job managers have i do try to man when i have young managers one of the things you try to teach them is that they have to be able to do a u-turn that doesn't mean they got a waffle that means that there are days when you're on your way home and you're like oh i was going to manage bart about this and that and yeah maybe tomorrow he'll just be fine and in real life you got to turn around do a u-turn go back to the restaurant manage bart about that clearly communicate what the thing is because if you just hope he's going to do better

01:13:27tomorrow then you get that uniform dilution that goes all the way down the line and all of a sudden he's got dirty clothes on and you're like hey man when do we start wearing dirty clothes well you you never said anything yeah that's the whole thing and it's like you know it's kind of like you you praise first and then you redirect hey you look great one minute goal setting one minute praising one minute read there used to be the one minute reprimand when i first read the book it was one minute reprimand redirect now it's the one minute redirect which is steven if you're watching this on youtube steven's favorite thing of a management is you just you just you just go like this you like this and then and you push that's all we do this keep them in here and then go that's it my brother said i was a bully so i guess that's what i do every day but you know if you don't then you're not it's not going to happen right they're going to go way over here you remember that you can jump out of the system anytime you just have to jump back in yes and only for the benefit of the guest that's it you got to keep them in the bounds because they'll jump out and stay out there you got to come on back here well as these podcasts always do we've reached an hour nice talking for an hour how does that happen right so gordon food service are fine title sponsor you got them right behind me here we got them drinking a mug this is gordon food service those are amazing guys over there if you need a good broadline company that cares about you you got to call gordon call paul hunter over there at gordon food service again don't have his number on me right now but he's you can find him we're going to do our gordon food service final thought and rating of the book so one to five stars right one through five however you want to say it one being i hated it five being i'd recommend it to every person in the world and then kind of your final thoughts on the book what your any kind of final thoughts that you have we will start with you steve and gordon food service final thought well i love this book i you know to me is a nine out of ten or ten out of ten i i think it's interesting to read things and obviously in business you read enough business books but this one is tailored not to be perfect

01:15:30really he's talking about that five or ten percent the 95 five and unless you incorporate the 95 five which is where all the fun can be it's you know you might not it might not happen for you good stuff mom i liked it i thought it was fun to see how other people loved on other people and i think the big takeaway was whatever time we have together it was not just transactional obviously it has to be transactional because i'm providing a service which is why you are here why we're interacting but the time we did have together was relational i cared about you i love that what would you rate the book one to five oh five okay yeah i liked it a lot five stars justin likewise i would have to give it a five i've already recommended it to a dozen people at least you know at all in all industries and pretty much my takeaway is this is about this is a book on how you make people feel outside of service outside of a job make people feel awesome and everything else will line up i love it i i give it yeah if i could give it a million stars i would i read this book and i was instantly addicted to it i felt like i felt seen he felt like somebody is in my brain and he was able to articulate what my thoughts are on a regular basis and it also helped me put a you know kind of a roadmap for what we need to be doing and it reinforced that i'm not crazy again some of these books i read i'm like oh my gosh i'm not crazy i had these thoughts too this is really good so i assimilate a lot with it it was a fun read it was a fun read and it was i used the word whimsical because i just enjoyed hearing the stories uh me and stephen went on a we had a trip two weeks ago and we watched there's a show called seven days out on netflix and there's an episode on

01:17:3111 madison park where they closed the restaurant and remodeled it to their specifications from dandy meyer and it's seven days away from opening all the things that they have to do to open 11 madison park and we watched it that night and it was funny because we can watch a million things stephen and i sitting in a room watching this was was about as good a tv as you can watch i mean i love i just i'm fascinated by this stuff i love this stuff i love this industry i love hospitality and this book really nailed it i mean just nailed it in every way so thank you guys for reading it if you'd like to know what next month's book is i'm gonna announce it right now oh god here let me write this down you want to write this down because this one is a game changer and i i have read this book and i want to read it again and i want everybody out there to read it because i want to talk about it because this book i think steven's gonna agree with me on this one it's called alchemy by a guy named rory southerland it's not a new book but this is he's a british guy who is a marketing guru and this book is about the dark art of marketing so if you're a restaurant if you're in any business rory southerlands alpha takes on this uh well i know i think it was great i mean his little bit you know kind of the example of red bull how do you take something that really tastes terrible comes in a smaller portion and cost every other soda and then charge two or three times as much and then make a uh making an iconic product in the world nobody would have thought that would work no no big giant company would say yeah let's do that because that's gonna work he had to be a small company to make it happen two quotes out of that book i will i will tease you guys with one is he says doing the logical thing will get you the exact same place as your competition there you go thought number one and thought number two is why do you brush your teeth

01:19:38why do you why do you brush teeth he goes 90 percent of people will tell you because it's healthy because that's what you need to do for good oral health yet 95 percent of people brush their teeth because they want their teeth to look good it's not because of health because they want their teeth to look good he goes so think about that he goes aqua fresh did nothing different but they put stripes in there it's the same thing they just didn't blend it he goes but they've they sold billions of dollars in toothpaste because you could see the different things like certs with retson like what the hell is retson who knows we think it's good we buy it because it has retson has anybody identify what retson is so there's a ton of really good marketing this my brother turned me on to this book maybe i can get justin so i can have my sister my brother and my mom then the next one we'll get dad on and we'll have a whole the whole family on the brandon's book club thank you everybody out there for joining thank you everybody in here for joining we hope that you have a wonderful rest of your week and stay tuned this friday for our last episode of the boys of the bird podcast hard to heart with mickey corona and brian riggenbach of the mockingbird talk to you guys later