Grant Adams

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01:07Welcome to Nashville restaurant radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville restaurant radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and we have got Grant Adams on the show today, back again for the second time. If you don't remember Grant was on the show on May the 4th and he gave us his story, told us his story. He is just an amazing young man and he was just awarded an award by Governor Bill Lee as a ambassador of goodwill for the state of Tennessee. He's been doing a lot of work for all of you out there and I thought I'd bring him back, kind of catch up. I had a lot of people really interested in him and his show, it's a huge listening show, so he's back. We're talking about what he's doing and we get into some business stuff, kind of want to talk about what his passions are right now. So look forward to you staying tuned for that. We got a lot of stuff going on over here at Nashville restaurant radio. We are just expanding like crazy. We have a YouTube channel now so you can watch a lot. We've got like 15 videos up right now. You can watch a lot of the interviews we've done.

02:34Instagram, we put posts up every single day. We have Facebook. We now have a Twitter account. So if you're on Twitter, go follow us at at Nashville restaurant radio or NashvilleResta1 is our official handle. And yes, now we are on TikTok. It's a ton of fun. If you are not on TikTok, you may think it's just for dancing, but no, this is where we're putting up our videos. The less than 60 second reading bad reviews. So if you're a chef or a restaurant owner out there and you've got some just ridiculous reviews out there from wherever, Yelp, TripAdvisor, anywhere that you get reviews, OpenTable, whatever, and you want to read them, kind of showcase how silly they really sound. Hit me up. Send me a DM. Let me know what you, let me know and I'll get over there and we'll record it. We'll put it out there. You heard the intro. We have a new sponsor, Trust 20, and I think it's really cool what they're doing. They're coming in. They're doing audits. We're nearing the end of the month. You have till the end of the month to get a free assessment. They will certify you for free till the end of the month. And here's my, here's my ask of you. I want to, I want some feedback. I would like for somebody out there to go check them out if you have already.

03:53Awesome. Trustthenumber20.co. Hit them up. Get somebody out there to do an audit and then call me. Let me know what you think. I want to know about the whole process because everything about it sounds really, really cool and very helpful and I would love to know what kind of detail they go in with you and your restaurant. The first person to let me know that they've done this and the first person to give me feedback, I will buy a $100 gift card from your restaurant and give it to you to give to one of your guests, however you want to use it. So $100 gift card I will purchase from your restaurant, give it away, make a contest, whatever you want to do with it. But I'd like to give back to you for trying out one of our sponsors. Another sponsor we have is Springer Mountain Farms Chicken and I talk about them all the time. They're the best chicken in the world. They got the best facility. They feed their birds the best food. It's all raised right here in America. They treat their chickens the best and the best tasting chicken. You could feel good about eating. I mean when you do all these things you're proactive and you're leading the industry and that's exactly what they've done. Learn more at springermountainfarms.com and join the flock. Get in there, put your email address in and get weekly notifications and that's all the announcements we got. Let's get on with the show. Let's get going. We have got a good one today. Grant Adams is going to be joining us right now. All right so we are welcoming back to Nashville Restaurant Radio Grant Adams who is the jack-of-all-trades at the Marsh House and this is your second appearance on the show. Welcome back Grant. Well thank you and thank you for having me and thank you for everyone out there listening. How have you been

05:54Brandon? Man you know what? I've been really good. I've been great. I've been getting in shape. I'm getting better. I was not feeling well last week but I'm you know what man? All in all like I feel good all through and through positive things man. That's great. No coughing right? Well I had coughing that's why I was supposed to be in California today and I changed my flight from this week to next week because I did. I had a nagging cough and I just did not want to be on an airplane being that guy that was like hacking a cough every 15 minutes so I wouldn't got another COVID test on Saturday and it came back yesterday so fast less than 24 hours later negative and it was like the brain tickler one that they went way deep on so she goes oh that was a good swab I was like it better have been Mike gosh. If it's coming back that quickly. Yeah so I got it back real fast and I'm good to go so I'm going to California next weekend and my cough is like going away so this is good times. Yeah you don't want to be that guy No and I would have been it's terrible so speaking of health I mean I think that we got to check in with you last time we talked to you there was I mean we you were it talked about last time being an epileptic being at work you had a surgery almost a year ago right? Yes so I'll be here August 1st. August 1st so let's do I know I don't want to talk about that the whole time I want to talk about how you're doing but let's give us an update as to how you are. So right now the implant is catching more and more disturbances per day which is great and we're trending one to two breakthroughs a month which is fantastic and knock on wood I'll be a month free actually August 1st. Wow yeah

07:58that's fantastic man I have to also commend you on I mean just just having the attitude you have you I asked you last time like just a bit of advice and you said get comfortable with being uncomfortable and then everything all that company goes away yes right you say get something you've just had to overcome so many things and I just I've had so many people tell me that they just loved the interview last time because of your spirit and who you are and I just I just want to say it say again man you're an inspiration to me and I appreciate you in every way. Well thank you and I guess now that we're actually doing zoom I can show everybody how to do the magnet yeah six-year I taught a six-year-old the other day how to do this feel like it was the greatest accomplishment of my life so basically the generators right here you just take this magnet and then you swipe it directly across and then you hear my voice it's going deeper so what's happening right now is it's sending regular electricity to the brain this is happening right now yeah yeah I was wondering I was like you just swiped it does that like do something yeah so it stimulates the generator and then it just all this electricity to the brain does that like give you like you feel weird when you do that it did in the very beginning basically what it does now is that it just tickles the throat because it's from here up and then to the brain so are you better now or do you still have some kind of sensation happening so some sensation but it's all right it's like eating electricity okay like ladies and gentlemen if you're watching this zoom you'll see that he just actually swiped the thing and you kind of got flush a little bit like your face kind of a little bit of redness came to your face yeah go check it out maybe not I don't know I'm just maybe it's getting

10:03red now that I said that so I also have to let you know that you have a stellar zoom background mine's just like my bonus room back here and I've got a I have a built-in but I haven't put any books in it because of COVID you have this beautiful bookshelf behind you yes it's from the 1700s actually it's been in the family that's a pretty nice airline and then I have a lot of cookware in the bottom that I can store so it's really cool that's very cool man you look it looks amazing so lots of books last time we last time we caught up with you you were you threw something out there in the interview I said what are you doing during the pandemic like what are you doing right now and you said I'm just writing letters to congressmen I'm just I'm just writing emails and writing letters and I was like really and he said yeah the PPP has got to be fixed we need something we need something for our hospitality community and I'm getting a hold of our local leadership to make a change and I was like oh that's cool man how do you do that you know and I was just I don't know I listened back to it and I was like man I should have had like a call to action there that was a good opportunity so then I'm watching the socials this weekend and I see that you were awarded was it a goodwill you're a goodwill ambassador for the state of Tennessee from the governor Billy yes so talk about that man congratulations well thank you so you know at that time it was so unknown of what was happening you know March 17th came everybody had to close the doors pretty much some restaurants were able to stay open but somebody had to do something so as a Tennessean we're naturally volunteers at work so I just volunteered my time to start talking to senators the governor

12:05the congressmen getting older people in Washington DC and I was doing a lot of work behind the scenes that's actually a lot of communication too and a lot of work you know nobody responds the same so it's basically getting that information to them in a way that they'll also understand it and be able to follow it of what we needed at the time so can I stop I'm gonna I want to stop you right there because I've always defined effective communication as shared understanding from the sender and the receiver in the method in which they both can fully understand so what you just said was really important I think just because so many people have issues with communication what you just said was I tried communicating these people in so many different ways but some people communicate in different ways and you had to adjust to ensure that those people heard you in the manner in which they understood right yes can you like where does that come where does how did you figure that out because so many people just say oh I send them an email and it's like well they don't respond to email they respond to handwritten letters or I called or like you had to do so many different ways like that's just amazing yeah so basically where that came from is when I was a teenager I went through a lot of leadership camps and did a lot of retreats and stuff and I was able to form I don't want to say this just rocks our leadership thing when I was a teenager but what I had to understand at that time was being able to actively listen empathize sympathize and then realize their perspective and realize what they're experiencing right Wow what an evolved thought process that is just to be able to put yourself some issues and then articulate that to them yeah you never know what somebody's

14:05going through till you walk a mile in their shoes okay so I'm sorry I cut you off I just you know I think that's a really cool lesson to bust out right in the middle of that that it's not just about writing a letter to senator it's finding the right way to communicate to different people that's effective in all things that we do with your wife your best friend your co-workers to senators anyway that's a really great way to communicate so go ahead with your story I'm sorry oh so anyways um you know I did all those things PPP came through and then there was a little glitch in it and it needed to be revised so this time I'm circling back to each each individual and saying hey PPP is great some people have gotten it but this is how we might be able to do a little bit better so that way other people can get into so fortunately we're also able to get revised and make that the number one priority for when the Senate opened back up so what did you say in these letters to make that a priority or how did what were the things you were telling them so basically you know you don't want to attack anybody you don't want to make it personal I kind of kept it structured as PPP looks like a golden egg on the surface however it's not working because of this and because of this time frame we needed to go a little bit longer so that way businesses can actually open their doors and it not so I just find it fascinating because what about you you just do stuff man like when but like so many people would be like I just don't think I'm gonna make a difference and you you just don't care like you're just gonna go after things can end of it's like we're about to come up on a voting we're in election year right and I don't want to get into politics here but I do want to say so many people feel that their vote doesn't matter because they're just one

16:08person and we live in a blue state or a red state you know they're just saying I whatever state you live in but you yourself make a difference each individual person does make a difference where does that come from just that mentality for you well I've always been kind of outspoken a little bit but I know when to when to let other people talk and when to actually say something and stand up for something and this was the time that I needed to stand up and say something otherwise things are absolutely gonna fail so I did it and I kept doing it and it just continued to happen so I feel like everybody has a voice it's just how you use it how you approach I love it man so thank you for doing all that you did I know there's a ton of people around the city that got PPP loans recognize that it wasn't what I mean it's a great start and then we did need to extend it there's a lot of things we needed to do and you're one of the people behind the scenes making it happen and the governor awarded you man that's such a cool thing where is that right now where's the award you have it in its package one second let me get it so it's right here it's pretty big envelope honestly it is pretty big wow so guys right now on the video if you're watching the video you can see this but he's putting it up state of Tennessee State Capitol Grant Shanahan Adams Adams Tennessee ambassador of goodwill Bill Lee Wow look at that yeah there it is and here's the still Wow man that's so cool so what's next for you man so I think last time we talked about you going to business school getting your MBA right correct how's that going it's

18:12going good you know I got into LSU which was great it was the best offer that I got I'm gonna be doing it online with cove it and then you know it hit me because August 31st is coming up really soon and I was like oh gosh I don't know if I'm ready for this it was kind of like a little bit of imposter syndrome and then I did the online orientation which is cool because it was like all the meat of the program it wasn't you know here's our athletic department the standard you go to orientation so I went through nice to meet the dog yes this is actually a service dog too his name is Remington yeah yeah I know you could you walk Remington every single day like 12 miles is it yes yes we do 10 in the morning and then to you in the afternoon hi Remington he's like I hear my voice he's like where are you so I'm right here buddy so I did all the orientation stuff and they do like these tests at the end and I was like okay this is cool so I did all the tests and I didn't get like one wrong and I was like okay now I'm ready I feel like so so what do you want to do what's your goals my goal is to be COO with operations my niche so you're you don't want to be CEO you'll be COO you won't be the guy that is out there making it happen the up in the operations right yep yep if there's people out there right now who want to do something similar who want to be executive with a company or they want to lead people right they want to lead people they want to put systems and process together make something happen what are the things that you focus on right now what are the things that a COO needs to be

20:12focusing on and let's try and have a conversation about that as it pertains to restaurants okay cool um so I feel like there's three main components that a CEO should have which is leadership experience and financials and with those combined you'll be able to execute a process a little bit better if not great so which which of those three do you feel like is the most important oh that's a hard that's a hard list of prioritize but I feel like it starts off leadership and then kind of doing the finances and then experience okay so experience you feel like is the least valuable of those three traits when you put it that way yes okay there's no there's there's no right or wrong answer here it's okay so you know with leadership everyone has their own style for me you need to build that trust with everybody in the organization getting to know them getting to know you know what they do outside of work not like too much in their personal life but just to know who they are and all those different things what they do at work and then you need to have the humility to ask the questions that you don't know and then the higher up you go the more emotionally invested you get and you also have to realize that you need to check your ego at the door so anything that goes wrong you need to take ownership of it and then anything that goes right you need to spread that across the entire company and let them feel as if that's their ownership okay so let's break some of that down right now and I'll ask you the first question

22:13right now can anybody be a leader yes to a degree that's like saying yes but no yes um so how I feel about leadership I feel like it's like working out everybody has their capabilities and their strengths you know you can work your body out so much to the point that you reach your full capability for some people they are so skilled and technically oriented that it's hard for them to have that emotional connection it's where it kind of limits their ability to move up see I'm not saying I disagree I'm just saying that I feel like identifying whether or not you are a leader a true leader right versus somebody who which is not to say the antithesis is but versus somebody who wants to be on a team right so I perform better if I'm leading a team and some people like Mike my wife for instance wants to be led she wants to be on the team she doesn't want to be the front person of the team and that's totally okay like there's nothing wrong with that I think she had some leadership ability which she needs to take over as a mother and everything she does a great job but some people I think can get into a leadership role when that's not their best suit when that's not something they should be doing and I think that's a I think identifying leadership characteristics within yourself and as something that you want to be doing if that's your passion and that's a huge part about being somebody in leadership for being a CEO you've got to be like you said humility check your ego at the door but you've got a want to be wrong sometimes you've got to want to the leaders to me can get out

24:14there and make decisions and be okay with being wrong right it's not I'm right I'm gonna die being right it's hey somebody had to take that chance you mentioned personal accountability you said take responsibility for your actions leaders can identify new strategies they can step outside the box look and find news to have vision finding new strategies and then they can come back and if they're wrong say I was wrong about that when we need to go in a different direction but like that's the ability of somebody who's leading is okay to be wrong and some people are not okay with being wrong absolutely not I feel like we've all ran into those kind of people but you know again it's kind of okay because you're able to still learn from them and say hey within myself I'm thinking to myself if this person is unable to admit that then maybe when I get into that role I can admit it myself sure how right now in Kobe 19 times while we are in this weird resurgence which is coming back pretty strong since we've reopened what do you think is the most like leadership right now I feel like is so important what do you think the most important aspects of leadership are right now I feel like the most important aspect is giving people hope and giving people at least something to hold on to say hey we're gonna make it through this and we're gonna be okay okay and then also I feel like to take it a little bit farther is to say does the lead by example if you're asking somebody to do it then the leader should also be doing it that's in all all times no whether or not COVID or any time like any time a

26:14leader needs to lead by example always do as I say not as I do is not a leadership trait correct so I know you've had experience with leadership what are your thoughts and opinions well you know right now I feel like we really just need leaders we need people who are leaders to stand up not just in a hey I'm wearing a mask or you know not just in like our government I'm talking about every single day in every single company every ever restaurants right now you know I mean there's so many opportunities on a daily basis for leadership we from the day if you're a leader in a building if you're a manager in a building every single thing you do right now is under a microscope from everybody underneath you I think it is so vital that we lead in a positive way that we're taking people that people see us and they see somebody who's coming in doing the right thing who's remaining positive and identifying solutions for the future but also I was listening to a podcast the other day and he said leadership right now is so much more about since we're so separated is really hearing your voice right so not just your voice is what you say but actually hearing your voice like leading your people not through emails not through text but calling them and saying hey this is what I'm thinking because when we're just apart like this leaders people need to hear your inflection they don't need to try and guess through your tone on an email or a text they need to hear you they need to see you they need to talk to you and people need to be led right now there are people out there that don't like those people I was talking about that just don't necessarily want to lead that don't know how to lead people that need to be led and there's some there's some false prophets out there those people that are leading people in the wrong direction we need good solid leadership from people who are thinking of ideas smart people who

28:19want to lead people in the right direction sorry has a long answer for your your question no that's completely all right and you definitely hit on some good points you know I feel like when we hear people's voice we get we're able to more able to identify more with it we're able to build that emotional connection of saying hey this is where we're right now this is where we need to go yeah 100% more people can get behind that when they actually hear it versus what do they just say in an email I'm trying to guess and the email was sent to 24 people was he talking to me you know there was a very vague direction he put in there but that was for Tina that's not for me that's for them it's like no it was for you and it's hard to tell when something's typed out you know yeah and then you're you're also wondering gosh when did they turn into a Karen or I'd tell you that term sure has come up pretty strong over the past month hasn't it oh yeah I mean just the people the anti maskers and all the different situations of people going into restaurants complaining about situations because of all of the new restrictions the term Karen is there a guy version of Karen is it Alex you know I feel like it could be more mark no no I if you know what it is type it send us a comment in the in the post here whatever social you see this on let us know what the male version of Karen is because I can't look it up right now so the next aspect you said was experience you said the net last was experienced I'm gonna go to experience next why is it for no good what you say for experience it's so easy for people to become especially in a leadership role to become the expert and the

30:24authority figure of exactly what to do you have to do it and everything like that but skills also change every five years so say um so maybe how you did it in the past isn't how it's being done today so with experience it's great and it's kind of what got you there because you're able to like you know operate all these different things you can do it efficiently but at this point this is where you need to start doing a little bit more peer development maybe and letting employees connect with other employees that are actually doing let's say a butcher is trying to learn soups and sauces and socks whatever and whoever's doing the stew pair those two together and let them work together so that way the butcher can learn how the meat is being cooked and then the saucier can learn how the meat was actually cut and why it needs to be stewed because you know when you do like stew meat or whatever it's pretty tough meat from where it comes from in the body okay so you're talking about actual like cross-training in the position and I think we talked about COO positions I didn't clarify you're talking about a COO position at a restaurant am I right or like a group of restaurants or maybe a hotel chain something along those lines yes so experience to you what you're talking about right now is actual experience in the job as a worker the people who are executing the roles of operations right yep okay I'm gonna throw a curveball at you do you think enough leadership you can that that can outweigh your experience in the actual position your experience at leadership leading people in an in a general industry you could lead people without knowing the ins and outs of the basic

32:28jobs in the industry I'm gonna say no because you still need to have an understanding of what's happening and you still just because you're in a leadership role doesn't mean that you're retiring it doesn't mean that you don't need to stay fluid and current with what's happening and how the skills are changing but at the same time you still need to be able to form a positive work environment just by doing some cross-training by doing these different things because when people rely just on you to be able to show them how to execute you can actually shut down a department so we've we've all seen that happen so let's say you're doing a project at the end it says see this person well this person might not be available because they're meeting so you're saying they're waiting for 30 minutes then that person comes out a meeting and then they're a little frustrated because your production is there yeah so I mean I completely agree with you as far as you know cross training that's kind of that aspect of leadership you're referencing earlier of the empathy like when you're able to do somebody's job or when you're able I've always been a fan of everybody learning how to do other people's jobs because what it does is it eliminates silos you know eliminates the front of the house versus back of the house right so I mean if you're a CEO you're running the entire thing it's not a oh I get the kitchen guys I don't get the front of the house you've got to figure out both of those and the culture between the two of those and you've got to understand those and really bridge that gap and to be effective yeah exactly and I feel like the more you can bridge that gap I mean I'm just using cross training as a reference the more you can bridge that gap the more people are going to come together 100% I completely agree so

34:34experiences is is very important when you're going into for yourself going into a COO hunting type job last one you mentioned was financials financials are very very important let's talk about that for a minute so obviously you know you don't want to start behind the eight oh let me back this up so in our past interview that we did I talked about watching the stock market and learning from that the reason why I said that is because you don't want to start behind the eight ball because we'll never get ahead I mean that's pretty big quote and then you always always always want to stay ahead of the number so the more people that are watching the numbers the better the company will be and the better decision-making you'll be able to have as well as the other managers so let's say you know you send something off to accounting accounting doesn't necessarily see what's happening so it might not always come back as like a hundred percent accurate so when you receive that financial statement back and you can have other managers in on the conversation and say hey let's look at this all together then we can move forward with more accuracy so you're saying sharing the numbers with more people the more people that understand the financials the more empowered they would be to make decisions like an owner and the more people that make decisions like an owner that easier it's gonna be yes in a nutshell yes okay I mean obviously there's financial statements that don't need to be out there in the public you know you let them see it and then they shred it so but the general idea is is the more people that can see it the better the accuracy yes I agree I think that the more you inform your

36:40staff and your direct reports the more they can make decisions based upon an owner anytime you can drive a culture where people think the way you do if you're right if as the person who's writing the check you know as the person who's the COO or the CEO or the owner president whatever you want to call them I think that's vital but so being a COO means you're on top of the numbers you're working directly with the CEO in accounting what is the most if you're looking at a P&L what do you think is the most important part and how do you manage it who knows obviously you want more profit than you want loss sure so you need to look at every single breakdown and then you need to look at why is this number the way it is and how can I make it better how can I make it a little bit more profitable but then you also need to think about you don't want to get too number-driven because there's the people and then the environment so it's kind of like a three bottom line because if you make it all about the numbers then people are gonna be like and then the environment is also gonna well yeah I mean I think that balance is key in everything that we do right right I mean it can't be all leadership all experience or all financial those things have to kind of marry together and you've got to be able to balance your experience with your level of leadership with how much you focus on numbers and that's that's why we don't just it's that's why it's not called it's called the operating and to operate you've got to have leadership you have to have experience and as well as the numbers but I really find in a restaurant you know so many people can't we the first thing we look at is

38:42controllables right so I mean you want to look at your labor food cost liquor cost those the things that drive a restaurant the most and I do a meeting every week with with a couple of general managers we go over a P&L we go over every single line item on a P&L and if you don't do this right now I highly recommend doing this I mean looking over your food cost not just looking at oh we're at 32 percent but breaking it down and going okay what is our red meat cost versus poultry versus seafood versus groceries versus dairy and if you look at that every single week and you're running a P&L every week your food cost you'll start seeing things you go whoa why is dairy at seven percent this week like that's crazy and all of a sudden you can drill in and really identify where things are food liquor beer wine you break it down by liquor beer and wine as well another great way weekly to look at that stuff and then there's so many ways once you figure out where you need to be identifying theoreticals and then going in and figuring out the best ways to lower those there's so many different contracts you can negotiate down a P&L that I mean that's some of the stuff I think that you're really you really want to grasp really well going into what you want to do because when you can start seeing stuff like that's also where experience comes into play because if you're not aware of how liquor beer wine works and if you're not aware of how you know different cuts of steak and when you throw something away how waste works how portioning works how being consistent when you're behind the line just how the line is set up how all of that stuff plays a role into exactly how you create that final number and what each little thing affects it whether it's Tina cut the tuna this week or if you know Johnny cut the tuna this week one ounce off on 25 tuna fillets throws you off five fillets and it's like whoa

40:43wait a minute why are we off this week well every time Tina works food you know seafood cost goes up 2% and every time Johnny works it goes down 4% and consistency comes into play but really having the experience to recognize all those things is a big deal so I mean yeah sorry to go off on another tangent well that's part of also where you get to know people and get to know where their niches are you know the people comes into the P&L and you know you're breaking it down and in some situations you know you have a little bit higher loss because somebody's doing it but what you also have to recognize is that some people never put up great stats but they're a huge morale booster give me an example what are you talking about people wise where some people don't put up the great stats but their morale booster so let's say Tina every time Tina works the environment is so fluid and it's radiated that people are just happy to be there and they want to be there they want to learn they want to do these things but she's getting two ounces off and it's throwing off five ounces so is it worth well obviously you want to train Tina more but is it worth firing her over disagree no and conversely if you have somebody who sells really really well who's like a great salesperson that every time you do a contest they win they're just the greatest salesperson in the world but if they have the worst attitude and they walk in the kitchen they're just a cancer I mean I hate using the word cancer but like if they walk in the kitchen they're just spreading anger and there can you believe this table and this manager did it you know just those people that want to cause drama is that worth I mean hey they're selling great the guests like them but they bring everybody else down yeah you know I feel like that is so case-by-case and maybe

42:51your ego can come in a little bit on this one but you know they're always those kind of people are like hey I could work at this restaurant this restaurant this restaurant it's like okay so if you can work at the 200 other restaurants that you say that you can work at and why are you working this is all just hypothetical stuff you know we're talking about you wanting to go into being a COO and we're kind of doing just an interesting I like this conversation thanks for doing it by the way I just appreciate you talking about all of this and kind of rabbit hunting some of this stuff with me because I think these are things that people are dealing with on a daily basis what do you do with those people that's kind of an HR thing and another part of being you know a leader is accountability so I said this the other day in a podcast that I read this thing it was on my phone was a quote that I saw on LinkedIn that said nothing will lose a great employee faster than tolerating a bad one yes right so if you've got somebody who's running food they're full hands in full hands out they are doing their best their tables they're growing they're getting better they come in to work on time their uniform looks great they always have a bank I'm talking front of the house right now or somebody that comes into the kitchen uniform looks good they're always on time they have a great attitude they make everybody around them feel good but they they're not the great at cutting the tuna or they're they're a little slower like you can coach those people you can coach people into getting better I always I feel like there's a not just a cancel culture but the the we'll fire our way to a great staff and if we can just we got to get rid of these five people because they're no good like are they or are they just are we not leading them the right way that some people like to be led and if you can lead people sometimes they can change I 100% agree and you know this is very extreme

44:53ownership you know anytime you write somebody up anytime that something goes wrong anytime you have to fire somebody it's a reflection on you because somewhere along the line you allow this behavior to happen you allow this you allow this to continue to keep going to the point that it escalated you know sometimes people's attitudes just don't change but we also allow that person to come into the organization really effective leadership especially when it comes to management looks like personal accountability leading by example and holding people accountable for what's clearly communicated to each and every one of them and people I think that conception is the misconception is that oh they're not gonna like me or I don't want to be the bad guy but it's like no people want to be led people want to be held accountable everybody wants structure I think the biggest misnomer is that oh I don't want to come across that was like no if every single person on a leadership team does it that way everybody's cool with it like nobody minds because they're like that's just the way it's done here and then they all start holding each other accountable it's amazing yeah exactly so the more you can spend on the upfront doing that the less likely and the less amount of labor time goes into always having to make these corrections with people and always having to stay over closing time to talk with these people about being on their cell phone on the floor and I know that's just one tiny facet of what we're doing in the restaurants for me it's a microcosm for everything that could potentially happen inside of the building right right and you know I do want to obviously go back a little bit you know there's people that need accommodations and I feel like that

46:55should also be very clear on the upfront with the staff so go ahead go ahead and elaborate on that for me so like for me I mean I need to wear a helmet obviously when I'm working in a kitchen sure so when you have this employee that's wearing a helmet I'm just putting myself out of my shoes you have this employee that wears a helmet and people are sitting here saying oh why does he get to wear a helmet I mean obviously the employee should that's wearing I don't want to say should or could or whatever might be willing to actually answer the question but also they should also approach the boss before they start making accusations before they start making a rumor and all this stuff that builds up within the company I don't know if I'm following what how do you what do you mean okay so obviously it's not normal for an employee to wear a helmet yeah but I mean it's nothing but that's nothing obviously if somebody's wearing a helmet it's not like a bad thing no no I'm just using this as an example sure so you know you have employees that will see this person wearing a helmet and then rather than ask or rather than going to a direct manager or the higher-up manager and saying hey why does this guy wear a helmet then rumors or gossip can start to spread throughout the company about like this guy is wearing a helmet so I feel like when people need accommodations the culture should also be aligned with that so it should be a culture where we communicate more effectively when people need accommodations or it should be okay for people to you like the culture should be

48:55okay if you want to walk up to you and say hey man why are you wearing a helmet like what's the I'm getting what you're saying it sounds it sounds frustrating if I'm somebody who's wearing a helmet and I'm at work just doing my job and then everybody around me you see people whisper and these people talking and you're like hey I'm a person like I don't I mean is that what would you like to change there I feel like obviously B is my thing I mean if somebody is gonna say oh he's wearing a helmet obviously I'm gonna tell him why I mean I'm not I'm not afraid to open up about why I need this accommodation but I do feel that accommodations are a little bit tricky I do feel that accommodations need to be communicated a little bit more but with that so let's go back to the cell phone so say somebody's family members in distress and they come in and say hey chef my aunt or grandmother is in distress I might get a phone call can I take it in the back it might be longer than 60 seconds of course then the manager is more willing and the culture is more willing to accept it but do we make do we make an announcement during lineup that hey Sally her grandmother's sick so if you see her on the phone we've given her permission tonight to be on her phone please don't think that you know that doesn't give everybody the right to be on their phone tonight Sally has a special request do you think we need to communicate that to everybody no I feel like it should be a case-by-case obviously if salary is a great worker you know this is like a one-time thing and she's back on the phone for more than 60 seconds then somebody says it and they're holding something they're trying to hold Sally accountable then the manager can then say hey it's an

51:02incinerating circumstance we just need to work with her do you feel like you the kind of the circumstance you just described with yourself I mean do you feel like that happens a lot not with me I feel like it did in the very beginning and then I was able to learn how to effectively advocate for myself how did you do that um well it took five years took five years for me to realize that when somebody is judging me based on an accommodation or what I can't control then maybe that's not the right environment so when I first started working I then started realizing hey I need to be open about the accommodation that I need with the manager or the chef and when I started doing that the very first day before I started working we would all meet around a table with the and I would advocate for myself and say I have seizures it doesn't define me it's not gonna define us and then this is how you handle it and this is why I wear a helmet this is why I need to work on a map but you that so you've learned how to effectively communicate to people yes okay and people I mean I imagine everybody's okay with that right yes yeah I mean there's so many it almost brings up another topic I mean just this discrimination in the way that people get treated and how this kind of stuff happens I mean but you're not doing anything different you're just there to do a job you're there to create amazing food and follow your passions you happen to have epilepsy and you know one of the

53:03like that isn't shouldn't affect anything but it does do you do you find yourself wanting to be an advocate for everybody I mean for all the people that do you see a lot of people who unfairly get labeled or unfairly have people that gossip or talk about them or treat them differently because of something that's there who they are whether it's sexual orientation race or just if they're a girl I've seen it yeah um and for me obviously I'm a go-getter I'm gonna stand up I'm gonna say I'm not gonna like necessarily like point my finger at them or you know whatever it's I'm gonna effectively communicate to the best of my ability but at some point that person also has to take ownership for what they're going through hundred percent so expand on that how does that person take ownership for what they're going through so you know there's only so much that somebody else can say or do for you but when it comes time you need to be able to stand up for yourself and know how to effectively communicate with the person that is putting you through okay so if there's somebody abusing you or doing something like that you're saying it's healthy to be able to stand up for yourself a lot of people don't have that ability a lot of people fear retribution if they were to say something you know a lot of people don't not so much as like whistleblowers I'm talking about people that then she would fear what would happen how important is it for other people to stand up for some of those people I mean that's the thing that's one of things I've learned so

55:06much is that well I haven't you know well I don't look at anybody and think anything differently of them through all of this I've kind of learned that me not saying something when I hear something or just kind of being like oh they're just saying that I'm not gonna partake in what they're saying but I'm not like actively saying something on behalf of that person so if I'm in a kitchen and somebody says hey why is that guy wearing a helmet instead of just going or hearing them say whispering about it versus you're going oh they're just talking about you know they're just talking about go hey let me tell you guys what's up like do you think it's important to advocate for people to stand up for other people because that's that's how we're gonna really drive change I do I absolutely do I feel like if you stay silent the more detrimental it is rather if you stand up and actually say something I feel like this is my kind of my motto you can judge somebody just like how they treat somebody when they're down so if you can stand up for that person and go to the extent of saying hey that's not right you shouldn't be doing that to him or her and this is why then you're doing something you're not just sitting back and saying oh well that's how it's done here yeah all right well it's all right sorry to get off on that track I just you know I I heard a little bit when you were talking there and I know you were kind of somewhat giving a hypothetical just an example and you kind of used yourself but I could also sense in there that that's something that you've dealt with you know something that's not it wasn't a hypothetical that was a real-life situation and they want to dig too deep into it but I mean I think there's a lesson there and I'm hoping obviously to bring perspective to people for people who hear this that might be going through something similar in their life and for somebody like

57:08yourself who's overcome so much I like to share what goes through your mind so sorry I don't want to get too deep there and get into something I like to share how people overcome individual hurdles so thank you very much for doing that you're welcome I do just want to say for the record that did not none of it happened in a restaurant it just okay in a similar environment that did not like anything other than cookie cutter people gotcha okay for sure all right so let's move on I do you mind if we we move on to kind of we're at the end of our time yeah and there's a couple more things I want to ask you that are kind of petty as far as just what you've been doing and how how things are we've talked about leadership we've talked about you wanting to be a CEO we've talked about all the different aspects of things you could be doing and we've gone in depth what are you actively reading right now in order to to get there crucial conversations crucial conversations fantastic book how far are you done with it are you where are you at there I'm midsection midsection what is the what's your big takeaway so far from that before you speak you need to ask yourself within how am I gonna respond so crucial conversations a really good book for what we just talked about yeah and I think this is the first time that I've ever publicly come out and touch that conversation really yeah Wow well I've been a fan of every crucial conversations like I think it's like ten years ago and you know what helped me because I would get so afraid when I'd

59:09have to have these tough confrontational kind of conversations and through that book I kind of learned that it's okay and how to prepare and what to do and when to have them and I've had to have a bunch of them but it's it's certainly helped me get through that so if you're somebody out there who doesn't like to have tough conversations this is a great book called crucial conversations who's the author again I know what else you got what other what else you're reading um what else am I reading scaling up so I've been reading that book along with several other books along the way okay scaling up and there you didn't crucial conversations written by four people that's why you didn't know Carrie Patterson Joseph Grinney Ron McMillan and Al Switzler yeah you can remember that yeah who's remembering that's why I was like how come the Ford was written by Stephen R Covey which we all know seven habits of highly affected people yes all right any good TV you're watching these days oh you know I've been watching this just absolutely stupid funny show it's called what we do in the shadows what is that about if you think of it as being in another version of the office except with vampires it will be absolutely funny the office with vampires okay in the shadows is that on Netflix FX on Hulu FX on Hulu all right do you like this show the prophet I have not watched it okay I know you need to watch like if you want to be a CEO Marcus Limonis the show is fantastic he takes his own money and he invests in companies and then takes them over and videotapes like records these episodes where he goes in and changes companies

01:01:13it's called the prophet I believe it's on CNBC I have a permanent recording setup on my I have two recording three recording setup always on my we record anything new from the Bachelor because come on everybody out there's other you either just rolled your eyes or you went amen brother and we were I record everything every episode of the prophet and every hockey game every time there's a new hockey game comes on and Colbert so I forced that up so I'll definitely have to look into the prophet yeah you decided as they finish the show I like to ask everybody to to give to the floor is yours what do you want to say to the city of Nashville take your time say whatever you want to say and we'll wrap it up after that you know it's not the destination it's who you become in the end and then I would also like to thank everybody that's listened and thank everybody that's serving our country and protecting our freedom I love it 100 percent amen that's what you got that's what you got today that's what I got today all right well grant Adams thank you so much for coming back you're the first Janet Kurtz was on the show twice but you're the first like guest there I've done a full interview about you that has come on twice and I finish every show and I say I could talk to you for hours I got to have you come back on we got to do this again you're the first one to come on twice man so you got that that distinction yeah well thank you maybe the third time's a charm maybe if it becomes like a global thing that'll be a trivia answers at somewhere on some trivia night who was the first person to be on the show twice it's right man well

01:03:18thank you so much and best of luck to you and thank you again for coming on today thank you so much