Vince Lanni

00:00Running a restaurant is tough. Staff turnover, rising costs, and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love. Let Adams Keegan lighten that load. Their privately held Tennessee-based restaurant and hospitality-focused outsourced HR, payroll, and benefits firm. The team at Adams Keegan removes the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k, and so much more. From their proprietary HRIS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling, they've got you covered. Adams Keegan lets you focus on what you do best, creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest. Essentially, think of Adams Keegan as your back office HR department, right here in Music City. One of the many things I love about Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there, they have an incredibly high standard of customer service. And that's what we all need, is really good customer service in these areas. They don't give you a 1-800 number and make you fill out an IT ticket submission.

01:04They surround every client with a team of experts, all based right here in Tennessee. You can call them today at 615-627-0821, or visit adamskeegan.com. That's A-D-A-M-S-K-E-E-G-A-N.com for your free HR consultation and see how they can create a customized solution to help your restaurant thrive. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service and I am excited to be back in front of a microphone.

02:06It has been a crazy past month for me. You know, I think you're probably like me where you talk to people and you tell them what you do and you say, yeah, you know, I work in restaurants or you know, whatever. And then they go, oh, I hear that's really hard work. And you know, my kind of standard response is, yeah, I guess, you know, but when you know what you've been doing, I've been doing this for 30 years and you kind of know what to expect and what to expect is that you have no idea what to expect. But if you know that going in that shit's just gonna be different every single day, it's kind of what attracts me to it. I got that edge of chaos. I really love it. But man, this last month has really tested me. It's been one of those months where it's just like, can you, I'm gonna tell you this story and you're not even gonna believe it. And if you're one of the people who I've started a conversation off in the last month that way, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not gonna get and air my dirty laundry here on the podcast, but it's been a challenge.

03:12And I know that a lot of you are dealing with that with everything that is just happening. It's go time in the downtown area. It's wedding season. Some people are slow right now, some people are slammed. I think the business has had a big uptick just over the last month. It's been great and love it. But we got through Mother's Day and Easter. We got Father's Day coming and then summer. So lots of good stuff. And that's what this episode today, we're talking with Vince Lanni and Vince is, he's a GM at Greenery Co. And an amazing guy. He also is the owner of Serve Up Strategies. He hosts a podcast called Talking Chocolates. You should check that out. It's really good, very interesting guy. And we get to kind of geek out on just like stuff that we observe in restaurants today. And I love doing that. As you know, if you listen to the show, I love talking to people who are passionate what they do. And that's exactly what Vince is.

04:14I'm really excited because Vince has been helping me with some NARA stuff. I really enjoy working with him and a guy that's as passionate as he is. You get to hear some of that today in this episode. That being said, our next episode is the big NARA episode. The Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. I think we're up to 25 members now and helping people right and left. It's been a ton of fun for all of you people out there. We are working with Sean Lyons at the Germantown Cafe, the Park Cafe, Carrington Row. We've got Rose Pepper on board. NoCo is on board. Pelican and Pig. Slow Hand Bake Shop. My Three Restaurants, the Green Hills Grill, Mayor Bowl. Chagos Cantina. We've just got so many that are in the works coming on right now. TioFun.

05:15Lots of people we are working with. And we're gonna have a website. It's gonna be naranashville.com and when the next episode comes out, you're gonna learn it. We're gonna have t-shirts and we're gonna have all the fun stuff and most importantly, a community of people together. And we're gonna share everything that we can possibly do to help each other. We are local restaurants that are banding together to negotiate better pricing with all of the vendors and to create community. So this is something we've wanted to do in Nashville for a really long time and we're doing it. So here it is. If you wanna learn more, you can send me a message at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio on Instagram or you can wait and you can see the website when it comes out. NARA Nashville, it's N-A-R-A as an acronym for Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. Super duper excited about this. It's been kind of my passion project for a really long time and it's been the number one thing that guests on the show, kind of before or after the interview ends or begins, we talk and I think that's one of the things that people always say is, my job that I have is, I call it a luxury position to have a director of operations who runs three restaurants.

06:30I mean, it's pretty nice to be able to negotiate all the deals and I wanna do that for everybody. So if you have thought, man, I wish I had somebody on my team that looked out for my P&L every day and helped me negotiate better deals, wish we were bigger and we had more buying power. Well, now you're gonna have that. You're gonna have that because I've negotiated exclusive deals with a lot of people and some people that you're currently using that I might be able to get you an even better deal on as a member. So stay tuned because we got lots coming there and I'm really, really excited to really get to work and share this with you guys. But for now, I'm really, really excited about sharing this episode with Vince Lanni. Super excited today to welcome in Vince Lanni and Vince is the general manager at Greenery Co. They're in Hillsborough Village, but so much more.

07:32Welcome Vince. Thanks, good to be here. Yeah, so much more, a little bit more, a little bit more than a GM I like to think, but I just love to help people. You just love to help people. So let's, so you're on my radar because I see- I've gotten somewhere now. Well, no, I mean, like it's, I've seen, I see you're on Instagram. Yeah. I see you. You've been in, we've done an episode before. We did do an episode before, yeah. Like a year and a half ago, maybe longer. We talked about downtown and our sales, but it was like a, it was several, it was three other people also in on the interview. Yeah, like a panel. It was kind of like a panel, but we, when kind of was sitting down, we were like, it just wasn't the thing we wanted to put out. It just didn't materialize, but I really enjoyed our conversation throughout that. And it kind of, I've been watching and seeing all of your stuff on social media. And I thought, I want to learn more about what Vince Lanni is doing. And we recently talked briefly about NARA and some other different things.

08:34And so I said, come in, let's do an interview. So I have no idea where this interview is going to go. Yeah, why not? But let's just hop in. I think there's good content here that people will want to hear if they're in the industry. And if you're not in the industry, this will be inside baseball and maybe you turn it off already. I don't know, but glad to have you here. Thank you. As I always say, give me like the 90 second elevator pitch. Tell me your story. Oh, my story. Where do you come from? What do you do? I come from Philadelphia, home of the Superbowl champions. Always got to plug that in there. Eagles fly. That's right, that's right. I'm not an Eagles fan. I just know that's what they say in Philadelphia before they burn their own city. Yeah, we pretty much beat it into everyone that we can. Yeah. Be very proud. I moved here in 2012 after college and I fell in love with the hospitality industry. Where'd you go to college? Newman University. It's a small school outside of Philadelphia. In 2012, you moved here, so you're 13 years in. Yes, 13 years in.

09:34Math working, right? Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. I'll be 13 in August, I guess. I've done a little bouncing around in between. I worked for Tin Roof for a little while, so I moved to Charlotte to run their location. They used to be in Charlotte in 2016, and then I ended up moving back to Philly for a year, which coincidentally was the other year that the Eagles won the Superbowl. So I got to be in Philly for that. That's pretty cool. And then I was running a restaurant up there in Jaggetown, PA, and then I got the call that they were opening all these big artist bars here in Nashville, a restaurant group that I used to work with, and they were like, we need good managers. How about you come back and help us out? And I was like, yeah, sounds good. They gave me a good offer. I already had a house here, so all I had to do is tell my buddy that I was renting it that I'm coming back, and you got 30 days to find something, whatever, and it was an easy move. So I'm gonna go back a little bit. Thank you, that was a good 90 second. That was good. I'll just keep it quick. It's perfect now, I've got lots of questions. You leave college. What year did you graduate? 2011.

10:352011, and immediately let's jump into the hospitality industry. Did you wait tables throughout? I'm in real estate at the time, and imagine this. You remember 2008 to 2011-ish, right? Terrible time. Terrible time. I'm a, what, 22? How old are you in graduate college, like 22? I'm a kid, for lack of a better term, and no one wants to buy a house from me with no experience. I don't have a house myself in that kind of a market. I just had no shot, you know? Very difficult market to sell a house. I probably could've joined a team or something with a little more support, but I was never into that. I wanted to kind of, the entrepreneurial way of like do it all myself kind of thing. My dad was an entrepreneur, yada yada. I ended up just figuring, you know what? I have enough money to move to Nashville for three months without a job, and just have a good three months. That market's waiting for me when I come back. I'm not gonna miss anything, right? And come back home and figure it out. Well, three months turned into six. And they used to do- When you got here, where did you work?

11:36Like, what did you do for, did you just play or did you actually find a job? No, I was that guy that, well, I got an apartment downtown for a three-month lease, which like, they used to do this stuff. I got a three, six, nine, 12-month lease. I got a three-month lease. I walked up and down Broadway. I started at Legends Corner, and I walked all the way down. You know, hung a ride at a- First step, second- And coming back up, I go into Tequila Cowboy, and they didn't open until like three o'clock, I think, back then. So I'm that asshole that walks in at like 2.30, and everyone's like, we're closed, get out of here, kind of thing. And I'm like, oh, I'm just looking for a job, you know? And they're like, all right, sit down over here. And I start interviewing, no experience in the industry. So I'm just like, I could be a bar back. I work hard. Whatever. Just need a job. Yeah, I just need a job. Something to do, something to meet people and have fun. Just for everybody who's listening and doesn't know what Tequila Cowboy is, that is what Aldean's- I'm dating myself now, yeah. Jason Aldean's place downtown, the big Aldean's place, used to be called Tequila Cowboy.

12:41Before that, it was like the NASCAR Cafe, and- Red Iguana. There was a bunch of things. Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch, that's the one I was thinking of. There was a lot of things that were there, and now it is Jason Aldean's. But this is back in the day, it was Tequila Cowboy. Still the TC Group owns it. Yeah, and the first floor is still Tequila Cowboy. Oh, is it? Yeah. Okay. Jason Aldean starts on what is the second floor. I just dated my- I've never been there. I've never been to Jason Aldean's. I went to Tequila Cowboy once, I think, but I don't know. But I remember it being- There's a big sign out front that said Tequila Cowboy. So the bottom floor is still Tequila Cowboy? Yeah, as far as I know. When I was there, it still was. I don't know if they changed that in the last few years, but- All right, well, that's just a little- So you were there, you- Keep going, sorry. Yeah, no worries. So, and look, I think I have a bar back sounds cool, right? And the woman interviewing me goes, now you're gonna be a server. And I was like, oh, I don't know. That seems like uncharted territory. I don't know about that.

13:42Yeah, and she goes, you got a great smile, great personality, you're gonna be a server, you'll be just fine. And I'm like, okay. And we had a lot of fun, it was great. I fell in love with it. I learned so much in that first job. We washed our own dishes, cause the dishwasher quit or something, like my first week. So you're expoing your own food, you're running your own food, you're running your own drinks, you're waiting your tables, you're not getting sat by a host as to just kind of sit wherever. So you get like double, triple, quadruple sat all the time down there. You bust your own tables, you bring it back, you throw them in the dish thing, close the lid, go back, grab food. I just learned how to be so efficient. And then after that, everything just got easier. Yeah, I can imagine. Wow though, I mean, to want to stay, that seems like that's not a team atmosphere. Like it's just a free for all, do your own thing. How do they, what is your guest experience like when you're having, if you're the server and you're washing your own dishes, you're not really spending that time attending to people, do they?

14:47Well, the music helps a lot. So like it's different than a normal restaurant. You get that kind of built in like, you know when you sit down somewhere and if you're not greeted in the first 30 seconds, you start to get irritated, then every 30 seconds after that feels like 10 minutes. It's not like that down there. The bands help. We're just kind of there. The people can sit there. Sometimes people just really wanted to sit there and then like that's the challenge in itself too. They're like, oh, I got to turn this table. Hey, you're taking up real estate for me. Right. But I don't know. I always just had a great time with it and I felt like they're just here to have fun. Yeah. So all I really have to do is not screw that up from a service perspective and a restaurant perspective in general. And I just found that to be so easy. I'm like, all right, this is what they're here for. Like, I'm just going to show them a good time. What did, okay. So that all makes sense. It doesn't make sense. What had the, when you started working downtown, because I've never worked downtown. Oh, wow.

15:47I got a job with a melting pot when I was like 18. I never showed up for it because a buddy of mine started the day before me. He's like, we cut limes for four hours. And I was like, yeah, I'm not doing that. And that's as close as I got to working downtown. It's a completely different animal. So I'm really curious as to like how some of that works. I'm a suburban guy, you know, like I've just always had restaurants that were not in that insane. In 2012, was it as crazy as it is today? Yes and no. Less competition. Less competition, I guess. We'd have our, yeah. I mean, the same seasonality year slows, but I found in the summer now, it's a little slower than it used to be back then. Back then we used to rock from March through, you know, through football season. But now I feel like there's kind of that dip in the summertime when it's really hot in like July as well. But, and yeah, it was just, it was busy. It was, it was crazy. How do you keep it up? I mean, cause it's, and it's a long shift. Why didn't know anything different? This is my first job, you know?

16:48That's a good point. So like, I'm not coming from- What time do you get home at night or in the morning? Shoot. Well, here's the other thing too. And something I've kind of carried with me through most of my career, but I mean, I didn't know anyone when I moved here. I was just a single dude, you know, moved to Nashville, no friends. Like I'm meeting people I work with. So like work to me was a social event itself. So I didn't mind being there. And see, I think that's something a lot of people in leadership roles don't understand. Yeah. Sometimes that is a social thing for people. Like they like coming to work. I think that there's a perception that like, it's hard to get people to come work. Some people, it is their oasis. Yeah. And if your culture is, is positive and it's like, you want to be there. Like I always say, your culture is defined by how your employees feel when they're on their way to work. Are they, are they like, here we go. Like, I got another shift. Or they like, I get to go to work. Yeah. If you're like, oh my God, like this is going to be a great day. I'm going to make so much money. And I'm going to, you know, my friends are there. And like. And you also have to define that by the majority of people.

17:49Right. There's people out there that does not matter what job they go to. They get in their car and they're like, oh, I hate this. Yeah. They have another set of problems. If one person is like that, you can't judge your entire restaurant by that. Right. Right. That's the thing. The majority. Yeah. So you learn at a wait tables. You love the industry. What'd you do next? How did you transition out of that? Or did you get promoted? Like, what's the story? I actually, so I mentioned that I was like, going to be there for three months and then leave. I ended up pushing that back, pushing it back. And then fast forward about a year and I was actually going to leave. I, I put in my two weeks, everything. I was moving back to Philly. And then I decided not to. I had like one of those like late night conversations with a few, with a few beers with a friend. And he's like, man, you're not ready to leave. Like you didn't do what you came here to do. I got it. It was really very uplifting moment for me that I don't remember at 2 a.m. But. I never had one of those. Yeah. I was like, you know what? I'm actually not going to leave.

18:50I want to stay. And I was like, but there's a lot of things that like, and I don't really know this industry that well, but there's a lot of things that don't make sense to me. And that I think should like improve as far as communication and leadership and stuff like that. And they were like, cool. They created a server manager position for me so that I could be like the liaison between the kitchen and servers and manage front of house and stuff. And then helped them open Luigi's on third. Like a key hourly kind of a thing. Yeah. Kind of that. I wrote the schedule and stuff like that. And then, you know, fast forward to 10 roof, open up on Broadway. And I was a regular at the mummering for a long time. And I said, I talked to Morgan. I said, hey, you're probably going to need like what? 16 bartenders for there. How about I be one of them? I've been beating down your door for years, you know? And he's like, all right, fine. Come on. So he brought me in and then I flew up in 10 roof real quick because we had a GM that left after like nine months. So opportunity there. And then I really found my, when I went to Charlotte, I'll be honest, I tanked as a GM in Charlotte. The location tanked in general, but I just did not, I didn't, I mean, I was 24.

19:55My first GM job. You know, I had a lot to learn. And I did. I took that one on the chin and I went back to Philly. What did you learn from that experience? Like you say that you didn't have the experience. Like when you go back to Philly, what from your mistakes or whatever you said, like what did you learn? What's the biggest impactful thing? The biggest thing that I learned was that I need to be there for my team. Like it's not my show, it's their show. They don't work for me, I work for them. My whole leadership perspective shifted from being like the friend, the manager, like to being like, hey, we have something to do. We have a clear mission and we have a clear vision. We need to stick to it. We can have an absolute great time doing it. You know, let's have fun. But I had to be fun, firm and fair for everybody. And I can't be the friend. I can't be, you know, you can't people please. Did you do that too much in Charlotte? You were trying to be the everybody's buddy and not holding people accountable. Trying to navigate, you know, your first, first role kind of in that first big role.

20:58Cause when I moved up to AGM in Nashville, like on Broadway, and first off, it was easy. You open the doors and we're full and you just have to run the shift. It's like, I call like the Green Hills Grills. Like it's a 2022 Honda Accord. You come in, push the button. It works. It starts and it runs for hours. Yeah, that's how, that's how Broadway is and was back then for sure. Different market in Charlotte. More of like your neighbor, you know, you got to figure out ways to get people in the door. And I didn't, I didn't know, I didn't, I couldn't do that. Why are the doors not just blowing off the, like this, where is everybody? I'm like, what do you mean? There's a band on stage. Like, why isn't there people in here? It doesn't make sense, right? So I moved back to Philly and I learned, I got more kitchen experience in Philly and that helped me out a lot as well. Learned so much more. I learned, I took every mistake I made in Charlotte, corrected it and I realized actually how much easier it was to do all the right things leadership wise, hold people accountable, how much easier it is to be proactive and not let things slide and everything like that.

22:07And I was like, wow, this is, this is killer. Then I come back to Nashville to open the artist bars for TC group and it just kept getting easier. Everywhere I went, it just kept getting easier to get people to follow for lack of a better term or to just, you know, believe in what I'm trying to do. They appreciated me, they respected me, they trusted me and those were the key things that I felt like really made me like a sought after GM because I never had to apply for another job again. I always got recruited. Wow. And so, it's really fascinating. I had this conversation with my son the other day and I said, what the most powerful word, because there was a guy, he goes, that guy's like, there was a guy in a Bentley and he goes, oh, he's old. And I went, yeah, typically older people have a lot more money. And I go, do you know why that is? And he said, no, I said one word to escalate that is curiosity.

23:13I go, throughout our lives, we continue to learn. We have more knowledge and then if you have more knowledge than somebody else in something, then they might pay you to teach them that knowledge. But at your age, a level of curiosity in everything, just insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge, thirst to make mistakes and continue to learn from those mistakes will get you that Bentley faster than you won't be that old driving that Bentley. You could do it sooner. And he was like, I thought you said it was preparation. That's his joke. And I said, that's another big part of it. But again, as you continue to go through these things, you keep learning more and more about the industry. You keep making mistakes and then, and you don't stop. And you don't stop. You don't give up and you don't say, I've learned it all. All right, now I'm the perfect GM now. I think that if you, when you think you got it all or you think your way is the way, you're toast. You're toast. The industry is always changing. I mean, you see it.

24:16If you're not evolving and adapting, you're gonna become extinct. There's so many differences in the workforce, what people demand out of leadership, the quote unquote soft skills, that it used to just be come in and work hard and we'll pay you and that's it. But now there's so much more. There is so much more. I wanna talk about some of those things. I wanna talk about some of the soft skills and some of that stuff. But I'm still in your story. Sorry, and we keep taking. Well, I love that you mentioned the curiosity and self-improvement too, because I actually was just talking about this yesterday, how that is such an important part of leadership and problem solving, being proactive. You really need to be curious, attack problems as if they're puzzles. It's like a game. It's like, oh, this is a fun thing to figure out. Don't be afraid of the challenge. I think that's where you get the confidence that you can figure anything out. You don't have to have done it before, seen it before.

25:18And as far as in my consulting, I'm not sharing my knowledge and that being it. I mean, I'm genuinely, like you said, curious. I'm genuinely interested in helping them solve the problem, helping them face the challenges, helping them find the solutions. I'm not gonna just sit there and tell you I know it all and share my information with you. That's only gonna get you so far, because I only know so much. What's the give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man a fish, feed him for life? Exactly, and we might learn together. I might learn it and teach it while we're doing it. We might do it together. And that's okay. So you also host a podcast. I do. Tell me about your podcast. My podcast. So I love chocolate. I have such a sweet tooth, it's so bad. And I had this idea years ago for a podcast called Talking Chocolates. Love the name. And the name came from, I was back in my tequila cowboy days. We were shooting a video for Charlie Daniels for Monday Night Football promo. Nice. It was like Peyton went down to Georgia and he's playing Devlin down to Georgia and the fiddle, the whole thing.

26:21I show up for work and we're like, oh, we're not actually gonna open for another couple hours, but you have to be an extra in the video. I'm like, cool, whatever. Charlie Daniels, obviously he's sitting over here on the other side of the room. Me and the servers are sitting over here. We have no business talking to Charlie Daniels. One of my friends decides, why not? Goes over, sits down. There's a bowl of M&Ms on the table and they're eating them and talking about chocolate. And he comes over and we're like, dude, what were you doing with Charlie Daniels? And he goes, we were just talking chocolates. And I mean, this was like 13 years ago. That name stuck with me and I love that. I thought I was sitting catching. Talking chocolates. So I thought of, you know how there's that Hot Wings podcast that they eat the wings and I was like, why don't we just eat chocolate and talk about normal shit, like our lives and the business and stuff like that, but. Just with anybody though. It's not just necessarily hospitality focus. You could be talking to anybody. I've had reality TV people on there and musicians and it doesn't matter. There's usually some kind of connection to the industry in a way.

27:24But I mean, not necessarily and doesn't need to be. I've kind of, you know, we talked to a lot of restaurant people on this show, but I don't care. If you're, I had the chief of police on Tuesday night. Tuesday night I have a stay now with the chief of police. Like what, everybody has a connection in the hospitality industry. He wants to be, he wants to go to culinary school and he wants to learn cooking to take his mind off the stresses of being the chief of police of Nashville. And his story is told in there. And I'm like, wow, it can always come back to a restaurant or the restaurant because everybody has an interest in that. I mean, at the very least they, they go out to eat, right? Yeah. Like they can provide insights from a guest perspective. A hundred percent. And I'm like, that's Montel Jordan in here. He said, I want to do a reality show called this is how we chew it, where we go into different places. Oh, I like that. You know, he wants to do this. So it's like, there's a connection. You can talk to anybody. I mean, on any show about anything, I tend to lean more towards industry adjacent people, but sometimes like, fuck it. Let's bring whoever we want on. That's what I do too. And I'm actually, I'm actually going to start veering away from that because we're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors.

28:30Very excited to be partnering with C and B linen. If you know me, it's my number one topic of conversation is linen companies and how shady linen companies can be. I am just disgusted with how the business practices work in this industry, which is why I was so excited when I found C and B linen. They're out of Waynesboro, Tennessee, and they don't charge any fees. So the linen price that you have, whatever that first linen price is, that's your price. And so you may say, well, every year they must raise the price on this seven year contract, right? No, because they don't do any contracts. There's no gas fees. There's no clean green service fees. There's no replacement cost. There's nothing. The only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product. I know it's too good to be true. No contracts. They do formats. They'll make custom formats for you. They do fresh linens, cleaning supplies.

29:33And guys, I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate. It is state of the art. I'm going to post pictures on my Instagram. You can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts. It's just absolutely amazing. If you're looking for a linen company you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week, go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz, the owner of CMB Linen. Hear it from his, straight from his mouth, exactly what they do. Or you give them a call at 931722-7616, or you can DM me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. Sharp Yeas Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986. Yes, next year will be 40 years. They providing high quality, fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities.

30:39Their bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors. They're right off of White Bridge Road. Erin Moser and her team have been doing this for a long time. And you know what I love about them is that they're local and they care. They care about your business. That's like the number one thing you're gonna hear me talk about is, do they care about your business? And I 100% believe that they do. If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business, give them a call. 615-356-0872. That's 615-356-0872. Now you can always visit them at sharpyeas.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you and contact information. Go check them out, Sharp Yeas Bakery. Y'all today we are talking as always about SuperSource. And you know one cool thing about SuperSource is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility?

31:45They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility clean, bright, and smelling and feeling new. This is just one of the many reasons SuperSource is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals. You need to call Jason Ellis. His number is 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with SuperSource, 770-337-1143. You have the, you know, it's in your name, Nashville Restaurant Radio. Yes, I can't move away from that. For me, it's not. It could really be anything. And it would honestly maybe even be surprising to people to hear it would always be restaurant stuff.

32:45So that was something that I started kinda doing whatever. Then I started finding just restaurant people for a little while. And then now I'm coming in and I'm like, you know what, I'm not gonna do that anymore. I just wanna have good conversations with people and you know, what can I learn from them? What entertainment can they bring? Let's just have a good time and try to learn something about them and share it. Doing podcasts is probably my favorite thing I do all week, work-wise. Like I love my job and everything, I really do. But nothing like sitting in a room with somebody having a conversation where headphones are on, microphone's on, you're in a quiet room and you're locked into a conversation talking about the thing you're passionate about. Like that's where I feel like most alive. You know you're recording, you're in here right now, this moment, you're just talking like, I love it. And nothing, you know, it really brings like the authenticity back to a conversation. It does.

33:45Like neither of us checked our phones. Yeah. Well, I checked it a minute ago, but I did. I did check it, but it was an important email that I had to click yes on. Yeah, but typically, you know, we're not like distracted. Like you said, we're in a quiet room, we're just talking to each other. There might be like other people if you do multiple people, but that's it. I find it's like cathartic. You get done with a conversation with somebody and you both just kind of go, wow, that was really fun. Like there's, my old co-host Jen Ichikawa, she goes, you fall in love with every guest. She goes, every guest leaves here and you go, I just love that guy, I just love that guy. They're amazing, I really enjoy that. She's like, you just love connecting with people on a genuine level. She was, I think that's why you're good at this. And I was like, you know, but thank you. Like, but it's true. Every time somebody leaves here, every episode I go, I am so excited to put this episode out. I really am, because I really genuinely feel like I just love these conversations. And that's, I mean, that's a great takeaway for leadership and hospitality too.

34:49Like that's the way you have to interact with your team, whether it's your management team or your front of house team, whatever, you know, your back of house team, like genuinely enjoy the conversations, like get to know these people, like enjoy it. You can, we have this thing where I have the managers meet everybody outside in the morning. So I have the managers literally stand at the back door, the servers that get there at 10 a.m. Right, so I have them out there at 9.45 till everybody arrives. Oh, just like greet them as they come in. Like church. And I said, every morning we have like, I have a game day, I attribute to like football. So I say pregame is 8.30, you come in, you have a checklist, you walk through the entire building, you check this, you check that. You take notes of anything that you see, and then you go do paperwork, and then you come back down, you check open table, you're looking for VIPs, you're making notes where who's gonna go where, your placement. 9.45, you're standing out back. And when people arrive, I want you to stand there and greet them and say, good morning.

35:54Thank you for being here. Hey, how you doing? Hey, good morning. I can just greet people as they arrive for two reasons. One is, they all know you're standing at the back door every morning, and if they show up, if you show up at 10.03, there's a manager standing at the back door. Yes, there's that piece. But the other piece is, if my dog gets hit by a car this morning, and I'm sad, and I'm coming into work anyway, because I gotta work my shift, and I show up at 9.50 and I've got tears in my eyes, I see that immediately. I can connect with people immediately and say, hey, how you doing? Oh my God, what's wrong? Or somebody's just sick, and they look sick, and they feel terrible, and you're like, oh my God, you think you have the flu? Well, why don't you hang out back here? Let me make sure everybody shows up. But I mean, yeah, go home, I see you. That's not it. Or versus just sitting in the office and strolling into the restaurant at 10.30. All right, guys, we'll line up at 15. Let's go. Hey, you might wanna go check on Janie. She's been in the bathroom crying. Like, now I gotta scramble, I gotta go in, I gotta figure this stuff out.

36:58She's already came in, told everybody in the restaurant that her dog got hit by a car, everybody's sad, and now it's like- You're the last one to know. You're the last one to know, and now you gotta figure out a solution. Like, if you stand out there and greet everybody, first of all, you get to greet them and tell them good morning, and we're so excited you're here, and you can check in with everybody. A quick five, 10 second, how's everything going today? Good, hey man, come inside, I'm excited to have you here. I love the quick verbiage that you did there. You said that you get to greet everyone, they come in, like, you don't have to do it. That's like the joy of the leadership role is the responsibility that we have to our team. I do it because, I mean, I never, I still don't, but I don't have a family, you know, I don't have kids or anything like that. I was like, oh. I treat the rest, yeah, I have parents and whatnot. They're great, they're great. You didn't mention you were an orphan. I was like, come on. To me, it was like, these people are in my care. Yeah, 100%. They're not in my command, they're in my care. And I'm, this is like the role of a leader that I've kind of fallen into, but been called into in a way.

38:05Like, I've always felt this, that like I loved, like I mentioned right off the bat when we started here, I love to help people. And to me, that's all that it is to be a manager at a restaurant is, and not all that it is, but like the joy that it is, is that I just get to help these folks. Spirit of service. Whatever this time in their life is, whatever season of their life they're in, they're all different, right? And yeah, it's this service, like I work for them. Well, it's all impact. I mean, you start off because you have a spirit of service and you go into a restaurant and then you find that pirate ship of people that are like you and it's fun and you get to take somebody who's in Nashville, bring them drinks and help them have that experience and you go, wow, that was really cool. Yeah. And as that kind of, you kind of do that, you want more. You get curious around, ooh, what's more? Yeah. And then you move up into leadership and it's the same thing, but you're now just doing that for your people. And it's like, you keep scaling that to a different degree, keep going up and up and up to where you, like right now I'm working with restaurant owners and GMs and helping them operationally and I'm helping them negotiate vendor contracts.

39:13And it's like, I'm not just helping Janie and Joe have a great time in Nashville now, now I'm helping facilitate full on restaurants being more profitable and that trickles down. It's what's next, a whole city, a whole, you just got to keep scaling it up, but it's the same thing. It is and I completely agree. That's kind of why, that's what called me into more of like the consulting realm now. I'm like, how high can I go? Like I've been a GM, you know, how many places? Like, what else am I going to do? I can only help people within the four walls of this building. And you owned a restaurant too, right? I did own, yeah, it was called a Hungry Bear in Murfreesboro, a little fast casual Philly cheesesteak place. You went out on the left field with that one, didn't you? Yeah, we were building out in 2019 and then, you know, we had a rough couple of years, MTSU was closed for like two years and I'm like, well, we opened a business in a college town and there's no one. Pandemic. Right across the street from that football stadium they got there, no fans at the games for like the years we were open.

40:14It was just like, ah, it's just, if I had enough capital, if I had enough capital, I'd have five locations by now, I'd be fine. I trust in that, but I didn't have the capital. So hadn't paid my mortgage in seven months. Like at a certain point, you got to make a decision on, is this, am I committing to this? Or can I reset, draw up a new playbook, get back out there and help people? So that's what I did. And that's no fault. I mean, it's a pandemic. It's a tough time. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I don't like to use it as an excuse because like I said, I know that I could have done it. I could have made it work. I could have worked harder. Like there's all these things you could have done. I could have sold my house and like rented something cheap and like gotten it to work and been that story of, yeah, this guy lived in this car and now he's got this franchise chain, but it wasn't worth it to me to do all that. You didn't want to do that. Okay, well, I mean, that's a decision you make in that scenario. Yeah.

41:14What did you learn from that experience? Don't open a restaurant. Don't open a restaurant. Right before a global pandemic that closes the world. I think what I learned most was what I'm capable of. Not so much, I mean, sure I learned a lot like from owning a restaurant and like the intricacies in that, but more what I'm capable of. I mean, I was working 12 hours a day every day at my restaurant, but then like I said, I'm not making any money. So I'm bartending downtown. I'm waiting tables at, you know, corner pub. I'm doing security at 10 roof. I'm like, I'm working 16 to 18 hours a day every day, except for I think 30 in a year and a half. And that was kind of like the, okay. But now everything like, all right, I did that. So now everything else is just easier. Like in my way of thinking, I'm like, when I feel like I'm having a hard day, I'm like, all right, this is nothing.

42:17Like get over it. Like don't, you know, don't sulk in like the tough day you're having. Well, okay, so there's two theories there. One is get over it, deal with it. When you, it's all, and that's all perspective as well. 100%. I mean, if you're lifting weights and you constantly lift 150 pounds, when you lift 100 pounds, seems pretty easy. But if I lift 50 pounds, trying to lift 100 pounds, it's all perspective. It's just, it's a perspective piece. But we just did this podcast today with my business coach. She talked about feeling your feelings. And when you work that much and you have a down day, it's okay to feel that down for a minute. Like you don't have to just push it down and go, ah, better days are coming, I can do it. Like it's okay just to be like, ah, today was a really hard day. It's a really tough shit happened today. And that's the thing I've learned the most in the past year and a half is the pause, right?

43:18Because when you just tell yourself that that didn't mean anything, you just stuff it down. You just stuff it down. And eventually it all has to come out. Emotions are like anything. If you eat food, eventually that food has to go somewhere. Emotions are the same way. You have to either cry or you have to scream or some way, you have to let those emotions out. You have to feel them all the way through or else they just pile up inside of you. And that's the part that I always did. When I stopped drinking and I really got into a lot of things, but over the last year, feel your feelings all the way through. It's okay to have feelings. And I think that there's an epidemic in our industry of just suck it up and get over it. And there's moments to suck it up and get over it. When you're three deep behind the bar and well, that guy was rude to me. Suck it up and get over it. You gotta keep moving. That can't be the thing, but it's okay to process that stuff. I'm not saying you don't. I completely agree.

44:19But it's that pause to take the deep breath and to go, all right, three deep breaths. I'm just gonna reset. And it's regulating those emotions. I think it's not something I'm good at or have been good at. I definitely, that's something that I definitely think everyone can continue to improve on. It's like a process, right? And some days you're not gonna be able to do that. And you, like you said, have to deal with, okay, I can't regulate this today. Like I'm not, I only have 40% to give. I'm gonna give that, you know? And that's all you could do. And that's okay too. That's okay. And that's okay too. That's okay too. And that's, you mentioned the soft skills on leadership. I mean, those are the soft skills that we need to be more aware of and not just telling people to suck it up and work, you know? Be understanding of them. It's been a while since I've done this or talked about this, but I feel like a shift is trauma. Like the highs and lows of what happens during a shift. I mean, it's not trauma like the chief of police trauma.

45:19But going from, hey, good morning. How we doing? And cutting lemons and filling ice and setting up tables to, I need you to run food on this. It goes from this nice, peaceful, to crazy heightened sense of moving fast to, okay, we're done. Yeah, you get to exhale. You get to exhale. And it's like, you yelled at me 10 minutes ago. The chef told me I was worthless and my food didn't come out and it was my fault. And then the guest yelled at me and told me, and it's like, those are all things that like, and we wonder why in our industry, there's such an issue with alcohol and drug abuse. And it's like, because we don't, the end of the day, you go suck it up and go drink a beer. And that doesn't solve any of the shit you just dealt with. And we don't have that, oftentimes in leadership, that curiosity or that self-improvement factor to be like, okay, that was a tough shift. So-and-so broke down and cried in the walk-in, right?

46:21Like, you're yelling at these people, this ticket and that, this and that. And it's like, how can we improve that moving forward? What can I do as a manager to soften those blows to my team during those times? Like, we need to be more supportive to them during these times so that stuff doesn't happen as often. I think that we, it's not an official policy. It's kind of an unwritten rule, but like the don't leave angry policy. Don't leave the restaurant angry. Address whatever happened before you leave because it's like, don't go to bed angry with your spouse or something. I know, that's exactly what I was thinking of because someone said that at my brother's wedding in like the best man's speech. That's all I could think of right there. Yeah, don't leave the restaurant angry. Like, before you leave, figure that shit out. Go sit down with someone and say, hey, I'm feeling angry right now because something happened during the shift and I want to address it. Yeah. What manager wouldn't go, oh my God, tell me about it. It wasn't my intention. I'd love to hear more about how you're feeling and tell me, yeah, when you did this, like, oh wow, I'm so sorry.

47:26Like that's, hey, next time I'll be more aware that that's something that might trigger you or that this happened. I mean, we do things when you're at your absolute heightened sense of everything that's, there's a sense of urgency. There's this turbo boost that's happening inside of you. Yeah, the adrenaline. It's adrenaline and it's a dopamine high and you're going, you're going, going. I just had this guy at the front door, tell me that I'm a piece of shit and this and this and he wants my fucking table. And you were standing there on your phone and I needed the table to be bused. So I said, hey, get off your fucking phone and go do the table. And it's like, I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't. Yeah. But in that moment, I mean, but we've got to talk about that stuff. I would never say that by the way, in the middle of it. And I've never. I believe you. Said, go get you off your. But there probably are situations that that is happening. That was a hypothetical, but I mean, like that happens. And that's, I think what people were like, man, that guy's nasty. Like it was in a, like don't leave without addressing. Yeah. And I'll take that one further too. Like, you know, you mentioned that the, the employee come to the manager and mentioned that.

48:28I think the manager could be like, could recognize what they did in that moment and be like, I need to address this later. Oh, 100%. And then before that person clocks out, you're like, hey, let's chat real quick. I want to, I want to apologize for this. Or like, I want to know how I can be more supportive of you when you need help. Like, how do you like to be supervised? How do you like to receive criticism or feedback? And I think these are like the sauce. So this is the shit they don't teach you when you are training to be a manager. That's so good. You learn how to do checkouts and inventory and like whatever, you know, right? All the other little things that you need to know, but no one teaches you the, how to have a constructive conversation with somebody, how to not let it. Swallow your pride. Yeah, swallow your pride, right? It's not an ego thing. How to get, you know, someone who, like it might be an issue or it might be like a, they might leave angry and that's it. But like that festers over time and builds up. And like, then you're going to have a bigger problem down the road and just take care of it in the moment. Be proactive.

49:30It's so much easier than being reactive. Oh, there's such a hurry to get the hell out of the door. You know, I'm the first cut manager I want to leave. And next thing you know, it's like, hey, you didn't address these four things. You're so quick to run out there. You could have stayed five minutes and saved two employees and now are jaded. And the next time they work and they see you're the manager, they're driving into work, feeling that way that we discussed earlier. They're going, I gotta go in. I gotta work with that asshole. But like a two minute conversation before they left that night, they're driving work going, you know what, I used to not like him, but I really, I feel like we connected that night. There's opportunities for connection everywhere if you want them. Or if you want to get the hell out of there and just leave all that stuff hanging. I think that's, what's a good manager? What's a bad manager? It's those soft skills. It's the care. I care that everybody here feels, and we call it emotional tranquility. Okay. Freedom from emotional stress. The fear of criticism is greater. The fear of the criticism of failure is greater than the fear of, or than the actual failure itself.

50:36Yeah. Does that make sense? It does. And I mean, let's take this back to what I said way earlier. The guests are just coming in to have a good time. This shouldn't be that serious. It shouldn't be that big of an, these big issues shouldn't really exist, right? Let's just have a good time and get the job done. It's food. We're just selling food and drinks, and depending on the bar, maybe an entertainment atmosphere, but let's not take it too seriously. We have an elevator at Maribor. Oh yeah? And when somebody's blown, or they're burning, and they're at that moment, go, hey, can I talk to you for a second real quick? And I pull them in the elevator and I go, all right, because it's the only place in the restaurant that nobody's in and it's quiet. And I'll hit the little button to hold the door and I'll go, tell me what's going on. It's okay. Do you need to scream? Do you need to yell? Tell me what you've got going on right now. Let's take a couple of deep breaths together. And then I always finish, I go, hey, at the end of the day, it's just food, okay?

51:36Nobody's gonna die. Yeah. This isn't, you're not in an OR somewhere. You're not a first responder. This is a filet. Yeah. It wasn't cooked right twice. It happens. It's okay. Whatever this person says doesn't make it true. Yeah, let them. Like that whole let them do you, however they need to do it. You're a great person. I know your soul, you're great. We're gonna go back in there. I'm gonna go talk to them. You're gonna go do this. We got this. And it's like this little pep talk you can do, but it's in a little isolated. It's almost like being in here. Like there's no distractions. Nobody sees you have the conversation. That's another big one. Criticize in private, praise in public, right? Yes, absolutely. So basic. Never criticize someone in public when it can be done in private. I see this happens so much where people will criticize somebody and a manager will criticize somebody or call somebody out in front of a bunch of people to create shame or whatever it might be. And it's like, hey, don't do that. That's the fastest way I think to lose it.

52:37Who's that for? Who's that in service of, right? Your own ego. Exactly. Look at me, I'm the boss. I will shame you if you don't do what I say. Anyone else who ever hears this isn't gonna dare do that again. That's not leadership. Yeah, you're gonna lose so much turnover, sales. People aren't gonna be happy to be there. They're not gonna be as productive. They're not gonna be as well. If you have turnover, you're not gonna be as well trained in every area that you need them to be. It's just, people don't realize, I think, the value that these soft skills and this leadership stuff really has on the bottom line of a business. Because it takes so, it's not very tangible on this to that, number-wise. We can pick through an order guide and find ways to save places money. But that's a quick win. But they don't see that long road, that building staff retention and guest retention on top of that is the real win to create lifetime value for each customer.

53:39See, so what I do, consulting-wise, I love talking, that's too much for me to get into the operations and the nuts and bolts of a culture. For me, it just takes too much time. For me to come in and we can recognize that stuff really quickly. And I'm happy to have that conversation with people where I'm discussing, but I can walk in and go, you're using six different vendors. Let's streamline that. I can do this. I can do it fairly quickly. I can sit down with you and identify how to lower three to four points off your P&L, just on your costs alone. I can do that. Sounds like you really can come in and identify, when you do consulting, you can see these soft skills. Do you teach these to restaurants? Yeah, so I do. I do, and I do coaching calls or sit in on manager meetings and I'll help. I listen to what they're talking about, what they're saying at their meetings and how they're perceiving every challenge.

54:40And then you can tell what they're doing in turn. Are they practicing these soft skills or are they just complaining about it? They're complaining about their team, they're complaining about this, and I'm like, all right, well, it sounds like they're asking for help. They just don't know how to ask for help. What are you doing? Interesting. And really getting them to think of, all right, there's two questions I always ask myself when I manage a place. It's how can I help my team? How can I add value to my team? And what can I do to generate sales? Those are the two top of mind questions every day. But those are, that is the best thing I've heard from somebody in a long time. Both the way that you phrase those questions, you put yourself as the focal point for how I, you empower yourself. Saying what you just now said out loud is empowering. I feel empowered to go in and do those things. Say those two things again. How can I add value to my team today? And what can I do to generate sales? How come nobody adds value to this team but me? Why aren't they generating more sales?

55:44That's the two questions most people ask. Yes. And that makes you feel like a victim, and everybody else is wrong. That's probably what the assistant manager, well, how come you're not doing this? How come they don't? They is the key word there. Right. And you go, put yourself into the solution. What can I do to generate more sales today? And start there. Because then you're empowered to go, well, I can start asking questions to people. Hey, what can I do to help you talk to marketing? What can, who's marketing? I wonder if I can get, I wonder if I could set a meeting with marketing. If I set a meeting with marketing, I might be able to understand the marketing plan better. It's just, then you just get curious around that question and then go do those things and you fix the problem. Versus, how come they don't? Right. Our marketing team sucks. They never post the things I want them to post. And then I'll say, okay, when you told them that, what was their response? And like, oh, I didn't tell them. Oh, no shit. And like same thing with the team, right?

56:46So-and-so always forgets to do this and doesn't do this properly. I'm like, oh, well, when you gave them that feedback, how did they respond? Well, I didn't meet with them yet, but this is what I feel like they were. I made a story in my head around what they might say. So then I adopted that story as fact. And now I'm telling you the story in my head versus actually having that five minute conversation with the person. And then what happens? There's like resentment through the shift. Everything just, there's the tension. Everything's just so much worse. It's like, just handle it in the moment, you know? I'm happy to come to me for the, to tell me how it went, right? Tell me like, here's the problem. Here's what I did. Here's how I'm gonna follow up with it next. That's our action plan. Great. If that's still not working, and this is me as a GM, not a consultant, if that's still not working and I need to have a conversation with them, sure. Absolutely. I got your back, you know? Or like, if you need advice on what to do next, like sure, I'll help you, you know, get there.

57:47But you shouldn't be coming to me or anyone with a complaint that doesn't have some kind of solution attached to it. Well, then it's just a bitch. Then it's just, I just need to vent. Which is fine once. I'll listen to a complaint once. You can vent. And this is another important thing, too, for us is, is this an emotional kind of conversation we're having now or are you looking for advice? Because I can just listen if that's all you need right now and then later on I'll follow up with a practical conversation when they're in a better mindset. But if they're, and ask them right then and there. I'm like, let's label this conversation. Do you need to vent or are you looking for advice? I do this in my personal life, too. I mean, like it's, sometimes friends want your advice. Sometimes friends don't. They just want a bitch and like let them. I've learned this with my wife. She's like, you try and solve everything. I just want to tell you. And I'm like, now when I listen, it's like, what do you have to say? And I'm like, I'm listening to it. What is this, the moment where I say something? Yeah, yeah.

58:47It's a big issue with men and women in relationships and all of the different things that go on there. And then I'm going to get back to the manager, general manager, and as a general manager, the other big issue that I see, and I do this, this is my personal thing that I'm working on, is I'll just hero them, right? So you come to me, I'm frustrated because you're not understanding the task at hand and you're telling me you don't have the skills versus me having the patience to teach you the thing. I'll just go do it. Yeah. I'll just, you know what? I'll do it. Okay, the staff isn't functioning very well today. You have the efficiencies and full hands in and it's not really working. I'll just go bust the tables. I don't have to manage people. I'm tired. I'll just do it. And that, my friends, is called heroing. Where you get to leave and go, well, you guys would have all crashed if it wasn't for me because I came in and saved the day. Then how do you scale that? You don't. You don't. But sometimes you're just tired and you're like, I don't want to deal with this.

59:52Or maybe it's not even that. It's just a, I know how to do this. I'm very proficient at it. I'm just going to go knock it out real quick and that'll take something off your list. But clearly it's not the right thing to do because. Short term, you know, short term fix. The way you think. Doesn't help the long term. When you don't let people fail, you rob them of their learning. That's a good one. Right, when you go, then you're going to fail. It's like, so let them fail. Yeah. But if you explained everything perfectly and they still want to try something different, let them fail. But if you don't follow up and say, hey, what do we learn from that? Then you rob them of the, if you just fix it, you take away their opportunity to learn. Yeah. And I found that I will do, it's not conscious. It's not a conscious thing that I do. I just move to it and I'm getting better at it. But it's hard, it's hard. It's difficult, it's a difficult thing to do when you know you have the ability to do all of these sort of things.

01:00:57You don't necessarily get to flex it as much. Like I said, when you're a server and you keep moving in different directions, there's a side that you still, I'll just go make the drinks downstairs. I like making drinks, but it's like, but that's not, go get the bartender from smoking. Like that's the thing, like it's not a, I don't have to deal with that conversation. Sarah smoked five cigarettes already and I just, that's not a real person. But like, I'll just do it. Yeah. Well, no. You have an employee who's not doing the thing they're supposed to be doing and versus have that conversation and let them know, hey, this is not part of your job and we need you over here doing this. I'll just do it because that'll be easier for me. Well, that's the thing. So I'll ask you this, does jumping in there and making the drinks or whatever, like, does that solve the problem? You'd be like, oh yeah, like in the moment, but like, does that solve the problem? No, of course not. So then, so what can you do to solve it? Like that's kind of the process. You need to get uncomfortable and go have that conversation. Yeah. And not in a, what the F are you doing out here?

01:01:59Like, hey, come on. And then, you know, you can, I always keep a notebook with me, like a tiny little, oh, we have one sitting over here. I've got a whole box of them. These little notebooks that I keep with me and then I write this because you'll forget it. Oh yeah. You have these thoughts. That's the best advice thing for front of the house managers or even back of the house manager. When you see that thing and you can't address it in the moment, sometimes I know Sarah's really, she's blown right now and she's needs a minute. I'll help her. That's different. But if this is her third time to go out there and you have to go out there and have it, you know, she's not going to respond well and it's going to create an issue for the rest of the night. Yeah. If you write that down and you follow up the, if you go hero that moment, you go do the drinks, as long as you have that conversation at the end of the night before they leave, then I think it can be fixed. You can, that's a soft skill recognizing I don't want to upset the emotional tranquility in the middle of the shift because if I go confront her right now about this, the rest of the shift is going to be off and that's going to affect the guest experience. Yeah.

01:02:59So I'm going to write it down and I'm going to have this conversation before I leave. That's what I was talking about. Then the end of the shift like, I really don't want that conversation. I'm just going to duck out. Yeah. Like, no, no, you have to stay. You have to stay that extra five minutes and address the things you need to address so that you don't leave angry. Yeah. Because managers too, managers don't need to leave angry. Oh no. It's the same thing. Don't let your staff leave angry, but don't leave with resentments. Those resentments get heavy. Yeah. And that's something that you're like in 100% control of. 100%. You control that. You know. The culture isn't defined by the staff. It's defined by the leadership. It can be defined by both, but the one who drives it is the leadership. Well, if the leadership is allowing the staff to control it. That's a good point. It's still the leadership. Yeah, that's a good point. That's the way I always looked at it, but. No, I think you're right on that one. And then, yeah, I mean, you don't want to confront anyone in the moment like that. Yeah. You want to support them in the moment. And then it's always support, you know, over confront. We're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors.

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01:08:09That is why you call Matthew Clements. Matthew Clements at Robin's Insurance. When any of those scenarios happen, you pick up the phone, you dial 863-409-9372. Matthew answers, he goes, how can I help you? You tell him your problem. He's your friend, you know him. Why would you not have an agent that you work with every single day? Any of these situations right here, you need guidance, you need support, and Matthew Clements and his team at Robin's Insurance are there to provide it. You should call him today. I'm gonna put that number down one more time. That's 863-409-9372. Call Matthew Clements today. I love it. See, this is fun conversation. I could do this all day. Yeah, I know. This is kinda what I love to do. And you know, this is kinda what we do in a lot of our manager meetings. We're looking at these things and there's a lot of personalities and you have to talk about this stuff. But if you're out there and you're operating restaurant, a lot of this is probably pretty familiar to you.

01:09:12And some of it you probably do every single day because you're a really great manager. And we love that. There's a lot of people out there. I make mistakes all the time. I'm sure you do too. But just a lot of this stuff is good reminders. Just good reminders on some of those soft skills. And they don't just happen naturally. They don't happen unconsciously. They happen consciously. You have to look for those moments. You have to be ready for those moments. And you have to want to address those moments. What's the best book on leadership or restaurant leadership or anything? Give me some books that you've enjoyed and I'll be able to, we can share these with our team. It's not restaurant specific, but the 10-Minute Manager is a nice quick short read. The 10-Minute Manager? I don't like to read. Not the One-Minute Manager? I think it's 10. Or maybe it's one. I think it's a 10 now. I think there's a second book. Well, there's the One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard is like the all-time greatest manager book.

01:10:13One-Minute Coaching, One-Minute Praise, and the One-Minute Redirect. I'm willing to, yeah, but I don't think it's a minute. Maybe it is still a minute. It's the One-Minute Manager. I guarantee it. Okay, I believe you, I believe you. I bought over a hundred copies of it. If I'm gonna double- Short reading for every single- I definitely love it. Well, I'm gonna Google it right now. The 10-Minute- And it might be like a shortened version of that book or something. Manager. I don't know. I Googled the 10-Minute Manager. Oh, it's the new One-Minute Manager. Okay, what does that Amazon 10-Minute Manager thing, what does that say? I'm definitely probably wrong, though. 10-Minute Manager Seamless Shopping Experience. I have a shop. Let's see what this is. I don't know what that is. Yeah, no, it's all One-Minute Manager. And then there's the One-Minute Manager meets the monkey. Oh, I don't know that one. That's a great one.

01:11:13It's about basically hearing, when people come and put stuff, they put their monkey on your shoulder and you accept the monkey onto your shoulder, and then- Okay. It's a funny thing, it's like you're the boss, you identify what needs to be done, you give the person this monkey that they now get to develop. They get stuck with the monkey. They come in, they ask you a question about the monkey and versus you wanting to explain the answer or coach them through it, you just take the monkey and put it on your shoulders. And now what happens? You've got this monkey, and then now the employee is coming to check on you. Hey, did you get my work done for me yet? Hey, did you get this done? Now you've created something for your people, but now your people are now holding you accountable to do their job. It's a whole vicious, like it's basically hearing, well, I'll just do it. Like, no, we'll set a time, we'll coach through it, we'll get, you'll get it done. Then people get to have those yes moments. Women managers required reading for everybody in the company. I like that. I never, and I'm not a big reader either. So I mean, obviously like Unreasonable Hospitality is a good book, but I'm more of a listener.

01:12:19Me too, me too. So like, you know, Simon Sinek. Leaders Eat Last, Power Y. Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. Even his podcast, I listened to that. I mean, it's just great. Is that your favorite podcast? What do you listen to podcast with? I mean, other than National Restaurant Radio and Talking Chocolates, I'd say. Yeah. Good answer, but. Probably, yeah, probably his. It's called A Bit of Optimism. I think that's probably the one I listen to most. And then occasionally I'll listen to like, some bullshit reality type TV show type podcasts. Cause I got some friends on the show and stuff and I'll listen to it, but. What show? The Challenge. The Challenge. Yeah, it's like, it's an old MCV, but it's been on Paramount Plus recently and stuff. But it's been going on forever, like before Survivor even. What's your favorite like trash TV thing to watch? Probably that. Really? It's gotten a little less trashy over the years, but it was definitely trashy when it first started. But I've gotten to, I connected with someone who does the Challenge Mania podcast. And one of the hosts on the podcast is Derek, who's been on the show forever.

01:13:22And I met him and I met a few other people at an event. And I was like, if you guys are ever in Nashville, you know, I know a lot of bars and restaurants that I can help you book a venue or whatever. So just started there. And then I'd help them like, they wanted to do one in Charlotte. And I was like, cool. Like I said, I used to live in Charlotte. You know, try this brewery, right? Like, and then, you know, I'll go with them and I go hang out and it's cool. Get to meet some fun, fun people. And I'm like, oh shit, this guy from TV. And I'm just this guy hanging out. My wife and I constantly watch The Bachelor. That is our show. Bachelor in Paradise, I think, is some of the best television programming on the face of the earth. I never got into The Bachelor. I'm more like Survivor, which I've applied for nine times, by the way. Really? Oh yeah. You want to be on Survivor? I can't do it anymore, but I've applied several times. Why can't you do it anymore? I mean, I suppose I could, but I just, you know, I'm like, do I want to? The desire isn't as great to do it now, I guess as it was when I was a little younger.

01:14:22And like, like I said, as far as magic, I'm like, oh, I'll do whatever. I'll work however many hours I want, you know? But now I'm transitioning into like more family life. And I'm like, I don't think I would want to do, be a reality TV star right now. You know, like it's just not my interest anymore. But not that I ever wanted to be a reality TV star. What about like one of those cooking shows? Do you cook? I do cook. I used to have an Instagram account called Drunk Chef, where I would just get drunk and cook. I had to get rid of that though, because now I'm trying to help people and teach people leadership skills. They can't be on, I also don't drink anymore either. I stopped drinking a little over a year ago. So yeah, thanks. Why'd you do that? And I know that's a taboo question to ask people who don't drink, but I'm just curious, I mean, like, because people out there might try and quit drinking and they love stories like that. Yeah, I mean, I would say like to me, and someone might be like, based on the facts, you did have a problem. But like, I never thought I had a problem. I could just like not drink at any time. Like it didn't matter to me. It was just kind of a social thing. And I would drink like a couple nights a week, but I would still get out and like run my 5K the next day.

01:15:27And I'd still perform at work at a high level. I'm like, this doesn't affect me. They call that a functioning alcoholic. Functioning alcoholic, yeah. That's what they call that. What I realized, I was like, you know what? Like I'm trying to be healthier, but I'm still drinking, like it doesn't make sense. Like really I'm fixing the diet and I'm running. I'm like doing a lot of things self-improvement wise, but like I'm still drinking. I'm like, what do I need this for? And then there was a day, whenever my neighbor's house and we drank like a lot of whiskey, next day was one of those like, can't get out of bed. And I'm like, it's okay. Like it's my day off, but I had a lot, I could have got done with my business, you know, that I didn't do. And then it happened again, like a week later. And I was like, it's two days that I just burnt. Like I'm not interested in it. For what? What happened the night before? They're so great that I need to burn an entire day. And then now it's awesome. I can just go out and have fun and I don't need the drink. And I, you know, I can still go enjoy myself and go do whatever. Yeah, you save a lot of money. Alcohol is expensive, man. It does. Cocktails, 10, 12, 15.

01:16:27I remember one time I went to the hotel lobby and the union station. I had a, I got a crown and seven or something. And it was like $13. This is like 20 years ago. And I was like, holy shit. Like this is out of control, $13. Yeah. That's standard now. I mean. It's standard now. So like the, you know, prices have gone up, but then also here's what's worse is that like, what do you do when you're drunk? Well, then you order food late night. Like it's more money and more shit you don't need to consume. And yeah, Amazon, right? You're buying. I found Amazon after I quit drinking, but I can imagine me laying in bed going, I need these, whatever. This new thing that goes in my backyard that, oh, it's cool to throw the frizz before the dog. And it's only 89, you know, it's like, how many times did you do that? Like once and then you're not, never do it again. You're like, why did I order this? I can imagine that it hasn't happened to me. Like where packages just show up and I'm like, what the hell is that? I don't know.

01:17:28Why did I order this? But I imagine that is a thing. I'll do that. So, I mean, I'll do that now though, because like, I don't, I mean, you get like the, it's free delivery. Like whatever. I kind of like to think, okay, well, I don't want, I don't want someone to deliver like this $5 thing to my house for like, I feel bad. Like I'm wasting someone's time, you know? So I'll start to like build a cart and when it's big enough, I'll send it. But yeah, for me, sometimes I'm like, oh, this is something that like I need in the moment. I notice I don't have it around the house or like, you know, whatever, I like go buy it. It'll be here tomorrow. And then I've forgotten like what, and I'm like, oh, it's this cool. Okay. Yeah, so I definitely forget what I order sometimes, for sure. I decided to tell like, for Christmas and stuff, like my mom sends me something. I'm like, put your name on it. Address it to you, because if it's addressed to me, I'm just going to open it. And then it's like a week early, you know? Like I'm not, you know, kind of thing. I'm like, I'm not opening it on Christmas. You want me to open it on Christmas, but like I opened it just because it said my name on it. And I'm not, I don't know if I'm expecting anything or not.

01:18:29I love it. Okay, we're at the hour mark. We do an hour here on this show. That's how fast an hour goes in here. Isn't it crazy? Yeah, time flies when you're having fun. It's a true story. Tell me about your consulting business. If I'm listening to this and I go, man, this guy's really sharp. I wonder if he can come help me. My culture's wrecked. I need some help. Yeah. How do people get a hold of you? Tell me about your consulting business. So business is called Serve Up Strategies. ServeUpStrategies.com is the website. I'm on Instagram, my personal Vince Lanni, and then, you know, Serve Up Strategies. What I do is I help bars and restaurants make more money faster, guaranteed. And yeah, there is a guarantee on it. Wow. Give me six months. I will more than pay for my service, like then plus all the intangibles that are gonna help you grow over time. And we can help you do that too. I do things from inventory, order guide, audits, help save money right away, and then help streamline processes, workflows, admin tasks, you know, kind of what can I do to save restaurants money?

01:19:38How can they make more money and give the owner some of their time back? That's the goal. So I'm looking at NARA kind of being a fractional COO thing. You're looking kind of a fractional GM thing where you come in and actually the actual operations in the restaurant, you're looking at it, helping a general manager, obviously working with owners and different people, but like coming in and seeing what can you do differently? What can I help you with to be more effective on a regular basis? Yeah, and not in the sense that like, I'm gonna be working the shifts, but essentially I charge for my value, not for my labor hours, right? If you want me to come in and work shifts, that's gonna cost a lot of money, cause like it's my time. But what I'm gonna do is help teach your team, like you had asked me this earlier, I'm gonna help teach your management team how to do everything that we talked about today and create more versions of like me for lack of a better term, right? Like my big thing is if the position was available, would you hire me to be the GM based on my experience and my value?

01:20:43The answer is usually yes, I haven't applied for a job in a long time. Yeah. So okay, what if I can help your management team kind of raise to the next level and it doesn't cost you my salary? That's a very good point. I mean, a general manager costs you a hundred grand and hey, over a six month span I could hire somebody that I don't have to pay payroll taxes to, workers' comp insurance, these type of things that's gonna help me in that same capacity but more effective. If I could hire an assistant manager who had the general manager capabilities to do these things, it makes all the sense in the world. A great example is Greenrica. They're projected to save about a hundred grand for 2025 based on money we've found the better prices on. Another 20 grand on labor because we've made the process of ordering for the guests more efficient, we can get them the food faster and there's one less person that we need on the floor.

01:21:47We also have vendor relations with POS service and stuff and they've been offered to save like 30, 40 grand a year on their POS services. Take all that money and then they can do things like hire another manager and it's not coming out of the current budget, it's coming out of the budget that we helped them create. Imagine what you could do with marketing with that extra money. Oh man, or staff parties or retreats or anything that you- Yeah, incentive programs for the team. Anything, there's so much you could do. So we'll help you find some money that you can use to improve the business and then we'll help you do it. I love that. And you can find Talking Chocolates anywhere you listen to podcasts? Yeah, anywhere you listen to podcasts. Talking Chocolates, I know we're both giving kitchen people, I had Jen on a couple months ago, so that's a good episode to listen to. Yeah, and like I said, it's not just all restaurant stuff, it's a lot of restaurant stuff now but I might start veering away from it but it's entertaining nonetheless. That it is, it's amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time.

01:22:49The last thing we do is the Gordon Food Service final thought. You probably know this, you've probably heard this before. Let's do it. Is your time on the hot seat, you get to say whatever you want to the city of Nashville or whoever's listening. Oh, that wasn't what I just did? You get to do it again. Okay. Right here, whatever you wanna say. So this is just a thought of wisdom or something, whatever you want. Or that could be. My final thought is if you're looking, if you're in the restaurant industry or any industry really and you're looking to make more money or have career advancement or anything, do more than what's asked of you and do it with a positive attitude. The best advice I could ever have. Attitude is everything. Attitude is everything. All right, I love it. Vince, Lonnie, thank you for joining us today on Nashville Restaurant Radio and hopefully we'll be hearing more from you soon. All right, thank you for having me. So big thank you again to Vince for coming in studio and having this conversation with me.

01:23:51So much fun. Love doing this stuff. It's just so much fun. I'm really excited. Tomorrow I'm doing an interview with a brand new AI company for restaurants and I'm super excited to learn more about this and I'm gonna share all the information I possibly can with you guys. Stay tuned. All right, we hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.