[00:00:00] Speaker A: Most of us like to think of ourselves as strong leaders, but honestly, that just isn't always the case. Leadership requires skills that have to be taught and ultimately cultivated. So today we're going to talk about how you cultivate those skills. We're going to introduce you to something called the Leadership Template. I'm joined by Sal Rotolo. He's a restaurant coach who works alongside with me within the P3 mastermind. So he works directly with dozens and dozens of restaurant owners within these weekly groups. I have learned a ton from Sal. This is something that he learned very early in his career that helped him ultimately become a better operator and a better owner. He has taught this to the members of the P3 mastermind program and today you're going to hear it firsthand. So again, how do you be a better leader? How do you teach that, train that within your managers so that they can be stronger leaders? There is a six step framework called the Leadership Template that we're going to teach you. Don't go anywhere.
There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. We do two episodes every single week. We are cruising toward our 500th episode. All kinds of great stuff in store over the coming months. I appreciate you being here. Listen, I got this podcast, you know that you find me on social media, on Facebook and Instagram, on TikTok. You can read my book, the Restaurant Marketing Mindset. You can find me on stages all over the country, at conventions, at trade shows, at conferences. I also run a coaching program. It's a Mastermind format. It's called the P3 mastermind. Currently I work with over 150 restaurant owners from all over the country. All specifically geared towards increasing the profitability of your businesses. If you are stuck in single digit profits, then reach out, get in touch. I can show you how to generate consistent, predictable 20% returns. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Schedule Grab some time on the calendar. It's a 30 minute call. It's totally free. I promise you there is no pressure. You'll get to know more about me and the program I run. I'll get to know more about you and the restaurant that you run and let see if you're a good fit. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com schedule. As always, that link is in the show notes.
So my guest on today's show is a guy who's joining us for the first time, but you will be hearing a lot from him over the coming months and years, I hope. He's one of the coaches with restaurant strategy. He's one of the coaches of the P3 mastermind. Saratolo, welcome to the show.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you so much. Chip. Great to be here. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: I'm looking forward to it. All right, so we're going to get into specifically talking about leadership and a leadership framework, a leadership template of sorts that you introduced to me not, not too long ago.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: So I'm excited to have you dive into that. Before we do that, quick 30 second overview. Tell people who you are, where you came from, what you've been doing, mostly why they should be listening to you.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Okay, that's. I guess I just love to help, first of all, and I've been doing this for a lot of years. Over 30 years I've been in the restaurant business.
More than that. I started when I was about 12 years old and fell in love. Spent about 8 years in the Navy, but other than that, I've been doing this. Opened my first restaurant three months before I got out of the Navy, worked alongside Wolfgang Puck and just, you know, opened up Petco Park. I've done everything, you know, in this industry, and I found that my passion really is to help. I just want to help other people realize their dream and their success. And that, for some reason gives me a strange sense of satisfaction.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: I love it. And I know you have been a mentor to so many people over the last certainly like seven, eight, nine years specifically of your career. It's why I think you're a natural fit within the coaching community, working with the restaurant owners who are members of the P3 mastermind. I want to dive into this. Talk to me about this leadership template. What is it? When were you introduced to it and why did it make such a big impact on you?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Okay, so I, I think when I was introduced to it was about 10 years ago.
Fifth. Maybe a little bit longer. 12 years ago.
A guy that, you know, what's funny is you don't know where you're going to get information from. And it's a guy that I wouldn't really consider a mentor to me, but he is, in a weird way, he is a mentor to me. This, this guy that I used to work for, he introduced me to this and he was very Specific and told me, sal, I just want you to follow it. I know it may be counter intuitive to you because, you know, full disclosure, I'm Sicilian from New York and we're not known for our, we're not known for our patience, that's for a fact. But he said, just give it a try, you know, and I think this is going to help you out in, in your path, you know, Daniel Flores. That's. I was trying to get to his name, but yeah, his name is Daniel Flores. And you know, honestly, he's a brilliant, brilliant guy. It's just that he wasn't my favorite person, you know what I mean? And I, I can learn as much from somebody that I don't really care for as much as somebody I do, I guess. But yeah, he said, you know, just give this a try and I think it's gonna help you out. And it was like handcuffs coming up. The way I explain it to people, it was like handcuffs came off of me. And I'll just go through it real quick. There's six steps.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, go through it. Let's dive in.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, there's six steps. And this is what all great leaders do is what he told me. He said, sal, this is what great leaders do.
And I was like, okay, I want to be a great leader, you know, he was like, you got to have a real clear and defined vision. You got to have a vision. You have to know exactly what it is that you want to do.
And I was like, okay, that's cool. That sounds good. And then he says, you have to organize the work to fit the vision. And too many people try to sway the work or fit the work or the vision into the work. Right? They don't want to, you know, inconvenience people or people, people out or anything. So you got to really fit the work to support the vision, period. That's the main thing. And then, of course, one of the most. The main things is communication. You got to communicate this clearly and concisely to every. Make sure they know exactly what the plan is and what the vision is and what the why is. Right? That's. I mean, we all learned that, right? In basic Manager 101 is, you know, explain the why.
Recruit your team, get them on your side. Don't just tell them, hey, I need you to sweep the floor. It has to be like, hey, I need you to sweep the floor because X, Y and Z and this person's visiting and we want to look great and I want you to be great. And, you know, explaining all those things really help people digest what it is they're supposed to do.
So from. From clearly communicating, then I think something that we're all really good at is following up on the results. Right. We always want to come and see what was the results of what happened, what we don't do. And number five to me is the passion. This is the thing that really, I think, sets everything apart. This is receiving feedback prior to coaching or mentoring people.
And I'm going to tell you a story that's going to make me emotional, but I'm going to tell you why this is so important to me is because this is where we lose people.
This is where we don't understand their trials and tribulations. And we come in trying to coach them on something that we've already told them what we needed.
And we don't ask them what happened first. We don't ask them how did we get here from where we were going?
And then, of course, I think everybody knows number six. And the final step is to praise power of positive movement. Right. Anytime somebody does something good, don't dismiss it.
You know, we spend so much time on the negative, and we don't really focus on the positive. And the positive really is what's going to set you free. That's going to give you an army.
I've built armies, you know, most of my Facebook friends, and I'm proud of this. This is why I say this. Like, most of the people on my Facebook friends list are actually people that used to work with me or for me, you know, because I've built armies. Not just teams, but armies.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Talk to me. So these six steps.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: It's a framework that you sort of put it through. And I think what I love about this is that I think it's a lot of things you hear in bits and pieces. You hear them in quotes or in a TED Talk or in a this and that. But this is a very clearly articul articulated framework. Right. It's a template.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: It's a framework process. Yeah.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: I want to go back in.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: I mean, because. So I want to talk. I want to drive to this idea of coaching because it's obviously what I do.
I try to work with restaurant owners to help them be better.
By doing that, I have become better.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: And I'm trying to do it in such a way. And you know, this. You do this too. You're trying to do it in such a way that sort of models the behavior so that they get really good at doing what we do to Their own people. And I think that's the way. That's the way coaching works best. I would say consulting doesn't work. Coaching works because consulting is when you bring somebody in.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: They come in and they just do it for you, and then they walk out the door. But it's like I went and I fished for you and I brought you fish again, it's that don't. Don't give a man fish. Teach a man to fish. And so I would rather show you what to do, how to ask questions, how you should be thinking about it, and then. Because otherwise, I think most people have all the tools they need.
Talk to me. I want to go through these one by one here. So you have to have a clear and defined vision. Obviously, I know that, but talk to.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Me that before, before you do that. I just want to say that I've heard you say that before, the difference between coaching and consulting. And I never really thought about it until you had said that.
And man, that is so accurate. It's so right. You know, like consulting is completely different. That's doing it for them. And when you're coaching somebody, you're changing their mindset.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: The other reason why I think consulting often doesn't get the desired results is because people are very fuzzy with the desired results. It's like, things aren't going well in my restaurant. I need to bring a consultant in to fix everything.
Okay, I do. I saw. I'll amend what I say about consulting. I think a consultant can be very successful with a very narrow scope of work. If you're coming, bringing, you know, basically, you know, a sharpshooter in to just target one specific thing. I think consultants can be very, very effective. The problem is when we bring a consultant in, you know, in our restaurant, we say, I just. I don't know what's. I don't know what's. What I'm doing wrong, but just fix my restaurant.
They're going to fix the restaurant the way that they know how to fix the restaurant, but it's not necessarily going to teach you how to think, how to think more deliberately and ask questions and work within the people and all that. So that's what I mean by that.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: A big part that now we're talking about having very clearly defined goals. Right. Like the reason when you say to a consultant, hey, my food costs, right. My waste is off the charts. I really need you to come in and set up a waste management system so we can better track all. Like, that's somebody. Somebody can come in and say, great, I got it.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: I know.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: I know exactly what you need help with. Let me set it up as a consultant and then show you exactly what I did, how I did it, why it works fine. I'm basically asking someone to come in, implement a system, and then teach that system to me. It's very successful. I find very rarely do people do that. And there are people who come to me and they ask me to consult, and for the most part, I say no. But I have a bunch of really good colleagues who are really great at it. And so my conversation with them is just about getting very clear on what they're trying to do.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: And then I can say, great, I'm going to put you in touch with this person, because this person does that really well.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: But now they can have a very specific conversation. They could talk about a very, very narrow scope of work. Talk to me about vision, because I think this is where we get fuzzy. Right. We just want to be. Have a successful restaurant. But how do you help, as you coach people, how do you help them get really focused on that?
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Well, first thing, I think you have to really figure out who you are and who you want to be. Like, what, what do you want to be? I. I see a lot of restaurant owners jumping and moving from here to there. You know, like, you, you have to figure out who you are. Are you fast casual? Are you fine dining? Are you, you know, Southwestern? Are you American? Are you. Like, who are you? You know that. Let's focus on that first. And the kind of. The thing I use a lot when I'm coaching people is taking raising canes or In N Out burger as an example, saying, you know exactly who they are. Like, they didn't make any qualms about. We only serve chicken tenders, period. We'll put it in a sandwich for you. We'll do this with it, we'll do that with it. But this is who we are. Yeah. So I think that's the main thing is really figuring out who you are and who you want to be. Not just who you are, but who you want to be. Like, who do you want to be in that segment? Like, you know, Protein House, obviously, where I've come from, but knew exactly who it wanted to be. Right. Their mission was to create a place that you can trust.
That's what they first said to me when I went there was, we want to be a place where people can trust. I don't. And literally what they said was, I don't care if we ever make Money. Which is crazy, right? Like, for an owner to say that. But they said, I don't care if we ever make money. I want people to trust us. And. Yeah, that's profound.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: 100%. You know, my favorite quote, Sal, have I told you this? My favorite quote is by the great Zig Ziglar, and he's got a million quotes. Love him, hate him, however you feel about it, but he's sort of like the godfather of modern marketing.
And he was a. He was a sales guru. He was a salesman all his life. That's what he did. He trained salesmen back in the 70s, 80s, 90s. And then he would do talks and motivational speaking and all that.
And he said, I gotta paraphrase it a little bit, but he said, you can get anything in life you want as long as you help enough other people get what they want.
The whole idea is about service, like helping people get to where they want to go.
And then they're going to help you. By nature, they're going to take the rest. Takes care of itself. I feel so strongly about that. I feel that about what we do working with the members of the P3 mastermind. I feel that as restaurant owner, if we take care of enough people, man, they're gonna. They're gonna love to tell everybody they're gonna want to come back. They're gonna want to bring their kids and their friends when they're in from out of town, right? We help them. They're gonna. They're gonna help us.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Absolutely. You know, another thing Daniel used to say, Daniel Flores, the guy who came up with the leadership template, was like. He's like, if you give me two customers, I will build you an empire.
Like, all I need is two. That's it. All I need is two customers.
Because my guest experience is going to be so amazing and so beyond what it should be that they're going to tell two friends. And then it's the Suave commercial, Right. The old swab. And. And they'll tell two friends.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: And so on.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: And so on and so on. So. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It. It's about taking care of that need and helping people accomplish something.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: The second piece of this template talks about, you know, organizing the work to fit the vision.
Talk to me about how. Because you've come into organizations and sort of rejiggered them, rework them, gotten them in line, where.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Help focus the vision and then help put all the operations in place to fit the vision. Talk to me.
Pull it from your own Experiences. But tell me how this works out in practice.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: You know, it's exactly what I was kind of trying to say before was too many people are scared to do what they need to do in order to get to where they want to be at. They. They're scared about hurting people's feelings. And some people don't want to work that way. And change management is hard. That's a real thing. Google it. Change management.
It's difficult, and people don't want to do that.
So they contort their plan or their vision. I'm sorry. They contort the vision to fit the plan. And that's. And that's where you go awry. And you have companies that lose their vision again, like, they don't know who they are all of a sudden is because. And I've done this personally. Like, I've actually done this. I opened up a pizzeria. My first restaurant that I opened myself was a pizzeria in the college area by San Diego State University.
And my vision was an Italian pizzeria, you know, with pasta. I wanted to do stuffed shells and manigot and lasagna and amazing pizza, and that's who I wanted to be. But, you know, I was in a college area, and by the third year, I was selling jalapeno poppers and French fries and hamburgers and, you know, all these other things.
And it. It basically broke down to.
I. That's what I had to do, actually. It wasn't about who I wanted to be anymore. It was, how do I survive in this college area? How do I thrive in this area at that point?
You have to adjust that vision sometimes for your environment.
Right. You know, but, you know, so that's what happened to me. But yeah, I think that's. They're just risk and being fearless. You have to be fearless in your plan. You have to say, this is how we have to do it. And we see it all the time. A lot of people that are super successful, we think of them as being cold or, you know, like, un. Relentless. And this. It's. That's not what it is. They're just very defined in their vision.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Running restaurant means juggling a lot. Staffing, inventory, customer service and finances.
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[email protected] RestaurantStrategy I will add in here. This fits in perfectly with what we're about to talk about. Again, davosalestax.com restaurantstrategy and yes, that link is in the show notes.
One of the things here as I look about, you know, we talk about communication. The next piece of this template, I've got this framework that I always tell people about and I say, you know, we hire for it, we train for it, we model it, and then we coach. And I think it fits right in here. Like, how do we properly communicate? I think it's explaining the what, the when, the how and the why. Right? What I need you to do when I need you to do it, how it needs to be done. And you said it a second ago, most importantly, the why it needs to be done. Because if you find somebody's not doing what you need them to do, or they're not doing it when you need them to do it, or not doing it how you need them to do it, right, then something about the why is fuzzy or they're just ignoring you. Say, listen, I told you what I needed you to do when I needed you to do it, how I needed it done. I even explained to you why this job, why you are an important cog in this entire machine. And so that's where we get to the problems, that's where we get to the repercussions and all of that.
How do you think? How do you think about that?
[00:20:22] Speaker B: I have a very specific notion on this and my opinion is that culture is born out of passionate communication. Like when you communicate clearly and concisely with passion in your voice and you give them the why and the reason why we're doing this and what makes it so important. And why are they, what you mentioned is why are they an important part of this process?
Man, amazing things happen. Like, really amazing things happen. I can tell you another story about this guy that, you know, we're in a selling competition and I told him what we needed to do. I communicated very clearly and concisely.
And if you would ask me to pick a Lineup, you know, like, out of five or ten guys, who would be the crazy salesman and that just can sell anything to anybody. He's not the guy that you would visually pick out of that bunch, Right. But he sold about 30 of those things that night to the point where halfway through the night, I came up to the register and asked him like, hey, man, what are you doing?
And he's like, you told me to sell those blueberry list things. And I'm like, yeah, but that's all you're selling. He's like, hey, dude, sales is my thing. That's exactly what he said to me. He was like, hey, dude, sales is my thing.
So you, you know, you don't know where it's going to come from, but you build that passion in clear communication. That's. That's where it happens.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: A big part of this, I think. And tell me how you. Where you come down on this, but I think it's about routine, routines, systems, I think habits, right? I think so much of culture.
Again, I said this on this show a million times, but Seth Godin has the quote, and he says culture, which marketing has so much to do with culture. He's a marketing guru, bestselling author. He says culture really comes down to seven words. People like us do things like this, and I think culture is not the things we say, but the things we do and the things we do repeatedly.
I'm the kind of guy who's in really good shape, okay? It's because I eat well and I work out and I get up every morning.
That's not just something I say. It's something that's obvious in how I look and the things I do, the habits I build for myself. And I think so much of culture in restaurants is, do we have the framework set up? Do we have the system set up so that we can be great, so that we can succeed, so that we can do what we need to do successfully and efficiently? Because efficiency really means making lives easier for the people who work for us.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: How do you do that? How do you clean up systems or implement systems?
Or do you not agree with that?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: No, I. You know what I do agree with? I agree with making people feel great and giving them the tools and everything that they need in order to be great. Right? One of the things I always tell people every, like, all the time I tell leaders this and owners this all the time. I'm like, listen, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, today I'm gonna suck, right? Today I'm just gonna be Horrible. I wanna push my boss right to the edge. I wanna see if I can get people to yell at me and curse at me in traffic.
Nobody does that. The opposite, in my opinion. People wake up with a renewed sense of go get them, and I'm gonna be awesome today, and I'm really gonna show my boss who I am today. So when that doesn't happen, I think we need to take full responsibility for it as the owners and say, what happened? That this person sucked today? Like, it's not their fault, but what happened?
And not enough people do that. And, yeah, when you put the systems in place, you're essentially communicating clearly and concisely by saying, hey, these are the systems that we have in place.
And then I guess the question really was, how do you put those systems in place? And how do you change people's minds about how to do them and wanting to do them?
How I do it, Chip, my whole life is I just really make people think that they're great. I take a page out of the Secret, you know, book. I don't know if anybody's read that book or watched the video, but the secret is, you know, something else that changed my life. But I tell people constantly that they're great. I tell them, you guys are awesome. You're number one. There's nobody else that can, you know, hold a candle to you. When I was a GM in a store is what I'm talking about. When I'm an owner, I'd be like, you guys are great. I had a store that I would make them answer the phone. It was at Cannery Corner here in Las Vegas. And I would make them answer, thank you for calling the Cannery Corner at Las Vegas, Nevada, you know, like. And all the other stores would, like, make fun of us and say, why do you have your staff do that? I'm like, because we are the Cannery Corner. We're the best. We're the best store, you know? And I would always make them stand up in meetings and say, my store. Rather than, you know, I work at. I'm like, yo, you don't work at this store. This is your store. You own it. You belong here.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I love that.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: So that's. I just get them excited about being great. That's all.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: So this goes. This feeds into the story that I really want you to tell next.
I think, too often there's that quote, right? Don't attribute to malice what can easily be explained away by ignorance or inability or some other reason. Right?
Benevolent reason, rather than malevolent.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: That people weren't trying to screw you over. People weren't trying to cut corners.
They just didn't do what you wanted because of some reason that I always assume that people are trying to do the best. I always use I'll tell one story, and then I'll let you tell your story, because I think it really resonates, and it's going to resonate with the listeners, I think.
I was working with this restaurant owner once, and I was actually on property, and he goes, and he was talking about his staff. They're not blah, blah, blah. And he said, let me give you an example. You see her over there? You see her. He's like, she's so lazy. She's always on her phone, and I always have to ask her to do this and this and this. And like, she's just. She's not working at the level that we need here. And I said, can I, you know, give me some background about this person. Well, she worked here and here and here, but, like, you know, nothing at this level. And, you know, she just can't swim at this level. And. And I said, let's flip this for a second.
I said, I think she is probably working the hardest she's ever worked in her life because she was working with people who are at organizations that just never expected her to do what you're asking her to do.
So I think she probably just doesn't even know the culture has not been woven into her yet.
So let's say your job is to really make her understand.
And if you meet her halfway and say something to the effect of, I know you're working harder than you've probably ever been asked to work, but I still need more from you. And the reason I hired you is because I know you're absolutely capable of it. And let me show you, and let me coach you, and let me be there and let me model the behavior, all that stuff. I said, right? So you hired her because you felt like she probably had the capacity to do this, right? And now we have to do all those other pieces for it right now we train for it, then we model it, then we coach it. And so rather than saying, she's the problem and I always turn it, I was like, okay, let me flip this another way. So if she's so lazy, why did you hire her in the first place?
Well, I thought she'd be better. Okay, well, then why is she doing these behaviors? Obviously, your training was substandard because training should have gotten her to do the behaviors that you wanted her to do, Right? So why did you hire her? That's on you. Why did you not train her better? That's on you, right? Why are you sitting here bitching to me in the corner rather than modeling the behavior? Why don't you get out there? Has anyone shown her what you'd like her to do instead?
And he said. And he said, well, she should be able to see the other people. I said, I think she's probably so busy doing her own stuff that she doesn't have time to have that sort of that vision for the floor. So she's not seeing.
But have you drawn attention to it and say, hey, I want you to see what sue is doing over there. I want you to do what sue does. Now watch the. Listen to what she says. And do you see her, you know, do you see her posture when she's at a table? And notice what Joey does? Every time Joey steps away from the table, he does X, Y, and Z. So you're doing abc. I need you to do X, Y, and Z. I say, have you specifically done that?
That's. That modeling and coaching. You show.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: The behavior that is being modeled for her. And then you coach her about how she should change from what she is doing to what she should be doing.
I said, all of that doesn't fall on her. That falls on you.
That's ineffective leadership. And it just sort of stood there. I said, so until you can tell me you've done all those other steps, it's not her fault. It's on you.
So talk to me about how. Right. So now. That was my interaction with an owner complaining about an hourly employee.
You told me the story the other day, and I know you want to tell it here. So about.
About somebody who'd come in and didn't do what you wanted them to do. Didn't. Didn't do it. And so talk to me. Because it's how we communicate and how we come in with the right frame of mind.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Yes. You're talking about A.J. i love that kid. He was so awesome.
He was this little surfer dude from. From California. And he. I don't know if he was really a surfer dude, but he spoke like it and he stood like it, and he just, hey, bro, you know, what's up, dude? That type of guy, man. And.
But I actually want to tell you different one real quick. Like, this is. This is different and more impactful, honestly. Yes.
This is really when.
And I get emotional every time I tell the story, man, because it's that powerful. But we had. The company I worked for had a catering hall, right? And we were going to do this big catering and this. I just started using the template, like, brand new to it. Like, I still wasn't really accustomed to it. I still, when things went wrong, I still got really hot, you know, under the collar. Like, you know, I would get mad and it would affect me physically and I would sweat. You know what I mean? I'd be like, this is. Oh, these guys, you know? But okay, so I drew a picture of what I wanted. The carving station here, people chairs and like the register over here. Beer tub here. Then I took this guy Raul, who was, you know, been with the company for a while. Great dude. Like, honestly, one of the best guys I ever worked with and continued on because of this.
And I, I walked with him the whole hall. I said, here's where this is. Here's where that's at. This is how it has to look. Everything is over here. Here's the keys for everything.
Any questions, let me know. Like, I, I'm gonna be back at 6am what time will you be here? He's like, I'll be here at 6 with you. So I'm like, okay, no problem. Do as much as you can tonight. And then we'll, we'll, you know, you know, tidy it up in the morning. He's like, cool, no problem. So I left around 6pm that night.
The next day I come in and it's not so much chip. It's, it's, it's nowhere near like, it's, it's, you know, I started getting hot and my collar started getting warm. And I actually had to stop myself and say, sal, let's try to use the template here. Like, this is a perfect time to use this template.
And I saw Raul come in like about 15, 20 minutes later. Gave me a chance to calm down a little bit.
And I went over to him and I was like, hey, man. And this is crazy. Listen to this. I was like, what happened? Like, walk me through it, dude. Like, I, I, you know, what happened last night? Like, he's like, sal, do you know the lights go out in this building at like 7:30?
I'm like, oh, no, I didn't know they went out at all. He's like, yeah, it was like, you know, 45 minutes after you left, the lights went out.
And so we stood here for like two hours to like 9:30 with our cell phone. We use the light from our cell phones, made sure we got everything up from the storage put it kind of where it went, you know, it was pitch black in here, but we were using our cell phones and we got everything where it should be. That's why I came in a little early, because I wanted to, you know, really knock it out for you this morning. And I was like, oh, okay, yeah, let me help. Because in that case, it looks awesome.
Like, this looks great.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Like. And, man, I was that close. I was one question away from losing him forever, you know? Like, what I wanted to do, Chip, was be like, hey, are you guys, like, dumb? I. I drew you a picture.
Like, I walked the whole thing with you. I did everything I was supposed to do, and you still couldn't get. You think he would have ever told me? I don't think he would have even. Even. I don't think he would have said we were here for two hours in the dog walk, man.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: He would have been, screw. Screw you. I just.
Sal, for what it's worth, that is the story I was hoping you were going to tell. That is the story I remember you telling me, I don't know, months ago.
It is crazy. Here you go. You think this guy bagged off and took the lazy way out and didn't follow instructions and actually, this guy went above and beyond, beyond what I think most people would do, and broke out, like, flashlights and cell phones and probably just stopped working when their batteries ran out on their cell phones because the flashlight was depleting the battery.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: I was broken. Like, honestly, I felt horrible. And every time I tell that story, I get emotional because it. I think about how close I was to losing him forever.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Because I know he wouldn't have told. He wouldn't. He would have just walked away saying, hey, you know what, dude? Screw you.
I'm never going above and beyond. Even if he wouldn't have quit, he would have never gone above and beyond. And. And by the way, we worked together for like, six, seven years together after that, and he was one of my strongest generals. You know, like. Like I said, I built armies.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: It's so good. I think, operating from this place where we say. I think everybody generally wants to do a good job. I think, yes, they're here. They have to log hours. So let me do this. The best that was. That was wired into me, and I think it's. I think it's wired into to most individuals. Like, I want to do a good job.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: This last piece of the framework, I just want to go a little bit deeper here because I think this is an Opportunity to tell the AJ Story as well. So it's about, like, bestowing praise and appreciation and letting people know, because people are always told when they didn't do it right or didn't do it enough and all of that. And I think just as important is telling people, yes, just like that. Like, that's exactly what we want. That is what we do here. Like, thank you. Thank you for doing that and laying criticism in a positive tone. I mean, I've been very outspoken. I think anybody who's listened to this show for a while understands that. I think I bring a lot of positivity here. I just don't think there's. I think we have enough negativity in the world and in our lives that we don't need any more of it. Certainly, that's the way I coach. It's something that I know you bring to the table. I think it's why we hit it off so early on. Tell. Tell me this AJ Story and tell me how that. Because I think it feeds into this last point.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Man, he's. Yeah, he was so cool. This kid was awesome. Like, his dining room. He's a busser. For this restaurant concept that I worked for. It was half fine dining. Wasn't really fine dining, but we had table service, and, you know, we tried to look the part, you know, we wanted to be upper, you know, than we were. And he was great at it, man. He set the dining room up. I mean, it. Even the salt and pepper shakers were all lined up the same way on the tables, and all the tables were. I mean, he was awesome. Like, and one day I came in, and again, this is when I first started using the template. And again. And not so much, right? The dining room was just in disarray. Table chairs would, like, not pushed in, and they were cockeyed. And so I was really starting to catch the swing of the. The leadership template at this point. So I was excited about this, and I told him. I said, aj, man. Hey, what's going on, dude? He's like, hey, what's up, bro? How you doing, dude?
And I'm like, yeah, so talk to me about the dining room, man. Because normally you're the man, and today it looks a little disarray. Like, was it the night crew or what happened, buddy? Tell me what happened?
And he looked at me and he says, oh, bro, right on, dude. You caught me slipping a little bit, but I'm gonna dial it in right now for you, big dog. And, like.
And it was, like, the easiest I've ever reprimanded anybody in my entire life. Like, I, I, I. That's the thing I remember the most about it was I was like, man, that was so easy. I can't believe that.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: But see, woven it. So woven into the story. But something you didn't mention is that. And you sort of said it. You said by now the leadership template was in full swing. You knew it, you had it under your belt, all of that. But I think it was part of the culture. And I'm guessing this is not the first time. Maybe it was the first time he was reprimanded, but not the first time he had seen you or heard you reprimanding others. That I think it was woven into the culture. What I think is so important about this is that at every point, at every intersection, we do have a choice to go left or right. And when I was a young manager, I was angry all the time. I cared so much. And I felt like nobody cares as much as I do. And all of that.
And whether that's true or not doesn't really matter.
What matters is that we're all here to do right, to execute in this vision, to do a certain thing. And I think what really matters is that at every intersection, we can go left or go right. We can be angry and yell at somebody, or we can try to affect a change and try to get the job done. Because my job is not to make this person feel bad about not doing the job. My job is to make sure the job gets done. So what's the best way? How can I be most effective at getting the job done? There's always time later to have a more serious conversation. But in that moment, we've got a choice. And I think, I think that's woven into this, this template as you've, as you've laid it out. All right, six points. Really quickly. Recap it here for the people listening. What are those six points?
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Again, it's have a clear and. And real vision, right? Have a real vision. Understand what you want to do.
Make your plan fit that vision, right? Communicate clearly and concisely. Talk about the why.
Build an army, right? Build your culture with that communication.
Follow up on the results.
Most importantly, number five is ask a question.
I tell owners this all the time. Ask a question. All you gotta do is ask a question, man. Stop being mad. Just ask a question, and you'll be amazed at what happens. And then, you know, praise the positive movement. You know what I mean? Always celebrate the positive, even just look for the positive. Just Find it. There's something positive. I tell owners, don't be a seagull.
Right? Seagull management. You've heard of this before, Chip? Seagull management? No. Yeah. Seagull management is something also that I. One of my mentors told me, I think it was Phil Patton said, sal, don't be a seagull. And I was like, what does that mean? He's like, well, seagulls always fly at a real high altitude above the. The beach and just, like, kind of poop on everybody and leave, Right? Don't be a seagull. Right? Don't fly at a high altitude of your restaurant.
Like, get down in there, you know, get intimate with your restaurant and your employees. Like, for me, I never really talk about business with the employees anyway. It's only the manager that I talk about business with anyway. All the employees, if they try to talk to me about business, I deflect it. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Just talk to, you know, the manager about that. I don't know. That's not what I'm here for.
So, yeah. Phil Patton was like, don't be a seagull cell. Get down. Intimate with your.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Care about them. Don't just, like, come in, point out all the negative. Just, oh, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong, that's wrong. And then walk out like, you can't do that. You have to say, yeah, hey, you know what? This is awesome right here.
But like you said, right? This is what we do, right? We're great, and here's how we do it.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: That's right. I love it. Sal, this is the first of what will be many, many more conversations we will have on this show. Appreciate you taking time.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Great.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Appreciate you sharing this leadership template to everybody listening. Appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. And we will see you next time.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Thank you, man. Have a great one.
Sam, it.
