[00:00:00] Speaker A: My guest on today's show is one of the OGs, Roger Bowdoin. He is the host of the Restaurant Rockstars podcast. He has been doing this for over a decade. Podcasting. I mean, he's been in the industry for over 30 years. He's owned and sold five different places over the course of his career. So he knows what it is like to build a place, to scale a place, and to ultimately exit his business. He consults with restaurant owners all over the country to help them spend more time on their business, less time in their business. We get into so much on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
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, two episodes every week where we help you level up and build a more profitable restaurant. I also run a coaching program. If any of this resonates, this is very much what we do day in, day out, week after week with the members of the P3 mastermind. Go to RSprophet.com to learn more about what we do. Watch a video, read some more information about the program. Set up a call with me or someone from my team so we can answer all your questions. If it's a good fit, we'll talk about what next steps are. And if it's not a good fit, hopefully we can point you in the right direction. Rsp as always, you'll find that link in the show Notes.
What's the food cost for your third best selling entree? You don't know, but with Margin Edge you could know instantly. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that we recommend to every single P3 member anyone looking to improve their profitability. With Margin Edge you just get to snap pictures of your invoices and you get real time data for every area of your business. You get to see plate costs in real time. You get a daily P and L. You know I love that your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. What happens is that Margin Edge saves you a ton of time and it lets you make better informed decisions. I got a client Gather brewing. They were P3 member for a better part of a year. They started using Margin Edge last year and within one month, I'm telling you, 30 days, their food costs went from 38 to 28%. Massive savings those 10 points drop straight to the bottom line. Trust me. There's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many my clients, so many listeners, so many P3 mastermind members. It's because it works. I know it works. If you've been listening for a while, you know I talk about it. If you're interested in learning more or you want to see how Gather brewing went from 38 to 28%, they put together an incredible video. Video. Head over to margin edge.com/chip again, margin edge.com/chip. As always, you'll find that link at in the show notes.
So my guest on today's show is one of the OGs of Restaurant podcast. I'm sure you guys know it. I'm sure you guys listen to Restaurant Rock Stars. I'm joined today by Roger Bowdoin. Roger, welcome to the show.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Chip. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: How long has the Restaurant Rock Stars podcast been going now at this point,
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Gosh, I'd have to say 10 years. We've hit 507 episodes and we're over a million views. So, yeah, it's, it's a labor of love for sure. I love talking shop with operators and I love offering advice or information that'll help anyone listening to run a stronger, more profitable business. That's the whole reason for being.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Roger, I've been a big fan of yours for a long time. I can't believe that we've been doing this for as long as we have and we haven't had you on here. That's an oversight on my part for sure. But I'm glad to have you here. I really meant it. You are one of the OGs. You are somebody that I very much look up to. As I was looking to start this podcast seven years ago, you were already many, many years in and there weren't, there weren't many. There still aren't many restaurant podcasts out there. And, and so I, I've appreciated the way that you've helped the industry and all you've done. For anybody that doesn't know you, your podcast, your trajectory, your background, why don't you bring people up to speed and then we'll get into what we're going to talk about. But tell people who you are.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: All right, so, Roger bowdoin, I've got 30 years of experience in the hospitality space, but 23 years actually founding high volume restaurants from scratch. I had a lot of success with that.
Not to say everything was a success. Sure. There's been Failures along the way. But I had five different concepts. I had a Mexican cantina. It all started with wood fired pizzerias. I had two of those. Then I started a steakhouse and a bar. Then I purchased a failing restaurant, turned it into a Mexican cantina. And chip, as I mentioned a moment ago, just before the pandemic, after I'd sold all my restaurants, I had the brilliant idea of buying another place. It was your grandma's breakfast cafe. And then a couple months later, everything went upside down with the pandemic. And we came through that and I sold that property. And yeah, now I'm just running restaurant rock stars.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So restaurant rock stars. And you've got consulting clients all over. That's the other. That's the other way that you help the community. For sure.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I love working one on one with restaurant owners and operators. Anything we can do to help them run a stronger business. And I emphasize that word, business. I'm all about that. And then also I speak at major shows as well. Love it.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: And of course is the focus of the conversation we're going to have today because I think you and I very much see eye to eye on this. We want to talk about the difference between having, owning, running a great restaurant and having owning, running a great business. Because there should be overlap and very often there isn't. So talk to me because this is the heart of what you do in the podcast and certainly what you do in your consulting business. But talk to me about that discrepancy and talk to me about how we sort of bridge that gap between having a great restaurant and having a great restaurant business.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: You know, the word that I often use is systems. And it really take systems to make your business more efficient and that you have the big picture and that you empower your teams to learn your business and help you run the business for an incentive. And that was definitely one of the keys to my success.
I applied business skills to a business not traditionally run by MBAs. And I systemized every part of my restaurant so that I didn't have to work there. I worked on my business until I didn't have to work on it anymore or I didn't have to work in it anymore is what I should be saying. So that was the key. But yeah, running a business versus running a restaurant. Restaurant. There's three key areas I was obsessed with. It all started with guest service. I thought that if I could offer better service and real hospitality and training my teams in service and salesmanship, it would not only increase my My check averages. But it would also lead to loyalty by my team. Building relationships with every guest, giving them lots of reasons to come back, providing memorable experiences versus just serving food and drink. Then when I dialed that in, I mean, we literally trained people every single day. But I was obsessed with training. I really enjoyed, enjoyed it. And then it was all about cost controls and maximizing profit. It's like, how do we squeeze every nickel of profit out of this place, make it so efficient, make our ordering efficient, make our throughput efficient, cross utilizing ingredients across every single dish, taking regular inventory so that we knew that we were staying at what I call the sweet spot, Tracking a daily break even, and then focusing on the labor cost and finding that sweet spot. And all those things were super important. But then it was about menu design, so that every single item contributed a similar profit in each category, so that I didn't care what we were selling as long as we were moving the merchandise. And we really didn't have a waste or a theft or a spoilage problem. So those were business systems that really made all the difference. And then the third piece, of course, was marketing. So many restaurants today spend thousands of dollars on marketing they can't track. They don't know if there's an ROI to it. They don't know where the business is coming from. They try something. I call it an experiment. This is the business I know, Chip, where people walk in the back door every day trying to sell you things you think you don't need, and the phone rings off the hook. And most people do this, but every now and again, oh, you know, we put you on the air. Have you ever tried a radio commercial? It's like everyone on their drive home is going to hear your spot, you know, and it's like, oh, I've never done that. Let's try it a couple thousand dollars later. Unless everyone who walks through the door says, hey, Roger, heard you on the radio. And that's what brought me in. Which never happens. You'll never know if it works. So I focused on marketing that I could track. And I knew what the ROI was and knew where the customers were coming from. I focused on those three things. And then I empowered my team to take on new responsibilities if they wanted it for an incentive. And they grew my business. And that allowed me to do other things. Open other restaurants, work on real estate projects. I wasn't tied to the business anymore. That was the key.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: So talk to me. I want to go back here. This idea of systems, One of the things that I heard I do have my mba. I went to business school. And one of the things they said is, you know, systems are sort of like a fancy corporate word that doesn't mean anything anymore. And so I had a professor who literally said, listen, everything is systems and goals. The goal is what you want to accomplish. Meaning we're at point A, we want to be at point B. So we want this thing to happen. And a system is just a repeatable set of actions. So we are going to do this and this and this to make the following thing happen. So when you talk about systematizing it, I really think it's not to be too, you know, highfalutin here, but it's algorithmic thinking, right? If this, then that, that's an algorithm. If this happens, then this is what we will do, right? So if somebody complains, then this is the series of things we do. So when you talk about, like, the guest experience and customer service and hospitality and all that, talk to me about some of the ways that you, that you systematize that and how do you make that automatic so that it's easy for people to make the right decision 99% of the time.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: So if you've got a template for anything that's important that you consider be a system, let's just say taking inventory is a system, because I think it's vitally important to stay in that sweet spot once you know what it is. But it was also about empowerment, where I knew the process and maybe I trained somebody in the process, and there was a check and balance for everything, but then it was their responsibility regularly. And at first we did it every single week until we hit that sweet spot. So imagine you take inventory for the very first time. You got a beginning inventory, you know, the very first time you count it, a week later, you got an ending inventory. It gives you a very accurate food cost. And let's just say you're happy with a 32% food cost, and you hit that three, four weeks in a row. 32. 32 and a half. 32. Okay, it's working. Then you don't have to do it every week anymore. Then you go to a monthly inventory, and the only time you make an adjustment is if, okay, a month later, after you hit it for four weeks in a row, if suddenly it spikes to 36, you got a problem. You need to dive in. So I empowered my people to do this regularly until they got the sweet spot, stayed in the sweet spot, and then they were incentivized. Stay in the sweet spot. So they got bonuses for keeping our costs in line. Same thing with labor.
I would empower people throughout the place. And I never use the word manager. Chip. I don't like the word manager. I don't like the word delegation. Doesn't matter. Restaurant industry, any industry in the world really uses that word manager. And delegation, to me, it was about leadership and empowerment. And there's a huge difference, because anyone can tell someone what to do and how to do it. That's delegation. But when you recognize talent in someone and you give them responsibility, ability, if they want it, it makes their job one, more interesting. And two, if there's an incentive for them achieving the results that you're hoping they'll achieve, that's. That's amazing, right? But it's also the pride they take in you recognizing something in them. They don't want to let you down. They want to have your back. And then they get an incentive, and suddenly that just buoys their feeling about your place. And if you do that, across the organization, morale goes up, and then obviously longevity goes up, retention and turnover goes down, which is a huge pain point business. Let me emphasize the fact that it's not everybody that wants a promotion. Sometimes it leads to a promotion. Most often it's just a new responsibility for an incentive. And then when a promotion opens itself up, you've got candidates that can fill it. But I had a grill guy, you know, and he could have 30 steaks on that grill at any time. Nothing ever came back. Everything was totally perfect on temperature. The guy was just obsessed about being the best grill guy on earth. I applaud that. That guy didn't want any more responsibility. All he wanted to do was cook steaks for me. And he did that for 15 years.
So it's like, you separate that, but just know that there are people that will leave you unless they see a way to move up. I was going to buy other restaurants. I was going to open up positions for them to take positions of authority and responsibility. A lot of people thrived in that. But I'm proud to say that in these, I'm a customer at. My biggest restaurant had 350 seats. I sold it in 2014. People I hired 28 years ago still work there. And I'm a customer there on weekends. And I walk in the door and it's like, I can't believe you've been here for 28 years. One, because there's this team spirit. It's a culture. It's not a mission statement. And they make really great money. And They've made so many friends that are regulars to that business.
And that's one of the reasons why that business dominated the competition. The people were outstanding. They built relationships with the guests. The people came back and the business grew and they made great money and they love the people they work with. That's a system.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: So I got asked then, so I'll pull at that thread a little bit, because obviously you've opened places from scratch, you've bought places and all of that.
To your point, the thing that keeps it right, you were in the business, you spent time working on the business. Obviously you stepped back, you were able to sell the businesses.
Talk to me then about how you do that. What needs to get built so that you can step back. Right. This is the E myth, the thing we talk about so much, the working in versus working on the business.
How does somebody who feels like they're drowning and they're in it, who might not even be able to see the surface of the water because they're so deep under it, how do you begin? What are the baby steps? What are the first bricks you put in there?
How do you begin to get out from under it?
[00:14:23] Speaker B: I think the most important thing is the team and leadership and accountability, because that's the foundation of the business. If your team aren't all pulling in the right direction, and if they're not all there for the right reasons, if they don't care about quality, if they don't care about guests, service, they don't care about meeting new people, then they're in the wrong business. And too many restaurants just randomly hire people and turn them loose and set them up for failure, really, Maybe. And that's why turnover is so high. They don't onboard them, they don't welcome them, they don't introduce them to the team, they don't necessarily set them up with a buddy or a mentor, which we did. And in my restaurants, anybody knew whether they had experience or not. I wanted them to shadow people for at least two shifts, and I wanted them to shadow at least two different superstars. I call them, or veterans, whatever you call it, because best practices come from different people that have a different approach to doing it. So let's talk about the critical foundation of leadership.
Not every restaurant has a job description. Again, I don't like the word management. I don't like the word job. I wanted to give people a feeling like, hey, you can grow with us. And I called them career descriptions. So every single position, from the dishwasher to the host to the Bus or to the bartender. Every single person had a career description, and it had three really critical components to it. And therein lies the accountability at the very top of any career description. I called it key success factors. What do I expect or want you to bring to the table every single day? Whether you have experience or not in any given position? It's a series of words or phrases. Maybe it's eyes wide open. Maybe it's hustle, maybe it's accurate cash handling. Maybe it's personality plus. Maybe it's several of those things. I want you to bring this enthusiasm, initiative, you know, Key success factors. The primary or the main body of a crew description is literally their primary responsibilities. Maybe it's a line. It's five different light items, maybe it's 10. It varies by position. Next to every one of those is a blank line. And I'll tell you why. Whenever we recruited somebody new and we brought them in and they got trained and they mentored and shadowed people and they're ready to go, I'd sit down with them, I would give them a copy of it, and I would have a copy, and I would read it line by line. First, this is what I want you to bring to the table. Table. The key success factors. Next, I will read you each line, and I want you to. I'm going to ask you two questions. One, do you understand what we expect for you to do this job and be successful in it? And two, do you promise to do it to the best of your ability? Every shift, every day?
And of course, after they've been trained, they're going to say yes. I agree, I understand. Unless they need further clarification, I go down the line, and if they said yes, then I get an initial on that line. Now, me being the expert in the restaurant, knowing what we expect in each position, they might be doing the job great for the first couple of weeks or, you know, three weeks later, all of a sudden, you see any of those things start to slide and go sideways, that's when you bring them in private. We always used to praise in public critique, never criticize. But I bring somebody into my office, instead of being the boss, saying, you said you could do this. Get out there and do it the right way. That's being the boss. That's a manager. You throw the ball in their court and you say, you said you could do this, and I'm seeing you do that. And then I'd sit back and say, what can and will you do to get your performance back on track, to meet the expectation. And then I'd wait for the answer and they'd have to tell me what they were going to do to correct the behavior. Because the minute they walked out of the office, they didn't want to be called on the carpet again. They knew we'd be watching. 99% of the time, that corrects the behavior. And that was the foundation of our culture because we had teamwork, we had incentives, we had contests, we praised people with recognition rewards every week. And we cared about each individual person. We got to know them as people. What do you like when you're not working? What are your hobbies? What are your goals in life? It's like I cared about people. And then I trained my leaders to do the same thing. And then finally, the third piece of that cre, a description is where can you go next if you do a stellar job? I'm recognizing you for the talents that you've shown me on your primary responsibilities. Sometimes it's a promotion. More often than not, it's a new task. Hey, can you go out and do this? So go create a catering operation or go start a takeout business. Or how about we build a brand new, you know, set up our retail merchandise? I did this to many different people, and I'm going to give you an incentive for everything that you do. And sometimes it's promotion. Oftentimes it's just a new responsibility that makes you feel better about yourself. And I don't tell you how to do it. I say, you know what, Go research this, go figure it out for yourself, go execute it, and do your best for this place. And they never wanted to let you down.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: This episode is sponsored by rightwork, a labor optimization platform based built specifically for restaurants. If you own up, if you own and operate multiple locations, the challenge isn't just making schedules. It's making sure every store is staffing to real demand, that every store is staying on budget and following the same operating standards without adding more work. For managers, right work helps turn sales patterns and service models into smarter staffing plans. Then it gives the managers the tools to schedule accurately and efficiently. Restaurant strategy listeners can get free onboarding, a free labor model build out, and three months free of right work usage. To claim the offer, visit right.work/chip again, right.work chip and yes, that link is in the show notes.
So, Roger, I love all of that. I want to go back. I want to pull out a thread here. When did you get started in the restaurant? What was the first restaurant you ever worked?
[00:20:08] Speaker B: So, okay, so I was A bartender at a private. No, I. My very first job in hospitality was I was a dishwasher, okay, At a private country club. And I was a high school senior. And I would say I was there for about a month washing dishes. I was doing the banquet stuff because they did a lot of big weddings. But then it was also, you know, the restaurant in the club and all that kind of stuff. And I had a work ethic. I worked really, really, you know, hard, and I was respectful. They saw something special in me, and they promoted me to be a bartender, and they trained me to be behind the bar. And then a month later, all of a sudden, I'm like, in the 19th hole at the private club. Professionals, doctors, lawyers, business owners. I'm calling them sir. I'm treating them with respect. I'm making sure that I'm giving them hospitality. They didn't train me on that part. It just was something innate of the way I was brought up, I guess. And all of a sudden, the $10 bills are flying at me behind the barn. How great was that? So that was the indoctrination of hospitality. But that was literally the only restaurant I'd ever worked in. I'd never.
And then I saw an opportunity. In 1994, I moved to a ski resort town, and it was a huge ski resort, and there were only a handful of restaurants, and there were lines out the door because of the volume of skiers that would come through in the winter. And I tried all these restaurants, and I was just disappointed. The service was bad. The food was average. There was no sophistication or ambiance. And I just had this vision for this Wood Fired Pizzeria where the oven was right in the middle of the floor. It was part of the show because as I believe now I believe then the restaurant business is show business. It's entertainment. And every single person that's interacting with guests, it works for you. That's, you know, part of the team is an actor or an actress on stage, and they're not there just selling food and drink. They're bringing the show to life. They're making recommendations. They're taking you on what I call the magical journey of everything unique, special, and different about your place. So that was my very first restaurant, the Wood Fired Pizzeria. And it's a funny story because it was in a terrible location, six miles away from the ski resort, on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, leaky roof, no parking. Had to overcome the stigma. Three failed restaurants that were there before I got there, only Because I had no experience. It was really hard to get money. I wanted a million dollars to buy land and build a building. And everyone laughed at me and said, so how many restaurants you ever owned before? You know? But Finally I got $150,000 loan. You can't do much with that except end up on the wrong side of the tracks in a dumpy space that had failed restaurants before you got there. It was an overnight success. Lines out the two years later I got my million dollar loan, bought the property, built the 8,000 square foot building, and the show must go on. And that was kind of the start.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: So I love all this and I think the context is valuable for the listeners here. The reason I asked how you got into this and all of that is that you've been doing this for a while and you sort of came up in it.
Because I want to go back to this way, the way that you train people and hold them accountable and lay out expectations, which I love. But I think what listeners are probably going to say or maybe what they're thinking is something that often comes to mind with me, which is where I look at my staff of any restaurant and I say, at least half of them don't want to be there. And I don't mean that in a. I don't mean that in a condescending way. It's just, it is a means to an end. It's the school teacher who works weekends to pay to make a little extra cash, or works at the restaurant in the summer, or it's the kids home from, you know, summer break, or it's the musicians or the actors or the whatever. And I say all that because that was me. That's how I got it. I mean, my very first job was in restaurants folding pizza boxes. That's what I did all through high school, all through college. But it wasn't my career. I never imagined it would be. I was in theater. So I came to New York City to be an actor. And so what do you do as an out of work actor? You get a job in restaurants. And it was only over time that I, and listeners will know the story. Cause I tell it often. It was only over time where I saw a place for myself there, there. But I would say the first two and a half, three years that I was in this industry, I hated this industry simply for the.
For the reason that it was a reminder that I wasn't doing what I quote unquote, was supposed to be doing, all of that. And I sort of make it personal to Bring it here. Because there are plenty of people for whom this is just a means to an end. It's a way to make a little extra cash, way to pay the bills. If they could pay their bills easier or make more money somewhere else doing something else, I think they would do it. And I know you know that because we are not all blessed with people who just want to be here, want to be here. So how does that.
What you described, how did you apply that? Because obviously, you must have done it pretty successfully, because up in Portland, Maine, it's a vacation town. You had plenty of college kids, you have plenty of school teachers and people who were just trying to make money in the summer. You had to contend with all of this. So tell me, tell the audience how you contended with this, because it's never as easy as we hope it will be.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: All right, so first of all, four of those restaurants were literally at this ski resort, which was in a fairly remote area, an expensive area to live in. And most of my team members had to drive 30 or 35 minutes in the winter during snowstorms, just to get to work. And I knew that that was going to be a challenge. So we had to create, like I said, the incentives, the team spirit, the camaraderie, the culture. We had to make it the fun place. Our culture was hospitality, family and fun. Everything everyone did was about hospitality. And we taught them what that meant, and everyone had their own idea what that meant. But then the family part. We wanted our guests to feel like family. We wanted our team to feel like family. And we took care of them. And if they had issues, we had lots of flexibility.
We loaned lots of people money. We helped them out any way we could, and we even gave them a voice. We recognized that people are just sometimes, if they're just there getting paid to do a job, they see things. They're in a position to recognize ways of improving the business. But if you don't ask, you don't get. So we encourage their ideas, and then we incentivize them to do that. We had a weekly recognition rewards program. It was simple. It was called Difference Dollars. And at first, I nominated people, and I wanted everyone to take part in this. So imag, you got a 65 employee or team member restaurant. Not everybody works every shift and every day, but you want everyone to be part of this different stylish thing. So Friday and Saturday, everybody worked at least one of those days before the start of business. I just gathered the team together in the dining room, in the kitchen. We'd have 40 or, you know, 30, 40 people gathered around. And this week's winner, Sally Johnson. And I'd go into glowing detail. What did Sally do to make a difference? Either helping a guest, solving a guest problem, helping a team member, just taking some kind of initiative above and beyond their typical position. Right. And then everyone would clap. But I'd give Sally Johnson a can of Red bull and a $20 bill. And it was that simple. Thanks for working here. But it didn't stop there. I had a template on my computer. Big and bold difference dollars. I'd type her name in, and then I would type exactly what Sally did that made a difference. And we framed these things and we started hanging them in the kitchen. And pretty soon we filled the entire kitchen with these differences that people did. And then it was the back hallway and the employee break room and where they hung up their coats. When I sold that place, it's like there was no places to hang these things. But what really made the rubber meet the road is whenever somebody got recruited and was a brand new person, they're on their first break, having their soda. After a couple hours, you couldn't help but notice them walking the rows and just reading about all the great things that people did to improve the place. And that spoke volumes about how we ran the place, what the culture was, the team spirit, the fun. And I'd like to say that part of that is the reason why there's people that still work at the place that I hired 28 years ago because of that team spirit. And then if somebody, they kind of voted themselves off the. Off the island. I can't remember the last time anyone ever got fired because they didn't fit. It's like they either felt that culture was part of them and they wanted to be part of it, and they saw the upward mobility and the recognition and the incentives and where they could go or this isn't for me. And, you know, we tried it, and a day later, we're gone.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a real. And I appreciate the specifics that you shared there.
I think that's going to be helpful to a lot of people listening. It's funny because I think Danny Meyer's on everybody's mind. Right. Right now as we're recording this, he's doing his book tour to promote his newest book, what Could Possibly Go Right. And something used to be said because again, I was in New York City for 20 years, so I certainly was around his restaurants and knew tons of people who went through that. And he was a culture first kind of person, and he was famous for hiring nice people, right? Warm, hospitable, gracious, said, I can teach you how to properly serve and clear a dish. I can teach you everything you need to know about wine and spirits and all that.
Teach you how to care. So he would always look for what he called his 51 percenters. And there were people outside of his organization throughout the city that used to roll their eyes and say, oh, you know, they're really drinking the Kool Aid over there. And I remember he got wind of that at some point, and he said, yeah, but at least we have Kool Aid and we know who our people are, and the people who are here know who they are. So I think it's this idea. I think you bring up the idea, and there was another way of telling that story, which is that it's good to have some Kool Aid there. Seth Godin always talks about this. So the key to marketing is culture. And culture is really def. Defined by these seven words. People like us do things like this. So the people who work here always act this way or go above and beyond or are always looking to make little improvements. And people who don't belong here are simply the people who don't do those things. I love that. Love it.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: There's one more piece I can add to it. Not to belabor the point, but I mentioned a moment ago giving people a voice. So one time I decided just out of the blue to call the whole team together in a mandatory meeting. Yeah, we had the donuts and coffee. I'm like, this won't take any more than 20 minutes. And I had all these flip charts and sharpie markers. And I'm like, I recognize the fact that the dishwasher, the fry cook, anybody can see things. Like, one time we lost thousands of dollars worth of $7, $8 fine silverware because the busser didn't care. And half of it had ended up in the trash. And three months later, I opened the silverware drawer. Half of it's missing. I recognize the fact that people, if they're trained to care and incentivized to care, they can improve your business. So here are the flip charts. And I simply said, nobody. There's no such thing as a dumb, stupid, crazy idea. I'm like, if you have anything that can improve this business, I want you to get up and write it on the board. So people are hesitant at first, but then all of a sudden they started doing it. One person did it, then the next person did it. And I said, okay, I'm going to look at all these ideas and I'm going to put them into a short list. If I think that it's going to have a bottom line impact, either increased sales, increased profit, better marketing idea, preventative maintenance, whatever it is. If I can track a bottom line improvement, I'm going to give you a piece of the action for as long as it continues to work and as long as you continue to work here. And people 15 years later are still collecting equ Extra money in their paychecks because 15 years ago, they came up with a great idea that improved the business that still works. It's like, I don't see that very often in restaurants. That's really out of the box thinking. And it's. And it's. That's the empowerment. That's my definition of empowerment.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Yep. It's funny because empowerment, I think the other piece to that is, is autonomy. And this is the thing that's. So we talk about working on working in the business.
I think the people piece, that's the hardest thing to relinquish is autonomy. Is literally saying, I empower you. This is what I need to happen. I always say this, right? This is the result I need to happen. And give me a plan for getting there. And they come and they do that. And I say, great, this is great. Go ahead and do it. I trust you.
Or they're in charge of something for a period of time and I trust you to make the right decisions. And what's required then is to review those decisions. We always talk about how the owners. The boss bottleneck, right? Is that when every decision, not that you're the one holding it up, but when every decision has to flow through the owner, right? Hey, should we do this? Hey, what should we do on this table? Hey, is it time to order this? Or hey, what do you think we should do? You know, should we think we should get rid of this dish? But if you're always. Everyone has to check in with you, well, then obviously we can only go as fast as you allow. As fast as that bottleneck will. Will allow. But ultimately, if you allow people to make decisions with the understanding that at times they're going to make the wrong decision, they're not going to make the decision that is the one you would have made, or they're not going to make the one that's in the best interest of the business. The understanding that 90% of what they do as long as they have clear targets, is going to be right. And that you've got the framework, the system in place to review those decisions and say, great. So I love what you did here, here, here, here. I want to talk about this decision. So talk to me about what happened here and what led to you making this decision. Decision. And you go through it and you say, great. Were there any other options that you considered before making this decision? Great. Maybe. Maybe they didn't see any other option, or maybe they saw three potentials and made one decision. He said, bo, between A, B and C, you did C, but I really think you should have gone B. I think that would have. But reviewing that, letting them make the mistakes, letting them sit at the fork of the road and understand sort of the weight of their decisions will help those quote, unquote mistakes land more when you review them afterwards. And it's understanding how to put guardrails in the business so that we never fly off the cliff and understanding the worst we're going to do is ding up the car a little bit. But we're never going to lose the business. We're never going to fail. Maybe we're going to cut into profitability, we're going to piss off somebody.
But the empowerment, the autonomy that comes from empowering people and literally saying, I trust you, I trust you to make the decisions. And what we'll do is we'll review those from time to time.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally agree. So, again, it's a leap of faith sometimes to put trust in people and to just turn your hands loose and say, okay, go for it. I mean, that's a huge leap of faith for an owner or an operator who's never done that before. But again, when you find people where you recognize something special and they got that fire and they got that passion for hospitality, then you start to talk to them about judgment and using your good judgment and making your best call and knowing what the goals are of the business and knowing that what's in the best interests of the guest is also in the best interest of the restaurant. There's a balance there that you got to reach. But I would say the pluses far outweighed the minuses. Sure did. People make mistakes? I made mistakes myself. I could tell you a story about, you know, all the propane going out on a Saturday night, 7:30, because I forgot to put the propane on automatic delivery after we were closed for a couple of months. It's like, yep, I did that. I own that. It's like, yes, people made mistakes. No one ever got criticized or chastised for making a mistake but they learned from them and they, and they didn't repeat it obviously. But again the pluses outweighed the minuses. But it is a leap of faith.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: It's the hardest and it's the hardest thing to do. A leap of faith is really the right thing is trust. Trust is acknowledging that someone's going to make a mistake, something's going to go wrong.
It's then also trusting in the systems that you have in place to know that you're never going to, it's never going to be so bad again. You're not going to. You've got guardrails going up the, you know, going up the mountain. So you're never going to, you're going to, never going to crash. Roger, I've loved this conversation. I will definitely have you back. I'm embarrassed it took this long to actually get you here.
Where can people go? I mean obviously Restaurant Rock Stars, they should go check that out. 500 plus episodes. Where can they go? And learn more about what you're up to, what you do.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: So yeah, the website is Restaurant Rockstars.com youm'll see all the podcasts archived there historically but then it's available in every major podcast player if they have any questions, if they want to reach out to me. My email address is just R O G E R atrestaurantrock stars.com and I love talking shop with, with operators but yeah, that's where they can get the majority of everything.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: We have a series of systems that I talked about. We sell something called the profitable Restaurant Operator Academy as well and that'
[email protected] all the systems about are there.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: We will put that link in the show notes. We'll also put Roger's email in there just so you've got it really handy. Roger, any last words of wisdom for the listeners?
[00:36:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Work on your business a little bit every single week and you'll quickly see what the results are as opposed to being tied to it. And yeah, take that leap of faith. Recognize talent in people and once you somebody thrive in your business because you gave them a chance and an opportunity, it's going to become easier the second time and then the next time and then pretty soon imagine having a whole team that have your back where you don't even have to be there anymore unless you want to be. That's really the goal. Work in your business only to the extent you want to, not because you have to.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: And that frees your time and you can spend more time with your family.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: It's obvious. This is why I wanted Roger to come onto the show, because he and I see eye to eye on this, where we very much are in alignment. Roger, I appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for everything you do for this industry and I look forward to having you back soon.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: Thanks to your audience for tuning in.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Once again, I want to thank Roger for taking time out of his day to sit and chat with me. All of the important links are in the show notes. Appreciate you guys making this show part of your week. If there's ever anything you want me to cover you feel like I'm not covering, send me an email chip@chip close.com that's C H I P K L O S E dot com. Look forward to hearing from you guys. I will see you on the next one.
