Hidden Speakeasy in St. Louis | Interview with Gerard Craft

Join us as we delve into the captivating story of Gerard Craft, renowned chef, and entrepreneur, as he shares his remarkable journey from a troubled childhood to becoming a highly successful chef and business owner. In this thought-provoking podcast episode, Craft opens up about his early passion for photography, his decision to pursue a culinary career, and the challenges he faced along the way. Filmed at the hidden speakeasy, NOTA, located at The Foundry in St. Louis, this episode offers a unique backdrop for Craft’s inspiring insights. Discover the key values, training methods, and empowering leadership strategies that Craft implemented to create a positive company culture in his own restaurant. Gain valuable insights into the importance of embracing change, building a strong foundation in business, and the power of continuous learning. Craft’s inspiring experiences will leave you motivated to embrace failure as an opportunity for growth and to lead with honesty and feedback. Don’t miss this engaging conversation that explores leadership, culture, and the transformative power of following your passion, all set against the backdrop of the hidden speakeasy, NOTA, at The Foundry in St. Louis.

Check out the video interview here!

TRANSCRIPTION

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I am your host,

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Brett Gilliland, and today I’ve got Gerard Craft

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with me Gerard what’s going on, my man.

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How are you? I’m great. Thanks for having

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me. You probably don’t know this because I

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don’t even know if you check your own

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Instagram messages, but I sent you a message

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in April two thousand eighteen.

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Really? I did. That’s Craft. And now here

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we are. No. January of two thousand twenty

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four.

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That’s alright, man. You’re a busy guy. I’ve

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been good at checking my, like, normal message

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you know, my emails, my texts.

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I like to share those messages because it’s

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life’s about persistency as you know. You guys

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stay pleasantly persistent, but our mutual friend, Katie,

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call your introduce to two of us and

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thank you, Katie, for sure.

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Why don’t you explain to people that are

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watching this right now? Where are we at

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right

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so we are at Noda, which stands for.

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None of the above. It’s our speakeasy

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here at the city foundry, but we’re kind

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of through some tunnels in the basement Yeah.

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Hidden away. It’s amazing. Absolutely amazing. Do we

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share how we get down here or is

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that kind of a secret?

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You can yeah. I mean, there’s a there’s

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a door up at the top on foundry

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Way with,

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a red light Gilliland

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if that light is on,

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then you can pop in and, you know,

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hopefully we have some some space.

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I love it. And if it’s not on,

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it means you’re just not open, or does

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it means it’s full? Yeah. It means we’re

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not open. Okay. Yeah. Alright. Well, hey, man.

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Let’s dive in if we can and, get

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listeners a little lay of the land. I

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told you I’d start with kinda what’s your

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backstory of what’s made you the man you

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are today.

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Yeah. So,

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you know, grew up in Washington, DC.

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And,

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you know, got into

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far too much trouble as a kid. And

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ended up,

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finishing school, I should say, out in, Northern

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Idaho

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at a,

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at,

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school for, you know,

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troubled kids.

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And when I was there, I got to

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do

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sort of an apprenticeship

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with a photographer. And so I started getting

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really into snowboard photography. We were up in

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the mountains, so it was kinda perfect for

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all of that. I had always been interested

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in photography and done a lot,

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growing up. And so got to really, you

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know, see kind of the professional side of

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it. And, you know, we were doing everything

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from skiing and snowboarding

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to wake boarding,

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on skateboarding in in the summer.

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And then I moved to Salt Lake City

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after that school to go to Gilliland

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to continue my photography.

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And while I was there, I ended up

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dropping out of college. And

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you see a pattern of school not working

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out for me.

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But I

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took a job

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just kind of in the morning, I took

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a job washing cars.

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And at night, I took a job washing

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dishes. And, you know, still was doing my

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photography. Gilliland

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everything, but the photography wasn’t really paying any

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money. It was, you know. Right. Right. Yeah.

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It was like a trade stuff trying to

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get in the door with different professional hot,

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snowboarders and stuff like that. But

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really fell in love with the kitchen when

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I was in there and a

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career advisor

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told me I should think about, going to

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culinary school.

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And so I want to,

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Salt Lake City Community College. Mhmm. And

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studied culinary arts while I was still kind

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of working

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at this this place called Fats Grill. I

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mean,

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super high end luxury.

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Nothing like Nota. This was Although it was

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a very clean,

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you know, bar with pool hole,

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you know, pool Gilliland,

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But but it was it was definitely not

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a a real refined spot. Right. And didn’t

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you go on to work at one of

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the best restaurants in San Fran and some

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other places around the country? I did not

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go to San Francisco. So I, from there,

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I actually went in,

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did a work study at the Ritz in

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Paris

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and,

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went out to Los Angeles to the,

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Chateau Mamont Hotel. That’s what I was thinking

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about. Yeah.

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And so I was a sous chef out

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at the Chateau Marmont,

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and

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stashed at a place in New Jersey for

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a while called Gilliland Inn which was kind

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of on a five acre organic,

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farm

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and,

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just outside of New York City. So It

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was a Relay Chateau property,

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all tasting menus.

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And I think that was about the the

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scariest place I ever

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ever worked.

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But it was amazing. It was just a

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very intense,

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atmosphere.

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And, you know, very driven people you know,

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all the people that worked there are all,

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you know, super successful today. You know, so

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I was I was definitely in over my

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head, but, you know, in the best kind

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of way. Right?

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So did you look to those guys and

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gals for leadership and advice, or was it

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cut throat and it didn’t work that way?

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Like, what what was the environment like in

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a restaurant like that? Yeah. I mean, they

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they were all, like, pretty cutthroat, but it

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was, you know,

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you know, everybody was helpful. And,

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as long as you were trying and and

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pushing and,

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you know, so everywhere you went, you were

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just trying to kind of learn as much

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as as humanly possible.

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So I’m a go back to when you

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went,

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out from from the East Coast to the

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West Coast to finish school. Like, what was

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it about you or maybe your upbringing? I

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don’t know what it is, but my fascinated

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by guys, that and guys and gals that

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that do something like that and have a

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pretty dramatic, you know, event happen. And then

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all of a sudden, now you fast where

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you’re at in two thousand twenty four. Right?

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Like, what do you think it was specifically

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about you that made you

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go a different route than maybe you could

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have gone?

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I don’t know. You know, I think I’ve

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always been, you know, a fan of the

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road less traveled. And,

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and I don’t know if that made all

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the difference. You know, but,

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I’ve I’ve definitely always appreciated

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the struggle.

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And I I don’t know why that is

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because there’s probably a horrible trait. Probably something

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I should talk to a therapist about, but,

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but I, you know, I always wanted to,

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you know, do things on my own and,

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you know, do things the hard way for

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some reason.

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And

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I think when I was looking to finally

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open a restaurant,

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I didn’t wanna go back. You know, my

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old family’s from New York Gilliland

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DC,

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and I didn’t wanna go back there and

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kind of fail in front of everybody. I

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kinda wanted to, you know, branch out on

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my own, do my own thing.

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And again, you know, I it worked out

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somehow, but god,

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probably not the smartest way. You know, I

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could have opened in New York City around

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family. And,

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yeah, you know, had all sorts of family

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friends coming in. But, thankfully, Saint Louis really

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welcomed me. So And talk about that. So

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what brought you to Saint Louis? I read

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that story. I think that’s pretty cool. Yeah.

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I mean, it was, again, I was twenty

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five years old. So,

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I look at twenty five year olds now,

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and I’m, like, oh my god. What the

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hell is that? Like, I was, like, twenty

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five.

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You know, so, you know, wasn’t always thinking

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entirely clearly, but, you know, I, I knew

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I wanted to do something on my own.

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I wanted to get out. And,

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you know, I had seen some stuff, and

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I think, like, Bonapati magazine or something like

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that about Saint Lewis, and I think an

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American place had just opened,

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Monarch restaurant was

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was doing really Brett. And I just read

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about Kevin Nash in buying Sydney Brett Craft,

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and he had just come from, like,

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Martine Barastaghi

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in Spain and Daniel Gilliland

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New York. And so

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I was like, oh, that’s kind of a

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cool Gilliland now I used to have a

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weird hobby of

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I still have a weird hobby of staying

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up late and looking at real estate.

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And,

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just kind of started looking at real estate

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in

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Saint Louis and stumbled upon this ad that

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was, wine bar for sale, which

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looking back at niche, when niche was not

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at, it was dirt floors, hole in the

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ground, no

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electricity.

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I was like, how was this a wine

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bar? Right.

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But, yeah, then I, I just kind of

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came here on, New Year’s Day,

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in

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two thousand five. And I I literally signed

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it on the spot. And I remember my

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brother, like, do you have a lawyer?

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Are you what are you doing? What’s a

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lawyer? How are you looking for?

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So,

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thankfully, I had my brother,

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investing and on my side because he was

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able to at least he local at all?

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Dear me. No. My brother lives in London.

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Okay. But he was at least able to

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to, you know, help me make some,

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my brother’s like you. He’s in finance. Okay.

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So That’s funny. Yeah. Yeah. So what I

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mean, when you think about that that move,

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did you did you picture success in your

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or was that just something you’re like, this

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is my passion. I’m gonna follow it, and

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then it’s successes happen? Like, what, like, what

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was it like if you look back to

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the twenty five year old Gerard? I think

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I always envisioned six success, but I think,

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you know,

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that vision of success is

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is continually

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changing. Right? You know, I think my my

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first vision of success was know, a successful

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neighborhood restaurant. And,

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you know, I had been eating a lot

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at a restaurant called prune in New York

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Gilliland

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there was a place called the tasting room

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in New York, and these were kinda like

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very small, but but kind of progressive and

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different restaurants.

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And and that’s kind of the between that

00:10:01.000 –> 00:10:03.000
and kind of what was going on in

00:10:03.000 –> 00:10:06.000
some of the small restaurants in Paris at

00:10:06.000 –> 00:10:06.000
the time,

00:10:07.000 –> 00:10:07.000
And,

00:10:08.000 –> 00:10:10.000
in Spain, you know, that’s kind of where

00:10:10.000 –> 00:10:12.000
I was where I was looking to. I

00:10:12.000 –> 00:10:15.000
think what happened was a lot different.

00:10:15.000 –> 00:10:17.000
And, you know, I think,

00:10:18.000 –> 00:10:20.000
I I didn’t quite understand. I think the

00:10:20.000 –> 00:10:23.000
demographics that I was gonna be serving

00:10:23.000 –> 00:10:25.000
when when we opened these. I thought I

00:10:25.000 –> 00:10:27.000
thought we were gonna be serving a lot

00:10:27.000 –> 00:10:28.000
of younger people,

00:10:28.000 –> 00:10:29.000
you know,

00:10:29.000 –> 00:10:30.000
young professionals Gilliland

00:10:31.000 –> 00:10:32.000
you go to New York. What what do

00:10:32.000 –> 00:10:35.000
you see in HIP new restaurant. And I

00:10:35.000 –> 00:10:37.000
think I actually got a much older client,

00:10:37.000 –> 00:10:38.000
though, coming from,

00:10:39.000 –> 00:10:40.000
ledoux

00:10:40.000 –> 00:10:42.000
and, you know, the suburbs.

00:10:42.000 –> 00:10:46.000
And and not entirely from my area. And

00:10:46.000 –> 00:10:46.000
and

00:10:47.000 –> 00:10:49.000
and I think there there was definitely a

00:10:49.000 –> 00:10:51.000
little bit of a of a struggle in

00:10:52.000 –> 00:10:54.000
in what people wanted out of us and

00:10:54.000 –> 00:10:56.000
what we were actually doing. Yeah. Isn’t it

00:10:56.000 –> 00:10:57.000
funny when you think you Brett this business

00:10:57.000 –> 00:10:59.000
plan and and what’s you think’s gonna happen

00:10:59.000 –> 00:11:02.000
that it rarely ever works that way. Yeah.

00:11:02.000 –> 00:11:04.000
So we were successful. Yeah. But

00:11:05.000 –> 00:11:07.000
not in the way that we had planned

00:11:07.000 –> 00:11:10.000
on being successful. What do you think, being

00:11:10.000 –> 00:11:12.000
the entrepreneur that you are in places like

00:11:12.000 –> 00:11:14.000
this, which is amazing. I absolutely love this.

00:11:14.000 –> 00:11:15.000
And the walk down here is one of

00:11:15.000 –> 00:11:17.000
the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’m not

00:11:17.000 –> 00:11:18.000
just saying that.

00:11:18.000 –> 00:11:21.000
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, what what do you

00:11:21.000 –> 00:11:22.000
think that you can share from a restaurant

00:11:23.000 –> 00:11:24.000
world to the to the business person or

00:11:24.000 –> 00:11:26.000
the, you know, the lawyer that whoever’s watching

00:11:26.000 –> 00:11:28.000
this right now? What do you see the

00:11:28.000 –> 00:11:30.000
similarities that can be learned from your world

00:11:30.000 –> 00:11:32.000
into the business world?

00:11:32.000 –> 00:11:34.000
Oh my god. I mean, you know, we

00:11:34.000 –> 00:11:35.000
are in the business world. So,

00:11:36.000 –> 00:11:38.000
you know, I think it’s all

00:11:38.000 –> 00:11:39.000
applicable,

00:11:39.000 –> 00:11:41.000
really, you know, and I think,

00:11:42.000 –> 00:11:45.000
flip that around a bit. I have learned

00:11:45.000 –> 00:11:48.000
a lot from the quote unquote business world.

00:11:48.000 –> 00:11:51.000
And I think it was in two thousand

00:11:52.000 –> 00:11:52.000
and twelve.

00:11:53.000 –> 00:11:55.000
We were opening pasteria,

00:11:56.000 –> 00:11:57.000
which was our fourth restaurant

00:11:58.000 –> 00:11:59.000
at the time, and

00:12:00.000 –> 00:12:02.000
I was really, really struggling.

00:12:03.000 –> 00:12:05.000
And I was struggling to to really manage

00:12:05.000 –> 00:12:08.000
them all. They were all doing really well.

00:12:09.000 –> 00:12:11.000
But all of a sudden I was managing

00:12:11.000 –> 00:12:11.000
four places

00:12:12.000 –> 00:12:14.000
and figured out I couldn’t really micromanage

00:12:15.000 –> 00:12:18.000
four places. Yep. And and I didn’t quite

00:12:18.000 –> 00:12:19.000
see it like that. I just at the

00:12:19.000 –> 00:12:21.000
time saw it is, everybody sucked.

00:12:23.000 –> 00:12:26.000
And why was everybody sucking and and not

00:12:26.000 –> 00:12:28.000
doing what they were supposed to do? And,

00:12:28.000 –> 00:12:29.000
you know,

00:12:29.000 –> 00:12:30.000
you know,

00:12:30.000 –> 00:12:32.000
after a little bit came to the realization

00:12:32.000 –> 00:12:33.000
is

00:12:33.000 –> 00:12:35.000
because I sucked.

00:12:35.000 –> 00:12:37.000
Yeah. It looks thin. Yeah. You know, I

00:12:37.000 –> 00:12:39.000
sucked. That was a horror manager.

00:12:39.000 –> 00:12:40.000
And,

00:12:40.000 –> 00:12:42.000
I’d never really learned how to

00:12:42.000 –> 00:12:43.000
to manage.

00:12:44.000 –> 00:12:45.000
Right? You know, like,

00:12:45.000 –> 00:12:47.000
in a restaurant when you’re being trained as

00:12:47.000 –> 00:12:49.000
a chef, at least back then. It was,

00:12:49.000 –> 00:12:51.000
you know, again, it was very cutthroat. It

00:12:51.000 –> 00:12:54.000
was very kind of military brigade system.

00:12:54.000 –> 00:12:57.000
It was, you know, I’m the chef. Yes,

00:12:57.000 –> 00:12:57.000
chef.

00:12:58.000 –> 00:13:00.000
You know, if I tell you to do

00:13:00.000 –> 00:13:00.000
something,

00:13:00.000 –> 00:13:02.000
you better fucking do it and you better

00:13:02.000 –> 00:13:04.000
do it fast and you better do it

00:13:04.000 –> 00:13:04.000
right,

00:13:05.000 –> 00:13:06.000
to be pissed,

00:13:06.000 –> 00:13:08.000
you know, and you, you know, it was

00:13:08.000 –> 00:13:09.000
it was a lot of leading out of

00:13:09.000 –> 00:13:12.000
fear and and stuff. And, you know, I

00:13:12.000 –> 00:13:15.000
had I re read this book called Delivering

00:13:15.000 –> 00:13:17.000
Happiness. Have you ever read that one? Sean

00:13:17.000 –> 00:13:18.000
Anchor, maybe. Tony,

00:13:19.000 –> 00:13:22.000
Shay Okay. Who, found out I never know

00:13:22.000 –> 00:13:24.000
if I’m saying his last name, right? But

00:13:24.000 –> 00:13:26.000
founded Zapos. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And,

00:13:27.000 –> 00:13:31.000
and, you know, that that just clicked all

00:13:31.000 –> 00:13:32.000
of a sudden. I mean, it was it

00:13:32.000 –> 00:13:34.000
was sometimes you read a book

00:13:34.000 –> 00:13:35.000
right when you need to read a book.

00:13:35.000 –> 00:13:37.000
Yeah. And that was that book. And it,

00:13:38.000 –> 00:13:40.000
then introduced me to,

00:13:44.000 –> 00:13:45.000
tribal leadership.

00:13:46.000 –> 00:13:48.000
And so tribal leadership then kind of like,

00:13:49.000 –> 00:13:51.000
gave that a voice, gave that a language,

00:13:51.000 –> 00:13:52.000
you know, and, you know, we started to

00:13:52.000 –> 00:13:54.000
talk about, you know,

00:13:56.000 –> 00:13:56.000
we.

00:13:56.000 –> 00:14:00.000
Right? You know, and and your language and

00:14:00.000 –> 00:14:03.000
and how the way you speak really kind

00:14:03.000 –> 00:14:04.000
of affects,

00:14:04.000 –> 00:14:07.000
you know, everybody around you, and it also

00:14:07.000 –> 00:14:08.000
affects

00:14:08.000 –> 00:14:11.000
the way that you’re acting. Right? So everything’s

00:14:11.000 –> 00:14:12.000
kind of like a language.

00:14:13.000 –> 00:14:15.000
And so, you know, going from eye to

00:14:15.000 –> 00:14:18.000
we was the biggest shift in our culture.

00:14:19.000 –> 00:14:21.000
And I think that’s the most the culture

00:14:21.000 –> 00:14:23.000
part of it’s the most applicable part across

00:14:23.000 –> 00:14:25.000
the board. I love that, man. Because I

00:14:25.000 –> 00:14:26.000
it’s so true. We talk about our firm.

00:14:26.000 –> 00:14:28.000
You know, so is it my firm is

00:14:28.000 –> 00:14:30.000
our firm and and my business partner and

00:14:30.000 –> 00:14:31.000
I, we’re we’re very locked in on that

00:14:31.000 –> 00:14:33.000
one because people wanna be a part of

00:14:33.000 –> 00:14:34.000
something. Right? I mean, And and at what

00:14:34.000 –> 00:14:37.000
point did you believe in hiring people? I

00:14:37.000 –> 00:14:39.000
look back at the amazing Claire back there

00:14:39.000 –> 00:14:41.000
who upset all this up. Hi, Claire. And,

00:14:42.000 –> 00:14:44.000
like, in in believing in other people and

00:14:44.000 –> 00:14:45.000
letting go. Right? Cause that was a big

00:14:45.000 –> 00:14:47.000
one for me is when you started having

00:14:47.000 –> 00:14:48.000
multiple teammates

00:14:49.000 –> 00:14:51.000
is, you know, coming from the janitor to

00:14:51.000 –> 00:14:53.000
the CEO, and now you’ve got all these

00:14:53.000 –> 00:14:55.000
people, like, at at what point was it

00:14:55.000 –> 00:14:56.000
for you? What was the a moment? Do

00:14:56.000 –> 00:14:58.000
do you recall that? Yeah. I mean, I

00:14:58.000 –> 00:14:59.000
think this was the

00:15:00.000 –> 00:15:02.000
a moment. I mean, I was so stressed

00:15:02.000 –> 00:15:04.000
out. I was stressed out.

00:15:05.000 –> 00:15:06.000
Seriously overweight,

00:15:07.000 –> 00:15:08.000
just

00:15:08.000 –> 00:15:09.000
angry.

00:15:09.000 –> 00:15:10.000
And,

00:15:10.000 –> 00:15:13.000
you know, I was just overall miserable, and

00:15:13.000 –> 00:15:13.000
I knew

00:15:14.000 –> 00:15:16.000
I think, you know, in reading this stuff,

00:15:16.000 –> 00:15:18.000
you knew that I had to do a

00:15:18.000 –> 00:15:21.000
better job at training people. Right? Yeah. And,

00:15:22.000 –> 00:15:25.000
you know, it’s started. It started with me,

00:15:25.000 –> 00:15:27.000
but then, you know, as we kind of

00:15:27.000 –> 00:15:29.000
started to come together as a group, we

00:15:29.000 –> 00:15:31.000
realized that if we can

00:15:31.000 –> 00:15:33.000
train people the right way,

00:15:34.000 –> 00:15:35.000
you know, and if we can,

00:15:36.000 –> 00:15:38.000
instill our values,

00:15:38.000 –> 00:15:39.000
across everybody,

00:15:40.000 –> 00:15:43.000
then everybody can kind of be thought leaders.

00:15:43.000 –> 00:15:45.000
Everybody can kind of start to make their

00:15:45.000 –> 00:15:47.000
own decisions based on those

00:15:47.000 –> 00:15:50.000
values. Right? And and I think that that’s

00:15:50.000 –> 00:15:52.000
the real key. It was kind of like

00:15:52.000 –> 00:15:53.000
distilling our core values,

00:15:53.000 –> 00:15:56.000
figuring out what made us tick. Yeah. And

00:15:56.000 –> 00:15:59.000
then maybe how to teach people how to

00:15:59.000 –> 00:16:01.000
think like that. Do you articulate those values

00:16:01.000 –> 00:16:02.000
to people? Like, would would they be able

00:16:02.000 –> 00:16:03.000
to say, hey, maybe they’re on the wall

00:16:03.000 –> 00:16:05.000
or whatever? Like, They’re they’re not on the

00:16:05.000 –> 00:16:07.000
wall. We we’d we’d do our Brett. And

00:16:07.000 –> 00:16:10.000
we we keep it pretty Brett simple. We

00:16:10.000 –> 00:16:11.000
only have five

00:16:11.000 –> 00:16:13.000
five core values.

00:16:13.000 –> 00:16:15.000
So That’s awesome. Yeah. But they can articulate

00:16:15.000 –> 00:16:17.000
those, which is a big deal. So how

00:16:17.000 –> 00:16:18.000
how do you then adapt to change? So

00:16:18.000 –> 00:16:20.000
that was a change. Right? Now, hey, I’m

00:16:20.000 –> 00:16:22.000
moving forward. I’ve got these amazing people. I’m

00:16:22.000 –> 00:16:24.000
a be a better boss. How did you

00:16:24.000 –> 00:16:26.000
adapt to change now to take it to

00:16:26.000 –> 00:16:28.000
the level you’ve taken it to today? Yeah.

00:16:28.000 –> 00:16:30.000
I think that was kind of a one

00:16:30.000 –> 00:16:31.000
foot in front of the other. You know,

00:16:31.000 –> 00:16:33.000
I think I came back from, you know,

00:16:33.000 –> 00:16:35.000
I at that time, I was on this

00:16:35.000 –> 00:16:37.000
long Gilliland,

00:16:37.000 –> 00:16:38.000
came back from this trip, you know, just

00:16:38.000 –> 00:16:41.000
charged, right? And, you know, let’s go. We’re

00:16:41.000 –> 00:16:43.000
gonna change everything overnight.

00:16:45.000 –> 00:16:46.000
And, you know, quickly realized

00:16:47.000 –> 00:16:48.000
that that

00:16:48.000 –> 00:16:51.000
that doesn’t happen. Yep. In fact, I think

00:16:51.000 –> 00:16:54.000
when I told her now director of service,

00:16:55.000 –> 00:16:57.000
but she was a a server at the

00:16:57.000 –> 00:16:58.000
time. I told her that we were, you

00:16:58.000 –> 00:17:01.000
know, gonna be making these changes. She just

00:17:01.000 –> 00:17:04.000
laughed. Yeah. She Right? I believe when I

00:17:04.000 –> 00:17:05.000
see it, dude.

00:17:05.000 –> 00:17:07.000
Absolutely. And rightly so. Right? You know? But

00:17:07.000 –> 00:17:08.000
I think you gotta show up every day.

00:17:08.000 –> 00:17:10.000
Right? I mean, that’s the thing I think

00:17:10.000 –> 00:17:12.000
about when growing a business is even on

00:17:12.000 –> 00:17:14.000
the days you don’t wanna show up, you

00:17:14.000 –> 00:17:15.000
show up. And you gotta walk the walk,

00:17:15.000 –> 00:17:16.000
you know.

00:17:17.000 –> 00:17:19.000
Yeah. That’s amazing. So, again, change, talk about

00:17:19.000 –> 00:17:21.000
COVID, man. That that had to be of

00:17:21.000 –> 00:17:23.000
any business that had to be one of

00:17:23.000 –> 00:17:26.000
the biggest people, I think, in hospitality, to

00:17:26.000 –> 00:17:28.000
make a change, right, during all that. What

00:17:28.000 –> 00:17:29.000
what did you learn

00:17:29.000 –> 00:17:31.000
as a leader, as an owner, as an

00:17:31.000 –> 00:17:31.000
entrepreneur,

00:17:31.000 –> 00:17:33.000
as a dad? Like, what did you learn

00:17:33.000 –> 00:17:36.000
during that time frame? In COVID? Yeah. Oh

00:17:36.000 –> 00:17:37.000
my god.

00:17:39.000 –> 00:17:41.000
God, that was really horrible. Wasn’t it? Yeah.

00:17:42.000 –> 00:17:44.000
No. I, you know, I think we were

00:17:44.000 –> 00:17:44.000
fortunately

00:17:47.000 –> 00:17:50.000
you know, hitting hitting peak culture

00:17:50.000 –> 00:17:52.000
at that time, which was awesome because it

00:17:52.000 –> 00:17:53.000
really

00:17:54.000 –> 00:17:55.000
You know, it really no. I really mean

00:17:55.000 –> 00:17:58.000
it was awesome because it it really,

00:17:58.000 –> 00:18:01.000
everybody was working so well together.

00:18:02.000 –> 00:18:04.000
And I think we needed that. Right? We

00:18:04.000 –> 00:18:06.000
needed that to get through. We needed everybody

00:18:06.000 –> 00:18:09.000
kind of, you know, firing on all cylinders

00:18:09.000 –> 00:18:11.000
thinking about everybody else. And,

00:18:12.000 –> 00:18:15.000
you know, thinking about ourselves is is one

00:18:15.000 –> 00:18:17.000
large team. And I think that’s what really,

00:18:17.000 –> 00:18:19.000
you know, if if if COVID taught me

00:18:19.000 –> 00:18:21.000
anything is that that works.

00:18:21.000 –> 00:18:24.000
Yeah. You know, and that that’s really important.

00:18:24.000 –> 00:18:26.000
And you saw, I think a lot of

00:18:26.000 –> 00:18:28.000
other businesses, all of a sudden, trying to

00:18:28.000 –> 00:18:29.000
kinda scramble,

00:18:30.000 –> 00:18:32.000
you know, to to work on this culture

00:18:32.000 –> 00:18:33.000
thing,

00:18:33.000 –> 00:18:36.000
when all their employees left, you know, and

00:18:36.000 –> 00:18:38.000
I think we were in a great great

00:18:38.000 –> 00:18:38.000
position,

00:18:39.000 –> 00:18:41.000
because of that. Yeah. It’s funny you talk

00:18:41.000 –> 00:18:44.000
about that culture is during COVID for us,

00:18:44.000 –> 00:18:46.000
it was, you know, being in the finance

00:18:46.000 –> 00:18:47.000
world. We were able to obviously have conference

00:18:47.000 –> 00:18:48.000
calls and Zoom calls and do a lot

00:18:48.000 –> 00:18:50.000
of stuff with clients, but,

00:18:50.000 –> 00:18:52.000
you know, as a as a leader, we

00:18:52.000 –> 00:18:53.000
had to make a decision that people weren’t

00:18:53.000 –> 00:18:55.000
gonna come in the office Gilliland by about

00:18:55.000 –> 00:18:57.000
July, I think it was July of twenty

00:18:57.000 –> 00:18:58.000
twenty. So only three or four months into

00:18:58.000 –> 00:19:01.000
this, our culture said to us,

00:19:01.000 –> 00:19:02.000
we wanna be back together.

00:19:03.000 –> 00:19:04.000
You know, and so it’s like it was

00:19:04.000 –> 00:19:06.000
starting to have a negative effect by not

00:19:06.000 –> 00:19:07.000
being together on us. Right? And so it

00:19:07.000 –> 00:19:08.000
was cool to be able to make that

00:19:08.000 –> 00:19:11.000
change and be like, alright. Signed this form

00:19:11.000 –> 00:19:12.000
every day. We’re not taking responsibility to show

00:19:12.000 –> 00:19:14.000
up and get sick because nobody knew at

00:19:14.000 –> 00:19:16.000
that time. And Yeah. People started showing back

00:19:16.000 –> 00:19:18.000
up, and it was amazing how that culture

00:19:18.000 –> 00:19:20.000
and those values and that connection was super

00:19:20.000 –> 00:19:22.000
important to people Yeah. That made our our

00:19:22.000 –> 00:19:24.000
culture start to go in in the right

00:19:24.000 –> 00:19:27.000
direction again, which was a big moment. Yeah.

00:19:27.000 –> 00:19:29.000
I think kinda let everybody take it the

00:19:29.000 –> 00:19:29.000
way they

00:19:30.000 –> 00:19:32.000
they were ready to take it. Yeah. Right?

00:19:32.000 –> 00:19:34.000
You know, I think there were people that

00:19:34.000 –> 00:19:35.000
were ready to come back and

00:19:36.000 –> 00:19:39.000
and and work, and we all kind of,

00:19:39.000 –> 00:19:41.000
you know, did that. And we tried to

00:19:41.000 –> 00:19:44.000
do that in the safest way possible, and

00:19:44.000 –> 00:19:44.000
and,

00:19:45.000 –> 00:19:46.000
you know, worked a lot with, you know,

00:19:46.000 –> 00:19:50.000
a lot of the community leaders, the doctors

00:19:50.000 –> 00:19:51.000
in the area that were kind of advising

00:19:51.000 –> 00:19:54.000
us and in in giving us good intel

00:19:54.000 –> 00:19:56.000
on on how we could maybe do it

00:19:56.000 –> 00:19:57.000
more safely

00:19:58.000 –> 00:20:00.000
and, trying to help our friends do the

00:20:00.000 –> 00:20:01.000
exact same things.

00:20:01.000 –> 00:20:03.000
And, you know, I think,

00:20:04.000 –> 00:20:05.000
again, we we we had a lot of

00:20:05.000 –> 00:20:07.000
voices on the team, and,

00:20:08.000 –> 00:20:10.000
we all worked together really well to kind

00:20:10.000 –> 00:20:11.000
of push ourselves

00:20:12.000 –> 00:20:15.000
through a really, really rough time. So on

00:20:15.000 –> 00:20:16.000
the adapting to change,

00:20:17.000 –> 00:20:18.000
talk about needs. You you’ve talked about the

00:20:18.000 –> 00:20:20.000
restaurant. And and you decided to close it

00:20:20.000 –> 00:20:21.000
when it was

00:20:22.000 –> 00:20:24.000
booming. Right? Successful. And so, again, last night,

00:20:24.000 –> 00:20:26.000
I’m doing my work. I’m researching you. And

00:20:26.000 –> 00:20:27.000
I know the story. Right? I was in

00:20:27.000 –> 00:20:29.000
St. That happened and and like, hey, there’s

00:20:29.000 –> 00:20:31.000
a successful restaurant close, and you normally hear

00:20:31.000 –> 00:20:33.000
the other way. Right? So it’s a head

00:20:33.000 –> 00:20:35.000
scratcher as a business leader. This thing’s working

00:20:35.000 –> 00:20:37.000
the guy had the guts to go out

00:20:37.000 –> 00:20:39.000
there and close a successful restaurant.

00:20:39.000 –> 00:20:41.000
Walk me through that. What the hell was

00:20:41.000 –> 00:20:43.000
going on in your mind when that happened?

00:20:44.000 –> 00:20:47.000
You know, I think Nish was always tough.

00:20:47.000 –> 00:20:50.000
Right? And Nish was a very tough restaurant

00:20:50.000 –> 00:20:51.000
to

00:20:51.000 –> 00:20:54.000
operate. And, you know, we started in two

00:20:54.000 –> 00:20:56.000
thousand five, and I think we

00:20:56.000 –> 00:20:59.000
closed it in in what, two thousand, and,

00:21:00.000 –> 00:21:01.000
seventeen.

00:21:02.000 –> 00:21:04.000
You know, so that that’s a very long

00:21:04.000 –> 00:21:06.000
run for that restaurant. It was a very

00:21:06.000 –> 00:21:06.000
personal

00:21:07.000 –> 00:21:08.000
restaurant.

00:21:08.000 –> 00:21:09.000
And, you know, I know

00:21:10.000 –> 00:21:12.000
that I had just passed the reins off

00:21:12.000 –> 00:21:15.000
in two thousand fifteen as chef to Nate

00:21:15.000 –> 00:21:19.000
Hariford, who now is the successful chicken scratch

00:21:19.000 –> 00:21:19.000
restaurant.

00:21:22.000 –> 00:21:23.000
And I just

00:21:24.000 –> 00:21:26.000
You know, it was it was

00:21:26.000 –> 00:21:28.000
it was it’s such a good point that

00:21:28.000 –> 00:21:29.000
I never really wanted this this restaurant

00:21:33.000 –> 00:21:36.000
to start falling backwards. Yep. And I never

00:21:36.000 –> 00:21:38.000
wanted to, you know, be ten years down

00:21:38.000 –> 00:21:39.000
the road from there

00:21:41.000 –> 00:21:44.000
with everybody being like, oh, yeah. There’s there’s

00:21:44.000 –> 00:21:46.000
niche. It’s still there.

00:21:46.000 –> 00:21:48.000
You know, like Same old thing. Not the

00:21:48.000 –> 00:21:50.000
hot spot anymore or whatever. You know, I

00:21:50.000 –> 00:21:53.000
just I I I wanted it to, you

00:21:53.000 –> 00:21:55.000
know, I wanted the legacy of niche,

00:21:56.000 –> 00:21:58.000
you know, to, to end right there. It

00:21:58.000 –> 00:22:00.000
was kinda like that. That moment. We had

00:22:00.000 –> 00:22:02.000
won the James Beard award two years before.

00:22:03.000 –> 00:22:04.000
It was just kind of

00:22:05.000 –> 00:22:07.000
it just felt like that time. Yeah.

00:22:07.000 –> 00:22:09.000
Well, take some guts, man. Well, I don’t

00:22:09.000 –> 00:22:11.000
know if it’s guts here. Just so we’re

00:22:11.000 –> 00:22:12.000
always here. I I think it it is

00:22:12.000 –> 00:22:14.000
amazing, but it but you’re right. It’s like

00:22:14.000 –> 00:22:15.000
you were talking about our, you know, you

00:22:15.000 –> 00:22:16.000
have a senior, I have a senior.

00:22:16.000 –> 00:22:18.000
Is it’d be like holding our kids back,

00:22:18.000 –> 00:22:20.000
right, not letting them go. And I think

00:22:20.000 –> 00:22:22.000
your decision to close that was probably has

00:22:22.000 –> 00:22:23.000
catapulted you into another level of belief

00:22:26.000 –> 00:22:28.000
growth and expectations. Would you agree with that?

00:22:28.000 –> 00:22:30.000
Yeah. And I think, you know, it’s just

00:22:30.000 –> 00:22:33.000
kind of it’s it’s allowed us to change

00:22:34.000 –> 00:22:36.000
what we do and what I do specifically

00:22:36.000 –> 00:22:38.000
Yep. For the company, you know, as opposed

00:22:38.000 –> 00:22:39.000
to, you know, being on the line or

00:22:39.000 –> 00:22:40.000
or whatever on on

00:22:42.000 –> 00:22:44.000
such a regular basis,

00:22:45.000 –> 00:22:47.000
and kind of, you know, traveling to represent

00:22:47.000 –> 00:22:49.000
niche around the country, which I was doing

00:22:49.000 –> 00:22:50.000
all the time.

00:22:51.000 –> 00:22:53.000
You know, this allowed me to kind of

00:22:53.000 –> 00:22:54.000
really be the CEO

00:22:55.000 –> 00:22:57.000
of the company. Yeah. And I actually

00:22:57.000 –> 00:22:59.000
do the things that I needed to do

00:22:59.000 –> 00:23:01.000
to to grow the company and to, you

00:23:01.000 –> 00:23:02.000
know,

00:23:03.000 –> 00:23:05.000
give back to our investors and and

00:23:05.000 –> 00:23:07.000
and help us Brett to the next level.

00:23:07.000 –> 00:23:09.000
How hard was it for you to leave

00:23:09.000 –> 00:23:11.000
the kitchen and get into, again, the the

00:23:11.000 –> 00:23:13.000
boardroom, if you will, how hard was that

00:23:13.000 –> 00:23:14.000
for you? It’s still hard.

00:23:15.000 –> 00:23:17.000
Yeah. That’s your passion. That’s your baby. I

00:23:17.000 –> 00:23:20.000
I enjoy cooking. I really do. And,

00:23:21.000 –> 00:23:23.000
I wouldn’t say I’m the best CEO in

00:23:23.000 –> 00:23:23.000
the world

00:23:24.000 –> 00:23:26.000
You know, I’m I I know there there’s

00:23:26.000 –> 00:23:28.000
there’s far better than than me out there.

00:23:28.000 –> 00:23:31.000
I’m constantly trying, but, you know, it it’s

00:23:31.000 –> 00:23:33.000
tough to to step away and just kind

00:23:33.000 –> 00:23:35.000
of do what you need to do at

00:23:35.000 –> 00:23:37.000
the time versus what you want to do

00:23:37.000 –> 00:23:40.000
at the time. So talk about building brand.

00:23:40.000 –> 00:23:42.000
Obviously, the the the niche group, because there

00:23:42.000 –> 00:23:44.000
are heavy restaurants total are there right now?

00:23:44.000 –> 00:23:44.000
God.

00:23:45.000 –> 00:23:47.000
Well, we have some shifting going on right

00:23:47.000 –> 00:23:49.000
now. So it’s it’s messing with my car

00:23:49.000 –> 00:23:51.000
at the end of January. A little bit.

00:23:51.000 –> 00:23:54.000
You know, we’ve, cinder house, has closed.

00:23:56.000 –> 00:23:58.000
And Rockwell. It’s my favorite chicken sandwich downtown

00:23:58.000 –> 00:24:00.000
here. So the period period? Yeah.

00:24:01.000 –> 00:24:02.000
I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is,

00:24:02.000 –> 00:24:03.000
but it’s some good stuff. I do a

00:24:03.000 –> 00:24:06.000
meeting there once a quarter. Yeah. Every quarter,

00:24:06.000 –> 00:24:08.000
I do a meeting there, an off-site retreat.

00:24:08.000 –> 00:24:10.000
So I anybody listening. Take your team off-site.

00:24:10.000 –> 00:24:11.000
You go somewhere. You learn. You you think

00:24:11.000 –> 00:24:12.000
you strategize.

00:24:13.000 –> 00:24:14.000
We always went there, and that’s a chicken

00:24:14.000 –> 00:24:16.000
sandwich I had every time. Yeah. No. I

00:24:16.000 –> 00:24:18.000
s senator I was one of my favorite

00:24:18.000 –> 00:24:19.000
places.

00:24:20.000 –> 00:24:22.000
But, you know, it it’s business. We,

00:24:23.000 –> 00:24:25.000
you know, we had a five year contract

00:24:25.000 –> 00:24:26.000
and,

00:24:26.000 –> 00:24:28.000
you know, they’re owned by,

00:24:29.000 –> 00:24:31.000
Caesar’s Palace, Okay. And, you know, they wanna

00:24:31.000 –> 00:24:33.000
do something, I think, a little more bagasse.

00:24:34.000 –> 00:24:36.000
And, you know, it’s not your style.

00:24:37.000 –> 00:24:39.000
Well, I, you know, I it’s also just

00:24:39.000 –> 00:24:41.000
not me. I’m not I’m not from Vegas.

00:24:41.000 –> 00:24:43.000
You know, I am not a Vegas restaurant.

00:24:43.000 –> 00:24:44.000
Oh, it’s funny.

00:24:45.000 –> 00:24:47.000
But a brands for what strategies,

00:24:47.000 –> 00:24:49.000
maybe mindset, thoughts do you have when you

00:24:49.000 –> 00:24:52.000
think about your brands, you name your brands,

00:24:52.000 –> 00:24:54.000
you design your brands, what what does that

00:24:54.000 –> 00:24:56.000
look like? What’s that process look like for

00:24:56.000 –> 00:24:56.000
you?

00:24:57.000 –> 00:24:59.000
Yeah. So I a lot of research,

00:25:00.000 –> 00:25:02.000
you know, we really wanna kind of dive

00:25:02.000 –> 00:25:02.000
into

00:25:03.000 –> 00:25:04.000
that world,

00:25:04.000 –> 00:25:07.000
whatever that might be. And,

00:25:07.000 –> 00:25:10.000
you know, so for the, you know, Craft

00:25:10.000 –> 00:25:13.000
cocktail world. Fortunately, it’s one that we’ve been

00:25:13.000 –> 00:25:15.000
in for a long time because

00:25:15.000 –> 00:25:18.000
taste, you know, was one of the

00:25:19.000 –> 00:25:21.000
one of the, you know, kind of original

00:25:21.000 –> 00:25:23.000
craft cocktail bars in the country. I mean,

00:25:23.000 –> 00:25:26.000
there was, you know, there was a couple

00:25:26.000 –> 00:25:28.000
dozen at the time that we that we

00:25:28.000 –> 00:25:29.000
opened. So,

00:25:30.000 –> 00:25:34.000
really kind of immersing ourselves in that experience

00:25:34.000 –> 00:25:36.000
and just kinda going through all the details,

00:25:36.000 –> 00:25:38.000
you know, what What what does the menu

00:25:38.000 –> 00:25:40.000
look like? What do people

00:25:40.000 –> 00:25:43.000
really enjoy? What do people want?

00:25:43.000 –> 00:25:45.000
Is this a, you know, luxurious

00:25:45.000 –> 00:25:47.000
experience, or is it a kind of divey

00:25:47.000 –> 00:25:50.000
experience? Is this, you know, which this is

00:25:50.000 –> 00:25:50.000
decidedly

00:25:51.000 –> 00:25:52.000
luxurious?

00:25:53.000 –> 00:25:54.000
Know, how do we want the service to

00:25:54.000 –> 00:25:56.000
be? How do we want the

00:25:56.000 –> 00:25:58.000
the servers to

00:25:58.000 –> 00:26:01.000
to dress? How do we want

00:26:02.000 –> 00:26:04.000
the ice to look. What is the lighting?

00:26:04.000 –> 00:26:06.000
You know, I mean, there’s we we try

00:26:06.000 –> 00:26:08.000
to really dive into every little piece

00:26:10.000 –> 00:26:12.000
of that restaurant in that genre,

00:26:13.000 –> 00:26:15.000
to try to get it right. Big guys

00:26:15.000 –> 00:26:16.000
are little eyes for the bourbon.

00:26:17.000 –> 00:26:20.000
For me, no ice. No ice. Yeah.

00:26:20.000 –> 00:26:22.000
But, you know,

00:26:22.000 –> 00:26:25.000
for if I’m drinking gin and soda,

00:26:26.000 –> 00:26:28.000
I have a thing where I actually don’t

00:26:28.000 –> 00:26:30.000
like the big ice cube because I kind

00:26:30.000 –> 00:26:32.000
of want it to to keep melting a

00:26:32.000 –> 00:26:35.000
little bit. Yeah. I think the big ice

00:26:35.000 –> 00:26:37.000
has its place. Yeah. You know,

00:26:37.000 –> 00:26:39.000
when you don’t want any dilution, you just

00:26:39.000 –> 00:26:41.000
want it kind of cold.

00:26:41.000 –> 00:26:43.000
But if you wanna kinda dilute it, I

00:26:43.000 –> 00:26:45.000
like the, I like the little eyes. I’m

00:26:45.000 –> 00:26:47.000
a big ice guy in the bourbon. Yeah.

00:26:47.000 –> 00:26:48.000
Not that you really care, but,

00:26:50.000 –> 00:26:50.000
so,

00:26:51.000 –> 00:26:52.000
locations. So I think for me, we have

00:26:52.000 –> 00:26:54.000
eight office locations, and I think, you know,

00:26:54.000 –> 00:26:56.000
the hardest part is when you had one,

00:26:56.000 –> 00:26:57.000
you could walk to go get a cup

00:26:57.000 –> 00:26:59.000
of water and and touch everybody in your

00:26:59.000 –> 00:27:02.000
Right? Now with eight locations, you can’t do

00:27:02.000 –> 00:27:03.000
that. And you may go months, right, without

00:27:03.000 –> 00:27:06.000
seeing somebody. So how do you, one,

00:27:06.000 –> 00:27:09.000
touch everybody in in the company, but number

00:27:09.000 –> 00:27:12.000
two, how do you, expect the the customer

00:27:12.000 –> 00:27:14.000
service to be this, not necessarily the same,

00:27:14.000 –> 00:27:16.000
but high value, high customer service at all

00:27:16.000 –> 00:27:17.000
the locations?

00:27:17.000 –> 00:27:19.000
Yeah. I mean, number one, your manager is

00:27:19.000 –> 00:27:22.000
everything. Yeah. Right. Your your GM

00:27:23.000 –> 00:27:23.000
is

00:27:24.000 –> 00:27:26.000
is the place. You know, whether you whether

00:27:26.000 –> 00:27:28.000
whether you think you’re the place or or

00:27:28.000 –> 00:27:29.000
not, like that your

00:27:30.000 –> 00:27:32.000
your GM is is the person for better

00:27:32.000 –> 00:27:35.000
or worse. So, you know, hiring that person’s

00:27:35.000 –> 00:27:36.000
huge.

00:27:38.000 –> 00:27:39.000
You know, I think always trying to keep

00:27:39.000 –> 00:27:40.000
communication

00:27:40.000 –> 00:27:42.000
channels open somehow.

00:27:42.000 –> 00:27:44.000
Something that we’ve always kind of worked on

00:27:44.000 –> 00:27:46.000
and, you know, we’ve we’ve used to different

00:27:46.000 –> 00:27:48.000
things like the local company here, Bonfire,

00:27:50.000 –> 00:27:52.000
or even just kinda like WhatsApp threads Mhmm.

00:27:53.000 –> 00:27:55.000
Stuff like that to really try to

00:27:55.000 –> 00:27:57.000
to keep that connection

00:27:58.000 –> 00:28:00.000
going. You know? So even if you it,

00:28:00.000 –> 00:28:02.000
you know, be there in person. Like, for

00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:02.000
instance,

00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:05.000
Nashville, I I can only get there. Usually

00:28:05.000 –> 00:28:08.000
for one week, every five weeks. It used

00:28:08.000 –> 00:28:10.000
to be once a month. Now it’s every

00:28:10.000 –> 00:28:10.000
five weeks.

00:28:12.000 –> 00:28:14.000
You know, so you you still have to

00:28:14.000 –> 00:28:16.000
kind of keep some dialogue. And so you

00:28:16.000 –> 00:28:18.000
know, and I’ll I’ll go through different things

00:28:18.000 –> 00:28:21.000
where I’ll set up, one on ones, you

00:28:21.000 –> 00:28:24.000
know, phone calls or group phone calls with

00:28:24.000 –> 00:28:27.000
different people to try to again, start talking

00:28:27.000 –> 00:28:28.000
about

00:28:28.000 –> 00:28:31.000
food, talk about dishes. Let’s talk about wine.

00:28:32.000 –> 00:28:34.000
Let’s talk about service. Let’s talk about finance.

00:28:34.000 –> 00:28:36.000
Yeah. You know, so try to connect with

00:28:36.000 –> 00:28:38.000
people at different levels

00:28:38.000 –> 00:28:41.000
at different times too. So I don’t want

00:28:41.000 –> 00:28:42.000
it to always be like,

00:28:42.000 –> 00:28:45.000
just me calling about why the P and

00:28:45.000 –> 00:28:46.000
L list sucks.

00:28:46.000 –> 00:28:48.000
But, you know, I want it to be

00:28:48.000 –> 00:28:50.000
like, yo, you know, let’s let’s talk about

00:28:50.000 –> 00:28:53.000
Amelia Romagna. Yeah. Let’s talk about food and

00:28:53.000 –> 00:28:56.000
How how much do you let them decide

00:28:56.000 –> 00:28:57.000
what’s on the menu?

00:28:57.000 –> 00:28:59.000
A lot. You have a lot

00:29:00.000 –> 00:29:01.000
lot of leeway.

00:29:02.000 –> 00:29:05.000
You know, again, you’re you’re hiring professionals Gilliland,

00:29:06.000 –> 00:29:07.000
you know, I think

00:29:07.000 –> 00:29:10.000
honesty is one of our core values.

00:29:10.000 –> 00:29:13.000
And I think that’s where, you know, we

00:29:13.000 –> 00:29:15.000
get the these conversations going. Right? You know,

00:29:15.000 –> 00:29:18.000
we we’re all very honest with each other

00:29:18.000 –> 00:29:19.000
about what’s working.

00:29:19.000 –> 00:29:23.000
What’s not working, what’s good, what’s not good.

00:29:23.000 –> 00:29:25.000
You know, we added hospitality

00:29:26.000 –> 00:29:26.000
into those,

00:29:28.000 –> 00:29:30.000
core values because I think, you know, in

00:29:30.000 –> 00:29:32.000
the early days, I was not so nice

00:29:32.000 –> 00:29:34.000
about how honest I was Yeah. About everything.

00:29:34.000 –> 00:29:35.000
More delivery.

00:29:36.000 –> 00:29:36.000
Yeah.

00:29:37.000 –> 00:29:39.000
Yeah. Way better delivery. And

00:29:39.000 –> 00:29:42.000
Working on your side. Yeah. But, you know,

00:29:42.000 –> 00:29:44.000
but it You know, when we when we

00:29:44.000 –> 00:29:46.000
first shifted our culture and we were trying

00:29:46.000 –> 00:29:48.000
to kinda, like, soften the culture,

00:29:49.000 –> 00:29:51.000
like, that honesty piece started to go away

00:29:51.000 –> 00:29:52.000
for a little bit. And that what we

00:29:52.000 –> 00:29:53.000
realized how

00:29:54.000 –> 00:29:54.000
crucial

00:29:56.000 –> 00:29:58.000
that piece is. And it’s really hard for

00:29:58.000 –> 00:29:59.000
people to

00:30:00.000 –> 00:30:00.000
to

00:30:01.000 –> 00:30:03.000
come to if they’re coming from somewhere else.

00:30:03.000 –> 00:30:04.000
Yep. It’s hard for them to hear all

00:30:04.000 –> 00:30:07.000
that honesty, and it’s hard for them to

00:30:07.000 –> 00:30:07.000
give

00:30:07.000 –> 00:30:10.000
all that honesty. But, yeah, I think that

00:30:10.000 –> 00:30:11.000
piece is critical

00:30:11.000 –> 00:30:12.000
when you have multiple.

00:30:13.000 –> 00:30:15.000
Yeah. The feedback’s big. Gilliland if you’re not

00:30:15.000 –> 00:30:17.000
opening the feedback as a leader, they’re not

00:30:17.000 –> 00:30:18.000
gonna they’re not gonna bring it up to

00:30:18.000 –> 00:30:20.000
you as well. Yeah. No. Which is tough.

00:30:20.000 –> 00:30:22.000
If you gotta it’s a this is

00:30:22.000 –> 00:30:24.000
a fair game over here, you know, this

00:30:24.000 –> 00:30:26.000
is, when when you say we,

00:30:27.000 –> 00:30:29.000
you know, that means that everybody should be

00:30:29.000 –> 00:30:33.000
honest. Yeah. You know, if you’re crappy CEO

00:30:33.000 –> 00:30:35.000
and somebody wants to tell you, you know,

00:30:35.000 –> 00:30:38.000
why you gotta listen. Yeah. Yeah. And not

00:30:38.000 –> 00:30:40.000
respond. Right? Listen is not response.

00:30:41.000 –> 00:30:42.000
So if I followed you around, my boy

00:30:42.000 –> 00:30:44.000
Matt over here follows you around with cameras,

00:30:44.000 –> 00:30:46.000
let’s say, for, you know, the next week.

00:30:46.000 –> 00:30:48.000
What what am I gonna see day in

00:30:48.000 –> 00:30:49.000
and day out

00:30:49.000 –> 00:30:51.000
that that Gerard Craft is not missing.

00:30:52.000 –> 00:30:54.000
That I am not missing. Yeah. Like, are

00:30:54.000 –> 00:30:56.000
there daily habits for you that are, like,

00:30:56.000 –> 00:30:57.000
kinda non negotiables?

00:30:59.000 –> 00:30:59.000
Coffee,

00:31:00.000 –> 00:31:03.000
a lot of coffee. I have to have

00:31:03.000 –> 00:31:05.000
three cups of coffee before I do anything

00:31:06.000 –> 00:31:07.000
in the day.

00:31:09.000 –> 00:31:10.000
You know, I

00:31:10.000 –> 00:31:13.000
go through every single morning and and check

00:31:13.000 –> 00:31:14.000
the shift notes.

00:31:14.000 –> 00:31:16.000
And so I see, you know, what happened

00:31:16.000 –> 00:31:18.000
in every single restaurant the night before

00:31:19.000 –> 00:31:22.000
from sales to to, you know,

00:31:23.000 –> 00:31:25.000
who might be in that we know, what

00:31:25.000 –> 00:31:26.000
kind of regulars we’re in,

00:31:27.000 –> 00:31:28.000
you know, anything bad that happened

00:31:29.000 –> 00:31:30.000
in that service.

00:31:30.000 –> 00:31:32.000
Oh, they making notes that, you know, John

00:31:32.000 –> 00:31:34.000
and Sally were in and they’re gonna be

00:31:34.000 –> 00:31:37.000
okay. So that just shows up Yep. So

00:31:37.000 –> 00:31:39.000
it it at the end of every night

00:31:39.000 –> 00:31:41.000
or end of every shift,

00:31:42.000 –> 00:31:45.000
each manager puts in their shift notes. And

00:31:45.000 –> 00:31:47.000
so, again, that goes sales, that goes,

00:31:47.000 –> 00:31:49.000
you know, and just what happened. Yeah. You

00:31:49.000 –> 00:31:51.000
know, give me give me a synopsis

00:31:52.000 –> 00:31:53.000
of

00:31:53.000 –> 00:31:54.000
of

00:31:54.000 –> 00:31:56.000
what went down last night. And what does

00:31:56.000 –> 00:31:57.000
that do for you in that moment? Did

00:31:57.000 –> 00:31:59.000
do you do anything with that information? Or

00:31:59.000 –> 00:32:01.000
is that more of just let’s let’s watch

00:32:01.000 –> 00:32:03.000
this, keep eye on it, or does it

00:32:03.000 –> 00:32:04.000
actually change your daily,

00:32:05.000 –> 00:32:07.000
Yeah. Some things might need a a direct

00:32:07.000 –> 00:32:07.000
follow-up,

00:32:08.000 –> 00:32:12.000
you know, or quick quick conversation. Like, what

00:32:12.000 –> 00:32:12.000
the hell?

00:32:13.000 –> 00:32:13.000
Last night.

00:32:15.000 –> 00:32:15.000
You know,

00:32:16.000 –> 00:32:18.000
or it’s just starting to kind of see

00:32:18.000 –> 00:32:20.000
patterns. You know, this is where you really,

00:32:20.000 –> 00:32:23.000
you know, just start to get a feel

00:32:23.000 –> 00:32:25.000
for for what’s going on. You might say,

00:32:25.000 –> 00:32:27.000
Hey, I need to spend I think I

00:32:27.000 –> 00:32:28.000
need to spend a little more time

00:32:29.000 –> 00:32:31.000
in this restaurant. Right? I need to to

00:32:32.000 –> 00:32:34.000
shift more of my energy over here.

00:32:35.000 –> 00:32:37.000
You know? Yeah. So I think that that

00:32:37.000 –> 00:32:40.000
always kind of like starts my day

00:32:40.000 –> 00:32:42.000
with the direction. Then I usually look at

00:32:42.000 –> 00:32:43.000
my calendar

00:32:44.000 –> 00:32:46.000
which I usually do right before I go

00:32:46.000 –> 00:32:49.000
to sleep so I can set five million

00:32:49.000 –> 00:32:49.000
alarms.

00:32:51.000 –> 00:32:53.000
Because because my memory is really, really bad.

00:32:53.000 –> 00:32:55.000
So I need five million alarms through the

00:32:55.000 –> 00:32:58.000
day to to remind me that I have

00:32:58.000 –> 00:32:59.000
something else

00:32:59.000 –> 00:32:59.000
after.

00:33:00.000 –> 00:33:00.000
But,

00:33:01.000 –> 00:33:04.000
yeah, and then I then I usually kinda

00:33:04.000 –> 00:33:04.000
head into

00:33:05.000 –> 00:33:08.000
to either my office, which is over at

00:33:08.000 –> 00:33:09.000
Boe wood,

00:33:09.000 –> 00:33:11.000
or kinda pop into one of the restaurants.

00:33:11.000 –> 00:33:12.000
And

00:33:12.000 –> 00:33:13.000
Is it exercise,

00:33:14.000 –> 00:33:15.000
eating? Is that a I mean, obviously, the

00:33:15.000 –> 00:33:17.000
restaurant whatever the heck you want. But is

00:33:17.000 –> 00:33:18.000
that is that to be a focus for

00:33:18.000 –> 00:33:19.000
you?

00:33:19.000 –> 00:33:21.000
Yeah. You know, so

00:33:21.000 –> 00:33:22.000
I try to

00:33:23.000 –> 00:33:26.000
work out every other day. Yep. It it

00:33:26.000 –> 00:33:27.000
a minimum.

00:33:27.000 –> 00:33:29.000
And, you know, that’s

00:33:29.000 –> 00:33:32.000
usually on, like, a stationary bike trainer.

00:33:33.000 –> 00:33:35.000
I live on some mountain bike trails. So,

00:33:35.000 –> 00:33:37.000
you know, when the weather’s a little nicer,

00:33:37.000 –> 00:33:39.000
I try to try to pop out on

00:33:39.000 –> 00:33:41.000
the trails. Nice.

00:33:41.000 –> 00:33:42.000
Get outside a little bit. But but that’s

00:33:42.000 –> 00:33:43.000
definitely important. And when I’m not doing

00:33:47.000 –> 00:33:48.000
that,

00:33:48.000 –> 00:33:49.000
is bad. Yeah.

00:33:50.000 –> 00:33:51.000
Need to get out. Need to Brett moving.

00:33:51.000 –> 00:33:53.000
You gotta keep your body moving. Do you

00:33:53.000 –> 00:33:54.000
have any of those moments? Like, I I

00:33:54.000 –> 00:33:56.000
hate to call them pinch me moments, but

00:33:56.000 –> 00:33:58.000
where you kinda you slow down and think

00:33:58.000 –> 00:34:00.000
about some of the things that you’re doing

00:34:00.000 –> 00:34:02.000
and some of the situations you find yourself

00:34:02.000 –> 00:34:04.000
in now from from where you’ve come from

00:34:04.000 –> 00:34:06.000
to where you’re at now. Because I I

00:34:06.000 –> 00:34:07.000
try to do that. Right? I’m like, like,

00:34:07.000 –> 00:34:09.000
this. For me, this is freaking cool. Like,

00:34:09.000 –> 00:34:10.000
this is really cool to do this. These

00:34:10.000 –> 00:34:12.000
are pinch me moments is what I would

00:34:12.000 –> 00:34:13.000
call them. Like, do you have any of

00:34:13.000 –> 00:34:15.000
those moments? And do you slow down and

00:34:15.000 –> 00:34:16.000
appreciate them enough?

00:34:17.000 –> 00:34:18.000
You know, I’m I’m pretty hard on myself.

00:34:19.000 –> 00:34:19.000
Yeah.

00:34:20.000 –> 00:34:20.000
So,

00:34:21.000 –> 00:34:23.000
you know, I I’m very grateful

00:34:24.000 –> 00:34:26.000
for everything. Yep.

00:34:27.000 –> 00:34:29.000
But, you know, I I think it’s really

00:34:29.000 –> 00:34:31.000
hard to kind of

00:34:32.000 –> 00:34:32.000
look back

00:34:33.000 –> 00:34:35.000
and just be like, oh, this is awesome.

00:34:35.000 –> 00:34:38.000
Yeah. When when something’s currently not awesome. Right?

00:34:38.000 –> 00:34:40.000
You’re like, you know, and there’s kind of

00:34:40.000 –> 00:34:43.000
always something that is currently not awesome.

00:34:44.000 –> 00:34:44.000
So

00:34:45.000 –> 00:34:47.000
every now and then, I definitely try to

00:34:47.000 –> 00:34:48.000
do that.

00:34:49.000 –> 00:34:51.000
You know, but it is tough. I I’m

00:34:51.000 –> 00:34:53.000
I do some stuff with,

00:34:54.000 –> 00:34:55.000
for team USA

00:34:55.000 –> 00:34:57.000
with Boku store, Oh, cool. And and those

00:34:57.000 –> 00:35:00.000
are usually pinch me moments because I’m like,

00:35:00.000 –> 00:35:02.000
oh my god. What’s going on? Thomas Keller’s

00:35:02.000 –> 00:35:05.000
over there? Daniel Blues’s over there. Like,

00:35:05.000 –> 00:35:06.000
Paul Bartelodos

00:35:06.000 –> 00:35:09.000
over there. Like, you know, we’re all just

00:35:09.000 –> 00:35:12.000
talking. And so so some sometimes, you know,

00:35:13.000 –> 00:35:15.000
I get in those moments where I’m like,

00:35:15.000 –> 00:35:18.000
I probably shouldn’t be here, but somehow I

00:35:18.000 –> 00:35:19.000
am.

00:35:19.000 –> 00:35:20.000
Yeah. Which is awesome. Can I give you

00:35:20.000 –> 00:35:22.000
an exercise on work? Uh-huh. Yeah. So I

00:35:22.000 –> 00:35:24.000
do every ninety days. I do what’s called

00:35:24.000 –> 00:35:26.000
a gratitude worksheet. I go are you a

00:35:26.000 –> 00:35:27.000
pic do you take a lot of pictures?

00:35:27.000 –> 00:35:29.000
Yeah. So I go through every ninety days

00:35:29.000 –> 00:35:31.000
the calendar quarter. So I just got done.

00:35:31.000 –> 00:35:33.000
I go through and look at every picture

00:35:33.000 –> 00:35:35.000
I took the last ninety days. And I

00:35:35.000 –> 00:35:37.000
actually write down in my journal, like, what

00:35:37.000 –> 00:35:38.000
I did. Hey, I’m sitting over here at

00:35:38.000 –> 00:35:40.000
this thing, right, for Team USA.

00:35:40.000 –> 00:35:42.000
Pretty cool. I did this. I had dinner

00:35:42.000 –> 00:35:45.000
with friends here. And so for me, it

00:35:45.000 –> 00:35:47.000
helps me every ninety days to look back

00:35:47.000 –> 00:35:49.000
on those things that normally I don’t look

00:35:49.000 –> 00:35:51.000
back on my pictures. Right? And you just

00:35:51.000 –> 00:35:52.000
take them and then you never look at

00:35:52.000 –> 00:35:53.000
them again. But what it’s helped me over

00:35:53.000 –> 00:35:55.000
the last four or five years, is to

00:35:55.000 –> 00:35:57.000
slow down to speed up, but slow down

00:35:57.000 –> 00:35:58.000
so I can look at all the things

00:35:58.000 –> 00:36:00.000
to be grateful for. And I find myself

00:36:00.000 –> 00:36:03.000
in moments like this, knowing I can’t wait

00:36:03.000 –> 00:36:05.000
to write this down on March thirty first

00:36:05.000 –> 00:36:07.000
that I Brett with Gerard Craft, and we

00:36:07.000 –> 00:36:09.000
had an awesome kick ass podcast. Right? Like,

00:36:09.000 –> 00:36:11.000
helps me be in the moment. So That’s

00:36:11.000 –> 00:36:13.000
cool. For whatever that’s worth, I should definitely

00:36:13.000 –> 00:36:14.000
try that. Maybe give it a shot. I’ll

00:36:14.000 –> 00:36:16.000
text you March thirty first and tell you

00:36:16.000 –> 00:36:17.000
to look at your camera.

00:36:17.000 –> 00:36:20.000
Any moments for you stick out where you,

00:36:20.000 –> 00:36:22.000
like, this failure, this this thing that wasn’t

00:36:22.000 –> 00:36:24.000
going well that sticks out for you that

00:36:24.000 –> 00:36:26.000
you wanna share that that you could share

00:36:26.000 –> 00:36:28.000
that had a really big moment in defining

00:36:28.000 –> 00:36:31.000
moment for you. Oh my god. How many

00:36:31.000 –> 00:36:33.000
how many failure moments do I have? You

00:36:33.000 –> 00:36:35.000
know, so failure is one of our core

00:36:35.000 –> 00:36:36.000
values. Okay.

00:36:37.000 –> 00:36:39.000
I love that. Yeah. Well, embracing

00:36:39.000 –> 00:36:40.000
it. And,

00:36:41.000 –> 00:36:43.000
and and not to say, you know, failing

00:36:43.000 –> 00:36:45.000
over and over at the same same thing,

00:36:45.000 –> 00:36:48.000
but But, you know, we we all really

00:36:48.000 –> 00:36:50.000
learn from our failures. Yep. Right? You know,

00:36:50.000 –> 00:36:51.000
I think,

00:36:52.000 –> 00:36:54.000
I I heard somebody talking recently about you

00:36:54.000 –> 00:36:56.000
know, kids who maybe,

00:36:57.000 –> 00:36:59.000
everything was easy for them in high school

00:36:59.000 –> 00:37:00.000
or something. Right? Like,

00:37:01.000 –> 00:37:01.000
you know,

00:37:02.000 –> 00:37:03.000
guy who, you know,

00:37:04.000 –> 00:37:06.000
you know, always had a date who, you

00:37:06.000 –> 00:37:08.000
know, captain of the football team or whatever

00:37:08.000 –> 00:37:12.000
often struggle later in life because they’re just

00:37:12.000 –> 00:37:14.000
They just never had to, like, hustle or

00:37:14.000 –> 00:37:16.000
figure it out to, like, get to that

00:37:16.000 –> 00:37:18.000
Yep. Next level. And,

00:37:18.000 –> 00:37:20.000
so so I think so many of the

00:37:20.000 –> 00:37:22.000
failures in my life So maybe maybe I’m

00:37:22.000 –> 00:37:25.000
more successful because I’ve failed so damn much.

00:37:26.000 –> 00:37:28.000
It’s like, let’s get a sky break. Yeah.

00:37:28.000 –> 00:37:29.000
You know, and and,

00:37:30.000 –> 00:37:32.000
increasingly in still do. So I think failures

00:37:33.000 –> 00:37:33.000
are always,

00:37:35.000 –> 00:37:38.000
always huge. You know, I think niche Nish

00:37:38.000 –> 00:37:41.000
was a huge lesson in failure.

00:37:42.000 –> 00:37:44.000
And, you know, I think Nish, everybody looked

00:37:44.000 –> 00:37:46.000
at Nish, is this, like, trajectory

00:37:47.000 –> 00:37:49.000
from two thousand five to, you know, James

00:37:49.000 –> 00:37:51.000
Beard award, Foon wine, best new chef,

00:37:52.000 –> 00:37:54.000
and just kind of like just kept seeing

00:37:54.000 –> 00:37:56.000
these things rack up.

00:37:56.000 –> 00:37:57.000
But I think

00:37:59.000 –> 00:37:59.000
definitely

00:38:00.000 –> 00:38:01.000
there were two times that we were

00:38:02.000 –> 00:38:05.000
hairs away from going out of business

00:38:05.000 –> 00:38:07.000
that I was talking to people in New

00:38:07.000 –> 00:38:09.000
York and DC about jobs.

00:38:11.000 –> 00:38:12.000
You know, so

00:38:12.000 –> 00:38:14.000
Like, I have been,

00:38:15.000 –> 00:38:17.000
you know, two thousand eight financial crisis.

00:38:20.000 –> 00:38:21.000
Was was definitely,

00:38:22.000 –> 00:38:24.000
you know, it was actually probably two thousand

00:38:24.000 –> 00:38:27.000
ten. Right? So, like, the tail and when

00:38:27.000 –> 00:38:29.000
everything I feel like in Saint Louis was

00:38:29.000 –> 00:38:30.000
was way harder.

00:38:32.000 –> 00:38:34.000
And they had just shut our highway down.

00:38:35.000 –> 00:38:37.000
Highway forty, which is like the main way

00:38:37.000 –> 00:38:39.000
to get to niche back then,

00:38:40.000 –> 00:38:40.000
and,

00:38:41.000 –> 00:38:43.000
and it was brutal. And, you know, I

00:38:43.000 –> 00:38:44.000
think working

00:38:44.000 –> 00:38:47.000
working our way through that, you know, taught

00:38:47.000 –> 00:38:48.000
us a lot. I mean, it taught me

00:38:48.000 –> 00:38:50.000
a lot about finance because Yep. Because I

00:38:50.000 –> 00:38:52.000
think I did not

00:38:53.000 –> 00:38:54.000
understand finances

00:38:54.000 –> 00:38:56.000
as well as I needed to

00:38:56.000 –> 00:38:57.000
at that point.

00:38:58.000 –> 00:38:58.000
And,

00:38:59.000 –> 00:39:00.000
you know, I

00:39:00.000 –> 00:39:02.000
you you learned so many of these lessons,

00:39:02.000 –> 00:39:04.000
and we call a lot of these things

00:39:04.000 –> 00:39:05.000
failure capital.

00:39:06.000 –> 00:39:07.000
And,

00:39:08.000 –> 00:39:10.000
you know, one one of our biggest failure

00:39:10.000 –> 00:39:11.000
capitals was Pirano.

00:39:11.000 –> 00:39:15.000
Which we’re reopening now. And it’s like this

00:39:15.000 –> 00:39:17.000
this stock that you have. All these failures

00:39:17.000 –> 00:39:19.000
are things to build on later. So Pirano

00:39:19.000 –> 00:39:20.000
didn’t make it downtown.

00:39:21.000 –> 00:39:23.000
You know, but here we are seven years

00:39:23.000 –> 00:39:24.000
later

00:39:24.000 –> 00:39:26.000
about to open, you know, in a few

00:39:26.000 –> 00:39:28.000
months and to pair

00:39:28.000 –> 00:39:29.000
with another one.

00:39:30.000 –> 00:39:32.000
You know, I think it’s

00:39:33.000 –> 00:39:35.000
sometimes things don’t happen

00:39:35.000 –> 00:39:38.000
the way they’re supposed to happen because of

00:39:38.000 –> 00:39:39.000
the time.

00:39:39.000 –> 00:39:42.000
Right? You know, maybe it was too soon.

00:39:43.000 –> 00:39:46.000
Or something like that, you know. So I

00:39:46.000 –> 00:39:48.000
don’t know. I stack all my failures

00:39:48.000 –> 00:39:50.000
away in a file that I can kind

00:39:50.000 –> 00:39:53.000
of reach back to at any point in

00:39:53.000 –> 00:39:55.000
time. Would would you say you’re a guy

00:39:55.000 –> 00:39:55.000
that

00:39:56.000 –> 00:39:57.000
do you dwell on the failure for a

00:39:57.000 –> 00:39:59.000
long time, or is it kind of bounce?

00:39:59.000 –> 00:40:01.000
I because I called the bounce theory. Right?

00:40:01.000 –> 00:40:02.000
If I get bad news, I go to

00:40:02.000 –> 00:40:03.000
my journal

00:40:03.000 –> 00:40:05.000
I mean, literally, it could be within the

00:40:05.000 –> 00:40:07.000
hour of, like, alright. Here’s how I’m gonna

00:40:07.000 –> 00:40:09.000
get out of this Right? And I try

00:40:09.000 –> 00:40:10.000
to create a plan. I’m a planner. Right?

00:40:10.000 –> 00:40:11.000
So I try to create a plan of

00:40:11.000 –> 00:40:13.000
how I’m gonna get out of that. Is

00:40:13.000 –> 00:40:14.000
that something that you do? Are you more

00:40:14.000 –> 00:40:15.000
of a,

00:40:15.000 –> 00:40:16.000
yeah, maybe I’ll

00:40:17.000 –> 00:40:18.000
let it sit there for a while, and

00:40:18.000 –> 00:40:20.000
eventually I’ll think of something or like, how

00:40:20.000 –> 00:40:22.000
does that work for you? No. I’m a

00:40:22.000 –> 00:40:23.000
fighter. Okay. Yeah.

00:40:23.000 –> 00:40:25.000
The same way. Right? You’re just gonna put

00:40:25.000 –> 00:40:27.000
a plan together and fight. Let’s go. Going

00:40:27.000 –> 00:40:28.000
after it in some

00:40:28.000 –> 00:40:31.000
way in some way, shit. Probably sometimes I

00:40:31.000 –> 00:40:33.000
should probably should step back. No problem. But

00:40:33.000 –> 00:40:37.000
you’re confirming. Deeper Brett. And, you know, and

00:40:37.000 –> 00:40:38.000
and really think it through. But, you know,

00:40:38.000 –> 00:40:40.000
I think in those moments, you know, the

00:40:40.000 –> 00:40:42.000
fight or flight kinda comes out and you

00:40:42.000 –> 00:40:44.000
start going for it. You’re confirming what I’m

00:40:44.000 –> 00:40:46.000
saying. The bounce back theory is what I

00:40:46.000 –> 00:40:48.000
call it. Right? Because the I’ve seen it

00:40:48.000 –> 00:40:50.000
now for twenty two years in business now

00:40:50.000 –> 00:40:51.000
three hundred. And when I say earlier, three

00:40:51.000 –> 00:40:54.000
hundred and sixty nine interviews later, like, the

00:40:54.000 –> 00:40:56.000
most successful people bounce back immediately. Right? They

00:40:56.000 –> 00:40:58.000
don’t dwell on it. They don’t have a

00:40:58.000 –> 00:40:59.000
pity party. They just get up and they

00:40:59.000 –> 00:41:01.000
go and they fight. And whether that’s fighting

00:41:01.000 –> 00:41:03.000
or putting your plan together, whatever it is,

00:41:03.000 –> 00:41:04.000
you gotta go take action and go make

00:41:04.000 –> 00:41:06.000
things happen. And and that’s what, again, I’ve

00:41:06.000 –> 00:41:09.000
seen for two decades now the most successful

00:41:09.000 –> 00:41:11.000
people don’t dwell on it. They go make

00:41:11.000 –> 00:41:13.000
it happen. So I definitely have a little

00:41:13.000 –> 00:41:15.000
private pity party for myself.

00:41:16.000 –> 00:41:18.000
Pick up customers, you know, get pissed off.

00:41:19.000 –> 00:41:22.000
Let’s talk about work life integration. Most people

00:41:22.000 –> 00:41:23.000
laugh when I say that because there’s work

00:41:23.000 –> 00:41:25.000
life balance. I don’t believe in there’s work

00:41:25.000 –> 00:41:27.000
life integration. Right? So you’re opening a new

00:41:27.000 –> 00:41:27.000
place.

00:41:28.000 –> 00:41:30.000
There’s no balance, man. You’re you’re probably here

00:41:30.000 –> 00:41:31.000
doing a lot of stuff. Right? So how

00:41:31.000 –> 00:41:34.000
do you work on that work life integration

00:41:34.000 –> 00:41:35.000
part in life.

00:41:35.000 –> 00:41:36.000
Yeah. You know,

00:41:37.000 –> 00:41:41.000
I don’t believe him work like balance. I

00:41:41.000 –> 00:41:43.000
don’t think that’s a Yeah. It’s not that

00:41:43.000 –> 00:41:45.000
I don’t believe or want it. Yeah. Right.

00:41:45.000 –> 00:41:48.000
I just don’t know that it’s always entirely

00:41:48.000 –> 00:41:50.000
possible. You know, you For sure.

00:41:51.000 –> 00:41:53.000
And I hate for people to tell people

00:41:53.000 –> 00:41:55.000
that it is. Right. Right? Like, oh, yeah.

00:41:55.000 –> 00:41:57.000
You can be super successful and do all

00:41:57.000 –> 00:41:58.000
these things, but

00:41:59.000 –> 00:42:01.000
but you’re also only gonna work eight hours

00:42:01.000 –> 00:42:03.000
a day. And then, like, that’s never gonna

00:42:03.000 –> 00:42:05.000
happen. I mean, I’m sure it does, yeah,

00:42:05.000 –> 00:42:08.000
occasionally, but it’s is definitely the exception of

00:42:08.000 –> 00:42:10.000
the rule. And,

00:42:10.000 –> 00:42:12.000
I don’t know. You know, I try to,

00:42:12.000 –> 00:42:15.000
do things that that I enjoy doing. I

00:42:15.000 –> 00:42:16.000
enjoy creating

00:42:17.000 –> 00:42:20.000
You know, I really enjoy this Yep. This

00:42:20.000 –> 00:42:20.000
work.

00:42:21.000 –> 00:42:23.000
I enjoy the people

00:42:24.000 –> 00:42:26.000
that I get to to work with

00:42:27.000 –> 00:42:28.000
you know, and then I try to, you

00:42:28.000 –> 00:42:31.000
know, like my business partner and I’ll pretty

00:42:31.000 –> 00:42:34.000
much do our meetings, like, on a bike

00:42:34.000 –> 00:42:36.000
or something like that. So, you know, that’s

00:42:36.000 –> 00:42:38.000
always a a great way to do it.

00:42:38.000 –> 00:42:39.000
I I met up with somebody from meeting

00:42:39.000 –> 00:42:42.000
yesterday on a bike, and it was awesome.

00:42:43.000 –> 00:42:45.000
You know, so, you know, I would say

00:42:45.000 –> 00:42:47.000
to your point of integration, that’s kind of

00:42:47.000 –> 00:42:50.000
one of those those types of moments. But,

00:42:51.000 –> 00:42:52.000
or, you know,

00:42:53.000 –> 00:42:54.000
is some of the things I get to

00:42:54.000 –> 00:42:56.000
do, you know, some of the the boards

00:42:56.000 –> 00:42:59.000
I join or or whatever, you know, involve

00:42:59.000 –> 00:43:02.000
some some travel to some really cool places.

00:43:02.000 –> 00:43:03.000
And,

00:43:03.000 –> 00:43:04.000
you know,

00:43:04.000 –> 00:43:07.000
or events, you know, in really cool places.

00:43:08.000 –> 00:43:09.000
So I don’t know, you know, try to

00:43:09.000 –> 00:43:10.000
have fun with it.

00:43:11.000 –> 00:43:13.000
At the same time, but, you know,

00:43:13.000 –> 00:43:14.000
it’s,

00:43:14.000 –> 00:43:16.000
you know, it’s it’s what you choose in

00:43:16.000 –> 00:43:18.000
life. I don’t think everybody needs to choose

00:43:18.000 –> 00:43:20.000
that, and I don’t think it you know,

00:43:20.000 –> 00:43:22.000
I don’t think being an entrepreneur is for,

00:43:22.000 –> 00:43:25.000
as you know, is not for everybody. No.

00:43:25.000 –> 00:43:27.000
And that’s where that balance is BS. Right?

00:43:27.000 –> 00:43:29.000
Because, again, you could have I I just

00:43:29.000 –> 00:43:30.000
got back from a seven or eight days

00:43:30.000 –> 00:43:31.000
on vacation.

00:43:31.000 –> 00:43:33.000
My work life balance was not there was

00:43:33.000 –> 00:43:35.000
no work. Yeah. Right? All fan And then

00:43:35.000 –> 00:43:37.000
but then when you got something going on,

00:43:37.000 –> 00:43:38.000
you could have a lot more work than

00:43:38.000 –> 00:43:40.000
family time. So I agree. I think it’s

00:43:40.000 –> 00:43:42.000
BS, and that’s why I like the integration

00:43:42.000 –> 00:43:44.000
part. What How do you how do you

00:43:44.000 –> 00:43:46.000
personally continue your passion, your drive,

00:43:47.000 –> 00:43:47.000
your purpose,

00:43:48.000 –> 00:43:50.000
staying a student in the game? How do

00:43:50.000 –> 00:43:51.000
you how do you do that?

00:43:51.000 –> 00:43:53.000
One I read a lot.

00:43:54.000 –> 00:43:54.000
You know,

00:43:55.000 –> 00:43:56.000
and that’s everything from,

00:43:57.000 –> 00:43:58.000
you know, cookbooks to,

00:44:00.000 –> 00:44:01.000
to,

00:44:02.000 –> 00:44:04.000
leadership books and,

00:44:04.000 –> 00:44:06.000
you know, I try to study a lot

00:44:06.000 –> 00:44:09.000
and, you know, diving into, to internet, you

00:44:09.000 –> 00:44:12.000
know, just to to continue to

00:44:12.000 –> 00:44:14.000
learn whatever that may be, that may be

00:44:14.000 –> 00:44:17.000
business, that may be leadership, that may be

00:44:17.000 –> 00:44:19.000
a new recipe that maybe,

00:44:20.000 –> 00:44:20.000
design,

00:44:21.000 –> 00:44:22.000
but I’m kind of always

00:44:23.000 –> 00:44:23.000
always

00:44:24.000 –> 00:44:27.000
looking, always have my eyes open, always

00:44:27.000 –> 00:44:28.000
thinking,

00:44:28.000 –> 00:44:30.000
and I travel I try to travel as

00:44:30.000 –> 00:44:33.000
much as possible, because I think travel Gilliland

00:44:33.000 –> 00:44:36.000
reading have been the two biggest influences

00:44:37.000 –> 00:44:39.000
in my career period.

00:44:40.000 –> 00:44:41.000
Seventy two hours from now, where are you

00:44:41.000 –> 00:44:44.000
gonna be? I’m gonna be in Italy. Yeah.

00:44:44.000 –> 00:44:45.000
So I guess when this airs, I’ll be

00:44:45.000 –> 00:44:46.000
back from Italy, but,

00:44:47.000 –> 00:44:48.000
but that’s, you know,

00:44:48.000 –> 00:44:50.000
Europe’s my favorite place in the world.

00:44:52.000 –> 00:44:54.000
You know, and so getting getting to Italy

00:44:54.000 –> 00:44:56.000
is always always a treat. Let’s put it

00:44:56.000 –> 00:44:57.000
on the list.

00:44:58.000 –> 00:44:59.000
How do you balance risk versus

00:45:00.000 –> 00:45:01.000
caution? Right? Cause

00:45:02.000 –> 00:45:03.000
this is a risk. Right? The the next

00:45:03.000 –> 00:45:05.000
place is a risk. But I think so

00:45:05.000 –> 00:45:07.000
many times what I’ve seen is people, the

00:45:07.000 –> 00:45:10.000
old saying paralysis by analysis, right, is you

00:45:10.000 –> 00:45:12.000
don’t trust your gut. You don’t trust your

00:45:12.000 –> 00:45:14.000
business part. You don’t make the decision to

00:45:14.000 –> 00:45:17.000
go. How do you manage those two things?

00:45:17.000 –> 00:45:19.000
I probably don’t manage. I probably take

00:45:20.000 –> 00:45:22.000
too I I lean on the too much

00:45:22.000 –> 00:45:22.000
risk.

00:45:23.000 –> 00:45:25.000
Side of things, and it drives me crazy

00:45:25.000 –> 00:45:27.000
when So you’re always looking to risk yourself.

00:45:27.000 –> 00:45:28.000
Analytical

00:45:28.000 –> 00:45:30.000
about it? No. I’m I’m always taking risks.

00:45:30.000 –> 00:45:32.000
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m like, yeah. Let’s

00:45:32.000 –> 00:45:34.000
let’s do it. Yeah. I think sometimes sometimes

00:45:35.000 –> 00:45:36.000
I should, you know, step back a little

00:45:36.000 –> 00:45:38.000
more and ask more questions but It doesn’t

00:45:38.000 –> 00:45:40.000
wanna walk down a really cool hallway in

00:45:40.000 –> 00:45:42.000
this place, man. I mean, this was an

00:45:42.000 –> 00:45:43.000
easy one. This the

00:45:43.000 –> 00:45:45.000
some some are a little harder

00:45:45.000 –> 00:45:46.000
than others.

00:45:47.000 –> 00:45:49.000
But, you know, I think I as I

00:45:49.000 –> 00:45:52.000
get older, I’m I’m trying to train myself

00:45:52.000 –> 00:45:54.000
to take a little less

00:45:54.000 –> 00:45:56.000
Yeah. Risk.

00:45:57.000 –> 00:45:58.000
And

00:45:58.000 –> 00:46:01.000
and that won’t be obvious to anybody looking

00:46:01.000 –> 00:46:03.000
at all of our plans because we’re

00:46:03.000 –> 00:46:06.000
constantly opening, but it’s maybe what I’m opening.

00:46:06.000 –> 00:46:06.000
Yep.

00:46:07.000 –> 00:46:08.000
That that shows

00:46:09.000 –> 00:46:10.000
how I’m pulling back.

00:46:12.000 –> 00:46:14.000
Love that. So last few questions here.

00:46:15.000 –> 00:46:17.000
When when you hear the word fear, I

00:46:17.000 –> 00:46:19.000
ask this question almost everybody is, how many

00:46:19.000 –> 00:46:21.000
of the fears you’ve put in your mind

00:46:21.000 –> 00:46:23.000
have actually blown up to the magnitude you

00:46:23.000 –> 00:46:24.000
put them in your mind to be?

00:46:27.000 –> 00:46:27.000
Oh, that’s

00:46:28.000 –> 00:46:29.000
that’s interesting.

00:46:34.000 –> 00:46:35.000
Well, so far,

00:46:36.000 –> 00:46:39.000
so far none of them have. You knocked

00:46:39.000 –> 00:46:41.000
out a little earlier. Right? Yeah. And, and

00:46:41.000 –> 00:46:42.000
I am a very superstitious

00:46:43.000 –> 00:46:45.000
human being. I usually do five knocks on

00:46:45.000 –> 00:46:47.000
the bed for some reason. Three on wood.

00:46:47.000 –> 00:46:48.000
I don’t know. It’s a weird thing.

00:46:49.000 –> 00:46:51.000
I’ve probably driven Claire,

00:46:51.000 –> 00:46:53.000
absolutely insane with all of the lines. I

00:46:53.000 –> 00:46:55.000
noticed it. I said a couple things Gilliland

00:46:55.000 –> 00:46:56.000
you did the three knock in the wood.

00:46:56.000 –> 00:46:58.000
And I’m like, god, that guy’s just like

00:46:58.000 –> 00:46:59.000
me, my son, my second son, especially, man,

00:46:59.000 –> 00:47:01.000
where he does the five knocks on his

00:47:01.000 –> 00:47:03.000
head as well. That, for some reason, that

00:47:03.000 –> 00:47:04.000
thing that works, it just puts me at

00:47:04.000 –> 00:47:06.000
peace, and I feel good about it. Yeah.

00:47:06.000 –> 00:47:09.000
You know, I think fear fears, again, one

00:47:09.000 –> 00:47:11.000
of those things that I probably need a

00:47:11.000 –> 00:47:12.000
touch

00:47:12.000 –> 00:47:14.000
touch more of, you know, and I think

00:47:14.000 –> 00:47:14.000
that

00:47:15.000 –> 00:47:17.000
that quite honestly, you know, going through the

00:47:17.000 –> 00:47:20.000
great recession as a business owner and going

00:47:20.000 –> 00:47:21.000
through,

00:47:22.000 –> 00:47:24.000
COVID have definitely, you know,

00:47:25.000 –> 00:47:27.000
added a little to that. You know, they’ve

00:47:27.000 –> 00:47:28.000
they’ve helped me,

00:47:29.000 –> 00:47:31.000
be like, hey, everything can be gone

00:47:32.000 –> 00:47:32.000
tomorrow.

00:47:33.000 –> 00:47:33.000
Yeah.

00:47:33.000 –> 00:47:35.000
And I think that’s,

00:47:35.000 –> 00:47:37.000
you know, some of those things are important

00:47:37.000 –> 00:47:40.000
to to take into account when you’re when

00:47:40.000 –> 00:47:43.000
you’re building an actual business. Like, are you

00:47:43.000 –> 00:47:44.000
really building a foundation

00:47:45.000 –> 00:47:47.000
that you can that you can stand or

00:47:47.000 –> 00:47:49.000
you’re just kind of building a ton of

00:47:49.000 –> 00:47:50.000
stuff on quicksand.

00:47:50.000 –> 00:47:52.000
And I think that that’s really my focus,

00:47:53.000 –> 00:47:55.000
you know, for the next five years is

00:47:55.000 –> 00:47:57.000
is all in in real

00:47:58.000 –> 00:47:59.000
large foundational

00:47:59.000 –> 00:48:00.000
work.

00:48:00.000 –> 00:48:02.000
Yep. So our name of our firm is

00:48:02.000 –> 00:48:04.000
visionary wealth advisors. So a name like at

00:48:04.000 –> 00:48:07.000
by definition, it’s, you know, helping helping people

00:48:07.000 –> 00:48:08.000
achieve a future, right, greater than your past.

00:48:08.000 –> 00:48:10.000
And that’s our mission statement, helping you achieve

00:48:10.000 –> 00:48:12.000
a future greater than your past. So when

00:48:12.000 –> 00:48:13.000
you hear those words,

00:48:14.000 –> 00:48:16.000
future greater than past, what comes to mind

00:48:16.000 –> 00:48:16.000
for you?

00:48:17.000 –> 00:48:19.000
I mean, so, you know, my five year

00:48:19.000 –> 00:48:19.000
plan.

00:48:22.000 –> 00:48:24.000
Would would kind of be just that. You

00:48:24.000 –> 00:48:24.000
know, I think

00:48:26.000 –> 00:48:27.000
we we have a pretty set vision of

00:48:27.000 –> 00:48:30.000
where we wanna see this company be.

00:48:30.000 –> 00:48:32.000
In five years and who we want it

00:48:32.000 –> 00:48:34.000
to be competing with and,

00:48:35.000 –> 00:48:37.000
what field we want it to be playing

00:48:37.000 –> 00:48:38.000
on.

00:48:39.000 –> 00:48:42.000
And and that is a lot bigger than

00:48:42.000 –> 00:48:43.000
it is today.

00:48:44.000 –> 00:48:46.000
You know, so so growth is a big

00:48:46.000 –> 00:48:47.000
part of our

00:48:48.000 –> 00:48:48.000
our vision,

00:48:49.000 –> 00:48:50.000
but it’s also,

00:48:52.000 –> 00:48:54.000
a very very focused growth.

00:48:55.000 –> 00:48:57.000
Yeah. Is that who’s in that room? Like,

00:48:57.000 –> 00:48:58.000
how many people are in that room, not

00:48:58.000 –> 00:49:00.000
necessarily names? But who how many people are

00:49:00.000 –> 00:49:02.000
in that room? And what’s that process look

00:49:02.000 –> 00:49:04.000
like for you to to build that vision

00:49:04.000 –> 00:49:05.000
out?

00:49:05.000 –> 00:49:06.000
Sure.

00:49:06.000 –> 00:49:08.000
You know, so our CFO

00:49:08.000 –> 00:49:08.000
and,

00:49:09.000 –> 00:49:12.000
and our chief operating officer, Kate Wolverton.

00:49:13.000 –> 00:49:15.000
I mean, she’s really kinda like

00:49:16.000 –> 00:49:17.000
you know, my right hand,

00:49:18.000 –> 00:49:20.000
and then the business partners, you know, our

00:49:20.000 –> 00:49:21.000
investors,

00:49:23.000 –> 00:49:24.000
So they’re sitting here kinda deciding, here’s what

00:49:24.000 –> 00:49:26.000
we’re gonna do. Here’s how many restaurants we

00:49:26.000 –> 00:49:28.000
wanna open or whatever it may be deciding

00:49:28.000 –> 00:49:30.000
that. And then how often are you looking

00:49:30.000 –> 00:49:31.000
at that?

00:49:31.000 –> 00:49:34.000
All the time. Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re constantly

00:49:34.000 –> 00:49:34.000
evaluating

00:49:35.000 –> 00:49:38.000
different different deals on a regular basis. You

00:49:38.000 –> 00:49:40.000
know, if I I told people, you know,

00:49:41.000 –> 00:49:44.000
Sometimes I think it is worrisome to to

00:49:44.000 –> 00:49:47.000
people because because we’re constantly talking about deals.

00:49:47.000 –> 00:49:49.000
Yeah. You know, I mean, they’re like

00:49:49.000 –> 00:49:51.000
every week. They probably come across your desk

00:49:51.000 –> 00:49:53.000
all the time too. Right? And so, you

00:49:53.000 –> 00:49:54.000
know, when

00:49:54.000 –> 00:49:56.000
I think at first, it’s really hard for

00:49:56.000 –> 00:49:59.000
some people to be have those conversations and

00:49:59.000 –> 00:50:01.000
then you turn those down or whatever. Well,

00:50:01.000 –> 00:50:03.000
what happened to that one? Yeah. I’m like,

00:50:03.000 –> 00:50:05.000
yeah, it’s gone. Yeah. I didn’t feel right.

00:50:05.000 –> 00:50:08.000
You know, so I think we’re we’re evaluating

00:50:08.000 –> 00:50:10.000
all the time. So you are the chief

00:50:10.000 –> 00:50:11.000
flavor officer

00:50:11.000 –> 00:50:13.000
for the hat you’re supporting there. So I’m

00:50:13.000 –> 00:50:15.000
a City SC, baby. That was awesome. Great

00:50:15.000 –> 00:50:17.000
for a year. So talk to us about

00:50:17.000 –> 00:50:17.000
soccer. What’s,

00:50:18.000 –> 00:50:20.000
what are you excited about there? So funny.

00:50:20.000 –> 00:50:22.000
I was not a soccer fan growing up.

00:50:23.000 –> 00:50:25.000
I played one season of soccer. No. And

00:50:25.000 –> 00:50:27.000
I suck. And it really made me mad.

00:50:27.000 –> 00:50:30.000
I was I was a great baseball player

00:50:30.000 –> 00:50:31.000
at the time, and,

00:50:32.000 –> 00:50:33.000
I did not like,

00:50:34.000 –> 00:50:36.000
how bad I was. And so that was

00:50:36.000 –> 00:50:39.000
it for me. And so it wasn’t until

00:50:39.000 –> 00:50:40.000
I got involved with,

00:50:41.000 –> 00:50:43.000
Carolyn Kindle. Yep. And,

00:50:44.000 –> 00:50:45.000
and

00:50:45.000 –> 00:50:49.000
and, Lee Brett over at City SC. Mhmm.

00:50:49.000 –> 00:50:51.000
That I started to really fall in love

00:50:51.000 –> 00:50:52.000
with soccer.

00:50:53.000 –> 00:50:55.000
And, you know, it’s been an amazing journey

00:50:55.000 –> 00:50:56.000
so far. I think,

00:50:59.000 –> 00:51:00.000
I’ve been working with them for, I guess,

00:51:00.000 –> 00:51:04.000
four years. Wow. Now on this. And,

00:51:04.000 –> 00:51:06.000
you know, we’re got a lot of really

00:51:06.000 –> 00:51:09.000
exciting things planned for the next season.

00:51:09.000 –> 00:51:12.000
Season one was was the coolest experience. You

00:51:12.000 –> 00:51:13.000
know, I think,

00:51:14.000 –> 00:51:16.000
I I missed one game. I think I

00:51:16.000 –> 00:51:18.000
was out of town, but,

00:51:18.000 –> 00:51:20.000
And you know, getting to see those games,

00:51:20.000 –> 00:51:21.000
the energy,

00:51:22.000 –> 00:51:24.000
feeling, you know, getting to work with so

00:51:24.000 –> 00:51:25.000
many great local

00:51:26.000 –> 00:51:29.000
restaurant partners. Yeah. You know, in in setting

00:51:29.000 –> 00:51:31.000
that up. It’s it’s just been it’s been

00:51:31.000 –> 00:51:33.000
one of the highlights of my career for

00:51:33.000 –> 00:51:35.000
sure. Talk about that real quick. For the

00:51:35.000 –> 00:51:37.000
person maybe has not been there or that’s

00:51:37.000 –> 00:51:39.000
from another town or city, listen to this.

00:51:40.000 –> 00:51:42.000
What’s different about it than say the traditional,

00:51:42.000 –> 00:51:44.000
you know, professional sports stadium? Yeah. So it’s

00:51:44.000 –> 00:51:46.000
it’s different in a number of ways. When

00:51:46.000 –> 00:51:49.000
you go to a a professional stadium

00:51:49.000 –> 00:51:51.000
and you see, say, one of you, you

00:51:51.000 –> 00:51:53.000
know, some local restaurant there. And and there’s

00:51:53.000 –> 00:51:56.000
usually maybe like one or two in that

00:51:56.000 –> 00:51:57.000
in that spot.

00:51:57.000 –> 00:52:00.000
Oftentimes, it’s actually being run by

00:52:00.000 –> 00:52:04.000
the stadium itself. So the stadium managers. Yep.

00:52:04.000 –> 00:52:07.000
And so we’ve done things a lot different.

00:52:07.000 –> 00:52:09.000
It at, City Park,

00:52:09.000 –> 00:52:11.000
and all of our

00:52:12.000 –> 00:52:13.000
all of our vendors

00:52:13.000 –> 00:52:16.000
run their own stalls So these are all,

00:52:16.000 –> 00:52:17.000
you know, local businesses.

00:52:17.000 –> 00:52:20.000
And and I think we have something like

00:52:20.000 –> 00:52:23.000
twenty four. Wow. Right now, local restaurant partners

00:52:24.000 –> 00:52:25.000
throughout the stadium.

00:52:26.000 –> 00:52:26.000
And quite often, you see the owner of

00:52:26.000 –> 00:52:27.000
all of these businesses right there

00:52:31.000 –> 00:52:33.000
you know, whether it’s,

00:52:33.000 –> 00:52:36.000
Steve viewing handing out hot dogs, Lauren Nalek,

00:52:36.000 –> 00:52:38.000
over there at Balkan

00:52:38.000 –> 00:52:39.000
Treatbox.

00:52:40.000 –> 00:52:42.000
You know, when they’re standing right there,

00:52:42.000 –> 00:52:45.000
you know, working working the events and and

00:52:45.000 –> 00:52:46.000
is really made for a unique experience because

00:52:46.000 –> 00:52:47.000
I think not

00:52:49.000 –> 00:52:50.000
only

00:52:50.000 –> 00:52:53.000
are you getting the best of the best,

00:52:54.000 –> 00:52:56.000
you know, as far as restaurants, but then

00:52:56.000 –> 00:52:59.000
you’re also getting the highest quality from those

00:52:59.000 –> 00:53:00.000
because they’re doing it themselves. Yep.

00:53:01.000 –> 00:53:02.000
Which is in line with the values of

00:53:02.000 –> 00:53:04.000
that organization, hence the name of the team.

00:53:04.000 –> 00:53:06.000
I mean, they could have chosen anything, the

00:53:06.000 –> 00:53:08.000
logo, the rivers, the arch. I mean, all

00:53:08.000 –> 00:53:09.000
the stuff that goes with that, I think,

00:53:09.000 –> 00:53:11.000
is cool that they’re connected to the city

00:53:11.000 –> 00:53:12.000
the way. And then what they’ve done for

00:53:12.000 –> 00:53:14.000
the city is as a family’s you know,

00:53:14.000 –> 00:53:17.000
ridiculous. I mean talking about a group of

00:53:17.000 –> 00:53:20.000
people who walk the talk. Yeah. I mean,

00:53:21.000 –> 00:53:23.000
the the the owners of the ownership group

00:53:23.000 –> 00:53:25.000
at City SC and everybody

00:53:26.000 –> 00:53:28.000
who works there, you know, my my

00:53:30.000 –> 00:53:32.000
My main point of contact is always Matt

00:53:32.000 –> 00:53:34.000
Seabek, and I don’t know if you know

00:53:34.000 –> 00:53:36.000
him. No. But he’s the chief experience officer.

00:53:36.000 –> 00:53:39.000
Down there. So everything you touch at the

00:53:39.000 –> 00:53:39.000
stadium,

00:53:40.000 –> 00:53:43.000
you know, he’s kind of waiting on in

00:53:43.000 –> 00:53:45.000
in some way, shape, or form. And he’s,

00:53:45.000 –> 00:53:46.000
you know, obsessive

00:53:46.000 –> 00:53:48.000
know, whether it’s, you know, the lighting and

00:53:48.000 –> 00:53:49.000
the music and,

00:53:50.000 –> 00:53:52.000
you know, you know, when the all the

00:53:52.000 –> 00:53:53.000
lights go out at the stadium, you know,

00:53:53.000 –> 00:53:55.000
like Such a cool. You know, he’s obsessing

00:53:56.000 –> 00:53:58.000
about all that stuff. And it’s it’s really

00:53:58.000 –> 00:54:00.000
cool. You know, their whole they have their

00:54:00.000 –> 00:54:00.000
own,

00:54:02.000 –> 00:54:05.000
production team. You know, making videos and everything,

00:54:05.000 –> 00:54:07.000
and all of those guys are like movie

00:54:07.000 –> 00:54:09.000
level producers.

00:54:09.000 –> 00:54:12.000
They’re they’re incredible. And and again, all you

00:54:12.000 –> 00:54:15.000
know, so obsessed with with what they do

00:54:15.000 –> 00:54:18.000
and making that experience Brett. And there’s just

00:54:18.000 –> 00:54:20.000
no way when you have that many people

00:54:20.000 –> 00:54:23.000
who care so much about what they’re doing,

00:54:23.000 –> 00:54:24.000
but you’re not gonna have a great experience.

00:54:24.000 –> 00:54:26.000
Right. And and the and the experience of

00:54:26.000 –> 00:54:28.000
what the fans got from the team. Yeah.

00:54:28.000 –> 00:54:30.000
And then the team. Right. I mean,

00:54:30.000 –> 00:54:32.000
clients who hold the pitch. Right?

00:54:33.000 –> 00:54:35.000
Show up so big and are just also

00:54:35.000 –> 00:54:37.000
so nice. Yeah. You know, you know,

00:54:38.000 –> 00:54:40.000
definitely took a page from the the cardinals

00:54:40.000 –> 00:54:42.000
and stuff like that. These guys are, you

00:54:42.000 –> 00:54:44.000
know, class acts. Yep. So talk to us

00:54:44.000 –> 00:54:46.000
about what’s gonna be happening stairs here. We’re

00:54:46.000 –> 00:54:48.000
we’re in the basement of, city foundry right

00:54:48.000 –> 00:54:50.000
now, but you got expats,

00:54:50.000 –> 00:54:52.000
expats coming in there. Right? Yeah. If I

00:54:52.000 –> 00:54:54.000
say that correctly. Pat Barbecue. Yeah.

00:54:55.000 –> 00:54:56.000
Talk to us about that. And that’s opening

00:54:57.000 –> 00:54:59.000
sometime this summer. Yeah. So we’re looking at

00:54:59.000 –> 00:55:01.000
at June opening. K.

00:55:02.000 –> 00:55:04.000
And in the tag line for expats,

00:55:04.000 –> 00:55:05.000
expat,

00:55:05.000 –> 00:55:07.000
well traveled barbecue.

00:55:07.000 –> 00:55:09.000
And, you know, the idea behind it is

00:55:09.000 –> 00:55:10.000
to

00:55:11.000 –> 00:55:14.000
look through the eyes of American barbecue with

00:55:14.000 –> 00:55:16.000
a filter on it. And that filter is

00:55:16.000 –> 00:55:18.000
how would you cook American barbecue

00:55:19.000 –> 00:55:20.000
if you were living

00:55:21.000 –> 00:55:24.000
in Spain. If you were living in Africa,

00:55:24.000 –> 00:55:26.000
you know, if you were living in,

00:55:27.000 –> 00:55:28.000
in China,

00:55:28.000 –> 00:55:30.000
And so, you know, what would your pantry

00:55:31.000 –> 00:55:31.000
look like?

00:55:32.000 –> 00:55:32.000
And,

00:55:33.000 –> 00:55:35.000
you know, how would you season your meat?

00:55:35.000 –> 00:55:36.000
How would you

00:55:37.000 –> 00:55:38.000
do all of that

00:55:39.000 –> 00:55:41.000
to get it close to what you wanted

00:55:41.000 –> 00:55:43.000
to cook from home. So this this isn’t

00:55:43.000 –> 00:55:44.000
really about

00:55:44.000 –> 00:55:47.000
trying to say do Chinese barbecue. Right? That’s

00:55:47.000 –> 00:55:50.000
not our our intent. We have no clue

00:55:50.000 –> 00:55:51.000
how to make Chinese barbecue.

00:55:51.000 –> 00:55:53.000
But this is

00:55:53.000 –> 00:55:55.000
about how do we use

00:55:56.000 –> 00:55:56.000
those

00:55:57.000 –> 00:55:58.000
spices

00:55:58.000 –> 00:55:59.000
to create

00:55:59.000 –> 00:56:00.000
American barbecue,

00:56:01.000 –> 00:56:03.000
like you were living abroad And, you know,

00:56:03.000 –> 00:56:05.000
I think when when you talk about those

00:56:05.000 –> 00:56:06.000
kind of like flavor

00:56:07.000 –> 00:56:09.000
transfers, you know, all of food, I’ve been

00:56:09.000 –> 00:56:11.000
obsessed with this kind of forever.

00:56:11.000 –> 00:56:13.000
Is that all of food,

00:56:14.000 –> 00:56:14.000
is connected.

00:56:15.000 –> 00:56:17.000
Right? If you really, really start to look

00:56:17.000 –> 00:56:19.000
at, like, all the noodle dishes,

00:56:20.000 –> 00:56:22.000
around the world and you don’t see a

00:56:22.000 –> 00:56:23.000
connection. You’re insane.

00:56:24.000 –> 00:56:26.000
You know, but but you see it all

00:56:26.000 –> 00:56:28.000
over the place. You know, you look at,

00:56:28.000 –> 00:56:30.000
like, Mexican cuisine and the

00:56:30.000 –> 00:56:32.000
the trumpo for the,

00:56:33.000 –> 00:56:33.000
al pastor

00:56:34.000 –> 00:56:36.000
tacos, but you also

00:56:37.000 –> 00:56:38.000
you know, go to,

00:56:39.000 –> 00:56:42.000
you know, go to Istanbul and you’ll see

00:56:42.000 –> 00:56:44.000
the exact same the exact same thing, but

00:56:44.000 –> 00:56:47.000
with different different flavors. So these techniques get

00:56:47.000 –> 00:56:49.000
kind of passed around and the flavors

00:56:50.000 –> 00:56:52.000
all get passed around. So I’ve I’ve always

00:56:52.000 –> 00:56:55.000
been very obsessed with travel and how that

00:56:55.000 –> 00:56:56.000
influences

00:56:57.000 –> 00:56:59.000
cooking. You know, I think The the word

00:56:59.000 –> 00:57:01.000
fusion was thrown around in a lot of

00:57:01.000 –> 00:57:03.000
very bad ways for a for a long

00:57:03.000 –> 00:57:05.000
time, but quite frankly,

00:57:06.000 –> 00:57:07.000
you know, it is you know, some type

00:57:07.000 –> 00:57:09.000
of fusion. And,

00:57:09.000 –> 00:57:12.000
and I think done done with respect, it

00:57:12.000 –> 00:57:13.000
can be really,

00:57:15.000 –> 00:57:18.000
really unique and really fun, I think, at

00:57:18.000 –> 00:57:20.000
the same time. And a cool location too.

00:57:20.000 –> 00:57:21.000
Right? You got a big big balcony up

00:57:21.000 –> 00:57:23.000
there, Port. Yeah. So this is a three

00:57:23.000 –> 00:57:24.000
story.

00:57:24.000 –> 00:57:25.000
Restaurant.

00:57:26.000 –> 00:57:28.000
And on the first floor, it’s all,

00:57:28.000 –> 00:57:30.000
table service, server,

00:57:31.000 –> 00:57:34.000
more like plates of food. Yep. The second

00:57:34.000 –> 00:57:35.000
floor is an event space.

00:57:36.000 –> 00:57:38.000
And then on the third floor, it’s all

00:57:38.000 –> 00:57:39.000
kind of fast casual

00:57:39.000 –> 00:57:41.000
giant bar,

00:57:42.000 –> 00:57:42.000
huge

00:57:42.000 –> 00:57:44.000
patio with garage doors,

00:57:45.000 –> 00:57:46.000
astroturf

00:57:46.000 –> 00:57:48.000
out there in the stage,

00:57:49.000 –> 00:57:50.000
and, you know, more sandwich

00:57:51.000 –> 00:57:51.000
oriented.

00:57:52.000 –> 00:57:54.000
So, you know, kinda taken from the downstairs,

00:57:54.000 –> 00:57:55.000
full plates of barbecue

00:57:56.000 –> 00:57:58.000
to how do we, you know, how do

00:57:58.000 –> 00:58:00.000
we make that into, you know, kind of

00:58:00.000 –> 00:58:01.000
fun handheld

00:58:01.000 –> 00:58:03.000
experience upstairs. Yeah. Well, I can’t wait to

00:58:03.000 –> 00:58:05.000
be there this summer. That is awesome. Last

00:58:05.000 –> 00:58:06.000
question for you.

00:58:07.000 –> 00:58:08.000
What would you tell

00:58:08.000 –> 00:58:10.000
the Gerard of, the guy that was washing

00:58:10.000 –> 00:58:12.000
dishes. Right? Just got out of college. Not

00:58:12.000 –> 00:58:14.000
got out of college. Just dropped out of

00:58:14.000 –> 00:58:17.000
college and then, was washing dishes. What what

00:58:17.000 –> 00:58:17.000
advice

00:58:17.000 –> 00:58:19.000
would you give that guy or the person

00:58:19.000 –> 00:58:20.000
listen to this right now, man, that may

00:58:20.000 –> 00:58:22.000
be in a spot that they think, how

00:58:22.000 –> 00:58:25.000
is that guy’s success possible for me? What

00:58:25.000 –> 00:58:26.000
advice would you give him? I would say

00:58:26.000 –> 00:58:29.000
that the work ethic you are putting in

00:58:29.000 –> 00:58:29.000
today,

00:58:30.000 –> 00:58:31.000
will directly

00:58:32.000 –> 00:58:32.000
translate

00:58:32.000 –> 00:58:33.000
into,

00:58:35.000 –> 00:58:38.000
to your work ten years from now. Yeah.

00:58:38.000 –> 00:58:40.000
Awesome. Awesome, man. Well, thanks so much for

00:58:40.000 –> 00:58:41.000
being on the circuit of success. It’s been

00:58:41.000 –> 00:58:43.000
awesome having you. Oh, thank you for having

00:58:43.000 –> 00:58:44.000
us. Great.