Your Restaurant’s Why vs Your Customer’s Wants︱Restaurant Roundtable S01E01

How do you hold true to your “why” and still give customers what they want? This is the question that every successful culinary venture needs to have answered. But what is a “why,” and how do we find it? 

 

Tune in to today’s episode of the Restaurant Roundtable to uncover your own “why,” and learn how to apply it to your life and career to achieve lasting success in the culinary world. 

 

Together, we’ll delve into the personal highs and lows of five esteemed restaurant owners who gather around a table to share their stories. As a group, they craft a master recipe for success by blending their experiences, guest appearances, and their own deep understanding of the industry. 

 

Each host has discovered that staying true to your “why” not only builds the perfect customer base, but also skewers a menu and mindset to last a lifetime. 

 

ABOUT THE PODCAST:

Kraft Heinz Away From Home presents The Restaurant Roundtable

 

Being successful in the world of restaurants is incredibly hard. But what if it could be easier? The Restaurant Roundtable features accomplished restaurant owners along with special guests where we explore ways to build better businesses, healthier lifestyles and stronger communities. 

 

MEET OUR HOSTS:

Avishar Barua - https://www.instagram.com/dineatagni/ 

BJ Lieberman - https://www.instagram.com/eatchapmans/ 

Kate Djupe - http://instagram.com/heyacake 

Shanika and Jomar Sheppard - https://www.instagram.com/marlowscheesesteaks 

 

GET MORE FROM KRAFT HEINZ AWAY FROM HOME:

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Website: https://www.kraftheinzawayfromhome.com/

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to the Restaurant round Table.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
We're support group for restaurant owners.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
To buy restaurant owners, brought to you by Kraft Hunts.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
All season long, we discussed the challenges, opportunities, the good taste.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
And the bad taste within the industry.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
And we're your hosts.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm VJ, I'm Shanika, I'm Jamar, I'm Kate, I'm av
as Charm.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
So if you're a chef, an owner.

Speaker 5 (00:22):
Or starting to be one, you're gonna want to pull
up a chair to this round table.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well this is exciting, guys, our first restaurant round table.
We've been circling this for a while and here we are.
The MIC's are on. So our first topic today is why,
which I think is a cool place for us to
start because we're all in the restaurant industry, but all
in different parts of it. So I guess we should
go around the table and talk about why we chose

(00:50):
this crazy profession. Shudika, do you want to start us off?

Speaker 3 (00:54):
So my background was in corporate retail and we my
husband and I we relocated from Philadelphia to Columbus, Ohio
for my job.

Speaker 6 (01:05):
So he was in construction. I was a buyer.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
He went out to the job site pretty much had
to start over and was like.

Speaker 6 (01:14):
I got to do something different. I got to make
a change.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
And he wanted to start his own business and he
just went for it. I would come out and went
out at festivals, some private events, and fast forward, COVID
happened and then I lost my job. And in Columbus
there's definitely a great appreciation for food, and I said

(01:39):
to him, like, we need a bigger ticket. And since
we were already doing water ice, I was like.

Speaker 6 (01:45):
Oh, we should do cheese steaks.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
That's, you know, what Philly is known for, and that's
how we got into it.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I don't think the cheese steaks need any explanation, but
can you explain to the people what water ices or
water ice?

Speaker 4 (02:00):
And just to add some more, the why is independence?
I was my why. I think that's a lot of
people's why. You want independence to be able to for
your family, for yourself, your time. Time is of you know,
kind of the most precious thing that we have on
this earth. And then if you have a passion and
your why can be your passion, then the world is yours.

(02:22):
To get back to your point, Italian ice is like
a saut serve kind of what would they call it here?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Eathed ice is just crushed ice with flavor poored on top,
and water ice or Italian ice. It's blended so you like,
you never taste the ice, and water ice is more creamier,
has a more creamier texture than Italian ice, like Rita's right.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Ritas started in Philadelphia also.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, and I grew up going to the Jersey shore
and there were the people would walk around with the
water ice on the beach, and that's just like core
childhood memories. So thank you for bringing that to Columbus.

Speaker 7 (02:58):
In terms of why I don't have school of a
story as everybody else does, necessarily, I just personally I
ran out of other options. It never had a direction
I was going other than the path that was set forward.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I'm supposed to be a doctor, right, that was it.

Speaker 7 (03:11):
And I realized at a certain point that was that
making me happy? I'm not sure. I know that it
was very hard for me to process things or learn
those things, and there was a lot of responsibility and
pressure to try to go through those So I kind
of saw that if I made food when I was
in college, it could do something for somebody, and that
was continued to be the reason why I could use

(03:34):
everything that I'd learned from childhood to this point to
see a difference in one person's life, and generally a
positive one. It was one of the few things that
I could produce for somebody, and that was just the start.
And that's where we are today is it's what can
we do that way? Every time I think the next
question is like the why not? And I think that

(03:55):
it was go back to the why is that we
get a chance to provide. I had a service product
of food, a means of life to somebody, and what
else reason do you need? I mean don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
For me, I've always worked in restaurants and food, and
I tried other things and I didn't feel that same
sense of satisfaction and accomplishment at the end of each day. Also,
I have a skill that helps people and I want
them to eat well. Businesses that I have started or
am in the process of starting are all big ideas

(04:28):
that took over my brain and I really just needed
to make them happen so I could make room for
other fock. So when something haunts me up, then I
end up just having to do it.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
I kind of feel the same way that I tried
doing other things, and I think that just seeing the
look of joy on people's face when they have a
good meal is something that's kind of an addictive feeling
to get when you cook something and somebody's enjoying it.
And that kind of got me into the restaurant world.
And then as we went on to your point, I

(05:00):
was sick of working for other people. I was just
ready to do it on my own. So there was
no other option but to open my own restaurant at
that point, and there was no like second guessing it either.
It was just like, we're just going to do this,
and this is the type of restaurant we're going to open,
and we just want to make people happy. And that's
literally our mission statement to be the most enjoyable restaurant
to dine in and the most enjoyable restaurant to work in,

(05:21):
and kind of everything else is built off of that.
We could do any type of cuisine with that mission statement,
we just kind of chose to go this like weird
half fine dining route. I think that we all have
the want to make people happy. Kate, we were talking
about how you're not a fan of like being a
front of the house person. Do you still feel the
same way where when you cook, like you get joy

(05:42):
out of seeing the joy that it brings other people?

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Or I absolutely do. Absolutely, And my favorite part of
feeding people is not actually watching them or being a
part of that, but when I feel like the feedback
that I get when I see people are satisfied or
they're talking to another person and I'm not present, like
presently a part of that conversation, I find I get
so much more fulfillment from that.

Speaker 7 (06:06):
Yeah, I just I think with our interactions, Uh, if
you meet Kate for the first time, some would say
awkward quiet doesn't you know, may write people the wrong way,
But what we discovered is the people that the people
that do that, it's uh, it's actually quite the opposite
that you think so much of someone that you remove
your ego from the situation.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
So that's why you end.

Speaker 7 (06:24):
Up in back in the house, right, because you give
someone food and you don't see, right, you're producing this
thing every single day, over and over and over again,
maybe a thousand times, and it's the exact same thing,
and you're doing the exact same thing for so many
different people. Because you want to see them. You want
to you want them to be happy. You don't need
them to tell you, hey, this was goody. It's not
not important at least to me. Is what I want
to see is that that it's that what was produced

(06:45):
made them happy. It's not even about me at that point.
And it's that's why I went to the bath house
because in front of the house. I love front of
the house. I love interacting. It's very addictive to see
someone smile and be like, oh, that's so good. But
you know that's uh, that gets you know, that's that's
not why I do it, But I think it's it's
it's nice for hospitality to you know, you're serving somebody,
and the best way to serve someone, and at least
from the science background, is like do it blind, Like

(07:06):
you should just say if it's a good thing, it's
a good thing.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
I know that during the pandemic, when we switched from
being able to hear people being happy in a dining
room kind of that sound of satisfied room to not
having that sound and having to figure out different sources
of validation, that transition was hard initially, but I found
it more natural for me to not be again an

(07:30):
active participant in the customer service part of it so
much as everything around it, making sure that it was
set up for success.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
An interesting thing for you guys doing something like a
Philly cheese steak that I think a lot of people
think that they have some grasp of, like what it
is is part of your like why to show people
what you grew up with? And like what a Philly
cheese stake really is.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
What the real taste is, an organic taste. So yeah,
when I see that bite into it and the eyes
closed and roll back, that's it for me.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
I thought it was, you know, important to be able
to share, you know, of a piece of what we
grew up with, uh to another community, because everybody has
their interpretation of what a cheese steak is, because you're
not supposed to say a Philly cheese steak, it's just
a cheese steak. Practing with the guests, I like to

(08:27):
get the feedback. I take the good with the bed again,
Like when you know, someone comes up and says, oh
my gosh, this was my first time having a real
cheese steak and it was so good. It's it's really
rewarding and then to be able to share that with
the team so that they know that they're doing a
good job and you know people are enjoying the food.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Avashara. Do you find that with your food too? I
mean you have a very specific kind of lens in
which you view what you're doing through as well. Do
you feel like part of your why is an education
kind of thing?

Speaker 7 (09:00):
Honestly, it's It can be as straightforward and basic as
having a We're always asked what we are, and in
my entire life, I know I'm a Bengali American bard
in Columbus, Ohio. Bangladesh was in the country that started
tell nineteen. There's a lot of Sure, there's a lot
of baggage to unpack, but it was never about the baggage.
It was about do you know how it feels to
be somebody unique or alone? Do somebody else feel similarly,

(09:21):
and you can make it a little bit easier for them,
so that that's been the only thing that dictates anything.
I don't That's why I can't say that I make
Chinese food, I make America. I don't know, just as
I don't know who I am, but I know that
I'm willing to learn about other people's cultures. When someone
comes they said I had a great time at your restaurant.
They's then go like, hey, I had a good burger
and then they left they said, I everything, the water,
everything was great. And that's like, that's a really unique
service that is personal.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Where do the names of the restaurants come into to
play here, because I feel like they're very much a
part of you and what it is that you're trying
to say culinarily.

Speaker 7 (09:48):
Today world to be objective, I mean, I paid a
designer to create a name and then either I was like,
give me a name, GiB a name, and we went
with and even Kate was part of the beginning process. Remember,
like it was like Danny's Delight or what it's a
really weird name for joining us. And when it came
down to it and we it's the same thing as
everybody here knows. When you become more confident in your voice,
you remove things you don't need to speak with words.

(10:10):
You say the most with the least amount of words, right,
And that's what we get to even with you know,
with the menu here at Ogney, it's it is a
fourteen courses, right. We find that when we added more courses,
we can speak less like we have to go faster
and faster, like the pacing changes and that stuff you
learn when you when you're like, hey, what can we
do next for the guests, And now we're like, it's
not even about digition anywhere. Just give it to them
if they like it, and see how they interact with it,
and then go that way. So the way that we

(10:31):
educate is actually we educate alongside. We follow like a
I mean, the goal isn't like hey, you look down
this way, it's we go side my side.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
We move together.

Speaker 7 (10:40):
So if someone is having in struggle, then I step
back and we talk together and we move together. Because
the best thing in the world is like when you
have the confidence, you know, just to walk away from space,
and when you can walk with from a space, it's
because everybody is on board, like we're all on the
same team. You don't have to say, like, hey, make
sure you treat this person extra special. In fact, we
do the opposite. We're like, don't treat anyone next, for
everybody should be such special.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Everyone should be the same, right, yeah, I mean similarly,
we at Chapman's we call what we do global comfort Food.
And the whole point is that the team comes up
with the menu. I always wanted the menu to be
a reflection of the individuals who were in the kitchen.
So what I found over the course of time is
I am sick of my own food at this point,
and also my opportunity to learn kind of comes from

(11:19):
other people now. So what we do is we turn
the ideas for the menu over the staff. I know
how to get the ideas out of people's heads and
onto the plate, and that's become a big part of
what I enjoy in my Why is no one ever
afforded me the opportunity when I was younger cook to
put something on a menu and the pride that you
see people feel and putting something out there. Again to

(11:40):
our earlier point, that then the guests get to enjoy
and you see the smiles on their face with something
that came out of your head. And then I get
to see our cooks being super excited that something went
on the menu. That is to me like the greatest
joy in this entire industry. It's put in our first
spicy take.

Speaker 7 (11:54):
What do you think if somebody does, that's our passionate
to it, and it doesn't come out as a good product.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
What do you do? Then happens really often. I think
that it's a whole point of being straightforward. I mean,
it happens with me too. Sometimes it's just an idea
that I need to get out and ends up being
trashed when it hits the plate. But the journey, as
they say, is the experience or however that quote goes.
The ratio for successes ratio is a failure sussful. I

(12:19):
would say how many? How many of your ideas are bad?
I mean, like you said, scientific method, they're kind of
all are bad until they're not. So it's kind of
like how far do you want to chase something down
the road to make it so? Or is there a
certain point where you're just satisfied that you tried and
it's okay, And like, I don't think that it's a
giving up thing. I think that it's a like we
we gave it an effort and there's more important stuff

(12:41):
to do now.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
And you said the scientific method, are you thinking that
I've done has been successful?

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Look at pictures in the history of restaurants, you will
just be in the background of everything.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
We have items want to manu that are representation of
places in Philadelphia, so you know when you walk into
our Handah location and even Abud Dairy, like we have
a mural that highlights famous people from Philadelphia, and then
in our Ga Handah location, we have like the sport

(13:19):
team jerseys that represent the like his favorite players that
he looked up to when he was growing up. And
we just want people when to come in to like
really have like that true like Philly experience, even down
to the cocktails, like we have cocktail names after you
know some places back home.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
My only fear kind of is when they get sick
of the cheese steaks at some point and we have
to expand our menu.

Speaker 7 (13:42):
But that's my dream. It is just oping about one
one item wrestler. It's like that's when you go to
other countries. You go to the streets and you see
this person doing it for forty years, like it never
gets old. You know. That's like you're relating to the
moment that's up to you to decide. But I'd say,
like if you got someone going, don't worry about what's
going to happen. Just stick with what you got until
you'll figure it out. If they've come to figure it out,
but like it's a it's it's a good problem.

Speaker 6 (14:02):
Man.

Speaker 7 (14:03):
It's like if someone you're passionate, when you're proud about,
you can only justify that. You can't justify did something
else that you didn't plan on, right, That's part of
the independence, I think so.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
And that's also to your point where you are bringing
up about consistency. So it's like, you know, when people
come in, you want them to have that good experience
you know each time, uh, you know, utilizing that word
of mouth because you know, you you can only tap
into so many people, so like just encouraging other people
to share, you know, like their experience with other people

(14:32):
so that when they come in they have a good
time and then you know they're telling another group of
individuals as well.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I think there's a lot of value in that of
like having a consistent food menu and then having your
creative outlet being the cocktails, so that like that's the
thing that that people come in for the new, new,
but it's like the tried and true is like this
is our core food menu.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, and that's what yeah, and that's what we get,
Like we get people they come in like no matter
how much you like we like advertise we have a
bar that we have.

Speaker 6 (15:01):
Cottails highlighting the cocktails.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
They come in they want cheese steaks and fries, and
then it's like, oh, you guys have a bar. We're like, yeah,
we have a full service bar. So that's interesting too.
And then you know, we even you know, talk to
some other people who you know, are in the business,
and I was like, what do we do to like,
you know, bump up you know the bar sales, Like

(15:27):
like what are we not doing? And we've had people
tell us like, you know, the people will somewhat determine
how they see you, and they see cheese steaks and
then the bar secondary and I just had to accept it.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
It took me a while, like to accept it.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, losing control of your own narrative is something I
think that we can probably all commiserate on. The Chapman's
has that problem right now where everybody thinks that we're
too busy to come, so people don't even try to
come to Chapman's right now, And that's been an issue
that we've been fighting as a public narrative. And it's like,
how do you even go about that? Back to like

(16:05):
creativity as part of the why, Kate, what do you
do to switch things out? I mean, you have a
very unique kind of corner of the industry in your post.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
So I'm still a baby business on this round with
hay A Cake, and I feel like a great portion
of what I do is R and D trying to
figure out what I want my staples to be. So
i have an idea of what my why is, but
I'm still trying to figure out how to stay true
to it. I really want to make delicious flavored cakes,
regardless of how much effort goes into it. I just

(16:38):
want them to be delicious for anybody, even people who
don't like cake. And I want the experience of buying
it to be good enough, like because you were selling
I'm selling through a machine right now, or I'm selling
it through avenues where I'm not personally the person that's present,
or I don't control the customer service around it. So
I need that experience to feel like it's a relationship,

(17:01):
even though there isn't a person that I control as
a part of it.

Speaker 7 (17:06):
Do you think of you were there now, there was
a thing in a restaurant used to work at. There
was an entire R and D menu that you proposed
the beginning in our service bar days called Secret Kitchen Menu.
Can you explain what the reasoning behind that was? Because
we had a very tight menu and we were trying
to keep the menu as tight as possible for one year.

(17:27):
What was the I guess the inspiration behind all those things.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
So we started a service bar, knowing that we wanted
to accommodate people with different food preferences or allergens. We
created an entirely separate menu for people with that were
gluten free, a separate menu for people or vegetarians, so
that when they came in that had that experience of
being able to read an entire menu and it was
all available to them. One time, we were having a

(17:53):
meeting and we're like, what if we just had pictures
like the Chinese menus where you just walk in and
you point and you say, I want the number twelve.
And somehow that coalesced into just starting an Instagram account
for our secret kitchen menu, our secret ideas, the ways
that we preferred to eat items that were on the menu.
And it was so wonderful because when covid hit I

(18:15):
had already been in development for a secret kitchen lunch menu.
We had never done lunch before, so when COVID hit,
we immediately that we had a vote to see who
wanted to continue working, who wanted to stay if we
were going to stay open, what constraints we needed to
feel comfortable with that, And then we immediately pivoted to
this sandwich menu and created a whole new dining service

(18:38):
for ourselves where we were still able to stay true
to our mission of feeding people with special diets, where
they had an opportunity to order from the menu and
feel included. We were able to play with the same
flavor and I feel like we were strongly in who
we were as a company or why when we were
making those choices.

Speaker 7 (18:59):
Yeah, a lot of the why that is twofold too.
One side is we're saying why because you know this
is what brought us here. Some of it it's why
for the guests. The third one is why, as if
I had dined at this restaurant, well, what I want?
Because if you look at it as this is my restaurant,
I'm going to serve you.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's one thing.

Speaker 7 (19:13):
But if you said, if I came here, what excites me?
What excites me is going to a Chinese restaurant and
seeing that you see the staff in the corner and
they're eating. Then I'm like, I have a whole fish,
Like I want that fish? How do I get that thing?
And they're like, you know, they don't want to serve
you because there's a cultural difference, right, and there's a
fear of like we weren't going to serve a whole
pitches person. But when you enter that conversation, because just
through visualization, it makes things exciting. So we started getting

(19:36):
industry people and we're like, how do we You know,
you have the bits, like the end bits, you don't
have enough to sell for a menu. You have enough
for you to share with one or two friends, Like,
how do you sell that without it being put onto
a menu? And we went so far into the why
that it got to the point that we had to
print the secret kitchen menu.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
But you put it on Instagram.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
Anyone and not to go all topic, but when you
said the number twelve, it is my mind just got
blown because two or three times a week a customer says,
give me the number twelve. We don't have twelve things
on the menu. How much the sandwich costs?

Speaker 1 (20:07):
The price? Yeah, That leads to something that I was
going to bring up anyway, which is it seems like
we're all on the same page, the same frequency about
we want to do restaurants that we would want to
dine in ourselves, and that's, you know, kind of what
we want to give to our guests. Sometimes our guests

(20:27):
aren't on the same page with that, Like how do
we deal with when somebody comes into the restaurant and
wants a cheese steak, not in a way that you
do a cheese steak. Yeah, it just.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Comes down to I know we all have stories about this,
you know. I had someone who was like adamant about
us not having let us in Tomato, and I just
had to tell her that we can't be everything to everybody,
like we're trying to stay like true to who we
are and you know how we had cheese steaks and

(21:03):
she was just.

Speaker 6 (21:03):
Going on and on and on.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
About it, and I just said to her, you can
go to Jersey Mikes, you can go to Penn Station,
but if you're going to get a cheese steak from us,
these are the only options.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
It's called cutting bait.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
I mean, does it feel personal in that moment because
you're like you're putting almost something that's like your personal
memory and something that's like a part of you out
there and somebody's being like, you don't have tomato, Like
this isn't real, Like what something I.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Take the good with the bed I don't like. I
just I don't take it personal. Again, you know, it's
more about just like trying to educate people and you're
not gonna be able to please everyone. That person end
up going to another place to go purchase let us
in tomato, and she still.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
Got the cheese steak again.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Like I just I just don't take it personal. I
just say this is what it is. Yeah, like that,
you know, not to hurt somebody's like feelings or make
them upset. You know that we can't give them like
what they really really want, but they don't.

Speaker 7 (22:03):
They don't even know because it's that's the purpose of
One of the interesting things is what I've seen with
people that have specific business visions and a strong like
actually a strong foundation, is they have a hard time sink.
You're doing it every day, you're making it cheesy every day,
but it's hard to be like I'm not going to
get it, Like that's that's saying that out loud is
very challenging for someone that's like, I just want to

(22:24):
make people happy with this thing, and this memory made
me happy, So I just want to share this memory
with you. Son about you be telling you what to do.
But if you walk through these doors, if you came
into my home, I can only offer you what I.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
Have my home.

Speaker 7 (22:33):
I can't offer you what's my neighborsom I can I
offer you a conversation, my pault, like I can't do
those things. I can say if you're here and I
have these things in the wall, I'll do the best
that I can for you in the way that I
know how. If you know better, then maybe you can
keep me.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
And I think some other restaurants, you know, spoil some customers,
and I think you know, some customers also have to
look at it through the lens of like the restaurant owners.
And we don't have, you know, a lot of resources
like some bigger brands do, and you can't. You know,

(23:07):
if you if you go to one restaurant that's a
lot bigger, has more staff. You know, they have more
resources behind them. You can get it your way at
some more of the small independent mom and pop. You know,
establishments like the menu is the menu.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
This is a really interesting listening to everybody talking about
how they're establishing that trust in the relationship where they
want to be able to say to somebody, like, what
you're describing lettuce and tomato and a cheese steak doesn't
sound like something that I want, but I trust that
you like that. I want you to trust that I'm
giving you the best version from my perspective and just
try it.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
We practice what I like to call emotionally intelligent hospitality,
where we try to figure out what people actually want
through what they're telling us, but also through their actions.
So you know, it's tough. We don't have birthday cake
in the restaurant, but instead of waiting for someone to
ask if it's a celebration, we just have a free

(24:05):
ice cream that we give away for people for a celebration.
Stuff like that. But also, our team isn't afraid to
say no if it's something that we know that either
a we can't do or B what you're asking for
is not something that we want to represent our restaurant.
It's tough, because I'm sure that you all feel this
way too. When someone's asking for something that might sound
completely reasonable to them, it's kind of hard to tell

(24:25):
someone like that's not going to work, Like let us
on our cheese steak. Just it's not the move for us.
It's you know, our most famous dish is our cow sooy,
which is a ty curry and it has two different
kinds of noodles and it has fresh boiled noodles and
then fried noodles on top. And people be like, I'm
gluten free. Can I have the cow sooy without the noodles?
And I'm like, that's three ounces of broth and some

(24:46):
chicken in there, Like that's not really a dish. And
I'm like it's hard to say no. It's like I
can say yes to this, but what am I giving
you at that point? And I don't know if you
guys feel the same way that, Like where do you
draw the line of like this is a logical request
that is illogical for our for our situation, and how
do you deal with I mean, Avishar, you're mister hospitality.

(25:08):
I've never walked into your rest, you don't think so.
I've walked in here and felt like the most special
human being in the history of the world. Same thing
with service bar as well, when I used to go
there and you didn't even know who I was back
in those days. So what you're saying is true.

Speaker 7 (25:23):
And I go back to the same thing as if
somebody has walking through the door and it's me or
my mom who can't have these things. My mom is
blat of the tork. So we got a pizza hutch,
he gets bread. It's just someone who wants to go
and have an eating experience and they physically cannot consume
something because it's going to make them sick. And then
I go, I don't have the right to judge anybody
based on any of those things. I have the right
to know whether I can accommodate you or I can't.
If I physically can't, I will go and get you food.

(25:43):
I will do my best. Once you're in the walls.
If it's going to be a bad experience, I give
the discussion purpose like, hey, like this isn't the origin,
Like I still would like if you're you would like
to think of somebody who's here there pressing with an experience, right,
so we will make it good in the best way
that we can.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
So follow up on that, have you ever made an
accommodation for someone and then and they came back the
next time and said, well, last time you did this
for me.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
We also had people lie about that too.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
Right, yeah, yeah, yes we have.

Speaker 7 (26:08):
And the thing is, uh, we were prepared the second
time because we remember the guest. So we tried and
track as best as we can because we have like
you know, forty seats here and even we have regular
so you know, the funniest thing is sometimes that person
becomes the regular and then they'reilling to try things because
they've earned the trust because they said, well, you wouldn't
try to hurt me, so now I'll try this thing.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Now I'll try fermented.

Speaker 7 (26:25):
Black crap based from tiling, like there's some stuff that
you get to put up front. And actually, in Service Bar,
we had no reputation going into we're just serving food
for Middalising. We were just just make these items here.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
Just Service Bar is a good example though, where it
went wrong in just that we made we made sure
that there was this inclusive menu for gluten free people
and you could have these amazing meals. But then people
started talking about how we were a great restaurant to
go to if you were Celiac, but we were located
in a distillery. Our air had wheat in it.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Podcast we were like, please.

Speaker 5 (27:01):
Like make those choices for yourself, but we would never
advertise that. We would never tell people that we're safe
for sealing.

Speaker 7 (27:06):
And to be fair, we can give you a nightmare
story because everyone wants to hear the story. But we
had somebody came in with a gluten monitor. It was
called like anemur or something, and I looked it up.
It's not that it's not a calibrated monitor.

Speaker 5 (27:15):
She gives a kickstarter thing.

Speaker 7 (27:16):
Yes, but the person came and you know, we were like,
we can do our best, and we told them we
instructed and we went through things and we served everything.
We burned the pen, we had stone section, and we
did everything that we could to make everything gluten pref
with no tests, and everything failed on that sensor. She
just kept betting mad. I was like, look, I can
order you food, and she's like, you can't. Just like
scoop some scars, like we make everything in house, Like
you want a restaurant to make everything right. So if

(27:37):
I make everything in the gluten's in the air, what
can I do? Like we've tried everything, so can we
just please like order you some food? And it was
like there was there was no coing back. But what
I can say is we tried. We tried our best
despite and uh, you know, at the end we had
a conversation. Feel like I was like, don't get mad
about it, because if you get mad, you're carrying two
people's anger.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Now daffing how much it does you asked the question,
I'm a good question because we have a little bit
of history.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
There's one of the first times that I had a
really genuine hospital experience was that was Luxury in DC,
and I believe you were there at the time, and
it was really cool because you know, you could ask
anyone anything and everyone seemed like they were your friend,
and it was it was it did feel like you
were at somebody's home.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
There was no pretension to anything. Someone gave us a
free think.

Speaker 7 (28:14):
I have these memories that I was like, you know,
I've been to these fansy restaurants And what bade Roses
different was that every server had a personality and that
kind of inspired our model when we started were like, hey, like,
what makes having different servers awesome is that they can
appeal to different different needs niches, and there were individuals together,
so you can feel like an individual in our restaurant.
You don't have to feel like you're buying into a
cult or something. So how can you explain how that

(28:35):
that went?

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Or No, that's an awesome question. We actually did that
very intentionally at Roses, and we took it here to
Chapman's as well. It's something that's like kind of built
into my DNA. Now is I feel like, uh, certain
staff feels more comfortable when they were in their own skin,
when they're in their own clothes. So we had very
uh to begin with loose, like like uniform guidelines. So

(28:56):
it was basically like nothing ripped, nothing obscene, and nothing
you know, graphic T shirt or anything like that with
anything that doesn't fit our vibe. Besides that, you could
wear whatever shirt, whatever pants you wanted. We don't have
like scripted out things for menu items. We told everyone
like legitimately, choose your favorite thing on the menu and
learn how to talk about it, and like you can

(29:17):
say whatever you want about the dish. I'm not sitting
here telling you that you need to say this about
a dish, Like be honest, and truthful in your feedback,
and that really worked in a way that, especially like
what you're talking about fine dining, we didn't want people
to feel nervous coming into Roses Luxury. We had all
worked in really really high end fine dining restaurants and
we took the food really seriously, but we didn't take

(29:37):
ourselves seriously. And I think that. I mean, I wear
a backwards hat. I'm forty one years old. I wear
a backwards hat on the line every single night. There's
just parts of me that I'm not going to change
for other people at this point. And you know, T
shirt and jeans is what I'm comfortable. And I feel
like I'm the best version of myself when I'm comfortable.
So if you can make your team comfortable, if you
can make your staff comfortable and let them be their

(29:58):
genuine selves, I feel like they're going to be the
most hospitable, best version of themselves, and it seems to work.
I think we have a pretty tight team at Chapman's.
We had a very tight team at Roses. I don't know, Kate,
how do you go about galvanizing your team? How do
you go about hiring and how does it fit your

(30:19):
your standards.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Hiring is interesting because I end up hiring a bunch
of people who don't have experience but have interest. And
mostly we do this through working interviews, and I think
that you do that also, right. We do working interviews
where someone comes in and we just see if they
fit the work interviews we do pay. We pay for
the working interviews.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
The quick aside. The old system was called doing a
stage for the people, and I've never done that in
my entire life. I've been I've always been comming. Have
you never a restaurant? I am telling you, guys, look
at look at what it's not being said. Yeah. I
mean it was pretty standard practice for a really, really
long time and still is in some places that if

(31:05):
you want a job somewhere, you go and you do
a working interview a stage. It's French verstagier. And I
have worked for free at many restaurants, most of which
eventually got hired for But other times you do it
for your own good, Like when I was in culinary school,
I would go down to New York City and stage
at restaurants for my benefit, not for the restaurants benefit.

(31:25):
But sorry, back to what you're exciting I think that's important.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
It's important to say I put limits around it. It'll
be at most to our working interview. And there are
a few skill sets that I want to test people
on that I think are the basics, but we really
want to see how they interact with the rest of
the staff. Can they fit into that culture. One of
the things I in baking, if we make a mistake
at any point in the process, the longer it takes

(31:49):
for us to acknowledge that there was a mistake, the
more likely we're setting ourselves up for failure. We make
breads that take three days to make them. So the
culture that we've had to create in our environment is
very much like admit when you've made a mistake, and
you will never get in trouble like admitted as soon
as you think about it, and I promise I won't
get mad. Ask questions even if you've worked here every
day and done this task every day for three years,

(32:12):
ask the question because I would rather us kind of
go into this trusting each other and we can get
through the process, rather than waste everybody's time and energy
on something that it feels really bad to throw a
hundreds of pounds a dough. So our working interviews are
absolutely just about that. What I do find funny Again,

(32:32):
I'm a baker and we work baker's hours. So we're
going in at two am and we're asking people who
might not have ever worked in food service if they're
willing to come in on those hours. And we'll ask
people what they're looking for in a new job, and
they'll regularly be like, I'm so burnout on customer service.
I don't like people. And I was like, oh, welcome home. Like,
we like the people that are in our environment, like

(32:54):
who we invite in, and then it makes the work easier.
I do like people.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
We're in the early outject now. So are you like
almost bedtime now or no, I am not.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
But time?

Speaker 1 (33:06):
What do you mean?

Speaker 5 (33:08):
I'm also a parent, so like I work and I
get home before they get home from school and take
a little nap, and then when they get home from school,
I'm on parent duty again.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
So are you one of those people who thrives on
like three hours of sleep at night?

Speaker 5 (33:20):
Thrive is not the word, but can I do it? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (33:26):
I can do it when I need to a solid
seven or I am when I get.

Speaker 5 (33:30):
A day off. There's no limit to how long I'll sleep.
It'll be twelve sixteen hours. I'm down.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
How about you, Jamara, how do you feel about about
hiring and how does that fit in?

Speaker 4 (33:40):
So that's I think that's the number one problem in
the restaurant hospitality industry right now is the workforce and
the go to The first thing is we have a
certain culture that we want in our restaurant. So we've
a lot of trial and error as far as knowing
you kind of now I can I can spot whether

(34:01):
this person's going to fit or not, and I'll act immediately,
and that goes back kind of we kind of have
like a guideline now or what we want in certain
employees and basically how we kind of fix things were
because we're just a fast casual restaurant. No dishes eliminated

(34:22):
that so there's only some pots and pins, so we
don't need a dishwasher. A lot of the bills are
kind of safe. So we paid our employees more than
the average and they kind of you kind of got
to give them a working capital as far as they
can sustain their household, so they want to stay there.
They don't want to jump from job to job because
it's kind of the same pay, right, so we pay

(34:44):
a lot more than most fast casual restaurants. So that
was the first thing. The second thing was just like
a family atmosphere. So I'm coming from a blue collar
This is when my wife comes in because she's the
bad cop and I'm the good cop.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Boxry the employees with whatever they want to be.

Speaker 4 (35:03):
Like, I'm lowing, I'm short on my rent is my aide.
She's like, what are you doing? He don't supposed to
be doing that. So just like a family atmosphere that
we kind of created. We had an employee that was
tragically killed and it kind of made our whole staff
kind of buying behind that whole thing. And I mean

(35:23):
she can she can probably.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Speak some more on Yeah, like we want people who,
you know, want to be a part of the team.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
Uh, we did.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
The one employee that we had that you know, unfortunately
his life was taken. He was like the best, Like
I don't think we would ever find anybody like him.
He was like one of a kind and he was
just like a breath of like fresh air.

Speaker 6 (35:51):
You know. Everybody on the team like loved him.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
You could come into work having a bad day you
see him, he's like morning morning, and it was.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Like instantly, like your mood would change.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
And I was like, you know, everybody's not going to
everybody is different, but just some of the like qualities
that he had when I'm going into an interview, like
I look for that. To your point about you know,
looking for people or taking on people that you know
have interests and they might not have the experience, I
like that too, because you can you know, mold that

(36:25):
person into, you know, the type of team member that
you're looking for. I also think that the young people
don't get enough credit. I would we have three Well
he's like going into high school now going into college,
and we have two seniors. They are amazing, not say
the rest of the team isn't. But we had one

(36:49):
young lady come in for an interview. Before we even
started the interview, I had to compliment her on her resume,
Like her resume look better than like most adult and
you know she's going to be going to Columbus State.
She's interested in culinary in the culinary field, and you
know she came to the interview with questions and was

(37:12):
asking about our culture.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
With a notebook in pen and asked us questions at
the interview.

Speaker 6 (37:18):
So at seventeen, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
She's a hard worker, asks questions, wants to be there. Uh,
you know, we even you know, just met with her
and just said we're actually going to you know, show
you more of the behind the scenes so she gets
the full experience, so that she doesn't just feel like, oh,
I'm just a you know, a cashier. So, uh, I
think it was your earlier point of you know, when

(37:42):
you guys let your team you know, make some of
the dishes, like, they take more pride because they feel
like they have a vested interest, they.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Invested, yeah business, and that's that's key. When they feel
like they're part of the culture, then it becomes an
extension of you.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah. It's one of those things where we always make
sure not to call our team a family. We call
it a team. Some people don't have the best experiences
with their family. But to your point, if you ever,
you know, God forbid to lose someone or something like that,
you really feel that like family. We just had one
of our managers lost a very close family member and
when she called me to tell me she was crying,

(38:18):
I just immediately started crying. Too, because it was just
like you feel, these people just become such an important
part of your life, and especially as an owner. These
people are coming to work like for you all the time,
and it's like what can I what can I do
for you to make your life better? And when they
feel pain, I feel pain. And it's definitely something that
I didn't expect going into this until those things happen,

(38:40):
and then you're like, oh, really tied up in those
emotions too. To your point about hiring, I don't know
about you, but we just went through a big round
of hiring for both the kitchen in front of the
house and the amount of attrition where people will go
through the process of emailing you they want a job,
setting up an interview with you, confirming the interview, and
then like a fifty percent no show rate on interviews.

(39:03):
What is going on right now?

Speaker 7 (39:05):
Well?

Speaker 5 (39:05):
I think that So during the early parts of COVID,
I like, let's say twenty twenty one, I'd say that
I would schedule twenty interviews and I'd have two people
show up. But now it's a lot higher. So it's
getting better.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Is it getting better? Yeah? How about you have a
shire Hi?

Speaker 7 (39:27):
Yeah, very little Dasia's actually, but it's interesting, uh, And
I'm gonna ask a counter question about it's a good
point about the resumes and how valuable there.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
But I'll answer first and the.

Speaker 7 (39:39):
Best that I can my hiring practices or I have
to trust my managers to make mistakes. I have trust
them to hire as well too, and I have to
trust them too. Value everybody's time, whether you like them
or hate them, or do they take the steps or not.
Everybody's time is di well. As you said, when someone
is lost, you realize there's only limited time in this earth.
So we keep it as reports, possibly trying to keep
it as honest. And I say, whatever you see with somebody,

(39:59):
you don't have to have I have questions, like that's
really strange to be like, hey, I'm going to determine
because when someone is coming fro an interview, they want.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
The job, dude, Like that's of course they're gonna be
their best behavior.

Speaker 7 (40:07):
You have to, like you have to kind of disarm
and just like relate over something, whatever it is, in
the same way that we said, you know, you can
relate over burger to start that as a process and
see how they are first, Like, see how they are,
see what upsets them, see how they respond to correction.
I think it's important because when you're going to go
to work for anybody or with anybody, you're in somebody
else's home, so you should learn their customs. If you're
in a culture, you try to learn the customers. The

(40:27):
same with every restaurant. No, two restaurants are the same,
and you'd be surprised. And everyone's like, you hire three
star chats, and no, actually we don't. Some of the
people that have had the best success with our people
that have zero experience by one hundred percent at you
and are willing to train up the experience. They don't
because you have another side where it's like, oh, I
see your creative, so I'm going to be creative. And
I was like, you know when you know, I didn't
get to answer when was the last time I got

(40:47):
to be creative. I'm just solving. I'm trying to fill
the cups right now. So I haven't had a genuine
chance to R and d's continuous process. So I never
had a chance to do the stuff that I want
to do. It's as part of what is needed for
me at the time as an owner, and so to
get to that point, you need to have a strong background,
you need to have a good attitude, and you have
to be when things are right, there's no problem. When
things are wrong, that's when you have to see who's
doing the right thing right. That's when you can say

(41:09):
this is the right way to behave, this is the
right this is how we shouldn't behave. And so we
try to put people into situations when is a stress situation,
like because someone will say, of course right now, I'll
say whatever, But if you're actually stressed. For my limited
understanding psychology, time pressure does cause a lot of issues,
right and same with testing people, like some people just
are on good test takers. You can find beauty in both.

(41:31):
So there's no one criteria, but we have found the
best fits. They go through five different people talking like
they go through somebody who's a manager, somebody who's one
of my friends randomly, and then somebody who's going to
be a co worker, and I get all their opinions
on how they interacted with that person because they could
be the best person entire world. But if they can't
work as a team, like what are we doing here?
And I'm not asking to trust me just trust the

(41:51):
process because we contribute to the process. It's got nothing
to do with me, Like I am not here and
nor do I want to be here and have my
eyes on you. What I would trust is that you
that's what we're trying to build together, and if you
feel like we're doing it together, it becomes easier for
every single person everyone's job to continue. But if you
choose that you're here because it's restaurant's start.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
What were you saying about the resumes?

Speaker 7 (42:10):
The resumes are Yeah, that's to the point is like
it used to be resume cover letter. That's how you
you judge and what do you what do you I
mean about? What do you all think about resumes? Like
what's a what's a what do you think about them?
Or how do you look at them?

Speaker 1 (42:24):
I guess you I like to.

Speaker 6 (42:28):
Like I like to look at the resume. I like
to see.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
What other experiences they have, like outside of like work,
like what activities they are involved in, and I think
and me looking at a resume it helps me build
the type of questions that I want to ask. So
like my interview process and process is not like not structured,
Like I like to pose questions to get people to

(42:56):
share information that they probably didn't anticipate that.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
They would be sharing.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Let me interject here, So in her former life, she
probably was a police detective. She goes and beyond, she's
looking at their background. She's want to call from ten
years ago, the past job to figure out But I like.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
You know, references, you know, just to when I interview,
it is relaxed, so like I don't come in here
like I'm a police detective. But you know, you have
to get people talking because there are some questions that
you can't ask from a legality standpoint, So you just
have to find creative ways to ask the question to

(43:38):
get people to open up.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah. I think, Uh, there's a few red flags that
I look for on resumes, like anybody who hasn't stated
multiple jobs for a job period of the job hoppers
the job hoppers, and it's not disqualifying, but it's definitely
a question I'm going to ask you, like what happened here?
Another disqualifiers if people start talking smack about their last job.
It's like, well, then what are you going to say

(44:01):
about here? You know what I mean? Everyone bitches about
their job. It's like, but don't do it to me
and then you know, just I feel like you can
teach anybody anything in a restaurant except for how to
be a good person and just trying to glean like
if people care, if if this is something they're going

(44:23):
to take pride in, and if they're willing to be
a part of a team. I'm sure we've all worked
in places where you've been sabotaged by your coworkers and
people want your job so they're going to make sure
you don't do it well. I don't think that any
of us are like that, and we don't run restaurants
like that, which is refreshing because for a long time
it was hard to get five chefs around the table
who didn't feel that way.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
But but yeah, that's uh, I don't know that was
hard to get five to get five chefs like around
the table to talk, oh.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Like ten fifteen years ago, I don't think that there
was as much camaraderie in the industry as there is now.
I'm an outsider from Columbus, so moving here. I mean, Avishar,
You're one of the first people that I met who
we went out to have coffee and I was just like,
what do you think of the food scene here, and
you were honest and open with me. You told me
some other people to meet with, And when I moved

(45:15):
to d C, I did something kind of similar where
I was just like, I want to meet people who
are in d C. And the amount of people who
just didn't return to text or a phone call was
kind of astounding. And then hear every single person that
you told me to get in touch with when had
coffee with me, and every person they told me to
have coffee with when got coffee with me. I just
think it's a much more supportive atmosphere here in Columbus.
I don't know if it's the Midwest sensibilities there's terrible. Yeah,

(45:40):
Sunday we'll have a New York versus Philly conversation, but
not today. Yeah. I just I really feel like people
here are kind and getting, you know, getting this level
of comfort with people who are like theoretically in competition
with one another, which I think that we can all
acknowledge that we're not the rising tide lifts all ship.
If we can do better things in this city and

(46:02):
in this industry, then it benefits all of us. And
I think that it's cool that we can get around
and talk about how we do things and that we
can learn from each other. And that's I think kind
of the point of this. And I guess that leads
to my last why question, which is why are you
doing this podcast? Kate had absolutely the best answer to

(46:24):
this when we talked about it, which.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
I've never thought before this moment. I absolutely I wanted
to listen or I want to be in a part
of the podcast that I wish was there. I want
to learn from other smart people, and I feel like
every time we have a conversation collectively around this table,
I'm pulling away things and trying to file them away
so I remember, I do want to ask you all

(46:48):
of your dirty stories, like when did it go wrong?
But I mean, we can stay in the positive for now,
but I feel like.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
There's other other podcasts for us to talk about the
ugly side of the business. This is the happy side
of the AVAI. Why are you doing this podcast? Is
it because we all came to your restaurant this morning,
so you're stuck here?

Speaker 7 (47:15):
That's one of the reasons, to be honest, It was, Yeah,
I believe to your point earlier what you were saying
about getting coffee with others. People don't necessarily seem to
value sometimes the power of knocking on somebody's door and asking.
We always want to make an assumption about who someone
is or isn't without actually talking to them. So, you know,
if someone knocks on the door and says, hey, do

(47:36):
you want to do a podcast, and go, well, I
can't really talk wrap on another.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Podcast as I do with myself.

Speaker 7 (47:40):
You know, I've been on podcasts certainly, and what I
find sometimes is there's some good ones and there's someones
that are need some working on, But it's always about
like what can you do to keep people like to relate.
It's the same with the food team with the drink
is like is it what's relatable? Like all of us,
no matter who we are, we do say a lot
of our criminsons are very similar. We're genetically very very
close to each other. So why do we spend so

(48:02):
much time like arguing about the things like that there's
so different. Why can't we just have a strong foundation
of saying, hey, like let's just talk and see see
what comes of it. I didn't think that making up,
you know, something inspired by Taco Bell would get me
in a food wine over there here sitting in my
own restaurant.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
That was never my plan.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
I just felt the need to share my knowledge and
impregnate the world with you. No, really, it was just
kind of.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
So we're making hospitality babies on this show.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
But no really, it was just kind of the network.
And when I met you guys, I said, you know,
this is a smart collective group and I can probably
learn a chef. I'm not a chef, so you know,
just to hear you guys information and get some struggles
and some some victory.

Speaker 7 (48:54):
So I'm not a chef either, just for the record,
Like I never think it was at what point does
want to become a chef? I think it's like when
you put it there, then people have an expectation like
I am whatever is needed.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Just I wanted to, you know, do the podcast again
to because I'm not a restaurant for I'm not a chef.
If you were to asked me ten years ago would
I be in a food business, I would have been
like no. And to be like an inspiration two people
out there who you know might be a home cook
or you know, enjoy cooking, but they might be afraid

(49:26):
to you know, open up a food truck or open
up a restaurant or you know, a catering business. So
just to share, you know, my journey with other people,
and to hear other people's journeys and their experiences, to
you know, learn from you guys.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
I think uh I listened to a lot of podcasts.
It's there's a lot of driving around involved in what
we do, and I kind of always need some noise
to to drown out the intrusive thoughts. So the UH
I listened to a lot of podcasts. Like Kate said,
I really wanted to do something that if I was
just getting into the industry, something that I would want
to listen to. And also, I think that restaurants are

(50:06):
unique in the way that we are a business, a hospitality.
You need to understand math, you need to understand people.
It's kind of like all the disciplines. I feel like
anybody could theoretically listen to this and take something out
of it, whether they want to be in restaurants or
just if they want to understand better. I think, over
the course of time, what I want us to be
able to answer for people or those questions that they

(50:27):
have about what our lives are really like not what
people see in movies the bear or whatever. And I
think that we have five very unique viewpoints on what
that looks like to tell people what it's really like
to do what we do.

Speaker 7 (50:42):
I remember when I was younger, I used to read
play out of video games that was just still had
time too. But there was a magazine called Game Pro
that was a and it had all the content, right,
but it had these things called pro tips. That's where
pro tips came from. It was a game pro tip
for like a video game to achieve this thing. It's
like a little one second like now you read it
and you're like, oh, if I press the next at
this time, it'll solve this. Like it's cool to have

(51:03):
pro tips when you're going through your own journey because
I don't believe that we're on the same boats. I
think we're going down the same river, right, we can
go down the same journey, certainly in different ways. There's
many many pads down there. It's nice to have some
help because, like you know, like we said, failures kind
of as believe known failure our entire lives.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Why would we want the next generation.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
To fail more and more and more? Why don't we
give them some good startups, good genuine knowledge. Like you
said before, when you speak about competition, now's about collaboration.
So why don't we empower them to stand on our shoulders?
And I think that's a cool way of looking at things.
We're talking about things, you know, almost in a way
that it's negative, and it's hilarious because ninety five percent
of what we do is positive, but because we want
to make ninety eight percent positive, every bit is going

(51:43):
to become more and more seemingly challenging to get through.
But just like that, guests like you want to make
every single one have a great time, right, And so
I think that's a that's going to be the challenge,
but it'll be fun.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Speaking of pro tips, Avashar, when it comes to your
why and figuring out what it is that we're doing here,
do you have any pro tips to share with the audience.

Speaker 7 (52:02):
You don't all have to trust yourself, but start with
yourself before anyone else. So whatever's in your mind, try
that first.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Just ensure that you are delivering what you set out
to do, and just remain staying true to yourself, but
don't be afraid to pivot.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Spoken like someone who worked through COVID.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
This is a business that's not for the week, So
you have to have absolute confidence and trust in yourself
and it's just a pot of gold at the end
for you.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Is there?

Speaker 5 (52:34):
Watch that one hurts? What if I don't have absolute confidence?

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Your upshits creak.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Your pro tip?

Speaker 5 (52:43):
My pro tip is a little bit different. I try
to surround myself with a couple of people who are
like my phone of friends, people who I admire or
look up to. And if I ever feel like I'm
venturing a little bit too far out of my comfort
zone with what I'm why is or what I'm trying
to do, I run it by other people just to
see if it feels reasonable. If my response is that

(53:06):
I'm afraid of the change, or if I'm afraid, I
don't know, if I'm just afraid and I'm not one
hundred percent confident, But it helps me rein it back
in and make sure I'm right still on the same path,
like it doesn't feel like I've shifted too far. So
surround myself with smart people that I feel comfortable being
open and honest with. Welcome to my group of people, and.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Can we say we're going to bring our therapists on this.

Speaker 6 (53:37):
And as long as you keep bringing those cakes, I
got you right there.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
I think that my pro tip is to have goldfish brain.
In some ways, every day is a new opportunity, and
as long as you're kind of tackling each day with
the same vigor and chasing down your why every day,
that you can get over the mistakes you've made the
previous day. I try to have a few moments of
before going to bed, which doesn't always work out great

(54:02):
for me to think about, you know, the things that
we can do better tomorrow and how to stay true
to what it is that we're trying to do as
you might expect the opinions that we express on this
podcast or just that opinions and for entertainment purposes only.

Speaker 6 (54:18):
If you love this podcast, help us out give us.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
A thumbs up.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
Also, be sure to go to craft Times Away from
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Speaker 1 (54:28):
So remember, if you like what you heard today, please
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Speaker 5 (54:34):
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Speaker 4 (54:40):
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