March 27, 2025 • 44 mins
Founder Resource Series
Episode Description:
“My advice for people that are wanting to shift or starting out is to just jump in the water. Once you're there, you're going to figure out how to swim.” —Sebastian Stahl
A lot of startups crumble within their first year—a stark reminder that dreams alone cannot sustain a business. But the difference between survival and surrender often hinges on adaptability, strategic thinking, and the courage to pivot when the path becomes uncertain.
Sebastian Stahl is a battle-tested entrepreneur who has navigated the complex terrains of restaurants and marketing, transforming setbacks into strategic victories. With a rich background spanning multiple industries, he brings a unique perspective on building sustainable businesses and helping entrepreneurs break through their most challenging obstacles.
Tune in as Justine and Sebastian deconstruct the entrepreneurial code, revealing raw survival strategies, marketing game-changers, personal growth blueprints, mentorship secrets, and the critical mindset shifts that can turn potential business failures into extraordinary success stories.
Meet Sebastian:
With over 19+ years in the hospitality industry, Sebastian has owned and operated multiple restaurant concepts and served as the Head of Marketing and Partner at an award-winning restaurant group in South Florida operating six brands. Sebastian’s track record speaks for itself. He has helped numerous restaurants around the country transform their business and drive revenue growth. His approach is not just about short-term gains but also about building a solid foundation for long-term success.
Sebastian’s mission is to help restaurant owners gain freedom in their business. His wealth of experience, combined with his strategic mindset and creative flair, make him an invaluable asset for any restaurant owner looking to elevate their brand, attract new customers, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth. When he is not working you can find him at home hanging out with his wife and playing with his daughter Annika.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
01:13 Falling in Love with the Restaurant Biz
06:55 Navigating a Growing Business
11:14 Overcoming the Blind Spots
18:53 The Impact of Building Relationships on Business
31:12 How to Survive the First Year of Business
37:56 Just Keep Doing
40:04 The Road to Becoming a Good Leader
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justine Reichman: (00:12):
Hey, friends, it's me Justine here at the
Essential Ingredients Podcast.I'm excited to have you on for
our Special Series. It's aResource Series, so tune in. Our
guest is Sebastian Stahl. He isa restauranteur and marketing
expert. Good morning.
Welcome to EssentialIngredients. Today, we have with
us, Sebastian Stahl. He is arestauranteur and marketer, and
(00:33):
I'm so pleased to have him herefor our Resource Segment.
Welcome Sebastian.
Sebastian Stahl: (00:37):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you for having
me.
Justine Reichman: (00:39):
Oh, it's so great to have you here. I mean,
we are rolling out this seriesnow for resources for our
community. And I think with yourexperience that you've had for
all these years doing so manydifferent things, from
restaurants to marketing andeverything in between, it's a
great opportunity for us to beable to give you a platform to
share some of those resourceswith our guests. So let's just
(01:01):
start at the beginning. Tell ushow did you get into this?
Because your CV has reallychanged, right? You went from
one thing to another, which alsoenabled you to build up your
skill set.
Sebastian Stahl: (01:13):
Definitely. So originally, Justine, I'm
originally from a country inCentral America from Guatemala
City, so I was born and raisedthere. And fast forward, my
initial interest was really intorestaurants when I was really
young. But when I got intocollege, that's when I started
really getting interested inrestaurants. In the world of
(01:34):
restaurants. And what reallyattracted me was the hospitality
aspect of it. The people aspectof it, and then the creativity
behind it. Everything in oneplace, in one space. You're
bringing it, music, art, people,connections. All these things
together, food and taste, andall these things. It just really
caught my attention. So thenafter college, we started
looking into opening arestaurant with my brothers.
(01:56):
Actually, they're a couple. Ihave two brothers that are
older, actually. And a sisterthat's younger. So we started
looking into that. So at the endof the day, my brothers, they
went into separate businesses. Istayed in the restaurant
industry. But even before that,just went back, I started
working in marketing, right? SoI started working in big
companies like Kellogg'scompany. I worked for Leo
Burnett, which is another bigadvertising agency. So I had
that experience in the corporateworld. But then I wanted to do
(02:18):
my own thing, so I decided toopen restaurant. And my bright
idea was to open breakfast,lunch and dinner, which was the
most horrible ever because I wasworking from 5:00 am to 2:00 am
seven days a week. So that wasdefinitely not sustainable. So
got into that, but learnedpretty quickly how that worked,
and had it didn't work. And thenafter that restaurant, I ended
(02:38):
up closing. Then I moved toMiami. And then in Miami, I
swore that I was never going toget into restaurant industry
again because it was so hard.All the hours and the craziness
of operations, but still thinkthere's this, it's like a love
and hate relationship with thisbusiness. Everybody that's been
in this business, that's whatit's like. But I just couldn't
stay away from it, so I openedanother restaurant in Miami with
a friend there in Wynwood, whichwould be better from there with
(03:00):
Wynwood. It's like the hot areain Miami now. And at the time,
it was still up and coming. Itwas 2011 so it was coming up.
Artworks and all those thingshappening. So again, I was just
passionate and in love with thefood, the art and all that
stuff. And so that's what wedid. Eventually, we evolved from
that restaurant to openinganother type of concept with a
(03:20):
couple of friends. And theseguys had another concept, and we
ended up partnering and did thisother really cool concept in
that space. And that workedreally well. So a lot of trial
and error. Finally, somethingworked, and really well. Then we
started growing. And so it wasfour of us there leading that
small company at the time. Andthen we opened more locations
and of the same concept, and thecompany acquired another
(03:42):
concept. So we basically tripledin size from one day to the
next. So now, we had 400employees. We were quality
locations, multi concepts, multiunits, like just like all this
stuff that we were doing so itwas pretty interesting to go
through this. And I'm just goingreally fast, because that took a
lot of years. I stepped out ofoperations and just went into
the marketing world ofrestaurants because I didn't
want to operate anymore. I mean,to manage restaurants and all
(04:02):
that stuff, it's just too much,right? And it really wasn't 100%
my thing. So did that for,again, a long time, got into the
arenas. We rebranded anotherconcept. A lot of things that we
did. And so what would happen,Justine, it just gave me a lot,
a ton of experience in justrestaurants, and specifically
(04:23):
marketing and how to do it rightfor restaurants. We've dealt
with everything under the sun,everything that I can think of,
really, from in that experiencewhen it comes to building a
business and buildingrestaurants, and then building
marketing for restaurants. Andthen lastly after that, what
happened was we noticed thatthat restaurants need a very
(04:43):
specific way of marketing. Howto tell stories, and then
everything behind the strategy.When it comes to digital
marketing, it requiresunderstanding the business to be
able to implement it,understanding the platforms,
understanding how systemsconnected and everything.
Restaurants have come a long waysince I started before. The Tech
was terrible. Now, it's a lotbetter. So it's easier to do.
It's better and easier to domarketing properly. So yeah, I
(05:06):
saw that there was a need forthat, and then that restaurant
owners were struggling findinggood people as we did when we
were small. I was trying to hireagencies that they could help us
at the time, and we couldn'tfind anybody that really knew
what they were talking about soI ended up learning from the
agencies that we hire in termsof all this stuff in the back,
and all the technical stuffbecause I like that. This
doesn't make sense. Let me getinto this. And I loved it. I
(05:28):
just was really passionate aboutit, really got into it. Then
figured out a system and astructure that would work for
our concept. So then, I justreplicated that really into
working with all the restaurantswhen I actually went
independent. During thepandemic, I had a newborn
pandemic, stuck in a high riseand started a new business all
at the same time. It was prettyit was pretty interesting.
Justine Reichman: (05:51):
This is like decades worth of work, right?
You started a restaurant. Youthen did more. You built it up
to 400, I mean, it sounds likeit happens overnight. Many
times, we think entrepreneurs doit overnight, but it really
takes years.
Sebastian Stahl: (06:05):
It took years, Justine. And again, it wasn't by
myself. We had a huge team, andit was the other guys, the CEO,
the CFO and the Director ofOperations. Those guys, they
were all together, right? But itwas just a very tight group. And
how we did it, it just requiresa lot.
Justine Reichman: (06:24):
So when you first started your business, you
went out there, you wanted to dothis, but you didn't have a huge
amount of experience doing it.It was your first foray into it.
And then all of a sudden, allthese new things trickle down.
And all of a sudden, you'rehaving 400 restaurants. So I'm
curious, as an entrepreneur, wesort of learn on the job many
times because we have to dothings first before we could
(06:45):
hire larger firms to do them. Sowhat role did that play for you
when you transferred from onesmaller restaurant to larger
restaurants, to developing thesenew concepts?
Sebastian Stahl: (06:55):
Yeah. Listen, it's always a learning
Justine Reichman: (06:56):
Yeah. For those folks that are listening
experience. As you go throughthis, through this journey, you
got to fail a lot to get itright. You know what I mean?
People make entrepreneurshipsometimes out to be like, oh,
it's cool. Or, girl, it's fun.And yes and no. Because a lot of
it, it's a lot of trial anderror. It's a lot of getting
really uncomfortable with thingsas they're happening. And as you
(07:18):
grow, things change. So whateveryou thought that you knew, you
don't know it anymore. So you'restep one, again, it was hearing
this analogy of entrepreneurshipthat that's kind of how it is.
You start climbing up theladder, right? And then you're
in the 10th step. You're like,okay, I got this figured out.
And then something happens whenyou grow and evolve. And then
(07:39):
you're like, man, if you lookback with, crap, I'm back in
step one. I don't know what I'mdoing here, and you gotta start
again. Figuring this stuff outwhen as you scale, when you
processes new people and all ofthese things, you know what I
mean? It's a constant learningthing, and you gotta get
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because you gotta
(08:00):
be solving problems all thetime. And you gotta be okay with
that.
to this and saying, oh, my god,I want to change my company. It
seems overwhelming. What tipsmight you have for them when
they're trying to navigate andpivot, which we all do so often
as an entrepreneur?
Sebastian Stahl: (08:21):
It depends on your business. But I would say,
if something's not working,change it. Because when it's
happened to me, that because Iam so stuck. I could be so stuck
in doing things in a certain waythat I don't want to change.
Because again, it'suncomfortable and scary. I can
stick to that until it dies,that it could be really
(08:44):
detrimental for business. Yougot to be willing to shift and
change, even if it's going torequire sacrifice. And it can be
really scary. I've gone throughthat multiple times in business.
Every entrepreneur during thepandemic, everybody had to shift
(09:05):
and change gears. You know whatI mean? It's something that I
learned from the pandemic, and Ithink many people have as well
is that when things might seemsuper scary, it's to either
change or start something new,or whatever it is. But once the
pandemic forced every one of usto make those changes, many
(09:25):
people lost their jobs, and theyhad to innovate. They had to do
that. That's kind of whathappened to me. The company
completely ran out of money inthat time. I already had a plan
to go independent and do thisdeal, and I was forced into it.
But I wasn't scared when I wasat that point in that moment. I
was actually happy. I wasexcited that I was finally gonna
(09:46):
get go to do what I wanted todo. Mind you, I had a newborn.
Before, I was kind of, should Ijump into it this right now? But
when you're there, you see thatit's not as scary as it seems.
Advice for people that arewanting to shift or starting
out, just jump in the water.Once you're there, you're going
(10:07):
to figure out how to swim.
Justine Reichman: (10:09):
It's true. And I think as much for myself,
I learn on the job. I often saythat some of these times, when
I've had different startups, Ifeel like I'm getting my
masters, like an on the job MBAor something because you're
teaching yourself how to do allthese things. But I want to go
back to something you said,where we, people during the
pandemic were forced to changecareers, right? Whether they
(10:31):
were downsized, made redundant,or just the concept of their job
was not relevant in this timebecause we were all at home and
nobody was out. So I'm wonderingto those folks that maybe aren't
having a forced holiday or aforced changing career, but need
to be mindful of the changes tobe able to continue to have
(10:51):
their businesses grow. How doyou know when that time is? How
do you know that it's time foryou to make that change, to cut
bait, to pivot, to do something?Because there's a window where
you have to give yourself enoughtime to be successful, but not
too much time that you losemomentum and maybe need to
(11:12):
adjust accordingly.
Sebastian Stahl: (11:14):
Yeah, interesting. So in my opinion, I
think that we all need help, andwe need other people's
perspective. Because sometimes,again, when you're in it, you
can't really see. You might havean inkling to it. You're saying,
okay, it seems like I need toshift, or I need to change. I
need to do something different.But there's blind spots, so I
(11:38):
would suggest to anybody to workwith a coach, or get surround
yourself with other businesspeople, smart business people so
they can also give you somefeedback on where you're at, and
what they see. Because, again,we're blinded by it. So now, I
actually give you a cool thingthat you can do with technology
these days. Justine, you canactually program your own
strategic advisors with AI soyou can have whoever you can
(12:02):
think of in your board ofadvisors in ChatGPT. Basically,
there's a specific way of doingthat. It's super cool. So you
say, hey, this is what's goingon. I mean, you feed it a bunch
of information. This is mybusiness. You give it all this
information, all thisbackground. And he's like, okay,
you're Tony Robbins right now,and I want you to give me advice
(12:23):
on all of these things and whatI should do. You will be amazed
how powerful this is. It willgive you a assessment of where
you're at. You know the thingsyou're doing right. It will give
you some suggestions on what youcan shift and change, and even
it'll give you priorities. AndI'm not saying it can't be
wrong. What I'm saying it givesyou, there's so many tools now
(12:46):
that can help you see thingsdifferently, right? But that
doesn't substitute a person, Iwould never do that.
Justine Reichman: (12:51):
What a great idea. I think about people who
want mentors, or want to createadvisory boards, and maybe in
the beginning don't necessarilyhave the connections, the
relationships to do that. I seethis as being not in lieu of,
but something that could helpin the interim while you're
(13:14):
building those relationships tobuild your advisory board, to
bring on those mentors. Becausefor me, I think that those are
integral to giving me anotherperspective to what I'm doing,
but also inspiring me to thinkbigger further down the road,
and look at what other peoplehave done that have been
successful. Because a lot oftimes, listen, I come up with
(13:36):
lots of ideas, but there are nonew ideas. We're looking at
something in another industry,and that inspires us in our own
industry to retailer it, likewhat we're surrounded by. So I'm
curious, for you as you were onyour journey, what role did
mentors and advisors play?
Sebastian Stahl: (13:56):
Huge. I've always surrounded myself by
other people, smart people inbusiness. And not just for
business, Justine. I would sayfor business, for spirituality,
for advices in marriage. We allneed people. I always have a
group of people that I talk toon a regular basis and get
(14:17):
advice from them. Because,again, there's so many blind
spots. And I'll tell you, themore you're willing to receive
help, the faster you can makeprogress. What happens is that
you got to get rid of your prideas well. Because sometimes,
entrepreneurs are like, ah, no,I know this and how I want to do
it. And this is the way itshould be done. And for
restaurant tours especially,that can be very difficult,
(14:40):
especially for chefs, Butbecause they're like, this is
the vision, this is what I wantto do. And so they're not open
to that. And then when they needto change, the shift is already
too late, and it's not good forthem or for the business. So
it's played a huge role for me,Justine, and I continue to do it
because there's always things.You come to roadblocks, and you
come to points where you seethings in a different
(15:01):
perspective so I would advisethat. And it doesn't have to be,
Tony Robbins is going to begiving you the advice
personally, but there are somany people within your circle,
or all brought in your circle.You know what I mean? Reach out
to people that you think canhelp you. And if you can pay for
a mentorship program, or a coachprogram, coaching program,
that's good, then great. There'sdifferent ones for different
(15:24):
types of businesses, so do yourresearch, reach out, find help
because it's going to help yougo faster. And what I would say
also, you need to take time. Youneed to take time to step back
instead of like, working,working, working all the time,
and kind of spinning yourwheels, Because that happens.
And just block your phone, blockall communication, and just
spend time alone just looking atyour business and strategy,
(15:48):
where you're at, where you wantto be, where you really see
things going. Use a piece ofpaper. Don't get into the
computer and just start writingthat stuff down. You know what I
Justine Reichman: (15:57):
I keep the pad right by my computer because
mean?
when I have ideas, I write them,and then I keep them. And I keep
them so that as things come off,I don't forget them. Because you
can't remember everything inyour head. You have the same
(16:18):
thing.
Sebastian Stahl: (16:18):
Simple notebook right here because it's
very different than typing stuffand they get a ton of notes on
your computer than writing itdown. There's something about
pen and paper that just, I don'tknow, but that's just me.
Justine Reichman: (16:31):
Interesting. I was listening to a podcast
yesterday. I always listened tolots of different podcasts in so
many different fields. I likethem because they inspire me as
a podcaster about the way I wantto have conversations, the way I
want to bring people in, and Itake away a lot from it. So even
if it's not in this space, youcan learn a lot by the way that
they interact with people,etcetera so I encourage people
(16:54):
to do that as well within theirspace. But what I was going to
say was I was listening to, wasit the Mel Robbins podcast, or a
podcast? I love her. She hadtalked about a couple studies
that were done. One of thedoctors had said, when you wake
up in the morning, talk aboutwhat it is that you want to do
that's positive, or what you'remost excited about. And then at
(17:16):
the end of the day, what is itthat you did that was the
greatest thing of all? And ifyou keep doing that, it changes
your neural pathways, changingthe way you think and the way
you do things. That's a verysimple explanation of a much
larger episode. But the idea isthat it really speaks to what
you're talking about. By writingthings down, it creates the
(17:38):
intention for it. And by shapingit in a positive way, and seeing
what you're most excited about,it shifts the way that you think
about it.
Sebastian Stahl: (17:46):
100%, Justine.
Justine Reichman: (17:47):
I think that was super interesting to share
as a tip or as a resource forpeople to consider.
Sebastian Stahl: (17:56):
For our podcast, I was interviewing a
coach. He's actually aleadership coach for big
restaurant groups and all thatstuff. And he said that he was
talking exactly about that. Whenyou're leading people,
recognizing the things thatthey're doing well more so that
the things that might theremight not be doing so well.
(18:18):
Because, again, our brain tendsto focus always on the negative
and all the things that are notdone yet. So that is
detrimental, really, to ourprogress in many ways. So always
be recognizing the wins, thethings that you're doing well.
Because an entrepreneur, it'shard.
Justine Reichman: (18:40):
We have to be our own best cheerleaders too.
Sebastian Stahl: (18:42):
Yes. And it can be a lonely road that's why
I say we need people, we needothers. And then also
recognizing our progress, ourwins, and being nice to
ourselves.
Justine Reichman: (18:54):
Yes. I think that sometimes, we forget that
we are also our own harshestcritics, right? And that could
be really challenging and evendebilitating at times because we
stand in our own way. But I wantto go back to just talking for a
moment about mentors andadvisory boards, and what your
thoughts are on establishingthose relationships and building
(19:15):
them out. What you mightrecommend to people that are
just starting their restaurantor their company, and want to be
able to integrate that so thatthey can have that as part of
what they're doing already asthey continue on the process?
Sebastian Stahl: (19:31):
Yeah. It really depends on your industry.
Like, where you're going to seekout, right? Of course, there's
organizations like SCORE whereyou can find a mentor that
they'll do it for free. It'susually retired people that you
can find in differentindustries, and you can reach
out to them. And it's great.It's great to get together with
them. But I would suggest, in mycase, I like to hang out with
(19:54):
people that are doing the samething that I'm doing, and that
are ahead. Because getting intouch with those people, for
example, for us now, with anagency, I'm a member of this
program, which is like over 200agency owners, right? So then,
we all come together for eventsand things like that, and just
share ideas, share knowledge,share struggles, shared
(20:15):
successes, all these things.They get speakers and other
stuff. It's really cool stuff.But what I enjoy the most is
speaking to my peers. Becausewhen you're surrounding
Justine Reichman: (20:25):
And as you're building these relationships,
yourself, you get the supportyou get, all these new ideas,
then you can go in and implementyour business. So again, it just
depends on your industry. When Iwas in the restaurant industry,
I actually also sort out peoplethat knew more than I did. Just
asking people, talk toeverybody. I actually talk to a
friend, and he listen. He's fromthe Dominican Republic. He says,
(20:47):
listen, my uncle, he actuallystarted ThinkFoodGroup. I don't
know if you're familiar withthat group, but that's Chef Jose
Andres. So his uncle, he was oneof the guys that had started
this with Jose Andres back inthe day. And he got out of the
business, and continue, and seewhere he's at now. So that's the
guy that I talked to. And thenhe referred to his director of
(21:09):
operations for the group that bythat time, he was living in
Miami. So I got in touch withthat guy, and he's the guy
that's started working with usas an advisor. When we started,
we did the first restaurant inMiami because it was a complete
different ball game. And then Italked to other restaurant
can you maybe share a story thatyou think would really show the
owners, and I would just talk toa bunch of people as many as I
(21:31):
could. So that's the way I wouldapproach it.
impact of the relationship onyour business that might not
have happened otherwise.
Sebastian Stahl: (21:48):
I have those. When I was in the restaurant
industry, we would go to theseshows, to the restaurant show,
we would go to the Fast CasualSummit, and we would get there
together with a bunch of CEOsand people in the industry, and
just going out to dinner withyou and having conversation with
(22:08):
it, that would open your eyesinto the things that we're not
doing right. Immediately when wegot that feedback, we would go
back and implement it. Yes, itwould help us shift a lot of
things. But, I think it's moredoing this in a consistent
basis. Because for me, everysingle week, I'll have a call
(22:28):
with somebody and say, hey, tellme, how do you see this? What's
your take on this? What's youradvice? And there's always
little things that I'm tweakingand changing, and just things
keep getting better as I dothat. It's not a one time thing.
I would advise to have this on aconstant basis. You can have
somebody that's like, okay, themaster at this specific subject
(22:51):
or whatever that you might meetonce a month, or maybe once a
year, whatever. But on aconstant basis, you still want
to find all these other peoplethat can support you, and they
can provide this informationthat you might be looking for.
And then lastly, what I wouldsay, which is super helpful also
is to give back. Because then,you also help other people that
(23:11):
might be a little bit behind youthat you can help. Because by
teaching, you're going to learnmore.
Justine Reichman: (23:16):
I think that's great. When you're
speaking, I'm thinking of when Iwas a little girl, which is now
something that I say. My motherused to say to me, surround
yourself with the people thatcan do the things that either
you don't like or you're notgreat at doing. Because this
way, you can shine at what yoursuperpower is, but you don't
have to get stuck in those otherthings. Maybe you have a
periphery, or you're part ofthat conversation. But if your
(23:40):
skill set is being the chef,obviously, in the beginning, we
wear a lot of different hats.But I think the goal is to
surround yourself with somebodythat can do the marketing and
can run the restaurant, and cando the operations, and can do
all these different things sothat you could then focus. And I
think it allows us to play toour strength.
Sebastian Stahl: (24:01):
Yeah. Something that I heard the other
day, and you've heard the Schoolof Greatness with this guy. He
does great stuff. He said thathis definition of greatness,
basically, he said somethinglike, discovering the gifts that
(24:22):
you were given as a person.Because sometimes, that's not
easy to really see what you'regood at because you're like, I
don't know. And there's a selfdoubt and all those things that
come up when you're starting.
Justine Reichman: (24:33):
Cluster syndrome, his role in that,
right?
Sebastian Stahl: (24:37):
Yes, 100%. Identifying that, and then
developing your strengths thatGod gave you. You have those
gifts, and put them into servicefor others. Develop and grow
with them. And then like you'resaying, find other people's
(24:59):
superpowers. Artist, writer, andthen surround yourself with
those people that can help you,and they can share your vision.
Of course, have people join yourteam.
Justine Reichman: (25:09):
That's very well said. And as you're saying
this, I'm like, that's the onlyway I could ever imagine growing
my business. Because if I don'thave those people to provide the
support and the information, andeven their expertise, I feel
like I'm trying to do all thesedifferent things I'm not very
good at. So one other thing Iask you is, often, we surround
(25:34):
ourselves with people, butpeople think that they can do
it, and they know better. Ireally believe that I surround
myself with the people that knowbetter than me in certain
things, and I hear what theysay. And I think that it's so
important to take a minute andlisten. Because sometimes, we're
so personal to whatever we'reworking on. That if we don't
necessarily like what somebody'ssaying, it's very hard to hear.
(25:59):
And so I think that one thingthat I might add is really be
open to people's expertise. Notjust include them in the
conversation, but listen to whatthey're saying, why they're
saying it. Why is this theirpoint of view? I'm not saying we
have to listen to everything100%, or change everything
rather 100%. But I think thathaving those point of views can
(26:21):
be integral to the growth. Andwithout them, I think it's
almost we're doing ourselves adisservice.
Sebastian Stahl: (26:27):
I guess it depends on where you're at in
your journey in business foreverybody. But something that
I've learned through time, lifeway of teaching you is humility.
Because you think what you'redoing, and then things happen,
(26:50):
and you're back to a place whereyou're forced to look at
yourself and say and admit thatyou don't know. When I was
starting out, I remember thatwith one of the restaurants that
we opened, I was managing thatrestaurant at that time and I
thought that I was doing a goodjob. I remember that I was
sitting at the bar and wasalready slow, and then the guys
(27:13):
were kind of like upset, and Ididn't know why. One of our
partners, and he was a CEO thecompany, came in. He's a good
friend of mine, by the way. Buthe at that time, he came in to
say, hey, listen, you're notdoing this well. He rounded up
everybody in the restaurants,all the servers. They came in
around me, and then we startedgoing one by one, basically by
(27:34):
pointing out what I was doingwrong. So I wanted to crawl out
of my skin, maybe cry too. Cryand yell at these people, right?
Because how can you tell me whatI'm doing wrong? I've run
businesses before, all thisstuff, and that was super hard
to do. But I would tell you, Ihad enough humility. And that
(27:58):
was beaten into me where I hadto see, okay, what are these
guys telling me that I need tolook at? Sometimes, it's not
true. But many times, it is, andyou need to listen. And so I
did. I had that studentmentality because I was kind of
forced into it. And then Ilearned. And then I got really
good at that stuff, and doingall the stuff that I needed to
(28:20):
do. But again, in business, whenyou are your own boss, you still
need to keep that mindsetbecause that's the only way
you're going to be teachable.
Justine Reichman: (28:29):
Yeah, right. I think it's really important to
stay open to hear feedback forourselves, for the company, for
what we're doing, what we'rebuilding because we have one
perspective, and we're veryclose to it. And other people
are looking at it through a bitof a different lens. It's not
their baby, it's not theirlivelihood, it's a resource, or
(28:51):
it's something that they areinterested in, but it's not
theirs. They can tell you fromtheir perspective why it doesn't
work, or how they think it couldbe better any of those things. I
think it's really important tolisten to what the people around
you have to say when startingthose businesses, or even during
the process. And I want to goback, because one of the things
(29:12):
we started to talk about before,and it's a little bit of a
tangent from this, but equallyintegral to building a
relationship was your journey.So you went from one place to
another, and you had thisjourney, both in restaurants and
in marketing. And now, you're agreat resource for many
restaurant tours that arebuilding their business. I would
just love to talk a little bitmore and hear from you about
(29:34):
that as a resource for the newentrepreneur, and how that looks
as they evolve.
Sebastian Stahl: (29:41):
Yeah. So after all this trials and errors, and
all the successes and failuresof that stuff, you just learn a
lot. I mean, restaurant touristsseek us out because they need
help. Of course, we focus onmarketing. But once we talk,
they want advice on other stuffwhen it comes to restaurants
because I just been in it for solong so it's great for me. It's
a joy, really, to help otherpeople. But at the end of the
(30:03):
day, you got to run a businesstoo so you got to choose where
you focus on, and what type ofconsulting you're going to be
doing. For the most part, we dostrategy, and then we focus in
helping restaurants set up thestructure for their marketing.
And then we take care ofeverything from what we offer,
just a complete solution when itcomes to marketing where lately
(30:23):
we've been focused more withrestaurants and helping them
grow their private events.Because as the current industry
dynamics and with labor costs,food costs, all that stuff, that
is one of the most profitablethings for restaurants. We
developed this whole system inwhere we help restaurants
generate a lot of leads forprivate events, and we help them
close more business. So that'skind of what we're focused on
(30:46):
right now.
Justine Reichman: (30:47):
So for that startup or that new business
that's coming on, a lot ofpeople will say, a lot of
businesses goes in the firstyear. So as somebody that has
been both in the restaurantworld but also in the marketing
world, what recommendationswould you make for those folks
in the first year as it relatesto marketing and even what
(31:07):
you're proposing now? Becauseeverybody comes with a different
budget too.
Sebastian Stahl: (31:12):
I think you got to start small. Everybody
says the same thing, startsmall, finish big. Yes, I've
done both. I've done like, oh,big vision. Let's get funding.
Like I said, the firstrestaurant of mine is one and a
half million dollar restaurant,and I didn't have enough
knowledge, I didn't have enoughexperience. So you dropped the
ball there. You're gonna drop alot of money. So what I would
(31:34):
say is, if you don't know whatyou're doing yet, I would say to
start small. You know what Imean? If you're getting into
this any type of service, that'sgreat because it's basically
what you know, how you're goingto be contributing and building
a business, right? And you don'tneed a lot of money to start
(31:55):
that. You gotta have thiscuriosity mentality all the
time. Because then, you have tosee, you have to test, you have
to just work and do all thesethings, whatever it is that
you're doing, and then shiftquickly into the things that
work, and get rid of the stuffthat don't work quickly. That
(32:19):
would be my advice, be frugal atthe beginning--
Justine Reichman: (32:22):
Let me say quickly, what does that time
Sebastian Stahl: (32:24):
It's different for different businesses. I've
frame look like?
gotten stuck for longer than Ishould in different aspects of
the business. But I would tellyou, as soon as you notice that
something's not working, changeit because you know when you
something is not working. Itmight be end product or service
(32:50):
might work, but you have to seehow you need to shift or change
certain things about it so youcan deliver the correct way of
doing things right. Like forexample, this service that I
just talked to you about, doinglead generation for private
events. I know it's high value,high ticket. It's great, but
there's how we do it, and thethings that come into it, we've
(33:12):
shifted around and done multipledifferent ways until we found
something, a structure thatreally works. So again, got to
be mindful of that.
Justine Reichman: (33:21):
It's kind of like bridging the gap between
giving it enough time to seethat it works, but also not
letting it linger so that you'rebeating a dead horse. And that's
a really hard spot to find forsome people.
Sebastian Stahl: (33:32):
Yeah. And listen, I've gone through it as
well. With the first restaurant,I knew that the menu was too
expensive. I knew that some ofthe items that were there that
we shouldn't be offering. I knewthat we were kind of straying
away from the concept. Andbecause the chef was a great
chef that we hired at that time,and I didn't trust myself
enough, I was, okay, yeah, let'sdo this. Oh, yeah, let's do
(33:53):
that. And we were screwed. Sodon't let anybody else run your
business even if you hiresomebody. Because that happens.
You learn all those things withexperience. You know what I
mean? But if you can learn itearly on in the game, then
you'll be--
Justine Reichman: (34:08):
What's next in your agenda? You run
restaurants, you had smaller orlarger, now the marketing, and
you have your own podcast. Sowhat's next in your your
trajectory?
Sebastian Stahl: (34:23):
We're continuing to work with
restaurants, and to continue togrow this part of the business.
I think there's just a lot ofpeople that we can help, and
we're really passionate aboutthat. Now with the podcast, I
love what we do. I loveinterviewing and talking to
people, and meeting people inthe industry. But I also love
talking about other things, asyou know. When it comes to
(34:46):
personal development, I thinkthat's played a huge role in my
life. I've just gone through alot of different situations and
struggles, and things that justforced me to seek a lot
countless books, countlesspeople that I've talked to.. I
would like to kind of shift andalso do something else, talking
to people that can help otherpeople with this because I think
(35:07):
we all need this help. And sothe more resources that we can
find the help in life, thebetter. Talking about deep and
meaningful things that sometimesthey might be uncomfortable to
talk about, but I think that'sjust the only way to go, and
that can help you. Not only, ofcourse, in your personal life,
(35:29):
but in business as well. I thinkit's a huge component of
becoming a good leader as well,and a good entrepreneur.
Justine Reichman: (35:38):
You said a couple times about being
uncomfortable, and I think it'sintegral to being an
entrepreneur is doing thingsthat make you feel
uncomfortable, because that wealways lean into what we are
comfortable with. But there's somany things we're not
comfortable with that we reallyneed to embrace and get past
them. I can tell you just ashort story. But years ago, when
(35:59):
I first started a company 100years ago called career change
network and we went intouniversities, and we talked
about transition and how youchoose what you want to do, all
these different things. Somebodyfrom Baruch College, which is a
state school in New York,invited me to come speak. I
don't speak in front of people.I speak in front of one person.
I speak with small groups. Idon't get up in front of people.
(36:20):
I'm five foot one, and it justseems so overwhelming to me with
a huge room full of students.When the guy called and said,
hey, could you come and talk?We'd love to have you, I said,
yes. I didn't blink, I didn'tpause, I didn't even think. I
just responded because I waslike, this is a great
opportunity. I have to figure itout. So I was talking to
(36:44):
somebody that was a coach andwas a writing coach. She's like,
I'm going to help you. We hadlunch. She explained to me the
idea of bullets so that youdon't sound contrived and that
you're reading something. And sofast forward, I had this whole
plan of bullets and things I wasgoing to do, but I had my note
cards. And I get to the collegewhere I was going to go speak,
and I see this podium and I'mlike, I'm going to need
(37:07):
something to stand on. I'm like,I think I need a telephone book,
and there was nothing for me tostand on. So I had to lose the
podium, which meant I had tolose the note cards. What I
remembered her telling me was,engage the audience, ask
questions. That was how I didthe talk, and I continued to be
(37:30):
really uncomfortable. Butbecause I was given those tools,
I was able to get out of my ownway and be able to accomplish
this. And I didn't mean to goon. But the idea is, you can do
it. We can do it. You have to.Get the tools so that you have
the security in yourself thatyou know you're not going to
fumble. And even if you fumble,it's okay, and you can adjust.
(37:53):
And that's what I did.
Sebastian Stahl: (37:56):
Justine, that's the key. What I think is
the key is whatever person thatyou want to become, and I've
heard this also at other places,need to do things that are going
to put you in the position ofbecoming that person. So what
you just said, okay, I want tobe a public speaker. Get
yourself in a position whereyou're going to do it. Force
yourself to do it. Getuncomfortable and do it. You
want to get close to CEOs inwhatever business? Reach out,
(38:21):
talk to them, start a podcast,interview them, and then talk to
them, and then get into theposition of being around those
people so you can do anything.And it's just a matter of being
willing and being willing to dothings even if you're scared,
because that's the biggestthing. It's like, oh, I'm
scared. Am I gonna just do it?Scared? You don't have to be.
You don't have to do itperfectly. Just get in front.
(38:41):
And you're gonna stumble. You'regonna stumble. You're gonna
fail. It doesn't matter.
Justine Reichman: (38:43):
Just keep doing it. And I think the other
thing is to create some set ofmilestones. Because if you don't
create the milestones, or ifyou're not saying, I'm gonna
reach out to 10 new people everyday, or whatever it is, you
never see that incrementalgrowth there as quickly as when
you do create those milestones.So if I'm like, okay, I'm gonna
connect with five of mysubscribers today, or people
(39:05):
that are in the podcast thatlets me to get to know five more
people that listen to mypodcast. And then if I did that
every day for five days, that's20 people. And all of a sudden,
what I want is to grow mycommunity. And all of a sudden,
I'm actively doing that myselfby creating those stats. I'm
just using that as an example,but the idea is to set those
milestones that are doable, thatwill allow you to succeed. Not
(39:27):
to fail, but to succeed.
Sebastian Stahl: (39:30):
Yep, yep. But that we were just talking about
before, it's recognizing thewins, and keeping track of those
things. Because progress, Iwould say, is a big component of
fulfillment.
Justine Reichman: (39:43):
Yes, I totally agree. So as we wrap
this up a little bit, and wewant to leave our listeners and
our viewers with maybe a fewtips that you would recommend
for those people that are goinginto the restaurant business,
just things that they shouldconsider, or that they want to
make sure that they do to getthem off the ground. What would
(40:04):
that be?
Sebastian Stahl: (40:04):
The advice that every restaurant will tell
you is, don't get into thisbusiness. It's true. Every
restaurant owner that you'lltalk to, if somebody's new and
wants to get into it and they'lltell you, don't get into it
because it's that hard. But now,if you really decided you want
to get into it, I would say thesame thing. Start small. Find a
(40:26):
second generation space. Start asmall restaurant. Don't get into
a big space and build out, andall that stuff. If you have no
experience, don't think becauseyou hire people that know that
there going to do well, becausethat happened. It just doesn't
work that way. You have toexperience it yourself. And the
way that things are now with therestaurants, have a simple menu,
(40:50):
a great menu, and then focus onone thing that you're going to
do better than everybody else.There's this guy. I actually
interviewed this guy. He's agreat guy. He talks about a
brand of one, basically, focuson one thing you're going to do
great, because that's whatpeople are going to look for.
And it sticks right. And I'vemade the mistake before of doing
(41:13):
a lot, because I want to doeverything to be great, and it
just doesn't. It's hard.Surround yourself with great
people, people that are going tosupport you, and you're going to
be your cheerleaders. And youknow what? Just take it a day at
a time and be okay with failingmany, many, many times, because
failing doesn't determine whoyou are, and it's just going to
(41:37):
build you up. And at some point,you're going to be comfortable
with being uncomfortable, andthat's the point where you
really become a good leader.You're going to have the power
and the frame of mind to makethe right decisions in your
business. So join groups, getmentors, get a lot of people
surround you, and then just justget in it.
Justine Reichman: (41:59):
Sebastian, that's awesome that I can't not
ask. For those founders that arestarting this, take that advice,
and are opening theirrestaurant, and need to start
consider marketing for them,because that's going to come up
as part of the plan. How wouldsomebody get in contact with
you?
Sebastian Stahl: (42:16):
Yes, and get somebody to help you with
marketing. In the beginning whenyou're running a restaurant, you
have no freaking clue how to doit, and you won't even have time
to do it. Limited budgets at thebeginning are a challenge,
though. I would say if you wantto get in touch with me, just go
to Breadth Marketing.B-R-E-A-D-T-H, marketing.com,
that's how you can find us. Youcan look for us in Instagram as
well, and that's our page. Forour podcast is Restaurant
(42:37):
Leaders Unplugged, and weinterview restaurant owners,
CEOs and leaders in theindustry. And if you need help
with anything related to yourrestaurants, especially
marketing, I'll help you withthat. But if I can be a resource
to you, just reach out.
Justine Reichman: (42:51):
Awesome. Sebastian, thanks so much for
joining me on this conversationtoday. I think that it was so
enlightening, and I think we'vetalked about so many different
topics that these newentrepreneurs and even seasoned
entrepreneurs may need to evenrevisit because we forget. So
we'll make sure to highlightthem in our newsletter and in
our show notes so everyone canaccess them. So again, thanks
(43:12):
for tuning in tonight. To ourguests, our listeners and our
viewers, thank you for joiningthe conversation.
Sebastian Stahl: (43:17):
Thanks, Justine, appreciate it.
Justine Reichman: (43:19):
I want to thank everyone for tuning in
today, whether you watch thevideo or you tuned in via the
podcast. I just want to makesure that everyone's got all our
channels so that if you havebeen listening to the podcast,
but do you want to go toYouTube, you know that our
NextGen Purpose Channel holdsall of our Essential Ingredients
Podcasts or Videocast, as it maybe. And you if you have not gone
(43:40):
to Spotify or iTunes, orwherever you listen to podcasts,
our podcast is available atessential.ingredients, so stay
up to date on what we havecoming up. Don't forget to tune
into our channel on Instagram atessential.ingredients. Look
forward to seeing you here everyweek, Tuesday, for a new episode
with me and this series focusingon our resources.
Hey, friends, it's me Justine here at the
Essential Ingredients Podcast.I'm excited to have you on for
our Special Series. It's aResource Series, so tune in. Our
guest is Sebastian Stahl. He isa restauranteur and marketing
expert. Good morning.
Welcome to EssentialIngredients. Today, we have with
us, Sebastian Stahl. He is arestauranteur and marketer, and
(00:33):
I'm so pleased to have him herefor our Resource Segment.
Welcome Sebastian.
Sebastian Stahl: (00:37):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you for having
me.
Justine Reichman: (00:39):
Oh, it's so great to have you here. I mean,
we are rolling out this seriesnow for resources for our
community. And I think with yourexperience that you've had for
all these years doing so manydifferent things, from
restaurants to marketing andeverything in between, it's a
great opportunity for us to beable to give you a platform to
share some of those resourceswith our guests. So let's just
(01:01):
start at the beginning. Tell ushow did you get into this?
Because your CV has reallychanged, right? You went from
one thing to another, which alsoenabled you to build up your
skill set.
Sebastian Stahl: (01:13):
Definitely. So originally, Justine, I'm
originally from a country inCentral America from Guatemala
City, so I was born and raisedthere. And fast forward, my
initial interest was really intorestaurants when I was really
young. But when I got intocollege, that's when I started
really getting interested inrestaurants. In the world of
(01:34):
restaurants. And what reallyattracted me was the hospitality
aspect of it. The people aspectof it, and then the creativity
behind it. Everything in oneplace, in one space. You're
bringing it, music, art, people,connections. All these things
together, food and taste, andall these things. It just really
caught my attention. So thenafter college, we started
looking into opening arestaurant with my brothers.
(01:56):
Actually, they're a couple. Ihave two brothers that are
older, actually. And a sisterthat's younger. So we started
looking into that. So at the endof the day, my brothers, they
went into separate businesses. Istayed in the restaurant
industry. But even before that,just went back, I started
working in marketing, right? SoI started working in big
companies like Kellogg'scompany. I worked for Leo
Burnett, which is another bigadvertising agency. So I had
that experience in the corporateworld. But then I wanted to do
(02:18):
my own thing, so I decided toopen restaurant. And my bright
idea was to open breakfast,lunch and dinner, which was the
most horrible ever because I wasworking from 5:00 am to 2:00 am
seven days a week. So that wasdefinitely not sustainable. So
got into that, but learnedpretty quickly how that worked,
and had it didn't work. And thenafter that restaurant, I ended
(02:38):
up closing. Then I moved toMiami. And then in Miami, I
swore that I was never going toget into restaurant industry
again because it was so hard.All the hours and the craziness
of operations, but still thinkthere's this, it's like a love
and hate relationship with thisbusiness. Everybody that's been
in this business, that's whatit's like. But I just couldn't
stay away from it, so I openedanother restaurant in Miami with
a friend there in Wynwood, whichwould be better from there with
(03:00):
Wynwood. It's like the hot areain Miami now. And at the time,
it was still up and coming. Itwas 2011 so it was coming up.
Artworks and all those thingshappening. So again, I was just
passionate and in love with thefood, the art and all that
stuff. And so that's what wedid. Eventually, we evolved from
that restaurant to openinganother type of concept with a
(03:20):
couple of friends. And theseguys had another concept, and we
ended up partnering and did thisother really cool concept in
that space. And that workedreally well. So a lot of trial
and error. Finally, somethingworked, and really well. Then we
started growing. And so it wasfour of us there leading that
small company at the time. Andthen we opened more locations
and of the same concept, and thecompany acquired another
(03:42):
concept. So we basically tripledin size from one day to the
next. So now, we had 400employees. We were quality
locations, multi concepts, multiunits, like just like all this
stuff that we were doing so itwas pretty interesting to go
through this. And I'm just goingreally fast, because that took a
lot of years. I stepped out ofoperations and just went into
the marketing world ofrestaurants because I didn't
want to operate anymore. I mean,to manage restaurants and all
(04:02):
that stuff, it's just too much,right? And it really wasn't 100%
my thing. So did that for,again, a long time, got into the
arenas. We rebranded anotherconcept. A lot of things that we
did. And so what would happen,Justine, it just gave me a lot,
a ton of experience in justrestaurants, and specifically
(04:23):
marketing and how to do it rightfor restaurants. We've dealt
with everything under the sun,everything that I can think of,
really, from in that experiencewhen it comes to building a
business and buildingrestaurants, and then building
marketing for restaurants. Andthen lastly after that, what
happened was we noticed thatthat restaurants need a very
(04:43):
specific way of marketing. Howto tell stories, and then
everything behind the strategy.When it comes to digital
marketing, it requiresunderstanding the business to be
able to implement it,understanding the platforms,
understanding how systemsconnected and everything.
Restaurants have come a long waysince I started before. The Tech
was terrible. Now, it's a lotbetter. So it's easier to do.
It's better and easier to domarketing properly. So yeah, I
(05:06):
saw that there was a need forthat, and then that restaurant
owners were struggling findinggood people as we did when we
were small. I was trying to hireagencies that they could help us
at the time, and we couldn'tfind anybody that really knew
what they were talking about soI ended up learning from the
agencies that we hire in termsof all this stuff in the back,
and all the technical stuffbecause I like that. This
doesn't make sense. Let me getinto this. And I loved it. I
(05:28):
just was really passionate aboutit, really got into it. Then
figured out a system and astructure that would work for
our concept. So then, I justreplicated that really into
working with all the restaurantswhen I actually went
independent. During thepandemic, I had a newborn
pandemic, stuck in a high riseand started a new business all
at the same time. It was prettyit was pretty interesting.
Justine Reichman: (05:51):
This is like decades worth of work, right?
You started a restaurant. Youthen did more. You built it up
to 400, I mean, it sounds likeit happens overnight. Many
times, we think entrepreneurs doit overnight, but it really
takes years.
Sebastian Stahl: (06:05):
It took years, Justine. And again, it wasn't by
myself. We had a huge team, andit was the other guys, the CEO,
the CFO and the Director ofOperations. Those guys, they
were all together, right? But itwas just a very tight group. And
how we did it, it just requiresa lot.
Justine Reichman: (06:24):
So when you first started your business, you
went out there, you wanted to dothis, but you didn't have a huge
amount of experience doing it.It was your first foray into it.
And then all of a sudden, allthese new things trickle down.
And all of a sudden, you'rehaving 400 restaurants. So I'm
curious, as an entrepreneur, wesort of learn on the job many
times because we have to dothings first before we could
(06:45):
hire larger firms to do them. Sowhat role did that play for you
when you transferred from onesmaller restaurant to larger
restaurants, to developing thesenew concepts?
Sebastian Stahl: (06:55):
Yeah. Listen, it's always a learning
Justine Reichman: (06:56):
Yeah. For those folks that are listening
experience. As you go throughthis, through this journey, you
got to fail a lot to get itright. You know what I mean?
People make entrepreneurshipsometimes out to be like, oh,
it's cool. Or, girl, it's fun.And yes and no. Because a lot of
it, it's a lot of trial anderror. It's a lot of getting
really uncomfortable with thingsas they're happening. And as you
(07:18):
grow, things change. So whateveryou thought that you knew, you
don't know it anymore. So you'restep one, again, it was hearing
this analogy of entrepreneurshipthat that's kind of how it is.
You start climbing up theladder, right? And then you're
in the 10th step. You're like,okay, I got this figured out.
And then something happens whenyou grow and evolve. And then
(07:39):
you're like, man, if you lookback with, crap, I'm back in
step one. I don't know what I'mdoing here, and you gotta start
again. Figuring this stuff outwhen as you scale, when you
processes new people and all ofthese things, you know what I
mean? It's a constant learningthing, and you gotta get
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because you gotta
(08:00):
be solving problems all thetime. And you gotta be okay with
that.
to this and saying, oh, my god,I want to change my company. It
seems overwhelming. What tipsmight you have for them when
they're trying to navigate andpivot, which we all do so often
as an entrepreneur?
Sebastian Stahl: (08:21):
It depends on your business. But I would say,
if something's not working,change it. Because when it's
happened to me, that because Iam so stuck. I could be so stuck
in doing things in a certain waythat I don't want to change.
Because again, it'suncomfortable and scary. I can
stick to that until it dies,that it could be really
(08:44):
detrimental for business. Yougot to be willing to shift and
change, even if it's going torequire sacrifice. And it can be
really scary. I've gone throughthat multiple times in business.
Every entrepreneur during thepandemic, everybody had to shift
(09:05):
and change gears. You know whatI mean? It's something that I
learned from the pandemic, and Ithink many people have as well
is that when things might seemsuper scary, it's to either
change or start something new,or whatever it is. But once the
pandemic forced every one of usto make those changes, many
(09:25):
people lost their jobs, and theyhad to innovate. They had to do
that. That's kind of whathappened to me. The company
completely ran out of money inthat time. I already had a plan
to go independent and do thisdeal, and I was forced into it.
But I wasn't scared when I wasat that point in that moment. I
was actually happy. I wasexcited that I was finally gonna
(09:46):
get go to do what I wanted todo. Mind you, I had a newborn.
Before, I was kind of, should Ijump into it this right now? But
when you're there, you see thatit's not as scary as it seems.
Advice for people that arewanting to shift or starting
out, just jump in the water.Once you're there, you're going
(10:07):
to figure out how to swim.
Justine Reichman: (10:09):
It's true. And I think as much for myself,
I learn on the job. I often saythat some of these times, when
I've had different startups, Ifeel like I'm getting my
masters, like an on the job MBAor something because you're
teaching yourself how to do allthese things. But I want to go
back to something you said,where we, people during the
pandemic were forced to changecareers, right? Whether they
(10:31):
were downsized, made redundant,or just the concept of their job
was not relevant in this timebecause we were all at home and
nobody was out. So I'm wonderingto those folks that maybe aren't
having a forced holiday or aforced changing career, but need
to be mindful of the changes tobe able to continue to have
(10:51):
their businesses grow. How doyou know when that time is? How
do you know that it's time foryou to make that change, to cut
bait, to pivot, to do something?Because there's a window where
you have to give yourself enoughtime to be successful, but not
too much time that you losemomentum and maybe need to
(11:12):
adjust accordingly.
Sebastian Stahl: (11:14):
Yeah, interesting. So in my opinion, I
think that we all need help, andwe need other people's
perspective. Because sometimes,again, when you're in it, you
can't really see. You might havean inkling to it. You're saying,
okay, it seems like I need toshift, or I need to change. I
need to do something different.But there's blind spots, so I
(11:38):
would suggest to anybody to workwith a coach, or get surround
yourself with other businesspeople, smart business people so
they can also give you somefeedback on where you're at, and
what they see. Because, again,we're blinded by it. So now, I
actually give you a cool thingthat you can do with technology
these days. Justine, you canactually program your own
strategic advisors with AI soyou can have whoever you can
(12:02):
think of in your board ofadvisors in ChatGPT. Basically,
there's a specific way of doingthat. It's super cool. So you
say, hey, this is what's goingon. I mean, you feed it a bunch
of information. This is mybusiness. You give it all this
information, all thisbackground. And he's like, okay,
you're Tony Robbins right now,and I want you to give me advice
(12:23):
on all of these things and whatI should do. You will be amazed
how powerful this is. It willgive you a assessment of where
you're at. You know the thingsyou're doing right. It will give
you some suggestions on what youcan shift and change, and even
it'll give you priorities. AndI'm not saying it can't be
wrong. What I'm saying it givesyou, there's so many tools now
(12:46):
that can help you see thingsdifferently, right? But that
doesn't substitute a person, Iwould never do that.
Justine Reichman: (12:51):
What a great idea. I think about people who
want mentors, or want to createadvisory boards, and maybe in
the beginning don't necessarilyhave the connections, the
relationships to do that. I seethis as being not in lieu of,
but something that could helpin the interim while you're
(13:14):
building those relationships tobuild your advisory board, to
bring on those mentors. Becausefor me, I think that those are
integral to giving me anotherperspective to what I'm doing,
but also inspiring me to thinkbigger further down the road,
and look at what other peoplehave done that have been
successful. Because a lot oftimes, listen, I come up with
(13:36):
lots of ideas, but there are nonew ideas. We're looking at
something in another industry,and that inspires us in our own
industry to retailer it, likewhat we're surrounded by. So I'm
curious, for you as you were onyour journey, what role did
mentors and advisors play?
Sebastian Stahl: (13:56):
Huge. I've always surrounded myself by
other people, smart people inbusiness. And not just for
business, Justine. I would sayfor business, for spirituality,
for advices in marriage. We allneed people. I always have a
group of people that I talk toon a regular basis and get
(14:17):
advice from them. Because,again, there's so many blind
spots. And I'll tell you, themore you're willing to receive
help, the faster you can makeprogress. What happens is that
you got to get rid of your prideas well. Because sometimes,
entrepreneurs are like, ah, no,I know this and how I want to do
it. And this is the way itshould be done. And for
restaurant tours especially,that can be very difficult,
(14:40):
especially for chefs, Butbecause they're like, this is
the vision, this is what I wantto do. And so they're not open
to that. And then when they needto change, the shift is already
too late, and it's not good forthem or for the business. So
it's played a huge role for me,Justine, and I continue to do it
because there's always things.You come to roadblocks, and you
come to points where you seethings in a different
(15:01):
perspective so I would advisethat. And it doesn't have to be,
Tony Robbins is going to begiving you the advice
personally, but there are somany people within your circle,
or all brought in your circle.You know what I mean? Reach out
to people that you think canhelp you. And if you can pay for
a mentorship program, or a coachprogram, coaching program,
that's good, then great. There'sdifferent ones for different
(15:24):
types of businesses, so do yourresearch, reach out, find help
because it's going to help yougo faster. And what I would say
also, you need to take time. Youneed to take time to step back
instead of like, working,working, working all the time,
and kind of spinning yourwheels, Because that happens.
And just block your phone, blockall communication, and just
spend time alone just looking atyour business and strategy,
(15:48):
where you're at, where you wantto be, where you really see
things going. Use a piece ofpaper. Don't get into the
computer and just start writingthat stuff down. You know what I
Justine Reichman: (15:57):
I keep the pad right by my computer because
mean?
when I have ideas, I write them,and then I keep them. And I keep
them so that as things come off,I don't forget them. Because you
can't remember everything inyour head. You have the same
(16:18):
thing.
Sebastian Stahl: (16:18):
Simple notebook right here because it's
very different than typing stuffand they get a ton of notes on
your computer than writing itdown. There's something about
pen and paper that just, I don'tknow, but that's just me.
Justine Reichman: (16:31):
Interesting. I was listening to a podcast
yesterday. I always listened tolots of different podcasts in so
many different fields. I likethem because they inspire me as
a podcaster about the way I wantto have conversations, the way I
want to bring people in, and Itake away a lot from it. So even
if it's not in this space, youcan learn a lot by the way that
they interact with people,etcetera so I encourage people
(16:54):
to do that as well within theirspace. But what I was going to
say was I was listening to, wasit the Mel Robbins podcast, or a
podcast? I love her. She hadtalked about a couple studies
that were done. One of thedoctors had said, when you wake
up in the morning, talk aboutwhat it is that you want to do
that's positive, or what you'remost excited about. And then at
(17:16):
the end of the day, what is itthat you did that was the
greatest thing of all? And ifyou keep doing that, it changes
your neural pathways, changingthe way you think and the way
you do things. That's a verysimple explanation of a much
larger episode. But the idea isthat it really speaks to what
you're talking about. By writingthings down, it creates the
(17:38):
intention for it. And by shapingit in a positive way, and seeing
what you're most excited about,it shifts the way that you think
about it.
Sebastian Stahl: (17:46):
100%, Justine.
Justine Reichman: (17:47):
I think that was super interesting to share
as a tip or as a resource forpeople to consider.
Sebastian Stahl: (17:56):
For our podcast, I was interviewing a
coach. He's actually aleadership coach for big
restaurant groups and all thatstuff. And he said that he was
talking exactly about that. Whenyou're leading people,
recognizing the things thatthey're doing well more so that
the things that might theremight not be doing so well.
(18:18):
Because, again, our brain tendsto focus always on the negative
and all the things that are notdone yet. So that is
detrimental, really, to ourprogress in many ways. So always
be recognizing the wins, thethings that you're doing well.
Because an entrepreneur, it'shard.
Justine Reichman: (18:40):
We have to be our own best cheerleaders too.
Sebastian Stahl: (18:42):
Yes. And it can be a lonely road that's why
I say we need people, we needothers. And then also
recognizing our progress, ourwins, and being nice to
ourselves.
Justine Reichman: (18:54):
Yes. I think that sometimes, we forget that
we are also our own harshestcritics, right? And that could
be really challenging and evendebilitating at times because we
stand in our own way. But I wantto go back to just talking for a
moment about mentors andadvisory boards, and what your
thoughts are on establishingthose relationships and building
(19:15):
them out. What you mightrecommend to people that are
just starting their restaurantor their company, and want to be
able to integrate that so thatthey can have that as part of
what they're doing already asthey continue on the process?
Sebastian Stahl: (19:31):
Yeah. It really depends on your industry.
Like, where you're going to seekout, right? Of course, there's
organizations like SCORE whereyou can find a mentor that
they'll do it for free. It'susually retired people that you
can find in differentindustries, and you can reach
out to them. And it's great.It's great to get together with
them. But I would suggest, in mycase, I like to hang out with
(19:54):
people that are doing the samething that I'm doing, and that
are ahead. Because getting intouch with those people, for
example, for us now, with anagency, I'm a member of this
program, which is like over 200agency owners, right? So then,
we all come together for eventsand things like that, and just
share ideas, share knowledge,share struggles, shared
(20:15):
successes, all these things.They get speakers and other
stuff. It's really cool stuff.But what I enjoy the most is
speaking to my peers. Becausewhen you're surrounding
Justine Reichman: (20:25):
And as you're building these relationships,
yourself, you get the supportyou get, all these new ideas,
then you can go in and implementyour business. So again, it just
depends on your industry. When Iwas in the restaurant industry,
I actually also sort out peoplethat knew more than I did. Just
asking people, talk toeverybody. I actually talk to a
friend, and he listen. He's fromthe Dominican Republic. He says,
(20:47):
listen, my uncle, he actuallystarted ThinkFoodGroup. I don't
know if you're familiar withthat group, but that's Chef Jose
Andres. So his uncle, he was oneof the guys that had started
this with Jose Andres back inthe day. And he got out of the
business, and continue, and seewhere he's at now. So that's the
guy that I talked to. And thenhe referred to his director of
(21:09):
operations for the group that bythat time, he was living in
Miami. So I got in touch withthat guy, and he's the guy
that's started working with usas an advisor. When we started,
we did the first restaurant inMiami because it was a complete
different ball game. And then Italked to other restaurant
can you maybe share a story thatyou think would really show the
owners, and I would just talk toa bunch of people as many as I
(21:31):
could. So that's the way I wouldapproach it.
impact of the relationship onyour business that might not
have happened otherwise.
Sebastian Stahl: (21:48):
I have those. When I was in the restaurant
industry, we would go to theseshows, to the restaurant show,
we would go to the Fast CasualSummit, and we would get there
together with a bunch of CEOsand people in the industry, and
just going out to dinner withyou and having conversation with
(22:08):
it, that would open your eyesinto the things that we're not
doing right. Immediately when wegot that feedback, we would go
back and implement it. Yes, itwould help us shift a lot of
things. But, I think it's moredoing this in a consistent
basis. Because for me, everysingle week, I'll have a call
(22:28):
with somebody and say, hey, tellme, how do you see this? What's
your take on this? What's youradvice? And there's always
little things that I'm tweakingand changing, and just things
keep getting better as I dothat. It's not a one time thing.
I would advise to have this on aconstant basis. You can have
somebody that's like, okay, themaster at this specific subject
(22:51):
or whatever that you might meetonce a month, or maybe once a
year, whatever. But on aconstant basis, you still want
to find all these other peoplethat can support you, and they
can provide this informationthat you might be looking for.
And then lastly, what I wouldsay, which is super helpful also
is to give back. Because then,you also help other people that
(23:11):
might be a little bit behind youthat you can help. Because by
teaching, you're going to learnmore.
Justine Reichman: (23:16):
I think that's great. When you're
speaking, I'm thinking of when Iwas a little girl, which is now
something that I say. My motherused to say to me, surround
yourself with the people thatcan do the things that either
you don't like or you're notgreat at doing. Because this
way, you can shine at what yoursuperpower is, but you don't
have to get stuck in those otherthings. Maybe you have a
periphery, or you're part ofthat conversation. But if your
(23:40):
skill set is being the chef,obviously, in the beginning, we
wear a lot of different hats.But I think the goal is to
surround yourself with somebodythat can do the marketing and
can run the restaurant, and cando the operations, and can do
all these different things sothat you could then focus. And I
think it allows us to play toour strength.
Sebastian Stahl: (24:01):
Yeah. Something that I heard the other
day, and you've heard the Schoolof Greatness with this guy. He
does great stuff. He said thathis definition of greatness,
basically, he said somethinglike, discovering the gifts that
(24:22):
you were given as a person.Because sometimes, that's not
easy to really see what you'regood at because you're like, I
don't know. And there's a selfdoubt and all those things that
come up when you're starting.
Justine Reichman: (24:33):
Cluster syndrome, his role in that,
right?
Sebastian Stahl: (24:37):
Yes, 100%. Identifying that, and then
developing your strengths thatGod gave you. You have those
gifts, and put them into servicefor others. Develop and grow
with them. And then like you'resaying, find other people's
(24:59):
superpowers. Artist, writer, andthen surround yourself with
those people that can help you,and they can share your vision.
Of course, have people join yourteam.
Justine Reichman: (25:09):
That's very well said. And as you're saying
this, I'm like, that's the onlyway I could ever imagine growing
my business. Because if I don'thave those people to provide the
support and the information, andeven their expertise, I feel
like I'm trying to do all thesedifferent things I'm not very
good at. So one other thing Iask you is, often, we surround
(25:34):
ourselves with people, butpeople think that they can do
it, and they know better. Ireally believe that I surround
myself with the people that knowbetter than me in certain
things, and I hear what theysay. And I think that it's so
important to take a minute andlisten. Because sometimes, we're
so personal to whatever we'reworking on. That if we don't
necessarily like what somebody'ssaying, it's very hard to hear.
(25:59):
And so I think that one thingthat I might add is really be
open to people's expertise. Notjust include them in the
conversation, but listen to whatthey're saying, why they're
saying it. Why is this theirpoint of view? I'm not saying we
have to listen to everything100%, or change everything
rather 100%. But I think thathaving those point of views can
(26:21):
be integral to the growth. Andwithout them, I think it's
almost we're doing ourselves adisservice.
Sebastian Stahl: (26:27):
I guess it depends on where you're at in
your journey in business foreverybody. But something that
I've learned through time, lifeway of teaching you is humility.
Because you think what you'redoing, and then things happen,
(26:50):
and you're back to a place whereyou're forced to look at
yourself and say and admit thatyou don't know. When I was
starting out, I remember thatwith one of the restaurants that
we opened, I was managing thatrestaurant at that time and I
thought that I was doing a goodjob. I remember that I was
sitting at the bar and wasalready slow, and then the guys
(27:13):
were kind of like upset, and Ididn't know why. One of our
partners, and he was a CEO thecompany, came in. He's a good
friend of mine, by the way. Buthe at that time, he came in to
say, hey, listen, you're notdoing this well. He rounded up
everybody in the restaurants,all the servers. They came in
around me, and then we startedgoing one by one, basically by
(27:34):
pointing out what I was doingwrong. So I wanted to crawl out
of my skin, maybe cry too. Cryand yell at these people, right?
Because how can you tell me whatI'm doing wrong? I've run
businesses before, all thisstuff, and that was super hard
to do. But I would tell you, Ihad enough humility. And that
(27:58):
was beaten into me where I hadto see, okay, what are these
guys telling me that I need tolook at? Sometimes, it's not
true. But many times, it is, andyou need to listen. And so I
did. I had that studentmentality because I was kind of
forced into it. And then Ilearned. And then I got really
good at that stuff, and doingall the stuff that I needed to
(28:20):
do. But again, in business, whenyou are your own boss, you still
need to keep that mindsetbecause that's the only way
you're going to be teachable.
Justine Reichman: (28:29):
Yeah, right. I think it's really important to
stay open to hear feedback forourselves, for the company, for
what we're doing, what we'rebuilding because we have one
perspective, and we're veryclose to it. And other people
are looking at it through a bitof a different lens. It's not
their baby, it's not theirlivelihood, it's a resource, or
(28:51):
it's something that they areinterested in, but it's not
theirs. They can tell you fromtheir perspective why it doesn't
work, or how they think it couldbe better any of those things. I
think it's really important tolisten to what the people around
you have to say when startingthose businesses, or even during
the process. And I want to goback, because one of the things
(29:12):
we started to talk about before,and it's a little bit of a
tangent from this, but equallyintegral to building a
relationship was your journey.So you went from one place to
another, and you had thisjourney, both in restaurants and
in marketing. And now, you're agreat resource for many
restaurant tours that arebuilding their business. I would
just love to talk a little bitmore and hear from you about
(29:34):
that as a resource for the newentrepreneur, and how that looks
as they evolve.
Sebastian Stahl: (29:41):
Yeah. So after all this trials and errors, and
all the successes and failuresof that stuff, you just learn a
lot. I mean, restaurant touristsseek us out because they need
help. Of course, we focus onmarketing. But once we talk,
they want advice on other stuffwhen it comes to restaurants
because I just been in it for solong so it's great for me. It's
a joy, really, to help otherpeople. But at the end of the
(30:03):
day, you got to run a businesstoo so you got to choose where
you focus on, and what type ofconsulting you're going to be
doing. For the most part, we dostrategy, and then we focus in
helping restaurants set up thestructure for their marketing.
And then we take care ofeverything from what we offer,
just a complete solution when itcomes to marketing where lately
(30:23):
we've been focused more withrestaurants and helping them
grow their private events.Because as the current industry
dynamics and with labor costs,food costs, all that stuff, that
is one of the most profitablethings for restaurants. We
developed this whole system inwhere we help restaurants
generate a lot of leads forprivate events, and we help them
close more business. So that'skind of what we're focused on
(30:46):
right now.
Justine Reichman: (30:47):
So for that startup or that new business
that's coming on, a lot ofpeople will say, a lot of
businesses goes in the firstyear. So as somebody that has
been both in the restaurantworld but also in the marketing
world, what recommendationswould you make for those folks
in the first year as it relatesto marketing and even what
(31:07):
you're proposing now? Becauseeverybody comes with a different
budget too.
Sebastian Stahl: (31:12):
I think you got to start small. Everybody
says the same thing, startsmall, finish big. Yes, I've
done both. I've done like, oh,big vision. Let's get funding.
Like I said, the firstrestaurant of mine is one and a
half million dollar restaurant,and I didn't have enough
knowledge, I didn't have enoughexperience. So you dropped the
ball there. You're gonna drop alot of money. So what I would
(31:34):
say is, if you don't know whatyou're doing yet, I would say to
start small. You know what Imean? If you're getting into
this any type of service, that'sgreat because it's basically
what you know, how you're goingto be contributing and building
a business, right? And you don'tneed a lot of money to start
(31:55):
that. You gotta have thiscuriosity mentality all the
time. Because then, you have tosee, you have to test, you have
to just work and do all thesethings, whatever it is that
you're doing, and then shiftquickly into the things that
work, and get rid of the stuffthat don't work quickly. That
(32:19):
would be my advice, be frugal atthe beginning--
Justine Reichman: (32:22):
Let me say quickly, what does that time
Sebastian Stahl: (32:24):
It's different for different businesses. I've
frame look like?
gotten stuck for longer than Ishould in different aspects of
the business. But I would tellyou, as soon as you notice that
something's not working, changeit because you know when you
something is not working. Itmight be end product or service
(32:50):
might work, but you have to seehow you need to shift or change
certain things about it so youcan deliver the correct way of
doing things right. Like forexample, this service that I
just talked to you about, doinglead generation for private
events. I know it's high value,high ticket. It's great, but
there's how we do it, and thethings that come into it, we've
(33:12):
shifted around and done multipledifferent ways until we found
something, a structure thatreally works. So again, got to
be mindful of that.
Justine Reichman: (33:21):
It's kind of like bridging the gap between
giving it enough time to seethat it works, but also not
letting it linger so that you'rebeating a dead horse. And that's
a really hard spot to find forsome people.
Sebastian Stahl: (33:32):
Yeah. And listen, I've gone through it as
well. With the first restaurant,I knew that the menu was too
expensive. I knew that some ofthe items that were there that
we shouldn't be offering. I knewthat we were kind of straying
away from the concept. Andbecause the chef was a great
chef that we hired at that time,and I didn't trust myself
enough, I was, okay, yeah, let'sdo this. Oh, yeah, let's do
(33:53):
that. And we were screwed. Sodon't let anybody else run your
business even if you hiresomebody. Because that happens.
You learn all those things withexperience. You know what I
mean? But if you can learn itearly on in the game, then
you'll be--
Justine Reichman: (34:08):
What's next in your agenda? You run
restaurants, you had smaller orlarger, now the marketing, and
you have your own podcast. Sowhat's next in your your
trajectory?
Sebastian Stahl: (34:23):
We're continuing to work with
restaurants, and to continue togrow this part of the business.
I think there's just a lot ofpeople that we can help, and
we're really passionate aboutthat. Now with the podcast, I
love what we do. I loveinterviewing and talking to
people, and meeting people inthe industry. But I also love
talking about other things, asyou know. When it comes to
(34:46):
personal development, I thinkthat's played a huge role in my
life. I've just gone through alot of different situations and
struggles, and things that justforced me to seek a lot
countless books, countlesspeople that I've talked to.. I
would like to kind of shift andalso do something else, talking
to people that can help otherpeople with this because I think
(35:07):
we all need this help. And sothe more resources that we can
find the help in life, thebetter. Talking about deep and
meaningful things that sometimesthey might be uncomfortable to
talk about, but I think that'sjust the only way to go, and
that can help you. Not only, ofcourse, in your personal life,
(35:29):
but in business as well. I thinkit's a huge component of
becoming a good leader as well,and a good entrepreneur.
Justine Reichman: (35:38):
You said a couple times about being
uncomfortable, and I think it'sintegral to being an
entrepreneur is doing thingsthat make you feel
uncomfortable, because that wealways lean into what we are
comfortable with. But there's somany things we're not
comfortable with that we reallyneed to embrace and get past
them. I can tell you just ashort story. But years ago, when
(35:59):
I first started a company 100years ago called career change
network and we went intouniversities, and we talked
about transition and how youchoose what you want to do, all
these different things. Somebodyfrom Baruch College, which is a
state school in New York,invited me to come speak. I
don't speak in front of people.I speak in front of one person.
I speak with small groups. Idon't get up in front of people.
(36:20):
I'm five foot one, and it justseems so overwhelming to me with
a huge room full of students.When the guy called and said,
hey, could you come and talk?We'd love to have you, I said,
yes. I didn't blink, I didn'tpause, I didn't even think. I
just responded because I waslike, this is a great
opportunity. I have to figure itout. So I was talking to
(36:44):
somebody that was a coach andwas a writing coach. She's like,
I'm going to help you. We hadlunch. She explained to me the
idea of bullets so that youdon't sound contrived and that
you're reading something. And sofast forward, I had this whole
plan of bullets and things I wasgoing to do, but I had my note
cards. And I get to the collegewhere I was going to go speak,
and I see this podium and I'mlike, I'm going to need
(37:07):
something to stand on. I'm like,I think I need a telephone book,
and there was nothing for me tostand on. So I had to lose the
podium, which meant I had tolose the note cards. What I
remembered her telling me was,engage the audience, ask
questions. That was how I didthe talk, and I continued to be
(37:30):
really uncomfortable. Butbecause I was given those tools,
I was able to get out of my ownway and be able to accomplish
this. And I didn't mean to goon. But the idea is, you can do
it. We can do it. You have to.Get the tools so that you have
the security in yourself thatyou know you're not going to
fumble. And even if you fumble,it's okay, and you can adjust.
(37:53):
And that's what I did.
Sebastian Stahl: (37:56):
Justine, that's the key. What I think is
the key is whatever person thatyou want to become, and I've
heard this also at other places,need to do things that are going
to put you in the position ofbecoming that person. So what
you just said, okay, I want tobe a public speaker. Get
yourself in a position whereyou're going to do it. Force
yourself to do it. Getuncomfortable and do it. You
want to get close to CEOs inwhatever business? Reach out,
(38:21):
talk to them, start a podcast,interview them, and then talk to
them, and then get into theposition of being around those
people so you can do anything.And it's just a matter of being
willing and being willing to dothings even if you're scared,
because that's the biggestthing. It's like, oh, I'm
scared. Am I gonna just do it?Scared? You don't have to be.
You don't have to do itperfectly. Just get in front.
(38:41):
And you're gonna stumble. You'regonna stumble. You're gonna
fail. It doesn't matter.
Justine Reichman: (38:43):
Just keep doing it. And I think the other
thing is to create some set ofmilestones. Because if you don't
create the milestones, or ifyou're not saying, I'm gonna
reach out to 10 new people everyday, or whatever it is, you
never see that incrementalgrowth there as quickly as when
you do create those milestones.So if I'm like, okay, I'm gonna
connect with five of mysubscribers today, or people
(39:05):
that are in the podcast thatlets me to get to know five more
people that listen to mypodcast. And then if I did that
every day for five days, that's20 people. And all of a sudden,
what I want is to grow mycommunity. And all of a sudden,
I'm actively doing that myselfby creating those stats. I'm
just using that as an example,but the idea is to set those
milestones that are doable, thatwill allow you to succeed. Not
(39:27):
to fail, but to succeed.
Sebastian Stahl: (39:30):
Yep, yep. But that we were just talking about
before, it's recognizing thewins, and keeping track of those
things. Because progress, Iwould say, is a big component of
fulfillment.
Justine Reichman: (39:43):
Yes, I totally agree. So as we wrap
this up a little bit, and wewant to leave our listeners and
our viewers with maybe a fewtips that you would recommend
for those people that are goinginto the restaurant business,
just things that they shouldconsider, or that they want to
make sure that they do to getthem off the ground. What would
(40:04):
that be?
Sebastian Stahl: (40:04):
The advice that every restaurant will tell
you is, don't get into thisbusiness. It's true. Every
restaurant owner that you'lltalk to, if somebody's new and
wants to get into it and they'lltell you, don't get into it
because it's that hard. But now,if you really decided you want
to get into it, I would say thesame thing. Start small. Find a
(40:26):
second generation space. Start asmall restaurant. Don't get into
a big space and build out, andall that stuff. If you have no
experience, don't think becauseyou hire people that know that
there going to do well, becausethat happened. It just doesn't
work that way. You have toexperience it yourself. And the
way that things are now with therestaurants, have a simple menu,
(40:50):
a great menu, and then focus onone thing that you're going to
do better than everybody else.There's this guy. I actually
interviewed this guy. He's agreat guy. He talks about a
brand of one, basically, focuson one thing you're going to do
great, because that's whatpeople are going to look for.
And it sticks right. And I'vemade the mistake before of doing
(41:13):
a lot, because I want to doeverything to be great, and it
just doesn't. It's hard.Surround yourself with great
people, people that are going tosupport you, and you're going to
be your cheerleaders. And youknow what? Just take it a day at
a time and be okay with failingmany, many, many times, because
failing doesn't determine whoyou are, and it's just going to
(41:37):
build you up. And at some point,you're going to be comfortable
with being uncomfortable, andthat's the point where you
really become a good leader.You're going to have the power
and the frame of mind to makethe right decisions in your
business. So join groups, getmentors, get a lot of people
surround you, and then just justget in it.
Justine Reichman: (41:59):
Sebastian, that's awesome that I can't not
ask. For those founders that arestarting this, take that advice,
and are opening theirrestaurant, and need to start
consider marketing for them,because that's going to come up
as part of the plan. How wouldsomebody get in contact with
you?
Sebastian Stahl: (42:16):
Yes, and get somebody to help you with
marketing. In the beginning whenyou're running a restaurant, you
have no freaking clue how to doit, and you won't even have time
to do it. Limited budgets at thebeginning are a challenge,
though. I would say if you wantto get in touch with me, just go
to Breadth Marketing.B-R-E-A-D-T-H, marketing.com,
that's how you can find us. Youcan look for us in Instagram as
well, and that's our page. Forour podcast is Restaurant
(42:37):
Leaders Unplugged, and weinterview restaurant owners,
CEOs and leaders in theindustry. And if you need help
with anything related to yourrestaurants, especially
marketing, I'll help you withthat. But if I can be a resource
to you, just reach out.
Justine Reichman: (42:51):
Awesome. Sebastian, thanks so much for
joining me on this conversationtoday. I think that it was so
enlightening, and I think we'vetalked about so many different
topics that these newentrepreneurs and even seasoned
entrepreneurs may need to evenrevisit because we forget. So
we'll make sure to highlightthem in our newsletter and in
our show notes so everyone canaccess them. So again, thanks
(43:12):
for tuning in tonight. To ourguests, our listeners and our
viewers, thank you for joiningthe conversation.
Sebastian Stahl: (43:17):
Thanks, Justine, appreciate it.
Justine Reichman: (43:19):
I want to thank everyone for tuning in
today, whether you watch thevideo or you tuned in via the
podcast. I just want to makesure that everyone's got all our
channels so that if you havebeen listening to the podcast,
but do you want to go toYouTube, you know that our
NextGen Purpose Channel holdsall of our Essential Ingredients
Podcasts or Videocast, as it maybe. And you if you have not gone
(43:40):
to Spotify or iTunes, orwherever you listen to podcasts,
our podcast is available atessential.ingredients, so stay
up to date on what we havecoming up. Don't forget to tune
into our channel on Instagram atessential.ingredients. Look
forward to seeing you here everyweek, Tuesday, for a new episode
with me and this series focusingon our resources.
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