#72 : Building Leadership from the Bottom Up with Christopher McFadden

Leadership Isn’t a Title—It’s a Daily Choice

Christopher McFadden doesn’t just talk about leadership—he lives it. From teenage retail hustler to wine-soaked restaurant GM to executive career coach, he’s walked the line between burnout and breakthrough. In this episode, we get into what makes people want to show up to work, why positional authority is overrated, and how real leaders build harmony—not balance—in their lives and kitchens.

If you’ve ever felt like the restaurant industry asks for everything and gives very little back, this one’s for you.

We get tactical about:

• Building leadership from the bottom up

• The power of staff-first culture

• Coaching vs commanding

• Systems that start with how you manage your own time

You’ll walk away with new ways to think about leadership, employee retention, and building restaurants people don’t want to leave.

 

Connect with Christopher

Website: https://www.tmg-hospitality.ca/

 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophermmcfadden/

                  or

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tmgthemcfaddengroup/ 

Facebook: @christophermcfadden

Instagram: @tmgthemcfaddengroup

Tiktok: @themcfaddengroup

 

 

 

Connect with Simon  
Email: [e-mail]  
Book a Call: https://calendly.com/culinarymechanic/discovery  
Website: https://www.culinarymechanic.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening toHeritage Radio Network.
I.
From kitchen chaos to well-oiled machines.
Get ready for newfangledtechnology and old school Know-how

(00:21):
stories and a good bit of fun.
I'm Simon, and this iscalled Area Mechanic.

Simon (00:31):
Joining me today is Christopher McFadden of the McFadden Group.
Christopher, welcome to Culinary Mechanic.

Christopher (00:38):
Simon.
Thank you for havingme, sir. This is great.

Simon (00:41):
Yeah, man.
How'd you do?
Uh, after we got to Hung Hang out inVegas at the Bar and Restaurant Expo,
uh, it seemed like a very, um, logicalnext step for you to come on and,
and for us to have a good, good chat.
Um, so here we go.
Let's press on the gas and say,how'd you get, how'd you get
into the industry or next tohospitality, or how did it all start?

Christopher (01:05):
It's funny, my first job was at a golf course, uh, 12 years old
as a yogi cleaning members clubs andgetting to know relationships with people.
At 14, I got into retail and loved it.
I was in sports shoe stores,uh, for my whole teenage career.
And um, it's funny, I, I guess I knewhow to sell 'cause at, at 15 years old
and working nine hours a week at AthletesWorld Shoot Store, which was like a

(01:26):
Foot Locker, I was number one salesmanin Canada for sales per hour at 15.
Um, and it's funny 'cause I'vealways been the word salesman.
'cause I, I, I feel like italways tags towards the car,
the car salesman mentality.
And then at 18 I saw my girlfriend wasworking in restaurants and I'm like,
that seems like a, a route to go.
Um, so at 18 years old, which wasin 1998, I started as a host at

(01:48):
East Side Mario's, uh, up here inCanada, in Burlington, Ontario.
I got into being a server andthen ended up in, uh, lake
Louise, uh, at the Chateau Lake.
Louise as Fairmont and Canadian Pacifichad just, you know, became one brand.
And at 20 years old I fell in lovewith wine, working at the Waller Stub,
Swiss fondue restaurant in Lake Louise.

(02:08):
And, uh, at 20 years old I startedmy SOM studies and knew I was gonna
say no to traditional university andtraditional college and that I was
gonna build wine programs in Canada.
And that was my goal.
And just before I was 24, I got my somdiploma and, uh, had an amazing, um.
Amazing life in the industry,uh, running restaurants.
Um, and again, to get a wine programand a restaurant, you need to learn

(02:29):
how to run the restaurant first becauseyou can't just be the sommelier.
And, um, I had a very, uh, lucky, goodfortune of being in Calgary, um, and
Banff, and that's where I really started.
I grew my life in the business andknowing that running rooms and running
restaurants and creating relationshipswith uh, guests was gonna be what I did.
And having an act for the foodand wine world was exactly what,

(02:50):
uh, my passion and heart was in.
And, uh, I did it for 25 years until,uh, about three years ago, I, um, I went
through my own battle with, um, kindahappiness and found myself in, in the
depression world and knew that I hadto really come out of it for myself.
Uh, 'cause through COVID I kept takingcare of my team and I. Forgetting
to take care of myself first.

(03:11):
Um, and this was after we had decided thatguests were gonna come after the team.
And, um, so this drive went into atotally different world and I started
writing my own, uh, programs and myown courses and, uh, went into the
professor world for a couple years andMcFadden Group has been, uh, now, uh,
out for just almost three years now.
And I had gone from leadershippositionally to now leadership

(03:32):
Actionably, um, to focus on careercoaching for everybody in the business.
So I love this industry.
I think it's the greatestthing that exists out there.
And, uh, my entire drive and passionis making people find happier moments
within themselves to really drive themto want to go to work rather than have
to go to work and just love what they do.

(03:53):
Awesome.

Simon (03:54):
Yeah.
It's been a while.
Right off the top, right off the top.
You, you hit something for me.
You, uh, I, I've been saying this a lot.
Like, we get to go to work.
We don't have to go to work.
'cause you don't have to, there'sno, there's choices everywhere.
Right.

Christopher (04:08):
Exactly it.
Right?
And I think people, it's that,ugh, I gotta go to work today.
I'm like, I get it, I get it.
So do I Like, you know, the mindset of,you know, the, the having to, and I,
and I had a client recently that was inthat tough moment and I said, you know,
work life balance is such an, an avidconversation that we keep bringing up.
But what if we were to flop those twowords and make it life work balance,

(04:31):
like when you wake up, do do the day foryou before you do the day for others.
So if you get yourself in the mindset of,Hey, I get to go to work today, that's a
huge blessing in the world that we're in.
Um, but because you want to go towork for you instead of having to
go to work for others, um, I thinkshifts the perspective when you're
leaving your house for the day.

Simon (04:51):
Yeah, I mean, uh, the, the balance thing, I, I don't know
if I've ever been balanced to beperfectly honest with you, but I.
For me, the, the whole work and lifething, I, I, I kind of figure it
just has to be in harmony, right?
Like I, I know personally thatthere are times when you, you
gotta get down and get it right.

(05:12):
You gotta, you gotta like go afterwhatever is in front of you 'cause
that needs to be taken care of.
And there's other times to likecruise a little bit and maybe a little
bit of cruise control, you know.
But I think that for me it's, it'sknowing when to go hard and when,
when to take, when to recover.
Um, and if those things are in alignment,right, from, from communicating with

(05:35):
your partner to whatever, right?
Making sure the dog gets it, um,those, that's, that's, that's gonna
be a, a harmonious thing versus,um, believing that you're ever gonna
find the, find it to be balanced.
'cause I don't know, this industryjust doesn't really do that.
At least that's, that's my, my take on it.

Christopher (05:54):
I think it's great.
Harmony's such a great word.
'cause I'm, as you said, that I'mthinking about those nights when
you crush 300 covers seamlesslybecause everybody was on the mark.
And it was one of those things thatI used to stand back and there was
certain music that came on that, arestaurant that I was, um, a GM at and
partner at, that there was a certainsong that would come on nightly that

(06:17):
it would, it would tend to time itselfexactly when we were in the thick of it.
And I would just step back for a momentand watch and everything would go silent
except for that song and me watchingthe magic of what we were creating
and the spark that exists within that.
Right.
Is that balanced?
No, that's harmony.

(06:37):
That's exactly it.
Right?
It's a, it's, it's called that the

Simon (06:40):
eye of the hurricane,

Christopher (06:42):
you know?
And, and, and nobody has any idea.
Right.
I used to make a joke and Isaid this recently on, um, on
a spot that I was doing and.
I said that that difference of, youknow, people that haven't been in
this industry, um, and again, I lookat hospitality much more openly than
just the food and beverage side ofit, is that it's the gesture of what

(07:02):
we with people and something thatwe provide in everything that we do.
And, uh, right.
But some people just don't see it becausethey've never been in this environment
that I would just, I called them thegeneral public and that there was a
sincerity that existed with that becausethis was our chance to glow for people

(07:23):
that didn't know how much work wentinto what we created, but understood
how much went into us making it happen.
And I think there's such a genuinenessof making, and I remind everybody
that I've worked with, I remindstudents or my clients, is that
we like to go out too, right?
What do, what do we expect?
And not what do we expect becausewe've done it professionally,

(07:44):
but what do we just expect andgoing out with our family and.
And going out with our friendsand having a, an experience that
we go, that was pretty cool.
And then having a chance to bring itwith us, you know, COVID was a huge
light with this when we saw, my wifeand I had gone out for dinner to one
of the corporate companies in Vancouverand trying to see how doing something
was gonna happen based upon the factthat none of us knew what we were doing.

(08:07):
And I was watching, you know, a corporatebeast and I was like, I get, okay, okay.
You know, and then howcan we make it our own?
And what can we do to, you know, notlevel them up to compete, but how can
we bring, you know, more imaginationto this idea of people's safety.
And, um, yeah.
I'll tell you, when you start putting,when we started putting our people first,
it allowed us to become more successfulin what we were doing as a brand.

(08:29):
Um, because we had more guests, becausewe had the same team coming back
and people were like, they're back.
And it was like a hundred percent becausethe difference is that they felt safe.
So I think this environment that we createand the, the, the speed bumps in, in walls
that we've hit in the last few years of.
How to keep afloat and, you know,for those that were able to, um,

(08:50):
and those maybe that, you know,weren't, that maybe have been able
to make a comeback, um, right.
Yeah.
Harmony, Harmony's,harmony's an important word.
I appreciate that.
Yeah.
Life.

Simon (08:59):
You know, it's funny you talk about, we, we all talk about
hospitality, and I think that oneof the things I've been challenging
some of my clients to do is stop.
And we all, we all like, we're,we're mapping, we're mapping customer
journeys and we're, we're all, we'reall looking at touch points, right?

(09:19):
Like, that's normal stuff nowadays.
Thank you Will Gaar, you know, oh yeah.
Full time.
But, but like, I've been challengingpeople to not only like, look
forward, look out, look, you know,to the guest, but then turn around
and like, how, how are you greetingyour people in the morning when, when

(09:39):
they walk in or when you walk in?
How are you?
Like, how are the touchpointof our employees, right?
How are we leading those people?
Because there's such a disconnect.
Even great ones, even great leaders there.
There's the way we treat the public, theway we treat our guests, the way we treat

(10:00):
the, the, the money coming in versusthe way we treat the people who we pay.
And somehow, like I'm I, and Ican't even say, oh, I, I do it.
No, I have to stop and thinkabout this every day about how
did I used to treat people?
How can we treat people because.
Like, if it's not every day, it'sonce a week for me that I run into

(10:24):
someone and they go four yearsafter COVID has, has subsided.
I still am struggling with staffingand I still can't quite, and I'm
like, how do you treat people?
How do your people feel whenthey're in your building?
Right.
So for me, the hospitality hasto be in every single direction
because if you don't, if you don'tnail it, they're gonna, you're

(10:45):
gonna keep the same like level ofturnover that you've seen for years.
Right.
The culture has to get, has to get better.
Yeah.

Christopher (10:55):
Yeah.
Well, hospitably hos likehospitable to a guest is great.
Hospitable to your staff is even better.
Your staff will sell more things if theycare and if they're doing it to someone.
Oh, never.

Simon (11:07):
You're talking now, so you're still talking about guest facing.
I'm talking about the, theboys and girls in the back.

Christopher (11:15):
Oh, no.
But, but the difference between,you know, it's funny, when we had
guests, you know, and we had an openkitchen at, at uh, PIVO restaurant.
Amazing.
Right?
But watching that and trying to theirsmiles meant everything back there.

Simon (11:31):
Totally.

Christopher (11:32):
Right.
Because we're, the entire environmentis what we're doing, right?
Is that there's gonna be morequality coming out of everything
when people are excited about thefact that they're cared about.
And I think that's where I was tryingto, and I should have made that as
a sink, as everybody as a whole,and not just the guest focus, right?
But, you know, you've got betterquality product going out because the

(11:53):
people's attention is more intentionalbecause of just loving to come in.
What a cool moment, you know?
Hey, team, how are you doing?
I actually, I made a, a confidentjoke when I was 14 years old
starting at Athletes' World.
And, um, I had appliedto this retail shop.
It had TVs at a basketball courtin the backyard in the back of it.

(12:15):
And I was like, this is theplace that I wanna work.
And for, for a year, I appliedto Athletes' World nine times,
but they couldn't hire me at 13.
Um, at the time it was when I turned 14,I could get a social insurance number.
Um, and um, and I remember my firstday of work thinking that I was
best friends with the GM who hadgotten to know me over the year.
And I walked in, I was like,Hey punk, how's it going?

(12:36):
He's like, pardon me?
He's like, start again.
And I was like, he's like, I'mnot your friend, I'm your boss.
And I'm like, got it.
Got it.
I almost lost the first job I ever hadbased upon a comfortableness that I had.
And I think in today's world is that it's.
Especially with the old guards thatare in the business still, right?
Is that there's still an autocratic nessto all of us out there, and that has to

(12:58):
exist when we're running the financials.
But when we become more of that servantleadership and that there's leadership
all around you in every role thatexists in every age group that exists
within it, and you're leading fromthe top as as as the chef or as the
director, as the gm, whatever it maybe, but you know, everybody else is
pertaining to that same leadershipstyle because you're exuding it.

(13:21):
Build better leaders from the start.

Simon (13:23):
Yeah.

Christopher (13:23):
And have them walk in and know that you're paying attention to them.
I used to do goal setting stuff.
I was like, Hey, tell me your goalsin the next three, six to nine months.
We'll meet next week.
But what they didn't know isthat I had my own goals for them.
And when we sat down and hada chat about it, I'm like,
okay, so tell me yours, right?
And I was like, okay, well theseare mine for your, for you.
And they're like, what?
I didn't know you were gonna do this.
And they got nervous.

(13:44):
I'm like, but then it wouldbe irresponsible if I didn't.
The next thing.
Some of them will be like, well,can I, can I go and rewrite mine?
You can do whatever you want.
Right?
But if that inspired you, fantastic.
Right.
But I have to care as much aboutyou walking in the door as a guest
walking in the door, because if I don'thave you, I don't have the guests.
And if I don't have, you know, ateam that's not just one, one person

(14:05):
cooking, because everybody elsewas like, I can't do this anymore.
Well then we've, we've gottenit, we've gotten it wrong.

Simon (14:12):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's pause for a second.
If you're serious about building a kitchenthat leads from the top runs on systems
and actually feels good to work in, makesure you're following culinary mechanic.
This show is all about helping youlead better, scale smarter, and
stop white knuckling your business.
And if you're ready to dig in deeper,you'll find a link in the show

(14:34):
notes to connect with me directly.
So just this morning I was having a conversation with a
recruiter and he's based in themiddle of the country somewhere.
And, uh, I said, so, you know,like, uh, here, here's what I do.
I told him about culinarymechanic, and he's like, cool.
I said, tell me what you're seeing.
And he goes, well, uh, I'm seeing thathotels are running with fewer managers.

(14:59):
I was like, oh, that's interesting.
I said, what about, whatabout the restaurant side?
'cause that's really where I, I.That's my comfort zone, right?
I like restaurants.
Uh, and he goes, okay.
And he goes, well, I'm seeing thisamazing thing, like more and more
people are getting excited abouttop level, high echelon chefs.
And I was like, I bet.

(15:19):
And I said, um, what about the, like, whatabout the group that is the fresh ones
that are just becoming chefs or they'resous chefs trying to get the chefs?
He goes, you know, funny, Ihadn't really thought about it.
I said, what do you mean?
He goes, those folks arelike almost non-existent.
He goes, I'm, I'm either seeing people,I'm either, I'm like seeing really

(15:42):
well high developed chefs that are likeheading for Michelin stars and James
Beard Awards or really, really like way,way down, but there's the middle ground.
And I said, what areyour thoughts on that?
And he goes, I thinkthat so many people I.
Have decided what they want out of,out of their career, that they're

(16:04):
going for that and they're forgettingto, to build and develop around them.
And it hurts my feelings.
It really does.
It's like, wait, wait, you'regonna, it's all about me.
I'm gonna go just get my career.
What about like, how, like that'sactually the hard way, right?
Like, think about that.

(16:25):
That's the hard way to do business.
Very much for me, like my, my biggestsuccesses in restaurants or when I
would take the time to, to like toteach and train and develop and bring
people along with me because then Icould direct and I could like kind of
not stand on their shoulders so much asbe at that level to help them learn to,

(16:48):
to take my job from me at some point.
Right.
But that's when I did the, that'swhen my rest, my operations
went the best, the easiest.
And people looked at me andlike, wow, this is amazing.
Everybody's so calm and cool.
And I'm like, it's 'cause theyknow what they're supposed to do.
Yeah.
Like they know totally all the pieces.
Yeah.
But it's as a smoke, we'veforgotten as a culture.

(17:08):
And I think, and I, I will say thatI'm, this may be small minded of
me, but I think it's Americans.
'cause I look at a lot of theEuropean chefs and they're,
they're developing people.
The European restaurant culture isreally about leadership and development
and, and passing things down.
Right.
Um, I think it's

Christopher (17:28):
a coaching mentality that's happening more so now where
it's, you know, we have coaches onall these sports teams and event teams
and well, why aren't we coaching?
Why aren't we just coaching inrestaurants instead of that worry
of, my boss told me to do this.
Well, no, you're, you're.
Chef, right?
Who's your coach, right.
Is guiding you to develop you to do this.
But

Simon (17:48):
they're not

Christopher (17:49):
right.
And they're not right.
Kumar and I had, um, this great restaurantgroup, um, a part of our restaurant
leadership 1 0 1 course, and there wasa young man who had moved here from
the Philippines with his family whenhe was 14, got a job at this restaurant
as a dishwasher when he was 15.
And it came up in conversations as wewere doing breakout room discussions.
And I said, how old areyou outta curiosity?

(18:12):
He goes, I'm 22.
He goes, I started the restaurant whenI was 15 as a dishwasher, and now I
just officially got my first CVP title.
And the pride that he carried was soobviously beautiful because he loved
what he did, because he grew intowhat he was doing, knowing what he
wanted to do, and he went after it.

(18:36):
He pushed hard and he's gonna bea chef and corporate chef one day
if he wanted to in this company.
Right.
'cause his driving tenacityor everything, hospitality.
And we, my friend of mine went in therefor dinner one night and he was the
one of the first to come out to say hi.
And he is like, I just wanna say thanks.
What a great course.
Like, you know, and I, and it's, it's sonice when you see this younger generation,

(18:56):
and I think it existed for us, you know,I'm in my mid to late forties now and
you know, there was a certain WOWnessto, you know, lining tables up with
a string so they were dead straight.
Yeah.
And doing things withperfection, tension and grace.
And now that I've seen such a visuallearning capacity for people, because
everybody's just on their phones now, wasthat I had to start showing people why,

(19:19):
rather than just telling them why and thedifference and impact that it made when.
I realized that I was setting our diningroom table when we had guests over
at 10 years old flawlessly, becauseI was obsessed with the idea of it.
I guess that's where itall, you know, stemmed from.
But it was always this, you know, let's,let's make ourselves grow as much as
understanding the next generations thatare trying to get into this business

(19:41):
that think a little bit more new age.
There's more technology, there's morethings that are catching their attention.
Let, let's build that spirit at thatlevel for them to know that they're heard.
And then a little bit of ingenuityis always a good thing, and
especially for some of us moresenior, if you will, in the business.

Simon (20:00):
I, and I got a few years on you honestly, you know, but,
um, I. I think that for me, a lotof it is, is calling people back
to like, Hey, like pass it down.
Right?
Like, like take, take the knowledgeyou have and pass it along and
teach because it, it, it holds twofun, two major functions for me.

(20:25):
Number one, it it's gonna make yourown job easier if everybody around
you is well educated in the, in, inthe core of what it is you're looking
to accomplish, whether that's greatfood and service, whether that's
fast, what, whatever that may be, ifeverybody really has a, a phenomenal

(20:45):
understanding of it, it's gonna go easy.
Oh yeah.
So it's self-serving.
Right?
Absolutely.
Happens a smaller

Christopher (20:51):
way.
Sorry.
Sorry.
My apologies.

Simon (20:54):
That's okay.
It just, it's, yeah.
It's, it's one of thosethings where it's like this is
self-serving, but at the same time.
Like if you want to perpetuate it, right?
If you wanna, if you want to grow yourbusiness, the next group behind you
needs to be able to, under, needs to beable to understand not only what you're

(21:17):
doing, how you're doing, why you'redoing it, but how to teach it well.
And I think that that's a lost artteaching how you want people to teach.

Christopher (21:28):
That's, that's a great, that's a great sentiment.
Yeah.
You know what, and it's funny 'causeI think, and again, learning more of
the, the, the old school way of just,yes, boss, okay, that's what we do.
Got it.
Right.
And very, you know, very Frenchand British style, old school
service now being brought intothe, the newer world of things.
And, but that's how it was done.

(21:50):
And, you know, learningthat, but now translating it.
Differently to today's timesis an important factor.
Completely.
It was like being sommelier and trying topeople, you know, everybody gets nervous
tasting or smelling wine when they'rebeside a sommelier and I'm like, but
your nose and your palate are, are yours.
I may know what the rain looked likethat year in Sair and that that's

(22:13):
great when I'm, you know, but aguest doesn't even care about that.
It just makes me understandthings at a different level.
However, the translation between youbeing able to provide the perfect glass
of wine for a guest experience, it doesn'thave to be about you coming to ask me.
It has to be about you learning how tothink it out and, and bring up the idea

(22:33):
that you smell cinnamon when we're inthe open, you know, nose and tasting
that we're doing on it, because maybe Ididn't see it and maybe now you've sparked
my interest to go, yeah, it's there.
Maybe we can look at it with this dish.
And then hopefully they go, orthis one, and I'm like, great.
Now we've got the conversation begun.
I used to do this where Iwould bring in and fall.
I brought in a whole bunch of autumnleaves off trees that had just fallen

(22:56):
and I brought them in and I wouldopen up sangiovese for the staff for
Chiante, and I'm like, smell the leaves.
Smell the wine and they're like, oh.
And I was like, yeah, now let'sput the conversation into loop.
We're not doing anything with leavesin the restaurant, but what dishes
in the restaurant have those kindof tones to it that will allow this?
And it was a neat moment.

(23:17):
Ah, that's a great,

Simon (23:17):
that's awesome.
I love it.

Christopher (23:20):
And I think visual components are a huge aspect of things, but yeah,
if we're not, if we're not teachingto, to grow it, it just doesn't work.

Simon (23:29):
Well, I back up one step.
If you're not teaching, are you growing?
No,
I mean, not at all.
That, that's where I'm atwith leadership right now.
Right.
Like, uh, and like that's awesome.
You're, you do leadership, half adozen guys and gals that you and

(23:51):
I know, or a dozen do leadership.
And for me, the, the real kicker is.
So many people are like, oh,leadership that's up here.
I'm like, Uhuh, leadership's right in it.
Like, it's how we interact.
It's the communication.
It doesn't have, we, everybody thinksleadership and then they go John

(24:12):
Maxwell, or they, you know what I mean?
They go, they go billion dollar companies.
I'm like, no.
Leadership is about how we take careof each other and how, how, that's it.
And I, it's, it's really I topeople that don't understand.
I actually had someone say this to me.
They're like, Simon, what thefuck does leadership mean?

(24:33):
And I said, well, I'll give itto you the way I think about it.
And he, they, he's like, okay.
I said, expansion of influence.
He's like, cool, what else?
I'm like, no, right there.
Expansion of influence.
Oh, full stop.

Christopher (24:50):
Well, and this is my reality.
You know, we had an amazing successwith Restaurant Leadership 1 0 1.
We were doing restaurantsacross the country.
Um, we touched base in theStates and, uh, overseas, um,
with Andy Jones, um, in the uk.
And, um, it was neat where McFaddenGroup was bloomed from that not
being the 16 hour course that we had.

(25:10):
But, you know, if there wasmoments in people's leadership
that they really needed help with.
And it was last summer that,and I was doing, you know,
good with one-to-one coaching.
And then last summer I had alot of students come up to me
and just said, we're stuck.
I've got my, I've got mydegree from back home.
I'm doing my postgraduate degree here.
You're my professor here.
But there's this gap that I can't seem tounderstand on where I need to get to next.

(25:35):
So I started working with studentsthat became clients, but I
started pivoting what I was doingand how I was developing them.
And, um, all, I had ninestudents that became.
Just kinda pseudo clients as I wasteaching them, but outside of class time.
And um, the moments that happened wasthat, you know, this is the gig that
I want, this is what I'm going after.

(25:56):
I was like, great, let's seeif it makes any sense to you.
Let's just pull more out of youto see if it aligns with who you
actually are, who you think you are.
But let's see if we can pull more out.
And by the end of it, all nine studentseither got the gig that they were going
after because it made sense, understoodwhere their direction was going, or
knew what they had to go to instead.
And as I had said this out loudto my buddy Edwin Kumar, um, from

(26:18):
Ultra Team Development, and wedid Restaurant Leadership 1 0 1, I
had a friend of mine here goes, soit's it, so what is exactly you do?
And I said, it's executivecoaching for restaurants.
And as I had told this to Edwinand Edwin's an incredible coach,
he goes, hold on a second.
And he goes, do you realize thatyou're doing career coaching?
I. He goes, you've been studyingleadership and gotten certifications and

(26:41):
coaching, certifications and licenses andemotional intelligence and leadership.
He goes, but you're doing it for, foreverybody, for everybody else too.
And I said, oh.
I said, well, yeah.
I said, yeah, like, it justvery confidently out, out loud.
I said in a conversation,I said, I get more excited.
And I said this a couple times latelyin, in just conversations, is taking
somebody from here and building thesteps to get here, rather than convincing

(27:05):
somebody to go from here to here.
And I said, leadership is an action.
As much as we hold it accountable ina position, leadership's actionable.
So if the 17-year-old hostess that I hadat PVA can run my door at 17 because I
trust her fully because she's leadingit, what's, what's, there's nothing

(27:27):
wrong with that because she's next tostart growing herself because I paid
attention to her leadership capabilities.
At a junior role in the restaurantthat became a senior role in
the restaurant at 17 years old.
So I believe leadershipis actionable, right?
It has to be positional a hundred percent,but I, I believe it's an actionable
thing in that if the person at thetop isn't leading and all of a sudden

(27:48):
you've got an entire team that's leadingand the leader at the top isn't really
understanding why they're all happy,well, because we've helped them figure
out more about what makes 'em greatat what they do and love what they do.
And, and, and then if it can buildup as much as it can go from top down
and we can go from bottom up, how muchbetter and stronger we're gonna be.

Simon (28:08):
Yeah.
Uh, one of the things that I've,I've, that just keeps coming back is
every time I start and it's actuallychange, it has actually changed the
way I start with my clients, my chefs,is I used to start and look at like
communication and leadership and kindof the bigger, bigger picture things.

(28:29):
And I just now recently said, okay.
We're gonna start with time management.
We're gonna get you understandingwhere your time has been going
and where you want it to go.
Right.
Awesome.
'cause once you do that, you canthen go, I'm doing these 10 things

(28:49):
and they're really low value to me.
Right.
And you can, you can put'em on any matrix you want.
Uh, I happen to use urgent and important.
And if you start to, you start torealize that you're doing all this
work that isn't very urgent and it'skind of important, but not really.
Hmm.
You just need to teachsomebody how to do that.

(29:12):
You know, like, so I started him withtime management and I get the, and
then, and they're like, why am I doing,one guy says, why am I doing this?
And I was like, 'cause until youunderstand how to lead yourself,
I don't expect you to be able tolead anybody else for a, for shit.
And he's like, that's huge.
He, he's like.
Oh, okay.

(29:34):
And he dug in and I'm like, ah, gotcha.
Okay, cool.
Here we go.
But it's, it's true.
It's like, until people under can likeunderstand where their time is going,
you know, I got this one guy and he's, Isaid, I want you to map out a day and then
maybe your whole week and tell me, andhe's like, this weird thing is happening.

(29:57):
I said, what's that?
He goes, I think that there's allthis free time, but I never, I never
seem to get anything done in that.
I'm like, so then pay attention towhat's happening in that free time.
He's like, I'm getting sucked inhere and getting sucked in there.
I'm like, okay, you wanta solution for that?
I said, he says, yeah.
I said, great.
Uh, do you have pockets in your shirts?
He goes every day like, okay, cool.

(30:20):
I want you to fold a piece of paperand I want you to, I. Put it in
your pocket and on the front, Iwant you to, as you're going through
the day, list what you're doing.
And if you're able, if you havethe capacity, write down how
much time you spend on that.
And then every time you're going, man,I'm doing this again, I want you to turn
the piece of paper around to the backand I want you to write the word teach.

(30:42):
And then I want you to writewhat it is that you, you just
keep having to go back to.
And he's like, why?
I said, because if you're going back tothat shit and it's not really great work
for you, if it's not high value, it's notmoving the business forward, then I want
you to teach somebody else how to do it.
And he went, nobody's ever saidthat kind of thing to me before.
And I said, well, that's, I said,maybe that's why I have a job.

Christopher (31:08):
There you go.
Once like, you know, the infamousDenzel Washington line is that don't
confuse movement with progress.
Uh, right.
Very simply.
Right?
And, and what that looks like.
But what an awesome, awesome thought.
To have somebody do,

Simon (31:24):
yeah,

Christopher (31:25):
we're last and then we design

Simon (31:26):
their ideal week.
And then, you know, orlet's see, uh, who is it?
It's, it's, um, Hyatt, the,um, John, not John Hyatt.
That's the, the singer.
Um, I don't know Michael Hyatt.
There it is.
He's the guy that does the ideal week andhe's got his like planner and all that.

(31:46):
And then there's Dan Marteland he's got a perfect week.
Everybody's got somekind of concept of it.
Um, for me, I, I kind of go with idealweek 'cause like, it's aspirational, you
know, like it's there, it's, it's, it'snot, it's not gonna happen every time.
Right.
But you gotta, you gotta, for me isthe difference between driving from

(32:07):
point A to point B as fast as possible.
It's on the map, right?
I'm going on the map versus Idon't have a plan and I don't have
a lot of direction and I'm in thedesert and I'm just doing donuts.
Right.
Going fast.
I'm going fast, butI'm not going anywhere.

Christopher (32:27):
Well, it's funny 'cause I get to a moment.
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm solidly good.
And then I take moments in my weekwhere I'm like, I'm not gonna do a
whole bunch of bullet point notesof what I need to accomplish.
'cause I just don't wantto think those out yet.
Then I regret not doing that.
But I like seeing validity in a day.
I like seeing something start and end.
Yeah.
So I always check my off, youknow, my list, but I always make it

(32:49):
modestly put together so that I don'toverextend myself to exhaustion.
Or all of a sudden I wake up on Thursday,I'm like, my entire week's done.
What am I gonna do for the next two days?
And then so I try to very muchportion it out to make it responsibly,
confident and just methodical formyself and for everything that I'm
doing better for my business and forothers and with others most importantly.

(33:14):
So it got to a point where I wouldget down to looking at it quickly at
the end of the day and I'm like, oh.
I forgot to email so andso and I'll change it.
So to go in from going in the anxietymoment of I gotta get up and do it,
I just quickly reword it to remindyourself on, let's say it's Tuesday,
remind yourself on Tuesday to emailso-and-so on Wednesday instead of

(33:36):
emailing so and so when I was in Tuesday.
And just that shift of mindsetallowed me to put my phone away,
check mark it off, and have a completelist of completion for the day.
Yeah.
And then I'll throw in like middle of theday things like last week I had crushed
eight significant things, went and mowedmy grass, came back in, changed what I was

(33:57):
doing to another thing that I had to do.
And then the middle ofthat to break between.
The next thing is I went to powerwash my deck just to shift my
mindset in a day to have some flow.
But I love watching, you know,accomplishments in a day and feeling
proud of what's been accomplished.
Um.
Yeah, and, and what's been a challengeand maybe what I could do better the next

(34:18):
time, but working myself and coachingmyself through it for, you know, my own,
my own growth, um, which is the mostimportant growth that exists for myself.
And same for you.
Right.
Well, anybody else

Simon (34:29):
Have I have you, like, you've been, you were in restaurants for a long time.
Same way.
I was.
The biggest shift for me has beenmy, your, your, your, like daily
routine used to be dictated to you.
Right?
You go to work at a certain time,doors open at that time every day, and

(34:52):
if you close for lunch, doors shut.
If you open for dinner, doors open.
Like your queues are built in.
Right.
So even when I was doing multiunit work,I was, I had three, four restaurants.
I had a couple monthswith seven restaurants.
Those were bad months, butthe four months mm-hmm.
The four, four restaurant unitmonths were, were pretty good.

(35:13):
But it was like, they was still dictated.
Right.
Like I would, I would find myselfgetting through lunch and going,
all right, I'm gonna hop in thecar and I'm gonna get over here.
I'm gonna talk to this chef.
And then he's gonna have anhour before we, we get open.
So all the cue, the, the daily cues werebuilt in and then learning to be in a
free floating space that is advisoryconsultant work, working from home.

(35:36):
I'm like, oh god.
And so I had to really like,personally focus myself and it's
a work in progress for sure.
But I definitely like.
You know, but it's, it's, it'shelping me to understand, it's like,
okay, how did I succeed as a, asa chef that was in one restaurant.

(35:56):
Like, wow.
It was because I used to map mytime was really well mapped and I
knew exactly when I had an hour.
And so, um, like if I, if I know I havean hour to, to work on something, I, or if
I know that a chef has an hour to work onsomething, I tell 'em, like, guard that.
Like it is fucking gold, man.

(36:16):
Like, communicate to your team.
You're out.
Like you're, you're, you're gonna, youhave one hour to get a project done,
put, I don't know, put a note on yourdoor that says taping in progress
or Do not disturb, or whatever youneed to do on your office door, or,
you know, or Here's my favorite one.
You got a project to do.
I. I tell everybody that you'reout of the building for one hour.

(36:39):
Grab your laptop, grab your penand paper, whatever it is, and
walk down the street to Starbucksor a coffee shop and work there.
And someone said, but I, I, I'msupposed to be in the restaurant.
I'm like, nobody's gonnamiss your presence.
If you do, if you do yourdue diligence, right.
Set your team up, you, hopefully youhave a sous chef or the manager can watch

(37:00):
your team for an hour while they're,while you're in the middle of the day,
get out and like, make no excuses.
Go do the thing and then comeback and you'll go, oh, I
got my thing project done.
Right.
Because as chefs, we chefs andrestaurant managers, we are so
focused on all the team and all theother things, but we still gotta take

(37:20):
care of our own deliverables, right?

Christopher (37:23):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Right.
And as a whole, right?
I mean, the destruction oftasting wine through a day, right?
Like.
You know, and I, I schedule it is what I

Simon (37:31):
tell 'em.
I'm like, make an appointment,make a meeting with yourself, or
make a meeting with other people.
I realize that it was, that says chefout a building, you know, because,
because these cool little, little things.
Right?
I'm on break.
We got the phones.

Christopher (37:44):
Yeah.
Well, when we didn't though Ihad a pager and that was awesome.
And then a set of quarters in mymom's ash tree in her car that I was
like, okay, I gotta find a payphone.
Oh, the days, right.
You know,

Simon (37:55):
the only thing that was good about those things, and, and I, you,
I still have to remember, and my wifereminds me of this on a regular basis,
just because somebody's calling you doesnot mean that you have to answer it.
Just because somebody'stexting you does not mean that.
Right.
Like, communication is two ways.
You have a choice, you know, that,and I, and uh, because when I, when

(38:17):
we first got together, I was like, thephone would ring and I like, I jump over
the couch and like go to get the phoneand she's like, just 'cause it rings
doesn't mean you have to answer it.
That's what call screening is.
And I went.
I like that

Christopher (38:30):
too.
You know what's interesting is I've neverhad a passcode on my phone or a face.
Like I've just, whatever.
I was a Blackberry guy.
This is I think my secondor third iPhone that I have.
But I was a Blackberry guy.
I loved it.
I loved in the simplicity of it.
But when I was in Calgary in 2006to 2009, I never had a cell phone.
It was either, I was either atwork, call me there, 'cause it

(38:50):
was 12 or 13 hour days, right?
I was at home and if you can't get meany of those places, call my wife's
cell phone and you'll maybe get ahold,you'll probably get ahold of me.
But the shift that's happenedwith all of this, so I think the
intensity of the phone ringing.
So I put on, um, I had an app thatrequired, um, to have a passcode.
So I was like, okay, whatever.

(39:11):
I'm gonna keep the app for a bit.
So I put the face on.
I sound like such an old man.
With this I can build yourPOS systems in your inventory
programs in restaurants flawlesslytelling you how my iPhone works.
Not a clue.
So I put this on and.
Didn't know.
And the, the other day I was like, whyare messages showing that I have a message
but it doesn't say anything with it?

(39:33):
And I realized it's not showing it becauseit's got a passcode to protect that from
just showing in general scope that hasshifted, that has shifted how I pick
up my phone, I've shut, vibrate off.
Right.
I can see my phone go and Ican peek at who it is, but I
don't have to read what it is.
'cause it'll just say, oh, you know, mywife's nickname is Spud because she's

(39:55):
from Prince Edward Island and they'rethe potato country of our country.
Of our, yeah, the potatocountry of our country.
Um, so I nickname is Spudwhen we met 20 years ago.
So, but I just see Spud McFadden messages.
I'm like, great, great.
I know it's probably not an emergency'cause she would've called right.
Whatever it may be.
But it changes how I look at myphone now because I don't know
what it is I'm about to read.

(40:16):
And it's interesting, it'schanged how much I pick it
up based on the fact I turned

Simon (40:20):
90% of notifications off.

Christopher (40:22):
Only notifications that I have are text, email, and LinkedIn.
Other than that, I don'thave anything else up.

Simon (40:28):
Nope.
I've turned those I see.

Christopher (40:30):
Important to grab, right?
Like it's, it's okay.
It can wait.

Simon (40:34):
I see texts.
I've turned link LinkedIn off.
Uh, I, no, I get LinkedInnotifications, but they just
go to the top little bar thing.
No, but there's not, there's nobuzzing, there's no, no visual thing.
It just, it'll, it'll send mea little icon, but that's it.

(40:54):
Um, okay, cool.
And that way, because that wayI can, 'cause otherwise I'm
just too much of a squirrel.
I'm like, oh, like, nope.
I want, if you want me, text me andI, and I'll get right back to you.
Maybe,

Christopher (41:10):
maybe, maybe, or sometime.
Yeah.

Simon (41:12):
Or, or I'll get back to you, but it's gonna be a little while.
Um, I, you know, I tell myclients, I'm like, if you need
me, text me twice in a row.
Text me and then text me againand I'm, I'm likely to pick
it up and go, okay, I got you.
And I'll be right back to youwithin two minutes and if it's
urgent, I'll call you right back.

Christopher (41:31):
I had a new call than that.
I

Simon (41:32):
don't,

Christopher (41:34):
I get a hold, I email you, should I LinkedIn message.
I'm like, you can just text.
I share my phone number on LinkedInand on my bus, like on my signature.
That's not like just text.
Right.
Make it easier.
Right.
Instead of this going through thingsbecause I don't wanna look at my emails
all the time and the shift of like,just if you need me, send a note.
Right?
I check on you a couple times a weekto make sure your ball is bouncing

(41:57):
how we've tried to make it bounce.
And if it works, great, right?
But just if you needme, just send me a text.
Right?
Yeah.
If you really fire off a call.
Right.
But it's weird to sit tight on an email.
I used to actually do this as a professorwhere a lot of professors on Friday at
five, they shut their emails off and Isaid to my students, I'm like, if I'm
not replying to you on a weekend whenI've given you a 14,000 word assignment.

(42:18):
Jokingly speaking here.
Right?
But then I haven't done my part asyour professor to not be accessible.
So you're gonna work on this over Saturdayand Sunday, and if you have questions
about what the paper is about or what theassignment's about, and I'm not replying
back to you, then it's not, it's not fairof me to be trying to teach you and try
to guide you into, into greater scopeof what you're learning in our industry.

(42:42):
So I was always accessible and I'vealways ran my life like the restaurant
life where it's like Sunday at two.
Yeah.
You can send me a message,you'll hear back, right?
Just the world is ticking andhospitality is alive and always ticking.
Right.
And if we're not actively a part of itor getting our team activated part of
it based upon what we've taught themto do and grown them right, then it,

(43:02):
these essence of just being the only onein the room that's trying to lead it,

Simon (43:06):
I, I can respect that.
I also would, would pro, like, ifthat's me, I'm probably gonna say on
the weekend you'll get a response fromme, but it's not gonna be immediate.
Uh, it, it's gonna, it's gonna fitwithin the context of my own freedom.

Christopher (43:19):
Um, well it's funny because I used to have nine different, like, notes
that were made as responses to guestsso that if a guest emailed me on my day
off, which was usually Monday, Tuesday,is that if the president of Mercedes
needed a reservation at my restaurantand I didn't answer on the Monday and
Tuesday, the secretary at Mercedes hasno idea and she's just gonna go and try
to find a booking somewhere else, right?

(43:41):
And I would immediately answer my,and my wife was like, do you always
have to answer this on your days off?
I'm like, yeah, 'cause we can't lose,we can't lose the, we can't lose things.
They don't know how we operate.
But I've got nine perfectly doneguest responses that we're just a
drop in paste, drop in paste, andthen a quick personalized to the
first name of the company name.
And Joe was like, that's quick.
And I was like, yeah.

(44:03):
And it took me 14

Simon (44:04):
minutes.
I might challenge that in saying, is thereanybody else can that can do that work?
And is that the highest valuework that you can possibly be
doing for your organization?

Christopher (44:16):
Oh, in today's, in today's society, absolutely not.
Back then it was

Simon (44:21):
right.
Wow.
There.
Oh, we've, oh, how muchwe've learned, right?

Christopher (44:26):
Things are evolving.
Things are always evolving, right there.
Yeah.
It's great, man.
It's amazing.
There's such an impact.

Simon (44:32):
Let's, uh, let's, let's shift gears a little bit.
Tell me what a win in yourday is like, what is like, if,
if there's a win and a lose,

Christopher (44:42):
what's

Simon (44:42):
a win?

Christopher (44:45):
Uh, you know what, my wife has been back home taking care
of her mom who's in hospital and nowback home for the last couple weeks
and is there for another couple weeks.
And today the, the win was her knowingwhen she's coming home and she's like,
I'm, I'm gonna plan for the 12th.
And I was like, ah.
Dynamite.
And that's been the biggest positiveof my day today, is I keep texting her.

(45:07):
I was like, I just can't wait toget him to mischief with you again.
Like we've been together 20 yearsand that's my biggest win today was
that I know there's a, there's anend to what's been very much the
necessity of what has been needed.
But she's done so much work to get hermom feeling good and getting back on track
and the nurses and doctors and so on.
But my win was knowing when she's cominghome and that that was everything.

(45:30):
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And the lose for the day.
I haven't had a, Ihaven't had a loss today.

Simon (45:36):
Oh no.
I don't wanna know whatthe lose for the day.
I, I like wins

Christopher (45:41):
and I, and it's funny, the little thing you like, that you pay
attention to, to think maybe there'sgonna be a speed bump that shows up.
So my wife's got this amazing cookiebusiness up here and I was doing
farmer's markets this past two weekends'cause I had just enough dough.
I had almost 600 dough that I waslike, I can crush six markets.
But we need a friend of ours to help out.
And I was so proud of how focused Iwas on achieving this over the last

(46:05):
two weeks that on Saturday morningwhen I picked up our friend, uh,
um, I said, you know what's funny?
I said, I feel really proud right nowof how, how much things have worked.
Like I've been focused and alignedand just priorities have been
exactly where they need to be.
And I said out loud, I said, 'causeI haven't said this out loud yet.
I said, but you know, I wait for a speedbump to show up that I see how I grab

(46:28):
it and, and, and what it does for me.
And very simply, as I dropped heroff at one farmer's market, I went
to another one, I opened up our countsheets and our float sheets, and I had
accidentally put them in opposite bins.
And I had this whole momentwhere I was like, did I miscount
our cookie counts going to themarkets like I. What did I do?

(46:51):
And then I realized that Ihad just accidentally put
them in each other's bins.
And I sent her this text that I waslike, well, if anxiety could ever kick
in from the conversation we just hadin the car, this was what happened.
And then I realized it wasn't anything bigof a deal, any means, and that it couldn't
be something that would rattle my day.
'cause it really wasn't a big deal.

(47:12):
But for a moment I was like,the world's the world's ending.
Yep.
And the sky is falling.
And she was like, you're good,you're good, you're good.
Calm down.
You're good.
You know you're good.
Right?
Like good.
And I was like, but if that was theworst thing that happened to me today,
it's okay.
Right.
I prepare, I was oddly prepared foranything else that could come my way.

(47:32):
Awesome.
So I look at, um, anything that mightshow up as a loss in my day as the
opportunity for it to be a win tomorrow.
Um, and I think one big thing thatI'd always learned in my life.
This was after I, I had, you know,originally quit drinking eight years ago.
I had slept with wine again becauseI thought I had control over it.
Um, but it's been over, justover eight years since I've had

(47:52):
a sip of hard alcohol or beer.
And it'll be three years in Septembersince I've had a sip of wine.
And I, I over confidently started askingevery question that came to my thought
when I was working with clients or when I,and when I was working with, you know, my,
my role as a restaurant with my partnersor, you know, so on was always ask a
question because there's a 50 50 shot,you're gonna get the answer that you want.

(48:16):
And if you don't get the answer that youwant, and there's still a 50% chance to
reframe that question or redevelop thatquestion to potentially get the answer
that you were hoping for, and that itallowed me to start pausing and stepping
back and going, I actually think thisreally makes sense for what we're doing.
Let me position it a different way.
And it changed the way I thought thingsout was that I. I think there's more

(48:38):
vulnerability out there for us ourselvesis that when we become more transparent
for ourselves to think things outand that it, it empowers our teams.
When we put that transparency outin the world that, you know, a loss
that shows up can turn into a win.
If you rethink what that loss looked likebased upon how it came at you, by just

(48:59):
taking a pause and resetting and, and,you know, kind of rinse, reset, re reset,
repeat, and just allowing, you know,not the anxiety to win, but more of the
cognitive ability to think it out win.
Um, and that every losshas a chance to be a win.
And if it is gonna maintain as a lossand just park it, put it aside, right?
Move along.
There's other ones outthere for you to grab.

Simon (49:20):
Yeah.
I, I'm pretty fond of saying totoday's screw up is tomorrow's focus.
Right.

Christopher (49:30):
Right.
And nothing changes when you'veworked a 14 hour day and then
you fall asleep and you wake upfresh and go, ah, wait a minute.
Hold on.
Got it.
I know how, I know, I know why thatlooked like that yesterday, but I
understand how it can look today.

Simon (49:46):
Yeah.

Christopher (49:47):
Yeah.

Simon (49:47):
I, I, I also, I also challenge, challenge my teams that when, when
we, when we make the big mistakes,like try to understand the root
cause, not just the symptoms.
Like, let's get back.
Why did that screw up?
Oh.
'cause we were pushing too hard.
Yes.
Oh, we, we were doing too much or, uh,uh, or I waited too long that, yeah.

(50:11):
What was the root cause?
Yep.
You know, find the solution and, andthen like, let's just learn from it.
You know, too many, too many times.
I think it's, it's easy to, tolay blame on things and it's like,
ah, if we're not making mistakes,how are we gonna learn anyway?
Perfect.
Pouring.
Well, that's exactly it,

Christopher (50:29):
right?
That's it.
Right.
Well, and I think there's moreof a, a wholesomeness to it when
we think of a conflict managementrather than conflict resolution.
'cause if we're gonna get stuck inthese moments of trying to resolve the
problems in the middle of the momentrather than managing them, then it
just will, it just, my goodness, right?
Like, we'll do better things by gettingourselves out of the thinking of it when
we can manage situations rather thanhaving to resolve situations that can

(50:51):
maybe be done later on if they need to be.
But I think it changes the tonewhen, when you can manage these
opportunities, um, and yeah.
You know, a team that's in thegrind, my goodness, I've seen, I.
Oh, the world of chefs and having,and my wife, my wife was a chef.
She did her culinary and pastry diplomasat the Culinary Institute to Canada.
That was her education.

(51:12):
So she's trained in both aspects of it.
And it's neat to have workedwith her in a restaurant.
Um, but her being a business ownerand running our cookie business
out of our, our, our fully licensedhome kitchen, um, when the punk
music goes on, she's in work mode.
And I'm like, got it.
And I'm trying to do client meetingswith punk music going on upstairs.

(51:33):
And I'm like, but I know where she's inwork mode and I know she's in chef mode.
And that, and the mentalityis just the grind.
'cause I don't know howto put things together.
You know, I can cook,but, but I'm not a chef.
Right.
And so when I watch it in, in, in the,the intensity of the chef life and every
chef's gonna go, how hard was your day?

(51:54):
I'm like, I get it.
I get it.
Right.
You know, I dealt with some madnessin the dining room, however, right.
I, I get that.
You overcooked 12 steaks because yourmindset wasn't there, and you went into
a spiral down and couldn't find you.
Um, and it took the next dayto kind of have a kick in.
Um, yeah, I applaud, I applaudthe chef world incredibly.

Simon (52:16):
Yeah.
I, you know, nowadays I, I, I askquestions like, so do you think
that your employee cooks bettersteaks when they're stressed
and that that stops people?
Because it's like, huh?
'cause I don't know where I, I, I, Icome from my, my, my grandparents on my

(52:39):
mother's side, uh, they're from Mexico.
So like, there's chili sauces and things,and the, the old fashioned rule is you
don't let, you don't let anybody makespicy things when they're pissed off.
Think about that for a second.
Right?
Because you're gonna, you're gonna hurt.
And so I've taken thatto being like, huh, do.

(53:01):
Does, does any cook Cook, doesanybody apply their craft better
when they're like angry and stressed?
No.
I mean, I, I don't know.
Maybe, but maybe I feel, I feellike a carpenter's gonna bang
harder and, and like bend the nail.
I feel like the, you know, the, thechef or the, the sassier is gonna

(53:24):
make something just a little bit toobitter when he is pissed off, you know?
Um, so I question, I try tofind people, find people ways
to like, come back to center.
Like, how, how do we put that, how,how do we put all the bullshit aside?
Like, do you need to go outsideand, or go on the walk in and
scream and get rid of that?

(53:44):
Uh, do you need to make thephone call that resolves the, the
argument with your girlfriend now?
Like, do you need to do that?
'cause I can handle your station.
Go and figure your shit outfor a minute and then come back
because we got work to find harm.
Find your harmony.
Gotta find the harmony, man.
Gotta gotta find the resonate notes.
Question.

Christopher (54:03):
I have a chef question, a food chef question.
Talk to me.
Do you, do you think beef cows that aretreated in a very healthy and well and
nurturing lifestyle versus those that havebeen raised in more of an angst lifestyle,
do you think their beef tastes different?

Simon (54:20):
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
I find that if it starts, what's that?

Christopher (54:27):
Right?
So if it starts at the direct sourceof when that steak's going on a
grill, is the steak tougher todaybecause the stress of the cow existed?
Or is the steak beautifully balancedbecause the cow was treated with
way more graciousness in humanity?
Right.
So it, it's exactly, it is that thehot sauce is gonna be a little bit.

(54:49):
More zippy, right?
Yeah.
It just stress.
And so it's like, ah, what'sanother, what's another
tablespoon of chilies, right?
Well, right.
As a bald man head juststarts to get a little warm.

Simon (54:59):
Right.
Well, awesome, Chris, uh, thankyou so much for joining us today.
Uh, we covered some ground there, buddy.
I, I love it.
Um, for all you out there, youcan, uh, find us on YouTube.
You can find culinary mechanicwherever you consume your podcasts.
Please like, follow, subscribe, leaveus a five star review 'cause it matters.

(55:22):
Uh, the message is gettingout there and I appreciate it.
Christopher, thank you so muchfor joining us in the sandbox.
I appreciate it.
Uh, I will make sure that peoplecan find you in the show notes.
Um, fabulous.
The McFadden group, I assume you'reon LinkedIn on a fairly regular basis.
Um, we'll make sure they can find youand um, we'll catch you on the flip side.

Christopher (55:44):
Amazing.
Thank you everybody.
Take care.
Yep.
You've been listeningto Culinary Mechanic.
This show exists to help you leadwith more clarity, build systems
that actually work and create akitchen culture worth showing up for.
If this episode helped you moveeven one step in that direction, do
me a favor, leave a quick review.

(56:05):
It helps more chefs and operators stop thechaos and start leading with intention.