Send me a Text Message. I'd love to hear from you.
Can one-on-one meetings truly transform team dynamics and elevate your leadership game?
Join us as we explore this with Jason E Brooks, a distinguished speaker, coach, author, and founder of Hospivation. Jason, who just launched his groundbreaking book, "Every Leader Needs Followers: 10 Keys to Transform Restaurant Managers into Hospitality Leaders," shares invaluable insights from his extensive experience in the hospitality industry. We guarantee you'll walk away with actionable strategies to enhance your leadership and bridge the gap between customer expectations and execution.
Chapters:
0:08 - Leadership Strategies for Hospitality Industry
15:12 - Effective One-on-One Leadership Communication
20:52 - The Importance of Managing and Coaching
25:48 - Coaching and Closing Customer Expectations
We'll uncover the essence of effective one-on-one engagements and why they are pivotal in building trust and understanding within your team. Our discussion also touches on the nuanced transition from managing to leading, and how introverted leaders can navigate small talk to foster deeper connections with their team members.
Finally, we dissect the distinct roles of managing, leading, and coaching, and how each can uniquely contribute to business success. Don't miss out on these transformative insights from one of the industry's leading voices.
Resources:
Jason E. Brooks
Every Leader Needs Followers : 10 Keys to Transform Restaurant Managers to Hospitality Leaders
P.S. Ready to take your restaurant to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can support you:
- One-on-One Coaching - Work directly with me to tackle your biggest leadership challenges and scale your operations with confidence. Learn more at christinmarvin.com
- Multi-Unit Mastery Book - Get the complete Independent Restaurant Framework that's helped countless owners build thriving multi-location brands. Grab your copy at https://www.IRFbook.com
- Group Coaching & Leadership Workshops - Join other passionate restaurant leaders in transformative group sessions designed to elevate your entire team. Details at christinmarvin.com
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christin Marvin (00:08):
Listen up.
Hospitality leaders, today'sepisode is going to introduce
you to a new resource that canhelp you strengthen your
leadership in 10 different ways.
Jason E Brooks is a speaker,coach, author and founder of
Hospivation.
Jason creates content thathelps impact hospitality leaders
(00:28):
on their journeys to helpothers around them fulfill their
calling.
His first book Every LeaderNeeds Followers 10 Keys to
Transform Restaurant Managersinto Hospitality Leaders
launched in March of 2024.
Jason is a professional speakerand coach speaking on
leadership mindsets andtechniques in the hospitality
(00:49):
industry.
Today, we're going to highlightthree out of the 10 keys.
The first key is going to bekey number four, on how to
engage with one-on-ones.
The second key is key numberfive managing versus leading
versus coaching, changing yourmindset for the situation that
you're in.
And the final key is key numbernine closing the gap in
(01:10):
customer expectations andoperator execution how to see
your business from a view of acustomer to help drive sales and
guest satisfaction.
Welcome to the N no Hesitationspodcast, the show where
restaurant leaders learn tools,tactics and habits from the
(01:30):
world's greatest operators.
I am your host, Ch kristeMarvin, with Solutions by
Christin.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businesseswithout wasting time and energy,
so they can achieve work-lifebalance and make more money.
(01:51):
Hi, J jason, welcome to theshow.
How are you?
Jason E. Brooks (01:58):
Oh, doing great .
It's an amazing week.
Spring is fully here and lifeis wonderful.
Christin Marvin (02:05):
I love it.
Well, first off,congratulations on your first
book.
Every Leader Needs Followers 10Keys to Transform Restaurant
Managers to Hospitality Leaders.
I cannot imagine how incredibleit felt to hold that book in
your hands for the first time.
Jason E. Brooks (02:23):
Like a baby, like a baby that was in my hands
for the first time, like a baby, like a baby that was in my
womb for six years.
No, I wouldn't know what thatwould feel like, but if I did,
when I first did my unboxing andit was the unboxing of the
author copy, because many ofyour listeners may not know, but
whenever you go to self-publishyour own book, you have the
(02:48):
option of getting your authorcopy first for paperback
hardcover, both thinking thatthat things that you think
inside your mind, that you hopethat you're not crazy, you've
(03:09):
put into a physical form.
And you open the box and it'slike wow, this is a real thing.
Christin Marvin (03:17):
I love it.
I mean, it is such a labor love.
I loved you know you and Iconnected before your actual
launch and I was super excitedto obviously to get to know you
and read your background I mean,over 30 years in the
hospitality industry and then tolearn about your book.
I couldn't wait to get my handson it and I thank you for that
advanced copy.
But then I watched.
I watched your unboxing videoand it was I've never really
(03:40):
seen those before and I I didn'tknow what all the hype was
about, but I was so excited foryou to just open that Amazon box
and, yeah, just such anincredible accomplishment and
I'm super excited that we get totalk about it today.
So thanks so much for beinghere.
Jason E. Brooks (03:56):
Thank you.
It's kind of like your firstbusiness, first restaurant,
first hotel.
You go through all of theinspections, all the permitting,
all of the back and forth, allthe what's on back order, just
to get to the first day and it'slike, oh my gosh.
(04:16):
And then all of the workhappens.
We think, well, if we build it,it will come.
But there is so much more wordof mouth, marketing, so much
more getting our product, ourfood, our book into the hands of
people that we hope that theywill love it, that they will
(04:36):
return.
Yeah, yeah, it's just like that.
Christin Marvin (04:41):
Yeah, and it's so.
You know, just you and I, beingin the coaching space to launch
a product is a big deal, right?
That's a big deal for us, inaddition to the services we
offer.
So it's it's just super, supercool, and I'm just in awe of
what you're doing.
So thank you so much for yourwork with the industry.
I, you know, reading the book, Ithere's just man.
(05:02):
We could talk about this fordays.
There's so many nuggets ofwisdom, there's so much learning
, there's so much valuableexperience that leaders can take
away.
But what I loved about the bookwas because I still have a hard
time sitting down andconcentrating, and I'll read a
couple of pages and then I'll go, oh shit, I just forgot what I
read, and then I got to go backand do it again, because my
(05:23):
mind's always thinking aboutsomething else.
You know, I'm always wanderingaround, so what I love about
this book, though, is the waythat you've got it structured,
with the main course and thenthe takeaways, and I love that I
could just kind of look aheadto chapters and read the
takeaway and go, ok, does thisapply to me right now, or is
this something that can help aclient right now Would you talk
(05:45):
a little bit about kind of your,why behind the structure there
and what your intention was?
Jason E. Brooks (05:50):
You just said the why because of the oh shit
moments.
It is really geared towardswhere our managers, multi-unit
managers, even owners, are atright now.
We have so much that's on ourplate we have less time for
anything, and it's because ofthis black box here, this gift
(06:16):
from God, cell phone, has justruined our private lives and we
find ourselves encroached withless time and we need to get to
the meat of things.
People say that you know causeI'm from, I've been in North
Carolina for probably 40 years.
(06:37):
They always talk about Southernhospitality.
Well, since the cell phone cameout, people have less patience
down here.
It's just so crazy how we arealways trying to get to what is
really important.
So when I wrote the book, firstthing is I wanted to make sure I
(06:57):
wanted it to be written for thelifestyle of the person that's
reading it.
I think I'm interesting, but noone wants to hear about my
memoir about how I grew up.
They want to get to what is mychallenge right now?
How can I get to it?
So, each chapter and I don'thave chapters, I have keys.
(07:17):
There's 10 keys that are withinthe book.
Each key has the main courseand, of course, the pun is
intended.
The main course is the gut ofthat key, and even the gut of
that key is still a short read.
It's getting straight to whatare certain examples, certain
things you can do right nowwithin this key in order to make
(07:41):
your day different, make yourweek more successful.
Even after the main course,though it's written to be a bit
shorter, is the takeaway.
Again, pun intended.
The takeaway is three to sixparagraphs.
That gives you that 30,000 footview of, just like you said,
two views.
Either I read it and I justwant to get back to what did it
(08:07):
really cover?
That'll make me jog that memoryof a good idea that I can
implement now.
Or is this where I'm currentlyat and do I need to read this
now, or can I skip this and getto something else?
And then the last part is threesections.
The last part is the angle.
The angle are quotes fromdifferent people that I've had
(08:28):
the absolute pleasure of workingwith, or quotes that I found
online that are absolutely giveyou a different spin on what
that key, what that topic is.
Christin Marvin (08:40):
I love it.
Why did you decide to publishthe book right now?
What's important about thismoment?
Jason E. Brooks (08:46):
Oh, we have slipped everyone not we, not
just we, meaning hospitalityeveryone has slipped into a
regression.
That regression is caused bywhat I like to call, almost
literally, ptsd from COVID, ifwe think about what happened
(09:08):
during COVID.
During COVID, the hospitalityindustry was known.
Yes, we have teams, which makesus work well, but there are
some that would still considerit families that it was your
second family away from thehouse.
You knew you could drop yourbaggage, leave your stuff at the
(09:30):
front door, all your troublesget inside there and in the
weeds.
In the thick of things, yourteam had your back.
No matter what, late night,early morning, they had your
back.
As long as you worked hard, youknew you were going to be taken
care of.
And then COVID happened.
A lot of leaders, managers,multi-units had to make a lot of
(09:53):
hard choices.
A lot of those hard choices hadto cut away people that
depended and knew thathospitality would be there for
the rest of their life.
And they saw somethingdifferent when that happened,
not only for that employee butalso for the manager.
The manager had to work withinmultiple roles, more than they
(10:16):
already did already, and had noclue what the next day bring,
what the next regulation was,and that fear, especially for
the owners, knowing thateverything you put on the line
and you didn't know if the nextday you had to sell, you had to
close, sell pennies to thedollars.
(10:36):
You didn't know what was goingon.
That caused a whole lot ofstress.
And then, during that time,there were a lot of promotions
that were being done out ofsheer this is what I have left
or soft skills that we tended tohave that actually ended up
shifting from a soft skill wefocused on to what do I need to
(11:00):
survive?
And so, when I looked at thebook, what made it sense right
now to really get it finished?
Because, since it is a six-yearproject, it actually started
back in 2018.
But when I saw COVID happeningand I was like, okay, I really
got to get this book done.
(11:21):
It helped to put a lot of thekey elements of what do I need
to do to rebuild teams, andthat's why it made sense for it
now.
Christin Marvin (11:32):
I love it.
I mean there's so many goodnuggets in what you just said,
but the lines have just been soblurred.
Like you said, you used to beable to leave your shit at the
door, come in, grind with yourteams.
Now leaders are looked at innot just needing to be able to
run a smart business, but alsoto manage their people and coach
their people from a mentalhealth perspective.
(11:52):
Right, because they're bringingall of that into work now and
the new generation that's comingin want employers to be skilled
in handling those things andoffer benefits around that.
Right, which adds just a wholenother layer to the restaurant
industry.
But, like you said, during thepandemic, everybody was
operating from this scarcitymindset.
How do we survive?
How are we going to make itthrough the next day?
(12:12):
Having to make decisions everyday that weren't necessarily
they weren't empowered to do?
They were being told what to do, right by the world and what
was going on.
And now I think I agree withyou it's so important that some
have been able to shift theirthinking and think differently
and been able to look at okay,we survived.
Now how do we build on this?
But some are still having ahard time getting out of that
(12:34):
and still talking about, oh, thepandemic, pandemic, pandemic.
It's like, okay, we've got tomove on.
We've got to move on if we'regoing to be successful.
So I love the book, loveeverything that's in it.
I think it's so timely, it's soimportant and I can't wait to
jump in.
So we're going to talk aboutthree of the keys today.
We're going to talk about keynumber four, which is engaging
(12:56):
with one-on-ones.
We're going to talk about keynumber five, which is managing,
leading and coaching andchanging your mindset for the
situation that you're in.
And then key number nine, whichis closing the gap in customer
expectations and operatorexecution.
So how to see your businessfrom the view of the customer to
help drive sales andsatisfaction.
(13:19):
Hello to all of you amazingleaders in the restaurant world.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and let you know aboutone of the incredible ways that
you can further your team'sleadership development.
If you've been listening to theshow, you've already
experienced the passion I havefor enhancing leadership skills.
Did you know that I also offerexclusive leadership workshops
(13:43):
tailored for restaurantmanagement teams?
These sessions focus onstrengthening leadership
abilities, fostering effectivecommunication, crafting a unique
leadership style and developingrobust business strategies and
visions for the future.
If you or anyone you know inthe restaurant industry is
looking to treat their team to acustomized multi-day leadership
(14:06):
training that will improveevery aspect of their business,
please reach out to me atKristenLMarvin at gmailcom.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
So let's jump into key numberfour engage with one-on-ones.
(14:27):
I'd love to hear, I'd love tohear, how, like when in your, at
what point in your career, didyou first learn how to execute a
really great one-on-one?
Jason E. Brooks (14:39):
I learned that from Mark and Mike from Manager
Tools.
Manager Tools oh, you talkabout podcasts.
This is back whenever podcastswas still rare.
Manager Tools Mark and Mikeactually started Manager Tools
to give managers the ecosystemand the tools for any industry
(15:03):
to be able to lead people better, and they use the term called
O3s.
O3s so 0-0-0 or 0-0-0.
And that's one-on-one, andone-on-ones is one of those
things that I fully agree with.
It's non-negotiable.
It's non-negotiable.
It's non-negotiable.
We spend so much time datadumping on our team.
(15:28):
I mean we can dump with thebest of them, left and right,
all day, early morning, latenight.
We know how to drive data downpeople's throats or information,
and it just leading from themanager to the team.
But how much time do we takefor them to dump on us and not
(15:50):
just dump on us?
How much time do we take forthem to give us information, for
us to get to understand howthey think, how they would react
, the challenges that they'regoing through, not just what's
coming down the pipe next?
So a lot of people takeone-on-ones as time for me to
(16:12):
speak with you with what I wantyou to work on, and one of the
non-negotiables on one-on-onesis you speak for only 30% of the
time and you listen for theother 70.
That's why we have two ears andone mouth and the actual
(16:33):
structure of that should be itshould be 30 minutes, within my
opinion.
It should be weekly yes, weeklyopinion.
It should be weekly yes, weekly.
I know it sounds crazy, butanyone that actually reports
directly to you, you should havea one-on-one with them every
(16:55):
single week.
The first 10 minutes is forthem talking to you about
anything, and when I sayanything, I mean about life,
about baseball cards, abouttheir kids, about their hobbies,
about whatever, because you aregetting to know that individual
that's on your team.
Second 10 minutes, second 10minutes, is for you to report
(17:17):
back to them on any questionsthat they had from a prior
one-on-one and if there is anytrue, pertinent information,
that must be told to them duringthat segment.
Yes, you can cover it duringthat 10 minute timeframe, but
you better only use just a touchof that time for that.
(17:39):
The rest is you coming back tothem with any questions that
they had.
The last 10 minutes, the last10 minutes, is for them to talk
to you about challenges,successes, things that they need
to know for their personaldevelopment within their role.
But whenever you structure itlike that, you get to know your
(18:00):
team a lot better and for themto understand how to make the
right choices, or you knowingwhat choices that they will most
likely make whenever you're notin the building, and that's how
you tend to build trust, that'son your team.
If you think about it, wetypically don't trust our team
because we don't know them.
(18:21):
We don't know them because wedon't ask.
The more we ask, the more wefind out about them.
There are managers that work inbuildings that you ask them
three weeks later.
Hey, what's that person's name?
I don't know.
They've only been here forthree weeks.
That's terrible.
You should know your team.
(18:43):
But making or having thatstructure with your team to get
to know them, that is one of thestrongest pillars to actually
getting to the goals that youneed to get within your business
.
Christin Marvin (18:57):
I love it.
I wish I would have had thisstructure when I was earlier in.
You know, early on in my career.
There was a point for me.
I'd been managing for probablyfive or seven years and then I
joined a company and they saidwe want you to do one-on-ones
when I was transitioning into arestaurant.
I didn't understand the value.
I didn't.
I thought I work side by sidewith them every day.
(19:19):
You know we have all kinds oflittle tiny conversations.
I'm also an introvert, so smalltalk used to be really
exhausting for me.
I've had to learn now how tohave those conversations and
balance my time and energy.
But it just took so muchpractice.
I didn't even know and reallyunderstand that what I was
supposed to talk about when Isat down with people, you know,
and then when I started hiringpeople, I thought well, I got to
(19:40):
know them enough during theinterview process, why do I need
to continue?
But I love what you said abouttaking small amounts of time
building that trust.
You know I was designing aleadership style with a client
this morning saying what do you,what do you want your
leadership style to look like?
And he's like well, I want tobe trustworthy and I want to
trust my team.
It's like well, are you doingone-on-ones?
(20:07):
No, I'm not.
Well then, how are you going todo that?
Right, besides just workingshoulder to shoulder and showing
up for shift, right?
So, yeah, it's, it's.
I agree with you.
They're so invaluable.
Once you start to get the hangof them and you start to feel
comfortable, they're, they'rejust magic.
And I think that some leadersthink that they need to go into
those conversations havinganswers or coming with solutions
, or or they're afraid of what'sgoing to come up during that
conversation.
And I think, if you can justreally let that conversation
sink in and sleep on it andthink about it, that's all you
(20:29):
need is the information.
Sometimes, and the connectionthat you get out of that is just
priceless.
So I love that key.
That's great.
Let's talk about key numberfive.
So managing versus leadingversus coaching.
Just a little insight intowhat's in that one.
Jason E. Brooks (20:44):
No, that is the gospel there, Christin.
All right, so managing first.
Managing gets a bad rap.
It really does People.
Whenever they hear the wordmanager, they're going to
micromanage me or I hate mymanager.
Half the reason why managersget a bad rap is because
(21:06):
managers are not consistent.
I'm sure you've watchedDespicable Me.
They have Kevin and one day inone of the movies he gets
injected with this syringe andthen he's half like evil Kevin.
That's how most managers arepictured.
Some days they come in, they'rejust high-fiving, they're
(21:28):
having fun.
Yes, this is great Woo-hoo.
Good job, billy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then Kevin comes in threedays later.
No one else has changed, butKevin is just grumpy.
He's flipping tables, slammingketchup, all on the wall.
It's evil Kevin.
And that's where the managingaspect gets a really bad rap,
(21:49):
plus managing.
To be honest, managing reallyis managing systems.
Yes, but there are people thatare a part of those systems, so
you still have to manage peopleas well.
Lastly, managing is what we dofirst.
If you really think about itany business owner out there you
are in a managing mindset morethan any other mindset
(22:13):
throughout your entire day.
The managing mindset is youhave a group of people.
You want to keep them incertain guard rails to reach a
certain point by a certain time.
You have a certain budget forit and you want to make sure
that these same things happen ona progressive basis and on a
scheduled basis.
That is managing.
(22:34):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Whether it's a bar, hotel, bedand breakfast or restaurant, you
have to have a very strongbusiness aspect first, because
it's a business first, and thenwe serve food or make beds or
clean toilets, but it's abusiness first.
Leading is a bit differently Now.
(22:55):
Leading is understanding theoverarching goals of your entire
business, how you're thinkingthrough how to get it to the
next three months, next sixmonths, next nine months.
What are the most importantgoals?
If it's a bigger company, whoare the ones that help to make
(23:16):
those decisions?
Who has influence?
What are some of the strategiesand step change that needs to
make in order to shift culture?
Is it going to be successful?
What are the challenges thatmay lay ahead in the industry
that other people around you maynot foresee?
There are several greatleadership styles, from
(23:39):
authoritative to persuasive tovisionary.
The visionary leader oh man,they can paint a picture so
vividly.
People will absolutely do it astheir words form into pictures
and you can see it and you'relike, yes, we are going there.
So you have managing aspect forthe business, you have
(24:01):
leadership aspect for the peopleas a whole or for the whole
industry, and where you'retrying to go or foreseeing that
future, even before you knowthat they need to get there.
But coaching, coaching is thatmastery of small goals.
I like to tell this story.
(24:21):
My son plays AAU basketball.
He's been playing sports sincethe age of seven.
Now, at the age of seven, youcan play AAU.
It's just someone's parent justsaying run down the court,
don't worry about traveling,Just toss the ball up, smack the
arms, don't worry about it,hopefully it goes in and you can
do that and you are gettingcoached.
(24:43):
It is by someone's parent, butthey are getting coached at the
age of seven.
Now, once you get into middleschool, you now have a actual
school coach teaching youbasketball skills, drills,
different tactics.
You can.
You can, at that level, getcoached by two areas, both by
the school and by AAU.
(25:04):
At this age, kids are gettingcoached for nine out of 12
months of the year If theycontinue to play sports.
Have you ever played any schoolsports?
Christin Marvin (25:17):
Yes, basketball and tennis yeah.
Jason E. Brooks (25:19):
Excellent, excellent, good, good, good.
Yeah you, you look like youwere really mean at basketball.
Huh, I bet you would foul somepeople.
Christin Marvin (25:27):
No, yes, I did Good job.
Jason E. Brooks (25:32):
Okay, so let's say you take it to high school.
You now have a team of coachescoaching you on same basketball.
You can still play AAU and highschool ball, getting coached
nine out of 12 months of theyear.
If you're just that good, takeit to college.
Do you have a favorite collegeteam?
Christin Marvin (25:53):
I don't.
Jason E. Brooks (25:55):
My favorite is Duke.
Don't judge me.
All right, good, all right.
So now at college there is nomore AAU.
They train you nearly yearround for six to seven hours a
day.
It is grueling, but it'sgetting the very few ready for
the WNBA or the NBA.
(26:16):
Now in the NBA you have playersgetting paid tens of millions of
dollars a year.
There's 82 games in a regularseason 82, not counting
preseason, not counting playoffs.
Some of these players have beengetting coached since the age
of seven, and yet still there'sa person on the sideline
(26:39):
screaming at them who to cover,when to fall back.
And at the break of every playthey're pulling every player off
the bench, even the ones thataren't playing, to go over the
next play.
And all of that for a ball anda hoop.
But yet still in some of ourwork lives that we've been doing
(27:02):
maybe the last four years,getting paid our money and we
don't feel like we need to becoached, yet still our kids get
coached nine out of 12 months ofthe year.
It's just crazy to me how wethink that coaching is only
reserved for executives,coaching is only reserved for
(27:25):
the top 1% of people within acompany.
But coaching, to be honest is ameans of communication.
It is a way to train.
Everyone needs coaching, justlike we need managing and
leading.
They are three separate things.
You need to know the threedifferent mindsets and that's
(27:47):
what that key is leading withthe right mindset.
Christin Marvin (27:49):
I love it.
You and I were talking aboutthis before I hit the record
button, but it's so important tohave it.
Doesn't matter, like you said,where you're at in your life or
what you're doing.
It's so important to havesomebody that can help you
increase your self-awareness andsay, look, I'm just going to
show you what you're doing rightnow, or I'm going to point out
what you're doing or how you'reshowing up and let's talk about
how we can change it a littlebit.
(28:10):
Right, and I and I, again, Ilove this key and I love the
takeaways here, because I mean,just imagine what the restaurant
world would look like if everysingle leader changed their
title or their mindset frommanager to leader to coach.
That's all you're doing all thetime is just coaching, coaching
, coaching, right, like?
Yes, I agree with you that whenyoung leaders come in and they
(28:31):
want to start managing, theyneed to learn how to run the
business.
They need to learn how to runreally great shifts.
Then they can take onadditional responsibilities and
learn how to balance thosebetween running a great shift
and still incorporating in someadmin work.
But I have found that the bestleaders are the ones that can
walk away from a restaurant andit runs better than when they're
(28:54):
in the room, because their teamfeels empowered and inspired.
And it's because partly becausethey want to do a really good
job for their coach right whenthe coach is out of the room and
show off their skills.
But they also have thatcamaraderie and have that
teamwork because the coach hasdone such a good job of building
that team morale.
So I love it.
Jason E. Brooks (29:15):
And that's not natural.
Some people think that they canjust walk in and after six
months it just happens and theythink why?
Whenever I worked for Susie, itwas exactly like that she would
leave and then things wouldjust run.
It's just amazing and it's like, yes, but Susie coached you.
(29:39):
You seem to forget that shetook the time, the investment to
make it a very intentionalthought, to sit you down and get
to understand you, get to learnyou, and then other people
started to do the right things.
Have you taken the timeyourself to be just like Susie,
(30:02):
or do you just want Susie'sresults?
Christin Marvin (30:05):
Absolutely A hundred percent.
So let's talk about key numbernine here, so closing the gap
between the customer expectationand operator execution.
Jason E. Brooks (30:14):
Okay, closing the gap.
Uh, also one of my favorites,um, and the reason why I say
that is because most, mostrestaurant managers live the
two-wheel life.
They live the two-wheel lifethat although their vehicle has
four tires, that they're pullingin the parking lot so fast,
they may as well be on twowheels.
(30:34):
Just doors open, bigfoot'sdragon.
They're jumping out the car,they're trying to get inside and
the first thing that they'rethinking about doing is putting
out fires.
And I was just coaching fourdistrict managers right before
this session here about thedifference between being a
(30:58):
fireman, firewoman and a firechief.
That when you're a fireman or afirewoman, that you are always
standing in front of the flamebut can only see the building
burning from one side.
But when you're fire chiefing,you have firemen and women
working for you and you'relooking at the fire from a
30,000 foot view and thendirecting people around that
(31:19):
fire.
But the two wheel life.
So you're running in, you'regoing to go put out these fires,
and you run to the back like,woo, yes, let me knock down the
slide, I'll get the truck orderin, I'll fix payroll.
And at this point your heart'spumping 100 miles per hour.
You're like, yes, so I'm nowgoing to walk through.
(31:40):
I'm going to check all mycustomers.
Look for dirty things, get allthis going.
You work a triple-double.
Finally get home lay down andthen you're like man, I really
rocked it out tonight.
You wake up the next morning andthen your phone starts going
off and it's customer complaintand you got a two and you start
(32:00):
flipping your nightstand like,oh, they're lying.
I was there all day.
I was on fire.
What are they talking about?
But what you see wheneveryou're walking a hundred miles
per hour and when you're racinginto your parking lot and what
your customer sees two differentviews Managers listening, dms
(32:21):
listening, regionals, ownerslistening is it strange?
Can you even picture your lasthalf mile into your business?
I guarantee that you can almostnever remember the last half
mile in to arriving to yourbusiness, the last half mile in
(32:43):
to arriving to your business,because, one, you're either on
the phone or, two, your braingoes into fighter mode and it's
going into straight up.
I'm going into battle andthings just shut down until you
get inside and you are theterminator.
But your customer's view of thelast half mile in is very
different.
Their last half mile in they'repaying more attention.
Is it busy?
(33:04):
Are there cars in the parkinglot?
Is there trash in the parkinglot?
Are there weeds?
Does it look like the door isunlocked?
And then they pull up and thenthey walk in, and when they see
that that door is unlocked it'slike, oh my gosh, this is so
great I don't have to eat out ofmy car for my dashboard.
So then they walk in and it's amuch different, slowed down
(33:29):
pace.
Most dining rooms have dimmerlights and although it's dimmer,
your eyes naturally open widerto take in more.
So the manager is alwaysviewing from a 20 foot wide, 20
foot deep view, walking veryquickly at an average height of
five foot six.
But the customer is sittingdown and taking in more detail
(33:53):
at that three feet and threefeet and closer view, and they
tend to pick up more.
And so closing the gap walksmanagers, owners, multi-unit
managers through how do youclose the gap between what the
(34:13):
customer expects and what theoperator actually executes, and
it gives you tips and tricks ofhow to close that gap and then
train your team on what a onestar, three star or even five
star visit, clean or interactionis throughout your restaurant.
Christin Marvin (34:28):
I love it.
One of the things that we Iused to do with my managers when
I was a GM or regional was wasand it was multi-purpose.
But sometimes we just when therestaurant was humming and we
were on a wait and everythingwas great, we would take a
second step outside and A getsome fresh air and B have a
conversation with each otherthat maybe we didn't want to
(34:50):
have inside the restaurant.
But C stand back and lookexactly what you're saying.
Let's look at the sign, let'slook at the trash, let's look at
the entryway, let's look at theguests.
Are their eyes in the middle ofthe table?
Are they looking around?
What's the staff doing rightnow?
Do they look happy?
Are they hurried?
And then walk right in and knowexactly what adjustments we
needed to make, and we would dothat maybe two or three times a
(35:11):
shift.
It wasn't super, super frequent,but just taking maybe a minute
to just get that freshperspective.
It was just so beneficial andon the shifts that you knew that
that couldn't happen, like whenwe couldn't get outside.
Those were the ones at the endof the shift we'd go.
Okay, let's talk about whathappened today because we
weren't able to fully do the jobthat we wanted to do and that
(35:34):
we intended to do, so those aresome great learning moments.
Jason E. Brooks (35:38):
That is actually perfect, because most
people do their walk at 8 am 9am and I'm like why are you
doing the walk whenever there'snothing that's happening, that
is, whenever it's the leastamount of advertising?
Take the walk at peak volume,when most of the people are
(35:59):
parked, walking through your lot.
What do they see then?
Not at the most optimal timekeys that we could cover.
But I want to leave somethinghere for the listener.
Christin Marvin (36:23):
Tell the listeners where they can find
the book.
And then let's talk a littlebit about your business too.
Who's your ideal client, who doyou want to work with, and how
do people get in contact withyou?
Jason E. Brooks (36:33):
Well, you can find me on LinkedIn.
You can find me on Instagramand Twitter, but I'm highly
active on LinkedIn.
Please reach out, even justabout some ideas, please do.
You can find the book on Amazon, on paperback and on hardcover
as well as ebook.
The audio book will belaunching here soon, next three
(36:56):
to four months.
The book is also on my websiteat jasonebrookscom.
You can also find the book oniTunes Books as well and on Kobo
.
Coaching is what I love to do,and so is being a professional
speaker, working withrestaurants for the last 30 plus
(37:17):
years.
Working with restaurants forthe last 30 plus years.
My ideal client anywherebetween five and 20 restaurants,
a few multi-unit managers doingabout one to 1.5, that really
gives me a great understandingof what true potential that
brands have, and brands meaningmom and pop as well.
(37:41):
What brands have in order toget to the 1.8, 2.4, 2.83
million dollar AUV range and notjust building sales but
building profitability andhaving a strong team to help
make that happen.
The professional speaking sideI speak at several associations.
(38:03):
You can look me up on LinkedIn.
I'm always on stage speakingsome kind of gospel, some kind
of restaurant gospel, but pleasedo order the book.
If you order the book from mefrom my website, I will actually
sign the book and send it toyou.
So don't be afraid.
I know that Amazon has fastshipping.
(38:25):
I'm not Amazon, though, butthey won't sign the book for you
.
I'll tell you that now.
But, yes, I would love to hearfrom your listeners, especially
on insights from the book.
Any feedback is great feedback,because I will be doing new
versions every two years with 10keys that make sense for that.
(38:47):
Now, to keep this model going,I love that.
Christin Marvin (38:50):
I can't wait for the next one, Jason, thank
you so much for being here.
So everybody, Jason E Brooks,go find him on LinkedIn, grab a
copy of the book Every LeaderNeeds Followers 10 Keys to
Transform Restaurant Managers toHospitality Leaders and please
leave a review.
They are super, super importantfor us to help spread the word
(39:11):
and make an impact inhospitality leaders everywhere.
So, Jason, really appreciateyour time.
Thank you again for being hereand can't wait to connect with
you again very soon, my friend.
Jason E. Brooks (39:23):
Thank you.
Christin Marvin (39:24):
All right, everybody.
That's it for us this week.
Please share this episode withany industry leaders that you
know that would benefit, and weappreciate you listening.
Talk to you soon.
Listen up.
Hospitality leaders, today'sepisode is going to introduce
you to a new resource that canhelp you strengthen your
leadership in 10 different ways.
Jason E Brooks is a speaker,coach, author and founder of
Hospivation.
Jason creates content thathelps impact hospitality leaders
(00:28):
on their journeys to helpothers around them fulfill their
calling.
His first book Every LeaderNeeds Followers 10 Keys to
Transform Restaurant Managersinto Hospitality Leaders
launched in March of 2024.
Jason is a professional speakerand coach speaking on
leadership mindsets andtechniques in the hospitality
(00:49):
industry.
Today, we're going to highlightthree out of the 10 keys.
The first key is going to bekey number four, on how to
engage with one-on-ones.
The second key is key numberfive managing versus leading
versus coaching, changing yourmindset for the situation that
you're in.
And the final key is key numbernine closing the gap in
(01:10):
customer expectations andoperator execution how to see
your business from a view of acustomer to help drive sales and
guest satisfaction.
Welcome to the N no Hesitationspodcast, the show where
restaurant leaders learn tools,tactics and habits from the
(01:30):
world's greatest operators.
I am your host, Ch kristeMarvin, with Solutions by
Christin.
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businesseswithout wasting time and energy,
so they can achieve work-lifebalance and make more money.
(01:51):
Hi, J jason, welcome to theshow.
How are you?
Jason E. Brooks (01:58):
Oh, doing great .
It's an amazing week.
Spring is fully here and lifeis wonderful.
Christin Marvin (02:05):
I love it.
Well, first off,congratulations on your first
book.
Every Leader Needs Followers 10Keys to Transform Restaurant
Managers to Hospitality Leaders.
I cannot imagine how incredibleit felt to hold that book in
your hands for the first time.
Jason E. Brooks (02:23):
Like a baby, like a baby that was in my hands
for the first time, like a baby, like a baby that was in my
womb for six years.
No, I wouldn't know what thatwould feel like, but if I did,
when I first did my unboxing andit was the unboxing of the
author copy, because many ofyour listeners may not know, but
whenever you go to self-publishyour own book, you have the
(02:48):
option of getting your authorcopy first for paperback
hardcover, both thinking thatthat things that you think
inside your mind, that you hopethat you're not crazy, you've
(03:09):
put into a physical form.
And you open the box and it'slike wow, this is a real thing.
Christin Marvin (03:17):
I love it.
I mean, it is such a labor love.
I loved you know you and Iconnected before your actual
launch and I was super excitedto obviously to get to know you
and read your background I mean,over 30 years in the
hospitality industry and then tolearn about your book.
I couldn't wait to get my handson it and I thank you for that
advanced copy.
But then I watched.
I watched your unboxing videoand it was I've never really
(03:40):
seen those before and I I didn'tknow what all the hype was
about, but I was so excited foryou to just open that Amazon box
and, yeah, just such anincredible accomplishment and
I'm super excited that we get totalk about it today.
So thanks so much for beinghere.
Jason E. Brooks (03:56):
Thank you.
It's kind of like your firstbusiness, first restaurant,
first hotel.
You go through all of theinspections, all the permitting,
all of the back and forth, allthe what's on back order, just
to get to the first day and it'slike, oh my gosh.
(04:16):
And then all of the workhappens.
We think, well, if we build it,it will come.
But there is so much more wordof mouth, marketing, so much
more getting our product, ourfood, our book into the hands of
people that we hope that theywill love it, that they will
(04:36):
return.
Yeah, yeah, it's just like that.
Christin Marvin (04:41):
Yeah, and it's so.
You know, just you and I, beingin the coaching space to launch
a product is a big deal, right?
That's a big deal for us, inaddition to the services we
offer.
So it's it's just super, supercool, and I'm just in awe of
what you're doing.
So thank you so much for yourwork with the industry.
I, you know, reading the book, Ithere's just man.
(05:02):
We could talk about this fordays.
There's so many nuggets ofwisdom, there's so much learning
, there's so much valuableexperience that leaders can take
away.
But what I loved about the bookwas because I still have a hard
time sitting down andconcentrating, and I'll read a
couple of pages and then I'll go, oh shit, I just forgot what I
read, and then I got to go backand do it again, because my
(05:23):
mind's always thinking aboutsomething else.
You know, I'm always wanderingaround, so what I love about
this book, though, is the waythat you've got it structured,
with the main course and thenthe takeaways, and I love that I
could just kind of look aheadto chapters and read the
takeaway and go, ok, does thisapply to me right now, or is
this something that can help aclient right now Would you talk
(05:45):
a little bit about kind of your,why behind the structure there
and what your intention was?
Jason E. Brooks (05:50):
You just said the why because of the oh shit
moments.
It is really geared towardswhere our managers, multi-unit
managers, even owners, are atright now.
We have so much that's on ourplate we have less time for
anything, and it's because ofthis black box here, this gift
(06:16):
from God, cell phone, has justruined our private lives and we
find ourselves encroached withless time and we need to get to
the meat of things.
People say that you know causeI'm from, I've been in North
Carolina for probably 40 years.
(06:37):
They always talk about Southernhospitality.
Well, since the cell phone cameout, people have less patience
down here.
It's just so crazy how we arealways trying to get to what is
really important.
So when I wrote the book, firstthing is I wanted to make sure I
(06:57):
wanted it to be written for thelifestyle of the person that's
reading it.
I think I'm interesting, but noone wants to hear about my
memoir about how I grew up.
They want to get to what is mychallenge right now?
How can I get to it?
So, each chapter and I don'thave chapters, I have keys.
(07:17):
There's 10 keys that are withinthe book.
Each key has the main courseand, of course, the pun is
intended.
The main course is the gut ofthat key, and even the gut of
that key is still a short read.
It's getting straight to whatare certain examples, certain
things you can do right nowwithin this key in order to make
(07:41):
your day different, make yourweek more successful.
Even after the main course,though it's written to be a bit
shorter, is the takeaway.
Again, pun intended.
The takeaway is three to sixparagraphs.
That gives you that 30,000 footview of, just like you said,
two views.
Either I read it and I justwant to get back to what did it
(08:07):
really cover?
That'll make me jog that memoryof a good idea that I can
implement now.
Or is this where I'm currentlyat and do I need to read this
now, or can I skip this and getto something else?
And then the last part is threesections.
The last part is the angle.
The angle are quotes fromdifferent people that I've had
(08:28):
the absolute pleasure of workingwith, or quotes that I found
online that are absolutely giveyou a different spin on what
that key, what that topic is.
Christin Marvin (08:40):
I love it.
Why did you decide to publishthe book right now?
What's important about thismoment?
Jason E. Brooks (08:46):
Oh, we have slipped everyone not we, not
just we, meaning hospitalityeveryone has slipped into a
regression.
That regression is caused bywhat I like to call, almost
literally, ptsd from COVID, ifwe think about what happened
(09:08):
during COVID.
During COVID, the hospitalityindustry was known.
Yes, we have teams, which makesus work well, but there are
some that would still considerit families that it was your
second family away from thehouse.
You knew you could drop yourbaggage, leave your stuff at the
(09:30):
front door, all your troublesget inside there and in the
weeds.
In the thick of things, yourteam had your back.
No matter what, late night,early morning, they had your
back.
As long as you worked hard, youknew you were going to be taken
care of.
And then COVID happened.
A lot of leaders, managers,multi-units had to make a lot of
(09:53):
hard choices.
A lot of those hard choices hadto cut away people that
depended and knew thathospitality would be there for
the rest of their life.
And they saw somethingdifferent when that happened,
not only for that employee butalso for the manager.
The manager had to work withinmultiple roles, more than they
(10:16):
already did already, and had noclue what the next day bring,
what the next regulation was,and that fear, especially for
the owners, knowing thateverything you put on the line
and you didn't know if the nextday you had to sell, you had to
close, sell pennies to thedollars.
(10:36):
You didn't know what was goingon.
That caused a whole lot ofstress.
And then, during that time,there were a lot of promotions
that were being done out ofsheer this is what I have left
or soft skills that we tended tohave that actually ended up
shifting from a soft skill wefocused on to what do I need to
(11:00):
survive?
And so, when I looked at thebook, what made it sense right
now to really get it finished?
Because, since it is a six-yearproject, it actually started
back in 2018.
But when I saw COVID happeningand I was like, okay, I really
got to get this book done.
(11:21):
It helped to put a lot of thekey elements of what do I need
to do to rebuild teams, andthat's why it made sense for it
now.
Christin Marvin (11:32):
I love it.
I mean there's so many goodnuggets in what you just said,
but the lines have just been soblurred.
Like you said, you used to beable to leave your shit at the
door, come in, grind with yourteams.
Now leaders are looked at innot just needing to be able to
run a smart business, but alsoto manage their people and coach
their people from a mentalhealth perspective.
(11:52):
Right, because they're bringingall of that into work now and
the new generation that's comingin want employers to be skilled
in handling those things andoffer benefits around that.
Right, which adds just a wholenother layer to the restaurant
industry.
But, like you said, during thepandemic, everybody was
operating from this scarcitymindset.
How do we survive?
How are we going to make itthrough the next day?
(12:12):
Having to make decisions everyday that weren't necessarily
they weren't empowered to do?
They were being told what to do, right by the world and what
was going on.
And now I think I agree withyou it's so important that some
have been able to shift theirthinking and think differently
and been able to look at okay,we survived.
Now how do we build on this?
But some are still having ahard time getting out of that
(12:34):
and still talking about, oh, thepandemic, pandemic, pandemic.
It's like, okay, we've got tomove on.
We've got to move on if we'regoing to be successful.
So I love the book, loveeverything that's in it.
I think it's so timely, it's soimportant and I can't wait to
jump in.
So we're going to talk aboutthree of the keys today.
We're going to talk about keynumber four, which is engaging
(12:56):
with one-on-ones.
We're going to talk about keynumber five, which is managing,
leading and coaching andchanging your mindset for the
situation that you're in.
And then key number nine, whichis closing the gap in customer
expectations and operatorexecution.
So how to see your businessfrom the view of the customer to
help drive sales andsatisfaction.
(13:19):
Hello to all of you amazingleaders in the restaurant world.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and let you know aboutone of the incredible ways that
you can further your team'sleadership development.
If you've been listening to theshow, you've already
experienced the passion I havefor enhancing leadership skills.
Did you know that I also offerexclusive leadership workshops
(13:43):
tailored for restaurantmanagement teams?
These sessions focus onstrengthening leadership
abilities, fostering effectivecommunication, crafting a unique
leadership style and developingrobust business strategies and
visions for the future.
If you or anyone you know inthe restaurant industry is
looking to treat their team to acustomized multi-day leadership
(14:06):
training that will improveevery aspect of their business,
please reach out to me atKristenLMarvin at gmailcom.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
So let's jump into key numberfour engage with one-on-ones.
(14:27):
I'd love to hear, I'd love tohear, how, like when in your, at
what point in your career, didyou first learn how to execute a
really great one-on-one?
Jason E. Brooks (14:39):
I learned that from Mark and Mike from Manager
Tools.
Manager Tools oh, you talkabout podcasts.
This is back whenever podcastswas still rare.
Manager Tools Mark and Mikeactually started Manager Tools
to give managers the ecosystemand the tools for any industry
(15:03):
to be able to lead people better, and they use the term called
O3s.
O3s so 0-0-0 or 0-0-0.
And that's one-on-one, andone-on-ones is one of those
things that I fully agree with.
It's non-negotiable.
It's non-negotiable.
It's non-negotiable.
We spend so much time datadumping on our team.
(15:28):
I mean we can dump with thebest of them, left and right,
all day, early morning, latenight.
We know how to drive data downpeople's throats or information,
and it just leading from themanager to the team.
But how much time do we takefor them to dump on us and not
(15:50):
just dump on us?
How much time do we take forthem to give us information, for
us to get to understand howthey think, how they would react
, the challenges that they'regoing through, not just what's
coming down the pipe next?
So a lot of people takeone-on-ones as time for me to
(16:12):
speak with you with what I wantyou to work on, and one of the
non-negotiables on one-on-onesis you speak for only 30% of the
time and you listen for theother 70.
That's why we have two ears andone mouth and the actual
(16:33):
structure of that should be itshould be 30 minutes, within my
opinion.
It should be weekly yes, weeklyopinion.
It should be weekly yes, weekly.
I know it sounds crazy, butanyone that actually reports
directly to you, you should havea one-on-one with them every
(16:55):
single week.
The first 10 minutes is forthem talking to you about
anything, and when I sayanything, I mean about life,
about baseball cards, abouttheir kids, about their hobbies,
about whatever, because you aregetting to know that individual
that's on your team.
Second 10 minutes, second 10minutes, is for you to report
(17:17):
back to them on any questionsthat they had from a prior
one-on-one and if there is anytrue, pertinent information,
that must be told to them duringthat segment.
Yes, you can cover it duringthat 10 minute timeframe, but
you better only use just a touchof that time for that.
(17:39):
The rest is you coming back tothem with any questions that
they had.
The last 10 minutes, the last10 minutes, is for them to talk
to you about challenges,successes, things that they need
to know for their personaldevelopment within their role.
But whenever you structure itlike that, you get to know your
(18:00):
team a lot better and for themto understand how to make the
right choices, or you knowingwhat choices that they will most
likely make whenever you're notin the building, and that's how
you tend to build trust, that'son your team.
If you think about it, wetypically don't trust our team
because we don't know them.
(18:21):
We don't know them because wedon't ask.
The more we ask, the more wefind out about them.
There are managers that work inbuildings that you ask them
three weeks later.
Hey, what's that person's name?
I don't know.
They've only been here forthree weeks.
That's terrible.
You should know your team.
(18:43):
But making or having thatstructure with your team to get
to know them, that is one of thestrongest pillars to actually
getting to the goals that youneed to get within your business
.
Christin Marvin (18:57):
I love it.
I wish I would have had thisstructure when I was earlier in.
You know, early on in my career.
There was a point for me.
I'd been managing for probablyfive or seven years and then I
joined a company and they saidwe want you to do one-on-ones
when I was transitioning into arestaurant.
I didn't understand the value.
I didn't.
I thought I work side by sidewith them every day.
(19:19):
You know we have all kinds oflittle tiny conversations.
I'm also an introvert, so smalltalk used to be really
exhausting for me.
I've had to learn now how tohave those conversations and
balance my time and energy.
But it just took so muchpractice.
I didn't even know and reallyunderstand that what I was
supposed to talk about when Isat down with people, you know,
and then when I started hiringpeople, I thought well, I got to
(19:40):
know them enough during theinterview process, why do I need
to continue?
But I love what you said abouttaking small amounts of time
building that trust.
You know I was designing aleadership style with a client
this morning saying what do you,what do you want your
leadership style to look like?
And he's like well, I want tobe trustworthy and I want to
trust my team.
It's like well, are you doingone-on-ones?
(20:07):
No, I'm not.
Well then, how are you going todo that?
Right, besides just workingshoulder to shoulder and showing
up for shift, right?
So, yeah, it's, it's.
I agree with you.
They're so invaluable.
Once you start to get the hangof them and you start to feel
comfortable, they're, they'rejust magic.
And I think that some leadersthink that they need to go into
those conversations havinganswers or coming with solutions
, or or they're afraid of what'sgoing to come up during that
conversation.
And I think, if you can justreally let that conversation
sink in and sleep on it andthink about it, that's all you
(20:29):
need is the information.
Sometimes, and the connectionthat you get out of that is just
priceless.
So I love that key.
That's great.
Let's talk about key numberfive.
So managing versus leadingversus coaching.
Just a little insight intowhat's in that one.
Jason E. Brooks (20:44):
No, that is the gospel there, Christin.
All right, so managing first.
Managing gets a bad rap.
It really does People.
Whenever they hear the wordmanager, they're going to
micromanage me or I hate mymanager.
Half the reason why managersget a bad rap is because
(21:06):
managers are not consistent.
I'm sure you've watchedDespicable Me.
They have Kevin and one day inone of the movies he gets
injected with this syringe andthen he's half like evil Kevin.
That's how most managers arepictured.
Some days they come in, they'rejust high-fiving, they're
(21:28):
having fun.
Yes, this is great Woo-hoo.
Good job, billy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then Kevin comes in threedays later.
No one else has changed, butKevin is just grumpy.
He's flipping tables, slammingketchup, all on the wall.
It's evil Kevin.
And that's where the managingaspect gets a really bad rap,
(21:49):
plus managing.
To be honest, managing reallyis managing systems.
Yes, but there are people thatare a part of those systems, so
you still have to manage peopleas well.
Lastly, managing is what we dofirst.
If you really think about itany business owner out there you
are in a managing mindset morethan any other mindset
(22:13):
throughout your entire day.
The managing mindset is youhave a group of people.
You want to keep them incertain guard rails to reach a
certain point by a certain time.
You have a certain budget forit and you want to make sure
that these same things happen ona progressive basis and on a
scheduled basis.
That is managing.
(22:34):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Whether it's a bar, hotel, bedand breakfast or restaurant, you
have to have a very strongbusiness aspect first, because
it's a business first, and thenwe serve food or make beds or
clean toilets, but it's abusiness first.
Leading is a bit differently Now.
(22:55):
Leading is understanding theoverarching goals of your entire
business, how you're thinkingthrough how to get it to the
next three months, next sixmonths, next nine months.
What are the most importantgoals?
If it's a bigger company, whoare the ones that help to make
(23:16):
those decisions?
Who has influence?
What are some of the strategiesand step change that needs to
make in order to shift culture?
Is it going to be successful?
What are the challenges thatmay lay ahead in the industry
that other people around you maynot foresee?
There are several greatleadership styles, from
(23:39):
authoritative to persuasive tovisionary.
The visionary leader oh man,they can paint a picture so
vividly.
People will absolutely do it astheir words form into pictures
and you can see it and you'relike, yes, we are going there.
So you have managing aspect forthe business, you have
(24:01):
leadership aspect for the peopleas a whole or for the whole
industry, and where you'retrying to go or foreseeing that
future, even before you knowthat they need to get there.
But coaching, coaching is thatmastery of small goals.
I like to tell this story.
(24:21):
My son plays AAU basketball.
He's been playing sports sincethe age of seven.
Now, at the age of seven, youcan play AAU.
It's just someone's parent justsaying run down the court,
don't worry about traveling,Just toss the ball up, smack the
arms, don't worry about it,hopefully it goes in and you can
do that and you are gettingcoached.
(24:43):
It is by someone's parent, butthey are getting coached at the
age of seven.
Now, once you get into middleschool, you now have a actual
school coach teaching youbasketball skills, drills,
different tactics.
You can.
You can, at that level, getcoached by two areas, both by
the school and by AAU.
(25:04):
At this age, kids are gettingcoached for nine out of 12
months of the year If theycontinue to play sports.
Have you ever played any schoolsports?
Christin Marvin (25:17):
Yes, basketball and tennis yeah.
Jason E. Brooks (25:19):
Excellent, excellent, good, good, good.
Yeah you, you look like youwere really mean at basketball.
Huh, I bet you would foul somepeople.
Christin Marvin (25:27):
No, yes, I did Good job.
Jason E. Brooks (25:32):
Okay, so let's say you take it to high school.
You now have a team of coachescoaching you on same basketball.
You can still play AAU and highschool ball, getting coached
nine out of 12 months of theyear.
If you're just that good, takeit to college.
Do you have a favorite collegeteam?
Christin Marvin (25:53):
I don't.
Jason E. Brooks (25:55):
My favorite is Duke.
Don't judge me.
All right, good, all right.
So now at college there is nomore AAU.
They train you nearly yearround for six to seven hours a
day.
It is grueling, but it'sgetting the very few ready for
the WNBA or the NBA.
(26:16):
Now in the NBA you have playersgetting paid tens of millions of
dollars a year.
There's 82 games in a regularseason 82, not counting
preseason, not counting playoffs.
Some of these players have beengetting coached since the age
of seven, and yet still there'sa person on the sideline
(26:39):
screaming at them who to cover,when to fall back.
And at the break of every playthey're pulling every player off
the bench, even the ones thataren't playing, to go over the
next play.
And all of that for a ball anda hoop.
But yet still in some of ourwork lives that we've been doing
(27:02):
maybe the last four years,getting paid our money and we
don't feel like we need to becoached, yet still our kids get
coached nine out of 12 months ofthe year.
It's just crazy to me how wethink that coaching is only
reserved for executives,coaching is only reserved for
(27:25):
the top 1% of people within acompany.
But coaching, to be honest is ameans of communication.
It is a way to train.
Everyone needs coaching, justlike we need managing and
leading.
They are three separate things.
You need to know the threedifferent mindsets and that's
(27:47):
what that key is leading withthe right mindset.
Christin Marvin (27:49):
I love it.
You and I were talking aboutthis before I hit the record
button, but it's so important tohave it.
Doesn't matter, like you said,where you're at in your life or
what you're doing.
It's so important to havesomebody that can help you
increase your self-awareness andsay, look, I'm just going to
show you what you're doing rightnow, or I'm going to point out
what you're doing or how you'reshowing up and let's talk about
how we can change it a littlebit.
(28:10):
Right, and I and I, again, Ilove this key and I love the
takeaways here, because I mean,just imagine what the restaurant
world would look like if everysingle leader changed their
title or their mindset frommanager to leader to coach.
That's all you're doing all thetime is just coaching, coaching
, coaching, right, like?
Yes, I agree with you that whenyoung leaders come in and they
(28:31):
want to start managing, theyneed to learn how to run the
business.
They need to learn how to runreally great shifts.
Then they can take onadditional responsibilities and
learn how to balance thosebetween running a great shift
and still incorporating in someadmin work.
But I have found that the bestleaders are the ones that can
walk away from a restaurant andit runs better than when they're
(28:54):
in the room, because their teamfeels empowered and inspired.
And it's because partly becausethey want to do a really good
job for their coach right whenthe coach is out of the room and
show off their skills.
But they also have thatcamaraderie and have that
teamwork because the coach hasdone such a good job of building
that team morale.
So I love it.
Jason E. Brooks (29:15):
And that's not natural.
Some people think that they canjust walk in and after six
months it just happens and theythink why?
Whenever I worked for Susie, itwas exactly like that she would
leave and then things wouldjust run.
It's just amazing and it's like, yes, but Susie coached you.
(29:39):
You seem to forget that shetook the time, the investment to
make it a very intentionalthought, to sit you down and get
to understand you, get to learnyou, and then other people
started to do the right things.
Have you taken the timeyourself to be just like Susie,
(30:02):
or do you just want Susie'sresults?
Christin Marvin (30:05):
Absolutely A hundred percent.
So let's talk about key numbernine here, so closing the gap
between the customer expectationand operator execution.
Jason E. Brooks (30:14):
Okay, closing the gap.
Uh, also one of my favorites,um, and the reason why I say
that is because most, mostrestaurant managers live the
two-wheel life.
They live the two-wheel lifethat although their vehicle has
four tires, that they're pullingin the parking lot so fast,
they may as well be on twowheels.
(30:34):
Just doors open, bigfoot'sdragon.
They're jumping out the car,they're trying to get inside and
the first thing that they'rethinking about doing is putting
out fires.
And I was just coaching fourdistrict managers right before
this session here about thedifference between being a
(30:58):
fireman, firewoman and a firechief.
That when you're a fireman or afirewoman, that you are always
standing in front of the flamebut can only see the building
burning from one side.
But when you're fire chiefing,you have firemen and women
working for you and you'relooking at the fire from a
30,000 foot view and thendirecting people around that
(31:19):
fire.
But the two wheel life.
So you're running in, you'regoing to go put out these fires,
and you run to the back like,woo, yes, let me knock down the
slide, I'll get the truck orderin, I'll fix payroll.
And at this point your heart'spumping 100 miles per hour.
You're like, yes, so I'm nowgoing to walk through.
(31:40):
I'm going to check all mycustomers.
Look for dirty things, get allthis going.
You work a triple-double.
Finally get home lay down andthen you're like man, I really
rocked it out tonight.
You wake up the next morning andthen your phone starts going
off and it's customer complaintand you got a two and you start
(32:00):
flipping your nightstand like,oh, they're lying.
I was there all day.
I was on fire.
What are they talking about?
But what you see wheneveryou're walking a hundred miles
per hour and when you're racinginto your parking lot and what
your customer sees two differentviews Managers listening, dms
(32:21):
listening, regionals, ownerslistening is it strange?
Can you even picture your lasthalf mile into your business?
I guarantee that you can almostnever remember the last half
mile in to arriving to yourbusiness, the last half mile in
(32:43):
to arriving to your business,because, one, you're either on
the phone or, two, your braingoes into fighter mode and it's
going into straight up.
I'm going into battle andthings just shut down until you
get inside and you are theterminator.
But your customer's view of thelast half mile in is very
different.
Their last half mile in they'repaying more attention.
Is it busy?
(33:04):
Are there cars in the parkinglot?
Is there trash in the parkinglot?
Are there weeds?
Does it look like the door isunlocked?
And then they pull up and thenthey walk in, and when they see
that that door is unlocked it'slike, oh my gosh, this is so
great I don't have to eat out ofmy car for my dashboard.
So then they walk in and it's amuch different, slowed down
(33:29):
pace.
Most dining rooms have dimmerlights and although it's dimmer,
your eyes naturally open widerto take in more.
So the manager is alwaysviewing from a 20 foot wide, 20
foot deep view, walking veryquickly at an average height of
five foot six.
But the customer is sittingdown and taking in more detail
(33:53):
at that three feet and threefeet and closer view, and they
tend to pick up more.
And so closing the gap walksmanagers, owners, multi-unit
managers through how do youclose the gap between what the
(34:13):
customer expects and what theoperator actually executes, and
it gives you tips and tricks ofhow to close that gap and then
train your team on what a onestar, three star or even five
star visit, clean or interactionis throughout your restaurant.
Christin Marvin (34:28):
I love it.
One of the things that we Iused to do with my managers when
I was a GM or regional was wasand it was multi-purpose.
But sometimes we just when therestaurant was humming and we
were on a wait and everythingwas great, we would take a
second step outside and A getsome fresh air and B have a
conversation with each otherthat maybe we didn't want to
(34:50):
have inside the restaurant.
But C stand back and lookexactly what you're saying.
Let's look at the sign, let'slook at the trash, let's look at
the entryway, let's look at theguests.
Are their eyes in the middle ofthe table?
Are they looking around?
What's the staff doing rightnow?
Do they look happy?
Are they hurried?
And then walk right in and knowexactly what adjustments we
needed to make, and we would dothat maybe two or three times a
(35:11):
shift.
It wasn't super, super frequent,but just taking maybe a minute
to just get that freshperspective.
It was just so beneficial andon the shifts that you knew that
that couldn't happen, like whenwe couldn't get outside.
Those were the ones at the endof the shift we'd go.
Okay, let's talk about whathappened today because we
weren't able to fully do the jobthat we wanted to do and that
(35:34):
we intended to do, so those aresome great learning moments.
Jason E. Brooks (35:38):
That is actually perfect, because most
people do their walk at 8 am 9am and I'm like why are you
doing the walk whenever there'snothing that's happening, that
is, whenever it's the leastamount of advertising?
Take the walk at peak volume,when most of the people are
(35:59):
parked, walking through your lot.
What do they see then?
Not at the most optimal timekeys that we could cover.
But I want to leave somethinghere for the listener.
Christin Marvin (36:23):
Tell the listeners where they can find
the book.
And then let's talk a littlebit about your business too.
Who's your ideal client, who doyou want to work with, and how
do people get in contact withyou?
Jason E. Brooks (36:33):
Well, you can find me on LinkedIn.
You can find me on Instagramand Twitter, but I'm highly
active on LinkedIn.
Please reach out, even justabout some ideas, please do.
You can find the book on Amazon, on paperback and on hardcover
as well as ebook.
The audio book will belaunching here soon, next three
(36:56):
to four months.
The book is also on my websiteat jasonebrookscom.
You can also find the book oniTunes Books as well and on Kobo
.
Coaching is what I love to do,and so is being a professional
speaker, working withrestaurants for the last 30 plus
(37:17):
years.
Working with restaurants forthe last 30 plus years.
My ideal client anywherebetween five and 20 restaurants,
a few multi-unit managers doingabout one to 1.5, that really
gives me a great understandingof what true potential that
brands have, and brands meaningmom and pop as well.
(37:41):
What brands have in order toget to the 1.8, 2.4, 2.83
million dollar AUV range and notjust building sales but
building profitability andhaving a strong team to help
make that happen.
The professional speaking sideI speak at several associations.
(38:03):
You can look me up on LinkedIn.
I'm always on stage speakingsome kind of gospel, some kind
of restaurant gospel, but pleasedo order the book.
If you order the book from mefrom my website, I will actually
sign the book and send it toyou.
So don't be afraid.
I know that Amazon has fastshipping.
(38:25):
I'm not Amazon, though, butthey won't sign the book for you
.
I'll tell you that now.
But, yes, I would love to hearfrom your listeners, especially
on insights from the book.
Any feedback is great feedback,because I will be doing new
versions every two years with 10keys that make sense for that.
(38:47):
Now, to keep this model going,I love that.
Christin Marvin (38:50):
I can't wait for the next one, Jason, thank
you so much for being here.
So everybody, Jason E Brooks,go find him on LinkedIn, grab a
copy of the book Every LeaderNeeds Followers 10 Keys to
Transform Restaurant Managers toHospitality Leaders and please
leave a review.
They are super, super importantfor us to help spread the word
(39:11):
and make an impact inhospitality leaders everywhere.
So, Jason, really appreciateyour time.
Thank you again for being hereand can't wait to connect with
you again very soon, my friend.
Jason E. Brooks (39:23):
Thank you.
Christin Marvin (39:24):
All right, everybody.
That's it for us this week.
Please share this episode withany industry leaders that you
know that would benefit, and weappreciate you listening.
Talk to you soon.
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