AM Show Hr 2 | Russell Ybarra On Success And Failure In Business And Life

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load you Michael
Berry Show is on the air.Rust LaVar as our guest. He is

(00:29):
the author of Enchilada Entrepreneur. Heis the founder of Gringos tex Mex,
Jimmy Changa's and Multiple Concepts. We'retalking about the book and I want to
go through the ten chapters of lifeAdvice. Chapter one, do more than

(00:49):
what you're paid for. I've alwayssaid to employees. We were in the
middle of layoffs in the radio industrybecause like every other industry, the radio
engine was cutting back. This wasabout sixteen years ago, seventeen years ago,
and I used to tell folks.They'd come in and say, what
can I do to keep fro gettingfired? Make yourself indispensable. You're not

(01:11):
a charity case. Make it sothat if you are fired, it will
cost the company more than keeping youbecause you do so many important things.
Russelly Barra has gelled that down todo more than what you're paid for.
And he opens the chapter with aquote from Sam Walton's book Made in America.
The two most important words I everwrote, I ever wrote. We're
on that first Walmart sign satisfaction Guaranteedthey're still up there and they have made

(01:36):
all the difference. When you sayto someone, do more than what you're
paid for, what do you meanby that, Russell? Well, how
else can you stand out? Imean, at the end of the day,
if everyone is doing the same thing, they're all blending in as one.
But if you can offer more thanthe guy next to you in any

(01:57):
way, shape or form, goingto stand out. You want to do
such a job. You want todo a job so well that you cannot
be ignored. And you know,one of the things that we do we
pay, and we pay very closeattention to our cost of goods are our
prime cost, which also includes ourlabor and our paper, and if it's

(02:19):
too low, we really look atit and say, okay, we're doing
something wrong, because that means we'renot giving good value. If it's too
high, obviously we're not making whatwe want to make. But we try
to keep our prime cost between fiftyeight and sixty percent, and if we
can do that with the volume thatwe generate, we will be successful.
But we want to be We're hypersensitive about perceived value because at the end

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of the day, when the guestcomes in, they pay the bill.
They're either going to say, oh, that's a great deal, or I'm
shocked it's expensive, and they mayreconsider us the next time to go out.
They have so many choices today.I mean, when a car pulls
into your parking lot and you havea restaurant, you should be so grateful
because they passed a lot of restaurantsto get to your place. And that's

(03:05):
the way I feel. I mean, we have more choices than we've ever
had ever in the history of mankind. I mean, it's just so many.
And for them to choose you,you better do more than your paid
for. That's all I got tosay. Otherwise they're going to move on
to the guy that does. So. When you and I were touring the
location in Katie, which i'd notbeen to on Saturday, and we went

(03:27):
into the kitchen because you know,I love to go in the kitchens,
and I've never seen a kitchen cleanerthan you alls. And part of that
goes to the kitchen managers. Everynight send you a photo of their kitchen.
Everything has to be in order,everything has to be clean, spotless,
and that says a lot about what'sgoing out on the plate. If
you have that level of mindfulness.Right, it's the green em and MS
in the green room, you know, as a way to say we pay

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attention to details. But I sawsticker on the back as the employees come
in, and it was about hourlywages for the service staff, which is
been at two dollars and thirteen centsplus tips for decades. But y'all do
more than that. You go allthe way up to ten dollars an hour
plus tips, which I don't.I'm not going to say no one else

(04:10):
does, but I don't know ofother people that do that. Why do
you do that? Well, wedo it for several reasons. To staff
anyone restaurant with servers, it requiresat least sixty five and so that's a
lot of servers, and that's wherewe have the most turnover is in the
server department. But I just couldn'tunderstand. I couldn't understand how, or

(04:33):
I couldn't accept the fact that thisparticular wage, the hourly wage for tip
employees, has been to thirteen sincenineteen ninety one. Now, I'm not
a socialist. I am a capitalist, but I'm a capitalist against other capitalists,
and so I just didn't I couldn'tcome to grasp of hiring a new

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team member and paying him to thirteenan hour and the guy next to him
who's beigiving me fifteen years is alsoearning two thirteen an hour. Yet all
our issues and problems will come fromthe new hire. So as a way
of saying thank you, and alsoas a way of retaining team members servers
where they come in at a higherrate than two thirteen, we've paid more

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than two thirteen when they first hired. They get a vaump at two years,
three years, and five years,and the five year rate is ten
dollars and that's over four hundred andsomething percent more than what a lot of
our competitors are doing. So again, that's and we have the volume to
do it. So I understand smalleroperators may not, but they need to

(05:38):
find their own way of standing outand retaining team members or employees rather than
turning them over because they're the mostvaluable asset in your company. You've owned
this company since you started it inninety three. We'll get into your prior
history from that. You didn't justwalk into the industry thirty one years ago.
But when you look at employees today, kitchen and servers. What do

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you see? How is it different, because you know you talk about the
different gen X and gen Z andall that. How is it different engaging
employees today than when you started.Well, the times have definitely changed and
we're having to adapt to the newgeneration of employees where their focus is quality

(06:26):
of life, which we all wanta good quality of life. But I
was talking to a former general managerof Papasiitos just the other day at a
restaurant and he was telling me thatthey're talking about four day work week for
management, which is unheard of.When I started working, it was a
six day work week. We've goneto a five day work week, and

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now they're discussing a four day workweek, and that's just how it's changed.
So again, well, and toget clear, we're talking about in
hospitality because plenty of our corporate clientlisteners they can do a four day work
week, but you're not in thebusiness where people come in and you have
to engage them. Hospitality is verydifferent, very yes, very because we're

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a seven day week operation. Wedon't we don't shut down for two days,
so it is a lot difference.But again it we don't mind doing
anything as long as it makes sensefor everyone, and and and everyone's happy
at the end of the day.So but you don't you don't notice a
big difference in people in you know, like some people talk about, you

(07:33):
hire these young people now, andyou know three months in they're ready to
be the CEO because you know Ishowed up to work, or their parents
calling in for them when they're sick, as if they're still twelve years old.
You know, I hear these thingsfrom people in different industries. You
don't. You don't you don't seethat. Well, we see a little
bit of it. But you know, also in the book I talk about,

(07:56):
you know, always looking for waysto improve. So the restaurant in
the street, we we we dealwith the all the senses from obviously taste,
site, what they hear, andso we we we pay attention to
every detail, whether it's our lightingabove the table, making sure that the
light itself doesn't bleed over the countto the tabletop, because you don't want

(08:18):
to like people's faces, you wantto like the table. One of my
biggest pet peeves in restaurants, especiallysome of these fine downing restaurants. It's
so dark and these chefts back inthe back. They spend so much time
creating these beautiful dishes, yet whenthey put them in front of you,
you can't see them, which makesno sense to me. But but again,
those are the kind of things youhave to pay attention to. Uh.
You know, it's it's good tosit down in a table or at

(08:41):
different tables and throughout your restaurant tosee what the guests see. Pain Tight
trusse LeVar is our guest. He'sthe owner of Gringo's Textmes dot com,
where you can buy Enchilada Entrepreneur,his new books and Keyday. The book

(09:11):
is Enchilada Entrepreneur. You can getit at Gringos texmex dot com. Several
people asking can I get it atAmazon? Of course, you can get
it wherever you buy books. Ijust try to support the direct source as
much as I possibly can because itmakes a difference. Chapter three of the
book is entitled guard your Reputation Russell. Why is that important? In how

(09:35):
do you do that? Well,I'm all I can say is I'm just
glad social media wasn't around when Iwas in high school. But you know,
your reputation follows you, and Itell a story about an insurance agent
in the book, and all Ican say is, once your reputation is
compromised, it's almost impossible to getit back in this day and age especially,

(10:00):
But it's the most valuable asset thata that a person can possess individually,
because it's it's them, it's theircharacter, it's all, it's everything
about them. So yeah, uh, it's it's it's an important component.
Years ago, we were building akitchen for a private school in Pasadena in

(10:20):
our our supply, our equipment supplier. Back then, they faxed papers and
he faxed me over a quote forwhat the project was gonna cost, and
it was over one hundred thousand.And I remember talking to him over the
phone, wants me discussed the numbers. I said, do you want me
to fax it, sig it andfax it back to you? And his

(10:41):
response was, uh no, that'sokay, Russell. Your word is good
enough. And I think whenever someonetells you that, it's it goes back
to the days we're in a handshakea handshake minute. I mean, that
was the deal. The gentleman thatsold me the land. Here where the
second gring goes is at his namewas Bruce Ane I to report it,
an old businessman, and he wasnice enough to sinnounce the land prior to

(11:05):
building offices here. But I neverI never mailed him as check. I
would always hand deliver it, noton the day it was due, but
two or three days before it wasdue, because he was old school and
I wanted him to know that hemade he made the right choice and trust
in me by financing that land.So I just I just think that at

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the end of the day, yourreputation is so important and it speaks volumes
about you, and I just Icouldn't say enough about it because you call
developed the habit of giving something thatyou and I have had the conversation.
I think some of our listeners don'trealize how good the food is at your

(11:46):
restaurants and how proud you are ofit. Because I talked mostly about your
philanthropy because I wanted to encourage everyonein every field to be a philanthropy.
Well, why do you do that? It's also good business as well,
It's a very good business. ButI just think there's something very powerful about
giving. People gravitate toward givers.They just do, and some for the

(12:09):
right reason. Some for the wrongreason, but at the end of the
day, you will get noticed asbeing someone who gives and helps, especially
the less fortunate. As a youngkid, I witnessed my parents do a
lot of things for other people,and it made an impact on me,
although at the time they were doingit, I really didn't understand it.
But it was a seed they plantedin me that has really grown and developed,

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because I remember seeing my parents fillup a van, a cargo van
with clothes and Spanish speaking Bibles,and they would drive into the interior of
Mexico, into the state of metroGane and go to this little village off
the chail and help this little community. They didn't even have streets, I
mean, it was just really justa little village. And again seeing that,

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and then at the end of theVietnam War, my parents sponsored a
family of ten Vietnam needs to helpget them set up in the Houston area,
and all these things they just addup and and I want my kids
to see it. I want mygrandchildren to see what their paup Paul's doing,
because again it will carry on forgenerations to come, hopefully, and
I think it will. It justit just cannot have anything but a positive

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impact when they see, uh,someone who is successful. No. Absolutely.
Chapter five, you say, surroundyourself with people who make you better.
I believe in this wholeheartedly. Well, I that's that's again. All
you have to do is look atmy team. So one of the things
I'm most proud of is I havewhat's called a deep bench. Probably any

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seven people that are working with someof my top leadership executives get all run
this company if if if worse cameto worse, and and I'm proud of
that because that that allows me tosleep at night. I couldn't. I
couldn't imagine just just depending on oneperson, let's say. And that was
again another reason why I put Jonathanin the leadership role that he's in today,

(14:05):
and Heather and the one that she'sin. And yeah, well I'm
trying to think or plan, youknow, fifteen twenty years out in the
future and further, you know.And it's interesting you say that, Russell,
because I study people like you andother people who do things like what

(14:26):
you do, and I find thatthe guy who makes excuses for why he
can't build a team around him,it is because he can't let go because
he can't trust and that is aterrible, terrible sign if you can't trust
other people to take on roles andif you can't mentor them to be better.
Chapter six you say, don't letfear of failure paralyze you. And

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you have had failure. You've talkedopenly about that, and it has defined
where you are today. You know, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom
to to start your way back up. And you know, I lost my
house to foreclosure in my twenties.I returned a vehicle to the dealership because
I could no longer afford the fourhundred and twenty dollars a ninety one cent

(15:13):
payment. I've always told people thatthe hard payments are the ones you always
remember. But I remember going throughall these hardships. I got married very
young. I was only eighteen yearsold, and I had I had my
first two kids by the time Iwas twenty five. But again, I
had nothing to fall As a terriblestudent in school, I had nothing to
fall back on. I had tofigure this thing out. And again,

(15:37):
by observing and just paying attention tosuccess successful companies or people, I just
automatically gravitate toward them. But I'vejust I think sometimes people over analyze things
and that paralysism. You have tostart, no matter where you're at,
with what you have and start movingfawllard so you can become what you want

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to become. You can't do iton paper alone and just stand there and
trying to work out the perfect planon paper, because there's no such thing
as a perfect plan. You mentionedsomething, Russell that I see a lot.
You mentioned you got married at eighteen. I think Monico was sixteen or
seventeen at the time. You've beenmarried now for over forty years, close

(16:22):
to forty five years. What adifference it may look. Not every marriage
is going to work. People change, people die, people become sick.
You know that. There's lots ofreasons. But a stable relationship where you're
not going through these divorces, you'renot going through the breakups, you're not
going through the negative energy, astable relationship long term. When you talk

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about life's success, that is oneof the things that is understated for how
important that is. Yes, withouta doubt, So I got very lucky,
very lucky early on Monica. She'sworth her weight in gold because she's
not materialistic. She could go outand buy anything she would like, but

(17:08):
she doesn't because that's not what givesher joy. And you know, when
we got married, there was alot of love, a lot more love
than there was money. She rentedher wedding dress for one hundred dollars.
I sold my drum set to buyher rings, which costs eight hundred dollars.
It was just a little chips allit was. Now she has upgraded

(17:29):
since then, but you know,she our reception was served on paper plates.
Again most people, most's. Sheused to when we first got married
and lived in a garage apartment,she would have to go to the laundrymat
do the weekly run at the laundrymat. She even would try to go days

(17:51):
without spending a penny. And shewould also on occasions she did go to
the thrift store to buy clothes.I don't know how many women would do
that, no matter how how badthings are. It's true and it says
a lot about a woman. Shewas also an elementary school teacher, and
I have come to the conclusion thatthat school teachers end up being great wives.

(18:11):
It just turns out to be thecase that they do. Russell Lebarra
is our guest. The book isInchilada Entrepreneur. Ten lessons in life and
business from the founder of a successfultex Mex restaurant. That restaurant is Gringo's
text Mechs and others. You canbuy the book. The profits go to
camp Hope. You can buy thebook at Gringostexmex dot com. So don't

(18:32):
want to hear it, you'll justgo ahead and say it. Sorry to
Michael Barry Show. The book isEnchilada Entrepreneur. Ten lessons in life and

(18:52):
business from the founder of a successfultext Mex restaurant group, Russell Lebarra,
who is our guest. That texMex restaurant group includes the flagship Gringos text
Mechs, which you can buy thebook at Gringostexmex dot com or anywhere else
you buy your books. Chapter seven, I think is the most important.
Develop a sense of urgency, somethingthat I have always remarked on in Russell

(19:19):
Ebara's life. Where did that comefrom and what does that mean to you?
Well, it's kind of evolved overthe years, but it started really
back in the day when I wouldwork at El Toro and report and the
plant workers would only have so muchtime for lunch, and they would be

(19:40):
in a hurry to get in andget out. So we lost him,
you know what. Huh, Yeah, that's the FBI and not wanting the
truth to get out there. Thatis the FBI and not wanting to or
could be the CIA Chapter eleven,pay your phone bill? No that,

(20:04):
you know what, that's probably thecartels trying to keep him silent. Russell,
I'm here. The hell kind ofoperation we're run in here? Not
sure? Let's see here. Holdon a second, Okay, I think
I'm here. Do you get feedbackor no? Yeah? Feedback was he's

(20:25):
not really great, but he's agood guy. Oh you mean, I'm
just kidding. When you talk aboutdeveloping a sense of urgency, you said
that over the years that has morphedfor you, that has grown, that
has developed. Where does that comefrom and why is that important? Well?
How often do you go when youwant something done for yourself? You

(20:48):
want it done quickly and promptly,and you don't want to wait. We
are a society that doesn't like towait. So I just think that,
like Jeff Bezels said, he aboutyou know, the consumer doesn't want anything
to take longer to get to them, nor do they want to pay more
for what they're buying. So senseof urgency is just something that people if

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you're going to compete, people noticethat and you get recognized. And it's
because you would hope to basically beinvesting in yourself so that the time,
when the time ever does arise thatyou need something, they will respond accordingly.
I mean a good example, youwrote the forward for this book.
It's not something that you just decidedyesterday. It's because it's something that I've

(21:34):
been doing over time that just builtup to where whenever I actually asked you
to do this for me, youdid it and probably didn't think twice.
When I asked Tillman to write ablurb about the book, he did it
because I've invested in him. Andso a sense of urgency. When people
ask you to do something, doit as quick as you can, because
most people will procrastinate and just taketheir time about it because it has nothing

(21:56):
to do with them disclosure or theother person full disclosure. I didn't do
it right off. I was inthe middle of contract negotiations with my company.
I was having to engage in longemails. I was having to think
through big decisions in life, andI was my energy level was sapped and

(22:22):
I couldn't do it during the show. I was working after the show,
and I think I needed to getit to y'all by Thursday. And it
got to be Tuesday, and Iwasn't feeling well that week. I don't
remember much, allergies or whatever itwas. And it got to be about
nine o'clock at night, and Isaid, if you leave this till tomorrow,
it's already been about four or fivedays, then you're you're not going

(22:45):
to write something you're proud of.Sit down right now and make yourself do
it. And once I did it, I felt good about it, so
I will. You know, GeorgeBush used to say that he was the
decider, and they made fun ofhim for that, but I think that
that's what leadership is is if youwant something done, to give it to
a busy person. Procrastinating just makesit worse. Just do it and do
it right. Then That's what Ilove about that advice, and that's why
I talked about that in the forwardnumber eight. And this is important,

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and this is something very few peopledo, and you respect the person who
does take responsibilities for your actions.Why is that important? Because there's a
lot of reasons, but for one, you know, we're all our worst
enemy, and it's easy to lookfor blame elsewhere. But the end of
the day, everything that happens inyour life is going to be a result

(23:32):
of your own thoughts and actions.And so to live life, to live
life believing that there are outside forcestrying to keep you down is very destructive
to you. And you know,I you know, dispute resolution is so
important because I had a situation earlyon where I had asked this gentleman to

(23:55):
fabricate some these four little stain that'sstill cylinders to help us with these little
plastic cup dispensers. And he gaveme a quote over the phone, and
he said he could do them fourone hundred dollars each. So I told
him, make me four of them. I figured one hundred bucks in that
bad, so make me four ofthem. And when I called, when
he called and told me the orderwas ready, and I asked him how

(24:15):
much I old him, thinking theremay be sales tax involved. He told
me it was sixteen hundred and somethingdollars. I said, wait a minute,
you said you could do them forone hundred dollars each, and he
said no, I said I coulddo them four hundred dollars each. Four
hundred and four one hundred over thephone sound very similar. Now, I
could have gotten mad and blamed him, but I accepted responsibility that I misheard

(24:37):
him or I probably heard what Iwanted to hear, and so at the
end of the day, I paidthem the money. I learned a lesson
get in and writing. But again, you go through life, you'll have
all these kinds of things happen toyou, you know, whether it's that
or or something else. But atthe end of the day, accept responsibility.
It's you know, it's not goingto be the end of the world

(24:59):
for you, but it will helpyou move forward if you accept it and
live with it, whatever the consequencesmay be. It's very hard to do,
and it is a life skill thatI think puts people in a whole
different situation. You know, footballcoaches, at least my kids' football coaches,
have always preached take responsibility. That'swhere game film in film sessions are

(25:27):
so important because everybody believes that theygave it their all. You know,
it's as long as I gave agood effort, yes, but let's correct
those mistakes. And when you lookat that film and you see your failure
to make a block, your failureto make a read, your failure to
make a tackle costs the touchdown thatoh wow, when you look at it

(25:48):
on that level, it changes everything. We will visit for one more segment
with Russell Ibara, the author ofEnchilada Entrepreneur, which you can buy wherever
you buy books. You can biteon their website Gringos Texmechs dot com Gringostexmex
dot com. All profits for thebook go to Camp Hope helping our Veterans

(26:10):
Beating PTSD, which is as noblea cause as there is. This is
the Michael Berrieshaw. Yeah. Thebook is Inchilada Entrepreneur. Ten lessons in

(26:30):
life and business from the founder ofa successful Texmex restaurant group. The author
is Russell Ibara. He is ourguest. Chapter nine, Live Way below
Your Means and that is some ofthe hardest lessons for people to find.

(26:51):
They establish a burn rate so fastthat no matter how much money they make
they keep they it keeps out runningthem and puts them in a bind.
How much of live way below yourmeans became your mantra after you went personally
bankrupt, after you gave your truckback. You've told that story before to

(27:12):
speeches i've heard you give. Couldyou share a little bit about that because
it's humbling and you learned from it. Well. It's what's interesting is the
publisher, when we were one ofthe editors was saying, Hey, we
want to leave the word way outand just say live below your means.
I said no, no, no, I said, live way below your
means. Gringos wouldn't be here ifI lived the lifestyle that the first restaurant

(27:34):
was generating, or the second orthe third. I want to be so
I want my income, my personalincome to be very insignificant impact to the
to the financials, to the balancesheet, to the income statement, because
there's no there's only one way togrow, and that's you're either going to
spend money that doesn't grow on thingsthat doesn't grow, or and or are

(27:56):
you going to spend money that grows, going to invest money? And I've
always when I would do deals,the second, third, fourth, fifth,
and on, I put so muchequity into that project that our debt
service is so low that we couldweather literally any storm. But unfortunately most
operators, most people, they'll liveup to their means. No matter what

(28:19):
their means are, they just keepliving up to it. And that's why
they can't seem to get ahead.Because you have to have that cushion for
a rainy day, but mostly togrow. You want that money to grow.
You want the money to work foryou. You don't want to have
to work for the money. Andso it's just been a habit that I
you know, when you lose ahouse, when you lose a vehicle,
when you get humbled, you justhave a different mindset, a different way

(28:42):
of looking at things, and moneyis one of them. So it's just
something that's that's played in wealth toour growth. I can say that even
my son who is a warrant NBA, they teach them different things at school,
and they teach a lot about debt. And although there has to be
a healthy balance, and I haveto be here too and sure that that
continues. At the end of theday, I only want to borrow what

(29:03):
I need to borrow, and nota penny more. But you do need
to borrow to grow. I gota notice from Russell yesterday or the day
before, Hey, look at this. Dane Berson, who owns Accurate Meter
and Supply, had bought eight copiesof the book to give out to staff
and friends. And I've heard fromother of our show sponsors, Hey,

(29:25):
I just bought ten books. I'mgiving them away and I just I think
that is fantastic and it is everythingwe stand for, which is supporting other
people in their ventures. It comesback around being supportive, supporting a good
message, doing your part, ratherthan sitting idly by. Who's going to
buy the book, Who's going toshare it? How's how's the message going

(29:45):
to get out? Your tenth chapter? And the final is live by the
Golden Rule? And by that youdon't mean who who has to go make
the rules? Why is that lessonimportant to you? One of the one
of the books I've read years ago, the Law of Success and sixteen Lessons
by Napoleon Hill. The sixteenth Blessingwas lived by the Golden Rule, and

(30:07):
Napoleon Hill talks about, you know, we know the golden rule as doing
to others as you would have themdoing to you. And that is the
golden rule in a nutshell, Butreally it begins prior to that. It
begins at the moment you release athought. And I truly believe that everything
you do too and for another person, you're actually doing two and for yourself.

(30:29):
So that's why when I interact withanyone, I don't care who they
are, where they're at. Itreat them exactly the way I want to
be treated. No matter if they'rerude to me, I still treat them
the way I want to be treated. And I think that's so important and
it's helped me tremendously over the years. Tremendously. I couldn't say enough about
the golden rule. But it's reallyit's your mindset. It's how you think

(30:49):
toward others. It's how you thinktoward others. Whether I want to offer
a couple of comments on my observationon your success in business in life,
because there are a few things thatbecome clear. People who are highly successful
as measured by finances, number ofemployees, size of the company, scope

(31:11):
of the company, scale of thecompany, I notice are often frenzied,
frenetic, beleaguered. They don't seemto be enjoying what we would call their
success. But one of the thingsI notice about you is that you're very
calm, very measured. You dotake care of your health. You go

(31:33):
to bed early, which we makefun of you for on our trips.
You regularly exercise, You're careful whatyou put into your body, with some
indulgence of a good dessert on occasion. How important are those things, your
physical health and your mental health tocontinuing to be the leader of a big
organization. Well, they all tieinto each other. So yeah, one

(31:56):
affects the other, and you haveto be the I mean, at the
end of the day, people dolook at me and they do pay attention
to what I say, and sowords are very very important. I grew
up in a family of eight andfor whatever reason, being me and to

(32:17):
each other or cutting each other downwas kind of like a sport back when
you're young. But it's detrimental,it's not good. And so words are
important, so you have to choosethem carefully when you're speaking to people.
And you know, I cannot touchevery guest that walks through our doors at
the twenty plus locations, but Ican touch the people around me, and

(32:37):
hopefully that trickles down to that table, and at the end of the day,
that's how you run a business fromthe top down. And although I
will say that nothing happens except fromthe bottom up, I respect our dishwashers,
our bussers, our cooks, ourbartenders. Everyone is so important.
And I just I'm just extremely gratefulthat they've chose Gringos for their place of

(32:58):
employment, because again, there's plentyof places to go work, but you
compete by how you treat everyone,and I think that's given us a competitive
advantage over the years. How elsedo you carve out a niche and in
such a competitive market as Houston withtex mex And and and I mean,
we've done it very methodically, butit's it's it's happened, and here we
are, and and only we canmess it up at this point. And

(33:22):
I don't think my team will allowme to do it, and I'm not
going to allow them to do it. So here we are. If you
can hang with me, well goahead, no, go ahead, go
ahead. I did not get achance to get into a couple of things
that are important that I think peoplecan take away from your life, including

(33:43):
why you have a pastor on staff, and your upbringing, your father Eugene
and his life and his physical disabilityand how that, how that led to
how one door closing opened another.I think those are I think those are
inspiring stories. And we had somelistener emails, So if you can hang
with me just a bit longer,I'd like to continue our conversation. Russell

(34:05):
Levara is our guest. He's theauthor of Enchilada Entrepreneur, Ten lessons in
life and business from the founder ofa successful text mes restaurant, and he's
the founder of gringostexmechs dot com,among other things, which is where you
can buy the book. Say tuned, I can use Wells dreamsack of margarite

(34:29):
if I'm not bad with the Tahino