My next guest is Michael Schulson. The Schulson Collective restaurant is his vision has made him one of Philadelphia's most successful hospitality professionals. We will be discussing his career, how COVID-19 has affected his restaurant businesses, how has the Collective made adjustments during these times? What is the future of the restaurant business post-COVID-19? When most people were gaining weight during COVID-19. Michael lost 35 pounds in less than three months. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Michael Schulson.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions in ocasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.
You know. He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and
industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's
what he likes to share. Now it's time to hear
(00:25):
from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here we go.
Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host from Sean McDonald,
and it's time to stop reading other people's success stories
and really start writing your own. Now you can be
motivated by their success because their stories can offer direction
and help you reach your goals through their planning. Now
remember this is their planning that we're talking about. You
(00:46):
have to realize that they are different from you, and
that's the only way you're gonna be successful. My interviews
provide the consumer and business owner, which is you access
to celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. My next
kicks is my co Scholson. The Showson collected. That's what
we're gonna talk about today is a restaurant empire that's
built in his vision and has made him want of
(01:06):
Philadelphia's most successful hospitality professionals. We also discussed COVID nineteen.
When you're in the restaurant business, you have to bring
up that whole thing. But most importantly we're to talk
about he's made these business adjustments because we're hear about
it on the news. You can hear about how the
you know, social distancing, limiting and sometimes even shutting down
service in the restaurant business has been overtly affected by
(01:29):
COVID ninteen. But more importantly, during this period of COVID
nineteen where everybody in the world, including me, was gaining weight,
Michael decided it was time to lose thirty five hounds.
So we're gonna learn about that, and he did it
in less than three months. So please welcome to Michael
Money Making Conversations. My good friend, Michael Scholtzon. How you doing, Michael,
good good, Thanks for having me on. How are you
doing well? You know, you know, I'm a big I'm
(01:51):
a big restaurant guy. Really, let me get personal a
little bit about COVID ninteen and uh, my wife, I
have a wife, and I have a lovely daughter who's
wrapping up a college years and you know, at these
once or twice a week, we will always go to
one of our favorite restaurants and COVID hit and uh
it just like the world, it flipped us all and
gave us a new approach to the whole business. Actor.
(02:12):
In fact, my wife still will not go to an
all door restaurant. And she still you know, we can
do take away, take out and curveside, but she will
not go in the restaurant. And with that, I was
just want to open up the whole journey of being
shut down, if you can share with us the shock
of how COVID ain'teen and how you kind of built
your way out of it and started to read I guess,
(02:33):
I guess reassessing a new way of doing business moving
forward with your shows and collective empire. Yeah. So, so
when we first tarned about it, the thought process was like, Okay,
we're gonna have two or three weeks of something will
be shut down, um, and then we'll go from there
and see how it goes. And unfortunately three weeks has
(02:53):
turned into two over a year now, so where every
day it's kind of a new lesson and we're gonna
do and we're big into setting goals for ourselves here
as a company. The first goal was to make sure
to just take care of everyone, to be safe and
set up systems where people felt comfortable, whether it was
coming to work, whether they didn't have food and they
(03:14):
needed food, whatever our resources were. Is to take care
of the employees. And that was kind of the beginning,
and as we kind of progress through the process, it
was Okay, we kind of see this is it's not
gonna be a money making thing, unfortunately. It's about survival
and getting to the other side. And we kind of
put in some goals for ourselves if what does it
(03:35):
look like for us when we get to the other side.
The biggest goal that we put in there was to
have the best people that we could possibly have working
for us, and that has kind of been our our
whole theme during this. We've hired some new people, we've
hired some better people. Um. The good thing about this, unfortunately,
is unemployment. You think about what the unemployment rate was
(03:57):
going into this and now what it is. The other
side of it, and if we could hire good people
to come out of this, we're going to be a
better company at the end than when we were when
we started. And that's kind of what our goal has been.
It really is, because you know there are a lot
of them. I'm not trying to get any financials or
anything like that. He's just talking about the attitude and
the approach to this because when I invite people on
(04:19):
money making conversation, not just want other people to know
that other people, whether it's successful or they're small individual entrepreneurs,
they were impacted by COVID eighteen. And we all have
different stories and how we will impact it also affects
how we can be successful. Now from a personal standpoint,
can you walk us through those steps how you and
your and your immediate family was dealing with COVID nineteen
(04:42):
before you can go back to the first first it was,
I mean our immediate family when we were in knee
deeperness was employees um and now we're down to about
we're back up to about five now and our goalege
to get again right UM. So it was to protect
everybody and make everyone feel safe and to getting of this.
We were opening up a couple of the restaurants and
(05:03):
giving away food to the staff for freeze, so this
way they could take it home and give it to
their families and feed their families. So that was the
first step of trying to make sure everyone has a
place to go, in place to eat. Um. And then
as we got through this, it was with our family.
It was we have two boys fourteen years old and
ten years old, UM, and it was making sure that
they felt comfortable and we were being safe and wearing
(05:25):
your mask and understanding the importance of this and getting
out to the other side and not becoming computer zombies
and dealing with electronics every day. And it was entertaining
them and and keeping busy and doing our thing together
as a family. And we made a lot of bread,
we made a lot of pizza. It was kind of
things that would take us a long time. I mean,
I think red was that thing that's like red could
(05:47):
be a three day process between the starter, letting it
rest and letting it rise and breaking it down and
baking it. So it kept us busy. But but after
a while we said, like, what are we doing here.
We're just gonna get into this run of figuring it
out or are we gonna have a purpose. And I'm
definitely a person about purpose. Usually it's let's open a restaurant.
This is our goal. Uh, let's get it going. We're
(06:10):
gonna open the next one. So you can't, unfortunately, do
that during this time, So the purpose shifted to the
family and shifted to myself of I'm gonna eat better,
I'm gonna exercise, I'm gonna take care of myself. Um,
and we're gonna work together as a family to make
sure that we're playing some board games, doing puzzles and
all that stuff to entertain ourselves and not get caught
up in depression and electronics. I would tell you this, Michael. Uh.
(06:34):
You know when it when I like you, like all
of America, when the COVID and eighteen hid and just
not going anywhere, it's going to change the way we
we have handled a lot of hygiens publicly and privately.
Moving forward, I know I would always approach things differently.
I don't think I would hug strangers like I used
to come close to people that I don't know, even
people I do know. I'll be cautious in my behavior.
(06:56):
But as a leader, you know, we all look for guidance,
we all And you're a leader, A leader of a
successful collective is based out of the restaurant collective is
based out of Philadelphia. And were you one of those uh,
one of those proud towels? You know there's out there
a success story. I should say, how did that really
affect you emotionally? When you say did you get into
(07:16):
or why me? Why now? Are you just look? I'm
never that guy. I mean I'm not I'm not a
pity guy. Nobody wants to be that pitty guy. Nobody
wants to be around that pitty guy. Nobody pity doesn't
get you success right fighting through it. And I think
one of the greatest quotes I've got it it was
Um said, the best thing that you could do during
(07:38):
adversity is the right thing. The second best thing that
you could do is the wrong thing, And the worst
thing that you could do is nothing. And I think
that was kind of our message to live by. Let's
try and do the right thing. If it's the wrong thing,
then we'll readjust and do something else. But we're not
gonna sit around do nothing and have a pity party
(08:01):
and just sit here and go life stinks. Um, we're
all dealing with it. It was the reality of the situation.
COVID is terrible. It's not fun. Nobody's having fun. It's
a nightmare. But how do you adjust your life to survive?
Not just to survive, but you kind of have to
try and thrive through it. And my wife and I
would like to travel a lot, and we like to
(08:22):
ski and do things and with the kids and be
outside and take trips and all that stuff. And what
have we done, Like I'm not a camping guy, but
we started to go to airbnbs and go camping up
state New York. And we stayed in a York for
the first time in my life, which I never thought
I would do. We stayed on a farm, which I
never thought I would do. But to do these things
(08:43):
and just figure out how to live your life. I mean,
we just drove to Bramant. The longest car out I
ever did in my life was three hours. We just
drove eight hours with two kids in the back. I
got a hitch on the back of my car, which
I never thought I would do. I mean, my friends
are laughing at me. But you know what you have
to adjust to, like get through this, not just survive
and have a pity part. And I laughed because I
(09:05):
was an old school road comic when I was out,
when I left ib AM to pursue a left IBM
to be a standard comedian, and I was on the road,
so I know about those uh eight ten hour joints
and then, but I didn't have two kids in the back, okay.
And that's the different story of the restaurant. The restaurant.
The restaurant stops. You know, when you can go from
four or five hours, they want to stop, they want
(09:25):
to complain, And I think that's what it's about. It's
about it's about persevering and getting to the other side.
And UM have goals. I mean, what am I gonna
sit here and yell at the gun? I mean, you can't.
We can't sit here. Everyone wants to yell at the
cities or the states or or the federal government. You're
not doing enough, You're not doing this, you're not doing that.
(09:46):
And I'm not going to suggest that I disagree or agree.
What I am gonna tell you is the only person
who could control what you do is you you. And
that's kind of the goal, is to get control what
you could do, do the best of your ability, and
don't sit there at the end of the day going
I wish I would have. Right, Really, I'm talking to
(10:08):
Michael Schultzen the Shows and Collected with restaurant chain, which
is based out of It's a chain because he has
a lot. It's not like a burger king because he
had a lot of different restaurants. Let's talk about the
whole creative process of doing so many different styles and
not being a chain. Well, you know, we going one location,
you get the same thing. Why the versatility, Why the
different approaches to these different restaurants. You know, some people
(10:30):
will call me an idiot for doing it. I don't
have it figured out. It's like you figure out the
business model, you like, put it in a box, and
then you do it again and again and again and again,
and it's just like right across level Field and they
nail it. Um the US creative people and people who
(10:51):
have passionate about what we do in terms of creating
something that's unique and different. That's why we do this.
We we just have this passion of creating an experience
and we like I like to say it transports the
customer to a different place and they feel special. And
I think that that's why COVID has been so hard,
(11:12):
is people don't feel like they're being transported anymore. It
doesn't feel like it's this unique experience. And that's what
we like to do and here here at the collective.
And I think the thing that people miss often is
the concept doesn't come first. The space comes first. And
you can look at a space and it doesn't speak
to a pub, it doesn't speak to a French restaurant.
(11:33):
So you kind of have to see the space. You
look around, you see what you feel. You come up
with these ideas and then it's like okay, then you
plug away and figure out what's next. But each one
has a different uh you know, profit margin or profit
and loss margin. So that's what I guess when people say, okay, hi,
how can you define success when you know you can
put stake restaurant has a different uh profit margin versus
(11:56):
a Chinese restaurant. I'm just using an example or text
mex restaurant and all this property margin different. How do
you balance that? Michael? Look, I think you have to
take each one individually. Um. I think sometimes some of
the things that that's more challenging is the smaller the restaurant,
the harder it is to create a larger profit margin,
which people don't realize. But the other difficulty with that
(12:19):
is in order to do a bigger restaurant, you need
to raise more capital. So it's like that double edged
sort of do I raise more capital and money that
I have to pay off via returns or am I
raising less money the returns are lower? So yeah, you
kind of have to figure it out that way. And
you want to balance it. I mean, if you're nobody,
I mean people talking about it to get into politics.
(12:41):
But people talk about like, Okay, we're gonna raise the
tax rates, we're gonna raise minimum wage, we're gonna raise
all that stuff. And I always say, to people who
want to get in this conversation, let's not kid ourselves.
People who are in business, who are operating, say at
a ten percent margin, if they raise taxes and they
raise employment, pay roll, and they raise all that stuff,
(13:04):
we're not gonna operate a two. We're gonna still operate
a tem per cent and something is gonna be cut
if you want to raise minimum wage to fifteen dollars
an hour, like okay, But but let's be realistic, like
you're not gonna have two employees to do that job.
You're gonna have one employee to do or the guests
is gonna have to pay twice as much to get
(13:25):
that food. The the operator or the business person or
owner isn't gonna let it hit their pockets totally. Now,
when we talk about the whole process, because in my mind,
you know, for a restaurant business, like because you're not
a casual restaurant business, you know, and so the whole
take out of the whole curve side experience wasn't part
(13:47):
of the business model before COVID nineteen. How is that
settling into your business model? Now? Look, I think I
think for us our business model is there is design service, Yeah,
lighting which creates this beautiful ambiance okay. Um, you have music,
which creates this other piece of the ambiance okay, and
(14:11):
then you have food. Okay. So if you take all
of those pieces, those five pieces, the only one that
you could put in a box is food. So if
you think about a business model of like, only one
fifth of the things that we do well can translate
to a house and that's not even going to translate
into the house as well. It's a really difficult situation
(14:33):
for us. So I mean it's pivoting in terms of UM,
what what we put into that box, the type of
box that we use. UM. But honestly, like we we
haven't made a huge push to get into that takeout
delivery because I just think that it really destroys the brand.
And as you know, it's like you, your brand is
(14:55):
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E r Ai. Well, you know it's really uh. I
have to agree with you, Michael. You know, it was
just so my wife and I we have a favorite restaurant.
We tell your restaurant we go to, and of course
she doesn't want to go in the restaurant, so we did.
We did curbside, and we when we picked it up
and and brought it home again and for the second
time in a row, it didn't taste like the experience
(17:21):
that we had in the restaurant. And I had to
tell her last like, hey, you know, when we get it,
it's usually warmer, you know, usually dealing with a nice atmosphere.
We're having a conversation, there's a lot of people around.
It feels, you know, like you're saying, I have to
agree with your Michael, because a lot of things go
goes into the food experience. Sometimes people want the romance,
(17:41):
Sometimes people want the the music, the loudness, the activity.
I'm an activity guy. I like I like to walk
into a bustling. I like to play with the waiter
or waitress, you know, I'd like to have a relationship
with that person. And I like to be around people
who are talking, and that's lost if you do a
curbside so so. But it all comes back to the food.
(18:03):
The food did not taste like the same experience I
have when I go into that restaurant. It's one of
our favorite restaurants. And that's all you're saying right now, Richard.
We can do that, but stuffing's gonna be missing. And
you don't want to be victimized by the missing part
of saying your food quality has changed all the experiences
you think about it. You look at the food. It
comes out on a plate, right, you're doing anything to
(18:26):
and you don't have to clean it up. You have
great music, you have great lighting, you have great ambiance,
you're in energy. Like all of those pieces are part
of the puzzle. When you take that, you have to
literally get in your car, you drive to the place,
you get home, you take it out, you open it up.
It doesn't look as good as it looked on a plate.
You have to put it on a plate. You have
to get your silverware out, your kids are yelling and
(18:48):
screaming because they're hungry, like something has missed, something's not
at your disposal. It's just like the whole process is
just lost. And by the time you eat the food,
you're like, yeah, this isn't working for me right, And
it's you know, first of all, you you're hit so
many positive nerves would be right now because I experienced
this last night, Michael, and I'm going like, I put
(19:08):
the pepper on the pizza, I put the power Jian,
and again it was you know, I pulled up. I'm
setting it up myself. So I've lost some of the
ambiance because I'm doing all the work. And you know
for a fact, when you do all the work, you're
gonna do it or whatever style, whatever, just whatever gets
the job done, you're gonna do it. You've lost all
standards of servers for yourself. And that that's really funny
(19:31):
because like I said when I when I pushed the idea,
and I'm always talking to different people about how they
are trying to be successful with their business, but you're
the first person I've talked to that really hit a
button with me, that said, ri shot. The problem you're
having is that curb side work, but you lost the
experience when your turn affected high and enjoyed the food. Yeah,
(19:52):
I mean, I mean, I say to my business partners,
and I'm a chef. Okay, I've been cooking my whole life.
I went to culinary school. I worked in restaurants, some
of the top restaurants in America. I work in Japan.
Blah blah blah. Okay, there's three elements to a restaurant. Okay.
There's food, there's service, and there's design. Okay, I'm gonna
(20:13):
ask you this question. I'm a chef. What's the most
important piece in my mind? Food? To me? No design?
What's the second most important in my mind? I'm a chef. Well,
when when you say design, service, and I'm gonna tell
you food is third. And I'm gonna tell you why
you're walking through a design service dan food, design service,
(20:37):
food and that on walking to a restaurant. It's the
most beautiful restaurant in the world. It's fun. There's like
three people in there. You're having a great time. It's energetic.
The hospitality is off the charts. We're like, oh my god,
like I'm playing with this server. The server was awesome.
I'm having such a great time. I'm smiling. You get
the food, you're with your friends, You're like, it's okay,
(20:59):
it's okay. You walk out, You're like, Wow, I had
a great time. My place was good looking, it was fun,
it was awesome. Okay, are you going back? Wow? You
know're going back? This is where I'm called of right now, Michael,
because you hit me in the jaw right now, because
I lost the design and I lost the service when
(21:23):
I did curve side and and guess what, I don't
want to do that anymore. I don't want to go
back and have that experience because I don't know. So
so it's left a bad taste in my mom because
it's happened two times in a row. So, so you're
fighting for that. Has it been successful for you? Look,
it's nothing is successful right now. I mean, to be
(21:45):
the definition of success is survival and getting to the
other side. Uh, we're not. I mean, our food isn't
doesn't translate into takeout most of our restaurants. I mean,
the only one that we have that really works for
takeout that people get take out of is sushi. I'm
if you think about take out, it's like we want
some pizza, we want some sushi, we want some burgers. Like,
(22:06):
if you confine dining Italian restaurant, you're never going to
compete with the local Italian place that does chicken farm
for twelve dollars, So like why why try and compete
with them? Like it's just gonna lose. It's a losing mob.
So you know, when you're talking about ambiance, you talked
about the experience, You talked about servers, your your time
you spend in Japan, talked to us about that because
(22:26):
it seems like it shaped a lot of your vues.
So so for me, living in Japan was just the
most amazing experience. I worked at the Spotto over there
in the four seasons, and it wasn't necessarily about working
in those restaurants. To me, it was about understanding the culture.
And once you understand culture of what something is, you
(22:47):
could create something here in the States that that feels authentic.
And I think that's what people are really looking for
in today's society. They want something that feels authentic, um
and not like it's contrived or made up, or or
just or Disney World or something they wanted to feel authentic, um,
and that's probably what we do really well, and I
(23:09):
think it's really important to us as a business. Well
it works for me. Now, before we got on there,
I brought up the fact that, uh, you know, doing
COVID hit. You know, I'm at the house and my
wife is asking me what I want for breakfast, what
I want for lunch, And I'm gonna tell you, I'm
a kind of a one and a half meal a
day guy. So finally I was eating a breakfast and
(23:30):
then a lunch and a dinner, and all of a
sudden I realized I was gaining weight, and I went,
hold up, hold holdo, hold on, hold on. We gotta
cut out one of these meals. So I got rid
of the because usually what I do, Michael, I get up,
I get up at four o'clock Monday to Friday, get
up at four o'clock, and so usually I eat about
ten and eleven o'clock. And she had me eating about
(23:51):
eight o'clock in the morning, and she came back with
another meal a right noontime, and then she wrapped up
the third beal about six o'clock. Now, then I switched
the story, because here you are about to embarrass me,
because is that a gaining weight? You lost thirty five
pounds and three months during the COVID, it's COVID timeline.
Let's talk about what made you do that and what
(24:12):
was the motivation. Did you gave weight and you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
I'm gonna lose weight. What was the motivation? Yeah? So
so for me, it's we do restaurants, and we're opening
a lot of restaurants, and in restaurants, you're obviously tasting
tons of food every day. So when I'm able to
eliminate the tasting of food, that was just a huge
starter for me. The other pieces pre COVID. I mean
(24:33):
we had we had fourteen restaurants, we were looking open more,
we were we were burning it all hours of the day,
and finding time to go to the gym was just
a nightmare. So I started to eat well, I ate
the right foods, I stopped the tastings. I started to
exercise more. UM and it was figuring out. I mean,
everyone has these diets that are like they're literally like
(24:54):
this um, Like I'm gonna do with this juice in
the morning, and I'm gonna start myself and then gonna
eat at night, like everyone has something for me. It
was finding something where it's just like eating well, eating
at the right times, and exercising. And the key keeping
in there is the exercising as long as you're exercising.
And I'm not a big runner. I don't enjoy running.
(25:16):
I find it exhausting. So I would literally do a
mile on the treadmill in the morning, and then I
would do a mile on the treadmill at night. I
put some weights in there and I was good to go.
So you you work out like me? That's me now
with somehow my show has become a nice haven for
to talk to shifts. So the Rocko comes on my show, Uh,
(25:37):
Donna Teller comes on my show, and just to name
a few, Sammy Soon comes on my show, and now
you on my show. When I get the word eat whale, see,
I need to define to me what does that mean
when you say eating whale? Eating well to me is clean.
I think it's it's for breakfast. I think it's eating
some yogurt, some berries, period, and the end of conversation,
(25:59):
having a coffee and not putting creamer in there and
sugars in there, like I put a little non dairy
creamer in there five for launch. It's like having a
nice salad, maybe you cheating on some dressing. Have a
grilled piece of chicken, have some grilled shrimp, doing whatever
you want dinnertime, having normal meal, having a normal meal,
have some carbohydrates, have some vegetables, have some fruits. But
(26:19):
to me, eating well is like you're eating a little cleaner.
You're not depriving yourself. Your portion size as normal, meaning
like you're not having sixty announces of steak, you're having
six to eight, and you're not eating past eight o'clock.
It depends on what time you go to bed, but
like seven or eight o'clock should be in. Yes, Like
if you're done at seven eight o'clock, give up the
(26:40):
bag of potaty chips, give up the sweets, give up
the sugars. Like I guarantee you you will lose weight. Well,
you know I naturally drink a lot of water. We're
not getting into it. I know, you know died expert Michael,
but you know we're talking about losing weight. So thirty
five and three muths you kind of you kind of
(27:02):
leveling into a diet expert range, and you like to
say what and as you want to naturally. But I'm
a big dessert guy. I I eat by dessert before
my meals, and it's dunes people. I go to the restaurant.
I come to a restaurant and say, excuse me, can
you give me the dissert menu before I start arguing
my meal. I'm that guy. I'm that guy and so
so a person like me who enjoys desserts. What does
(27:23):
that play out in your menu world? In your restaurant world?
Am I gonna come to your restaurant, Michael and be like, man,
you got the dessert from me? Or you more of
an you can't. This is the problem with all diets, right.
Everyone wants to go on this extreme diet like you
can't stop eating, like if they give you a cho
I mean, you go to these restaurants and these restaurants
(27:46):
are enough for three people, and people are eating the
whole cake. So it's like eat the cake. Just just
have a piece of it. Have a piece of the cake.
Every day. I have a piece of chocolate. Like, chocolate
is good for you, jocol it's not bad. Your berries
are not bad for you. Some real ice cream is
not bad for you have it, but you don't need
a pint of ice cream, a cap like a box
(28:08):
of cookies and a bag of the readers like you're
just that's not what you need right right. But I
am a guy that I will tell you, Mike, I'm
a guy that you know. I think I've accidentally uh
eating correctly because I'm a guy. I ordered three different things,
but I won't complete the meal, so I called myself
a sampler, you know. I was sample this dessert or
(28:29):
a sample that that that appetizer, or that sample that meal.
You know. But I'm a big bread guy. I love
bread to death. I bread this type of corn bread.
I love that. I love veggies. But these are things,
like I said, I just accidentally eat, which I guess
in a way allows me to maintain someone healthy lifestyle.
But I drink a lot of water. Like you said,
(28:51):
you held up your bottle of water. But I want
to transition to because you do a lot of uh.
You've hosted several competitions and these and I'm a big
fan of Coppet Issue show with Michael and so. But
there's always some uh winner and a loser winner losing.
How do you handle that? In the judging process because
you know the decision that you make. You can't ultimately
(29:14):
tell somebody to walk away from walk off the show. Listen.
I teach my kids at a young age like as
look like work your ass off, practice, try hard, and
like if you're good enough, you're gonna win, and if
there's somebody better than you, they're gonna lose. And when
you're judging, it's kind of like, look like you're either winner,
you lose. I mean this whole thing where everybody gets
(29:35):
a trophy today and like, kids come home and you
came in last place and you got a trophy, Like
like it's b s. It's not teaching people to be
able to lose. People ask me all the time you
play games with the kids, like do you lose on purpose? No,
I'm not gonna lose on purpose. Why would I do that?
You need to teach them like practice, practice, practice, Like
(29:56):
when you do all of those things, you'll figure it out.
And it's the same thing with cooking. It's like there
are gonna be people who are better than me of
cooking and you may lose, but it is what it is.
And and look, one of the biggest one of the
questions that I always ask you in interviews that has
to do with that is what do you not allow
in your life? Is it harder for you? Is it
(30:17):
which is true? For you? I hate to lose or
I love to win? And for me, the answer is
I hate to lose lose. Losing is just not an answer,
like I expect to win. So winning when I win,
it's like, Okay, let me get up again and play again,
let me play again. But when I lose, I'm furious.
(30:38):
And I think that's kind of just a mentality of people.
Before we go, I want to talk about you have
a new restaurant concept opening in Philadelphic called Midtown Village.
Tell us about that and why now? Yeah, so we're
so so it's interesting and you spoke about what happens
during COVID. I mean there's there's a lot of restaurants
that are going out of business. I think our business
model used to be take space and build out a restaurant.
(31:01):
It would cost us a thousands of fifteen hundred dollars
of square foot to build it out. Now our business
model is shifted. We could give restaurants that have clothes,
and we could spend three hundreds of five hundreds of
square foot on some really good opportunities. Because COVID is
gonna be over, We're going to get to the other side.
So here are some opportunities that we have, and one
(31:23):
of them is it's in an area called Midtown Village.
It's gonna be uh the name isn't known yet, We're
not sure the name, but it's gonna be a boutique
pizza place, brick up and pizza with some uh lots
of seasonal vegetables, seasonal pass and stuff like that. So
is it more casual dining? Yeah, definitely more casual. I
think that that's kind of where people are going right
(31:44):
now in terms of the COVID. I'm not looking to
do any fancy, high end restaurants right now, but if
you could get some casual places in now, Like I
think we're good. Cool and Michael, thank you man for
coming on my to make conversations. I hope you come
back for I don't know if I want you coming
back skinnier though, Mike Thirt, can we stay there? I
appreciate you man, enjoy yourself, and I definitely tell them
(32:06):
Sinse I come to Philadelphia a lot because I represents
Steven A. Smithler. We always in that area in New Jersey,
New York area, and I love to drop by. So
if up, okay, okay, appreciate your Michael, stay strong. Michael
Scholton of the Shawson Collective, the based in Philadelphia, got
a new property developing in the Midtown Village area. I
want thank you for coming on the show. I'm with
(32:28):
Sean McDonald, I am your host. Thank you. In this
season of giving, Coals has gifts for all your loved ones.
For those who like to keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
blankets and throws, or support minority owned or founded brands
by giving gifts from Human Nation and Shame Moisture. And
(32:49):
in the spirit of giving, Coals Cares is donating eight
million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your
heart this season with great gifts from Coals or coals
dot Com. Still living in manually taking notes, there is
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(33:11):
Sign up on the web for free or download in
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E R dot Ai. At ADP, we work with more
than eight hundred sixty thousand companies worldwide. That gives us
a pretty good idea of how to help businesses grow stronger,
whether it's through data insights that help you make informed
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(33:32):
or by keeping you ahead of thousands of changing regulations
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time and payroll
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions in ocasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.
You know. He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and
industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's
what he likes to share. Now it's time to hear
(00:25):
from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here we go.
Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I'm your host from Sean McDonald,
and it's time to stop reading other people's success stories
and really start writing your own. Now you can be
motivated by their success because their stories can offer direction
and help you reach your goals through their planning. Now
remember this is their planning that we're talking about. You
(00:46):
have to realize that they are different from you, and
that's the only way you're gonna be successful. My interviews
provide the consumer and business owner, which is you access
to celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. My next
kicks is my co Scholson. The Showson collected. That's what
we're gonna talk about today is a restaurant empire that's
built in his vision and has made him want of
(01:06):
Philadelphia's most successful hospitality professionals. We also discussed COVID nineteen.
When you're in the restaurant business, you have to bring
up that whole thing. But most importantly we're to talk
about he's made these business adjustments because we're hear about
it on the news. You can hear about how the
you know, social distancing, limiting and sometimes even shutting down
service in the restaurant business has been overtly affected by
(01:29):
COVID ninteen. But more importantly, during this period of COVID
nineteen where everybody in the world, including me, was gaining weight,
Michael decided it was time to lose thirty five hounds.
So we're gonna learn about that, and he did it
in less than three months. So please welcome to Michael
Money Making Conversations. My good friend, Michael Scholtzon. How you doing, Michael,
good good, Thanks for having me on. How are you
doing well? You know, you know, I'm a big I'm
(01:51):
a big restaurant guy. Really, let me get personal a
little bit about COVID ninteen and uh, my wife, I
have a wife, and I have a lovely daughter who's
wrapping up a college years and you know, at these
once or twice a week, we will always go to
one of our favorite restaurants and COVID hit and uh
it just like the world, it flipped us all and
gave us a new approach to the whole business. Actor.
(02:12):
In fact, my wife still will not go to an
all door restaurant. And she still you know, we can
do take away, take out and curveside, but she will
not go in the restaurant. And with that, I was
just want to open up the whole journey of being
shut down, if you can share with us the shock
of how COVID ain'teen and how you kind of built
your way out of it and started to read I guess,
(02:33):
I guess reassessing a new way of doing business moving
forward with your shows and collective empire. Yeah. So, so
when we first tarned about it, the thought process was like, Okay,
we're gonna have two or three weeks of something will
be shut down, um, and then we'll go from there
and see how it goes. And unfortunately three weeks has
(02:53):
turned into two over a year now, so where every
day it's kind of a new lesson and we're gonna
do and we're big into setting goals for ourselves here
as a company. The first goal was to make sure
to just take care of everyone, to be safe and
set up systems where people felt comfortable, whether it was
coming to work, whether they didn't have food and they
(03:14):
needed food, whatever our resources were. Is to take care
of the employees. And that was kind of the beginning,
and as we kind of progress through the process, it
was Okay, we kind of see this is it's not
gonna be a money making thing, unfortunately. It's about survival
and getting to the other side. And we kind of
put in some goals for ourselves if what does it
(03:35):
look like for us when we get to the other side.
The biggest goal that we put in there was to
have the best people that we could possibly have working
for us, and that has kind of been our our
whole theme during this. We've hired some new people, we've
hired some better people. Um. The good thing about this, unfortunately,
is unemployment. You think about what the unemployment rate was
(03:57):
going into this and now what it is. The other
side of it, and if we could hire good people
to come out of this, we're going to be a
better company at the end than when we were when
we started. And that's kind of what our goal has been.
It really is, because you know there are a lot
of them. I'm not trying to get any financials or
anything like that. He's just talking about the attitude and
the approach to this because when I invite people on
(04:19):
money making conversation, not just want other people to know
that other people, whether it's successful or they're small individual entrepreneurs,
they were impacted by COVID eighteen. And we all have
different stories and how we will impact it also affects
how we can be successful. Now from a personal standpoint,
can you walk us through those steps how you and
your and your immediate family was dealing with COVID nineteen
(04:42):
before you can go back to the first first it was,
I mean our immediate family when we were in knee
deeperness was employees um and now we're down to about
we're back up to about five now and our goalege
to get again right UM. So it was to protect
everybody and make everyone feel safe and to getting of this.
We were opening up a couple of the restaurants and
(05:03):
giving away food to the staff for freeze, so this
way they could take it home and give it to
their families and feed their families. So that was the
first step of trying to make sure everyone has a
place to go, in place to eat. Um. And then
as we got through this, it was with our family.
It was we have two boys fourteen years old and
ten years old, UM, and it was making sure that
they felt comfortable and we were being safe and wearing
(05:25):
your mask and understanding the importance of this and getting
out to the other side and not becoming computer zombies
and dealing with electronics every day. And it was entertaining
them and and keeping busy and doing our thing together
as a family. And we made a lot of bread,
we made a lot of pizza. It was kind of
things that would take us a long time. I mean,
I think red was that thing that's like red could
(05:47):
be a three day process between the starter, letting it
rest and letting it rise and breaking it down and
baking it. So it kept us busy. But but after
a while we said, like, what are we doing here.
We're just gonna get into this run of figuring it
out or are we gonna have a purpose. And I'm
definitely a person about purpose. Usually it's let's open a restaurant.
This is our goal. Uh, let's get it going. We're
(06:10):
gonna open the next one. So you can't, unfortunately, do
that during this time, So the purpose shifted to the
family and shifted to myself of I'm gonna eat better,
I'm gonna exercise, I'm gonna take care of myself. Um,
and we're gonna work together as a family to make
sure that we're playing some board games, doing puzzles and
all that stuff to entertain ourselves and not get caught
up in depression and electronics. I would tell you this, Michael. Uh.
(06:34):
You know when it when I like you, like all
of America, when the COVID and eighteen hid and just
not going anywhere, it's going to change the way we
we have handled a lot of hygiens publicly and privately.
Moving forward, I know I would always approach things differently.
I don't think I would hug strangers like I used
to come close to people that I don't know, even
people I do know. I'll be cautious in my behavior.
(06:56):
But as a leader, you know, we all look for guidance,
we all And you're a leader, A leader of a
successful collective is based out of the restaurant collective is
based out of Philadelphia. And were you one of those uh,
one of those proud towels? You know there's out there
a success story. I should say, how did that really
affect you emotionally? When you say did you get into
(07:16):
or why me? Why now? Are you just look? I'm
never that guy. I mean I'm not I'm not a
pity guy. Nobody wants to be that pitty guy. Nobody
wants to be around that pitty guy. Nobody pity doesn't
get you success right fighting through it. And I think
one of the greatest quotes I've got it it was
Um said, the best thing that you could do during
(07:38):
adversity is the right thing. The second best thing that
you could do is the wrong thing, And the worst
thing that you could do is nothing. And I think
that was kind of our message to live by. Let's
try and do the right thing. If it's the wrong thing,
then we'll readjust and do something else. But we're not
gonna sit around do nothing and have a pity party
(08:01):
and just sit here and go life stinks. Um, we're
all dealing with it. It was the reality of the situation.
COVID is terrible. It's not fun. Nobody's having fun. It's
a nightmare. But how do you adjust your life to survive?
Not just to survive, but you kind of have to
try and thrive through it. And my wife and I
would like to travel a lot, and we like to
(08:22):
ski and do things and with the kids and be
outside and take trips and all that stuff. And what
have we done, Like I'm not a camping guy, but
we started to go to airbnbs and go camping up
state New York. And we stayed in a York for
the first time in my life, which I never thought
I would do. We stayed on a farm, which I
never thought I would do. But to do these things
(08:43):
and just figure out how to live your life. I mean,
we just drove to Bramant. The longest car out I
ever did in my life was three hours. We just
drove eight hours with two kids in the back. I
got a hitch on the back of my car, which
I never thought I would do. I mean, my friends
are laughing at me. But you know what you have
to adjust to, like get through this, not just survive
and have a pity part. And I laughed because I
(09:05):
was an old school road comic when I was out,
when I left ib AM to pursue a left IBM
to be a standard comedian, and I was on the road,
so I know about those uh eight ten hour joints
and then, but I didn't have two kids in the back, okay.
And that's the different story of the restaurant. The restaurant.
The restaurant stops. You know, when you can go from
four or five hours, they want to stop, they want
(09:25):
to complain, And I think that's what it's about. It's
about it's about persevering and getting to the other side.
And UM have goals. I mean, what am I gonna
sit here and yell at the gun? I mean, you can't.
We can't sit here. Everyone wants to yell at the
cities or the states or or the federal government. You're
not doing enough, You're not doing this, you're not doing that.
(09:46):
And I'm not going to suggest that I disagree or agree.
What I am gonna tell you is the only person
who could control what you do is you you. And
that's kind of the goal, is to get control what
you could do, do the best of your ability, and
don't sit there at the end of the day going
I wish I would have. Right, Really, I'm talking to
(10:08):
Michael Schultzen the Shows and Collected with restaurant chain, which
is based out of It's a chain because he has
a lot. It's not like a burger king because he
had a lot of different restaurants. Let's talk about the
whole creative process of doing so many different styles and
not being a chain. Well, you know, we going one location,
you get the same thing. Why the versatility, Why the
different approaches to these different restaurants. You know, some people
(10:30):
will call me an idiot for doing it. I don't
have it figured out. It's like you figure out the
business model, you like, put it in a box, and
then you do it again and again and again and again,
and it's just like right across level Field and they
nail it. Um the US creative people and people who
(10:51):
have passionate about what we do in terms of creating
something that's unique and different. That's why we do this.
We we just have this passion of creating an experience
and we like I like to say it transports the
customer to a different place and they feel special. And
I think that that's why COVID has been so hard,
(11:12):
is people don't feel like they're being transported anymore. It
doesn't feel like it's this unique experience. And that's what
we like to do and here here at the collective.
And I think the thing that people miss often is
the concept doesn't come first. The space comes first. And
you can look at a space and it doesn't speak
to a pub, it doesn't speak to a French restaurant.
(11:33):
So you kind of have to see the space. You
look around, you see what you feel. You come up
with these ideas and then it's like okay, then you
plug away and figure out what's next. But each one
has a different uh you know, profit margin or profit
and loss margin. So that's what I guess when people say, okay, hi,
how can you define success when you know you can
put stake restaurant has a different uh profit margin versus
(11:56):
a Chinese restaurant. I'm just using an example or text
mex restaurant and all this property margin different. How do
you balance that? Michael? Look, I think you have to
take each one individually. Um. I think sometimes some of
the things that that's more challenging is the smaller the restaurant,
the harder it is to create a larger profit margin,
which people don't realize. But the other difficulty with that
(12:19):
is in order to do a bigger restaurant, you need
to raise more capital. So it's like that double edged
sort of do I raise more capital and money that
I have to pay off via returns or am I
raising less money the returns are lower? So yeah, you
kind of have to figure it out that way. And
you want to balance it. I mean, if you're nobody,
I mean people talking about it to get into politics.
(12:41):
But people talk about like, Okay, we're gonna raise the
tax rates, we're gonna raise minimum wage, we're gonna raise
all that stuff. And I always say, to people who
want to get in this conversation, let's not kid ourselves.
People who are in business, who are operating, say at
a ten percent margin, if they raise taxes and they
raise employment, pay roll, and they raise all that stuff,
(13:04):
we're not gonna operate a two. We're gonna still operate
a tem per cent and something is gonna be cut
if you want to raise minimum wage to fifteen dollars
an hour, like okay, But but let's be realistic, like
you're not gonna have two employees to do that job.
You're gonna have one employee to do or the guests
is gonna have to pay twice as much to get
(13:25):
that food. The the operator or the business person or
owner isn't gonna let it hit their pockets totally. Now,
when we talk about the whole process, because in my mind,
you know, for a restaurant business, like because you're not
a casual restaurant business, you know, and so the whole
take out of the whole curve side experience wasn't part
(13:47):
of the business model before COVID nineteen. How is that
settling into your business model? Now? Look, I think I
think for us our business model is there is design service, Yeah,
lighting which creates this beautiful ambiance okay. Um, you have music,
which creates this other piece of the ambiance okay, and
(14:11):
then you have food. Okay. So if you take all
of those pieces, those five pieces, the only one that
you could put in a box is food. So if
you think about a business model of like, only one
fifth of the things that we do well can translate
to a house and that's not even going to translate
into the house as well. It's a really difficult situation
(14:33):
for us. So I mean it's pivoting in terms of UM,
what what we put into that box, the type of
box that we use. UM. But honestly, like we we
haven't made a huge push to get into that takeout
delivery because I just think that it really destroys the brand.
And as you know, it's like you, your brand is
(14:55):
is something that you could never recreate. Well, once you
get that negative opinion on that or that piece, that
you're screwed. It's finally here the season of celebration. And
no matter how you celebrate with family and friends, whether
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(15:16):
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(16:59):
E r Ai. Well, you know it's really uh. I
have to agree with you, Michael. You know, it was
just so my wife and I we have a favorite restaurant.
We tell your restaurant we go to, and of course
she doesn't want to go in the restaurant, so we did.
We did curbside, and we when we picked it up
and and brought it home again and for the second
time in a row, it didn't taste like the experience
(17:21):
that we had in the restaurant. And I had to
tell her last like, hey, you know, when we get it,
it's usually warmer, you know, usually dealing with a nice atmosphere.
We're having a conversation, there's a lot of people around.
It feels, you know, like you're saying, I have to
agree with your Michael, because a lot of things go
goes into the food experience. Sometimes people want the romance,
(17:41):
Sometimes people want the the music, the loudness, the activity.
I'm an activity guy. I like I like to walk
into a bustling. I like to play with the waiter
or waitress, you know, I'd like to have a relationship
with that person. And I like to be around people
who are talking, and that's lost if you do a
curbside so so. But it all comes back to the food.
(18:03):
The food did not taste like the same experience I
have when I go into that restaurant. It's one of
our favorite restaurants. And that's all you're saying right now, Richard.
We can do that, but stuffing's gonna be missing. And
you don't want to be victimized by the missing part
of saying your food quality has changed all the experiences
you think about it. You look at the food. It
comes out on a plate, right, you're doing anything to
(18:26):
and you don't have to clean it up. You have
great music, you have great lighting, you have great ambiance,
you're in energy. Like all of those pieces are part
of the puzzle. When you take that, you have to
literally get in your car, you drive to the place,
you get home, you take it out, you open it up.
It doesn't look as good as it looked on a plate.
You have to put it on a plate. You have
to get your silverware out, your kids are yelling and
(18:48):
screaming because they're hungry, like something has missed, something's not
at your disposal. It's just like the whole process is
just lost. And by the time you eat the food,
you're like, yeah, this isn't working for me right, And
it's you know, first of all, you you're hit so
many positive nerves would be right now because I experienced
this last night, Michael, and I'm going like, I put
(19:08):
the pepper on the pizza, I put the power Jian,
and again it was you know, I pulled up. I'm
setting it up myself. So I've lost some of the
ambiance because I'm doing all the work. And you know
for a fact, when you do all the work, you're
gonna do it or whatever style, whatever, just whatever gets
the job done, you're gonna do it. You've lost all
standards of servers for yourself. And that that's really funny
(19:31):
because like I said when I when I pushed the idea,
and I'm always talking to different people about how they
are trying to be successful with their business, but you're
the first person I've talked to that really hit a
button with me, that said, ri shot. The problem you're
having is that curb side work, but you lost the
experience when your turn affected high and enjoyed the food. Yeah,
(19:52):
I mean, I mean, I say to my business partners,
and I'm a chef. Okay, I've been cooking my whole life.
I went to culinary school. I worked in restaurants, some
of the top restaurants in America. I work in Japan.
Blah blah blah. Okay, there's three elements to a restaurant. Okay.
There's food, there's service, and there's design. Okay, I'm gonna
(20:13):
ask you this question. I'm a chef. What's the most
important piece in my mind? Food? To me? No design?
What's the second most important in my mind? I'm a chef. Well,
when when you say design, service, and I'm gonna tell
you food is third. And I'm gonna tell you why
you're walking through a design service dan food, design service,
(20:37):
food and that on walking to a restaurant. It's the
most beautiful restaurant in the world. It's fun. There's like
three people in there. You're having a great time. It's energetic.
The hospitality is off the charts. We're like, oh my god,
like I'm playing with this server. The server was awesome.
I'm having such a great time. I'm smiling. You get
the food, you're with your friends, You're like, it's okay,
(20:59):
it's okay. You walk out, You're like, Wow, I had
a great time. My place was good looking, it was fun,
it was awesome. Okay, are you going back? Wow? You
know're going back? This is where I'm called of right now, Michael,
because you hit me in the jaw right now, because
I lost the design and I lost the service when
(21:23):
I did curve side and and guess what, I don't
want to do that anymore. I don't want to go
back and have that experience because I don't know. So
so it's left a bad taste in my mom because
it's happened two times in a row. So, so you're
fighting for that. Has it been successful for you? Look,
it's nothing is successful right now. I mean, to be
(21:45):
the definition of success is survival and getting to the
other side. Uh, we're not. I mean, our food isn't
doesn't translate into takeout most of our restaurants. I mean,
the only one that we have that really works for
takeout that people get take out of is sushi. I'm
if you think about take out, it's like we want
some pizza, we want some sushi, we want some burgers. Like,
(22:06):
if you confine dining Italian restaurant, you're never going to
compete with the local Italian place that does chicken farm
for twelve dollars, So like why why try and compete
with them? Like it's just gonna lose. It's a losing mob.
So you know, when you're talking about ambiance, you talked
about the experience, You talked about servers, your your time
you spend in Japan, talked to us about that because
(22:26):
it seems like it shaped a lot of your vues.
So so for me, living in Japan was just the
most amazing experience. I worked at the Spotto over there
in the four seasons, and it wasn't necessarily about working
in those restaurants. To me, it was about understanding the culture.
And once you understand culture of what something is, you
(22:47):
could create something here in the States that that feels authentic.
And I think that's what people are really looking for
in today's society. They want something that feels authentic, um
and not like it's contrived or made up, or or
just or Disney World or something they wanted to feel authentic, um,
and that's probably what we do really well, and I
(23:09):
think it's really important to us as a business. Well
it works for me. Now, before we got on there,
I brought up the fact that, uh, you know, doing
COVID hit. You know, I'm at the house and my
wife is asking me what I want for breakfast, what
I want for lunch, And I'm gonna tell you, I'm
a kind of a one and a half meal a
day guy. So finally I was eating a breakfast and
(23:30):
then a lunch and a dinner, and all of a
sudden I realized I was gaining weight, and I went,
hold up, hold holdo, hold on, hold on. We gotta
cut out one of these meals. So I got rid
of the because usually what I do, Michael, I get up,
I get up at four o'clock Monday to Friday, get
up at four o'clock, and so usually I eat about
ten and eleven o'clock. And she had me eating about
(23:51):
eight o'clock in the morning, and she came back with
another meal a right noontime, and then she wrapped up
the third beal about six o'clock. Now, then I switched
the story, because here you are about to embarrass me,
because is that a gaining weight? You lost thirty five
pounds and three months during the COVID, it's COVID timeline.
Let's talk about what made you do that and what
(24:12):
was the motivation. Did you gave weight and you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
I'm gonna lose weight. What was the motivation? Yeah? So
so for me, it's we do restaurants, and we're opening
a lot of restaurants, and in restaurants, you're obviously tasting
tons of food every day. So when I'm able to
eliminate the tasting of food, that was just a huge
starter for me. The other pieces pre COVID. I mean
(24:33):
we had we had fourteen restaurants, we were looking open more,
we were we were burning it all hours of the day,
and finding time to go to the gym was just
a nightmare. So I started to eat well, I ate
the right foods, I stopped the tastings. I started to
exercise more. UM and it was figuring out. I mean,
everyone has these diets that are like they're literally like
(24:54):
this um, Like I'm gonna do with this juice in
the morning, and I'm gonna start myself and then gonna
eat at night, like everyone has something for me. It
was finding something where it's just like eating well, eating
at the right times, and exercising. And the key keeping
in there is the exercising as long as you're exercising.
And I'm not a big runner. I don't enjoy running.
(25:16):
I find it exhausting. So I would literally do a
mile on the treadmill in the morning, and then I
would do a mile on the treadmill at night. I
put some weights in there and I was good to go.
So you you work out like me? That's me now
with somehow my show has become a nice haven for
to talk to shifts. So the Rocko comes on my show, Uh,
(25:37):
Donna Teller comes on my show, and just to name
a few, Sammy Soon comes on my show, and now
you on my show. When I get the word eat whale, see,
I need to define to me what does that mean
when you say eating whale? Eating well to me is clean.
I think it's it's for breakfast. I think it's eating
some yogurt, some berries, period, and the end of conversation,
(25:59):
having a coffee and not putting creamer in there and
sugars in there, like I put a little non dairy
creamer in there five for launch. It's like having a
nice salad, maybe you cheating on some dressing. Have a
grilled piece of chicken, have some grilled shrimp, doing whatever
you want dinnertime, having normal meal, having a normal meal,
have some carbohydrates, have some vegetables, have some fruits. But
(26:19):
to me, eating well is like you're eating a little cleaner.
You're not depriving yourself. Your portion size as normal, meaning
like you're not having sixty announces of steak, you're having
six to eight, and you're not eating past eight o'clock.
It depends on what time you go to bed, but
like seven or eight o'clock should be in. Yes, Like
if you're done at seven eight o'clock, give up the
(26:40):
bag of potaty chips, give up the sweets, give up
the sugars. Like I guarantee you you will lose weight. Well,
you know I naturally drink a lot of water. We're
not getting into it. I know, you know died expert Michael,
but you know we're talking about losing weight. So thirty
five and three muths you kind of you kind of
(27:02):
leveling into a diet expert range, and you like to
say what and as you want to naturally. But I'm
a big dessert guy. I I eat by dessert before
my meals, and it's dunes people. I go to the restaurant.
I come to a restaurant and say, excuse me, can
you give me the dissert menu before I start arguing
my meal. I'm that guy. I'm that guy and so
so a person like me who enjoys desserts. What does
(27:23):
that play out in your menu world? In your restaurant world?
Am I gonna come to your restaurant, Michael and be like, man,
you got the dessert from me? Or you more of
an you can't. This is the problem with all diets, right.
Everyone wants to go on this extreme diet like you
can't stop eating, like if they give you a cho
I mean, you go to these restaurants and these restaurants
(27:46):
are enough for three people, and people are eating the
whole cake. So it's like eat the cake. Just just
have a piece of it. Have a piece of the cake.
Every day. I have a piece of chocolate. Like, chocolate
is good for you, jocol it's not bad. Your berries
are not bad for you. Some real ice cream is
not bad for you have it, but you don't need
a pint of ice cream, a cap like a box
(28:08):
of cookies and a bag of the readers like you're
just that's not what you need right right. But I
am a guy that I will tell you, Mike, I'm
a guy that you know. I think I've accidentally uh
eating correctly because I'm a guy. I ordered three different things,
but I won't complete the meal, so I called myself
a sampler, you know. I was sample this dessert or
(28:29):
a sample that that that appetizer, or that sample that meal.
You know. But I'm a big bread guy. I love
bread to death. I bread this type of corn bread.
I love that. I love veggies. But these are things,
like I said, I just accidentally eat, which I guess
in a way allows me to maintain someone healthy lifestyle.
But I drink a lot of water. Like you said,
(28:51):
you held up your bottle of water. But I want
to transition to because you do a lot of uh.
You've hosted several competitions and these and I'm a big
fan of Coppet Issue show with Michael and so. But
there's always some uh winner and a loser winner losing.
How do you handle that? In the judging process because
you know the decision that you make. You can't ultimately
(29:14):
tell somebody to walk away from walk off the show. Listen.
I teach my kids at a young age like as
look like work your ass off, practice, try hard, and
like if you're good enough, you're gonna win, and if
there's somebody better than you, they're gonna lose. And when
you're judging, it's kind of like, look like you're either winner,
you lose. I mean this whole thing where everybody gets
(29:35):
a trophy today and like, kids come home and you
came in last place and you got a trophy, Like
like it's b s. It's not teaching people to be
able to lose. People ask me all the time you
play games with the kids, like do you lose on purpose? No,
I'm not gonna lose on purpose. Why would I do that?
You need to teach them like practice, practice, practice, Like
(29:56):
when you do all of those things, you'll figure it out.
And it's the same thing with cooking. It's like there
are gonna be people who are better than me of
cooking and you may lose, but it is what it is.
And and look, one of the biggest one of the
questions that I always ask you in interviews that has
to do with that is what do you not allow
in your life? Is it harder for you? Is it
(30:17):
which is true? For you? I hate to lose or
I love to win? And for me, the answer is
I hate to lose lose. Losing is just not an answer,
like I expect to win. So winning when I win,
it's like, Okay, let me get up again and play again,
let me play again. But when I lose, I'm furious.
(30:38):
And I think that's kind of just a mentality of people.
Before we go, I want to talk about you have
a new restaurant concept opening in Philadelphic called Midtown Village.
Tell us about that and why now? Yeah, so we're
so so it's interesting and you spoke about what happens
during COVID. I mean there's there's a lot of restaurants
that are going out of business. I think our business
model used to be take space and build out a restaurant.
(31:01):
It would cost us a thousands of fifteen hundred dollars
of square foot to build it out. Now our business
model is shifted. We could give restaurants that have clothes,
and we could spend three hundreds of five hundreds of
square foot on some really good opportunities. Because COVID is
gonna be over, We're going to get to the other side.
So here are some opportunities that we have, and one
(31:23):
of them is it's in an area called Midtown Village.
It's gonna be uh the name isn't known yet, We're
not sure the name, but it's gonna be a boutique
pizza place, brick up and pizza with some uh lots
of seasonal vegetables, seasonal pass and stuff like that. So
is it more casual dining? Yeah, definitely more casual. I
think that that's kind of where people are going right
(31:44):
now in terms of the COVID. I'm not looking to
do any fancy, high end restaurants right now, but if
you could get some casual places in now, Like I
think we're good. Cool and Michael, thank you man for
coming on my to make conversations. I hope you come
back for I don't know if I want you coming
back skinnier though, Mike Thirt, can we stay there? I
appreciate you man, enjoy yourself, and I definitely tell them
(32:06):
Sinse I come to Philadelphia a lot because I represents
Steven A. Smithler. We always in that area in New Jersey,
New York area, and I love to drop by. So
if up, okay, okay, appreciate your Michael, stay strong. Michael
Scholton of the Shawson Collective, the based in Philadelphia, got
a new property developing in the Midtown Village area. I
want thank you for coming on the show. I'm with
(32:28):
Sean McDonald, I am your host. Thank you. In this
season of giving, Coals has gifts for all your loved ones.
For those who like to keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
blankets and throws, or support minority owned or founded brands
by giving gifts from Human Nation and Shame Moisture. And
(32:49):
in the spirit of giving, Coals Cares is donating eight
million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your
heart this season with great gifts from Coals or coals
dot Com. Still living in manually taking notes, there is
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Sign up on the web for free or download in
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E R dot Ai. At ADP, we work with more
than eight hundred sixty thousand companies worldwide. That gives us
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whether it's through data insights that help you make informed
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(33:32):
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Host
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