Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 145. Nick Stone, CEO & Founder of Bluestone Lane

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145. Nick Stone, CEO & Founder of Bluestone Lane · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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Speaker 1: I think it's really important when chips it down in
0:03
Speaker 1: times are tough. To be incredibly empathetic, to be really great, lista,
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Speaker 1: to be pragmatic and baalved to tackle problems assertively and responsibly.
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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily Abadi here bringing you Episode one forty
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Speaker 2: five of Hurdle, a wellness focus podcast writs it down
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Speaker 2: with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their big
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Speaker 2: wins to how they've gotten through some of life's toughest moments.
0:44
Speaker 2: On the show, you can't expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid
0:48
Speaker 2: discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs on
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Speaker 2: what it really takes to follow your passions.
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Speaker 3: My mission is simple to.
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Speaker 2: Inspire you to be your best, So move with intention
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Speaker 2: and have some fun along the way. For today's episode,
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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be chatting with Nick Stone.
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Speaker 3: He is the founder and CEO of Blue.
1:10
Speaker 2: Stone Lane, an Australian inspired chain of cafes well known
1:16
Speaker 2: for their unbelievable coffee, but they also serve oh my god,
1:20
Speaker 2: so much delicious stuff, everything from avocado toast and apple
1:24
Speaker 2: crumble porridge to warm chicken and greens bowls, chicken and
1:28
Speaker 2: bacon club sandwiches, green baked eggs.
1:31
Speaker 4: I mean, the list goes on.
1:33
Speaker 2: This stuff is so good and so so fresh. Today
1:37
Speaker 2: we chat about a lot of things. We cover a
1:40
Speaker 2: lot of bases. Nick tells me about his backstory at
1:43
Speaker 2: one point being an Australian football league player before transitioning
1:47
Speaker 2: to banking and finance and then ultimately into the hospitality business.
1:52
Speaker 2: We talk about where his head was at when opening
1:54
Speaker 2: his first cafe, which was conveniently located next to his
1:58
Speaker 2: full time job at the time in Midtown Manhattan, and
2:02
Speaker 2: we also chat about man how this year has been
2:05
Speaker 2: for Bluestone Lane in the wake of the pandemic. At
2:08
Speaker 2: one point, the pandemic eliminating ninety percent of the company's
2:12
Speaker 2: revenue and having to let go hundreds of workers. Nick
2:17
Speaker 2: talks to me about how they navigated that, how he
2:19
Speaker 2: truly believes that no matter how hard it gets, there
2:22
Speaker 2: is a place for positivity and optimism, and he fills
2:26
Speaker 2: me in on his guiding principles as a founder, as
2:29
Speaker 2: a leader, and how he stays true to his values
2:33
Speaker 2: and his purpose even in the hardest of times. I
2:36
Speaker 2: myself huge fan of the brand, so it was really
2:39
Speaker 2: fun for me to have this conversation. There's one conveniently
2:41
Speaker 2: located like maybe five bucks from where I live on
2:44
Speaker 2: the Upper east Side. It is a stable in my
2:46
Speaker 2: routine with like about a mile left on my morning
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Speaker 2: run to open the Bluestone Lane app and order myself
2:53
Speaker 2: of coffee with almond milk and grabbing it and walking
2:56
Speaker 2: that last little stretch home and just taking some meat time.
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Speaker 2: So thanks to Nick and the team at Bluestone.
3:02
Speaker 3: For bringing me some joy on the regular, and I
3:05
Speaker 3: know so many.
3:07
Speaker 2: Others get that same joy when they come to see
3:09
Speaker 2: you guys as well.
3:10
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4:31
Speaker 2: As always, as you're listening today, make sure the tag
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Speaker 2: the show over on social media.
4:35
Speaker 4: It's at Hurdle podcast.
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Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body and with that, let's
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Speaker 2: get to hurdling.
4:47
Speaker 4: Today.
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Speaker 2: I'm sitting down with Nick Stone. He is the founder
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Speaker 2: and CEO of Bluestone Lane. How you doing today, Nick?
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Speaker 1: Very well, Emily, thank you so much for having me
4:58
Speaker 1: pleasure to be.
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Speaker 4: On course, of course I'm amed.
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Speaker 2: I ride by many a bluestone or run by depending
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Speaker 2: on the day around New York City. So it's exciting
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Speaker 2: to get to chat with the man behind the cafes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's us. It's been an interesting journey, that's
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Speaker 1: for sure, both with the business and me professionally. But
5:20
Speaker 1: happy to chat chat with you today and talk in
5:24
Speaker 1: whatever direction you'd like to take. Is obviously a lot
5:27
Speaker 1: about wellness, health and last.
5:30
Speaker 2: Stuff and lifestyle. So before we get going, talk to
5:34
Speaker 2: me about what Bluestone Lane is. I know that you
5:37
Speaker 2: founded the company in twenty thirteen.
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Speaker 1: That's right. Bluestone Lane is an Australian influenced premium coffee,
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Speaker 1: healthy food and hospitality brand. We were inspired by the
5:53
Speaker 1: hometown where I'm originally from, Melbourne, Australia, and when I
5:57
Speaker 1: arrived in the States in twenty ten, I was just
6:00
Speaker 1: quite shocked by how different the coffee culture is. Not
6:03
Speaker 1: necessarily exclusively about how different the product was, both coffee
6:10
Speaker 1: and the food program. But in Australia it's the land
6:14
Speaker 1: of independence. It's very much based around this owner operator
6:17
Speaker 1: model where you have very sincere and deep meaningful relationships
6:22
Speaker 1: with your customers, in fact customers. It's quite a generic
6:26
Speaker 1: term and it's not common in Australia. They refer to
6:30
Speaker 1: it in the cafe scene as locals, and that's because
6:33
Speaker 1: the relationship is more reciprocal, it's more personalized, it's deeper,
6:38
Speaker 1: and for myself, when I moved to the States, I
6:41
Speaker 1: just couldn't believe that so many of these larger chain
6:44
Speaker 1: establishments had focused on convenience and speed in a very
6:48
Speaker 1: homogenized and transactional way, and the big chains didn't. They
6:52
Speaker 1: don't exist in Australia, and in fact Starbucks failed. But
6:56
Speaker 1: there's no Duncan, there's no Beats Coffee, there's no Tim Horton's.
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Speaker 1: In austraa earlier, the cafe scene more premium and certainly
7:04
Speaker 1: more independent and more curated. So I just thought, there's
7:09
Speaker 1: such a wonderful opportunity to provide this human connection, this escape,
7:14
Speaker 1: this sense of belonging, this way to break isolation that
7:18
Speaker 1: often people feel in big cities, and that really inspired
7:23
Speaker 1: the purpose of the brand. In addition to educating people
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Speaker 1: around the beauty of premium coffee and healthy food, not
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Speaker 1: just generic coffee and process food, and it's been a
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Speaker 1: great journey and since that time in twenty thirteen, we've
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Speaker 1: opened over fifty locations across eight markets and it's been
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Speaker 1: a steady growth period and we've encountered a lot of challenges,
7:48
Speaker 1: but none bigger than the one we've got right now
7:50
Speaker 1: dealing with COVID and how restrictive it's been on the business.
7:53
Speaker 1: But it's been real thrill.
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Speaker 2: So much to unpack here. The first thing to unpack
7:59
Speaker 2: Starbucks filled in Australia.
8:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, they did, they did. There's only a couple of
8:04
Speaker 1: markets really that Starbucks hasn't succeeded in Australia is one
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Speaker 1: of them. Italy is another and Israel. So really Australian's
8:14
Speaker 1: coffee culture is centered around espresso, so dripp is not
8:19
Speaker 1: a big part of the landscape. And it really started
8:23
Speaker 1: the espresso coffee movement started in Australia in the forties
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Speaker 1: pre and post World War Two and we switched from
8:29
Speaker 1: primarily a tea drinking culture which was based on obviously
8:33
Speaker 1: British colonial sort of influence, and went into espresso coffee.
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Speaker 1: In the forties when we had mass migration from Europe
8:41
Speaker 1: Italians Greeks the second largest population of a critical massive
8:45
Speaker 1: sort of Greeks outside of Athens is actually Melbourne, so
8:49
Speaker 1: they brought their espressal machines, and then we had this
8:51
Speaker 1: abundance of natural produce. Australia and New Zealand are the
8:55
Speaker 1: premium food ball for Asia and Asia Pacific region. And
9:00
Speaker 1: I think the third element was this real notion of
9:03
Speaker 1: that European style coffee shops where it's very much based
9:06
Speaker 1: around the proprietor that they know all of their locals,
9:08
Speaker 1: and it's very you know, it's daytime, it's our fresco,
9:11
Speaker 1: it's very social, that social ritual of connecting over coffee
9:16
Speaker 1: and having a break, a pause, a moment, a moment
9:19
Speaker 1: to bond, and that's really shaped the coffee culture where
9:24
Speaker 1: everything's sort of so much business and so much socialization
9:27
Speaker 1: takes place around great coffee and healthy food. And I
9:31
Speaker 1: just thought there's such a wonderful opportunity here, and particularly
9:33
Speaker 1: these younger demographic millennials, that we're looking for more artisan
9:37
Speaker 1: experiences and they're looking for better quality food and coffee
9:42
Speaker 1: and anything they're putting in their bodies. And I think
9:44
Speaker 1: they're really focused on socializing more during the day, less
9:48
Speaker 1: about alcohol, less about late nights and more serious sort
9:53
Speaker 1: of hospitality events. And I think we got it right
9:58
Speaker 1: and that trend continues. And you know, it's really really
10:02
Speaker 1: important that we've built this brand and team ethos based
10:06
Speaker 1: around making people feel connected and welcome. And we often
10:09
Speaker 1: use the term that we're more a human connection company
10:12
Speaker 1: than a hospitality company.
10:14
Speaker 2: I dig that, and I think that definitely speaks to
10:17
Speaker 2: your values. And again where you come from. Now, obviously
10:21
Speaker 2: you didn't you haven't been to the coffee business forever.
10:24
Speaker 2: In fact, you were doing a lot of different things
10:27
Speaker 2: before you got into the hospitality industry. So talk me back,
10:33
Speaker 2: bring me back. You said, growing up in your hometown
10:36
Speaker 2: in Australia, what was life like for you?
10:38
Speaker 4: Were you an active kid?
10:41
Speaker 1: Very much so. Yeah, I spent as much time as
10:44
Speaker 1: I could outside playing sports, playing with my friends. I
10:48
Speaker 1: tried all different types of sports and love competing, loving
10:53
Speaker 1: part of teams. So whether that's I played professional Austraining
10:58
Speaker 1: rules football, I played a lot of cricket, I played
11:00
Speaker 1: a lot of high level water polo. I've played tennis, golf.
11:05
Speaker 1: I absolutely love skiing, running outside, I like surfing. There's
11:09
Speaker 1: just that's the Australian last style We're in Ireland, so
11:12
Speaker 1: everyone lives on the coast. Ninety eight percent of the
11:14
Speaker 1: population live on the coast, so access to water and
11:17
Speaker 1: access to outdoors is quite extraordinary. The land mats of
11:20
Speaker 1: Australia is quite similar to the US, but we only
11:23
Speaker 1: have twenty four million people, so we have less people
11:25
Speaker 1: than the whole state of Texas, so there's just a
11:28
Speaker 1: lot of outdoors to explore. And Australia is a very
11:33
Speaker 1: sort of i'd say competitive and sports craze nation. I
11:36
Speaker 1: think we're a land of immigrants, and that's no disrespect
11:42
Speaker 1: to the First Nations people, but you know, a lot
11:45
Speaker 1: of people were not originally born here in Australia or
11:48
Speaker 1: their ancestors went born here in Australia, so there's been
11:52
Speaker 1: mass waves of migration. So it's a very multicultural and
11:55
Speaker 1: cosmopolitan sort of country, I would say, particularly the way
11:59
Speaker 1: it's evolved last twenty years. And yeah, I just love
12:03
Speaker 1: the outdoors. That and certainly playing football in particular was
12:08
Speaker 1: just a huge part of my life and you know
12:11
Speaker 1: that's and you know that's shaped who I am. Playing
12:14
Speaker 1: as part of teams and being part of high performance teams,
12:17
Speaker 1: which influenced my careers outside of sport, which have been
12:20
Speaker 1: in banking and now in hospitality, And you're right, like
12:24
Speaker 1: Bluestone is my first hospitality experience. I never I never
12:28
Speaker 1: worked today in a coffee shop or in a bar,
12:31
Speaker 1: or in a restaurant. So it's certainly been a scrappy
12:35
Speaker 1: and rapid learning process, but it's been a wonderful one,
12:40
Speaker 1: and I think there's been some real benefits the fact
12:42
Speaker 1: that I didn't have a lot of rules and preconceptions,
12:46
Speaker 1: that I could challenge a lot of the norms and
12:48
Speaker 1: really orientated around that real deep customer centricity of what
12:53
Speaker 1: I valued as a customer and what people I know
12:56
Speaker 1: value as customers and shape the value proposition.
12:59
Speaker 2: To me, that so interesting really, because you, as you mentioned,
13:04
Speaker 2: made some very drastic career shifts, and I think often
13:10
Speaker 2: individuals who might be doing something that they don't love
13:13
Speaker 2: are scared to follow suit to do a similar thing
13:17
Speaker 2: because they're scared from starting from square one. So I
13:21
Speaker 2: know the first career transition you made, you mentioned playing football.
13:25
Speaker 2: You transitioned from playing football to going into finance.
13:29
Speaker 1: Is that right, that's correct, that's correct. I went from
13:33
Speaker 1: I was drafted in my final year of high school.
13:36
Speaker 1: I was seventeen, and I played six seasons in Australian
13:40
Speaker 1: Football League professionally, and luckily, I well luckily, I think
13:46
Speaker 1: it was a good decision to go to university at
13:48
Speaker 1: the same time. So when I got delisted from my
13:53
Speaker 1: last club, which is basically your contract not renewed, I
13:58
Speaker 1: had this pathway to banking and finance, investment banking, and
14:04
Speaker 1: I was really really interested about that next chapter because
14:07
Speaker 1: it was going to provide an opportunity to potentially work
14:10
Speaker 1: overseas and learn work with companies and the interesting things
14:15
Speaker 1: they're doing, and understand how they built their business and
14:18
Speaker 1: their brand and their culture. And I just was enthralled
14:23
Speaker 1: by this opportunity to have a wider lens and to
14:30
Speaker 1: work internationally and have a broader perspective, so that even
14:34
Speaker 1: though you know, football is a very intensely competing professional
14:40
Speaker 1: I'm really glad that I continue to persist in my
14:42
Speaker 1: studies of the transition was possible. And I also kept
14:46
Speaker 1: a very very pragmatic approach to a sporting career that
14:51
Speaker 1: even if you have an amazing career and you play
14:54
Speaker 1: ten years or so, you know it should be just
14:57
Speaker 1: a chapter in your book on life you know, imagine
15:00
Speaker 1: if you've finished it. I was thinking that I played
15:03
Speaker 1: till I'm thirty. That's an amazing career. But then what
15:05
Speaker 1: do I do for the next like hopefully sixty years?
15:09
Speaker 1: And I just thought that, you know, by not having utility,
15:13
Speaker 1: not having excitement outside of that would be such a
15:16
Speaker 1: shame it and make it really hard to transition. So
15:18
Speaker 1: at a very broad perspective, and went from banking, where
15:22
Speaker 1: I worked in eleven years and in two cities in Australia,
15:27
Speaker 1: and then you know, I worked a bit in London
15:28
Speaker 1: and then obviously in New York, and then into basically
15:33
Speaker 1: my first small business experience. And in this case it
15:36
Speaker 1: was I was in hospitality and building this sort of
15:40
Speaker 1: retail lifestyle brand.
15:41
Speaker 2: So the next logical question then would be, and I
15:45
Speaker 2: mean we're covering such a long period of time here,
15:47
Speaker 2: but what was going on in your finance career that
15:51
Speaker 2: even inspired or motivated you to make such a pivot?
15:57
Speaker 1: Well, when I was it started. There's sort of two reasons.
16:01
Speaker 1: The first one was when I was working in finance
16:04
Speaker 1: in Australia, we used to leave the office twice a
16:07
Speaker 1: day as a team. It was a really great social
16:10
Speaker 1: bonding ritual because we would work very long hours. In
16:13
Speaker 1: some cases, you may think that you're going home at
16:17
Speaker 1: six or seven pm, and in fact you work all
16:19
Speaker 1: night through, and the getting coffee as a team is
16:22
Speaker 1: just a great way to disconnect and socialize and just
16:26
Speaker 1: take a breather and get yourself pree energized for whatever
16:29
Speaker 1: you're tackling in the office. And so that was such
16:33
Speaker 1: a big part of the reason for establishing Bluestone Lane.
16:37
Speaker 1: It was out of this self necessity that I felt
16:39
Speaker 1: that we needed these places where you walk in and
16:41
Speaker 1: you feel special, that you're a local, not a customer,
16:44
Speaker 1: to be your best and then so that's what that's
16:47
Speaker 1: how we sort of that's why I sort of founded
16:50
Speaker 1: it and shaped it that way. And the first one,
16:53
Speaker 1: the first door, actually was a very short work of
16:56
Speaker 1: walk from where I was working on Park Avenue to
17:00
Speaker 1: seven to seven Park Avenue, so really only like five
17:03
Speaker 1: minutes away from the first Bluestone Lane. So that's customers
17:06
Speaker 1: INTERESTY was certainly bara amount. But you know, I think
17:12
Speaker 1: the reason I made a jump was I just thought,
17:17
Speaker 1: I've got this opportunity. I can always probably go back
17:20
Speaker 1: to banking, but this opportunity to try and build something
17:24
Speaker 1: bigger and have a greater impact and influence on how
17:28
Speaker 1: people feel and their education around healthy eating and great coffee.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's this window that I think I should go for it.
17:38
Speaker 1: And it was not an easy decision around the company
17:41
Speaker 1: for three years while still working full time in banking,
17:45
Speaker 1: and then I finally made the jump. So I had
17:48
Speaker 1: I done my homework and I'd sort of done a
17:51
Speaker 1: lot of self reflection on am I ready to jump
17:55
Speaker 1: into a small business if I understood how we're going
17:59
Speaker 1: to grow and how I'm going to be productive and helpful,
18:02
Speaker 1: Because certainly I think at the early stage when we
18:05
Speaker 1: were you know, we opened our first two stores in
18:08
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, there wasn't really that much for me to
18:11
Speaker 1: do on a full time basis. We were very small business,
18:15
Speaker 1: and in fact, I think if I went left banking
18:17
Speaker 1: went full time, it could have been a It could
18:20
Speaker 1: have been detrimental because I could have pushed the business
18:23
Speaker 1: too hard and pushed people too hard with whatever ambitions
18:28
Speaker 1: I had, or just the fact that I liked to
18:30
Speaker 1: improve every day and you had to get that balance right.
18:35
Speaker 1: And the timing eventually to move in mid twenty sixteen
18:40
Speaker 1: made sense and it's worked out well, and you know,
18:46
Speaker 1: certainly not been with a lot of challenge, but it's
18:49
Speaker 1: been incredibly rewarding. And I've learned so much about working
18:53
Speaker 1: with people from a whole variety of different walks of
18:57
Speaker 1: life and background, which you get a lot more in
19:01
Speaker 1: small business and hospitality than say necessarily banking, which which
19:05
Speaker 1: is a little bit uniform in how they recruit and
19:10
Speaker 1: the type of sort academic profile and experience. So it
19:14
Speaker 1: certainly taught me a lot about being a more effective
19:17
Speaker 1: communicator and leader, and you know, I think just being
19:23
Speaker 1: in some cases just a more empathetic person, an understanding person.
19:27
Speaker 2: You mentioned that you stayed on with your other full
19:32
Speaker 2: time job while basically undertaking a second full time job
19:36
Speaker 2: for three years. I mean people talk about having a
19:40
Speaker 2: side hustle all the time. I would say that you
19:43
Speaker 2: didn't just have a side hustle again, you had a
19:46
Speaker 2: second job. How did you like stay seen, especially when
19:51
Speaker 2: you're starting a job and a field that you know
19:54
Speaker 2: very little about.
19:56
Speaker 1: I had a certainly incredible support network, being the being
20:01
Speaker 1: my wife Alexandra. She she was incredible, and I think
20:07
Speaker 1: also we had this unbridled enthusiasm and we were we
20:13
Speaker 1: were pretty unencumbered living in New York. Both we're both
20:16
Speaker 1: from Australia, both from Melbourne, Australia. We didn't have any family,
20:20
Speaker 1: we didn't have children, we were we were sort of
20:24
Speaker 1: it was the perfect time to really push it hard.
20:28
Speaker 1: And we were living in New York City. Everyone's trying
20:30
Speaker 1: to make it and working really you know, in putting
20:33
Speaker 1: in a tremendous amount of effort. So I think the
20:36
Speaker 1: environment supported it. I had an incredible support network in
20:41
Speaker 1: my in my wife, and you know, I didn't really
20:43
Speaker 1: feel like work. It felt like this I was. I
20:48
Speaker 1: was building something and it was like a competition, and
20:51
Speaker 1: it was like an adventure. And I think you just
20:54
Speaker 1: get just get caught up in the It's quite intoxicating
20:58
Speaker 1: when you start having success and of working with amazing
21:02
Speaker 1: people and you're learning and you're being inspired. And also
21:05
Speaker 1: retail gives you that wonderful benefit that if you do
21:08
Speaker 1: something well, often people will will fraternize and visit or
21:12
Speaker 1: patronize your establishment and they'll tell you straight away, and
21:16
Speaker 1: that feedback's pretty incredible. I don't know if I could
21:19
Speaker 1: have juggled to businesses at once if I wasn't getting
21:23
Speaker 1: that validation in a very frequent way. Yeah, it wasn't easy,
21:27
Speaker 1: but you know, I do think that there's a lot
21:30
Speaker 1: to be said by keeping keeping your job going and
21:35
Speaker 1: income and not having that huge distraction when people sort
21:39
Speaker 1: of jump into a startup when it maybe not fully
21:42
Speaker 1: thought about or all the research hasn't been done, and
21:45
Speaker 1: putting a lot of pressure on yourself, like what you know, Wow,
21:47
Speaker 1: Like I don't really have any money, or I'm not
21:50
Speaker 1: paying myself. I've got all this stress on how do
21:52
Speaker 1: I pay the rent? How do I afford to pay
21:56
Speaker 1: my health insurance or to go on a holiday or
21:58
Speaker 1: what have you. And I just I sort of page
22:00
Speaker 1: my bits a bit more, and I was just fortunate
22:03
Speaker 1: in that regard.
22:05
Speaker 2: You mentioned having a lot of stressors just there. I mean,
22:08
Speaker 2: I think, especially this year, so many of us are
22:12
Speaker 2: constantly feeling just so overwhelmed, and like there are so
22:16
Speaker 2: many things that we can attribute it to when it
22:19
Speaker 2: came to starting your business and balancing both jobs and
22:23
Speaker 2: also trying to maintain some a sort of a personal life.
22:26
Speaker 2: I'm sure in addition to your own mental health, how
22:29
Speaker 2: did you not get overwhelmed?
22:34
Speaker 1: It's certainly been a sensory overload, that's for sure. Twenty twenty.
22:40
Speaker 1: You know, it's had to have in the wild of streams,
22:46
Speaker 1: you know, predict that this would would happen, the culminations
22:50
Speaker 1: of historic events in one year. But you know, I
22:54
Speaker 1: think I haven't been you know, there's been at times
22:59
Speaker 1: where I have to overwhelmed, and I do think that
23:02
Speaker 1: it's actually natural. Maybe in the years gone by, I
23:05
Speaker 1: would have seen being overwhelmed as a sign of weakness
23:09
Speaker 1: and inferiority, but there's times this year that I did.
23:13
Speaker 1: I have and I still occasionally now just feel hopeless
23:17
Speaker 1: that nothing's working and that I've failed, and you know,
23:23
Speaker 1: it's a you know, you get down. But I'm very
23:27
Speaker 1: fortunate that I know that I have people that are
23:30
Speaker 1: my positive energizers, and I know there are things that
23:34
Speaker 1: I can do that gets me out of my mental
23:40
Speaker 1: mental challenge and reframes the way I feel. And you know,
23:46
Speaker 1: that's helped me in great stead for years, and it's
23:50
Speaker 1: now just making sure that I go to them in
23:53
Speaker 1: a very proactive way. So those positive energizer is my wife,
23:57
Speaker 1: my family, my best friends, my best school friends that
24:02
Speaker 1: are a bit detached from everything that's going on here.
24:05
Speaker 1: Has helped me tremendously. And you know, they don't really
24:08
Speaker 1: want to talk about Bluestone. They don't want to talk about,
24:13
Speaker 1: you know, what's going on, you know, financially, or any hardships.
24:17
Speaker 1: They just want to talk about, you know, time when
24:20
Speaker 1: we can all get together and funny things that are
24:23
Speaker 1: happening and what's going on in the footy world or
24:27
Speaker 1: what have you. And it's just so freshing to connect
24:32
Speaker 1: with people you love so dearly and that just want
24:34
Speaker 1: to They just want to lighten things up a bit
24:37
Speaker 1: and just have a bit of banter and fun. And really,
24:42
Speaker 1: you know, the huge part of Bluestone's purpose is exactly
24:45
Speaker 1: that it's to make people disconnect from whatever's been going
24:50
Speaker 1: on in their personal professional life or the broader environment
24:55
Speaker 1: and to come into our store and feel rejuvenated and
24:59
Speaker 1: just like let it go. Just just feel recognized and
25:03
Speaker 1: special and personalized and feel like a real local. And
25:08
Speaker 1: that that is the purpose of the company. It's never
25:11
Speaker 1: been more more important. And you know, I think that
25:15
Speaker 1: you know, it's that. And then and the other thing
25:17
Speaker 1: I do is if I exercise, if I go for
25:20
Speaker 1: a run, if I do some ways, if I jump
25:23
Speaker 1: on the bike, if I do something to get myself moving,
25:27
Speaker 1: and if I listen to music at the same time
25:29
Speaker 1: I listen to podcasts or what have you, it's just
25:32
Speaker 1: the endorphins go. You just suddenly feel lighter and clearer
25:37
Speaker 1: and happy, and it's just the most magical thing moving
25:43
Speaker 1: And I know some people get it through meditation and
25:46
Speaker 1: sort of other means. My wife gets it. She finds
25:51
Speaker 1: painting and drawing very therapeutic because she's a very talented artist.
25:55
Speaker 1: But for me, I can just default to doing sport,
26:00
Speaker 1: you know, getting in the water, going to the beach,
26:03
Speaker 1: going for a run. It's just it's just quite incredible.
26:05
Speaker 1: And I do think that having those rituals is so important.
26:09
Speaker 1: And even though there's a lot of distractions, and there's
26:12
Speaker 1: it's and there's so much connectivity with our phones and
26:15
Speaker 1: social media, which I do think is a real negative
26:19
Speaker 1: externality for society. So grapple with you got to find
26:24
Speaker 1: the way this ritual which you can get yourself in
26:26
Speaker 1: a better spot. And that's that's what I've been trying
26:30
Speaker 1: to stick to.
26:38
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Speaker 2: code Hurdle at checkout for fifteen percent off today. You
28:08
Speaker 2: mentioned in the opening of your first cafe not all
28:11
Speaker 2: that far from your office. I mean we're talking midtown
28:15
Speaker 2: Manhattan here. I can't imagine that this was an inexpensive
28:19
Speaker 2: adventure to get into. So how did you and where
28:23
Speaker 2: did you you find the money for that first store?
28:25
Speaker 2: And I mean, I'm sure that came with its fair
28:28
Speaker 2: amount of anxiousness as well.
28:32
Speaker 1: Basically, the seed round we did, we raised arounded fifty
28:37
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I put in just over half of it,
28:40
Speaker 1: and then just a couple of friends really backed it.
28:45
Speaker 1: And two of them one was my former boss and
28:48
Speaker 1: one was my coworker who sat next to me, and
28:51
Speaker 1: then another two mates and their wives who were Australians
28:56
Speaker 1: living in New York that actually missed Australian coffee culture
29:00
Speaker 1: as well. So it started in a very scrappy way.
29:04
Speaker 1: You know, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for two stores.
29:07
Speaker 1: It wasn't a big million dollar seed Rays or in
29:10
Speaker 1: the case right now, like a ten million dollars seed
29:13
Speaker 1: raid seed Rays. So we were resourceful and scrappy, and
29:19
Speaker 1: I think that was a great way to go about it.
29:21
Speaker 1: Be really capital efficient and focus on what you should
29:23
Speaker 1: invest in and what you can sort of decorate and
29:27
Speaker 1: use creativity rather than just buying the most expensive ff
29:33
Speaker 1: ande or materials. Yeah, there's lots of different ways you
29:37
Speaker 1: can do things. And again I wasn't from the industry,
29:42
Speaker 1: so I could really acutely value what's going to be
29:46
Speaker 1: important from this customer experience and overinvest in certain areas
29:50
Speaker 1: and then just be very resourceful in others.
29:52
Speaker 2: You have such a stress now these days you talk
29:55
Speaker 2: about community and how important that is for you guys.
29:58
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't imagine that that first location that
30:01
Speaker 2: you had in Midtown was big enough to do a
30:03
Speaker 2: lot of fostering of that, No will, you'd be surprised.
30:08
Speaker 1: So we were. It was a tiny space. It was
30:12
Speaker 1: about it's about two hundred and fifty three hundred square
30:15
Speaker 1: feet and it is It's located in a subterranean part
30:21
Speaker 1: of the building eight oh five Third Avenue, below an
30:24
Speaker 1: escalator that was constantly broken. And you know, it was
30:29
Speaker 1: very elusive, and I think that was part of its
30:32
Speaker 1: charm because the only way to find it, because it
30:34
Speaker 1: had no street visibility or no signage, was you needed
30:37
Speaker 1: someone to take you there. So when someone took you there,
30:41
Speaker 1: you're already going to have this social connection, you were
30:43
Speaker 1: going to go with a friend, and then behind it
30:46
Speaker 1: was this food court. It was it wasn't a particularly
30:49
Speaker 1: attractive even more there are corporate you know, seventies food court,
30:54
Speaker 1: but it was a chance at least for people to
30:57
Speaker 1: sit down and enjoy, enjoy a coffee and an avocado
31:01
Speaker 1: toast and just to connect. But what was magical about
31:06
Speaker 1: it was our team was so focused on service and
31:11
Speaker 1: having this local relationship, this personalized relationship, not a generic
31:16
Speaker 1: customer transaction relationship. The people feel just felt just great
31:20
Speaker 1: going down there, and that's what I was looking for
31:23
Speaker 1: because when we left our office building in Melbourne to
31:26
Speaker 1: go to one of the one of the one hundred
31:29
Speaker 1: incredible cafes that surround the building, it's just really the
31:34
Speaker 1: notion of going in there and being welcomed and feeling
31:37
Speaker 1: great and then getting a coffee and going back. It's
31:40
Speaker 1: the journey to the coffee shop that's part of the experience.
31:44
Speaker 1: So it didn't have to be this tit down for
31:47
Speaker 1: thirty forty five an hour coffee date. It could just
31:51
Speaker 1: be a ten minute break that gives you that recharge
31:54
Speaker 1: and that's that sense of socialization that makes you feel special.
32:00
Speaker 1: That's what I was focused on with Bluestone. It didn't
32:02
Speaker 1: have to be it didn't have to be something that
32:05
Speaker 1: was really formalized. It just should be informal but premium
32:11
Speaker 1: yet really personalized. And that's what I think we've been
32:15
Speaker 1: very successful in doing.
32:17
Speaker 2: When did you know that it was going to be
32:19
Speaker 2: more than just those two first stores.
32:25
Speaker 1: Well, the first store was pretty incredible because the first day,
32:29
Speaker 1: I think we served three hundred people, right, there was
32:31
Speaker 1: a huge queue around the block, and we really put
32:36
Speaker 1: an authentically made flat white and avocado toast on the map. Right.
32:40
Speaker 1: We launched in mid twenty thirteen, it's not that long ago, right,
32:43
Speaker 1: so seven years ago, But back then, no one was
32:46
Speaker 1: eating avocado toast. It wasn't like a universally known staple
32:52
Speaker 1: that it is now.
32:54
Speaker 2: I don't even remember a life without like everyone eating
32:58
Speaker 2: a cut of toast anymore.
33:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it just didn't. You couldn't find it anywhere
33:03
Speaker 1: back then, you know. I think it was one place
33:04
Speaker 1: that had it, which was in Cafe Jatan, which I love,
33:08
Speaker 1: and it was more French Moroccan style version of it.
33:11
Speaker 1: But there was a couple of Halo products that just
33:15
Speaker 1: exploded in the flat white and Avo smash and I
33:20
Speaker 1: so that store was busy, but it was really stall
33:23
Speaker 1: number three. We opened the Broader concept, which is our
33:26
Speaker 1: cafe concept, which is more like a restaurant, daytime restaurant.
33:29
Speaker 1: We opened it in West Village at fifty five Greenwich Avenue,
33:33
Speaker 1: the corner of Perry and Greenwich Avenue, and you know,
33:37
Speaker 1: we didn't have really much money at all, so we
33:39
Speaker 1: scrapped this one together. We didn't even have proper air conditioning,
33:42
Speaker 1: and it was an old building, but it just exploded,
33:46
Speaker 1: and you know, it was it was sort of creative
33:50
Speaker 1: chaos there for a number of years. But I think
33:53
Speaker 1: we realized it was pretty special because just the bars
33:58
Speaker 1: about it, and I think we were real catalyst activating
34:01
Speaker 1: that entire street. And just the wait times on weekends
34:05
Speaker 1: were over an hour and and you'd see people who
34:09
Speaker 1: are pretty well known and famous like queueing. And that
34:13
Speaker 1: was our policy that irrespective of your background or your
34:18
Speaker 1: socioeconomic status or your celebrity status, like everyone had to
34:22
Speaker 1: had to follow the same same process and wait in line.
34:26
Speaker 1: And there was no skipp in the queue. And I
34:29
Speaker 1: love that. I love that how democratized we were and
34:35
Speaker 1: you know, committed to making sure everyone has a great time.
34:39
Speaker 1: And you know when suddenly the big name sort of
34:44
Speaker 1: celebrities like Taylor Swift comes back two days in a row,
34:47
Speaker 1: and then you know, Cameron Diaz is in there, and
34:49
Speaker 1: then you know James Franco's in there every day, then
34:54
Speaker 1: someone like Malcolm Gladwell's in there every day. You sort
34:57
Speaker 1: of realized, Wow, these are pretty worldly, well travel people
35:01
Speaker 1: that probably visit a lot of places around the world,
35:04
Speaker 1: and if they're coming to hang out at Bluestone Lane,
35:06
Speaker 1: then we've probably got something that's pretty magical here. And
35:10
Speaker 1: and you know, the celebrity doesn't validate your proposition, but
35:15
Speaker 1: you know, it was an indication that you know, it
35:18
Speaker 1: was it was of interest to a lot of people,
35:20
Speaker 1: and we didn't We've never marketed Bluestone and we never
35:23
Speaker 1: spend any money on advertising or or you know, we
35:27
Speaker 1: really don't spend any money on paid advertising on social
35:30
Speaker 1: at all. It's all through word of mouth and that's
35:32
Speaker 1: the way we like it. We want to be genuine
35:35
Speaker 1: and it's the most powerful way of marketing, which is
35:39
Speaker 1: just people telling other people you've got to go and
35:41
Speaker 1: We're fortunate that our call customer loves and our product
35:46
Speaker 1: and our stores are very photogenic. So a lot of
35:49
Speaker 1: that content's created for us and projected through primarily Instagram.
35:54
Speaker 1: And it was serendipitous timing that Instagram had really just
35:58
Speaker 1: started to take off in twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, So
36:03
Speaker 1: it just timed it really nicely with what we were
36:06
Speaker 1: doing and letting people know. And yeah, that was a
36:10
Speaker 1: real moment where I think we still back and said, Wow,
36:13
Speaker 1: we can do something that's really cool here, that's very different.
36:17
Speaker 1: And I still feel that way now. I still feel
36:19
Speaker 1: that very few people can do at scale what we're doing.
36:22
Speaker 4: Definitely, and it's interesting to me.
36:25
Speaker 2: I mean, you talked about starting it with such few
36:28
Speaker 2: offerings and then expanding into that cafe on greenwage, and
36:32
Speaker 2: it's crazy. I mean, how did you even start to
36:35
Speaker 2: come up with the other things that you wanted to
36:38
Speaker 2: offer in the cafe outside of those original starters.
36:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the first two what I call sort of
36:44
Speaker 1: chaos coffee shops really orientated around coffee and pastry, toasts,
36:51
Speaker 1: just smaller items to go, where the cafe proposition is
36:57
Speaker 1: a lot broader, a table service and a lot have
37:02
Speaker 1: not only just the full coffee and tea program, but
37:04
Speaker 1: they have the juice wellness about as alcohol. It's just
37:09
Speaker 1: a lot broader. You know. Where we had such an
37:13
Speaker 1: advantage was I was everything was influenced by the Australian
37:19
Speaker 1: cafe culture. So in determining what you want to put
37:23
Speaker 1: on your menu and how you want to serve it
37:25
Speaker 1: and plate it, we were taking constant inspiration by the
37:28
Speaker 1: best cafes in Australia and I still am to this day.
37:31
Speaker 1: And what we are trying to be is a very
37:34
Speaker 1: very authentic representation of Australian premium cafe culture and that
37:40
Speaker 1: will never change. So we're very fortunate in that regard.
37:44
Speaker 1: I was able to go home frequently to the mecha
37:49
Speaker 1: of premium cafe culture and be inspired and try and
37:55
Speaker 1: take some of that magic and scale it in our business.
37:58
Speaker 1: And you know I had I've got some good relationships
38:00
Speaker 1: there and you know, I just again, it was all
38:03
Speaker 1: through that customer centricity. I would I would dine and
38:06
Speaker 1: think about, Wow, I'd love to eat that, or try
38:10
Speaker 1: it that way, or can we plate it this way?
38:12
Speaker 1: The store doesn't look sort of, you know, as intimate
38:15
Speaker 1: here can we change those colors, can we change the textures?
38:19
Speaker 1: And you know, I think it was just through that
38:21
Speaker 1: obsessive attention to detail, which is probably one of my strengths,
38:26
Speaker 1: and you know, it's very important in retail. They always say,
38:28
Speaker 1: you know, retailer is detail, and you know we were
38:33
Speaker 1: able to apply it and scale it. And that's the
38:37
Speaker 1: hardest part, Like how do you take a lot of
38:40
Speaker 1: people going to open one great cafe? I think, but
38:43
Speaker 1: how do you do it across multiple markets very quickly?
38:48
Speaker 1: And when you're dealing with a talent pull and team
38:53
Speaker 1: that often has very high turnover? And how do you
38:56
Speaker 1: make sure that those systems and learnings can can continue
38:59
Speaker 1: on and have contenuity. So you know, what we're trying
39:02
Speaker 1: to do is a very authentic representation of premium and
39:06
Speaker 1: Australian cafaculture.
39:08
Speaker 2: But then this brings the question which you just kind
39:10
Speaker 2: of asked, like how do you keep it consistent? How
39:13
Speaker 2: do you make sure that the experience that someone is
39:17
Speaker 2: getting on Greenwedge in New York City is the same
39:20
Speaker 2: that someone's getting when they're out in Santa Monica.
39:22
Speaker 1: Therein lies the biggest challenge, and I think something that
39:25
Speaker 1: we are working on every single moment. It's certainly not easy,
39:29
Speaker 1: and it's not easy when you want to provide a
39:32
Speaker 1: product that's more freshly made. If you look at the
39:35
Speaker 1: big the largest QSR in fast casual businesses, what they've
39:42
Speaker 1: really perfected is effectively having all of their food and
39:47
Speaker 1: beverage product mass manufactured in co and commissaries and co
39:54
Speaker 1: manufacturing sort of facilities where it comes in in a
39:57
Speaker 1: frozen state, or it comes in a reconstituted form, and
40:04
Speaker 1: it's often so processed that the nutritional value is to
40:08
Speaker 1: minimus high in sugar, high and fat. And that's how
40:11
Speaker 1: they've been able to scale by reducing the variables. And
40:14
Speaker 1: a big part of scaling a hospitality brand is reducing
40:18
Speaker 1: the variables regarding the perishability of food, which is also
40:24
Speaker 1: a real tragedy because people and Western society doesn't need
40:29
Speaker 1: more processed food. We already have an obesity epidemic and
40:34
Speaker 1: health related externalities, and the drain on society is the
40:38
Speaker 1: number one challenge the Western world has, and you know,
40:43
Speaker 1: and it manifests in so many different ways and impacts
40:47
Speaker 1: not only just life expectancy, but living standards. And there's
40:51
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sort of further analysis and segments
40:56
Speaker 1: you can explore there how it disproportionate impacts and already
41:00
Speaker 1: groups than those that have less education. It's it's a
41:05
Speaker 1: real sort of it's a real challenge that we've got
41:07
Speaker 1: to address. So with us, we have focused on the training,
41:14
Speaker 1: the systems, the standards, who who we look for, and
41:19
Speaker 1: how we hire and how we on board and induct
41:21
Speaker 1: and it's a tremendous amount of investment. And if you
41:25
Speaker 1: if you want to be a service led business like ours,
41:30
Speaker 1: really everything comes down to the quality of team and
41:33
Speaker 1: how consistently they can execute your proposition. Because the intellectual
41:37
Speaker 1: property in hospitality per se in a very broad general
41:43
Speaker 1: manner is quite limited with hospitality that there's not a
41:46
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of intellectual property. Right, A lot of people
41:49
Speaker 1: can work out how to make a great coffee, make
41:51
Speaker 1: a great cake, cook a perfect steak. It's not like
41:56
Speaker 1: you're trying to build this revolutionary sort of medical vaccine
42:03
Speaker 1: or a space shuttle. All this once in a lifetime algorithm.
42:08
Speaker 1: It's really about EQ It's about how you work with
42:12
Speaker 1: other people and how you make other people feel fantastic
42:16
Speaker 1: consistently and every time. So for us, like so much
42:21
Speaker 1: of the focus is on having the right team and
42:24
Speaker 1: people who have that values alignment that they love making
42:28
Speaker 1: people feel great and love being part of a team.
42:30
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter how great your coffee skills are
42:34
Speaker 1: or how talented you are with a knife, it's in
42:37
Speaker 1: the kitchen. It's really about how you can congruently be
42:43
Speaker 1: part of our team and support each other and you know,
42:47
Speaker 1: and just have those advanced EQ skills that are so
42:50
Speaker 1: necessary to provide a service led proposition. And that is
42:55
Speaker 1: a big challenge. But I also think it's truly wonderful
42:58
Speaker 1: because there's so many people out there that love the
43:02
Speaker 1: idea of working with healthy food, premium coffee daytime, making
43:09
Speaker 1: people feel great and being part of this cool, aspirational brand.
43:13
Speaker 1: And we're just so fortunate that we've continued to attract
43:16
Speaker 1: amazing talent and if anything, COVID has accelerated the amount
43:21
Speaker 1: of amount of talent that's interested in being part of
43:24
Speaker 1: our team and getting on the journey.
43:27
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I was going to ask you next,
43:29
Speaker 2: is how has this year, which I know has been
43:33
Speaker 2: a year, how is this year really impacted you guys?
43:38
Speaker 2: Because I know I read that New York Times item
43:40
Speaker 2: and you earlier in the year, eliminated ninety percent of
43:44
Speaker 2: your revenue.
43:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. It was just absolutely heartbreaking. It was staggering,
43:51
Speaker 1: simply staggering with such an urban model. So most of
43:56
Speaker 1: US stores are located in big cities, in high density
44:02
Speaker 1: business districts, and they were the ones that disportionately impacted.
44:05
Speaker 1: So people worked in office towers, no longer went to work,
44:09
Speaker 1: there was no business travel, there was no tourism. So
44:13
Speaker 1: and then we were basically told that you could sort
44:16
Speaker 1: of no longer operate. You couldn't serve people. They couldn't
44:18
Speaker 1: sit down, they couldn't sit outside, they couldn't sit inside.
44:22
Speaker 1: And it was still in March, so it was cold out.
44:25
Speaker 1: So people suddenly realized that they could only sort of
44:29
Speaker 1: order take away, and it just changed everything so dramatically,
44:34
Speaker 1: And for us, when you've got big operations in New
44:37
Speaker 1: York City and San Francisco and Los Angeles and Washington, DC,
44:40
Speaker 1: where you're so reliant on people on this cappive audience
44:44
Speaker 1: going to work every day, and when that disappears completely,
44:47
Speaker 1: your revenue is going to evaporate. And it was just
44:50
Speaker 1: such an extraordinary time because no one knew what was
44:53
Speaker 1: going on. No one knew the prevalence of COVID in
44:56
Speaker 1: their communities, no one knew how serious it was. Our
45:00
Speaker 1: biggest focus was to protect our team at all costs.
45:04
Speaker 1: To closing a lot of our stores just made sense
45:07
Speaker 1: because we you know, we didn't think we'd have a
45:10
Speaker 1: lot of business to justify it, but we didn't know
45:13
Speaker 1: if it was the right thing for our team. But
45:15
Speaker 1: in saying that, we thought it was absolutely critically essential
45:20
Speaker 1: that we kept as mini stores open that we economically
45:24
Speaker 1: vibely could to preserve jobs and to make sure and
45:28
Speaker 1: for really three things, to preserve jobs, to connect with
45:32
Speaker 1: our community, and then thoroughly like to be that signal
45:37
Speaker 1: of hope that we're going to get through this and
45:39
Speaker 1: be that sense of positivity for our locals, because everyone
45:45
Speaker 1: was tucked up in their apartment and you know, the
45:47
Speaker 1: spending every day in there reading the news just saying
45:51
Speaker 1: that the world's coming to an end and that there's
45:53
Speaker 1: unfortunately so many people that are getting infected, and then
45:56
Speaker 1: a lot were passing away trashically. We had to be
46:01
Speaker 1: that sort of beacon of hope, and it came back
46:03
Speaker 1: to the real purpose of Bluestone. You know, we're a
46:06
Speaker 1: human connection company about making people feel special and wonderful
46:10
Speaker 1: and providing them that sense of scape, and we really
46:13
Speaker 1: were focused on breaking that isolation for people. So by
46:17
Speaker 1: keeping the doors open of fourteen of US stores out
46:21
Speaker 1: of fifty one, there was a sense of respite and
46:24
Speaker 1: it enabled us to support a lot of the community
46:27
Speaker 1: initiatives in a huge way. We launched an initiative to
46:31
Speaker 1: provide coffee and food for first responders and really healthcare heroes,
46:37
Speaker 1: and we caught it Fuel for Healthcare Heroes, and we
46:39
Speaker 1: ended up donating over fifty thousand coffees and just we
46:44
Speaker 1: did it personally too. Like what we did is we
46:47
Speaker 1: facilitated all the drop offs as a team. So it
46:49
Speaker 1: was such an incredible experience, so engaging in grassroots. I
46:53
Speaker 1: dropped off coffee boxes. My brother who runs marketing, he
46:57
Speaker 1: started the initiative and the first hospital went to was
47:00
Speaker 1: he went to Elmhurst, which was basically in New York,
47:04
Speaker 1: which is effectively like ground zero. They were having more
47:08
Speaker 1: deaths than any other hospital in the country. And you know,
47:13
Speaker 1: that was a really powerful and transformative moment for us
47:19
Speaker 1: where I think we parked the tragedy that we're experiencing
47:22
Speaker 1: in our business and how many people that we'd unfortunately
47:25
Speaker 1: had to make redundant because we really had no options.
47:28
Speaker 1: But it gave us that high purpose, and it gave
47:30
Speaker 1: us that grounding and inspiration and motivation, and just the
47:34
Speaker 1: feedback when you go to the hospitals and you'd meet
47:37
Speaker 1: the nurses and the doctors and they're just dealing in
47:40
Speaker 1: an environment where they're so exposed, and the courage that
47:43
Speaker 1: they're manufacturing every day to go to work to give
47:47
Speaker 1: all of us a chance to and those that we
47:49
Speaker 1: care about a chance to get through this and survive.
47:53
Speaker 1: It was just so inspiring and it even gives me.
47:57
Speaker 1: It gives me it's a bit sort of emotional now
48:01
Speaker 1: even talking about it, because for as much tragedy and
48:04
Speaker 1: hardship that we were dealing with in the business, it's
48:08
Speaker 1: probably nothing compared to what was going on those hospitals,
48:10
Speaker 1: and also just the sacrifice that those healthcare heroes were making.
48:15
Speaker 2: What would you say one of the best pieces of
48:17
Speaker 2: advice that you've been offered over the last seven or
48:21
Speaker 2: so years of building this business has been.
48:24
Speaker 1: You've got to lead with optimism, and you've got to
48:26
Speaker 1: lead with positivity and hope and no matter the challenges
48:31
Speaker 1: and how many things are going to go wrong, because
48:33
Speaker 1: that's an absolute given. You're going to be dealing with
48:35
Speaker 1: things that you never thought would be remotely possible, especially
48:40
Speaker 1: if you're in retail consumer hospitality where you employ a
48:45
Speaker 1: a lot of people. And I think you've got to
48:48
Speaker 1: embody and role model that positivity. You've got to lead
48:52
Speaker 1: with resilience, you've got to lead with courage and conviction
48:56
Speaker 1: because people are looking at you for hope, and they're
49:00
Speaker 1: looking at you to provide them with that affirmation that
49:05
Speaker 1: things are going to be okay, that they're going to
49:08
Speaker 1: have a job, that we're going to continue to grow,
49:10
Speaker 1: that the adventure is going to be worth it. And
49:13
Speaker 1: I think the times where I haven't role modeled that effectively,
49:18
Speaker 1: or I've been negative and down. Hasn't helped anyone, hasn't
49:23
Speaker 1: helped me, hasn't helped our team, hasn't helped the business,
49:26
Speaker 1: hasn't helped locals, hasn't helped any of the stakeholders. So
49:31
Speaker 1: I think that's a really really important one, and I've
49:34
Speaker 1: read that in a lot of successful entrepreneurial sort of
49:38
Speaker 1: books and autobiographies where they detail the importance of role
49:42
Speaker 1: modeling a sense of hope and optimism. And if you
49:46
Speaker 1: think about some of the greatest leaders ever such as
49:49
Speaker 1: Winston Churchill, just how positive and optimistic despite basing existential
49:58
Speaker 1: crisis as it related to World War Two, he still
50:01
Speaker 1: prejected a very calm and rational way to focus on
50:08
Speaker 1: things that are important to look forward to. So I
50:12
Speaker 1: think that's a huge.
50:13
Speaker 2: One for me to listen to you talking about leading
50:17
Speaker 2: with optimism and being that person that people can turn
50:20
Speaker 2: to and see positivity. I totally recognize the value in that,
50:24
Speaker 2: But I also wonder about the idea of authenticity sometimes,
50:30
Speaker 2: and like I feel like there might be a fine
50:32
Speaker 2: line of needing to be realistic and upfront with your people,
50:37
Speaker 2: but also wanting to be that cheerleader. Like how do
50:39
Speaker 2: you know how to straddle that line and when to
50:42
Speaker 2: lean one way or the other.
50:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's not sort of something that I've had
50:47
Speaker 1: to grapple with because I laid with integrity and authenticity
50:52
Speaker 1: in everything I do. That is my core value as
50:56
Speaker 1: a person. I think you need to be real your
50:59
Speaker 1: team wants to know the truth. But there's lots of
51:03
Speaker 1: different ways to deliver a tough message or a stark
51:08
Speaker 1: message and still provide hope and positivity that you're going
51:12
Speaker 1: to tackle the problems and you'll do it to your
51:14
Speaker 1: best of your ability, and you're going to do it
51:17
Speaker 1: the right way. You may not get the perfect result,
51:19
Speaker 1: that the process and the integrity in the process is
51:22
Speaker 1: going to be sound. So I think it's a balance. Yeah,
51:25
Speaker 1: I'm not out here spooking and a snake oil salesman,
51:30
Speaker 1: but you know, I think it's really important when times
51:36
Speaker 1: and the chips are down and times are tough, to
51:39
Speaker 1: be incredibly empathetic, to be a really great listener, to
51:44
Speaker 1: be pragmatic and bold, to tackle problems assertively and responsibly.
51:49
Speaker 1: But I do think that people, especially if you're a
51:53
Speaker 1: CEO of founder, they've got on the they've joined the journey.
51:58
Speaker 1: They've got on the bus because of something that you
52:02
Speaker 1: have probably had a profound influence on and it's inspired them.
52:08
Speaker 1: And so if the leader suddenly comes out there and says, hey, listen,
52:12
Speaker 1: we're staffed, I don't know what to do where dead
52:15
Speaker 1: man walking. All these problems are insurmountable. You're going to
52:20
Speaker 1: erode everything you're about. But all I'm saying is like,
52:23
Speaker 1: just just think about your messaging and your body language
52:27
Speaker 1: and your role modeling and sometimes yeah, you're definitely not
52:30
Speaker 1: going to have any answers, and we didn't have all
52:32
Speaker 1: the answers when this crisis hit our business. But taking
52:36
Speaker 1: the approach that we will work it out together, we
52:40
Speaker 1: will keep our composure, we will support each other, will listen,
52:43
Speaker 1: will be empathetic, and we're going to have courage and
52:47
Speaker 1: do it with a sense of optimism. We will get
52:51
Speaker 1: through it. And all I know, as it relates to
52:55
Speaker 1: challenges this year which have been at a level that
52:58
Speaker 1: I never thought were even remotely, we've got through it
53:02
Speaker 1: with that approach.
53:03
Speaker 4: What excites you right now.
53:06
Speaker 1: Well, I listen. I think that COVID has some incredible
53:09
Speaker 1: silver linings, and it's given people a lot of people
53:14
Speaker 1: a way to reflect on their priorities in life. And
53:18
Speaker 1: I'm excited about a world that that is there's more
53:23
Speaker 1: focused on their communities and their relationships with those they
53:27
Speaker 1: really care about and just being just in many cases
53:31
Speaker 1: like distilling and streamlining what's really important in life. And
53:38
Speaker 1: I'm excited about that awakening and that self and that
53:41
Speaker 1: sort of broader self awareness. And I'm also you know,
53:45
Speaker 1: for me, it's been incredible, like spending so much time
53:47
Speaker 1: with my two young kids, and you know, it's been
53:53
Speaker 1: truly wonderful to really align my focus or just just
53:58
Speaker 1: awaken the power of being a parent and of a
54:02
Speaker 1: father and a present father. And I think that's been
54:05
Speaker 1: a wonderful thing. And I'm excited about the future and
54:08
Speaker 1: the relationships with my kids and my wife, and you know,
54:12
Speaker 1: I'm excited about the future for Bluestone Lane. I think
54:15
Speaker 1: that we have actually a better business. It's a lot
54:18
Speaker 1: smaller business than pre covid, but I do think that
54:22
Speaker 1: we have a better business. We have an incredible team.
54:25
Speaker 1: I think we've pivoted really nicely as it relates to
54:29
Speaker 1: tech enabling what we needed to do. So I'm and
54:33
Speaker 1: I'm really I'm really excited about the way that our
54:36
Speaker 1: locals have responded to to the to us staying open
54:41
Speaker 1: and continuing to invest in our team. And so I'm
54:45
Speaker 1: feeling that that, you know, it couldn't get any worse.
54:48
Speaker 1: So I'm focused on the upside, and I'm focused on
54:52
Speaker 1: life and the prioritization of what people think about life
54:57
Speaker 1: to be enhanced. I do you know, probably maybe it's
55:01
Speaker 1: more of a self reflection of just accumulation and just
55:06
Speaker 1: you know, not really taking any pause moments. Well, people
55:09
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time at home has forced them
55:11
Speaker 1: to pause and reflect, and I think it could be
55:13
Speaker 1: a really great thing for society.
55:15
Speaker 2: More broadly, I agree. I think this year has had
55:20
Speaker 2: a ton of silver linings. And I don't know exactly,
55:24
Speaker 2: you know, what would have been if things stayed the same,
55:26
Speaker 2: But I do know that what has happened this year
55:29
Speaker 2: has forced me as well to be super introspective and
55:33
Speaker 2: really evaluate how I'm spending my time and make the
55:37
Speaker 2: best of it. To say the least, it sounds to
55:39
Speaker 2: me like this year and the hit that it took
55:43
Speaker 2: on the business was certainly a large hurdle for you,
55:47
Speaker 2: for sure. So looking back now on twenty twenty, you
55:51
Speaker 2: have an opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice.
55:55
Speaker 2: Looking at this hurdle, Now, what do you tell yourself?
56:03
Speaker 1: It's a really interesting question. I think ultimately, no matter
56:07
Speaker 1: how dark it's been, that sun will come up the
56:10
Speaker 1: next day and it'll be all right, and you've still
56:13
Speaker 1: got your health. You've got the most important things. And ultimately,
56:18
Speaker 1: if you have those that that can still be around
56:22
Speaker 1: you or in contact with you, that you feel are
56:25
Speaker 1: going to be there when when you're on your deathbed
56:28
Speaker 1: or at the most important moments in your life. That's
56:32
Speaker 1: a real win. And I think that's brought it home
56:35
Speaker 1: for me that you know, there's a lot of there's
56:37
Speaker 1: a lot of noise and distractions and distortion and you know,
56:41
Speaker 1: elusive things to chase after in life, and a lot
56:45
Speaker 1: of comparison. And I think ultimately, what what COVID has
56:50
Speaker 1: done has said, Okay, what do I really really value
56:52
Speaker 1: and who do I really value in And you know,
56:55
Speaker 1: I think that's a big one. It's like, Okay, cut
56:58
Speaker 1: out all the all the collateral and all of the
57:00
Speaker 1: QUTA water shorter and all these superficial things and just
57:05
Speaker 1: focus on like who really matters and what really matters
57:09
Speaker 1: in your life, and who do you really want to
57:12
Speaker 1: be and the type of values you want to uphold.
57:15
Speaker 1: And a lot of people spruit that they care, you know,
57:18
Speaker 1: they care about certain values, but do they actually embody
57:21
Speaker 1: them and live that way. And I think COVID has
57:25
Speaker 1: given everybody, me included, a chance to really reflect on
57:28
Speaker 1: it and think about, yeah, what is my legacy? What
57:32
Speaker 1: type of husband do I want to be? What type
57:34
Speaker 1: of friend? What type of father and what type of son.
57:37
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's been a wonderful thing. I'm
57:40
Speaker 1: certainly missing my family tremendously in Australia and the inability
57:46
Speaker 1: to get there has been really hard. And you know,
57:50
Speaker 1: I'm greatly looking forward to the day of going to
57:54
Speaker 1: my local pub in Australia with all my mates and
57:58
Speaker 1: having plenty of beers and just about life and just
58:01
Speaker 1: sort of finding those magical moments of socialization that that
58:07
Speaker 1: COVID has really acted to pull people apart. So there's
58:10
Speaker 1: lots to look forward to, and you know, you just
58:14
Speaker 1: got to keep persevering and trying your best.
58:17
Speaker 4: I know the feeling. I know the feeling.
58:19
Speaker 2: I can't wait to openly sit with my friends and
58:23
Speaker 2: loved ones without a care in the world, also at
58:26
Speaker 2: a pub.
58:28
Speaker 4: Neck thank you, thank you so much for your time today.
58:31
Speaker 4: I really do appreciate it. How do the hurdlers keep
58:34
Speaker 4: up with you, Nick? How do they keep up with
58:35
Speaker 4: Bluestone Lane? Give me all the details.
58:38
Speaker 1: Sure, the best way with Bluestone Lane is on our
58:40
Speaker 1: website ww dot, bluestone lane dot com or Instagram handle
58:45
Speaker 1: bluestone Lane me Personally, the best channel is actually probably LinkedIn.
58:50
Speaker 1: That's where I post most of my sort of thoughts
58:53
Speaker 1: and articles, is probably where it's easiest to connect with me.
58:56
Speaker 1: And you can find me with Nicholas Stone and you
59:00
Speaker 1: can search for Nicholas Stone Bluestone Lane, and you know,
59:02
Speaker 1: I should magically appear. So in other ways I've.
59:07
Speaker 2: Been trying to get into LinkedIn myself. Do you have
59:09
Speaker 2: a hot tip for me on something I should be
59:11
Speaker 2: doing here?
59:13
Speaker 1: I just start following some people that you think are interesting,
59:16
Speaker 1: and I do. I do think the amount of content
59:19
Speaker 1: that comes out of it is quite extraordinary. It's a
59:21
Speaker 1: really great learning learning tool. Yes, there's a lot of
59:25
Speaker 1: self promotion and advertising, but I think you follow some
59:29
Speaker 1: real thought makers, like they're very active and they're putting
59:32
Speaker 1: cool stuff up there, and you know, I think it's
59:35
Speaker 1: I think it's good. It also has links to a
59:38
Speaker 1: lot of great articles that and you know, which I
59:42
Speaker 1: think are valuable. So yeah, I spend a bit of
59:45
Speaker 1: time on it.
59:46
Speaker 4: Spend a bit of time on it. Thank you so much.
59:48
Speaker 2: I am over at Hurdle podcast and at Emily Abodi
59:53
Speaker 2: another Hurdle conquered.
59:55
Speaker 4: Catch you guys next time.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: My hair