Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Monte Silva Champions People-First Restaurant Philosophy Through Coaching and Management
Transcript
- 0:04Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast
- 0:08where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
- 0:11their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
- 0:14adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
- 0:17today's guest is Monte Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Monte
- 0:21Silva Coaching, a Florida based firm established in 2020 that
- 0:26provides high performance coaching for restaurant owners
- 0:29and business leaders, offering personalized strategies to drive
- 0:32growth and streamline operations.
- 0:35Through this service, Monti has helped clients boost
- 0:37profitability and tap into new markets.
- 0:40Now his journey also includes Co founding 10 Tables Hospitality,
- 0:44a company focused on delivering intimate, high quality dining
- 0:48experiences. We're going to learn a lot more
- 0:49about that today. He's also published the book
- 0:52Shift Happens, 7 Proven Strategies to Help Your
- 0:56Restaurant Crush in the New Economy, showcasing his passion
- 1:00for creative solutions in a fast changing industry.
- 1:02With over 25 years of restaurant leadership, he has managed high
- 1:06revenue establishments including Acme, Feed and Seed.
- 1:10Recognized as the 31st highest grossing restaurant in the
- 1:14nation, Amanti's ability to transform operations while
- 1:18maintaining a fresh perspective has earned him praise from peers
- 1:23and clients alike. Now before we get into all that
- 1:26good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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- 1:57Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
- 2:00today, CEO and owner of 10 Tables Hospitality and Monte
- 2:03Silva Coaching. Monte, I appreciate you making
- 2:06the time to Share your story today.
- 2:08Yeah, I'm great. I'm grateful to be here.
- 2:10Thank you for having me. Looking forward to our
- 2:13conversation. So Monty, you've been in the
- 2:15restaurant industry for a long time.
- 2:18How did you first get your start?
- 2:20Well, I started as a dishwasher in a hotel and at a restaurant
- 2:25and it was a steakhouse and I kind of learned the early
- 2:29hustle. I had servers that would ask me
- 2:33for the scraps for their dogs. So I started selling meat scraps
- 2:38to the servers and they would tip me out and I actually made
- 2:41more money in scrap tips than I did in my hourly wage.
- 2:45So I learned very early that that the restaurant industry is
- 2:50a, is a industry that if you hustle and you work hard and
- 2:55you're innovative, you can you can do quite well.
- 2:59What was before we get to sort of present day and what you're
- 3:02working on now as you look back, what's maybe one of your more
- 3:06formidable stops along the way and why, What did you take away
- 3:10from it? Well, I had, I had a few
- 3:13different mentors, but one, one of the stories is I had the
- 3:19opportunity to be AGM for Wolfgang Puck.
- 3:22And that's where I kind of learned that food needs to look
- 3:27sexy, right? That the plates need to be very
- 3:30attractive and, and draw the eyes.
- 3:34We are, you know, we have our senses and when we utilize those
- 3:40senses, we have memory recall, right.
- 3:44So if you smell something, your brain automatically starts
- 3:48thinking, where have I smelled that before?
- 3:49And that that pulls up your memories and then and then your
- 3:54memories elicit emotions. And so it could be a very
- 4:00emotional experience and dining experience when you use your
- 4:03senses and and certainly side and making the food look sexy as
- 4:07part of that. And the other thing with
- 4:09Wolfgang was he could work the floor better than anyone I've
- 4:12ever seen as big of a celebrity as he became.
- 4:19And he was taking care of a lot of celebrities, you know, in the
- 4:23room. His focus was on them, not
- 4:27himself. And, and he really taught me
- 4:31about how to work the room, talk to tables and really orchestrate
- 4:35this these amazing guest experiences.
- 4:38And So what does that look like from a practical standpoint?
- 4:41How are you kind of working the room?
- 4:42What is it? You just, you know, hey, how's
- 4:45your dinner? Is it sort of to that extent or
- 4:47did you have some other kind of like opening 1 liners that got
- 4:51that conversation kicked off? Well, there's a, there's a
- 4:54number of reasons and I, and I just did a, a segment on the
- 4:57lost art of table touches. And the reality is if you go to
- 5:02a restaurant, most restaurants, you never see the manager, let
- 5:06alone engage with them. And what our role really is, is
- 5:12is, you know, we have two hats. We are a shift leader for that
- 5:16particular shift. And then we might be the GM or
- 5:18the beverage director. And so most of the secondary,
- 5:24you know, beverage director, GM position, most of the work you
- 5:28do is more administrative, more task focused, you know, writing
- 5:32schedules, writing your orders, things like that.
- 5:36Whereas your shift is very people focused.
- 5:39And so if you're not on the floor with people, then you're
- 5:42really not doing your job. And so the things you should be
- 5:45doing on the floor is supporting your team when it's busy,
- 5:49jumping in and helping them when it's not as busy, observing and
- 5:53keeping your head on a swivel. So you can, you can proactively
- 5:56see things coming that may need your attention.
- 5:59And, and if you do that in a way where I call them circle or
- 6:04circle eights, where you start at the host desk, you check to
- 6:08make sure that reservations are on time, that that we are
- 6:12accommodating everyone and getting them in when their, when
- 6:15their reservation is. If we're creating a wait, how
- 6:18long are we quoting? Then we go through the dining
- 6:22room and we touch tables of people that have just just
- 6:26gotten their entrees or their appetizers and just check really
- 6:31quick because if something needs to be fixed, it can be done very
- 6:34quickly. Work your way into the kitchen,
- 6:38look at the window, make sure that ticket times are good.
- 6:41There's not too many tickets. If you see an overwhelming, you
- 6:46know, bunch of tickets in the window, then you can go back to
- 6:50the host desk and ask them to slow down the seating a little
- 6:53bit. Then you work your way through
- 6:54the bar, talk to tables in there, ask if the bartenders
- 6:58need change or anything. And then you work your way back
- 7:01up to the front. And by doing that and having
- 7:05that proactive nature, you can really ensure that the guest
- 7:09experience, even if it goes sideways a little bit, can be
- 7:12corrupted very quickly. And you're fixing it on spot,
- 7:15which is then going to boost your online reviews and and so
- 7:21forth. When it comes to and, and really
- 7:24it's, you know, you can't say the same thing to each table.
- 7:28You can't say Hi. How are you?
- 7:29How's everything? Can I get you anything?
- 7:31Great. Thanks for coming in.
- 7:33Hi. How are you?
- 7:33Can I get? You to keep it fresh.
- 7:36If you're if you're just repeating the same thing that
- 7:38you've said 12 times already that evening, you're going to
- 7:40you're going to sound like a robot, whether you mean to or
- 7:42not. Yeah, and you want to go from
- 7:43transaction to human connection. And so you might ask why they're
- 7:47there and and if it doesn't already say so in your
- 7:50reservation platform. You know what?
- 7:53What brings you in? Hey, we're celebrating our first
- 7:55date since, you know, since our baby was born.
- 7:59Well, that's a big deal, right? Or maybe they're traveling and
- 8:02you say where you from and they say, Hey, I'm from Seattle and I
- 8:05said, oh, my sister lives in Queen Anne, you know, and so
- 8:10you're able to create some connection, right, which helps
- 8:14them realize it helps them remember their home where they
- 8:18live. And they enjoyed talking about
- 8:21where they live. And and I could say something
- 8:23like, man, I love the fish market where they throw those
- 8:26big pieces of fish down to each other and and then they start,
- 8:31you know, again, they're listening memories.
- 8:33Those memories are creating emotions.
- 8:34And so the goal really is to try to create a human connection
- 8:38with every guest that sits in your restaurant.
- 8:40And you can't do that if you're not touching tables and engaging
- 8:44people. And then I use if if something
- 8:48has gone wrong, I use this formula called glad where you go
- 8:53to the table. So G is go, L is for listen,
- 8:58people want to be heard and if they don't feel heard from you
- 9:02in the restaurant, they will tell the world 0 review
- 9:07apologize is a So whether it's your fault, whether it's
- 9:12misperception on their part, it doesn't really matter.
- 9:15Their perception is the reality. So apologize and then do
- 9:19whatever it takes. So glad go to the table, listen,
- 9:23apologize, do whatever it takes. And I found that a lot of times
- 9:26people will do the bare minimum and you're not allowing the
- 9:32guest at that point. And, and so I always try to do a
- 9:35little extra to make sure that that they leave happy.
- 9:40So that's really one of the, you know, the biggest things I
- 9:45learned from Wolfgang was working the room and.
- 9:48You know, and I, I love that last point that you're talking
- 9:50about is, you know, use that problem as an opportunity to
- 9:54completely flip the direction of the evening.
- 9:57I had a business partner years ago who was great with this.
- 10:02We were fulfilling physical product orders.
- 10:05And, you know, sometimes people get the wrong thing or what they
- 10:09got would be broken. And he would get on the phone
- 10:13with them and he had a way of interacting with them, talking
- 10:16with them, apologizing. We're going to fix it.
- 10:18We're going to pay for shipping. You don't need to send it back.
- 10:21And, you know, by the end of the call, they're so happy they're
- 10:24ordering more things from us. And we used to joke about, you
- 10:28know, maybe we should just screw up every order to give us the
- 10:32opportunity to sort of show that over the top level of service.
- 10:36Because I think a lot of times people are accustomed to when
- 10:39something goes wrong the the vendor, the restaurant in this
- 10:42case, you know, they're kind of like, you know, nothing we can
- 10:46do here. And so I love what you're
- 10:48talking about there, Monty. It's it's like, no, we're going
- 10:51to use this as an opportunity to really wow them.
- 10:53Not just, you know, here's you know, here's a free Pepsi on us.
- 10:56It's like, you know what, what's, what's the over the top
- 10:59thing we can do that they're going to really remember us for?
- 11:01Yeah, one of my best VIPs started off not so well.
- 11:07We were on an hour wait at a restaurant I was running, a
- 11:09Fleming Steakhouse, and we were on an hour.
- 11:13This one table was waiting an hour for the food and it was a
- 11:16party of 6. I ended up comping the whole
- 11:18bill. It was 500 bucks and that guy
- 11:22probably brought me over the next 12 years.
- 11:28Probably brought me 100 grand a business.
- 11:32That's a pretty good ROI. If you want to just look at it
- 11:34in dollars and cents. That's a pretty good ROI.
- 11:37Yeah. OK.
- 11:38So where did the idea to start your coaching Monte Salib
- 11:41coaching come from? Well, what's interesting is I
- 11:46was, I was working in restaurants.
- 11:48I was at a restaurant in Nashville and I was the GM and I
- 11:52came home one day and my wife said you got to see this show.
- 11:57So went to the went to the family room and, and Robert
- 12:02Irvine restaurant Impossible was on.
- 12:04And my wife was like, you could totally do that.
- 12:09And, and that was in 2011, I believe.
- 12:15And I was like, yeah, it's a cool show and I started watching
- 12:17it, but I never really thought of myself doing that kind of
- 12:20work. And so when COVID hit, the
- 12:27restaurant industry obviously took a huge hit and a lot of
- 12:30restaurants shut down in Nashville.
- 12:32It was pretty brutal. They not only did the six foot
- 12:37rule, but they only allowed 25% occupancy and they didn't allow
- 12:42you to put tables on the pad, on the sidewalks, through the
- 12:45parking lots. So it made it very, very
- 12:48difficult to survive. And then on top of that, they
- 12:52raised property taxes 26% to offset the lost revenue, which
- 12:57then hurt the landlords that couldn't help their restaurants.
- 13:01And so Nashville took a pretty bad hit and at the time I was
- 13:08like, I had a one year old son and my wife was a stay at home
- 13:11mom and I'm like, what the crap am I going to do?
- 13:13I can't get work for the first time in my career.
- 13:17And so we decided to move to Florida where there were safety
- 13:22precautions, but there was a desire to keep businesses open
- 13:28and running safely. And so I moved down and I got a
- 13:32job as a managing partner of a restaurant and, and while I've
- 13:36even before I moved, I started thinking about how can IA make
- 13:42money for myself and my family and B, how can I help other
- 13:48people that are going to be struggling through this time?
- 13:50And so I had to really kind of think about, OK, what am I good
- 13:55at? What do people need and how can
- 13:59I solve their problems? And so I created Monte Silva
- 14:03Coaching, started writing A blog.
- 14:08The blog was called Hash Hashtag Restaurant Tour.
- 14:12That ended up becoming a blog called Shift Happens and that
- 14:17basically got me to write a column called Shift Happens for
- 14:22FSR Magazine. And that became the book.
- 14:27So that's kind of how I got into it.
- 14:28But I, I wanted to, I wanted to help people.
- 14:34I wanted to create a revenue stream that was not dependent
- 14:39upon somebody else. That was purely based on my
- 14:44talent and skill set. And and then I wanted to also,
- 14:48you know, be home more of my one year old and my wife.
- 14:51So that's kind of how all that came about.
- 14:54And I had several customer, you know, clients in the beginning
- 14:57that really didn't know how to to create margin in their life
- 15:03to be able to work on the business instead of in it.
- 15:05So they were always working were.
- 15:07You able to find consulting clients during this time because
- 15:11you know a lot of the restaurants were shut down.
- 15:14Probably people not looking to do anything other than hoard
- 15:17what little cash they had. Yeah, everything that I did was
- 15:21virtual, so I was able to take on clients all around the
- 15:25country. I had a client in Richmond, VA,
- 15:29West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois.
- 15:36OK, so we. Are able to get some clients
- 15:39during this time and how has it evolved today?
- 15:43So what I've done, because I because I Co started another
- 15:47company that I'm I'm very excited and focused on.
- 15:51I'm shifting from the one-on-one model to more of a group
- 15:55mastermind. So in addition to speaking at
- 15:59conferences, which I've got some great events coming up, I'm also
- 16:05I wrote the book shift happens. I'm working on a second book
- 16:09called Transformational hospitality, turning transaction
- 16:12into human connection. That'll be out next year.
- 16:15And so under Monte Silver coaching, the speaking and the
- 16:19writing and things like that are living.
- 16:22And then rather than doing the one-on-one coaching, I'm going
- 16:25to be launching a group mastermind in October where I'll
- 16:29take 20 restaurant owners that want to really dig in and we
- 16:34cover 5 core pillars that are is going to help them really be
- 16:39successful. And it's, it's centers around
- 16:41people, product process, purchases and purchases include
- 16:46not only sales where you're building your sales with what
- 16:50the guests are spending, but also what you're spending in the
- 16:52restaurant and then profitability.
- 16:54And so during the three months, the focus will be on those five
- 16:59categories to really ramp up their businesses.
- 17:03And really, any decision you make is going to fall into one
- 17:06of at least one of those five categories.
- 17:09And so who's the target for this?
- 17:10Who's the ideal person that joined this mastermind?
- 17:14It could, it could either be someone that owns a restaurant
- 17:18route, maybe they have one to four restaurants, 1 to 5
- 17:21restaurants. It could be someone spoke in
- 17:26Vegas at bar and restaurant Expo last year and I met a guy who
- 17:29has 85 franchise outbacks, you know, so it could be a larger
- 17:37group like that. And, and maybe, you know, we
- 17:39have a discount if someone wants to bring their GMs with them
- 17:43into the training. So where I'm really training
- 17:47their leaders as well. It could be corporate, but it's
- 17:52probably more of the, you know, restaurant owner that you know,
- 17:58has one to and. Where can people find
- 18:01information about this you? Can reach out.
- 18:04You can follow me on my LinkedIn page Monte Silva coaching.
- 18:07You can also e-mail me. I'm revamping my website right
- 18:13now, so Monte silvacoaching.com is not currently up, but I'm
- 18:18about to revamp that and get that back up or you can e-mail
- 18:21me at Monte at 10 tables hospitality 10 is spelled out TE
- 18:28n.com and then I can and you know what I.
- 18:32Really like about this mastermind concept they're
- 18:35talking about and I've had the opportunity to discuss this with
- 18:37a number of guests in the past. I think, you know, any time
- 18:40you're running a business, it could be pretty lonely at the
- 18:44top, right? Everybody looks to within your
- 18:47organization, everybody looks to you to have the answers.
- 18:50Sometimes you do, a lot of times you don't and you're just kind
- 18:52of making it up on the fly. And so when you can bring
- 18:55together some peers and you've got an expert like yourself at
- 18:59the helm, wow, it just there's this sense of community one,
- 19:04which is great because you kind of feel like you're on an island
- 19:08as the, the leader of your restaurant group.
- 19:11But then there's also just this place that you can go to for
- 19:14answers. Hey, I'm having this HR issue.
- 19:17Hey, I'm having this payroll issue and there's somebody in
- 19:19the group. And in this case, a lot of times
- 19:21it's going to be you that has had that issue.
- 19:24Hey, here's what I've done. Here's a vendor that you should
- 19:27call. I mean that, that kind of
- 19:29support, it's obviously you are putting a price tag on it, but
- 19:33it's hard to put a price tag on the value that that it delivers.
- 19:36Yeah. And.
- 19:37What's interesting is I, you know, I anticipated when I
- 19:40started the coaching that I was going to get these people that
- 19:43had no clue what they were doing, that they had never been
- 19:46in the restaurant business. I only had one client that had
- 19:49never worked in a restaurant that owned their own restaurant.
- 19:52Everybody else was actually very successful to a certain degree,
- 19:57but they kind of hit that plateau because most of it was
- 20:01based off their own effort. And and so really it was just
- 20:06helping them build the right teams, put the right processes
- 20:09in place. You know, just like I said,
- 20:11people in process are two big parts of that.
- 20:16And, and what I've also learned over time is 2 things.
- 20:20One, none of us are as smart as all of us, so.
- 20:24So you have a perspective that I don't have because of your
- 20:27experience and maybe you don't have, you know, a total of 40
- 20:32plus years in the industry between hourly positions and and
- 20:35salaried management positions. But you would bring a unique
- 20:39perspective of your of your experience and maybe still
- 20:43something that I'm not familiar with, right.
- 20:46So by having that group dynamic, we're able to share ideas and
- 20:53put best practices in place. And yeah, a lot of them will
- 20:56come from me, but not all of them.
- 20:59And then the other one, to your point, is just not feeling like
- 21:03you're by yourself. And then lastly, sometimes you
- 21:07don't know what you don't know and all of a sudden somebody
- 21:10else in the group asks a question and you're like, yeah,
- 21:13you know what I need? I need help in that area too,
- 21:16right? They don't know that they do.
- 21:17They're not thinking about it 'cause they maybe they have a
- 21:19bigger issue that they're tackling.
- 21:22And so that group dynamic really creates a community of people
- 21:26that support each other. We'll end up doing some live
- 21:31events as well in person so that people can come and meet each
- 21:36other in person. But yeah, ultimately each week
- 21:39there'll be some dripped content.
- 21:41It might be some reading, it might be a video I've recorded,
- 21:46pre recorded. There will be a master class
- 21:50every week where on a subject where I run the class and then
- 21:54there's Q&A afterwards. Everyone will get a copy of my
- 21:58book and a lot of different stuff.
- 22:00So it should be a lot of should be really great value and I'll
- 22:05priced it in a way so that I can help or get them out of people.
- 22:09But they'll be groups of 20. So it'll be a very intimate
- 22:13opportunity to spend time with me and other, yeah.
- 22:16And, you know, from the masterminds that I've been a
- 22:17part of in the past, the other thing that it's been really
- 22:20helpful for is in making me think bigger because I see what
- 22:25some of the other people in the room are doing and how they're
- 22:28stretching even further than I was.
- 22:30And I'm like, OK, like I, I need to expand my thinking.
- 22:35So I think it's really good from that perspective too.
- 22:37But I want to hear now about 10 Tables Hospitality.
- 22:40This is more recent and this is something that you're really
- 22:43excited about. Tell us what's going on here.
- 22:45Yeah, so I. Was very fortunate when I I
- 22:48spent a little bit of time in Cincinnati and I met a gentleman
- 22:52named Mark Lundstein and he, he is a very talented chef.
- 23:00He owned his own restaurant at the time.
- 23:02We became really good friends and because of our level of
- 23:09expertise, I've got AI was a chef as well.
- 23:13So I have some kitchen background, but I'm definitely,
- 23:17I lean towards the front of the house.
- 23:18And and so we both felt like we were at similar levels of our
- 23:24expertise in back of the house and front of the house.
- 23:28And so we decided that with our passions that we had and similar
- 23:33ideas that we should partner together.
- 23:36And that was in 2015. And then we didn't do anything
- 23:41about it. 2014, he went on to be the corporate chef of a
- 23:46restaurant group in Cincinnati. I moved back to Nashville, was
- 23:50the director of OPS in Nashville.
- 23:53And then when COVID hit and I moved to just South of Tampa, I
- 23:58was, I've been here for four years.
- 24:00And then last November, he called me up and said, hey, I'm
- 24:04going to move to Saint Pete. You want to finally do what we
- 24:08talked about. And this is right in your
- 24:10backyard. Yeah, so.
- 24:12So we launched 10 Tables Hospitality in December and the
- 24:16idea behind it is we believe that trying to properly take
- 24:23care of people when you're scaling a massive restaurant
- 24:27like Acme Feed and Seed was four floors.
- 24:30We did 18 and a half million a year.
- 24:32We had, it was a very low check average because we sold 70%
- 24:35alcohol, but it was $18.00 per person check average.
- 24:40So you're looking at a million visitors a year.
- 24:43You know, how many of those people do I get to touch, you
- 24:46know? And so we wanted to create
- 24:50smaller, more intimate spaces so that we could really, really
- 24:56control the guest experience. And so we're going to own our
- 24:59own restaurants. And the first one we opened was
- 25:01Comida, which we just opened this past June.
- 25:07It's a elevated Latin American restaurant, very clean, healthy
- 25:13eating, no seed oils, 100% gluten free, including our
- 25:17churro doughnut holes, lots of vegetarian and vegan options.
- 25:23And we just believed, you know, we kept away from the all of the
- 25:29dangerous toxins that are sprayed on things.
- 25:33We local source. We do a lot of those things.
- 25:36So we opened up Comida and as an example of being able to do
- 25:40something smaller, there's fifty seats in the restaurant and we
- 25:45had 119 straight five star reviews on Google before we
- 25:50dropped the ball and got a four-star.
- 25:52So so you know, on a devastating.
- 25:55Day. Yeah.
- 25:56Yeah, it was. Devastating and, and it was
- 25:58because we didn't have tofu on the menu.
- 25:59It was why we got the four stars, which you know it, it
- 26:04allows us to think, OK, how can we do better and, and our chefs
- 26:08specifically didn't want tofu because of there's a lot of very
- 26:13bad things for your body that are in tofu.
- 26:16So we're going to be adding a dish that's made with chickpeas.
- 26:19It's a tofu made with chickpeas. And so he's going to be able to
- 26:23offer something very clean, but but it will accommodate that
- 26:27four-star person. So but we're going to own
- 26:30restaurants like Comida and we're going to they're going to
- 26:32be between Sarasota, Bradenton, Saint Pete, Tampa and
- 26:36Clearwater. We have some opportunities in
- 26:38Clearwater that have come up and some other areas.
- 26:42So we'll be expanding that and we'll do more.
- 26:44Are these all going to be the? Comida yeah, we'll have
- 26:46different. Concepts.
- 26:47Yeah, we'll have. Different concepts.
- 26:49We were only going to do 1 Commeda, but there's interest
- 26:52now in Saint Pete and Fairwater. So we'll probably do about three
- 26:55of those and then we'll do some other concepts.
- 26:57And then the second leg of 10 tables hospitality is a
- 27:02management thing, which I'm really excited about because
- 27:06there's not really anybody doing this.
- 27:08There might be a few one offs here and there, but it's, it's
- 27:12very, there's a much greater need than current supply where
- 27:19if you think about hotels, Marriott and Hilton don't own
- 27:23the properties. They're the management company
- 27:25that runs them and their brand represents that hotel and that
- 27:29owner. And so we're going to offer
- 27:32management services to restaurant owners where if they
- 27:37don't have the infrastructure of a corporate office that we
- 27:40provide that. So we'll provide the director of
- 27:43OPS kind of support, the GM and chef to run the day-to-day to
- 27:47make sure the guest experience is fantastic.
- 27:50But the food quality is there, the restaurants are clean.
- 27:53We'll offer financial support where we are.
- 27:57We are doing inventory management and plastic goods
- 28:03control that we're doing P and LS really helping manage the
- 28:09finances. We'll offer HR and payroll.
- 28:15It's interesting that we're on this call today because we're
- 28:18going to be needing to, you know, talk to a company about
- 28:21benefits. So you and I should have a
- 28:22future conversation and that would be for our own restaurants
- 28:26as well as those that we're managing.
- 28:29And then we also offer marketing support.
- 28:31So, so that's the management arm of it.
- 28:36So we have the ownership and you know of our own restaurants,
- 28:40management of other people's restaurants and we can do that
- 28:44for either a percentage of sales off the top or some ownership in
- 28:48the company. And then we offer straight
- 28:51consulting services where where we might help somebody with a
- 28:56turn around that has a failing restaurant.
- 28:58I've done 15 turnarounds in my career and none of the
- 29:01restaurants closed or we can do startups and I and Mark and I
- 29:06have done probably 30 openings between the two of us.
- 29:10So that's kind of what 10 tables hospitality is.
- 29:13So it is taking up a lot of more of my time, which is why I'm
- 29:16shifting from the one-on-one coaching through new market self
- 29:21approaching to the master. So, Monty.
- 29:23I want to better understand the management component of this.
- 29:28And you drew the comparison to the hotel industry.
- 29:32Yeah, For example, Hilton, right, They're not managing most
- 29:36of their properties. Is that correct?
- 29:38So. Hilton doesn't own the
- 29:39properties, OK? They somebody that owns the
- 29:44hotel will. And it's a little bit different
- 29:47because they're bringing their brand name recognition as well.
- 29:51So yeah. Is that like a franchise?
- 29:52Model or it's. It's not.
- 29:56It is kind of a licensing thing though, where the hotel owner
- 30:01has the right, has purchased the right to put Hilton or Marriott
- 30:07or one of the sub categories, you know, Hampton Inn, whatever
- 30:12on their hotel. But it comes with the management
- 30:17structure where they actually run the operation for you.
- 30:21So the restaurant groups we work with, it won't say 10 Tables
- 30:25Hospitality, you know, on the building, it'll say, you know,
- 30:33Louise's authentic Mexican restaurant or whatever, whatever
- 30:36it is. So we won't necessarily bring
- 30:40the branding unless they want us to put, you know, put some
- 30:43marketing on there that says A10 Tables Hospitality.
- 30:50If if we come in as part owner of the business, then they'll be
- 30:55represented on our website and you know, we'll be promoting
- 30:59them through our own marketing sources as well.
- 31:03But it's less about the brand of 10 Tables Hospitality and more
- 31:07about the management support. So this this is a kind of a new
- 31:12model in the restaurant space you said and there might be some
- 31:16one offs here or there as you have tried to explain this
- 31:20concept to people in the space. What's their reaction like?
- 31:24Do they get it? Do they see a need for it?
- 31:27If they do, who's sort of like the typical profile?
- 31:31Yeah. If if it's a one off, if it's a
- 31:34a singular restaurant owner, it only has one property.
- 31:40They stayed pretty hands on and they don't really see the need
- 31:43for it. But as people are scaling, for
- 31:46instance, we're talking to a, a restaurant owner, he has an
- 31:51Italian restaurant, he has a steakhouse and he wants to
- 31:53expand the steakhouse concept. And he, he basically said
- 31:58straight up, I don't have the firepower.
- 32:01He said I, I need help getting this first steakhouse exactly
- 32:05where I want it. He took it when he took over, he
- 32:08took it from 1,000,000 to 2 million and potentially it's a
- 32:12$5,000,000 a year restaurant. And he said I don't really have
- 32:17the firepower to get it to 5 million.
- 32:20And he wants, he's already looking at a second location
- 32:22once, once the restaurant gets where to where he wants it.
- 32:26And so he just doesn't have the bandwidth to be able to expand
- 32:30to that level. So it's really people like that,
- 32:33people that want to scale. One of my last one-on-one
- 32:37clients had restaurants in, yeah, 2 restaurants in in
- 32:42Illinois and one in Tennessee. And we worked together for about
- 32:47a year as his, I was his coach when we scaled from 3:00 to
- 32:515:00. And I helped him figure out how
- 32:55do we, how do we track top talent?
- 32:58You know, what kind of benefits packages do we need to put
- 33:00together for them? How do we put the right systems
- 33:04in place that can be monitored from a single location?
- 33:09And so we grew in that year, we grew from three to five
- 33:12restaurants. So that's an example of somebody
- 33:15that needs extra help with the firepower.
- 33:19But for us, beyond just kind of getting that first restaurant
- 33:25to, to be all it can be and then begin to duplicate that, we can
- 33:32also come into places that have, you know, 5-10 restaurants that
- 33:36don't have the corporate structure yet.
- 33:39And they're frantically trying to, you know, put thumbs in all
- 33:43the holes that are missing. And I just need that because
- 33:45it's one thing. To be the person that can sort
- 33:47of get it off the ground and get a few locations opened.
- 33:52But then once you start scaling beyond a certain point, it takes
- 33:56a different set of skills, a different set of infrastructure.
- 33:59And that's where your expertise comes in.
- 34:02Right, Monty? Yeah.
- 34:03And. And not only even going back to
- 34:05an earlier, that's a great observation.
- 34:07Even going back to an earlier part of that process, when you
- 34:11have a singular restaurant, it's a very different skill set to
- 34:20open a restaurant than it is to operate a restaurant.
- 34:24You know, it's very, very task focused when you're opening a
- 34:27restaurant like, and I've, I've done, I think a dozen or so
- 34:32openings myself and it's, it requires a lot of focused detail
- 34:39on the tasks and the checklists and everything else.
- 34:43Whereas in operations, it's about, you know, culture
- 34:46building and the guest experience and cost control and
- 34:51all of those other factors that fit in those five pillars that
- 34:55I, that I mentioned earlier. It's a very different skill set.
- 35:01I've been very fortunate through, through having ADD,
- 35:05I've had to teach myself to be very focused when it comes to
- 35:08the granular details and tasks. And so I've been able to like be
- 35:15that visionary, creative guy who's creating concepts and, and
- 35:19ideas and crazy stuff on my head, which there's always some
- 35:22crazy idea out there, but then being able to bring it down to
- 35:28ground level and execute. And they're very, very different
- 35:31skills. And I'm, I'm through trial and
- 35:34error. I've I've become very good at
- 35:36both of us. What kinds of restaurants are a
- 35:41good fit? Is this more fine dining like
- 35:44casual sit down can like QSR kind of fit under your or is
- 35:48that not really your area of expertise?
- 35:50Yeah, I'm not. Really doing the QSR model,
- 35:54there's a project we're going to be doing where we're going to
- 35:59put a restaurant in a food hall and we'll control the alcohol
- 36:03for the whole food hall. And then there will be some QSR
- 36:06spots in there. And we're going to help find
- 36:09those QSR companies and then also kind of manage the whole
- 36:16food hall where we're there to support the QSRS.
- 36:20But we aren't really creating our own QSR concepts nor are we
- 36:27focused on management contracts with those people.
- 36:32Would they be a good? Fit for your mastermind or not
- 36:36so much. QSRS, you mean?
- 36:40Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that, you know,
- 36:42especially when you're focused on systems, if if you're a
- 36:45franchise, you probably have a pretty good system in place,
- 36:50otherwise you wouldn't have bought into the franchise.
- 36:55But for people that are creating concepts, QSR concepts at a non
- 37:00franchise level, then yeah, there's definitely opportunities
- 37:05for us to help you, especially on the people process product,
- 37:11you know, and profit side for sure.
- 37:13The so back to your question, I think for, for management
- 37:18company, you know, someone that wants to scale, but again,
- 37:25doesn't have the bandwidth to get there or, or they need some
- 37:29help getting that first. Because you know, once you
- 37:31create that perfect model and you identify your avatar and
- 37:35what you're going for, and you have your systems in place and
- 37:38you have your order guides and who you're buying product from,
- 37:41it's very easy to replicate as long as you can, as long as you
- 37:45can attract great people. Let's talk a little bit about
- 37:51your book Shift Happens. So in there, you outline 7
- 37:55strategies to help restaurants adapt.
- 37:59But Monty, if you had to choose just one strategy, just just
- 38:02single that out, that consistently drives success for
- 38:06people, what would that be? Now you it's like picking a kid.
- 38:13So in the book I talk about they're, they're basically 7
- 38:18false beliefs. There's more than that really.
- 38:19But I identify seven false beliefs that we believe for the
- 38:22last 50 years that really ruined our industry.
- 38:27And I'll mention a couple just very quickly and then I'll dial
- 38:32in on one. So that includes things like you
- 38:36have to underpay your people to be profitable.
- 38:40Another one is you have to work 70 hours a week to be
- 38:43successful. Another one is good people are
- 38:48hard to find. So I'll I'll go with the first
- 38:54one about underpaying your people to to be profitable.
- 39:00The problem with our industry is we focus so much on percentages
- 39:06of cost that we devalued the greatest asset we have, which is
- 39:13people. And so when we looked at people
- 39:16as a labor line on AP and L, it detracts from our profit, right.
- 39:22It costs US money. And so when we look at them as a
- 39:26liability, we try to underpay them.
- 39:30We under train them because we don't want to spend the money
- 39:34and that could be either not enough training hours or or
- 39:39resources. It could be not letting them
- 39:41taste the food because you don't want to have to pay for that.
- 39:45But we're underpaying them, we're under training them, and
- 39:49then we're under scheduling them.
- 39:52But if you think about it, looking at two different
- 39:57departments in a restaurant, you've got your line cooks and
- 40:02you have your servers and your bartenders right on.
- 40:06Any company that wants to grow has to increase their
- 40:12production. And increase their sales force,
- 40:15right? And so if you're trying to scale
- 40:18your restaurant and grow it, if you cut your line cooks, you're
- 40:22cutting production, cut your servers, you're cutting your
- 40:27sales people. And if you're cutting your
- 40:29bartenders, you're cutting your sales force and your production,
- 40:32right? And so no company can grow their
- 40:36business by cutting their production and their sales
- 40:40force. So when we when we're cutting,
- 40:44we think, OK, they're a liability.
- 40:46So we're going to cut them as much as we can.
- 40:48We're going to pay them as little as possible.
- 40:50We're not going to offer them benefits, things like that.
- 40:53And then the cost of turnover is outrageous because not only are
- 40:58you paying for a new person to train at a non tipped rate, but
- 41:02you're paying somebody else to also train them, right?
- 41:06And if you look at them as an asset on a, on a balance sheet,
- 41:13then you're looking at them as like something that can grow and
- 41:17you want to invest in your people because they're going to
- 41:19grow and you're going to be able to grow your sales, your
- 41:24business, you're going to be able to grow your people.
- 41:27And so I always look at restaurants as a greenhouse for
- 41:31growing our our greatest asset, which is our people.
- 41:35I like that a lot. How about a serious challenge
- 41:39that you've overcome in your life, Monty, whether it was
- 41:42personal or professional, How did you get through that and
- 41:45what did you learn going through it it?
- 41:47Was both personal and professional.
- 41:49The one I'm going to share, there's lots.
- 41:51There's lots. Certainly where I am now.
- 41:56Came from a lot of heartache and bad decisions and watching other
- 42:00people make bad decisions really kind of fine tune.
- 42:04And that's where a lot of my knowledge for the book came
- 42:07from. But when I was with Wolfgang
- 42:10Puck, I was running 2 restaurants as the GM.
- 42:14So I would get to 1 restaurant at 8:00 AM and I'd work till
- 42:19four and I'd jump on the four O 5 and I would drive to the other
- 42:23restaurant and work 5 to midnight six days a week.
- 42:27So I was clocking 90 hours a week, had Sundays off and I
- 42:33would just sleep. I was married, went through
- 42:36divorce, went through burnout. And I decided that because I,
- 42:44because I, when I started my career as a manager in 94, I was
- 42:52AGM for Wolfgang Puck in four years from my very first
- 42:57management position at a Mexican restaurant.
- 43:01I went through bar manager, assistant KM, service manager,
- 43:05chef, GM in two different companies all in four years and
- 43:10then went to work for Wolfgang 4 years into my career.
- 43:13So it was a very, very fast rise, but it cost me a lot in my
- 43:20mental and physical health as well as my relationship.
- 43:24So I went through a divorce, went through burnout, decided
- 43:27that I was just going to go to Vegas and be a captain in a
- 43:31restaurant and take a break and work, you know, 30 hours a week.
- 43:35And some of that was self-inflicted because I'm a
- 43:37very, it's hard to turn my brain off.
- 43:40And so when I get home from work, I have to figure ways to
- 43:45decompress. And so I took the break in
- 43:49Vegas. But so Wolfgang's team said,
- 43:53look, if you're going to go to Vegas, you know, you should at
- 43:55least still work with us, even if you just want to be a
- 43:58captain. And then when you're ready to
- 44:00jump back in, we'll bring you back into management.
- 44:03So I did that. I was in Vegas for four years
- 44:06and really took a break. But during that time and a lot
- 44:10of time to self reflect and the burnout and the failed
- 44:18relationship had a lot to do with my inability to delegate
- 44:26and my inability to develop people.
- 44:29It's like I took all the reins and I tried to do it all myself
- 44:32with the white knuckles holding on to everything very fiercely.
- 44:38I wanted to control every guest experience, every, you know,
- 44:42every dish, every and and because of that, I was always
- 44:46there and working for Wolfgang Puck.
- 44:48I had, you know, I had John Travolta and Meg Ryan and Donald
- 44:52Sutherland and Oliver Stone and all these celebrities, and I
- 44:57felt like I always had to be in the building when I knew they
- 45:00were coming. So what I learned from that is
- 45:06that the restaurant industry is not a Sprint.
- 45:10There are moments of sprinting, right?
- 45:12A new opening, Valentine's Day, you know, things like that.
- 45:18There's there's moments of sprinting, but it's a marathon
- 45:21if you want to be in the business.
- 45:23And I would have never made it, you know, 15 years in the hourly
- 45:27ranks and over 25 and management had I not learned that this is a
- 45:32marathon. And I need to figure out how do
- 45:35I pace myself to where I'm aggressively growing the
- 45:39business, but I'm also taking time to replenish to have
- 45:43healthy relationships. And, and what I learned was if
- 45:48you've got your personal relationships, you know, or your
- 45:52personal life and your business life, once you bring your
- 45:58business life into your personal life, your personal life
- 46:02suffers, right? And then when your personal life
- 46:06suffers, it affects your business because you are
- 46:11thinking about home when you're at work and you're thinking
- 46:13about work when you're at home. And then you do both very
- 46:17poorly. And so I learned how to to grow
- 46:23people and to delegate. And unless it's a decision
- 46:28that's going to close your restaurant, you need to let
- 46:31people learn from their mistakes and grow.
- 46:36And then I created a this, this thing I said, look, if something
- 46:42is important but not urgent and I'm off e-mail and when I have
- 46:49time, I'll look at it. It's important.
- 46:51I won't forget it. It's emailed.
- 46:54If it is urgent but not important, make a decision
- 46:59yourself, right? And if it is urgent and
- 47:03important, you can call me or text me on my day off.
- 47:06So what urgent and important is not a somebody wants to be cut.
- 47:12Urgent and important is the restaurant's on fire, there's
- 47:16$1000 missing in the safe. Somebody just fell off a ladder
- 47:21and was rushed. You know, those are urgent and
- 47:24important. And as you teach people how to
- 47:27how to make their own decisions on the smaller things, and
- 47:32there's less and less that needs to get to your level, then
- 47:36you'll be able to have the time when you're off to replenish,
- 47:39recharge, spend time with your loved ones.
- 47:42And so that was the most valuable thing I learned was you
- 47:46need to grow your people so that you can delegate and you need to
- 47:49develop them. And you need to have safeguards
- 47:53in place to protect yourself from burnout.
- 47:57Because it is a marathon on a spring.
- 48:00Did you? After that sort of four year
- 48:02stint in Vegas, move back from being a captain into management,
- 48:07Yeah, so I moved. To Nashville, I got back into
- 48:09restaurant management. That's when I was working with
- 48:11Flemings when I first got there. And, and I met my wife, Anita,
- 48:18who now we've been married. We just celebrated our 17th
- 48:20wedding anniversary, which, you know, has been a a challenge,
- 48:27you know, because she was a school teacher and she didn't
- 48:29understand the life we live. And it took a while and it's,
- 48:33and I was still kind of learning how to balance life and work
- 48:37and, but she's been a a trooper and, you know, I was really hung
- 48:43in there. And now that I, my schedule is
- 48:46freer and I can spend more time with her and my son.
- 48:50It's a it's a really great life. I want to go back to when you
- 48:55were in California. You hit that burnout stage,
- 48:57working 80 hours a week. Your marriage fails partially as
- 49:02a result of that. I mean, you hit on that.
- 49:05But, you know, hey. And then I moved to Vegas and,
- 49:08you know, took a break. But what was that period like
- 49:12for you? How did you actually find your
- 49:16way through it? I mean, that's that's a really
- 49:18hard thing when you, you know it.
- 49:21Both your marriage and your career get sidetracked, get
- 49:26derailed. It's probably a better.
- 49:27Yeah. I mean.
- 49:28You, you lose, you know, work was an identity for me, you
- 49:32know, so I felt like a failure, you know, in the relation
- 49:40aspect, 'cause I grew up in a very conservative family that
- 49:42you marry for life. You know, my parents married,
- 49:45were married, you know, their whole time until my father
- 49:48passed. And so felt like a failure in
- 49:51that I felt like a failure running restaurants for Wolfgang
- 49:58Puck and then not, you know, I was at the height of it wasn't
- 50:04the height of my career, but it was the height of my career at
- 50:06the time. And it was very prestigious.
- 50:09I was featured in a book by David Steadman called Bev Biz is
- 50:17Showbiz. And I was extremely well known
- 50:22in in Southern Cal. And, you know, I could walk past
- 50:25the lines at, you know, the Sky Bar and different, you know,
- 50:31very elite nightclubs that, you know, I had a pastor pass by
- 50:39everyone and get in because I was AGM for Wolfgang Pluck and
- 50:42it was very prestigious time. I was dining at the best
- 50:46restaurants in the city and going to, you know, sporting
- 50:50events and and so feeling that failure of wow, I'm no longer
- 50:58AGM for Wolfgang Puck. And it was a personal choice
- 51:01that I made. But, but it still hurt, you
- 51:05know, and it was difficult, you know, it was fine in Vegas
- 51:10because I didn't want to pursue restaurant management again.
- 51:14And it was a good break for me. And as I thought through that
- 51:20process of getting back in, it was a good time for me to
- 51:26reflect and kind of see, OK, what do I need to do
- 51:29differently? And so a lot of the book shift
- 51:34happens comes from that period of reflection of failure and
- 51:39feeling like I hit the bottom, you know, and, and it wasn't the
- 51:43only time. There's been peaks and valleys
- 51:45through my career when I got laid off, you know, during COVID
- 51:49because I was the only non family member of the corporate
- 51:51level. There's these peaks and valleys
- 51:54in my career. But as I look back, if I were to
- 51:56take a graph, every time I hit a valley, my next rise was higher
- 52:02than my previous interesting. And I think if we learn to fail
- 52:07forward, which is a a great book that John Maxwell wrote called
- 52:12failing forward, you learn to to pick yourself up from a failure
- 52:18and and keep going, then I think that that's your really your
- 52:23greatest resource for growth. And I think that we need, I
- 52:30think you shared with. Me before we went live.
- 52:33The mess is your message. What does that mean to you?
- 52:37Well, when I started Monte Silva coaching, you know, my first
- 52:40clients were people that were out of control with their
- 52:43schedule, right? They they were workaholics and
- 52:45they couldn't, they couldn't spend time with their kids and
- 52:48their loved ones. We had AI had a client that
- 52:51husband and wife team and he worked on the business and she
- 52:55worked in it and she was there every day and never could take a
- 52:58day off, didn't trust her staff to run it as well as she did.
- 53:04She never saw her kids and she would come home, she would talk,
- 53:07work with her husband. So there was no separation
- 53:09there. My second client, the wife,
- 53:13never took a day off. And her son, one of her sons
- 53:16actually is the one that reached out to me and said, yeah, I need
- 53:19you to help my mom, you know? And so the mess of burnout and
- 53:28not having things in proper perspective and sequence allowed
- 53:36me to get very good at fixing those situations.
- 53:42And so that became my message, hey, this is what happened to
- 53:45me. I failed miserably to burnout,
- 53:49divorce, and then I climbed back up the mountain and and I can
- 53:55help you. So being able to share your mess
- 53:58with someone and let them know that hey, I've been where you
- 54:01are is very comforting to people.
- 54:04It requires, you know, humility, but I think every great leader
- 54:09has tempered humility and empathy into their leadership
- 54:15style. And so I was able to understand
- 54:19where they were and they were able to appreciate that I've
- 54:23been there and it really created some long lasting life
- 54:30relationships with people. The client that was the husband
- 54:34and wife team, they're investors in 10 Tables Hospitality.
- 54:39You know, through that relationship, we've become quite
- 54:42close and they love everything that I've done and want to be a
- 54:45part of it. So they've invested the second
- 54:48client that the son reached out to me and said, Hey, I need you
- 54:52to help my mom. She can't take a day off.
- 54:55Her name is Rosie. I still call her once a year.
- 54:59I haven't worked with her since 2020, the fourth quarter of
- 55:032020. But I, I still call her and
- 55:07check on her and make sure she's still taking days off.
- 55:09And, you know, it's, it's, it's really great.
- 55:15I think when you're on your journey as an entrepreneur, even
- 55:19if you're a solopreneur, you need to figure out how to engage
- 55:25in relationships and community with people because it makes
- 55:28your, it makes what you do so much better.
- 55:31You know, now the couple that the wife couldn't take a day
- 55:35off. They live in a separate state
- 55:38from the restaurants they own and operate.
- 55:40And, and I'll check in and they're like, hey, we're bike
- 55:44riding with our boys. Can we call you back?
- 55:46You know, And it's, it gives me great.
- 55:50I feel a a real sense of reward when I can help somebody like
- 55:56that. You know, somebody recently
- 55:59shared this with me. There's sort of the common adage
- 56:03that it's not the destination, it's the journey, right?
- 56:07And they pointed out that that's wrong.
- 56:09It's not even the journey. It's who you walk that path
- 56:13with. It's that human connection that
- 56:15you have along the way. It's your client, you know, out
- 56:18riding bikes with their kids where you know, a few years ago
- 56:22that wasn't within the realm of possibility for them.
- 56:27Yeah, the journey is where, you know, you learn the most right
- 56:30and that and when you're down in the pit, it's no fun sometimes,
- 56:35but you're right. It's more fun when you get to
- 56:37take that journey with other people.
- 56:39I think we all I'm as a visionary, I'm always thinking
- 56:43about, you know, what's ahead even in my my family life, You
- 56:50know, I want better things for my family, but I have to I have
- 56:54to stock and smell the roses, enjoy the moment as well.
- 56:58And you know, when you have a six year old kid that changes
- 57:04your perspective on all this stuff.
- 57:05So. Just a little bit, Monty, I've
- 57:10just got one more question for you.
- 57:11But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
- 57:14First of all, for everyone listening today, thank you.
- 57:17I invite you to pause just for a second.
- 57:20Go to your podcast app you're listening on right now, hit the
- 57:23follow or subscribe button. It's a great way to help the
- 57:25show and a great way for you to continue to get more wonderful
- 57:28content like we've had here today with Monte Sola from 10
- 57:31Tables Hospitality. And if you've got an extra
- 57:34second you want to leave a review or a comment, that helps
- 57:36us even more, helps a lot of people find the show.
- 57:40Monty, I also want to let people know the best way to get in
- 57:42touch with you. You were sharing some of those
- 57:44earlier. We got LinkedIn, You shared your
- 57:46e-mail address. Anything else you want to put
- 57:47out there? Yeah, I.
- 57:48I am. So I've got friends in the
- 57:51industry, two in particular, that have shared this with me
- 58:00and they say that they are wildly available.
- 58:07I have a friend named Troy Hooper who is the CEO of Pepper
- 58:11Lunch in N Troy as a guest. On the show previously and.
- 58:15He is wildly successful and wildly busy.
- 58:20He's got a young youngster in the house as well, and he
- 58:23travels his his travel schedule is just sick, but he always has
- 58:31time. If I call, he always picks up.
- 58:35He was just here in Tampa meeting some potential
- 58:40franchisees for other areas and he was showing them the the
- 58:47restaurant in Tampa. And he decided to stay an extra
- 58:50night in a hotel so that he could drive down and have dinner
- 58:54at my restaurant. And so I try to be that way as
- 59:00well. Robert Irvine is a good friend
- 59:01of mine. So funny story I mentioned
- 59:04earlier. So I got to meet Robert and we
- 59:07became friends and I told him the story about how my wife said
- 59:11you got to, you got to see this guy, you could do this.
- 59:14And so he wrote the foreword for my book Shift Happens.
- 59:18But he's wildly available. And so I'm happy to give my cell
- 59:23phone too, for anyone that wants to reach out.
- 59:25It's it's area code 615, which is Nashville 934-0261.
- 59:34If I don't recognize the number, I typically don't pick up
- 59:37because there's a lot of spam out there.
- 59:39But, but if you leave a message, I'm, I'm, I'm making effort to
- 59:44get back to everybody, but that's really, you know, my
- 59:48e-mail address, my links. That's pretty.
- 59:52Generous, but we'll make sure we include links to all of that,
- 59:55including your phone number and the show notes for folks.
- 59:58Last question I have for you, you had a, you know, long
- 1:00:01history in the industry. You've got a vision of kind of
- 1:00:03where you guys are going, where the industry itself is going.
- 1:00:06What do you think is the biggest change that's coming?
- 1:00:09In your space here in the next couple of years.
- 1:00:15I think that I think that tech has has grown significantly over
- 1:00:23the last several years and I think that everybody ran to it.
- 1:00:27And I think that it's important, but it shouldn't be replacing
- 1:00:34people, right? It should be, you should put,
- 1:00:38you should build a tech stack that allows you to be more
- 1:00:42available to your team and your guests and not replacing you
- 1:00:49with your team and your guests or replacing, you know, I, I
- 1:00:54believe that QSR will go to a greater level of tech and less
- 1:00:59bodies, but I believe people still are starving for attention
- 1:01:03and they're starving for, to, to feel relevant and important to
- 1:01:08someone. And I don't think that tech is
- 1:01:11going to replace that. And that's why I'm writing this
- 1:01:13new book, Transformational Hospitality, because I believe
- 1:01:16that mid level and up to fine dining is still going to require
- 1:01:22heavily on the guest experience, which is ultimately more about
- 1:01:26hospitality than service. Any idea when the new book will
- 1:01:31be available? Monty.
- 1:01:33I I would imagine sometime over the summer next year.
- 1:01:38This summer, this. No, like this following summer,
- 1:01:42So 2026, yeah, OK still. In progress.
- 1:01:44Yeah, Great. Well, that'll give us a good
- 1:01:46excuse to reconnect in a year and and see what's going on.
- 1:01:49Get some updates about that book.
- 1:01:51Yeah. I definitely want to talk to
- 1:01:53you, you know, offline about your services 'cause I, I think
- 1:01:57that there's a, a great opportunity to provide benefits
- 1:02:02for people that can be affordable.
- 1:02:05And I think that the model that you present is kind of a way of
- 1:02:09the future, I think. Well, I appreciate that little
- 1:02:13plug there and we'll make sure we do that.
- 1:02:15But for now, Monte Silva from 10 Tables Hospitality, I want to be
- 1:02:19the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your
- 1:02:22story with everyone today. I really appreciate it.
- 1:02:24Well, I appreciate. You it's it's great to connect
- 1:02:26with you and you know online and hopefully one day in person I'd
- 1:02:30love. That folks, that's a wrap on
- 1:02:33another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
- 1:02:35Thanks for learning.