Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Brianna Parisian on Tiny Experiments, Servant Leadership, and Managing Thrive Social’s Entertainment District in Downtown Chandler

Transcript

Brianna Parisian on Tiny Experiments, Servant Leadership, and Managing Thrive Social’s Entertainment District in Downtown Chandler · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Cotispodi,
0:17
and today's guest is Brianna Parisian, the chief operating
0:21
officer at Thrive Social Company based in Chandler, AZ.
0:26
They focus on building communities one neighborhood at
0:29
a time. They specialize in reviving
0:32
historic downtown areas, developing new restaurant
0:35
concepts, and creating vibrant community spaces.
0:39
Brianna Overseas daily operations and coordinates
0:43
multiple departments across hospitality, restaurant
0:46
development and community initiatives.
0:49
She draws from experience in various operations and
0:52
management roles at Liquid Sunshine Projects, Barrett
0:55
Financial Group, Sheridan Grand and others.
0:59
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:02
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency.
1:06
Listen, if you run a business, you're likely stuck in the cycle
1:09
of rising insurance premiums. You're paying more, but your
1:12
team is getting less, and many people can't afford coverage at
1:16
all. We do things differently.
1:19
We offer a solution that provides restaurant and
1:21
hospitality employees with unlimited access to doctors,
1:24
therapists, and prescriptions. That's always free for them to
1:28
use, but here's where you really need to pay attention.
1:31
Unlike every other employee benefit out there, our program
1:35
leverages different insurance frameworks to put more money
1:39
into your company's bank account.
1:41
As one example, we recently helped the client increase net
1:44
profits by $900 per employee per year.
1:48
Results vary, but the consultation is free.
1:52
See if you qualify today at AD back benefits.com.
1:56
All right, back to our guest today, the CEO of Thrive Social,
2:00
Brianna Parisia. Thanks for making the time to
2:02
Share your story today. Absolutely, thanks for having
2:05
me. So Brianna, you worked in a
2:09
variety of different sectors from hospitality to financial
2:13
operations. As you look back on your career
2:16
before Thrive Social, can you pick out a formidable stop for
2:20
you and talk through a lesson, a powerful lesson that you learned
2:24
there? Definitely.
2:26
I would say it's taking the opinion of others, taking like a
2:30
worldly opinion if you will, and trying to base my life and my
2:34
career trajectory off of that. So I've always been in the
2:37
hospitality industry. My first job was when I was 15
2:41
at a local Cafe as a breakfast server, as a mom and pop shop.
2:45
And every morning I would ride my bike there, do my shift, ride
2:48
my bike home, and I loved it. I love engaging with people,
2:51
building connections, different things like that.
2:54
As I realized like, OK, like I think the hospitality industry
2:57
is for me, I started to branch out.
3:00
I got into leadership at a local pizza place.
3:02
And then I started working at Marriott International.
3:06
I got a lot of Flack, for lack of a better word, from friends,
3:10
family saying, wow, you, you know, you work a lot.
3:12
You work all these holidays, you do all these things.
3:15
You need a better work life balance.
3:17
And so I tried to make a switch and I got a job at a local
3:21
brokerage called Barrett Financial.
3:24
And as I'm working there, you know, I put in two years and I
3:26
was like, you know, and I kept my job at Borrows and my job at
3:29
Marriott in the meantime. I was like, this isn't for me.
3:31
Being behind a computer is not what I enjoy doing.
3:34
I enjoy connections and building guest relationships.
3:37
And you can't do that when you work in an office.
3:40
And so you're a real. People.
3:41
Person. I am such AI mean I would talk
3:43
to a wall if you put me in front of a wall.
3:45
So our industry's. So not just a people person, a
3:49
wall person, you're a talking person.
3:51
Exactly. Yeah.
3:53
And so at that point, I was like, you know, I need to figure
3:56
out what I'd like to do. I hit a glass ceiling at the
3:59
company I was at. It was either, you know,
4:03
sacrifice a couple of my personal values to continue to
4:06
grow or maybe find a different trajectory in the hospitality
4:10
industry. And so I reached out to the CEO
4:14
of Thrive Social. At the time, it was Liquid
4:16
Sunshine Projects. I was like, hey, like, can I
4:18
meet you for career advice? You know, it seems like you
4:20
really love your work life balance.
4:22
It seems like you love what you do and you're in the hospitality
4:25
industry. And I'd love to just kind of
4:26
chat with you. And at that point, he was like,
4:30
you know, I've, I've always admired you.
4:32
I thought you've done a great job.
4:33
I want to build a place for you and my company.
4:36
And I, I've always wanted you to work for me.
4:38
And he offered me a job and I started with him and here I am a
4:41
couple years later. Fun stuff.
4:44
So let's go back a step here. When you were at Barrett
4:48
Financial, you talk about the glass ceiling and if you were
4:51
going to stay there, it would have meant compromising some of
4:54
your principles. Can you say more about that?
4:57
Yeah, so I didn't love the company culture.
5:00
It was very, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
5:04
And I, you know, when I worked at Barrows and I was there for
5:08
8-9 years and that's actually the company I was referring to
5:11
with the glass ceiling. That's where I would have to
5:16
stop and work Sundays. And you know, Sundays is a non
5:19
negotiable for me. And I worked Sundays 7 out of
5:22
the eight years I was there. And I was at the point where I
5:25
was like, OK, like I I really need Sundays off.
5:28
And there was no wiggle room to be like, OK, like, yeah, you can
5:31
have Sundays off and work six days because I was like, I'll
5:33
work six days out of seven days. You know, I just Sundays are a
5:37
day that I need off. And that was kind of capped out.
5:41
Yeah. And so there was no way like
5:43
this is this is the schedule. There's no changes.
5:46
And I'm like, you know, as much as I love this company and I
5:49
respect, you know, the leaders in that company, that's a non
5:51
negotiable for me. And Barrett, I got a carrot
5:55
dangled in front of me for a COO position, actually.
6:00
And I did all this leg work and then I met with the owner and he
6:03
was like, no, we're going to go in a different direction.
6:05
You know, sorry that they led you on.
6:07
And I was like, you know, I'm not, I'm not loving it.
6:11
Like, here's this corporate world that everyone thinks I
6:13
need to get into. And I don't love the carrot
6:16
dangling and I don't love the you scratch my back, I scratch
6:19
yours. You know, I'm in good with this
6:21
person. So I get this promotion and then
6:23
borrows. I just wasn't willing to
6:24
sacrifice my Sundays. And so that's, you know, I was
6:28
in a rock and a hard place. I was really frustrated.
6:30
I didn't know what I wanted to do with my career.
6:33
I felt like I had made all these strides and progressed and given
6:37
up Marriott. I took a promotion at Borrows
6:39
over a promotion at Marriott, and I felt like I'd given that
6:42
up and I was feeling really down and low.
6:44
And luckily for me, the first person I met with, you know,
6:49
happened to be a great mentor, so.
6:51
And and tell me that person's name again.
6:53
Brad, he's our CEO. Brad.
6:55
And so did you and Brad know each other from before?
6:58
It sounds like he was admiring you from afar, Or what was the
7:02
connection up to that point? So I sold him coupon books when
7:06
I was jeez, probably 10 or 11 and like wouldn't leave this guy
7:10
alone. I'm like, I know he's owns a car
7:12
wash. She doesn't care if this like
7:14
book has a car wash coupon in it.
7:15
I'm going to make my sales pitch great.
7:17
And he wound up buying a couple coupon books for me.
7:20
And, yeah, I, I babysat his kids, and I never really
7:25
interacted with him outside the coupon books.
7:27
But he was like, you stood out to me.
7:28
And then I developed a training program at Barrows.
7:31
And his wife was like, oh, like, are you happy at Barrows?
7:34
And I'm like, yeah, thank you. I don't want to work in the bar
7:36
industry. And for a couple years before I
7:38
decided to meet with him, like the little seeds were dropped.
7:42
Like are you happy at your current job?
7:43
I'm like yes thank you so much and never thought much about it
7:47
and genuinely just wanted to meet with him to get career
7:49
advice. And then he offered me a job
7:51
which I was not expecting and ever since then I've been
7:54
working for him. And that was the first person
7:56
you went and sat down with. Yeah, you know, I and I milled
7:59
it over 'cause I had a couple great mentors in college and I'm
8:03
really close with my he was my DECA advisor in high school and
8:07
we still talk. But I was like, I want someone
8:10
with real life, not an educational mentor, but like a
8:13
general real life person that I look up to.
8:17
And I texted him to get some advice and here we are.
8:21
And so explain to us layman's terms.
8:23
What does Thrive Social do? Yeah, so geez, we don't do the
8:30
same thing ever. Like I cannot consistently tell
8:33
you a day where I've had the same day or the same task.
8:37
Ideally, what Drive Social is, is it's the management company
8:40
that manages all of Brad's bars and restaurants.
8:43
We also have a car wash. We're building out our 501-C3
8:46
charity. Our goal as a company is to
8:49
create a creative environment for our team to thrive and
8:53
creatively problem solve stuff as well as drive community
8:58
engagement. So if we have a guest, all of
9:01
our bars are within a walking distance, so you can throw a
9:03
rock from one door to another door, which makes my life so
9:06
easy on the weekends. But our goal is like, if you're
9:10
leaving the pub, how do we get you to engage with downtown
9:13
Chandler more? And it doesn't have to be going
9:15
to one of our other bars. We have great local restaurants.
9:18
Santan Brewing Company we have a great relationship with.
9:20
There's great retailers. How do we refer people to stay
9:24
down in downtown Chandler and make it a focal point?
9:27
So it goes beyond just promoting and supporting your own
9:30
businesses, but you really look at this as like a larger
9:34
community. Yeah, for lack of a better word,
9:37
how do we make downtown Chandler an entertainment district?
9:39
How do we drive the economy to get more revenue down here?
9:43
And so how do you think about that?
9:45
We think about it in a couple different ways.
9:47
Guest service is one of our biggest pushes is Thrive Social,
9:50
and that doesn't mean just in our stores.
9:52
So we have a guest service manager who does a phenomenal
9:55
job and she'll walk. People say you're leaving
9:57
Murphy's, you don't know what your next step is.
10:00
You're kind of barred out. Well, like, why don't we walk
10:02
you somewhere that has a great activation?
10:04
So burst a butterfly. I sit with the owner on the
10:07
Downtown Chandler Community Partnership board and we'll walk
10:10
people over there and be like, yeah, go paint something.
10:12
You know, this is a great opportunity.
10:14
Our neighbor, she has a retail shop.
10:16
Hey, have you tried this retail shop?
10:18
We'll walk them over there, introduce them to the owner, and
10:20
create great community engagement within all of
10:24
downtown Chandler and not just within the bars.
10:26
When you say walk them over, like like actually sort of like
10:30
a like a guided chaperone, like you're walking with them.
10:33
Here, let me show you where to go next.
10:35
Yeah, and we'll have a full conversation.
10:37
Hey, what are you in town for? Are you local?
10:39
Where are you from? What brought you to downtown
10:41
Chandler? What was the pole for you to
10:43
come down here? And then in that time, they're
10:45
like, you know, this is so great.
10:46
No one's ever like taking the time to be like, oh, no, like
10:49
it's over there. And you point absolutely not.
10:51
Like take the next step and walk someone that to somewhere.
10:54
If someone asks us for directions, sure, like let's
10:57
walk you there. It's it can get confusing.
10:59
You see a group that you know there's someone's taking a
11:02
picture offered to step in. Any of our employees offered to
11:04
step in, take a picture, move on.
11:08
So what you're what you're describing sounds amazing on
11:12
paper, but how does it work in practicality?
11:14
Because I don't know, is it a server or a Hostess or a
11:18
bartender that is now taking away from the job that they were
11:24
just doing to now spend several minutes to walk down and then,
11:28
you know, come back? Like it seems like operationally
11:30
that would create some some challenges for you.
11:35
Yeah, and that's a phenomenal question.
11:36
So our in store team, their goal is to always build engagement
11:40
and add value. So they're the people where if
11:42
I'm walking through and I have a tray of beers and I notice the
11:45
tables taking a selfie, that's registered in my mind.
11:48
I drop off my beers on my way back to the kitchen to go run
11:51
food, I'm going to stop and say, hey, can I take a picture of you
11:54
guys? That takes maybe 30 seconds out
11:56
of my day. But that builds a guest
11:57
relationship that not a lot of places build and that sticks in
12:01
the guest brain. That's what our in store team
12:03
does. Our in store team doesn't
12:05
traditionally walk people places unless we have a lull in
12:08
business or say we have someone who has some type of disability
12:12
or some type of restriction where like we need to go hold
12:15
the door or we want to show them where the handicap ramp is.
12:18
That's something where we're absolutely fine with our team
12:20
taking 60 seconds out of their shift to walk someone out.
12:24
Outside of that, we have our Thrive Social executive teams,
12:27
our Chief Operating officer, Sarah, myself, our guest service
12:30
manager and then we have two guest service associates who are
12:33
the people who do all the intermingling and walking people
12:36
throughout and different things like that.
12:39
OK, so tell us about the different concepts under the
12:42
Thrive Social brand. Absolutely.
12:44
So we have Murphy's Lot, which is an Irish pub, Rebel and
12:47
Rogue, which is a social hall. Think about it like not your
12:51
average college bar, but your dad's average college bar.
12:54
So the idea was to make it a throwback to before technology
12:58
it was a thing and people actually engaged and talked to
13:00
each other, went and got a drink in a bar through darts and just
13:03
had a great time. Black Sheep Wine Bar, which is
13:08
the spin on it, is not your average wine bar.
13:11
We don't like to do anything average at all.
13:13
And so instead of you know, we have wine tastings and these are
13:17
the notes. It's fun.
13:18
If you don't like wine, that's fine.
13:19
We have a great cocktail list. We have great food.
13:21
Just come be you. We don't care who you are.
13:23
We accept everyone. And then Lola's Liquors, which
13:26
is an upscale cocktail lounge. OK.
13:30
And so the way you were talking, it sounds like perhaps a big
13:34
portion of the population that you're serving are are from out
13:37
of town. They're they're for tourist or
13:40
business reasons, Yes. For the people that I try and
13:44
engage with, yes, because I sit on the board of the Downtown
13:46
Chandler Community Partnership and that's something that as
13:49
Thrive Social, we as an executive team want to build
13:53
that. Our in store team builds
13:55
phenomenal regulars though and talk to a lot of locals.
13:59
OK. So do the other businesses in
14:01
downtown Chandler operate similarly?
14:04
Like are they walking people over to your businesses as well?
14:09
I haven't seen it late night. I think there's a difference in
14:15
daytime business and nighttime business.
14:18
So the daytime is when you can really engage with people and
14:21
take the time to like build conversations and relationships.
14:25
And that's when retails open. So that's the great time to walk
14:27
people over. Or my GM from Black Sheep and I
14:30
were actually just walking to a storage unit.
14:33
We saw guests with a black sheep bag in Boutique on Boston, which
14:37
is one of our neighboring retail stores.
14:40
You know, my GM carry was like, hey, I'm glad to see you checked
14:42
it out. Like you're going to love it,
14:44
you know, and that's the type of camaraderie, if you will, that
14:49
we like to build. I would like to think that
14:53
retailers are like, hey, if you want a great place for a beer,
14:55
right next door is Rebel and Rogue.
14:58
And sometimes, you know, we get feedback from guests like, hey,
15:00
we referred to you. But to be honest with you, my
15:03
day-to-day it's I have way too many things going on to actually
15:07
sit like slow down and see if we get referrals from local
15:10
businesses too. Sure, but you guys are leading
15:13
by example and hoping that others will follow.
15:16
Yeah. And I wouldn't even say that we
15:19
do it with the intention of hoping we receive it back.
15:21
Our intention is just to provide guests with a once in a lifetime
15:25
experience that you don't normally get at a restaurant.
15:30
So you guys are over the top with the hospitality, walking
15:34
people down. Obviously there are lots of
15:36
restaurant groups in the country where they own multiple bar and
15:39
restaurant concepts. What you've just described there
15:42
about walking people to something else nearby that they
15:45
might find interesting, I think it's a big differentiator.
15:48
Any other things that set Thrive Social apart from other
15:52
restaurant groups in the country?
15:54
I mean, I would personally say it's our drive for the guest
15:58
service. Working at Marriott really gave
16:02
me the trajectory of like, I love making guest experiences.
16:06
So anything that we can do to make a guest experience means a
16:08
lot. I don't know a ton of restaurant
16:10
groups that have a designated guest service department with a
16:16
guest service manager. I'm assuming that most
16:19
restaurant groups probably has like a manager that's dedicated
16:22
to that on a shift and that's part of their pre shift.
16:25
But having like a designated guest service department has
16:28
made a world of difference for us.
16:30
It's a clear standard of what we want our guest service to be.
16:34
It's an extra 3 people plus myself who are in the stores
16:38
making that experience. And then samplings, we do
16:42
different things. So like if we have a seasonal
16:44
cocktail, we'll go around to different guests and be like,
16:47
hey, like this is our seasonal cocktail.
16:49
What do you think about it? Or hey, you know, these are a
16:51
couple things we're trying out for the menu.
16:53
We'd love for you to vote on it and engage guests and get
16:56
different feedback. Now, Brianna, your title is COO,
17:00
am I correct? Because I thought I heard you
17:02
reference somebody else as the Chief Operating Officer.
17:06
CEO Brad Ingerfield, he's the owner, he's the chief executive
17:09
officer. OK, I misheard then.
17:12
OK. So you started out Executive
17:15
Operations Manager, Director of Operations and now today the
17:19
COO. I actually started out as an
17:22
executive assistant and then grew into the operations role
17:26
shortly after. At the time, Brad had a business
17:29
partner and he was like, you know, she needs an assistant.
17:32
And I was like, I'll be your assistant.
17:34
I don't care. And within like two or three
17:37
months, he's like, you know what, I take it back, I think I
17:39
need you to be the operations manager.
17:40
And then it just kind of grew from there.
17:43
Which one of those transitions was the most challenging for
17:47
you? I would say operations manager
17:53
to director of operations. That's when I really got my legs
17:59
under me and grew my own wings, if you will.
18:02
I think a struggle that I've always had is, you know, and I
18:06
wouldn't necessarily say it's a struggle because respecting
18:09
authority is important, but if there's an authority figure,
18:13
it's, you know, I'm respecting what their wishes are.
18:16
And challenging authority has always been kind of a harder
18:19
thing for me, even if I disagree with their leadership style.
18:22
So Brad's initial business partner, the culture wasn't
18:27
where it is now and the team didn't really respect her.
18:32
It wasn't a great relationship. And so here I am her assistant
18:35
or even when I moved into the operations manager role,
18:38
everyone saw me through a lens that they see her.
18:41
And I wasn't really like ever able to like come out on my own
18:45
and connect with my team or do things and be like, hey, no,
18:48
like let's creatively problem solve.
18:49
What do you think we should do? Because that's not how she ran
18:53
the company. And so that transition was
18:56
really, really hard because not only do you have to earn the
18:59
respect to your staff, but like you have to show them that it's
19:01
OK to mess up. I mean, 9 times out of 10, I
19:05
probably mess up, you know, and it's we're OK with you problem
19:10
solving and it not being the right solution.
19:13
The issue comes in where if we're doing the same solution 10
19:16
times after we've established it's not the right solution,
19:19
that's where it's like, oh, OK. Or if we do something unethical
19:23
that we know isn't the right solution, that's where we start
19:25
to get the Gray area. And it's like, OK, well, how do
19:28
we solve that? I think we're doing it
19:29
maliciously. What?
19:31
What's our next step? And so part of the culture that
19:35
needed to evolve was there was a lack of respect for this one
19:39
partner. It was not a good kind of two
19:42
way relationship with the rest of the team.
19:44
But also, it sounds like there was this a cloud of don't mess
19:50
up is if you mess up, like we're going to come down on you pretty
19:53
hard. And so I'm going to guess you,
19:56
you can't really change that one, the first part of the
19:59
culture until maybe that partner is no longer active in the
20:02
organization. But that second part of letting
20:05
people know that it's OK to make mistakes.
20:08
Let's not make the same mistake over and over again and let's
20:11
not make unethical choices. But how did you go about, from a
20:17
practical standpoint, letting people know it was OK to make
20:21
honest mistakes? Yeah, So as soon as the partner
20:26
was out of the picture, I remember pretty vividly one of
20:29
the managers making like it was AI wouldn't even say it's a
20:33
pretty big mess up, but they made a mess up with the drawer
20:36
and they were afraid to tell me about it.
20:38
And they hit it. And, you know, in reviewing our
20:42
financials at the end of the week, I was like, hey, what's
20:44
going on here? And you can just see the look of
20:46
fear on her face And she lied to me, like just a bold faced lie.
20:51
And I was like, hey, you know, I'm not saying that you're
20:53
lying, but I can tell you're not telling me the truth.
20:56
Like numbers don't lie. And I'm and it's OK if you
20:59
messed up and you don't know how to do something, that's fine.
21:01
I'm willing to help you. I would love to show you how to
21:04
do it. Just tell me you messed up.
21:05
I don't think it was malicious, but we need to be able to
21:08
communicate openly for us to be successful as a company.
21:12
And then from there, it started. Well, hey, I have a question.
21:15
I'm like, OK, what's your question?
21:16
You know, can I do this? Well, I don't know.
21:18
Can you? Like, we weren't trusting you to
21:21
be the general manager. Why wouldn't you think you can
21:23
do that? Well, I don't know.
21:25
I always had to ask. Like you had to ask permission
21:28
to post a schedule. Why?
21:31
What do you think? You know, what are the pros and
21:33
what are the cons to this? What's our labor percentage?
21:36
Why do you need a higher labor percentage?
21:38
Walk me through your thought process.
21:41
OK, that makes sense. Why don't we move forward then?
21:43
You know, instead of just a blatant yes, no, my way or the
21:47
highway. It's well, let's talk about it
21:49
like you have the ability to create a creatively problem
21:52
solve. Absolutely.
21:53
Call me call me day or night if you have a question, but let's
21:55
creatively problem solve. I love this because, you know, I
22:00
talk a lot with my guests about the culture and the company.
22:04
And I think for so many people listening that are running their
22:08
own businesses or, you know, in the position of leadership, like
22:11
how do we change the culture for like, you know, oh, you put a
22:14
plaque on the wall, you choose a motto or slogan, whatever.
22:18
But I think, you know, the story that you just shared there shows
22:22
that really the the best path there is just living what you
22:27
want the culture of the company to be right.
22:30
You want it to be more collaborative.
22:32
You want there to be that open, honest conversation to to happen
22:40
on a daily basis. And so when you're confronted
22:44
with a big mess up, a big mistake, and the person is
22:48
initially trying to sweep it under the rug, you could come
22:52
down hard, you could bring the sledgehammer, but that's not
22:54
going to foster the kind of culture that you ultimately want
22:57
to develop. Did you have that in mind going
23:00
in or was this just sort of your personality and it just, it just
23:05
kind of unfolded that way? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely
23:08
something that I've always been, you know, coming from eight
23:13
years of leadership in a restaurant before I started this
23:16
job, that's how I've always been.
23:17
Like, it's OK to mess up, but we're going to correct it and
23:21
we're going to move forward, and then we don't want to see that
23:23
same mess up again. Now, if the problem is presented
23:25
at a different light and you try your best to solve the problems
23:28
with the tools I've given you, great.
23:30
If you blatantly are just like, meh, now we have the issue.
23:34
And that's how I've always been. Now the interesting part is my
23:40
boss and I have the same philosophy, just with different
23:43
variations. So when he talks, he's like, no,
23:47
you know, creatively, problem solved.
23:48
There should be no, like there's no authority.
23:51
We don't have authoritative relationships.
23:53
And I'm like, hey, I hear you like, and that's valid, right?
23:56
However, you give a bunch of 21 year olds the we don't have
24:01
authority and there's no authoritative relationships and
24:03
be creative. Well, now you have a dirty bar
24:06
and stuff like that. So we've had some really great
24:09
conversations with I hear you and I respect that.
24:11
And that's exactly my thought process.
24:14
But we can't use that type of verbiage.
24:16
So we'll have high level conversations, if you will,
24:19
where we're on the same page and then we execute it a little
24:22
differently, like, hey, here's your guys's framework, now let's
24:25
be creative within the framework.
24:27
And so I think it was really validating to already have that
24:30
mindset and then have a boss that has that same mindset.
24:34
And you know, I, I didn't have to change my personality or the
24:37
way that I work at all. It just ebbed and flowed.
24:40
And I try. I have a really good
24:41
relationship with my leadership team, at least I think so.
24:44
I would hope that they would say the same thing where we joke
24:47
around. I mean, I probably know more
24:48
about their personal life than some of my pretty good friends
24:52
personal life because they come in here and my office is a safe
24:55
space. You can say anything you want in
24:56
this office as long as that door is shut and your team can't hear
24:59
it. Your team's driving you crazy,
25:01
That's fine. You guys drive me crazy too.
25:02
Like this is the safe space to talk about it.
25:05
Now, I don't ever want to hear you talking about your team in
25:07
the store, but if someone's frustrating, you can come talk
25:10
about it in the office and I can turn off my manager brain and
25:13
you can just vent. If it's a problem we need to
25:15
solve, manager brain can stay on and we can address it.
25:18
If you, you know, you and your boyfriend, you and your
25:20
girlfriend, you and your wife got into a fight and you need to
25:22
come vent My office great. I probably won't remember in 30
25:25
minutes anyway, but this is a safe space for you guys.
25:29
And I think that was a helpful tool of like, OK, like manage
25:32
your brain on or manage your brain off.
25:34
Are we venting? Do we need to problem solve
25:35
what's going on there? And that's what really created
25:39
the open and honest communication that I think a lot
25:42
of upper management and store level management lack.
25:47
That's really interesting. It makes me think of I'm gonna
25:50
I'm gonna forget who I heard this from, but in terms of like
25:53
a, a spousal relationship, I'm married.
25:56
Understanding going into the conversation, do you want
26:00
helped? Do you want to be heard or do
26:03
you want a hug? And I don't know, maybe the hug
26:06
comes into the the plan there in your office or maybe that's off
26:10
limits. But it it sounds similar, like,
26:12
hey, are you just coming in here because you need to be heard?
26:14
Like you need to vent, OK. Or is this something that where
26:17
you're asking for my help to resolve it?
26:19
Is that kind of how you think about it?
26:20
Like OK which path or do I which which mind track do I need to be
26:25
on here? Absolutely.
26:27
And we like we don't ever want someone to change to fit in a
26:30
box. So like, I hugs, not my thing.
26:34
No, thank you. Please don't touch me.
26:37
And like my team knows that. And it's something we joke
26:39
about, right? But we have a manager who is a
26:43
little bit more on the emotional side and like, OK, Bree, like
26:46
I'm going to cry. Like if you want to turn around,
26:48
I'm going to cry. And I'm like, OK, I'll go get
26:50
you a glass of water. Like, you know, but we want
26:53
everyone to be vulnerable and no one should ever have to change
26:57
their personality to fit on our leadership team.
26:59
That's what makes us so great at engaging with different
27:02
individuals is every single one of us has a different
27:05
personality. Every single one of us has a
27:06
different strength. And the way that I manage our
27:09
black sheep GM is not how I manage our Murphy's GM.
27:12
They're two very separate individuals who need very
27:15
different instructions or very different support or different
27:18
things like that. So I hear a lot of talk about
27:23
the culture that you are instilling with the folks that
27:27
you interact with on a regular basis.
27:29
A lot of the GMSA lot of your, you know, leadership team.
27:32
When you think about kind of your frontline people working in
27:36
the bars, restaurants, the, you know, the front of house, back
27:39
of house. How do you guys approach in a
27:42
very competitive labor market, both recruiting, hiring and
27:48
retention? How do you hold on to good
27:49
folks? Yeah, so we show our team that
27:54
they're valued. And again, I would hope our team
27:57
would be like, you know what, yes, I am valued.
28:00
So for example, one of our shift leads at Rebel, and I'm going to
28:03
preface that I believe in making sure that our managers feel
28:07
enabled in the store. So if I walk in, I'm going to
28:10
say hi to all of our servers, but if I notice something wrong,
28:13
I'm going to talk to the manager.
28:14
Hey, when I walked in, I noticed 3 tables are dirty.
28:17
That's a really poor example for when people walk in.
28:19
First impressions mean a lot. Can you please connect with the
28:22
server and make sure that we're taking the time to bust the
28:24
tables before we do our side work?
28:26
You know, different things like that.
28:27
Because I want our managers to feel empowered.
28:29
I never want them to feel like they're undercut.
28:32
But, you know, we'll banter. Like, I think that there is a
28:35
line that needs to be drawn between the hourly team members
28:40
and the executive leadership team to where like, I don't want
28:43
to engage in your personal life. I don't think that's
28:45
appropriate. And I think it gets messy that
28:47
way. And I think that shift leads and
28:50
managers should engage in their teams personal life in the sense
28:53
of like how I have an open door policy.
28:55
If you have a teammate that's having a hard time, they should
28:58
be able to go talk to you in the office.
29:00
You can be like, do you need help problem solving, you know,
29:02
are you just trying to get it out?
29:03
What do you need for your shift? I also run our HR department, so
29:07
if someone needs to talk to me, they e-mail our HR e-mail and
29:10
they can set up a meeting. But in my day-to-day, I don't
29:12
think it's appropriate because there's so much intermingling in
29:16
restaurants that I don't want to be involved in a drama level.
29:21
With that being said, you know, you walk in, you talk to your
29:23
team and you know, one of our shift leads, Bree, I'm the
29:26
employee of the month. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that
29:28
would be great if we had an employee of the month.
29:30
You know, we just, we don't have that.
29:32
So, you know, bantering and like making sure people like I, I
29:37
hear you and I see you. Like we don't even do that.
29:41
So for Christmas, I got her a plaque that said, you know, her
29:44
name. And then an employee that has
29:46
worked every month as a joke because we don't have an
29:51
employee of the month. But you know, different things
29:54
like heavier things. One of our servers at Murphy's,
29:57
her mom passed away and she wanted to work her shift.
30:00
She did not want to go home. And I'm like, Are you sure?
30:02
Like I'll work your shift. I have no problem working in the
30:04
store. And she's like, no, like, I, I
30:07
want to stay. I want to get my mind off it.
30:08
We sent her flowers the next day.
30:11
Two of our team members just had a baby and we are paying her out
30:16
full three weeks of sick pay. Not a lot of companies are going
30:20
to do that. We send her flowers personally,
30:23
I sent her money and was like, hey, like DoorDash some food on
30:26
me. One of our store managers had a
30:27
baby and I we're paying him his full paternity leave, which
30:31
again, a lot of companies don't do.
30:34
I went over and I met his baby. I brought his, you know,
30:36
girlfriend food, sent her money to go get a massage, different
30:40
things like that. So like we try and be as
30:42
actively involved supporting our staff from an appropriate level.
30:48
That's really cool. And so I've heard you talk about
30:50
the CEO, you're the CEO, you also run HR and I know and I
30:55
know, I know every company is sort of different in their
30:57
structure. Is there ACFO as well or are
31:01
some of those duties kind of split between you and the CEO?
31:06
Yeah, it would be me and the CEO.
31:07
So the only we have a Chief Culinary Officer who runs our
31:10
back a house. He is phenomenal.
31:12
His creations are phenomenal, His team is phenomenal.
31:15
We have a Chief Marketing Officer, Sarah, myself and then
31:18
Brad. So those are all of our high
31:19
level like executive positions and then HR, accounting, pretty
31:26
much all of our financials outside of what Brad does on a
31:30
day-to-day basis fall over to me.
31:32
So I do all of our like APAR accounts and then at the end of
31:37
the year gather all of our tax information, send it over to our
31:40
accountant and he takes it from there.
31:42
That's all our hats, Brianna. Yeah, Brad likes to call it
31:46
talent stacking. Well, when you give it an
31:50
official, powerful name like that, then it sounds like an
31:53
honor that's been bestowed upon you rather than, I don't know,
31:57
overworking. How does it feel though in real
31:59
life? No, he's great.
32:01
Just like we show appreciation to our team.
32:04
You know, we were in a meeting one time and I was like, hey,
32:06
can I take the weekend off? I'm going to go watch my
32:08
brother's soccer game. I'm trying to figure out my
32:11
flights. And like, as we're sitting
32:13
there, he bought me a flight and he's like, yeah, here's your
32:14
flight. Like, have fun watching his
32:16
game. So he shows his appreciation.
32:18
I went to Ireland this last year and you know, he like sends me a
32:23
message. He's like, hey, throw you a
32:25
bonus just so you have some more spending money.
32:27
Enjoy Ireland. Thanks for all you do.
32:29
That's cool. And those little isolated
32:33
incidents, those kind of 1 offs, they can have such a powerful
32:38
impact on what you feel in your heart, right?
32:40
Like it was nice to have the flight paid for.
32:42
It was nice to have the bonus to have, you know, extra spending
32:45
money, to have a little bit of fun.
32:48
But I'm going to guess like a big maybe the biggest part of it
32:52
is just how it made you feel inside, how it made you feel
32:55
valued and treasured. Totally.
32:57
No, absolutely. And that's something that I've
33:00
always done, You know, even at 16, texting my counter staff
33:04
like, hey, what do we want for coffee?
33:05
It's on me and this is the first time I've been in the leadership
33:08
role where I have a budget to do things through the company,
33:12
which is great. And it doesn't mean we use it
33:15
every month. It doesn't mean, you know, I
33:17
still don't go out of my way to do things myself.
33:19
But the fact that he values team members from such a high level
33:23
and he empowers us as managers to be able to go do things for
33:27
staff that just, it makes me able to bless them tenfold.
33:31
Because the budget that I have in my personal finances to do
33:33
things for our team, I also have a budget and a professional
33:36
finance to do things. And that just means that instead
33:38
of reaching 5 people that month, we got to reach 10 people that
33:41
month. Nice.
33:43
And so you guys are about to open Dos Dias.
33:46
When is when does this take place?
33:48
So we might be pivoting it to a different concept.
33:52
So the fun part about Brad, the fun part for Brad is he is the.
33:57
Fun part for Brad. Brad gets to be very creative.
34:02
Creative people that I've ever met.
34:05
The fun part for me is I get to problem solve as we go.
34:08
The also stressful part is OK, great, I problem solved this one
34:11
concept. Oh, we changed our mind.
34:13
We're going over here. So it sounds like we're our
34:16
fifth concept is going to be a different concept.
34:19
It's going to be a cocktail lounge, which I think will fit
34:23
the space that we have for it a little bit better and hopefully
34:26
Dos Diaz comes in a couple years.
34:28
OK. I was going to ask what is sort
34:30
of the cadence for you guys opening up new locations?
34:34
I think it depends, you know, it's Brad and I both send each
34:37
other ideas back like I'm like, hey, what about this idea?
34:40
Hey, what about this concept? And then we'll like put it on
34:43
the back table and we'll see when we get a space like what's
34:46
going to fit this space best? What's going to, you know, how
34:49
can we take an existing business and expand it into that space?
34:52
What can we do to creatively problem solve if there's only so
34:56
many liquor licenses? So how do we create an elite
34:58
problem solve this? For example, when we open
35:00
Lola's, it's field Restaurant Concepts is the official
35:05
business for Murphy's and then it has two separate Dbas.
35:08
So that's how we creatively problem solve.
35:09
They're the same business, just two separate Dbas with two
35:12
separate fronts. And there's a ghost kitchen in
35:14
Lola's SO. What problem did that solve?
35:17
So that solved getting a liquor license for Lola's liquor
35:19
license are very, very hard to come by.
35:22
And so instead of having to find a liquor license, we did the
35:25
same business and we just did 2 separate Dbas under the same
35:28
business license and same liquor license and they're attached,
35:32
but I guess wouldn't know it's attached.
35:34
So there is a trap door, if you will, that opens to the hallway
35:38
of Murphys. And so it's the exact same
35:40
business, just two separate designs.
35:42
OK, clever. And you've mentioned the five O
35:45
1 three CA couple of times. Tell me more about that.
35:48
So Good Neighbors is our way to give back to the community.
35:52
And Brad's wife, Christy is one of the most generous people I've
35:55
ever met. And I think this is one of her
35:57
power projects, something that she's really passionate about.
36:00
And Brad's like, you know what? That's a great way to tie our
36:02
restaurants back into giving back to the community because we
36:05
will write checks, we'll do fundraisers for the firefighters
36:08
or local law enforcement associations.
36:10
We're huge on supporting military and 1st responders.
36:14
Our Chandler first responders are phenomenal or on a first
36:17
name basis with Chandler Fire and Chandler PD just being open
36:20
late night and you know, you know, God forbid you're in a bad
36:24
situation, having first responders that you're close
36:27
with is always a great thing to have in your pocket.
36:30
And so we give back in all the different ways that we can.
36:33
Brad's constantly like, hey, like you don't even have to ask
36:36
me. You go donate to whoever you
36:38
need to donate through the businesses.
36:40
And so Good Neighbors is our way to do type of fundraisers and
36:43
events and then just donate directly to a charity, a
36:47
different charity or a different foundation.
36:50
Give me an example of one of these fundraising events.
36:53
Sure. So we did the bagpipers.
36:55
So the fire department has bagpipers for fallen
36:58
firefighters, first responders, different things like that.
37:02
And we had a fundraising night where they came in and the
37:04
bagpipers bartended. And in order to truly do
37:09
donations, because like bagpipers can't really bartend,
37:12
like firefighters are back there and they're fun to look at,
37:15
they're fun to engage with. But my store manager and I
37:18
worked the event and then all the tips went to them.
37:21
People were donating all night to them.
37:22
We did a part the proceeds to them and then we just wrote them
37:25
the check and they caught it. Wow, that's fun.
37:28
And so are most of the donations come through in the form of a
37:32
check or cash as opposed to, I don't know, here's blankets or
37:35
something else that you might need.
37:37
Correct. Yep.
37:38
We write checks or we'll do gift cards for people to raffle.
37:42
We did the Chandler Law Enforcement Association.
37:45
We held one of their fundraisers back in April.
37:47
We donated a couple like high end bottles of whiskey that's
37:50
allocated and you can't get in stores.
37:53
So we pulled our allocations, donated those, wrote them a
37:56
check, did percentage of sales and we allowed them to host
37:59
there. Well, that's fun.
38:02
As you guys think about, you know, you'd rather sort of
38:05
sending ideas back and forth, new concepts.
38:08
Do you ever think about opening up something outside of
38:11
Chandler, or is it important to you to stay in the city there?
38:16
You know, we've talked talked about opening stuff outside of
38:19
Chandler. I think I was just elected to
38:22
sit on the DCCP board in and our landlord is incredible.
38:28
And so I'm sitting on the board on his behalf to make sure that
38:31
his interests are represented. And then we're going in a good
38:35
direction. And I think right now, since
38:37
that big change just happened, we would probably focus most of
38:40
our efforts in Chandler at least for the next three or four years
38:43
and then maybe branch out outside of that.
38:46
Is it hard to find space? I don't know if I've ever been
38:50
to, I mean, I've been to Phoenix before and so I'm going to guess
38:53
I haven't been to that suburb. Like is it pretty like dense or
38:57
are are there building opportunities there?
39:00
It's hard to find the right space.
39:02
So for example, excuse me, it's hard to find the right space.
39:10
So you want to be smart where you put your lease.
39:15
Arizona Ave. is a major St. that separates downtown Chandler.
39:18
Not a lot of people like to cross Arizona Ave. so it's not a
39:21
great business venture. Even though there's two spots
39:24
open across Arizona Ave. to put a bar over there, people always
39:28
want a bar hop on the side with the most activities.
39:32
It also is hard to find a reasonable space.
39:34
You know, if someone wants to charge you $45.00 a square foot,
39:39
you know, you have to kind of crunch the number, see what your
39:42
margins are going to be like and make a good business decision.
39:45
And I will say that that's one thing that I admire about Brad
39:48
is we'll take the time to be like, is this a financially good
39:51
decision before pulling the trigger on a new concept and
39:54
having it fail, I think it's important to make sure you think
39:58
through those type of things. And I have so many friends in
40:01
the industry and just watching different industries.
40:05
And concepts either go under or not do as well, and people are
40:08
not motivated. I appreciate that we take the
40:10
time to think that through before we jump both feet in.
40:14
Are you noticing trends here since we record this in early
40:18
2026 of what seems to be working in the space and what isn't?
40:24
Definitely in downtown Chandler specifically, I would say more
40:30
bar driven concepts are working, but I do think that a few more
40:34
restaurants are needed. And so how do you find the happy
40:39
medium where you have a successful business, but you're
40:42
contributing to the economy and you're contributing to an area?
40:46
Well, because anyone can throw a bar in there.
40:49
Now, a profitable, profitable bar that's iffy, but anyone can
40:53
just like up and throw a bar somewhere.
40:55
But how do you make it where it contributes to a society and an
40:58
entertainment district? Well, and I think in the current
41:04
economy where a lot of people are failing is they're not
41:07
adding value and they're not adding.
41:10
Not only are they not adding value to their business, but
41:12
they're not adding value to the district that you're in.
41:16
And that's where we tend to see a downtick.
41:20
And I tell our team all the time, you know, Thrive Social,
41:24
our companies, that's our business.
41:26
Whatever else is happening in downtown Chandler, it is not our
41:28
business. It doesn't matter.
41:31
So we'll have guests come in and say different things about
41:34
neighboring bars and we're just like, hey, like, sorry you had
41:36
that experience. We hope we can save your image
41:38
of downtown Chandler because when people think they're like,
41:42
oh, downtown Gilbert's the place to go, well, how do you change
41:45
that? All the bars in downtown
41:46
Chandler should be working together to change that
41:48
narrative because that's how we get more revenue and more foot
41:51
traffic down here. And I think a lot of bars miss
41:55
that mindset. And they're like, well, I'm just
41:57
trying to make the money right here and right now.
41:58
Well, long term, you need to think about the economy is
42:01
trending down. People are careful about where
42:04
they're spending their money. How do you stand out as a bar,
42:07
as a district to get people to come down and spend their money
42:09
here? It's interesting that you say
42:12
that a well run bar, the right concept on the right way seems
42:17
to be working better than, you know, a restaurant, typical
42:21
restaurant concept. You know, one of the things that
42:23
I've seen, I read a lot that overall alcohol consumption is
42:30
down. What are you guys noticing?
42:33
Is that playing out for you and your business or not so much?
42:39
Yes and no. So I'll switch to, I've been
42:42
talking as you know, daytime COO now switch to nighttime COO.
42:47
And I think this is another disconnect, right?
42:49
Like I'm down here on the weekends till 3-4 in the
42:52
morning. New Year's Eve, I was here till
42:53
5:00 AM down here to support my in store team.
42:57
Sometimes I jump in and bartend. I'm here to do our end a year
43:00
and a month inventory. And so you get to see the people
43:04
come out of the Uber with the shooters and you engage with
43:08
people who are like, yeah, it's way cheaper to pregame at home
43:11
and then nurse a beer all night. And so that registers something
43:15
in my mind. Well, how do I, because yes, we
43:18
do see that alcohol sales are down.
43:20
How do I get people after 7:00 to spend money?
43:24
And if they're not spending on, on liquor, what do I do to get
43:27
them to spend money? So that's where we're like, OK,
43:29
let's, how do we push food sales?
43:31
One, it's safer to be eating while you drink, So how do we
43:34
make this a safe environment for everyone?
43:37
And two, if people aren't spending money on liquor, how do
43:39
we get them to engage on food? Do we want run specials?
43:42
Do does our team greet everyone with, hey, can we start you with
43:45
a basket of fries? Do we sample fries?
43:47
Do I go in and send out fries to tables or send out tumblers or
43:52
send out something on our late night menu to tables and then
43:54
guests see it go by and like, hey, that's a great idea.
43:56
I should eat something. So that's just another way that
44:00
we're like creatively problem solving.
44:03
That's interesting. You talk about, you see, you
44:06
know, routinely people jump out of Ubers and they're throwing
44:09
back. When you say a shooter get me up
44:12
to speed, you talk about like a little airplane bottle.
44:14
Yeah, and you know what? It's hysterical because like,
44:17
we'll have, you know, New Year's Eve.
44:18
I watch someone hop out of a party bus and you know, 2 Coors
44:22
bottles and or not bottles, cans, stuck them in their
44:25
pockets. And I'm like hello.
44:27
And you know, I radio over and I'm like, I tell our security
44:30
manager I'm like, hey, I don't know if Murphy's me go up front,
44:33
that guy has something in his pocket.
44:35
And you know, Steve goes over, he's like, hey, man, hate to be
44:38
that person, but like, do you have beer in your pocket?
44:40
And the guy's like, yeah. And like, takes it out of his
44:43
pocket, go throws it in the trash.
44:45
And Steve's like, OK, like if you go in there and you behave,
44:49
I'll buy you a beer later, you know?
44:51
So the guy goes and behaves and, you know, he winds up ordering
44:54
like 3 or 4 beers and Steve's like, all right, like frosty
44:57
shot on me and goes and gives him a frosty shot.
45:00
So how do you like stop that from happening?
45:04
I don't know. You know, you just in the moment
45:07
you problem solve and you go from there.
45:09
I really like that approach. Initially I would have thought,
45:12
no, come down on that guy. He's, you know, he's coming in
45:14
here, smuggled beers and he's not going to buy anything here.
45:17
But what a great approach, right?
45:19
You could have made that guy an enemy.
45:21
You could have made him, you know, you could have really come
45:24
down on and made an example out of him.
45:26
You made a positive example there.
45:28
It's like, hey, put the beers away, go in, order some beers,
45:32
have some fun, and then I'm going to take care of you with a
45:34
drink later. What a cool approach.
45:36
Yeah, and that's our big thing is be proactive, right?
45:39
Because we stopped him before he got in the bar.
45:41
We protected our liquor license. We protected us as a company,
45:44
our team. And guess what, You're getting a
45:46
free drink if you behave yourself.
45:48
I mean, you know, when people drink, they just become funny
45:50
human beings. And so my favorite thing is, you
45:53
know, telling full grown men like, hey, if we behave your
45:56
drinks on me later, you know, and it's just it's fun to engage
45:59
and banter back and forth. So we talked earlier about how,
46:04
you know, earlier on friends and family were giving you a hard
46:07
time earlier on in your career about not finding sort of like
46:11
that good work life balance. And I hear you like you've got
46:14
this huge responsibility and you know, your daytime COO role, but
46:19
it's not like 5:00 comes and you're just punching out every
46:23
night and heading home. You're talking about, you know,
46:25
being there in the entertainment district until the wee hours of
46:30
the morning sometimes. Do you feel like you've found
46:33
any kind of balance? Or are you just like all in This
46:37
is My Life, all the time, every day?
46:39
You know what, surprisingly, I have found a really good balance
46:42
and I will attribute that to who my boss is as a person and how
46:48
generous he is with me taking time off.
46:51
I've been out of the country. Let's say I've been to six
46:54
countries in the last two years. He I'm like my best friend needs
46:58
me to go wash her kids in Washington like they have a
47:01
family emergency. I need to go and he's like, of
47:04
course go let's me take time off for family vacations going to
47:08
see my brother. I've, I've probably accumulated
47:10
like 60 to 70 PTO days last year and he has not once skipped a
47:18
paycheck or tried to like barrel down on it.
47:21
Because while I'm gone, I'm still working.
47:24
You know, I'm in Ireland and a pub drinking a Guinness,
47:27
finishing our payroll. And but that's something that
47:31
excites me. Like I don't mind working on
47:33
vacation. All my managers know that they
47:35
can call me when they need me. We have a really self-sufficient
47:37
team now. The first year and a half of me
47:39
working here, I didn't take any time off.
47:41
It took a while to build a team and build a culture where you
47:44
can step away and do things. But now that I've built that
47:47
he's go like have fun in your 20s.
47:50
I want you to be happy. You happy makes a successful
47:53
business. You not happy does not make a
47:55
successful business. So in season, I mean, I'll work
47:59
7080 hours and not even bat an eye because come summer, you
48:04
know, I'm taking three days off a week or I'm taking a week off
48:08
to go see my brother doing different things, working
48:11
remote, and I have that flexibility.
48:14
And so, you know, working your tail off during season doesn't
48:16
seem so bad. I wonder how many people
48:19
listening are now thinking, boy I wish I could drink a Guinness
48:23
when I run payroll. Yeah, so.
48:27
And it's, it's funny, you know, because I never in my life, what
48:31
I've ever thought that I would be in a position where I can
48:36
take my phone somewhere and be accessible to run 5 companies in
48:42
a different country. Never did I ever think I would
48:44
get there. And I think my family's kind of
48:48
realize, like, wow, like, you know, she might be answering an
48:50
e-mail on Christmas morning or taking a phone call on Christmas
48:53
Eve, but she's here, she's off site, able to manage a problem,
48:58
and she's not missing out on family activities.
49:00
Or, you know, last night during my Bible study, I had to take a
49:03
phone call and it was, what, 2 minutes?
49:06
And so I step outside, take the phone call, come back in, and
49:09
everything's dealt with. The team's like, OK, like, I
49:12
feel good. I know I can solve this problem.
49:14
And we go from there, so. You know, Brianna, in my
49:18
experience, a lot of growth can come from overcoming challenges.
49:24
I'd like to explore a big challenge that you've overcome
49:27
in your life, whether it's personal and professional, how
49:30
you got through that and what you learned.
49:33
Yeah, definitely. I would say a pretty big
49:38
challenge, and I would even say it was with this current company
49:42
at the start of my growth was balancing this career in my
49:49
faith. I am a born of a king Christian
49:52
and my faith is a huge part of my life.
49:54
And I hope that when people have an interaction with me and they
49:58
leave that interaction, they walk away thinking like, wow,
50:02
like if I was with another company that wouldn't have been
50:04
handled that way. I wonder why Rihanna handled it
50:07
that way. And that sparked something for
50:09
people to be like, what's different about her?
50:11
What's different about how our companies LED?
50:15
But this is the first time I've ever worked in a bar industry.
50:19
And so jumping feet first into a bar industry because when I have
50:23
a job, it's not like a you get 50% of my time or like you can
50:27
have 100% when I'm there, but when I'm not there, don't talk
50:30
to me. It's you get 100%.
50:32
And I'm going to make this run smooth.
50:35
And I'm not going to step away until it's running smooth,
50:37
especially since I have a personal connection with my
50:40
boss. This is a very personal job.
50:43
If people are stealing or not giving good service or anything,
50:46
like I take that very personally.
50:48
This is impacting 2 people that I admire very much.
50:51
And so the balance of diving in full frontal and, you know,
51:00
being exposed to the things of the bar industry that I've never
51:03
been exposed to being around, like cursing more drugs, alcohol
51:08
consumption, crazy drama between different bars in downtown
51:14
Chandler and different things like that.
51:17
And being like, whoa, like I'm A uncomfortable B, how do I manage
51:23
all these people? C, How do I still be a faithful
51:26
Christian and be in this environment?
51:29
And kind of figuring that out was a huge challenge.
51:32
And there's a lot of spiritual warfare that went into it.
51:36
And I can't even say that it's, you know, something I don't
51:40
battle with, you know, if I'm immersed Saint Patrick's Day
51:44
week, I am down here seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
51:48
I get a hotel room, I sleep for two hours and I come right back
51:50
because we have we, we throw a festival And so like, it's just
51:54
a lot to be around. And everyone's like, take a shot
51:56
with me. And I'm like, no, thank you.
51:57
Like, can I buy coke off You probably a bad person.
52:00
Ask that, you know, like and so I would say that's, that's
52:05
definitely the biggest challenge.
52:08
So do you not drink alcohol at all?
52:11
I do. I socially drink.
52:13
I definitely, I don't drink to get drunk and I don't succumb to
52:19
peer pressure, which when we threw our first manager
52:22
Christmas party, I got to tell you, I've never seen the boys
52:25
more annoyed than when I refused to take shots after shots with
52:28
them. And they're like, Bree, come on.
52:30
And I'm like no. I'm good.
52:34
So yeah. What what does that feel like
52:37
inside of you? Like, I want to understand that
52:39
conflict a little bit more. Is it, do you feel conflicted
52:43
because there are behaviors going on around you that you
52:46
would not engage in and so it just feels uncomfortable to be
52:49
around it? Or is there something deeper
52:52
where like you almost feel like you want to try to correct some
52:57
of that behavior? No, I don't think I want to try
53:00
and correct it. I mean, there are times where,
53:02
you know, one of the store managers tells me about his
53:04
dating life and I look at him and I'm like, maybe let's take a
53:07
break and try and find a girlfriend, you know?
53:12
But I would say it's more of, you know, here I am, and I want
53:18
to engage and I want my staff to feel comfortable around me.
53:21
But I have nothing to contribute to this conversation.
53:24
You're telling me how you just went and slept with 10 people in
53:27
a week. I have nothing to contribute to
53:29
that conversation. You're telling me how you got
53:31
blackout drunk, lost your phone, lost your keys.
53:34
This is why I'm late. Da, da, da, da, da.
53:37
I have nothing to contribute to that conversation.
53:38
I don't even have a good way to help you solve that problem.
53:41
So I'd stop getting blackout drunk.
53:44
And so that's the hard part. And then I'd say like, you know,
53:47
manager outings, I've let loose a little bit more over the
53:52
course of the last two years. And I've, you know, casually
53:54
started to drink with only my management team just to kind of
53:57
give them the win of like, yes, Breeze having a drink with us.
54:00
But it's the never ending. Like please take a shot, please
54:03
take a shot, please take a shot. And it's just like, you know,
54:05
you can only say no so many times and they're like, they're
54:08
never going to get why. Like I don't want to be drunk.
54:11
I don't like the feeling. I you know, that's just not
54:13
something that like vibes with me.
54:16
Meanwhile, you know, homeboy over here is five shots deep and
54:20
he's like not understanding why I don't want to take a shot.
54:23
And that's where the conflict is like, well, I'm not going to sit
54:26
here and preach to you. Like, you know why I'm not
54:29
taking a shot? I know why I'm not taking a
54:31
shot. I don't like the feeling of
54:32
being drunk. And then you get the comments of
54:34
like, you know, we had an incident where a security guard,
54:39
I caught him drinking at a local bar before a shift.
54:42
And so we fired him. And, you know, I was pretty
54:45
frustrated at the situation because we had put a lot of
54:47
effort into the security guard. And one of the managers was
54:49
like, well, not everyone's like, a perfect Christian Princess.
54:52
And I was like, hey, now, like, was that a kind statement?
54:55
He's like, no, but like, you know, not everyone lives up to
54:58
your expectations. And I was like, when have you
55:00
ever lived up to my expectations?
55:01
Like, come on, let's be so for real?
55:03
And he's like, OK, yeah, you're right.
55:05
And I'm like, now, now my expectation is for you as a
55:08
company. Like our expectation is you
55:10
don't like you come in, if I breathalyze you, you blow a
55:12
0.00000. That's in our handbook.
55:15
That's a policy. That's not a life expectation
55:17
that I have for someone. That's common sense.
55:19
And he's like, OK, yeah, you're right.
55:21
Like, but that was when he first became a manager.
55:24
And like, I knew that I had to teach him to be in a leadership
55:28
role. He was in the military.
55:30
He's been a bartender, like, security guard his whole life.
55:33
And a lot of bars in Arizona don't follow liquor license.
55:37
So like, he came from a bar that I'm not going to name that.
55:40
It's like, they're taking shots and they're not really carrying.
55:42
And I'm like, yeah, we don't do that here.
55:44
And he's like, OK, heard. But then to him, he was like,
55:48
well, I don't understand. Like, everyone does it.
55:50
And I'm like, if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you like,
55:52
come on now? It has nothing to do with the
55:54
fact that I'm a Christian. It's the fact that we have
55:56
policies in place, right? And I'm like, now the fact that
55:58
I'm a Christian, do I have a standard of ethics and morals
56:01
that I live by? Absolutely.
56:03
But I could say the same for just anyone.
56:05
Like you don't have to be a Christian.
56:06
That'd be ethical, right? And so that in and of itself was
56:11
a learning curve for him and for me, 'cause like managing people
56:16
who are like, well, it's fine to drink.
56:18
Like it's fine to do this and it's like it's not, it's
56:21
actually not. And kind of teaching them that
56:24
without putting my faith too much in it and like getting them
56:27
to like remove the faith aspect and be like, no, like these are
56:30
actually policies that like are the law and that's why she's
56:32
enforcing them. But it's also opened up great
56:35
conversations. You know, he was like, oh, I
56:37
went on a date with this girl and she said she's a Christian.
56:39
She must be no fun. And I was like, hey, I'm fun.
56:41
And he's like, oh, yeah, you're right.
56:43
OK, so. Do you ever have or have you
56:46
ever had an employee come to you and want they're exploring
56:52
spiritually, they want to have like a a conversation about your
56:56
faith and understand it better? I haven't borrows, I have not at
57:00
this job again, I try and keep like a separate like my personal
57:04
life away from our hourly like store employees just ensure
57:09
because I do run our HR department.
57:10
I don't want any conflict of interest.
57:13
So I don't want someone to be like, I can't talk to Brie about
57:15
this because XY and Z or, you know, we have a variety of
57:20
different staff members, you know, and so I don't want
57:23
someone to be like, you know, my girlfriend and I are having a
57:27
like one of our Agms. You know, I don't want her to be
57:30
able or I don't want her to not come to me and be like my
57:32
girlfriend and I are having a rough time.
57:34
You know, I think it's going to affect me with guests today.
57:38
Can I do admin stuff? Do you might work in the floor
57:40
for me because she knows I'm a Christian and I don't want her
57:44
to have like an awkward where she's like I don't want to talk
57:46
to Brie about this and so I don't talk about it with my
57:51
hourly team store managers yes, but at borrows all the time
57:56
yeah, I had several different counter girls ask me questions
58:00
here again, I want to make sure that my team feels comfortable.
58:03
To talk, you want a little separation, understood?
58:07
Shifting gears a bit, how about recommending a book or a
58:12
podcast? Maybe another resource that's
58:15
been really helpful for you, either in your personal or
58:18
professional development. Yeah, so Brad and I both just
58:21
read the book Tiny Experiments. And so in theory, instead of
58:26
like trying to a big problem, trying to find a long solution
58:29
for it, you do tiny experiments to see if they work before you
58:32
implement them. So for example, our seating at
58:35
Rebel and Rogue, we were trying to reconfigure and it, instead
58:38
of spending $100,000 to redo the inside with different seating,
58:42
why don't I do a tiny experiment, rearrange here, move
58:45
the dart boards, put this here and let's see how that works.
58:48
And so that's been great with us problem solving.
58:51
And instead of making a knee jerk decision to, OK, let's just
58:54
go to construction. Like no like, let's do a tiny
58:57
experiment and see how it works first.
58:59
You can give me another example because I love this concept that
59:01
you're talking about. Yeah, absolutely.
59:03
So we, our guest service department was a tiny
59:07
experiment. Emily, who's our guest service
59:10
manager, she started as a server.
59:12
I hired her on our executive team as my executive assistant.
59:15
So she did both. When we opened our 4th bar, I
59:18
promoted her to a store manager. So then she was on our executive
59:22
team as an assistant and then she had a store manager and a
59:27
tiny experiment was I was telling Brad, you know, like I'm
59:29
just one person and as much as I want to add value, we should add
59:32
value by adding a guest service department.
59:35
And so like we had talked about that, then we slowly had Emily
59:38
start to do things in the store guest service wise as a tiny
59:42
experiment to see if it would be profitable, if it was a good
59:45
idea before full sending another salary employee.
59:48
And it turned out our little experiment did well.
59:51
And so we hired her. And then after that, we were
59:53
like, OK, we'll like let's see if we hired hourly people under
59:57
her, what that would do. And so we kind of did a little
59:59
experiment. It worked well.
1:00:01
So we hired 2 people. So in that particular
1:00:03
experiment, how were you judging the results?
1:00:07
What were the metrics that you were looking at?
1:00:09
Totally. So we have a log, if you will,
1:00:12
that our guest service team fills out.
1:00:14
So they'll go and they'll say I spent, you know, $12.70 our cost
1:00:21
for four drinks to go sample to X amount of tables.
1:00:25
On these tables. Here are their ticket numbers.
1:00:27
Here's our ROI because, you know, 5 people bought them.
1:00:30
So this is the money we made. This is the money we spent.
1:00:32
And so that's a good way for Brad to see the numbers.
1:00:35
For me it was the engagement in the stores.
1:00:37
When I walk in, do I see them engaging?
1:00:40
Do I see people laughing? Do I see them walking from, you
1:00:43
know, late night 1 concept to another concept?
1:00:46
Another tiny experiment was there was a shift lead that I
1:00:50
was like, you know, he's not ready to be an AGM yet, but he's
1:00:53
really, really good with our security team.
1:00:55
You started as a security guard. Let's try him out as a security
1:00:58
manager. Let's see if he can retain
1:01:00
people in the bar. So like you have a Bachelorette
1:01:02
party at 1 bar. Let's see if he can retain
1:01:04
people and walk them over to our other bars.
1:01:07
And so that, and that's just me seeing it and then people
1:01:10
writing in like, Hey, your security manager was great.
1:01:12
You know, we were at 1 bar, We were walking through the
1:01:15
breezeway. He and it's just a security it's
1:01:17
not branded and there was a guy talking to us and he was like,
1:01:20
hey, like glad to see you guys can I walk you over?
1:01:23
And he walks them into another bar.
1:01:25
Just like different things like that that we see from guest,
1:01:30
like guest feedback, different things like that.
1:01:32
I'm down here all the time. So my eyes.
1:01:35
Yeah, the first tiny experiment that you were talking about,
1:01:39
changing the seating around. What did you learn from that?
1:01:44
Feng Shui and I don't typically use that word, so I hope that
1:01:49
Sarah catches that when she sees this because it was a very Sarah
1:01:51
word of me, but it allowed for people to.
1:01:56
So it allowed us to maximize seats.
1:01:57
We added 10 more seats by moving around the seating and then it
1:02:02
created a better Feng shui so people could walk down and then
1:02:08
walk back and not have like all these traffic blocks and you
1:02:11
can't get the seats and then you have the dart boards in the
1:02:13
back. It created your eye to drop back
1:02:16
and for you to come in versus like this awkward hard stop of
1:02:18
seats then dart boards this way. So.
1:02:22
Brianna, we've talked about a lot of different hats that you
1:02:24
wear. I'm curious what you think is
1:02:27
your superpower. Oh, I honestly would love, I
1:02:35
would really like to say managing A-Team.
1:02:38
I think it is a different skill set to manage people the way
1:02:42
that they need to be managed and still have such an eclectic,
1:02:47
eclectic creative CEO where his vision for how the culture and
1:02:52
his businesses are run are met while meeting all your managers
1:02:55
needs and helping them in their weaknesses.
1:02:59
What's your favorite thing to do outside of work?
1:03:03
Well, good question. I love spending time with my dog
1:03:07
and with my community, like grabbing dinner.
1:03:09
I love, love, love finding different restaurants to check
1:03:13
out, see their food, different drinks, you know how they style
1:03:16
their restaurants, what their leadership teams are doing, and
1:03:19
just turn off my brain and have a guest experience instead of
1:03:22
giving one. Bad stuff.
1:03:26
Brianna, I've just got one more question for you today.
1:03:28
But before we get there, I want to do 3 quick things.
1:03:31
First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with Brianna or
1:03:35
the brand, their website is actually kind of fun.
1:03:39
Why don't you go ahead and tell people what the domain name is?
1:03:43
So our website is Thrive socialcompany.com, but if you
1:03:48
were to e-mail us, it's Brianna. Brianna at Thrive THRIVE dot
1:03:55
Social. And that's the fun part I think
1:03:58
is that you guys have they call them top level domain names
1:04:02
that's very unusualitsnota.com or a.netor.org, it's dot social
1:04:07
and that is a legit top level domain.
1:04:10
So right Brianna with two NS at Thrive dot social.
1:04:14
Any other contact info that we want to provide?
1:04:17
Yes, if you're looking for any type of marketing connection or
1:04:21
brand specific identity questions, Sarah with an H at
1:04:24
thrive dot social. Sarah with an H at Thrive dot
1:04:28
Social and we'll have links to all that in the show notes
1:04:30
folks. Also as a reminder for
1:04:32
listeners, if you want to get more hospitality employees
1:04:35
access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds, that is
1:04:39
paradoxical as it seems actually increases your company's net
1:04:42
profits. Reach out to us at
1:04:44
adbackbenefits.com. And finally, if you'll take just
1:04:48
a moment to leave us a comment or a review on your favorite
1:04:51
podcast app to hold a special place in my heart forever.
1:04:54
Thank you. So last question for you,
1:04:57
Brianna. A year from now, you and I
1:04:59
reconnect and you are celebrating something big.
1:05:02
What's that one specific thing that you hope to be celebrating
1:05:05
a year from today? Well, I sure hope it's the
1:05:08
opening of our fist bar. Say more about it.
1:05:12
What will that feel like when you get to that point?
1:05:15
You know, the feeling of relief after endless hours of
1:05:21
permitting and designing and construction and hiring and
1:05:25
training and you know, just, it's like it's a weight lifted
1:05:30
off your shoulder mixed with utter excitement of like, hey,
1:05:34
this worked. We did it.
1:05:36
Love it. Brianna Parisian from Thrive
1:05:39
Social, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both
1:05:42
your time and your story with us today.
1:05:44
I really appreciate you. Yeah, thank you so much for
1:05:47
having me. It was such an honor to be on
1:05:48
your show. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:05:51
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:05:53
Thanks for learning with us today.