Latest / Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence / Liberty Ventures CEO on Conscious Leadership

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Liberty Ventures CEO on Conscious Leadership · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Mike Hanlon, the senior Restaurant and Food
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our research and that of
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: bi's five hundred analysts around the globe can be found
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. If you enjoy the pod,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: do me a favor and give us a five star
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're joined by Alexander mccobin,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: founder and CEO of Liberty Ventures, an organization that is
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: building an ecosystem of purpose driven investors and entrepreneurs aligned
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: on advancing a free and prosperous future. Welcome to the pod, Alexander.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Mike, sure thing man, I've been looking forward to this
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: conversation me too.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: It was great having you at our principal business summit
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: last month, and I'm excited for us to continue the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: conversation and share it with your audience.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: For sure, So, I didn't know you were a Georgetown guy.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I knew I liked you. How was your experience at
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: the Hilltop.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: I loved my time at Georgetown. I was there for
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: graduate school, not undergrad, but that actually was an incredible experience.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: In the philosophy department, especially because as a philosophy graduate student,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: we had to teach classes in order to be able
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: to pursue our graduate degree. And at Georgetown, as a
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Jesuit school, every undergrad was required to take two philosophy
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: classes to graduate, so it ensured that we always had
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: work to do. Yeah.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I was in the Business School. I think
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: we only had to take one maybe one philosophy and
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: one theology, I think. But yeah, man, it's a special place.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I really enjoyed going to school there.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: It is. And actually I mainly worked with people in
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the business school. There was a great cohort of philosophers
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: who teach in the Business School, and I did a
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: lot of work with them on corporate moral responsibility, business ethics,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: and really finding ways to apply philosophy to business, which
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: doesn't happen nearly enough in today's society.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Oh that's great, man, Yeah, that's really cool.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I'm a fan of stoic philosophy personally, but philosophy in general.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: It's funny.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: When I was at college, I was like, ah, I
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: got to do this, man. But you know, after college,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I started to get more into it. When I wasn't
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: required to do it.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I think more business people really ought to study philosophy,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: and it's becoming more common nowadays. There have been incredible
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: leaders who focused on that before. Even one of my
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: mentors and friends, John Mackie, the founder of Whole Foods.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: He dropped out of college, but while he was there
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: he focused on philosophy himself. And what's so powerful about
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: it is that it helps business leaders really think about
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: what matters, what's really valuable, to be able to create
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: new companies, to create new value, and get beyond just
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the standard trade off thinking that's emphasized so much in
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: business schools and get into the win win win mindset
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: of really creating value, which is what business is all
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: about for sure.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: And so you've had some great mentors, man John Mackie
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: obviously being one of them, how did you end up
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: meeting him and ending up working closely with him as
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the CEO of Conscious Capitalism.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: So my life story is winding, but it all ends
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: up connecting with each other because while I was studying
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: philosophy at Georgetown, I was also running some businesses, mainly
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: a nonprofit. I had started an undergrad called Students for
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Liberty that was teaching the principles of a free society
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: to young people around the world and providing them with
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: leadership training to go and make a difference in their communities.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: And while I was running that, I was raising money
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: in order to be able to support all these incredible
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: young people around the world who were doing things like
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: leading protests in Brazil that led to the impeachment of
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: the president for corruption in twenty sixteen, or starting unicorns
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: after they graduated, like Thumbtat Panda Doc. And I got
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: to know some great business people who were supporting us,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: including John Mackie. That's how we first met. I invited
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: him to speak at a Students for Liberty conference and
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: then got him to become a donor to the organization,
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  Speaker 3: and we just started to develop a really good relationship,
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  Speaker 3: first as a mentor and then as a friend. And
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  Speaker 3: after he published his book Conscious Capitalism, basically embodying the
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: whole food's management philosophy and focusing on how business can
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: elevate humanity, he started a nonprofit to spread that philosophy
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  Speaker 3: to other business leaders, and he asked me to go
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: and run it because he was impressed enough by what
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: I had done. Its students for Liberty, and that was
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: an incredible experience to not just work with John, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: hundreds of other great business leaders like Kip Tyndall, the
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: founder of the Container's Store, Ron Shake the founder of
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Panera Bread, and so many others.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Ron Shake Man, he's a legend in the restaurant business.
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  Speaker 2: What did you learn from Ron?
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  Speaker 3: Ron has this incredible ability to not just draw people
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: in but really become an advisor and a partner from
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the very get go. I just remember the first time
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: we met with each other when he was thinking about
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: joining the Board of Conscious Capitalism, and he just had
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: so much energy and enthusiasm for what we were doing
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: and came in wanting to be a supporter for me
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: and the organization in a way that lots of people do.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: But he just has this special ability to form a
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: relationship right off the bat, which I think is part
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: of his superpowers in being so successful in business.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: You know, he's a guest. I'd love to have him
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: a pod. Still working on trying to get Ron to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: join us. Have you worked with any other famous restaurateurs
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: over the years.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, there are a lot of as you know,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: there are a lot of restauranteurs who maybe aren't famous
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: but are doing incredible things. You know, I could talk
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: about Danny Meyer being involved with conscious capitalism and other
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: people like that, but I was really inspired by and
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: still am by, working with restaurant tours who maybe aren't
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: as well known, like Chris Haslom out of Dallas, who
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: owns over eighty restaurants, or Mark Bailey who owns a
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: bunch of original pancake houses in Texas. And what I
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: think is really incredible, especially about the restaurant industry, is
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: that so many of the owners are incredibly humble because
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: so many have come through the restaurant industry starting out
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: as servers or cooks and working their way up, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: so they understand just how much work goes into it,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: and they're not really out seeking glory. Restaurants usually aren't
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: the way to get your name into the newspapers or
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: to get a lot of attention. It's a way to
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: just very directly serve people. And the best ones bring
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: that mindset in, especially with a servant leadership attitude like
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: we were talking about before the podcast started.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. And that goes into my research.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Man, I'm like, does this person have the hospitality gene.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Are they going to be able to relate to frontline
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: employees convince them to buy into their strategy and plans
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: moving forward?
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  Speaker 1: Man, it's a big part of what I.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Do, and it's not just relate to those frontline employees,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: but having been in their shoes and being able to
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: connect with people and understand what it takes there and
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: so keeping that mentality as as they move up the
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: food chain. No pun intended in being the leader and
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: recognizing it's still about serving all of their stakeholders, not
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: just customers, but really being there in service of all
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: the employees, all the team members who rely upon that
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: restaurant's success in order to provide for their families, to
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: provide for the lives that they want to have, and
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  Speaker 3: how much work that really takes.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Since then your your experience at Conscious Capitalism, You
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: found the Liberty Ventures and co founded a nonprofit principled business.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: You know you mentioned the summit in September.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: What are you setting out to accomplish with these two
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: organizations and can you talk about the synergies between the two.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: So after running Conscious Capitalism the non for six years,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: which I absolutely loved, I had the entrepreneurial bug biting
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: me and wanting to not just run the nonprofit but
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: to be a conscious capitalist myself. And one thing that
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: became abundant to me while running Conscious Capitalism, which maybe
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: is obvious to everyone else, but it took me a
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: little bit longer, is that for business leaders, the first
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: responsibility you have is to be successful in business. That's
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: how you take care of all your stakeholders, that's how
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: you help people out. And there was a desire to
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: not just talk about elevating humanity through business, but to
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: actively go out and do it. And we were limited
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: with the five oh one C three structure from how
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: much we could do to actually help them out. So
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I started Liberty Ventures with the support of a number
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: of people from Conscious Capitalism, to provide the ecosystem for investors, executives,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: and entrepreneurs who are all conscious capitalists to actually work
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: with each other in building incredible business that are elevating humanity,
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  Speaker 3: whether that's by deploying capital, which we do with our syndicate,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: or supporting each other and working through challenges with peer
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: groups like YPO and eoforums, but for values aligned business leaders,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: or for helping entrepreneurs get started with pitch competitions and
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: accelerators and things like that. And of course a big
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: component is still just bringing this ecosystem together through events
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: like the summit that you came to, and still recognizing
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: that we want to have a nonprofit components of this.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: We want to spread the ideas of Principal Business and
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Conscious Capitalism that there are certain foundational tenets to the
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: concept of capitalism as a system that has made it
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: so successful, like real value creation, respect for individual agency,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: and mutual collaboration that business leaders can and should embody
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: in the way that they run their business. That was
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: the whole premise of conscious capitalism. It's a management philosophy.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: And so we started Principal Business to get the business
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: leaders that were helping grow their businesses and get an
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: ROI for so also share this philosophy with not just
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: other business leaders, but with the next generation, with society
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: at large, to help more people understand the power of
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: capitalism as a force for good.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I really enjoyed that Principal Principal Business summit.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: There was so much great content. But as an analyst,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I found hearing from the VC investors about how they
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: analyze companies and their management teams like the most useful
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: throughout the day, every single one spoke to really getting
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: to know the founders, even spending time with their families
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: before making an investment.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: One hundred percent, And that's really important here for anyone
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: who might be raising capital or is getting into it,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: because for investors, again, their first responsibility is to get
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: a return on their investments. People are entrusting them with,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: they're depending on for paying their mortgages, for leaving a
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: legacy and inheritance to their children and grandchildren, and so
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that return has to be there, and too often and
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: people think have thought that in order to do good
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: in the world, you have to take a haircut on
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: the returns. That's what traditional impact investing has emphasized, do
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: good in the world and sacrifice some of the returns
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: in order to do so. When the whole concept of
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: conscious capitalism is that this is a better way of
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: doing business and that profit is not evil. Profit's actually
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: a great thing. We should have businesses seeking to maximize profit,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: but there's a better way to do it by leaning
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: into the higher purpose of a business that will drive
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: profit by taking care of all stakeholders, seeing that win
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: win win mindset instead of a trade off mindset, so
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: that you can help shareholders and investors by taking care
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: of employees, by taking care of customers, by taking care
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: of partners, and that actually does lead to better results
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: in the long run. And so the investors in the
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Liberty Ventures network are sharing strategies for how they do
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: so they're sharing, they're sharing their deal flow with each other.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: And a big part of that is just getting to
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: know the founding teams to understand what level of commitment
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: they have, the way that they think, to make sure
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: that their values aligned, and that they're going to be
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: able to both do good in the world and do
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: well with their company for everyone involved.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: And your values are so relevant to the restaurant industry.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: How can restaurant leaders foster a conscious culture across thousands
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: of hourly employees and franchisees.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: It takes a lot of work, as you know, Mike,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: and everyone listening I'm sure knows as well, just like
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of work to just run the business.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: But it really comes down to understanding first and foremost
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: what that purpose is. If the purposes of a restaurant
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: is just to make as much money as possible. They
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: are probably there are probably better ways to do that. Actually,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: restaurant durstry might not be the best one to be
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: it if you're just trying to maximize profit. But if
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: the purpose really is to serve people, to create a
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: sense of community, to provide a healthy lifestyle for them,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: or whatever it is, that is an incredible guide to
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: establish the values for the company that can that need
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: to be then introduced into everything from the hiring process
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: to find people their values aligned, the training process, to
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: onboard them, and to reinforce with them over and over
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: month in month out, day in day out, really so
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: that everyone, everyone on the team across thousands of members
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: know what you're trying to accomplish and are able to
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: hold each other accountable or able to push each other
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: to live up to those values and trust and know
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: that that will bring a profit as a result of
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: providing quality service and quality and quality food to people,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: but doing so in a real principled way. Yeah.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: And we've seen it in chains results.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, going back to the to the pandemic.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: You know, chains like Darden that that paid their employees
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: even though they weren't working, ended up having much much
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: lower turnover over time, they were able to staff the
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: restaurants a lot more quickly once they were allowed to
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: operate again, and it ended up helping their financials. I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: also had Lancetrenari from Golden Corral, CEO of Golden Corral
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: on the podcast recently, and you know, they were being
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: pressured by bankers to not pay their bills and he
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: was like, that just didn't sit well with us. You know,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: our culture is about doing the right thing all the time,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: especially when you're not sure which way to go, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: it just didn't fit. And you know, they've had a
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: remarkable comeback post pandemic, so you know, it's it definitely
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: shows in the results. It may be hard to get
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: shareholders to sign off on it at the beginning because
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: it may hurt margins in the short term, right, but
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: taking care of your employee has all employees and franchises,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: has huge long term benefits.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: And and it may hurt in the short term if
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: there are external factors that harm the industry, like what
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: happened in COVID. But you know, there there's one of
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: the members of the network that I just have the
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: deepest respect and appreciation for his name is Brian Schultz,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: and going into the pandemic, he was running a company
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: called Studio Movie Grill. He was the first person to
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: really introduce the concept of dinners and basically a restaurant
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: combined with movie with movie theaters. And when COVID hit,
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: you know, he was in perhaps the worst the worst
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: area to be in both restaurants and movie and movie
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: theaters couldn't couldn't support either one of them, and they
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: had to let a lot of people go during that time.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: But he basically converted Studio Movie Grill into talent firm
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: then and actively helped his employees find other jobs during
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: during the pandemic in order to get them through. And
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: now he's rebuilding with the new concept looks Cinemas that's
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: again theaters and restaurants combined and realizing there are opportunities
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: to introduce new strategies into this. He's really thinking of
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: it not as so much as a movie theater slash
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: restaurant now, but as a place to bring communities together
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: and use the screens and food as a place where
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: people can leverage everything from watching sports games together to
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: giving community presentations, to playing video games together. And recognizing
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: that when you provide that space and the food that
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: everyone that everyone loves and that we all connect around
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: so much, you can do incredible things. And he knew
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: he was going to need to have that kind of
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: conscious capitalist philosophy in order to get through the pandemic,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: and that he did. Yeah, that's a great story, very cool.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: What's your advice for leaders who want to bring more
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: humanity into these high turnover, high stress environments like restaurants?
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: So one thing I think that's often underappreciated because we're
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: always talking about how do we grow the business, how
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: do you know bring in more revenue costs, how do
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: you deliver a better product for people, is that it
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: all really starts with your own leadership at the very beginning.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: If you want to run a business that's more focused
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: on the humanity involved in this and taking care of
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: your people, you have to think about what you're bringing
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: to the table for that, your own your own leadership,
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: your own values, how you embody that, how you interact
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: with other people, and so a big component I think
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: for any leaders should be to do a lot of
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: the personal work on our own leadership, taking the time
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: to reflect on what your own purpose is, taking the
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: time to articulate your own values and how that syncs
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: up with the business and in every interaction with people,
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: not just the executive team, but the frontline workers and
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: everyone else, remembering there are other humans that have their
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: own goals and other priorities in life, that they have
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: their own purposes, and figure out how to align everyone's
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: interests and collaborate with them to accomplish the common goal
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: of the business, but doing so through the basic human
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: nature of everyone involved. For sure.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: How can restaurants be a force for good beyond their four.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Walls, Well, I think there's a lot to do within
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: the four walls, to begin with really thinking about how
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: important restaurants are to feeding the people, not just with calories,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: but feeding their souls, feeding the community there, and offering
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: the restaurants as a space for so much more than
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: just eating food. But then recognize that there are a
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: lot of other groups and initiatives out side of those
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: four walls that would love to have access to it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Some of the some of the most exciting things that
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: I've seen restaurants in the Liberty Ventures Network do it
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: is provide the four walls where so much more is
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: able to happen. You know, another person people may know
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: about here, Michael Dorf from City Winery, grated the whole
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: concept not just around feeding people, but really not just
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: being an entertainment space, but again a community gathering place,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: and they host so many different kinds of events and
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: partner with great with great organizations in their communities to
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: enliven them and to provide the venue and opportunities for
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: other organizations to grow, because I think one of the
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: things that's really unique about restaurants is that they are
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: incredible venues and not every nonprofit organization or even every
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: business has a place to really host things that can
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: rain their community together, and restaurants can be that gathering
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: point for them. Again, like what Brian is doing with
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Look Cinema's just providing space for community together and food
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: is a big part of that. But food is a
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: means to bring the community together. I would encourage everyone
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: in restaurants here too to think about how they're able
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: to provide that to other organizations outside of their business
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: who could really use that space.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Michael Dorf's a good dude man.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, been a lot of fun.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's great man, and the whole you know, origination
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: story about that chain is great and he's such a
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: good dude.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize he's a part of your network. Very cool.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: What does ethical sourcing look like a mid inflation and
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: thin margins? You know, talking about things that sometimes, you know,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: the shorter term investors might be kind of dissuaded from,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: but people looking at the long term see the value in.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you already answered the question there.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: So much of this is about looking long term, and
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: that can be really challenging because you get pressures from
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: your investors, You got pressures from yourself to make sure
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: that you have the right cash flow in order to survive,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: and so every restaurant's going to have to make its
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: own decisions here. But if you take the long term
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: perspective and again you go back to the purpose, what
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: are you really trying to accomplish with the business here?
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: And taking care of people that can lead you to
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: developing partnerships that can help you, that can help you
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: get better terms to provide a better supply chain for
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: what you're doing. And look, it can be tough to
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: make those trade offs, not just in how you source things,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: but what you're sourcing there. I mean John Mackie from
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Whole Foods. He left Whole Foods a couple of years ago.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: He started a new business, actually a combination restaurants slash
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: fitness center slash wellness program for people called love Life
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: that I absolutely love. And when he first launched it,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: the idea was to be a totally vegan and healthy
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: place for people to eat and get recommendations for meal
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: plans there. But in developing it, he realized, well, there's
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: a certain limit to how many people you'd be able
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: to bring in as customers if it's totally vegan, and
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: so they started to introduce animal products and it's still
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: a healthy concept, but she had to come up with
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: new sourcing strategies in order to meet as customers where
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: they are and how to match them. So it really
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: does come down to each restaurant and to leaders understanding
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: what to leaders evolving their strategy as you get more
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: feedback and you look at how the restaurant has run.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: But I think it really does come down to thinking
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: long term and thinking deeply about what you're trying to
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: accomplish and working within that framework.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, And I absolutely love Whole Foods, so
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely gonna have to check out love Life.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Check out love Life. It's amazing. Go get a great meal,
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: get a workout in get some advice from Nutritionis on
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: how to develop a long term plan for your health.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: It's a strategy to combat the chronic illness epidemic in
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: America because most of the ailments that Americans have are
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: a result of bad diets and lack of exercise. And
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: if we can help people be proactive about that, we're
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: going to resolve so many of the chronic illnesses that
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: we have in this country.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, all right, so you mentioned, you know, one
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: of the main things you mentioned was a restaurant leader
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: making sure a CEO making sure that their values, you know,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: that they're leading from the front right, that their values
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: aligned with the organization values. I think that's a great
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: recommendation for any leader in this space. Do you have
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: another small step any restaurant leader could take tomorrow to
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: run a more conscious business.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: I think the next thing I would say is to remember,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: you don't have to do this on your own. You
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There are other
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: business leaders who have solved this dilemma. And to have
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: so many great lessons to impart on others, and this
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: is why the concept of an ecosystem of values aligned
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: business leaders like what we've developed at Liberty Ventures, is
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: so important. So the next step I would say is
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: go connect with other purpose driven business leaders, spend time
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: with them and work with them, whether as mentors or
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: colleagues or friends or partners in the business, to give
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: advice on the specific circumstances. The easy way to do
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: that is to join the Liberty Ventures network. It's completely
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: free for people to do that and start connecting with
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: people there. Come out to some of our events, like
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: the Principal Business Summit next year that'll be in Austin, Texas,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: or like the regular breakfasts that we host in Dallas
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: at the original pancake House that Marcos to bring principal
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: business leaders together and spend time with other business leaders
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: who are doing this already, to learn from them, to
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: talk through your own challenges or what you're thinking about
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: with them. There's no single algorithm. It's something that we
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: need to each each leader needs to work through, and
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: it's also not something that we do one set. It's over.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: It's like exercising. You've got to do it every week
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: in order to keep the body fit and to be
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: a conscious leader, you have to do the work every
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: week on yourself and do the work every week on
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: the business, and there's no better way to accomplish that
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: than with other conscious leaders.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Good stuff, man, you're doing really important work. I'm glad
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I can introduce you to some of my restaurant listeners
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: that may not be familiar with what you're doing.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: This is good stuff. And thanks for joining the pod.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: You're doing great stuff too, Mike. I really appreciate it.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: And let's talk about seeing what we can do to
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: get rawn Shake or anyone else that you're trying to
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: connect with that's in the Liberty Ventures Network onto the podcast.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you, that would be very cool.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: I also want to thank our friend Fred Lafrank for
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: introducing us and the audience for listening in.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Something you want to add before I go.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I also want to say thank you to Fred
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: for introducing us, and actually for anyone who wants to
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: go deep on your own leadership journey. Fred is organizing
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: a trip to India next year where he's bringing conscious
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: leaders on an incredible tour to engage in a spiritual
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: and leadership exploration for themselves that I'd be happy to
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: share the details on if anyone wants to reach out
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: for me. That is a way to go deep, very
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: quickly on your own leadership development.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, hopefully I'll see you there, I hope.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: So check out Libertyventuresnetwork dot com and Principal Business dot
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: org to find out more about what Alexander and his
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: teams are up to. If you like the discussion, please
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: share it with your friends and colleagues. Check back soon
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: for an interview with Jeff Gallant Lee, the CEO of
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Brooklyn Dumpling Shop.