Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / Jason Berkowitz | Leadership, Hospitality Training & Redefining Restaurant Culture

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Jason Berkowitz | Leadership, Hospitality Training & Redefining Restaurant Culture · Single Tree Nation Show

0:00
I was just double checking your technical
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setup over there, but I'm with you.
0:03
All right.
0:04
Three, two.
0:07
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:09
I'm your man, Charlie Evelyn.
0:11
And as always,
0:12
we have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
0:14
Derry Wells with us today.
0:16
What is up, everybody?
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Quick shout out to our primary technology
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partner, Toast.
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They help us here in the studio and
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as well in the restaurant with all of
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the technology platforms to help us
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provide undeniable hospitality and the
0:34
perfect plate of barbecue every single
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time.
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So,
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I am stoked, Derry,
0:39
to have our guest on today.
0:42
Yeah, I think y'all know each other.
0:44
We've met a couple of times.
0:47
I'm good at context clues.
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The man, the myth, the legend, Mr...
0:54
jason berkowitz how are you that's me
0:59
applauding myself because i realized you
1:00
got to do it i've done that with
1:02
myself walking up on stage or something
1:03
having a conversation like i'm going to
1:05
kick this off if no one else is
1:06
applauding
1:08
Hey, I love it.
1:09
I love it.
1:10
When you did your pitch on Pitch the
1:13
Tide,
1:15
I actually watched it again last week or
1:19
a couple of days ago,
1:20
and you started applauding right after
1:24
they introduced you.
1:25
I thought it was absolutely epic.
1:27
Did I do that?
1:27
Yes.
1:28
It was wonderful.
1:30
I thought it was great.
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Yeah,
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it's great that I actually backed up what
1:34
I just said there.
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I didn't realize.
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It's amazing.
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Look,
1:39
if you're not going to applaud for
1:40
yourself, who's going to?
1:42
Right, right.
1:43
Makes sense to me.
1:44
Well,
1:44
that's one of my favorite stories of
1:46
yours, Charlie,
1:47
is your wife applauding and saying, right?
1:49
Helping you when you,
1:51
if they know the story, let go,
1:53
coming off a brand.
1:54
Are you going to work for yourself, right?
1:56
Talk about having a champion on your
1:58
shoulder and by your side.
2:00
She's incredible.
2:01
I don't know what I'd do without her.
2:03
And I don't tell her that enough.
2:04
I should probably tell her that way more.
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It's one of my favorite stories.
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It really is.
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It's so cool.
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um you you will be getting a text
2:12
message in the morning just an fyi from
2:16
me um and dairy will as well um
2:19
with my wife's phone number if you don't
2:21
have it and you with a request of
2:26
to wish her a happy birthday
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I love it.
2:29
Because she doesn't get enough thanks and
2:34
praise for the woman she is to deal
2:37
with me.
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Twenty four hours a day,
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three hundred sixty five days a year.
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So is the birthday text.
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Thank you for putting up with Charlie.
2:44
Is that what that would be?
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Whatever.
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Just a just an acknowledgment that she's a
2:49
special lady would be amazing for me.
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Well, let me say you could do better.
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Is the story true?
2:55
Because I'm going to tell her it's one
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of my favorite stories.
2:58
uh it is very true yeah yeah i
3:00
mean don't let the truth get in the
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way of a perfectly good story is also
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what i say right right yeah no it
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is uh uh the story is a thousand
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percent true um i was literally in my
3:11
office and she she came and shoved me
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off a cliff and told me to do
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what i love so yeah it's so good
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you know i i i honestly i honestly
3:21
think the more we tell the story that
3:23
Part of it is always left out on
3:26
her side because I don't think she
3:29
honestly believed that I would do it.
3:31
I think she thought I would go find
3:33
a job instead of just, you know,
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diving headfirst into a concrete pool to
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try to swim.
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She say a double dog dare you?
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Right.
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five years later bet you won't bet you
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won't no take no take backs funny story
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one of my kids said something to me
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the other day about you know you won't
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do it
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And my wife immediately said,
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the one person in the world you do
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not say that to is your father because
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he's going to go do it.
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And sure enough, I went and did it.
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So look, enough about me.
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Why are we talking about me?
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This is about you, not about me.
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It's about stories.
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This is about stories.
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It is.
4:20
Jason, let's go back a little bit.
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And why don't you tell people,
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because you have not always,
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you are now in the training segment,
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but you've always,
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you've also been in the operation side.
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You've been in the restaurant game,
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pretty much every aspect of it from
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leadership to, you know,
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scrubbing walls and plates and all the fun
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things that we do as restaurant operators.
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But why don't you give our guests,
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for those of our guests who don't know
4:50
what and who Jason Berkowitz is and arrow
4:55
up what that is,
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kind of give us a little bit of
4:58
backstory and then we can dive into a
5:00
little bit deeper of how you got started
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and all those things.
5:05
Yeah.
5:06
Jason Berkowitz,
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longtime restaurant operator, partner,
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founded Arrow Up Training seven years ago.
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We are an online program and courses that
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help restaurants satisfy their compliance,
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right?
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Anti-harassment to safety.
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We do leadership development and we help
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them level up their teams.
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And the idea is to build training for
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restaurant by restaurant operators.
5:29
We're a weird bunch.
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And as compliance became more mandatory,
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I was like, all right,
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someone's got to jump into this game who's
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been there.
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And let's talk about the gray area.
5:39
Let's talk about the weird stuff.
5:40
Let's just, let's get in, tell stories.
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Let's not smack everybody's wrist.
5:44
Let's not throw out the baby with the
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bathwater, right?
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Let's keep a bit of the freak and
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the quirkiness while moving hopefully to a
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healthier version of the restaurant.
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And so, or of the culture,
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which I love so much, you know,
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I launched a couple of years ago,
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or I guess, no, five years ago,
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a book, Please Don't Sleep With The Host,
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Fifty Tips for Managing a Functional and
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Profitable Restaurant.
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And it's to managers saying, look,
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you're gonna be tempted.
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I know you're gonna be tempted.
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And I'm not telling you,
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To not do it,
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I'm just saying you should probably not do
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it, right?
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Because you're just.
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It's funny you say that.
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My wife used to work in restaurant
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management when she was younger,
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her previous career, if you will.
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And they had to move a manager one
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time because he was on his fifth or
6:34
sixth conquest within that unit.
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they were like we probably need to have
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you somewhere else so it's so true anyway
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at the same time i will i will
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say this um and and it's it's a
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touchy subject for me because i met my
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wife at a restaurant that i managed so
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so i'm gonna say is the the the
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extension is that i've learned from people
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is unless you're going to marry her there
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you go there you go yeah it's uh
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it but we didn't even start dating until
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i actually changed to a different location
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okay that's amazing so it was we tried
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we tried really i tried really hard and
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well i say i i tried really hard
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to screw it up a lot but she
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she she kept me from making that mistake
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by telling me no but um then we
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you know finally figured it all out but
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And that's the philosophy inside the whole
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book is like,
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this isn't all black and white, right?
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So we're just,
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we're going to talk through things.
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We're going to talk through,
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this is a culture and we have to
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work together to kind of move through it
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together.
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And that's a bit about us and in
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the backstory of getting into it.
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I mean, you know,
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some start with dishwasher.
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I started at Burger King, you know,
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deeming myself the King Whopper Topper.
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And my mom, at fourteen years old,
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my mom had a little retail store across
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the street.
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Hold on a second.
8:00
Hold on a second.
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Yeah, yeah.
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At fourteen years old.
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You've never told me this story.
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At fourteen years old.
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you deemed yourself the king whopper
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topper i challenged every in that place
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too i came in just like boom you
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know and they knew me as and i
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and i was like i'm taking you all
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down that is outstanding and it was and
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it was you know faster cleaner it's where
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i got into it so i started boh
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yeah so i
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They're like,
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you can't call yourself that.
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I'm like, if I applaud for myself,
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I call myself the king.
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No, you can't call yourself that.
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As you well know,
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I've really been working hard on my
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thumbnail game.
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Yeah.
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And I have to say,
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you just came up with a title for
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the thumbnail of this episode.
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King Whopper Topper.
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King Whopper Topper.
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Yeah,
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it stuck because you can't pick your name.
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You're right.
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You're right.
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You're right, Gary.
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You can't pick your name on the
9:07
playground, let's say.
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The nickname goes, but you can.
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I just came out of the gates swinging
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and, you know, King, King, you know.
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God.
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And as it worked through.
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Imagine a fourteen-year-old Jason
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Berkowitz walking in,
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Whopper Topper's here, baby!
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Like, let's go!
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Yes.
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Because that's exactly how it went in my
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head.
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Yeah,
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challenging Greg across the line because
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you have to play broiler and put it
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through.
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I'm like, faster!
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you're slacking everyone's talking about
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how much you're slacking greg i just need
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you to know like you've worked here for
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three weeks i'm like and everyone's
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talking about you've been here two years
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and you're slow greg's on his second piece
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of greenery for the day and we're not
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talking about lettuce and yeah berkowitz
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over let's go baby
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i'm like i've already literally salt the
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fries lined up everything and i still beat
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three whoppers before the next set of
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patties came out man i did your shit
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together greg my wife that is berkowitz
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that is that is probably one of the
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best stories i've heard from you that's
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great it's incredible and it's it's
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totally true and they knew me as i
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was an obsessive
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customer first because I went in there I
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mean four or five days a week after
10:24
school eating and then I just begged to
10:26
get a job there and so they they
10:28
all kind of knew me already and you
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know they just I came in swinging I
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loved it once I put that when I
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went home and I got that uniform and
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I put that visor on
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It was just like, I found myself.
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That was the crown.
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That was the crown.
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It really was.
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Nothing else gave me this sense of self
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and confidence and purpose as that did.
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That's where we began.
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Then I went over to...
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a local coffee shop.
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And so punk,
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sixteen year old Jason went to the local.
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I'm like,
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you are leaving so much money on the
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table.
11:07
What are you doing with these beans?
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This is terrible.
11:10
You're not catering to this guy.
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You should be doing music night.
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What's going on with this?
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Why are you why are you letting these
11:16
people sit for this long?
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You know,
11:18
why are you trying to sell Jamaica Blue
11:20
Mountain at forty dollars a pound in
11:22
Beechwood, Ohio?
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I bet you that I said that same
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bean has
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For two years I've been coming in,
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I haven't seen that thing drop at all.
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She's like, who are you?
11:33
King Whopper Topper, do you?
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Yeah.
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Oh, no, no, no.
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Not to derail the Whopper Topper, but...
11:44
Jason, we have,
11:45
we have a couple of segments on the
11:46
show and wait, can I interject?
11:48
Please, please.
11:49
Yes.
11:50
I had a kid who graduated and.
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Well,
11:53
his nickname was burger King because one
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day a kid looked over at him and
11:57
goes, you look like you enjoy burger King.
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And that was that it stuck.
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So we called the kid burger King.
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I wish I still knew him because I
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would call him King.
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just to make it come full circle.
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That's great.
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Did he push back?
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Did he embrace that nickname?
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No, completely embraced it.
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Walked in with the Waxy Burger King cup
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for breakfast one morning,
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fully took it on,
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had no problem with it.
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I feel like if you're in Derry's class,
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you have to embrace your nickname because
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you're going to get one.
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You don't get a toy.
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If you get a nickname, it's yours.
12:31
I've got a kid right now we call
12:33
Biscuit.
12:34
Oh, you've taught me.
12:35
You've told, told us about biscuit before.
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He loves it.
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He absolutely loves it.
12:38
Uh, and, and there's kids,
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there was a kid that graduated years ago.
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His name is pork chop.
12:43
When I see him on the street,
12:44
I still call him pork chop.
12:45
And I'm the only one that calls me
12:47
that, but pork chop.
12:49
Yeah.
12:49
It's endearing.
12:50
It is.
12:51
And they don't see that at first.
12:53
Uh, I've had two kids named rooster.
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The second one was not as excitable about
13:00
it, but he finally embraced it.
13:01
It's how you got the name.
13:03
It's like,
13:04
cause you're loud and annoying and you,
13:06
you know, his was Ben.
13:08
So that was,
13:10
that's great right now yeah right now i
13:15
love it i love it absolutely so all
13:19
right let's make this let's make this good
13:21
for the listeners get on track let's go
13:22
here that's right we have a couple of
13:25
different segments in the show um we have
13:28
a friday feel good we have our mac
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and beans um we we've talked about lessons
13:34
Derry and I believe that we need to
13:36
add another segment to the show.
13:39
And we have a couple that we're kind
13:41
of tossing around.
13:43
One of them Derry just heard about.
13:46
And then the other one Derry and I
13:48
have been talking about for the last
13:49
couple of weeks.
13:51
So we'll start with we'll start with the
13:53
one that we just started and it's toast.
13:59
So when I joined the customer advisory
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board with toast,
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they asked everybody what your favorite
14:06
toast was.
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Now,
14:08
my immediate brain went to like I'm at
14:11
a wedding reception and I'm trying to give
14:14
a toast.
14:15
So I'm sitting there as they're going
14:16
around the room, and, you know, okay,
14:20
what's my favorite toast that I can say
14:23
in an executive setting and professional,
14:26
and I can't really think of any off
14:29
the top of my head.
14:30
And then when they started going around
14:34
the room, it wasn't that.
14:35
It was,
14:36
what's your favorite breakfast toast?
14:40
So...
14:42
Number one,
14:43
do you have a toast that would be
14:47
appropriate for our listeners?
14:51
And two,
14:53
what's your favorite breakfast toast?
14:57
My first one is look out for number
14:58
one,
14:58
don't step in number two from the great
15:03
Rodney Dangerfield.
15:04
That's fantastic.
15:06
That's a good one.
15:07
I like it.
15:08
Look out for number one,
15:09
don't step in number two.
15:11
Oh, yes.
15:13
Pretty simple, right?
15:16
Rodney Dangerfield is a good one.
15:18
We used to have what I really did
15:19
love, though,
15:19
is a true one is I lived in
15:21
Spain for a little while studying.
15:23
And before you drink, right?
15:24
Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa dentro,
15:26
right?
15:27
To the top, to the bottom,
15:28
sent to the center, inside.
15:31
And I love that they always did that
15:32
before kicking off drinks is fun.
15:36
I mean, isn't it obvious?
15:36
Anyone who knows what they're talking
15:38
about is going to say French toast.
15:39
The question is what French toast and how?
15:43
I don't like it thick.
15:44
I like it thin.
15:45
But I'm going to change it up a
15:46
little bit.
15:48
A nice thin piece of sourdough toasted,
15:51
peanut butter on top, spread it,
15:53
take a banana, slice it over perfectly,
15:56
just cover it all,
15:57
just a little bit of slices,
15:59
and then a little bit of honey on
16:00
top of it.
16:03
And that is – that with a cup
16:04
of coffee, I'm just a happy guy.
16:08
Yeah, that sounds pretty good.
16:09
I'm in.
16:10
Yeah.
16:11
I got a half loaf of sourdough at
16:12
the house.
16:13
Yeah, I'm sitting here going,
16:15
do I have all that at the house
16:16
right now?
16:17
Might make that for dinner.
16:19
Yeah, you usually do, right?
16:21
Just banana, peanut butter, and toast,
16:22
and then you make something special.
16:25
I've been on a banana kick recently
16:26
anyways.
16:28
It's great.
16:29
I made a banana's foster with smoked ice
16:32
cream the other day.
16:32
Yeah.
16:35
So, you know,
16:36
we'll try something else out now.
16:39
That sounds fantastic.
16:41
I'm not going to say it was bad.
16:43
Yeah, it was, it was pretty tasty.
16:45
Yeah.
16:46
We, uh, when we make it,
16:47
I kind of put the pecans in there
16:49
with the banana.
16:50
So it kind of candies,
16:51
the pecans as well to go in there
16:53
with the smoked ice cream and a whole
16:54
cake and it all just kind of,
16:57
you know, it makes a happy pairing.
16:59
It's wonderful.
17:00
So that's good stuff.
17:01
Um, next time you're in Nashville,
17:03
I'll make you one.
17:03
All right.
17:06
Um,
17:06
so then the other segment that we were
17:08
talking about is if you could have dinner.
17:14
with one person, past, present, or future,
17:18
who would it be?
17:22
I really, um, Ben Franklin.
17:27
I just kind of want to see,
17:29
like somebody who achieved so much and I
17:33
read his autobiography.
17:36
I just kind of want to see this
17:38
guy after a couple bottles of wine and
17:43
just letting it down and deconstruct and
17:47
then just get in the weeds and see,
17:49
because I feel like he can go so
17:51
low and so high at the same time
17:53
that I think he would be absolutely fun
17:55
of one of the greatest minds and
17:57
innovators of our time.
17:59
And wasn't he?
18:00
Wasn't he fairly young, man?
18:02
No, not not.
18:03
I mean, who knows?
18:04
You aged and look where it's all relative
18:07
to what he is.
18:09
I'm iffy in that sense.
18:11
So so but I think he hit his
18:14
sixties.
18:15
But all that he did is absolutely insane.
18:20
And I just think it'd be fun to
18:21
get drunk with.
18:23
It would definitely be a good time.
18:25
I was completely wrong.
18:26
He was seventy in seventeen seventy six.
18:28
So.
18:29
So, yeah, good.
18:30
Not a young man.
18:32
No, no.
18:33
He lived a long time,
18:33
especially for that time.
18:34
You bring up the him after a bottle
18:37
of wine.
18:37
Have you ever seen that list of what
18:39
was supposedly on the tab of George
18:41
Washington, the founding fathers,
18:43
when they went through the whole thing?
18:44
No.
18:45
It is a – give me just a
18:49
second.
18:49
I'm going to try to stumble my way
18:50
through this and see if they can –
18:57
Uh, yeah, the bar tab was still intact.
18:59
They found it somewhere, blah, blah, blah.
19:02
Uh,
19:02
it was a seventeen eighty-seven farewell
19:04
party for George Washington and it was
19:05
left intact.
19:07
It included, uh,
19:08
fifty-four bottles of Madeira,
19:11
sixty bottles of Claret, uh, or Claret.
19:13
I don't know how you say that.
19:14
Eight bottles of whiskey,
19:15
twenty-two bottles of Porter,
19:16
eight bottles of hard cider,
19:18
twelve of beer and seven bowls of an
19:20
alcoholic punch.
19:22
There were only fifty-five people in
19:23
attendance.
19:23
That's the key.
19:27
so that's uh i mean look they had
19:32
a good time or something yeah i want
19:33
to party that's right that's exactly what
19:36
we want to do forget like it's that's
19:39
right i feel like the proof on most
19:41
of that alcohol was like oh man you
19:44
know what probably was standing up that's
19:47
right pull out the lighter new new
19:50
definition of flaming dr pepper there it
19:53
is right gosh yeah
19:54
i feel bad i didn't know how to
19:55
say two of those words though is it
19:57
claret or claret do you do either of
19:59
you know uh i didn't see the word
20:00
c-l-a-r-e-t yeah i've botched them both
20:06
okay is it a wine i think the
20:08
tea's silent okay one of us ran a
20:10
company with the word bar in it but
20:17
sorry was he talking to me yeah he's
20:18
talking to you yeah yeah i'm pretty i'm
20:22
pretty sure the tea is silent there you
20:25
go from the bar guy from the bar
20:29
guy from the bar guy standing okay so
20:35
we get past the
20:38
the king whopper topper what what is next
20:43
because king whopper topper and barista
20:47
does not get you excited about restaurant
20:51
and hospitality yeah i i mean i i
20:55
kind of did this this stuff of working
20:57
through college right and and working at
20:59
coffee houses and and
21:02
restaurants and just loved the vibe of
21:06
what hospitality is and what the room was
21:08
and and just that feeling and still even
21:10
today tell me we're going to a concert
21:13
first tell me that we're going to a
21:14
great awesome restaurant i'm you know
21:17
instead of maybe a handful of artists i'm
21:20
choosing the restaurant i just love the
21:22
vibe and the people in the room and
21:24
the entire experience so i was hooked on
21:26
that
21:27
early got a degree in psychology at
21:29
Michigan state.
21:30
And that's what I was kind of working
21:31
and help support.
21:33
And that, that helped pause.
21:34
Hold on.
21:35
You, you,
21:37
we've gone from King whopper topper to
21:40
barista,
21:41
and now we're doing psychology at Michigan
21:44
state.
21:46
Where did that come from?
21:48
Um, that is not a logical path, Jason.
21:50
Well,
21:51
it's when you want to go to college
21:53
and you really don't know what you want
21:55
to be or do.
21:56
So you pick communications or psychology
21:59
and business management.
22:02
Yeah, it wasn't in the fold.
22:05
My business management was learning
22:07
restaurants and running restaurants.
22:10
And it wasn't in college that I learned
22:13
the two most important words, cash flow.
22:16
That's when I actually got into life and
22:18
managing books.
22:19
And my thought, I will tell you this.
22:21
So I think you know this, Charlie,
22:23
but my origin in hospitality is my family
22:27
business.
22:27
I'm fourth generation funeral director's
22:30
son.
22:31
So, so Darius,
22:32
so there's literally four generations.
22:34
My name was on the building of the
22:35
local funeral home in nineteen eighteen is
22:38
when it started.
22:39
And so I have had hospitality and service
22:43
in my blood through four generations.
22:46
And I think that was a piece of
22:48
what got me excited about psychology in
22:50
that in an essence,
22:51
because it's what you are as a funeral
22:54
director is you're almost a therapist per
22:55
se,
22:55
because you're helping people through some
22:57
of the most difficult times.
22:58
And here's a story.
23:01
I remember I watched my father,
23:03
who's an extremely proud man,
23:07
just get berated by a customer once or
23:12
somebody we were taking care of and about
23:15
something that was absolutely ridiculous.
23:17
And when the guy left,
23:18
I looked at my dad and I was
23:20
there because I was working there at a
23:21
young age too.
23:22
I was washing cars, topping whoppers,
23:26
going on runs, doing stuff.
23:28
And I looked at my dad, I'm like,
23:30
how did you not knock that guy out?
23:33
And he was like, look,
23:35
we take people at their lowest point in
23:38
life right like this person they they're
23:41
burying somebody they love they're scared
23:44
they haven't slept this was nothing to do
23:48
with what he was yelling about i we
23:50
just needed to be that person that he
23:54
could let go and release it and that's
23:56
all i needed to be and we just
23:58
need to know who we need to be
24:00
for somebody
24:02
And to know that it has nothing to
24:04
do with us.
24:05
And that was an amazing lesson that
24:08
carried over through hospitality.
24:12
Even to the point where probably very good
24:14
thick skin or compassion or empathy when
24:17
troubled clients would come back,
24:19
they would hand them to me.
24:20
They're like, Berkowitz, you got patience.
24:23
And empathy, go deal with this.
24:25
But back to the question of psychology,
24:26
I just...
24:28
it was ingrained this idea of people who
24:30
are hurting and how we take care of
24:32
them and the element of f how you
24:34
move through something and all of this was
24:37
always always ingrained in me and um side
24:41
note other fun fun thing just speaking in
24:43
completely off topic but it's where i
24:45
learned a lot about the perfection in
24:48
details and my father i remember one
24:49
moment i went back into the garage
24:53
And he was having an argument with, um,
24:55
with an employee because it was raining
24:57
that day.
24:57
And the employee, my dad was like,
24:59
how come the,
25:00
the Hearst wasn't clean before we pulled
25:02
it out, you know, onto the line.
25:04
And the guy was like, it's raining.
25:06
No, one's going to see it.
25:08
And my dad's philosophy was the second
25:11
that car pulls out,
25:12
even in that split second,
25:14
they'll see it before the rain hits it
25:16
before the dirty happens before anything,
25:18
if they don't think we're taking care of
25:20
the things that they can see.
25:23
How do they trust us for all the
25:25
things that they can't?
25:27
And he had turned to me, he's like,
25:28
Jason, every single detail, always.
25:33
I don't care if there's a piece of
25:34
paper across the room.
25:35
I don't care if the car,
25:37
I don't care if it's raining.
25:39
Every single detail is perfect of what we
25:42
can control.
25:43
the you know so a lot of it
25:46
really ingrained and kind of pushed me to
25:49
to move into psychology and then carry
25:52
over my level of expectations and and how
25:55
much i i love you know the restaurant
25:57
game and the ability to actually deliver
25:59
an experience on a level of perfection um
26:03
is really fun so i know i went
26:04
off topic but i thought it was a
26:06
cool story to kind of tie into what
26:08
drives you know drives my focus
26:12
No, I love that.
26:15
I am pretty obsessed about my front door.
26:19
It's an all glass front door.
26:21
The whole front of my restaurant's glass.
26:24
And I get super upset about the front
26:27
door being dirty.
26:29
Because if we can't make sure that that
26:33
is clean and that looks great,
26:36
how are we going to do anything else?
26:38
So how do you solve that?
26:39
How are you handling that?
26:43
For the listeners,
26:43
I've had an incredible experience at
26:46
Singletree and ate my face off and
26:48
everyone was fantastic.
26:50
I saw Charlie in moments of coaching with
26:55
his team where there were certain things
26:57
that was like, oh, wow,
27:00
you actually had to explain that to
27:02
somebody.
27:03
That was just to us so obvious.
27:05
Right.
27:08
It's the same thing.
27:09
It's...
27:15
We have to start with opening eyes, right?
27:18
Because your, your average, you know,
27:22
team member at the restaurant level is,
27:25
you know, what, eighteen to twenty five.
27:30
And they may not have your father or
27:32
my father or grandfather who was extremely
27:36
detail oriented and made you pay
27:38
attention.
27:39
You know, I got in trouble.
27:41
driving down the road one day because I
27:43
couldn't remember the color of a car that
27:45
was two cars behind us that we passed.
27:49
And it was simply a lesson of pay
27:52
attention to the details and your
27:55
surroundings, right?
27:57
Which was a life lesson that I remember
27:59
to this day.
28:00
My dad doesn't even remember teaching me
28:03
that.
28:03
That's some born identity stuff.
28:06
Right, yeah.
28:06
But it had nothing to do with the
28:08
car.
28:09
It had everything to do with...
28:11
I was too busy, you know,
28:13
thinking about sunshine and rainbows and
28:16
not what was going on around me.
28:18
Right.
28:19
And so I'm trying to do that same
28:22
thing with, you know, we,
28:25
I'll go through around the restaurant and
28:27
just say, Hey, anything out of place?
28:31
And, you know,
28:33
it forces the team to look around and
28:36
then, then they go, Ooh,
28:37
Now they've gotten to the point to where
28:39
I've said it enough to where they pay
28:41
attention to the front door,
28:43
and the front door stays clean.
28:45
Side note.
28:47
Sidebar.
28:49
So Derry's wearing a shirt that says,
28:51
Do you think that subliminally influenced
28:53
my answer?
28:54
I didn't realize it.
28:56
No, and here's why I think that.
28:59
Earlier, I was right here.
29:01
Yeah, is that what it is?
29:02
I'm like,
29:03
you're wearing a seventeen seventy six and
29:05
we're talking about the barbell and Ben
29:07
Franklin.
29:07
Right.
29:07
That was just I noticed after after I
29:11
brought it up because I did sit up
29:12
to check my phone and I stayed centered
29:14
then.
29:14
And I'm seeing where my camera angle is.
29:17
I should stay more postured here in the
29:18
middle.
29:19
But I started out the show leaning to
29:20
my left, so no, we're good.
29:24
I was going to say yes,
29:25
that it did influence it,
29:26
because I didn't look at the screen when
29:29
he said it,
29:30
but I know you had that shirt on
29:31
already.
29:32
But hey, subliminally,
29:34
maybe you saw it when we started.
29:37
Yeah, so it's great.
29:39
So let's unpack this, Charlie.
29:40
Let's do it.
29:42
It's because everyone's trying to figure
29:44
this out, right?
29:45
And especially smaller operators or
29:47
independent businesses.
29:48
And I'm a co-founder of the Independent
29:52
Hospitality Coalition in Los Angeles,
29:54
nonprofit.
29:54
We have twelve hundred restaurants.
29:57
And, you know,
29:59
a lot of people are just trying to
30:00
figure out we talk about today's
30:01
generation and different things like that.
30:03
And I think it's comfortable to say there
30:04
was something that was that was very
30:05
obvious.
30:06
I watched you.
30:07
Right.
30:07
We can we can we can we can
30:08
talk.
30:09
I watched you be very, very.
30:12
Oh, my God.
30:13
Incredibly good.
30:14
gentle and talk to an eighteen year old
30:18
and say, actually,
30:20
we we don't want to hand the customer
30:22
a warm can of beer that we just
30:25
literally like,
30:26
don't take it off the shelf.
30:27
You ran out of beer or you didn't
30:29
or whatever it was.
30:30
I'm not getting that.
30:31
But they took the one off the back
30:33
shelf for display and handed it to the
30:35
guest.
30:37
You just would think like,
30:39
but you're like, well, no,
30:40
they probably haven't had,
30:42
you probably put your foot through the
30:43
wall later on, but they haven't.
30:46
Had this.
30:47
So you had to, you know,
30:50
talk them through.
30:51
Do you put that on a checklist?
30:53
Probably not.
30:55
Right.
30:55
You don't want to over checklist the idea
30:57
of like and make sure every time,
31:01
you know, are all beers of temp,
31:04
you know,
31:04
like those are the kind of things that
31:06
that you kind of have to catch.
31:07
But when we go to the door.
31:10
I think it's about awareness and I'm not
31:12
a fan of, I mean,
31:13
I'm not afraid of the running side work
31:14
and it's hard when you run light staffed
31:16
and everything like this,
31:17
but something else that has been coming up
31:20
recently that was actually in the book
31:22
that I wrote.
31:23
And we're going to make a course on
31:25
this in December because people are asking
31:26
for it is the figure eight.
31:28
and if people know about it right and
31:30
so the figure eight is you start at
31:32
one point in the restaurant you walk
31:34
through you hit your particular points
31:36
that you're going to see and then if
31:38
you have to stop because you're you're
31:40
fixing something and you get pulled away
31:42
you go back to where you stopped and
31:44
then you walk so it's a way that
31:45
you know you check the front door you
31:47
check the restroom you check the pathway
31:49
the things that matter and the idea is
31:52
that you put a system into into place
31:56
I would say it's part of the training,
32:00
but I think it's part of the hourly
32:02
figure eight or the thirty minute figure
32:04
eight or whoever is doing the running side
32:07
work and they build that into it because
32:10
you're right,
32:10
if that's something that matters to you,
32:13
Look, I have a very small team.
32:15
So for me,
32:16
it's a little bit easier to teach and
32:19
develop and train at a quick rate because
32:24
I can spend that much time with those
32:26
people.
32:27
And walking around my restaurant,
32:31
one of the things that my team had
32:33
to adjust to,
32:34
and any new team members have to adjust
32:36
to,
32:37
is when I see it,
32:38
I say something about it.
32:40
And, and so it's, it's, but it's a,
32:43
just a,
32:43
you've heard me talk to my team.
32:45
I'm, I'm very monotone level-headed,
32:48
you know, it's a conversation, you know,
32:51
we, we don't, uh,
32:53
I tell people all the time, man,
32:55
I'm way too gray headed to raise my
32:58
blood pressure that much more and add more
32:59
gray here.
33:00
That's not where I'm at anymore.
33:02
My job is to teach,
33:04
develop and train my team to be able
33:06
to do it without me looking.
33:07
And if I see it,
33:10
then we call it out and we talk
33:11
about it.
33:12
And we talk about the wise.
33:14
We had an issue yesterday and we served
33:17
something that we shouldn't have served.
33:19
And I had pictures and I got a
33:22
message and we handled it the whole nine
33:24
yards.
33:24
We took care of it.
33:25
We made the guest happy.
33:27
But on the backside of it,
33:28
you have to handle those things
33:29
immediately if you don't.
33:31
If you don't do it when it's happening,
33:34
then you're silently approving the fact
33:37
that it's okay.
33:38
And you don't have to yell and scream
33:41
to get your point across to train and
33:43
develop people.
33:45
The old school method of, you know,
33:47
when I was a cook of getting tomatoes
33:50
thrown at me because the chef didn't like
33:52
what I was doing.
33:54
It doesn't doesn't fly.
33:55
Yeah.
33:56
You don't have to do that to to
33:58
train and develop people.
33:59
You can have a conversation.
34:00
Look, they're eighteen years old.
34:02
They're adults.
34:03
They're twenty five years old.
34:04
They're thirty.
34:04
They're fifty years old.
34:06
You know,
34:06
they're they're grown people working,
34:08
you know,
34:09
have a conversation like they are grown
34:11
people.
34:12
And, you know,
34:13
it's it's I I've been telling my team
34:17
a lot lately.
34:19
I'm not a good manager.
34:20
I'm an awful manager.
34:22
I'm the owner.
34:24
I got a vision and I'm going after
34:26
that vision and I'm trying to grow and
34:27
build this brand and lead us to the
34:29
right direction.
34:31
My job is I can teach you,
34:34
I can lead you,
34:35
but I'm not good at managing people.
34:38
I can help you walk through the process
34:39
and teach you how to cook a brisket,
34:42
but the yes sirs and the no sirs
34:44
and the hospitality,
34:45
you have to come to the table with
34:46
already.
34:47
How to slice a lemon, I got you.
34:50
don't serve a can of beer that just
34:52
came off the truck get one that's in
34:54
the cooler you know i can we got
34:57
to teach those things sometimes and uh i'm
34:59
finding more and more that you know we
35:03
we can't get upset about it we just
35:05
have to coach it yeah you have to
35:08
coach it so on my trajectory
35:11
landing this back in the path of I
35:13
did a lot of restaurant work and I
35:15
became a manager and worked through.
35:17
And along the way, I learned that,
35:19
and this goes into this,
35:20
I learned that everyone wants to know two
35:22
things for the employees.
35:24
What's my job and how am I doing?
35:27
And what's my job is what we set
35:28
in the expectations and it's in the
35:30
training and it's in the how you like
35:32
things and that you've made it clear that
35:33
the door matters to you.
35:35
How am I doing is in the feedback
35:38
mechanism.
35:38
And sometimes it's in the media and
35:40
sometimes what's my job gets taught based
35:42
on a feedback because you didn't think
35:43
you'd have to teach it.
35:45
And sometimes it's more regular and
35:47
sometimes it's in a checklist and whatever
35:49
it is,
35:50
sometimes it's planned and sometimes it's
35:52
in the moment.
35:53
But if we can honestly say as leaders,
35:56
and you talk about being a leader over
35:57
a manager, is have I at least...
36:01
Am I putting a path in place that
36:02
I'm clearly communicating these two things
36:04
that I'm not asking you to guess for?
36:07
You know what good looks like,
36:08
you know what great looks like,
36:09
and you know how you're doing is really,
36:13
really important.
36:14
And I became obsessed over this.
36:17
And so my job for years for a
36:19
couple of different companies was I would
36:22
come in and whether it be a director
36:23
to a COO,
36:24
and the first thing I would do is
36:26
say, nobody talked to me for thirty days.
36:29
not even opening up my email because the
36:30
second i respond to something and i'm
36:32
reactive i'm done now i'm playing i know
36:35
i know the game of operations and once
36:38
i'm working on what's urgent i'm no longer
36:40
able to work on what's important before it
36:41
becomes urgent and so i would take the
36:44
first thirty days and put a full training
36:46
program together for every single position
36:49
checklist training sops the whole sop
36:53
And then just in paper and get everybody's
36:55
buy-in and get behind the line and do
36:57
this and then roll that out and say,
36:59
okay, cool.
37:00
What's my sign into my email.
37:01
Do you know what I mean?
37:02
Because I knew setting that up and it's
37:05
kind of what you're talking about.
37:06
It's very much carrying that over to it,
37:08
setting up at least that I knew you're
37:10
going to add to it.
37:11
And there's things you might've thought
37:12
about,
37:12
but at least making sure I communicated
37:15
all of those things that matter to us
37:17
as a brand and as a company.
37:21
was my responsibility.
37:22
And if I didn't do it and you
37:24
didn't do it, well, that's on me, right?
37:26
That's on me being a leader.
37:29
So I want to take a second and
37:32
kind of go a different direction.
37:37
And because there's a story you have that
37:40
I think is pretty cool.
37:40
But before we get to that,
37:43
we have a segment that's called Mac or
37:45
Beans.
37:47
And in this segment,
37:49
it's a this or that segment.
37:51
And you have to pick when you go
37:53
into a barbecue joint,
37:54
do you get the mac and cheese or
37:57
do you get the beans?
38:00
yeah mac and cheese mac and cheese i
38:02
was ready for this i you were right
38:04
you know when people all right absolutely
38:06
when i hear people say beans sometimes and
38:08
people say yours and i know you're mac
38:09
and cheese absolutely uh um but i'm mac
38:13
and cheese and and also like the mac
38:15
and cheese is is you know i hadn't
38:18
thought about it this way so here's here's
38:20
what's cool i opened up a sushi restaurant
38:22
katsuya in in los angeles
38:24
and we worked with some of the best
38:25
sushi chefs.
38:27
And in talking one day,
38:29
really getting to know the leader,
38:32
I said,
38:33
we talked about the hole in the wall
38:35
sushi restaurants,
38:36
whether it be Japan and whatnot.
38:38
And I said, what do you know?
38:39
And he said, you order the tamago first.
38:42
And the tamago is the egg.
38:43
Now, you can pre-buy it,
38:45
and apparently they could tell if it's
38:46
been pre-poured.
38:47
But if they make tamago there,
38:50
which is egg,
38:52
it's the egg sushi where they just layer
38:54
it.
38:54
They cook it ever so clean,
38:56
and then they layer it,
38:57
and they fold it, and they fold it.
38:58
So it's just like ten layers of an
39:01
egg.
39:02
uh you know scrambled egg rolled out
39:05
you've seen it's the yellow they're like
39:07
if that's great there and they homemade it
39:10
well then they've got a great chef there
39:13
and no great chef who could achieve a
39:14
great tamago um
39:17
can will work at a restaurant with crappy
39:19
fish they just won't do it and it
39:22
was such a cool insight of what you
39:25
look for and i hadn't connected the dots
39:27
here but you know mac and cheese you
39:30
can kind of see if it's like been
39:33
sitting or not right or did they get
39:37
Did they evenly get the coating of where
39:39
it's a little bit colored and, you know,
39:42
beautiful char or not?
39:45
What's the density of the noodle?
39:47
Did they think about the al dente of
39:49
the noodle?
39:50
It gets heated and reheated or not?
39:52
It's kind of the tamago when you look
39:54
at it before I know.
39:55
What kind of meat did you actually invest
39:58
in that you've roasted before me that I
40:02
know nothing about and could be hidden,
40:04
but maybe it's terrible quality per se
40:06
or...
40:07
broken down so mac and cheese could be
40:09
a bit of a tamago i love that
40:11
canary in the coal mine yeah so along
40:14
with that we're gonna ruffle some feathers
40:18
oh yeah with this one um kobe or
40:24
jordan i mean you know where my respect
40:29
lies i do and that's the whole reason
40:31
i asked the question
40:34
Gary, you know the story?
40:36
It's fine?
40:37
I don't know your story, no.
40:39
I just know I have a disdain for
40:42
this question.
40:45
So I don't talk about this.
40:50
It came out right.
40:51
We'd known each other a while before.
40:55
I knew Jason for at least two years
40:59
before I heard this story.
41:00
Okay.
41:02
Well,
41:02
I've known him for forty-one minutes.
41:08
So, at ten years old,
41:14
I was a professional break dancer that
41:15
literally was traveling
41:18
all around, you know, the Midwest.
41:20
Opened up for Gladys Knight,
41:21
the Pips and the OJs and whatnot,
41:23
and no training, no nothing.
41:25
Went, took a class,
41:26
ended up teaching the class a couple of
41:28
months later.
41:29
So I was just a Jew with rhythm,
41:31
which was rare.
41:33
And like, you know?
41:36
And so I'm like- You know,
41:37
I was gonna say that the King of
41:39
Whoppers was it,
41:41
but you might've just changed it.
41:44
It's a Jew with rhythm.
41:47
It's just a rare thing.
41:49
It's King Whopper still, but I respect it.
41:53
And so kind of carried over years later
41:55
and was like, you know,
41:57
stomp was kind of big.
41:58
And it was when you're being on trash
41:59
cans and whatnot.
42:00
I was like, that'd be fun.
42:01
And I went and I went to audition
42:03
up in San Francisco and I didn't get
42:05
it,
42:05
but I got close enough that they moved
42:06
me down to L.A.
42:07
And that's where I moved to L.A.
42:08
in ninety seven and put me in a
42:12
instead of stomp and stomp.
42:13
If everyone knows you banged on trash cans
42:15
and brooms and it was making musical
42:17
instruments with everything you had.
42:18
and it was a traveling broadway show or
42:20
off-broadway show so i say they put me
42:23
in stump not stop it was like the
42:25
crappier version of it just close enough
42:27
right just close enough but it got me
42:30
an agent and it got me you know
42:32
down in la and i'm like all right
42:33
this is kind of fun and so no
42:35
training no nothing
42:37
And maybe a week into it,
42:39
and this is LA, it's so funny.
42:40
It's like a week into it,
42:42
I get a call from my now agent,
42:43
Jason, this is Lucille.
42:45
I'm your agent.
42:46
How are you doing?
42:46
It's great.
42:47
We're so excited you're on board.
42:49
Fantastic.
42:51
How good of a tapper are you?
42:52
I've never tap danced a day in my
42:55
life.
42:57
OK, but but you you stop.
42:59
Yeah, sure.
43:00
I've got rhythm.
43:01
OK, we'll be back.
43:02
Hey, Jason, this is Jen.
43:03
I'm your I'm your agent.
43:04
She gets on the phone.
43:05
So would you say you're like medium to
43:07
expert level tapping?
43:09
Jen,
43:09
I've literally never put on tap shoes in
43:11
my life.
43:12
But, you know, yes, I've got rhythm.
43:15
OK, but you can stomp in rhythm.
43:17
Yes.
43:17
Another girl.
43:18
And this is just a ridiculous of L.A.
43:20
and somebody else gets on.
43:22
do you think you could teach tap dancing?
43:24
And I'm like,
43:26
what the hell is this about?
43:27
And they're like, I'm like, really?
43:30
I'm like, is this Los Angeles?
43:31
Is this how this gets done?
43:33
You know?
43:34
And, and I'm like, this is like,
43:36
all right,
43:37
we've got a client wants to learn how
43:38
to tap dance.
43:40
Um, we have to keep it secret.
43:43
We can't tell you until the day before,
43:46
but could you teach them tap dancing?
43:49
And I'm like, um,
43:52
I'm like, okay, why me?
43:53
They're like,
43:54
we just know you're going to vibe.
43:55
It's just your rhythm.
43:56
Your vibes are going to go together.
43:57
It's such LA in the nineties.
44:00
I'm like, great.
44:00
I'm like, all right, I'll,
44:01
I will do this.
44:02
Yes.
44:03
I will be ready to teach this individual
44:05
a tap lesson.
44:07
Ninety eight, nine, ninety nine,
44:08
ninety nine, ninety seven.
44:10
And so I go and I take a
44:12
lesson and then literally the morning of
44:15
they're like, be here.
44:16
It's Kobe Bryant.
44:18
i'm like say what like it's like yeah
44:22
it's kobe uh you know the the nba
44:26
was on strike they were off he wants
44:29
to learn how to tap dance he knows
44:31
that michael jordan learned ballet and
44:35
wanted to work on his rhythm in his
44:38
room i was like all right this is
44:39
cool and so i pulled up and i
44:43
met him and
44:45
He's like, show me what you got.
44:46
And so, you know, I go back to,
44:49
I started break dancing and like doing
44:51
different, not a moonwalk.
44:52
There's like this forward moonwalk thing
44:54
that I did.
44:55
And he was like, that is cool.
44:57
And then at the end,
44:57
I like did a couple tap things that
44:59
I showed him and he's like, all right,
45:01
all right.
45:02
And I'm like,
45:03
so what are we doing here he's like
45:05
all right he told me the story of
45:06
michael jordan he's like he just kind of
45:08
wants to maybe we could have fun doing
45:11
rhythm and stuff but he really wanted to
45:12
work on his footwork and he's like i
45:14
gotta work on my footwork i gotta be
45:15
better he was a younger player
45:18
I'm like, all right, well,
45:19
I just took the first lesson of my
45:20
life.
45:21
He's like, really?
45:22
He's like, but you – I was like,
45:23
yeah.
45:24
Listen, I showed up ready to go.
45:26
I said, I'll make you a deal.
45:27
What are we doing?
45:28
He's like, let's meet every week,
45:29
a couple times a week sometimes.
45:30
I said, deal.
45:31
I will be ahead of you every week.
45:35
I'll make sure that I come in ahead
45:36
of you, ready to go,
45:38
knowing I'll be able to train you and
45:39
teach you.
45:41
like cool and so we literally worked
45:44
together off and on over over like three
45:46
months um there was this one time i
45:49
had him like really working on his
45:51
footwork i'm like all right i'm gonna push
45:52
you off balance right and i'm kind of
45:54
knocking with him and i pushed him a
45:55
little too hard and he just kind of
45:56
like that look that kobe look i'm so
45:58
sorry he's like no i'm sorry i'm sorry
46:02
you saw
46:03
The lion inside of him.
46:05
The mamba.
46:05
The animal was awakened.
46:07
The mamba was awakened.
46:09
And I was like, too hard.
46:10
He was like, no, no, no, no, good.
46:12
I'm like, too hard.
46:12
I'm like, but remember, I'm this tall.
46:18
And so he was awesome and was so
46:22
cool and so funny.
46:24
The funny part was.
46:26
I couldn't tell anybody that was the rule.
46:29
And I was actually also choreographing the
46:31
Laker girls on the side because my agent
46:34
thought it would be good.
46:35
And LA is just a strange place.
46:37
And like, I couldn't tell them.
46:41
And one day my roommate comes home and
46:44
he's sitting there, right?
46:46
Just kind of like, you know,
46:47
just looking at me sitting at the table,
46:49
like tapping his fingers, you know,
46:50
he's just like, like, what's going on?
46:52
He's like, play the answering machine.
46:55
And I'm like, what's up?
46:56
And I played the answering machine.
46:57
He's like, yo, Jay, it's Kobe.
47:00
I'm sorry I can't make it tomorrow.
47:02
I'll call you later.
47:03
I'll see you next week.
47:04
Is that who I think that is?
47:09
Yep.
47:09
How long have you been friends with Kobe
47:11
Bryant?
47:13
And I'm literally your roommate.
47:14
I'm like, I couldn't tell anybody.
47:15
He's like, you can tell me.
47:17
You know?
47:19
You could tell me.
47:21
And then later on, it came out, right?
47:26
The book came out.
47:27
The stuff came out.
47:31
And I forgot about this side of it.
47:32
Here's a fun part of the story, though,
47:34
a great Kobe part of the story.
47:36
I hadn't seen him then in two years.
47:38
My dad.
47:38
Okay, I'll be quick.
47:39
I'll be quick.
47:40
My father runs into him a year later,
47:43
two years later in Vegas.
47:44
My dad's sitting with his buddies.
47:47
At dinner, Kobe walks by.
47:48
My dad puts his hand out.
47:50
Kobe shakes it.
47:51
My dad stands up.
47:52
He goes, I'm sorry to bug you.
47:53
A couple of years ago,
47:55
you took break dancing or you took tap
47:58
dancing from this little five foot.
48:00
He goes, Jason.
48:01
And then so all the boys at the
48:04
table like, you know, my dad's boys.
48:08
Son of a bitch.
48:10
He's telling the truth.
48:12
So he's like, Tom, hi, this and that.
48:15
I run into Kobe.
48:16
two years after that.
48:18
And the first thing he says to me
48:20
is, I met your dad in Vegas.
48:21
I'm like, listen,
48:22
all of Cleveland knows that you met my
48:24
dad in Vegas.
48:27
And it just is like, you know,
48:30
he was... So, who's your choice, Derry?
48:35
Who's... So...
48:38
My problem with the Jordan-Kobe discussion
48:44
is Kobe tailored so much of what he
48:47
did after Jordan.
48:48
So how do you not give the nod
48:50
to the mentor?
48:52
Yeah.
48:52
But I have always I've heard that
48:56
discussion in lots of different settings
48:57
through, you know,
48:58
different classes or kids talking on
49:00
campus or whatever.
49:02
And they always want to bypass Kobe and
49:04
always want to say LeBron or Jordan.
49:05
I might hang on.
49:06
That's not the discussion.
49:07
It's Kobe or Jordan.
49:08
And that just upsets them even more.
49:10
And but for me, the nod,
49:13
you just you go to the mentor.
49:14
just like you were saying he found out
49:16
he learned ballet somewhere to help with
49:18
his footwork so i've got to do that
49:20
too and have you ever seen some of
49:22
those overlays where they show kobe side
49:25
by side with jordan and like the motions
49:28
and the movement are almost just too
49:31
identical yeah he truly was a student of
49:35
not just the game of basketball but of
49:37
michael jordan
49:38
And Tim Grover's got a book called
49:40
Relentless where he talks about both of
49:42
them.
49:43
And just that,
49:45
like you talked about pushing him and the
49:47
look came out,
49:49
they don't ever turn it off.
49:50
They may be able to kind of subdue
49:52
it a little bit or whatever,
49:53
but it's never turned off.
49:54
And so in that moment,
49:56
that was a competitive thing for you or
49:58
for him, even though you're just like,
49:59
hey, I'm just doing this week's lesson.
50:03
So I'm always going to give the nod
50:04
to the mentor though.
50:05
Like Jordan's just going to get that
50:06
because that was,
50:07
who he was emulating in that essence.
50:10
But I don't think you can look back
50:12
at the NBA and think that it was
50:14
anything like it was through the two
50:16
thousands without Kobe Bryant.
50:18
That doesn't take you anything from what
50:19
LeBron did at his age,
50:21
but without Kobe Bryant,
50:22
there's a lot of years there where,
50:24
I mean, Shaq did well,
50:26
but Shaq did better with Kobe.
50:28
And like,
50:29
that's just the truth of the matter, so.
50:31
Everyone did.
50:32
My father likes to tell people that Kobe,
50:34
they won their first championship.
50:36
after a little Jew with rhythm taught him
50:37
how to break that, how to tap dance.
50:40
They come back and went and won their
50:43
championship.
50:44
So I'm not saying, I'm not saying maybe,
50:47
you know, it's Jordan and me, but,
50:50
you know, just put a little salt,
50:53
you know, on top of the French fries,
50:55
you know,
50:56
you got to put a little salt on
50:57
it, but I won't,
50:58
I won't applaud myself there.
51:00
I humbly.
51:00
No, I love it.
51:02
That's,
51:02
that's fun because that gives a side of,
51:05
not just athletes,
51:06
but of of professionals who are trying to
51:09
take their craft to that next step,
51:10
they're going to find that way.
51:12
And even if it is just some guy
51:16
who's learning how to tap himself and I
51:19
find that ironic because where our studio
51:22
is years and years ago used to have
51:26
tap lessons at the other end of the
51:27
building and my daughters were in it and
51:30
I cracked up because I was like,
51:31
they're never going to get this.
51:33
and my oldest daughter's gonna be twenty
51:35
soon and she was doing it when she
51:36
was uh eleven or twelve or so she
51:39
still remembers a lot of steps and she
51:41
hasn't done it in you know nine years
51:44
or more and she still remembers and so
51:47
you bring that up and i'm like those
51:48
are things that stay with you so i'm
51:49
sure kobe bryant is just sitting there you
51:51
know or he's not going to tap on
51:53
the floor but
51:54
But that footwork thing,
51:56
because they used to tell athletes to take
51:59
dance.
51:59
I know a lot of the linebackers in
52:01
football,
52:01
they tell them to take dance just for
52:03
being able to move your hips and stay
52:04
in balance.
52:05
And learn how to loosen up their ankles.
52:07
I mean,
52:07
we would sit there and work on
52:09
da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da,
52:11
like those things.
52:13
It plays repetitive over and over again,
52:15
and he would practice and come back.
52:17
So it absolutely – I mean,
52:19
even just in staying healthy,
52:21
it's that idea of –
52:23
where you're you're just learning the
52:25
details and how to get your body to
52:27
respond in unique ways especially your
52:30
ankles right just that mobility for what
52:33
he did i mean that's just it's absolutely
52:34
wild well to to fast forward from you
52:38
know the the king whopper topper to
52:42
baristas and teaching kobe bryant how to
52:45
tap dance now we now we uh have
52:49
a psychology degree
52:52
restaurant operations,
52:53
and now you are teaching other people how
52:57
to teach and how to be safe.
53:01
So where did, where did you,
53:05
where did arrow up training begin?
53:07
Where did that start?
53:08
What, what,
53:09
what was the catalyst that says, Hey,
53:13
this is needed.
53:14
Um, the.
53:19
You got that, Darryl?
53:19
Yeah, I'm trying.
53:22
It happens to the best I was trying.
53:24
I was trying real hard to hold it
53:25
in there.
53:26
I saw it moving.
53:27
I was like, please don't.
53:31
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
53:32
I don't know how family-friendly show this
53:34
is.
53:34
They make a pill for that.
53:35
Yeah, they made a pill for that.
53:38
Limp dairy.
53:38
All right, here we go.
53:44
My dream was an out-of-the-box,
53:48
here's how you run a restaurant,
53:49
here's training,
53:49
here's a way of doing stuff
53:51
out-of-the-box.
53:51
Because there's so many mom-and-pop shops
53:53
that open up,
53:54
and they don't have all of that
53:56
world-class experience that they're able
53:57
to bottle up into...
53:59
What's my job?
54:00
How am I doing?
54:02
And I was ready to come out of
54:04
the gates to do that where you just
54:06
literally,
54:06
you turn it on and here's your five-day
54:08
server training because the majority of it
54:10
is the same for everybody.
54:13
You get into how to cook,
54:14
how to do things,
54:15
but if you're quick service,
54:18
cashiering is cashiering, right?
54:20
Greet the fifth person in line,
54:22
smile when they walk in the door, serving,
54:24
what's up, selling, all this stuff.
54:27
But I was talked out of it and
54:28
told no independents are gonna buy that.
54:30
And this is seven years, but hey,
54:33
they need compliance training and you talk
54:36
about the gray area a lot and you
54:38
talk about this idea of the misfits and
54:40
how to coach them through.
54:41
And so we started with anti-harassment and
54:45
it ended up being great because it was
54:47
a mandatory course in a lot of places
54:50
and we got to put our spin on
54:51
it.
54:51
And then we moved to safety and then
54:54
the insurance brokers came on board and
54:55
were like,
54:56
This is good,
54:57
can you do more of this?
54:59
And we started to really lean in further.
55:02
And at that point,
55:05
what was really cool was a lot of
55:07
our guests and clients that we worked with
55:09
came to us and said, well,
55:10
now we need help with leadership
55:11
development.
55:13
And this is,
55:14
how do you get a twenty-year-old to have
55:15
an awkward conversation with a
55:17
twenty-year-old, right?
55:19
And how do you get them to,
55:21
in the moment, because you can't,
55:23
you're not there, Charlie, how do they,
55:25
if they're the shift lead,
55:27
feel that they've been trained or they
55:29
feel empowered enough to say, hey,
55:32
let's try to work on the warm beer.
55:35
How do they do this?
55:36
And if we don't give them these tools,
55:38
they're going to avoid it.
55:39
And that affects compliance and risk and
55:43
liability, obviously the experience.
55:46
But it's safety.
55:48
It's everything bottled.
55:51
So we've been doing this with courses.
55:52
What's kind of fun is we're starting to
55:54
loop back around now to the original idea,
55:57
which is this out of the box toolkit.
56:00
That is you turn it on.
56:05
We got your safety.
56:06
We got your compliance.
56:08
We got your checklist.
56:09
And we've got your leadership development.
56:11
And we've got your ongoing weekly courses.
56:13
And we're starting to fold in the
56:15
introductory courses and things like this
56:17
that are building into it.
56:19
So at the core level,
56:23
our big ticket items are we work with
56:27
some of the largest brands.
56:28
It's fantastic in the world.
56:29
And we license courses to them.
56:33
What I'm really excited by,
56:34
and to probably a lot of your listeners,
56:36
is where we're moving again,
56:38
which is helping your under-ten units,
56:41
your mom and pop shops,
56:42
with these out-of-the-box tools that says,
56:45
listen, just turn it on.
56:47
Absolutely, you should train this.
56:48
Absolutely, you should train that.
56:50
Here's a path for your leaders.
56:53
Develop your supervisors into leaders.
56:55
Just turn it on.
56:55
We've got everything.
56:57
All they have to do is sign in
56:58
and see it, get a regular rhythm,
57:00
and what we're doing now is...
57:04
leveraging.
57:04
And if you want that data to say,
57:06
cool,
57:06
you've been doing this for a period of
57:08
time.
57:08
Well,
57:09
we've got insurance companies that are
57:12
waiting to know who the good ones are
57:14
and they're going to start paying for us.
57:16
And they're going to start offsetting the
57:18
credits even more than what you would
57:19
spend on us.
57:20
They're going to start offsetting these
57:21
credits.
57:22
And I've got this vision that's starting
57:24
to come into line that says maybe the
57:27
restaurants will still keep some skin in
57:29
the game.
57:30
But I basically,
57:31
I just want it to be an all-you-can-eat,
57:33
out-of-the-box solution that you would
57:35
turn this on, Charlie.
57:36
You keep the identity,
57:37
but here's your leadership.
57:38
Here's your client.
57:39
Here's all this.
57:41
But you're saving on these other costs
57:43
through insurance and all these other
57:45
things.
57:45
And while we're helping you lower turnover
57:48
and build an experience on the front end,
57:49
we got people incentivizing you on the
57:51
back end.
57:52
And I really believe that insurance
57:54
carriers are going to play a much bigger
57:56
role in the future of our profitability
57:58
because.
58:00
when we win and stay in business and
58:02
I'm still a restaurant partner,
58:05
they stay in business.
58:07
And so there's some really cool stuff
58:10
that's coming down the pipeline,
58:11
but for anybody listening, Hey, listen,
58:14
you need, you need your anti-harassment,
58:16
you need your safety and you need some
58:19
leadership development.
58:20
And we'll just get you going on that
58:21
now to get you in the go.
58:23
How do, how do people,
58:24
how do people find arrow up to,
58:26
to get, get signed up, get located,
58:28
all the stuff.
58:30
uh arrow up training dot com you got
58:33
everything you need there and then just
58:34
reach out to me jason at aero up
58:37
training dot com i love it and can
58:41
you sign up is there a sign up
58:42
form on the website you we you can
58:46
automatically purchase but
58:50
what we find is most people,
58:51
everybody still wants to talk to us and
58:53
we're fine.
58:54
We wanna do it, right?
58:56
And what a lot of people are doing
58:58
right now, and if you're asking like,
59:00
it's just the lowest lift that just says,
59:02
cool,
59:02
how do I just get in the game?
59:04
Sign in.
59:06
So you got four managers you want to
59:07
train.
59:08
Cool.
59:09
Here's four courses.
59:10
Here's four links.
59:10
Let them just get started.
59:12
Just be done with it.
59:13
Oh, I want you want to do safety.
59:15
Great.
59:15
Here's a link for that.
59:17
Everyone signs himself up.
59:18
They get a certificate.
59:20
We'll charge you afterwards.
59:21
Just be done with it.
59:22
It's we've made it so low friction.
59:26
that you just literally it's just easy and
59:29
you get going and then that's what i'm
59:31
saying is people are coming back to us
59:32
now and saying all right i want to
59:33
get on the bigger plan but we just
59:34
get you in the door with something light
59:36
and something simple and help you cover
59:38
your bases it's outstanding i love it i
59:40
love it dear you got a friday feel
59:42
good for us somewhere
59:43
I do.
59:44
I've gone back and forth between two of
59:46
them and I try to pick them ahead
59:49
of time and kind of see where I'm
59:50
going.
59:50
But today,
59:52
stop trying to make everyone like you.
59:55
You don't even like everyone.
59:58
Make sure you're giving yourself room to
1:00:00
grow.
1:00:00
But don't worry about the outliers that
1:00:03
just don't see because
1:00:04
honestly takers have no limits and they'll
1:00:06
keep beating you up and wearing you down
1:00:09
you don't have to like everyone and
1:00:11
they're not going to like you and that's
1:00:12
okay y'all know what to do find somebody
1:00:14
you know tell me love them that's
1:00:15
outstanding i love it a little harsh today
1:00:17
but not we um feel good so i'm
1:00:21
gonna finish this with another quick story
1:00:23
on the road with the band we would
1:00:26
say in people's couch you know couches and
1:00:28
people would would um you know be nice
1:00:30
to you and there was just one person
1:00:32
i thought was so cool
1:00:34
And but I could tell he didn't like
1:00:37
the music we were playing.
1:00:38
And I was so distraught, so distraught.
1:00:41
Then we went back to their to his
1:00:42
house and he's like, put on some music.
1:00:43
And it was like two hundred album,
1:00:45
two hundred CDs at the time.
1:00:47
And literally Pearl Jam was the only thing
1:00:49
we could agree on.
1:00:50
And I and I sat there and I
1:00:52
was like,
1:00:52
I had an existential crisis because I
1:00:54
thought this person didn't like our music.
1:00:57
I don't like any of the music they
1:00:59
like.
1:01:00
You know what I mean?
1:01:01
So it's kind of like...
1:01:03
And I was like, I just...
1:01:04
At three in the morning,
1:01:07
I had this aha moment of, you know,
1:01:10
Derry,
1:01:11
what you're kind of saying at that point,
1:01:12
right?
1:01:13
It's that idea of...
1:01:16
I don't even like what they like.
1:01:17
What do I care that they like?
1:01:19
That's exactly right.
1:01:19
That's it.
1:01:21
I love it.
1:01:22
Jason,
1:01:23
it's been an absolute pleasure having you
1:01:26
on the show, my friend.
1:01:29
I can't thank you enough.
1:01:31
I wish we could talk for another hour
1:01:34
because I know there's quite a few other
1:01:37
stories that we didn't get to today,
1:01:40
but we'll save those for next time.
1:01:42
Our producer is starting to stretch over
1:01:44
here, so we better.
1:01:44
He knows.
1:01:44
He knows.
1:01:48
But look, again, I thank you very much.
1:01:52
Guys, you know what to do.
1:01:54
If you want to get involved with the
1:01:55
show,
1:01:55
please feel free to reach out to me.
1:01:57
You can email me at charlie at
1:01:59
singletreebbq.com.
1:02:01
You can call me at six one five
1:02:03
three zero seven zero one two zero.
1:02:06
Thank you again to Toast for being our
1:02:08
primary partner here in the studio and at
1:02:12
the restaurant to provide our undeniable
1:02:14
hospitality and the perfect plate of
1:02:16
barbecue.
1:02:17
Make sure that you like, share,
1:02:18
and subscribe to the channel.
1:02:20
We air every Saturday morning on ESPN,
1:02:22
ninety four point nine.
1:02:23
If you want to catch us there and
1:02:25
until next time, guys, we'll see you then.
1:02:27
Y'all be good.
1:02:28
Be good.