Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Danny Bendas on Helping Restaurant Operators Thrive and How Synergy Helps Them Scale

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Danny Bendas on Helping Restaurant Operators Thrive and How Synergy Helps Them Scale · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Codaspote and
0:21
today's guest is Daniel Bendis, Managing Partner at Synergy
0:25
Restaurant Consultants, a firm that helps restaurants and
0:28
hospitality groups sharpen their concepts, menus and operations.
0:33
Synergy's mission is simple. Elevate food, beverage and
0:37
hospitality around the world through hands on practical
0:40
advice. The team offers new concept
0:43
creation, menu innovation, kitchen design, supply chain
0:47
support and leadership training, all backed by more than three
0:52
decades of real world results. Since joining Synergy in 1989,
0:58
Danny has guided over 225 clients from national chains
1:03
like Dunkin' Donuts to family owned eateries, generating
1:07
proven gains in revenue and guest satisfaction.
1:11
Earlier in his career, he helped open Houlihan's Old Place
1:14
locations as well as other Gilbert Bobertson brands.
1:19
He led the kitchen at the American Restaurant and served
1:21
as Director of Operations for Hallmark Cards restaurant
1:24
subsidiary American Food Service Enterprises before becoming Vice
1:29
President of Food and Beverage at Naco Enterprises, operator of
1:33
Elephant Bar restaurants and Jeremiah's Steak Houses.
1:37
He also hosts the Restaurant Road Map podcast, which we're
1:41
going to hear more about too. But before we get into all his
1:44
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AD Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:42
today, Managing partner of Synergy Restaurants Consultants,
2:45
Danny Bendis. Thanks for making the time to
2:47
Share your story today. Excited to be here Anthony.
2:51
This is going to be a fun hour so so looking forward to it.
2:55
First of all, did I get your last name corrected?
2:57
I get the inflection on it. Give me the correct
2:58
pronunciation. Yeah, Bendis, it's like DIS.
3:02
Yeah, Bendis, you got it. Great.
3:05
OK, so Danny, let's start at the beginning.
3:07
What first drew you into the restaurant world?
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You know, I was 14 years old, and I had an older brother who's
3:13
always been sort of a mentor. He was working at a college
3:17
cafeteria near my home outside of the Allentown, PA.
3:22
He was moving on to go work for a Country Club with a chef as an
3:26
apprentice. And so I basically took his job.
3:29
So I became a Cook's helper, you know, dishwasher, like who
3:32
hasn't started as a dishwasher in the restaurant business,
3:35
right? Or, or a busboy or whatever.
3:37
So yeah, that was my first, my first entry.
3:40
I liked it. I always figured this was going
3:42
to be my career ultimately going forward.
3:45
And from there I worked as a a cook at a restaurant nearby and
3:49
then went to the Culinary Institute of America because I
3:52
didn't want to go to college to do 2 more years of liberal arts.
3:57
I wanted to get right into my career.
3:59
So the CIA was a great experience.
4:02
I was very happy and and and proud to be the first class to
4:05
attend the Culinary Institute at the Hyde Park campus.
4:09
They had just moved from Hyde Park or from New Haven, CT to
4:14
Hyde Park. And so the rest, as they say, is
4:17
history. I've been in this business ever
4:19
since. I've only had one job outside
4:21
the industry my entire career. I helped put beds together at
4:26
the first new dormitory at the culinary when I was attending
4:29
school there, so to gain a little extra income.
4:32
So that's how we lost started. So from that first entry level
4:36
job, you were hooked. What was it that you loved from
4:39
the beginning so much about the industry?
4:42
You know, I think just hands on, I think being able to help
4:45
people, you know, serving people, you know, I think as
4:50
we'll talk about as we get other into other topics, you know,
4:55
staying in tune to the guests, giving back to the guests.
4:58
And you know, if there's a guy, when I was working at the
5:02
restaurant that I worked for at the time, I was like 19 years
5:06
old, a gentleman who was the president of the National
5:10
Restaurant Association. He made a comment.
5:13
He said if you take care of your guests, you never have to worry
5:15
about how much is in your cash register.
5:17
And I always kind of took that to heart because, you know, if
5:21
you get a great service, great food, fair value, you know,
5:25
generally speaking, you're going to be successful.
5:27
So that, that was quite an interesting learning lesson and
5:30
that ability to help people and our restaurant business is fun.
5:34
You know, we had a, we have a lot of time having fun, which if
5:38
you're not having fun, that's not worth doing what you're
5:40
doing, right? So.
5:43
Tell us about one of your mentors, somebody that had a big
5:45
impact on you coming up through the industry.
5:48
Yeah, I, I, I was, as I thought about that question, there are
5:52
two actually, Well, three, my mom and dad.
5:56
They they great roots, great parents, best parents anybody
6:00
could had. But when I was at the culinary,
6:02
I met a chef, one of my instructors, and we used to, I
6:06
used to assist him as he taught cooking classes, you know, off
6:10
campus to make some extra money. And then I was working after
6:13
graduation back home. And one day I got a phone call
6:17
from him and he offered me a job in Kansas City or to be a unit
6:21
chef at the original Hooligan Soul Place on the on the Country
6:25
Club closure. And I flew out, I interviewed, I
6:29
took the job. And over the years he was a true
6:33
mentor. He helped me get a lot of jobs
6:35
and get involved in a lot of really interesting businesses
6:39
where I learned a, a tremendous amount about the business.
6:42
And so the other one who actually it became a really
6:48
great experience and a mentor through that experience was a
6:52
gentleman named Joseph Brown. Now, you know, I'm going back a
6:55
long ways. But for those that have been in
6:57
the industry for a number of years, Joel is the restaurant
7:02
icon of New York City. In the 50s and the 60s.
7:06
He created The Four Seasons restaurant in Midtown Manhattan,
7:10
and he created the form of the 12 Caesars.
7:13
He was the president of an organization called Restaurant
7:16
Associates back in the day. He also created all of the food
7:21
service at the World Trade Center as it was being built
7:26
prior to the unfortunate instances of 911 and some
7:30
windows on the world was his creation.
7:33
The big Kitchen, which was in the lower level of one of the
7:37
towers, it was a major subway hub.
7:39
And I think something like 1/4 of a million people went through
7:42
that subway hub every day in and out of Manhattan to go to work.
7:47
And he was hired by Mr. Donald Hall, who was the president of
7:53
Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. And you know, when I say we were
7:58
a restaurant affiliate of Hallmark Cards, American Food
8:01
Service Enterprises was founded. In those days.
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American cuisine was pretty much non existent.
8:08
You know, it was French, it was Italian.
8:10
Most of my school experiences had to do more with European
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cuisines versus American. So Joe conceived of a concept
8:20
called the Heartland market, which was an all American.
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If you think about Ichi's or Italy today, this was sort of a
8:29
miniature version of that where we had various retail stores,
8:33
food service entities and they all produce product to support
8:37
each other. So we had a retail bakery, we
8:39
had a pasta kitchen, we had a deli, we had a wine store, we
8:43
had an equipment shop and we had a restaurant called the Crystal
8:47
Pavilion. And, you know, and Joe was the,
8:50
you know, he conceptualized all of these things and it we only
8:55
focused on American made products, which were really in
8:58
the infancy at the time. So I mean, everything that if
9:01
you wanted for bra was European, if you wanted mustard or jam,
9:05
generally they're European. And this was the upbringing or
9:08
the upstart of, you know, American made products.
9:12
And we were sort of on the ground floor of that.
9:16
And we're talking circa 1977 ish 78.
9:21
So we were. You were right, there's a very
9:23
far. Ahead of his time, right?
9:25
So, yeah. And being in Kansas City, we're
9:27
virtually in the middle of the country, hence, you know, the
9:30
heartland market. So and that's where I met my
9:32
business partner Dean, and we got to know each other.
9:35
And that was the beginnings ultimately of Synergy Restaurant
9:39
Consultants as OK. So let's talk about that.
9:42
How did synergy come into play and how did you become a part of
9:45
it? Yeah.
9:46
Well, Dean and I worked together in Kansas City.
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As I said, I was head of operations, he was head of
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retail merchandising. And I ultimately left and I went
9:56
to work in Santa Barbara, CA for a restaurant route.
10:00
We operated Elephant Bar restaurants at the time, a small
10:04
chain and Jeremiah Steakhouses. And ultimately Dean left and he
10:11
went to work for El Torito restaurants in in Southern
10:14
California. So I was in Santa Barbara, he
10:16
was in basically in Port Beach area.
10:19
We stayed in touch. And over time, you know, El
10:24
Torito was purchased by a brand called the WR Grace Company and
10:28
WR Grace. In those days, they just bought
10:31
restaurant brands, and they probably had 15 restaurant
10:34
brands back in the day. And so through all of those
10:38
purchases, consolidations, you know, Dean's job basically got
10:42
outsourced or downsized. And so he ended up forming
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Synergy to help manufacturers promote their product within
10:51
restaurant chains. And he was, you know, he was
10:54
doing well. He was busy.
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You know, I was in Santa Barbara.
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I just had my first child and, you know, I wanted to move on,
11:03
you know, and so he and I got together one day.
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We decided that he was busy enough for me to come and join
11:10
him. And that was in 1990, April
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15th. I always remember that because
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it was Tax Day and I know my daughter had just been born.
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So that was right. We're not 35th or over 35 years
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now and you know, it's been a great experience.
11:28
As I said, you know, I'd love to teach.
11:30
It's it's a way of us to teach and get back to the industry.
11:35
Yeah, say more about that. Your your love of teaching, you
11:38
know, was there any thoughts to actually become a teacher rather
11:41
than, you know, stay in the restaurant space?
11:44
Yeah, there are always times when I want, I thought that I
11:47
could be a really good teacher because I loved showing people,
11:50
telling people, you know, I think I'm a pretty logical
11:53
thinking person. So the ability to help people
11:56
grow and succeed. And, you know, just a quick
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sidebar there, Anthony, one of my one of my jobs with Gilbert
12:02
Robinson restaurants was at a restaurant called the Plaza 3.
12:06
Right next door is the original Houlihan's and that was the
12:09
flagship with the company, sort of a continental cuisine
12:13
restaurant back in the day. And I had one of the best crews
12:18
and the best restaurant experience in my life there
12:21
because the guys really wanted to learn.
12:23
You know, three of the guys that worked with me ended up going on
12:26
to culinary schools and I, I'm assuming they're still in the
12:29
business. I haven't kept up.
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I'm not sure. But that desire to teach and you
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know, I taught some part time classes at the community
12:36
colleges in the area, but you know, teaching doesn't pay that
12:40
well, which is unfortunate in today's world.
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So consulting is a way of teaching and and giving back and
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helping people get better, solving problems for them,
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helping them survive, helping them grow, just helping them to
12:53
leadership skills and, you know, becoming better restaurant tours
12:57
and operating better brands. So I can teach, I can make money
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and I can have fun and I can kind of travel around and see
13:04
the world. So so it all you check all the.
13:06
Boxes. Exactly, Yeah.
13:09
And so Synergy Restaurant Consultants started out as a way
13:14
to help manufacturers promote their products to restaurants.
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Is that still what's going on today?
13:22
Yeah, when Dean and I, you know, we're both chef train.
13:26
As I said, I'm, we, we both graduated from the CIA and, and
13:31
what we did with that, because we had chef backgrounds, we were
13:36
hired by manufacturers to promote their product by doing
13:39
culinary demonstrations, focusing on the manufacturer's
13:44
product, showing how a restaurant chain could use that
13:48
product on their menus in the hopes of promoting that.
13:51
And then the chain would purchase the product to use in
13:54
menu items that we created for them.
13:56
Right. And then over time, you know, we
14:00
decided we wanted to evolve our business.
14:02
We were traveling, I don't know, probably 30 weeks a year.
14:05
It was pretty crazy, you know, and you know, I had, I had a
14:09
young baby and then, you know, wanted to stay home more.
14:12
So we ended up diversifying, which over the years we've done
14:15
quite a bit of into more operations and, and other
14:19
culinary work, but directly for change.
14:21
So as we as we did work for manufacturers to restaurant
14:25
change to change would ask us to do additional culinary work for
14:29
them because they obviously like what we did.
14:32
And then gradually we branched into operations and then we
14:36
decided that rather than he and I trying to do everything, we
14:39
would expand our business. So we brought in other
14:42
consultants, other subject matter experts, and we have
14:46
become pretty much a full service restaurant consultancy.
14:50
And we can help with design, you know, we help with obviously
14:54
R&D, we help with training systems, new concept
14:59
development, operating efficiencies, and almost
15:02
anything you could think of outside of construction that a
15:05
restaurant would need, we can help them with.
15:08
So you know, it's been a 35 year evolution.
15:11
We had a great team of people, tremendous amount of experience
15:16
and it's been a real pleasure to work with them, to work with our
15:19
clients. What do you think?
15:21
Sets you apart from other restaurant consultants in the
15:23
space. Experience for one.
15:28
I think sharing is another, you know, we, we never lose sight of
15:33
the fact that we want to help our clients become successful
15:37
and we listen to our clients because, you know, if we don't
15:42
collaborate and we don't offer solutions to people that are
15:47
doable, they're not going to be successful.
15:51
And so I think just that at the idea of, you know, we listen, we
15:55
care, we're passionate, and we have a tremendous amount of live
16:00
hands on experience over the years that we can bring to our
16:03
clients. You know, obviously nothing that
16:06
would be proprietary to any other previous client.
16:09
You know, when you've been doing this for 35 years and we've
16:12
worked with hundreds of people around the world, you know, you
16:17
learn a lot of great things to do.
16:18
You learn a lot of things that aren't so great to do.
16:21
We can learn either way. So we can impart all of that
16:24
knowledge and all that experience into our projects and
16:28
and helping our clients ultimately become successful in
16:32
some instances that survive in some instances.
16:35
Anthony, we've actually tried to talk people out of going into
16:39
the restaurant business because it's just not, you know, it's
16:42
just not right, you know, given either their experienced or
16:45
financial circumstances. You know, sometimes people say,
16:49
well, I'm going to open this up so I can give it to my kids and
16:52
give them a living. Well, you know, I've actually
16:54
literally talked to people who say, well, my kids aren't
16:57
interested also, why are you doing this if they're not
17:01
interested, right? So we just, you know, we want to
17:03
help. That's you're like a little bit.
17:05
Of a life coach too well, a. Little bit, yeah, a little
17:08
psychology. There's a lot of everything
17:10
involved when you do this kind of work, but it's always
17:12
enjoyable. We've been fortunate to have
17:14
really great clients over the years and work with a lot of
17:18
really wonderful people so. Who's a good fit for you?
17:22
Are there, you know, like fine dining, is it QSR?
17:25
Are they folks with no restaurant experience?
17:28
Some like 1 unit, 50 units, like paint us a picture here.
17:33
Yeah, I think. And you know, obviously we'll
17:36
take all comments might be good, everything is a great
17:38
experience, but our sweet spot generally is somewhere between 5
17:44
and 15 locations, 3 to 10, somewhere in that neighborhood
17:49
generally where you say, you know, they're growing, they
17:54
don't have, or they can't afford the GNA to grow or they, they
17:58
don't have the experience to grow, but they need it to grow
18:02
so we can help fill that gap for them.
18:05
You know, in our experience, you have people that have developed
18:08
a really great restaurant. They open the 2nd and they're,
18:12
you know, they can manage too, Assuming that, you know,
18:15
geographically it works, they could get the three and it
18:19
becomes more and more tenuous because there's only so many
18:23
hours of the day. And so if they really want to
18:25
grow, that's a point where rather than being hands on
18:29
entrepreneurial seat of the pants, now you have to develop
18:32
systems, processes, you have to learn how to lead in a different
18:37
fashion because now you're you're managing multi unit, not
18:41
being on on site at every location every day.
18:45
And for a lot of entrepreneurs, that's a real leap in in in
18:50
skill requirement. And that's where we need some
18:53
men to help people, you know, learn how to be effective
18:57
leaders, oversee multiple units, grow, potentially franchise if
19:01
they're successful and they wouldn't have been down that
19:04
path or Fremont a partner. You don't get bought out by Ave.
19:09
company, you know, whatever. There's a whole lot of paths
19:12
that these people could take, but they are sweet spot again is
19:15
getting those people that are growing, but they don't have
19:19
quite an DNA to get them going or they need leadership hope or
19:22
they need systems and stuff like that.
19:25
So so this is. Something that I've talked to a
19:27
lot of entrepreneurs about, and I'd be curious to get your
19:29
perspective on Danny, because some people are really effective
19:34
as startup, right? Like I've got my hands and
19:37
everything. I'm wearing 12 hats, juggling
19:40
all kinds of things and I'm making it work.
19:43
But like you said, when you go from 1:00 to 2:00 units, you're
19:46
stretching yourself thin. And then as you go from 2:00 to
19:48
3:00 and 4:00, like that's where the process and, and the
19:52
structure really has to change or it's not going to work.
19:56
From what you've seen in the past, what do you think
20:00
separates those people who are able to make that evolution and
20:05
their leadership style and those who cannot?
20:09
You know, I, this is going to sound really crazy and I don't,
20:13
not trying to over oversimplify it, but I think the big truth of
20:17
it is learning to let go, OK, learning to hire people and then
20:26
give them, you know, get them embedded into your culture, into
20:30
your brand, make sure they understand your expectation.
20:34
You give them the tools and let them do their job and you as the
20:39
leader learn and force yourself to come back and observe and
20:46
train and let people make a mistake because that's how
20:49
they're going to learn and that's how they're going to
20:51
grow. And then you as the, as the
20:55
entrepreneur need to change your mindset to trust and, but verify
21:01
their skill sets, but then also change your mindset to move from
21:07
being the doer to being the thinker being and, and, and then
21:10
taking your position to become more the growth strategies
21:15
versus the hands on doer. And that's not easy because you
21:18
get, you get embedded, you know, it's fun, that's high energy,
21:22
you're in there, you know, you're, you're, you're with the
21:25
guests. And then you have to transition
21:27
out of that and learn to trust your, your team.
21:31
But they'd have to understand the culture so that when the
21:34
guests coming back and you're not there as the leader, they
21:37
know they're gonna get that same experience because you've
21:39
created this really strong culture, passion, caring in, in
21:44
operations. So it's a hard transition.
21:48
Noted. It sure is.
21:49
I'm curious what other common mistakes that you've seen
21:54
businesses make as they're in that growth cycle?
22:01
Not having a big enough bench in order to grow, not hiring the
22:07
right people. You know, there's also potential
22:11
for people to not want to hire somebody because I feel like it
22:15
may know more than you do. You know, I think the key to
22:18
anybody who wants to be a great executive is hiring people that
22:22
are smarter than you and people that you can trust and let them
22:26
go, let them do what you what they do, which is why you hire
22:30
them. So I think letting go, hiring
22:33
the right people growing too fast.
22:36
I think also because you, you sort of drain your bench and
22:40
then you don't you, you, you lose, you lose control or you
22:44
lose the quality because you're moving too quickly or you're
22:47
hiring. You don't have the bench to
22:49
support the growth that you want to get to, especially when you
22:53
get to a point where you, you know, you, you're a private
22:57
operator now somebody buys you. Now there's a whole different
23:00
expectation of growth and returns and quarterly profits.
23:03
And that can stress you. And then you're forced to make
23:06
decisions that you may not want to make that are going to damage
23:11
your brand and your concept over time.
23:13
So all things you just really being cautious about how you do
23:18
things when it when it comes to wrong.
23:21
You know, Danny, I think specific examples can help our
23:24
listeners better understand what you're capable of at Synergy
23:28
Restaurant Consultants. Can you walk us through a
23:31
specific client turn around process?
23:34
What was the before situation? What did you do for them and
23:38
what did things look like afterwards?
23:40
Yeah. Yeah.
23:42
I, I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a turn around,
23:45
but I'll give you a few examples of of things that we have done.
23:48
So we had an international client quasi well depending on
23:54
what country you are in full service in Latin America, more
23:58
fast casual here in the US on a pretty good growth pattern.
24:03
And they hired us to commend to do a performance audit.
24:07
And we ended up after spending time with them watching how they
24:12
operate in this first project or the primary project was in
24:17
Guatemala City. And we literally transformed
24:21
their kitchen and completely redesigned their kitchen and
24:27
significantly, I think to the tune of over 45 close to 50%
24:32
efficiency of operation to the back of the house.
24:36
This this brand in, in Guatemala has a drive through operation.
24:42
They're open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
24:44
They have a service counter, they're full service.
24:49
They have a pizza, they have a pizza concept that they're a
24:53
franchise of all under one building.
24:57
Now they have like 10 motorcycles delivering food all
24:59
over the place. So all imagine all of that
25:02
happening under one roof and this kitchen had the support,
25:06
you know, a service counter, full service dining and drive
25:09
through delivery and all of that stuff.
25:11
So, you know, I think we were really instrumental in
25:15
recreating the whole back of house, which we, we look at the
25:20
back of house as the engine right, get the engine right, a
25:22
whole lot of other things to fall into space, into place, no
25:26
matter, you know, the box that you're working in and you can
25:30
work around the building if the engine works and you can.
25:33
And generally speaking, right. And then they had a sister brand
25:38
also in Latin America, that one that they wanted to grow.
25:41
It's like 500 restaurants over a period of time.
25:45
So we kind of did the same thing where we really studied their
25:48
operation and we changed a lot of the way they operate to
25:52
significantly enhance their throughput, you know, through a
25:55
different kitchen layout and some new equipment of
25:58
suggestions that we need and stuff like that.
26:01
And so similarly, sorry to interrupt you, Danny.
26:04
Just I want to understand a little bit more of the details
26:07
of of what you're able to do. You're saying, OK, you're buying
26:10
some different restaurant equipment for them.
26:12
You're changing the layout. So that's like, hey, the fryer
26:15
was over here, but it works better over here.
26:19
That way it's not interfering with the drink station.
26:22
People aren't bumping into each other.
26:23
You're sort of studying that. I don't know that workflow in
26:27
there. Yeah.
26:28
Yeah, so efficiency of the employee, if you know how many
26:31
steps does the employee have to make, what kind of ergonomics
26:35
are, you know, are they bending moving?
26:37
You know, I mean, I like to work in circles because I hate
26:40
walking, right? And not that I dislike walking,
26:43
but it's very it's very time inefficient.
26:45
So if you have to make a lot of little movements that draw you
26:48
away from where you need to be, it slows everybody down.
26:52
And we literally took their primary serving line and
26:58
recommended and they did it like a week after we finished.
27:01
We literally picked it up, rotated it 90° and then changed
27:05
the way they do things so that half of the serving line took
27:08
care of all food that went into disposable packaging, meaning
27:13
take out drive through delivery. The other half of the of the
27:17
kitchen line took care of all the in house dining where they
27:20
used real, you know, playware non disposable.
27:24
So we completely we completely turned it around so that they
27:28
could work at a much more efficient dinner, right.
27:32
So, you know, it's about studying how people work,
27:35
thinking logically about what is every step that somebody has to
27:39
go through in order to execute a menu on, and then what can we do
27:43
to minimize the steps? What piece of equipment may
27:47
there be that might be able to enhance what they do?
27:51
And then often, sometimes instances, Anthony, we do
27:53
product reengineering where we'll reengineer a menu item to
27:57
make it easier to execute or develop new menu items that will
28:02
fit their brand, but allow them to operate with greater
28:07
throughput, less talent requirement because talent,
28:12
there's a real challenge in the restaurant industry today
28:14
finding it and paying for it. And so being able to create
28:19
recipes and there's so much great equipment on the market
28:23
now that that is very time efficient, very space efficient.
28:27
Once you work out the programming, you literally put
28:30
something in an oven, you push a button, 2 minutes later it's
28:34
done. It's consistent every time you
28:36
do it and it allows you to not need quite the steel level and
28:42
it gives you consistency over time, which is really critical.
28:46
So again, process, equipment, layout, ergonomics, all that
28:50
stuff. So when you.
28:52
Talk about increasing operational efficiency in that
28:56
kitchen in Guatemala by I think you said 40 to 50%.
29:00
Does that mean I'm trying to understand how you calculate
29:02
that metric? Does that mean you know the
29:05
throughput of food coming out of there is 40% greater with, you
29:10
know, the same amount of Labor? Yeah, a combination of increased
29:16
throughput, but also a lot of that percentage which leads to
29:21
throughput was less distance people and food had to travel
29:27
from the so that it could get prepared with fewer steps on the
29:31
part of the kitchen staff. So better temperature, better
29:34
quality, faster service, better throughput and easier for the
29:38
kitchen staff, you know, to to do their job.
29:41
So it's a combination of throughput, time and distance
29:45
for employees to work, which gets you to throughput.
29:49
But also, you know, we can work with a line with clients also
29:52
where we modified procedures and again, sometimes equipment,
29:58
sometimes not to make it easier for someone to do their job.
30:03
It was an example we had a client that, you know, they,
30:07
they brand this product and one employee basically spends 5 or 6
30:13
hours branding this. And it's a pretty physically
30:16
demanding job, right? So, you know, the quality of the
30:20
product when the employee starts working was pretty different by
30:24
the time they put in five or six hours and were getting close to
30:28
ending their shift because they're just tired.
30:31
I mean, it's because of a very physically demanding amount of
30:34
work. So we made recommendations on
30:38
some things, some processes and equipment so that some kind of
30:42
mechanized that process. So it wasn't quite so manual and
30:47
A, to enhance the product B, help the employee.
30:51
And, you know, in this day and age, you know, another thing
30:54
that we look at very, very seriously is employee turnover.
30:58
So what can we do from a process, an environmental
31:02
standpoint so that we can keep employees, keep people happier,
31:07
keep them busy, keep them productive and reduce turnover,
31:11
You know, and you can go and work at A at a retail store or
31:15
you can go work in a restaurant, which is very hard, physical,
31:19
dangerous work, you know, So anything we could do to mitigate
31:22
that, you know, difficulty of work, physically challenging
31:27
work, dangerous work, you know, air conditioning in kitchens.
31:31
I mean, that used to be unheard of, right?
31:33
And it's all things that now help keep your employees happy
31:36
and keep retention high. Do you get?
31:38
Involved in any of the administrative advice or
31:42
support, you know payroll and you know HR functions or you
31:49
guys more on the operations side?
31:53
We are motion on operations. We look at payrolls just from
31:56
you know like what is your labor, how do you calculate
31:59
payroll? Are there some systems that may
32:01
help you enhance how you do that to make it more either time
32:05
efficient or give you better data in order to manage your
32:10
business? We also take a look at HR
32:14
practices. But you know, that can be a
32:17
little bit dangerous territory because there's a lot of the
32:20
galleries involved, you know, break schedules tip, you know,
32:24
how do you tip? What's legal is not legal.
32:27
We review it. But generally in those
32:29
instances, we often times will recommend that, you know, the
32:33
client, defer to a professional that understands the law.
32:39
And so we're not making mistakes.
32:40
There's also some pretty good online companies that can become
32:46
sort of an HR partner that can help you with, you know, a
32:50
termination if it's necessary, understanding rural changes.
32:56
You know, it's a, it's an interesting business.
32:59
You know, at the end of the day, Anthony, most people just want
33:02
to run a restaurant, take care of guests and not be Hanford by
33:06
all of these regulations. But unfortunately you have to be
33:10
in order to remain compliant. So it's it's a necessary evil.
33:15
And unfortunately a lot of independent operators don't
33:18
necessarily think about nothing is a fault.
33:21
It's just they're just busy. They're just busy running their
33:24
business, right? So you know I.
33:28
Got that you piqued my curiosity when you were talking about some
33:31
of the technology that you know has come along a great equipment
33:34
this you know oven put something in 2 minutes later it comes out
33:38
perfect texture and everything. What is give us another example
33:43
like a a piece of breakthrough technology that is really
33:46
changing how restaurants operate by this?
33:49
Well, you know, I think data in data collection, you know, and
33:54
years ago, when I first started in the restaurant business, you
33:57
know, again, a long time ago, it's in the, you know, the 60s,
34:00
let's say, or the early 70s, there was like no technology.
34:05
You know, we used to joke, you know, you put your cash in the
34:08
cigar box, right? And that's just how you took
34:10
care of your money, right? You know, my first restaurant
34:13
job, we didn't have any, you know, they had a cash register.
34:17
We didn't have any TOS systems. We didn't have any back office
34:21
data. These just restaurants were, it
34:24
was a family owned business. You know, the mom and the dad
34:27
and two sons, they didn't take inventory.
34:30
They didn't, they didn't, they didn't write down prep charts.
34:33
They everybody just did what they did and it worked right.
34:36
And, you know, they made a lot of money and, and the key to it
34:40
was, you know, we served great food.
34:43
The father was the face in the dining room.
34:47
You know, Mr. Bennett's knew everybody every, you know, he,
34:50
he was, it was just the culture was, was unbelievable.
34:53
It was a great first restaurant experience for me in a lot of
34:56
ways, you know, in addition to all the other things we've
34:58
discussed. But then now there's a lot of
35:02
technology out there from TOS systems, back office systems,
35:08
managing gratuities, scheduling, AII, mean, you name it.
35:15
And there's so much now that literally your head would
35:19
explode. You know, when I used to go to
35:20
the restaurant show when I was 2021 years old in Chicago, you
35:25
know, there was very little technology.
35:27
You know, I mean, there was micro, Microsoft didn't exist.
35:30
It's NCR. It was like the main cash
35:32
register, you know, now there's an entire half of a floor
35:37
dedicated to technology. So that's great, but you have to
35:42
be careful. You know, there's a saying, you
35:44
know, paralysis by analysis where you get so much data and
35:47
you can't make a decision on anything anymore.
35:50
So you have to be very careful to structure your technology,
35:55
your tech stack. So what you want to know and
35:58
what you can react to and what you how do you want to manage
36:02
your business and use it? Use it effectively, but don't
36:05
overdo it because it can drive me crazy and it can become
36:09
expensive over time right from. Personal experience I I know
36:14
painfully well that sometimes data can reveal some great
36:18
insights to you and sometimes it's just static, it's just
36:22
noise. What are some of the key metrics
36:25
that you encourage your clients to look at?
36:30
Several. So prime cost is is 1 big one.
36:34
Prime cost is the total dollar value of your cost of goods in
36:40
food and beverage and your labor as a percentage of sales.
36:44
So we look for prime cost between 55 to 60% of of your of
36:50
your PNL. And if you get too high it
36:53
becomes difficult to leave money because then you have to factor
36:56
in rent, you know, non controllable cost, interest, you
37:00
know, EBITDA and all that kind of stuff.
37:02
So prime cost is 1. And then obviously part of that
37:06
food, labor and all those things.
37:07
But the other thing we look at is sales per man hour, which is
37:12
a really good general measure of productivity.
37:17
So obviously, the higher your sales per man hour, the more
37:20
productive your team is without sacrificing the guest
37:23
experience. That's always rule 1.
37:24
And then the other part of that is sales per square foot, which
37:29
is at a gauge of the productivity of your physical
37:33
space. And you know, we do a lot of
37:35
work, a lot of assessment work under.
37:40
And the goal is, you know, which is what the planet tells us what
37:44
we need to figure out ways to shrink our box, right?
37:49
So when we get down to labor, we get down to better equipment,
37:54
better walking paths, better efficiency in kitchens.
37:58
That's that's how you shrink the box in the restaurant.
38:01
And if you can shrink the box, obviously you need a smaller
38:04
pad, lower construction costs, lower rent, you know, and more
38:09
efficiency, which gets you to sales per square foot, right?
38:14
So we look at the entire box and we don't design just from the
38:19
floor, we design all the way up to the top to maximize the
38:23
entire tube as much as we as much as we possibly can.
38:26
And then, you know, another metric we like to use is, you
38:31
know, to be successful when, when you take everything into
38:34
everything else into consideration in the restaurant
38:36
business, rent, we like to say we'd like to end up somewhere
38:41
between 8 and 10% of sales all in.
38:44
So rent Tim charges and stuff like that.
38:46
If your rent gets too high, it just cuts into your margin.
38:50
So you know, ideally a, a great restaurant will run somewhere
38:55
hopefully between a 10 and 12% margin.
38:57
So think about that. For all the work that you do,
39:01
every dollar you bring in, you're pocketing $0.10.
39:05
OK, maybe if you're lucky, right?
39:08
So every penny time. It.
39:12
Is very, very tight and, you know, a lot of room for error
39:15
'cause you're, you know, let me just say, Anthony, the other
39:17
fascinating thing about restaurants, I've always found
39:21
restaurants are one of the few businesses that exist where
39:26
everything that occurs in the business happens under one roof.
39:30
OK. So if you think about that and
39:32
what a manager has to deal with as a restaurant operator.
39:35
Now, if you're a car manufacturer, you have a
39:38
manufacturing facility, you have a sales facility, you have a
39:42
return maintenance facility. They can be all different places
39:45
with different amounts of expertise in each.
39:48
In a restaurant, production, sales, accounting, marketing,
39:53
food safety, cleanliness, it all happens under one roof.
39:57
So the operator has to understand the entire production
40:01
cycle and sales cycle. Which is a pretty big task if
40:04
you're running a 56810 million dollar restaurant it's it's a
40:08
lot it's and you got to ruin down what you're doing to be
40:11
successful so in. What ways are you encouraging
40:14
your clients to use AI in their business?
40:19
You know, it's an interesting question.
40:23
I think we we recommend AI to be supportive of the team, not to
40:31
replace the team. OK.
40:33
And I really believe I know one of your questions here and I
40:36
tend to jump around a little bit, but that's OK.
40:38
It's all part of the conversation.
40:39
I think, I think there is a strong desire for people to want
40:45
to have social engagement again and communicate with a real
40:50
person. And AI is never going to replace
40:54
that unless you know, we get a robot that you can become a
40:57
robot, right? So having AI support people and
41:03
maybe tasks that detract from the ability to socialize and
41:08
communicate with a guest I think is good.
41:13
But I don't think it's ever, it's ever, it's never going to
41:15
replace the human, especially in the food service business,
41:19
because that's the whole interaction between server and
41:23
guest bartender and guest server and cook.
41:26
I mean, that's, that's what makes restaurants, restaurants
41:30
in my opinion. So AI can support in terms of
41:35
data collection, production planning and a lot of, of behind
41:41
the scenes things. But I, I, I hope that it never
41:44
replaces the human touch. You know, there's a book that I
41:48
read many years ago about trends, and one of the things
41:52
that I've always remembered was the concept of high tech and
41:56
high touch. The more high tech there is, the
41:59
more high touch people feel like they want and need to
42:01
communicate and be a part of something or engage socially.
42:06
And you know, or a great example is, you know, you call an 800
42:09
number, it's virtually impossible to get a human being
42:12
on the phone. You know, it's very frustrating
42:14
after a while letting people get frustrated with it and they just
42:17
want to talk to somebody for help, right.
42:20
So so anyway, in the supporting world behind the scenes, I think
42:24
more importantly than front center, if you will, you know,
42:28
I. Talked to a lot of leaders in
42:29
restaurants. Hospitality staffing is another
42:32
area, not necessarily, you know, completely related, but all are,
42:35
are echoing a very similar thing where they're interested in AI,
42:40
they're trying it out where they feel like it has the most
42:43
potential is to take out some of the redundant, I'm going to call
42:49
them, mind numbing tasks that are pulling people, you know,
42:53
into the back office, you know, in front of their screen and
42:57
allow them to have more time interacting with people
43:01
one-on-one or one to many, especially in these high touch
43:05
environments like, you know, hospitality is.
43:08
Yeah. Yeah.
43:09
And as we talked about and I think you know another rule that
43:13
I use and I think our team does very good at is creating
43:17
process. Like I was just telling one of
43:19
our clients the other day, I said, you know, when you have a
43:23
great systems and great processes in place, which I
43:26
think is where AI can help you, you can worry about bigger
43:31
things versus all the little stuff, knowing that the little
43:35
stuff has been taken care of. So I, I used the analogy
43:38
because, you know, many years ago I developed these
43:41
operational timelines so that every physician had a timeline
43:45
that said, when I come in, here's between, when I get here
43:49
in the open, here's what we do, here's what we do during service
43:52
is what we do after service. And you know, in theory, if you
43:56
say, OK, you know, in central time it's 10:51 AM, what are
44:02
your kids doing, right? So if you as a manager look at
44:05
your watch, you should know what all of your employees should be
44:09
doing at that time to give you a great consistency day in and day
44:14
out with your operation. So that part of that
44:18
consistency, you know, systems and processes are truly believe
44:22
AI can help you with or give you the data.
44:25
You know, if I'm a fried chicken brand, on which fried chicken do
44:29
I need to have railing between 11 and 12 based on the data on
44:34
the weather, seasonality, promotions, past business, It
44:39
can help me in terms of production planning, labor
44:42
planning, equipment maintenance planning and all those sorts of
44:46
things. But it's not going to replace
44:47
the human who has to actually execute it, right?
44:50
So take them if you can, get rid of the little things and let
44:54
people think about the bigger stuff.
44:55
I think that's that's a big problem.
44:58
Danny, as you think about the growth that Synergy has had over
45:01
the years, what have been some of the biggest growth levers for
45:05
you? You know, I'm bringing on a team
45:10
of great people so that we can extend our services has probably
45:14
been the biggest one. And you know, it's funny you
45:17
mentioned AI, we're just now becoming, we've been thinking
45:22
about and getting now more engaged in a in a process.
45:25
You know, every few years I like to do what we call shake the
45:28
tree, right? What, what can we do
45:31
differently? What are we doing today?
45:33
Why are we doing it? And we do this with our clients.
45:36
So if you say to a client, well, why do you do this?
45:38
And the, the standard answer often times is, well, because
45:42
that's just the way we've always done it, right?
45:44
So I'd like to, I'd like for us to get out of, well, that's just
45:46
the way we've always done that money since.
45:48
So we're actually going through the process now of shaping the
45:52
tree to say, what can we do better?
45:55
How can we change our business model?
45:58
You know, AI could potentially affect consultancies.
46:01
You know, you can, you could theoretically use ChatGPT to
46:05
write a menu for you, to write a training document, to do all
46:10
kinds of things. But I do believe that there
46:14
still is a human element that needs to interpret that in our
46:18
experience. Bottom line is I think we want
46:22
to take AI to help us service our clients better and use it as
46:27
a tool to help them be better, not replace us, right?
46:31
Because you know, it's hard to replace hand on hands on
46:35
experience as much as some people may think they tend by
46:39
using ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or whatever it is, it
46:43
gives experience really outweighs a lot of that.
46:49
And so that's, I think transformation of where we're
46:52
trying to get to is how can we, how can we evolve or continue to
46:57
evolve our business to, to keep up with our clients and help
47:01
them knowing that, you know, AI is out there and it's, it's, you
47:07
know, there were concerns that it's going to replace jobs.
47:09
Unfortunately don't think it will.
47:11
And I think it will be a good asset and it will help us to
47:14
grow. We had synergy, Anthony, real
47:16
quickly. We've been through, you know, in
47:18
35 years, we've been through 911, which was a business
47:21
crossword for everybody. We went through the real estate
47:25
bust of 2008, 2009. We've been through COVID and
47:30
we've always figured out a way to survive, you know, through
47:33
Tenacity, but constantly involved in our business and
47:37
figuring out ways to help our clients get better.
47:39
So I think it's an ongoing process and as soon as you stop
47:43
and get run over by somebody else, right, So and it sounds.
47:46
Like the newest inflection point, if you will, is the dawn
47:50
of AI. How is this going to impact the
47:53
business? How can you guys not be scared
47:56
of it replacing you, but leverage it in a way that makes
48:00
the services that you offer your clients even better?
48:03
Exactly, Yeah. And I, I know I, I, you know, it
48:06
may not be the right phrase exactly.
48:08
But from our perspective in at Synergy is how can we beat AI?
48:13
You know, if, how can we get it to where, you know, AI doesn't
48:17
overtake our business. So we have to beat it.
48:19
And the way to beat it is to use it as an aid to continue to help
48:23
clients get that right. And that's, that's certainly, I
48:26
think we'll, we're going to currently or recommend, you
48:30
know, AI platforms that are going to help our client, as I
48:34
said before, whether that's sales projections, production
48:36
projections, you know, voice activated drive through, you
48:41
know, there's a lot of things going on.
48:44
How can we help our clients understand it and embrace it and
48:48
not be so scared of it, which is something we as consultants with
48:52
all these years of experience, can also help with?
48:54
It can be pretty intimidating, right?
48:56
You know, until you really get comfortable, you know, I think
48:57
you. Just hit on something there.
48:59
I had an interview earlier this week with a gentleman who's the
49:02
CEO of a bread and breakfast, breakfast and innkeepers
49:09
association. So they've got lots of members
49:11
who own like these, you know, independent bed and breakfast.
49:14
And one of the things that they're doing is understanding
49:17
that their clients don't have the time or the resources or the
49:21
wherewithal to go and understand and, and research and choose
49:26
from all these different tech platforms out there, including
49:29
AI. And So what they're doing is
49:32
part of their services. They're betting that for them
49:34
and then coming forward and recommending the solution.
49:37
I see you nodding your head like, Oh yeah, that's that's
49:39
what we're doing. Yeah.
49:40
And. Then interestingly, I was just
49:42
on a podcast, I was a host with another company and that's
49:47
exactly what their business is. So if you're, if you're a
49:50
business that is struggling with systems process and, and you're
49:56
kind of like stuck, right, they, they help create by using AI
50:02
customized systems for their clients to enhance their
50:07
productivity, their, their procedures, their processes and
50:11
all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, so they're basically
50:14
an aid to people that either don't have the time understand
50:18
or the internal ability to, you know, to get themselves
50:21
organized. You know, like I said, you know,
50:24
the other big thing about synergy is, you know, or let me
50:27
just say this first. It's really good to easy to go
50:30
in and tell somebody what they're doing wrong, right?
50:33
I mean, you can come in and you could probably study Synergy and
50:36
do us 50 things that we could do better or do that we're doing
50:39
wrong. The bigger question is that's
50:41
great, but tell me how to fix it, right?
50:44
And one of the things that we're really good at is, you know,
50:47
understanding where the opportunity lives, but giving
50:51
people the strategy, their recommendations to make the
50:55
improvements, right? That's, that's the bigger part.
50:58
It's easy to find the problem, but I'm here is the solution,
51:01
right? That's all anybody cares about,
51:03
right? So Amen.
51:06
So tell us about your own podcast, the Restaurant Road Map
51:09
Podcast. What inspired you to start this?
51:11
What kind of content do folks get?
51:14
Yeah. So we have, as I said, we have a
51:16
great team of consultants and and each of them has a very
51:20
specific expertise. So we created the restaurant
51:23
road map that obviously is exposure to our business.
51:27
But you know, we don't sell, we do our podcast, we like to
51:32
inform. And so we've done podcasts about
51:35
the first ones we did. You know, the Lace fan to any
51:39
successful business starts with leadership.
51:41
And when we do operations work and we do a lot of restaurant
51:44
work, a lot of the challenges that we face is that leaders
51:49
haven't had the right training or they need help improving the
51:53
way they operate, which then improves the way the restaurant
51:56
operates, the team operates, reinforcing the brand, the
52:00
culture, systems, you know, whatever that is.
52:02
So we started with leadership and then we moved into
52:06
operations, front of house, back of house, and they're designed
52:10
for learning and helping people. You know, as I said earlier by
52:16
Anthony, if I could be a teacher, I would have been a
52:18
teacher, except I couldn't, I couldn't make enough money to do
52:21
it. So the podcast give us to give
52:23
us an opportunity to teach and coach and ultimately the goal
52:28
when needed. You know, someone's going to
52:30
say, yeah, I really like what they what they said.
52:33
I really let's give them a call. We'll see if they can help us
52:35
with whatever the topic is that we're doing.
52:38
You know, so, so we we're doing now a six part series, which
52:44
we're calling the employee life cycle.
52:46
You know, turnover is a very expensive proposition.
52:49
It hurts you in a lot in different ways.
52:52
It's what we're doing, a six part series, you know, the
52:56
employee life cycle from recruiting through the exit
53:00
interview to try to help people understand and give them some
53:04
ideas. And if I don't improve that so
53:07
that they can reduce their turnover, hire the right people,
53:11
which is really critical because you know, you, you hire the
53:14
wrong person, you get a bad experience for everybody.
53:17
And if you leave, if somebody decides to leave a really great
53:22
exit interview to understand why and hopefully they're going to
53:26
leave you, you know, on the good terms and you've been able to
53:29
help them throughout their to their next step in their life
53:33
career and you feel good about helping somebody.
53:36
So that's a pretty, we're in, we're in production on that one
53:39
now and we're going to be rolling that out in the next
53:42
couple of weeks. So this episode is live.
53:46
It'll probably be there for folks.
53:47
Where can they find it? The restaurant, road map,
53:51
YouTube, Apple, Spotify, pretty much any place where you can
53:56
check out and listen to to heart attacks, you can find it so
54:01
terrific. It's a good.
54:03
It's a good show, yeah. Shifting gears, Danny, in my
54:07
experience, behind most success stories, there's usually a
54:11
chapter that almost broke somebody.
54:13
Can you share a serious challenge that you've gone
54:16
through? Personal professional, how you
54:19
got through that and what you learned from it?
54:21
Yeah. You know, about 3 years ago, I
54:26
was diagnosed with some with some cancer in my mouth, right?
54:30
And you know, when your restaurant, when your restaurant
54:32
visits and you're eating, you eat for a living basically,
54:35
right? And it obviously presented some
54:36
serious challenges. So I had some pretty significant
54:40
surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and stuff like that.
54:47
And, you know, I, I have to thank my wife for being
54:50
supportive, tremendous and supportive and helping me get
54:53
through all of that. But you know, you go through a
54:57
period of time where you're, you're not contributing.
55:00
You know, we're all, we're all entrepreneurs, all the people
55:04
that work with us. So, you know, you feel a lot of
55:06
guilt when you're not contributing.
55:09
And you know, I contributed as best as I could.
55:12
You know, it's always, I tell a lot of people, you know, when I
55:15
was going through chemotherapy, as I was sitting in the, in the,
55:18
in the infusion center, you know, with a needle in my arm, I
55:21
was doing Zoom calls with clients, 'cause I just refused
55:24
to not do anything to contribute to the business, right?
55:28
And there was never a doubt in my mind that there was gonna be,
55:33
there was not gonna be a cure, that I was not gonna be better.
55:36
And with that mindset, my wife's support, friends, family, team
55:41
members, you know, I got through it and here I am, you know,
55:46
still well, still vertical, right.
55:48
So it's all, it all worked out really well.
55:50
It's a completely cured and back in the saddle when we went
55:54
along. But it was, it was a test of
55:57
perseverance, patients not giving up, which I think in in
56:02
any business, as I'm sure you know, need all of that to remain
56:06
successful and keep evolving. So there are a lot of lessons to
56:09
be learned there and a tremendous amount of support.
56:12
As you were going through the treatments, Danny was there and,
56:16
and you were struggling to find ways to contribute and to be
56:19
involved. I'm curious if there was a, any
56:22
sense of a, a loss of identity, like a loss of self because I'm,
56:27
I'm the restaurant guy. This is what I do.
56:29
I love what I'm doing and and now I'm not able to do it as
56:32
much. Yeah.
56:35
You know, there's some concerns about some of the different
56:37
services that we offer. If I could still do them.
56:41
I do, you know, it's a little, it's, it's more challenging,
56:44
obviously. And, you know, again, having
56:47
team members that kind of, you know, work with you, covering
56:50
for you, help you, you know, when you're when you're doing a
56:54
discovery tour with clients, you know, when we do a discovery
56:57
tour, we may go to 12 or 13 restaurants in a day and sample
57:02
food, look at the core, listen to the music, what's the service
57:05
where what's the value as part of the and learning.
57:09
And then we shake all that into a bucket.
57:11
And that helps us get to, you know, what does this client want
57:15
to have as far as a new concept goes?
57:17
So, you know, obviously being able to eat a lot of food is a
57:21
bit of a challenge, right? But I figured out how to get
57:25
around it. And, you know, I think a lot of
57:27
it, Anthony, is just really the mental attitude instead of
57:31
saying, I don't think I can do that.
57:34
The attitude is this is not going to beat me.
57:37
I am going to do it and I don't care what it takes and I'm not
57:41
going to give up. You know, there are sometimes
57:43
when it was it, it was frustrating and and depressing
57:49
and you know, there are one or two people, you know, it's not
57:52
something that I talked about a lot because I put stuff in the
57:55
past and I don't really want to deal with it.
57:57
I'm through it, right? But I've, I've been on a few
58:00
calls with some other people that have had similar
58:02
experiences and try to help, you know, mentor and just so they
58:07
can understand how it's going to work, what the outcome is going
58:10
to be, what they're going to go through, you know, and that
58:13
again, being able to get back and help other people in this
58:16
scenario. Based on my experience, I think
58:18
this has been pretty therapeutic as well.
58:21
So what is some? Of that advice that you offer to
58:24
them, maybe you can offer to our listeners if they're going
58:27
through, about to go through, maybe in the future would go
58:30
through something similar, similar health scare.
58:35
Number one, having no doubt in your mind that you're that
58:40
you're going to be whatever the, whatever the scenario is.
58:43
Number 2, having a strong support network to help you get
58:47
through #3 staying absolutely positive through all of it in
58:54
spite of, you know, you're going to have down days.
58:56
You know, when I was going through chemotherapy on a
58:59
Wednesday or a Thursday, I can barely do not, but I knew that I
59:02
would in the next couple of days.
59:03
And just keep driving yourself to keep moving forward and never
59:07
losing sight of the fact that you are going to get better.
59:11
Never doubt for a second that you're not going to get better.
59:14
It's just a matter of when, right?
59:16
And I think that mental attitude is really what kind of got me
59:22
through it. I'd never once entered my mind
59:25
and I was knocking me back doing what I'm doing.
59:28
And it this thought never occurred to me.
59:30
It was just this was a blip from a little bump in the road.
59:34
And you know, we just need to keep moving forward.
59:37
That's the only alternative. Do you think that confidence in
59:44
overcoming it is that, is that strength something that was
59:47
always there or do you think it bubbled to the surface because
59:52
of this health issue? You know, I think in my career
59:58
and in my life, you know, I've always been, you know, I'm
1:00:01
pretty introverted #1 you know, to some degree I've had a degree
1:00:06
of a lack of self-confidence. So that lack of self-confidence,
1:00:10
I always view it as being more of an attribute necessarily than
1:00:14
than necessarily a testament where it made me work harder,
1:00:17
right? And I think that that.
1:00:21
I don't know if that's an attribute or not, but let's use
1:00:23
it. That mindset is what sort of
1:00:28
forced me to just keep moving forward from all of the
1:00:31
experiences I've had before. You know, when, when Dean and I
1:00:35
experienced 9/11, we experienced the housing crisis.
1:00:39
It was never a question of are we going to survive?
1:00:43
That's all. It never ended around mine.
1:00:45
The question was, how are we going to, how are we going to do
1:00:48
this? How are we going to manipulate
1:00:50
or how are we going to change our business model?
1:00:52
What are we going to do to get through this into the next, the
1:00:56
next, you know, economy boom versus going out of business
1:01:02
when there's a bus? You know, we've been doing this
1:01:05
for 35 years. So we've done something right,
1:01:08
right. And we've been tenacious.
1:01:10
And I think this tenacity in general helps you do
1:01:13
professionally and personally, you know, with your team, you
1:01:17
know, if you, you know, I've always lived by the, the fact
1:01:21
that, you know, if I'm not tenacious with making our team
1:01:24
better through training, coaching and mentoring, I
1:01:28
haven't done my job right. I absolutely despise the thought
1:01:32
of having to terminate someone. And I never terminate somebody
1:01:36
unless I've absolutely convinced myself that I've done everything
1:01:39
that I can do to set that person up for success.
1:01:42
And so again, that whole tenacity of just willing
1:01:45
yourself to be successful in what you do, working hard, take
1:01:49
your responsibility for your actions, and hoping everybody
1:01:53
else, I think is the key to almost everything which you're
1:01:56
going to deal with, right? What's your superpower, Danny?
1:02:00
My. Superpower.
1:02:02
My superpower. I know I have two right?
1:02:04
My parents are 1, and I believe I read somewhere long, long time
1:02:11
ago that most successful people believe in heroes.
1:02:14
Maybe you want to call them heroes, mentors, you know,
1:02:17
whatever. So, you know, on the way out of
1:02:20
my office, there's a picture of my mom and dad celebrating your
1:02:23
50th landing anniversary. And I had a look at that as I
1:02:26
walk out the door. That's part of my inspiration.
1:02:28
Right behind you, me, you'll see Yankee Doodle Dandy with James
1:02:34
Cagney. I don't know how many people
1:02:36
know who James Cagney is, right, 'cause they're not, you know, as
1:02:39
old as I am. But he's AI had a buddy at the
1:02:43
culinary and, and he and I, he was a big James Cagney fan.
1:02:47
He kind of turned me on to James Cagney.
1:02:49
And that was a way that I used to be able to bomb with my dad
1:02:52
because my dad used to go see him in the movies in the 30s
1:02:56
when he was a kid. I watched him on, on TV.
1:02:59
So he gave us an opportunity to bomb.
1:03:02
So as I learned more and more about him, you know, just the
1:03:06
way he lived his life, the way he helped people, you know, he
1:03:10
was obviously successful. He didn't got Hollywood to get
1:03:13
to him, you know, like a lot of other actors have over the
1:03:16
years. He did his job and went home to
1:03:18
his family, and that was it. So that always meant a lot to
1:03:21
me. Hence, that's actually an
1:03:25
original marquee movie poster from Yankee Devil Man in 1942.
1:03:29
I've had that for 30 years. I've been changing a lot of
1:03:32
some. So yeah, James Cagney has always
1:03:35
been a hero. My parents, as far as coaching
1:03:39
and mentors, they taught me and they gave me a conscience.
1:03:42
And I think if you'd have a strong conscience, you can do a
1:03:45
lot of them as well. Those are my super powers.
1:03:50
Love it. Danny, I've just got one more
1:03:52
question for you today. But before I ask, and I want to
1:03:55
do 3 quick things. First of all, anybody who wants
1:03:58
to get in touch with our guests, go to the website
1:04:01
synergyconsultants.com or you can e-mail Danny directly at
1:04:05
dannywithay@synergyconsultants.com, danny@synergyconsultants.com.
1:04:10
That'll be in the show notes for folks if you missed it.
1:04:12
And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to
1:04:15
subscribe wherever you're listening.
1:04:18
It sends a signal that helps others discover our show.
1:04:21
So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
1:04:24
And as a reminder, you could be the hero advisor that helps
1:04:28
clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors
1:04:32
and prescription meds while paradoxically increasing their
1:04:36
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1:04:40
Learn more today at AD back benefits.com.
1:04:43
So last question for you, Danny. A year from now, what is 1 very
1:04:46
specific thing that you hope to be celebrated, you know?
1:04:51
I think a year from now, obviously I have, as I told you
1:04:56
before the show, I just recently had another granddaughter going
1:04:59
this week. So spending more time with her
1:05:02
and the rest of them. I have a fifth one coming in
1:05:06
May. So, you know, and the way to do
1:05:09
that, I think is to we're in the process of developing A
1:05:14
succession plan where, you know, Dean and I, we've been doing
1:05:17
this for a lot of years. You know, we're not the young
1:05:19
bucks we used to be, right? So we're, we're, we want to
1:05:21
figure out how we keep synergy going and keep our team, which
1:05:27
is really a great team, but people will see them on our
1:05:30
website, keep them going, continue to coach and mentor,
1:05:36
you know, Dean and I think eventually become the console
1:05:40
areas of the brand, not necessarily the door, so that
1:05:43
they can continue to keep the, the plan moving forward and it's
1:05:48
sustainable for them for the next 15 or 20 years.
1:05:51
So, you know, I hope in a year from now we've gotten more and
1:05:54
more engaged with them, taking over more of our business than
1:06:00
they are now and just letting everybody evolve in their life.
1:06:05
And then they're in, in the synergy business to the, you
1:06:08
know, so that everybody can be successful.
1:06:10
And then Dean and I, that's how we, I, I would like for us to
1:06:13
think that we gave back to the industry news about, you know,
1:06:16
having synergy carried on. We do a lot of great work.
1:06:19
We help a lot of people and that, that, that, that feels
1:06:22
good. I mean, at the end of the day,
1:06:26
Danny. Bendis from Synergy Restaurant
1:06:27
Consultant, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing
1:06:30
with your time and your story with us today.
1:06:32
I really appreciate you being here.
1:06:34
It's been great having me. Thank you so much folks.
1:06:37
That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:06:41
Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
1:06:45
that into action today. Yeah.