Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Amy Hom on Team Member Development and Vibe at Barcelona Wine Bar

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Amy Hom on Team Member Development and Vibe at Barcelona Wine Bar · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and
• 0:17
  today's guest is Amy Ham. She is the chief operating
• 0:21
  officer at Barcelona Wine Bar. They are a warm and welcoming
• 0:25
  tapas bar inspired by the culture of Spain.
• 0:29
  Their ever changing menu focuses on clean flavors, seasonal
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  ingredients and rustic small plate presentations.
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  It also offers one of the largest Spanish wine programs in
• 0:40
  the US, featuring award-winning selections from Spain and South
• 0:44
  America. Amy has over 30 years of
• 0:48
  leadership experience in the restaurant and retail
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  industries. She is known for her expertise
• 0:53
  in PNL management, event planning, and strategic growth.
• 0:57
  Before joining Barcelona Wine Bar, Amy held executive roles at
• 1:01
  notable brands such as Bluestone, Lane Reef, and
• 1:05
  Sweetgreen. She has been recognized in Miami
• 1:08
  Tech Leaders, named one of the 30 Top Women in Food and Tech by
• 1:12
  Lunchbox, and honored with a Top 25 Executive Award from Fast
• 1:17
  Casual. Her passion for inspiring teams
• 1:21
  and delivering top notch dining experiences has driven her
• 1:24
  success across the hospitality sector.
• 1:27
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:30
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• 1:33
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• 2:00
  All right, back to our guest today, the CEO of Barcelona Wine
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  Bar. Amy, appreciate you making the
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  time to Share your story today. Anthony, thanks for having me.
• 2:07
  It's a pleasure. OK, Amy, so before we talk about
• 2:10
  Barcelona Wine Bar, I want to hear about some of your previous
• 2:13
  roles. I mean, you've held leadership
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  roles at a number of notable restaurant brands like Sweet
• 2:20
  Green, Wolfgang Pucks, California Pizza Kitchen.
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  What first drew you into the hospitality industry?
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  The fact that you can turn around somebody's day just by
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  interacting with them in a restaurant and deliver that
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  hospitality. So I go to a party every day.
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  I truly believe that. And you get to throw the party
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  for people and hopefully if they've had a bad day, you're
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  giving them a smile they didn't walk in with and you're
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  impacting their journey. And so it's cool that you can
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  have that impact on somebody in that public forum.
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  I go to a party every day. I go to a party every day.
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  Party is my job, party is my job.
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  And everybody on the team that gets to throw the party, they
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  know that they get that opportunity to turn somebody's
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  day upside down in a good way, not in a bad way.
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  You're turning the frowns upside.
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  Down the other way around, yes, as they say, McDonald's on the
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  boards they used to put, I used to work at McDonald's, they used
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  to say if you see somebody without a smile, give them one
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  of yours 'cause they're free. And I, I think that was one of
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  the first things that kind of impacted me along the way.
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  It was pretty cool. I love that.
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  And So what was your first job in the restaurant space?
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  I worked daytime McDonald's and nighttime Burger King, so I
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  would run across the street in Saint Louis, from being a crew
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  leader in McDonald's in the bottom of a hospital in North
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  Saint Louis to across the street to running the drive through a
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  Burger King when I was very, very young.
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  And I loved every minute of it. I mean, time flies by or with
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  friends that you had to hang out with.
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  You get to interact with the public and make their day, like
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  I said prior, so you know, you're you're hanging out and,
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  and it's super fun work. It really is.
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  Has it changed over the years? Sure, there's challenges, but
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  that just that just makes it more interesting on how you can
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  come out on top compared to some of the others.
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  When did you sleep? Night time across the street.
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  You, you just listen, I've slept in hospital hallways when you
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  got to get ready for your 5:00 AM shift to make those hash
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  Browns, but you do what you got to do.
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  And I, I honestly never thought about sleep.
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  I just really enjoyed the work. And I will tell you this,
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  Anthony, one of the reasons why is because I work for really
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  cool people. Like I, I remember my GM at
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  McDonald's and the GM at Burger King.
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  And I used to just follow around and tell me more and, and impact
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  more. And then I moved into full
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  service at Houlihan's way back when Gilbertson Robinson,
• 4:41
  Gilbert Robinson was around and was there four years.
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  And I said, OK, you know, show me the details.
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  There's a light bulb out, there's dust on the on the ledge
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  there. And so I'd followed the GM
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  around and ended up doing the books back when there wasn't
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  really computer doom and you had to fill out those big long
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  ledgers of every invoice and produce that comes in.
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  So, you know, I just, I learned all those skill sets and I just,
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  I'm a learner. So I just would suck in anything
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  I possibly could. And once I could teach it back,
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  I'd move on to something else so I could become more
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  well-rounded. Still learning, still learning.
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  And I'm getting the sense from you that you know how to squeeze
• 5:15
  every minute out of every day, folks.
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  Amy is doing this interview from an airport lounge as she.
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  Is you're telling my secrets nobody can tell?
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  Looks like a cool lounge, right? Yeah, it's, it's a beautiful
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  background. Looks like you're in an office
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  environment. I wouldn't have known if you
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  hadn't told me. The office of the airport.
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  Yeah. And you mentioned that it's
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  like, hey, if things change, sure they have.
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  What's the biggest change that you've seen?
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  I think there's been a lot of changes.
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  I don't think there's a biggest one.
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  I think the way that teams react now, how you have to lead
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  differently, you know, I would say 20 years ago you could lead
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  with a lot more IQ. Now it's a lot more EQ and
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  empathy. You know, what's going on with
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  that person's day heart checks. How are they feeling?
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  Can we deliver the news? Do we need to wait?
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  If it's something tough, feeling the room out and making sure
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  that they're ready for things before you just kind of bulldoze
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  over them. I, it's, it's all those things
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  and having that trust and transparency with the team that
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  you're leading is important. You don't always win.
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  You don't always win. There's times where I've
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  definitely dropped the ball or failed at that.
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  But every time I do, I do a lot of, you know, introspective of
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  what, what could I have done differently?
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  How does this not happen again? And it still won't be perfect.
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  I'm aware of that. But you, you try to do, you try
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  to do right by the teams you lead.
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  It's the people business. Can you share an example of a
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  time where you quote UN quote failed and learned something
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  that really propelled you going forward?
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  Sure. I think having thinking
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  somebody's farther along in their development than they are
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  and possibly over promoting them, they'll say they're ready
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  and then they get into that position and you're like, shoot,
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  I shouldn't have done that. They're not ready.
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  It might have been a harder road to do, but it didn't set them up
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  for success as much as I really wanted that.
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  But how do you make sure they're really prepared?
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  So now current status, are they really prepared?
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  Do they really understand the work?
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  Do the work first before you actually promote them kind of
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  old school rather than they really, really wanted this
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  generation. If I want everything now is not
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  the solve. And so how do you kind of do
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  development planning with them? Let them understand where
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  they're at. That reticle candor book is is
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  great. But you know, I was reading an
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  article over the weekend of when do you really give that tough
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  feedback? And there are some people I've
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  some people on my current team, they can take feedback.
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  I was just talking about this with, with a great director that
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  we have on the team. And it's not somebody can't
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  always take it and people do have their that capacity.
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  And so you got to recognize that.
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  So now I'm a little bit more keen of are they capacity or can
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  they take it? And if they can't take it, they
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  can keep growing. And there are some people that
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  are they're doing great in the role they're in and, and that's
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  OK too. Rather than me wanting it.
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  I remember somebody told me once it was leading me.
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  I think you want it more than they do.
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  And I think at times I have rather than waking up and
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  smelling the coffee and saying they're not going to make it
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  there. So let's not hurt the company,
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  let's not hurt them because it doesn't end up well for that
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  that person that you set up for failure.
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  So very conscious of those learnings.
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  You've mentioned sort of this transition from IQ to EQ.
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  When did you first sort of get the sense that this transition
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  was taking place? I think COVID definitely, I
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  hate, I hate bringing up COVID, but it's a thing.
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  And I think that generation of working from home, getting those
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  checks, then they come back into the workforce cause the checks
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  stop happening and they're not used to being in the workforce.
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  I have, I have kids that were going through that and so
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  watching them and then leaning into the staff and saying, OK,
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  we need to make sure we're leading with heart more than
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  ever now. And doing those check insurance
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  is, is much more important than than doing the PNL.
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  You can get a really strong PNL result if you've got that all
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  set up first. But you know, it's, it's you you
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  got, I mean, it's people, you know, they, the mental state
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  really matters these days where, you know, probably the way you
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  and I grew up, Anthony, and, and years and years ago was you were
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  workhorses, you know, to prove yourself and to get promoted,
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  you had to put the extra hours in an extra not sleep.
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  And, and that just doesn't happen anymore.
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  And now it's really, how do you develop your team into the next
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  level and give them every single tool you possibly can to make
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  them successful? And then it's on them.
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  They can't, they can't give you as an excuse.
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  You have to help, help drive that.
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  So the development is on them and then they need to drive
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  their own bus, but it's also on you to make sure you're
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  supporting where they want to go.
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  I have to imagine that this was a difficult transition as a
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  leader for you to make from one style to another.
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  What helped you make that transition and kind of level up?
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  I think all the mentors I have, I mean, I've got a slew of the
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  tribe behind me that has helped. I've worked for extraordinary
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  leaders and they've always leaned in to me and helped me
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  along the way. So there's not A and but I, but
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  I invest in the time and I'll call them and I'll make time for
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  them. I think some people think it's
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  just going to happen for them and it's not.
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  You do have to put the time in. But there wasn't a moment
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  definitely when when sweeping, we had COVID.
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  It was a lot of heart checks and how's the team feeling?
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  And we need to roll out with hazmats today.
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  And then the next day was OK. There's 10 more laws we have to
• 10:33
  implement today to open for service.
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  Nobody can come inside and you all have to, you know, stay 10
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  feet away and all these things. You can't get any of that done.
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  And we were still doing new restaurant openings at the time.
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  So I get a bit four or five. Make sure you're checking on the
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  East Coast. I was living on the West Coast
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  at the time. And then dig into the West Coast
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  team. But it's it's really is about
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  people, people leadership. So I don't think there was a
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  moment. I think, I think even when I was
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  at Houlihan's, you're still in the people business.
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  Whether you're kicking off a pre shift and you're motivating and
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  inspiring them and giving goal setting in those pre shifts to
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  where we are today, which is when you walk into a restaurant,
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  you got to say hi and bye to everybody.
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  When you walk in the door and when you leave.
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  I mean people, people want to know who you are.
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  I want to know who they are. And you got to know something
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  about everybody that you kind of come across.
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  How's your cat? What's going on with the dogs?
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  You know, how's, how are the kids doing?
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  It's, it's important. And I think that's in any
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  industry. I don't think it's just the
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  hospitality industry. Agreed.
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  Yeah, we're. Going to get to Barcelona here
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  in a second, but can you maybe pick one of your career stops
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  along the way that was most formidable for you and why?
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  Gosh, there's so many, Anthony, OK.
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  So let's take away the word most.
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  I'll give you a I'll give you a funny one that turned out to be
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  a positive for me rather than it may sound negative is I was
• 11:58
  working for an organization and it was the only time a lot of
• 12:02
  people say, oh, they don't promote women.
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  This whole card thing and, and I, and I, I see some of that
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  right? And I try to make sure I'm an
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  advocate for that for women in the, in the, in leadership and
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  making sure they have their voice, not they get promoted
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  because they're female, but because they're are prepared.
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  They know what they're doing, but I had a a person tell me,
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  well, we're not going to promote you because we don't promote
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  females and I, I, they. Said that those words came out
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  of their mouth. It wasn't like being added.
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  Or the energy in the room. That's what they actually said,
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  yeah. And so I looked at them and I
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  did not have a job lined up at the time, but I said I actually
• 12:35
  have to give you my two weeks right now.
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  And, and they were kind of thinking I wouldn't do that or
• 12:41
  that was such a surprise. And they're like, well, why are
• 12:43
  you doing that? And I said, well, I, this is my
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  career and I need people that are going to help develop me no
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  matter my gender. Now, mind you, this is 20 years
• 12:51
  ago when you could probably get away with some of that.
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  And I'm better for it because I walked away and I, I saw that
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  gentleman years later, I was going to do an inspection on his
• 13:02
  restaurant at another concept. And, and I sat down with him and
• 13:06
  I just said, listen, like that was a much younger version of
• 13:10
  me, man. What an opportunity you had for,
• 13:15
  for, for the industry and to bring other people along.
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  And so we kind of had that conversation.
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  I think it was like 15 years later, but it was a moment for
• 13:24
  me because I found my voice. And, you know, I see some people
• 13:29
  kind of back down to stuff like that, but the world is big.
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  There's a lot of opportunities out there with really cool and
• 13:36
  great people. And so that was kind of a little
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  bit of one of the pivotal moments for me that was that was
• 13:42
  I was young and and then, you know, I went in and I'd taken
• 13:47
  over a restaurant, my very first manager job and all the
• 13:51
  employees on the back of the house line had been fired for, I
• 13:55
  don't know, I'm not even exaggerating.
• 13:57
  This is back in the day where you'd get rehired five to seven
• 13:59
  times in a concept because they couldn't find people.
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  And I fired the whole line. I didn't know any different.
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  I just knew that what was going on in that restaurant was wrong.
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  And the guy, my senior GM who had trained me showed up and
• 14:11
  said, did you just fire everybody on the cook line?
• 14:14
  No, I would not do that. I don't recommend that now.
• 14:16
  And I said I did. But like, no one's making any
• 14:18
  money at this location. Have you seen the P and LS?
• 14:21
  And and he said, OK, so the next day we got on the line, we
• 14:25
  cooked out the food, we pushed it out and the next day I, I was
• 14:28
  clopening. For those that don't know, it's
• 14:29
  a close and open and I'm thinking, I'm going in and I
• 14:33
  said I'm going to get fired today.
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  And instead he took me with him and he's like, she's a little
• 14:37
  Spitfire. I'm going to take her with me.
• 14:40
  And that that those people ended up losing their jobs because
• 14:43
  this location had been running into the ground.
• 14:46
  Now, I didn't know that. I just knew that what was
• 14:48
  happening was wrong and these servers were not making, you
• 14:52
  know, what they needed to for their livelihood.
• 14:53
  So again, right and the wrong way to go about things, but
• 14:57
  there's a lot of those moments in my career where I just look
• 14:59
  back and I laugh because I'm like, there's no way I would do
• 15:02
  that. Now, you need to make sure you
• 15:03
  have strategy in place and who's going to staff the restaurant.
• 15:06
  But when you are with a larger, a large or a larger
• 15:09
  organization, you can pull me from other locations and you
• 15:13
  can't keep anybody in a hostage kind of situation.
• 15:16
  So it's been a fun ride. So I want to go back to this.
• 15:20
  I don't know how else to describe him, this sexist guy
• 15:23
  that said, hey, we don't promote women here.
• 15:26
  And you're like, well, I'm going to give my two weeks.
• 15:28
  I'm assuming you didn't have anything else lined up.
• 15:30
  No, just. Jumping, OK.
• 15:32
  And then you had this conversation with him 15 years
• 15:35
  later, you know, like, hey, you know, kind of you missed out
• 15:38
  sort of a thing. What was his reaction?
• 15:39
  What what what was his comment there 15 years later?
• 15:42
  Had he grown at all? We were, we never, I had not no
• 15:47
  idea he was at this organization that I had eventually joined and
• 15:52
  he resigned after I had that conversation with him and I was
• 15:55
  in his restaurant. So I'm not sure, I'm not sure if
• 15:58
  he ever figured it out or didn't.
• 16:00
  But I also have to say, you know, it's not my, that's kind
• 16:04
  of not as people say, not your, and that's not, that's not my
• 16:08
  luggage to carry. And so I am, I'm very aware that
• 16:12
  that does happen to women. I've not had it a whole lot.
• 16:15
  I, I do think the CEO positions are different now for, for some
• 16:20
  of those women and versus men, but, but there's not, I don't, I
• 16:25
  don't allow that for the, I think the young women that we
• 16:28
  need to bring along need to understand the financials more
• 16:30
  just like men. It's not a, it's not an either
• 16:33
  or it's, it's an, and, and how do we do it together and how do
• 16:36
  we help each other out together and how are we conscious of
• 16:39
  making sure that it, that we're, you know, giving equal
• 16:42
  opportunity? And that was just, that was a
• 16:44
  little moment in my career. And I, I very rarely think about
• 16:47
  it. But when you were asking me and
• 16:50
  I was reading the questions, I was like, there are some little
• 16:52
  moments there that kind of got me to where I am.
• 16:54
  Because I think if you're resilient, you're a risk taker.
• 16:57
  Those things are those things you don't even think about it.
• 17:00
  You just naturally know that's wrong and you're not going to,
• 17:02
  you're not going to do it. And.
• 17:03
  It rolls off of you eventually, and you're not.
• 17:06
  It's not like it. You're holding on to it stuck in
• 17:08
  your. Craw it's.
• 17:10
  Just it, it taught you something and you, you kind of moved in
• 17:13
  another direction then. Yeah, and it didn't define me.
• 17:15
  And I didn't want to get promoted to an AGM at the that
• 17:18
  time because I was a female. I didn't even think anything of
• 17:21
  it till he'd said that. And I was like, oh, we're
• 17:22
  different. Like there's a thing here.
• 17:24
  And then I just kind of, I was like, OK, you think I'm
• 17:26
  different? I'm really not.
• 17:27
  So it's cool. I'm out.
• 17:29
  Time to move on. Yeah.
• 17:30
  Yeah. All right.
• 17:31
  So talking about moving in different directions, new
• 17:34
  opportunities, how did the opportunity to join Barcelona
• 17:37
  Wine Bar come about? The CEO who is awesome, Adam
• 17:41
  Halberg, he was reaching out to some peers in the industry and
• 17:46
  my name came up and we call. He got called and said we
• 17:50
  haven't been to one of your locations.
• 17:51
  So he said come check us out. And he and I ended up spending,
• 17:56
  you know, two days together. I think we hit like 6 locations
• 17:59
  across the country, planes, trains and automobiles.
• 18:03
  And you walked in and it really was a party.
• 18:05
  Like I was just like, holy cow, this is so cool.
• 18:09
  And I loved the opportunity to become a part of it.
• 18:12
  So we chatted for a while and, and got to know one another.
• 18:14
  And you know, now I consider them kind of family with the
• 18:17
  rest of the crew. So it's a, it's a great concept.
• 18:20
  We've got another concept under that umbrella under the
• 18:23
  restaurant group, which is Corsica.
• 18:24
  And we're opening our second one within 30 days.
• 18:27
  That's going to be in Reston, VA, First one's in Denver, Co
• 18:32
  and then we're moving out to Connecticut with a third one,
• 18:34
  but that's on. That's a sister restaurant to
• 18:36
  Barcelona, but doing incredible things.
• 18:38
  I get to work with amazing chefs.
• 18:39
  I eat yummy food everyday. I have to watch the waistline.
• 18:43
  We just won a couple more awards for our wine list.
• 18:45
  We have a 400 wines. Like it's just super fun.
• 18:48
  And what's really cool about Barcelona is the chefs can
• 18:50
  change up to 70% of the menu on their own.
• 18:54
  I mean, they get to taste and we make sure it comes in in line
• 18:57
  with Cogs, but it's a very sexy brand.
• 18:59
  So I'm just having a blast with everybody.
• 19:02
  So from one location to the next, the menu could be very
• 19:05
  different. It's very different.
• 19:07
  It is, yes. So say more about for somebody
• 19:10
  who hasn't had the pleasure of, you know, experiencing Barcelona
• 19:13
  wine bar, say more about that experience.
• 19:15
  I mean, you, you said, oh, this, this is a party when you walked
• 19:18
  in the door for the first time. What does that mean?
• 19:20
  Are there like streamers and like disco balls like?
• 19:24
  There could be, you just never know.
• 19:26
  I mean, there's a lot of peroning going on, which is the
• 19:28
  Spanish. You know, people are standing on
• 19:29
  the bar doing the for Rome, but it's up sale casual.
• 19:33
  The the team there has the autonomy to throw a party
• 19:37
  however they feel they can connect with that guest.
• 19:39
  It may just be somebody who's coming in by themselves and
• 19:43
  hanging out at the bar making a connection.
• 19:45
  Our goal is to make sure that the food and the wine supplement
• 19:48
  the experience. You're not coming in for the
• 19:50
  food and the wine, but you're coming in for the hospitality.
• 19:53
  And so it is literally taking a smile off you and giving it to
• 19:56
  one of the guests. It's been around.
• 19:59
  We'll be celebrating our 30 years next year.
• 20:02
  And it is, it is just a school secret that for those that don't
• 20:08
  know it, you haven't you haven't experienced it yet.
• 20:10
  And for those that want to come in, let me know.
• 20:12
  But there's there's just. Sometimes the music is loud and
• 20:16
  it is crazy and it is literally a party and sometimes the
• 20:20
  music's loud and people are just whining and dining.
• 20:22
  It's it's different and every location's got a very different
• 20:25
  personality. But at the end of the day, it's
• 20:27
  did you come in and and have a great hospital hospitable
• 20:30
  experience before you exited the building and we make you better
• 20:33
  for coming in. So I'm trying to like paint the
• 20:36
  picture in my head a little bit more, more of this party
• 20:39
  atmosphere. Like, is there a dance floor?
• 20:40
  Like, are people like, is it that kind of a party or just
• 20:43
  like people enjoying themselves, like being boisterous and just,
• 20:47
  you know, having a good time? In West Hartford, there's a DJ
• 20:51
  on the weekends, so they move the tables out and people.
• 20:55
  That restaurant's been there close to 30 years.
• 20:57
  So yes, in 14th St. in DC, you can't really hit the, you can't
• 21:02
  make it to the bar because it's standing room only.
• 21:04
  It's hilarious. Then you can go into some of the
• 21:06
  other quieter locations, but there's still is, there's still
• 21:09
  a little bit of a party and a positive vibe, but everyone is
• 21:12
  there having fun. Just different levels depending
• 21:15
  on what those guests want that night.
• 21:17
  The, the teams kind of trained in to feed into what they're
• 21:19
  feeling in the restaurant. So yeah, it is a party.
• 21:22
  It's not like DJ Club. It's just upscale casual with a
• 21:27
  really cool vibe and it's yeah, yeah, no judging.
• 21:32
  Have a glass of wine, hang out, have some sangria, have some
• 21:36
  Spanish tapas and, you know, just everybody's kind of talking
• 21:41
  to each other. And it was so funny.
• 21:42
  I was sitting with somebody the other day in one of the
• 21:44
  restaurants and they said, I haven't been in a restaurant
• 21:46
  like this in a really long time where every one of the tables
• 21:50
  doesn't have their phone on. They're talking to each other.
• 21:52
  And I said, yeah, that's the vibe.
• 21:53
  Like you want to be cool in there.
• 21:55
  So it's, it's and they've, they've kept it going for, you
• 21:58
  know, like I said, almost 30 years.
• 22:00
  It's pretty wild, so. I mean what you're describing,
• 22:03
  it sounds like you guys really have the customer experience
• 22:07
  dialed in to continue to grow and have the success that you
• 22:11
  have. That needs to be strong
• 22:14
  operational aspects to it. What is it that you guys are
• 22:16
  doing behind the scenes that's working so well?
• 22:19
  Well, I am very proud of people like Matt Trevari and Jacqueline
• 22:23
  Birch and Amber Day and that the folks I'm naming are the
• 22:26
  regional directors and we've got amazing GMs, Jed Orton and gosh,
• 22:33
  Adriana, I mean the list goes on.
• 22:36
  We have not a lot of the industry, we just ran data.
• 22:41
  The sector in the restaurant space is going is, is going up
• 22:44
  in turnover and there's a big gap between US and them now and
• 22:48
  we're going down quite a bit. And we are on the four month
• 22:52
  trend right now of not having AGM or a chef exit.
• 22:56
  It's, it's been pretty remarkable.
• 22:58
  And we're doing that through development planning and giving
• 23:03
  clarity on where people's careers live.
• 23:05
  We also take our chefs to Spain. They just actually got back from
• 23:09
  Madrid two weeks ago and we're doing our GM.
• 23:12
  They get to learn how to cook there.
• 23:13
  And we really wanted to be authentic tapas when they come
• 23:15
  back. And then we've got our GM
• 23:17
  retreat coming up very soon. But to have that is something I,
• 23:22
  I think the leadership really needs to be proud of because
• 23:24
  they worked really hard on that. Now we implemented development
• 23:27
  plans, think about a year ago and getting them to write SMART
• 23:31
  goals and sitting down with somebody and saying, Anthony,
• 23:33
  where do you want to go? You're here, where do you want
• 23:36
  to be? Is it, is it, is it not work?
• 23:38
  Is it that you need to drink more water and work out every
• 23:41
  day and take care of yourself so you're a better version of
• 23:43
  yourself when you show up? Is it that you've got something
• 23:45
  going on at home and, or is it, do we need to teach you the PNL?
• 23:49
  So you're so confident when you get up to do your numbers that
• 23:52
  you understand the inputs of the party you're throwing, how it,
• 23:55
  how it mixes in the PNL and then how you can toss it out for some
• 23:58
  great results. So the, the teams that I, I
• 24:02
  just, I cannot rave about them enough.
• 24:04
  They've done a really good job of grasping that and getting now
• 24:07
  are we perfect? Absolutely not.
• 24:08
  Lots of things to do there, but it is good.
• 24:11
  Yeah. So I mean, that's critical,
• 24:14
  right? You've got your leadership in
• 24:15
  place, you want to keep them in place.
• 24:17
  That continuity really helps. What about when it comes to sort
• 24:22
  of more frontline, you talk about your servers, back of
• 24:26
  house like in the kitchen. What kind of things have you
• 24:29
  guys tried and found success with, both from a recruiting and
• 24:32
  a retention standpoint? We do heart checks.
• 24:35
  I've talked about that on a couple other podcasts where you
• 24:38
  know where you're at, I don't know, scale from 1:00 to 5:00.
• 24:39
  It's not so much about the number, but if somebody's a one
• 24:42
  or two or they just say, I'm not feeling great today, you kind of
• 24:45
  got to pause and start talking about the personal aspect of it.
• 24:49
  And then if they're in a great space, it's hey, well, what can
• 24:51
  we do about to do this drive this business forward or what do
• 24:54
  you want to learn and, and, and those kinds of things or what
• 24:57
  can we do better as a company and having those conversations.
• 25:00
  We do round tables in the upcoming quarter, I'm going to
• 25:05
  do around in every restaurant personally where I just sit with
• 25:08
  them and like what's working, what's not, what do we need to
• 25:10
  do better? And I think really just sitting
• 25:12
  with a listening ear is important.
• 25:15
  So I think it's, it's critical to hear them because what they
• 25:19
  need is not what I think they may need or what the board may
• 25:22
  think they that, that, that they may need.
• 25:25
  It's it's really like we need, we need better this or we need
• 25:30
  larger beverage stations. You know, it's all these things
• 25:33
  that I think make up the big picture.
• 25:35
  So we'll be doing a big round of that, but the regional directors
• 25:38
  and the OPS leadership team have been doing those round tables
• 25:41
  that I think are impactful. I was going to ask if it's
• 25:44
  challenging to like you sort of have this recognition that this
• 25:48
  level of communication needs to take place.
• 25:50
  Is it challenging to sort of distribute that to the places
• 25:54
  that it needs to go? But it sounds like, you know,
• 25:57
  you've already talked really highly of these regional
• 26:00
  directors and sounds like they've kind of got their finger
• 26:03
  on the pulse, too. Yeah, I, I think we, I think the
• 26:07
  industry may stretch directors or obsoleaders too far where
• 26:11
  they think more locations is better.
• 26:13
  It's kind of like when you have a server and they think their
• 26:14
  section, if they have 10 tables and make more tips, it's
• 26:17
  actually wrong. If you can give them a 5 or 6 or
• 26:20
  4 table, depending on their capabilities, they actually make
• 26:23
  more money because they're giving more time to those guests
• 26:26
  and they're, they're not rushing and they're making sure that
• 26:29
  guests, they're anticipating their needs.
• 26:31
  Same for directors, four or five, six locations, depending
• 26:36
  on their, their different skill sets, but also the where
• 26:39
  they're, where they live, right? Like how does that look on the
• 26:41
  landscape? So the directors, they got a,
• 26:44
  they got a pulse on them and they're very close to their
• 26:47
  teams. And listen, like I said, we're
• 26:49
  not perfect, but I do think they're doing a lot of things
• 26:51
  great. Now Amy, you hold a certificate
• 26:55
  of Finance from Harvard Business School online.
• 26:58
  How helpful was that in kind of influencing the way you approach
• 27:03
  decisions around PNL growth strategies and day-to-day
• 27:06
  operations there? The heart.
• 27:08
  So one of the things I will say is that if you can't teach
• 27:12
  something back, don't expect somebody to tell you, but go
• 27:16
  challenge yourself. And so during COVID, I decided I
• 27:20
  would take some Harvard Business classes and I took the Harvard
• 27:22
  Business of Finance one. And for anybody that's taken it,
• 27:26
  they know that a, it opens your world up to understand of
• 27:31
  connecting from people all over the world, which I thought was
• 27:33
  pretty wild and pretty cool. Secondly, it's giving you real
• 27:37
  life scenarios. They were pretty cool that you
• 27:40
  had to figure out and you're working with other people and
• 27:43
  you've got homework assignments and all these things.
• 27:45
  But my mentors would tell me that my, my finance was strong,
• 27:50
  my understanding of it. And then I was good.
• 27:53
  And then I took that course and I was like, OK, I'm not, I'm not
• 27:57
  as far as it, but as far off as I thought.
• 27:59
  And I think it gave me a little bit more confidence in what I
• 28:01
  did know. But I like a good challenge.
• 28:04
  And I was, you know, trying to, trying to do that certificate
• 28:08
  while I was in COVID. And my husband's just like you,
• 28:10
  you gotta 'cause I would come home and I'm like, we got to do
• 28:15
  homework. And he's like, no, no, no,
• 28:16
  there's no, we, you signed up for the course.
• 28:19
  You need to go figure it out. But I think it helped a lot
• 28:23
  because it helped. It helped with confidence.
• 28:27
  The people that I went to, you know, my brother-in-law was a
• 28:31
  CEO of GMO, which is like an international firm.
• 28:35
  And he was like, I've never even heard of half this stuff.
• 28:37
  And so I was like, OK, cool, I'm going to, I'm going to figure
• 28:40
  this out. So when I did, we had this big
• 28:42
  party online with everybody I knew 'cause I was like, we got
• 28:45
  it, we got it done, 'cause there's a community of people
• 28:47
  helping me. But it was, it was fun.
• 28:50
  I do think sometimes doing some skill set learning outside of
• 28:55
  the business is really, really healthy because you understand
• 29:00
  other businesses, not just the one you're in.
• 29:03
  And so and if you can't teach something back, don't put it on
• 29:06
  your leader. Put it on yourself and figure
• 29:08
  out how you're going to go take care of it and learn it and do
• 29:10
  it. So that would be my two sons
• 29:12
  the. The other people in this
• 29:14
  community that were also taking the course are probably in
• 29:16
  different industries, right? And so oh.
• 29:18
  All different industries it's. Like how they view something.
• 29:22
  All different industries, different cultures, different
• 29:24
  languages. It's pretty, it was, it's pretty
• 29:27
  cool that Harvard does that. But I, I loved every minute of
• 29:30
  it. And I'm going to sign up for
• 29:31
  another one soon. But it's, it's a, it's a cool
• 29:34
  little thing. I mean, gosh, there's so many
• 29:36
  courses like that with so many different schools.
• 29:38
  So yeah. What is it that you want to
• 29:40
  learn next or affirm your learnings in Next?
• 29:46
  I don't think there's ever enough learning on
• 29:49
  organizational leadership. I think I've got a good gist,
• 29:52
  but I wouldn't mind learning how other organizations do it.
• 29:55
  I've been in the restaurant sector most of my career, if not
• 29:58
  all. So, you know, cause a lot of it
• 30:01
  is transferable. Whether you're running a, a
• 30:04
  university or you're running a restaurant business or you're
• 30:07
  running, you know, grocery business, all the things, all of
• 30:11
  them carry different margins. But, but how do you keep doing
• 30:15
  things like that so that your understanding you can, you can
• 30:19
  help your organization in a, in a different way that maybe you
• 30:22
  would not have had you not learn those tools and, and skill sets.
• 30:26
  So I think everybody should be pushing themselves a little bit.
• 30:28
  Some people think their capacity and they're good and I, I
• 30:31
  respect that. But in my case, and for people
• 30:34
  that, you know, are at those executive levels, I think a lot
• 30:37
  of them push themselves where they're listening to podcasts,
• 30:40
  the, you know, where we share all books we're reading.
• 30:43
  How do, how do we spend more time together as execs and
• 30:45
  learning what we're doing and sharing and trading ideas?
• 30:48
  And so not just sitting in in an organization and, and doing that
• 30:52
  work, but you actually make the organization you're in better if
• 30:55
  you kind of put yourself out there in that way.
• 30:57
  So I don't know, Anthony, are you, are you thinking about
• 31:00
  taking anything out? Wow, I love, I love being put on
• 31:06
  the spot like that. It's not often that I get asked
• 31:08
  the questions here. You know, I have thought about
• 31:13
  taking some courses or just trying to find like a mentor to
• 31:16
  learn from in terms of running a better podcast.
• 31:20
  Are there more thoughtful ways to sort of structure the
• 31:23
  questions that I asked to help bring out a better story?
• 31:27
  And then in sort of my day job, I have worked with a, a sales
• 31:32
  coach to kind of help me be able to communicate ideas better and
• 31:37
  to better understand the different types of people that
• 31:39
  I'm interact with, interacting with and better ways to
• 31:42
  communicate with them. So, yeah, like I, I'm 100% with
• 31:45
  you. Like I, you know, and I've got
• 31:47
  two young boys, they're 9:00 and 11:00.
• 31:51
  And I remember a little bit of what sort of my mindset was
• 31:55
  then, because it was that way not too long ago, which was at
• 31:59
  some point I'm going to get to a point where I know everything or
• 32:01
  I know everything that I need to know at least, right?
• 32:05
  You know, I can't wait till I'm done with this grade or this
• 32:08
  test, or I can't wait until I graduate from, you know, junior
• 32:11
  high or high school or college. And, you know, then I can stop
• 32:13
  with all this homework stuff. And like, I try to tell them the
• 32:16
  same sort of thing that I remind myself of, which is if you're
• 32:19
  doing it correctly, you never stop learning.
• 32:22
  It's a growth mindset. It's a growth mindset at all
• 32:25
  ages. Yep.
• 32:28
  Yeah, I, yeah, I think when you're doing it right, you're,
• 32:31
  you're learning up until the very end.
• 32:33
  I think when you this is a theory and check back with me
• 32:36
  in, you know, a few decades, hopefully when I'm closer to the
• 32:38
  end of my life and, and see if I've changed that.
• 32:41
  But my suspicion is that once you get to that point where
• 32:44
  you're no longer interested in learning new things, taking on
• 32:47
  new challenges, that's when a big decline really starts to
• 32:50
  take place. Yeah, I agree.
• 32:52
  It's a growth mindset versus a close mindset.
• 32:54
  And I think that's where you see leaders excel and others stay
• 32:57
  stagnant, for sure, or that they think they're owed something
• 33:00
  rather than earned. And gosh, when we were 9 or 11
• 33:05
  or 18 or 21 or 25, Lord knows we thought we knew everything.
• 33:09
  And then as you get older, you're like, I don't know a lot.
• 33:12
  There's a lot I need to learn. And it shifts.
• 33:14
  It completely shifts. So it's kind of funny how how
• 33:17
  that works in people's lives and ages.
• 33:20
  If I were this wise when I was 20, wow, lookout.
• 33:24
  Man, I'm telling you, I wish I, I wish I knew now.
• 33:28
  Yeah, but but that's part of learning and growing the
• 33:30
  journey. That's, that's, that's the the
• 33:32
  arc of life. Yes, Amy, I want to hear about
• 33:36
  you guys being recognized as having North America's best
• 33:40
  organic wine list. How did that come about?
• 33:44
  I think that that is just been many, many years and hard work
• 33:48
  in the making. Emily Nevin and Gretchen Thomas,
• 33:51
  they run the beverage program and it is they do a lot of
• 33:56
  homework. They work with very closely with
• 33:59
  Spanish wine makers and their families and outside of Spain.
• 34:03
  And so we make sure that we've got healthy wines of people
• 34:07
  wanted that we're following all the processes of, of organic and
• 34:12
  dining, all the things. And so we've got this
• 34:15
  extraordinary wine list where you can come in and get a decent
• 34:18
  bottle for next. You know, if you're just kind of
• 34:21
  want to come in on a Monday night and have a bottle or you
• 34:23
  can come in and celebrate something really cool and pay,
• 34:25
  you know, spend a little bit more.
• 34:26
  But they've they've just we have wine flights so people can taste
• 34:30
  and see what they want to want to indulge in.
• 34:32
  But we also have amazing non alcoholic wines that are super
• 34:36
  delicious and great cocktails and mocktails.
• 34:40
  So, but Emily Nevin and Gretchen Gretchen's been with us over
• 34:43
  shoot, I think 18 years. And so keeping that leadership
• 34:47
  in place and, and making sure that we've got the people at
• 34:50
  the, that are the decision rights on those.
• 34:52
  And she's, you know, master of all wines.
• 34:55
  Whenever I go to dinner with her, I, I love it because she'll
• 34:58
  pick up the best wine on the menu at, you know, at a great
• 35:00
  value. And we want to make sure people
• 35:02
  come in for great value that they don't, they don't, they can
• 35:05
  come in for an upscale experience, but great, get great
• 35:08
  value on yummy tapas and A and a great bottle of wine.
• 35:12
  And we've really, never really, really raised the prices on our
• 35:15
  menus. And so it's, it's, we want to
• 35:17
  make sure people can afford it and then come out as much as
• 35:20
  they want. But yeah, the wine list has
• 35:22
  been, that's been a passion project, I think for the
• 35:26
  beverage team for 20-30 years. Honestly, it's it's been a
• 35:30
  pretty cool vision that they've put into place there.
• 35:33
  Now I'm curious about the non alcoholic wines because I've
• 35:36
  tried non alcoholic tequila and bourbon and I think another
• 35:43
  whiskey or a Scotch. Did you like them?
• 35:46
  No, they were. Terrible they tasted.
• 35:48
  Nothing like the real thing. And so that's my question about
• 35:52
  a non alcoholic wine. So they actually taste like
• 35:55
  wine, do they? Taste they do they do taste good
• 35:57
  and they and I would tell you if they didn't, I would say don't
• 35:59
  try. And I'm very honest, but I think
• 36:01
  the non alcoholic wines are very tasty.
• 36:04
  I mean, I drink them when I go into the restaurants.
• 36:06
  It's it's, you know, you feel like you're part of the party
• 36:09
  without feeling like you have to give anything up.
• 36:12
  And it's the wines are delicious and very crisp.
• 36:16
  Oh, fascinating. You'll have to come and try it,
• 36:18
  Anthony. Yes.
• 36:19
  When are you coming to Ohio? I'm.
• 36:22
  Not saying we haven't looked at Ohio, but I can't give away our
• 36:24
  secrets. All right, fair enough.
• 36:27
  Well, I do a little bit of travel, so I'll just have to
• 36:29
  keep that in mind and and check your site to see if there's any
• 36:31
  locations that overlap. Amy, I want to hear about the
• 36:36
  nonprofit. Yeah.
• 36:39
  This what? What?
• 36:39
  What is that? What's going on there?
• 36:41
  So we're a part of the GLEAM Network and I'm on the serve on
• 36:44
  the board of the GLEAM Network, but we've got the lead program
• 36:47
  that is a part of that. And so it's leadership,
• 36:50
  exploration and development. We started it in 2019 and we
• 36:54
  were noticing that a lot more mom and pops were popping up and
• 36:58
  they can't afford support departments within some of these
• 37:00
  organizations or restaurant groups.
• 37:03
  So we started throwing kind of happy hour and we call mini
• 37:06
  conferences throughout the country.
• 37:09
  The folks like myself or the director level, they can afford
• 37:14
  to go to a restaurant conference and experience something really
• 37:16
  cool and make connections. The emerging leaders, managers,
• 37:20
  GMs, directors, servers, even captains, back house, sous
• 37:25
  chefs, kitchen managers, you know, assisted kitchen, all the
• 37:30
  things, they don't really get that.
• 37:32
  And I think some sex, we lost some sexiness in our business
• 37:35
  during COVID. And so we started throwing these
• 37:37
  right before COVID and we weren't sure who was going to
• 37:41
  show up. We were like, I was drinking
• 37:42
  wine one day with this woman named Karen Stutz.
• 37:44
  And I was like, we should just throw these little like things
• 37:47
  and see if anybody comes and we'll put these speakers up.
• 37:50
  And we were splitting wine and I don't know how far it got, but
• 37:53
  the next morning I was like, we should actually go do that.
• 37:55
  And so now we have a huge group of volunteers.
• 37:58
  We have a large number of organizations supporting us that
• 38:02
  help it help support these events.
• 38:06
  And we just had one in Dallas that was every time we do it, we
• 38:12
  try to do 1A quarter or three times a year, but the the
• 38:16
  tickets sell out and we sell them for next to nothing.
• 38:18
  Because if they can't, if the team member can't afford it, we
• 38:22
  we allow them to come on their own.
• 38:23
  But we have open bar, but they get access to top leaders in the
• 38:29
  industry from Emily Williams Knight, who's the CEO of the
• 38:32
  Texas Restaurant Association, is a huge supporter.
• 38:35
  She comes and teaches them on grit.
• 38:38
  We have Jack Gibbons who is the Co front burner society.
• 38:41
  He comes and says, I was a server that made it to CEO.
• 38:44
  And I think there's this this thing in the industry right now
• 38:48
  that thinks that you have to go do all these things to become a
• 38:50
  Jack Gibbons or all these things become an Emily Williams Knight
• 38:53
  or an Anthony. But you don't, you can follow
• 38:57
  your passion, get some mentors, do whatever you need to do to
• 39:00
  get there. It really does come down to the
• 39:01
  grit, like are you willing to kind of do whatever it takes
• 39:04
  that nobody else is willing to do to get there?
• 39:06
  And so we go through and people are you, it's so cool because it
• 39:09
  fills your buck when people are taking notes and they're writing
• 39:11
  feverishly and then they go back and then they'll send me a memo
• 39:14
  or you know, I've seen some people that were managers that
• 39:16
  are now directors since we started the program and we do
• 39:20
  mentoring out of it. That's been super cool.
• 39:22
  So we started this and more and more organizations now are
• 39:25
  leaning on us to help mentor and help some of their internal
• 39:31
  promotes. And we have a lot of internal
• 39:33
  promotes from this, from this organization.
• 39:36
  So really proud of the work we're doing.
• 39:37
  That won't stop. That's just a passion project
• 39:39
  behind the scenes. And so most of the content
• 39:43
  that's being shared at these, I don't know what you call them,
• 39:45
  meetings group. Conferences.
• 39:47
  Mini. Conferences.
• 39:48
  Yeah, Mini. Conferences, it's a lot of
• 39:50
  mindset. It's not like, I don't know
• 39:53
  here. It's not like here's how to hold
• 39:55
  the tray or like like better sort.
• 39:57
  Of like leadership. On the skills, it's more
• 39:59
  leadership and mindset and. Yeah, we talk about why
• 40:03
  financials are important and for you to understand them if you
• 40:05
  want to get promoted in the in the workforce, right.
• 40:08
  How do you under, how do you learn AP and L Why is it?
• 40:11
  Why does it matter? Why do the details matter in the
• 40:14
  work? How the input of the shifts run
• 40:17
  versus what a lot of people just talk about the PNL.
• 40:20
  Nobody cares like it's really the input.
• 40:22
  How do you bring energy as a leader?
• 40:23
  How do you lead with a growth mindset like we talked about
• 40:26
  before? So all of those things.
• 40:29
  And then we talk about personal stories like you're doing and,
• 40:34
  and what's going to be their story they're going to tell.
• 40:36
  And at the end of the day at your 80th birthday party, what
• 40:39
  are people going to say about you, Anthony?
• 40:41
  When you're when you're standing up in front of the room, you
• 40:43
  know, are they going to talk about your P&L, you the numbers
• 40:46
  you got, or are they going to talk about how inspired they
• 40:48
  were to work for you? And I think that that's where we
• 40:50
  have those conversations with them and remind them of their
• 40:52
  purpose and why they're in the industry.
• 40:55
  That's really cool. And where's the funding for this
• 40:57
  come from? We have amazing brands.
• 41:00
  We've got branded hospitality, we've got so Schatzy and Jimmy.
• 41:04
  We've got Wow Bow with Jeff Alexander, We've got Craig
• 41:09
  Majewski from Craveworthy Brands.
• 41:11
  We've got the Texas Restaurant Association that supports us
• 41:15
  with the Emily and Joe and the team there.
• 41:17
  I mean the PepsiCo with Allison Rook, she, she helps us a lot
• 41:22
  with the refreshments. It's just, it literally is a
• 41:24
  community now that has as putting these things on with all
• 41:28
  the volunteers we have. It's pretty wild.
• 41:29
  It's been very cool to watch it transition and grow.
• 41:32
  And there's a podcast that goes along with this.
• 41:35
  There's a podcast for emerging leaders if you want to learn a
• 41:37
  certain skill set. So if if you want to learn about
• 41:40
  grit, we had Emily on, We just had Phil Crawford on, who is the
• 41:45
  CTO of many, many brands. Some of the largest brands in
• 41:48
  the nation came on and just talked about leadership and
• 41:51
  empathy and how that all works with IT.
• 41:55
  You know, we've had PR, we just had Jamie Sharp on with Front
• 41:59
  Burner Society, who runs her PR program.
• 42:01
  And what's your personal brand like?
• 42:03
  Who are you? How do you, what do people,
• 42:06
  what, what do people say about you and you're not in the room
• 42:08
  and, and how do you kind of market yourself?
• 42:10
  So all of those things, you make them 20 minutes so they can
• 42:12
  listen to them on the way to work.
• 42:14
  It's not for your normal listener of a podcast, but it is
• 42:17
  for those up and coming in, in the industry and they just kind
• 42:21
  of chime in. We've gotten really good
• 42:22
  feedback and the the audience is growing for sure.
• 42:25
  Where can people find the podcast as well as more
• 42:28
  information about Lean? It's on Spotify, it's on our
• 42:31
  lead LinkedIn, there's a lead Facebook, there's a lead
• 42:34
  Instagram. All of it is posted there.
• 42:36
  There's lean.com that you can jump on and jump on there as
• 42:41
  well. And then we continue to post
• 42:44
  them on LinkedIn and other forums as they come out as well.
• 42:47
  So we'll say hey, we're releasing one at 2:00 PM the
• 42:50
  next Tuesday. And then you know, you see one
• 42:52
  pop out. So there's two people that put
• 42:55
  those on along with myself. That's Matt Rolf and he's a
• 42:59
  development speaker, leadership speaker.
• 43:01
  And then Kelly Grogan, who runs Crumbs, which is a catering
• 43:05
  organization, but she's a bad ass in her own right.
• 43:07
  So there's just a bunch of us that kind of like rally to to
• 43:10
  make this happen. And if we if we change one
• 43:12
  person's lives and I think it's worth it.
• 43:14
  So it's been good. So that sounds like a lot of
• 43:16
  fun. Very rewarding.
• 43:17
  I imagine, yeah. And I see at Barcelona Wine Bar
• 43:20
  that you've added some new board members, Katie Grissom and
• 43:24
  Amanda Hesser. What kind of perspective are
• 43:27
  ideas do you think that they're going to bring to the brand?
• 43:30
  Well, those two bad asses separate themselves apart.
• 43:34
  Katie is end all be all. I don't know if anybody's done
• 43:37
  any homework on her, but holy cow, she's honestly both of
• 43:41
  them. One does real estate, one does
• 43:44
  has a history of marketing and they work very closely with our
• 43:48
  teams. Myself, if I have a question
• 43:51
  about something going on in Elise, Katie's very easy to to
• 43:55
  help present to, but they're both always available and very
• 43:59
  kind. And I think that they've
• 44:02
  elevated the board. We have Andy, who is the founder
• 44:04
  of Barcelona on our board as well, who keeps us in check and
• 44:07
  make sure that we're still always doing that authentic, you
• 44:10
  know, back to Barcelona ways. And then we've got amazing board
• 44:13
  members with Andrew and and Hutch and some of those other
• 44:16
  guys. But the the ladies that joined
• 44:19
  us recently have really elevated us, so very lucky to have them
• 44:23
  both. I see that you're also on a
• 44:26
  number of boards as well, including the Food Tech Advisory
• 44:30
  Board at Lunchbox, and James Walker, the CEO of Lunchbox, was
• 44:35
  a recent guest on the show. Great guy.
• 44:38
  Why was that? I agree.
• 44:40
  Why was it important for you to get involved in that?
• 44:42
  Gosh, Lunchbox I think was 2, maybe 2 1/2 years ago when we
• 44:46
  started that Advisory Council and and board Nabil, who was the
• 44:51
  CEO at the time and I know is still very heavily in into the
• 44:54
  work there. I just talked to him yesterday,
• 44:56
  but he he put together pretty cool gourd and he wanted to know
• 45:02
  what the end users wanted while he was while he was building the
• 45:05
  plane. And I think that that's really
• 45:07
  critical with tech companies is don't just build a product.
• 45:10
  Do you think works, build a product that everyone in the
• 45:13
  industry wants to use. And then when you have people
• 45:15
  and you're taking that feedback and doing it, I think there's a
• 45:18
  couple of them. Might, you know, KJ with rescue
• 45:20
  that that very big learners and interested in how things work
• 45:24
  and getting under the hood. There are also people that, you
• 45:27
  know, build content and and tech, but they haven't built it.
• 45:31
  They think that they know, but I think getting some, some sneeze,
• 45:34
  as I call them much subject matter experts in the room
• 45:37
  definitely will help your product.
• 45:38
  And so there's a lot of us that kind of all help and deliver on
• 45:43
  feedback for for whether it's quarterly meetings, if it's a
• 45:47
  day-to-day, hey, can you check this out?
• 45:49
  Does this make sense, checking in on something?
• 45:52
  But Nabil started that and I think you really utilize that.
• 45:56
  And I think lunch box is where it is today because of that
• 45:58
  council and the board. You're on several other boards
• 46:02
  as well. Officially, your time is limited
• 46:05
  being the COO of large and growing restaurant slash, you
• 46:10
  know, wine bar. Why set aside time for these
• 46:13
  other organizations? Why is that important to you?
• 46:16
  Most of them are startups and I think it's important to give
• 46:18
  back. I don't think anybody would
• 46:20
  disagree with that. And I also know that we need
• 46:23
  some of these tools in the industry for us to simplify our
• 46:26
  work so that we can all get better and drive better results
• 46:30
  and save money or develop systems.
• 46:32
  But it's not. You have to make the time and
• 46:37
  you have to be intentional about it and you also have to know
• 46:40
  your priorities. But Barcelona is my priority and
• 46:43
  if it's a late night session with with an organization or
• 46:47
  like women in restaurant leadership is very near and dear
• 46:49
  to my heart to see some women and emerging leaders excel those
• 46:53
  things. And I think Adam's very
• 46:55
  supportive with the work too. You have to have a supportive
• 46:58
  board and a supportive leadership group that knows that
• 47:00
  that's just as important sometimes as running the
• 47:02
  business. So it's it's important.
• 47:05
  Are you doing any of that work yourself, Anthony?
• 47:07
  I think you are. What kind of work specifically?
• 47:10
  The advisory, helping others along, bringing the others that
• 47:13
  want to do podcasts, all the things.
• 47:15
  In probably a less formal way. Any boards?
• 47:20
  But I certainly do have some folks that come to me to ask
• 47:22
  questions about, hey, you've done this in the past, whether
• 47:25
  it's something that I'm doing now or, you know, one of the
• 47:28
  businesses that I've owned in the past.
• 47:32
  And hey, can you give some advice or would you meet with
• 47:34
  this person? And yeah, I'm always happy to do
• 47:37
  that. It, it's funny because, and I
• 47:39
  wonder if this still strikes you because I've talked about this
• 47:43
  with a lot of my guests is I get hit with this idea of imposter
• 47:47
  syndrome, like really like. You want to?
• 47:49
  Why are you asking me? Right, like, and they're like,
• 47:53
  well, and they, they start listing off, you know, my
• 47:55
  credentials and my achievements to me and I, you know, and I, I
• 47:59
  blushed a little bit and I'm like, OK, sure.
• 48:00
  I'm I'm happy to do that. But I recently had another guest
• 48:05
  on the show, Brad Feld, who's just come out with a book called
• 48:09
  Give 1st and it's it's sort of, it's similar to the idea of Pay
• 48:16
  It Forward. I got to write that down so I
• 48:18
  can read that give first, give first.
• 48:20
  By Brad Feld. Yeah.
• 48:22
  And pay it forward. I think the idea is more like,
• 48:25
  hey, at one point somebody helped you out, so now kind of
• 48:28
  do the same. And his philosophy is more, you
• 48:32
  don't have to have had this past history of somebody helping you,
• 48:35
  Like just take the first step and provide value at some point
• 48:40
  somewhere, maybe not from that person or that giving situation,
• 48:44
  it will come back to you. You just don't know from who or,
• 48:47
  or when or, or how. And I had the chance to read the
• 48:51
  the book lately or more recently.
• 48:53
  And I'm like, yes, like that puts into words kind of what I
• 48:57
  feel like I'm trying to do. So I yeah, I'm a big proponent
• 49:01
  of of what you're talking about. It sounds like you're doing it.
• 49:05
  I am, I just, I, I guess I don't have anything to list on my
• 49:08
  LinkedIn page in terms of, you know, Advisory Board for this or
• 49:10
  that, but when I get the opportunity to do so, I, I.
• 49:14
  I think you can put that on there.
• 49:15
  So it's it's great. And and people call and I know
• 49:19
  the imposter syndrome you're talking about because you're
• 49:21
  always just like, why are people asking me that?
• 49:22
  But I think it's because they see that you've had the
• 49:25
  experience of it. And, and the other thing I've
• 49:27
  watched people on advisory boards give feedback to the
• 49:31
  owner or the board or whatnot, whoever is in the room.
• 49:33
  And sometimes they don't take it.
• 49:34
  And I think that that's fair too.
• 49:36
  It's just a matter of giving your best advice or addressing
• 49:40
  whatever you can. And it's just like a team member
• 49:44
  or or someone you're coaching. It's up to them to take it and,
• 49:47
  and sometimes they, you may not understand the work.
• 49:50
  So I think also listening and asking a lot of questions is
• 49:53
  important in those roles. But I think it's cool that
• 49:56
  people are calling you. I would call you if I was doing
• 49:58
  a podcast or I was doing the sales or some of the work that
• 50:00
  you've done, because you only know what you know.
• 50:03
  And unless you actually reach out and you, you know what's
• 50:06
  where, somebody's going to say no.
• 50:07
  I don't think I've ever said no. So, and I'm sure you haven't
• 50:10
  either. And so our, our job really is to
• 50:13
  help each other along. We're, we're people 1st and we
• 50:15
  all want, we all want everyone to get to the, the winning line
• 50:18
  together. So I think that's cool.
• 50:20
  You know, and I like what you just gave voice to there, this
• 50:22
  idea about you offer the advice and then what they do with it
• 50:27
  from there. You kind of have to let go of
• 50:29
  expectations. And that's something that I
• 50:31
  struggled with in the past. It's like somebody comes to me
• 50:33
  for advice and I'm like, oh, I have been through this exact
• 50:36
  thing. Here are the four things you
• 50:38
  should do and the eight things that you should not do.
• 50:42
  And then, you know, you check in with them a couple months later
• 50:44
  and they haven't sort of heeded the advice that I gave them.
• 50:50
  And it's frustrating. And it's like, why come to me?
• 50:53
  But I think that's a great reminder is, you know, you offer
• 50:56
  the advice and then you don't understand all the things that
• 50:58
  are at play behind the scenes for that.
• 51:00
  So you kind of have to let go of the expectation of.
• 51:03
  Yeah, yeah. And I think understanding your
• 51:06
  role for that, it's not to solve their problems.
• 51:08
  It's there to be a listening board and a sounding board and
• 51:10
  to give the feedback. But at the end of the day, they
• 51:13
  you have your day job and and you're helping, but they may not
• 51:17
  sometimes you may not understand the product.
• 51:20
  I mean, there's a million things that I think the fact that in in
• 51:25
  Even so it's still feedback you've given that's in the back
• 51:27
  of their head, right. And so I think it it's, it's,
• 51:31
  it's part of it. And sometimes being on the
• 51:33
  councils or the boards when you're listening to other board
• 51:35
  members, I've learned a lot from them as well where I hang up the
• 51:37
  phone, they'll have nothing to do with that product, but I'll
• 51:40
  call and say, OK, well, tell me how you lead through this again,
• 51:42
  because it's super interesting to the work I'm doing.
• 51:44
  So you're just kind of connecting in the industry that
• 51:46
  way. So many, so many positive things
• 51:49
  that come out of that stuff. Yeah.
• 51:51
  And you know, as you're saying, that reminded me of another
• 51:53
  point, excuse me, that Brad makes in his book is that often
• 51:56
  times sort of the mentor can and should become the mentee like
• 52:01
  the other, The person that you've been helping now is going
• 52:03
  to get to a point where they understand things that you don't
• 52:08
  and you should be ready to kind of receive that back from them.
• 52:12
  100%, 100%. So let's shift gears for a
• 52:16
  moment, Amy. I'd be really curious to hear
• 52:17
  about a serious challenge that you've overcome in your life.
• 52:20
  Maybe it's personal, maybe it's professional.
• 52:23
  Maybe the two kind of intertwine.
• 52:25
  What was that? How'd you get through it?
• 52:26
  What'd you learn? I think that there's a lot of
• 52:30
  learnings along the way. I think I take I think it's hard
• 52:33
  to not take things personally. The things will keep you up at
• 52:37
  night and you're you're gremlin or your inner critic is going
• 52:41
  off. And so trying to manage that is,
• 52:44
  as can be challenging at time more than others, at times more
• 52:49
  than others. But the, you know, decision
• 52:54
  making and leadership roles is not, is not always fun and
• 52:57
  leading is not always fun. I will say that you have to make
• 52:59
  some tough decisions and you have to trust your guts.
• 53:02
  And most of this is you've got the data, you're making the
• 53:05
  decision. And sometimes people don't love
• 53:07
  the decision you're making. You have to explain the why, But
• 53:11
  it's, it's, it's kind of, I've gotten to a place in my career.
• 53:17
  I don't know if you've anybody's heard of the Mel Robbins the Let
• 53:20
  Them theory. I think I've had to learn more
• 53:22
  into that, where if they're in that headspace, I have to let
• 53:25
  them be in that headspace. And that's happened when
• 53:30
  somebody's not agreeing with you, pushing back, not aligned
• 53:36
  in your morals and your principles when you're leading
• 53:39
  an organization. And I think that there there are
• 53:42
  some tough conversations that have to happen.
• 53:44
  And so I think a lot of times right now, leaders back away
• 53:47
  from those tough conversations and you may lose some good
• 53:49
  talent and an organization from it or decent talent.
• 53:53
  But the end of the day, I used to take that personally and I
• 53:55
  used to have some tough days where now it's you take it
• 53:58
  personally and you want to say what could I have done
• 53:59
  differently? Some of it is on them though.
• 54:02
  And I think it's, it's that let them of they're in that
• 54:05
  headspace. You've been there for them.
• 54:07
  You've done everything you possibly can.
• 54:09
  Could you've done some things differently.
• 54:10
  Yes, I think it's good to, to reflect, but you know, or make
• 54:15
  tough decisions on leaving a company when it's toxic for you.
• 54:20
  And having those, those tough conversations with the
• 54:23
  leadership and saying, listen, don't agree with the, the
• 54:26
  culture and the core values of this, of this brand and, and the
• 54:30
  way that you kind of sold it to me, because you never really
• 54:32
  know when you're taking a job, what it is day-to-day until
• 54:36
  you're actually in the job and you're under the hood.
• 54:39
  And I think being true to yourself and saying, these
• 54:41
  values are not my values. And sometimes taking a leap of
• 54:45
  faith and knowing that you have to take another role and not
• 54:50
  having a job when you should have had a job before ending
• 54:54
  that job. I've take that's happened to me
• 54:56
  twice. And I look back and I'm like, I
• 55:00
  still, I still would not have been able to stay in that job
• 55:02
  and put my name on that brand knowing what I know of what the
• 55:06
  core values are and, and how they they weren't aligning with
• 55:09
  mine. I think those are tough
• 55:10
  decisions because people save for a rainy day makes you got
• 55:15
  money. So if you have to make that
• 55:16
  call, you do. And if you've got a job, we did
• 55:20
  a podcast recently with Helen Lau, who is a big executive
• 55:24
  recruiter in the industry. And she said a lot of people
• 55:27
  right now think the grass is greener on the other side and
• 55:30
  it's not, you know, and, and, and she'll say, why are you
• 55:33
  coming to me with your resume? What are you looking for?
• 55:37
  What are you looking to get out of it?
• 55:39
  And so I think asking and me doing that along the way, I may
• 55:42
  have had some different reflection moments and taken
• 55:44
  some different roles and done my homework a little bit more
• 55:46
  before I, I took a role. But I was very careful in
• 55:50
  Barcelona wine bar, making sure their values, the CEO, the
• 55:53
  board, I was interviewing them as much as they were
• 55:56
  interviewing me. It's, it's all the things
• 55:59
  talking to a lot of people in the industry because I didn't
• 56:01
  want to make another bad move, right.
• 56:03
  And so sometimes it happens though, and I think it's OK.
• 56:06
  And you just got to forgive yourself.
• 56:08
  So that's a long answer to that very quick question.
• 56:10
  But there's, there's a lot of learnings along the way.
• 56:12
  And I think all of that encompasses, you know, knowing
• 56:15
  who you are, being authentic to, you know, being true to yourself
• 56:18
  and making sure your values aligned with what that company
• 56:21
  is and that leadership is in the in, in the world.
• 56:24
  You, you know, we only get so many days.
• 56:26
  So where are you going to spend it?
• 56:27
  And I think that that's important for me.
• 56:29
  Yeah. And that transition of being
• 56:32
  without a job, you know, if for folks who maybe haven't been in
• 56:37
  that position before, that's really stressful, right?
• 56:40
  Your life is sort of set up for a certain cash flow.
• 56:43
  You're accustomed to this. You, you know what's going on,
• 56:46
  even if you don't love what your role is or the group that you're
• 56:50
  working with, there's still sort of that comfort in, in that
• 56:54
  financial consistency. And so having the strength, the
• 56:58
  courage to say I'm going to set that comfort and that stability
• 57:03
  aside and I need to do what's kind of right for me at my core,
• 57:08
  that's difficult. It is difficult.
• 57:10
  And I think what's really cool about your story is that you use
• 57:14
  that as an opportunity to really reflect and say, OK, you know,
• 57:20
  you you had a situation that allowed you to sort of compare
• 57:23
  and contrast what works for you and what doesn't.
• 57:27
  And so now moving forward for future opportunities, including,
• 57:30
  you know, this one at Barcelona Wine Bar, you're like, OK, here
• 57:33
  are my non negotiables. Here's sort of the boxes that I
• 57:36
  need to check before I'm going to be comfortable moving forward
• 57:40
  in a new new role. And I, I left my, a previous
• 57:45
  role and I started my own company for a while.
• 57:47
  And you know, when I was talking to Adam, it was really funny
• 57:50
  because he said, well, we're not really looking to hire right
• 57:52
  away. And I go, I'm not looking to
• 57:53
  start right away. And then we kind of got to a
• 57:56
  point where he was like, well, how much longer are we going to
• 57:58
  do this dance? And I was like, well, I didn't
• 57:59
  know we were towards the end of the dance yet, you know, like it
• 58:02
  was just really funny. And, and so, you know, it's,
• 58:06
  it's, I think if you've got really strong support around
• 58:09
  you, you can make some tough decisions that protect your
• 58:12
  mental space and your well-being and all the things.
• 58:14
  Because I am very passionate about people and I love the
• 58:18
  organization and I, I've loved the organizations I've worked
• 58:21
  with. It all comes down to leadership
• 58:24
  and how people show up for one another.
• 58:26
  And that's important to me. And so, you know, like you said,
• 58:30
  it's, it's, it can be your core and it is very, it is you can
• 58:36
  put yourself in a very vulnerable spot when you, I
• 58:39
  always tell people, don't quit your job without having a job,
• 58:41
  but I've done it twice myself. But again, you got to make sure,
• 58:45
  make sure you've got money saved up for a rainy day in case that
• 58:48
  that day comes, yes. Yeah, OK, So putting humility
• 58:52
  aside, Amy, what is your superpower?
• 58:55
  My superpower, I'm not good at that one.
• 59:03
  I would say my superpower is giving clarity on where people
• 59:10
  want to go and giving them a road map to get there if they so
• 59:15
  choose. Choose to with with support
• 59:18
  depending on what role they're in.
• 59:21
  I think I'm I'm people first and so making sure that their hearts
• 59:27
  and minds are good before and sometimes you got to give people
• 59:30
  grace. Somebody may be going through
• 59:32
  something personal on the team and we all need to pitch in and
• 59:34
  help them out and also visionary.
• 59:38
  Here's the end goal. This is where we want to be.
• 59:40
  This is what winning looks like and here's a strategy to get
• 59:44
  there and we we build it together.
• 59:46
  I'm also a big leadership styles leader, you know, the five
• 59:50
  dysfunctions of a team, but also I don't really make decisions
• 59:53
  for the team. They decide and then we move a
• 59:55
  lot faster because they made that decision.
• 59:57
  And then I may have the goal in mind and there's different ways
• 1:00:02
  of getting there, but I'll say here's here's what winning looks
• 1:00:04
  like, here's the goal. How do we want to get there?
• 1:00:05
  And then we have a healthy conversation on that.
• 1:00:07
  But. You know, it's a period of
• 1:00:09
  pyramid of building trust and healthy conflict.
• 1:00:11
  And then the top of that pyramid is results and also making
• 1:00:14
  making sure he's having fun along the way.
• 1:00:16
  So I like to be cheesy and whether it's hat day or, you
• 1:00:21
  know, sending out funny isms from Instagram, you know, it's
• 1:00:27
  just it's we all work hard, so why not have fun doing it?
• 1:00:30
  So I don't know that there's a specific superpower.
• 1:00:33
  I think it's just being in the people business overall and
• 1:00:36
  getting results. Listen, no one's hired if they
• 1:00:38
  get shitty results. So I would say most of the
• 1:00:40
  places I've been, we've gotten pretty, pretty damn good results
• 1:00:43
  overall. Getting stuff done.
• 1:00:45
  Getting, getting. Yeah, the thing's done in a fun
• 1:00:48
  way. How about some daily habits or
• 1:00:52
  rituals that either get you started or keep you on track as
• 1:00:56
  you're going? I was just talking about this
• 1:00:59
  with our women and we have a few emerging, I'm sorry, employee
• 1:01:02
  resource groups and I was on the phone with the women in
• 1:01:05
  leadership one this morning. We have a Wellness one.
• 1:01:07
  We've got an LGBTQIA plus one. We've got all the things and I
• 1:01:11
  was on the phone with ladies this morning and I use, we're
• 1:01:13
  sharing some tools like that and I use the insight timer every
• 1:01:18
  day, every night. For those of you who don't know
• 1:01:20
  what's kind of AI, don't think I'm not a big meditator per SE,
• 1:01:24
  but this morning I, I every morning, I try to start up with
• 1:01:26
  gratitude. So many things crazy in the
• 1:01:29
  world. My arms and legs work.
• 1:01:32
  I'm in a good spot. I get to, like I said, go to a
• 1:01:35
  party every day and hang out with really cool people and
• 1:01:37
  learn. And then I end my night with,
• 1:01:40
  you know, I'll put my pillow on my head and saying, what do I,
• 1:01:44
  what, what could I have done better?
• 1:01:45
  But also what did I do well today?
• 1:01:47
  And making sure I'm, I'm being fair and true to myself.
• 1:01:50
  And some days there's bad days and that's OK.
• 1:01:52
  I'm not, I'm not beyond having a bad day.
• 1:01:55
  And, and I tell my team, like, sometimes somebody will call and
• 1:01:57
  say, how are you? And I'm like maybe like a 2
• 1:02:02
  today. I've had a moment.
• 1:02:03
  So I think just the insight timer is a big thing podcast.
• 1:02:09
  I love the inspired stories podcast.
• 1:02:11
  There's other podcasts that I love.
• 1:02:13
  Brandon makes me laugh. There's there's all the things
• 1:02:17
  that I think everybody's doing, but there's also stillness.
• 1:02:21
  So I do believe in sometimes walking out of a restaurant or
• 1:02:26
  at home with kids or something. I'm just going for a walk and I
• 1:02:28
  don't need my phone. I just need to take a walk and,
• 1:02:31
  and have some, some peace. Cause the world is going fast.
• 1:02:34
  There's a lot of noise. And we, we do talk about what
• 1:02:37
  the, the leadership team is, How do we block the noise for the
• 1:02:40
  team so they can execute. And I need to block the noise
• 1:02:43
  sometimes for myself to execute. So it's, it's, it's one, it can
• 1:02:48
  be really long journey, it can be a short journey for some, but
• 1:02:51
  I think everybody's got different things they do in the
• 1:02:54
  day that works for them. And those that don't, I think
• 1:02:58
  it's good to just start somewhere.
• 1:02:59
  And so I would advise taking long walks or, and with no
• 1:03:02
  technology and, and all the things some people want to throw
• 1:03:05
  out all this tech that they do and all these things, but it's
• 1:03:08
  not good for the brain all the time.
• 1:03:10
  I love a couple of things in particular that you said.
• 1:03:13
  They're sort of taking time for a quiet mind.
• 1:03:16
  It's a great reminder for me especially, you know, with this,
• 1:03:21
  you know, fantastic computer that's attached to my hip all
• 1:03:24
  the time. If my brain finds just a moment
• 1:03:28
  of stillness slash boredom, what do I do?
• 1:03:31
  Like I got the dopamine thing like I'm picking this.
• 1:03:34
  And so I love that you take those walks and you just leave
• 1:03:37
  the phone behind. And, you know, our greatest
• 1:03:39
  moments are in the shower. I mean, I get out of the shower
• 1:03:41
  and I'm like ping, ping, ping, ping, you know?
• 1:03:43
  And so it's, it's funny when you actually do get a moment by
• 1:03:46
  yourself and there is no technology, some people bring it
• 1:03:49
  in the shower, but like, can you just kind of clear your mind a
• 1:03:52
  little bit and, and think through things and make more
• 1:03:55
  sound decisions? It's hard.
• 1:03:56
  There's always a million things coming at you.
• 1:03:59
  Here's the other thing that I, I love that you said is the the
• 1:04:01
  part about gratitude. And so this is something I
• 1:04:05
  regularly remind myself of, including last night my wife and
• 1:04:09
  I were looking at our kids upcoming school calendar.
• 1:04:12
  So all the days that they have off, all the early dismissals
• 1:04:16
  that they have. And my wife is also in the, in a
• 1:04:20
  school system, but a different district.
• 1:04:21
  So she has different days off and her her schedule is really
• 1:04:27
  rigid. Like she doesn't have a whole
• 1:04:29
  lot of time during the school year that she can take days off
• 1:04:33
  with me running my own businesses, I have more
• 1:04:35
  flexibility, but I like what I do and I and I want to show up
• 1:04:39
  and I want to do it every day. And I want to, you know, have my
• 1:04:41
  schedule as open to do as many podcasts as possible.
• 1:04:44
  And so as we're going through the schedule and it's like, OK,
• 1:04:47
  Anthony, can you do this day? Yes, I can.
• 1:04:51
  Yes, I can. And, and I could hear like my
• 1:04:54
  voice like, and so as I, as I'm doing that, I said, and I love
• 1:05:01
  my kids and I welcome the opportunity to be able to be
• 1:05:05
  home with them and support them. And I love that I have the
• 1:05:08
  flexibility in my schedule to do that, even though there's part
• 1:05:11
  of my brain that didn't 100% agree with that.
• 1:05:14
  I need to say the words and I need for it to come from my
• 1:05:17
  heart a little bit. And, and, and it helps.
• 1:05:19
  I I think that kind of thing helps.
• 1:05:21
  I heard emotion. A motivational speaker speak
• 1:05:23
  God, it had been like 20 years ago and he kept saying I get to
• 1:05:29
  I get to I get to and my husband was in that meeting as well.
• 1:05:33
  And so sometimes I'll complain and he'll say, but you get to do
• 1:05:36
  that. You get to get on an airplane
• 1:05:38
  where other people don't and you get to travel and you, you know,
• 1:05:42
  and sometimes it can go so negative so quickly in your
• 1:05:45
  head, but he's but it but it's it's true.
• 1:05:47
  And as soon as you start telling yourself I get.
• 1:05:51
  I was I was talking about this with, with Matt, one of the
• 1:05:54
  directors I was raving about earlier and he we were talking
• 1:05:57
  about I was reading a book on psychology on the psyche of a of
• 1:06:00
  the brain on how negative negativity transpires in your
• 1:06:04
  brain. And once you start that, it's
• 1:06:06
  really hard for your brain to start to pull out of it.
• 1:06:09
  And when you wake up in the morning and you're doing
• 1:06:11
  gratitude and and and Matt's one of those guys that like brings
• 1:06:14
  the energy, brings the party fun loving.
• 1:06:17
  You know, everybody wants to work from kind of thing and you
• 1:06:20
  think about that and and we were talking about the difference
• 1:06:24
  between how do you show up like that versus we, you know,
• 1:06:27
  there's other leaders in any organization that they don't get
• 1:06:31
  to, they have to and I think it's a mindset.
• 1:06:33
  And so that's important. And I think we keep that, that's
• 1:06:37
  that people piece that we need to keep leaning in on.
• 1:06:40
  You get to be home with the kids or you get to, you know, do all
• 1:06:43
  the stuff for your wife, because the minute that's taken away,
• 1:06:47
  you, you for you miss it. And, and in the main moment
• 1:06:50
  you're thinking you have to. And I I think that that's very
• 1:06:53
  different mindset. So we're still working on
• 1:06:55
  training all of our minds to do that, but 100%.
• 1:06:58
  But it is it is always a good reminder.
• 1:07:00
  I love that and that's something I do remind myself of and I've
• 1:07:04
  tried to teach that to my kids as well and they get really
• 1:07:08
  frustrated with it. I think you tell them now and
• 1:07:11
  then it shows up later. Like my daughter.
• 1:07:13
  Oh, Oh dear. And then all the sudden, like in
• 1:07:16
  her 20s, she was, she sent me, we had to turn my husband a
• 1:07:19
  birthday party recently. And she's not this person.
• 1:07:22
  She's turning 23 next month. And she sent me a gratitude
• 1:07:27
  message, like, thank you so much for throwing Dad's party every
• 1:07:29
  all my friends had the best time.
• 1:07:30
  But when I was like, who, who is this?
• 1:07:34
  Who are you? So, yeah, they may not take it
• 1:07:36
  now, but I think it does show up later.
• 1:07:37
  So it'll happen. Anthony, give it some time.
• 1:07:39
  You got you got some more years under your belt for it gums.
• 1:07:42
  Those are the words of encouragement I needed to hear,
• 1:07:44
  Amy, Thank you, because I just used that phrase with them from
• 1:07:47
  yesterday. Sometimes I like to bring them
• 1:07:50
  to my office on the weekends and I set them up with something
• 1:07:53
  like even during the summer, like something to read, like a
• 1:07:56
  math prop, like some kind of like, you know, thinking work.
• 1:07:59
  And they're like, do we have to? And I'm like, well, you get to.
• 1:08:02
  And they're like, no, no, no, no, do we have to go?
• 1:08:06
  I'm like, well, you get to. And then I finally have to use
• 1:08:08
  their verb. Yes, you have to go.
• 1:08:10
  Yeah, yeah, I think my kids are starting to see that now.
• 1:08:13
  But now she's in HR and she gets it.
• 1:08:15
  But Nyan, there's some crazy years in the middle there.
• 1:08:19
  Yeah, that's where I am. So thank you.
• 1:08:22
  Those are the fun years. Yes, it'll happen.
• 1:08:24
  It'll happen. I've just got one more question
• 1:08:27
  for you, Amy. But before I ask, I want to do 2
• 1:08:29
  things. First of all, everybody
• 1:08:31
  listening today, pause just for a moment.
• 1:08:34
  Open up your favorite podcast app if you're not already
• 1:08:36
  listening on it. Hit the follow subscribe button.
• 1:08:39
  I want you to continue to get more great interviews like we've
• 1:08:42
  had today with Amy from Barcelona Wine Bar.
• 1:08:45
  Amy, I also want to let people know either the best way to get
• 1:08:47
  in touch with you directly to follow your story or that of the
• 1:08:51
  brands, what would that be? We've got our website
• 1:08:55
  ofcoursebarcelonawinebar.com. We've got I've got my LinkedIn
• 1:09:00
  of course, and always at my e-mail address is a hom HOM as
• 1:09:03
  in Monday at barcelonawinebar.com.
• 1:09:05
  If anybody ever wants to reach out for anything ever, if even
• 1:09:09
  if somebody just wants to come in for a glass of wine, we're
• 1:09:11
  happy to happy to help and make sure they're shown a good time.
• 1:09:15
  I love that, very generous. We're going to make sure we put
• 1:09:17
  those links in the show notes for everybody.
• 1:09:19
  So last question for you, Amy, a year from now, you and I
• 1:09:22
  reconnect and you are super excited because you're
• 1:09:25
  celebrating something. What is that thing that you're
• 1:09:28
  celebrating one year from now? The team and their
• 1:09:31
  accomplishments, if we can continue to show and stay on
• 1:09:34
  trend of where we are now, celebrating them as people and
• 1:09:38
  as leaders in a year from now will be an extraordinary moment,
• 1:09:45
  whether it's with the brand Corsica or with Barcelona or
• 1:09:48
  everybody as a team and that everybody's had fun along the
• 1:09:51
  way and I mean that's really it and and the impact you've you've
• 1:09:57
  made and they've made on their teams.
• 1:09:59
  I think it's an incredible opportunity that we get to work
• 1:10:02
  in the industry we're in. So yeah.
• 1:10:05
  And I, I, I don't want to talk about T and LS on my 80th
• 1:10:08
  birthday, which doesn't seem like it's that far away, But
• 1:10:12
  the, the journey that you've had to get there and how you've,
• 1:10:15
  you've helped others, whether it's giving time or mentoring
• 1:10:18
  like you're doing and helping others.
• 1:10:22
  That's really what life's about. So how do you bring others
• 1:10:24
  along? And a follow up question to that
• 1:10:27
  because I neglected to ask about the new concept that you've got
• 1:10:31
  one location, the second one coming, tell us the name is
• 1:10:34
  Corsica. It's Corsica from the island of
• 1:10:37
  Corsica. It's it's it's at Tapas.
• 1:10:39
  It's sexy as well. Mediterranean, Italian, cacho de
• 1:10:44
  Pepe, small tapas de Bolognese de Oh my gosh, the menu is just
• 1:10:50
  incredible. So I'm not going to give away
• 1:10:53
  all the secrets. We've got the second opening in
• 1:10:55
  Reston. Amazing wine list as well,
• 1:10:58
  different wines. You can come in and try a sample
• 1:11:00
  right off the bat. So you've got something yummy in
• 1:11:02
  your hand and in your belly and again, great, amazing
• 1:11:06
  hospitality where you feel like you came into a friend's
• 1:11:09
  episode. Oh, I love it, Amy AHM from
• 1:11:13
  Barcelona Wine Bar. I want to be the first to thank
• 1:11:15
  you for sharing both of your time and your story with us
• 1:11:17
  today. Thanks, Anthony.
• 1:11:19
  Thanks for having me. Yeah, folks, that's a wrap on
• 1:11:21
  another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 1:11:24
  Thanks for learning with us today.