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Finding Your Place: William Albino on Career Transitions and Restaurant Management | Restaurants & Franchises Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:07
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 Codospodi and
0:16
today's guest is William Albino. William is the General Manager
0:21
at 00 Restaurant, which is part of the Castellucci Hospitality
0:25
Group, A family owned collection of restaurants in the Southeast.
0:29
Their mission is passionately pursuing the perfect dining
0:33
experience, one guest at a time. They focus on sincere
0:37
hospitality, attention to detail and great food and service.
0:42
Offering diverse culinary experiences, mainly in Italian
0:45
and Basque cuisines, the restaurants provide high quality
0:49
ingredients and wonderful dining atmospheres.
0:52
Now under Williams leadership, 00 has thrived in providing
0:56
exceptional dining experiences. Castellucci Hospitality Group
1:00
CHG has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation and
1:04
featured in publications like Southern Living and The New York
1:07
Times for their outstanding restaurants.
1:10
Williams has over five years of experience in educational and
1:16
nonprofit settings. Before joining Castellucci
1:19
Hospitality Group, he worked in management and community
1:22
engagement, advocating for client success in hospitality
1:25
and vocational training. He holds a master's degree in
1:28
special education from Florida State University and a
1:31
certification in project management from Emory
1:34
University. Now before we get into all that
1:37
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AD back benefitsagency.com. All right, back to our guest
2:09
today, William Albino, General Manager of 00.
2:13
William, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
2:15
today. Yeah.
2:17
Thank you for having me. Very thankful and honest
2:19
opportunity to kind of talk about a lot of things with you
2:21
about my journey. So appreciate it.
2:24
Absolutely. Let's get into it.
2:27
Every story, inspiring story, has a beginning, But yours
2:31
didn't start out in hospitality. You came up from a much
2:35
different feel. Talk to me about that.
2:38
Yeah. So I started off kind of
2:42
different than you would think. I started off in education and
2:47
that kind of started with my love for helping individuals
2:52
with the special needs community.
2:55
I kind of started off as an educator where I focused on life
3:00
skills and job training skills for adults with developmental
3:04
disabilities. And this fashion kind of started
3:07
when I started working at the YMCA for about, let's say, three
3:14
to four years in high when I was in high school, transitioned to
3:17
my freshman year of college, I started working with kids with
3:22
special needs and kind of seeing that I was really enjoying
3:25
working with them and really catering to their needs.
3:29
And I had to have a conversation with my parents.
3:32
They actually encouraged me to kind of just go from my dream of
3:35
working with children with special needs.
3:38
And I kind of went to college to do that.
3:40
I had a great passion for it. To this day, I still have a
3:43
great passion for it. You know, there was nothing.
3:47
There was something I couldn't do in that because I just loved
3:50
it, if that makes sense. Yeah, it sure does.
3:54
And so how long? So you got a masters from
3:57
Florida State. How long did you actually did
4:01
you actually operate as a special Ed teacher before you
4:04
decided on a transition? I was doing special Ed teacher
4:08
for about two to three years. I worked for nonprofit local to
4:13
the area that was really focused on doing job training skills for
4:18
people who had just either graduated high school or were
4:22
still in high school looking for what the next step was.
4:25
So it was more kind of like a day program essentially.
4:28
It never worked for an actual school.
4:29
It was more of a nonprofit that specialized in day program kind
4:34
of related skills. OK.
4:39
And so after two or three years, and I'm glad that you clarified
4:42
that because my wife, she's a speech therapist in a local
4:45
school district, she works with a lot of special needs kids.
4:48
So when I hear special education, I always think the
4:51
younger bracket that she works with, which is like, you know,
4:54
preschool, kindergarten, and of course, you know, that depending
4:58
on what people's needs are, that those needs go in, you know, to
5:02
much later in into adulthood. So that's the population that
5:05
you were serving sort of making this transition from high school
5:08
into, you know, maybe the working world.
5:11
So after, you know, operating as a special Ed teacher for two or
5:16
three years, what changed? Why was there a transition?
5:21
I feel like I kind of got to the point where I just, I needed
5:24
something new. I realized that there was not
5:28
much career advancement opportunities for me to kind of
5:32
excel on what I was doing. You know, there was only so far
5:36
that you can go. So for example, with this
5:39
nonprofit I was working for, it's just like you were either
5:43
you were the instructor or you go up to kind of like the
5:47
management or executive director role.
5:51
Those roles were already filled. And I didn't think those roles
5:54
were going to be open anytime soon because I mean, the
5:56
executive director, she, she owned the company and you know
5:59
that she was great. She was great at that.
6:00
And it was kind of like her thing.
6:02
And then there was a program manager who's been there for
6:05
years and she's not going to leave either.
6:08
So I kind of felt I just needed something new and I'm, I'm huge
6:13
about career advancement in any field that I do.
6:15
So even in education, if there was not an opportunity for me to
6:20
grow, I kind of just felt stuck and I hate the feeling of
6:23
feeling stuck. So I kind of was looking at
6:26
other fields out there that can kind of make me grow as both a
6:32
professional, grow as a person. So that's kind of what led me to
6:37
hospitality, but it was also kind of an accident as well or,
6:40
and it was that it was an accident, but it was also
6:42
something that I just had to do in a quick moment because I
6:46
needed something. And so how did you decide on
6:50
working in hospitality and restaurants?
6:54
So I have an. Accident.
6:56
Well, this happened all during COVID.
7:00
So when the pandemic hit, I was looking for other jobs because I
7:07
had just left my previous company and I was kind of
7:10
looking at other opportunities to grow.
7:13
And this was all right. When the pandemic was hitting,
7:16
this was like beginning 2020. And I was in a way, I was
7:23
desperate for a job. And so I had a friend who felt
7:26
was said, hey, I work at a restaurant.
7:29
You know, I work here as a server assistant.
7:31
They're looking to hire another server assistant.
7:34
Are you willing to do this? And I said yes, because I needed
7:39
a job, because this was also the time when a lot of companies
7:41
were not hiring. There was like the big hiring
7:44
freeze again, pandemic. So I needed something.
7:49
And so I got hired as a server assistant the week before the
7:56
world shut down. Essentially when?
8:00
Oh wow. OK, so right at the beginning of
8:01
March. Yep, March 20, 2020, right at
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the beginning of March, I got hired and then I think a few
8:07
days after I got hired, but everything shut down.
8:12
So we had to, all the restaurants shut down.
8:16
Everything had a freeze. And So what happened?
8:22
Then? You're without a job again.
8:25
Well, no, so I still, they kept me on.
8:28
And so even though, even though the restaurants were closed like
8:34
4 in house guests, the restaurants are still operating,
8:38
you know, they were still doing all the to go stuff.
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You know, there were still things to be done.
8:44
And so they asked the select, they asked all the employees who
8:47
were working at the time, who wanted to work, who wanted to
8:50
come in and help with all this, to go stuff and everything.
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And I volunteered myself because I'm the type of person I cannot
8:56
stop working. I have to be doing something at
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all times. So I volunteered myself.
9:02
You know, there was very strict COVID protocols.
9:05
You know, we had to go and wear masks.
9:07
We had to take a COVID test every single day before going
9:09
into work. I went to wear gloves.
9:11
You know, there was very strict protocols for us to follow in
9:14
order for us to stay open. And so I was doing that.
9:18
You know, I was the person that was boxing up all the to go
9:21
food. I was the one that was helping
9:24
prepping all the food essentially.
9:26
I was doing a variety of different roles at that time
9:28
when the restaurants were completely shut down.
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So it's interesting to me that, and I understand now what you
9:36
mean when you say that you fell into it kind of accidentally,
9:39
like you were just looking for something.
9:40
You needed a job, you needed to be busy and productive, you
9:42
needed a paycheck. So OK, the restaurant
9:45
opportunity presented itself and boom, the world shuts down
9:49
because of COVID. And so now not only are you
9:52
learning a new job, but every, you and everybody around you are
9:57
learning how to operate in this new COVID world with all these
10:00
different restrictions and guidelines.
10:03
And so you know, that the, the stress of starting a new job on
10:07
top of doing it, you know, at the very start of the pandemic,
10:13
at what point during this process were you like, I, I
10:16
really love what I'm doing here. This is something I I think I
10:19
could see myself staying and building a career in.
10:23
It took me a while to figure that out because immediately
10:28
when I started in the restaurant during COVID, it was, it was
10:31
more so I just, I need a job, I need to be working.
10:34
And I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my
10:39
life, you know, what career I wanted to go.
10:42
And I was still trying to figure that out.
10:44
And so as I was figuring that out, I was like, you know what,
10:47
I need to keep working. I need to really just keep
10:50
myself busy. But then there was a moment in
10:54
the restaurants where I actually really started to enjoy it just
10:58
because of the people that I was working with.
11:00
So about, I think it was around May or June of 2020, I can't
11:05
remember exactly when the restaurants opened back up
11:08
again. You know, when they lifted up
11:10
all the COVID restrictions, we were able to, we were able to
11:14
allow people to come back in at a very limited capacity.
11:18
So, you know, still very strict COVID protocols, you know, table
11:22
spacing, you can only allow like a certain amount of people in
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the dining room. And at that time I was still
11:30
technically a server assistant. So I was really more so helping
11:34
the kitchen with, you know, running food out of the out of
11:38
the kitchen or helping servers bust their tables, water their
11:42
tables, stuff like kind of things like that.
11:44
But in that moment, I kind of enjoyed the interacting with
11:48
people both from a staff, like a staff perspective and from like
11:54
guest perspective. And so I just enjoyed talking to
11:57
people. And then I kind of realized at
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this moment I was like, OK, maybe I can really see myself
12:02
exploring a career in hospitality in some way or form.
12:06
Now. I didn't know what that looked
12:07
like at the time, but I was like, let me stick through this.
12:11
So I did that for a little about server assistant for about maybe
12:16
I want to say 6-6, yeah, six months for and then I kind of
12:22
went up to my management team. It's like I want to become a
12:25
server. And so they trained to be a
12:28
server and I surveyed is where I really enjoyed interacting with
12:34
people. You know, that was the one thing
12:36
about education that I enjoyed was that, you know, interacting
12:40
with people because I'm the type of person that has to really be
12:45
talking to people, engaging, you know, I'm all about building
12:47
relationships. And so as a server, I love that,
12:52
you know, I was building a relationship with guests.
12:53
You know, I had my regulars that would come in.
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They're like, say, hey, can we sit with William?
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That made me feel good. And that made me realize that,
13:00
OK, maybe there's something in this still.
13:03
At the time, I didn't know what that was.
13:05
I don't know if I was like, maybe serving is a, you know, a
13:08
career for serving is a career for a lot of people and people
13:11
really thrive in that. So like, maybe this is kind of
13:15
where I wanted to lead. So I was still trying to figure
13:18
out what hospitality was doing for me.
13:22
OK. This first job that you had in a
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restaurant, was it with 00 or one of the CHG restaurants or
13:28
did that come about later? It was with CHG, it was at Cooks
13:32
and Soldiers. OK, that's where I started my
13:35
first restaurant job ever had. No, not even like in high school
13:40
or anything have I worked in restaurants.
13:42
You know, I've always worked in non profit settings.
13:46
I worked at like the YMCA, like I mentioned, I used to work for
13:48
a museum, I worked for a library.
13:50
You know, all of these are like non, you know, settings where
13:53
I'm not dealing with food. So I have no experience with
13:56
like serving or like alcohol or beverage knowledge.
14:02
None of that. I basically had to start from
14:03
scratch. Yeah.
14:05
OK. So when did the opportunity come
14:08
about for you to take some kind of a management position?
14:13
So I, as I was serving, I was kind of looking at other kind of
14:19
career options I was doing. And so I stumbled upon a project
14:21
management course through Emory. So I was like, let me take this
14:26
out because I was talking to, I was talking to kind of like a, a
14:32
career kind of coach and a wake to kind of see what my journey
14:37
was going to be. And we kind of stumbled upon
14:39
like a project management kind of role.
14:42
And I was like, OK, let me look at this.
14:43
So I started exploring project management.
14:46
So I did, I think it was like a six month course where I did,
14:53
you know, online training for project management.
14:55
I got my certification. So around this time, I was still
14:58
working at the restaurant as a server and I was talking to one
15:01
of the general manager at the time saying I was doing like
15:05
project management, you know, I was trying to see what my career
15:07
would look like. She and then she was the one
15:09
that told me that in hospitality they look for project managers,
15:14
you know, they look for people to help open restaurants, you
15:17
know, repairs and maintenance of buildings.
15:19
And I never thought about it like that.
15:21
I always thought like project management was, you know, you
15:23
either go to the tech industry or construction.
15:26
I didn't never thought about doing at restaurants.
15:28
And so I was very intrigued by that.
15:29
I was like, well, if I'm joined working in the hospitality right
15:33
now, because I like interacting with people, maybe there's a
15:35
career path for me with project management.
15:39
So she was the one that told me like you should really talk to,
15:42
you know, the kind of the corporate team and see like what
15:46
that could look for you. She told me like they'll
15:47
probably want you to start off as like a dining room manager
15:51
and then work your way up to project management.
15:54
And I was like, let's try it, You know, I'm enjoying
15:59
disturbing. I'm enjoying talking to people.
16:01
Let's, let's give it a shot. Let's I'm willing to have the
16:05
conversation, essentially. It's so interesting to me,
16:08
William, that you started this project management course
16:12
thinking that this is going to open up some doors for you
16:15
outside of the restaurant industry, right?
16:17
And then this sort of, I don't know, side conversation that
16:20
happens. It's like, Oh no, we look for
16:23
that kind of skill and that kind of experience here in the
16:26
restaurant business. And so.
16:29
How it just kind of lined up like that seemed sort of
16:32
serendipitous. In a way, it kind of seemed like
16:37
fate in a way, because I was already thinking about how I was
16:40
enjoying hospitality and then this opportunity comes up.
16:44
I was like, maybe this is something I can consider.
16:47
So it it just felt like in the moment I had to give it a shot.
16:50
Even if it wasn't for me, I I want to at least still have the
16:54
conversation of saying I'm going to try it.
16:57
Yeah. So, OK, March of 2020, you get
17:02
your first job in any kind of a restaurant setting.
17:06
When did you actually take on the general manager role at 00?
17:12
So that was actually I became the general manager in August of
17:17
2024. So I actually became an actual
17:23
manager for the company in March of 2022.
17:28
That's when I started managing. That was the dining room manager
17:31
position. That was the. 1st that was the
17:32
dining room manager at Cooks and Soldiers, Yes.
17:36
And then what were the other sort of stepping stones before
17:38
you got to general manager at 00 in August of 20?
17:41
Four, I was the dining room manager at Cooks and Soldiers,
17:45
and then I got promoted to do the assistant general manager at
17:48
Cooks and Soldiers. And so then your first time
17:51
going in the into the 00 restaurant was as the the GM.
17:56
Correct. Yes.
17:57
OK, what was what was the biggest challenge that you
18:03
remember going through in transitioning not only rolls,
18:08
but to a completely different restaurant?
18:13
I there's two, there's 2 answers on my I have to have that
18:17
question. The first answer.
18:18
I think the biggest transition from going to a manager is
18:22
definitely going from a line level employee to a manager.
18:27
That is definitely a challenge because you have to get out of
18:32
the mindset. It was like, OK, I am no longer
18:34
a server anymore, you know, I'm a manager.
18:36
I have to go in with a different mindset.
18:39
You know, there are time. There were times where I had to
18:42
make decisions where like, OK, you know, I don't 100%, you
18:48
know, agree with it or I don't 100%, you know, think this the
18:52
stops interview with it. But as a manager, you have to be
18:54
able to kind of adapt. And so that was definitely a
18:57
challenge of getting out of that mindset.
19:00
And then when you transition from like from, for example,
19:03
when I transitioned from cooks and Soldiers to 00, I think the
19:06
biggest challenge that I had was to it's like two different
19:12
settings, two different cultures, you know, two
19:14
different kind of cuisines, there's two different styles.
19:19
And so it's like you've got to kind of adjust your thinking
19:21
from the style of cooks and soldiers to the style of 00.
19:25
So that was definitely the challenge for me.
19:28
Yeah. Any as you look back now and
19:31
what you kind of learn going through each of those
19:33
transitions, somebody else that's listening that may, you
19:38
know, have similar aspirations, what would be a piece of advice
19:42
that you could give to them? I would definitely the piece of
19:47
advice I would give is to really it's find a mentor.
19:53
Essentially. I think that was the one thing
19:56
that I enjoyed having was like I had people to kind of mentor me
20:01
into a management kind of role. You know, there was a lot of
20:04
people who guided me. There was a lot of people who
20:06
supported me either if it is either previous manager or
20:09
previous managers or people from my corporate team, you know,
20:12
they really invested in me. So I really think finding that
20:16
mentor, someone that you can trust and rely on to help you
20:20
and that you can fall back upon someone's like, OK, this is
20:23
hard. Give me can you give me some
20:25
advice? Really find someone that you can
20:28
trust, essentially. Who were your mentors along the
20:32
way? Who do you want to give a shout
20:34
out to? So there were definitely, there
20:38
were a couple people. I would really want to thank the
20:41
manager that kind of guided me into this manager.
20:45
Her name was JoJo. She was a general manager over
20:47
at Soldiers. She was really kind of helpful
20:50
in my development into coming into this role.
20:55
Well, really the Cass Blue Cheese as a whole have really
20:58
been super helpful. They have super helpful.
21:00
They've really invested their time in me and that means a lot.
21:07
So I really want to kind of just give a shout out to them.
21:10
Great. OK.
21:11
So now explain to us for those who have never been the 00 brand
21:18
and the customer dining experience there?
21:21
So 00 is I like to describe it as like a modern Italian pizza
21:28
restaurant. So we specialize in our our
21:32
pizzas. We have our traditional pizza
21:35
ovens that come right out of enables Italy suture traditional
21:39
Neapolitan pizzas. You know, we use 00 flour.
21:43
So essentially with that you get more kind of your traditional
21:47
Italian dough. I think the one thing that sets
21:49
us apart with a lot of other pizza restaurants that I've been
21:53
to in Atlanta is, you know, we use our, we use scissors to cut
21:56
your pizza essentially, you know, we hand scissors to the
21:59
guests because it keeps the integrity of that dough.
22:03
And I think the one of the greatest things I've learned so
22:06
far about the process of making the dough a 00 is they have been
22:11
using this what's called like a wild yeast starter that they
22:16
used to make the dough. So basically it's each day when
22:20
they make it, the leftover dough that they use from the previous
22:23
night is used the next day to make the to make the dough.
22:28
And then they just feed it every day with like flour and water.
22:32
And this yeast starter or this dough has been around for over
22:36
100 years. And so it's like A and.
22:39
So you guys just keep sort of not recycling it, but rekindling
22:44
it at at the end of every day you feed this wild yeast strain
22:48
and it fuels the the rising of the bread for the next day.
22:53
Exactly. Yeah.
22:54
And so I think it's just a cool process.
22:56
You know, I never thought about when, you know, how pizza is
23:01
made. And so I started working at 00,
23:03
and now it's a cool process, You know, to see it go into these
23:05
ovens to get nice traditional pizza, it's pretty cool.
23:10
What other kind of food do we find on the menu there?
23:14
You would definitely find your pasta dishes.
23:17
You'll have kind of like your traditional Bolognese or you'll
23:21
have risotto of some sort. Definitely more traditional
23:26
Italian dishes like chicken Parmesan or eggs and Parmesan.
23:31
But there's also dishes on there that are more, you know, kind of
23:35
like the chef's interpretation. You know, you'll have kind of
23:38
like a squidding pasta, you know, something that you don't
23:40
see a lot or, you know, you'll have your like a whole, well,
23:45
not really a whole fish, but you know, you'll have like your
23:47
salmon, you'll have like your steak.
23:50
I like that there's variety on the menu.
23:53
Yeah, I'm looking at the website here and how would you describe
23:57
the interior? It's very cool.
23:58
There's like a modern feel to it, but the to me the colors
24:02
seem very warm and inviting. Yeah, it's very warm and
24:07
inviting environment. I think the restaurant was
24:10
designed to be more of a neighborhood kind of spot.
24:15
And so when you come in, that's that's what it feels like.
24:19
It feels like a neighborhood kind of restaurant.
24:23
So 00 is kind of in the suburbs of Atlanta.
24:27
You know, there's a lot of housing in neighborhoods in the
24:29
area, but it's also next to Emory University, which is a
24:34
local university here in Atlanta.
24:36
So the clientele over there is very diverse.
24:39
You know, you get your college students who come in, you get
24:43
your families who bring in their children.
24:46
You also get your business dinners because we're located
24:48
near Emory. So you have a lot of professors
24:51
who come in to have like a cocktail or a drink right after,
24:56
right after work. You know, so the hospital is
24:58
there as well. So we do get a lot of doctors
25:00
and nurses who come in after shift and just kind of want to
25:03
relax. So it's definitely a
25:05
neighborhood spot. We cater to the families.
25:08
You know, we do have a foosball table in the area.
25:11
So we there's always kids or even sometimes you'll see like
25:14
professors or doctors and nurses playing foosball.
25:19
There's always something there for families to do.
25:24
Yeah. You know, again, looking at your
25:25
website here, you mentioned the cocktails that you know they
25:27
look beautiful and you know, it looks like you guys are using
25:30
fresh or like recently dried herbs like.
25:34
Real fruits. So these look pretty tasty.
25:38
And I'm also noticing, and maybe you mentioned this and I missed
25:40
it, William, but it's wood fired.
25:43
The the pizzas are wood fired. Yes, it's a wood fired pizza
25:47
oven. Yes.
25:48
Yeah. And the advantage of that is
25:49
what? I think you just get more, you
25:53
know, the kind of like the taste of the oven, you know, you
26:00
really taste the smokiness, you really taste the grillness.
26:03
You really get that dough where it needs to be compared to if
26:07
you use like a high like a conventional oven, you know, you
26:10
don't get the the feeling. So when you get it from a true
26:13
pizza oven, you really feel that pizza.
26:17
So 00 is one of the restaurants in the CHG, the Castellucci
26:22
Hospitality Group family. What do you feel kind of sets
26:26
CHG? Apart I think what says CHG part
26:32
is their investment in the staff and investment in their team.
26:39
I have worked with this company for about 5 years and many
26:45
different roles starting as a server is sent to server and not
26:49
to manager. And I think if there's one thing
26:52
that I've noticed is they really invest in their team and making
26:57
sure that they have the correct training, making sure that the
27:01
staff is cared for. They really think about what the
27:04
staff needs and kind of plays on that.
27:08
See more about that because you know, a lot of the business
27:10
owners that I talked to and business leaders it, you know,
27:13
they say it's still a pretty tight labor market in a lot of
27:16
places. And so finding and retaining
27:19
good folks is often a challenge. What is it that you guys are
27:26
doing there at CHG? First of all, to kind of
27:28
identify, find those good folks in the 1st place.
27:31
And then, you know, you talked about they're really in tune
27:34
with giving their employees what they need.
27:36
Maybe you can say a little bit more about that.
27:39
I really honestly think it starts kind of with the hiring
27:43
process. You know, one thing that I've
27:46
been doing lately with the hiring is seeing with who fits
27:51
our mission. And you said it in my
27:54
introduction, you know, passionately pursuing the
27:56
perfect dying experience one guest at a time.
27:59
And so in doing so, if you follow that mission and your
28:03
interview process, you're going to find people.
28:06
And so anytime I do an interview, I kind of make sure
28:10
to address that as like we have this Mr. Statement that we
28:14
follow and we also have our values that we follow as well.
28:18
A couple is, you know, investing in relationships, really showing
28:26
grit, you know, checking your ego, just to name a few.
28:29
And if you do that in the hiring prosperous to talk about that
28:34
the people that will come in will really, you know, show
28:40
their passion. It's all about finding people
28:43
who are passionate about really providing a great dining
28:46
experience. And then from there, you know,
28:49
really invest in in that person, listening to their needs, seeing
28:54
what they're good at, playing on their strengths, seeing what
28:56
they're not good at and seeing how can we improve on that.
29:00
You know, I like this. I always say, you know,
29:02
restaurants are nothing without the team.
29:05
You know, if you don't have servers, if you don't have
29:08
bartenders or if you don't have cooks or services, you know, you
29:12
don't have a restaurant. You need to have people driving
29:16
that. So really investing in them,
29:18
making sure that they are taken care of.
29:21
You know you don't have to. The guests are taken care of.
29:30
William, is there a specific innovation or maybe a new
29:34
approach that you spearheaded that has significantly improved
29:40
service or or made a tangible difference in how guests
29:44
interact with the restaurant? I'm.
29:48
Sorry, can you repeat that again?
29:50
Yeah. I'm curious if maybe there's a
29:52
specific innovation or a new approach that you kind of
29:57
spearheaded there that improved service or made a a tangible
30:02
notable difference in how guests interact with the restaurant.
30:07
Yeah. So I don't know, it's really
30:10
it's a new approach. I mean, it's approach that I
30:12
kind of learned in teaching and it my time in educating, it's
30:18
when I call, it's like you model the behavior.
30:21
So it's like the I say, what I call it is the I do, we do and
30:28
then you do. So basically it's a kind of
30:31
three-step process. So the I do is I model what
30:37
needs to be done. So for example, if I'm showing
30:40
someone how to open a bottle of wine, I make sure I model the
30:45
behavior for them or not. Well, I say behavior, but you
30:49
know, or model the skill for them.
30:51
And then the we do is we do it together.
30:54
That can be either, you know, doing at a table you, you know,
30:59
well, you shout on me and and then you finish it off.
31:02
Or if we're just still in training, you know, do it
31:04
together, We'll work on it. And then the you do, if you do
31:08
by yourself, let's see what you learned and take it upon
31:13
yourself and then. Sorry, a sort of a model or a
31:18
process that you've kind of learned from your education
31:20
background? Yes.
31:23
That was the one that you kind of stepped with me in my
31:26
education background. Is that three steps that I do?
31:28
We do, you do. And I try to implement that as
31:31
much as possible in hospitality. There are times where it is kind
31:35
of impossible because of what saying it is, but there are
31:38
times where it is possible, especially when you're, you
31:41
know, doing trainings. When I teach someone wine every
31:44
day, I, when I, when I try to teach people wine, I, I give the
31:49
information and then I have to give a bit, give them
31:52
information back to me, either like in a mock server setting
31:56
or, you know, just randomly like, hey, what did we just talk
31:59
about? So I think that's a model that
32:02
I've been using or a technique that I've been trying to do in
32:05
the restaurants. I'm curious if you found any
32:08
other ways to sort of parlay your skills and your learnings
32:13
from the your time and education into what you do now in the
32:17
restaurant industry? Yeah, I mean, there's the
32:22
biggest thing that I've seen as both in education and
32:25
hospitality is training. You know, there's nothing.
32:32
If you don't train, you got nothing.
32:36
And so if I, in my previous job when I was teaching people how
32:40
to find jobs, you know, I had to do a lot of training.
32:44
I had to train them how to develop a resume.
32:46
I had to train them how to conduct, conduct themselves in
32:49
interviews. To this day, I'm, I feel like
32:53
I'm still doing that stuff, you know, in the restaurants, I'm
32:55
still training people on both restaurant skills, but also on
32:58
life skills. Because where I'm currently
33:02
working at 00, my staff right now is mostly, you know, young
33:06
adults who are still trying to figure out kind of what they
33:09
want to do in life. You know, most of them are still
33:11
in college trying to figure out what their next steps is.
33:14
And in a way, I feel like I'm trying to help them train to
33:18
become what's going to happen to them, like outside the
33:21
restaurants because I know that's not going to be their
33:25
full time gig. You know, I got to train them
33:29
for life outside the restaurants and how can I develop them into
33:36
leaders in the future or whatever they decide to do.
33:38
Yeah, just kind of giving them better life skills, just sort of
33:42
training them to become better human beings.
33:45
Exactly. So William took the general
33:48
manager position in August 2024. We're recording this interview
33:51
in January of 2025. S still relatively new on the
33:55
job. I'm going to leap forward.
33:58
I don't know how many years because, you know, you've still
34:00
got things that I'm sure that you want to do there, that you
34:03
want to learn, that you want to, you know, develop your own
34:06
skills. But as you look down the road,
34:09
what is a possible next step for you?
34:13
Because you've said a lot about how you always want to grow.
34:17
You don't want to remain static. What could a future step look
34:21
like? I definitely want to stick in
34:25
hospitality. I feel, I'm feeling that I do
34:28
want to venture into the realm of helping to open restaurants,
34:33
whatever that may look like. That's definitely something that
34:36
I am still interested in. There's always opportunity there
34:41
because I feel like when you help in help open new
34:44
restaurants, you're starting fresh and you can really mold
34:48
something into what you want it to be.
34:53
So again, it goes back to the training essentially.
34:57
And so if I help open a new restaurant, I feel like I could
34:59
train the staff. It's like a blank slate and kind
35:02
of train them to where I think they should be.
35:07
So William, part of Ch GS philosophy involves community
35:12
involvement, philanthropic efforts.
35:15
Can you give some specific examples of those?
35:19
Yeah. So CHG, recently one of the one
35:23
of the most things they've done is partnered up with the Giving
35:26
Kitchen, which is a local organization that supports
35:31
hospitality workers. So we've been kind of, we did, I
35:36
can't remember when it was, but we did a day where we do know
35:44
that each restaurant donated 3% of their sales to The Given
35:50
Kitchen. And the Given Kitchen was one of
35:53
the organizations, organizations that helped during COVID for
35:58
hospitality workers that were struggling.
36:01
So that was definitely one that they kind of took investment in.
36:07
And then every month they have like these Wellness activities
36:12
where they go out in the community and they try to get as
36:14
much employees to come in to kind of go help the community as
36:18
well. So for example, there were times
36:20
where they went to go help out a homeless shelter.
36:24
There was times where they went to go help at a animal shelter.
36:27
So every month they try to do some type of Wellness or
36:31
community engagement with the staff.
36:37
How do you see? I don't know, that ethos kind of
36:40
trickled down into your day-to-day role as you try to
36:45
inspire team culture there. How do I see that every day?
36:51
Yeah. How do you, how does that sort
36:54
of ethos that comes from CHG at the top of, you know, community
37:00
involvement, philanthropic efforts, helping people who need
37:04
help? How do you, I don't know, see
37:06
that sort of trickle down into your work and you know, kind of
37:10
how the other employees show up? Yeah, I mean, I try to every
37:17
time I go into work, I go in knowing that it's it's not, it's
37:23
not about me. It's about it's about my staff
37:26
and it's about the guest experience.
37:29
And so I try to go into work every day kind of inspiring that
37:33
is like, I'm not going to go in thinking like this is all about
37:37
me. I got to go in thinking about, I
37:38
got to think about what the staff needs and I got to think
37:41
about what the guest needs because we're, we're in the
37:44
business of hospitality. So essentially by us providing
37:49
food to people, you know, we're given a service.
37:51
So I feel like every day, you know, we're doing that.
37:54
And so as long as I inspire others, it's like, hey, we're
37:58
doing something for the community.
37:59
You know, we're giving people a good time.
38:02
You know, this is Google OPS E. You know, it's an opportunity
38:05
for them to just forget life, you know, at work, you know, you
38:12
just want to come in and enjoy themselves.
38:14
And so I try to inspire that as like, let's just, you know, put
38:18
it aside. Let's let's think about the
38:21
guests, let's think about the staff, you know, let's see what
38:24
their what the biggest need is. Yeah.
38:28
You know, William, growth often comes from our biggest
38:31
challenge. What's a serious challenge that
38:35
you had to overcome either in business or your personal life?
38:39
I'd be interested in hearing some of the practical steps that
38:43
helped you overcome that challenge and then.
38:46
What you. Learned from that experience.
38:49
So biggest challenge for me is I have a lot of anxiety, a lot of
38:56
self doubt and in me I am a very, you know, doubtful person.
39:03
There have been times where I got I'm not good enough, I'm not
39:09
doing well. I'm just terrible at my job and
39:14
I'm to be, and I'm being completely honest with you right
39:16
now, there are times where I still think that to this day, I
39:19
still think that I still suffer from anxiety.
39:24
I struggle with it every day. But something I have to tell
39:28
myself is that you have to, even though I live with this anxiety,
39:33
you have to overcome it. So in a way, I'm having a
39:36
conversation with my inner self. He's like, how can I overcome
39:41
this? So a couple, you know, a couple
39:45
of things I've been working on is, you know, just taking time
39:48
to myself. You know, it's always important
39:51
to have that work life balance. And then really just talking it
39:57
out with people. I've been work, I have my family
40:01
that I can rely upon. I have my friends that I can
40:04
speak to. I'm currently working with like
40:06
a leadership coach that's really helping me kind of develop
40:10
myself as both a person and as a leader.
40:13
So really kind of taking time to myself to kind of get this self
40:19
doubt out of not saying out of my body, but to live with it but
40:23
not let it overcome me. I'm so glad that you brought
40:29
this up, William. Thank you for that.
40:31
Because it's, you know, it, it's the kind of thing that so many
40:35
people are dealing with kind of behind the curtain, right behind
40:38
the scenes that we don't talk about because we're afraid of
40:43
how we'll be viewed. We, you know, we don't want to
40:46
be seen as weak. And in reality, you're not weak.
40:50
There's nothing wrong with you. It's natural human traits.
40:53
And so the more that we talk about this kind of stuff, give
40:56
voice to it, I think it empowers other people to sort of confront
41:01
the same kinds of things that they're dealing with, You know,
41:06
the anxiety that goes on. You didn't use this term, but
41:12
you basically, you know, you talk about imposter syndrome.
41:16
Yeah. And I hear a lot of high
41:18
performers that deal with that on a regular basis.
41:22
And there's this negative chatter in their heads that says
41:26
I'm not good enough, I'm not doing this right.
41:29
You know, I I'm an idiot, I'm going to fail, you know,
41:31
whatever that sort of sounds like.
41:33
It's really talking down and it's really weighing down
41:37
heavily on you and I, and I think you know, you, you sort of
41:42
talked about this inner dialogue that you're dealing with, right?
41:46
You've got this negative voice and you can't get rid of it,
41:49
right? It's not going away.
41:51
So how do you sort of quiet the voice, right?
41:55
And how do you tell sort of the other voice in your head that
41:58
just because you're hearing these negative thoughts doesn't
42:00
mean that they're true, right? Is that, is that kind of part of
42:04
the process? Is that sort of part of the way
42:05
that you think about this? It is, yeah.
42:08
Because because you mentioned saying how, how do you quiet
42:12
that voice? And, and for me, there's no way
42:16
to, there's no way to quiet that voice.
42:19
You know, that voice is always taking space in my mind, but the
42:25
other voices in my head need to be like, shut up.
42:29
Like you got this. So there's just no way to quiet
42:33
that voice. It's more so hot.
42:34
How do I overcome that? And I, I, there's, I don't know
42:41
what the answer is because I'm still trying to figure that out
42:44
because I'm still struggling with it.
42:47
Like even in this interview right now, it's just like I, I'm
42:50
experiencing a lot of, you know, self doubts.
42:52
Like am I conducting myself in a way I should be conducting
42:55
myself right now? You know, am I saying the right
42:59
things? Am I saying something wrong?
43:01
I'm like, am I going to leave this interview right now and be,
43:05
oh, crap, you know, I should have said this or oh, crap, I
43:09
shouldn't have said this. You know, it's like, did I not
43:12
convey when I want to convey properly?
43:15
So but then I got to think to myself, you can't take it too
43:19
seriously. You know, you just got to be
43:22
yourself. And so that's what the other
43:25
boys are telling me. You, you got to be you, you
43:28
know, be your true self. Everyone makes mistakes.
43:32
No one's perfect. It's you just learn from it
43:38
well. First of all, if I can help to
43:39
quiet that voice in this moment, I will tell you that you're
43:42
doing a fantastic job. We've we've really touched on a
43:45
lot of great topics here. So if, if that voice can hear
43:49
me, please be quiet. Yeah, yeah.
43:52
It's doing great. But, you know, I could maybe
43:55
offer a couple of suggestions just, you know, from my own
43:57
experiences as well as the countless people that I've had a
44:01
chance to talk with. You know, I had a guest not too
44:04
long ago who actually credited this idea of imposter syndrome
44:10
with being his superpower. He had sort of figured out a way
44:16
to kind of flip his relationship with that negative voice.
44:20
And rather than right, trying to make it, you know, tamp it down,
44:24
make it be quiet, or you're fighting with it or you're
44:26
wrestling with it, it's more like this is part of what fuels
44:31
me to get up out of bed every day and find a way to do things
44:37
better. You know, without my voice,
44:41
without some semblance of that voice there, maybe you just wake
44:45
up every day and you're just perfectly content and happy and
44:48
the world's perfect and you're not going to strive for more.
44:51
It's theory. I don't know.
44:53
Yeah. With that voice there, you know,
44:55
if you can kind of, you know, sort of turn it around a little
44:58
bit and be, oh, a little bit grateful for.
45:01
OK, thank you for that message. I'm going to process that.
45:04
I'm going to take parts of that and see, you know, how I can
45:07
implement that in my day and find a better way to do my job
45:12
and to show up better for my customers and and my employees.
45:16
Yeah. Is there any element of that
45:20
that's rings true to you? I mean, pretty much everything
45:26
that you just said kind of resonates with me.
45:29
You know, I've been, I feel like I've been going through a little
45:31
bit of imposter syndrome kind of pretty recently, especially more
45:36
so now that I, I am a general manager of a restaurant.
45:41
Because as a general manager, you have a lot more
45:44
responsibilities. You know, you're, you're the
45:46
face of a restaurant. And so in a way, I feel like, I
45:50
feel like I have to be a different person at times.
45:54
And I feel like there's times where I'm not being myself.
45:59
And I kind of don't like that feeling because I do want to be
46:03
myself because I'm in this role for a reason.
46:07
This is, this is what the company saw of me.
46:10
They saw that I have it. You know, they believed in me.
46:15
Now I just got to show them that.
46:17
Now it's like a question is, did they believe, you know, this
46:21
imposter or did they believe me? Now I know they didn't believe
46:24
the imposter. They believed in me because they
46:26
know who I am as a person. Right.
46:28
But then my the the self down my head is just like.
46:32
That's not true. Yeah.
46:34
That's not. Interesting because you've got,
46:37
you know, several years worth of proof of history that shows your
46:44
skill and your competence, right?
46:46
You, you came in at the ground level, didn't know what you were
46:48
doing, had no background in the restaurant industry, worked your
46:51
way up to server, then dining room manager, then assistant
46:55
manager, and then general manager of your own restaurant.
46:59
Like those things didn't happen accidentally, right?
47:02
Exactly. Yeah.
47:04
And that again, that's just that's what it is, right There
47:08
is like people, you have people who believe in you, you have
47:12
people who see it, you know, get the self doubt on your mind.
47:17
Just be yourself. And ever since I've become a
47:21
general manager, I have to start thinking about, you know, I got,
47:24
I got to be myself, you know, I got to be true to who I am.
47:28
I got to fulfill the mission of what the company wants for the
47:31
restaurant. I got to fulfill the mission of
47:33
what the restaurant is. I got to feel mission of what
47:36
the staff need. You know, I got to think about
47:39
the staff. I got to think about the guests.
47:41
You know, I can't think about myself truly.
47:44
I got to think about, you know, everything as a whole.
47:49
Shifting gears, William, if you were to recommend one resource,
47:54
a book, a course, a podcast, something along those lines to
47:58
help someone grow as a person, yeah, grow in their career path,
48:04
what would that be? So there was this book that I
48:09
read, it's called From Good to Great.
48:12
I can't remember who the author is right now, but so the CHG,
48:18
they had this kind of leadership kind of seminar with managers
48:24
where we all kind of got together and we kind of
48:27
discussed leadership. And so there was a book that we
48:29
had to read and it was From Good to Great.
48:32
And I really enjoyed reading that because it gives you a lot
48:37
of stories about different industries, not not just about
48:41
hospitality, but like other industries who are developing
48:46
people as leaders and kind of the steps they took.
48:49
So that the main kind of framework is how do we come from
48:54
someone who is like a good leader to a great leader?
49:00
It's been, it's been a couple of years since I've read it, but
49:04
when I was reading it, it really was a great resource for me,
49:08
especially coming from someone who has no experience in
49:12
hospitality, who was a leader in a very different field.
49:15
You know, I was a leader in, you know, education and now being a
49:19
leader in hospitality and seeing what now the two industries are
49:26
similar to, but also very different.
49:29
And that book kind of put everything together.
49:33
Yeah, the author, Jim Collins, is the author's name.
49:37
And I'll second the recommendation for this book.
49:40
It's been a while since I've read it, but it's it's a great
49:42
read and super valuable for folks.
49:49
I think I've just got. Oh, actually, no.
49:51
But before I do that, let's do something kind of fun,
49:54
interesting, maybe a different fact, A fun, interesting fact
49:57
that people don't know about you, William.
50:01
Oh God. So I mean, I am very known.
50:12
I mean, I guess it's not known to like people who kind of work
50:16
me and everything, but I am very much into pop culture.
50:19
It's kind of like, I'm not saying obsession, but I can
50:25
consider myself kind of like a pop culture kind of nerd in a
50:28
way. I'm always up to date with kind
50:31
of like what's happening in pop culture, you know, with movies,
50:34
TV shows and all that stuff. Like every time I go to trivia
50:39
with my friends, we do it every Tuesday.
50:41
Anytime there's like a pop culture round, I pretty much
50:44
know everything. And they always kind of make fun
50:48
of you for that 'cause it's just useless information that you
50:51
would think no one knows. And I was like, Oh, well, you
50:53
know, this happened in the news or this, you know, this
50:55
happened. And so they always kind of joke
50:59
with me about my pop culture kind of knowledge.
51:02
Like they'd say I need to go on like pop culture Jeopardy.
51:05
And then I would dominate it. And I'm like, I'm like, OK, you
51:08
know, maybe. If that were a thing, sign me
51:10
up, right? It actually is a thing.
51:13
It was. There's a now, yeah, there's a
51:15
spin off of Jeopardy. It is on.
51:17
It's pop culture Jeopardy. And so they have it in teams.
51:20
And so I'm thinking of like maybe I should sign up for the
51:21
next season. So do it, you'll see.
51:25
And we'll have your Jeopardy on that experience.
51:27
Exactly. Maybe you'll see me on pop
51:29
culture Jeopardy at at some point in the future if it
51:31
continues so well. One of the reasons I'm laughing
51:34
is because, William, I am at the exact opposite end of that
51:38
spectrum. My wife rolls her eyes at how
51:42
little I seem to know about musicians.
51:46
Celebrity. That's what you mean when you
51:48
talk about pop culture, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:51
Like we'll see somebody in a movie and I'll be like, who is
51:55
that? They're really good.
51:56
And she's like, really? You don't know who that is.
51:59
Like they, you know, they've won an Oscar.
52:01
Like they're, you know, they're everywhere.
52:02
I'm like, Nah, I'm sorry. I don't.
52:06
Know I have been called the human IMDb, so I don't know if
52:12
you know what IMDb is. Yeah, the Movie Database.
52:14
Yeah, yeah, I've been called the human IMDb so.
52:20
All right, that's fun. One more question for you,
52:23
William. But before I ask, I want to do 2
52:25
things for everybody listening. Please hit the follow button on
52:28
your favorite podcast app. You love today's content?
52:31
William's been a great guest. You want to get more content
52:34
like this, please hit that follow button.
52:36
That ensures that you will be up to date on what's coming.
52:39
William, I also want to let people know the best way to get
52:42
in touch with you or continue to follow your story.
52:44
What would that be? Yeah, so I am on LinkedIn.
52:49
If people want to comment LinkedIn, you know, just type in
52:52
my name, my my profile should show up.
52:56
I am on Instagram even though I barely use it.
53:02
But to really kind of stay up to date.
53:03
I'm kind of like my professional kind of journey would definitely
53:08
be through LinkedIn. Great.
53:10
We'll include that link in the show notes for folks.
53:12
Yeah. So last question for you,
53:14
William. As you look forward, what
53:17
emerging trends, technologies, new guest experiences, changes
53:22
in general coming to the hospitality industry excites you
53:27
the most? I feel like there's always new,
53:32
new trends happening in hospitality.
53:34
You know, one of the newest trends that I've noticed
53:38
recently is QR codes now that people can use to like pay for
53:44
their bills. So we do have that trend and I
53:47
do think I like that because it gives it's an opportunity for
53:53
the guests to kind of just pay through their phone because no
53:55
one carries wallets anymore or carries their I DS everything to
53:59
their phone. And so it really is an
54:03
opportunity for the guests to just do everything digitally.
54:08
And also it is an opportunity for kind of what we call in the
54:14
restaurant industry, like turning tables.
54:17
So there's a higher rate of people leaving to get the next
54:20
table to sit down if people use QR codes.
54:24
So that's definitely kind of a new practice that is definitely
54:28
interesting. But there's also new like
54:33
systems coming out for hospitality, like new POS
54:36
systems that I'm very excited about learning about.
54:39
There's only something new and I really want to see how
54:44
technology and hospitality kind of coincide with each other.
54:50
Going back to that faster turnover of tables, that's a big
54:53
deal in the restaurant industry. It is, yeah.
54:56
Being able to turn that faster. Do you have any data that maybe
55:01
specifies like how much faster the tables turnover like 4
55:05
minutes or something is is? Do you have any data to back
55:08
that up? I don't have it on me, but I
55:11
remember when I was 'cause there's a couple that I came in
55:15
that was kind of teaching us about it.
55:17
They said that that if people use the QR codes, you know,
55:22
there's higher chance for them to get up the table quicker
55:27
because they don't have to wait for the server to like, come
55:30
grab the car. Exactly.
55:32
Yeah, exactly. So that could take on, that
55:35
could take like one or two minutes, you know, 'cause
55:37
sometimes if they're waiting for the server, it could be like no
55:40
longer, especially on busy nights.
55:42
But if they had the QR code, it could take about 10 seconds and
55:46
boom, they're gone. And then you have the next table
55:48
in that seat within a minute. Makes a lot of sense.
55:51
I'm curious if you yourself or if you've heard of CHG sort of
55:57
higher level management employing AI in any way in in
56:02
the company yet? No, and I don't think that's
56:06
going to happen. I mean, I don't know how AI
56:11
works in hospitality, to be 100% honest with you, because I feel
56:17
like when you use AI kind of takes the hospitality out of it.
56:22
Because I feel like for hospitality, you know, the whole
56:25
purpose is that you're seeing an actual person.
56:31
You know, you want that human interaction.
56:35
So I don't think AI is going to be coming in too CHG or you
56:39
know. I've heard some businesses using
56:41
it kind of on the the back end to evaluate customer data,
56:46
marketing data, maybe to come up with some of the, you know, help
56:49
to enhance some of the marketing schemes practices that they're
56:54
using. Those are some of the ways that
56:57
I've heard folks talk about it. But I think you're absolutely
57:00
right, especially in a nice sit down environment like you know,
57:03
you guys have with CHG restaurants, we're not going in
57:07
there to be served by robots, right?
57:09
We want that interaction, we want that experience.
57:12
That's why we've been coming back out of our homes and coming
57:15
back into the restaurants. We like that.
57:17
Well, Even so, it's just like with kind of like AI well
57:21
outside like the whole robots that kind of wasn't thinking
57:25
about that, but I was more so thinking like, you know, you
57:26
have like your kiosk where you go up to a thing and then you
57:28
place your orders and everything.
57:33
I don't think that's going to be a model that's going to be
57:36
happening anytime soon all. Right.
57:39
Great. Well, William, I want to be the
57:40
first one to thank you for sharing with your time and your
57:43
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
57:46
Yeah. Thank you so much.
57:47
It was a great opportunity and I really do appreciate you taking
57:50
your time to kind of learning about me, learning about CHD and
57:54
00 and everything we talked about.
57:57
It's been my pleasure, folks. That's a wrap on another episode
58:00
of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
58:03
today.