Attract Like a Magnet

Well, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Tuesday Restaurant Accelerator call. Every Tuesday, Restaurant Accelerator groups get together. travel permitting. And what we do is we talk about, you know, tools, frameworks, things to get you going in the right direction. Now you hear me talk about, and you, you know, I know we kind of done a little like a rebrand as far as we taught the TRC Methods Foundation, the Foundations program. The reason we call it Foundations is I want you to remember it's kind of like a triad and a basically a real, like if you're building a house, you would start with your foundation and your foundational work's always gonna be found in the Restaurant Accelerator Prime program. This is your go-to frame or course that you go to every week. Now I know we have stuff like Restaurant Builder. We're doing this call today, which is actually called Restaurant Reboot. I want you to remember that the Accelerator Prime has all the tools that you need to be successful, and it's always going to be your fallback. So some of the stuff we're going to be talking about on the calls like today, some are a little bit more advanced as far as some of the things I'm going to talk about I've talked about in the Prime, but I'll reference it. So if I talk about something like, you know, the perfect job model or things like that, Those items are available in your Restaurant Accelerator Prime course. And of course, everything we do, if you want to win this game, it's quite simple. You got to follow the frame. And the frame luckily has been laid out for you step by step, piece by piece. We will give you the tools, the training, and the coaching. All you have to do is execute and implement. That being said, this call is called Reboot. Why is it called Reboot? Because we're actually digging deeper into the Ingredients book. And this is like the first part of the book. I always say Ingredients is like 2 books in one. And what do I mean by 2 books in one? The first part of Ingredients is all about the TRC method. And then the second part of the book is that total framework. That's that Monday call. When we talk about Restaurant Builder, that's the call we're doing on Monday. We're taking you step by step through the total framework on Mondays. Now that call is very, very technical. So it's a lot of frames. It's a longer call too, if you've noticed. The call tends to go like almost like an hour and a half because there's a lot of stuff to talk about on that Monday call. The replays are available in your members area. It is again a more of a tactical call where this call we're gonna really talk more about theory applications and stuff that's gonna help you really just kind of amplify and get everything going. Now, everyone on this call has a coach. You either coach with me. You're what I call the OG, or you coach with Coach Michael. But either way, there's some things we want to talk about today. So before I get into it, I'm going to lay down the law a little bit. So everyone buckle up for this shit. Ready? These are what I call the 12 Laws of the TRC Method. I'm sure Michael shared this with his group. Have you shared it with your team, with your, with your clients? Not yet? No, not yet. No, no. Oh good. This is a good introduction for everybody. There are 12 laws of the TRC method. Number 1, weekly growth is mandatory. Remember, you are here to grow. And again, we have the mindset of 1%, not 2%, not 3%, 1%. But weekly growth is mandatory. Your 515 must be on time. Everyone has a 515. If you've been in the program over 30 days— Crosby might be the only person on this call has gotten an exemption— but if you've been in the program 30 days or more, you must turn in a weekly 515. And it has to be on time. What does that mean by on time? That's 12 hours before your scheduled one-on-one call, not 12 minutes. Number 3, your one-on-one coaching call is not optional. Come on, people, you signed up for a coaching program. In the coaching program, I mean, you get access to all our materials in the website in your library, but this does not do anything if you don't have some accountability. That means you gotta show up for your one-on-one calls. Now, if you can't make your one-on-one call, we get it. I mean, things happen, life happens, accidents happen, people call in. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff goes on crazy. If you can't make your call, just at least message your coach, be respectful and text your coach and say, I can't make the call today. We would do the same for you. Like, if we can't make the call, like when I'm traveling, I will let people know I'm traveling today. Here's the link to my calendar. Please book a rebook call. I will, and I usually, I will go outta my way and clear out extra times on the weekends. And normally I don't work on Saturday. I usually take Saturday off for myself, but I will clear out time on Saturday to make it available so you can get your rebook, your, uh, your rebook call. I did that with Mark this last week. Yeah. Couldn't make the call. Hey man, I can't make the call. I'm traveling. I went to New York. Boom, boom, boom. Hey, here's my rethink. Hey, it's awesome. Perfect. Same thing. I've had plenty of people text me and say, hey, something popped up last minute. I can't make the call. Peter's actually You know, texted me and said, I can't make the call. Awesome. Just be respectful. That's all we're asking, right? But missing your call is not optional. You got to make your calls. And if you miss the call 3 times in a row, you will lose— like, if you have a designated time, let's say Michael and I have— we have our calls. Michael and I always have our calls too. Let's say you have a call like locked in every week, Tuesdays at 9:00 AM with your coach. And if you can't make your call, and if you miss that call 3 times in a row, you lose that 9 o'clock slot. And here's what I'll tell you. Time slots are very, very premium for a coach because everybody wants a certain time slot, and there's only certain— we only have so many time slots a day. So if you have a really great time slot that you love, well, be committed to showing up on your calls. You do not use your time slot. Another thing is no ghosting. That means don't go silent. And when do you guys go silent? You guys go silent when the shit hits the fan. And here's the thing. We all have stuff that happens, right? It's called life. I just had a recent thing that I'm going through with my daughter, and I mean, it just threw me in a tailspin. And but I'm here, I'm showing up, I'm doing what I need to do because I'm committed to coaching and helping you, right? But don't ghost. Please be respectful. And I will tell you right now, when you feel like you're going to go silent, that's when you really need to reach out to your coach. And remember, you can always reach out to either of us, Michael or I. And if it's an emergency, Text us the code word snakebite. We're more than happy to jump on a call as soon as we can. Number 5, own everything. We call this ownership. You have to own your shit, all of it, the good, the bad, the ugly, and have to be transparent with us. We can't help you if we don't know what the real problem is. And lately we've been finding out there are some people that have told us one thing, but, you know, they're hiding a few other things, like a couple skeletons in the closet. I'll tell you this about hiding skeletons in the closet. Eventually the closet gets full and it spills out. And when that closet of skeletons spills out, it starts wreaking havoc on everything, right? Number 6, operate with integrity. That means do what you say you're gonna do when you say you're gonna do it. Everyone knows what integrity means. Number 7, take bold actions weekly. That means do something that kind of makes you uncomfortable, that kind of scares you. You gotta push yourself outta the comfort zone. The only way you build resistance in the gym is lifting heavier weights. If I go to the gym I'm doing curls with only 5 pounds. Hey, my biceps aren't growing. It's because every week you go, Donald, you're only doing curls with 5 pounds. You got to like maybe go up to 7, maybe 10, maybe 20. You got to start building resistance. That means you got to start taking bold action every week. Number 8, practice what we call a warrior discipline. Discipline buys you freedom. Discipline is doing the things that you don't feel like doing, but you do them anyway. And you gotta be committed to that. Number 8, number 9, sorry. Share openly. We are here to coach you. And remember, when you're having a one-on-one call with your coach, it is a confidential conversation. We're not gonna go out and say, oh my God, Michael, you won't believe what Mark told me. All the shit he's going through. No, we don't. We don't. No, we don't do that. It's confidential. You have a safe space to talk to us about anything that's bothering you. And trust me, we've heard some really crazy stuff. So don't think you're gonna shock me. You know, okay, Andrew shocked me a couple months ago with something that happened at his restaurant, but that was the only time someone really shocked me for a while. It's been a while since I've been kind of shocked and awed by somebody. All right, number 10, stay coachable and stay hungry. Coachable means you're open to suggestions, you're open to ideas. Our job is to give you lots of different tools. Now, are all the tools and all the ideas we're gonna give you are gonna work for your restaurant? Probably not. But that's our job is to give you lots of different options. And then you wanna stay hungry. You gotta keep going and keep learning and keep doing it. You gotta dig in. You gotta be committed to learning, growing, and developing every week. Number 11, results matter more than excuses. Right. Your goldfish died. I feel sorry for your goldfish, but doesn't mean that you can't not do a module. Right? You gotta dig in. You gotta do the work. And then 12, always protect our standards. Right? We operate at a high level, and we will not compromise our standards to make you comfortable. That's the biggest thing you want to understand about Michael and I. We will not compromise our standards to make you comfortable. We're not yes people. If you want somebody who's gonna say, oh my God, that's the most brilliant thing I ever heard in the world. I mean, we're not the right coaching program for you. But if you want someone who's gonna give you real advice, raw, real, relevant, and make it applicable to your restaurant and get you results, then you're in the right spot. All right. That being said, this program, all our programs are about 2 things. It's all about results and implementation, but you only can get that through execution and also having an accountability. Right. So here's my question I wanna pose to you today. What if the quality of people you're getting to work isn't a reflection of them, but of us? I want you to understand that who, who you attract is really— it is a magnet. The energy and vibes you put out actually come back to you. And here's what I want you to say. And I— and the reason I'm doing this module this week is like, The last couple weeks, I hear a lot of excuses why I can't get good people. But here's what I want you to write down. If you keep attracting the wrong people, maybe, just, just maybe, I'm gonna throw it out there, and maybe it's a possibility, it's time to stop blaming the talent pool, start looking in the mirror, right? So you don't have a hiring problem. You have a standards problem. Okay. All right. Oh, damn. All right. Donald's coming out right with the guns right away. Boom. Let's go. All right. You don't have a hiring problem. You have a standards problem. I, you've said any of these over the last 6 months, you are in this boat. Donald, there's no good people out there. Michael, people just don't want to work anymore. Donald, I just can't afford to be picky right now. Then this module is your wake-up call. Because again, you don't have a hiring problem. You actually have an identity problem. You don't attract who you want. You attract who you are in your leadership, in your standards, in your culture. Hiring is not about luck. It's all about alignment. And the reason your restaurant keeps pulling in underperformers, the drama queens and kings, The people who ghost after 3 shifts is because your internal culture isn't broadcasting the right signal. Your magnet is basically attracting the crap, right? Or worse, you, you finally, you do kind of, you know, get that really great high performer. They show up and here's the thing, your team will probably rush them out or push them out because if your culture isn't designed to support, develop, and, and actually retain A-players, I mean, they'll, they'll snuff them out immediately and they run and they run fast. And here's the thing, this is not a quick fix. This is a full system recalibration, right? Today I'm going to help you kind of rebuild your whole kind of, I mean, really understand, rebuild your mindset about hiring. I'm going to help you design and really think about your ideal Team member avatar. We talk about this in marketing. I want you to think about this for your team. I'm gonna help you kind of rewire what we call as your employer identity. I'm gonna show you how to recruit daily without relying on job boards. And I'm gonna teach you how to use social media as your number one hiring platform. And then we're gonna actually— I'm gonna show you a step-by-step recruiting funnel. Right? If you've never had a recruiting funnel, you're gonna have a recruiting funnel after this. Here's the thing I want you to, to admit right now. If you're not willing to face the truth, this module isn't for you. But if you're ready really to become the restaurant people fight to work for, then let's start with what the real issue is and the real reason you keep attracting those, uh, B and C players. Specifically CE players. You're not attracting the wrong people by accident. You're actually inviting them. Anybody ever see the movie Dracula? All right. What's Dracula's thing? Dracula shows up at my door. Can Dracula come in my house? Only if I invite him. And that's what you guys are doing. And you're doing this through your Beliefs, because your beliefs shape behavior, and your behavior creates the systems that either are a filter for alignment or a frantic patch leak. I need a warm body. I need someone to— I need someone to work for. So let's start with some foundational truths. Ready? Make sure you have a piece of paper and a pen. This is gonna be some good shit. Behavior drives behavior. Well, I'm sorry, beliefs. I'm like, right, reading my own slides, right? Beliefs drive behavior. So if you believe, and this goes back to those things, you know, hey, nobody wants to work anymore. You know, Donald, I, I can't afford to be picky with hiring. You know, all the good people already taken. Then your hiring behavior reflects what's known as scarcity. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna post generic job ads. You're gonna hire the first applicant who can fog a mirror. Basically, they're alive. You're going to compromise all those little red flags that are going off in your head, ding, ding, ding, you know, just because, you know, you need the coverage, you need to fill the shift. And here's the thing, you'll apologize for your expectations instead of enforcing them. This kind of mindset becomes very, very contagious, and unfortunately, it will bleed into your team. The great people you do have get demoralized and the weak ones kind of get a boost, right? And slowly your culture will rot from the inside. So let's compare 2 restaurant owners. And this is really good about— this is, this is where you get a little dose of psychology with your coaching today. Talk about this scarcity mindset versus abundant mindset. And it's quite— it literally happens all the time. Right. The owner in scarcity, when you're in a scarcity mindset, you hire from fear. When you have an abundance mindset, you hire from standards. Right. Uh, write that shit down. The owner in scarcity hires from fear. The owner in abundance mindset hires from standards. And the energy you lead with is exactly what you attract. So Remember, we always say culture flows down, not up. And in the 3P framework, what's the first part of 3P framework? People. But what's the first part of the people part? Mindset. Why do you think we work so much on mindset? Because we know that's the number one thing holding you back, right? I've seen— Michael's been with me a couple years now, and he started out as a member, a client of mine, and I coached him. And I will tell you, and Michael can admit, Like when I started coaching Michael from the start, he had a very, very scarcity mindset. You know, there's, oh, these kids are lazy. They don't wanna work. I can't find good people. I gotta babysit 'em. I gotta be here all the time. I can never leave. I gotta be on top of 'em all the time. Now he has more of an abundance mindset. Hey, I'm going down, uh, Costa Rica for a couple weeks. Team's gonna run it. Hey Donald, I'm gonna come out in September for the bootcamp. Hey, I'm gonna come out in October for the summit. You're not worried about the team? Oh no, they got it. That's abundance mindset. Scarcity mindset screams out, I need a body. Abundance mindset says, I'm building a team. Scarcity says, you know, no one wants to work anymore. Abundance, the right people are watching and I just need to show them who we are. Scarcity mindset, I can't afford to be picky. Abundance mindset. I can't afford to be careless. Scarcity mindset. I'll take whoever shows up. Abundance mindset. You know, I'll wait for alignment and we hire with intention. Scarcity mindset. You know, if they quit, I'm screwed. Anybody ever say that before? I've said that before, dude. If they quit, I'm screwed. Abundance mindset. You know, if they quit, hey, you know what? It frees up space for Someone better. Yeah. Mark was there before. Mark just got rid of somebody who was a— someone he had to get rid of. And I'm telling you, it opened the door. I'm telling you, the universe abhors a vacuum, and when you make space, it fulfills it. So, let's do a little mirror test, shall we? This is always a fun one. Ask yourself, If you had 3 positions open and 10 people applied, would you have the clarity and courage to say no to 8 of them? Ask yourself, would an A-player even want to work here based on how we're operating right now? Ask yourself, is my current team protecting our culture Or polluting it? Now, here's the thing. If those questions make you uncomfortable, that's good, because uncomfortable is— I mean, being discomfort, that's the beginning of growth. And here's the deep— I mean, I mean, the deeper issue no one ever, ever talks about. It's called misalignment. All right, this is the real culture killer: misalignment between what you preach and what you tolerate. Right? Rodolfo's going through this right now. I mean, all of you are going through this right now. I mean, and here's the thing. You post your mission statement up on the wall. You got your core value cards, and you might say, oh, teamwork matters in the meeting. You might even brag about your values in interviews. But, ooh. But if you tolerate gossip behind the scenes, if you tolerate chronic lateness, if you tolerate back-of-house disrespect, If you tolerate a server who blames the guest, a manager who doesn't lead, then your culture is lying to everyone who walks through your door. This is what we call culture misalignment, and it is the fastest way to repel high-caliber team members. Because here's the thing, A-player, they don't want to carry the weight for the people that you refuse to hold accountable. A-players want to play with A-players. So let's talk about how we're gonna shift this, right? Tactical tip, build the culture that you want to hire into. Instead of scrambling to hire better people, here's what I want you to do. I want you to draw a line. I want you to get a whiteboard, draw a line on the whiteboard. All right? On one end, write minimum standard. And on the other end, write down, what do we actually tolerate? Now you're gonna make a list, right? 7 things: attendance, energy, guest recovery, communication, teamwork, growth mindset, and coachability. And for each one of these, you're gonna place an X where the team actually sits. Are they doing the— are they doing the, you know, minimum standard, or are we just kind of tolerating it? And don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. I mean, don't be shocked. Okay? This is where every, I mean, this is where shit really gets real, right? Fix the environment and then the A players will come. I worked with a place. I worked with a restaurant in Santa Fe and it had a very, very toxic bar culture. And, and I, and this is when I lived in New Mexico before I moved, moved to Arizona. I've lived in Arizona for 4 years. Before that, I lived in New Mexico for 12 years. And I had, back then before COVID I would do a lot of, I would be at rest— people's restaurants a lot. And I asked the GM, what's going on? He says, oh, you know, why don't you get rid of the guy? Oh, we just can't, we just can't find good bartenders. I mean, here's what I kind of, I dug into it and I found out, let's say one bartender made $2K a week and he was allowed to skip the pre-shift. He was allowed to talk down to the guest. He ignored his side work. And then they hired a new bartender and that guy quit within 2 weeks. Why? Because the culture protected revenue, not alignment. Think about that. Is your culture protecting the revenue? You gotta, you gotta, you know, somebody who can jam on stuff. I mean, they're a kick-ass, like, salesperson on the floor. They're great at that, but they're a toxic person. Are you protecting the revenue or the culture? So what I did is I finally, I mean, I had to have a, you know, that come to Jesus talk and we cut that high performer bartender, that toxic bartender. And you know what? Something really, really amazing happened. 3 applicants that didn't like, you know, that like saw the culture and stuff like that, that didn't actually want to do an interview. They reapplied. One former bartender came back. 2, 2 team members they had stepped up. Remember, when you clear space, good people come back. It's almost like you gotta get a sage stick and purge out the toxic energy. Write this down, and I talked about this before. You don't have a staffing problem. You have a standards problem. You can't attract greatness While protecting mediocrity. Ouch. Right? I mean, if you want A players, you gotta build an environment that expects more, that actually coaches constantly, that protects the alignment with your core values and repels all those negative energy vampires. So who's ready to become that kind of brand that people are drawn to? Raise your hand. Put your hand to the camera. So let's talk about the first step. You're gonna build your employer identity. This is the ideal team member filter, right? So your food is what brings people through the door. Your employer identity is what brings talent through culture. But here's the problem. Most restaurant owners don't have an employer identity. They just, you know, like they're doing job ads. It's kind of just copy and paste job ads. They regurgitate generic values. They kind of hope someone gets it. But high performers don't respond to ambiguity. High performers love clarity. They crave standards. They look for alignment. And if you don't know exactly who you're trying to attract, you're gonna keep getting more of what you've already got. Inconsistent energy, average performance, zero culture momentum. So let's work on changing that. First thing you gotta do is understand this, and this is, you know, I'm really, really big on the power of words. I want you to start changing this word around. You're no longer hiring, you're enrolling. Now you might think like, oh, Donald, I don't get it. You're not hiring team members. You're enrolling them into a movement, into a way of thinking, a way of behaving, a way of treating each other, a way of growing. And your job is to clearly define what that movement stands for and then market it like your restaurant depends on it, because it really does if you want to have some A-players. Right. You're not hiring, you're enrolling. We're currently enrolling new, new team members. We're currently enrolling new team members into our culinary program. We're currently enrolling new people into our leadership management training program. We're currently enrolling people into our service excellence program. So Mark's looking for a server. Now he could either say, yeah, we're hiring servers, right? That's most people's job ads, right? I'm now hiring servers. Or he says, hey, you know what, I'm taking applications to enroll into our Service Excellence Hospitality Program. You can come up with a great name for it. That sounds a little bit more than just, I'm hiring a server, because now it sounds like, number one, I got a program. I got a, you know, I got a plan. I did this at my first restaurant because I was in a very, very limited market. I was in Battle Creek, Michigan. And like the restaurants in Battle Creek, Michigan were mostly like fast food chains or like the, the big chain concepts like Applebee's, Chili's, things like that. Me getting someone with any kind of culinary skill was like, that was like a no. That was like, I wasn't gonna get anybody. And I was just a small restaurant. I'm not gonna get people from like, you know, Johnson Wales or the CIA that want to apprentice, you know, come and do a stage at my place. 'Cause I was so small, little hole-in-the-wall place in the middle of Michigan. No one wants to go there. I had to create value that attracted people. So I created a culinary arts program. In-house that I did. It was very simple. I got an Ameri— American Culinary Federation, ACF, book called The Art and Science of Culinary Preparation. I got the workbook for it. You can get it on Amazon. And I made my own culinary program. And what happened? I started getting people that wanted to learn the culinary arts, and that changed everything for me. So you're not hiring, you're enrolling. Second, this is, this is the big step right here. You need to define your ideal team member. Now, there's a great book out there. It's from Patrick Lencioni, and the book's called The Ideal Team Player. Okay. All right. Now, he has a framework in there. There's 3 traits that you're looking for. High-performing team members need all 3 traits, not 1, not 2. You need to have all 3. They have to be number one, have to be humble. Doesn't need to be the star. Owns their mistakes, shares the credit, respects every role on the team. How do I do this in interviews? I mean, hey, tell me about a time someone corrected you. How'd you respond? Now, how do I spot this on my current team members? Because you're gonna do this both. You're gonna have a kind of a set of, you know, questions you can use for interviews. But I also want you to start evaluating your current team member. Right now, how do I spot this on a shift? Do they clean the side station without being asked? They check in with the dishwasher. Hey, need any help? Can I help you with anything? You know, they don't play that, you know, it's not my job card. You know how I feel about that. I had one kid tell me that it's not my job. I said, you know, you're right. It's not your job anymore. Thank you. Have a good day. All right. So number one, they have to be humble. Number 2, they gotta be hungry. What does it mean by hungry? That means they don't clock watch. They're not every, oh, oh, you know, I got 20 minutes till my, I got 20 minutes until I'm over, my shift's done. They seek extra responsibility. They learn. They, they're hungry to learn. They're proactively learning. They're asking for stuff. They bring energy even on tough shifts. How do you spot this in an interview? Hey, tell me about something new you learned in the last 90 days. Then just sit back and watch. Now, how do you spot this on a shift? They ask for feedback. They beat the manager to the punch. They're proactive, not reactive. They're always suggesting improvements without whining about it. You offer them something to read and they absorb it like a sponge and they ask for more. Hey man, I read that book Ingredients. What else you got? Right. Humble, hungry, and the third one, people smart. This is very, very critical. They have to understand tone. They have to understand energy and timing. They have— they don't escalate tension. They know how to defuse drama. They give and receive feedback with maturity. How do I spot this in an interview? Hey, what's your go-to move when someone on your team is having a rough shift? How do I spot this on, uh, how do I do this on a shift? I'm looking for people, they don't complain about others, they coach, they regulate their own tone, and they don't take things personally. Hungry, humble, or humble, hungry, smart. That's the 3 things you're looking for. So now we want to start writing out our ideal team avatar. Because again, if you don't know what you're looking for exactly, you'll, you'll get anything. All right. So write a profile of your perfect team member. It could be something like this. They're the first to jump in when things go sideways. They help others clean even when their section is spotless. They bring the energy, not excuses. They take feedback without shutting down. And most importantly, they believe in something bigger than themselves. Keep this document visible. Use it to filter applications, reward current team members, coach your C players, and also you can use it to guide promotions and leadership development. And when in doubt, always go back to the avatar. Now this is a very simple one. I would do a very— I would go deep Like, who are they? Smokers? How many times have you ever, like, thought about that? How many people have people on your team that smoke? Yeah. Are smokers disruptive to the flow? Most of the time. They need lots of breaks. They need lots of, you know, they always go, hey, can I get a, can I get a 5-minute smoke break? And unfortunately, the people that don't smoke feel like they're getting punished because they don't smoke. I remember I had a guy one time, this is when I had my first restaurant and before I started having higher, you know, standards, like I didn't, I didn't hire smokers. I remember like one guy like came up to me and goes, can I take a smoke break? I go, yeah, sure, go ahead. And I, this prep guy was standing next to me and goes, man, I should start smoking. I was like, why? So I can get a break too. I was like, oh shit, that's fucked up. Let me get this straight. You wanna start smoking, ruin your health so you can get a break? Oh my God, my, my standards are all effed up. So I changed the standards and I never would hire anybody who smoked. Yeah. Yeah. Step 2, you gotta create your employee identity statement. This is really, really powerful. I'm gonna give you a little formula. You're gonna shift from who you want to attract to who you are as an employer. This is very, very critical. It's so easy to say, I want this, this, and this, and this. But who are you to get that person? So here's the formula you're gonna do. Okay? And I'll put it in the replay. Don't worry. At, you know, your restaurant name, we don't hire to fill shifts. We hire to build a culture, and we believe in, you know, your core values, blah blah blah blah. You know, we only hire people who are blank blank blank. And if you're looking for just a paycheck, this isn't it. But if you're ready to be part of something rare, apply below. I'll give you an example. At Wildfire Bistro, we don't hire to cover gaps. We hire to elevate standards. We believe in extreme ownership. communication under pressure, and relentless growth. We only hire people who are hung— humble, hungry, and emotionally disciplined. If you wanna be pushed and appreciated, you belong here. This is your voice. This is your first filter. This is your public decoration— declaration. Michael and I talk about this too. Like, when we're looking at coaching clients, people wanna come into our coaching program, we have what's called the red velvet rope, and we don't lower the red velvet rope. We have And we put the red velvet rope right back up now because we're not going to take that shit anymore. I'll tell you. And now I know what you're saying. Well, Donald, if I put that up on my website, I won't have anybody applying. No, that's wrong. You won't have as many losers applying, which is good. You're going to have the A-players that want to perform. That's who you wanna attract. Same thing. My coaching program is not for everybody. I know that. So Michael and I are putting the red velvet rope back up. Does that mean we're gonna be able, like, you know, I could easily lower the red, we could easily lower the rope and we could have 1,000 restaurants in our program. But that's not what we want. We want people who are actually going to implement what we teach, what we talk about. The TRC method is a proven roadmap and path If you follow it, we're looking for people who are coachable, who want to grow and develop and become better. Right? So now you're going to have an opportunity, not right now, but your action plan and part of your homework is to be write out yours. But I'll give you some questions to think about. What do you expect from every team member no matter what? What values are totally non-negotiable? What kind of person do you never want to hire again? What kind of team are you building for the future? And here's the thing, don't, don't make— don't worry if it doesn't sound professional. You're not trying to impress people. You're just trying to repel the wrong people and ignite the right ones. And trust me, when you put this stuff up there, you will get some nasty comments. Who are you? Trust me, you'll, you'll get some of the haters, which is good. You want haters. If you're not getting haters, you're not pushing the envelope, which we want to push the envelope is what we want to do. Step 3, we're going to align your culture with your identity. Now, this is the hard part. You can't write a killer employee statement and then still tolerate behavior that contradicts it. So you need to audit your culture using the Say versus show test. What does that mean? Right? Say versus show test. If your value says we're team first, but you're actually, you know, the bartender talks down to the dish staff, that's not good. That's not in alignment. If you say, oh, we're— we value growth, but you haven't done a one-on-one or done a module in weeks. Hmm. Okay. Oh, you know, we have high standards, but you just hired a no-show cousin because you're short-staffed. All right. The no-show's cousin said, oh my God, you know, that guy no-showed, but his cousin would need a job. You hired him right away. Right? Say versus show. This is a really— this is a brutal exercise, trust me, and you will not like it, but it's very, very valuable. If your say doesn't match your show, you don't have a culture. You just have a really kind of marketing kind of thing, right? Because you're sounding cool. I, I, my values say this. It sounds really flashy. It's really nice marketing, but you don't have a culture behind it. I see this all the time. I see this a lot of times with these big huge coaches out there. That promise a lot. I mean, they say a lot of great things, but they don't deliver. Right? Michael and I were talking about this morning. All right, guys promise the moon, but man, I haven't seen shit. Okay, show me, show me the, show me the baby. Okay, you know, been waiting. You look pregnant. Where's the baby? Let's go. Right? And then step 4, you gotta make sure you integrate your identity everywhere. Your new employee identity needs to show up on your job ads. It needs to show up in your interview scripts. It needs to show up in your orientation. It needs to show up on your website, your social posts, your team meetings, your pre-shift huddles, your exit interviews. You need to let it become muscle memory for your leadership team. And ask your team, hey, what kind of person What kind of person really thrives here? This is a great one for you to sit down with your leadership team this week and ask them, hey, what kind of person really thrives in our culture? What kind of person doesn't make it past the 2 weeks? How do we recognize the right, you know, the right traits every week? These answers, I tell you, these answers reveal whether your identity is just a slogan, a catchy marketing phrase, or something that's real, something that really lives and breathes in the building. I want you to think about this, about identity, especially this employer identity. You've been hiring like a consumer. You're waiting for the right person to appear. Now I want you to start hiring like a leader because you created the standard, you created the brand, you've built the filter. This is where the A-players will start taking notice, but only if you start broadcasting that identity consistently. And the best place to do that? Social media. I'll tell you right now, A players aren't checking job boards. What they're checking is your Instagram stories because they're scrolling through your reels or watching your videos and they're silently asking themselves, like, if I'm an A player, hey, what's it really like to work there? So here's the harsh reality. If your feed has nothing but food pics, weekend promos, and brunch specials, you are invisible to A-players that you claim that you want to attract. So you need to stop treating social media like it's only for guests. Remember, you have 2 different markets you're always marketing to. You're always marketing to your internal market, which is your team, and your external market, which is your guest. I want you to start treating social media like your primary recruiting platform because In today's world, it is. So why is social media so valuable? Why is the new hiring platform? Why? Well, number one, it's always on. It's always public. It always gives people a feel before they even walk through the door. And here's the thing you wanna remember. A-players want to belong to something real, not just clock in. An A-player is looking for energy. They're looking for culture. They're looking for standards. They're looking for growth. They're looking for identity. They're looking for proof. And they're searching silently. And here's the thing. If your feed doesn't speak to them, they're just gonna keep scrolling. So let's fix that. I'm gonna talk about today the 6 types of content that attracts A-players. So if you really wanna start building your culture brand online, You don't need a media team. You just need this, a phone. You need a phone, you need a leader, and you have to have the courage to show the truth. How do we do that? Number 1, what type? This is probably the most powerful one, and I've seen a lot of you guys do this one. This is a really good one, and a lot of you do it. Your core values in action. Remember, don't just talk about your core values. Show people your core values. For example, you see a server jumping in to run food to a different section. You see a cook helping clean the walk-in on their day off. You see a host diffusing a guest meltdown with calm energy. Post a photo, post a video, and then caption it. This is what humility looks like in real life, and that's what we hire for. We coach for it. We celebrate it. Why does it work? Because it's not theory, it's proof. It shows you that what you— it shows that your values actually mean something. Number 2 type: weekly MVP shoutouts. Most valuable player. Every week you should highlight someone who just crushed it. Not for sales, not for speed, but for living your values. You could use photo, you could do a boomerang thing. There's all kinds of cool little clips you can do. They could be jumping up and down, boomerang, like, like stuck in autoplay like this. Yeah, right. Okay. Oh my God. And then you invite him in the caption. Hey, this is this week's MVP, Jorge. Quiet leader, coachable, consistent, no ego, humble, hungry, and people smart. What did I just do? I gave Jorge a shout out, and I also just said what my identity was in the same prompt. coachable, consistent, no ego, humble, hungry, and people smart. Why does it work? Because high performers want to be seen and they want to join teams where excellence is recognized, right? You think MVPs and like a basketball team, they want to go to the worst team in the league? They want to play with championship teams. That's what's happening right now. Your social media is sending a message out to the A-players out there that are looking for something. And here's the thing, an A-player could be in a bad culture and they just are gonna get tired of it and they're gonna start wanting to look and then they're gonna start looking at places. Are they looking at your place is the big question, right? And here's a big bonus. Create an MVP wall story highlights and save them all there. So remember on Instagram especially, you can like highlight like MVP wall. So on your Instagram post, you can have like little sections at the top where you can put all your little reels that go into that section. Like if I was like Mark, I'd have my MVP wall, I have my, my event space, I'd have my wine dinners, I'd have like, I have like little spots on my Instagram where I start putting all those little reels in. So it's an easy place for people to find and go. Okay. Number 3, behind-the-scenes culture clips. A lot of you do this one too. I have actually seen a lot of you doing this one. Let people remember, let them see your rituals, family meals, pre-shift huddles, birthday celebrations. Now, I'm not talking about birthday celebrations for guests. I'm talking about birthday celebrations for your team. All right, team outings. A lot of you guys do team outings. They're really cool. Gratitude circles, post-shift coaching. Remember, it's just short, short, raw video. Don't over-edit it. And the caption could be something like, culture isn't what you say, it's what you repeat. This is what we do every Thursday and it changes everything. Like if you do family meal, this is what we do every day. We sit around, we gather around the table, we break bread and we talk to each other. That's what we do every day, every day at 4 o'clock. Why does it work? Because it builds belonging before someone even applies. Maybe I want to— man, this looks cool. I want to be a part of that. Number 4, coaching in action. You want to show your leadership style, right? Maybe having a manager or leader giving some feedback. Now, it doesn't have to have the audio part. You just like having them coaching. You can see them like coaching. Hey, here's a picture. Here's Mark. Actually, you know, coaching a, a, a young cook on knife skills and stuff like that. Have a team lead shadowing maybe a new hire. Hey, here's Sarah. She's walking around with one of our new hires. She's actually showing them ropes. She's, you know, taking them under her wing. Maybe the owner delivering a 1-minute talk on values, like having you up there, like, you know, okay. Clip it, post it. Caption could be something like, hey, we don't bark orders, we build leaders. This is what coaching looks like at The plow. This is what coaching looks like at Barnett's Whiskey House. Why does it work? Because it sets that tone of leadership, not micromanagement. A-players are always attracted to development, right? And then reels, real talk reels, film. And then we call these like stay interviews. And a lot of you do these. I see these a lot. This is probably the one I see the most from people. 30, 60-second selfie videos that tell the truth about what it's like to work like. What, you know, and this is where your team has the full— this is not like you filming a video. So there's, you know, the next one I'll talk about is where like Mark's sitting down and I'm filming Mark talking about what he loves about the restaurant. A, a real talk reel is like me, like real, like just real life, like holding up my phone and just holding it. Hey, this is Donald. Hey, I'm here at The Plough. Hey, if you don't know, like, I'm a prep cook here. I mean, I tell you, I just, I get excited about coming here because every day it's a new adventure. We're always learning, we're always growing. Everyone just helps each other out. I would tell you, I've worked in a lot of restaurants over my life, and this is by far the most exciting restaurant experience I've ever had. And I can't, I cannot say how much I love working here and how much it is a pleasure to be part of this team. Super simple like that, right? Boom. Right? So here's some ideas. 3 traits we look for in every new hire, right? Hey, why are you gonna love working here if you're not a victim? Hey, why don't we hire jerks, even talented ones? All right. Now, when you're doing these real talks, we find that they work the best if you're actually walking and talking, because something about movement really stimulates the algorithm and it makes people stop the scroll. So Like a lot of times my videos are very, very, I mean, poised. I usually have my gimbal right here. So like on my desk, I always have my gimbal. I have my microphones. And like, if you hear me doing like one of my, you know, restaurant coach ones, it's usually me sitting down. I'm trying to get more where I'm walking around cuz they say those do better. But pick a topic and then just talk about it. Okay. Now, if you're not comfortable at like just going you know, just going live, just turning the video on and talking. What's my number one app I recommend? BigVu. BigVu is a teleprompter. And the beautiful thing about BigVu is I can put a script up there and I can hit the record button. I can hold the phone in my hand. I can walk around and I can talk at the same time. And I can just walk, I can just read the teleprompter. Now it takes a little practice, but you can get it down. It just, it just takes practice. Okay. All right. This is what happens in your first 7 days. Hey, hey, we're not for everyone, and that's on purpose. Why does it work? Because it shows confidence, it shows clarity, it shows conviction, and it filters people before they waste your time. And they should live in your feed on the Work With Us under your story highlights. Hmm. Okay, now we got some other little nice little spots to stash this stuff at. Okay, real talks. What I'd like to work with you. You could do it. You like— if it was a topic like, you know, we don't hire jerks, even talented ones. This is what happens your first 7 days. We're not for everyone. That's on purpose. That might be something that you would do because you're talking about why your standards are so high. Okay, and then the next one is where the team gets to play. This is where you do those testimonials on your team, and you've seen those before too. Mark's really good at these. Mark's really good at these. I've seen a lot of people are really, really good at these. Put the spotlight on your current people. Ask them, hey, what's different about working here? How have you grown since joining the team? Oh, that's a good one. And then why do you stay? Right? I like to do it like they can do a selfie interview if, you know, if they're not really comfortable. I like to, you know, I think the interview style clip works really well too. You know, again, you want to mix it up a little bit. And then the caption could be, hey, don't take our word for it. Hear from Sarah on our team. This is what it feels like to be here. Very, very short prompts. They're not long drawn out. Why does it work? Because it gives your brand a face and your people become the marketing, which is what you want. Now, how do we get this thing to go a little bit better? Little posting tips to amplify your reach. You should be posting these 3 times a week minimum. And I'm saying this is beyond your normal food post. 3 team culture posts a week. Use 2 or 3 relevant hashtags per post, like restaurant jobs, now hiring, right? I wouldn't even— I would change that. I know I made that slide before. I would say now enrolling, now applying, and then team culture. Tag your team members. Encourage your team to share their post. This is another thing a lot of you guys don't take advantage of. All right, let's say Mark and I work together and I just did an interview with Mark, and then Mark tags me in it. I need to share it. Now, how do you do it on Instagram? You make me a collaborator. He invites me to be a collaborator. When he invites me to be a collaborator, as soon as I hit accept, it automatically goes on my feed and it sends it out to my people right away. That collaboration button is like the most underutilized tool on Instagram. Right. If you guys notice, like, there's a post on my Instagram feeds with Robert St. John. I did a, a podcast with Robert and I sent Robert all the clips from the podcast. They're like little bitty clips. And Robert shares one every day and he makes me a collaborator and, and invites me to collaborate. And the beautiful thing is that it hits my market and it hits his market. And if you look at the feed, I have 3 times more engagement from those than just me posting on my own because we're hitting 2 different markets. I'm hitting his feed and also my feed. It's really, really super powerful. That collaboration button is the most powerful thing you can do. And then pin one maybe at the top of your feed for a while. Save your strongest post, you know, to you at, you join our team. Story highlights. And yes, you can absolutely repurpose posts weekly. A lot of people think, oh, Donald, you know, I don't have anything new. Well, you probably did one a month ago. Why don't you repost that? Because a month ago on social media is like 1990. No one remembers 1990. Okay? So don't worry about it. Consistency versus originality. Consistency always beats originality. A lot of times we think we gotta come up with new stuff. You don't have to beat the wheel every day, people. Sometimes you just gotta be consistent. Consistency always beats originality. I'll take some of my old posts like 2 or 3 weeks ago that did well, and I'll just repost 'em and they get new eyes on 'em. Now, if you really wanna amplify your reach on my post, what I do is I'll go back. Let's say I have some old posts on my social media feed. I'll look at some of my old posts. And I'll add them to my story. Why? Because a lot of people read my stories, and when they read my stories, it'll say watch the full reel, and they'll hit that button and go watch the full reel. That's how I get— that's how I double dip. This is where we start working smarter, not harder. And then here's a big bonus: use your link in your bio strategically. Most restaurants use their link in bio just to show their website or menu. Use it to maybe link to your hiring page, maybe to a Google Form, maybe link to a video. Michael is an expert at the video ask. In fact, you're gonna talk about it at Restaurant Success Summit, right? Yeah. Michael's gonna do a whole session on how to use the video ask to get better quality people. Now I use, there's a Linktree, there's a Stan Store. It allows you to do multiple links. I use one called Shorby. So like if you go to my, if you go to my Instagram page, like if you go to my bio, it, it says Shorby. And I like Shorby because it's kind of cool looking. It looks a little bit better than, but like, you know, and it has like a whole list of stuff on my, that they can just easily click on. I like Shorby because it has really nice pictures on there too, cuz I think a lot of people are visual. So I like Shortby. Shortby is spelled S-H-O-R dot B-Y. S-H-O-R dot B-Y. That's what I use on my link. And it really works well. Really, really works well. And the beautiful thing about that, I can go check the analytics. I can see what people look on, what they click, what they don't click, and I can move stuff around really easy. I can make stuff pop out. So I like that one. S-H-O-R dot B-Y. Shorty. I think it looks better than Linktree. I used to use Linktree, but Linktree is really kind of outdated. It doesn't really look cool anymore. So here's your action plan. Audit your social media feed today. I want you to scroll past your last 15 posts and ask yourself, do any of these posts show what it's like to work here? Blake, you are exempt because you've done a lot of that lately. So Blake doesn't worry about that. Right? Hey, and ask yourself, would I wanna be a part of this team if I was 22 and hungry? Hungry for growth, hungry for change, hungry for a job. Is my culture visible or invisible? That's a big one. And a lot of you're gonna have like, oh damn, yeah, it's not visible at all. Right? Especially if you like, if the answer's invisible, start posting more today. You don't need a campaign. You just need consistency. Your Instagram feed is your modern-day application portal. Before someone says a resume, trust me, they're judging you. They're checking you out and they're asking yourself some questions. Hey, do I, do I belong there? Will I grow there? Will I be proud to be a part of that? Because here's the thing, if they don't see it, They're never going to apply. Your feed isn't just a marketing tool for your guests. It is your culture billboard. Write that down. Your feed is not just a marketing tool for your guests. It is your culture billboard. And here's the thing, the right people are actually watching. So how do we turn this into action? We're gonna build a recruiting funnel, right? Most restaurants don't have a hiring system at all. They have a panic button. And if you want a step-by-step hiring system, remember in the Talent Attraction Method, which is in your Accelerator Prime, is a step-by-step hiring system, right? But most just have this panic button. Oh my God, oh my God, someone just quit. Oh, we gotta put a job ad. Oh, I mean, I'm gonna pray to the baby Jesus that someone decent applies. And then I hire the first warm body that shows up. And then what happens? They flake out. They— or they underperform, or worse, they destroy morale. And then what happens is you repeat the cycle. Sound familiar? That's not a system, that is survival mode. So we're going to build a recruiting funnel that is reliable, repeatable. It's going to be a system that keeps great people coming in before you're desperate, which is what we want. All right, so what is a recruiting funnel? A recruiting funnel is basically a 5-stage system designed to do specific things. Like anytime you're doing a funnel, it has to have a specific measurable outcome. I want to attract the right people. I want to filter out the wrong people. I want to enroll aligned candidates. I want to onboard with intentionality, and I want to build a bench for future team performers. This is what a recruiting funnel does. Like you have a marketing funnel for guests. Well, now you need one for talent. Because if— and here's the beautiful thing, this funnel will run even when you're fully staffed. Because the worst time to recruit is when you're desperate. Why? Because you get emotional. And when you get emotional, you make bad decisions. Anybody ever really make a bad decision when you're emotional? Yeah. Yeah, lots. So let's build this thing out step by step. Stage 1, attract. You gotta be loud about who you are. Most restaurants, they just kind of whisper their culture. I want you to shout it out loud. If you're not constantly broadcasting your values, your energy, your identity, do not expect top talent to show up. So your attraction toolbox should be like Instagram posts. Post culture content 3 times a week. Hiring highlights, save team videos, testimonials, MVPs. Have a hiring page, a short video from you with maybe a value statement. If I went to your hiring page right now, what would I— would I see a video? I would say 9 times out of 10, no. Most people have a hiring page and they go like, apply, and all is basically a bunch of words that say apply here. List their core values and stuff like that. I have some fancy words. You're gonna get a lot more bang for the buck if you have a video. I've learned this from working with my new marketing team is that videos drive action, right? So you need more video content. Maybe have a QR code in the store. Hey, wanna join our team? Scan here. Staff referrals. I talk about this. You know, maybe give team members $25, $50 for bringing in new hires. I like to do what I call the 25-25-50, and you can change the numbers. 25-25-50 referral program. Say Jordan comes to me and he's got a new, you know, he's got somebody who wants me to hire, right? If they come in, I interview him, I hire him, he gets the first metric, $25. If they stay the first 30 days, that's the first benchmark. he gets another $25. And if they stay 90 days, he gets the last part, $50. $25, $25, $50. You can change the number, whatever. But you can do $50, $50, $100. For like leaders, I've done even like $100, $100, $200, whatever is of value to you, right? And I want you to ask your most— your best team members this simple question: who's the most hungry Who's the most humble, hungry, and people-smart person you know who doesn't work here yet? And then call that person. There's someone on your team right now who knows somebody who's humble, hungry, and smart that doesn't work at your restaurant, but you haven't reached out to them, right? You want to show them, right? Call that person, reach out to them. Stage number 2, filter. Stop letting everyone in. This is what we call the red velvet rope. Every applicant should go through a filtering process that aligns, that basically really identifies their alignment with your culture before you start wasting time. Okay? And I use a simple 3-point filter. One, number one, pre-falling, I call them pre-qualifying questions. What does ownership mean to you? How do you like to receive feedback? What does team-first behavior look like during a busy shift? And you can easily use a Google Form, Typeform, or like I said, Michael's the pro of the video submission, right? And then VideoAsk is a powerful, powerful thing. Make sure you come to Restaurant Success Summit. Michael's gonna deep dive you into using VideoAsk. on how to set up that stuff. We're also gonna talk about some marketing stuff using AI. A lot of people have been asking, like, asking me to do a whole, a whole class just on AI. All right, come to the summit and you'll get all that stuff you want. And then make sure you do a team review. Let your current MVPs weigh in on applicants because they know what culture fit feels like. They're the ones gonna be working side by side with somebody. Right? What does filtering do? Filtering eliminates the laziness and entitlement very, very fast. Oh, sorry. All right? It forces the applicants to think. Right? It saves you. It basically gives you the power again, saves you time and energy. And here's the thing. If someone can't take 3 minutes to answer your questions, they're not gonna thrive in your culture. Stage 3, enroll. Don't interview, audition. Oh, I got that in the wrong slide. All right. So now we're basically, it's time to stop interviewing like you're desperate. Because remember, you're not begging, you're inviting. I want you to treat every hiring conversation like an audition for a seat on your tribe, because that's what it is. What does that look like? Right? When I'm sitting down and sitting this auditioning thing, I'm gonna set the tone. And I start off right away. We're not like other restaurants. We're building a team where values matter just as much as skills. So let's see how we align. So I'm setting the tone right up to front. So when I'm actually, I, and then change the name too from, from interview to auditions, it'll make you feel different. Because there's power in words. So from now on, you don't do interviews. I have auditions. I have an audition at 2 o'clock. I have an audition at 2:30. I have an audition. Someone's auditioning to be a part of your team, right? And then set the tone right away. Hey, just let you know, we're not like a, like The Plough. We're not like any other restaurant. We build a team where values matter as much as skill. So let's see how we align. So I'm setting the ground rules right then. And then I ask behavioral-based questions. Hey, tell me about a time you had, you held a teammate accountable. Hey, what's one thing your last manager would say you needed to improve? Hey, how do you personally manage stress during a dinner rush? You could run maybe a, a, you know, a paid trial shift. We used to do these stages. I don't recommend doing free stages anymore or unpaid stages because labor laws and workman's comp, and if someone gets injured on a stage, you could get in very big trouble. So pay them for a, you know, for a trial. And bring them in maybe for 2, 3 hours. Have them shadow maybe an MVP because the MVP is gonna really right away, they're not gonna make it. All right. Maybe have them run food, maybe ask questions, maybe handle basic tasks. Now, when I say basic tasks, I like to give somebody a task that they might think normally is like beneath them. I might ask them to go mop. I might ask them to go wash dishes. You know how many times I've done a trial? And I've had a line cook doing a trial and I said, hey, go, hey, can you go help with the dish guy and help out? Oh, I don't do dishes. You don't do dishes? Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming in. Have a great day. What? That's it. That's it. We're done. All right? And then always debrief your team. Ask your core crew, hey man, hey Michael, would you be proud to work next to this guy 5 nights a week? If Michael hesitates, that's my answer right there. Hey, Michael, would you like to work next to Mark 5 days a week? See, shaking his head. Yeah. Same right there. Didn't even hesitate. Yeah. You know, hell yeah. I'd throw down with Mark. Yeah. And then stage 4, onboarding. Make the first 7 days legendary. A-players decide if they're gonna stay within the first 72 hours. I swear, within the first 72 hours, an A-player's decided if they're gonna stay or they're gonna go. Right? If you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, would you capture it or would you let it slip? Who said that? Let's see who's up on their podcast. Eminem. There you go. You got one shot to prove to an A-player that you're organized, that you're values-driven, that you actually care about their growth. If you do not show me within the first 72 hours, you are dead. So, day 1 orientation is all about identity. Share your employer identity statement, walk through your values with examples, introduce the team, show them the playbook. And yes, you should have a playbook. Day 2 to 7, you really want to start that integration, that coaching. Have them shadow your top performers. That's that 70% of our model. Assign one core behavior to focus on daily. Debrief every shift. That's the 20% of our 70-20-10 methodology. You see where I'm going with this? 70%. Hey, shadow one of my guys. That's 70%. Debrief every shift. Hey, what went well? What'd you learn? What can we level up tomorrow? That's that 20%. And then end every day with recognition. Catch them winning something early. And then that 10% is go have them watch those videos. That's the 10% learning library. And stage 5, build the bench. Stay recruiting. Always, always be recruiting. Never let your bench go empty. Here's how you keep great people in the pipeline. Number 1, you build a waitlist. You ever gone to a restaurant and the waitlist is 2 hours long? And you think to yourself, why do people wait for 2 hours? Because I built this FOMO, right? I like to track all my high potential applicants that didn't get hired yet, and I check in quarterly. Number 2, I always say we're not hiring, but we're listening language. I always put this on my website, social media. Hey, we're always looking for the right people, even when we're fully staffed. I used to always— I used to have my team trained when someone would call and say, are you hiring? This is what they'd say. We are always searching for top talent. That's exactly what they said. Because I had a host one time, I was walking by the host station, someone called. Oh no, no, we're not hiring right now. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What'd you just say? Well, I thought we're not hiring, right? No, no, no. We're always looking for top talent. So then I yelled out, My go-to girl was Kelly. Kelly, come here. Kelly, come here. Let's go in the cooler and talk. Let's go in the walk-in and talk. Right? Remember, praise in public, coach in private. Kelly, we always are searching for top talent. Yes, Chef. And then invite— do a host invite-only culture night. Bring in potential hires to meet the team casually. Let them feel the energy. If you got like a Maybe a group of A players haven't come in. Hey, hey, we're doing an invite-only culture night. And then ask this monthly. If Mark quit tomorrow, who's ready to take his place? If Andrew quit tomorrow, who's ready to take his place? If Jordan quit tomorrow, who's ready to take it? Pick someone on your team and like ask your team, hey, you know, if— and usually it's an A player, but ask your team, like, let's say I'm talking to Michael and we have a, we have a really great line cook. His name's, you know, Joe, right? And I said to Michael, hey man, Joe's our A-player on the line. Hey, if Joe quit tomorrow, who's ready to take his place? If we don't have an answer, we don't have a bench, right? Don't recruit reactively when you need someone. Make it proactive. Recruit like your brand depends on it because it always does. And then build out a real simple kind of, I always say a real simple funnel map. I take maybe a Google Doc and I'm gonna make 5 little columns and I'm just gonna basically start tracking this stuff. Attract, filter, enroll, onboard, bench. All right? And then I'm gonna write one specific action under each column that I'm gonna implement each week. 'Cause these are the 5 actions we talked about. Attract, filter, enroll, onboard, bench. How am I making this easier and better each week? 1% improvement's our goal. Start simple and then refine it. Right? Here's the thing I want you to remember. You don't attract great people by luck. You attract them with precision, discipline, identity, and systems that never stop working. If you want A-players, stop waiting for them. Build a funnel that actually finds them, filters them, and fuels them, and do it before you need them. All right. Hiring is not about filling holes. It is all about building something people want to be a part of. People don't join restaurants. They join movements. They join a mission that challenges them. They join a team that pushes them, a culture that protects them, a leader that calls them up. And that leader is you. This isn't about better job ads. This is about clarity in exactly who do you want, courage in who you keep, and conviction in who you are. The restaurant— the restaurant people to work— the restaurant that the people that really want to work already exist, right? And they don't want to work for a place where It's just crazy. Oops, sorry. Right? They want a place, right? You want to have the place where gossip dies fast. You want to have the place where victimhood gets coached and removed. You want to have the place where growth is constant. You want to have a place where your leaders walk the talk, where identity isn't just a slogan, some fancy marketing ploy. It's actually a lifestyle. Remember, you don't attract A-players by luck. You attract them by becoming a magnet. Right? So let's go over to homework real quick and we're out. Homework's pretty good. 5 actions to building your hiring magnet. Quite simple. Number 1, you're gonna write out your employee identity statement, right? This is really, really powerful. Number 1, you're gonna say like, we don't hire to fill shifts. We hire to build blank. We believe in blank, blank, blank. You know, I always love that. We believe it's part of our why statement. We only hire people who are blank, blank, blank. Keep it real. Keep it raw. I'll give you an example. We don't hire to cover holes. We hire to elevate this brand. We believe in extreme ownership, communication under pressure, and consistent growth. If you're humble, hungry, and people smart, You will thrive here. If not, you're not going to last a week. And put it everywhere— on your website, in your interviews, pre-shifts, onboarding packets, social media. Make it your culture filter. And again, you're gonna go back and audit your social media. Scroll past your last 20 posts. I had to put a picture of Blake up here. Blake did a great walkthrough, and this is a great example of walking through the restaurant and doing a recruiting video. Right? Go to the Island House Restaurant on Instagram. Look at that handsome face right there and watch this video. You're gonna see recruiting. And now, Blake, did that work out well for you? Yeah, we got 3 people in the pipeline currently for interviews. Yeah. For— and how, how long did it take you to make that video? Oh man. But as long as you saw it, it was, we did one take and, yeah. Yeah. One take. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And exactly, he's like, what is it? He shows what is it like to work here? And here's what people are thinking. Like, would I be attracted to this if I was, again, 23 and hungry for a job? I wanted to go into the culinary arts and wanna have a job in, in hospitality. And then ask yourself this question on your social media. Are we sharing the values or just photos of our pancakes? Tammy. Sorry, Tammy. Now, Tammy's just like, oh, shit. Tammy just light me up. I know she did. Yeah. Can I please say Blake's link again? Island House Restaurant. Michael, can you type this in there? Island House Restaurant in the chat so everyone can see it. Island House Restaurant. It's a nice looking kitchen. That is a nice looking kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And then remember, commit to 3 pieces of culture content this week. Culture content above and beyond what you're normally doing, ladies and gentlemen. Right? Give maybe an MVP shout out, values in action, behind the scenes ritual. And then remember, create that little thing at the top, work with us highlight, little spot on your Instagram where you can start putting these these little clips you have. So it makes it easy for people to find. And then build out your funnel map. Step 3, use a whiteboard, Google Doc, draw out 5 recurring funnel stages. We talked about these, right? Attract, filter, enroll, onboard, bench. Under each one, write one specific thing you're gonna implement this week. So maybe like attract, I'm gonna do, uh, some Instagram MVPs. Under filter, I'm gonna add 3 value questions to all my applications. Enroll, I'm gonna add trial shifts and team debriefs. Onboard. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure our orientation has a values worksheet. Maybe bench. I'm gonna reconnect with 3 former applicants. Right? This thing works, ladies and gentlemen. This becomes your recruiting operating system, your ROS. And then review it weekly. Now, this next one is gonna make a lot of you uncomfortable, but you need to see it and you need to do it. You ready? Step 4, fire someone if needed. If someone on your— Mark, you already took care of this. Mark has this one checked off. If someone in your team is not humble, hungry, people smart, and you've coached them with no change, let them go right now. Because every second you protect the wrong person, you are poisoning your chance of attracting the right person. Write this shit down. Your culture cannot grow past the lowest standard you enforce. Write that somewhere where you can see it every freaking day. Your culture cannot grow past the lowest standard you enforce. Fire fast, hire slow. Protect your tribe always. And then step 5, post a 15-minute culture reset with your team. So if this is all this kind of cultural rollout stuff's all new to you and you're like, oh man, all right, it's time to have a little team meeting, do a culture reset. And I like to sit them down and just basically just be point blank. Hey ladies, you know, hey, you know, we're raising the bar and we are not for everyone, but for the right people, this place will change your life. Now I'm committed to making the most growth-driven, positive, High standard team in the city. And if you're in, great. And here's the thing, if you're not, that's okay too. But the standard is no longer negotiable. That is point blank. And you— and trust me, you will have people that will want to leave, and that's okay. And then ask some of your key members, hey, what kind of team do you want to be a part of? What can we do to become the place people fight to work for? What do we do to become the employer of choice? Let them speak because ownership always starts with conversation. Follow the homework list. Email your answers to us. Email me or Michael your homework by next session. donald@therestaurantcoach.com. You can hit up Mike at mike@therestaurantcoach.com. thetercymethod.com. Don't forget, on Thursday we have our Q&A call. That's your chance to ask questions and get answers. I'm really, really sadly disappointed. The Q&A call has been very, very light. Not a lot of people have been putting questions in. And here's where you're at on that. If we don't start getting more questions on the Q&A call, I will cancel the Q&A call. Hmm. How do you like those apples? All right. The Q&A call is designed for you. It's a lot of work on Michael and I, our part, to get ready and prep up for it. But if you don't want to participate, you don't have questions, and I know you all have questions, if you don't submit questions for the Q&A call, I will cancel the Q&A call. And you can go find your coach and you can ask your coach on your one-on-one call that question that's been burning in your head that you're afraid to ask in the Q&A call. Q&A call. Mark, is the Q&A call powerful? Yes. Probably the most powerful call we do all week is the Q&A call. But you gotta take advantage of it, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, tools are just, they're just potential. You have to pick the tool up and use them. And I want you to explore all the tools in your toolbox as much as you can. Mondays we have our Restaurant Builder call. That's where we go in the technical side of the total framework. Next week's gonna— the next week's module is gonna be really good. It's gonna stack actually perfectly on top of what we talked about today. So make sure you hit next week's call on Monday. It's always at 1 PM Pacific Standard Time. We have all— if you notice, we've all gone back to Zoom. If some people are having problems with Kajabi, so we decided to go back to Zoom. That actually came from a little, little heartfelt conversation I had with the big guy upstairs. I was really frustrated no one was doing it. And the message I got was this: you are meant to serve others, not serve yourself. So while the Kajabi thing was easy for me, it wasn't helping you. So we decided to go back. So got the message loud and clear. So that's what we're gonna do. Everyone have a fantastic day. If I can help you, please let me know how we can be of a service to you, how we can help you Get the restaurant life you desire. Ciao.