Face Your Fears with Kyle Inserra

And welcome to the Restaurant Coach podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. I am honored to have back on the show a frequent guest on the Restaurant Coach podcast, Kyle and Cerna. Kyle, how are you, my friend? How are things on the East Coast?

They're good. Getting cold today, which kind of. Kind of stinks. But, you know, that's what we signed up for. I mean, I think last time I was on the show, I was actually outside in the backyard. Yeah. Slightly, so it was warmer, but. Yeah, it's good, man. It's good. Thanks for having me.

That's awesome to have you here. It's always great to talk to you, my friend. It's like. It's like sometimes I wish, like, we could, like, just talk every week. So, you know, because I. I feel like I learned so much every time I speak to you on the podcast, and I learned some new stuff, and. And you are just like a jack of all trades. I mean, not only do you run restaurants, you also do real estate, run a couple podcasts. You just had a new baby. I mean, come on.

Sicko. Yeah, it's mental.

It's a disease.

I can't. I don't know.

You know, you're. You're like. You're the epitome. You're the epitome of that Mario Andretti quote. If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough. That's you. You are the epitome of that. You are.

I've never heard it, but, yeah, sounds about right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, you've had some impressive, you know, impressive background and stuff like that, and you had this real kind of foundational kind of thing, and you've had some ventures like Popetina and then La La Taqueria.

Right.

Kind of walk us through the journey that you've had that kind of led to kind of your iconic establishments you had. And also how your real estate stuff kind of tell us the journey you've taken.

Yeah. You know, Popetina was really literally back in the napkin type of business.

Oh, really?

Yeah. I mean, literally. You hear that all the time. This was literally. I wish I had the napkin. We just were working on a consulting project together, and we came together as chefs. We were literally working on the line together, like, we should open our restaurant. But, you know, anybody knows that happens all the time, right? We actually did it.

Yeah, we did it. Nice.

I don't recommend doing it the way we did it. We opened up with no money, not a lot of. Not a business plan. Any stuff we talk about here that you preach. We had none of that, but the food was good and we got New York Times came out and rated us and Food and Wine magazine and best new restaurant which was good. But everything I talk about now, the lessons we learned is from that time. So that, that's kind of where like the ownership part started. But it was not. We needed you at the time for sure. But we, we kind of just muscled our way through it and yeah, Lala was kind of born after that and it was just a fun little project and west coast kind of taqueria and literally across the street from one of the Poptino locations. And yeah, I exited both of those locations and just focus on restaurant real estate now.

Cool. Yeah. And one of the things I always love about you is you, you kind of have this growth mindset and you really have this track record. Over the last couple years since I've known you, you really want to help record, you know, restaurants really reach their kind of zenith. What's the kind of you say is like the most common obstacle that you see that hinders restaurants growth potential?

That's a good question. You know, I think it's a lot of times, you know, they're so head down in their business and yeah, it takes a little nudge and it's often not my role. Right. Like I'm just the real estate guy and I kind of, this stuff just runs parallel and if they found me via social media, it definitely comes up, but they don't see the bigger picture. You know, when you're in a growth mindset, you really got to prepare for that. And I think sometimes you're just out there looking at sites, not realizing the impact it has expanding your restaurant. And so I try to like dig deeper, find out what's going on. But you know, a scalable restaurant is not easy to do. And opening up another restaurant often I'm sure you've heard this like, well, we need to make more money, we have more partners. Yeah, it means more topline revenue, but doesn't mean you're making more money. Right. So I think that like 50,000 foot view of your business is often the biggest challenge for the independent groups to kind of really understand.

It's hard when you're. We were talking about that today. I have, you know, I have my restaurant masterminds group. We have a call on Monday and I was talking to them about the similar thing is like, you know, when you're in the hole digging, you know, sometimes you just tend to like just to keep your head down. And you're just looking down, you're digging, you're digging, you're digging because you know, you know how to do the work. So most restaurant owners do, and that's what they got where they are, is that they know how to do hard work. But sometimes, man, you just gotta stop and pause and look up and say, wow. And I said sometimes you might look up and see there might be someone reaching your hand out going, hey, man, let me help you out.

Totally. Oh, man. Like, that is. I. I mean, that's. That's exactly right. I mean, you could be confusing being busy with being productive.

Right.

Like, that's a big thing. So I think, because you want to do it right, people don't get in this business unless they want to do it. They have a passion for it. So clearing a table or managing some sort of expectation in the back of the house, or cooking or working the bar or drafting new recipes, that's what you want to do, but it's often not what you should be doing. I think that that's probably what I would say would be the biggest challenge. They focus on what they want to do rather than what they should do.

That's very cool. That is so true. So, you know, transformation is a big thing. We talk about transformation in coaching. There's change and there's transformation. Change never really happens. Change is, like I always say, wishful. Transformation is actually where it actually does the work, and that's where transformation happens. Share maybe a story about one of the restaurants you've worked with where. And maybe somebody you've consulted with where they've had some significant, real transformation.

Yeah. You know, I would. I would have to say probably the most significant transformation was a small taco shop that, that I was working with. And it took a second for the owner to realize that this was not just a place for you. He was a chef and he had the vision for this concept and he just didn't see the business side of it.

Yeah.

He was coming from a corporate background, which I always a little bit of a red flag to me, because when you were corporate, all that stuff's kind of taken care of. Right. And when you're independent, all that's on you. And he needed, like, you know, some people need to just feel it. You couldn't tell him, I'm sure. I mean, you must deal with this all the time, right, people?

Yeah.

So I was like, you're not going to want to do this because if you do this, it's going to lead to X. Yeah. You Know you're going to want to start posting more on social because. And he was just adamant, like, no, I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing. And then all of a sudden, it just clicked for him one day, all the things I had said. He kind of said, hey, you know what?

You're right.

Like, this is, I gotta focus on the business. I can't be in the back slicing jalapenos and making the fresh tortillas. And kind of like I said before is he was so focused on what he wanted to do and the passion of it.

Yeah.

He wasn't focused on what he should do. And just, you know, I think for everybody, it clicks at a different time. And you're just kind of like, words, words, words. And then the delivery doesn't show up. Right. And you're like, somebody didn't pay the produce guy.

Yeah.

Or like, oh, that somebody was me. Oh, yeah, me. Yeah. But I love you when you have, when I listen to you talk, I mean, it's always like some like one liner that resonates with me. And it's true. Like, these guys have to realize that all this, all this stuff starts in the mirror. Right. Like, it's good and bad. It's. It's you.

Yeah.

It's all your fault. And that's a positive thing if you look at it the right way, I think.

Yeah. I think the hardest part for people to do is just to own the truth. And own the truth is this and just admit that, you know what, man? I don't know everything. And that was my thing, my first restaurant. I was like almost every other restaurant owner in the world. I was just. In my head, I figured I knew enough to run a restaurant and I knew how to run a restaurant. I didn't know how to build a brand. Yeah. You know, and I didn't understand that part about. And I was like, just like. You're like, you're talking about with your client. I was like, I was busy doing the things I like to do. I loved working the line. I love cooking. Love, like getting the feedback from the guests. I had an open kitchen, people walking up saying, oh, my God, this is amazing. I love that. Yeah.

You mean you didn't like, you know, balancing out your. You're checking your bank statement against the QuickBooks.

Yeah, yeah. QuickBooks. What was that?

Is that a new cookbook? Yeah, exactly. No, Yeah.

I mean a bank.

I mean, we were talking about this today with a client. We were touring, and the challenges that other restaurants faced when they were like, all cash and how you managed multiple units, when you had 10 locations and they were doing 80 cash and 20 credit cards, like, oh, my God, what would that have been like? But, yeah, I mean, when it's all on you, it's either something freeing or something frightening. And I think I like the fact that it was on me. And that adrenaline. Yeah, it keeps you going, but it's. It's. I think some people realize I have to realize at some point I'm not cut out for this. I either have to figure it out or bring somebody in or cut ties here because it's. It's not for everybody.

It's not for everybody. That's the truth. Now, you focus a lot on the real estate side, too, because you have a lot of background in the real estate side. And a lot of times that people ask me, like, what's the perfect spot? What's the perfect spot? So now, given your background kind of in real estate, how is it vital for location, for a restaurant success?

Can you afford it? Because, man, like, that's. I've been there. And that looming feeling of having to write that gigantic check and trying to just run through your cash flow in your head and like, man, I gotta write this giant check that's every month for 10 years.

Yeah.

So if you can't afford it, and then everyone says, well, how do I know if I can afford it? Well, we always go out, we look in the market, we see what the market rents are. We work backwards and we say, okay, you need to do 1.7 million. Can you do 1.7 million here?

I don't know.

Okay, what's your menu look like? You know, you got to go through the exercise.

Yeah. You got to reverse engineer it. And that's the. You know that. That is critical right there. Most people have an overinflated sense of confidence that they can make it. But then when they. When you look at the menu, it's like, dude, your guest check average is going to be like 12 bucks. Yeah. Your rent's 30,000. You know how much volume you got to do to pay that kind of rent, dude? I mean, it's like. It's crazy.

Yeah.

I always tell people. Yeah. I tell people all the time, if the numbers don't work, the numbers don't work, man. That's it.

And it's. There's always going to be another site.

Yeah.

People get caught up. Like, it's gonna be gone. Call the guy. What's going on? Is it negotiable? I Mean, it's negotiable to a point, right? They have 10 off. Maybe we can maybe push off the increases for a couple years. But at the end of the day, if you're not doing the numbers, the last thing anybody would want is like go home and have that conversation like, hey, we need to take some money out of the house. We gotta float the restaurant. Like, like sickening. There also a landlord here the other day and they, they were like, here. He did the math for the restaurants. He owns 11 properties on one of the high streets in the market, very in demand. And I told him, hey, look, I have this concept. He's like, they're not going to do the numbers. And I'm gna have the space back in three years. I've had these properties a long time. I know that restaurants had a lot of vibrancy. They bring a lot of energy to the market. But this concept, I won't do it. You know, and that's, and that's. Thank God. Because these guys were adamant.

They were like, they wanted it.

Yeah. 225, 000 a year for a 1500 square foot space.

Oh my God.

It's a lot. That's a lot. And it's just, you know, some places just don't work. You're better off being someplace where you can make the rent work.

I had a, I had a client recently, one of my coaching clients, he just got out of a deal because it was like the rent was so upsetting. He was in a food hall and they were charging him $12,000 a month for a food hall dude. And he had just, I mean, it's just a cubicle.

Yeah, like 40 square feet. Right? Like real time.

It was, it nothing. I mean, nothing. I said, what are you doing man? I mean, this is crazy. You need to get out of that, you know, I mean, you gotta get out, we gotta get you out of this because you are, you're gonna bleed out.

And it was like an off food of his other restaurant. Or there's a standalone concept.

It's a standalone.

Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot.

It's horrible man. It's horrible. So branding is another huge thing that you're really, really. I mean, I admire you and you, you inspired me. This year, like 2023 was the year I really took my digital marketing up to the next level because I see you just being like, you're great at creating content. Yeah. You're really, really amazing on creating.

I've noticed you, I've noticed Your content.

Is really, it's getting up there, it's getting there. I'm not at your level yet. I'm not there. I'm working on it though. I got, you know, I got a little team now. I got a little video team.

To me, that's, that's the, that's the trick.

That's the trick right there. Yeah, yeah.

So, need help?

Branding is really big. What, what are kind of the elements you think that really resonates with people on social media today as far as, like, as far as not, not necessarily your brand, but a restaurant trying to communicate in social media?

I love the story and I, I love to know the behind the scenes stuff. You know, I love to know why you chose this location, why you chose this concept. You know, I'm a big fan of also the, the reality show. Like you have a whole cast of characters in your restaurant. Right?

Exactly.

You can, you can leverage some of that into a great story. But you know, creating little 30, 15 second videos every day to tell a little bit about your brand, it just creates those connections that man, you know, people, the argument used to be like, well, you're going to tell them everything. There's going to be nothing to talk about. You're going to lose hospitality. Yeah, it's the opposite. Like, hey, I saw the other day you guys did that funny video with the. It doesn't have to be funny. It should be authentic to who you are.

But I think it's whatever matches your brand, but totally.

But authenticity and I think storytelling that there's nobody else. Like, you literally tell the story and I think it's, they're just, it's. I know it's another hat for them to wear and maybe another expense, but it pays for itself.

I always say marketing should never be thought of as an expense. It should be thought of as an investment. Yep.

The one liners. That's the one liners.

Marketing is not, not an expensive investment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. And I think it's. You bring in a videographer, make a couple videos for a couple hundred bucks, chop those things up, you know, pay somebody a couple hundred bucks to post them and you're gonna. That it's tough to quantify, but then.

That'S gonna, that's, that, that's nowadays, like if you're in a major metropolitan area like you. I mean I tell people reach out to some of these community colleges that have like audiovisual programs and kids and that they're trying to build their portfolios.

Oh yeah.

Say, hey man, Come on down, like, shoot some video with me. Let's do some stuff. Let's co brand. I'll give you some gift cards. You know, you can eat some food. I mean, you know, starving college kids, you know, they're like, hey, man, that's great. I'd love to.

You know, it's interesting because the, the g. The videographer has been with me from the beginning. He was sweeping the floors at a gym.

Oh, was it really?

And that's how I met him. And he. I will forever remember this. And to your point, he was like, I'm a videographer, I just don't have anything to shoot. Yeah, you know, they're kind of, some of them are kind of introverted. They're update. They're great crafts people, but they're not going to go out there and pitch their services necessarily. So I was doing real estate and he was shooting hip hop videos, which he didn't like because these guys, honestly, if they were good rappers, they wouldn't be approaching him to shoot videos. Right? Yeah. He's like, I'm listening to these, these awful songs, like three hours while I'm editing. It's terrible. I said, well, do you want. If you want to talk about real estate. He was like, absolutely. So you guys can get somebody from the restaurant? If I can find somebody to talk.

About real estate, definitely. You know, and I love like, so. And when you're doing videos and stuff like that, one of the things I would suggest to people out there watching this or listening this on the podcast is that find what works for you. And it's a lot of trial and error. You know, one of the things I love, I love when you do the black and whites. Like you're walking down the street and you're doing like a, like a neighborhood tour. Those are like some of my favorite ones because I just love that gritty black and white look. Or when you're going like in the big city and you're like, hey, we're going to check out some properties and look at this and that, and you're talking about this and that and you're. And basically it's like your video guys behind you and you're talking with somebody else. You guys just having a conversation.

Yeah.

And that's like the best one because you know why? They're authentic.

Yeah. And it's, it's, you know, it's very easy to say, hey, guys, what's up? I'm here. There's a 2500 square foot space. There's a 10 foot hood. They have a million BTUs of gas. That's what they wanted to have. Like, I don't, you know, so you have to, you have to, you got to connect a little bit to what the story is. And I think same goes for the restaurant. You know, you guys have millions of stories and, you know, I just have to spend some time to think about it and God knows there's tons of characters there.

All right. The question to ask all, the question that everyone asks me all the time, how much posting is too much?

I don't think there's such a thing.

I don't think so.

I don't.

Yeah.

Because I think the algorithm is kind of against you now.

Oh, it definitely. Yeah.

Because why would they push you out when they charge you for more exposure? So you gotta do fight your own way.

You know, I've definitely seen and I've done some research. I've been tracking some stuff recently on this about impression marketing, impressions versus sales, and how as a restaurant increases their impressions, gets more visibility, puts out more content, gets more visibility, the sales follow behind it, but they also trend up with the impressions. I got a guy in New York City, actually, he has a really, a really cool restaurant. He's in, he's in Brooklyn too. And he's been noticing as his, he's really big on Tick Tock and Instagram. That's his two big channels. And as he's noticed as a, as his Tick Tock views and his impressions go up, his sales have been steadily doubling too, and climbing. Now, not as fast as his impression rate, but he's noticed that they're following like, like if his impressions are up here, you know, it's like, you know, they're coming up right behind it, which is awesome.

Wow. Yeah. I mean that, that's, it's the same way like when we were in the business and they would approach us to go in the newspaper. Yeah. Like, we didn't, we couldn't quantify it. They'd be like, there's 600,000 eyeballs that look at this magazine or the news. Okay. And then we just decided if we could afford it or not. Now it's free, basically. And you could control the output. I don't think, you know, the, the, I think that people think that everyone's going to look at you and it's all going to come up in the fee. It's not, you know, it's just not. So I don't think there's the right amount of posts. I think is the amount you can handle without it feeling like it's stressful.

Yeah, I post a lot more than I ever have and like, you know, and when. And a good positive comment I get from a lot of people is like, I see you everywhere. I'm like, good. That's my plan. Exactly.

Get used to it.

Yeah. See me everywhere. I want you to see me everywhere.

That's right.

Yeah. What's, you know, you've seen Grant Cardone, right?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Grant Cardone's big thing is like, you might not know me, you might not like me, but you won't ignore me. Yeah.

I know that he's been using a couple like the Alex Hormozi. He says that he was like, hey, I'm not getting the traction. Graham's like, I posted five times today. You posted once.

Oh, yeah, it was a great. That's a great book. Alec Hormosis. That's a great book. And he talks, if he talks openly about that in the book, about how. Yeah, Cardone just. He doesn't mention Cardone's name. But that's, you know, we all know who it was. It was. Yeah, look. Look at your. Look at your Instagram. Look at mine.

Yeah, you know, I mean, I mean, he, he does. I mean, his machine is wild, but I think like 100 pieces of content a week or something like that.

Oh, yeah.

That's how you do it.

I always say money follows attention.

That's right. And I think, you know, to me it's always like your. Your goal is to stay top of mind so that when somebody's hungry, they think, like, I should make a reservation at ABC Restaurant and that's it. You made more content, you're more top of mind, you get more reservations, you make more money.

I was thinking, I don't think people understand how. People don't understand the vast. How big social media is, how bad, how vast the Internet is. I think they think like, well, you know, hey, Kyle, I posted this morning at 8 o'. Clock. I don't wanna. I don't want to bore people. I don't want to be like too much in their feet. Like, 8 o' clock this morning. It's like, it's afternoon. Do you know what 8:00 clock this morning is in social media land? It's like 1983. No one knows.

Yeah, exactly. Who's this guy again? Yeah, 8 o'.

Clock. I don't remember what hell happened at 8 o' clock in the morning.

No, today. No, I mean, yeah, look, I think it's it's like, I don't know, it's. It's this thing of if you feel like you're going to be, you know, if you were in too much in front of somebody in a restaurant, you're like, I need to leave them alone. It's not like that too. It's so much to consume out there.

Right? Yeah. And here's the thing. And they talk about this in, like, basic marketing. People will buy from people they know like, and trust. And the best way to get that know, like, and trustability factor is to put out storytelling, like you mentioned earlier. Storytelling and telling who you are and why you do what you do. Because the why drives everything.

Yeah. That's what I've experienced in commercial real estate. There's not a lot of people doing. There's a lot more now, but there wasn't. And I think what it is is the know, like, and trust factor. Like, if I tell you, hey, triple net leases, you guys got to be careful of the triple net charges. They're going to add a significant portion to your base rent. And here's why I'm now telling you what the deal is. Right. I'm starting to build that trust. Yeah. For years it's been like, you know, you know, you get a flyer, we'll tell you what the CNNs are. What's your concept? What's the deal? No, I want to. Let's talk about it. Let's see if it makes sense for you and make sure that you understand it. It creates leverage and it creates an opportunity for you to be that thought leader or the restaurant leader in your market. When you're telling them like, hey, this is where we get our chickens. This is why we use these wines or whatever it is.

Yeah, whatever you do, whatever you do, just be proud of it and just like, talk about it. That's the best thing I can tell people do. So for up and coming restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, what's one piece of advice that you'd offer to someone that you wish you had been given when you first opened your first restaurant? You mentioned a couple.

Yeah, you know, I. I think that I am. One thing I would probably tell myself is it's okay not to have it all figured out.

Yeah, yeah, right.

Like, you got to. You're not like the guy down the street. You're not like the one that you're holding in such high regard that you want to be like a little bit or model your concept after they took years to get there and figure it out. You don't have the same customers. They're, you know, the customers desires and wants and what, what they crave has changed. Be patient. Be patient would be really be that, that, that piece of advice. Because it's okay.

I call it the Shake Shack syndrome. Everybody wants to be the next Shake Shack and be a billion dollar brand overnight. You know, I mean, yeah.

By the time you touch up the Shake Shack, they're onto something else. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I think, yeah, lean into what you would, I think feels comfortable and what you want.

Yeah. So you're like me, you do a lot of speaking around the country. You speak a lot of events and things like that. What's one topic or trend that you think is going to be really dominating the restaurant conversation in the next year?

You know, I think this, you know, I'm focused a lot on growth stuff. I think what makes a scalable restaurant, how, you know, what are all the elements of a scalable business? Everything down to efficient operations, to, you know, the technology, to the real estate, to the footprint. I think a lot of conversation around sustainability. What is your brand? You know, what are you going to be known for? You know, these younger generations are focused on the why, you know, why you're doing what you're doing. So, you know, I think this next couple years or this next year is going to be interesting because they're going to be a lot. They're going to continue to be a lot of new opportunities for restaurants. I know we're seeing like the ghost kitchens and the virtual brands, kind of like dating a little bit. This argument with the guy the other day he told me that fine dining was dead. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I think it's a huge opportunity. People want the interaction because that's what we missed.

Right.

So I think that's going to be it is there, there's going to be. People are dining out more than ever. Right. Like those sales are still kind of climbing into the billions of dollars. And I think what makes your restaurant scalable, your unique, you know, value proposition and all that fun stuff. Landlords are more savvy. They are really savvy and they want to know who you are, what value you're bringing. And as a business, if you're looking to grow and make money, I think understanding who you are and where you stand in that mix is going to be really important.

That's true. That's true. Yeah. And you mentioned that thing about restaurants. A writer from Forbes reached out to me, asked me, he goes, do you think there's too many restaurants. And I said, I think there's too many average restaurants.

Great answer.

There's too many restaurants. There's too many average restaurants. And the guy who said, like, fine dining's dead. No, fine dining is dead. For bad restaurants. Yeah. Casual restaurants. Fine dining is dead. Or any restaurants are dead if you. If you suck.

Well, that's the thing.

Like, I.

You look at all these articles, and it's under the category of restaurants, and it's Chipotle and it's Chick Fil A, and it's all. I'm like, no, man, I'm talking about a restaurant.

A restaurant.

I can go, yeah, yeah. I'm not talking about a bowl concept. You know, like, there are plenty of restaurants that are bold concepts that are great, but, like, let's. There are a lot of. There are a lot of classifications of restaurants. And I don't think I personally, you know, the fine dining, the French duckle, orange, tableside stuff, I think there's a lot of nostalgia to that. I think that's very cool. And I think some of the younger generations think the same. That's why, like, the Carbone group is doing the made. Major food guys are doing so well. They're bringing back that elegance of it, and I think it's endearing. I think it's a lot of ways, it's what we crave.

Exactly. No, it really is. It really is. So podcasting. You host a couple podcasts?

Yeah.

Yeah. So number one, talk about your podcast. So people know.

Yeah, closed Monday. It's kind of just a.

That's your new one, right?

We just rebranded the old one into something that was a little bit easier to roll off the tongue. And I was, God, man, I'm telling you, like, I can't tell you how many names I rolled through and from. For a long time. I had closed Monday written down, but it sounded negative to me until I realized unless you work in hospitality, you're getting closed Mondays. Like, ah, we're closed Monday, thank God. You know, like, so, yeah, it's a restaurant industry stuff. We kind of love to have folks on. Gonna have you back on you. By the way, top performing episode of all time, Donald Burns. Oh, thank you. So we have, you know, obviously restaurant folks on. I have Avi Gorn from Marquis on tomorrow. But, you know, we had a guy on a mortgage guy talking about, like, hey, if you're a restaurant owner, what is. How do you prepare yourself to. To buy a house? We have industry topic stuff. I try to keep it like not only what restaurants are into, but like what restaurant operators think about what are they doing, you know, where should they go golfing? Is it Scottsdale? Is it, you know, or wherever. But so there's that and then commercial real estate school, which is very self serving. I have it on to talk with some of the best brokers and landlords in the country.

So.

But yeah, it's commercial real estate school, but it's for me.

Cool.

Cool. But with a lot of cool conversations around real estate.

Yeah. So the National Restaurant Owners podcast is now rebranded as Close Monday.

Yeah, I'm gonna get you a T shirt, dude.

I know, I see the swag all over the place. Like you go to these food shows. I don't go as many shows as I used to, but man, I like, I see your stuff all over the place, like. And I was like, where's all the swag? You're gonna bring some swag to the summit, right? Hell yeah.

Yeah.

All right, all right, all right.

Got some hats and T shirts coming out there, so. Oh, awesome.

Awesome. Close Mondays. That's definitely. Yeah, I, I can't emphasize enough. Like Kyle's podcast. He always has amazing guests. Anybody, Anybody been in your. On your. On your show as a guest? That kind of a unique character. Dude.

Yeah, He was so high for this interview.

No way. Oh my God.

Yeah, it was.

That was hilarious.

Yeah, it was incoherent. But he's a buddy of mine, he had it. It was very interesting. If you want to know. I will send you the link. But that was probably the most interesting conversation. He. He was FaceTiming celebrity chefs in the middle of the interview. I don't even think he knew that the podcast. I don't even know if he knows the podcast today is out and we recorded like a year ago. That was for sure the most interesting. But you know, I'd love to have some, some more of that stuff. Right. You know, it's, it's. We're an industry full of misfits and characters and I think sometimes when you hear a little bit of that. But that one was a little. Yeah.

Yeah, you have to send me the link for that one. I have to check it out for sure.

Yeah, it's in the subscribers only section.

Subscribers only section. Nice. So looking at, you know, current challenges happening in the economy, you know, we got election coming up next year and stuff like that, what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge for restaurants in the next six months to.

To a year pricing? You know, I saw the article Yesterday that Chipotle raised their time, their price for the fourth time in two years. Crazy for them. And it's crazy. Probably I'd be curious to know because you have a lot more experience with this. But, like, you know, the reluctance on these guys to raise their prices.

It's the last thing they want to do. They think they're going to lose. No one's going to come. I raise my prices. No one's going to come to my place.

But I'll open every day and lose money. Makes no.

Exactly. It's like the stupidest, stupidest logic in the world. I don't want to raise my prices, but I'd rather stay open and lose money. Okay.

I'm not your guy, man.

Yeah, like, you might want to pick up that truck driving school.

Yeah, exactly. What were you doing before this? We're gonna go back to that.

We're gonna go back that.

It's just a weird dynamic and it's. Unfortunately, I think. Well, not unfortunately, fortunately. You can be transparent on social media and tell like, hey, guys. Yeah, tell the story. Be transparent. Hey, this is why we're doing it.

Well, here's my. Here's my. Here's my. Here's my thought process on pricing change or raising your prices. If you don't raise your prices, two things happen. And I say, there's a thing in nlp, Neuro Linguistic program. It's called perception is projection, which. Perception is projection means if I think it's true, it's true for me, whether it's true or not. Like, I go to your restaurant, I drive to your restaurant. I've been on the road. I have to use the bathroom. I walk into your bathroom. Bathroom's trash dirty. My perception is eventually the kitchen's dirty too. Right. Now. Is it true? Probably not. But my perception becomes my projection. And now I carry that with me. And now I take out into the dining room. Now I'm looking for what's known as confirmation bias. I'm looking for things that's going to support. Yeah, look. Oh, look at the way that. Look at that way that server looks at. Oh, no. Yeah. These people are rude.

This place.

Oh. Oh, the ketchup bottle is disgusting. Yeah, this place is horrible. Same thing. Without raising your price. If you don't raise your prices, two things happen. My perception is you're the nicest guy in the world and you're giving away. Or you must be buying cheaper to make up for it. Right?

Yeah, that's just what I don't. You know what? Where The. The challenges for me, or what would upset me is you lowered the quality, you lowered the portion, and you raised the price, and you're.

That's the worst. Yeah, yeah.

That is just. Just close because people are so savvy, and you're one picture away. How many dishes of the same. How many pictures of the same dish do I have on my phone? And if I could, I can see that I can post on Instagram. Here's what I had last year. Here's what you posted today.

That.

That's a death. That's terrible.

So, yeah, that's bad.

You know, it's bad. People will start counting the pasta. You don't want that. Just give them what they want. Charge them for it.

Now, one of the things I'm really pushing for in the restaurant coaching space is about balance. You know, having balance. And I don't really like to say. I like. I hate to say the word life balance. I like to say life work, integration. So, you know, you're a family man. How do you kind of strike that balance between professional and family life?

I think, you know, the integration is a good word. You know, it is definitely not balanced. But I think the goal is, you know, I was listening to a guy in the commercial real estate space, hundreds of billions of dollars of transactions to speak the other day, and he was talking a lot about focus and being present. And he was like, look, when you're doing something, do that. If you're with your work, do your work. If you're with your family, be with your family. I'm not the best at it, right? Like, it becomes like, oh, this guy finally got back to me. Let me. Let me send him a note. Or am I meant to sign up for Donald's podcast? I got to get back to him. I'm not doing at the dinner table, right? I'm not at the dinner table. I'm not doing it when I'm at some sort of event or my wife are just hanging out. It's, you know, picking and choosing your spots. And I think it comes down to conversation with your family. They. You're with your family, they know who you are.

Yeah.

But you have to be present in those little situations. And the same goes for your restaurant, right? When you're there, you're there, period.

I'm a big believer. I. I teach a lot of my coaching members. I teach about controlling your calendar and living and dying by your calendar. You know, it's like, you know, if you have time sped up, you know, block off time. Like, if you got family time blocked off. That's family time.

Yeah.

Put the phone away, put the laptop away, put the iPads away. Be with the family, like, you know, in the morning, if you got time to work on the. On the business, not in the business, then work on the business. Don't be distracted by, you know, and don't, you know, go down the rabbit hole. Start, you know, you know, lollygagging or doing. I mean, focus. I. Focus blocks. 20 to 30 minute focus blocks. And just a couple a day, man, you get so much done if you just have that total focus. But you're right, man, that presence, just being mindful and being present and doing 100% of the focus into that change your life. You know, that's.

That's something that. That works well for me too. Is that the time blocking and literally timing myself. Okay. This hour, work on prospecting. Set the timer on my phone and just go after it.

Yeah.

You know, in the restaurant business, what screws people up all the time because such nice, hospitable people is when the beverage guy comes in and wants to sample you on something.

Oh, yeah.

They didn't call you, they didn't email you. They walked in the door and you're obligated. Yeah, sure. Sit down. That could screw up your whole day.

Everything. Yeah.

Say, hey, you know, Todd, thanks for coming in, but, you know, actually I should only do this on Thursday between 2 and 4. Can we schedule something for next week? I think that's. Yeah. I mean, it's.

Yeah. One of the things I would tell every restaurateur out there right now. If you want to start getting some of your life back, learn this word. No. And here's what I also say. No doesn't mean no. It just means not now. That's what it means. Hey, right now I can't, man. I'm just. I'm in the middle of something. I'm into some things. It's like when I tell. I get my clients when they first start using focus blocks, they put a sign on the door in a meeting. Do not disturb. And then what happens? People knock on the door, open the door, walk in, ask them a question. I said, you got to set the expectations. Like, during this time, I can't be disturbed or bothered. If the building's on fire, call the fire department. Don't come in here yelling at me. Okay?

Yeah, yeah. Not. Not everything is a priority based on the level of excitement you bring to some.

To me.

Right? Like, oh, my God, this needs to be done yesterday. Well, let's take that back.

Another thing you can do. Yeah. Another thing restaurateurs can really learn to do is not the last thing you want to be in your restaurant is chief problem solver.

The worst.

You know, and so when people come to you from your team, they want a quick. They want a quick answer. They want the easy. They want the quick solution. Right? They want that. They want that goddamn staples easy button. That was easy, right? That was easy. So when they come to you with a problem, I always say, this is what I train my. My coaching members to say. You say something, and this is a script. They say, wow, that sounds like a really interesting problem. Here's what I want you to do. You come up with three positive solutions. Get back to me, and then we'll talk about it. Yeah. But not until you have three positive solutions.

Bring me. Bring me solutions, not problems.

You want to be solution oriented, not problem oriented.

Are you familiar with Jacko Willnick?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Jocko. I love Jocko. Yeah.

Have you. Have you seen his thing called Good? He does this thing, and I think Joe Rogan kind of goes off on it a little bit, but he's like, whenever somebody bring. Would bring him a problem, obviously, like, I think it was a Marine guy. So very. He's good. Yeah.

I love problems.

And he. They were. Yeah. And then say, like, you know, this just happened. You know, we just. We just. I didn't place the liquor order, and we're gonna be short this weekend. Good night. Good.

Why?

Because now, you know, you can't do that right now. You just learned a lesson. Right? But he just kept saying, good. Oh, this happened. Good. And I think it's. That's. That's a great way to look at it right now. Now we just learned what not to do, and that's key.

That's awesome. I'll write that one down. Yeah, Just say, good. Good.

Good.

Because now we got. Now we got something we can. Now we got something to learn from. Yeah.

And being the chief problem officer is the worst because what happened and I.

Did that, dude, everyone's done it because you want to be. You want to be. You want to be validated. You want to have some, you know, oh, they need me. Yeah. And that's the biggest thing. Like, a lot of times when I. And one of my things in my coaching is I try to take you from being an operator to being an owner. And there's a big mindset shift that happens when you have to go from being operator, being there every day. And, like, Feeling they need me. I'm a part of this. If I walk away, this thing will fall apart. Two, I'm an owner, and this is an investment, and I want to look at it as an investment. I want to look at my numbers. I want to make sure I have a growth plan, and I'm working on the business, not in the business.

Yeah.

And to do that shift, it's a hard identity shift for people. It's like, you know, you used to be a chef, right? Yep. Yeah. What happens when, like, you're not a chef anymore? That identity gets taken away, and at first you're like, who am.

Some people struggle. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's. It's a real thing. You know, it's. I say all the time, I've been a chef everywhere except in my own house, you know, now. Now it's the only place I'm taking orders around here.

But, yeah, it is bottle washer now.

Literally. Literally, baby bottles coming out of my ears over here. I know it's a lot, but. But no, that's a great point because it's. It's. You want to be a restaurateur, restaurant entrepreneur, There are a lot of little roles in there, and you better figure out what you want, because the second you start doing and not delegating, man, that is. You're tough to cut that. Cut that cord.

It's very, very tough. So looking ahead, what do you think? There's a lot of challenges facing restaurants. A lot of challenges facing the restaurant. What do you think is something maybe a topic that we really need to address as an industry moving forward?

Man, you know, the fair wage stuff stands out to me. The tipping culture, where that's all headed. I don't have the answers, but I think there's a lot of conversation that has to go around.

Yeah.

I don't like. I despise the fact that a dishwasher makes in a week what a server makes in a night.

Yeah.

You know, that's not okay. I don't have the answer, though.

Right.

I think there are people smarter than me, they can maybe come up with that. But I think a lot of the events of, I think, you know, the COVID era kind of brought some things to the surface. Mental health and the way we treat each other, I think is. Is really important. You know, eating out of core containers on your lunch break in the back alley in the next 10 minutes is. It's not horrible. Not the way to live your life. It's not. Okay. Yeah.

I always make the joke you haven't worked in a restaurant, so you've eaten out of Ad Belly cup, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's. It's.

Yeah.

You know, that showed the bear. I think that's why it resonated with people in the industry so much. He would be sweating over these plates and, you know, placing servo with tweezers and he was going home and making a bologna sandwich, you know, and having a can of coke and some lays. And that's not that far from me.

When I was. When I was. Back when I was married and I had my restaurants, I used to piss my. My then wife, well, I pissed her off about a lot of things. But one of the things I used to upset her about was like I would own a restaurant, probably a great restaurant in town, and then I wouldn't eat all day and then I go home and my go to thing this, remember? And back when I had my restaurant, my health was really horrible. I was. I was up to like £280. I was huge.

Wow. I didn't know that.

Oh, God. Huge. But my number one go to junk food at home at night, at 11:30 at night, midnight, was a can of Spaghettios.

Oh, that's pretty bad.

Horrible. Brutal. Now the truth is out there. Truth will set you free.

Wow. Yeah. But it's like you're gonna come home and cook yourself dinner. Like what? I'm not.

So one of the things I'm really big about is self care. With all my classes, that's one of the things we talk about. We talk about that. We call it the core four. It's about body, being balance and business and so many other coaches, consultants like that. They all focus on the. On just the business part. And you know, hey, man, I love having a successful business like everybody else, but how about having a successful life, you know? Yeah, yeah, like you said, man, where I can get time and I can hang home and hang with my family, hang out with the baby, hanging, Hang out with the wife, you know, enjoy some time, go do some work and then just, man, just be able to unplug from it all. So people might not. Yeah, people might not know this, but Kyle is going to be one of the speakers at my upcoming restaurant success summit in Tucson. It actually starts off, it's next. It's actually October 23rd, 24th, 25th, Tucson, Arizona, at the Hacienda del Sol resort. Kyle's going to be speaking there. Kyle, give people like a little. A little teaser about what you're talking about.

I've experienced the Last, you know, six months or so. Really more than anything, maybe, maybe the last year. How challenging it is for restaurants to lock down a space. Oh, yeah, it's not that easy. Just because it's available doesn't mean it's yours. And the ability to prepare yourself for that or those questions. These landlords doing homework, man, you're posting on social, they know a lot about you. Right. That's sort of the thing cut both ways. So I think we're going to dive into really how to prepare best prepare yourself before you hit the market. You know, it's not just about calling signs, but what it means to prepare yourself for expansion in 2023, 2024 and beyond. You got to be in the drive sheet, you got to be on the offensive, you got to be prepared. It's, it's very competitive. And how you stand out and how you prepare yourself in front of the landlord is a lot different than how you stand out in front of your guests. So it makes a big difference.

It's like you said, landlords today are savvy. They know.

Oh man.

And they want to know about your business. Not just I got a taco idea on. Taco idea. What the hell does that mean? Yeah, they want to know everything. They want to know a lot more.

Oh, you got landlords now saying, what's your product mix? How much versus delivery do you do? I don't have space for Uber drivers. I don't want them coming in out of my center. Where's your, where are you going to put them? So if setting up your five things that are non negotiable for your business, attacking the market and being prepared with a little checklist that we'll have, I think we'll help you. It's going to take a little work to put together. But you can't start looking for your next location today. If you want to be open the next six months, you're six months too late. So we'll talk a lot about that.

That's a God true. It's right there. So if you want to grab a seat, we still have a few seats open. I capped this thing at 50 for a couple reasons. Number one, and Kyle and I speak at these big conferences and these conferences have like, you know, they'll cram a thousand people in a room. It'll be like, you know, 20, 30,000 people at a conference. Huge, huge venues, you know, and it seems like, you know, you get up on stage, you speak and then you're rushed off to go either to the next room you're talking to or you're going to a panel to talk to, and you don't really get time to really sit and interact with people. That's the restaurant success summit is totally different. I cap it at 50 people because I want you to have an experience. I want you to be able to get questions answered to what happens with your restaurant and so like that. So every day at lunch, we have what we call experts luncheon, where the experts are going to be there, lunch is catered in, so lunch is on me. You're going to have sit in a room and you sit down. You just find Kyle. And trust me, Kyle's everyone I invited to be a speaker at the restaurant success summit. Super approachable, super laid back, and they also all want to help. That's what their whole goal is and everything they do. So Kyle just like, you know, corner him and just like grab him, you know, grab a, you know, grab a plate and sit down next to him and talk to him. And if, you know, if the conversation goes later, when the Summit's over at 6 o', clock, you want to go, you know, entice him with some, you know, tequila. He's probably willing.

Yeah, can, can be done.

He can be bribed.

Not above that.

Just go to restaurantsuccess summit.com restaurantsuccesssummit.com to grab a ticket. And if you ever want to get a hold of Kyle, please, kyle@4hyphen turns.com kyle@4hyphen Turns.com and check out his podcast closed Monday. Wherever you like to check out your podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, everywhere else.

That's it.

Awesome. I thank you, my friend. I appreciate you being here as always.

Thank you so much, man. We're have you on close Monday. Get, get you out here, have the number one and number two episodes up there.

That'd be awesome. I love that. I love that. I love that.

Awesome.

All right, thanks, Kyle. I appreciate my friend.

Thank you, sir.