Get Your Mind Right for COVID-19 with Yigal Adato

Hey, Donald Burns, the restaurant coach, here live with you. And today I'm joined by my good friend Yagala Dado out in sunny. Is it sunny out in San Diego?

It's so nice today, Donald. Like not a cloud in the sky. It's like 70 degrees. It's, it's perfect.

Well, how was weather always been like that this week or did it rain?

No, it was raining like crazy for like a week. We couldn't get out of the house. It just non stop the most rain I've ever seen in San Diego. It was, it was pretty crazy.

Yeah, I have a, I have a couple clients in LA and they were like, it was like, they were like, you're really getting depressed a little bit because the. You guys don't get a lot of rain.

No, but you know what, we enjoyed it. We needed it cleaned out. The streets, the plants are growing, so everything's super nice.

So gotta take the, gotta take the rainy days with the sunshine, right?

Exactly. I'll take it.

Yeah. So if people don't know how we met, you and I met a few years back on a mastermind group that we were a part of. It was like, they were like. And the mastermind group, I mean, I'm a big, huge believer in masterminds. At first I was kind of hesitant, you know, because of course he's like, yeah, you know, all right, you know. And Bruce Irving from Smart Pizza Marketing kind of talked me into it. But then once I got into it, I mean, it really helped blow up my business. And it's great because I got to, you know, number one, I got to meet people like you, Mike, you know, Ganino. And it was really great to really connect with other people in other industries because it helped me kind of look at my business in different lenses. What are some of the advantages you think of mastermind groups are?

I think the biggest thing for the masterminds is accountability. Right. You know, we're business owners. You and I are both coaches. And I'm in a mastermind myself. I run a mastermind myself. And one of the biggest. I'll give you a huge win. For example, I was at one of my mastermind meetings last year and I promised my mastermind that I would do a live event. And so within 39 days I put together a live event, had a hundred people fly out to San Diego, started a whole nother side of the business, increased my income and all from a promise and them holding me accountable. And then when I was in the group with you and the other guys, I remember just learning and asking and seeing you guys doing all this stuff and thinking to myself, man, I can do that too. So it also upped my game and, and helped me increase my business and I just also had somebody to talk to when I had issues and I wanted to grow. So I think it's. I think everybody should be in a mastermind of some shape or form.

Yeah. I think one of the things that came from the Mastermind group is I really got serious about writing my book and I got that done. I think one of the things you took from it, you started podcasting.

Yeah.

And now your podcast is huge.

Yep. Yeah, it let me corner a market and I'm. I'm the only podcast in. In the industry and I've gotten all my clients from the podcast. So a hundred percent. It's. For me, the Mastermind has helped me grow my business and personally as well.

Exactly. Yeah. If you've never been in a Mastermind group and you know, this is a. I call it a seamless shelf, a self plug for a mastermind group, because I'm actually starting up, restarting, relaunching my restaurant Masterminds group this Monday, April 20th. You can check it out at restaurantmasterminds.com and the reason I mentioned that is because up until coronavirus hit, my life was pretty much on the road. I was like three weeks out of the month, I was on the road traveling, and then this happened. And honestly, this has been a great opportunity for me to think about what's important to me, what's important to my life, and how I want to really shift my business. Because I've talked for, honestly, I've talked for maybe the last two years about shifting my business more to online and then less on the road, but I just never really pulled the trigger. But now this is a great opportunity for me actually to actually do it, do it and hold myself accountable.

Yeah, for me as well. You know, I shifted my business four years ago when my daughter was born. I was working retail. I had three stores, 60 plus employees, and it was great and I loved every single moment of it. But I really enjoyed the leadership aspect, training my team and creating the culture. And so I said, I want to be around for my daughter. And so I shifted the business. But now it's taking it to a whole nother level where it's all about giving value and serving. So now it's all about service. For me. Like at this moment, it's not about making money. It's about how do I serve the community like when you said, hey, can you jump on the live? I said, yes, if I can serve your community, I can give back. I'm in.

Yeah. And that's always one thing. I always felt like in our mastermind group we've been in, it's always about people that were. That wanted to be leaders and wanted to help each other. And we wanted to help other people in other industries, too. I mean, we had, you know, Chloe DeVita, you know, Andrew Carlson. We've had, you know, we have some really cool people in there from different groups.

Yeah, I think you learn from other people. And for me, for me, being a business owner, it doesn't matter if you're in the restaurant business, the pawn business, store, you're very isolated sometimes, right? You're in the business and you're doing everything. And yeah, you're listening to the associations and videos, but you don't tend to bounce off ideas. And when you have a mastermind of people saying, like, no, no, don't do that, because I tried it, make this shift. It'll make you a lot more money. It's so much better. It saves you time, money. And you also, like, especially now, like, you're in the restaurant business and the restaurant. The mastermind is for restaurants. Now that the restaurants are going through what they're going through, this is the time to connect. Like, this is the time to work on your leadership and your culture, your marketing, your strategy, everything that you didn't have the time to do before. This is the time to. To make it happen so that when things open up, you will, you know, you'll race out of the gate. So much better than when you walked into this situation. Yeah.

And we were talking a little bit before the show started. We're talking about the customer journey, how the customer journey is so important. Why don't you share a little story you have?

Yeah, so I'm all about. Yeah, I'm all about supporting my local restaurants. Supporting, you know, I want to help them out. So we, you know, takeout, all that type of stuff. So I'm like, I want to order a pizza. There's a little pizza joint five minutes away from me. So I went online. They weren't answering the phone. Probably busy. I'm just going to order online. So I went online and their website was, I don't know, 10 years old. The ordering was horrible. I couldn't choose what I wanted. I got really, really frustrated. So I just went to Domino's. And it was very sad because I wanted to help them out during this situation and they might be busy, but also, as a business owner, you've got to step back and say, okay, now that the restaurant's closed, now that I'm doing just takeout, how do I improve that customer journey? So it's incredible. The customer service is amazing. The online ordering is epic. When they receive the food is amazing. What can you do to step up your game? Because now is the time to get that done.

Exactly.

And they lost my business and it was very sad. And I know, like Bruce Irving said, I wouldn't take a Domino's pizza if it was for free. And I'm like, oh my God, I hope Bruce doesn't, you know, see this. But.

That'S, you know that.

Yeah. So that's the case. Like, you've got to look at the customer journey. What's going on? How can you conserve them better? How you, how can you make the way they're feeling at home a little bit happier? Through your pizza, through your tacos, through your whatever that is. And that's essentially leading your business to be able to come out of this stronger.

Exactly. Yeah. The customer journey is one of those integral things that a lot of people don't think about. They only think about just maybe just thinking about the food only or they think about the transaction part. But you gotta think about the whole, the whole picture of it, you know. And like you said the website, I mean, the first thing I do when I'm gonna go check out a restaurant is I'll put their website. Like, if it looks outdated, right. Then it's kind of like, you know, kitchen's outdated, doubting, right. And then of course, technology is huge nowadays and if you don't make it easy for people to do business with you, you are going to lose out on some really easy sales that would have been low hanging fruit for them, 100%.

And then like, I just thought right now, seriously, I thought like when I went to go pick up, you know, I went to go pick up some other food the other day from the bag, it just said like, thank you so much for helping us through this time. From our family to yours, a little card, like something with a heart connection, something with connecting to your clients. I would look at that card and be like, oh my God, this is amazing. And if it said like, you know, 5% off your next purchase or free breadsticks or whatever you want to, you know, put in there, it would make me want to connect with them and order with them again and again to help them out because you're not just doing a transaction, you're connecting to your community. Right. And that's super crucial in this time.

That's so huge. Yeah, I think sometimes we just think of as. And this is where I get into the power of words. And I always ask restaurants, what do you call the people that come to your restaurant? Do you call them customers or do you call them guests? Because the customer, me is transactional. Where a guest is. I'm treating you like you're a friend, you're a family. And again, you have that connection. Connecting with the heart is so huge. I think so many people miss that.

Listen, I think in this time, you know, we're all stuck at home. A lot of us are stuck at home. You've got to connect with your spouse and kids and, you know, other people through this medium. Right. Like we're online, we can't connect in person. But your clients are spending money with you, hard earned money that right now they might think to themselves, man, instead of going out there and getting a family meal for 40 bucks, I'm going to go to the supermarket and spend 20. But they want to support you. So the deeper you connect with them through the heart, with, hey, from our family to like, just thank you, thank you for ordering. Thank you for taking the time to call us and not somebody else. Just make that small shift and you're going to see that it's going to improve your business. You know, a small shift. You know what happens with a small shift? Oh, yeah. It creates a big outcome at the end. So just do the small shifts in that customer journey.

Very cool, very cool. You know, one of the topics that you're an expert on and one of the things you talk about around the country is you talk a lot about leadership.

Yeah.

What would be like an outline of like the basic points of leadership you think people should look at or they should like take into consideration? I know you have like a little program, a little outline program.

So I'll talk about three, which is clarity, courage and commitment. Right. And I'll kind of break those down for people watching. So the first thing is clarity. A lot of people are just trying to, you know, put band aids on, on, on wounds as opposed to like looking back and say, how could I solve this, this issue? This morning we had John Gordon, the, the author of the Energy Bus, and he said something that was amazing. You know, he said real leaders focus on the pro, on the solving the problem and not just the problem itself.

Right.

So for me, the first thing is clarity. Like what's Going on, what's not working? This is a time to step back and say, what's not working in my business? And then on the other side, you need to ask yourself, well, what do I want? So an example of this is when I did this, and I call this a clarity code. I said, it happened to me when I got married for seven months. My wife basically said, like, hey, you're working too hard. I didn't sign up for this. I can't do this anymore. Go, go figure it out. And so I did my thing. I said, okay. What's not working? I said, okay, I'm 40 pounds overweight, I'm sluggish. This is not working out. The other thing was like, man, my sex life, it sucks. Like, I'm not connected to my wife. I need to connect to my wife. And in my business, I was pretending to work, right? I was unfocused and, and I didn't know what goals I wanted to reach. So you've gotta, you've gotta get that clarity. Like, what's not working right now? Especially, like, in the restaurant industry for you guys, right? Like, what's not working? And attack that. If there's somebody in the industry that's sucking the, the, the vibe out of your restaurant, right? If there's somebody who's just so negative, sit them down and talk to them and say, listen, either we're going to make this happen with or without you. Are you, Are you in or you're not, right? So get that clarity. And in your life and in your business. But without that clarity, there's nowhere to go. Like, right now, don't just survive. Actually put a goal out there. Say, I want to sell X amount of dollars a day, and I want to see if I can do it. I want to sell this many, you know, meals or whatever it is and see how you can achieve it, right? And that's when we come into courage. The ones who are going to thrive through this is the courageous ones who are doing things differently, right? Call it creativity, call it courage, call it whatever you want. But if you're not courageous to do something different, then your restaurant is just going to be the same. Your business is just going to be the same. Example, one of the sponsors on my podcast is Podium. And Podium has a way for people to leave you better Google reviews. And they have this pay by text feature that they're giving out for free. And one of the restaurants said, hey, let's try this out. Let's say it was an Asian restaurant. Let's try this out, and they tried it out, and I think over the weekend, they sold, like, $10,000, which they've never done before. Why? Because it allowed the customer to pay through their text message, not have to walk into the restaurant. And they just walked out and gave them the food, said, it's already paid. You're good to go. Awesome.

What's it called again?

Podium.

Podium.

Yeah, it's called Podium Pay. That's. That's the. That's the program I'm going to try to look for the. It is. I'll post it for you. It's called Podium Payments.

That'd be cool.

Yeah. And so for me, it's. What are these restaurants doing right now? Another example of this is in my area, there's something called. There's a Facebook group called South Bay takeout. There's like 5,000 people from my community in there, and all the restaurants are posting, hey, this is my deal of the day. I can send it to you. There's a waffle truck going around delivering waffles. There's produce. People delivering produce to your home. I mean, these are just people who are thinking outside of the box box and making it happen.

Wow, that's really cool.

Yeah. And what happens is there's a lot of restaurants who are suffering, obviously, and businesses. But I. Somebody said the other day, they're like, man, I've had some days that are better than I've had without the virus happening, because more people are finding out about me. I'm making more noise. I'm dedicated and focused to marketing, getting the word out there, when before I was just dedicated to making my restaurant run or my business run. You know, so you've got clarity. So get clarity. What is that you want? Set those goals, be courageous, take the lead. Right? Do something different. And then commitment, like, nothing works without commitment. You know, it's funny. I always tell. When I give speeches, I say that commitment's a tricky thing, because when you say that you're going to do something and you don't get it done, your subconscious tax it up as, like, a failure.

Yeah, right, right. What, on you?

Yeah, yeah, on you. Exactly. So it's like, oh, you failed. Oh, you failed. Oh, you didn't Take action. Hey, I'm gonna go to the gym tomorrow. And you wake up, like, I'm too tired. Up, failure. So when you have this big idea, when you go from like, I want to lose 40 pounds, I want to have, you know, a better sex life and a better relationship with my wife, I want to grow my business by 25%. Your mind says like wait a second Buddy, back here 36 times you've promised me you were going to do something and you didn't make it happen. So why don't we get you to watch some Netflix, sit down, we'll throw some negativity your way and we'll talk about how to get your mind right.

Right, Right.

And so just. And we'll have you do. Let's just be comfortable. You're not going to make it happen. Let's just sit down. So you self sabotage. So commitment's really important. So if you're going to commit to something, it's, it's like you go to war for it. You make that happen.

How many leaders do you think? Like maybe a percent. How many leaders do you think self sabotage, man.

So I think, I think most leaders health have self sabotage, self sabotaging thoughts and they're not always motivated. Right. So it's a big, big part of the leadership. It's what they do on a daily basis that gets them out of that.

Exactly.

For me, is it crazy to think that like my daughters are at home, they're not going to school, what's going to happen? You know, is it going to be toilet paper, food? Like yes. But I prime my mind and my body every single day. And the way I do this is I wake up every day like 6:30. 6, 6:30. You don't have to wake up at 4:30. If you want to, that's fine. I go out for a run.

Yep.

And I put on my headphones and I listen and I go to YouTube and I write motivational videos and for an hour, Donald, my mind is like, you can do it. Don't quit, commit, you know, lead. We got this. And so I'm not allowing those negative thoughts into my brain from the get go. If I wake up and I look at my Facebook and I look at the news and the world's going to crap and.

Like, oh my God.

Yeah. And so I'm not going to wake up excited and ready to see opportunity. I'm going to be in a place of self sabotage. Right, Right. So that's, that's what I do. So I wake up and I go out for a run or I go for a walk and I think to myself, okay, what am I grateful for? And let's put the headphones on and let's just blast motivation and inspiration into my brain to make that happen. Now some people say, oh, can that, can that work? You know, and I've And I've read studies where they do this to prisoners of war, which is kind of like extreme. I know that you were in the military. And so what you listen to will affect your mindset and over time.

Oh, yeah.

If you put in positive, it'll affect positively. If you put a negative, it'll be negative. So that's what I do every single morning. That's kind of like my morning routine. I also, I journal. I get all of my. All the crap out of my mind. If there's something negative, I want to get out. And then I also read something, you know, listen to a podcast. But I'm priming my mind in the morning to be positive because I want to lead, I want to serve during this time. And so I can't. I can't walk in. You know, there's something called emotional contagion, which basically says that if I walk in and I'm going to meet with you and I come in with a crappy attitude, it's going to be contagious. Yeah, it's like the virus. And at some point you're going to be in a bad mood. But if I walk in and I'm like, pumped, motivated, inspired, I'm going to give that off to my team and to the people around me.

No, exactly. Yeah. Were you always like that? When did you start making the shift to, like, prime yourself in the morning?

So it happened. So I've been doing this leadership stuff for a while and I've, you know. Yeah, I listened to books. It wasn't until about two years ago, second pregnancy with my wife. She was in bed for seven months. She had some. And I basically had to take care of everything. Like my daughter. The meals, take her to school, work, homework, it was all on me. And I had a choice. It was woes me or step up and make it happen. And so I had to get more focused than I've ever been before. And I had to figure out, like, how do I stay positive with seeing my wife in bed for seven months? You know, we barely spoke. No physical connection. It was tough to see. There was days that she would turn around and say, like, tell our first daughter. Tell you that I love her. I'm going to die. I was like, hold on one second. Like, what? Wait. We'd go to the hospital three times a week. It was really, really tough. And what got me through it was priming my mind and my body. Because leadership is also about the condition. Right. It's one of my Cs. I've got 10 Cs and it's the condition of the mind, body and your environment. So I prime my mind, I work out my body, I want to stay healthy. And then my surroundings, My business needs to be clean as well. It needs to be healthy as well. So that's, that's very important to me. That's what got me through that. So just kind of, it worked for me. So I continued that throughout time.

Very cool. Very cool. No, I mean that is so important. Like you said, getting, getting your mind right. I'm like you. I do a, I have a routine every morning. In fact, I actually wrote that little booklet, outstanding mindset. Because people are asking me, you know, how do you get this? How do you get this much done? How do you stay so focused? I say it's all how you set yourself up for the day. Now if I just wake up and, and just like, like you said, it's easy to get sucked into the media. It's easy to get sucked into Facebook or the news. And all that negativity just hits you like a brick in the head some days.

Yeah.

You have to, you have to be conscious of your choices and you have.

To continuously do it. Right. You've got to be consistent.

It's like, it's like you and I saying we went to the gym once and that's it, we're in shape.

I tell like all the master, talking about mastermind. I tell my mastermind members, this is going to take three to six months to start feeling the effect. It's like the gym. You're not going to lose £40 in two weeks. Right?

Right.

You've got to be consistent with it. So for me, it's super important to prime my mind. Then like when I feel down, for example, I'll throw on some music. I'll have, I'll throw a dance party with my daughters at home or I'll go outside for a walk. Or like I've now realized that I can tell when I'm in a crappy mood and also like, okay, gotta stop what I'm doing, walk outside. Or just one minute of listening to something, seeing some pictures on my phone of my family. And that shifts my mindset right away. And leaders, you know, you asked the question, how many, what percent of leaders? Self sabotage. Leadership isn't about not having fear or self sabotage. It's knowing how to say, okay, fear, step aside because I'm on a mission. Like, I know you're there. You serve the purpose. Step aside because I, I'm going, thanks. Thank you. But step out of the way, I.

Would say so my answer to that question would be, every leader self sabotages. But how long do you let it happen or continue is the real question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you, you know, and I always say, awareness proceeds choice. Choice proceeds change. Once you're aware of it now, you can make some changes. Yeah, yeah. I was having a conversation this morning with a client and they were talking about, you know, this summer, you know, when, when this coronavirus is over and then they reopen and she was, and they, and she was using the word, you know, we're going to get hammered. And I'm like, you know, when you say you're going to get hammered, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. You know, the words you use are very powerful. So how about just like this, it's going to be busy and we're going to be pushed a little bit. Sounds a little bit better than getting hammered, man. I don't want to get hammered, do you?

Not at all.

No.

I tell my clients to say, this is the time to prepare. Yeah, exactly what's coming. Right. So up. Your technology, your website, your culture. Do you have a mission statement in the values? And I know Donald, you're amazing. Like, your content, Donald, is incredible. And if someone's watching this in the restaurant business and they're not part of your mastermind, they're foolish because you do so, so much incredible things. And I always tell you like on Instagram, like, dude, that was brilliant.

You go walking in the morning like you're doing a video.

Yeah, yeah.

And you're clearing your mind and you're, you're sharing your thoughts with the world. And I think that's, that's great.

Yeah, I, I call that, it's, it's, it's just like my, it's called the message. And it's like I'm speaking to myself and if I can share that with somebody and if they get something, that's awesome. So my question is like, as a business owner, share the fact that times are tough. That's okay. Share the fact that like you, you know, you're thankful to the community for still being there for you. Really share with them and connect with them and then up your, you know, work on your. I talk to my clients about three things. Leadership, marketing, and strategy. This is the time if your clients said they're going to get hammered, like my clients are saying, like, we're getting prepared. This is preparation. And then we're going to kill it. We're going to, we're going to do. Amazing when doors open up, you know.

Yeah. It's all the way you frame it. Words to me are so powerful. People have to understand that if you, the way you, the way you say things to yourself, especially the language you speak to yourself actually becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. It really does. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And like we said, the more consistent you are, the more it takes space in your mind.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. So what are some things that you, you know, when do you think, when do you think this thing's going to be over, man? Everybody want to get on this. What do you think?

So I've stopped watching the news because it's, it's tough. My wife sent me an article yesterday that said we're still going to social distance until 2022. Right. Do I think it's going to go back to normal? I don't think it's going to go back to normal. I think things are going to change. I don't know how to answer that question, to be honest with you. But what I do know is that there's so much opportunity at the moment to be able to become a better leader, to be able to improve your business, that if you're waiting for the change, you're going to be left behind.

Exactly.

Right. If, if the government says, hey, we're going to open up business in 30 days, are you ready for that? And if you're not, you're in trouble.

Right, exactly.

And if you think that your restaurant's gonna do or your business is gonna do business the way it used to. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're fooling yourself.

You're fooling yourself.

That's denial. I call that.

Yeah, 100%. 100%.

I mean, even in your industry, you know, the pond industry, how many people have made pivots?

So, yeah, so the pond industry, they're open because they're an essential business. Just like restaurants are. Right. A lot of them are closed, but just doing like curbside. A lot of them have shifted to like online. Like I have a client who went live on Facebook and sells like tens of thousands of dollars a week in Facebook lives, some on Instagram. They just shifted like, okay, how do we up technology? How do we improve our culture? How do, like, what do we do so that when we open up? So that one, how do we make money today? Right, right. That was the first thing. Like, how do we make income today? And then two, when we open up full blown. Because now they're letting in, you know, two people at a time and things like that. How do we make it so that I don't stress and overwhelm so much that I break down as a business owner? This is the opportunity, Donald. Like, if you're watching, this is the opportunity to focus and get organized with a coach like Donald so that when you open up, you don't get burned out.

Yeah. Now is the time to plan it, really. And I just. I have an article on my blog. It's. It's pretty brutal. But I said, you know, the coronavirus isn't your fault, but how you ran your restaurant before is.

So I. I shared that into my group and I said, my good friend Donald Burns said this, and I said, I'm just going to change the word from restaurant to pawn shop because it was so incredible. You're right. And if you don't go look back and let's go back to clarity, the first thing we talked about, if you don't say, like, what's not working and you go to fix it, when you open up that restaurant, you're still going to be stressed, still overwhelmed, still pissed off, still come home bitching and moaning. Still spending 17 hours and back to the same thing.

Yeah. No, if you don't change what happened, how you look at things now, it was not going to change. What's that? It's a definition of insanity. Doing the same things over and over, expecting different results. Yep.

100%.

People do it all the time, too.

It's crazy. 100%. So, again, don't sit there idle.

Right.

Don't sit there waiting for, you know, a miracle to happen. Yes. You're going to get your PPP and your Eidl, hopefully. But also take that and learn and get together. You know, if you're in the restaurant business, call Donald up. Joined the mastermind. You know, he's got the ticker for the. For the rest. Yeah.

I'm trying to talk you into it, remember?

Yeah, yeah, I'm there, man. I'm there to serve your audience when I start. So you might not know this, Donald, but you've been a coach way longer than I have. And when I started this, we were in that mastermind three years ago, almost four years ago, and I learned so much from you as a coach that it. It allowed me to have confidence and go in and do amazing as a coach myself. So thank you to you.

Oh, thank you.

It's the least I can do to give back to what you gave me, man.

Oh, thank you, man. Yeah. Because that's. That's my whole thing. I want To. I want to help people get the life they want, you know, whether it's a restaurant or being a better coach or being consultant, whatever it is you want. You want to be a better husband, you know, better wife. Whatever I can do to inspire people to live their life on their terms, that's what I want to do. So. Yeah, I just happen to operate in a restaurant space because that's what I know.

Yeah, you're in the restaurant space, I'm in the pawn space. It's great to have a niche. It's what, you know. Well, but we can still.

Yeah, we're. We're doing the same thing. I mean.

Yeah.

Have our own niche that we use as a vehicle, as our channel, basically.

Yeah. The mission is the same. Right? You just said it. Mine is, Mine is to help my, My, my clients to make more stress less and live an epic life. That's my motto. And so live an epic life is being a better husband, you know, spouse. It's a parent, it's a community member. It's not just like, oh, just go make more money. It's not worth it. I know you're about the same thing, so. Yeah, yeah.

No, it's about living. Living a better life, having everything. I mean, I know Russia like you. I know restaurant owners that, you know, work 80, 90 hours a week. You know, they. And they get home, they have no family life. They're. They're disconnected from their spouse. They barely know their kids. Yeah, listen, my father, that's not living. I mean, that's being a shell of who you are, what your potential is.

My father had 12 stores. Hunt, you know, has 12 stores, 120 employees at some point. And at the age of 58, was diagnosed with Parkinson's and dementia. So all that money, and he would always say, like, hey, I'm. I'm. I'm going to wait till I retire to take your mom on vacations. I'm going to wait till I'm done to. To travel. I'm going to wait till I can play. And so now he's got six caregivers, spends tons of money every single month on the caregivers and doctors, and he can't enjoy the life because it was all about, like, working 12 to 14 hours a day to make it. Why? What's the point? I would have, I would have rather my father gave back all those cars, all those nice watches just so he can come home at 5pm and play with us.

Yeah. Yeah. Looking back again, it goes back to your number one C. Clarity what's important? What do you want? Now's the time to get clear on it. I mean, this COVID 19 is tragic for what it's done, but it's also a huge opportunity to reset and design your business, your restaurant, whatever your business is, Redesign your restaurant and your life the way you want it.

Yeah.

I mean, it's important right now, but you got to get clarity. That's one of the things in the restaurant mastermind group that I'm starting, where I'm going to take you through a nine step, kind of. I call it the ultimate restaurant rebound plan. We're going to help you number. And actually, the number one step is get clear on where you are. That's one step. We got to know where you are. And where do you want to be? Any journey, man. You got to know exactly where you are. Right.

And you can't lie about it. You have to be so honest with yourself where it hurts.

Yeah.

Yeah. When I did the clarity code, and I was like, oh, my God, 40 pounds overweight, my wife said, this isn't working out. Like, it brought me to tears, man. But that was the truth. I had to tap into the truth to be able to make that change and transformation, to move forward. Now, I want to be honest. I'm not perfect. Right. I make mistakes. I mess stuff up with my wife. Some days I'm not the greatest father, whatever that is. But that's okay, because every day I go back, I put on those headphones and I rebound, and I try again, and I try again, and I try again.

It's not how many times you get knocked down. I always tell people all the time, there's a difference between a knockdown and a knockout.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We. We get knocked down a lot.

Yeah.

But knockout.

Yeah.

And if you think. And if you think this COVID 19 is the end, it is the end for you because you're basically. Your mind's already focused on that outcome.

Yeah.

If you think of this as a huge opportunity for me to do things the right way and all those things that I should have done, I'm going to turn into a must. A must do.

Yeah. And all of the people who invest in themselves right now are going to sow the seeds of success months down the road. Yeah.

Well, just like everything, there's a. There's a gestation period.

Yeah.

You don't just, like, do something today like you're just going to the gym, like you want to lose, you know, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 40 pounds. You don't work out one time. And then what happened? I didn't lose the £40. It's because it's. It's daily effort and commitment and consistency that actually gets you the results you want.

Long term, 100%.

And then if you find out, you're like us, like you and I, we start working out and then we find like, you know, we're like, we like those endorphins. We like working out. We like taking that time for ourselves. And it's not being selfish.

No, selfish.

Taking time for yourself.

A leader has to. I mean, what do they say on the planes? You gotta put your oxygen mask on first.

Exactly right.

You so, man. So lack of. Lack of consistency breeds insecurity.

Oh, that's a good one.

And when you are. When you lack consistency in your life, in your health, in your work, your surrounding support system starts feeling insecure. Like, if you're unhealthy, your team's like, man, is he gonna be okay?

Yeah. Really?

Like, should I go find another job? Is this going to. Something gonna happen here? So, yeah. So, you know, that's what I always say. I said, lack of consistency breeds insecurity. Be consistent with all areas of your life.

Exactly. Yeah. Leadership leaders set the tone. Oh, yeah, they definitely do.

Yeah. I mean, you know, it all comes from the top. You know, they always say, like, I've heard many times, I didn't say this. You know, all problems are a leadership problem. You've got to blame yourself first. And when you do that, when you learn how to blame yourself first, you can actually solve the problem instead of blaming other people.

Yeah, we have similar things. I have, I always have a saying is that leadership's always a problem, but leadership's always the solution.

Yep. Yep.

So if people want to connect with you, they can go to your website. I know you have. You know, you're on Instagram, there's not too many you gotto's out there.

Yeah.

You won't have a hard time finding him. Trust me.

So Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, everything is addygaladato. You can find me on my. On my website as well. Connect with me. Would love to chat if I can help anyway, or serve.

And your podcast is an awesome podcast. And I tell people too, if you're just in the leadership or it's, you know, and even though it's Pod Leaders podcast, it's about becoming a better person. Yeah, that's the thing. Stretch your mind. I'm challenging everyone out there right now. Everyone stretch your mind a little bit.

I'll do that also stretch your mind? I agree. Listen, I'm investing into myself right now in different masterminds and I'm. I want to learn to grow. And so if I just sit here hoping that things are going to happen, the competition is going to invest in themselves first and they're going to win.

Yep. You have to invest in yourself. And it doesn't have to be expensive stuff too. It could be. Like you said, listen to YouTube, you know, motivational stuff. I've. There's quite a few. I have a whole channel, I have a whole playlist. It's called My Daily State Change.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, I have a whole playlist on YouTube that I put on videos and I listen to it in the morning or if I'm feeling a little down, you know, and then that's. I just put that stuff on. I'm. I'm like that too. I. I just, I surround myself with positivity so I don't let the negativity energy vampires suck the life out of me.

I. I had. I was listening to a video the other day and it made me cry.

Which one?

Yeah. And it talked about how, like, this is the moment I forgot the speaker and I'll give you his name a little bit, but he was talking about how he was watching a race and it was like a 400 meter dash where like they passed the baton. Right. And how he was listening to each person running. Like, they would take off and they would hand the baton and the person would reach back to grab it, but every time they did it, they would yell stick. Right. And then they'd run. You know, they're 100 and then pass the baton. Stick. And he's like, your grandparents left you a legacy. They passed that baton. And you can choose to run fast and well, or you can choose to lose that race. What do you want to do? And I just started like, oh, my God. Like, it was so powerful. And I was like, I'm. I'm going to run. I'm going to run hard. And I'm not going to let down what they went through, because what they went through is why I'm here.

Right, Right.

Listen, all of us have, you know, some skeletons in the closet, a crazy past, but because of what they went through, I'm here in America. Food on my table in a house, you know, it helped me build who I am. I'm not gonna have them look down upon me and say, like, he had so much potential. Why did he stop?

Right. That's powerful.

Yeah, it was intense.

Yeah. If you find the YouTube video, just put the link in the notes. Yeah. Be awesome. All right, well, you got. I want to say it's always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend.

Likewise, man. Thanks for inviting me.

If people want to get a hold of you, please connect with him at his website. Again, he's all over social media. He's. He's probably more on social media than I am. And I'm pretty much on. I'm on. I'm on a lot of social media.

And you can't miss me. Just. There's no other. You gotta out there. So.

Yeah. And then look for your goal. He's gonna be a speaker now at the on my Conquer Online Restaurant Summit, May 17th, 19th. I got a few more details to put together and then I'm gonna be putting up the link for that. So you start getting your tickets. Because I'm thinking that thing's gonna be crazy. I've already got. I'm gonna have 20 speakers from around the world, 24 sessions, and we're gonna do it in over a three day session, May 17th to 19th. You know, the national restaurant show got canceled. So I was like, well, what are we gonna do? Because I love going to the national restaurant show and getting educational and learning from other people. So I said, well, you know what? Screw it. I'm just gonna start my own and do this online summit. Nice thing is we have social distancing. You can do it from the comfort of your home and we can do it from all around the world. I got people from all over the globe. I got speakers from five countries and three different continents. So it's gonna be pretty awesome. So look for that. Thank you again, my friend. I appreciate you. Please stay safe. Make sure your family's safe.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bye, everybody.