How Attitude Creates Success with Ramon Dios

Hey, welcome to the Restaurant Coach podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. I am so honored to have all the way on the call today, all the way from Madrid in Spain, and it is unusually early for him. But not only a good friend, but a trusted colleague in the restaurant coaching space. Ramon Dios. Ramon, welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time and being up so. So early in the morning in Madrid to join, maybe.

Thank you, Donald. But for me, it's late.

It's late early in the morning.

I'm finishing the day. Finishing the day, but it's okay.

Finishing day.

Nice to. Nice to. To be here. You know, also, the. The time. The schedule is also where. All the time.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of people are like, you know, and a lot of people might not know how we know each other.

We.

I speak usually every year at Hospitality Innovation Planet, which you're a speaker at, and a lot of times you're a facilitator at Hospitality Innovation Planet. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic conference in Madrid. It's always. Usually in the end of February, beginning of March. Fantastic thing. I mean, they have. It's crazy. It's a crazy show. 600 speakers, five, six stages. It's. It's amazing. Amazing event that's put on by the team there. And Ramon's always been number one, a great speaker. I love listening to him speak. And he's also a great restaurateur. He has a great restaurant that I always go to whenever I'm in Madrid. And he has a very, very unusual background in the sense that he, you know, he was in the restaurant business for a while, then he got out and did something really, really unique. But I'm gonna let you kind of introduce yourself, Ramon.

Okay. Yeah, great. I said my. I have a weird background because I'm a pilot. You know, I'm a commercial pilot. That's what I studied in the United States. And I came in the restaurant business for the family thing, and I really entered for two years, you know, a couple years, and I'm now 27 on. I think it's my 27th year in the. In the.

In the industry we've been in a.

Long time, but I think. I think it's very common for. For a lot of restaurant tours coming from other spaces. And. And it's. It's very unique in our industry, you know, because sometimes, you know, you and me, we want to put, you know, aesthetic surgery. We cannot do that, but everybody can put a bar, restaurant or whatever. You know, you cook very good at home. So put a restaurant.

And you're good, you're a good cook.

Yeah, yeah. You could. You do a good cakes. Put a cakery, a bakery place. So it's, it's very common. So I came in the business, like I said, in, I think 1996 and. And coaching and consultancy since 2008 and being a long way so far.

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of funny. I remember, I remember you telling me a story is like, you know, you went to United States, you were a pilot, commercial pilot for years, and then your father called and said, I just, I need you to come back and help me.

Yeah.

Because you're like, just a couple years. And then what that turned, that turned into like, I'm staying and I'm running a restaurant.

Yeah. But it was, we, we wrote to my aunt, half of the restaurant, and my father was a smart guy and he said, yeah, I need somebody to help me. Okay, I will go to help you. You can go back to their place anyway, anytime, because you are young. Of course I'll be back. But, you know, this, this, this sector, this, this restaurant business traps you, you know, and even I, I told my customers, you have to like this a lot, because even if you like a lot, some days you, you will burn everything. But you don't like it. It's a very torture place to be. Yeah, it is. It is.

It is very, very, very torturous. And so, you know, you're like me. You're. I always say, like, you're my, my Spanish counterpart to restaurant coaching. And you coach in the European market. You actually, you coach down in Mexico a lot too, in South America as well. And one of the things that we both look at is our clients and being able to kind of change and pivot your concepts, especially with what's been going on in the global economy. What are. Some ways you've been having some of your clients, some of your coaching members been shifting their business models lately.

I think, I think we are in hard times for the business. We will talk about this for sure in the conversation, but I think they have to go back to basics because, to be frank, this has been a sector that we get. I have a good friend, he had 20 restaurants, and he's, he's a very smart guy. He said, we used to get water with a strainer. You know, this is, you know, you get a water with a strainer, but we, we still keep water, you know, in the, in the, in the industry, but, you know, there is less water. And the holes of the strainer are bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. So that's true, you know. You know, so people tend to work more, you know, to go to this trainer and do this, this, this, this, this, this, and less water. And there is no water at all at the end of the year, even if it's less water than you used to have on the end in the beginning. And I think they have to go back to basics. I think they have to go back to more than people to go to, to be professional, to make and to have solid basement, you know. And from, from that good business model, they can pivot anywhere and measure, measure, measure, measure everything you do. Because they still, nowadays, they throw away a lot of money, you know.

Oh, yeah.

You know, these marketing things that never work at all, and they keep, keep paying. This advertisement, nothing nobody knows is working anymore, and they keep paying. And also there is a very emotional business that is not only emotional for the customer, it's only emotional for the staff. Emotional for the suppliers, you know, oh, this supplier I've been working with him with for 20 years. But hey, he's stealing you your money. No, but, you know, it's 20 years working with him, you know, I can't get rid of him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so it's, it's. I think, because when Covid hit, it was like this big wave of people think, you know, go to everything. Everybody's going to be delivery now and take away that. I say the foam of the beer went down. And you know, the good, the good ones on delivery before the COVID are still the good ones on delivery. The, the people who make delivery for three, four months. Well, on Covid, it's over because, you know, people is going back to the restaurants and it's, it's, it's raw waters now for the, for the. But I tell them, stop inventing, you know, and tell and, and go back to basics.

You know, it's the same thing everywhere. And if you listen to the podcast before, here's the one thing I want you to really understand. And I, you know, I'm talking to Ramon and he's in Madrid, he's over in Europe. And if you notice something is that all business problems are people problems. Doesn't matter where you are in the world. We all have the same problems. You know, we have problems with vendors, we have problems with our staff, we have problems with our marketing. We have problems not knowing our fundamentals. It's all the same. All problems in your restaurant are all people problems.

You learn from this business. This Is industry is the same thing everywhere. I made restaurants in China, same speech. Saudi Arabia, same speech. Mexico, same speech. Colombia, same speech. USA same speech. We are. We have a universal language. You know, I went to Colombia to make some conferences in. In November. Last November. Oh, stuff problems. Look like here you have stuff problems. How the hell. And yeah, we have a lot of stuff problems here in Colombia. How can. And also suppliers also cost also it's the same also electricity and oh, this is the same everywhere. Everywhere.

Everywhere.

Everywhere. Yeah.

Yeah. So focusing on the fundamentals is the same thing I yeah, focus on the.

Fundamentals and because I remember when I was with Tony Robbins in I think was business mastery and he said a phrase from Joe Gooden that he said everybody, everybody want to do the new thing, but nobody want to do the fundamentals.

That's it.

And that's it. You know and now it's Internet marketing and and you know, now is in the new is digital. Everything has to be digitalization and you don't have any process at all. What do you want to be digital. So yeah, digital is enough. It's a tool. So I mean if you have a reservation book and you write your reservations then you can have a digital reservation book but you don't have any process at all. I don't know for your kitchen, for whatever. Don't buy the application because it's not. Never will work.

Everybody wants the shiny thing, man.

Yeah, it's like you, you get you know, you get the Blast app for organizing your time management. You don't manage your time with the paper. You will never do with an app. It's. But you will make rich the guy from the app. That's for sure. You know, so it's, it's all the same. Go to bicycles, go to you know, my grandparents, you know, well attended customers and numbers under control and, and every day on the day before. That's it.

It's very, very true. And you know, and you and I both agree that you know leadership is a real critical in restaurants especially nowadays.

Yeah.

What do you think is the number one trait that a leader needs?

I think he has to do nowadays because not change. You know, I used to do. I used to say leader goes first.

Yeah.

You know leaders go first and I think was a Stephen Covey metaphor. And you know it's the techniques or goes in the, in the, in the forest. You know they go cutting all the forest. The managers goes behind. You know, it's oh, you need a new saw, you need to get the rest. And then but the leaders go up in the tree and say, we are in the wrong forest. You know, you know, guys, we are in the wrong forest. Because you can be working all your days out and you are in the wrong forest. So I think for leadership, first vision, you know, but vision from above, not vision from in the ground level vision problem. And the second thing is very important nowadays is you have to make inventory of your success.

Oh, that's really cool.

You have to go and do inventory of what you are doing. Good. Because you know, you never will be build anything on what you are doing.

But that's true.

And usually in these days you are not thinking in investing or getting new tools or because you don't have the money, but you still do very good things if you are open and still running. And for sure you are doing very good things. So stop a little bit. Look, the vision where you're going to go is very important. But look, make your inventory of the good things you do because you do good things. You build from that and you skip the bad things. But build on what we are doing good. You know, we had no Madrid these days is like a little bit, you know, work days and business lunches is like so, so, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

One day you say, ah, I'm going to open three restaurants and next day I'm going to sell my restaurant.

It's like, it's like up and down, up and down.

Yeah, yeah. I was talking with my team last, last week and we said, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. First we're going to maximize the weekends. Yeah. You know, it's because for sure, the certainty we are telling people no on weekends. So those customers are there. So let's organize everything. Kitchen stuff, we get more stuff, maximize our certainty. Uncertainty is weakened. Because it's. The easy thing is this is the, is the, you know, you, you push on your certainties, you will grow from there. So don't make. Because they were pushing me. Now you have to do things, more things to bring people in weekends. Are we telling people no on the weekends? Yes, let's bring those in. You know, we have the space. Get more people, train more people in the kitchen, train more people in the staff. And we will focus first on that thing and then afterwards we will go for the weekdays and lunch and businesses and groups and whatever you want. But you are telling no, I don't. Some 50, 100 people, you know, every weekend. So bring 5,000 for free. You know, like bring 5,000 for a year for free. We don't have to spend A year on that. Just get more stuff, organize better kitchen, change a little menu and get more stuff for the. And getting done. So first where you want to go. And then, you know, we are on the very bad era for the shiny thing, huh?

Oh, everybody wants a shiny thing.

Yeah. They get an Instagram and LinkedIn and this done. These guys do that. And that guy is full. Guy's full. But he's losing a hundred thousand euro a year. Yeah, I can't be full every, every service if I can lose 100, 200,000 a year. You know, you go, you go prices down and you put more stuff, more service, more whatever, more marketing and then you get full on. But it's like, I don't know, it's. You know, Mike Mikalowitz says this very good. You get good business owners. How much this sells?

Yeah. Michael Kalitz profit first. Great book, by the way. Yeah, he's been a great book.

And then say how much this guy sell? And in the restaurant businesses also, that guy sells. I don't care how many, how much they sell. I had a customer in Barcelona, they were selling 3 million a year and they were losing 300,000 a year.

I have, I have clients like that too, that start with me. And a lot of people come to me and they are doing like really crazy numbers that. Numbers that other people would just die to have, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Not making money.

So they had problems every month to pay their staff, to pay the banks, to pay everything. And they were 3 million euro a year. And I don't know. And I had a small place in south of Spain. She's a nurse and the husband was crazy running this place and inviting everybody and that's it. Okay. I said to him, okay, you stop. I said to her, get the bank and get the money. Don't let him touch any on the money. Nothing. He's a very good seller. He. This salesman, he let him run the place.

But you, the numbers, you know, you do the numbers. Yeah.

And we make, we make a plan to pay the. The debt for. For five years. They paid in one year and a half.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. And they, they pay everything in two years. They are building a new home. She left the. Her work. She left her work. She's. She's at home with the kids now. And you know, but this is very small, very small place making, I don't know, making maybe 800, 000 a year, 700 a year. And, and they are making good profits. And the other guy was making 3 million and everyone, ah, this, this guy is full every day. Yeah, yeah, but it's, it's letting everything on the table. So it's how much you keep, basically.

It is, yes, I say it all the time. It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep.

It's about to keep, you know.

Yeah, definitely. No, definitely, definitely. So, you know, you travel around the world a lot. What's. What would you say is like the best meal you've ever had?

Wow, this is a very complicated question, you know, Very complicated because. Yeah, I was president of Young Young Restaurantes of Europe for six years, so I had the privilege to be in a lot of places with a lot of meals and long meals. But I remember especially one, you know, my vice president for six years was Ernesto Yacarino. Carino is from don Alfonso and 18, 19. He has restaurants all over the world because he close. He's in, in. In Santa, in the multi coast and, and he closed the restaurant like for six months. And they, he and his father and his brother travels around the world in the restaurant he has opening everywhere, you know, top, top Italian restaurant, two Michelin stars and that. So we were there in a meeting from the, the board and he was closed on Monday and he said, we're going to lunch. I bring you to lunch. Small panda car, you know, and we go small Italian roads, and he has a small farm looking to Capri. And we're getting a broken table, a bottle of white wine, a mozzarella and tomato sandwich, and you know, the sea, the farm and the wine. And I told him, I remember, I told him, ernesto, there is no Michelin stars better than this. There is no, no mission. You could take me any restaurant in the world. Now, there is no better place like this one, you know. So on the way back, we, we stop in a cafe, small village cafe, you know, this, this espresso ristretto from Italy, you know, and go, you know, and back to work. But, you know, what's the magic of the atmosphere, you know, and the simplicity of the food also. Yeah, you know, we're a little tired sometimes in that, in that moment. I remember, you know, when we travel a lot with the manager of the, with the association and you know, the president is coming and you know, 15 dishes, 20 dishes, 16 wines. And then sometimes I said, why another one? No, another, not another dinner. I used to joke with the manager, hans, we go to McDonald's. Better, no? No. How you say McDonald's? Yeah, please meet a hamburger and sleep, you know, you know, early flights. Late flights. Yeah, yeah, I remember especially that day. Yeah, it was very good.

Awesome.

That's awesome.

Yeah. A lot of people maybe I know too. Like, you know, I go to. When I go to Madrid to speak at hospitality and vision plant. I always know like the week before I go to hip, I diet pretty extreme because I know that Ramon is going to be the ultimate host and he's going to take me out to some really fantastic restaurants in Madrid. And we always eat amazing. Every time I'm with you in Madrid, my friend. It's like last time.

Last time was we were very good guys. We didn't dinner too much. Huh.

We didn't do that bad. But the food was amazing.

That was good. It was very good.

The food's always amazing. You always know the places to go. That's always the biggest thing. So what do you think is like some of the big problems? And we talked about a little bit about this. You know, all business problems are people problems. What do you see as some of the problems today that restaurants really need to be aware of and where should they be thinking about in the future?

I think the, the staff thing is.

Yeah.

Complicated because it's a product with different faces.

Yes.

You can, you cannot make a simple thing of this new generation. Don't want to work or there is something Covid paid had a. An issue in this because, you know, people is product of our habits, you know, and you are working the restaurant business and you have your habit and you get your salary and you go home and then you, you are on your life. But suddenly for three months, four months, you are at home and you're at home with your kids or your family, your spouse, your husband, whatever, your any or our own anyway. And you start thinking, and you start thinking, this is the life I want, you know, this is the life I want. It's so it worth to be in the restaurant on Saturdays, on Sundays and nights and whatever. And somehow people said, no, I don't want this life anymore.

It's true.

And also owners.

Oh yeah, they don't want.

Owner said, I don't want this life anymore. And some owner said, I quit, I sell my restaurant, it's over. And some other owners, they said, okay, I'm going to organize different. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get more staff. I'm gonna. I don't want so many money. I want to time, you know.

Yeah.

On addition to this, you see the pyramid of population in United States and Europe is inverted.

Yes.

So boomers are getting retired. But There is no so much young people anymore.

Right.

That's second thing, I think. So you have less people to fish. I think third problem in our industry, we used to attract people from worse sectors.

Yeah.

I mean, it was in Spain. It was much harder to be on the boat fishing all day long than to be on the chiringuito, the restaurant with being a waiter or a cook even. It was very complicated terms and 12 hours and 15 hours and whatever. But that. That was softer than to be on. On the country field. On the farm with the cattle, but all the fish. But those sectors have been highly robotized now. You know, I read last year that in 1900, 14% of the United States population work in the fields.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, agriculture to give food for 100 billion people.

Yeah.

Now 2% of the population works on agriculture to feed more than 380 million. Because you sell a lot of food to other countries.

Yes.

So we are now one of the worst sector to work.

Yeah.

Also.

And when you're the worst sector, who do you pull from?

Right. Yeah. That's it. You have to be more attractive.

Yeah, yeah.

So now we have to think seriously on making the good turns and making the weekends depends on rotate from the staff. And I think a new agreement is coming. And the three parts of this agreement is the owners.

Yes, yes.

Is the staff and it's the customers.

Yes.

Because I remember Fernandria in a conference in 2016, he said, in the future the luxury will be having somebody taking a dish to you in your. Apply to you in your table.

That'll be the luxury.

He said that in 2016.

That's sad, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. That'll be a luxury because we are fishing in. You know, in that I see. You see, for example, in Madrid, a lot of waiters went to work for Amazon.

Yes.

Why? Because they are drivers there. They don't have to be with customers. You know, customers are person also people. Yeah. And they are different, every one of them, you know. And it will be a huge issue for the future. I think. I think that. I think that the staff problem will. Will skip 20% of the market, at least. Yeah.

I definitely agree with you that we have to treat people better. We have to be more conscious.

It's not only treat, but also that the customer need to know that. Need to know that they are paying for service too. They are not only paying for food.

Right.

They are not only paying for food for countries like mine, like Spain, that we are very strong in tourism. It's a little Bit of a challenge because we, we get big in, in tourism because, you know, it was much nicer to be in Mallorca than in Germany. Much cheaper and much sunnier and much. And we were nice people to bring the tourists in the country, you know, and we are the second country in the world for tourism, you know, 84 million this year again. And we will have to balance that because if you rise the prices to give better salaries and all these things. And also we see a lot of robots, but not you doing the thing that relate to the customer. You know, I told, you know my place, it's 92 years old.

Yeah, it's awesome.

I told, I told a customer, hey, well, we'll bring you some robots. Robots? Are you crazy? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I told him, wait. If I put there a small wall and the robot goes to the kitchen and come back, goes to the kitchen and come back and there is a waiter here bringing the dish to you, you don't notice any change in the service. Yeah. Because there is no valid added value on the transport. So for, for owners, my recommendation is look where do. If there is any spot that there is no other value. You don't put your system to put add value to the customer. Put a robot there or something automatic or erase or whatever because there is a little small spots there. And imagine you have three or four these walking robots bringing and coming with issues going back. And you have the staff, they don't have to get traced. They don't have to, you know, you can focus them on sale, on attending, on taking care of the key people. So that does take a lot of.

It does take a lot of their time is running back and forth to the kitchen, especially in a restaurant like yours, quite a few times. I mean your kitchen's. I mean it's a good haul, especially for some of those, some of the dining room tables out there and you know, especially patio and stuff like that. I mean it's a, it's a long walk to the kitchen.

It's long walk and they, they get trays very heavy and all very heavy. All these things that we didn't notice before. We have to start to notice, you know, heavy trays, all these things. And, and also I think that the staff, especially the. I told the people, my customers, you don't have waiters, you have, I'll say the steam.

That's it.

Yeah. You have a sales team. You don't treat them like a sales team and you don't train them like. Sales team is your sales Team. There is no. Your transportation team is your sales team. And you play a role and motivate it and tell them and make a gamification of it. And then with these new generations and maybe the small changes. You know, I had my predecessor in the association in Europe, he was a Dutch guy, he had nine restaurants and he talked me, Ramon, you never turn enough full. He said you turn a little bit every knot and then go up again and turn a little bit every node and then go up again. So you don't make big changes. You make small changes here. Then when you, you go down and go back up again, these changes. How, how you, this is how you run a restaurant.

I think that's a smart way to do it too, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

When you make big changes, you alienate people, which is horrible, you know, So.

I think first thing we have to change the, the. As I said, the, the. The names. It's not your waiters, your sales team, it's not your cooks, it's your production team. There, there, there were a lot of sectors that made these changes, you know. You know, the cashier in a bank is, is no more a cashier. You know, it's a relationship, customer, whatever.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I used to be a cashier. No, no.

Yeah. When I had my restaurants, I never called anybody a server. I called him a dining consultant. Because I said like, my job as a restaurant consultant is to make your restaurant better, make recommendations to make your restaurant better. As a dining consultant, their job is to make your experience better by making recommendations to enhance the meal, enhance the experience. So I've always liked that dining consultant.

To, to, to anticipate.

Yes. Yes.

And we say in, in my, in my restaurant and, and the training, the, the things I train for my clients attentions. You. You're here to give attention to your client. Attention comes to attempt to, to attend. You have to be. You have to attend the, the, the, the. The people. You have to be aware of what they want before they want it, just in case, you know, and they feel that. You know, I saw this morning I was in the service and I saw a customer with the table. You know, this. It was so I didn't, I didn't say anything. I went to for, for a small good and when I came back, he looked at me and said, I'm visible. You know, this guy looked from, from far away and saw me. So I told the, this, the staff in the service. Don't. Don't look to the floor, please. Your shoes are shine as you very Shiny. So, yeah, look. And. And, you know, attention, attention. It's significance, you know, And. And. And this is the. Tony explains this very well. You know, it's to feel significant to others, and I'm here for you. And if you do that, your tips, boom, you know, definitely. And at the return of the people, boom. And, you know, it's my grandfather or my grandparents, they had very. I say all the time, a very. Yes. Culture. So. And I think we became. When the. I. I call. I call the empire of the kitchen. And I'm a cook, you know, they used to be chefs in restaurants in hotels. They were in the basement, you know, and nobody pay attention to them. Yeah. But there was a time in. In the 70s that the. The especially the French chefs became owners. And like a Star wars, they started with empire of the kitchen.

Yeah.

So I'm a chef. You don't touch my dish. Because we used to do in the room a lot of things, but we don't. No, no, no, no. You're. And the chef said, you're a transportation guy, and you don't touch my dish. I'm bring it to the table. That. That's it. So that's the empire of the teaching. And it was good in one sense, but it was very bad in the other way, because they don't have a.

For.

Generally speaking, a yes. Culture, you know?

Yes.

And I remember my grandfather say, hi, we want to lunch outside. It was cold. And he said, of course. And I told him, what. What are you doing there? It's cold. They want. They want outside. But. But it's called. It's called for you. He told me, for them, they want to tell. So we are here. So he had a very strong yes. Culture, you know.

Yes.

So if. If they can say yes, they said yes. So that's why, you know, I told one of the news service I had in. In the service in the win. I Couple of weeks ago, I told him, you know, we. Way back, we are still here 92 years after.

Why?

Because we are not a food place inside. We are. No. We are hospitality place. We are hospitality place.

We are hospital. Yeah.

Yeah. And food is. We are not. So we. We never. We are very regular. We are very standardized. We have a very good kitchen. Homemade, but it's not anything gastronomic, anything. No, we never were. But we were very good in hospitality.

Yes. Yes.

Saying yes to the customers.

Yes.

And they came back for this. If the food is bad, they don't go back anyway. But. Yeah, yeah. But in some level, I told the guy. We are good. We were good in hospitality, that we. Every decade, we are still. Hospitality is there, you know, hospitality is carrying that. That, that's not fashion, you know, but.

You know what I mean? You can feel it when I eat your restaurant. Every time I go to Madrid and that we eat at your restaurant, I tell you and everyone there. And it's not just, you know, you know, you're sitting with me and we're having dinner and we're talking, having conversations, but I watch how the team just interacts with the other guests and they just go out of their way to make them feel special. And that's what I think gives the magic to your place. I mean, the food's incredible too, but it's just that they just go over the top. Whatever you need, I'm there to help you. I'm there to serve you. I'm there to make sure that everything you need is taken care of. That's. It's, I hate to say it's a.

Lost art, you know, but you know what the only thing I asked to the waiter, for example, when they came in. You have you work in any restaurant at all? Yes. So no. So no.

Yeah.

No. Every, every waiter we, we hire or waitress. The only, only condition. You, you have never been in a restaurant ever working.

Oh, that's awesome. I didn't know that. And you've got people that have been with you for years. 20 years.

Yeah, yeah. You know the metre he's going to, to retire on December. He has been 51 year old. 51 years with us.

51 years, my God, that's amazing.

So, but, but we have people coming for weekends that they are older than me in the restaurant. They are coming the weekends only for more than 30 years. You know, so it's, it's our system. Sometimes you spend six months with the guy. So we hire attitude, you know, we hire attitude. So it's you, you smile, you, you take care of the people, you take care of your, of your, Your other staff also. Yeah, yeah, you treat, you treat. Look, there is no waiter that can treat well the, the customers if he's teaching. But the kitchen.

Yeah, that's so true.

If you go to the kitchen and you're rude, you're going to be rude in the. Rude.

Everybody else, everybody. Rude is rude. Yeah. If you're rude to the kids, you're rude to the. If you're rooting the bus.

Maybe, maybe, maybe you are not under stress. You do well. But if somebody came, the service became stressful, something very Common in restaurant business. You will be rude with the customers too, or you will, will be rude with the kitchen. And when you go out, people will feel it.

They will feel it, they will feel it. That's what feel, you know, that's. I always say I love talking to you because I learned something new. I did not know that if someone comes to your restaurant for a job and they've worked in a restaurant, you say no.

No, no, no, no. Especially for this, Especially for the service.

For the service, yeah.

We train them. Do we turn them? I don't care. I spend six months, sometimes I spend one year.

Yeah.

And the, and the people in charge, I mean, ah, this is not going to work. No, I will, it will work. No problem. He has the attitude. We will train him, you know, that's it. If he don't. Attitude you bring from home. You do not.

A lot of people don't remember that, but you bring attitude from home. You bring attitude from how you've been raised.

Yeah. And also your, your belief system also, also have you been treated in other places and it's complicated. It's complicated, you know, and that. It's, it's my system. It worked so far and I don't know, maybe in five years we have the same conversation. Never work anymore, but it works. It works. It works. So far it worked. Yeah. Yeah.

How many? 94 years your restaurant's been around.

92. 92 years.

That's crazy. I mean people, I don't think people can even fathom having a restaurant that's been in existence 92 years. That's amazing. Amazing.

Yeah. We're not so many, man.

Very. I mean I probably, I think I've only met one other restaurant that hit a hundred year mark. The only other restaurant I've heard hit 100 year mark.

Yeah. In Madrid there are eight over 100, but. Eight. Yeah. You know there are nine, 9,000 restaurants in Madrid. About around 9,000. So it's eight above 100.

Wow. Only of how many restaurants in Madrid?

9,000.

9,000 restaurants. Only eight.

Only eight above 100 years old. Wow.

That's crazy.

Also the generational, you know, sometimes the, the, it's always kind of values and, and, and, and goals, you know.

That's true. Very, very true.

It's like, you know, it's like relationship, it's like friends. It's like marriage. It's always a matter of shared values and shared goals. All the time. All the time. You know, sometimes, ah, what happened with my marriage, you change the values and.

Change the shadow Goals change the rules, you change the values. Everything changes.

You change values. And. And there is no more shared goals. And it's all.

You're done.

Yeah.

It's over.

It's over. It's nothing about love or whatever, you know. Yeah.

That's why you and I coach very similarly in the sense that we all believe that it's that mission, that culture, that mission.

Core value huge is values.

Everything, you know, everything.

And it also is two or three of them important, you know?

Yeah.

And this. That's the first thing I do with my customers. All of them, value list. Choose your values, what is important. And we drill down to 10, then we drill down to 5, and it will down to the 3, and then we drill down to 1.

Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

One value. This is the core value of your brand or your restaurant? You know, mine is family. In my restaurant, family is our core value. You know, we treat each other like a family. We from family, family owners, family from suppliers, family from the staff. You know, all these things. And families are kids, are our customers.

Yeah.

Because that's, you know, and I. I tell the story of my grandparents on. Again. Again. My father, my grandparents, all are my grandparents on the menu. Everything is family around.

Oh, that's the coolest thing. You should mention that. It's like. Yeah. So Ramono showed me the COVID of his menus, and it's a picture of his grandparents.

Yeah. In. In. In what is today. My office used to be outside of the. Outside of Russian. That picture from 19. 1954. I think that's awesome.

That is so cool.

And that just shows 1956. He was. He was my age in that picture. 50. Oh, no way. 51. Yeah, 50. 51. My. My grand. My grandfather was my age in that. In that. In that picture, you know.

That's crazy. That is so amazing.

Yeah.

And that. It just goes to show, you see, this is where alignment with your core values and your brand and your culture all match up. And so, like, when you go to Ramon's restaurant, I mean, you get a picture of his wife. Family is so important. And you see it in everything. You see it in the menus. You see it on the history on the walls. You see it in the decorations. You see it on the. All this. Just the. The nuances and details of the plates. I mean, your plates haven't changed much.

No, no, because I can't, frankly.

I mean, it's amazing and. And what you mentioned me last time, they're getting hard to find, you know, hard to have Something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, you know, it's, it's nine of the ten most selling dishes is, are the same and we have some. They were, there were one couple is. They are about late 70s, something like that. And the other day they came and said, ah, we found the ticket from our wedding here. Wow. I. They brought it to me.

Oh, that's so cool.

1980. And then was. And you see the, the, the, the dishes, the same, you know, the same. Less price, but the same dishes, you know, so that, that's very nice. When, when. That's when you get on the right spot, you know, it's the family, all family linkage to, to the everything, you know, so, so the values are the. Because when our, our clients, yours and mine in the consultants, the coaching business, they have problems. Usually what they have is conflicting values.

Definitely.

Yeah. Because you know, I want to be very modern but still have tradition. No, no, you can't, you can't do both. No, look at the both. I want to win. Yeah.

It's like I want to walk up the stairs, but I don't want to take my foot off the step below. It's like. Well, yeah, you don't take your step, your foot off the step below.

It's like, you know, and they are, they are stuck. Yep. Because on one way, one day they, they wake up and they say, ah, we're going to make this model thing and then always stay in the same place. So it's like, you know, it's, it's. But usually you cannot see your values from inside because that's why the coaches, we have coaches, you know, and I was, I was with a client the other day and then you have coach. Of course, you know, it's current. No, how you can you have coach this, I mean, I, I told her this is not a matter of. To being right. Yeah. This is a matter of you doing the thing. You, you know, most of them, you have to do it.

Yeah.

Because I put the same example, you know, you have to do exercise and good diet. But do you do it is the thing, you know. So I told her, of course I have a coach. Maybe I'm not every week like you, but every three months he called me and tell me, Ramon, what's going on? Let's check your values. The first thing I do with my coach, we get to my values list and they said, okay, from 1 to 10, first value last three months, 6, 4, 10, 5. You know, it's, it. Because I really do believe in balance.

Oh, me too. Yeah.

I really do believe in politics.

I do too. I do too.

And. And with my coach, I do that. I get my core values, my list of six and or seven. I think it's seven things. It's important for me. And then. Okay. And we see the unbalance there sometimes. Yeah. Or you're pushing too much on this area and they are skipping this area. So that's why you are, you know.

Exactly.

You have these complicated moments. You know, like two years ago, I was really lost for. For six months.

Oh, really?

Yeah, I was still running, you know, but, you know, the feeling inside, you're lost.

Yeah.

And I called him. You have to come to Madrid and. Because he's from Portugal and come to Madrid and we. We have one day because I'm lost. I lose my drive. And okay, I go, go. And we check the values, everything. And he said, yeah, it's normal. You're lost. Why? Because you're focused on one value and the other rest of the values are. So you are resentful with yourself.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You're sample. Because you are, you know, these are important for you, these values. And you are missing out. You're not doing things because values is what you do.

Yes.

I told my customers, no, it's not what you say, it's what you do. Because you can tell me on the paper. It's very important for me, you know.

But what are you doing?

But what are you doing? Really?

What are you doing? How are you showing up? That's the big thing. I always talk to my clients.

Yeah, but it's, you know, and. And sometimes they have with my customers from one year, not before. But I. Wait, wait, wait, wait. This is a behavioral goal or this is a performance goal, because it's not the same. I want to have better relationship with my team. Well, how you measure that, it's not so easy to measure. So. Okay. Are in a habit to go. What shows that you have good relationship. Weekly meeting, for example. That's nice. Yeah. So we check weekly meeting. Yeah. You know, it's like, I want a better marriage. How. How you measure that? It's very complicated. But okay. I do one date night every week. Perfect. You know? Yeah, yeah, it's. Now you can check something.

It's how you show up and what actions you take to live those values. That's the truth.

Yeah. And what are you doing, really? I do believe in real island and we do every food here, you know, Perfect. You believe in that. But I check your invoices for their supplier and you are bringing like 30% of the food from outside. No, but I don't have team now to do the everything here. So that's not your value. I don't care. Choose, but let's choose your value. Now your value is you do all the food here in your place. No problem. Put 20, put the dishes in the menu. No, no. You don't need anything else. No. You don't need 40 or 50 or 60. Because you can tell your customer, we do every dish here. We don't buy anything. You know, cook it out. Yep.

Pre made. Yep.

Everything's so. But to, to keep this nice dishes made here at home, we need to keep the, the food, the, the menu in 20 or 25 or whatever you are able to. People will know that this made here. They will know. And also it's more, you know, in line with your marketing thing, you know, because you can tell in your marketing. Okay. Because we do everything here. Our menu is short. That's it. If you go to long menus, maybe it's not everything made in, in their own kitchens. So.

No, it's not. You know, I know it's like when we see big, like there's no way.

But you know, the industry of this get better too.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because you have this, this, all this pre made food. It's not used to be 10 years ago. They, they also, there are some, some big kitchens in Spain that you bring your repos, your recipe. Yeah. And they give you exclusivity and all these non disclosure agreements, all these things. And they do your own research and they, they serve to you or to your restaurant that that industry is getting better and better too. Because they know there is no stuff. Yep. You know, there's no stuff. So choose your values because it's a choice and, and make sure your actions show them. You know, make sure you actually insult them. Yeah.

So every October I hold a three day summit in Arizona. And this year we're doing it's, it's the restaurant success summit. Every October it's October this year. It's October 23rd, 24th, 25th. It's in Tucson, Arizona this year. And I actually was very, very fortunate to talk Ramon into coming over and speaking at my summit. So he's gonna be one of my speakers. I have nine, I have eight other speakers besides me. Ramon's one of my speakers. And the reason I'm bringing Ramon over is because I noticed that my market has extended into some of the, you know, South American market. My books do very well in Spain. In fact, my first Book came out in Spanish last year. And so I was like, you know what? I need to be able to give people a little bit more of what they want. So I needed some Spanish speakers that could come and resonate and talk to people. Now, when he speaks at the conference, he'll be speaking in English, but we have this really cool. I call it experts luncheon. So at lunchtime, there's a lot. There'll be tables all over the place. The experts are gonna. All the speakers are gonna go out and have a table that they're gonna run and that you can go and find an expert and sit down and talk to them one on one. And the nice thing about Ramona is he'll, like. All my Spanish speakers are already looking forward to, like, oh, you got a Spanish speaker. I'm so excited. I'm like, yeah, it's gonna be awesome. I brought Ramon in, and then we got Juliet, who. She speaks Spanish too. So we're moving the needle in that direction. So talk briefly about what. What the topic is that you're going to be speaking about at the restaurant success summit.

We're talking about the leadership. I. I call leadership. Leadership 3.0.

Nice.

3.0. Because this is changing, and we will need a new leaders in this. In the. In the. A new breed of leaders in the industry. And because like we said with the staff, the new generations, they. They look for another things in this moment. Maybe in 10 years, we go back to the earliest, you know, because we have big crisis or whatever. But in these days, I think we need to. To find how this motivation 3.0 goes from. From. Because we have motivation 1.0. It was, you work or you don't like it. That's it. With all, you know, all our history, you know, when we bring the Industrial Revolution. Industrial revolution, the carrot and the stick, you know, this is. Oh, yeah, 2.0. This is still running the restaurant.

Everyone still uses that one.

Still use. Yeah, yeah, that's it. You. You do the good things. I give you a car to do about things. I go stick, you get the stick. Yeah, but nowadays it's different game because you go the sticks. Carrots. I don't want the carrots. I want an iPhone. All right. I don't want the stick. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. So we are moving to 3.0 and 3.0 is autonomy. 3.0 is why. Sense of purpose and why this is important. And we will have much leader. I think the. The tr. The biggest important trait in the future of leadership is communication.

Oh, huge. Yes.

And how to communicate and how to tune with those generations and speak in the language. And that doesn't mean being soft. That doesn't mean being not excellent. Because that's what I thought. They want to work. Yeah, they want to work, but they want their life also.

Yeah.

And no, no, they don't want. Yeah, yeah. This new generation. You tell them, okay, we have a big event. You have to work until 12. They say, no problem, I will work. But 12, 1, 1. I leave because I have my full life organized. I have my full life organized. And you don't tell me in the, the five minutes before, no, you have to. To stay two hours more. Because I have my full life organized. And it's not. It is important. For motivation is motive for action.

Yep, yep.

So your motives is not their motives. Your wise is not your. They're wise. That's why most oftener owners are, you know, like banging with their head on the wall. What these guys want with. No, they want their own ways. You have yours. Because people make things for their own reasons, not for the other.

That's true. That is honestly God true. People do things for their reason. Not your reasons.

No, your reasons. Well, it's the same. The customers the same. They do the things their own. For their own reasons. So the, the future is to. To tune with the. With the reasons. Yeah. And to talk more about outcomes and let them kind of autonomy to get the outcome.

Yeah.

Because I told my customers all the time, you know the solution. You don't have all the solutions. And the ladies and the hostess hosting people every day has more solution for hostess that you have because you are in your office or in the kitchen or whatever.

Exactly.

So it's the people on the front, they have the solutions, you know, so your job is to ask them first. This is very interesting. I went to a customer. I go every year. They have a small camping place with a restaurant and they grow huge. The business, the restaurant. And the second, second year I went there with what I going to do. Your, your, your, your workshop. No, no, no workshop this year. No, no, no, no. We make a workshop with your, your team. Good. So there are two orders, all the team, all the stuff there. We get my white, my. You see my whiteboard, my car.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I gave the paper everyone. So write down things we need to make better in this restaurant. 50 minutes. Okay, stop. You, you, you, you. So we were. It was. They repeat things. I learned this exercise from Chet Holmes. Right. And then, and then I was putting bars, you Know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We finished exercise. I, I looked the, the owners and said, you have your strategic plan for the next two years.

There you go. There you go right there. Exactly.

I, I didn't say a, a word they said.

So they did it all.

You know, first thing, they know where the problems are.

Your team knows where the problems are.

First thing, first thing it was to make the, the, the main room redecoration because it was horrible. So okay, they, they put in the, you have your action planner.

There you go.

I, I did the same thing. So later we meet three hours more with them, but to, to see the things. But first part with this workshop and you see, they know. Exactly. You didn't ask them, but they know. Yeah, they know what's going on. And yes, you start and then first they do the, the room and they make the decoration everything. And then the, the average ticket price like 25. I mean, crazy.

Wow, that's awesome.

Only change the decoration, you know, no different menu. You know that because they know it. So, so your staff has most of the solutions.

Very cool.

Most of them, they do, they know the programs and they know, they know what's going on because they are all day there, you know.

So you mentioned a lot of books today. What's one book or audiobook that you recommend for restaurant owners?

Oh, I would recommend for restaurant owners and everybody. The one thing.

That's a great book. Gary Keller was the one thing. It's a great book.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, that's it. I have, you know, I have a lot of books because, you know, when Donald and I meet, we show them our Kindles.

Oh, yeah. No, we're like readers. You see all my books behind me. I see all the books behind you. It's like, it's, yeah, we're crazy.

And I go back to that book every year. You know, it's sometimes, you know, you have books that you, you read. I learned this from Tim Ferriss the Art of Not Finishing. You know, because sometimes you are reading a bad book and say, no, no finishing. Don't, don't waste your time. This is bad things.

They got to finish a bad book. It's like, no, life's too short.

Or films in the cinema, on the theater, and somebody, you walk out. Yeah, because I only lose the money. Otherwise I lose the money. I just lose them because I paid the ticket, so the money is lost, so I don't lose the time too, you know, so sometimes I went to the theater and said, this bad film, 15 minutes there is horrible. And People looks to you what's going on, you know, so with books you do the same. But the one thing I listen to podcasts from them and. But also it's the book I came back every year I gave to my older sons, my son and my daughter. And they also buried. You know, they're very special in my son, he like it a lot. He goes back. It's a book I have in Kindle, I have in paper. I have everywhere. One thing, you know, because you know this, we have a full life. And when Sarah tells you you are doing too much, it's not. It's not that way. And there's. You do one thing. One thing. It's. It's very. And it's all very well written too cool. It's about principles too.

It's a great book. No, it's an awesome book.

It's an awesome book.

And I want to mention real quick too is, you know, I do have a great community. It's called the TRC Vault. Ramon is an expert in the TRC Vault and we have a channel in there just for Spanish speakers. So if you're like, hey, I'd like to get some input and some, you know, feedback and get some questions answered, two ways you can do it. Either join up the TRC Vault, it's totally free. And then just go in there, you can find ramon. It's the restaurantcoachvault.com to sign up. Or if you need to get a hold of Ramon, you can always go to his website with that ramondios.com either.

Way, you can go to them there or you can go to me on Instagram. Ramon Dios one with number. And then. And then. Yeah, it is easy to contact, you know, easy to contact nowadays.

So what's one of your favorite quotes? Let's end on a favorite quote. What's one of your favorite quotes of all time?

Oh yeah, my favorite quote. This is easy. It's easy. Life happens for you. Not to you.

That's a great one.

Yeah. So it's very important. One thing. All you know, I told my customers all the time in this business, it happens to me because I'm still have my restaurant open. You know, it's someday everything broke. You know, looks like you're going to close. You're going to everything or one day or one month or one year. And I say, Mike, what is happening? This for you? Yeah. No, no, this is happening to me. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is happening for you. It's and. And I have a Customer now she has a lot of problems. She's very good one because you know, her father died and she took over the restaurant. All the stuff, you know, you know the story. No, it's very common. And I know what this is for you. Not, not to you. This didn't happen to you. This happened for you to change to, to move your to, to learn something, to do different things to.

Right.

And sometimes I forget the, the quote and I have on my, my wall everywhere. So.

Yeah, yeah, me too.

They're all over my difficulties in somewhere. I. Wait, wait, wait. This is happening for me. Why? To be to me. To become what at the end, what you become at the end what you become. So yeah, so that, that's, I think I, I don't know what the quote is. I, I, I, I, I got, got it from Tony Robbins and yeah, because Tony Robbie was my first coach. Really? And, and, and to my kids also. What is happening for you? To you. Not. It's not happening to you. It's happening for you. And when you see that from that perspective or your life change.

Yeah, it does.

Because then, then you change to solutions mode, not to victim mode.

Yeah, oh yeah, definitely.

And then this is like a, let's like a snapshot, you know, change the solutions. You know, I'm trendy to. I, I used to tend to look for solutions all the time. It's how can solve this and because when you know, when stuff is our wing. Wait, wait, wait, wait. How can we solve this? Tell me, tell me. Or we can solve this and another thing. And another thing because you know, one option, option, two option dilemma, three options, then you start having options. So I, that's it.

I have three.

Yeah, at least three. At least, at least three. Yeah.

Two is just a dilemma. I don't like dilemma.

And one option, no options.

I know that's horrible but I, I'm.

Sure it happens to your customers too. You know. There is no other solution. No way. There's more.

There's a lot of solutions.

No, no, there's no, it's only one thing. Thing.

Or how about the people who said I've tried everything, Ramon, I've tried everything.

Ah, that happened to me with a new customer the other day. Ah, we, we did things of. No, it was a, it was a system with this. Ah, we did a lot of things in marketing. Okay, make a list. Tell me. I, I, I, I, I take note. Ah, we did a, We didn't do anymore.

I've done everything. I've tried everything. Everything. Tell me. Yeah, Tell me everything you've tried.

Let's make a list. Let's check how it worked. We did a landing page and he said, no, it didn't work very well easily because it was hard. Okay. Next thing. We didn't do anything else.

Yeah. So you did one thing and it didn't work. So you gave up.

Yeah, you gave up. Yeah. But it's people problems, you know, it's people problems. And, and this is very. I told the owners because especially in small restaurants because I felt that way in years ago. You are really alone most of the time.

You are.

Even if you are surrounded by people, you're alone in your stuff because yeah, it's not the result, it's your result. So. And also sometimes you came home and nobody understand you.

Yeah.

Because you have to leave this thing. You have to leave this thing. Otherwise you don't understand it. You know, it's like you, you understand it, but you don't know it. You know it when you do it. And, and they are, most of the time they are feel really alone, you know, so it's a pity.

If you want to talk to Ramon, if you want to have a conversation with a Ron, you want to just connect with him, just want to follow him. Either way you can hear connected with montierc vault the restaurantcoachvault.com you get your go. You've come to. We, we'd love to have you come to Restaurant Success Summit in October and meet us in person. And you can get tickets@restaurantsuccessummit.com for that. It'll give you a whole list of the agenda all three days. It's going to give you a list of the bio of all the speakers too. And also where you can get your. Where you can stay at the hotels. It's gonna also give you an opportunity to buy tickets. They're a discount right now. I definitely would jump on that. As soon as you can. Restaurantsuccessummit.com you can always find Ramon as website ramondios.com or on Instagram @ramon diaz number one. Like the number one.

Yeah.

And you can find them on Instagram too.

You contact me from USA or Mexico or Colombia, wherever you are listening this. Remember the rhyme like 6, 5, 7, 8 hours in different times. And then maybe I took time to answer.

Yeah, yeah, it's like one o' clock in the morning where Ramon's at right now.

So yeah, yeah, it's one o' clock in the morning. Don't expect me to go to. That's right away yeah, it might take a little while.

He is in Madrid, everybody. So, yeah, he is in another continent, half the world away from where we are today. So I want to say, Ramon, thank you so much, my friend. Always a pleasure to talk to you. Always an experience. I always, I like, I take notes whenever we talk and I always learn some new things myself, my friend. So I appreciate your friendship and I also appreciate you out there trying to help restaurant owners get that restaurant and life that they really desire.

Okay. Thank you very much to you for the opportunity.

Hey, real quick, before you go, make sure you check out www.restaurantsuccessummit.com. the event is going on pretty soon. If you want to know what it's all about, watch this.

It.