Mindset is Key To Success with Andrew Carlson

Hey, welcome to the Restaurant COOC podcast. It is the cure for the common restaurant. I am so honored to have, I mean, a super great friend, a great human being, and I tell you, it's somebody I actually, I love talking to. Our conversations are always amazing. Andrew Carlson. Andrew, how are you today?

I'm doing well. Donald, how are you doing? Thank you so much for having me on.

I'm Tonya. And if people don't know. Andrew. Andrew. Actually, we're going to talk about Blast from the past here. Andrew's first book, he came out with Customer Service is the Bottom Line. It's actually, it's one of my favorite ones. I actually have quite a few copies I give to a lot of my clients. I go, you need to read this, read this first and then read. Your restaurant sucks.

Exactly, exactly. It's all on Amazon too. I love it because people still purchase it and they still email me and they're like, dude, this is like one of the best. And I'm like, that's the purpose of the book was just to make sure people could have amazing customer service and increase their sales.

Yeah. But you know, customer service is all about people and people's all about mindset. And so a lot of the stuff you do nowadays is a lot more mindset focused.

Yes, absolutely.

Let everyone kind of catch up to what you've been up to lately. How's that? Give us the, give us the version, the updated version.

So I sold my restaurant consulting business because it turned into a mystery shopping business, sold that, then became a strategic advisor to high level CEOs and executives. Really learned how to systemize those systems and put leadership into place. And everything starts with the mind. All of the stuff, leadership all is a mind game. And we have to really make sure to stand up and make sure we're the leader for our teams. So that's kind of what I've been really doing. And now I've integrated all of those into also helping people become coaches and grow from six to seven figures, utilizing their expertise to build their coaching empire. And we have a digital marketing agency where we do a lot of service based businesses to help people actually create clients and leads through Facebook ads.

Oh, awesome. I did not do. I did not know you're doing the Facebook ads. If I knew you're doing the coaching and stuff like that with coaches.

Mm. But it comes down to. Yeah, it comes down to direct response marketing. Basically. How do you cut through all the noise? And the nice thing is everything just integrates with mindset because mindset I can't tell you how many times managers, when I was working in the restaurant industry, I was like, how do you stay so positive? How do you stay so emotionally detached from when things go crazy? And it's like it all comes back down to mindset because we have that reactive mind where we want to react. But then if you take a moment to see what the situation actually was, then you can see how to better improve as a manager or a leader.

You know, and that's the biggest thing. And most people just live in reaction mode all day long. Yeah. What are a couple of the key steps you would say to going from reaction to being more of in control?

Oh, this is always a fun.

That's a deep sub. I know. And we could probably talk for hours on this. Just give me a couple high level things that, you know, listen to this podcast. They're watching this video today because like, you know what, I could do that 100.

The first thing, stop. Just stop.

As far as you're in a hole, stop digging. Right.

And it's. We laugh at it because it's very funny. But the first thing we want to do is react and we want to say, I can't believe you did this. But it's like a take stop because you're wanting to interrupt the initial reaction and then take a few deep breaths. That's the first thing you can do. Like when you just stop and then take a. And truly just allow yourself to be for a few minutes. Man. I can't tell you. It's a simple thing and it provides you with enough time to go from reactionary to response.

It's kind of true and I use it. A lot of people think I'm joking when I say it, but I say, here's what I want you to do when you find yourself reaction. I say, I want you to stop yourself. I want you to take a deep breath in and this is what I want you to say to yourself. Say in with anger, out with love. In with anger, out with love. If people are like, I'm not going to say that. I said just do it. Because you'll watch, it'll change your state. And then the person that you're actually in conflict with look like, oh, well, I don't know what's wrong with this person, but I'm gonna take like two steps backwards and let them just kind of have a moment to themselves. But you know, sometimes the funniest things you knew and I are big believers in nlp. We're both, we both study nlp. Breaking state is the biggest thing you can do. And helping people break state. What's one of your favorite ways to break someone's state? Someone's in a, in an unproductive or, you know, a negative state. What's your number one favorite tool to break their steak besides slapping it?

Besides the casual.

No physical contact. No, no physical contact. Andrew can't just open handed, just smack them upside the head. What's your number one. Number one verbal tool for breaking someone's state?

So one of the things that I absolutely love is I'll walk up to somebody and I'll just say to. Do you smell feet? Like this is disgusting. And they go, what did you just say?

Yep, yep, yep.

And it's one of the. Then they start laughing. They're like, no. And I'm like, I don't know, it's probably your feet too. Like figure it out. And then, then it starts to break the cycle. Another thing you can do is just clap. But that's really weird. So you could just ask a question that's so out of left field where they're like, okay, but let's get back to the, let's get back to what was actually happening.

Yeah. My favorite ones is like, I like to throw out a weird question. Like you. I'll throw out the question. I'll ask like if they're like, all of a sudden I'll stop and go, do vegetarians eat animal crackers? And then I just like look around like I'm confused by the question, you know, or that. Or else I'll yell, I yell blackjack. Blackjack 21. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Absolutely. Another one that I do because I come from the theater background is I'll just say plot twist. And everyone goes, what just happened? I go, it's a plot twist. Let's figure this out now.

Plot twist. That's. Oh, I'm gonna use that one. I love that one plot twist. Because, you know, I think you come from a theater. Theater background. But I also say like, you know, restaurants are like a stage. It's like theater. So I always use that analogy. Like when I, when I and I put up on people's walls in their kitchen when they're going out from the kitchen, I say, you are on stage. You know, because the dining room, to me I would say we don't call it, we don't call it the floor. Most people call it the floor. I say we call it the stage. Because when you're out there, you're on stage. Everyone has to remember yeah. You are performing. You are performing. You are performing. So Covid. Covid. Covid. I think there's a light in the tunnel, I think now.

100.

Yeah. It's not the train, you know, it's not the train we thought it was.

No, no.

But, you know, and you live out in California right now, and we talked about this before the show, that you're moving to Australia, and I do not blame you. Australia, too, in a heartbeat, you know.

Yeah. California has been interesting, and it's been interesting to see how the restaurants have responded.

You're so polite. California's been interesting. You know, we call that in coaching. We call that a show. All right, let's be honest, man.

Oh, 100 complete show.

Andrew's like, it's been interesting, dude. It's a show. You know, it 100. It's 100.

A nightmare, a living nightmare.

What? Have you seen some restaurants out in your market being that have done. That have done well as far as, like, making adjustments 100%.

So one of the things that happened when everything first started happening and we had to position and move from inside the dining room to outside dining room, but inside outside, which is a really interesting concept, but one of the best restaurant I know.

We can't. Wait, hold on. Let me get this right. We can't dine in the restaurant, but we can dine outside in a tent inside? Okay, that makes sense.

So I joke around about that a lot.

That makes total sense.

The one restaurant that's been really excelling right outside, my office, is basically created this whole atmosphere. It was just a parking lot. Whereas most restaurants would just put up a tent outside of the parking lot and just put some chairs and stuff. These people put down fake grass. They put down, like, the heat lamps because it was getting cold in California, like, really cold. So we had to really bundle up.

Like 60 or what, 55. You guys, like, work out the winter jackets. It's like the parkas.

But they did really well just having an outside ambiance. And the staff was super happy, receptive that people were still going out. And they kind of kept that all the way up until they had to shut down. And then the reopened, it did the same thing. And. But it came down to they were able to take the customer experience that people went there for, and they made sure that the customer didn't feel uncomfortable being going out to eat so that they could still continue to generate revenue. And they put their whole capacity outside. So it wasn't just a small thing. They had a large parking lot. So they were able to put the whole capacity of what would fit in the restaurant outside.

That's really cool, and that's really important. Like you said, taking that total guest experience and transferring it to another different medium, like outside or. Nowadays, a lot of places are trying to find the struggle of how do I take that guest experience and transfer it to a digital, you know, how do I reach out to people when they're just doing takeout and delivery? How do I transfer that to that kind of platform? The number one thing I've a lot of my clients been doing is just making more phone calls, just asking people, like, pizza places calling the next day, how was your orders? Anything that we, you know, we do to improve, you know, having that contact with someone and talking to someone, you know, is the next best thing. If you can't have face to face contact, the next best thing is talking to them. And I, I love how you said, like, they took that whole thing and put like the, you know, the grass down everything. I have seen those restaurants that like, all right, we're gonna set up. We're gonna set up our dining room outside, and they use actually the folding banquet chairs, you know what I mean? And they use, like, I saw one, I was like, are you kidding me? I mean, I've seen. I've seen kids lemonade stands look a little more professional than that, 100%.

And I know that we didn't know what was going to happen, how long it was going to happen for. And the ones that are prevailing were the ones that decided to invest in that infrastructure upfront. And then it paid off for the long term. Even with California shutting down, however many times it did, like, all the different tiers, all the communication issues. Like, there were so many restaurants where I would literally just go up to the servers and I would just say, I'm sorry, California's messed up right now. Like, so it came down to the having an authentic conversation with the servers because everyone was fearful. But it was just like, the servers were like, hey, making sure that everything was super just welcoming. And then would always follow up. I always got a phone call afterwards. I always had people like, say, please come back. We would love to have you again. Here's a way that we're going to elevate your experience the next time. It was always just like the, okay, I'm going to start working out of my office and at these restaurants where they're actually continuing to, you know, put together an experience outside.

Right. That is so awesome. And we talk about the guest Experience, but I want to kind of transfer kind of the guest experience to me, and I know to you, too, is all really. It's leadership driven. How important do you think is leadership in restaurants? And what is. What would you say is the number one trait leaders really need today, especially now?

100%. So everything boils down to leadership. I mean, in my. In my book, I could still come back to that book. Customer service is the bottom line.

Doing a flyby. We're on low tech here. We don't have, like, the fancy graphics, so we're just doing a flow tech. I'm just doing a flyby on the front of the screen with the COVID of the book. It's on Amazon. Buy it on Amazon.

The biggest thing I talked about in there was always looking up whenever there is a situation, whenever there is a problem, look up to how leadership can improve. How can we do things differently? How can we make sure the guest experience is better? How can we make sure our employees feel more safe? How can we make sure everything boils down to leadership in terms of looking upwards at how we can respond? Because how we respond is how everyone else is going to respond. And number. The second thing, because I'm going to throw in a second thing, is keep the emotions out of it, which is very difficult to do. And when you're able to take that step back, stop, take a big, deep breath, you're able to start to see how your perspective starts to shift now that you've actually seen things from an overall perspective versus tunnel vision on the one situation that's happening. And now we freak out.

Exactly. You know, and that goes back to mindset. Managing your mindset is the number one thing I think leaders need to do, and I think it's the number one trait moving forward. Because if you're panicking, everyone else panics. You know, if you're calm, cool, and collected, everyone else stays calm, cool, and collected. It's the craziest thing in the world. I know. You should try it. I'm telling everyone out there listening, you should try it. Walk around one day and just walk around your restaurant. The sky is falling. The sky is falling. The sky is falling. And everyone's gonna act like they're crazy. Like, oh, my God, there's a sky falling. Everything's all right. We got it. I was saying, channel your inner Matthew McConaughey.

All right, all right, all right. Exactly. I have a funny story about that. It's. I was. I have a defibrillator. So when I had a defibrillator that was turned on. It's currently turned off because I'm getting it taken out because I no longer need it, which is very exciting. A few years ago, I got shocked, like 30 sometimes, and there's no way to turn it off. But my heart rate would spike up, and then I would get shocked internally, and then it would just speed up because my heart's like, what are you doing? But I got transferred to one hospital. This nurse was like, oh, my gosh, you have to watch out. Your heart rate spiking again. And, like, freaking out. And I'm like, I'm about to get shocked. And, like, my. I could feel the adrenaline just start, pump, pump, pump. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to get shocked again. And then my ex was like, you need to leave this room right now. Kicked her out. And then the doctor came and was like, no, you're fine. And I could instantly feel the adrenaline just start to, like, stop pumping so fast. So I was responding based off of the two situations that was happening. But it's come back down to leadership. If you come in and, you know, even though internally you're going, I don't. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know the solution to this. I'm freaking out. But when you come in with a strong presence and you say, hey, this is going to be fine. We're going to figure it out, then people take that lead.

Yeah. And you and I are good friends with Bruce Irving, you know, and Bruce has that favorite saying of his. Everything's figureoutable. Everything's figureoutable. Everything's figured out. So talking about your heart and stuff like that, that goes to my next kind of topic, about self care. What do you do for self care and how important you think self care is for leaders?

Oh, I 100% think self care is one of the most important things that we can do, especially as leaders. One of the things that we're always talking about. For me personally, I go paddleboarding. Like, right after this podcast interview, I'm going to go paddle boarding. I work six to seven days out of the week. Why? Because I absolutely love what I do. Now, I'm not tied to a restaurant because when I was restaurant coaching, when I was a restaurant executive, there were a lot of times where I was going six, seven days where I felt chained to the restaurant. So what I did then was I would make sure that the gaps that I had, I was making sure that I was strategic with that time. So so whether I needed to go meditate, whether I needed to go watch a movie, whether I needed to just go on a walk, an hour walk. So I knew I was going to get a phone call probably because there was going to be the transition over and that we were down a manager manager. So there were all these things that I had to do and I was just on call. So I made sure that the self care routine that I did was something that I could also jump out of if I needed to. But ultimately as a leader, what I typically do because so many people say, oh, I'm overwhelmed and stressed out, I make sure every single day I have a 30 minute routine where I just take care of myself. I set the intention for the day. I will do some kind of meditation, I'll watch a YouTube video where I'm stimulating my mind and then at night I do the same thing for a wind down routine. So I'm not just staring at my phone all day. But I'll go paddleboarding, I'll go sailing, I'll go walk on the beach. Those are the things that I do that really fill me back up to go then work again. But I absolutely love what I do. If I have friends that want to go do something, I'll schedule in that time because I want to make sure that I'm scheduling things versus just being reactionary on these hangouts and then get upset that I'm falling behind in the work. So I'm a little different when it comes to self care. And I know as long as you're strategic about it, you're that's going to be the most valuable time that you have yourself.

And that's. You bring up an important point there about scheduling stuff. I'm a big believer that if you want to get better control of your life, put everything you can on your calendar. You know, schedule your time to. I have on my time in the morning, I have from 6 to 7, it's called my hour power where I do my journaling, I do my priming exercise, I do my breathing exercises and then I always go to the gym, I always work out, always have a fitness class and then I'm in, I'm getting ready for the day, then I'm in the office by nine and I'm like you, I work probably I work seven days a week, but I'm not working like crazy hours all day. But I'm like you also too is I love what I do. I love working with restaurants, I love helping people break free from mediocrity. And to get the restaurant in the life that they deserve. But my point is, you gotta make sure you schedule time for self care. Because the hospitality industry in general is all about giving. We give and give and give to others, but who gives to us? It's like if, like it would be like you and I showing up to work, you know, with our phone. And our phone is only 25% charged for the day. And I told you you couldn't recharge your phone all day. How long do you think you'd make it, Andrew?

Depends upon how new. I just purchased the phone. But not very long.

Not very long, right. But you know, unfortunately, most hospitality, most restaurant managers and leaders, that's what they do, they show up at work around 50% charged and then they go through the day. And then, you know, the day happens, you know, and the lunch rush hits, the dinner rush hits. And then when you run out of energy, unlike shutting off like your phone does, what happens when people get low energy? They get snippy, growling. You know, they say things they don't mean to say. You know, you get hangry. Oh my God. How many times have you like worked in a restaurant all day and then you realized at the end of the day you didn't eat?

Every time.

And you're surrounded by food all day long and you're like. And then I would get home like, damn, I forgot to eat today.

Because now you're just sitting there going, why is my stomach so angry with me?

We've got a bullshit. I work at a great restaurant and I didn't even eat. Damn, that sucks. So now I always have to make sure I scheduled myself. And your phone is again, is a great reminder. You can use alarms on there. I call them nudges. It's just reminding you throughout the day, make sure to take time to recharge, make sure to do some breathing exercises, make sure to eat. You should drink plenty of water.

That water is important. Water's huge.

So let's talk about. And as you remember you mentioned earlier that part of your thing with social media is standing out. Not, you know, not blending in and not just making noise, but making. Especially on your social media, let's talk about Tick Tock. Because you, my friend, are huge on tick Tock.

Yeah, Covid was experiment.

I was like, tick what?

The funny thing about that was it wasn't something that everyone knew about. It was something that people kept show, like shoving away from. It's not business related. It's not business related. And I said, this is a Challenge. So I remember sending you and Bruce things, and I'm like, hey, TikTok, this is the thing. And all the restaurant people that I knew were like, okay, TikTok, okay. And then I go, watch this. So I started making mindset videos on TikTok and, like, mind games and just to show people how fun it can be and how you can be different. And I utilized a few things that I learned in my NLP training to kind of bring awareness to the younger generation. And one night I went to sleep, had posted a video, thought nothing of it, woke up 50,000 followers, like, tens of thousands of comments. And I going, what's happening? So for me, who's never experienced anything like that, I reacted. I didn't know how to respond. So I literally looked up my phone and I go, nope. And I threw it across the room.

Did you really?

I did.

I thought it was a stream, freaked out and said, nope. Nope.

And then over the next 14 days, I ended up getting112,000 followers.

That's crazy.

It was super fun. It was an interesting way to funnel people into my other social media channels and build a business around it. And I learned a lot, you know.

And that's the thing. People. Don't be. Don't be like Bruce and I. Because I'm just gonna throw it right out there. Don't be like Bruce. Like, Ah, yeah, TikTok. It doesn't apply to my business. It does apply to your business, a hundred percent.

And then I remember when I was like, bruce, can I cut? Like, Bruce was like, why don't come talk about TikTok for restaurant owners? I was like, yeah, let's do this.

Because it's.

It was one of those things that was. It was a big social media. And it still is a big social media platform out there, and it can do wonders for your restaurant or for any business, really.

So if I was a restaurant and, you know, you came in and you gave me, like, the down and dirty, how can I start using TikTok for my restaurant?

So a few things around TikTok is you want to make sure that you're. You just follow other restaurants.

Yeah.

And that's one of the biggest tools and tricks that most people don't realize that they. They want to follow everything that makes it entertaining, but you want to make sure that you train the algorithm on what to.

Exactly. Or else you start watching Kylie Jenner.

Exactly. Or Charlie and her dancing, and then you go, it's only for kids. There's just dancing.

This is crazy. I don't see anything good on here. Because you've trained the algorithm to look for this. The stuff that distracts you. Don't. TikTok is a. What was that line from Spider Man? With great power comes great responsibility.

100%.

Tik Tok's like that.

100%. Because you can blow up at any time. Yeah. The viral nature of the algorithm is amazing and insane. Something that I would do for restaurants is really curating your food and, like getting people food, but, like short clips of your food. So if you have a dish, do short. Pretend like you're on a. On a Food Network show.

Yeah.

And do something very short and snippy and fun and get your team involved into it. And that allows people to really get a sense of to who you are and what the restaurant is all about. And then they're gonna crave and salivate what you have to offer on your menu, and they're going to want to come. Same thing with bartending. Same thing with, like, if you have chefs, if you have. If you're more fast casual, you can do things differently.

Or mixologists doing really cool things at the bar. Yeah. But again, train the algorithm to work for you. Don't be sucked into the black hole of distraction and allow TikTok to take you down the stream of happily. Mary. Mary. Watching the dancing, you know, pandas stuff. It will.

But like with Facebook and Instagram, we're really designed to just post food photos or just say, you know, come to this restaurant XYZ. With TikTok, it's all entertainment focused. You want to really make sure you're elevating your brand and what you do on TikTok to be entertaining, educating and fun.

I made that mistake on Instagram, like on reels. I started watching. There was like, I like. People don't know, but I like drumming, so I do. I used to drum, be a drummer. And so I started watching a couple drumming reels. And now what do you think is in my feed all the time. Freaking drumming reels all the time. Like, damn, man. It's like, you know why? Because I did it to myself. Because I trained the algorithm. That's what I wanted to see. So it was because. Think of social media as like a heroin dealer. You like it? Here's more. I'm gonna give you more of whatever you like. Yeah. And that's exactly how it works. So I would say the first thing you wanna do on TikTok, number one, if you have not used TikTok, go on and get. Make sure. You get your restaurant name first if you can. That's number one. Number two, stop watching all that crazy stuff.

And know that their job as a social media platform is to get anyone hooked the very first video. So the very first time you install it, you're gonna get those dancing videos. It's. And you're gonna be like, what am I watching and why? And then you're gonna go search for funny things. You're like, this is funny. You're gonna feel tempted to push the follow button. Stop it.

Stop it right there. Andrew's. If Andrew is in front of you, Andrew would say this. Andrew say, hold your left hand out, take your right hand, smack your hand. Bad restaurant owner. Bad restaurant. Do not do it. Do not do it. Yeah, TikTok. I mean, I've seen Andrew, Andrew, you're, you're, you're, you're like, you're like a megastar.

I was. And I couldn't, honestly, from a, from a mindset perspective, I couldn't handle it because I didn't have the right mentality going into it for a long term thing. It became something. So when it comes to restaurant people, we utilize it as a marketing tool. What had happened to me is I went from just having fun to then becoming an influencer, which is a business in itself. Myself.

Oh yeah.

And I wasn't mentally prepared for having my quote unquote fans have this expectation of me showing up live every single day. Because I was going live every day for an hour. I was doing three videos a day. And it became an expectation and I couldn't. I was busy with work and everything that I had to do a couple businesses and I couldn't show up. But then people were telling me that the only reason why they're alive are my videos. And it was very heavy stuff. So I kept the channel up there and it still does amazing things. And I still talk to people from time to time from TikTok because they find me on Instagram. But I created a new TikTok that's more business focused and that's not so much influencer focused because there was a lot of stuff that I had to work through from a mindset perspective. Being a mindset person, guess what? We're human. We have to actually work through things. And being a leader knows when it's time to step back and how to make adjustments and then move forward more powerfully.

That's the thing. Like you do this stuff. Social media member, all these things are tools to help you. You don't want to Become an extra job for you. And like Andrew said, you know, when it felt like it was an extra job and he already had a couple other jobs he's doing. Like, I do not need a third, fourth job here. You know, just basically doing TikTok videos all day.

Exactly.

So again, and so. And ask yourself that question when you're working your restaurant. Am I doing this because it's number one? It plays to my talents and my gifts, and is it something that maybe someone else on the team could do, or am I just doing it because I want to be a control freak?

You don't need to be on every platform.

You don't. Well, what's the whole purpose of social media too? It's not to get a sale. It's just keep your brand out in front of people, keep your brand top of mind, and again, people will find you, discover you, and then they'll actually come to your channel, to your other channels, because if they know, like and trust you, they'll start following you. That's what social media is all about. Everyone thinks social matter is just about likes. Not about likes at all. No, no.

That's the one thing that I learned when it came to Tick Tock was it didn't. The nice thing about Tick Tock was that it was so up and down. It wasn't like a now I went viral and now every other video is gonna perform amazingly. It tanked. And I went. And there was that, like, it was like a drug withdrawal. I was like, what do you mean? Like, I started, like, looking at myself, like, what did I do wrong? Why aren't you? And it messes with your mind. So when it comes to actually. So when it comes to social media, it's not about the likes and the engagement. It's about the engagement, but it's more about putting your brand out there and leveraging the engagement to push it more. And at the end of the day, there's a lot of people that just look at stuff and continue to scroll down, but then you've implanted that seed, oh, I need to go to this restaurant. Oh, I need to do this. Like, there are times where people reach out to me. They go, I had no idea you switched. And just you're doing business coaching and you do all of these things. I'm like, where have you been? Have you not seen my social media stuff? Chances are they haven't. But they said, I've been watching your stuff for six months and I absolutely love what you're doing. I'd love to figure out a time to have a conversation, then figure out how to work with you more. I'm like, you haven't liked any of my stuff for the last six months. Where have you been? But it doesn't matter about that. It matters that you're showing up on all the time regardless of what happens.

Most people, I find this too. Most people that actually will do business with you, they're not going to hit that, like, button. They're going to watch from a distance and then they're going to take action and they're going to jump in, you know. But again, it's no, like, trust you. I have to get to know you a little bit. You know, I like his style. I think his style could match with mine. You know what? You know, he's showing up consistently, he's doing something consistently. I trust him. I'll make the call.

Exactly.

That's what I find. Like when I ask people how they find me, when people actually contact me about coaching, it's usually because of that. It's like. And when I see their name, it's like I don't see them. Like, I don't see them as any of my big followers on social media. Because usually someone's like, oh, I've been following your stuff. I've been watching your stuff. But they don't comment until they're ready.

Pain wasn't big enough.

Yeah, that's exactly it. So what's the most views on any of your video on TikTok, how many views did you have? You had something way up there like crazy.

It's now at 7.2 million.

Oh, my God. 7.2 million views.

And it's a fun video. It's all about how we can. How our mind perceives information and how we can miss things from sight. And it's a fun video that basically shows people that, hey, your brain can only hold so much capacity at times. It deletes the source and generalizes it and just deletes it out of your existence from time to time. It does.

We delete, distort, or generalize. Right. 100. The three things we all do. Your brain just. Just think about this. Your brain couldn't handle all the information coming to again all at once. It would be just. It would. It would just overload you and your brain would just like, fry.

That's where overwhelm comes from. Because we have too many things that are going on, too many projects that we're thinking about and we have no more capacity for it. And then we just get overwhelmed. Because you're either looking at the big picture of all the things that you have to do.

Right.

Or the little tiny details, and you look at all the things you have to do and you think of all the little tasks that are involved in all those things. So you're like, oh, all this is overwhelming. I'm just going to shut down.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. I always use the analogy of it's trying to eat a whole cow. You know, could you eat a whole cow? And I say, yeah, you could. One steak at a time. So when my clients get overwhelmed, since we're in a restaurant, I'm in the restaurant business, I say, you know, just. I just cut it in the steaks so good. I said, I said, what you're doing right now is you're looking at that whole cow. I just like, imagine I brought a cow into your restaurant. A whole. A real live cow, and I gave you a fork and I said, andrew, start eating. You'd be like, what the are you talking about? You're crazy.

100. 100.

But that's how most owners work with their team. They just get. They. They bring the whole cow out and go, all right, there's a cow guy. Here's some forks. Everyone dig in. And they're like, is this guy nuts? Is this lady crazy? They're crazy. There's no way I could eat the whole cow. All right, let's break it down. All right, let's take it to an FDA approved butcher shop. Let's have it. Cutting the steaks now. Would you like a T bone today? A 22 ounce T bone, or do you think you can have a 12 ounce New York? Or would you like a 6 ounce petite fillet? You know, today I think I could handle a six ounce petite fillet. All right, this is on your plate today. And you break it down like that and you give them assignments based on what they can handle. We all think everyone has the same appetites. We think everyone shows up for dinner and everyone wants a 22 ounce huge, you know, porterhouse. Not everyone can eat a 22 ounce porterhouse.

No. Some people just want the appetizer.

Some people just want appetizers. Just, you know. But you got to be able to communicate with your team and discuss with them, where are they? What can they handle? And then you make sure you're making accommodations to help them.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Because if you are flexible as the leader, then your team will also learn how to be flexible because they're learning by example.

It's true. What, what are some of the big challenge you find when people. So people, everyone knows mindset's important. Okay. We all know mindset is important. All right, what do I need to do? What's my first step to getting my mindset better?

Fantastic question. I love this question because a lot of the times it comes down to a simple question. And the question is, whenever we experience anything from, like a negative experience, like, we're stressed out, we're overwhelmed, we're all of these things. And you're like, I just need a better mindset. It comes down to, what do I need to learn? And it's a question that not a lot of people realize because they're going to say, what do you mean, what do I need to learn? But your mind is going to tell you exactly what you need to learn. It's basically like when you're driving a car and all of a sudden the check engine light comes on. Where do you take it? You take it.

I take it to Audi, the mechanic.

You take it and they plug it in and it create tells them what the code is. And then they take the code and they say, this is what's wrong with the car. This is how we're going to fix it. And then you're going to get back on the road and you're going to be better off. If you check engine light comes on, you go, nah, that's fine. I'm gonna keep driving. Guess what happens? Something's gonna break down and you're gonna go, why is the car broken down? And we do that the same way as human beings. So if you want to improve your mental capacity and your mindset, it comes down to, what do I need to learn? Because once you listen to yourself, because we have all the resources we need available right up in here, everything we need to know is up in here. So your mind's negative emotions and the freaking out is simply it's check engine light saying, something's wrong. I'm not. I'm less than zero.

Right?

What's wrong? Because that learning is going to take you from a negative standpoint to a neutral standpoint. And then once you have that learning, it's going to be instantaneous because your mind doesn't take time to think about. If you go, well, I think the thing I need to learn here is this. No, it's like a. Okay. It's an immediate thing. You're going to hear it and you're going to have to train yourself to hear it. But then it comes down to now that I know what I need to learn how to. I need to go implement it. So then you can focus on being solution focused, which then provides you that momentum to keep in a better headspace and to solve those problems ahead of time.

Exactly. And how important is getting. And when people are making these mind shift, you know, these mind shifts and, you know, mindset changes. How important is it to have a coach to guide you?

100% important. And I really wish I had something here. I. Oh, I do. One second, one second. Here I am. So if you have. You say, okay, mindset, it's very important. I need a coach important because it's like your problem is right here.

You put a box over your head.

Yes. Can I read the label that's on the outside of the box?

Oh, no, no, no.

Why? Because I'm stuck in the box of my problem. So when it comes to a mindset perspective, the reason why we need mindset coaches is because we're stuck in that overwhelm. We're stuck in all of those problems that we have, and we can't see other solutions. So the only thing that we can do is see from others. We need a coach to help see from other perspectives, so that way we can actually know what's going on.

That's funny. You mentioned it. Yeah, you mentioned it. I just put a post up yesterday on Instagram, and it's like, you know, talk about great minds. Think alike. I put up a post yesterday, and the post was this. I said, you know, and it goes back to a lot of people ask me. I said, why can't you. Why can't you get your restaurant unstuck? I said, because you're trying to read the label while you're inside the bottle.

That's so true, though.

It's true.

And that's what a coach is designed for. And when it comes to mindset coaching, everyone's like, what do you do as a mindset coach?

And it's like, wait, am I crazy? Did anyone arrest you? Oh, my go. Is that like a psychiatrist? No, that's totally different. That's a different.

Exactly.

That's more of a doctor.

Exactly. Exactly.

And here's how you know the difference. If you're talking to yourself in different voices and they're telling you to do bad things, you probably need to see a psychiatrist.

100%. But it kind.

But if you're just, like, telling yourself, oh, you suck, you know, you're no good. Okay. That's a mindset.

Mm. If you're not motivated.

Yeah.

If you're looking for ways to feel more powerful or confident. Those are all the mindset things. And it comes down to like neurological ways of doing things. Our mind, we've never. When we were born, we were never given basically a user manual that says, congratulations, you were born. Here's how the mind works. We go trial by error and then we wonder why we get messed up.

Or I took calculus, which I've never used in my adult life. You know. Yeah, that class was really great. I wish they had like you know, your brain 101, you know, or mindset 101 or absolutely should, you know. I wish they would have taught more stuff that taught us how to relate to other human beings in school.

100%.

Because what's the number one thing also we see too is communication. Communication is really lacking.

Oh yeah. And that's because we're talking different languages to each other.

Yeah.

And we don't realize it.

Exactly. True. So what's one book? So yeah, wait, we got a second book coming out.

I do have a second book coming out this year. At the end of this year.

End of this year. What's it gonna be called?

It's gonna be called Worth it because one of the biggest issues most people have is the their sense of self worth. And yes, even high end executives and CEOs deal with this all the time.

I did too. I had. That was one of my biggest ones. I call it. You know, there's. There's the fives. There's the five selves that. And one of them self worth. And that was my big one for a long time.

100. And that's how we end up self sabotaging ourselves a lot of the times as entrepreneurs. But it's called Worth it how to quit the life you hate and create the life you love from a perspective of how the mind works and how we can actually take our control back to make the changes that are necessary to create the life that we want.

All right, so besides that book which everyone should be put on your list, you should get that. You know, put it on your. On your radar. Worth it coming out. End of 2021. Andrew Carlson, what's a book, an audiobook or a podcast that you recommend currently.

That's a really good one.

I know, isn't it?

Because if you were to ask me what book, it would be this. Oh, I love that book.

I have that book.

That's phenomenal in terms of an audiobook. The one.

Wait, hold the book back up and say the name. So people in the author too, because so Many people are going to be listening to a podcast. So Thick Face, Black Heart and Ching Ning Chu, Big Face, Black Heart. That's a great book. It's available in paperback. You also get it. I have it on Kindle too, and I love it, so.

And then the other one is called the One, and I'm blanking on the name.

The One. Is that the guy? The Patrick Killer? The Killer Williams guy? Yes, that's the one. Right? The One.

Yep. The One.

The One. That's a good one, too. Awesome. What's a quote?

You live by a quote.

Yeah.

A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships were designed for. Yeah, that's my favorite. I even got a ship tattoo from it.

Dearly my. You see mine? Mine's back on my office wall here. It's a quote from Mario Andretti. If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.

Exactly. I love that one.

It's my favorite quote.

So good.

It's so good. So how can people contact you?

Honestly, if you want to get in contact with me, you can. I'm going to say it. Email me@andrew7figurelifestyle.com. I am totally redoing my website, so I'm not going to give you a website if you honestly want to get in touch with me, I'm also on Instagram, Coach Andrew Carlson or Facebook. You can just look up seven Figure Lifestyle, send a message and say you want to talk to Andrew and 100. We can talk to you. Have a conversation. Because at the end of the day, it's a leadership thing. Mindset's all about leadership. And if you're struggling with anything, have a conversation. I'm not saying I can't help you. I'm just going to say we can have a conversation.

That's the thing. And here's also another thing I want to say about coaching and getting and finding a coach or finding someone as a mentor. You should always have a conversation with somebody. And if there's anyone out there who wants you to sign up before they talk to you as a free consultation, do not give them any money. Okay? I'm just telling you that's like a bunch of the biggest BS in the world. I never, ever take on a client until I at least talk to you first, because I need to make sure it's a good fit for you. The last thing I want to do is I want to take somebody's money and not be able to deliver results. I pride myself on getting really great results because I Work with people that are coachable. Exactly. The last thing I want you to do is pay me money. You don't get results, and it looks bad.

Okay, 100%.

Yeah, 100%. We set ourselves up to win. That's how we play the game.

Always. And if someone's not willing to take responsibility for their own life, then I'm just going to wish you the best of luck and I'll love you from afar.

I love you from afar. I've given back. I've given back money from people that just didn't do the work. It's like, you know, this isn't working. Seems that you were. You. You said you were motivated, but I don't see the actions that you're taking actually support that, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Andrew's a great guy. I've known Andrew for quite a few years, and if you really want help with mindset, he's the kind of guy I dial. I call on speed dial when I'm having mindset issues. So, you know, if I talk to Andrew. You talk to Andrew, too. If I talk to him, you should talk to him. Yeah, definitely. Well, Andrew, I want to say hey. Thanks for stopping by today. Okay. Thanks for taking time. I know you're going paddleboarding. That's awesome. I'm gonna go chill. You know, I just moved recently to Scottsdale, Arizona. It's my new office, and I'm gonna actually go do some running. I'm working on my third book. I'm finishing it up, wrapping up the third one. So the first one is your restaurant sucks. Second one is your restaurant still sucks. Third one is, your restaurant culture sucks. Yes. And then I'm done with the suck series. It's a trilogy. I'm putting it to bed. Like Lord of the Rings. That's it. I got my trilogy in. I'm done something else.

So, so good.

So anyway, thanks, Andrew, for stopping by. Always a pleasure, my friend. And if you want, right now, you can on Amazon, go out and pick a copy of his. His first book, Customer Service is the Bottom line. I highly recommend it. It's a great read. It's really. I mean, you can easily share this with your team, and Andrew will be more than happy. If you want some bulk purchases, call Andrew back. Is a little different. You had, like, a. You had, like, a beard back then.

Well, I was so young, I had to actually, like, have restaurant owners take me seriously.

That's true. I was looking at the back going, what happened? He had this, like, beard, this model beard, you know, all Right, Andrew. Hey, thanks again so much, my friend. I really appreciate you and I appreciate all you do to help leaders out there develop their mindset. And actually, you know what, when you improve your mindset, it just improves your life. It really does. Yeah. People always talk about this BS about life, work, balance. There's no real life work balance. It's life. It's just life, man.

I like to look at it as it's harmony. Sometimes you're going to lean towards one side more, and then the other times you're going to lean towards the other side a little bit more.

I use a word. Yeah, I use the word integration. So I say it's not life, works. Balance is life, work integration. Some days my work takes a little bit more. Some days my, you know, my personal life takes a little bit more. Depends. But yeah, but seek harmony. I think that's a good. I'm gonna use that word. That's harmony. So our word for today, boys and girls, life, work, harmony. Take it in. Very Zen and very Zen, like, very nice. Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate you.

Thank you so much.