The Seven Rules for a Kickass Restaurant

Hey, Restaurant Coach Nation. Donald Burns here. So glad to have you here on a Sunday afternoon. Happy Father's Day to all those fathers out there. You know, a lot of people say, you know, the Restaurant Coach Nation, what's that all about? Well, the Restaurant Coach Nation was my place. I wanted to form a little kind of private Facebook group where people in the restaurant industry could come to network, maybe even find a mentor, because I'm a big believer in mentorship, get some ideas that could help them actually maybe break free from where they are now to where they want to be. The Restaurant Coach Nation is again, it's always free. It's basically, it's part of the Facebook kind of family. And all you got to do if you're not a member of the Restaurant Coach Nation is just got to go to my. Basically go to the Restaurant Coach Nation, find it on Facebook. There's a couple simple questions. I asked the questions just to kind of keep the riff raff out. And once the riffraff kind of kept out, it's basically, it's good to go. So, again, welcome to the Restaurant Coach Nation. Today we're going to do some really cool training. I do this every Sunday, 3:00pm Mountain Standard Time, 2:00pm Pacific Time, and then of course that kind of escalates from 2:00pm Pacific Time, 4:00pm Central Time, and 5:00pm on the east Coast. So with that being said, without further ado, I want to talk today about the seven rules for a kick ass restaurant. Now, I know as entrepreneurs we like to say, you know, rules were made to be broken. Donald, what are you doing? Rules are made to be broken. Yes, rules were made to be broken. Some rules. There are actually some rules that you need to follow. And these seven rules I have found over the years. If you follow these seven rules, you will not only have a good restaurant or a great restaurant, you're going to have a kick ass, what I call an outstanding restaurant. These are kind of like if Moses was walking down, if Moses was coming down from Restaurant Mountain with tablets, these were the would be the seven things Moses would have carved into the commandments that you must abide for for your restaurant. So, and again, if no one's ever heard of me before, I am Donald Burns. I am known on the Internet as the Restaurant Coach. If it's your first time hearing me, I've worked the last four decades in the restaurant industry as a restaurant owner, executive chef, with Wolfgang Puck as a consultant, and for the last 12 years, I have been the coach to over 2100 independent restaurants. And I don't say that to impress you, but to impress upon you that when you work with that many restaurants, you definitely see patterns. There are patterns to success, and there are patterns to failure. My duty is to help you kind of connect and find those patterns to success and avoid those things that are going to kind of trip you up or hold you back or keep you kind of stuck in mediocrity. So I think, just like everything in life, there's a clear path to success. And restaurant success, unlike a lot of people, would have you believe, a lot of those restaurant experts out there would have you think it's very, very complex. Really, really, you know, you need all this and that it's really. It's not that hard. Now, I say restaurant success is simple. It's not easy, but simple. I think restaurant success is not rocket science. It's people science. When you understand the people science, it actually getting to the top of the summit is pretty, pretty, pretty easy. Now, most restaurants, as you know, start out in what I call the valley of mediocrity. That's where most restaurants live. They're down at the bottom. Basically, if you're at that level, it's true, your restaurant really kind of sucks. Now, a lot of restaurants break free, and they head up to where I call base camp. Base camp is you're out of that valley of mediocrity, but you really got to get your act together. This is where you're going to basically do some training. You can get your act together, get your supplies before you try to make your ascension to the summit. The next level up is what I call good. And that's where you actually kind of create what is known as a training culture. And then as you move up to the summit of outstanding, you get to great level. That's where your culture kind of shifts to be more of what we call as a learning culture. And at the very top, when you do reach the summit of outstanding, you have what is known as a leadership culture. That is basically, that's like the promised land. That is where your restaurant does not require you. Your restaurant runs efficiently, effectively, profitably, all without you having to work yourself to death in your restaurant. Now, that sounds like the promised land for you, and you'd like to get to that goal again. I have a map, and I also have kind of a pathway to get there. Now, you, of course, right now at basecamp, I call it Restaurant Coach Nation. Again, it's my free Facebook group. If you want to ascend up the ladder, I'll talk about it at the end of this. At the end of this kind of. Of this training that we're doing here today. So let's kind of roll into this. I love this quote. The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. And then I'm going to preempt that also with a little. Are you ready to get pissed off a little bit? If you are, it's kind of rock and roll. Now, as I talked about before, there are pretty much four kind of levels. There's four levels of restaurant success, and you can look at it. I use a pyramid model a lot. A lot of times I like to use the bell curve from school. So there's bad, there's good, there's great, and there's outstanding. Bad restaurants make up about 20% of the market. Good restaurants make up around 60% of market. Now, if this was like, in school, you see, that's like almost like the bell curve. 60% of the restaurants are good. Good is average. Average is like your c.15% of any market is what I call great. And that would be like your B students. And then that very rare space to the far right is what I call outstanding. Outstanding restaurants make up 5% of any market. And here's the cool thing. This model works no matter where I go around the world. Doesn't matter. I'm in South America, I'm in Europe, I'm in Africa, I'm in Australia, I'm in Canada. Any market I'm in, you can look at that restaurant market, and you can divide up that market into four segments. There's bad, there's good, there's great, and there's outstanding. Now, a lot of restaurants get in that great category, but they can't maintain it. And a lot of reasons they can't mont they can't maintain it is they don't have. Not only it's the systems and strategy, but they don't have the right mindset. I'm gonna go on a limb and tell you something that's kind of radically different than most people believe. I believe restaurant success. Again, it's people science. Of that people science. 80% is mindset. 20% is systems and strategy, where most people are actually focusing on the 20%. They're trying to get that 20% to produce 80% of their results. And it doesn't work that way. Just the math is backwards. It's 80% mindset. And one of the things we're going to talk about today in these rules for success is I'm going to show you how to kind of break free, how to break free from that average mindset, that mediocrity that's holding you stuck, holding you down, holding you complacent. Here's the question I want to ask yourself. Do you want a better restaurant? Now, you can answer in the chat, you can answer in the comments, whatever you'd like to do. But here's my kind of warning to you. Don't answer too fast because I really want you to think about the deep, deep, deep implications. Your answer? A lot of people want more or want better. Very few are willing to step out of their comfort zone to get it. Here's the thing about your comfort zone. You know, your comfort zone is easy and as the name implies, it's comfortable. Here's the thing, I also want to kind of iterate to you. Nothing great ever happened in your comfort zone. You know, you can sit on a beanbag chair and eat Doritos. You know, watching Top Chef or Bar Rescue, you know, that might be the good life for some people, but for those that are ambitious, the comfort zone is where dreams and potential slowly die. So if you want your restaurant to mean truly kick ass, you must be willing to go all in. Now, over the years I've identified there's patterns that lead to success and again, there's patterns and traits that kind of lead to failure. I myself, when I've owned my own restaurants, I've struggled whenever I've deviated from the path. Now, these seven rules I'm going to go over today, these have been tested and especially battle tested, and they are proven to provide the groundwork necessary to escape that kind of cult of average and really blast you into that end realm, that realm of outstanding. You know, and I really love that word outstanding because to me, outstanding it means to stand out from the crowd, to surpass the ordinary, to chart your own path. Everyone can become outstanding. Everyone. You just have to be committed to learn these seven rules, do the work and then make adjustments. Make that commitment. And I'm telling you right now, you will get the results you want. Now, if you haven't been pushing yourself very hard, please don't expect overnight results. Even when you're doing all the right things, there's going to be what we call lag time. Lag time is where it takes those new habits and those changes to kind of catch up. And sometimes actually you have to bypass and circumvent those old habits, especially those old habits that are keeping you where you are now. It's kind of like you know, on your computers or on your phone. It's like updating your operating system. So be patient. Here's the thing I want you to do. And write this down. Hashtag, write this down. Keep at it. And whatever you do, don't quit. Best advice I ever got in my whole life was just five words. It was from my karate instructor. It was just before I took my first black belt test at 16. This is what he said to me. You'll want to quit. Don't. Best advice I ever got in my life. You'll want to quit. Don't. And I'm going to throw that advice out there for you. So let's jump into the rules, shall we? Rule number one, and this is my number one rule for this reason, all business problems, really people problems in this guy. So rule number one is culture flows down, not up. Your restaurant's culture is not some kind of imaginary thing. It's real, it's tangible. It's actually like the lifeblood of outstanding restaurants. Culture is either created by design or by default. And your actions fuel that culture every single day. Culture cannot be left to chance because actually, your culture is a reflection of you. And I want you to think of culture just kind of. This is, you know, a little pipe here, and it's dripping out some water. But I want you to think your culture like a pipe of energy that flows down to your team. Now, the pipe. Imagine the pipe runs straight up and down, and you as the energy source, you're at the top of the pipe, and you actually control, or you're actually the source of energy or flow, your energy runs downward. Remember, culture flows down, doesn't flow up. Now, along the way, there's little valves that have the potential to slow the flow. Those valves, they're the managers on your team. They're the people that work with you in your restaurant. They can either increase the flow by leaving that kind of valve open all the way, or they can impede it by closing the valve closed, valved. Just like everything else, a closed valve is going to reduce the flow of energy to the team. And actually what's going to end up at the bottom of the pipeline, which your guest experience. One of my primary tools for identifying where those kind of. Where that pipe is kind of clogged at, especially in a restaurant culture, is I use a tool called the Restaurant360 leadership evaluation. Because when I go into a restaurant and work with a client, I need to see how much of that culture that you talk about. And trust me, everyone talks about how great the restaurant is, how great their culture is, how great their teamwork is, how great, great, great. But I really need to see for myself what you say is going on, what's really going on, because those kind of valves in the culture are going to really dictate how much of that energy, how much of that culture really drips down to the guest experience. You might have the best intentions in the world, and you might have an amazing vision for your restaurant, but if it doesn't flow down to the team that. That interacts with your guest, you're. You're in trouble. You're in really, really big trouble. Rule number two, always manage the state of your restaurant. State management is probably the primary divider between outstanding and average state. Now, a lot of people might have not heard the word state. Now, when I use the word state, what I'm actually saying, state, is actually the same as saying energy. So write that down. State is energy. And then also write this down. Energy is everything. Energy is everything to you and your restaurant. Everything. Energy. I'm telling you, you've been in restaurants that had great energy, and you've also been in restaurants that had really crappy energy. Energy creates atmosphere. And it's kind of that hidden kind of it factor that creates a. I mean, an outstanding guest experience. And it takes that and it really transforms it into such a amazing memory for people. Here's the secret I want to share with you. People are energy. And you're in control of the energy that you bring into your restaurant. So what are some ways, what are some tips and tricks? You can manage your energy or your state better every day. One thing is be aware. Your whole world is going to change when you become aware of your habits and patterns. Now, sadly, most people kind of go through life like the walking dead. They're totally unaware of the things holding them back. And hashtag, write this down. Awareness precedes choice. Choice precedes change. If it's a very, very big if, if you're willing to take action. Thoughts become things. Remember that. Thoughts become things. There's a fantastic line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet that I'm telling you if you. It will change your entire life if you understand it. And the quote in Shakespeare's Hamlet is this. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Nothing has meaning until you attach one to it. You know, a member of your team shows up late. Do you attach a meaning to that? That they're irresponsible or disrespectful? Maybe they were Just late. And it has nothing to do with you. Hmm. Interesting, huh? Life has a total different view when we disassociate from negative viewpoints and become more, I would say, more open to other possibilities. Another tip. Watch your social orbit. What's that mean? Water seeks its own level, and we do become like those who we associate with. I hate to tell you this. Hang out with a bunch of losers, and guess what? You become. Become a loser. Hang out with highly driven, focused, successful people and your odds really elevate that you're going to mirror them and become one of them. Your social orbit, or your peer group, ever you want to call it, is more important than you kind of realize. And you need to rise to the level of a peer group to remain part of it. Now, here's the thing. You might have some internal conflict if who you want to become and to reach a higher orbit, but you keep keeping your foot on the. On the level below it. Sometimes imagine this, trying to. Imagine trying to walk up a flight of stairs and just take that step up to the next stairs, but you won't. You refuse to remove your foot from the step, from the step below. Can you ever move up the stairs if you don't actually ever let go of that step below? No, you can't. You're immobilized. That's what most people are. Sometimes you got to let go of the things holding you down. And that includes, I hate to tell you this, that includes sometimes relationships that no longer serve you and your vision. Rule number three, managers manage the shift. Leaders lead the vision. Okay, let's be brutally honest right here. There are very few, very few true leaders in this industry. People love the title of leader, yet from my experience, very few people live up to it. The reality is that most people don't develop into leaders. So, you know, there are kind of natural leadership traits that help. Like, you know, Michael Jordan had incredible natural talent, but what made him iconic was that he put in the work behind it, his work ethic that won him six NBA championships. Managers. And this is where we kind of get into words, word play a lot. Managers come to work and just do enough work to get by. They basically do enough work to keep their job. Leaders learn to become better people. They read, they take online courses. You know, Shameless. Plug here for some of my online. My online courses. They listen to audiobooks. And if you like audiobooks, I mean, I use a service called Audible. And I think to date I have like 704 audiobooks in there, which is kind of the equivalent to listen to audiobooks for 24 hours a day for 450 days or pretty much like 10,800 hours. Leaders really seek out mentors. They're constantly, constantly improving their game. That's what leaders do. Most managers cling to an outdated management theory that actually comes back from like, actually the 50s, 60s and 70s. They use carrots and sticks to get the staff to comply. They abuse power that they have, and they create a culture of fear and intimidation. They hold on to a belief that they're irreplaceable. This place will go down without me. You wouldn't make it in business another day if I left now. Let me assure you that everyone is replaceable. Hashtag, write that shit down. Everyone is replaceable. And I've even had owners say to me, well, I'm not replaceable. I'm the owner. Yes, if you sell the business, you are replaceable. You could be replaced as the owner with a new owner. So everyone is replaceable. Now, the replacement might not be the same. Actually, the replacement might be better. Here's the thing, it's the fear of being replaced due to lack of real leadership skills that causes most managers to overcompensate and basically behave like, how do I put this? Pretty much. Humility. And hashtag, write this down. Humility is the sign of true leadership. Managers kind of run a shift, kind of like playing a game of checkers. It's all pure reaction. There's no strategy at all. Basically, you know, this happens. They, they do this, this happens. They do this, this happens. They do this. Where leaders lead through more like a strategic vision, almost like they're playing chess. They figured out all the variables for a variety of scenarios, and they play best case and worst case scenarios in their head to kind of, you know, mitigate the downside. Now, special operations teams, like, you know, SEALs, Green Berets, and I was a member of the US Air Force Pararescue Teams. We spend. We spent a lot more time training than we ever did performing missions. And what we did when we did miss, when we did training, is we ran multiple, multiple scenarios. What happens if this happens? What happens if that happens? What happens if this happens? We were so prepared. So whatever happened, we had the ability to adapt and adjust quickly. And when you practice like that, when you really hone your skills, when you run variables, when you run what I call scenario training or contingency planning, you keep your skills really honed like a razor. If you want to become a real leader, you got to get out front Got to get out in front of your team and you gotta lead. It's really that simple. Rule number four, you either control time or it controls you. Time, how do I put it? Time is a, basically a construct of the mind. We human beings, we actually, we created this concept of time. And yet isn't it funny? Time controls so many of us. Time is always on our mind. Every day you are given 14400 minutes like every other human being on the planet to spend. The big difference between those get, get what they want, get the life they want, get the restaurant they want from those that don't is how they invest their time. Here's the real secret to time management. There's no such thing as time management. Not a big secret, is it? See, you can't control or manage time because time doesn't stop. So there's no way you can stop time or you know, actually you can't just life, you just can't hit a pause button. What you can manage is your focus. Where you put your energy and your focus is critical, critical, critical, critical to long term success. Now how can you manage your focus better? Number one, set reminders. I have a little booklet out there. It's called Outstanding Mindset. It basically I wrote it because a lot of my clients were restaurant owners that want to know how do I set my day up for success. So I wrote this little, I think it's like 70 pages, a little booklet. It's available on Amazon. Outstanding mindset. And one of the things I really, I mean I live and die by and I use it religiously, is I set reminders. Now if you have a smartphone, and I'm betting you that you do, you have one of the best tools available to help you. It's called the alarm feature. Sometimes gentle little nudges throughout the day are all you need to get back on track or basically what I call the focus track. Now I personally use this technique and I teach it in my level up system which is part of the Restaurant Coach University. I set my alarm, basically I think I'm up to like, I have like six alarms that go through the day. I have one that goes off at 9 11, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and usually at 9pm Yes, I work late, but it's a reminder for me to shut it down and start unplugging. So I go to bed at my set scheduled time. Those little alarm nudges, they're a great kind of little reminder throughout the day. They kind of get me back on task and back on target. Another Huge, huge tip you can do to manage your focus better is put a price. Put a price on your distractions. This is another tool I teach in the level up system. You need to put a dollar amount to your time per hour. Now, I hear sometimes, you know, people say, I want to make this kind of money, I want to make that kind of money. I want to make a million dollars. I want to make $100,000. Whatever. Whatever your money is. Here's the thing. Whatever your number is, it's your number. I'm not here to judge you, but I'm just gonna throw it. For instance, let's say you want to be worth $400 an hour. If you want to be worth $400 an hour, you need to act like you're worth $400 an hour. Your words must be in congruency with your actions. Now, I don't have a problem watching a movie or a favorite TV show or spending some leisure time on social media. Just be aware that those platforms can become a real black hole for escapism and they can suck you in if you allow it. The best way to control that is to think about how much you're worth per hour and then imagine having to write a real check at the end of the week for the time you spent on those activities. So, for example, let's say you spend eight hours watching tv. You spend eight hours on social media. I'm telling you, that stuff could add up really quick. And if you're at 400 an hour, just basically eight hours, watch TV eight hours. I mean, that's like writing a check for 6400 at the end of the week just for distractions. That's kind of ouch, right? And here's the other sad thing. You know, researchers say that the average person in the United States spends at least two hours a day on social media. That's really scary. Especially if you always feel you're overworked. You're not overworked. You're just not focused. You're not spending your attention or your time. Well, this one's a great one. Rule number five, it's not the person you fail to hire who destroys your restaurant. It's the person you fail to fire. Who you allow on your team is one of the most important decisions you're ever going to make as an owner or leader. Vetting the people who want to join your team is critical to long term success. And I know right now there's a lot of hoopla out there about the labor shortage. We can't get people to work. I really don't think that it's a labor shortage. I think it's a culture problem. There are plenty of people out there that want to work, that actually love, take pride in doing a great job, people that love going to work doing something. There are a lot of people out there. The question you should ask yourself, and remember, the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. Why don't they want to come and work for me or with me? That's the question you should be asking yourself. And when you're looking at people, it's not just whether a person's a good fit for the job. It's whether they're a good fit for the current team dynamics. Skills are important, but I'm telling you, personality is everything. Hashtag, write this shit down. Personality is everything. On the other side of the hiring coin is, and we've all done this, letting go of people that are bad fits for your team. And I'm telling you, even if you ask the right interview questions, even if you do the background check, even if you have a candidate, do a behavioral survey which I behavioral survey, which I highly recommend using Disk predictive index or pro scan, and they seem like they're a great fit, they might not work out to the current team dynamics that you have in place. Some people, honestly, some people are really, really good at interviewing. They know what to say to get the job. It's only kind of when you throw them in the mix with everyone else in your team that you really start seeing what their personality does. Kind of like a chemical equation. Some personalities mix well together. Some personalities mixed together are very volatile. Another thing you want to be aware of that most people that when you hire them, they're on their best behavior for about two weeks and then their little quirks start popping out. And here's the thing, everyone has quirks. It's kind of what makes us all unique. You just need to decide when someone's quirks start to appear, whether they're going to be acceptable long term that are going to fit with the compatibility and growth of your brand and your team. My favorite motto is be slow to hire, quick to fire. When you see a behavior or a pattern, that's a warning sign. Think of it as a huge red flag and cut them loose. Trust me, the behavior only gets worse as time goes on. Too many owners are afraid to discipline or let go of poor performers, so they allow them to stay. You don't have any idea what this does. It wreaks total havoc on your team and eventually is going to start impacting and start causing the decline and demise of your guest experience. Once that happens, you're pretty much dead. You just don't know it yet. If you have anyone on your team that you know, you should let go, do it. If someone is unhappy on your team, you're holding them back from finding a restaurant at which they might be happy and they could maybe possibly thrive at. Not every restaurant is a good fit for everyone. Just like your restaurant isn't a good fit for certain demographics, you might not be a good fit for some potential employees. Don't be selfish and hold on to people who aren't thriving in your organization. Allow them the chance to find happiness. Just let them find it somewhere else. Rule number 6 Restaurants get better when the people in them become better. I love this one because school's never out for the professional. I still, I mean to this day I still have the same business coach I've had since 2009. I'm still belong to two different mastermind groups. I'm always learning, I'm always want to be better. Why? Because when I become better, I become a better coach for my clients and I can help them in a bigger capacity. I can help provide more value. I can help them reach that next level. There's an old saying that learners are earners and it's true. I have found that the more I've learned over the years, the more I've invested in myself, the more I've learned how to become a better coach. It's actually helped out so much more in my business that actually has elevated my sales and elevated kind of the feedback I get from everyone on my, on my, who's a, who's a client of mine. The more value you bring to the market, the more you're going to get paid. It's just a natural fact. If you're a leader, the more you learn about communication, the more you learn about management theory, marketing, service operations, team dynamics, especially personal development, the more you're going to be worth. And if you think all that can happen in an average kind of, you know, 50, 60 hour work week, I have some sad news for you. It's not going to happen. You got to put in the extra work, you got to go the extra mile. You got to put yourself in a position where you become better. This is what it's all about. It's about pushing past your comfort zone if you really want to grow. And I've said it many times, pushing your past, pushing Past your comfort zone isn't easy. It's not easy at all. Because if it was easy, everyone would push past it and have everything they ever wanted. And there's basically five key challenges that you're gonna have to contend with if you want to break free from your comfort zone. One is authenticity. Authenticity. The other one is competence. There's resentment, there's likability, and morality. Sometimes you only hit a few of these and you might be able to work through some of them. Other times, you're gonna get slapped, like, in the head by all five, and it's gonna feel like running into a brick wall. Coaching is a very, very effective tool to get you out of your comfort zone to learn. Remember this and hashtag, write this down. To learn, you need to move beyond your comfort zone. Then after you learn it, you have to train yourself. You have to train, train, train, and train some more to develop new habits, new behaviors, new skills. Without enough training, you're gonna really. You're gonna slide back into your comfort zone pretty soon. And that's a. That's exactly where most restaurants fail. They don't do enough training. They train, you know, basically on what I call on the front end when someone's maybe hired or they may be trained once in a while, they're real infrequent about it. Few restaurants make the effort to really become world class at training. Whatever you think is a good amount of training is likely far below the level required to be outstanding. The best way to get the most out of your training is to shift your culture from that training culture to a learning culture where you're always, always learning. Training cultures. Training cultures. I'm telling you, training cultures are pretty much. It's the standard operating stats for most restaurants, and they use basically kind of a normal training curriculum that just focuses on job skills. Training cultures. I hate to say training cultures suck. When you train at the onboarding phase, or maybe a class every six months, maybe perhaps you hand out a book to everyone to read. However, there's no discussion about it or no agenda to extract information. And how that applies to our restaurant training culture is just like everything else. They basically do the bare minimum needed, and that's why they're average. You want to shift to a learning culture. Learning cultures focus not on just developing skills, but enhancing them. Remember, restaurants truly get better when the people in them become better. People work on the real skill sets that hold people back. Where those skill sets, communication, social skills, body language, building rapport, organization, focus, personal accountability. Honing these skills will Elevate you to that legendary status of being outstanding. Make an investment in developing your people, and what they're going to do is they're going to build your business. Most restaurant owners do not focus enough on helping develop the people they employ. If you put more energy in developing your people, if you really focus on making them better people, trust me, that's gonna. It's gonna pay back 10 times whatever you invested in them. When you do that, you change not only your business, but you change your culture and you change actually the trajectory of your success line and rule number seven. And I said, I think I said it before, Awareness proceeds. Choice. Choice precedes change. You are your biggest problem, but you're also your best solution too. And that starts with self awareness. One of the things that we talk about, and I have a course I run called the Leadership Blueprint. In the Leadership Blueprint, we talk about emotional intelligence. And probably the number one thing about emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is self awareness. It is the defining factor that really separates a manager from a leader. You have to have self awareness. You have to. Awareness. I'm telling it's freeing. Once you come to grips with it, remember, the truth will set you free. But first it's going to piss you off. Awareness precedes choice. Choice precedes change. When you're aware of it, you can make a better choice. When you make a better choice, that kind of sets up a whole new parameter about what your changes are. Now, after hearing these seven rules, I'm going to ask you, do you. Do you feel a little uncomfortable? Do you feel like, wow, that was a lot of stuff. You know, geez, coach, I'm not feeling too easy about it. Kind of feeling a little uncomfortable about it. Might be feeling a little sick to my stomach about it. Good. Being uncomfortable is a great place to start. Nothing, nothing's ever going to get better until you feel uncomfortable. See, that's where most people don't take action. They've kind of accepted that it's. And they use softeners. It's not that bad. It's okay. It could be worse. Yeah, but it could be a lot better too. You're just kind of stuck. If you really want to push through to the point where you're going to take action, you really need to become upset with the way things are. I know you're saying, you know, upset. Well, you know, hey, hey, Coach, that's not very positive. I know, I know. Stay with me here. Your comfort zone can be a blind spot for you. Even. Even when you start to realize that something might not be right and you feel uncomfortable sometimes that's not enough to make change. You're going to need to dig deep and you're going to have to write down, remember, what's it really going to cost you if you don't change when you dig deep and really put a price to what it costs you really not to change. I'm telling you, it could be dark and that could be a brutal exercise. But, but you're going to need to use that pain to move you kind of in the direction of taking action. And another thing I want you to do and hashtag, write this down. You got to turn all those shoulds into musts and you have a whole list of things that you should do. What I say to restaurant owners all the time is restaurant owners basically should all over themselves all day long. You know, I should update my menu. I should cost out my menu. I should market more. I should do some live video. I should do some video at all. You know, I should fire that energy sucking vampire who works on my team that's just sucking the life out of me and my and everyone else in the restaurant, you know, I know, yeah, I should train more. I should take better care of myself. We should and shouldn't. Should and should and should all over ourselves. Your shoulds don't happen only when things become a must that they do happen. And then you're going to take some action. So take all those words that you know and anytime you've ever said, well, I should do that, I want you to stop yourself right there. Put up, you know, put a little pause on your brain and say, no, I'm not going to say should. I'm going to say must. I must update my menu. I must cost out my menu. I must market more. I must do live video. I must do videos. I must fire that negative energy vampire sucking the life out of everyone on my team. I must start taking care of myself. Remember, you are the biggest obstacle you have in getting more from your restaurant. It's you. You are again the biggest problem. But you're also your best solution too. If you realize that it's going to change your life, gonna change your life, change your restaurant. So now you have some tools to make it happen. But only again, if you make it a must and you take action now, having a plan and having a path to break free from your restaurant running you is the first step. Now be honest, how many times have you started on a new path or plan only to be pulled off it here's where coaching comes in. Coaching gives you an accountability partner. And I would be honored to be your coach. Totally honored to be your coach. Remember, the secret is you, your restaurant will never rise above your own level of development. Remember, you are what holding your restaurant back. You're also, you are what can also set your restaurant free. And I'm not talking about skill here. I'm talking about the mental breaks that you have put on yourself that are holding you back. And you have quite a few mental breaks. Trust me, everyone does. I said this before and we'll say it again. Restaurants become better only only when the people in them become better people. And that starts with you. Remember the first rule. Culture flows down, doesn't flow up. When you become a better leader, when you become a better person, everyone on your team is going to step up and become better. And that is going to break you free. Now I created an integrated coaching suite for wherever you and your restaurant are currently and actually where you want to be. Now many start just like you are now. You're here inside my free private Facebook group called the Restaurant Coach Nation. Now the next step up and a little faster on the growth path is to join my group coaching program called the Restaurant Coach University, where you get access to my private training library and a monthly group coaching call. The next level up from that is my premier mastermind group for independent restaurant owners only. And it's called the Restaurant. It's called Restaurant Masterminds. And this is where you get two group calls each week. And for those that really want the fast path to the summit of outstanding. You want to ask about. You want to talk to me about? The Restaurant Accelerator, which is my top tier coaching program is basically it's kind of a hybrid system of online learning courses where you learn at your own pace, weekly group educational cost to accelerate your results. And then there's also one on one private coaching calls with me personally to hold you accountable and stay on track. Which one's best for you? I don't know. Depends on your situation. Let's talk and see if restaurant coaching is right for you at all. Because here's a fair warning. Restaurant coaching is not right for everyone. Sidebar Side effects of restaurant coaching include better sleep, low stress, more profits, free time for your friends and family, happiness, lower turnover, great online reviews, increased confidence, and the freedom to do what you want when you want. You should talk to me and see if restaurant coaching is right for you and your restaurant. Because honestly, it's not right for everybody. I want to say thanks for sitting in on this training today. I hope I've given you plenty of things to think about and some items that you can take action on that you can start implementing today. Remember, words without action are useless. Do yourself, do your restaurant a favor, become a person of action. And you can always reach out to me and email me at any time@Donaldtherestaurantcoach.com and I will see you here next Sunday, 3pm Mountain Standard Time, for another restaurant restaurant Coach Nation training session. We're doing these every week. I'm doing them every Sunday, 3pm Mountain Standard Time. Just a way to help people, kind of give them some inspiration, maybe something that just kind of stimulates you, that you want to do a couple things maybe and just take a little bit of action. I find that a lot of restaurants that are stuck, if you just get a little bit of momentum going in the right direction, it's going to really, you're going to really see that you have it in you and that you can actually make the changes you want and that you need to make, too. So everyone enjoy their Sunday, have a fantastic day, and I will see you next Sunday right here inside the restaurant Coach Nation.