In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Chris Harper, COO of Meridian Restaurants, about his leadership journey and business philosophy. Harper shares the origin of his nickname "CH3," which embodies his drive to be the best and reject second‑place effort. He discusses the fast‑food industry's staffing and turnover challenges, emphasizing that building high‑quality teams based on core values and trainable "athlete" mindsets outweighs prior restaurant experience. Harper highlights mentorship, networking, and personal branding as critical tools for career growth, recounting a three‑year recruitment effort for a key team member. He advises his younger self to embrace humility and learn from failure, and he identifies strong relationships and purpose as keys to happiness. His favorite book is Brené Brown’s The Power of Vulnerability, from which he learned the importance of showing up authentically. He also cites a John C. Maxwell quote about caring before knowledge. The episode concludes with Harper’s contact information (LinkedIn and email) and sponsor acknowledgments.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Chris Harper with us. He is the COO of Meridian Restaurants. So welcome to the show, Chris.
Thanks, Tyler. Glad to be here.
Awesome, brother. Thanks for joining us, and we'll dive in. The first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think I have one through— I worked in a big box retailer and it was early in my leadership career, kind of transitioning to being in a leadership role, and I was given a nickname that's kind of stuck with me. And it's something I learned from my basketball coach and what was a choir teacher in the past as well. And the nickname I received was CH3. And I think I was cocky and needed a humble lesson, but also the push that you always want to be the best and you always want to be number one. And I had two supervisors, so I wasn't first and I wasn't second, so they made me third. And at the time I was okay with that because three happened to be my favorite number. And people stopped calling me Chris after that. They called me CH3, and it really stuck on when people learned how passionate It made me about being the best. And it's kind of been my motto in life and leadership with teams that it's third, third place or second place is not, not good enough. And giving, you know, your second best effort is not good enough. And it's all about striving to be better every day and working towards being number one.
Yes, man. Thank you for sharing that story. And 3 is actually my lucky number, so I totally jive with that.
Spanish. Love it.
And, uh, what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
Well, I think that, you know, we, we own quick service restaurants, uh, we have 126 total restaurants in our portfolio. And I think the big stigma is, you know, fast food, uh, staffing and turnover. It's so difficult in the climate right now around staffing and turnover is such a I would say excuse and hot topic, and you can't get people to work, and people are lazy and they don't care. And I've had a much different experience with that. And I think it starts with building a team, and that's what I've always done really good at and had great success with. And I've done it not by always caring about people and experience. And, you know, I don't care if someone has worked at our specific restaurant before. I don't care if they have restaurant experience. I want the best people with core values that I align with, that are going to be good athletes that I could train to do the actual work. They're going to be great leaders. And, and I know people talk about it a lot, but when you live it every day, the better your team at the highest level is so impactful on how that trickles down and makes people feel at every level. And if your direct team or higher-level team directors or C-level team is not the best possible people, and you're not a, you're not a crazy person about that, it really trickles throughout the entire organization and opens you up for a lot more excuses and susceptible to the current staffing and turnover climate. So I think that's been one of my biggest strengths through the current climate we're in.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Yeah, I think, uh, something that I've been super successful with, that, uh, is kind of branding yourself. And, uh, like I talked about, people— my brand is, I think of it as CH3. And being yourself. And the way I've really done well with this is through mentorship and networking. Uh, Networking is tough. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, reach out, have, have someone potentially turn you down and take risks. But through that, I think you learn a lot. It gains a lot of perspective, and you're not naive to, you know, within your organization, there's a much broader scale of business and leadership landscape out there. And it would be very naive to think that, you know, your specific restaurant group or franchise or corporation is the reality out there. And I think it keeps you in tune with how things are going in business and the competition and other, other businesses or success, successful companies. Like I have a mentor who works at Apple and definitely keeps you with some great best practices. And keeps you in tune with business and what's going on. So I would say mentorship as far as learning with a couple specific people, and that's difficult to find those right people. And it's very— it's a tough task to put yourself out there. And then also the networking. And I can remember I've had a couple people I've hired over my years, and it's taken me a year. One of my team members, it took me 3 years to recruit them. Every month I called them and took them to lunch, and for 3 years. And so it It takes time to build steam around it, but I would stick to mentorship, networking, and building your brand.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Oh, it's easy. Humility and embracing some failures and always knowing that when you fall down, it's about what can I take from this situation? What can I learn from it? And every time someone gives you feedback, you know, they're right whether you like it or not. So take what you can from it to get better and listen and show respect through that and just a touch of humility back in the day.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I think relationships is huge. I've rarely talked to someone who is super happy that didn't have carved out time of human connection, relationships with their family, significant other. I think I've personally learned from that the hard way. So I think relationships is huge. I think working towards something that's bigger than yourself and being a part of a purpose that's bigger than yourself keeps you super engaged and happy. And having challenging opportunities that you can be involved with. That you're going to keep learning and you're going to stay engaged and it's going to continue to challenge you to be better every day.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
It is so hard to say just one, but I will stick to the rules here. I would say The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown. She's one of my favorite authors. She has Daring Greatly as well. I just cheated. But power vulnerability is all about being you, show up, and it is enough. And she kind of mocks the fact of, you know, if how-to practical advice was, if it worked, and if that was enough, then, you know, we would have a lot more successes in some of our struggles that we have. And I think she has some great points about, you know, demons that creep in about being insecure and tough situations. So that's definitely one of my favorites.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I'm gonna go a little old school. John C. Maxwell, probably butcher it. It's something about people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care about them. And I've had a lot of great experience with that, that you You know, you can have great feedback, but if you don't care about the person sitting across from you at the table, you don't have a lot of credibility.
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on, Chris. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Well, thank you so much for having me, Tyler. I really appreciate it. You can find me on LinkedIn, just Chris Harper at Meridian Restaurants, or you can shoot me an email With any questions or feedback, my email is chrisharpermrulc@gmail.com. Perfect, man.
Thank you again for coming on. We really appreciate it.
Really appreciate it, Tyler. Thank you so much. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast.
