649: Lisa Astorga-Watel on Taking Chances, Networking, and Presence.

Chef/Owner Lisa Astorga-Watel grew up in Santiago, Chile, before moving to Houston, Texas where she attended The Culinary Art Institute. Astorga-Watel's ambition started early wit the opening of her own catering business to cover her expenses while in school. Following her formal training, she served as a private chef for celebrity, Tommy Lee Jones. It was during this time in her career she was able to travel the world developing her pallet and culinary repertoire. It was also during this time she met her future husband and business partner Chef Damien Watel. Together the couple owns Bite and Bistr09 Show notes… Favorite success quote or mantra: "Shoot for the moon. If you miss you'll hit a star."  In this episode with Lisa Astorga-Watel, we discuss:  What took Lisa off the path of fashion and on a new culinary path.  Taking chances and risks early in your career to set yourself up with experience and opportunity How to deal with being a woman in a male-dominated industry.  The impact of a well-groomed, well-dressed staff.  Lisa's advice for progressing quicking within an organization.  How to become someone people want to network with.  The sacrifice that comes with being a personal chef for celebrities.  Other challenges of being a personal chef. What good communication with your business and life partner looks like.  Recognizing those who want it and giving them an opportunity.  Taking zoning into consideration when opening a restaurant.  Imprinting your personal identity onto your restaurant.  Maintaining your presence in a restaurant, even when you are absent.  Giving your staff a sense of ownership, and significance, especially in the eyes of your guest.  Always anticipate your opening taking longer than you think.  Opening restaurants in close proximity so you can compound on pre-established relationships.  Today's sponsor: BentoBox empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits and relationships. The hospitality platform disrupts third-party services that come between the restaurant and the guest. BentoBox puts the restaurant first and offers tools that drive high-margin revenue directly through the restaurant's website. BentoBox is trusted and loved by over 5,000 restaurants worldwide including Union Square Hospitality Group, Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Lilia and more. CAKE provides an easy-to-use integrated software and hardware solution to build better dining experiences for restaurant operators and their guests. With mobile marketing and waitlist management to point of sale payment processing, the CAKErestaurant management system helps you grow your business.  Learn more at trycake.com/unstoppable Restaurant365 is a cloud-based, all-in-one, restaurant-specific accounting and back-office platform that seamlessly integrates with POS systems, payroll providers, food and beverage vendors. It generates accurate real-time reporting and analysis in user-friendly dashboards, facilitating immediate, data-driven decision making. Restaurant365 eliminates manual, error-prone processes and is designed to help restaurant businesses grow with functionality that helps optimize labor costs, reduce food costs and increase revenue.   Knowledge bombs Which "it factor" habit, trait, or characteristic you believe most contributes to your success? Patience What is your biggest weakness? Time away from her son. What's one question you ask or thing you look for during an interview? Honesty What's a current challenge? How are you dealing with it? Showing up today a better version than herself, yesterday.  Share one code of conduct or behavior you teach your team. Be on time.  What is one uncommon standard of service you teach your staff? encourage your team to work together.  What's one book we must read to become a better person or restaurant owner? GET THIS BOOK FOR FREE AT AUDIBLE.COM  Kitchen Confidential The Alchemist What's the one thing you feel restaurateurs don't know well enough or do often enough? Consistency  What's one piece of technology you've adopted within your four walls restaurant and how has it influence operations? Toast POS Yelp Reservations If you got the news that you'd be leaving this world tomorrow and all memories of you, your work, and your restaurants would be lost with your departure with the exception of 3 pieces of wisdom you could leave behind for the good of humanity, what would they be? Be good. Be Kind. Be the best you can be.  Contact info: Websites: Bite Bistr09 Instagram: @lisa_astorga_watel   Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for joining today! Have some feedback you'd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post. Also, please leave an honest review for the Restaurant Unstoppable Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And finally, don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. Huge thanks to Lisa Astorga-Watel for joining me for another awesome episode. Until next time!   Restaurant Unstoppable is a free podcast. One of the ways I'm able to make it free is by earning a commission when sharing certain products with you. I've made it a core value to only share tools, resources, and services my guest mentors have recommend, first. If you're finding value in my podcast, please use my links!