Hidden Speakeasy in St. Louis | Interview with Gerard Craft

Join us as we delve into the captivating story of Gerard Craft, renowned chef, and entrepreneur, as he shares his remarkable journey from a troubled childhood to becoming a highly successful chef and business owner. In this thought-provoking podcast episode, Craft opens up about his early passion for photography, his decision to pursue a culinary career, and the challenges he faced along the way. Filmed at the hidden speakeasy, NOTA, located at The Foundry in St. Louis, this episode offers a unique backdrop for Craft’s inspiring insights. Discover the key values, training methods, and empowering leadership strategies that Craft implemented to create a positive company culture in his own restaurant. Gain valuable insights into the importance of embracing change, building a strong foundation in business, and the power of continuous learning. Craft’s inspiring experiences will leave you motivated to embrace failure as an opportunity for growth and to lead with honesty and feedback. Don’t miss this engaging conversation that explores leadership, culture, and the transformative power of following your passion, all set against the backdrop of the hidden speakeasy, NOTA, at The Foundry in St. Louis. Check out the video interview here! TRANSCRIPTION 00:00:13.000 –> 00:00:15.000 I am your host, 00:00:15.000 –> 00:00:18.000 Brett Gilliland, and today I’ve got Gerard Craft 00:00:18.000 –> 00:00:19.000 with me Gerard what’s going on, my man. 00:00:19.000 –> 00:00:22.000 How are you? I’m great. Thanks for having 00:00:22.000 –> 00:00:23.000 me. You probably don’t know this because I 00:00:23.000 –> 00:00:24.000 don’t even know if you check your own 00:00:24.000 –> 00:00:27.000 Instagram messages, but I sent you a message 00:00:27.000 –> 00:00:28.000 in April two thousand eighteen. 00:00:28.000 –> 00:00:30.000 Really? I did. That’s Craft. And now here 00:00:30.000 –> 00:00:33.000 we are. No. January of two thousand twenty 00:00:33.000 –> 00:00:33.000 four. 00:00:34.000 –> 00:00:35.000 That’s alright, man. You’re a busy guy. I’ve 00:00:35.000 –> 00:00:38.000 been good at checking my, like, normal message 00:00:38.000 –> 00:00:40.000 you know, my emails, my texts. 00:00:41.000 –> 00:00:43.000 I like to share those messages because it’s 00:00:43.000 –> 00:00:45.000 life’s about persistency as you know. You guys 00:00:45.000 –> 00:00:48.000 stay pleasantly persistent, but our mutual friend, Katie, 00:00:48.000 –> 00:00:50.000 call your introduce to two of us and 00:00:50.000 –> 00:00:51.000 thank you, Katie, for sure. 00:00:52.000 –> 00:00:53.000 Why don’t you explain to people that are 00:00:53.000 –> 00:00:55.000 watching this right now? Where are we at 00:00:55.000 –> 00:00:55.000 right 00:00:55.000 –> 00:00:58.000 so we are at Noda, which stands for. 00:00:58.000 –> 00:01:00.000 None of the above. It’s our speakeasy 00:01:01.000 –> 00:01:03.000 here at the city foundry, but we’re kind 00:01:03.000 –> 00:01:06.000 of through some tunnels in the basement Yeah. 00:01:07.000 –> 00:01:09.000 Hidden away. It’s amazing. Absolutely amazing. Do we 00:01:09.000 –> 00:01:11.000 share how we get down here or is 00:01:11.000 –> 00:01:12.000 that kind of a secret? 00:01:12.000 –> 00:01:14.000 You can yeah. I mean, there’s a there’s 00:01:14.000 –> 00:01:17.000 a door up at the top on foundry 00:01:17.000 –> 00:01:18.000 Way with, 00:01:18.000 –> 00:01:20.000 a red light Gilliland 00:01:20.000 –> 00:01:22.000 if that light is on, 00:01:22.000 –> 00:01:23.000 then you can pop in and, you know, 00:01:23.000 –> 00:01:24.000 hopefully we have some some space. 00:01:28.000 –> 00:01:29.000 I love it. And if it’s not on, 00:01:29.000 –> 00:01:31.000 it means you’re just not open, or does 00:01:31.000 –> 00:01:32.000 it means it’s full? Yeah. It means we’re 00:01:32.000 –> 00:01:34.000 not open. Okay. Yeah. Alright. Well, hey, man. 00:01:34.000 –> 00:01:36.000 Let’s dive in if we can and, get 00:01:36.000 –> 00:01:38.000 listeners a little lay of the land. I 00:01:38.000 –> 00:01:39.000 told you I’d start with kinda what’s your 00:01:39.000 –> 00:01:41.000 backstory of what’s made you the man you 00:01:41.000 –> 00:01:42.000 are today. 00:01:42.000 –> 00:01:43.000 Yeah. So, 00:01:44.000 –> 00:01:46.000 you know, grew up in Washington, DC. 00:01:47.000 –> 00:01:47.000 And, 00:01:50.000 –> 00:01:51.000 you know, got into 00:01:52.000 –> 00:01:54.000 far too much trouble as a kid. And 00:01:54.000 –> 00:01:55.000 ended up, 00:01:57.000 –> 00:02:00.000 finishing school, I should say, out in, Northern 00:02:00.000 –> 00:02:01.000 Idaho 00:02:01.000 –> 00:02:02.000 at a, 00:02:03.000 –> 00:02:03.000 at, 00:02:04.000 –> 00:02:05.000 school for, you know, 00:02:06.000 –> 00:02:07.000 troubled kids. 00:02:07.000 –> 00:02:10.000 And when I was there, I got to 00:02:10.000 –> 00:02:11.000 do 00:02:12.000 –> 00:02:13.000 sort of an apprenticeship 00:02:13.000 –> 00:02:15.000 with a photographer. And so I started getting 00:02:15.000 –> 00:02:18.000 really into snowboard photography. We were up in 00:02:18.000 –> 00:02:20.000 the mountains, so it was kinda perfect for 00:02:20.000 –> 00:02:22.000 all of that. I had always been interested 00:02:22.000 –> 00:02:24.000 in photography and done a lot, 00:02:25.000 –> 00:02:27.000 growing up. And so got to really, you 00:02:27.000 –> 00:02:29.000 know, see kind of the professional side of 00:02:29.000 –> 00:02:32.000 it. And, you know, we were doing everything 00:02:32.000 –> 00:02:34.000 from skiing and snowboarding 00:02:34.000 –> 00:02:35.000 to wake boarding, 00:02:36.000 –> 00:02:38.000 on skateboarding in in the summer. 00:02:38.000 –> 00:02:41.000 And then I moved to Salt Lake City 00:02:41.000 –> 00:02:44.000 after that school to go to Gilliland 00:02:44.000 –> 00:02:46.000 to continue my photography. 00:02:46.000 –> 00:02:48.000 And while I was there, I ended up 00:02:48.000 –> 00:02:50.000 dropping out of college. And 00:02:52.000 –> 00:02:54.000 you see a pattern of school not working 00:02:54.000 –> 00:02:55.000 out for me. 00:02:56.000 –> 00:02:57.000 But I 00:02:58.000 –> 00:02:59.000 took a job 00:02:59.000 –> 00:03:01.000 just kind of in the morning, I took 00:03:01.000 –> 00:03:03.000 a job washing cars. 00:03:03.000 –> 00:03:05.000 And at night, I took a job washing 00:03:05.000 –> 00:03:07.000 dishes. And, you know, still was doing my 00:03:07.000 –> 00:03:09.000 photography. Gilliland 00:03:09.000 –> 00:03:12.000 everything, but the photography wasn’t really paying any 00:03:12.000 –> 00:03:15.000 money. It was, you know. Right. Right. Yeah. 00:03:15.000 –> 00:03:17.000 It was like a trade stuff trying to 00:03:17.000 –> 00:03:19.000 get in the door with different professional hot, 00:03:19.000 –> 00:03:22.000 snowboarders and stuff like that. But 00:03:22.000 –> 00:03:24.000 really fell in love with the kitchen when 00:03:24.000 –> 00:03:26.000 I was in there and a 00:03:27.000 –> 00:03:28.000 career advisor 00:03:29.000 –> 00:03:31.000 told me I should think about, going to 00:03:31.000 –> 00:03:32.000 culinary school. 00:03:32.000 –> 00:03:33.000 And so I want to, 00:03:34.000 –> 00:03:37.000 Salt Lake City Community College. Mhmm. And 00:03:38.000 –> 00:03:41.000 studied culinary arts while I was still kind 00:03:41.000 –> 00:03:41.000 of working 00:03:42.000 –> 00:03:44.000 at this this place called Fats Grill. I 00:03:44.000 –> 00:03:45.000 mean, 00:03:45.000 –> 00:03:46.000 super high end luxury. 00:03:48.000 –> 00:03:51.000 Nothing like Nota. This was Although it was 00:03:51.000 –> 00:03:52.000 a very clean, 00:03:54.000 –> 00:03:56.000 you know, bar with pool hole, 00:03:57.000 –> 00:03:59.000 you know, pool Gilliland, 00:04:00.000 –> 00:04:02.000 But but it was it was definitely not 00:04:02.000 –> 00:04:05.000 a a real refined spot. Right. And didn’t 00:04:05.000 –> 00:04:06.000 you go on to work at one of 00:04:06.000 –> 00:04:08.000 the best restaurants in San Fran and some 00:04:08.000 –> 00:04:10.000 other places around the country? I did not 00:04:10.000 –> 00:04:13.000 go to San Francisco. So I, from there, 00:04:13.000 –> 00:04:14.000 I actually went in, 00:04:15.000 –> 00:04:17.000 did a work study at the Ritz in 00:04:17.000 –> 00:04:17.000 Paris 00:04:18.000 –> 00:04:18.000 and, 00:04:20.000 –> 00:04:23.000 went out to Los Angeles to the, 00:04:23.000 –> 00:04:26.000 Chateau Mamont Hotel. That’s what I was thinking 00:04:26.000 –> 00:04:26.000 about. Yeah. 00:04:27.000 –> 00:04:28.000 And so I was a sous chef out 00:04:28.000 –> 00:04:29.000 at the Chateau Marmont, 00:04:31.000 –> 00:04:32.000 and 00:04:32.000 –> 00:04:34.000 stashed at a place in New Jersey for 00:04:34.000 –> 00:04:37.000 a while called Gilliland Inn which was kind 00:04:37.000 –> 00:04:39.000 of on a five acre organic, 00:04:41.000 –> 00:04:41.000 farm 00:04:42.000 –> 00:04:42.000 and, 00:04:43.000 –> 00:04:46.000 just outside of New York City. So It 00:04:46.000 –> 00:04:47.000 was a Relay Chateau property, 00:04:48.000 –> 00:04:50.000 all tasting menus. 00:04:50.000 –> 00:04:52.000 And I think that was about the the 00:04:52.000 –> 00:04:53.000 scariest place I ever 00:04:54.000 –> 00:04:54.000 ever worked. 00:04:56.000 –> 00:04:58.000 But it was amazing. It was just a 00:04:58.000 –> 00:04:59.000 very intense, 00:04:59.000 –> 00:05:00.000 atmosphere. 00:05:01.000 –> 00:05:03.000 And, you know, very driven people you know, 00:05:03.000 –> 00:05:05.000 all the people that worked there are all, 00:05:05.000 –> 00:05:07.000 you know, super successful today. You know, so 00:05:07.000 –> 00:05:10.000 I was I was definitely in over my 00:05:10.000 –> 00:05:11.000 head, but, you know, in the best kind 00:05:11.000 –> 00:05:12.000 of way. Right? 00:05:13.000 –> 00:05:14.000 So did you look to those guys and 00:05:14.000 –> 00:05:17.000 gals for leadership and advice, or was it 00:05:17.000 –> 00:05:18.000 cut throat and it didn’t work that way? 00:05:18.000 –> 00:05:20.000 Like, what what was the environment like in 00:05:20.000 –> 00:05:21.000 a restaurant like that? Yeah. I mean, they 00:05:21.000 –> 00:05:23.000 they were all, like, pretty cutthroat, but it 00:05:23.000 –> 00:05:24.000 was, you know, 00:05:25.000 –> 00:05:28.000 you know, everybody was helpful. And, 00:05:28.000 –> 00:05:30.000 as long as you were trying and and 00:05:30.000 –> 00:05:31.000 pushing and, 00:05:32.000 –> 00:05:34.000 you know, so everywhere you went, you were 00:05:34.000 –> 00:05:36.000 just trying to kind of learn as much 00:05:36.000 –> 00:05:38.000 as as humanly possible. 00:05:39.000 –> 00:05:40.000 So I’m a go back to when you 00:05:40.000 –> 00:05:40.000 went, 00:05:41.000 –> 00:05:42.000 out from from the East Coast to the 00:05:42.000 –> 00:05:44.000 West Coast to finish school. Like, what was 00:05:44.000 –> 00:05:46.000 it about you or maybe your upbringing? I 00:05:46.000 –> 00:05:48.000 don’t know what it is, but my fascinated 00:05:48.000 –> 00:05:50.000 by guys, that and guys and gals that 00:05:50.000 –> 00:05:52.000 that do something like that and have a 00:05:52.000 –> 00:05:55.000 pretty dramatic, you know, event happen. And then 00:05:55.000 –> 00:05:57.000 all of a sudden, now you fast where 00:05:57.000 –> 00:05:59.000 you’re at in two thousand twenty four. Right? 00:05:59.000 –> 00:06:00.000 Like, what do you think it was specifically 00:06:00.000 –> 00:06:02.000 about you that made you 00:06:02.000 –> 00:06:04.000 go a different route than maybe you could 00:06:04.000 –> 00:06:05.000 have gone? 00:06:06.000 –> 00:06:07.000 I don’t know. You know, I think I’ve 00:06:07.000 –> 00:06:09.000 always been, you know, a fan of the 00:06:09.000 –> 00:06:11.000 road less traveled. And, 00:06:12.000 –> 00:06:14.000 and I don’t know if that made all 00:06:14.000 –> 00:06:15.000 the difference. You know, but, 00:06:17.000 –> 00:06:19.000 I’ve I’ve definitely always appreciated 00:06:19.000 –> 00:06:20.000 the struggle. 00:06:21.000 –> 00:06:23.000 And I I don’t know why that is 00:06:23.000 –> 00:06:26.000 because there’s probably a horrible trait. Probably something 00:06:26.000 –> 00:06:28.000 I should talk to a therapist about, but, 00:06:29.000 –> 00:06:30.000 but I, you know, I always wanted to, 00:06:30.000 –> 00:06:33.000 you know, do things on my own and, 00:06:34.000 –> 00:06:36.000 you know, do things the hard way for 00:06:36.000 –> 00:06:37.000 some reason. 00:06:37.000 –> 00:06:38.000 And 00:06:38.000 –> 00:06:40.000 I think when I was looking to finally 00:06:40.000 –> 00:06:41.000 open a restaurant, 00:06:42.000 –> 00:06:43.000 I didn’t wanna go back. You know, my 00:06:43.000 –> 00:06:45.000 old family’s from New York Gilliland 00:06:46.000 –> 00:06:46.000 DC, 00:06:46.000 –> 00:06:48.000 and I didn’t wanna go back there and 00:06:48.000 –> 00:06:50.000 kind of fail in front of everybody. I 00:06:50.000 –> 00:06:53.000 kinda wanted to, you know, branch out on 00:06:53.000 –> 00:06:54.000 my own, do my own thing. 00:06:55.000 –> 00:06:58.000 And again, you know, I it worked out 00:06:58.000 –> 00:07:00.000 somehow, but god, 00:07:00.000 –> 00:07:02.000 probably not the smartest way. You know, I 00:07:02.000 –> 00:07:05.000 could have opened in New York City around 00:07:05.000 –> 00:07:06.000 family. And, 00:07:07.000 –> 00:07:10.000 yeah, you know, had all sorts of family 00:07:10.000 –> 00:07:13.000 friends coming in. But, thankfully, Saint Louis really 00:07:13.000 –> 00:07:15.000 welcomed me. So And talk about that. So 00:07:15.000 –> 00:07:17.000 what brought you to Saint Louis? I read 00:07:17.000 –> 00:07:19.000 that story. I think that’s pretty cool. Yeah. 00:07:19.000 –> 00:07:21.000 I mean, it was, again, I was twenty 00:07:21.000 –> 00:07:22.000 five years old. So, 00:07:23.000 –> 00:07:25.000 I look at twenty five year olds now, 00:07:25.000 –> 00:07:27.000 and I’m, like, oh my god. What the 00:07:27.000 –> 00:07:28.000 hell is that? Like, I was, like, twenty 00:07:28.000 –> 00:07:29.000 five. 00:07:30.000 –> 00:07:33.000 You know, so, you know, wasn’t always thinking 00:07:34.000 –> 00:07:37.000 entirely clearly, but, you know, I, I knew 00:07:37.000 –> 00:07:39.000 I wanted to do something on my own. 00:07:39.000 –> 00:07:40.000 I wanted to get out. And, 00:07:41.000 –> 00:07:43.000 you know, I had seen some stuff, and 00:07:43.000 –> 00:07:46.000 I think, like, Bonapati magazine or something like 00:07:46.000 –> 00:07:48.000 that about Saint Lewis, and I think an 00:07:48.000 –> 00:07:50.000 American place had just opened, 00:07:51.000 –> 00:07:53.000 Monarch restaurant was 00:07:53.000 –> 00:07:56.000 was doing really Brett. And I just read 00:07:56.000 –> 00:07:59.000 about Kevin Nash in buying Sydney Brett Craft, 00:07:59.000 –> 00:08:01.000 and he had just come from, like, 00:08:02.000 –> 00:08:03.000 Martine Barastaghi 00:08:03.000 –> 00:08:06.000 in Spain and Daniel Gilliland 00:08:06.000 –> 00:08:07.000 New York. And so 00:08:08.000 –> 00:08:09.000 I was like, oh, that’s kind of a 00:08:09.000 –> 00:08:11.000 cool Gilliland now I used to have a 00:08:11.000 –> 00:08:13.000 weird hobby of 00:08:13.000 –> 00:08:15.000 I still have a weird hobby of staying 00:08:15.000 –> 00:08:17.000 up late and looking at real estate. 00:08:17.000 –> 00:08:18.000 And, 00:08:19.000 –> 00:08:21.000 just kind of started looking at real estate 00:08:21.000 –> 00:08:21.000 in 00:08:22.000 –> 00:08:25.000 Saint Louis and stumbled upon this ad that 00:08:25.000 –> 00:08:28.000 was, wine bar for sale, which 00:08:29.000 –> 00:08:31.000 looking back at niche, when niche was not 00:08:31.000 –> 00:08:33.000 at, it was dirt floors, hole in the 00:08:33.000 –> 00:08:34.000 ground, no 00:08:34.000 –> 00:08:35.000 electricity. 00:08:35.000 –> 00:08:37.000 I was like, how was this a wine 00:08:37.000 –> 00:08:38.000 bar? Right. 00:08:39.000 –> 00:08:42.000 But, yeah, then I, I just kind of 00:08:42.000 –> 00:08:45.000 came here on, New Year’s Day, 00:08:47.000 –> 00:08:47.000 in 00:08:48.000 –> 00:08:51.000 two thousand five. And I I literally signed 00:08:51.000 –> 00:08:54.000 it on the spot. And I remember my 00:08:54.000 –> 00:08:55.000 brother, like, do you have a lawyer? 00:08:56.000 –> 00:08:57.000 Are you what are you doing? What’s a 00:08:57.000 –> 00:08:59.000 lawyer? How are you looking for? 00:09:00.000 –> 00:09:00.000 So, 00:09:01.000 –> 00:09:02.000 thankfully, I had my brother, 00:09:03.000 –> 00:09:05.000 investing and on my side because he was 00:09:05.000 –> 00:09:07.000 able to at least he local at all? 00:09:07.000 –> 00:09:09.000 Dear me. No. My brother lives in London. 00:09:09.000 –> 00:09:10.000 Okay. But he was at least able to 00:09:11.000 –> 00:09:13.000 to, you know, help me make some, 00:09:14.000 –> 00:09:17.000 my brother’s like you. He’s in finance. Okay. 00:09:17.000 –> 00:09:19.000 So That’s funny. Yeah. Yeah. So what I 00:09:19.000 –> 00:09:20.000 mean, when you think about that that move, 00:09:20.000 –> 00:09:23.000 did you did you picture success in your 00:09:23.000 –> 00:09:25.000 or was that just something you’re like, this 00:09:25.000 –> 00:09:26.000 is my passion. I’m gonna follow it, and 00:09:26.000 –> 00:09:28.000 then it’s successes happen? Like, what, like, what 00:09:28.000 –> 00:09:30.000 was it like if you look back to 00:09:30.000 –> 00:09:31.000 the twenty five year old Gerard? I think 00:09:31.000 –> 00:09:33.000 I always envisioned six success, but I think, 00:09:33.000 –> 00:09:34.000 you know, 00:09:34.000 –> 00:09:36.000 that vision of success is 00:09:37.000 –> 00:09:38.000 is continually 00:09:38.000 –> 00:09:40.000 changing. Right? You know, I think my my 00:09:40.000 –> 00:09:43.000 first vision of success was know, a successful 00:09:43.000 –> 00:09:45.000 neighborhood restaurant. And, 00:09:45.000 –> 00:09:47.000 you know, I had been eating a lot 00:09:47.000 –> 00:09:49.000 at a restaurant called prune in New York 00:09:49.000 –> 00:09:50.000 Gilliland 00:09:50.000 –> 00:09:52.000 there was a place called the tasting room 00:09:52.000 –> 00:09:54.000 in New York, and these were kinda like 00:09:54.000 –> 00:09:57.000 very small, but but kind of progressive and 00:09:57.000 –> 00:09:58.000 different restaurants. 00:09:59.000 –> 00:10:01.000 And and that’s kind of the between that 00:10:01.000 –> 00:10:03.000 and kind of what was going on in 00:10:03.000 –> 00:10:06.000 some of the small restaurants in Paris at 00:10:06.000 –> 00:10:06.000 the time, 00:10:07.000 –> 00:10:07.000 And, 00:10:08.000 –> 00:10:10.000 in Spain, you know, that’s kind of where 00:10:10.000 –> 00:10:12.000 I was where I was looking to. I 00:10:12.000 –> 00:10:15.000 think what happened was a lot different. 00:10:15.000 –> 00:10:17.000 And, you know, I think, 00:10:18.000 –> 00:10:20.000 I I didn’t quite understand. I think the 00:10:20.000 –> 00:10:23.000 demographics that I was gonna be serving 00:10:23.000 –> 00:10:25.000 when when we opened these. I thought I 00:10:25.000 –> 00:10:27.000 thought we were gonna be serving a lot 00:10:27.000 –> 00:10:28.000 of younger people, 00:10:28.000 –> 00:10:29.000 you know, 00:10:29.000 –> 00:10:30.000 young professionals Gilliland 00:10:31.000 –> 00:10:32.000 you go to New York. What what do 00:10:32.000 –> 00:10:35.000 you see in HIP new restaurant. And I 00:10:35.000 –> 00:10:37.000 think I actually got a much older client, 00:10:37.000 –> 00:10:38.000 though, coming from, 00:10:39.000 –> 00:10:40.000 ledoux 00:10:40.000 –> 00:10:42.000 and, you know, the suburbs. 00:10:42.000 –> 00:10:46.000 And and not entirely from my area. And 00:10:46.000 –> 00:10:46.000 and 00:10:47.000 –> 00:10:49.000 and I think there there was definitely a 00:10:49.000 –> 00:10:51.000 little bit of a of a struggle in 00:10:52.000 –> 00:10:54.000 in what people wanted out of us and 00:10:54.000 –> 00:10:56.000 what we were actually doing. Yeah. Isn’t it 00:10:56.000 –> 00:10:57.000 funny when you think you Brett this business 00:10:57.000 –> 00:10:59.000 plan and and what’s you think’s gonna happen 00:10:59.000 –> 00:11:02.000 that it rarely ever works that way. Yeah. 00:11:02.000 –> 00:11:04.000 So we were successful. Yeah. But 00:11:05.000 –> 00:11:07.000 not in the way that we had planned 00:11:07.000 –> 00:11:10.000 on being successful. What do you think, being 00:11:10.000 –> 00:11:12.000 the entrepreneur that you are in places like 00:11:12.000 –> 00:11:14.000 this, which is amazing. I absolutely love this. 00:11:14.000 –> 00:11:15.000 And the walk down here is one of 00:11:15.000 –> 00:11:17.000 the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’m not 00:11:17.000 –> 00:11:18.000 just saying that. 00:11:18.000 –> 00:11:21.000 From an entrepreneurial standpoint, what what do you 00:11:21.000 –> 00:11:22.000 think that you can share from a restaurant 00:11:23.000 –> 00:11:24.000 world to the to the business person or 00:11:24.000 –> 00:11:26.000 the, you know, the lawyer that whoever’s watching 00:11:26.000 –> 00:11:28.000 this right now? What do you see the 00:11:28.000 –> 00:11:30.000 similarities that can be learned from your world 00:11:30.000 –> 00:11:32.000 into the business world? 00:11:32.000 –> 00:11:34.000 Oh my god. I mean, you know, we 00:11:34.000 –> 00:11:35.000 are in the business world. So, 00:11:36.000 –> 00:11:38.000 you know, I think it’s all 00:11:38.000 –> 00:11:39.000 applicable, 00:11:39.000 –> 00:11:41.000 really, you know, and I think, 00:11:42.000 –> 00:11:45.000 flip that around a bit. I have learned 00:11:45.000 –> 00:11:48.000 a lot from the quote unquote business world. 00:11:48.000 –> 00:11:51.000 And I think it was in two thousand 00:11:52.000 –> 00:11:52.000 and twelve. 00:11:53.000 –> 00:11:55.000 We were opening pasteria, 00:11:56.000 –> 00:11:57.000 which was our fourth restaurant 00:11:58.000 –> 00:11:59.000 at the time, and 00:12:00.000 –> 00:12:02.000 I was really, really struggling. 00:12:03.000 –> 00:12:05.000 And I was struggling to to really manage 00:12:05.000 –> 00:12:08.000 them all. They were all doing really well. 00:12:09.000 –> 00:12:11.000 But all of a sudden I was managing 00:12:11.000 –> 00:12:11.000 four places 00:12:12.000 –> 00:12:14.000 and figured out I couldn’t really micromanage 00:12:15.000 –> 00:12:18.000 four places. Yep. And and I didn’t quite 00:12:18.000 –> 00:12:19.000 see it like that. I just at the 00:12:19.000 –> 00:12:21.000 time saw it is, everybody sucked. 00:12:23.000 –> 00:12:26.000 And why was everybody sucking and and not 00:12:26.000 –> 00:12:28.000 doing what they were supposed to do? And, 00:12:28.000 –> 00:12:29.000 you know, 00:12:29.000 –> 00:12:30.000 you know, 00:12:30.000 –> 00:12:32.000 after a little bit came to the realization 00:12:32.000 –> 00:12:33.000 is 00:12:33.000 –> 00:12:35.000 because I sucked. 00:12:35.000 –> 00:12:37.000 Yeah. It looks thin. Yeah. You know, I 00:12:37.000 –> 00:12:39.000 sucked. That was a horror manager. 00:12:39.000 –> 00:12:40.000 And, 00:12:40.000 –> 00:12:42.000 I’d never really learned how to 00:12:42.000 –> 00:12:43.000 to manage. 00:12:44.000 –> 00:12:45.000 Right? You know, like, 00:12:45.000 –> 00:12:47.000 in a restaurant when you’re being trained as 00:12:47.000 –> 00:12:49.000 a chef, at least back then. It was, 00:12:49.000 –> 00:12:51.000 you know, again, it was very cutthroat. It 00:12:51.000 –> 00:12:54.000 was very kind of military brigade system. 00:12:54.000 –> 00:12:57.000 It was, you know, I’m the chef. Yes, 00:12:57.000 –> 00:12:57.000 chef. 00:12:58.000 –> 00:13:00.000 You know, if I tell you to do 00:13:00.000 –> 00:13:00.000 something, 00:13:00.000 –> 00:13:02.000 you better fucking do it and you better 00:13:02.000 –> 00:13:04.000 do it fast and you better do it 00:13:04.000 –> 00:13:04.000 right, 00:13:05.000 –> 00:13:06.000 to be pissed, 00:13:06.000 –> 00:13:08.000 you know, and you, you know, it was 00:13:08.000 –> 00:13:09.000 it was a lot of leading out of 00:13:09.000 –> 00:13:12.000 fear and and stuff. And, you know, I 00:13:12.000 –> 00:13:15.000 had I re read this book called Delivering 00:13:15.000 –> 00:13:17.000 Happiness. Have you ever read that one? Sean 00:13:17.000 –> 00:13:18.000 Anchor, maybe. Tony, 00:13:19.000 –> 00:13:22.000 Shay Okay. Who, found out I never know 00:13:22.000 –> 00:13:24.000 if I’m saying his last name, right? But 00:13:24.000 –> 00:13:26.000 founded Zapos. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, 00:13:27.000 –> 00:13:31.000 and, you know, that that just clicked all 00:13:31.000 –> 00:13:32.000 of a sudden. I mean, it was it 00:13:32.000 –> 00:13:34.000 was sometimes you read a book 00:13:34.000 –> 00:13:35.000 right when you need to read a book. 00:13:35.000 –> 00:13:37.000 Yeah. And that was that book. And it, 00:13:38.000 –> 00:13:40.000 then introduced me to, 00:13:44.000 –> 00:13:45.000 tribal leadership. 00:13:46.000 –> 00:13:48.000 And so tribal leadership then kind of like, 00:13:49.000 –> 00:13:51.000 gave that a voice, gave that a language, 00:13:51.000 –> 00:13:52.000 you know, and, you know, we started to 00:13:52.000 –> 00:13:54.000 talk about, you know, 00:13:56.000 –> 00:13:56.000 we. 00:13:56.000 –> 00:14:00.000 Right? You know, and and your language and 00:14:00.000 –> 00:14:03.000 and how the way you speak really kind 00:14:03.000 –> 00:14:04.000 of affects, 00:14:04.000 –> 00:14:07.000 you know, everybody around you, and it also 00:14:07.000 –> 00:14:08.000 affects 00:14:08.000 –> 00:14:11.000 the way that you’re acting. Right? So everything’s 00:14:11.000 –> 00:14:12.000 kind of like a language. 00:14:13.000 –> 00:14:15.000 And so, you know, going from eye to 00:14:15.000 –> 00:14:18.000 we was the biggest shift in our culture. 00:14:19.000 –> 00:14:21.000 And I think that’s the most the culture 00:14:21.000 –> 00:14:23.000 part of it’s the most applicable part across 00:14:23.000 –> 00:14:25.000 the board. I love that, man. Because I 00:14:25.000 –> 00:14:26.000 it’s so true. We talk about our firm. 00:14:26.000 –> 00:14:28.000 You know, so is it my firm is 00:14:28.000 –> 00:14:30.000 our firm and and my business partner and 00:14:30.000 –> 00:14:31.000 I, we’re we’re very locked in on that 00:14:31.000 –> 00:14:33.000 one because people wanna be a part of 00:14:33.000 –> 00:14:34.000 something. Right? I mean, And and at what 00:14:34.000 –> 00:14:37.000 point did you believe in hiring people? I 00:14:37.000 –> 00:14:39.000 look back at the amazing Claire back there 00:14:39.000 –> 00:14:41.000 who upset all this up. Hi, Claire. And, 00:14:42.000 –> 00:14:44.000 like, in in believing in other people and 00:14:44.000 –> 00:14:45.000 letting go. Right? Cause that was a big 00:14:45.000 –> 00:14:47.000 one for me is when you started having 00:14:47.000 –> 00:14:48.000 multiple teammates 00:14:49.000 –> 00:14:51.000 is, you know, coming from the janitor to 00:14:51.000 –> 00:14:53.000 the CEO, and now you’ve got all these 00:14:53.000 –> 00:14:55.000 people, like, at at what point was it 00:14:55.000 –> 00:14:56.000 for you? What was the a moment? Do 00:14:56.000 –> 00:14:58.000 do you recall that? Yeah. I mean, I 00:14:58.000 –> 00:14:59.000 think this was the 00:15:00.000 –> 00:15:02.000 a moment. I mean, I was so stressed 00:15:02.000 –> 00:15:04.000 out. I was stressed out. 00:15:05.000 –> 00:15:06.000 Seriously overweight, 00:15:07.000 –> 00:15:08.000 just 00:15:08.000 –> 00:15:09.000 angry. 00:15:09.000 –> 00:15:10.000 And, 00:15:10.000 –> 00:15:13.000 you know, I was just overall miserable, and 00:15:13.000 –> 00:15:13.000 I knew 00:15:14.000 –> 00:15:16.000 I think, you know, in reading this stuff, 00:15:16.000 –> 00:15:18.000 you knew that I had to do a 00:15:18.000 –> 00:15:21.000 better job at training people. Right? Yeah. And, 00:15:22.000 –> 00:15:25.000 you know, it’s started. It started with me, 00:15:25.000 –> 00:15:27.000 but then, you know, as we kind of 00:15:27.000 –> 00:15:29.000 started to come together as a group, we 00:15:29.000 –> 00:15:31.000 realized that if we can 00:15:31.000 –> 00:15:33.000 train people the right way, 00:15:34.000 –> 00:15:35.000 you know, and if we can, 00:15:36.000 –> 00:15:38.000 instill our values, 00:15:38.000 –> 00:15:39.000 across everybody, 00:15:40.000 –> 00:15:43.000 then everybody can kind of be thought leaders. 00:15:43.000 –> 00:15:45.000 Everybody can kind of start to make their 00:15:45.000 –> 00:15:47.000 own decisions based on those 00:15:47.000 –> 00:15:50.000 values. Right? And and I think that that’s 00:15:50.000 –> 00:15:52.000 the real key. It was kind of like 00:15:52.000 –> 00:15:53.000 distilling our core values, 00:15:53.000 –> 00:15:56.000 figuring out what made us tick. Yeah. And 00:15:56.000 –> 00:15:59.000 then maybe how to teach people how to 00:15:59.000 –> 00:16:01.000 think like that. Do you articulate those values 00:16:01.000 –> 00:16:02.000 to people? Like, would would they be able 00:16:02.000 –> 00:16:03.000 to say, hey, maybe they’re on the wall 00:16:03.000 –> 00:16:05.000 or whatever? Like, They’re they’re not on the 00:16:05.000 –> 00:16:07.000 wall. We we’d we’d do our Brett. And 00:16:07.000 –> 00:16:10.000 we we keep it pretty Brett simple. We 00:16:10.000 –> 00:16:11.000 only have five 00:16:11.000 –> 00:16:13.000 five core values. 00:16:13.000 –> 00:16:15.000 So That’s awesome. Yeah. But they can articulate 00:16:15.000 –> 00:16:17.000 those, which is a big deal. So how 00:16:17.000 –> 00:16:18.000 how do you then adapt to change? So 00:16:18.000 –> 00:16:20.000 that was a change. Right? Now, hey, I’m 00:16:20.000 –> 00:16:22.000 moving forward. I’ve got these amazing people. I’m 00:16:22.000 –> 00:16:24.000 a be a better boss. How did you 00:16:24.000 –> 00:16:26.000 adapt to change now to take it to 00:16:26.000 –> 00:16:28.000 the level you’ve taken it to today? Yeah. 00:16:28.000 –> 00:16:30.000 I think that was kind of a one 00:16:30.000 –> 00:16:31.000 foot in front of the other. You know, 00:16:31.000 –> 00:16:33.000 I think I came back from, you know, 00:16:33.000 –> 00:16:35.000 I at that time, I was on this 00:16:35.000 –> 00:16:37.000 long Gilliland, 00:16:37.000 –> 00:16:38.000 came back from this trip, you know, just 00:16:38.000 –> 00:16:41.000 charged, right? And, you know, let’s go. We’re 00:16:41.000 –> 00:16:43.000 gonna change everything overnight. 00:16:45.000 –> 00:16:46.000 And, you know, quickly realized 00:16:47.000 –> 00:16:48.000 that that 00:16:48.000 –> 00:16:51.000 that doesn’t happen. Yep. In fact, I think 00:16:51.000 –> 00:16:54.000 when I told her now director of service, 00:16:55.000 –> 00:16:57.000 but she was a a server at the 00:16:57.000 –> 00:16:58.000 time. I told her that we were, you 00:16:58.000 –> 00:17:01.000 know, gonna be making these changes. She just 00:17:01.000 –> 00:17:04.000 laughed. Yeah. She Right? I believe when I 00:17:04.000 –> 00:17:05.000 see it, dude. 00:17:05.000 –> 00:17:07.000 Absolutely. And rightly so. Right? You know? But 00:17:07.000 –> 00:17:08.000 I think you gotta show up every day. 00:17:08.000 –> 00:17:10.000 Right? I mean, that’s the thing I think 00:17:10.000 –> 00:17:12.000 about when growing a business is even on 00:17:12.000 –> 00:17:14.000 the days you don’t wanna show up, you 00:17:14.000 –> 00:17:15.000 show up. And you gotta walk the walk, 00:17:15.000 –> 00:17:16.000 you know. 00:17:17.000 –> 00:17:19.000 Yeah. That’s amazing. So, again, change, talk about 00:17:19.000 –> 00:17:21.000 COVID, man. That that had to be of 00:17:21.000 –> 00:17:23.000 any business that had to be one of 00:17:23.000 –> 00:17:26.000 the biggest people, I think, in hospitality, to 00:17:26.000 –> 00:17:28.000 make a change, right, during all that. What 00:17:28.000 –> 00:17:29.000 what did you learn 00:17:29.000 –> 00:17:31.000 as a leader, as an owner, as an 00:17:31.000 –> 00:17:31.000 entrepreneur, 00:17:31.000 –> 00:17:33.000 as a dad? Like, what did you learn 00:17:33.000 –> 00:17:36.000 during that time frame? In COVID? Yeah. Oh 00:17:36.000 –> 00:17:37.000 my god. 00:17:39.000 –> 00:17:41.000 God, that was really horrible. Wasn’t it? Yeah. 00:17:42.000 –> 00:17:44.000 No. I, you know, I think we were 00:17:44.000 –> 00:17:44.000 fortunately 00:17:47.000 –> 00:17:50.000 you know, hitting hitting peak culture 00:17:50.000 –> 00:17:52.000 at that time, which was awesome because it 00:17:52.000 –> 00:17:53.000 really 00:17:54.000 –> 00:17:55.000 You know, it really no. I really mean 00:17:55.000 –> 00:17:58.000 it was awesome because it it really, 00:17:58.000 –> 00:18:01.000 everybody was working so well together. 00:18:02.000 –> 00:18:04.000 And I think we needed that. Right? We 00:18:04.000 –> 00:18:06.000 needed that to get through. We needed everybody 00:18:06.000 –> 00:18:09.000 kind of, you know, firing on all cylinders 00:18:09.000 –> 00:18:11.000 thinking about everybody else. And, 00:18:12.000 –> 00:18:15.000 you know, thinking about ourselves is is one 00:18:15.000 –> 00:18:17.000 large team. And I think that’s what really, 00:18:17.000 –> 00:18:19.000 you know, if if if COVID taught me 00:18:19.000 –> 00:18:21.000 anything is that that works. 00:18:21.000 –> 00:18:24.000 Yeah. You know, and that that’s really important. 00:18:24.000 –> 00:18:26.000 And you saw, I think a lot of 00:18:26.000 –> 00:18:28.000 other businesses, all of a sudden, trying to 00:18:28.000 –> 00:18:29.000 kinda scramble, 00:18:30.000 –> 00:18:32.000 you know, to to work on this culture 00:18:32.000 –> 00:18:33.000 thing, 00:18:33.000 –> 00:18:36.000 when all their employees left, you know, and 00:18:36.000 –> 00:18:38.000 I think we were in a great great 00:18:38.000 –> 00:18:38.000 position, 00:18:39.000 –> 00:18:41.000 because of that. Yeah. It’s funny you talk 00:18:41.000 –> 00:18:44.000 about that culture is during COVID for us, 00:18:44.000 –> 00:18:46.000 it was, you know, being in the finance 00:18:46.000 –> 00:18:47.000 world. We were able to obviously have conference 00:18:47.000 –> 00:18:48.000 calls and Zoom calls and do a lot 00:18:48.000 –> 00:18:50.000 of stuff with clients, but, 00:18:50.000 –> 00:18:52.000 you know, as a as a leader, we 00:18:52.000 –> 00:18:53.000 had to make a decision that people weren’t 00:18:53.000 –> 00:18:55.000 gonna come in the office Gilliland by about 00:18:55.000 –> 00:18:57.000 July, I think it was July of twenty 00:18:57.000 –> 00:18:58.000 twenty. So only three or four months into 00:18:58.000 –> 00:19:01.000 this, our culture said to us, 00:19:01.000 –> 00:19:02.000 we wanna be back together. 00:19:03.000 –> 00:19:04.000 You know, and so it’s like it was 00:19:04.000 –> 00:19:06.000 starting to have a negative effect by not 00:19:06.000 –> 00:19:07.000 being together on us. Right? And so it 00:19:07.000 –> 00:19:08.000 was cool to be able to make that 00:19:08.000 –> 00:19:11.000 change and be like, alright. Signed this form 00:19:11.000 –> 00:19:12.000 every day. We’re not taking responsibility to show 00:19:12.000 –> 00:19:14.000 up and get sick because nobody knew at 00:19:14.000 –> 00:19:16.000 that time. And Yeah. People started showing back 00:19:16.000 –> 00:19:18.000 up, and it was amazing how that culture 00:19:18.000 –> 00:19:20.000 and those values and that connection was super 00:19:20.000 –> 00:19:22.000 important to people Yeah. That made our our 00:19:22.000 –> 00:19:24.000 culture start to go in in the right 00:19:24.000 –> 00:19:27.000 direction again, which was a big moment. Yeah. 00:19:27.000 –> 00:19:29.000 I think kinda let everybody take it the 00:19:29.000 –> 00:19:29.000 way they 00:19:30.000 –> 00:19:32.000 they were ready to take it. Yeah. Right? 00:19:32.000 –> 00:19:34.000 You know, I think there were people that 00:19:34.000 –> 00:19:35.000 were ready to come back and 00:19:36.000 –> 00:19:39.000 and and work, and we all kind of, 00:19:39.000 –> 00:19:41.000 you know, did that. And we tried to 00:19:41.000 –> 00:19:44.000 do that in the safest way possible, and 00:19:44.000 –> 00:19:44.000 and, 00:19:45.000 –> 00:19:46.000 you know, worked a lot with, you know, 00:19:46.000 –> 00:19:50.000 a lot of the community leaders, the doctors 00:19:50.000 –> 00:19:51.000 in the area that were kind of advising 00:19:51.000 –> 00:19:54.000 us and in in giving us good intel 00:19:54.000 –> 00:19:56.000 on on how we could maybe do it 00:19:56.000 –> 00:19:57.000 more safely 00:19:58.000 –> 00:20:00.000 and, trying to help our friends do the 00:20:00.000 –> 00:20:01.000 exact same things. 00:20:01.000 –> 00:20:03.000 And, you know, I think, 00:20:04.000 –> 00:20:05.000 again, we we we had a lot of 00:20:05.000 –> 00:20:07.000 voices on the team, and, 00:20:08.000 –> 00:20:10.000 we all worked together really well to kind 00:20:10.000 –> 00:20:11.000 of push ourselves 00:20:12.000 –> 00:20:15.000 through a really, really rough time. So on 00:20:15.000 –> 00:20:16.000 the adapting to change, 00:20:17.000 –> 00:20:18.000 talk about needs. You you’ve talked about the 00:20:18.000 –> 00:20:20.000 restaurant. And and you decided to close it 00:20:20.000 –> 00:20:21.000 when it was 00:20:22.000 –> 00:20:24.000 booming. Right? Successful. And so, again, last night, 00:20:24.000 –> 00:20:26.000 I’m doing my work. I’m researching you. And 00:20:26.000 –> 00:20:27.000 I know the story. Right? I was in 00:20:27.000 –> 00:20:29.000 St. That happened and and like, hey, there’s 00:20:29.000 –> 00:20:31.000 a successful restaurant close, and you normally hear 00:20:31.000 –> 00:20:33.000 the other way. Right? So it’s a head 00:20:33.000 –> 00:20:35.000 scratcher as a business leader. This thing’s working 00:20:35.000 –> 00:20:37.000 the guy had the guts to go out 00:20:37.000 –> 00:20:39.000 there and close a successful restaurant. 00:20:39.000 –> 00:20:41.000 Walk me through that. What the hell was 00:20:41.000 –> 00:20:43.000 going on in your mind when that happened? 00:20:44.000 –> 00:20:47.000 You know, I think Nish was always tough. 00:20:47.000 –> 00:20:50.000 Right? And Nish was a very tough restaurant 00:20:50.000 –> 00:20:51.000 to 00:20:51.000 –> 00:20:54.000 operate. And, you know, we started in two 00:20:54.000 –> 00:20:56.000 thousand five, and I think we 00:20:56.000 –> 00:20:59.000 closed it in in what, two thousand, and, 00:21:00.000 –> 00:21:01.000 seventeen. 00:21:02.000 –> 00:21:04.000 You know, so that that’s a very long 00:21:04.000 –> 00:21:06.000 run for that restaurant. It was a very 00:21:06.000 –> 00:21:06.000 personal 00:21:07.000 –> 00:21:08.000 restaurant. 00:21:08.000 –> 00:21:09.000 And, you know, I know 00:21:10.000 –> 00:21:12.000 that I had just passed the reins off 00:21:12.000 –> 00:21:15.000 in two thousand fifteen as chef to Nate 00:21:15.000 –> 00:21:19.000 Hariford, who now is the successful chicken scratch 00:21:19.000 –> 00:21:19.000 restaurant. 00:21:22.000 –> 00:21:23.000 And I just 00:21:24.000 –> 00:21:26.000 You know, it was it was 00:21:26.000 –> 00:21:28.000 it was it’s such a good point that 00:21:28.000 –> 00:21:29.000 I never really wanted this this restaurant 00:21:33.000 –> 00:21:36.000 to start falling backwards. Yep. And I never 00:21:36.000 –> 00:21:38.000 wanted to, you know, be ten years down 00:21:38.000 –> 00:21:39.000 the road from there 00:21:41.000 –> 00:21:44.000 with everybody being like, oh, yeah. There’s there’s 00:21:44.000 –> 00:21:46.000 niche. It’s still there. 00:21:46.000 –> 00:21:48.000 You know, like Same old thing. Not the 00:21:48.000 –> 00:21:50.000 hot spot anymore or whatever. You know, I 00:21:50.000 –> 00:21:53.000 just I I I wanted it to, you 00:21:53.000 –> 00:21:55.000 know, I wanted the legacy of niche, 00:21:56.000 –> 00:21:58.000 you know, to, to end right there. It 00:21:58.000 –> 00:22:00.000 was kinda like that. That moment. We had 00:22:00.000 –> 00:22:02.000 won the James Beard award two years before. 00:22:03.000 –> 00:22:04.000 It was just kind of 00:22:05.000 –> 00:22:07.000 it just felt like that time. Yeah. 00:22:07.000 –> 00:22:09.000 Well, take some guts, man. Well, I don’t 00:22:09.000 –> 00:22:11.000 know if it’s guts here. Just so we’re 00:22:11.000 –> 00:22:12.000 always here. I I think it it is 00:22:12.000 –> 00:22:14.000 amazing, but it but you’re right. It’s like 00:22:14.000 –> 00:22:15.000 you were talking about our, you know, you 00:22:15.000 –> 00:22:16.000 have a senior, I have a senior. 00:22:16.000 –> 00:22:18.000 Is it’d be like holding our kids back, 00:22:18.000 –> 00:22:20.000 right, not letting them go. And I think 00:22:20.000 –> 00:22:22.000 your decision to close that was probably has 00:22:22.000 –> 00:22:23.000 catapulted you into another level of belief 00:22:26.000 –> 00:22:28.000 growth and expectations. Would you agree with that? 00:22:28.000 –> 00:22:30.000 Yeah. And I think, you know, it’s just 00:22:30.000 –> 00:22:33.000 kind of it’s it’s allowed us to change 00:22:34.000 –> 00:22:36.000 what we do and what I do specifically 00:22:36.000 –> 00:22:38.000 Yep. For the company, you know, as opposed 00:22:38.000 –> 00:22:39.000 to, you know, being on the line or 00:22:39.000 –> 00:22:40.000 or whatever on on 00:22:42.000 –> 00:22:44.000 such a regular basis, 00:22:45.000 –> 00:22:47.000 and kind of, you know, traveling to represent 00:22:47.000 –> 00:22:49.000 niche around the country, which I was doing 00:22:49.000 –> 00:22:50.000 all the time. 00:22:51.000 –> 00:22:53.000 You know, this allowed me to kind of 00:22:53.000 –> 00:22:54.000 really be the CEO 00:22:55.000 –> 00:22:57.000 of the company. Yeah. And I actually 00:22:57.000 –> 00:22:59.000 do the things that I needed to do 00:22:59.000 –> 00:23:01.000 to to grow the company and to, you 00:23:01.000 –> 00:23:02.000 know, 00:23:03.000 –> 00:23:05.000 give back to our investors and and 00:23:05.000 –> 00:23:07.000 and help us Brett to the next level. 00:23:07.000 –> 00:23:09.000 How hard was it for you to leave 00:23:09.000 –> 00:23:11.000 the kitchen and get into, again, the the 00:23:11.000 –> 00:23:13.000 boardroom, if you will, how hard was that 00:23:13.000 –> 00:23:14.000 for you? It’s still hard. 00:23:15.000 –> 00:23:17.000 Yeah. That’s your passion. That’s your baby. I 00:23:17.000 –> 00:23:20.000 I enjoy cooking. I really do. And, 00:23:21.000 –> 00:23:23.000 I wouldn’t say I’m the best CEO in 00:23:23.000 –> 00:23:23.000 the world 00:23:24.000 –> 00:23:26.000 You know, I’m I I know there there’s 00:23:26.000 –> 00:23:28.000 there’s far better than than me out there. 00:23:28.000 –> 00:23:31.000 I’m constantly trying, but, you know, it it’s 00:23:31.000 –> 00:23:33.000 tough to to step away and just kind 00:23:33.000 –> 00:23:35.000 of do what you need to do at 00:23:35.000 –> 00:23:37.000 the time versus what you want to do 00:23:37.000 –> 00:23:40.000 at the time. So talk about building brand. 00:23:40.000 –> 00:23:42.000 Obviously, the the the niche group, because there 00:23:42.000 –> 00:23:44.000 are heavy restaurants total are there right now? 00:23:44.000 –> 00:23:44.000 God. 00:23:45.000 –> 00:23:47.000 Well, we have some shifting going on right 00:23:47.000 –> 00:23:49.000 now. So it’s it’s messing with my car 00:23:49.000 –> 00:23:51.000 at the end of January. A little bit. 00:23:51.000 –> 00:23:54.000 You know, we’ve, cinder house, has closed. 00:23:56.000 –> 00:23:58.000 And Rockwell. It’s my favorite chicken sandwich downtown 00:23:58.000 –> 00:24:00.000 here. So the period period? Yeah. 00:24:01.000 –> 00:24:02.000 I’m sorry. I don’t know what that is, 00:24:02.000 –> 00:24:03.000 but it’s some good stuff. I do a 00:24:03.000 –> 00:24:06.000 meeting there once a quarter. Yeah. Every quarter, 00:24:06.000 –> 00:24:08.000 I do a meeting there, an off-site retreat. 00:24:08.000 –> 00:24:10.000 So I anybody listening. Take your team off-site. 00:24:10.000 –> 00:24:11.000 You go somewhere. You learn. You you think 00:24:11.000 –> 00:24:12.000 you strategize. 00:24:13.000 –> 00:24:14.000 We always went there, and that’s a chicken 00:24:14.000 –> 00:24:16.000 sandwich I had every time. Yeah. No. I 00:24:16.000 –> 00:24:18.000 s senator I was one of my favorite 00:24:18.000 –> 00:24:19.000 places. 00:24:20.000 –> 00:24:22.000 But, you know, it it’s business. We, 00:24:23.000 –> 00:24:25.000 you know, we had a five year contract 00:24:25.000 –> 00:24:26.000 and, 00:24:26.000 –> 00:24:28.000 you know, they’re owned by, 00:24:29.000 –> 00:24:31.000 Caesar’s Palace, Okay. And, you know, they wanna 00:24:31.000 –> 00:24:33.000 do something, I think, a little more bagasse. 00:24:34.000 –> 00:24:36.000 And, you know, it’s not your style. 00:24:37.000 –> 00:24:39.000 Well, I, you know, I it’s also just 00:24:39.000 –> 00:24:41.000 not me. I’m not I’m not from Vegas. 00:24:41.000 –> 00:24:43.000 You know, I am not a Vegas restaurant. 00:24:43.000 –> 00:24:44.000 Oh, it’s funny. 00:24:45.000 –> 00:24:47.000 But a brands for what strategies, 00:24:47.000 –> 00:24:49.000 maybe mindset, thoughts do you have when you 00:24:49.000 –> 00:24:52.000 think about your brands, you name your brands, 00:24:52.000 –> 00:24:54.000 you design your brands, what what does that 00:24:54.000 –> 00:24:56.000 look like? What’s that process look like for 00:24:56.000 –> 00:24:56.000 you? 00:24:57.000 –> 00:24:59.000 Yeah. So I a lot of research, 00:25:00.000 –> 00:25:02.000 you know, we really wanna kind of dive 00:25:02.000 –> 00:25:02.000 into 00:25:03.000 –> 00:25:04.000 that world, 00:25:04.000 –> 00:25:07.000 whatever that might be. And, 00:25:07.000 –> 00:25:10.000 you know, so for the, you know, Craft 00:25:10.000 –> 00:25:13.000 cocktail world. Fortunately, it’s one that we’ve been 00:25:13.000 –> 00:25:15.000 in for a long time because 00:25:15.000 –> 00:25:18.000 taste, you know, was one of the 00:25:19.000 –> 00:25:21.000 one of the, you know, kind of original 00:25:21.000 –> 00:25:23.000 craft cocktail bars in the country. I mean, 00:25:23.000 –> 00:25:26.000 there was, you know, there was a couple 00:25:26.000 –> 00:25:28.000 dozen at the time that we that we 00:25:28.000 –> 00:25:29.000 opened. So, 00:25:30.000 –> 00:25:34.000 really kind of immersing ourselves in that experience 00:25:34.000 –> 00:25:36.000 and just kinda going through all the details, 00:25:36.000 –> 00:25:38.000 you know, what What what does the menu 00:25:38.000 –> 00:25:40.000 look like? What do people 00:25:40.000 –> 00:25:43.000 really enjoy? What do people want? 00:25:43.000 –> 00:25:45.000 Is this a, you know, luxurious 00:25:45.000 –> 00:25:47.000 experience, or is it a kind of divey 00:25:47.000 –> 00:25:50.000 experience? Is this, you know, which this is 00:25:50.000 –> 00:25:50.000 decidedly 00:25:51.000 –> 00:25:52.000 luxurious? 00:25:53.000 –> 00:25:54.000 Know, how do we want the service to 00:25:54.000 –> 00:25:56.000 be? How do we want the 00:25:56.000 –> 00:25:58.000 the servers to 00:25:58.000 –> 00:26:01.000 to dress? How do we want 00:26:02.000 –> 00:26:04.000 the ice to look. What is the lighting? 00:26:04.000 –> 00:26:06.000 You know, I mean, there’s we we try 00:26:06.000 –> 00:26:08.000 to really dive into every little piece 00:26:10.000 –> 00:26:12.000 of that restaurant in that genre, 00:26:13.000 –> 00:26:15.000 to try to get it right. Big guys 00:26:15.000 –> 00:26:16.000 are little eyes for the bourbon. 00:26:17.000 –> 00:26:20.000 For me, no ice. No ice. Yeah. 00:26:20.000 –> 00:26:22.000 But, you know, 00:26:22.000 –> 00:26:25.000 for if I’m drinking gin and soda, 00:26:26.000 –> 00:26:28.000 I have a thing where I actually don’t 00:26:28.000 –> 00:26:30.000 like the big ice cube because I kind 00:26:30.000 –> 00:26:32.000 of want it to to keep melting a 00:26:32.000 –> 00:26:35.000 little bit. Yeah. I think the big ice 00:26:35.000 –> 00:26:37.000 has its place. Yeah. You know, 00:26:37.000 –> 00:26:39.000 when you don’t want any dilution, you just 00:26:39.000 –> 00:26:41.000 want it kind of cold. 00:26:41.000 –> 00:26:43.000 But if you wanna kinda dilute it, I 00:26:43.000 –> 00:26:45.000 like the, I like the little eyes. I’m 00:26:45.000 –> 00:26:47.000 a big ice guy in the bourbon. Yeah. 00:26:47.000 –> 00:26:48.000 Not that you really care, but, 00:26:50.000 –> 00:26:50.000 so, 00:26:51.000 –> 00:26:52.000 locations. So I think for me, we have 00:26:52.000 –> 00:26:54.000 eight office locations, and I think, you know, 00:26:54.000 –> 00:26:56.000 the hardest part is when you had one, 00:26:56.000 –> 00:26:57.000 you could walk to go get a cup 00:26:57.000 –> 00:26:59.000 of water and and touch everybody in your 00:26:59.000 –> 00:27:02.000 Right? Now with eight locations, you can’t do 00:27:02.000 –> 00:27:03.000 that. And you may go months, right, without 00:27:03.000 –> 00:27:06.000 seeing somebody. So how do you, one, 00:27:06.000 –> 00:27:09.000 touch everybody in in the company, but number 00:27:09.000 –> 00:27:12.000 two, how do you, expect the the customer 00:27:12.000 –> 00:27:14.000 service to be this, not necessarily the same, 00:27:14.000 –> 00:27:16.000 but high value, high customer service at all 00:27:16.000 –> 00:27:17.000 the locations? 00:27:17.000 –> 00:27:19.000 Yeah. I mean, number one, your manager is 00:27:19.000 –> 00:27:22.000 everything. Yeah. Right. Your your GM 00:27:23.000 –> 00:27:23.000 is 00:27:24.000 –> 00:27:26.000 is the place. You know, whether you whether 00:27:26.000 –> 00:27:28.000 whether you think you’re the place or or 00:27:28.000 –> 00:27:29.000 not, like that your 00:27:30.000 –> 00:27:32.000 your GM is is the person for better 00:27:32.000 –> 00:27:35.000 or worse. So, you know, hiring that person’s 00:27:35.000 –> 00:27:36.000 huge. 00:27:38.000 –> 00:27:39.000 You know, I think always trying to keep 00:27:39.000 –> 00:27:40.000 communication 00:27:40.000 –> 00:27:42.000 channels open somehow. 00:27:42.000 –> 00:27:44.000 Something that we’ve always kind of worked on 00:27:44.000 –> 00:27:46.000 and, you know, we’ve we’ve used to different 00:27:46.000 –> 00:27:48.000 things like the local company here, Bonfire, 00:27:50.000 –> 00:27:52.000 or even just kinda like WhatsApp threads Mhmm. 00:27:53.000 –> 00:27:55.000 Stuff like that to really try to 00:27:55.000 –> 00:27:57.000 to keep that connection 00:27:58.000 –> 00:28:00.000 going. You know? So even if you it, 00:28:00.000 –> 00:28:02.000 you know, be there in person. Like, for 00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:02.000 instance, 00:28:02.000 –> 00:28:05.000 Nashville, I I can only get there. Usually 00:28:05.000 –> 00:28:08.000 for one week, every five weeks. It used 00:28:08.000 –> 00:28:10.000 to be once a month. Now it’s every 00:28:10.000 –> 00:28:10.000 five weeks. 00:28:12.000 –> 00:28:14.000 You know, so you you still have to 00:28:14.000 –> 00:28:16.000 kind of keep some dialogue. And so you 00:28:16.000 –> 00:28:18.000 know, and I’ll I’ll go through different things 00:28:18.000 –> 00:28:21.000 where I’ll set up, one on ones, you 00:28:21.000 –> 00:28:24.000 know, phone calls or group phone calls with 00:28:24.000 –> 00:28:27.000 different people to try to again, start talking 00:28:27.000 –> 00:28:28.000 about 00:28:28.000 –> 00:28:31.000 food, talk about dishes. Let’s talk about wine. 00:28:32.000 –> 00:28:34.000 Let’s talk about service. Let’s talk about finance. 00:28:34.000 –> 00:28:36.000 Yeah. You know, so try to connect with 00:28:36.000 –> 00:28:38.000 people at different levels 00:28:38.000 –> 00:28:41.000 at different times too. So I don’t want 00:28:41.000 –> 00:28:42.000 it to always be like, 00:28:42.000 –> 00:28:45.000 just me calling about why the P and 00:28:45.000 –> 00:28:46.000 L list sucks. 00:28:46.000 –> 00:28:48.000 But, you know, I want it to be 00:28:48.000 –> 00:28:50.000 like, yo, you know, let’s let’s talk about 00:28:50.000 –> 00:28:53.000 Amelia Romagna. Yeah. Let’s talk about food and 00:28:53.000 –> 00:28:56.000 How how much do you let them decide 00:28:56.000 –> 00:28:57.000 what’s on the menu? 00:28:57.000 –> 00:28:59.000 A lot. You have a lot 00:29:00.000 –> 00:29:01.000 lot of leeway. 00:29:02.000 –> 00:29:05.000 You know, again, you’re you’re hiring professionals Gilliland, 00:29:06.000 –> 00:29:07.000 you know, I think 00:29:07.000 –> 00:29:10.000 honesty is one of our core values. 00:29:10.000 –> 00:29:13.000 And I think that’s where, you know, we 00:29:13.000 –> 00:29:15.000 get the these conversations going. Right? You know, 00:29:15.000 –> 00:29:18.000 we we’re all very honest with each other 00:29:18.000 –> 00:29:19.000 about what’s working. 00:29:19.000 –> 00:29:23.000 What’s not working, what’s good, what’s not good. 00:29:23.000 –> 00:29:25.000 You know, we added hospitality 00:29:26.000 –> 00:29:26.000 into those, 00:29:28.000 –> 00:29:30.000 core values because I think, you know, in 00:29:30.000 –> 00:29:32.000 the early days, I was not so nice 00:29:32.000 –> 00:29:34.000 about how honest I was Yeah. About everything. 00:29:34.000 –> 00:29:35.000 More delivery. 00:29:36.000 –> 00:29:36.000 Yeah. 00:29:37.000 –> 00:29:39.000 Yeah. Way better delivery. And 00:29:39.000 –> 00:29:42.000 Working on your side. Yeah. But, you know, 00:29:42.000 –> 00:29:44.000 but it You know, when we when we 00:29:44.000 –> 00:29:46.000 first shifted our culture and we were trying 00:29:46.000 –> 00:29:48.000 to kinda, like, soften the culture, 00:29:49.000 –> 00:29:51.000 like, that honesty piece started to go away 00:29:51.000 –> 00:29:52.000 for a little bit. And that what we 00:29:52.000 –> 00:29:53.000 realized how 00:29:54.000 –> 00:29:54.000 crucial 00:29:56.000 –> 00:29:58.000 that piece is. And it’s really hard for 00:29:58.000 –> 00:29:59.000 people to 00:30:00.000 –> 00:30:00.000 to 00:30:01.000 –> 00:30:03.000 come to if they’re coming from somewhere else. 00:30:03.000 –> 00:30:04.000 Yep. It’s hard for them to hear all 00:30:04.000 –> 00:30:07.000 that honesty, and it’s hard for them to 00:30:07.000 –> 00:30:07.000 give 00:30:07.000 –> 00:30:10.000 all that honesty. But, yeah, I think that 00:30:10.000 –> 00:30:11.000 piece is critical 00:30:11.000 –> 00:30:12.000 when you have multiple. 00:30:13.000 –> 00:30:15.000 Yeah. The feedback’s big. Gilliland if you’re not 00:30:15.000 –> 00:30:17.000 opening the feedback as a leader, they’re not 00:30:17.000 –> 00:30:18.000 gonna they’re not gonna bring it up to 00:30:18.000 –> 00:30:20.000 you as well. Yeah. No. Which is tough. 00:30:20.000 –> 00:30:22.000 If you gotta it’s a this is 00:30:22.000 –> 00:30:24.000 a fair game over here, you know, this 00:30:24.000 –> 00:30:26.000 is, when when you say we, 00:30:27.000 –> 00:30:29.000 you know, that means that everybody should be 00:30:29.000 –> 00:30:33.000 honest. Yeah. You know, if you’re crappy CEO 00:30:33.000 –> 00:30:35.000 and somebody wants to tell you, you know, 00:30:35.000 –> 00:30:38.000 why you gotta listen. Yeah. Yeah. And not 00:30:38.000 –> 00:30:40.000 respond. Right? Listen is not response. 00:30:41.000 –> 00:30:42.000 So if I followed you around, my boy 00:30:42.000 –> 00:30:44.000 Matt over here follows you around with cameras, 00:30:44.000 –> 00:30:46.000 let’s say, for, you know, the next week. 00:30:46.000 –> 00:30:48.000 What what am I gonna see day in 00:30:48.000 –> 00:30:49.000 and day out 00:30:49.000 –> 00:30:51.000 that that Gerard Craft is not missing. 00:30:52.000 –> 00:30:54.000 That I am not missing. Yeah. Like, are 00:30:54.000 –> 00:30:56.000 there daily habits for you that are, like, 00:30:56.000 –> 00:30:57.000 kinda non negotiables? 00:30:59.000 –> 00:30:59.000 Coffee, 00:31:00.000 –> 00:31:03.000 a lot of coffee. I have to have 00:31:03.000 –> 00:31:05.000 three cups of coffee before I do anything 00:31:06.000 –> 00:31:07.000 in the day. 00:31:09.000 –> 00:31:10.000 You know, I 00:31:10.000 –> 00:31:13.000 go through every single morning and and check 00:31:13.000 –> 00:31:14.000 the shift notes. 00:31:14.000 –> 00:31:16.000 And so I see, you know, what happened 00:31:16.000 –> 00:31:18.000 in every single restaurant the night before 00:31:19.000 –> 00:31:22.000 from sales to to, you know, 00:31:23.000 –> 00:31:25.000 who might be in that we know, what 00:31:25.000 –> 00:31:26.000 kind of regulars we’re in, 00:31:27.000 –> 00:31:28.000 you know, anything bad that happened 00:31:29.000 –> 00:31:30.000 in that service. 00:31:30.000 –> 00:31:32.000 Oh, they making notes that, you know, John 00:31:32.000 –> 00:31:34.000 and Sally were in and they’re gonna be 00:31:34.000 –> 00:31:37.000 okay. So that just shows up Yep. So 00:31:37.000 –> 00:31:39.000 it it at the end of every night 00:31:39.000 –> 00:31:41.000 or end of every shift, 00:31:42.000 –> 00:31:45.000 each manager puts in their shift notes. And 00:31:45.000 –> 00:31:47.000 so, again, that goes sales, that goes, 00:31:47.000 –> 00:31:49.000 you know, and just what happened. Yeah. You 00:31:49.000 –> 00:31:51.000 know, give me give me a synopsis 00:31:52.000 –> 00:31:53.000 of 00:31:53.000 –> 00:31:54.000 of 00:31:54.000 –> 00:31:56.000 what went down last night. And what does 00:31:56.000 –> 00:31:57.000 that do for you in that moment? Did 00:31:57.000 –> 00:31:59.000 do you do anything with that information? Or 00:31:59.000 –> 00:32:01.000 is that more of just let’s let’s watch 00:32:01.000 –> 00:32:03.000 this, keep eye on it, or does it 00:32:03.000 –> 00:32:04.000 actually change your daily, 00:32:05.000 –> 00:32:07.000 Yeah. Some things might need a a direct 00:32:07.000 –> 00:32:07.000 follow-up, 00:32:08.000 –> 00:32:12.000 you know, or quick quick conversation. Like, what 00:32:12.000 –> 00:32:12.000 the hell? 00:32:13.000 –> 00:32:13.000 Last night. 00:32:15.000 –> 00:32:15.000 You know, 00:32:16.000 –> 00:32:18.000 or it’s just starting to kind of see 00:32:18.000 –> 00:32:20.000 patterns. You know, this is where you really, 00:32:20.000 –> 00:32:23.000 you know, just start to get a feel 00:32:23.000 –> 00:32:25.000 for for what’s going on. You might say, 00:32:25.000 –> 00:32:27.000 Hey, I need to spend I think I 00:32:27.000 –> 00:32:28.000 need to spend a little more time 00:32:29.000 –> 00:32:31.000 in this restaurant. Right? I need to to 00:32:32.000 –> 00:32:34.000 shift more of my energy over here. 00:32:35.000 –> 00:32:37.000 You know? Yeah. So I think that that 00:32:37.000 –> 00:32:40.000 always kind of like starts my day 00:32:40.000 –> 00:32:42.000 with the direction. Then I usually look at 00:32:42.000 –> 00:32:43.000 my calendar 00:32:44.000 –> 00:32:46.000 which I usually do right before I go 00:32:46.000 –> 00:32:49.000 to sleep so I can set five million 00:32:49.000 –> 00:32:49.000 alarms. 00:32:51.000 –> 00:32:53.000 Because because my memory is really, really bad. 00:32:53.000 –> 00:32:55.000 So I need five million alarms through the 00:32:55.000 –> 00:32:58.000 day to to remind me that I have 00:32:58.000 –> 00:32:59.000 something else 00:32:59.000 –> 00:32:59.000 after. 00:33:00.000 –> 00:33:00.000 But, 00:33:01.000 –> 00:33:04.000 yeah, and then I then I usually kinda 00:33:04.000 –> 00:33:04.000 head into 00:33:05.000 –> 00:33:08.000 to either my office, which is over at 00:33:08.000 –> 00:33:09.000 Boe wood, 00:33:09.000 –> 00:33:11.000 or kinda pop into one of the restaurants. 00:33:11.000 –> 00:33:12.000 And 00:33:12.000 –> 00:33:13.000 Is it exercise, 00:33:14.000 –> 00:33:15.000 eating? Is that a I mean, obviously, the 00:33:15.000 –> 00:33:17.000 restaurant whatever the heck you want. But is 00:33:17.000 –> 00:33:18.000 that is that to be a focus for 00:33:18.000 –> 00:33:19.000 you? 00:33:19.000 –> 00:33:21.000 Yeah. You know, so 00:33:21.000 –> 00:33:22.000 I try to 00:33:23.000 –> 00:33:26.000 work out every other day. Yep. It it 00:33:26.000 –> 00:33:27.000 a minimum. 00:33:27.000 –> 00:33:29.000 And, you know, that’s 00:33:29.000 –> 00:33:32.000 usually on, like, a stationary bike trainer. 00:33:33.000 –> 00:33:35.000 I live on some mountain bike trails. So, 00:33:35.000 –> 00:33:37.000 you know, when the weather’s a little nicer, 00:33:37.000 –> 00:33:39.000 I try to try to pop out on 00:33:39.000 –> 00:33:41.000 the trails. Nice. 00:33:41.000 –> 00:33:42.000 Get outside a little bit. But but that’s 00:33:42.000 –> 00:33:43.000 definitely important. And when I’m not doing 00:33:47.000 –> 00:33:48.000 that, 00:33:48.000 –> 00:33:49.000 is bad. Yeah. 00:33:50.000 –> 00:33:51.000 Need to get out. Need to Brett moving. 00:33:51.000 –> 00:33:53.000 You gotta keep your body moving. Do you 00:33:53.000 –> 00:33:54.000 have any of those moments? Like, I I 00:33:54.000 –> 00:33:56.000 hate to call them pinch me moments, but 00:33:56.000 –> 00:33:58.000 where you kinda you slow down and think 00:33:58.000 –> 00:34:00.000 about some of the things that you’re doing 00:34:00.000 –> 00:34:02.000 and some of the situations you find yourself 00:34:02.000 –> 00:34:04.000 in now from from where you’ve come from 00:34:04.000 –> 00:34:06.000 to where you’re at now. Because I I 00:34:06.000 –> 00:34:07.000 try to do that. Right? I’m like, like, 00:34:07.000 –> 00:34:09.000 this. For me, this is freaking cool. Like, 00:34:09.000 –> 00:34:10.000 this is really cool to do this. These 00:34:10.000 –> 00:34:12.000 are pinch me moments is what I would 00:34:12.000 –> 00:34:13.000 call them. Like, do you have any of 00:34:13.000 –> 00:34:15.000 those moments? And do you slow down and 00:34:15.000 –> 00:34:16.000 appreciate them enough? 00:34:17.000 –> 00:34:18.000 You know, I’m I’m pretty hard on myself. 00:34:19.000 –> 00:34:19.000 Yeah. 00:34:20.000 –> 00:34:20.000 So, 00:34:21.000 –> 00:34:23.000 you know, I I’m very grateful 00:34:24.000 –> 00:34:26.000 for everything. Yep. 00:34:27.000 –> 00:34:29.000 But, you know, I I think it’s really 00:34:29.000 –> 00:34:31.000 hard to kind of 00:34:32.000 –> 00:34:32.000 look back 00:34:33.000 –> 00:34:35.000 and just be like, oh, this is awesome. 00:34:35.000 –> 00:34:38.000 Yeah. When when something’s currently not awesome. Right? 00:34:38.000 –> 00:34:40.000 You’re like, you know, and there’s kind of 00:34:40.000 –> 00:34:43.000 always something that is currently not awesome. 00:34:44.000 –> 00:34:44.000 So 00:34:45.000 –> 00:34:47.000 every now and then, I definitely try to 00:34:47.000 –> 00:34:48.000 do that. 00:34:49.000 –> 00:34:51.000 You know, but it is tough. I I’m 00:34:51.000 –> 00:34:53.000 I do some stuff with, 00:34:54.000 –> 00:34:55.000 for team USA 00:34:55.000 –> 00:34:57.000 with Boku store, Oh, cool. And and those 00:34:57.000 –> 00:35:00.000 are usually pinch me moments because I’m like, 00:35:00.000 –> 00:35:02.000 oh my god. What’s going on? Thomas Keller’s 00:35:02.000 –> 00:35:05.000 over there? Daniel Blues’s over there. Like, 00:35:05.000 –> 00:35:06.000 Paul Bartelodos 00:35:06.000 –> 00:35:09.000 over there. Like, you know, we’re all just 00:35:09.000 –> 00:35:12.000 talking. And so so some sometimes, you know, 00:35:13.000 –> 00:35:15.000 I get in those moments where I’m like, 00:35:15.000 –> 00:35:18.000 I probably shouldn’t be here, but somehow I 00:35:18.000 –> 00:35:19.000 am. 00:35:19.000 –> 00:35:20.000 Yeah. Which is awesome. Can I give you 00:35:20.000 –> 00:35:22.000 an exercise on work? Uh-huh. Yeah. So I 00:35:22.000 –> 00:35:24.000 do every ninety days. I do what’s called 00:35:24.000 –> 00:35:26.000 a gratitude worksheet. I go are you a 00:35:26.000 –> 00:35:27.000 pic do you take a lot of pictures? 00:35:27.000 –> 00:35:29.000 Yeah. So I go through every ninety days 00:35:29.000 –> 00:35:31.000 the calendar quarter. So I just got done. 00:35:31.000 –> 00:35:33.000 I go through and look at every picture 00:35:33.000 –> 00:35:35.000 I took the last ninety days. And I 00:35:35.000 –> 00:35:37.000 actually write down in my journal, like, what 00:35:37.000 –> 00:35:38.000 I did. Hey, I’m sitting over here at 00:35:38.000 –> 00:35:40.000 this thing, right, for Team USA. 00:35:40.000 –> 00:35:42.000 Pretty cool. I did this. I had dinner 00:35:42.000 –> 00:35:45.000 with friends here. And so for me, it 00:35:45.000 –> 00:35:47.000 helps me every ninety days to look back 00:35:47.000 –> 00:35:49.000 on those things that normally I don’t look 00:35:49.000 –> 00:35:51.000 back on my pictures. Right? And you just 00:35:51.000 –> 00:35:52.000 take them and then you never look at 00:35:52.000 –> 00:35:53.000 them again. But what it’s helped me over 00:35:53.000 –> 00:35:55.000 the last four or five years, is to 00:35:55.000 –> 00:35:57.000 slow down to speed up, but slow down 00:35:57.000 –> 00:35:58.000 so I can look at all the things 00:35:58.000 –> 00:36:00.000 to be grateful for. And I find myself 00:36:00.000 –> 00:36:03.000 in moments like this, knowing I can’t wait 00:36:03.000 –> 00:36:05.000 to write this down on March thirty first 00:36:05.000 –> 00:36:07.000 that I Brett with Gerard Craft, and we 00:36:07.000 –> 00:36:09.000 had an awesome kick ass podcast. Right? Like, 00:36:09.000 –> 00:36:11.000 helps me be in the moment. So That’s 00:36:11.000 –> 00:36:13.000 cool. For whatever that’s worth, I should definitely 00:36:13.000 –> 00:36:14.000 try that. Maybe give it a shot. I’ll 00:36:14.000 –> 00:36:16.000 text you March thirty first and tell you 00:36:16.000 –> 00:36:17.000 to look at your camera. 00:36:17.000 –> 00:36:20.000 Any moments for you stick out where you, 00:36:20.000 –> 00:36:22.000 like, this failure, this this thing that wasn’t 00:36:22.000 –> 00:36:24.000 going well that sticks out for you that 00:36:24.000 –> 00:36:26.000 you wanna share that that you could share 00:36:26.000 –> 00:36:28.000 that had a really big moment in defining 00:36:28.000 –> 00:36:31.000 moment for you. Oh my god. How many 00:36:31.000 –> 00:36:33.000 how many failure moments do I have? You 00:36:33.000 –> 00:36:35.000 know, so failure is one of our core 00:36:35.000 –> 00:36:36.000 values. Okay. 00:36:37.000 –> 00:36:39.000 I love that. Yeah. Well, embracing 00:36:39.000 –> 00:36:40.000 it. And, 00:36:41.000 –> 00:36:43.000 and and not to say, you know, failing 00:36:43.000 –> 00:36:45.000 over and over at the same same thing, 00:36:45.000 –> 00:36:48.000 but But, you know, we we all really 00:36:48.000 –> 00:36:50.000 learn from our failures. Yep. Right? You know, 00:36:50.000 –> 00:36:51.000 I think, 00:36:52.000 –> 00:36:54.000 I I heard somebody talking recently about you 00:36:54.000 –> 00:36:56.000 know, kids who maybe, 00:36:57.000 –> 00:36:59.000 everything was easy for them in high school 00:36:59.000 –> 00:37:00.000 or something. Right? Like, 00:37:01.000 –> 00:37:01.000 you know, 00:37:02.000 –> 00:37:03.000 guy who, you know, 00:37:04.000 –> 00:37:06.000 you know, always had a date who, you 00:37:06.000 –> 00:37:08.000 know, captain of the football team or whatever 00:37:08.000 –> 00:37:12.000 often struggle later in life because they’re just 00:37:12.000 –> 00:37:14.000 They just never had to, like, hustle or 00:37:14.000 –> 00:37:16.000 figure it out to, like, get to that 00:37:16.000 –> 00:37:18.000 Yep. Next level. And, 00:37:18.000 –> 00:37:20.000 so so I think so many of the 00:37:20.000 –> 00:37:22.000 failures in my life So maybe maybe I’m 00:37:22.000 –> 00:37:25.000 more successful because I’ve failed so damn much. 00:37:26.000 –> 00:37:28.000 It’s like, let’s get a sky break. Yeah. 00:37:28.000 –> 00:37:29.000 You know, and and, 00:37:30.000 –> 00:37:32.000 increasingly in still do. So I think failures 00:37:33.000 –> 00:37:33.000 are always, 00:37:35.000 –> 00:37:38.000 always huge. You know, I think niche Nish 00:37:38.000 –> 00:37:41.000 was a huge lesson in failure. 00:37:42.000 –> 00:37:44.000 And, you know, I think Nish, everybody looked 00:37:44.000 –> 00:37:46.000 at Nish, is this, like, trajectory 00:37:47.000 –> 00:37:49.000 from two thousand five to, you know, James 00:37:49.000 –> 00:37:51.000 Beard award, Foon wine, best new chef, 00:37:52.000 –> 00:37:54.000 and just kind of like just kept seeing 00:37:54.000 –> 00:37:56.000 these things rack up. 00:37:56.000 –> 00:37:57.000 But I think 00:37:59.000 –> 00:37:59.000 definitely 00:38:00.000 –> 00:38:01.000 there were two times that we were 00:38:02.000 –> 00:38:05.000 hairs away from going out of business 00:38:05.000 –> 00:38:07.000 that I was talking to people in New 00:38:07.000 –> 00:38:09.000 York and DC about jobs. 00:38:11.000 –> 00:38:12.000 You know, so 00:38:12.000 –> 00:38:14.000 Like, I have been, 00:38:15.000 –> 00:38:17.000 you know, two thousand eight financial crisis. 00:38:20.000 –> 00:38:21.000 Was was definitely, 00:38:22.000 –> 00:38:24.000 you know, it was actually probably two thousand 00:38:24.000 –> 00:38:27.000 ten. Right? So, like, the tail and when 00:38:27.000 –> 00:38:29.000 everything I feel like in Saint Louis was 00:38:29.000 –> 00:38:30.000 was way harder. 00:38:32.000 –> 00:38:34.000 And they had just shut our highway down. 00:38:35.000 –> 00:38:37.000 Highway forty, which is like the main way 00:38:37.000 –> 00:38:39.000 to get to niche back then, 00:38:40.000 –> 00:38:40.000 and, 00:38:41.000 –> 00:38:43.000 and it was brutal. And, you know, I 00:38:43.000 –> 00:38:44.000 think working 00:38:44.000 –> 00:38:47.000 working our way through that, you know, taught 00:38:47.000 –> 00:38:48.000 us a lot. I mean, it taught me 00:38:48.000 –> 00:38:50.000 a lot about finance because Yep. Because I 00:38:50.000 –> 00:38:52.000 think I did not 00:38:53.000 –> 00:38:54.000 understand finances 00:38:54.000 –> 00:38:56.000 as well as I needed to 00:38:56.000 –> 00:38:57.000 at that point. 00:38:58.000 –> 00:38:58.000 And, 00:38:59.000 –> 00:39:00.000 you know, I 00:39:00.000 –> 00:39:02.000 you you learned so many of these lessons, 00:39:02.000 –> 00:39:04.000 and we call a lot of these things 00:39:04.000 –> 00:39:05.000 failure capital. 00:39:06.000 –> 00:39:07.000 And, 00:39:08.000 –> 00:39:10.000 you know, one one of our biggest failure 00:39:10.000 –> 00:39:11.000 capitals was Pirano. 00:39:11.000 –> 00:39:15.000 Which we’re reopening now. And it’s like this 00:39:15.000 –> 00:39:17.000 this stock that you have. All these failures 00:39:17.000 –> 00:39:19.000 are things to build on later. So Pirano 00:39:19.000 –> 00:39:20.000 didn’t make it downtown. 00:39:21.000 –> 00:39:23.000 You know, but here we are seven years 00:39:23.000 –> 00:39:24.000 later 00:39:24.000 –> 00:39:26.000 about to open, you know, in a few 00:39:26.000 –> 00:39:28.000 months and to pair 00:39:28.000 –> 00:39:29.000 with another one. 00:39:30.000 –> 00:39:32.000 You know, I think it’s 00:39:33.000 –> 00:39:35.000 sometimes things don’t happen 00:39:35.000 –> 00:39:38.000 the way they’re supposed to happen because of 00:39:38.000 –> 00:39:39.000 the time. 00:39:39.000 –> 00:39:42.000 Right? You know, maybe it was too soon. 00:39:43.000 –> 00:39:46.000 Or something like that, you know. So I 00:39:46.000 –> 00:39:48.000 don’t know. I stack all my failures 00:39:48.000 –> 00:39:50.000 away in a file that I can kind 00:39:50.000 –> 00:39:53.000 of reach back to at any point in 00:39:53.000 –> 00:39:55.000 time. Would would you say you’re a guy 00:39:55.000 –> 00:39:55.000 that 00:39:56.000 –> 00:39:57.000 do you dwell on the failure for a 00:39:57.000 –> 00:39:59.000 long time, or is it kind of bounce? 00:39:59.000 –> 00:40:01.000 I because I called the bounce theory. Right? 00:40:01.000 –> 00:40:02.000 If I get bad news, I go to 00:40:02.000 –> 00:40:03.000 my journal 00:40:03.000 –> 00:40:05.000 I mean, literally, it could be within the 00:40:05.000 –> 00:40:07.000 hour of, like, alright. Here’s how I’m gonna 00:40:07.000 –> 00:40:09.000 get out of this Right? And I try 00:40:09.000 –> 00:40:10.000 to create a plan. I’m a planner. Right? 00:40:10.000 –> 00:40:11.000 So I try to create a plan of 00:40:11.000 –> 00:40:13.000 how I’m gonna get out of that. Is 00:40:13.000 –> 00:40:14.000 that something that you do? Are you more 00:40:14.000 –> 00:40:15.000 of a, 00:40:15.000 –> 00:40:16.000 yeah, maybe I’ll 00:40:17.000 –> 00:40:18.000 let it sit there for a while, and 00:40:18.000 –> 00:40:20.000 eventually I’ll think of something or like, how 00:40:20.000 –> 00:40:22.000 does that work for you? No. I’m a 00:40:22.000 –> 00:40:23.000 fighter. Okay. Yeah. 00:40:23.000 –> 00:40:25.000 The same way. Right? You’re just gonna put 00:40:25.000 –> 00:40:27.000 a plan together and fight. Let’s go. Going 00:40:27.000 –> 00:40:28.000 after it in some 00:40:28.000 –> 00:40:31.000 way in some way, shit. Probably sometimes I 00:40:31.000 –> 00:40:33.000 should probably should step back. No problem. But 00:40:33.000 –> 00:40:37.000 you’re confirming. Deeper Brett. And, you know, and 00:40:37.000 –> 00:40:38.000 and really think it through. But, you know, 00:40:38.000 –> 00:40:40.000 I think in those moments, you know, the 00:40:40.000 –> 00:40:42.000 fight or flight kinda comes out and you 00:40:42.000 –> 00:40:44.000 start going for it. You’re confirming what I’m 00:40:44.000 –> 00:40:46.000 saying. The bounce back theory is what I 00:40:46.000 –> 00:40:48.000 call it. Right? Because the I’ve seen it 00:40:48.000 –> 00:40:50.000 now for twenty two years in business now 00:40:50.000 –> 00:40:51.000 three hundred. And when I say earlier, three 00:40:51.000 –> 00:40:54.000 hundred and sixty nine interviews later, like, the 00:40:54.000 –> 00:40:56.000 most successful people bounce back immediately. Right? They 00:40:56.000 –> 00:40:58.000 don’t dwell on it. They don’t have a 00:40:58.000 –> 00:40:59.000 pity party. They just get up and they 00:40:59.000 –> 00:41:01.000 go and they fight. And whether that’s fighting 00:41:01.000 –> 00:41:03.000 or putting your plan together, whatever it is, 00:41:03.000 –> 00:41:04.000 you gotta go take action and go make 00:41:04.000 –> 00:41:06.000 things happen. And and that’s what, again, I’ve 00:41:06.000 –> 00:41:09.000 seen for two decades now the most successful 00:41:09.000 –> 00:41:11.000 people don’t dwell on it. They go make 00:41:11.000 –> 00:41:13.000 it happen. So I definitely have a little 00:41:13.000 –> 00:41:15.000 private pity party for myself. 00:41:16.000 –> 00:41:18.000 Pick up customers, you know, get pissed off. 00:41:19.000 –> 00:41:22.000 Let’s talk about work life integration. Most people 00:41:22.000 –> 00:41:23.000 laugh when I say that because there’s work 00:41:23.000 –> 00:41:25.000 life balance. I don’t believe in there’s work 00:41:25.000 –> 00:41:27.000 life integration. Right? So you’re opening a new 00:41:27.000 –> 00:41:27.000 place. 00:41:28.000 –> 00:41:30.000 There’s no balance, man. You’re you’re probably here 00:41:30.000 –> 00:41:31.000 doing a lot of stuff. Right? So how 00:41:31.000 –> 00:41:34.000 do you work on that work life integration 00:41:34.000 –> 00:41:35.000 part in life. 00:41:35.000 –> 00:41:36.000 Yeah. You know, 00:41:37.000 –> 00:41:41.000 I don’t believe him work like balance. I 00:41:41.000 –> 00:41:43.000 don’t think that’s a Yeah. It’s not that 00:41:43.000 –> 00:41:45.000 I don’t believe or want it. Yeah. Right. 00:41:45.000 –> 00:41:48.000 I just don’t know that it’s always entirely 00:41:48.000 –> 00:41:50.000 possible. You know, you For sure. 00:41:51.000 –> 00:41:53.000 And I hate for people to tell people 00:41:53.000 –> 00:41:55.000 that it is. Right. Right? Like, oh, yeah. 00:41:55.000 –> 00:41:57.000 You can be super successful and do all 00:41:57.000 –> 00:41:58.000 these things, but 00:41:59.000 –> 00:42:01.000 but you’re also only gonna work eight hours 00:42:01.000 –> 00:42:03.000 a day. And then, like, that’s never gonna 00:42:03.000 –> 00:42:05.000 happen. I mean, I’m sure it does, yeah, 00:42:05.000 –> 00:42:08.000 occasionally, but it’s is definitely the exception of 00:42:08.000 –> 00:42:10.000 the rule. And, 00:42:10.000 –> 00:42:12.000 I don’t know. You know, I try to, 00:42:12.000 –> 00:42:15.000 do things that that I enjoy doing. I 00:42:15.000 –> 00:42:16.000 enjoy creating 00:42:17.000 –> 00:42:20.000 You know, I really enjoy this Yep. This 00:42:20.000 –> 00:42:20.000 work. 00:42:21.000 –> 00:42:23.000 I enjoy the people 00:42:24.000 –> 00:42:26.000 that I get to to work with 00:42:27.000 –> 00:42:28.000 you know, and then I try to, you 00:42:28.000 –> 00:42:31.000 know, like my business partner and I’ll pretty 00:42:31.000 –> 00:42:34.000 much do our meetings, like, on a bike 00:42:34.000 –> 00:42:36.000 or something like that. So, you know, that’s 00:42:36.000 –> 00:42:38.000 always a a great way to do it. 00:42:38.000 –> 00:42:39.000 I I met up with somebody from meeting 00:42:39.000 –> 00:42:42.000 yesterday on a bike, and it was awesome. 00:42:43.000 –> 00:42:45.000 You know, so, you know, I would say 00:42:45.000 –> 00:42:47.000 to your point of integration, that’s kind of 00:42:47.000 –> 00:42:50.000 one of those those types of moments. But, 00:42:51.000 –> 00:42:52.000 or, you know, 00:42:53.000 –> 00:42:54.000 is some of the things I get to 00:42:54.000 –> 00:42:56.000 do, you know, some of the the boards 00:42:56.000 –> 00:42:59.000 I join or or whatever, you know, involve 00:42:59.000 –> 00:43:02.000 some some travel to some really cool places. 00:43:02.000 –> 00:43:03.000 And, 00:43:03.000 –> 00:43:04.000 you know, 00:43:04.000 –> 00:43:07.000 or events, you know, in really cool places. 00:43:08.000 –> 00:43:09.000 So I don’t know, you know, try to 00:43:09.000 –> 00:43:10.000 have fun with it. 00:43:11.000 –> 00:43:13.000 At the same time, but, you know, 00:43:13.000 –> 00:43:14.000 it’s, 00:43:14.000 –> 00:43:16.000 you know, it’s it’s what you choose in 00:43:16.000 –> 00:43:18.000 life. I don’t think everybody needs to choose 00:43:18.000 –> 00:43:20.000 that, and I don’t think it you know, 00:43:20.000 –> 00:43:22.000 I don’t think being an entrepreneur is for, 00:43:22.000 –> 00:43:25.000 as you know, is not for everybody. No. 00:43:25.000 –> 00:43:27.000 And that’s where that balance is BS. Right? 00:43:27.000 –> 00:43:29.000 Because, again, you could have I I just 00:43:29.000 –> 00:43:30.000 got back from a seven or eight days 00:43:30.000 –> 00:43:31.000 on vacation. 00:43:31.000 –> 00:43:33.000 My work life balance was not there was 00:43:33.000 –> 00:43:35.000 no work. Yeah. Right? All fan And then 00:43:35.000 –> 00:43:37.000 but then when you got something going on, 00:43:37.000 –> 00:43:38.000 you could have a lot more work than 00:43:38.000 –> 00:43:40.000 family time. So I agree. I think it’s 00:43:40.000 –> 00:43:42.000 BS, and that’s why I like the integration 00:43:42.000 –> 00:43:44.000 part. What How do you how do you 00:43:44.000 –> 00:43:46.000 personally continue your passion, your drive, 00:43:47.000 –> 00:43:47.000 your purpose, 00:43:48.000 –> 00:43:50.000 staying a student in the game? How do 00:43:50.000 –> 00:43:51.000 you how do you do that? 00:43:51.000 –> 00:43:53.000 One I read a lot. 00:43:54.000 –> 00:43:54.000 You know, 00:43:55.000 –> 00:43:56.000 and that’s everything from, 00:43:57.000 –> 00:43:58.000 you know, cookbooks to, 00:44:00.000 –> 00:44:01.000 to, 00:44:02.000 –> 00:44:04.000 leadership books and, 00:44:04.000 –> 00:44:06.000 you know, I try to study a lot 00:44:06.000 –> 00:44:09.000 and, you know, diving into, to internet, you 00:44:09.000 –> 00:44:12.000 know, just to to continue to 00:44:12.000 –> 00:44:14.000 learn whatever that may be, that may be 00:44:14.000 –> 00:44:17.000 business, that may be leadership, that may be 00:44:17.000 –> 00:44:19.000 a new recipe that maybe, 00:44:20.000 –> 00:44:20.000 design, 00:44:21.000 –> 00:44:22.000 but I’m kind of always 00:44:23.000 –> 00:44:23.000 always 00:44:24.000 –> 00:44:27.000 looking, always have my eyes open, always 00:44:27.000 –> 00:44:28.000 thinking, 00:44:28.000 –> 00:44:30.000 and I travel I try to travel as 00:44:30.000 –> 00:44:33.000 much as possible, because I think travel Gilliland 00:44:33.000 –> 00:44:36.000 reading have been the two biggest influences 00:44:37.000 –> 00:44:39.000 in my career period. 00:44:40.000 –> 00:44:41.000 Seventy two hours from now, where are you 00:44:41.000 –> 00:44:44.000 gonna be? I’m gonna be in Italy. Yeah. 00:44:44.000 –> 00:44:45.000 So I guess when this airs, I’ll be 00:44:45.000 –> 00:44:46.000 back from Italy, but, 00:44:47.000 –> 00:44:48.000 but that’s, you know, 00:44:48.000 –> 00:44:50.000 Europe’s my favorite place in the world. 00:44:52.000 –> 00:44:54.000 You know, and so getting getting to Italy 00:44:54.000 –> 00:44:56.000 is always always a treat. Let’s put it 00:44:56.000 –> 00:44:57.000 on the list. 00:44:58.000 –> 00:44:59.000 How do you balance risk versus 00:45:00.000 –> 00:45:01.000 caution? Right? Cause 00:45:02.000 –> 00:45:03.000 this is a risk. Right? The the next 00:45:03.000 –> 00:45:05.000 place is a risk. But I think so 00:45:05.000 –> 00:45:07.000 many times what I’ve seen is people, the 00:45:07.000 –> 00:45:10.000 old saying paralysis by analysis, right, is you 00:45:10.000 –> 00:45:12.000 don’t trust your gut. You don’t trust your 00:45:12.000 –> 00:45:14.000 business part. You don’t make the decision to 00:45:14.000 –> 00:45:17.000 go. How do you manage those two things? 00:45:17.000 –> 00:45:19.000 I probably don’t manage. I probably take 00:45:20.000 –> 00:45:22.000 too I I lean on the too much 00:45:22.000 –> 00:45:22.000 risk. 00:45:23.000 –> 00:45:25.000 Side of things, and it drives me crazy 00:45:25.000 –> 00:45:27.000 when So you’re always looking to risk yourself. 00:45:27.000 –> 00:45:28.000 Analytical 00:45:28.000 –> 00:45:30.000 about it? No. I’m I’m always taking risks. 00:45:30.000 –> 00:45:32.000 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m like, yeah. Let’s 00:45:32.000 –> 00:45:34.000 let’s do it. Yeah. I think sometimes sometimes 00:45:35.000 –> 00:45:36.000 I should, you know, step back a little 00:45:36.000 –> 00:45:38.000 more and ask more questions but It doesn’t 00:45:38.000 –> 00:45:40.000 wanna walk down a really cool hallway in 00:45:40.000 –> 00:45:42.000 this place, man. I mean, this was an 00:45:42.000 –> 00:45:43.000 easy one. This the 00:45:43.000 –> 00:45:45.000 some some are a little harder 00:45:45.000 –> 00:45:46.000 than others. 00:45:47.000 –> 00:45:49.000 But, you know, I think I as I 00:45:49.000 –> 00:45:52.000 get older, I’m I’m trying to train myself 00:45:52.000 –> 00:45:54.000 to take a little less 00:45:54.000 –> 00:45:56.000 Yeah. Risk. 00:45:57.000 –> 00:45:58.000 And 00:45:58.000 –> 00:46:01.000 and that won’t be obvious to anybody looking 00:46:01.000 –> 00:46:03.000 at all of our plans because we’re 00:46:03.000 –> 00:46:06.000 constantly opening, but it’s maybe what I’m opening. 00:46:06.000 –> 00:46:06.000 Yep. 00:46:07.000 –> 00:46:08.000 That that shows 00:46:09.000 –> 00:46:10.000 how I’m pulling back. 00:46:12.000 –> 00:46:14.000 Love that. So last few questions here. 00:46:15.000 –> 00:46:17.000 When when you hear the word fear, I 00:46:17.000 –> 00:46:19.000 ask this question almost everybody is, how many 00:46:19.000 –> 00:46:21.000 of the fears you’ve put in your mind 00:46:21.000 –> 00:46:23.000 have actually blown up to the magnitude you 00:46:23.000 –> 00:46:24.000 put them in your mind to be? 00:46:27.000 –> 00:46:27.000 Oh, that’s 00:46:28.000 –> 00:46:29.000 that’s interesting. 00:46:34.000 –> 00:46:35.000 Well, so far, 00:46:36.000 –> 00:46:39.000 so far none of them have. You knocked 00:46:39.000 –> 00:46:41.000 out a little earlier. Right? Yeah. And, and 00:46:41.000 –> 00:46:42.000 I am a very superstitious 00:46:43.000 –> 00:46:45.000 human being. I usually do five knocks on 00:46:45.000 –> 00:46:47.000 the bed for some reason. Three on wood. 00:46:47.000 –> 00:46:48.000 I don’t know. It’s a weird thing. 00:46:49.000 –> 00:46:51.000 I’ve probably driven Claire, 00:46:51.000 –> 00:46:53.000 absolutely insane with all of the lines. I 00:46:53.000 –> 00:46:55.000 noticed it. I said a couple things Gilliland 00:46:55.000 –> 00:46:56.000 you did the three knock in the wood. 00:46:56.000 –> 00:46:58.000 And I’m like, god, that guy’s just like 00:46:58.000 –> 00:46:59.000 me, my son, my second son, especially, man, 00:46:59.000 –> 00:47:01.000 where he does the five knocks on his 00:47:01.000 –> 00:47:03.000 head as well. That, for some reason, that 00:47:03.000 –> 00:47:04.000 thing that works, it just puts me at 00:47:04.000 –> 00:47:06.000 peace, and I feel good about it. Yeah. 00:47:06.000 –> 00:47:09.000 You know, I think fear fears, again, one 00:47:09.000 –> 00:47:11.000 of those things that I probably need a 00:47:11.000 –> 00:47:12.000 touch 00:47:12.000 –> 00:47:14.000 touch more of, you know, and I think 00:47:14.000 –> 00:47:14.000 that 00:47:15.000 –> 00:47:17.000 that quite honestly, you know, going through the 00:47:17.000 –> 00:47:20.000 great recession as a business owner and going 00:47:20.000 –> 00:47:21.000 through, 00:47:22.000 –> 00:47:24.000 COVID have definitely, you know, 00:47:25.000 –> 00:47:27.000 added a little to that. You know, they’ve 00:47:27.000 –> 00:47:28.000 they’ve helped me, 00:47:29.000 –> 00:47:31.000 be like, hey, everything can be gone 00:47:32.000 –> 00:47:32.000 tomorrow. 00:47:33.000 –> 00:47:33.000 Yeah. 00:47:33.000 –> 00:47:35.000 And I think that’s, 00:47:35.000 –> 00:47:37.000 you know, some of those things are important 00:47:37.000 –> 00:47:40.000 to to take into account when you’re when 00:47:40.000 –> 00:47:43.000 you’re building an actual business. Like, are you 00:47:43.000 –> 00:47:44.000 really building a foundation 00:47:45.000 –> 00:47:47.000 that you can that you can stand or 00:47:47.000 –> 00:47:49.000 you’re just kind of building a ton of 00:47:49.000 –> 00:47:50.000 stuff on quicksand. 00:47:50.000 –> 00:47:52.000 And I think that that’s really my focus, 00:47:53.000 –> 00:47:55.000 you know, for the next five years is 00:47:55.000 –> 00:47:57.000 is all in in real 00:47:58.000 –> 00:47:59.000 large foundational 00:47:59.000 –> 00:48:00.000 work. 00:48:00.000 –> 00:48:02.000 Yep. So our name of our firm is 00:48:02.000 –> 00:48:04.000 visionary wealth advisors. So a name like at 00:48:04.000 –> 00:48:07.000 by definition, it’s, you know, helping helping people 00:48:07.000 –> 00:48:08.000 achieve a future, right, greater than your past. 00:48:08.000 –> 00:48:10.000 And that’s our mission statement, helping you achieve 00:48:10.000 –> 00:48:12.000 a future greater than your past. So when 00:48:12.000 –> 00:48:13.000 you hear those words, 00:48:14.000 –> 00:48:16.000 future greater than past, what comes to mind 00:48:16.000 –> 00:48:16.000 for you? 00:48:17.000 –> 00:48:19.000 I mean, so, you know, my five year 00:48:19.000 –> 00:48:19.000 plan. 00:48:22.000 –> 00:48:24.000 Would would kind of be just that. You 00:48:24.000 –> 00:48:24.000 know, I think 00:48:26.000 –> 00:48:27.000 we we have a pretty set vision of 00:48:27.000 –> 00:48:30.000 where we wanna see this company be. 00:48:30.000 –> 00:48:32.000 In five years and who we want it 00:48:32.000 –> 00:48:34.000 to be competing with and, 00:48:35.000 –> 00:48:37.000 what field we want it to be playing 00:48:37.000 –> 00:48:38.000 on. 00:48:39.000 –> 00:48:42.000 And and that is a lot bigger than 00:48:42.000 –> 00:48:43.000 it is today. 00:48:44.000 –> 00:48:46.000 You know, so so growth is a big 00:48:46.000 –> 00:48:47.000 part of our 00:48:48.000 –> 00:48:48.000 our vision, 00:48:49.000 –> 00:48:50.000 but it’s also, 00:48:52.000 –> 00:48:54.000 a very very focused growth. 00:48:55.000 –> 00:48:57.000 Yeah. Is that who’s in that room? Like, 00:48:57.000 –> 00:48:58.000 how many people are in that room, not 00:48:58.000 –> 00:49:00.000 necessarily names? But who how many people are 00:49:00.000 –> 00:49:02.000 in that room? And what’s that process look 00:49:02.000 –> 00:49:04.000 like for you to to build that vision 00:49:04.000 –> 00:49:05.000 out? 00:49:05.000 –> 00:49:06.000 Sure. 00:49:06.000 –> 00:49:08.000 You know, so our CFO 00:49:08.000 –> 00:49:08.000 and, 00:49:09.000 –> 00:49:12.000 and our chief operating officer, Kate Wolverton. 00:49:13.000 –> 00:49:15.000 I mean, she’s really kinda like 00:49:16.000 –> 00:49:17.000 you know, my right hand, 00:49:18.000 –> 00:49:20.000 and then the business partners, you know, our 00:49:20.000 –> 00:49:21.000 investors, 00:49:23.000 –> 00:49:24.000 So they’re sitting here kinda deciding, here’s what 00:49:24.000 –> 00:49:26.000 we’re gonna do. Here’s how many restaurants we 00:49:26.000 –> 00:49:28.000 wanna open or whatever it may be deciding 00:49:28.000 –> 00:49:30.000 that. And then how often are you looking 00:49:30.000 –> 00:49:31.000 at that? 00:49:31.000 –> 00:49:34.000 All the time. Yeah. Yeah. We’re we’re constantly 00:49:34.000 –> 00:49:34.000 evaluating 00:49:35.000 –> 00:49:38.000 different different deals on a regular basis. You 00:49:38.000 –> 00:49:40.000 know, if I I told people, you know, 00:49:41.000 –> 00:49:44.000 Sometimes I think it is worrisome to to 00:49:44.000 –> 00:49:47.000 people because because we’re constantly talking about deals. 00:49:47.000 –> 00:49:49.000 Yeah. You know, I mean, they’re like 00:49:49.000 –> 00:49:51.000 every week. They probably come across your desk 00:49:51.000 –> 00:49:53.000 all the time too. Right? And so, you 00:49:53.000 –> 00:49:54.000 know, when 00:49:54.000 –> 00:49:56.000 I think at first, it’s really hard for 00:49:56.000 –> 00:49:59.000 some people to be have those conversations and 00:49:59.000 –> 00:50:01.000 then you turn those down or whatever. Well, 00:50:01.000 –> 00:50:03.000 what happened to that one? Yeah. I’m like, 00:50:03.000 –> 00:50:05.000 yeah, it’s gone. Yeah. I didn’t feel right. 00:50:05.000 –> 00:50:08.000 You know, so I think we’re we’re evaluating 00:50:08.000 –> 00:50:10.000 all the time. So you are the chief 00:50:10.000 –> 00:50:11.000 flavor officer 00:50:11.000 –> 00:50:13.000 for the hat you’re supporting there. So I’m 00:50:13.000 –> 00:50:15.000 a City SC, baby. That was awesome. Great 00:50:15.000 –> 00:50:17.000 for a year. So talk to us about 00:50:17.000 –> 00:50:17.000 soccer. What’s, 00:50:18.000 –> 00:50:20.000 what are you excited about there? So funny. 00:50:20.000 –> 00:50:22.000 I was not a soccer fan growing up. 00:50:23.000 –> 00:50:25.000 I played one season of soccer. No. And 00:50:25.000 –> 00:50:27.000 I suck. And it really made me mad. 00:50:27.000 –> 00:50:30.000 I was I was a great baseball player 00:50:30.000 –> 00:50:31.000 at the time, and, 00:50:32.000 –> 00:50:33.000 I did not like, 00:50:34.000 –> 00:50:36.000 how bad I was. And so that was 00:50:36.000 –> 00:50:39.000 it for me. And so it wasn’t until 00:50:39.000 –> 00:50:40.000 I got involved with, 00:50:41.000 –> 00:50:43.000 Carolyn Kindle. Yep. And, 00:50:44.000 –> 00:50:45.000 and 00:50:45.000 –> 00:50:49.000 and, Lee Brett over at City SC. Mhmm. 00:50:49.000 –> 00:50:51.000 That I started to really fall in love 00:50:51.000 –> 00:50:52.000 with soccer. 00:50:53.000 –> 00:50:55.000 And, you know, it’s been an amazing journey 00:50:55.000 –> 00:50:56.000 so far. I think, 00:50:59.000 –> 00:51:00.000 I’ve been working with them for, I guess, 00:51:00.000 –> 00:51:04.000 four years. Wow. Now on this. And, 00:51:04.000 –> 00:51:06.000 you know, we’re got a lot of really 00:51:06.000 –> 00:51:09.000 exciting things planned for the next season. 00:51:09.000 –> 00:51:12.000 Season one was was the coolest experience. You 00:51:12.000 –> 00:51:13.000 know, I think, 00:51:14.000 –> 00:51:16.000 I I missed one game. I think I 00:51:16.000 –> 00:51:18.000 was out of town, but, 00:51:18.000 –> 00:51:20.000 And you know, getting to see those games, 00:51:20.000 –> 00:51:21.000 the energy, 00:51:22.000 –> 00:51:24.000 feeling, you know, getting to work with so 00:51:24.000 –> 00:51:25.000 many great local 00:51:26.000 –> 00:51:29.000 restaurant partners. Yeah. You know, in in setting 00:51:29.000 –> 00:51:31.000 that up. It’s it’s just been it’s been 00:51:31.000 –> 00:51:33.000 one of the highlights of my career for 00:51:33.000 –> 00:51:35.000 sure. Talk about that real quick. For the 00:51:35.000 –> 00:51:37.000 person maybe has not been there or that’s 00:51:37.000 –> 00:51:39.000 from another town or city, listen to this. 00:51:40.000 –> 00:51:42.000 What’s different about it than say the traditional, 00:51:42.000 –> 00:51:44.000 you know, professional sports stadium? Yeah. So it’s 00:51:44.000 –> 00:51:46.000 it’s different in a number of ways. When 00:51:46.000 –> 00:51:49.000 you go to a a professional stadium 00:51:49.000 –> 00:51:51.000 and you see, say, one of you, you 00:51:51.000 –> 00:51:53.000 know, some local restaurant there. And and there’s 00:51:53.000 –> 00:51:56.000 usually maybe like one or two in that 00:51:56.000 –> 00:51:57.000 in that spot. 00:51:57.000 –> 00:52:00.000 Oftentimes, it’s actually being run by 00:52:00.000 –> 00:52:04.000 the stadium itself. So the stadium managers. Yep. 00:52:04.000 –> 00:52:07.000 And so we’ve done things a lot different. 00:52:07.000 –> 00:52:09.000 It at, City Park, 00:52:09.000 –> 00:52:11.000 and all of our 00:52:12.000 –> 00:52:13.000 all of our vendors 00:52:13.000 –> 00:52:16.000 run their own stalls So these are all, 00:52:16.000 –> 00:52:17.000 you know, local businesses. 00:52:17.000 –> 00:52:20.000 And and I think we have something like 00:52:20.000 –> 00:52:23.000 twenty four. Wow. Right now, local restaurant partners 00:52:24.000 –> 00:52:25.000 throughout the stadium. 00:52:26.000 –> 00:52:26.000 And quite often, you see the owner of 00:52:26.000 –> 00:52:27.000 all of these businesses right there 00:52:31.000 –> 00:52:33.000 you know, whether it’s, 00:52:33.000 –> 00:52:36.000 Steve viewing handing out hot dogs, Lauren Nalek, 00:52:36.000 –> 00:52:38.000 over there at Balkan 00:52:38.000 –> 00:52:39.000 Treatbox. 00:52:40.000 –> 00:52:42.000 You know, when they’re standing right there, 00:52:42.000 –> 00:52:45.000 you know, working working the events and and 00:52:45.000 –> 00:52:46.000 is really made for a unique experience because 00:52:46.000 –> 00:52:47.000 I think not 00:52:49.000 –> 00:52:50.000 only 00:52:50.000 –> 00:52:53.000 are you getting the best of the best, 00:52:54.000 –> 00:52:56.000 you know, as far as restaurants, but then 00:52:56.000 –> 00:52:59.000 you’re also getting the highest quality from those 00:52:59.000 –> 00:53:00.000 because they’re doing it themselves. Yep. 00:53:01.000 –> 00:53:02.000 Which is in line with the values of 00:53:02.000 –> 00:53:04.000 that organization, hence the name of the team. 00:53:04.000 –> 00:53:06.000 I mean, they could have chosen anything, the 00:53:06.000 –> 00:53:08.000 logo, the rivers, the arch. I mean, all 00:53:08.000 –> 00:53:09.000 the stuff that goes with that, I think, 00:53:09.000 –> 00:53:11.000 is cool that they’re connected to the city 00:53:11.000 –> 00:53:12.000 the way. And then what they’ve done for 00:53:12.000 –> 00:53:14.000 the city is as a family’s you know, 00:53:14.000 –> 00:53:17.000 ridiculous. I mean talking about a group of 00:53:17.000 –> 00:53:20.000 people who walk the talk. Yeah. I mean, 00:53:21.000 –> 00:53:23.000 the the the owners of the ownership group 00:53:23.000 –> 00:53:25.000 at City SC and everybody 00:53:26.000 –> 00:53:28.000 who works there, you know, my my 00:53:30.000 –> 00:53:32.000 My main point of contact is always Matt 00:53:32.000 –> 00:53:34.000 Seabek, and I don’t know if you know 00:53:34.000 –> 00:53:36.000 him. No. But he’s the chief experience officer. 00:53:36.000 –> 00:53:39.000 Down there. So everything you touch at the 00:53:39.000 –> 00:53:39.000 stadium, 00:53:40.000 –> 00:53:43.000 you know, he’s kind of waiting on in 00:53:43.000 –> 00:53:45.000 in some way, shape, or form. And he’s, 00:53:45.000 –> 00:53:46.000 you know, obsessive 00:53:46.000 –> 00:53:48.000 know, whether it’s, you know, the lighting and 00:53:48.000 –> 00:53:49.000 the music and, 00:53:50.000 –> 00:53:52.000 you know, you know, when the all the 00:53:52.000 –> 00:53:53.000 lights go out at the stadium, you know, 00:53:53.000 –> 00:53:55.000 like Such a cool. You know, he’s obsessing 00:53:56.000 –> 00:53:58.000 about all that stuff. And it’s it’s really 00:53:58.000 –> 00:54:00.000 cool. You know, their whole they have their 00:54:00.000 –> 00:54:00.000 own, 00:54:02.000 –> 00:54:05.000 production team. You know, making videos and everything, 00:54:05.000 –> 00:54:07.000 and all of those guys are like movie 00:54:07.000 –> 00:54:09.000 level producers. 00:54:09.000 –> 00:54:12.000 They’re they’re incredible. And and again, all you 00:54:12.000 –> 00:54:15.000 know, so obsessed with with what they do 00:54:15.000 –> 00:54:18.000 and making that experience Brett. And there’s just 00:54:18.000 –> 00:54:20.000 no way when you have that many people 00:54:20.000 –> 00:54:23.000 who care so much about what they’re doing, 00:54:23.000 –> 00:54:24.000 but you’re not gonna have a great experience. 00:54:24.000 –> 00:54:26.000 Right. And and the and the experience of 00:54:26.000 –> 00:54:28.000 what the fans got from the team. Yeah. 00:54:28.000 –> 00:54:30.000 And then the team. Right. I mean, 00:54:30.000 –> 00:54:32.000 clients who hold the pitch. Right? 00:54:33.000 –> 00:54:35.000 Show up so big and are just also 00:54:35.000 –> 00:54:37.000 so nice. Yeah. You know, you know, 00:54:38.000 –> 00:54:40.000 definitely took a page from the the cardinals 00:54:40.000 –> 00:54:42.000 and stuff like that. These guys are, you 00:54:42.000 –> 00:54:44.000 know, class acts. Yep. So talk to us 00:54:44.000 –> 00:54:46.000 about what’s gonna be happening stairs here. We’re 00:54:46.000 –> 00:54:48.000 we’re in the basement of, city foundry right 00:54:48.000 –> 00:54:50.000 now, but you got expats, 00:54:50.000 –> 00:54:52.000 expats coming in there. Right? Yeah. If I 00:54:52.000 –> 00:54:54.000 say that correctly. Pat Barbecue. Yeah. 00:54:55.000 –> 00:54:56.000 Talk to us about that. And that’s opening 00:54:57.000 –> 00:54:59.000 sometime this summer. Yeah. So we’re looking at 00:54:59.000 –> 00:55:01.000 at June opening. K. 00:55:02.000 –> 00:55:04.000 And in the tag line for expats, 00:55:04.000 –> 00:55:05.000 expat, 00:55:05.000 –> 00:55:07.000 well traveled barbecue. 00:55:07.000 –> 00:55:09.000 And, you know, the idea behind it is 00:55:09.000 –> 00:55:10.000 to 00:55:11.000 –> 00:55:14.000 look through the eyes of American barbecue with 00:55:14.000 –> 00:55:16.000 a filter on it. And that filter is 00:55:16.000 –> 00:55:18.000 how would you cook American barbecue 00:55:19.000 –> 00:55:20.000 if you were living 00:55:21.000 –> 00:55:24.000 in Spain. If you were living in Africa, 00:55:24.000 –> 00:55:26.000 you know, if you were living in, 00:55:27.000 –> 00:55:28.000 in China, 00:55:28.000 –> 00:55:30.000 And so, you know, what would your pantry 00:55:31.000 –> 00:55:31.000 look like? 00:55:32.000 –> 00:55:32.000 And, 00:55:33.000 –> 00:55:35.000 you know, how would you season your meat? 00:55:35.000 –> 00:55:36.000 How would you 00:55:37.000 –> 00:55:38.000 do all of that 00:55:39.000 –> 00:55:41.000 to get it close to what you wanted 00:55:41.000 –> 00:55:43.000 to cook from home. So this this isn’t 00:55:43.000 –> 00:55:44.000 really about 00:55:44.000 –> 00:55:47.000 trying to say do Chinese barbecue. Right? That’s 00:55:47.000 –> 00:55:50.000 not our our intent. We have no clue 00:55:50.000 –> 00:55:51.000 how to make Chinese barbecue. 00:55:51.000 –> 00:55:53.000 But this is 00:55:53.000 –> 00:55:55.000 about how do we use 00:55:56.000 –> 00:55:56.000 those 00:55:57.000 –> 00:55:58.000 spices 00:55:58.000 –> 00:55:59.000 to create 00:55:59.000 –> 00:56:00.000 American barbecue, 00:56:01.000 –> 00:56:03.000 like you were living abroad And, you know, 00:56:03.000 –> 00:56:05.000 I think when when you talk about those 00:56:05.000 –> 00:56:06.000 kind of like flavor 00:56:07.000 –> 00:56:09.000 transfers, you know, all of food, I’ve been 00:56:09.000 –> 00:56:11.000 obsessed with this kind of forever. 00:56:11.000 –> 00:56:13.000 Is that all of food, 00:56:14.000 –> 00:56:14.000 is connected. 00:56:15.000 –> 00:56:17.000 Right? If you really, really start to look 00:56:17.000 –> 00:56:19.000 at, like, all the noodle dishes, 00:56:20.000 –> 00:56:22.000 around the world and you don’t see a 00:56:22.000 –> 00:56:23.000 connection. You’re insane. 00:56:24.000 –> 00:56:26.000 You know, but but you see it all 00:56:26.000 –> 00:56:28.000 over the place. You know, you look at, 00:56:28.000 –> 00:56:30.000 like, Mexican cuisine and the 00:56:30.000 –> 00:56:32.000 the trumpo for the, 00:56:33.000 –> 00:56:33.000 al pastor 00:56:34.000 –> 00:56:36.000 tacos, but you also 00:56:37.000 –> 00:56:38.000 you know, go to, 00:56:39.000 –> 00:56:42.000 you know, go to Istanbul and you’ll see 00:56:42.000 –> 00:56:44.000 the exact same the exact same thing, but 00:56:44.000 –> 00:56:47.000 with different different flavors. So these techniques get 00:56:47.000 –> 00:56:49.000 kind of passed around and the flavors 00:56:50.000 –> 00:56:52.000 all get passed around. So I’ve I’ve always 00:56:52.000 –> 00:56:55.000 been very obsessed with travel and how that 00:56:55.000 –> 00:56:56.000 influences 00:56:57.000 –> 00:56:59.000 cooking. You know, I think The the word 00:56:59.000 –> 00:57:01.000 fusion was thrown around in a lot of 00:57:01.000 –> 00:57:03.000 very bad ways for a for a long 00:57:03.000 –> 00:57:05.000 time, but quite frankly, 00:57:06.000 –> 00:57:07.000 you know, it is you know, some type 00:57:07.000 –> 00:57:09.000 of fusion. And, 00:57:09.000 –> 00:57:12.000 and I think done done with respect, it 00:57:12.000 –> 00:57:13.000 can be really, 00:57:15.000 –> 00:57:18.000 really unique and really fun, I think, at 00:57:18.000 –> 00:57:20.000 the same time. And a cool location too. 00:57:20.000 –> 00:57:21.000 Right? You got a big big balcony up 00:57:21.000 –> 00:57:23.000 there, Port. Yeah. So this is a three 00:57:23.000 –> 00:57:24.000 story. 00:57:24.000 –> 00:57:25.000 Restaurant. 00:57:26.000 –> 00:57:28.000 And on the first floor, it’s all, 00:57:28.000 –> 00:57:30.000 table service, server, 00:57:31.000 –> 00:57:34.000 more like plates of food. Yep. The second 00:57:34.000 –> 00:57:35.000 floor is an event space. 00:57:36.000 –> 00:57:38.000 And then on the third floor, it’s all 00:57:38.000 –> 00:57:39.000 kind of fast casual 00:57:39.000 –> 00:57:41.000 giant bar, 00:57:42.000 –> 00:57:42.000 huge 00:57:42.000 –> 00:57:44.000 patio with garage doors, 00:57:45.000 –> 00:57:46.000 astroturf 00:57:46.000 –> 00:57:48.000 out there in the stage, 00:57:49.000 –> 00:57:50.000 and, you know, more sandwich 00:57:51.000 –> 00:57:51.000 oriented. 00:57:52.000 –> 00:57:54.000 So, you know, kinda taken from the downstairs, 00:57:54.000 –> 00:57:55.000 full plates of barbecue 00:57:56.000 –> 00:57:58.000 to how do we, you know, how do 00:57:58.000 –> 00:58:00.000 we make that into, you know, kind of 00:58:00.000 –> 00:58:01.000 fun handheld 00:58:01.000 –> 00:58:03.000 experience upstairs. Yeah. Well, I can’t wait to 00:58:03.000 –> 00:58:05.000 be there this summer. That is awesome. Last 00:58:05.000 –> 00:58:06.000 question for you. 00:58:07.000 –> 00:58:08.000 What would you tell 00:58:08.000 –> 00:58:10.000 the Gerard of, the guy that was washing 00:58:10.000 –> 00:58:12.000 dishes. Right? Just got out of college. Not 00:58:12.000 –> 00:58:14.000 got out of college. Just dropped out of 00:58:14.000 –> 00:58:17.000 college and then, was washing dishes. What what 00:58:17.000 –> 00:58:17.000 advice 00:58:17.000 –> 00:58:19.000 would you give that guy or the person 00:58:19.000 –> 00:58:20.000 listen to this right now, man, that may 00:58:20.000 –> 00:58:22.000 be in a spot that they think, how 00:58:22.000 –> 00:58:25.000 is that guy’s success possible for me? What 00:58:25.000 –> 00:58:26.000 advice would you give him? I would say 00:58:26.000 –> 00:58:29.000 that the work ethic you are putting in 00:58:29.000 –> 00:58:29.000 today, 00:58:30.000 –> 00:58:31.000 will directly 00:58:32.000 –> 00:58:32.000 translate 00:58:32.000 –> 00:58:33.000 into, 00:58:35.000 –> 00:58:38.000 to your work ten years from now. Yeah. 00:58:38.000 –> 00:58:40.000 Awesome. Awesome, man. Well, thanks so much for 00:58:40.000 –> 00:58:41.000 being on the circuit of success. It’s been 00:58:41.000 –> 00:58:43.000 awesome having you. Oh, thank you for having 00:58:43.000 –> 00:58:44.000 us. Great.