Beck: Hey everybody, good afternoon, good morning, good evening, or whatever time you happen to be chiming in with us. It's the Chad GTM podcast coming to you live from well, a couple of points. I'm out here in Tampa, Florida. Chad, my co host and business partner. Where are you at today, Chad?
Chad: I am in Killington, Vermont. Skiers skiers
Beck: Killington, Vermont.
Chad: in the northeast might be familiar with the destination, but it is a summer.
Beck: I i is there is there skiing in the dead of summer?
Chad: No, but there's also nobody that wants to come up here, so it's a good way to get a last minute trip in that costs virtually nothing.
Beck: Got it. I'm gonna have to drill into that more later offline. I'm not sure the the attraction, but I'm sure it's beautiful. Right. Okay. Okay, okay. I'll tell there you
Chad: There's mountains everywhere. There's rivers. It's hike it's amazingly beautiful. But yeah.
Beck: go. So so speaking of beautiful, we just got back from a beautiful time at the Prosper Forum event in Orlando at the fantabulous Ritz Carlton.
Chad: Mm.
Beck: Chad, what did you think of that show?
Chad: Well, I've said many, many times at the show and since the show that it is the best
Beck: A hundred words or less.
Chad: of year of the best event in the industry. you
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: know, top caliber everything, right? From the content to the people there, the conversations, the dynamic, the venue, like the Ritz you mentioned, everything is top. And they they
Beck: The lazy river.
Chad: all of the intentionality they put into designing an event. shows up and the experience that everybody who comes to it has. And yeah, yes, the lazy river to cherry hunt top.
Beck: We we did a floating mini pod, I guess, on the lazy river, just saying thank you to the show hosts and we definitely want to echo that again. Thank you, Prosper team, for being so great to us, let us be part of that event. who is your favorite speaker if you're allowed to pick one?
Chad: Favorite speaker was Andrew Davis, of course. He he was the closing
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: keynote and he spoke on the Cuba creativity and all of the big problems that staying inside the box rather than thinking outside of it can solve.
Beck: You and I live that every day, and I think
Chad: Mm.
Beck: you're the one that pulls me back in the box when I'm going way too big and say, What are we actually working with? Yes, yes. So I have a framework to work with.
Chad: Well now now I have the wind at my back 'cause you know the value of being in the box.
Beck: I absolutely love it. So well, you know what, I I think it's it's decidedly convenient that we're coming back from a people show and a culture show because today's guest is also all about people and culture and
Chad: Yes.
Beck: he's a foodie as well. Chad, who's our guest today?
Chad: Our guest is the one and only Michel Falcon.
Beck: okay. And so I guess it's my turn to do the read in then. Michelle's like, why isn't anybody paying attention to me right now? Well, what Michelle may or may not know is we do not have a green
Michel Falcon: Mm-hmm.
Beck: room. We're so poor, Kenny. but
Michel Falcon: Mm-hmm.
Beck: we we just we've never cracked the green room on this, and people just gonna sit here and listen to us talk about them. But let's do the read in and then let's get to work. So, everybody, today's guest is Mr. Michelle Falcon. He's an entrepreneur, restaurantur, best selling author of People First Culture, and founder of Braza Peruvian Kitchen. I'm thinking I want some lomal saltado. But Michelle has spent his career helping organizations prove the exceptional customer experiences begin with exceptional employee experiences. Whether he's building his own restaurant brands or advising some of the world's most recognized recognizable companies, his message is remarkably consistent. Put your people first, and business and performance follows. Today we're talking about culture, hospitality, leadership, customer experience, and why the best companies don't just create loyal customers, they create teams people never want to leave. Michelle Welcome to the Chat GTM podcast. How are you?
Michel Falcon: I'm well, thank you. Welcome back from the conference.
Beck: Yeah, it was awesome.
Chad: Thank you.
Beck: You need to go next year. That's all I gotta say. Actually, don't even go next year in October is the Prosper Accelerate Conference. You would be money at that event, I'm telling you. Like you'd have swarms of people.
Chad: That goes for everybody listening. Gut yourself to that event. It's gonna be awesome.
Beck: Accelerate yourself to accelerate in October in is it Dallas? All right. Yeah.
Chad: It is in Dallas and end of October. Yep.
Beck: And and just so everybody knows, this is a shameless plug by people who aren't being paid. We are not being paid to say that. This is because we this is an event we truly have adopted and and with the the show finally said, Okay, guys, you won't go away. What what can you do with us? Apparently. and and I think we've we've we're starting to work our way to level of trust that I I can't believe we have. So being able to interview 17 other guests there was fantastic. So but our guest right now is more important. So let's talk about Michelle. So Michelle, let's start with this. You've built some restaurants, you've advised global brands, written a best-selling book, and you become one of the leading voices on people first culture. Where did that philosophy begin for you?
Michel Falcon: In one of the more obscure industries, junk removal services. There's a a company that you may have seen driving around in Tampa, wherever you may be in North America or Australia, called 1800 Got Junk.
Beck: Okay.
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: I left business school to go find something else to do that could capture my attention better than the four walls of academia. And at the time, there was t three very popular organizations to work for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee, Lululemon, which was founded in Vancouver, and 1 800 Got Junk.
Beck: You're Canadian.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: I am. I reside in New
Beck: Awesome.
Michel Falcon: York. I reside in New York now though. That is home.
Beck: Okay, okay, okay.
Michel Falcon: So I chose one of Henry God Junk. They had just come had just been recognized as the best workplace in Canada, has a mid-sized company, and I knew I wanted to go learn f entrepreneurship from an entrepreneur. Spent my time there. They had a slogan, it's all about people. Company culture, the this was they were one of the pioneers of company culture, I would say in North America, and that sounds pretty
Beck: Good.
Michel Falcon: profound. Yeah. They were talking about it since like in 2004, before I joined in 2007. And yeah. Exactly. But
Beck: Sounds like a culture hipsters. We we were we were into culture before it was cool.
Michel Falcon: it's not culture like platitudes on the wall and slogans
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: and such. It's like how does it actually grow a business? And I had a front row seat to it, my real world MBA, and I I joke, but I was like, I can't believe I'm being paid to learn this much because I just left an institution that where I had to pay to learn.
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: And learn w was in quotations when I was in academia. and that's you know, I'm just not an academic in that respect. But it was one eighty god junk and and I went off to go consult after because I was like, I have all this value now. I heard consultants make lots of money. And I was in my mid twenties and I found out that they do and they have great margins. And I was able to take the education that I got from a company like 1 800 Yacht Junk, who now are like a half a billion dollar company, started with one guy in a pickup truck knocking on doors saying, Can I get you know, going to Chad's home and saying, Will you pay me to get rid of stuff you no longer want anymore in your basement? Now it's like the FedEx of
Chad: Yes, please.
Michel Falcon: junk removal. Right? And you know, how I run my restaurants, there's some strong lines that are drawn back to my time at one eight hundred Godjunk and now I live in New York with my my wife and my dog and I have restaurants in Toronto and in New York with another one opening in a couple of weeks.
Beck: Fantastic. Chad.
Chad: So Michelle, one of the thing you are a keynoter, right, as well. And so one of the things you use to describe what you do is futurist setting up teams that are futuristic, never before seen cultures and customer experience. I thought that that's interesting way of approaching your topic and what you what you dive in on. And so I'm curious, what is that bar that we have yet to hit? in culture today, even good cultures today, that you think is possible for organizations to hit that's futuristic.
Michel Falcon: Well, a number of things. The first one that comes to mind is how we approach relationships and its foundation foundational principles. So I like to behave in the workplace as I do with personal relationships. That makes it authentic. I'll give you a real world example. I have friends that I've been friends with since nineteen ninety-eight. And those relationships Endured for decades because there is an understanding that we do right by each other as friends, we meet in the middle, and that is an enduring relationship. The same with my relationship with my wife. We've been together for 10 years, and it's we meet in the middle. And as soon as one person decides that they're not going to meet in the middle, that's when the fracturing of the relationship happens. What if we took that same thought and theory?
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: Into the relationships we have in our workplace. Well, Michelle, no, no, no, no. That's personal and this is business. Sure, but at the end of the day, it's humanity, human expectations that need to be met. Beyond that, there could be some subtle differences between the relationships that we have. So to be able to create that never seen before experience within our workplaces so that our Customers and our guests have that never seen before experience. We need to reframe what these experiences actually are stems from and what the foundation of those are. And it sounds a bit, you know, fluffy, but it's true because what we're building aren't just teams, it's a a study of human behavior. It starts there. And that's why it's so difficult for companies because we actually have to act like therapists and psychologists. Because That's where our our minds need to go in establishing these relationships. System, process, all this stuff that comes after.
Beck: so so the the reason I'm in a pensive moment here is we had a guest on the show at Prosper that is a well-known industry leader that thinks a little bit differently, thinking that it that there's a little bit upside down with how people are about culture, that it's the guest first always, then your people. And so I'm a little bit curious. So when you think about your book, People First Culture, some leaders hear that immediately think it's soft. Why do you believe it's actually one of the hardest and smartest business strategies?
Michel Falcon: I just don't see why anybody would go above and beyond for you and the company if you're not going above and beyond for them. Why would my to to use my theory that I had shared a moment ago in practice? Why would my wife serve me if I didn't serve her? Why would my friends not pick me up from the airport if I wasn't willing to do it for them? If I ask, if I want a customer experience. That goes above and beyond. It is human nature for the person that I'm asking to go above and beyond to think what's in it for me. It
Beck: Hmm.
Michel Falcon: might not sound great, but that's true. And they might be thinking it in their minds much differently than those words. But it's true. And, you know, I will draw in compensation as an example. I have a lot of been on a lot of podcasts, I've said this on on stages. If you wanna pay minimum wage or anywhere near that, expect minimum effort. It's it's fair. Let's just use the word minimum and transcend
Beck: In N Out's a really good example of that, right? They have a limited menu, but they pay their people really well and they execute.
Michel Falcon: Part of the reason why they have a limited menu is so that their food costs can be in check so that they can actually have more money to be able to give to their employees. Right. It that's just simple math that I learned in elementary
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: school. It's literal elementary school math. I I don't think the customer is always right. And I don't think the customer comes first. They they could come second, and there's nothing wrong with that. have great companies been built where customer service is paramount. But they might have a reputation for not being great workplaces. Yeah. It's called Amazon. Right? The world's
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: most the world's most customer centric company. That was one of their taglines in the nineties
Beck: Mm.
Michel Falcon: and into into two thousands. But if you ask people that work in the warehouses or the delivery drivers, do you like working for them? They may say no. Now, you know, I I'm hesitant to use that as an example because it's such a media headline to be like Amazon's a terrible work place to work. Well Speak to somebody named Jalen who used to work at Brassa, who now works at Amazon. He loves it. Right. So always it's always interesting to see like is that place really a bad place to work? Or or is the media just putting that into a headline and it's sensationalism? For the
Beck: Or your own point of reference, right?
Michel Falcon: Exactly. and so back to to for the individual that said the customer always comes first, here's the beauty of it. Everybody's allowed to have their own opinion. Build your company however which way you want. I don't preach from stage and say this is the only way to do things. No,
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: do not find religion in the words that come from my mouth. It's simply something that I have chosen to do to build my company. And seemingly it's going well.
Beck: Well, I I I think their their example, like think of that hard hitting Michelin star, two Michelin star kitchen. They're not, please, could you go get me this thing? And you know, if that that'd be really sweet if you did, and if you could get around to it, and I'm really looking at your safe space when they want to execute perfect plating, perfect execution, perfect delivery, perfect guest experience. That might not feel so fluffy in the mix, but the bar is really high. Right. But that's also culture,
Michel Falcon: For sure. And and there's something
Beck: right? A high a high bar is also part of culture.
Michel Falcon: There is no right or wrong company culture for companies. So be it that it's you know integral and ethical, I think that is a bare minimum. But the company culture of Zappos dot com,
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: one of their core values, I don't know if this is remains true, but when Tony Shea built the company, it's like be weird was one of their core values. Right? Do you yeah?
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: I'd fit in nicely. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: The company culture of Nike. Is different than Zappos. Neither of them are better or worse. It's
Beck: Yes. No.
Michel Falcon: just what makes sense for you. Just like my relationship with my wife is a certain dynamic. Doesn't make us any more in love than the next couple. So
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: that's the thing about company cultures you get to define it the way that you want to define it as a leader. And if you can find a tribe of people that see the same thing that you see, great. But that does not mean that they're gonna work well at another company and you know. individuals that do well at other companies probably would be rejected at Brass.
Beck: That made that's a really good point. You have to drink the Kool Aid. Chad.
Chad: So, Michelle, it sounds like the kind of c culture you're building and have built and are advocating for for your kind of team dynamic that that you're seeing work, it's highly relational, right? And you know, there's there's a responsibility of everybody in that relationship to treat the other person well. So I'm curious, what burden does that put on you guys in the hiring process to make sure you're getting the right kind of people in that can play well in that dynamic?
Michel Falcon: Yeah, I I describe our company culture as friendly, high performance. I like friendly people, right? Because I think that's a bedrock of hospitality. And high performance. Just because you're friendly but don't perform well doesn't mean that you're going to last long. And if you're high performer or not friendly, you're not gonna last diff definitely not going to last long. So the barriers that we have is friendly in a world where kindness isn't as regarded as society allows it to be. It's hard to find kind people in this world. For whichever re for whatever reasons. One of the interview questions we ask in the application is, have you ever been called kind before? If they select no, we don't move on. It's not my responsibility
Beck: Muska.
Michel Falcon: to Yeah, it it's not my job to teach you how to be kind. You learned that when you were six by somebody. And whoever taught you that, you owe them a debt of gratitude. So fishing for it and front loading this, it may I tell you about our interview process? It it's it's it it's extraordinarily bizarre. And I've had so many people tell me it's not gonna work when I first
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: started. So My industry has like a hundred percent year over year turnover typically around in and around there, sometimes higher.
Beck: If you're lucky.
Michel Falcon: Yeah, exactly, right? and I knew that this was a problem. So I was like, you what, we have to front load our effort. So Chad, let's say Chad wanted to apply to become a a frontline team member. And we, you know, famously pay twenty one percent higher than in industry peers for similar roles. But Chad, you're going to apply. you're gonna read we're gonna ask you to read a four page cr we call it a career description, not a job description. Cause I don't like the word job. job by definition is compensation for ordinary work. I read that, I was like, that sounds terrible. I don't want
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Yeah, it sounds like a moment in time also, right? I I did the job.
Michel Falcon: anything well, ordinary, like I want extraordinary. I don't want ordinary.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: So we call it a career. Just seems something you can grow into. you're gonna read that within that career description, there's also four videos that are gonna take you about 20 minutes to watch. And then you have to fill an application which has about 20 questions, and then you may get a virtual group interview and we'll make a decision right there. So we're asking the candidates to put in about an hour and a half of effort. In an industry that's typically like, hey, fill out this application in fifteen minutes and and if you have a pulse we'll hire you. Isn't that part of the problem? In that we're rushing people
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: in. What if we were more intentional? What if we treated the interview process like the dining room table in your home where not everybody gets to sit at the table? And guess what? A lot of people do not make it to the inter to finish the application. They drop out, they're like, I'm just gonna go to the with the company go work with the company that will hire me on the spot. Well, sure. but you're definitely not getting that starting wage that we pay. You know, we wanna show we want individuals to show themselves who are you? Are you willing to put in the effort to get this hiring paying job? Because if you show that with enthusiasm, that's likely how you're gonna show up in the workplace. We front load everything. There's a reason why we only have this year we're trending to fourteen percent year re I'm sorry, fourteen percent employee turnover only. That's a high year. Last year we were at nine percent. And it's not because we don't get rid of low performers, we absolutely do, but we've solved this massive pain point in the industry by front loading the work within the interview process.
Beck: Yeah, you you put in the great filter, so to speak, right there. I I think, you know, if you if we think about modern hiring, it's I walk by a restaurant, I see a QR code on a wall, I zap it, my AI fills in the form, it sends it over, it goes to the job listing site. I have no emotional investment or involvement whatsoever in the process. The person looking at it will look and find who's geographically convenient to me, first score, second score. Have I done something like that? And after that, it's okay. Well, when can you start essentially, right? But you're not Feeling out soft skills, people skills, the willingness to put in work to get the job in the first place. Right. I think that's a huge qualifier.
Michel Falcon: Yeah, one of the questions we ask, which I enjoy, is tell us of a company that delivers amazing customer service to you. And if they say I don't know or give us a an answer without great detail, we typically don't move forward to an interview with that individual because how can you deliver great customer service if you don't even know what it looks like?
Beck: All right, Chad, I'm gonna ask you what what's your what's which is yours and I'll tell you mine.
Chad: Great customer service. how quickly should I have the answer, Michelle?
Michel Falcon: d you can sit on it for as long as you want.
Beck: But for the show.
Chad: yeah, so I because I have a documentary I just saw, I'm gonna go back in time, right? Because it triggered this memory.
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: So back way before the internet, if you got stuck playing a video game, you could pick up the phone and call Nintendo or call Sega. This is real people. And I would wake up
Michel Falcon: I didn't know this, and I played that. No way.
Chad: at I was stuck on a game, I would wake up as a kid at 4 a.m. And my you know, where time I had to wake up to have a chance of beating the line. And I called them and I remember to this day that like they how well they knew the game and be able to help me with the thing. And that's not why I remember the story. They after they QA and solving my problem, they sent me in the mail, they got my address and sent me in the mail all of these game guides. And that when that arrived, I'm like, dang, it made an impression. Great
Michel Falcon: Well.
Chad: service. No way is that happening today with any company in the in the industry, but that was my first recollection, earliest stage of amazing customer service.
Beck: All right. All right. So my knee-jerk response is Disney right away because you just think about all the stuff they put into making that great experience at the at the park. But I think a recent experience, I could say Ritz Carlton. Right? Like
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: when you leave, when you leave your room, like the thing I didn't expect, I come back up to my room and I'm a I'm a mess. When I travel, I don't pay attention. I throw stuff around. I'm I'm super bachelor mode in in my room. There's cords and cables everywhere, my toothpases in and all my toiletries are scattered across the sink. I come back to my room. Every cable I had was wrapped nicely with its own little Velcro band around it on the table placed beautifully.
Michel Falcon: Mm, that's nice.
Beck: Everything was pulled out of my shaving kit, put in row perfectly along the thing. A little chocolate was on my pillow, well a little note saying they wish I had a great day. My turn down was already done. Like everything was executed beautifully without ever asking it. It like I couldn't believe that. I so I I would say Ritz Carlton's got customer service down. sorry for a little side journey, but I wanted to see if if we if we could answer that that question.
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: Well you're both hired, by the way. Monday Monday nine AM. We'll have your uniforms ready.
Beck: Cool. All right. All right. I I'm ready. Let's do it. I I wear a large in the shirt. so a quick question though. and you have some definite opinions on this and I'm interested. So what's the biggest mistake you think that leaders make when they think they're building culture?
Michel Falcon: Long term versus short term thinking. company culture is a growth mechanism. It should grow your company. Your employees are more engaged, they sell more, they service better and such. And if done well, it will grow your company. Not just for a quarter, for decades. Here's the problem. When you invest in a relationship, the ROI isn't instantaneous. Right. It drawing to my reinforce my examples from before. My wife didn't love me the f after the third date. She didn't even love me after the third month, I bet. Right? It took effort, effort, effort, effort, and and now here we are.
Beck: Right. Right.
Michel Falcon: We've been trained as leaders to expect things fast since the launch of the internet. Google AdWords, customer tomorrow. TikTok shop ad ten customers tomorrow. There's money to solve a problem, to achieve something, and we've been trained to get it really, really fast since the internet deployed. A hundred percent. The conversion ma when am I gonna s get my conversion metrics over the thing I do for that employee? And you're waiting,
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: okay, when's the ROI gonna come? You know, it it doesn't work that way. Human behavior and hum it's not human nature to think this way. But we've we've our minds have been warped because of the internet and expecting instantaneous results. We have to rewire ourselves to operate like our grandparents did. And I have a new fresh keynote ready to come out into the world. yeah, I'm excited for it.
Beck: Ooh.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: And I don't know what the title is just yet. I've got about five options. But it it's essentially just says we need to operate our businesses like our grandparents did. How did they do that? Building genuine rapport with employees and with customers. there was no such thing as PPC and such. that we need to reframe how we are showing up in leadership positions and making sure that we have a balance between immediate results and long term foundational principles.
Beck: Hmm. Hmm. Chad.
Chad: Shell, when you were in the tenth grade, you watched your father lose his restaurant because he was betrayed by someone he trusted. And as you watched that play out, what impact did that have? And and how has it shaped how you are building and protecting your own hospitality business?
Michel Falcon: So when you said the tenth grade, I was like, what did he dig up about me? And is this gonna get me in trouble? But I it's
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: the f my father's story. Got it. I
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: you know, let me start off by saying it was the first time I ever saw my father cry. And that you that still really hits home even right now. What did that teach me is that I saw my father get really hurt, but then bounce back to who he is immediately. He didn't put up and erect big guards around him and close himself off and saying trust nobody mentality. what he taught me from this was that you have to stay true to who you are and there are going to be some bad actors that come across your path. Try to identify them very quickly and remove unapologetically. And and that's what it taught me. With this people first culture paying more, being a decent human being to our teams, have I been burned? All of the time. It's human behavior. I'm not changing who I am. I'm happy with who I am. My wife and my parents and my sister are proud of the leader I am. I'm not changing that. They know me the best. Why would I let one person change my DNA? Not gonna happen. But it is my responsibility. People don't fail, processes do. Something 1-800 got junk taught me. So if somebody has wronged you in the workplace after you invested in them, the process broke down, which is the hiring process. How can we figure this out next time so the bad actors don't come in here? But guess what?
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: Hiring is a guess at the end of the day. I don't care how many systems or
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: processes you have, you're making a trying to make the best guess possible.
Beck: Yeah, and you're dealing with people too, right? And in in interview processes and much as in dating, we're gonna get shown the best version of them that they want us to see. And ultimately time will be the proof that removes all doubt as to who they are or aren't in the in the situation. I I I think you we've all gone through this too. Like the best thing about a bad relationship is what we learn from it afterwards. What to look out for,
Michel Falcon: yeah.
Beck: right?
Michel Falcon: Y yeah, on on our third date with my wi my wife, I told her I said, Hey, here are all my blemishes and warts. Laid all out on the table. If you would
Chad: Third day. Okay.
Michel Falcon: I would like I would like to have another date with you. I w the the I
Beck: Way to bring sexy.
Michel Falcon: did say warts and all. I don't know. I am who I am. I but And I said, Hey, I would love to have another day with you. I'm really enjoying myself, but just know that these are my these are my negative bad traits and I'm working on them. And
Beck: Yeah. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: she was like, you know what? She's like, You're a bizarre guy. Like, who does this? I was like, I do, right? And so an interview question that we a that really works for me. So an interview question that we ask in the process, regardless of position, is what is an unbecoming quality we're gonna learn about you in the first ninety days? 'Cause everybody's acting right now.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: Everybody's putting on their best, you know, and it's so interesting. And and I answer that question first, always. Always. And I'll say, let me
Beck: What is yours?
Michel Falcon: answer it first. I'm so impatient. my goodness. And you know, it's I get it from my father. Like we we talk about it as family all the time, like and and my I'm impatient and I become visibly irritable when things aren't done correctly. I'm not a yeller, I'm not a swearer. But I'm visibly irritated when things aren't done properly when it's all been documented, like through system and process. Like when I go into the I'll tell you one thing, guys, that all irks me. When I go into the restaurant, there's three things I'm checking for right away to know if the closing duties were done r properly. In where we keep our takeout bags, were they is it restocked in the morning? Because if it's not, that means somebody did not do their closing the closing checklist properly last night. Are the napkins filled to the top? And are all the beverage cans pointing outwards so the logos are showing? Because
Beck: Mm.
Michel Falcon: those three things are in our closing checklist. So if I walk into the restaurant first thing in the morning and I see those three things, that's my inspection to know if last night went well or not. And yeah, I get irritably frustrated because it's like here I am working very hard to pay 21% more, and I can't even get bags replenished. Nah, that's not a fair shake to me. Remember what I told you earlier, we meet in the middle. You do this, I do this, we'll have a brilliant relationship. But as soon as you start fractioning the relationship for what I care about, well, I'm gonna really question the relationship I have with you. And fair is fair. And if I have to terminate you, I I'll do it unapologetically. I'll still do it with kindness, but I'll do it unapologetically because I know that I showed up for you and it was you that decided that I don't want a relationship with you anymore.
Beck: Well it sounds like you set the expectation too. Let's let's be real. It wasn't, Hey, you didn't do it but you know, I I didn't tell you and I expected I thought you might do it. It was this was the expectation.
Michel Falcon: It's a literal checklist. I'm hiring adults. Last time I I checked.
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Chad?
Chad: So one of the keynotes topics you've done in the past reminds me of something that we look for in tech companies. So one of the you know, sidebar, we evaluate a lot of different companies in the restaurant tech space. And because it's so hyper competitive, we're looking for, among other things, an unfair advantage they have. And you talk about the unfair experience that if you give guests an amazing experience, it's like a cheat code to like winning them back, right? So What does that look like? What's an unfair experience?
Michel Falcon: Something that's mind bending that has never been seen before in the industry. one of the things related to that is removing bad profits. A bad profit that I was taught by I think it was Fred Reichheld, the one of the creators of the Net Promoter Score. Or or it was maybe Rob Marquet. One of the two, forgive me. a bad profit is when you're nickel and diming your customers. You know, we don't charge extra for avocado at Brassa. Everywhere else does.
Chad: Mm, yeah.
Michel Falcon: If a customer's like, can have some more chicken, we'll ask a a little more or double? just a little more. What do I care about two extra pieces of chicken? I don't care. That's our marketing. Consider that our marketing, value-based marketing. That's what we're gonna call it. And that's what we do call it. so Really looking at it and being customer centric, truly customer centric, operating the business from the viewpoint of the customer and not nickel and diming them, not having bad profits. If a customer comes in and forgets their wallet, are we gonna refuse them? You know what? Having to go thirty-seven stories above in your building and come back down sounds terrible. Here's our meal. Could you come back at the end of the day? May we have your email address just to follow up with you if you happen to forget because life happens. Yeah, no problem. Right? And then that customer comes down and says, Hey, could you actually, you know, get a can I place a catering order too? That's happened. Imagine if we said, No, no wallet, no service. What is this? You know, like I'm thinking of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld, right? Like it's you know, no. Now, if we do that a hundred times. And for those listening, don't try to do it in the restaurant unless you actually forgot your wallet, please. But if if a hundred people that happens a hundred times and twenty of them burn us out, the cost of a meal for us is X. I'm not gonna lose my shirt. But what I am going to be able to do is for the individuals that come back, they're gonna be lifetime customers. That lifetime customer values are in the thousands of dollars. If they bring catering business to us, now we're talking tens of thousands of dollars. What are we splitting hairs about?
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: That's the unfair advantage.
Beck: So so Michelle, spend a minute with us talking about brossa 'cause we haven't dipped into what your restaurant concept is, what it's like, what the experiences when you walk in the door, the delicious things on your menu. Give us an idea of the service model you have.
Michel Falcon: It is the world's first healthy Peruvian fast casual brand. I'm Canadian Peruvian. you said Lomo Saltado earlier. Phenomenal meal. A he the gallina, another phenomenal meal. But guess what? It's quite heavy. You've got sauce, you got rice, you got potatoes. That is not great for the North everyday North American customer. That sounds like a burger or pizza experience. We're like, I'll have that like once a week, maybe, maybe once every two weeks. The total addressable market isn't of traditional Peruvian cuisine is not big enough for what I was trying to build. But then Peru is the birthplace of the superfood. So I thought to myself, why hasn't anybody built a healthy Peruvian brand? A lot of the healthy ingredients that come from Peru are in your cupboards today. Nobody's ever branded it. And I'll give you a perfect example. The Red Bull we know today, Red Bull Gives Me Wings, came from Ty Thailand. It was in a like a medicinal looking bottle. And somebody came, saw it, and was like, I could bring this to North America, but I need to repackage it, rebrand it. And that's very much what brass is. It is not traditional Peruvian food. we started in Toronto in the basement of my friend's coffee roasting facility. I started a little ghost kitchen in one room. And I needed to see if we had product market fit with our menu, talk to customers, not just my family members and friends. By the way, if you're launching something, do not just get advice from family members and friends. They're not gonna give you the truth. yeah, you need strangers
Beck: Echo chamber.
Michel Falcon: that have no emotional attachment to you. And now, you know, locations in Toronto, locations in New York, and we're opening up at Toronto Pearson Airport in the middle of September. of two thousand tw twenty six and you know you know hopefully in a city near you soon.
Beck: Is this a quick service? Fash casual, polish casual? What's the experience?
Michel Falcon: yeah, p yeah, we've been called the Peruvian Kava, the Peruvian Chipotle, by the media, by customers. so it is a fast casual concept, yes.
Beck: And and what's what is the like top superfood in in the on the menu? Is it makka or is it kamu kamu? Like what it what are you talking about here?
Michel Falcon: Okay, so I have a bias to camu camu. So camu camu is a berry that is grown in the Amazon that has more vitamin C than anything in the world. Okay. You can chat GPT, Google it, wherever you do your search. and it grows in Peru. And the reason why I'm partial to it is because I have a little bit of it every single morning in my yogurt and hand on my chest. I have not gotten a head cold in one and a half years since I started doing it, and it is not a placebo. And it grows in Peru, we have a smoothie that'll knock you out. Not only does it have thirty one grams of protein, but it's the strawberry camu camu smoothie. It has thirty one grams of protein and it has the vitamin C equivalent of ten oranges. So by the time that you drank that smoothie, you would have had the vitamin C equivalent of ten oranges because we put in this special superfood from Peru.
Beck: Was it really sour?
Michel Falcon: It's sour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we w it it is quite sour, for for sure. So when yeah,
Beck: Okay. Vitamin C is the pucker. Yeah.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: w when I have into my yogurt, I've got like screw face on where it's like, like this is really sour, but so be it.
Chad: So
Beck: Chad.
Chad: Michelle, I was talking to someone else this morning and she was talking about an interview experience she had had, and one of the questions she liked was, Teach us something in two minutes. Just teach us something you you're interested and you know about and you could teach us on. So teach us about superfoods. What is a superfood?
Michel Falcon: A superfood is a a term that just is used to describe very healthy ingredients. It could be in in relation to prew, like quinoa is a superfood, puffed amareth, camu camu, lucma, cacao, things like this. It even goes to more recognized commodities like blueberries, avocado, asparagus, and such. And Peru happens to be able to is recognized as the birthplace of the superfood because of all the microclimates throughout the country. You've got the Andes Mountains, the Pacific, coastline, and then the Amazon. They have so many microclimates throughout the country that they can grow things other countries physically cannot because they do not have the climate to support it. And that was kinda y my Eureka moment when I saw this like better for you categories in all industries gaining popularity, whether it's the Better For You vitamin water or granola bar. And I was I thought there was an opportunity to grow a better for you brand in the fast casual that champion Peruvian superfoods. And because I'm Canadian Peruvian, there's a lot of motivation behind it as well. And you know very proud to be proving and I we're educating so many people that had no idea that these ingredients existed. And you know we've have many customers that have dined with us over a hundred times and we have the data to support that through our mobile app and I you know I I honestly sometimes I think I'm like, Whoa, like this is great. This is great. Earned, but great.
Beck: I'm gonna pivot a little bit because we have a little bit of time left here, but I think there's something interesting what you said before. even quoted saying hospitality isn't limited to restaurants or hotels. How should leaders in every industry think differently about hospitality?
Michel Falcon: It's designed. Hospitality is has to be designed. Hospitality isn't just being kind. That's one element of hospitality. you know, d understanding your different customer touch points from
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: the very beginning of like awareness hearing about you to loyalty, the last step and everything in between. You have to be very methodical and design this like an engineer. Because if you don't, How are you able to see it from the perspective of the customer? So the term customer journey mapping is such a great tool for brands to use to be able to go through like what the customer actually experiences. And I guarantee you, you do not know everything the customer experiences, right? I'm thinking of a hotel right now. Did you think about the valet experience? You know, that's a big one. Right? The bathrooms and such, you know, all these touch points. And it's when you map it all out. That is hospitality. And it's cumbersome. But every company must look at their businesses from a hospitable lens. And when you s see it all on paper, it can be overwhelming, but just start somewhere. Start in one place. Typically, where I recommend is where's the most bleeding happening? What's the biggest pain point? Start there. but That that's one of the things of hospitality is is really an end to end experience.
Beck: I I agree. Chad, we probably got one more before rapid fire.
Chad: all right. So Michelle, if you weren't doing Brasso, what would you be doing with most of your time?
Michel Falcon: I I recently told a friend that if I didn't get into restaurants, I would probably want to be a pilot. I've said this before, because I'm not the greatest flyer. And the responsibility that pilots have is really mind bending to me. so that would be one thing. I also t and I I kid you not, I told my wife this morning when we were walking our dog Maggie. I wish I did what you guys are doing twelve years ago. Started a podcast. They seem to live cool lives. Right.
Beck: Ha ha ha.
Michel Falcon: No, I and I'm not just saying this because I'm on a podcast and I promised you, again, hand on heart, I said this to my wife this morning. I really should have taken podcasting seriously, because I can string a few words together, right? And I and I love interviewing people and and and having conversation. So Chad, that's how I would answer that question. One More related to our conversation and and truthful and one pretty obscure.
Chad: You might be our future co host, is what I'm hearing.
Michel Falcon: Let's do it.
Beck: There you go. Or field reporter, right? all right. Well, it's time to pivot to our closing round, which is the rapid fire. I don't know if I told you that this was coming, which we're gonna ask you a handful of questions. It should be off the hip, somewhat fun and clipworthy moments that will get people to learn a little bit about you as we do this. You ready, Michelle?
Michel Falcon: Let's do it.
Beck: All right. Best leadership book besides your own.
Michel Falcon: No Rules Rules, written by Reed Hastings and Aaron Meyer.
Beck: One trait every great leader must have.
Michel Falcon: Benevolence.
Beck: Ooh, what's one thing companies overcomplicate?
Michel Falcon: recruitment and interviewing.
Beck: Coffee meeting or boardroom meeting.
Michel Falcon: Coffee meeting. Like without a doubt. yeah.
Beck: Love it. And delicious coffee, no less. All right. Favorite restaurant anywhere in the world.
Michel Falcon: Oof. I would say Forsythia in New York. It's a Roman Italian restaurant. That's the first one that came to mind. So that obviously is makes it very meaningful.
Beck: Okay. one habit that's made you a better leader.
Michel Falcon: Stopping and thinking when I feel emotional towards something and not making just
Beck: I need to take notes.
Michel Falcon: non ma stop.
Beck: Ha ha
Michel Falcon: It probably doesn't matter as much as you think in the moment.
Beck: Well, it's a halt technique, like just take a minute. finish this sentence. People first culture isn't about, it's about.
Michel Falcon: People first culture isn't about being
Beck: Sorry isn't about blank, it's about blank.
Michel Falcon: People first culture isn't about being fluffy, it's about building a company for decades.
Beck: Ooh, I love it. That was good. That was really good. Well mm.
Chad: Very, very good.
Michel Falcon: And for the record, for the record, you guys did not prep me and I had no idea we were about to do that. So anybody listening, those were one hundred percent authentic answers. And I'm happy I can think on my feet. Haven't lost that.
Beck: Yep. I love it too. you'd be a terrible guest. No, and that's one of the things like it's
Chad: Mm.
Beck: funny because when we'll go to more formal settings, they'll Hey, bring your podcast and provide us with all the questions you're gonna ask our guests. Like we don't provide our guest questions. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: No, I don't like that. I actually reject it. And when I keynote speech during Q and A, they're like, Do you want us to, you know, like plant a couple of questions? I'm like, Plant whatever you want, just don't tell me what the questions
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: are.
Beck: Yeah. I like bullet points. Like, hey, I want it's a shopping list. These are the t subjects we want to cover during the course of the conversation, but I want to be let the conversation go where it's supposed to, 'cause that you get to much better places, right? well, this
Michel Falcon: Certainly.
Beck: has been great, Michelle. Ab absolutely love it. Chad and I are big fans of of people that are trying to champion Culture in a way that's productive and builds and elevates everybody. Like what Sean Walchief, a friend of ours, says rising tides raids all ships. I also it's another thing. I think this also helps raise the tides. so we're gonna go ahead and close this for now. So everybody, this has been Michelle Falcon. He's an entrepreneur, restaurateur, best selling author of People First Culture and founder of Brasa Peruvian Kitchen. They're located in what part of Canada?
Michel Falcon: In Toronto and in New York.
Beck: In Toronto and in New York. And there are more coming soon from what he says. So stay tuned for that. And Michelle, if somebody wants to engage with you, have a conversation, eat your delicious food, see you at a show or your keynote, where can people find you and contact you?
Michel Falcon: my first and last name, it's I C H E L, not Michael. you can find me pretty much anywhere wherever you spend your time online. And the company, Brass and Peruvian can be found on your popular social media networks. So would love to connect with you, love to serve you, love to engage with you. Any questions that you have about things that I might know, send me a message. I would love to respond. I am, yeah.
Beck: Are you LinkedIn guy? Okay, that's where our most of our audience likes to play. So yeah, you can find him on LinkedIn. And it's like we like to about all of our guests: if you can't reach Michelle, find us, we'll track him down for you. And so make sure you get the conversation you're looking for. but for now, everybody, this has been the Chat GTM podcast. If this conversation challenged your thinking or gave you one idea that you can take back to your team, we'd love for you to subscribe and follow ChatGTM on YouTube or LinkedIn or wherever podcasts are being served. And always. Random acts of kindness, take a minute, sprinkle that stuff everywhere. You never know who's your gonna day or make gonna make better. Just like Michelle spending time with us, sharing his wisdom and insights has made our day infinitely better. You can do that for somebody else too. But for now, it's Michelle Chad and Beck signing off and we'll see you guys on the next one. Wait for you to say goodbye. Perfect. And we're
Michel Falcon: Goodbye everybody.
Chad: I am in Killington, Vermont. Skiers skiers
Beck: Killington, Vermont.
Chad: in the northeast might be familiar with the destination, but it is a summer.
Beck: I i is there is there skiing in the dead of summer?
Chad: No, but there's also nobody that wants to come up here, so it's a good way to get a last minute trip in that costs virtually nothing.
Beck: Got it. I'm gonna have to drill into that more later offline. I'm not sure the the attraction, but I'm sure it's beautiful. Right. Okay. Okay, okay. I'll tell there you
Chad: There's mountains everywhere. There's rivers. It's hike it's amazingly beautiful. But yeah.
Beck: go. So so speaking of beautiful, we just got back from a beautiful time at the Prosper Forum event in Orlando at the fantabulous Ritz Carlton.
Chad: Mm.
Beck: Chad, what did you think of that show?
Chad: Well, I've said many, many times at the show and since the show that it is the best
Beck: A hundred words or less.
Chad: of year of the best event in the industry. you
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: know, top caliber everything, right? From the content to the people there, the conversations, the dynamic, the venue, like the Ritz you mentioned, everything is top. And they they
Beck: The lazy river.
Chad: all of the intentionality they put into designing an event. shows up and the experience that everybody who comes to it has. And yeah, yes, the lazy river to cherry hunt top.
Beck: We we did a floating mini pod, I guess, on the lazy river, just saying thank you to the show hosts and we definitely want to echo that again. Thank you, Prosper team, for being so great to us, let us be part of that event. who is your favorite speaker if you're allowed to pick one?
Chad: Favorite speaker was Andrew Davis, of course. He he was the closing
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: keynote and he spoke on the Cuba creativity and all of the big problems that staying inside the box rather than thinking outside of it can solve.
Beck: You and I live that every day, and I think
Chad: Mm.
Beck: you're the one that pulls me back in the box when I'm going way too big and say, What are we actually working with? Yes, yes. So I have a framework to work with.
Chad: Well now now I have the wind at my back 'cause you know the value of being in the box.
Beck: I absolutely love it. So well, you know what, I I think it's it's decidedly convenient that we're coming back from a people show and a culture show because today's guest is also all about people and culture and
Chad: Yes.
Beck: he's a foodie as well. Chad, who's our guest today?
Chad: Our guest is the one and only Michel Falcon.
Beck: okay. And so I guess it's my turn to do the read in then. Michelle's like, why isn't anybody paying attention to me right now? Well, what Michelle may or may not know is we do not have a green
Michel Falcon: Mm-hmm.
Beck: room. We're so poor, Kenny. but
Michel Falcon: Mm-hmm.
Beck: we we just we've never cracked the green room on this, and people just gonna sit here and listen to us talk about them. But let's do the read in and then let's get to work. So, everybody, today's guest is Mr. Michelle Falcon. He's an entrepreneur, restaurantur, best selling author of People First Culture, and founder of Braza Peruvian Kitchen. I'm thinking I want some lomal saltado. But Michelle has spent his career helping organizations prove the exceptional customer experiences begin with exceptional employee experiences. Whether he's building his own restaurant brands or advising some of the world's most recognized recognizable companies, his message is remarkably consistent. Put your people first, and business and performance follows. Today we're talking about culture, hospitality, leadership, customer experience, and why the best companies don't just create loyal customers, they create teams people never want to leave. Michelle Welcome to the Chat GTM podcast. How are you?
Michel Falcon: I'm well, thank you. Welcome back from the conference.
Beck: Yeah, it was awesome.
Chad: Thank you.
Beck: You need to go next year. That's all I gotta say. Actually, don't even go next year in October is the Prosper Accelerate Conference. You would be money at that event, I'm telling you. Like you'd have swarms of people.
Chad: That goes for everybody listening. Gut yourself to that event. It's gonna be awesome.
Beck: Accelerate yourself to accelerate in October in is it Dallas? All right. Yeah.
Chad: It is in Dallas and end of October. Yep.
Beck: And and just so everybody knows, this is a shameless plug by people who aren't being paid. We are not being paid to say that. This is because we this is an event we truly have adopted and and with the the show finally said, Okay, guys, you won't go away. What what can you do with us? Apparently. and and I think we've we've we're starting to work our way to level of trust that I I can't believe we have. So being able to interview 17 other guests there was fantastic. So but our guest right now is more important. So let's talk about Michelle. So Michelle, let's start with this. You've built some restaurants, you've advised global brands, written a best-selling book, and you become one of the leading voices on people first culture. Where did that philosophy begin for you?
Michel Falcon: In one of the more obscure industries, junk removal services. There's a a company that you may have seen driving around in Tampa, wherever you may be in North America or Australia, called 1800 Got Junk.
Beck: Okay.
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: I left business school to go find something else to do that could capture my attention better than the four walls of academia. And at the time, there was t three very popular organizations to work for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee, Lululemon, which was founded in Vancouver, and 1 800 Got Junk.
Beck: You're Canadian.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: I am. I reside in New
Beck: Awesome.
Michel Falcon: York. I reside in New York now though. That is home.
Beck: Okay, okay, okay.
Michel Falcon: So I chose one of Henry God Junk. They had just come had just been recognized as the best workplace in Canada, has a mid-sized company, and I knew I wanted to go learn f entrepreneurship from an entrepreneur. Spent my time there. They had a slogan, it's all about people. Company culture, the this was they were one of the pioneers of company culture, I would say in North America, and that sounds pretty
Beck: Good.
Michel Falcon: profound. Yeah. They were talking about it since like in 2004, before I joined in 2007. And yeah. Exactly. But
Beck: Sounds like a culture hipsters. We we were we were into culture before it was cool.
Michel Falcon: it's not culture like platitudes on the wall and slogans
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: and such. It's like how does it actually grow a business? And I had a front row seat to it, my real world MBA, and I I joke, but I was like, I can't believe I'm being paid to learn this much because I just left an institution that where I had to pay to learn.
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: And learn w was in quotations when I was in academia. and that's you know, I'm just not an academic in that respect. But it was one eighty god junk and and I went off to go consult after because I was like, I have all this value now. I heard consultants make lots of money. And I was in my mid twenties and I found out that they do and they have great margins. And I was able to take the education that I got from a company like 1 800 Yacht Junk, who now are like a half a billion dollar company, started with one guy in a pickup truck knocking on doors saying, Can I get you know, going to Chad's home and saying, Will you pay me to get rid of stuff you no longer want anymore in your basement? Now it's like the FedEx of
Chad: Yes, please.
Michel Falcon: junk removal. Right? And you know, how I run my restaurants, there's some strong lines that are drawn back to my time at one eight hundred Godjunk and now I live in New York with my my wife and my dog and I have restaurants in Toronto and in New York with another one opening in a couple of weeks.
Beck: Fantastic. Chad.
Chad: So Michelle, one of the thing you are a keynoter, right, as well. And so one of the things you use to describe what you do is futurist setting up teams that are futuristic, never before seen cultures and customer experience. I thought that that's interesting way of approaching your topic and what you what you dive in on. And so I'm curious, what is that bar that we have yet to hit? in culture today, even good cultures today, that you think is possible for organizations to hit that's futuristic.
Michel Falcon: Well, a number of things. The first one that comes to mind is how we approach relationships and its foundation foundational principles. So I like to behave in the workplace as I do with personal relationships. That makes it authentic. I'll give you a real world example. I have friends that I've been friends with since nineteen ninety-eight. And those relationships Endured for decades because there is an understanding that we do right by each other as friends, we meet in the middle, and that is an enduring relationship. The same with my relationship with my wife. We've been together for 10 years, and it's we meet in the middle. And as soon as one person decides that they're not going to meet in the middle, that's when the fracturing of the relationship happens. What if we took that same thought and theory?
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: Into the relationships we have in our workplace. Well, Michelle, no, no, no, no. That's personal and this is business. Sure, but at the end of the day, it's humanity, human expectations that need to be met. Beyond that, there could be some subtle differences between the relationships that we have. So to be able to create that never seen before experience within our workplaces so that our Customers and our guests have that never seen before experience. We need to reframe what these experiences actually are stems from and what the foundation of those are. And it sounds a bit, you know, fluffy, but it's true because what we're building aren't just teams, it's a a study of human behavior. It starts there. And that's why it's so difficult for companies because we actually have to act like therapists and psychologists. Because That's where our our minds need to go in establishing these relationships. System, process, all this stuff that comes after.
Beck: so so the the reason I'm in a pensive moment here is we had a guest on the show at Prosper that is a well-known industry leader that thinks a little bit differently, thinking that it that there's a little bit upside down with how people are about culture, that it's the guest first always, then your people. And so I'm a little bit curious. So when you think about your book, People First Culture, some leaders hear that immediately think it's soft. Why do you believe it's actually one of the hardest and smartest business strategies?
Michel Falcon: I just don't see why anybody would go above and beyond for you and the company if you're not going above and beyond for them. Why would my to to use my theory that I had shared a moment ago in practice? Why would my wife serve me if I didn't serve her? Why would my friends not pick me up from the airport if I wasn't willing to do it for them? If I ask, if I want a customer experience. That goes above and beyond. It is human nature for the person that I'm asking to go above and beyond to think what's in it for me. It
Beck: Hmm.
Michel Falcon: might not sound great, but that's true. And they might be thinking it in their minds much differently than those words. But it's true. And, you know, I will draw in compensation as an example. I have a lot of been on a lot of podcasts, I've said this on on stages. If you wanna pay minimum wage or anywhere near that, expect minimum effort. It's it's fair. Let's just use the word minimum and transcend
Beck: In N Out's a really good example of that, right? They have a limited menu, but they pay their people really well and they execute.
Michel Falcon: Part of the reason why they have a limited menu is so that their food costs can be in check so that they can actually have more money to be able to give to their employees. Right. It that's just simple math that I learned in elementary
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: school. It's literal elementary school math. I I don't think the customer is always right. And I don't think the customer comes first. They they could come second, and there's nothing wrong with that. have great companies been built where customer service is paramount. But they might have a reputation for not being great workplaces. Yeah. It's called Amazon. Right? The world's
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: most the world's most customer centric company. That was one of their taglines in the nineties
Beck: Mm.
Michel Falcon: and into into two thousands. But if you ask people that work in the warehouses or the delivery drivers, do you like working for them? They may say no. Now, you know, I I'm hesitant to use that as an example because it's such a media headline to be like Amazon's a terrible work place to work. Well Speak to somebody named Jalen who used to work at Brassa, who now works at Amazon. He loves it. Right. So always it's always interesting to see like is that place really a bad place to work? Or or is the media just putting that into a headline and it's sensationalism? For the
Beck: Or your own point of reference, right?
Michel Falcon: Exactly. and so back to to for the individual that said the customer always comes first, here's the beauty of it. Everybody's allowed to have their own opinion. Build your company however which way you want. I don't preach from stage and say this is the only way to do things. No,
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: do not find religion in the words that come from my mouth. It's simply something that I have chosen to do to build my company. And seemingly it's going well.
Beck: Well, I I I think their their example, like think of that hard hitting Michelin star, two Michelin star kitchen. They're not, please, could you go get me this thing? And you know, if that that'd be really sweet if you did, and if you could get around to it, and I'm really looking at your safe space when they want to execute perfect plating, perfect execution, perfect delivery, perfect guest experience. That might not feel so fluffy in the mix, but the bar is really high. Right. But that's also culture,
Michel Falcon: For sure. And and there's something
Beck: right? A high a high bar is also part of culture.
Michel Falcon: There is no right or wrong company culture for companies. So be it that it's you know integral and ethical, I think that is a bare minimum. But the company culture of Zappos dot com,
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: one of their core values, I don't know if this is remains true, but when Tony Shea built the company, it's like be weird was one of their core values. Right? Do you yeah?
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: I'd fit in nicely. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: The company culture of Nike. Is different than Zappos. Neither of them are better or worse. It's
Beck: Yes. No.
Michel Falcon: just what makes sense for you. Just like my relationship with my wife is a certain dynamic. Doesn't make us any more in love than the next couple. So
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: that's the thing about company cultures you get to define it the way that you want to define it as a leader. And if you can find a tribe of people that see the same thing that you see, great. But that does not mean that they're gonna work well at another company and you know. individuals that do well at other companies probably would be rejected at Brass.
Beck: That made that's a really good point. You have to drink the Kool Aid. Chad.
Chad: So, Michelle, it sounds like the kind of c culture you're building and have built and are advocating for for your kind of team dynamic that that you're seeing work, it's highly relational, right? And you know, there's there's a responsibility of everybody in that relationship to treat the other person well. So I'm curious, what burden does that put on you guys in the hiring process to make sure you're getting the right kind of people in that can play well in that dynamic?
Michel Falcon: Yeah, I I describe our company culture as friendly, high performance. I like friendly people, right? Because I think that's a bedrock of hospitality. And high performance. Just because you're friendly but don't perform well doesn't mean that you're going to last long. And if you're high performer or not friendly, you're not gonna last diff definitely not going to last long. So the barriers that we have is friendly in a world where kindness isn't as regarded as society allows it to be. It's hard to find kind people in this world. For whichever re for whatever reasons. One of the interview questions we ask in the application is, have you ever been called kind before? If they select no, we don't move on. It's not my responsibility
Beck: Muska.
Michel Falcon: to Yeah, it it's not my job to teach you how to be kind. You learned that when you were six by somebody. And whoever taught you that, you owe them a debt of gratitude. So fishing for it and front loading this, it may I tell you about our interview process? It it's it's it it's extraordinarily bizarre. And I've had so many people tell me it's not gonna work when I first
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: started. So My industry has like a hundred percent year over year turnover typically around in and around there, sometimes higher.
Beck: If you're lucky.
Michel Falcon: Yeah, exactly, right? and I knew that this was a problem. So I was like, you what, we have to front load our effort. So Chad, let's say Chad wanted to apply to become a a frontline team member. And we, you know, famously pay twenty one percent higher than in industry peers for similar roles. But Chad, you're going to apply. you're gonna read we're gonna ask you to read a four page cr we call it a career description, not a job description. Cause I don't like the word job. job by definition is compensation for ordinary work. I read that, I was like, that sounds terrible. I don't want
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Yeah, it sounds like a moment in time also, right? I I did the job.
Michel Falcon: anything well, ordinary, like I want extraordinary. I don't want ordinary.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: So we call it a career. Just seems something you can grow into. you're gonna read that within that career description, there's also four videos that are gonna take you about 20 minutes to watch. And then you have to fill an application which has about 20 questions, and then you may get a virtual group interview and we'll make a decision right there. So we're asking the candidates to put in about an hour and a half of effort. In an industry that's typically like, hey, fill out this application in fifteen minutes and and if you have a pulse we'll hire you. Isn't that part of the problem? In that we're rushing people
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: in. What if we were more intentional? What if we treated the interview process like the dining room table in your home where not everybody gets to sit at the table? And guess what? A lot of people do not make it to the inter to finish the application. They drop out, they're like, I'm just gonna go to the with the company go work with the company that will hire me on the spot. Well, sure. but you're definitely not getting that starting wage that we pay. You know, we wanna show we want individuals to show themselves who are you? Are you willing to put in the effort to get this hiring paying job? Because if you show that with enthusiasm, that's likely how you're gonna show up in the workplace. We front load everything. There's a reason why we only have this year we're trending to fourteen percent year re I'm sorry, fourteen percent employee turnover only. That's a high year. Last year we were at nine percent. And it's not because we don't get rid of low performers, we absolutely do, but we've solved this massive pain point in the industry by front loading the work within the interview process.
Beck: Yeah, you you put in the great filter, so to speak, right there. I I think, you know, if you if we think about modern hiring, it's I walk by a restaurant, I see a QR code on a wall, I zap it, my AI fills in the form, it sends it over, it goes to the job listing site. I have no emotional investment or involvement whatsoever in the process. The person looking at it will look and find who's geographically convenient to me, first score, second score. Have I done something like that? And after that, it's okay. Well, when can you start essentially, right? But you're not Feeling out soft skills, people skills, the willingness to put in work to get the job in the first place. Right. I think that's a huge qualifier.
Michel Falcon: Yeah, one of the questions we ask, which I enjoy, is tell us of a company that delivers amazing customer service to you. And if they say I don't know or give us a an answer without great detail, we typically don't move forward to an interview with that individual because how can you deliver great customer service if you don't even know what it looks like?
Beck: All right, Chad, I'm gonna ask you what what's your what's which is yours and I'll tell you mine.
Chad: Great customer service. how quickly should I have the answer, Michelle?
Michel Falcon: d you can sit on it for as long as you want.
Beck: But for the show.
Chad: yeah, so I because I have a documentary I just saw, I'm gonna go back in time, right? Because it triggered this memory.
Beck: Yeah.
Chad: So back way before the internet, if you got stuck playing a video game, you could pick up the phone and call Nintendo or call Sega. This is real people. And I would wake up
Michel Falcon: I didn't know this, and I played that. No way.
Chad: at I was stuck on a game, I would wake up as a kid at 4 a.m. And my you know, where time I had to wake up to have a chance of beating the line. And I called them and I remember to this day that like they how well they knew the game and be able to help me with the thing. And that's not why I remember the story. They after they QA and solving my problem, they sent me in the mail, they got my address and sent me in the mail all of these game guides. And that when that arrived, I'm like, dang, it made an impression. Great
Michel Falcon: Well.
Chad: service. No way is that happening today with any company in the in the industry, but that was my first recollection, earliest stage of amazing customer service.
Beck: All right. All right. So my knee-jerk response is Disney right away because you just think about all the stuff they put into making that great experience at the at the park. But I think a recent experience, I could say Ritz Carlton. Right? Like
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: when you leave, when you leave your room, like the thing I didn't expect, I come back up to my room and I'm a I'm a mess. When I travel, I don't pay attention. I throw stuff around. I'm I'm super bachelor mode in in my room. There's cords and cables everywhere, my toothpases in and all my toiletries are scattered across the sink. I come back to my room. Every cable I had was wrapped nicely with its own little Velcro band around it on the table placed beautifully.
Michel Falcon: Mm, that's nice.
Beck: Everything was pulled out of my shaving kit, put in row perfectly along the thing. A little chocolate was on my pillow, well a little note saying they wish I had a great day. My turn down was already done. Like everything was executed beautifully without ever asking it. It like I couldn't believe that. I so I I would say Ritz Carlton's got customer service down. sorry for a little side journey, but I wanted to see if if we if we could answer that that question.
Chad: Yes.
Michel Falcon: Well you're both hired, by the way. Monday Monday nine AM. We'll have your uniforms ready.
Beck: Cool. All right. All right. I I'm ready. Let's do it. I I wear a large in the shirt. so a quick question though. and you have some definite opinions on this and I'm interested. So what's the biggest mistake you think that leaders make when they think they're building culture?
Michel Falcon: Long term versus short term thinking. company culture is a growth mechanism. It should grow your company. Your employees are more engaged, they sell more, they service better and such. And if done well, it will grow your company. Not just for a quarter, for decades. Here's the problem. When you invest in a relationship, the ROI isn't instantaneous. Right. It drawing to my reinforce my examples from before. My wife didn't love me the f after the third date. She didn't even love me after the third month, I bet. Right? It took effort, effort, effort, effort, and and now here we are.
Beck: Right. Right.
Michel Falcon: We've been trained as leaders to expect things fast since the launch of the internet. Google AdWords, customer tomorrow. TikTok shop ad ten customers tomorrow. There's money to solve a problem, to achieve something, and we've been trained to get it really, really fast since the internet deployed. A hundred percent. The conversion ma when am I gonna s get my conversion metrics over the thing I do for that employee? And you're waiting,
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: okay, when's the ROI gonna come? You know, it it doesn't work that way. Human behavior and hum it's not human nature to think this way. But we've we've our minds have been warped because of the internet and expecting instantaneous results. We have to rewire ourselves to operate like our grandparents did. And I have a new fresh keynote ready to come out into the world. yeah, I'm excited for it.
Beck: Ooh.
Chad: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: And I don't know what the title is just yet. I've got about five options. But it it's essentially just says we need to operate our businesses like our grandparents did. How did they do that? Building genuine rapport with employees and with customers. there was no such thing as PPC and such. that we need to reframe how we are showing up in leadership positions and making sure that we have a balance between immediate results and long term foundational principles.
Beck: Hmm. Hmm. Chad.
Chad: Shell, when you were in the tenth grade, you watched your father lose his restaurant because he was betrayed by someone he trusted. And as you watched that play out, what impact did that have? And and how has it shaped how you are building and protecting your own hospitality business?
Michel Falcon: So when you said the tenth grade, I was like, what did he dig up about me? And is this gonna get me in trouble? But I it's
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: the f my father's story. Got it. I
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: you know, let me start off by saying it was the first time I ever saw my father cry. And that you that still really hits home even right now. What did that teach me is that I saw my father get really hurt, but then bounce back to who he is immediately. He didn't put up and erect big guards around him and close himself off and saying trust nobody mentality. what he taught me from this was that you have to stay true to who you are and there are going to be some bad actors that come across your path. Try to identify them very quickly and remove unapologetically. And and that's what it taught me. With this people first culture paying more, being a decent human being to our teams, have I been burned? All of the time. It's human behavior. I'm not changing who I am. I'm happy with who I am. My wife and my parents and my sister are proud of the leader I am. I'm not changing that. They know me the best. Why would I let one person change my DNA? Not gonna happen. But it is my responsibility. People don't fail, processes do. Something 1-800 got junk taught me. So if somebody has wronged you in the workplace after you invested in them, the process broke down, which is the hiring process. How can we figure this out next time so the bad actors don't come in here? But guess what?
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: Hiring is a guess at the end of the day. I don't care how many systems or
Beck: Right.
Michel Falcon: processes you have, you're making a trying to make the best guess possible.
Beck: Yeah, and you're dealing with people too, right? And in in interview processes and much as in dating, we're gonna get shown the best version of them that they want us to see. And ultimately time will be the proof that removes all doubt as to who they are or aren't in the in the situation. I I I think you we've all gone through this too. Like the best thing about a bad relationship is what we learn from it afterwards. What to look out for,
Michel Falcon: yeah.
Beck: right?
Michel Falcon: Y yeah, on on our third date with my wi my wife, I told her I said, Hey, here are all my blemishes and warts. Laid all out on the table. If you would
Chad: Third day. Okay.
Michel Falcon: I would like I would like to have another date with you. I w the the I
Beck: Way to bring sexy.
Michel Falcon: did say warts and all. I don't know. I am who I am. I but And I said, Hey, I would love to have another day with you. I'm really enjoying myself, but just know that these are my these are my negative bad traits and I'm working on them. And
Beck: Yeah. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: she was like, you know what? She's like, You're a bizarre guy. Like, who does this? I was like, I do, right? And so an interview question that we a that really works for me. So an interview question that we ask in the process, regardless of position, is what is an unbecoming quality we're gonna learn about you in the first ninety days? 'Cause everybody's acting right now.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: Everybody's putting on their best, you know, and it's so interesting. And and I answer that question first, always. Always. And I'll say, let me
Beck: What is yours?
Michel Falcon: answer it first. I'm so impatient. my goodness. And you know, it's I get it from my father. Like we we talk about it as family all the time, like and and my I'm impatient and I become visibly irritable when things aren't done correctly. I'm not a yeller, I'm not a swearer. But I'm visibly irritated when things aren't done properly when it's all been documented, like through system and process. Like when I go into the I'll tell you one thing, guys, that all irks me. When I go into the restaurant, there's three things I'm checking for right away to know if the closing duties were done r properly. In where we keep our takeout bags, were they is it restocked in the morning? Because if it's not, that means somebody did not do their closing the closing checklist properly last night. Are the napkins filled to the top? And are all the beverage cans pointing outwards so the logos are showing? Because
Beck: Mm.
Michel Falcon: those three things are in our closing checklist. So if I walk into the restaurant first thing in the morning and I see those three things, that's my inspection to know if last night went well or not. And yeah, I get irritably frustrated because it's like here I am working very hard to pay 21% more, and I can't even get bags replenished. Nah, that's not a fair shake to me. Remember what I told you earlier, we meet in the middle. You do this, I do this, we'll have a brilliant relationship. But as soon as you start fractioning the relationship for what I care about, well, I'm gonna really question the relationship I have with you. And fair is fair. And if I have to terminate you, I I'll do it unapologetically. I'll still do it with kindness, but I'll do it unapologetically because I know that I showed up for you and it was you that decided that I don't want a relationship with you anymore.
Beck: Well it sounds like you set the expectation too. Let's let's be real. It wasn't, Hey, you didn't do it but you know, I I didn't tell you and I expected I thought you might do it. It was this was the expectation.
Michel Falcon: It's a literal checklist. I'm hiring adults. Last time I I checked.
Chad: Yeah.
Beck: Chad?
Chad: So one of the keynotes topics you've done in the past reminds me of something that we look for in tech companies. So one of the you know, sidebar, we evaluate a lot of different companies in the restaurant tech space. And because it's so hyper competitive, we're looking for, among other things, an unfair advantage they have. And you talk about the unfair experience that if you give guests an amazing experience, it's like a cheat code to like winning them back, right? So What does that look like? What's an unfair experience?
Michel Falcon: Something that's mind bending that has never been seen before in the industry. one of the things related to that is removing bad profits. A bad profit that I was taught by I think it was Fred Reichheld, the one of the creators of the Net Promoter Score. Or or it was maybe Rob Marquet. One of the two, forgive me. a bad profit is when you're nickel and diming your customers. You know, we don't charge extra for avocado at Brassa. Everywhere else does.
Chad: Mm, yeah.
Michel Falcon: If a customer's like, can have some more chicken, we'll ask a a little more or double? just a little more. What do I care about two extra pieces of chicken? I don't care. That's our marketing. Consider that our marketing, value-based marketing. That's what we're gonna call it. And that's what we do call it. so Really looking at it and being customer centric, truly customer centric, operating the business from the viewpoint of the customer and not nickel and diming them, not having bad profits. If a customer comes in and forgets their wallet, are we gonna refuse them? You know what? Having to go thirty-seven stories above in your building and come back down sounds terrible. Here's our meal. Could you come back at the end of the day? May we have your email address just to follow up with you if you happen to forget because life happens. Yeah, no problem. Right? And then that customer comes down and says, Hey, could you actually, you know, get a can I place a catering order too? That's happened. Imagine if we said, No, no wallet, no service. What is this? You know, like I'm thinking of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld, right? Like it's you know, no. Now, if we do that a hundred times. And for those listening, don't try to do it in the restaurant unless you actually forgot your wallet, please. But if if a hundred people that happens a hundred times and twenty of them burn us out, the cost of a meal for us is X. I'm not gonna lose my shirt. But what I am going to be able to do is for the individuals that come back, they're gonna be lifetime customers. That lifetime customer values are in the thousands of dollars. If they bring catering business to us, now we're talking tens of thousands of dollars. What are we splitting hairs about?
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: That's the unfair advantage.
Beck: So so Michelle, spend a minute with us talking about brossa 'cause we haven't dipped into what your restaurant concept is, what it's like, what the experiences when you walk in the door, the delicious things on your menu. Give us an idea of the service model you have.
Michel Falcon: It is the world's first healthy Peruvian fast casual brand. I'm Canadian Peruvian. you said Lomo Saltado earlier. Phenomenal meal. A he the gallina, another phenomenal meal. But guess what? It's quite heavy. You've got sauce, you got rice, you got potatoes. That is not great for the North everyday North American customer. That sounds like a burger or pizza experience. We're like, I'll have that like once a week, maybe, maybe once every two weeks. The total addressable market isn't of traditional Peruvian cuisine is not big enough for what I was trying to build. But then Peru is the birthplace of the superfood. So I thought to myself, why hasn't anybody built a healthy Peruvian brand? A lot of the healthy ingredients that come from Peru are in your cupboards today. Nobody's ever branded it. And I'll give you a perfect example. The Red Bull we know today, Red Bull Gives Me Wings, came from Ty Thailand. It was in a like a medicinal looking bottle. And somebody came, saw it, and was like, I could bring this to North America, but I need to repackage it, rebrand it. And that's very much what brass is. It is not traditional Peruvian food. we started in Toronto in the basement of my friend's coffee roasting facility. I started a little ghost kitchen in one room. And I needed to see if we had product market fit with our menu, talk to customers, not just my family members and friends. By the way, if you're launching something, do not just get advice from family members and friends. They're not gonna give you the truth. yeah, you need strangers
Beck: Echo chamber.
Michel Falcon: that have no emotional attachment to you. And now, you know, locations in Toronto, locations in New York, and we're opening up at Toronto Pearson Airport in the middle of September. of two thousand tw twenty six and you know you know hopefully in a city near you soon.
Beck: Is this a quick service? Fash casual, polish casual? What's the experience?
Michel Falcon: yeah, p yeah, we've been called the Peruvian Kava, the Peruvian Chipotle, by the media, by customers. so it is a fast casual concept, yes.
Beck: And and what's what is the like top superfood in in the on the menu? Is it makka or is it kamu kamu? Like what it what are you talking about here?
Michel Falcon: Okay, so I have a bias to camu camu. So camu camu is a berry that is grown in the Amazon that has more vitamin C than anything in the world. Okay. You can chat GPT, Google it, wherever you do your search. and it grows in Peru. And the reason why I'm partial to it is because I have a little bit of it every single morning in my yogurt and hand on my chest. I have not gotten a head cold in one and a half years since I started doing it, and it is not a placebo. And it grows in Peru, we have a smoothie that'll knock you out. Not only does it have thirty one grams of protein, but it's the strawberry camu camu smoothie. It has thirty one grams of protein and it has the vitamin C equivalent of ten oranges. So by the time that you drank that smoothie, you would have had the vitamin C equivalent of ten oranges because we put in this special superfood from Peru.
Beck: Was it really sour?
Michel Falcon: It's sour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we w it it is quite sour, for for sure. So when yeah,
Beck: Okay. Vitamin C is the pucker. Yeah.
Chad: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: w when I have into my yogurt, I've got like screw face on where it's like, like this is really sour, but so be it.
Chad: So
Beck: Chad.
Chad: Michelle, I was talking to someone else this morning and she was talking about an interview experience she had had, and one of the questions she liked was, Teach us something in two minutes. Just teach us something you you're interested and you know about and you could teach us on. So teach us about superfoods. What is a superfood?
Michel Falcon: A superfood is a a term that just is used to describe very healthy ingredients. It could be in in relation to prew, like quinoa is a superfood, puffed amareth, camu camu, lucma, cacao, things like this. It even goes to more recognized commodities like blueberries, avocado, asparagus, and such. And Peru happens to be able to is recognized as the birthplace of the superfood because of all the microclimates throughout the country. You've got the Andes Mountains, the Pacific, coastline, and then the Amazon. They have so many microclimates throughout the country that they can grow things other countries physically cannot because they do not have the climate to support it. And that was kinda y my Eureka moment when I saw this like better for you categories in all industries gaining popularity, whether it's the Better For You vitamin water or granola bar. And I was I thought there was an opportunity to grow a better for you brand in the fast casual that champion Peruvian superfoods. And because I'm Canadian Peruvian, there's a lot of motivation behind it as well. And you know very proud to be proving and I we're educating so many people that had no idea that these ingredients existed. And you know we've have many customers that have dined with us over a hundred times and we have the data to support that through our mobile app and I you know I I honestly sometimes I think I'm like, Whoa, like this is great. This is great. Earned, but great.
Beck: I'm gonna pivot a little bit because we have a little bit of time left here, but I think there's something interesting what you said before. even quoted saying hospitality isn't limited to restaurants or hotels. How should leaders in every industry think differently about hospitality?
Michel Falcon: It's designed. Hospitality is has to be designed. Hospitality isn't just being kind. That's one element of hospitality. you know, d understanding your different customer touch points from
Beck: Mm-hmm.
Michel Falcon: the very beginning of like awareness hearing about you to loyalty, the last step and everything in between. You have to be very methodical and design this like an engineer. Because if you don't, How are you able to see it from the perspective of the customer? So the term customer journey mapping is such a great tool for brands to use to be able to go through like what the customer actually experiences. And I guarantee you, you do not know everything the customer experiences, right? I'm thinking of a hotel right now. Did you think about the valet experience? You know, that's a big one. Right? The bathrooms and such, you know, all these touch points. And it's when you map it all out. That is hospitality. And it's cumbersome. But every company must look at their businesses from a hospitable lens. And when you s see it all on paper, it can be overwhelming, but just start somewhere. Start in one place. Typically, where I recommend is where's the most bleeding happening? What's the biggest pain point? Start there. but That that's one of the things of hospitality is is really an end to end experience.
Beck: I I agree. Chad, we probably got one more before rapid fire.
Chad: all right. So Michelle, if you weren't doing Brasso, what would you be doing with most of your time?
Michel Falcon: I I recently told a friend that if I didn't get into restaurants, I would probably want to be a pilot. I've said this before, because I'm not the greatest flyer. And the responsibility that pilots have is really mind bending to me. so that would be one thing. I also t and I I kid you not, I told my wife this morning when we were walking our dog Maggie. I wish I did what you guys are doing twelve years ago. Started a podcast. They seem to live cool lives. Right.
Beck: Ha ha ha.
Michel Falcon: No, I and I'm not just saying this because I'm on a podcast and I promised you, again, hand on heart, I said this to my wife this morning. I really should have taken podcasting seriously, because I can string a few words together, right? And I and I love interviewing people and and and having conversation. So Chad, that's how I would answer that question. One More related to our conversation and and truthful and one pretty obscure.
Chad: You might be our future co host, is what I'm hearing.
Michel Falcon: Let's do it.
Beck: There you go. Or field reporter, right? all right. Well, it's time to pivot to our closing round, which is the rapid fire. I don't know if I told you that this was coming, which we're gonna ask you a handful of questions. It should be off the hip, somewhat fun and clipworthy moments that will get people to learn a little bit about you as we do this. You ready, Michelle?
Michel Falcon: Let's do it.
Beck: All right. Best leadership book besides your own.
Michel Falcon: No Rules Rules, written by Reed Hastings and Aaron Meyer.
Beck: One trait every great leader must have.
Michel Falcon: Benevolence.
Beck: Ooh, what's one thing companies overcomplicate?
Michel Falcon: recruitment and interviewing.
Beck: Coffee meeting or boardroom meeting.
Michel Falcon: Coffee meeting. Like without a doubt. yeah.
Beck: Love it. And delicious coffee, no less. All right. Favorite restaurant anywhere in the world.
Michel Falcon: Oof. I would say Forsythia in New York. It's a Roman Italian restaurant. That's the first one that came to mind. So that obviously is makes it very meaningful.
Beck: Okay. one habit that's made you a better leader.
Michel Falcon: Stopping and thinking when I feel emotional towards something and not making just
Beck: I need to take notes.
Michel Falcon: non ma stop.
Beck: Ha ha
Michel Falcon: It probably doesn't matter as much as you think in the moment.
Beck: Well, it's a halt technique, like just take a minute. finish this sentence. People first culture isn't about, it's about.
Michel Falcon: People first culture isn't about being
Beck: Sorry isn't about blank, it's about blank.
Michel Falcon: People first culture isn't about being fluffy, it's about building a company for decades.
Beck: Ooh, I love it. That was good. That was really good. Well mm.
Chad: Very, very good.
Michel Falcon: And for the record, for the record, you guys did not prep me and I had no idea we were about to do that. So anybody listening, those were one hundred percent authentic answers. And I'm happy I can think on my feet. Haven't lost that.
Beck: Yep. I love it too. you'd be a terrible guest. No, and that's one of the things like it's
Chad: Mm.
Beck: funny because when we'll go to more formal settings, they'll Hey, bring your podcast and provide us with all the questions you're gonna ask our guests. Like we don't provide our guest questions. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Michel Falcon: No, I don't like that. I actually reject it. And when I keynote speech during Q and A, they're like, Do you want us to, you know, like plant a couple of questions? I'm like, Plant whatever you want, just don't tell me what the questions
Beck: Yeah.
Michel Falcon: are.
Beck: Yeah. I like bullet points. Like, hey, I want it's a shopping list. These are the t subjects we want to cover during the course of the conversation, but I want to be let the conversation go where it's supposed to, 'cause that you get to much better places, right? well, this
Michel Falcon: Certainly.
Beck: has been great, Michelle. Ab absolutely love it. Chad and I are big fans of of people that are trying to champion Culture in a way that's productive and builds and elevates everybody. Like what Sean Walchief, a friend of ours, says rising tides raids all ships. I also it's another thing. I think this also helps raise the tides. so we're gonna go ahead and close this for now. So everybody, this has been Michelle Falcon. He's an entrepreneur, restaurateur, best selling author of People First Culture and founder of Brasa Peruvian Kitchen. They're located in what part of Canada?
Michel Falcon: In Toronto and in New York.
Beck: In Toronto and in New York. And there are more coming soon from what he says. So stay tuned for that. And Michelle, if somebody wants to engage with you, have a conversation, eat your delicious food, see you at a show or your keynote, where can people find you and contact you?
Michel Falcon: my first and last name, it's I C H E L, not Michael. you can find me pretty much anywhere wherever you spend your time online. And the company, Brass and Peruvian can be found on your popular social media networks. So would love to connect with you, love to serve you, love to engage with you. Any questions that you have about things that I might know, send me a message. I would love to respond. I am, yeah.
Beck: Are you LinkedIn guy? Okay, that's where our most of our audience likes to play. So yeah, you can find him on LinkedIn. And it's like we like to about all of our guests: if you can't reach Michelle, find us, we'll track him down for you. And so make sure you get the conversation you're looking for. but for now, everybody, this has been the Chat GTM podcast. If this conversation challenged your thinking or gave you one idea that you can take back to your team, we'd love for you to subscribe and follow ChatGTM on YouTube or LinkedIn or wherever podcasts are being served. And always. Random acts of kindness, take a minute, sprinkle that stuff everywhere. You never know who's your gonna day or make gonna make better. Just like Michelle spending time with us, sharing his wisdom and insights has made our day infinitely better. You can do that for somebody else too. But for now, it's Michelle Chad and Beck signing off and we'll see you guys on the next one. Wait for you to say goodbye. Perfect. And we're
Michel Falcon: Goodbye everybody.
