346: Cameron Mitchell - Yes Is The Answer, What Is The Question?

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Before we get started, real quick, I wanted to talk
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to you briefly about my book. This is one specific
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project that I will not shy away from promoting, primarily
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because this is my life's work. I've started writing it
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about five years ago. However, I had to reflect on
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the bulk of my life in order to get the
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material on the page. And 70,000 words later, with some
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great editing by a few friends and my publisher, McGraw-Hill,
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it's ready to go. And I firmly believe it can
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make a big impact on leaders of all organizations, regardless
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of shape or size. And my mission is to help
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leaders be more effective because they have so much influence.
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Think about a boss in your life. Perhaps when you
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first got promoted, you probably copied what they did, both
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good and bad. And unfortunately, some of the bad can
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outweigh the good, and that can be damaging. And so
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I realize the power that people in leadership have, and
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I want you to use that power for good. so
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that when you see the wake left behind you, there
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are so many working in a positive manner to create
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a culture that is full of committed people. I firmly
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believe it can help you. I love it if you
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would pre-order to show my publisher McGraw-Hill that we have
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an army of learning leaders that want this book. Go
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to learningleader.com or wherever books are sold and pick up
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a copy of my book, Welcome to Management. Thank you
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so much.
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All right, here we go.
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Welcome to the Learning Leader Show presented by Brixie and Meyer.
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I am Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here.
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Text LEARNERS to 44222 in order to join tens of
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thousands of learning leaders from all over the world. Receive
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Mindful Monday updates when I'm reading, writing, watching, thinking about. Also,
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give you more details on my book, Welcome to Management Texts.
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Learners to 44222. Now on tonight's featured leader, it's the
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great Cameron Mitchell. He's the founder and CEO of Cameron
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Mitchell Restaurants. In 2018, they celebrated their 25th anniversary. He
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employs more than 5,000 people, and his restaurants do $ 300
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million a year in sales. He's also the best-selling author
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of a great book titled Yes is the Answer, What
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is the Question? I met with Cameron in his office
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in Columbus, Ohio. Some of the topics that we discussed,
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his goal setting process and specific details on how you
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can create your own frameworks for exceeding goals. Then he
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shares the five questions all leaders should ask themselves in
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order to build a culture where people want to do
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great work. And then how to deal with rejection. Cameron
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went 14 months without a paycheck while working to raise
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money from investors for his first restaurant. He shares what
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he learned from those tough times and how it made
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him better. His story is remarkable, and there's so much
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we can learn from it to help us be more
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effective leaders. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Cameron Mitchell. All right, Cameron,
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I want to set the stage for you. It was about, what,
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three months ago. We were celebrating. My younger brother got
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inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame, Athletic Hall
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of Fame. He played football here at Ohio State. And
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we were celebrating for the day. And it was really
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important that we were going to have a fantastic dinner.
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And his wife, Laura, my sister-in-law, who is the best,
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she planned the whole day and night. And at night,
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we went for dinner. We went to Del Mar.
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And.
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Oh, you got something here?
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Go ahead.
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Were you there this night?
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No, no, no.
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Okay. So anyway, we're at Del Mar.
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And.
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They bring out all of these appetizers, and every one
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of them were incredible. Then we order a meal, and
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I try not to go overboard with things, but I
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remember I looked at Miranda, and I said, this may
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be the best meal I've ever had. And I thought,
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so my immediate thought was, I want to meet the
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person who created this place. And so that, Cameron, that
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is how I became aware of you, was because I
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ate in one of your restaurants. Obviously, you have many
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of them, and we'll get to that. But because we
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had that dinner at Del Mar, I was blown away
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by the service, by the food, by the entire experience.
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And I thought, I've got to meet that guy. So
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that's why I'm here in your office today in Columbus, Ohio.
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Well, thanks, Ryan. It's great to hear. I'm glad you
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had a terrific experience.
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You're welcome. It was great. So there's so much to
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get to. But Cameron, one question I do like to
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ask leaders that I speak with from all over the
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world is, for a living now, I study leaders who
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sustain excellence, right? over an extended period of time. Not
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the ones who just have a little bit of success,
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but the ones who have been able to have this
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upward trajectory to continuously sustain excellence. Not that there's not
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bumps in the road, of course there are. But from
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your perspective, when you think of the people in your
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life that you surround yourself with, or just your own story,
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what have you found to be the commonalities among leaders
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who sustain excellence?
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Well, I think leaders who sustain excellence believe in people.
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And they trust in people. And in our case, I've
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got about 5,000 people I'm surrounded with at Cameron Mitchell
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Restaurants and a wonderful leadership team. And people have been
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with me 15, 20, 25 years. And we have built
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this company wrapped around our culture and values. And that
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strong culture and values has become the backbone of our organization,
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which helps maintain our quality throughout the system for many,
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many years.
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I also know, I want to get to your story
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because it's a fascinating one that I think people listening
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could be inspired by and learn a lot from because
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there are a lot of points in it, a lot
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of moments throughout. You appear to me to be a
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very goal-oriented, goal-driven person, starting at an age... earlier than
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I think most people understand the value of writing down goals.
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Can you share with, with me your thought process and
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maybe some of the stories around you write the yellow
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notepad and you writing your goals at a young age
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and why that's been so meaningful for you?
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Yes, I've been, I believe in goal setting since a
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very young age and, and, uh, in the power of
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goal setting. And I still to this day, uh, set
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my goals. So, Here on my desk over here, I
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have on my legal pad, which I've been using for
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so many years, these are my fourth quarter goals written
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down here. So I keep them to my right at
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all times. And I'm in my fourth quarter of my career,
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so thus the title of the fourth quarter goals. And
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I describe it in my book, Yes is the Answer,
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What's the Question? And I tell the story about when
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I had that moment of that epiphany, if you will,
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I was 18, right out of high school, going nowhere,
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working for beer money in restaurants, living at home with mom,
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and just kind of trying to figure out what I'm
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going to do. And during shift change on a Friday afternoon,
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this restaurant was just very, very busy, and it was
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chaotic and pandemonium, I like to say, in the kitchen.
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And manager's barking orders, and I was behind the line
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about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, getting ready to leave
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and come back. I had to come back for a
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double shift that day at 8. hour later and be
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a host and I was going to go home and
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change and it just hit me like a ton of
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bricks that you know this is what I'm going to
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do the rest of my life I love this business
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so I don't know how I did it but instinctively
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I got home that night and I wrote out my
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goals and I want to be president of a restaurant
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company since I was 35 when I was by the
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time I was 35 I was going to go to
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the Culinary Institute of America which I'd heard about as
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the Harvard of culinary schools and to get a great
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culinary education in order to be president of a restaurant company.
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Then intermediate steps along the way, become general manager at
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24 and regional at 26 and vice president of operations
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at 30. And I woke my mom up at one
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in the morning and shared her with my goal, my
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goals with her. And that just turned it around. I
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went back to work the next day, 180 degrees. I'd
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actually been suspended and put on probation for three days
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for being late, or 30 days for being late and
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won too many times. And was lazy and so forth
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and just totally turned my whole life around literally overnight
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and on Saturday I was working for my future, my
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career and I became the hardest working guy in the
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kitchen with the best attitude literally in a 24 hour
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period and so I've used goals throughout the rest of
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my life and like I said I still have them
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today and working towards the next chapter of my career
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and when you have your goals and writing them down
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is just one thing, it's just one step, you need
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to share your goals with everybody. And I was sharing
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them with my mom. And when you share your goals, one,
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it commits you to them. When you share them with others,
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it's one thing if they're inside of you and it's easy.
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And God knows, I've said, I'm going to start a diet,
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you know, Monday and by Monday at lunch, I'm having
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a double cheeseburger.
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That's going to be hard for a restaurant guy with
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all this good food to be on a diet.
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Yeah, excuse me. So anyways, so those goals usually don't
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last long, but it's the It's the goals that you
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write down that you plot out and you plot your future.
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And they become very, very empowering. And then people also
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want to help you achieve your goals too. So the
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more you can share your goals with others, the more
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they become involved in you. and helping you get to
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where you want to go.
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You mentioned the CIA, Culinary Institute of America, and I
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read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Amazing book, too, in
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addition to Yes is the Answer, What is the Question?
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And I'm fascinated by this because he went there, you
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went there, and you rave about it. I know you're
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still a big supporter of it. What did you... how
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did that set you up for your future by going
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to the Harvard of the culinary Institute? And, and one,
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I'm curious, how did you get in?
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Cause that's hard.
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I know you've written about a little bit in your book,
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but how did you get in and how did that
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set you up for your future?
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Well, again, the first part is how did I get in?
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And I got turned down the first time I applied
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cause my high school grades were so poor. I finished
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a five 92 out of five 97 in my class
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rank and a 1.05 GPA and high school. I had
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the can do, I didn't have the will do. And,
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So now I got turned down because of my high
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school grades. So I went to Columbus State Community College
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here and took some math and English courses and got
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A's and reapplied. And I used my can-do attitude at
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that point. So because my goal was to get to
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the school, I wasn't really going to take no for
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an answer. It was just a momentary setback when I
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got turned down.
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No meant not yet, right?
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Yeah. And finally got accepted. We joke about it. It's
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kind of funny that I eventually became the first ever
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alumni board chair of the board and And I'm second
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largest donor in the school's history of alumni donor and
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fell in love with the school and have been involved
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with it ever since. But, you know, and they didn't
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want to get me in at first, so we kind
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of have that little laugh. But anyways, I finally got in.
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And so that's just another example of having those goals
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and getting in there. And then the CIA itself is
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an institution that really teaches you from day one about,
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you know, the kitchen and kitchen discipline and education. and
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quality and the standards and the drive and, um, and
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they're the leader in hospitality education, culinary education in the world. And,
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and they've maintained those standards over the years and actually, uh,
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today are, are unsurpassed. It's unbelievable what they've done up there. So,
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so I think, you know, part of my recipe for
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success to everybody is to get the best education you can.
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And that's, that's one key component to it. And, uh, self-study,
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I self-study a lot too. Um, I was used to
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discipline myself, too, to, you know, instead of going out
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and having beers with friends at night, I would do
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that a couple nights a week. But the rest of
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the time I would sit home and make sure I
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was studying and reading every trade journal I could and
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so forth.
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I saw, too, that. you want to have a hundred
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straight days. Talk about work ethic. You had a hundred
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straight days. I guess I read this in your book.
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Correct.
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Without a day off. And that was while you're at CIA.
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And it was, you had an hour and 45 minute
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commute one way, I believe.
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Right. Right.
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And you, and that was just part of your makeup.
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Yeah.
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Sometimes you, I think it's important to share. You look
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at you now and you're like, wow, what a beautiful office.
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You got all this money, you fly everywhere. But, All
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of the work that's led up to this point is amazing.
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I think it would be short-sighted of us not to
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mention the type of work that it's taken you to
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get here. What was that like, and what was your
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mindset during those 100 days? And, you know, there's many
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more since then.
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Yeah, so I got up at 6 in the morning
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every Saturday and Sunday and drove down to the city
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and worked in the city. I wanted to get my
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New York restaurant experience, and I did that on the weekends,
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and so drove down and back every Saturday and Sunday,
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and A lot of tiring drives, driving up the Taconic
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Parkway on Sunday evening, going back to school. But to me,
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I was just committed to this was just part of
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my education. I was there to get an education. I
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was there to grow and learn. And so I was
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going to take full advantage of that as I moved along.
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But there's always interesting parallels. You look at someone's outward success,
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and you forget how much Next year, I celebrated 40
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years in the restaurant business. So this didn't happen overnight.
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This was a series of one step at a time
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and hundreds of thousands of steps along the way. But
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the goal setting, again, my goal was to not only
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be president of a restaurant company, that's one thing, but
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to be successful at it. And I want to build
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a company that's going to be around for 50, 60, 70, 80,
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100 years long after I'm in the big restaurant in
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the sky. And there's a lot, lot to that. But
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you know, I always equated myself to, you know, the,
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the doll that would stand up and you'd punch it
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and go down and pop right back up. And I
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don't forget, I forget what it's called, but that's really
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what I was, what, what I was like. I mean,
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it was, uh, uh, you know, you could knock me down,
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but I would get right back up and it was, yes, sir,
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may I have another and doing whatever I needed to do.
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Was that innate in you or did you have to
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develop that skill?
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Well, it was innate. I mean, it was, That's your
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old question about leadership. Learn as a nature versus nurture.
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And I think with my leadership, you know, I've always,
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you know, it was me, Cub Scouts, you know, working
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up to my Cub Scout leader, you know, or whatever.
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I did that and it was kind of in my nature,
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but I was also pretty lazy growing up. But, you know,
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once I got committed to my goals, then hard work
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is just a part of that. You cannot have success
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and you cannot build a life like that without uh
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committing to hard work and and um it's they're they're
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not mutually exclusive.
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Who did you look up to when you were a
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kid i know they're your family they're they're it's well
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documented in your book about your dad and and everything
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so i'm curious who did you look up to.
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Well once i got serious about the restaurant business i
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started to read books from you know various leaders within
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the industry and Rich Melman is one of my idols
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in Chicago. He's the greatest restaurateur ever in the country,
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in my opinion. Dave Thomas, Dave's Way with Wendy's. Got
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to know him later on in life before he passed away.
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Became a friend of his. Norman Brinker, Brinker International. So
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there's a lot of industry luminaries that I studied. And
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they were mentors of mine, even though they didn't know it.
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And so you take a lot of from people's lives
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and apply them to your own lives. Yeah.
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Can you, one of the reasons why I wrote the
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book is highly encouraged people to read it. Um, can
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you share the symbolism of a milkshake with us?
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Um, the milkshake to me is the, has become the
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symbol of hospitality in our company. We have, uh, always
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since day one, our culture, yes, has been the answer. So,
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but it wasn't until, uh, 2000 in, so we started
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in 93. So it was 2002. I was in a
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local restaurant with my wife and my, um, in-laws and
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my two kids. I have three at the time now,
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but at the time I had a four-year-old son and
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a two-year-old son. And my wife did not want to
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go to this restaurant. You know, take care of kids.
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It's Saturday afternoon. And I said, you know, I want
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to see a dish there. I wanted to go.
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Really nice, like upscale type. Yeah.
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And we get there and, uh, you know, I order a, uh,
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grilled cheese for my son. And they said, we don't
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have grilled cheese. I said, okay. So I ordered a
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club sandwich, all the turkey, ham, lettuce, bacon, tomato, middle
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slice of bread. And if you could saute what's left
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in a pan on each side for me, it'd be great.
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So I got my grilled cheese. And then I wanted
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a small chocolate shake. And she said, well, we can't
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do that. All we have is a big Haagen-Dazs, 32 ounce,
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like soft serve milkshake. It's way too big. And we
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just can't do that. I'm sorry. And so I asked
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her to ask her manager to come over and talk
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to me. So the manager comes over. Ask your manager.
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Manager shakes her head no. She comes back and says
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she can't do it. I said, we have your manager.
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Come over and talk to me. And my wife starts
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kicking me under the table. Don't do this. Don't make
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a scene. I go, I'm not going to make a scene.
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I just want to know why. So she comes over
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and says, I apologize. We can't make it because we
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pre-portioned the ice cream in the back. And if we
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make a small milkshake for your son, what will we
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do with the rest of the ice cream? Now, of course,
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I know that's absolutely not true. I'm in the restaurant business.
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No one's back there pre-portioning ice cream to make milkshakes
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and so forth. So I said, okay. I said, can
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I get a chocolate milk? And she said, yes. And
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part of our culture is great people delivering genuine hospitality.
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So now she is great people delivering genuine hospitality by
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getting me a chocolate milk. And she's bending the rules.
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I don't even think they had chocolate milk on the menu.
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So I said, okay. She turns to walk away, and
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I said, hold on a second. On your menu here,
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you had a warm carrot cake and a warm brownie dessert.
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And it said a la mode $ 2. 95. I said, what's
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a la mode mean? She goes, well, it's a scoop
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of ice cream to go with the dessert. I said, great.
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Can I have an order of a la mode to
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go with that chocolate milk you're going to make me?
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And if you could whip that up in a blender
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for me, that would be terrific. And so she chastises
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me at the table and says, that'll be expensive, sir.
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I said, it's fine. I can handle it. No problem.
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And so she leaves table to get my chocolate milkshake now.
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And my wife's fuming. We're never coming here again. I
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told you this. And so a couple weeks later, I'm
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the keynote speaker at the Hyatt Regency downtown. 500 people
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for business lunch. And I talk about the answer is yes.
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What's the question? And in our company. And that wouldn't
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have happened in our company. And about two weeks later,
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a gal comes up to me on the street and says, hey,
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my husband saw you speak. Wanted to take you up
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on your milkshake story and went into one of your
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restaurants in the bar and tried to order a chocolate milkshake.
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And the bartender said, we don't make chocolate milkshakes here.
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We don't do that. Meanwhile, we have everything we need
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to do that. And she tells me this in the street.
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It's like she punched me in the gut right in
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the middle of the street. shouldn't realize it but and
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i go into our monday morning leadership meeting fired up
396
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and i said you know what are people to understand
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yes is the answer what's the question we have to
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further drive that message home because it's not fully resonating
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with our people so we start to think about brainstorm
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how we're going to do that and and so we
401
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well so let's tell the milkshake story to our people
402
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that's great and let's make the milkshake the icon of hospitality,
403
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and yes is the answer, and great people delivering treatment
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in hospitality, well, that's great, how are we going to
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do that, you know, and so we, we said, well,
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we started brainstorming our milkshake pins for people, we, at
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our pit stops, our pre-shift meetings, we can do a
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milkshake toast on Saturday to the person that went above
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and beyond the call of duty, and so forth, and,
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and that's great, and it's just not enough, and we
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start to keep going, and We said, well, at orientation,
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everybody goes through four-hour orientation with our company about our
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company culture and values and the basic expectations and so
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forth and what to expect and their training schedules and
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so forth. And I said, well, let's make a chocolate
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milkshake as we tell the story to everybody their first
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day of work for our orientation and ingrain that in
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them right from day one. And that's great. That's a
419
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:06.269
great idea. Let's do that. And so And let's do
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a milkshake toast at every major meeting, every cabinet meeting,
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president's roundtable, leadership conference, everything we do. So important people
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coming into the office, we greet them with a milkshake toast,
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et cetera. So today, we make thousands and thousands and
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thousands of chocolate milkshakes a year within our company. And
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there is not a soul in our organization today that
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does not understand the milkshake and does not understand that
427
00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:34.740
yes is the answer. What's the question? I love it.
428
00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:39.500
Uh, part of your process as, as you're building again
429
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with the yellow pad, as you had to write down
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five questions followed up by eight values. And I think
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this could apply for anybody listening, regardless of their, they
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care about the restaurant business, but if they're building any business,
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or even if they're just simply a manager within a
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big organization, which a lot of people listening are in
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a role like that. So can you share the importance
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of the five questions and the eight values that came
437
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from it and how that could potentially apply to really
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anybody in any leadership position? Yeah, sure.
439
00:22:11.779 --> 00:22:14.069
Exactly. And I would take it even a step further.
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It can, they can just apply to anybody personally in
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their life. And so, and these five questions, we call
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them our cultural pillars. And, and, when I was in my,
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when I left my company July 11th of 1992 to
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start what would be Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, I spent the
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first 30 days writing under company culture and value, and
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I remember distinctively, it was the summertime, I had my
447
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shorts on, and And I'm by myself in my one-bedroom apartment,
448
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and I've got poster boards all over the walls and
449
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legal pads everywhere and books and articles, and I'm reading
450
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and writing and editing and creating this company culture and values.
451
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So those five questions, I believe any business has to
452
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be able to ask themselves and be able to... I
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say not only ask themselves, not only be able to answer,
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but I always throw in the words, answer with conviction
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and authority. So... These questions cannot be something that's just
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on the wall or something that's on a piece of paper.
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They need to be understood to the core. And so,
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first and foremost, the question is, you know, what do
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we want to be? And we want to be an
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extraordinary restaurant company by definition. And all these are very
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00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.650
simple because I want them to be very simple and
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very easily understood. And so, the opposite of, by definition,
463
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extraordinary is the opposite of ordinary. So... We want to
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be an extraordinary restaurant company. Secondly, I think any organization
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has to ask themselves, who are we? So we define
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ourselves as great people delivering genuine hospitality. We all know
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great people in our lives. Delivering means someone's receiving. Genuine
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means from the heart. Hospitality is treating guests like we
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treat people in our own homes, guests in our own homes.
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So we are great people delivering genuine hospitality. So we've
471
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asked ourselves what we want to be. We've asked ourselves,
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who are we? Now, uh, as we're going to create
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this business, what is our mission? And our mission is
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to very simply to thrive with both cultural and fiscal responsibility.
475
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And what does that mean? It means, you know, a
476
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CEO of a restaurant company, our number one mission is
477
00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:22.140
not to make a profit. Our number one mission is
478
00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:25.430
to maintain our culture and values. And so, and again,
479
00:24:25.529 --> 00:24:27.509
because I want to be a restaurant company that's been
480
00:24:27.710 --> 00:24:31.859
around for many, many, many years, uh, the key to
481
00:24:31.900 --> 00:24:36.710
doing that is being a culturally and values driven organization.
482
00:24:36.750 --> 00:24:39.970
So that's job number one, job number one, a right
483
00:24:40.009 --> 00:24:41.910
behind it is to make a profit. And I like
484
00:24:41.930 --> 00:24:45.029
to say, make a damn good profit. Everybody knows me,
485
00:24:45.069 --> 00:24:47.539
knows that I drive profit hard. Anybody that works with me,
486
00:24:47.619 --> 00:24:51.200
it's a, it's the lifeblood of a business. So we
487
00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:54.380
drive profit hard and we were always, we measure ourselves
488
00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:56.700
against the top publicly held restaurant companies. And we're always
489
00:24:56.740 --> 00:25:00.029
in the upper 10 percentile or, certainly upper quartile in
490
00:25:00.069 --> 00:25:04.109
terms of profitability, percent of profit in relation to sales.
491
00:25:05.109 --> 00:25:08.230
But we'll never drive profit at the expense of our
492
00:25:08.289 --> 00:25:12.210
people or at the expense of our culture. Perfect examples
493
00:25:12.269 --> 00:25:14.490
of that are we're closed seven major holidays a year
494
00:25:14.539 --> 00:25:17.500
plus Super Bowl Sunday. We could be open those days,
495
00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:21.859
especially Christmas Eve and Christmas and Thanksgiving and make a
496
00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:25.019
lot more money. But it's important for us to our people.
497
00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:27.460
I don't want to work those days. And therefore, I
498
00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:29.240
don't think our people want to work those days. And
499
00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:33.200
so I think that's leadership. But an example right there, how,
500
00:25:33.259 --> 00:25:35.480
you know, you treat others the way you want to
501
00:25:35.500 --> 00:25:38.519
be treated and so forth. So I wouldn't ask others
502
00:25:38.539 --> 00:25:40.200
to do things that I don't want to do myself
503
00:25:40.299 --> 00:25:44.619
or wouldn't do myself. And so that's how we, that's
504
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:47.839
our mission. Okay. So we've asked those three questions. The
505
00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:51.869
fourth question is, you know, what is your role? So again,
506
00:25:51.900 --> 00:25:55.809
those 5,000 associates in our company have, multiple different job descriptions.
507
00:25:55.829 --> 00:25:58.710
I don't know, hundreds of different job descriptions, server in
508
00:25:58.750 --> 00:26:02.329
Beverly Hills or, you know, general manager in Boston or whatever,
509
00:26:02.450 --> 00:26:05.009
you know, president or whatever your case, your title may be.
510
00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:09.160
But we all 5,000 have the same role. And that
511
00:26:09.180 --> 00:26:10.900
is to make raving fans of the five groups of
512
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:14.220
people we do business with first and foremost, our fellow associates,
513
00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:18.180
our guests, our purveyors, our partners in our community. And,
514
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:20.400
you know, we believe that you have to belong to
515
00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:23.779
one of those five constituencies to to have any interaction
516
00:26:23.799 --> 00:26:26.180
with our restaurant company. If we make raving fans of
517
00:26:26.220 --> 00:26:28.980
those five groups of people, we'll make raving fans of
518
00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:32.200
everybody we come in contact with. So that is everybody's
519
00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:35.720
role within the company. And then finally, what is our goal?
520
00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:39.529
Now we all know companies have hundreds of goals, daily goals,
521
00:26:39.569 --> 00:26:42.549
weekly goals, yearly goals. They come, they go, they change
522
00:26:42.589 --> 00:26:45.210
all the time. But we have one goal, it's 24-7, 365.
523
00:26:45.210 --> 00:26:48.289
And then it's to be better today than we were
524
00:26:48.329 --> 00:26:51.349
yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today. And so,
525
00:26:52.099 --> 00:26:55.019
What does that mean? Well, first of all, it creates
526
00:26:55.059 --> 00:26:57.759
a culture of change. You cannot be better at something
527
00:26:57.779 --> 00:26:59.900
today than you were yesterday and better at something tomorrow
528
00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:02.140
than you are today unless you work at it, unless
529
00:27:02.180 --> 00:27:06.539
you are constantly trying to improve your craft and excel
530
00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:08.519
and so forth. And you have to do that by
531
00:27:08.579 --> 00:27:14.930
change and growth. So that's number one. Number two, it's
532
00:27:14.970 --> 00:27:18.910
our insurance policy. If we would sit here today, for example,
533
00:27:18.970 --> 00:27:22.210
and say, you know, Cameron Mitchell restaurants, we agree very quickly.
534
00:27:22.250 --> 00:27:25.009
Cameron Mitchell restaurants is somewhat of a successful restaurant company.
535
00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:27.799
We could debate for hours how successful, but we would
536
00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:31.460
agree with that simple statement. And so if we're better
537
00:27:31.500 --> 00:27:34.279
today as a company than we were yesterday and better
538
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.880
tomorrow than we are today by that alone, tomorrow will
539
00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:40.549
be more of a successful restaurant company than we are today.
540
00:27:41.089 --> 00:27:44.150
And so, uh, that's our, that's our goal and our
541
00:27:44.170 --> 00:27:47.470
business goals. So those five questions. So we think about them,
542
00:27:48.109 --> 00:27:52.269
you know, um, how does that apply to an individual? Well,
543
00:27:53.299 --> 00:27:55.450
my role is to make Raven fans of everybody. I
544
00:27:55.490 --> 00:27:57.920
come in contact with my life, my friends, my family,
545
00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.299
my church, my workmates, whoever I come in contact, you know,
546
00:28:01.339 --> 00:28:03.500
those five groups of people that I come in contact,
547
00:28:03.980 --> 00:28:07.220
you know, my goal in life is to thrive with
548
00:28:07.259 --> 00:28:10.420
both cultural and fiscal responsibility, you know? So I want
549
00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:13.500
to be a good person. I want to be fiscally responsible.
550
00:28:13.539 --> 00:28:15.779
I want to, I want to grow my life. So it, uh,
551
00:28:17.630 --> 00:28:19.589
I want to be better today than I was yesterday.
552
00:28:19.609 --> 00:28:21.210
I want to be better tomorrow than I am today.
553
00:28:21.230 --> 00:28:24.000
So these are not only business goals, I think, and
554
00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:27.460
questions and pillars that I think people could, and applies
555
00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:31.140
to all, every spectrum of business. I think people can
556
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:32.670
use it for their personal lives. And I've heard it.
557
00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:35.059
I've gotten hundreds of letters from people who have left
558
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.200
our company to pursue other ventures and say, thank you
559
00:28:38.309 --> 00:28:41.690
for sharing that with me. And It's made an impact
560
00:28:41.750 --> 00:28:44.750
on my life individually and my life within my new
561
00:28:44.809 --> 00:28:46.890
company today that I'm at. So it's been good.
562
00:28:47.109 --> 00:28:50.829
I mean, you're speaking my language, Cameron, like learning leader,
563
00:28:50.910 --> 00:28:52.910
like my favorite. The reason I entitled the show that
564
00:28:52.970 --> 00:28:55.220
five years ago was because the people I really look
565
00:28:55.299 --> 00:28:59.019
up to, the leaders, the bosses, coaches, anybody in my
566
00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:02.700
life is because they were striving to constantly be better
567
00:29:02.740 --> 00:29:05.059
the next day. And the saying we use, which I
568
00:29:05.099 --> 00:29:09.009
learned from JJ Redick, is never arrived, always becoming, regardless
569
00:29:09.089 --> 00:29:13.980
of any achievement you get to, you're constantly striving to
570
00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:16.519
improve and get better and better. So I love hearing that.
571
00:29:16.980 --> 00:29:19.160
What does that look like for you on a daily basis?
572
00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:21.539
I was looking around your office before you got in here,
573
00:29:21.559 --> 00:29:25.839
all your books, you're obviously well-read, you have surrounded yourself
574
00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:27.940
with an incredible team, which I've read about in your book.
575
00:29:28.329 --> 00:29:30.730
What is the daily process to make sure Cameron Mitchell,
576
00:29:30.750 --> 00:29:34.069
a guy who's already achieved amazing levels of success in
577
00:29:34.130 --> 00:29:37.430
multiple areas of life, to keep going though?
578
00:29:38.569 --> 00:29:41.059
Well, I don't know that I have a specific routine
579
00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:44.380
or anything like that. Um, and I wouldn't say I'm
580
00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:47.980
real well read. Uh, I've read a lot of 40
581
00:29:47.980 --> 00:29:51.970
pages of books. I put them down and I move
582
00:29:52.049 --> 00:29:53.690
on to the next one and so forth and skim
583
00:29:53.710 --> 00:29:56.650
through them. But, um, I still to this day have
584
00:29:56.690 --> 00:29:58.069
to force myself to read.
585
00:29:58.170 --> 00:30:00.470
Good to Great was a big influence on you though. Absolutely.
586
00:30:00.509 --> 00:30:02.589
That's one of the few that I've read cover to
587
00:30:02.630 --> 00:30:07.450
cover a couple times. And yes, a huge impact. So anyways,
588
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:13.480
I think it's a mentality that is ingrained in me
589
00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:17.400
that I'm constantly thinking, maybe even to a fault sometimes,
590
00:30:17.460 --> 00:30:20.359
that I'm not satisfied with where we are. We can
591
00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:23.980
be better. And so I'm constantly pushing our people on
592
00:30:24.069 --> 00:30:26.900
how to think Outside the box, how to think, you know,
593
00:30:27.339 --> 00:30:29.059
not what's right in front of you, but think about
594
00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:33.390
where we could be or we could, you know, versus, well,
595
00:30:33.549 --> 00:30:36.329
we're just slow today or we just, you know, that
596
00:30:36.769 --> 00:30:39.410
restaurant isn't resonating like we want it to or whatever,
597
00:30:39.539 --> 00:30:42.750
you know. We can always be better. We can always make,
598
00:30:42.789 --> 00:30:44.509
it's an endless pursuit as you were talking.
599
00:30:44.529 --> 00:30:46.839
Well, it feels like you have a, uh, what Jim
600
00:30:46.890 --> 00:30:50.400
Collins would say as a healthy, productive paranoia.
601
00:30:50.619 --> 00:30:50.839
Yes.
602
00:30:50.980 --> 00:30:54.640
Whereas you're not a paranoid person, but you're, you're, you're constantly,
603
00:30:54.680 --> 00:30:58.000
it's constantly on your mind thinking about, I thought, I
604
00:30:58.019 --> 00:31:00.279
think I heard you say this once that you still
605
00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:03.750
wake up most mornings, if not every morning, nervous and
606
00:31:03.789 --> 00:31:06.390
hope and concerned that, that this is not going to
607
00:31:06.430 --> 00:31:06.970
keep going.
608
00:31:07.049 --> 00:31:11.140
Yeah. Um, Yeah, I'm chicken little, that's for sure.
609
00:31:13.299 --> 00:31:15.460
But to hear that, I think it's two things. One,
610
00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:18.740
it's kind of amazing. It's surprising. But it's also, in
611
00:31:18.789 --> 00:31:21.470
a weird way, reassuring to people. Because they look at
612
00:31:21.509 --> 00:31:24.069
you and say, this guy's living the life. He probably
613
00:31:24.109 --> 00:31:26.990
just puts his feet up and chills. But you're waking
614
00:31:27.029 --> 00:31:29.650
up with the productive paranoia still to this day every day.
615
00:31:29.809 --> 00:31:34.410
Yeah. And I've always said, and I honestly believe this,
616
00:31:34.450 --> 00:31:37.809
that I have fear of failure all the time.
617
00:31:38.130 --> 00:31:38.230
Yeah.
618
00:31:38.250 --> 00:31:42.180
You know? And we've closed restaurants. We've made mistakes. Those things,
619
00:31:42.259 --> 00:31:45.680
I'm not, that's just walking up from the dugout to
620
00:31:45.700 --> 00:31:48.099
home plate and keep swinging. You know you're going to
621
00:31:48.119 --> 00:31:50.049
strike out sometimes. You're going to hit some home runs,
622
00:31:50.109 --> 00:31:54.230
et cetera. But I have this innate fear of failure.
623
00:31:54.789 --> 00:31:58.410
And with that, though, said, I know failure is not
624
00:31:58.430 --> 00:32:02.430
an option. I will never fail. I know that. But
625
00:32:02.930 --> 00:32:05.490
it doesn't change the fear that gets me up every day.
626
00:32:05.569 --> 00:32:09.920
And we have lots of, if I really think about
627
00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:12.529
it hard enough, we have a tremendous amount of responsibility
628
00:32:12.730 --> 00:32:16.769
to our charities that we support, our bank that lends
629
00:32:16.829 --> 00:32:19.809
us money, our partners that invest money, our people that
630
00:32:19.849 --> 00:32:22.390
are building their careers with our company. They count on
631
00:32:22.410 --> 00:32:25.900
me to keep the company in safe harbor and not
632
00:32:26.220 --> 00:32:28.619
drive the ship into the teeth of the storm. So
633
00:32:29.980 --> 00:32:35.089
that weighs on you. And I think, I like your
634
00:32:35.130 --> 00:32:37.769
choice of words, it's a healthy dose of fear. It doesn't,
635
00:32:38.349 --> 00:32:41.390
I don't wring my hands every day. I'm not, uh, uh,
636
00:32:41.470 --> 00:32:44.309
I'm not down in gloom. I have a positive mental attitude,
637
00:32:44.369 --> 00:32:48.710
but I, I, uh, it's that constant, uh, effort to
638
00:32:48.750 --> 00:32:51.470
be better. And because I also know if we're not,
639
00:32:51.930 --> 00:32:55.109
then we ultimately will fail. I mean, we, if we,
640
00:32:55.170 --> 00:32:59.950
the status quo is, is never good enough. And if
641
00:32:59.990 --> 00:33:02.569
you just maintain the status quo, eventually you'll become out
642
00:33:02.589 --> 00:33:06.039
of business. And so, uh, you have to change and evolve.
643
00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:08.250
And I know that. So, So that's the kind of
644
00:33:08.329 --> 00:33:10.410
attitude I guess I approach every single day with.
645
00:33:11.049 --> 00:33:13.759
I know one experience you dealt with, I identified with it.
646
00:33:13.789 --> 00:33:16.150
My first real job after I got played football in
647
00:33:16.190 --> 00:33:18.069
college and a little bit after college and my first
648
00:33:18.130 --> 00:33:22.470
real job, it was an inside sales rep, telephonic professional
649
00:33:22.509 --> 00:33:25.289
organization making 60 to 80 calls a day. And there'd
650
00:33:25.309 --> 00:33:28.190
be some days where you would have 80 times where
651
00:33:28.210 --> 00:33:31.359
they would hang up on you. They would say no, whatever.
652
00:33:31.940 --> 00:33:35.259
So I went through an amazing amount of rejection, which
653
00:33:35.299 --> 00:33:39.180
I thought was such a great experiences for me to
654
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:41.960
go through early in my career. And for you, you
655
00:33:42.140 --> 00:33:46.490
are working, you're fundraising, you're trying to raise money and nine,
656
00:33:46.670 --> 00:33:50.170
you've written nine times out of 10 people are saying no,
657
00:33:50.269 --> 00:33:52.650
and you just had to keep going. What was that
658
00:33:52.710 --> 00:33:55.579
experience like when you're trying to raise money from a
659
00:33:55.619 --> 00:33:59.640
combination of basically anybody, you know, to raise money, to
660
00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:04.299
build your restaurant business from nothing, uh, yet you're still
661
00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:06.319
getting rejected almost.
662
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:07.079
Every single time.
663
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:08.679
Yeah, it was brutal.
664
00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:11.119
This was back in the very beginning when I was
665
00:34:11.139 --> 00:34:13.550
trying to get the first restaurant funded. And, you know,
666
00:34:13.570 --> 00:34:16.809
I couldn't date. I couldn't do anything. And, you know,
667
00:34:16.829 --> 00:34:20.710
dealt a little bit with depression, you know, just low line. But,
668
00:34:20.829 --> 00:34:24.070
you know, because you're getting that rejection. And people are
669
00:34:24.139 --> 00:34:26.599
nice about it, you know. You meet with them and,
670
00:34:27.139 --> 00:34:29.739
you know, we're not going to invest out of that.
671
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:34.409
What they're really saying is no to you and saying
672
00:34:34.429 --> 00:34:35.179
they don't believe in you.
673
00:34:35.269 --> 00:34:37.750
Right. You can't help but take it personal.
674
00:34:37.789 --> 00:34:40.869
Right. Right. So I like to tell one story. I
675
00:34:40.889 --> 00:34:43.909
was during that fundraising effort. I couldn't do it full
676
00:34:43.929 --> 00:34:46.969
time because, you know, I didn't have that many prospects.
677
00:34:46.989 --> 00:34:49.530
I had a couple hundred prospects. But I remember being
678
00:34:49.550 --> 00:34:52.019
in my apartment one day and when you get depressed,
679
00:34:52.059 --> 00:34:54.079
you get tired. So I was, you know, taking a
680
00:34:54.079 --> 00:34:57.119
nap at two in the afternoon. But this is attention
681
00:34:57.219 --> 00:35:00.019
to the little details. You know, the phone would ring.
682
00:35:00.730 --> 00:35:02.829
And I wouldn't answer it on the first ring because
683
00:35:02.989 --> 00:35:04.869
I didn't want people to think for a minute I
684
00:35:04.889 --> 00:35:06.650
was sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. So I'd
685
00:35:06.690 --> 00:35:10.860
get up, stand up, you know, freshen up, hello, you know.
686
00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:14.599
And they didn't know that I was asleep 30 seconds earlier.
687
00:35:14.619 --> 00:35:17.059
So I didn't know if that was a potential partner
688
00:35:17.119 --> 00:35:18.800
on the line. No potential partner is ever going to
689
00:35:18.820 --> 00:35:20.809
invest with you if you're sleeping in the afternoon. So
690
00:35:21.449 --> 00:35:26.349
those little stories. But it goes back to that goal setting.
691
00:35:26.590 --> 00:35:30.659
If I didn't have that, overreaching goal that I was
692
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:32.860
going to be president of a restaurant company and I
693
00:35:32.900 --> 00:35:35.400
was going to start my own restaurant company and that
694
00:35:35.460 --> 00:35:38.079
failure was not an option. I never would have made
695
00:35:38.099 --> 00:35:41.960
it through that. Never, you know? Um, so that's, again,
696
00:35:42.300 --> 00:35:45.159
the power of that goal setting gives you the strength
697
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:48.780
and the internal strength to keep moving and keep moving forward.
698
00:35:48.820 --> 00:35:51.659
And as long as I was moving forward, um, I
699
00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:53.699
could live with myself and it was, you know, slowly
700
00:35:53.719 --> 00:35:54.159
but surely.
701
00:35:54.340 --> 00:35:57.219
Were there moments though through the rejection where you said,
702
00:35:57.929 --> 00:36:00.380
you know, let me just go get a job. I
703
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:02.800
can go work in a restaurant. Let's forget this. This is,
704
00:36:02.940 --> 00:36:04.400
I thought this was, I didn't realize it was going
705
00:36:04.420 --> 00:36:07.420
to be so hard to get my own restaurant business
706
00:36:07.460 --> 00:36:07.920
off the ground.
707
00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:10.320
And I didn't know at the time. Uh, and I
708
00:36:10.380 --> 00:36:12.119
reflect back on today. It was one of the hardest
709
00:36:12.139 --> 00:36:13.179
things I ever did in my life.
710
00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:15.500
And it's almost good that you didn't know. Right. Right.
711
00:36:15.619 --> 00:36:17.619
I've said that many times. Ignorance is bliss to a
712
00:36:17.659 --> 00:36:20.820
certain extent. If I really knew the risk I was taking,
713
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:23.650
if I really knew, I probably wouldn't have done it,
714
00:36:23.739 --> 00:36:26.809
you know? So, So that ignorance was also powerful to
715
00:36:26.849 --> 00:36:29.329
a certain extent with me. And once you get in,
716
00:36:29.389 --> 00:36:32.179
it's like trying to swim across the river. You can't
717
00:36:32.219 --> 00:36:34.719
just stop. You either go back or you've got to
718
00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:39.280
get to the other side or you're drowned. So that
719
00:36:39.500 --> 00:36:45.650
became powerful also. And that was always the option. I
720
00:36:45.690 --> 00:36:50.230
could go back and start my career over. I had
721
00:36:50.250 --> 00:36:52.610
a good resume. I wasn't really worried about that, but
722
00:36:52.630 --> 00:36:55.550
it's what I didn't want to do by any means. Remember,
723
00:36:55.570 --> 00:36:58.920
I was down literally to my given up my apartment.
724
00:36:58.940 --> 00:37:00.860
I was maxed out on my credit cards. I was
725
00:37:01.420 --> 00:37:03.539
had borrowed 12 grand from my brother. I had burned
726
00:37:03.559 --> 00:37:06.480
through that. I had nothing left. I had moved into
727
00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:08.699
my mom's condo. She was in Florida at the time.
728
00:37:08.739 --> 00:37:11.960
And I had $ 70 left rolling change to buy some groceries.
729
00:37:12.389 --> 00:37:14.510
And I still have that picture I put in the
730
00:37:14.530 --> 00:37:17.210
book there. I'm sticking an imaginary gun to my head.
731
00:37:17.230 --> 00:37:21.210
And I got the the restaurant funded that fall that week.
732
00:37:21.690 --> 00:37:24.420
And I was able to write myself back a check
733
00:37:24.440 --> 00:37:27.530
for $ 7, 000 that I'd spent on copying. And, you know,
734
00:37:27.550 --> 00:37:29.369
I dropped out of typing class in high school, so
735
00:37:29.449 --> 00:37:31.630
I had to pay someone to type all my letters
736
00:37:31.690 --> 00:37:35.349
and my business plan and so forth. And I lived
737
00:37:35.389 --> 00:37:39.710
off that $ 7, 000 in March of 1993 until we opened
738
00:37:39.750 --> 00:37:42.969
up October 5th of 1993. It was 14 months I
739
00:37:43.010 --> 00:37:46.440
went without a paycheck trying to get the first restaurant open.
740
00:37:46.900 --> 00:37:50.480
And that, you know, You don't realize it at the time,
741
00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:52.579
you know, and kids don't realize it at the time,
742
00:37:52.619 --> 00:37:58.000
but these lessons in life, that determination, you know, getting through,
743
00:37:58.019 --> 00:38:02.880
you know, New York. And one of the sweetest moments
744
00:38:02.920 --> 00:38:05.199
I've had in my life was I came out of
745
00:38:05.219 --> 00:38:08.030
New York one day on that Saturday and Sundays, you know,
746
00:38:08.070 --> 00:38:10.750
that Sunday afternoon at work, and I had an old
747
00:38:10.809 --> 00:38:13.250
beat-up BMW with a stick shift, and I couldn't get
748
00:38:13.269 --> 00:38:15.010
it started, and I had six bucks to my name,
749
00:38:15.070 --> 00:38:17.989
a gas card, no phone, didn't know anybody, you know.
750
00:38:18.849 --> 00:38:22.670
And I looked around the corner. I was parked on
751
00:38:22.949 --> 00:38:26.369
42nd or 44th Street. Lexington Avenue was slightly downhill, so
752
00:38:26.429 --> 00:38:30.090
I pushed my car by myself to Lexington and downhill
753
00:38:30.110 --> 00:38:31.610
and got in, popped the clutch, and was able to
754
00:38:31.650 --> 00:38:34.550
get it started and drive back to school. Wow. And,
755
00:38:35.429 --> 00:38:38.869
you know, from that point to, I think it was
756
00:38:38.969 --> 00:38:44.349
roughly 35 years later, to opening this incredible, you know,
757
00:38:44.820 --> 00:38:48.010
restaurant in manhattan you know uh that we spent 11
758
00:38:48.010 --> 00:38:50.989
million dollars on and this this flagship restaurant for us
759
00:38:51.050 --> 00:38:54.130
and with my you know family in tow for opening
760
00:38:54.170 --> 00:38:56.289
night was uh i don't know what you want to
761
00:38:56.309 --> 00:38:58.590
call the word serendipity or whatever it was just those
762
00:38:59.010 --> 00:39:01.900
and i've had many of those instances that the lessons
763
00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:05.179
in life early um have given you the foundation and
764
00:39:05.219 --> 00:39:08.300
given me the foundation to and the strength to to
765
00:39:08.340 --> 00:39:10.360
get through and then then when you get there to
766
00:39:10.409 --> 00:39:15.050
the other side to The celebration is fabulous.
767
00:39:15.929 --> 00:39:18.570
One of the other aspects that almost made me nervous
768
00:39:18.610 --> 00:39:22.369
while I'm reading about it is that it doesn't feel
769
00:39:22.409 --> 00:39:25.969
like you would ever be content with the success of
770
00:39:26.030 --> 00:39:28.429
a restaurant. It was always, okay, we have to go
771
00:39:28.449 --> 00:39:30.349
open another one and another one and another one. just
772
00:39:30.389 --> 00:39:33.630
around Columbus, but around, like you said, New York City.
773
00:39:33.650 --> 00:39:38.670
I'm reading that thinking you've got to spend like $ 100, 000
774
00:39:36.630 --> 00:39:41.360
a month, annual increases, locking yourself in for forever, essentially.
775
00:39:41.659 --> 00:39:44.619
So you're basically going to owe the millions upon millions,
776
00:39:44.639 --> 00:39:47.360
and you're doing it in Beverly Hills and Florida and
777
00:39:47.380 --> 00:39:49.980
all over the place. Yeah. I, a good, good friend
778
00:39:50.019 --> 00:39:52.300
of mine named Johnny Thomas has just opened his third
779
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:54.349
restaurant about a year ago. And you're a guy he
780
00:39:54.389 --> 00:39:57.570
looks up to a lot as well. And every time
781
00:39:57.610 --> 00:39:59.829
he opens a new one, it is, I mean, it
782
00:39:59.849 --> 00:40:03.510
is basically 24 seven for more than a year. He
783
00:40:03.610 --> 00:40:08.460
is working constantly and it's, they're very good restaurants. Was there,
784
00:40:08.539 --> 00:40:11.239
are there ever times throughout you're like, let's slow down
785
00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:13.320
a little bit, or is that just your mentality to
786
00:40:13.539 --> 00:40:14.579
always look to grow?
787
00:40:14.820 --> 00:40:19.489
No. Uh, that's a twofold answer. Yes, my mentality has
788
00:40:19.610 --> 00:40:24.349
always looked to grow. However, with that said, we've overgrown
789
00:40:24.369 --> 00:40:28.269
a couple times. One in Scottsdale I remember reading about,
790
00:40:28.769 --> 00:40:30.570
that was a rough one, right? Yeah, we lost a
791
00:40:30.610 --> 00:40:32.369
fortune on that, a hundred grand a month on that
792
00:40:32.469 --> 00:40:36.260
one and millions of dollars on that one. But, you know,
793
00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:41.980
so today, I am a little more cautious today because
794
00:40:42.800 --> 00:40:45.159
over these years of this growth, it's a very capital
795
00:40:45.179 --> 00:40:48.750
intensive business and I've had to worry about making payroll,
796
00:40:48.769 --> 00:40:51.710
I don't know, at least a dozen times or more.
797
00:40:51.730 --> 00:40:54.469
We've never missed a payroll, but where I've had to
798
00:40:54.510 --> 00:40:57.530
call up friends or somewhere and borrow some money real
799
00:40:57.570 --> 00:41:00.710
quick to make sure Thursday night that payroll went through.
800
00:41:00.730 --> 00:41:05.250
And it was never because of profit. We never struggled
801
00:41:05.309 --> 00:41:09.150
financially because of profit or lack of profit. We struggled
802
00:41:09.210 --> 00:41:12.869
financially because we were growing and making these huge capital
803
00:41:12.909 --> 00:41:15.769
expenditures that we didn't have enough money for. We had
804
00:41:15.789 --> 00:41:18.889
to continually raise capital or borrow additional capital from the
805
00:41:18.929 --> 00:41:22.039
banks and so forth to grow. So today I'm not
806
00:41:23.500 --> 00:41:25.559
as aggressive as I used to be on that. And
807
00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:28.360
I don't ever want to have to borrow another dime
808
00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:30.559
to build a restaurant. Quite frankly, I want them to
809
00:41:30.599 --> 00:41:33.289
be out of cash flow and pay down our debt,
810
00:41:33.349 --> 00:41:38.170
not acquire more debt. So I'm a little... uh, more
811
00:41:38.230 --> 00:41:42.369
risk adverse today, but, um, I, I don't think there'll
812
00:41:42.389 --> 00:41:44.340
be a year or day that goes by that we
813
00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:46.099
don't grow. You know, we, so.
814
00:41:46.119 --> 00:41:47.400
Yeah. I want to, I want to get back to
815
00:41:47.420 --> 00:41:50.019
your values. I mentioned they, they stem off the questions
816
00:41:50.840 --> 00:41:54.210
because the, the first one, and I love this about them.
817
00:41:54.230 --> 00:41:56.869
The first one is that your associates come first, right?
818
00:41:56.889 --> 00:41:59.590
Cause like there's a, whether you're reading about Amazon, they're
819
00:41:59.630 --> 00:42:02.429
talking about customer obsession and that's first on their list.
820
00:42:02.949 --> 00:42:05.550
And it's not first on your list. First on your
821
00:42:05.730 --> 00:42:07.570
list are the people that do the great people that
822
00:42:07.610 --> 00:42:09.510
helped us, you know, that set us up in this room.
823
00:42:09.550 --> 00:42:11.510
You're some of your associates that work in this beautiful
824
00:42:11.570 --> 00:42:14.210
office here in Columbus. And it's obvious that they seem
825
00:42:14.250 --> 00:42:16.610
like happy people. I would imagine that's ingrained in your
826
00:42:16.650 --> 00:42:19.380
culture because they know of the eight values of they
827
00:42:19.420 --> 00:42:22.860
come first. I think now this is a little bit
828
00:42:22.900 --> 00:42:24.820
more mainstream, but when you came up with this, it
829
00:42:24.860 --> 00:42:27.559
was not. It was always customer comes first, especially in
830
00:42:27.599 --> 00:42:29.909
the restaurant business. How did you come up with this
831
00:42:29.949 --> 00:42:31.360
at the time when you did to say, no, I'm
832
00:42:31.389 --> 00:42:33.210
putting them first as opposed to the customers?
833
00:42:33.449 --> 00:42:36.269
Well, back in those days in my apartment when I
834
00:42:36.269 --> 00:42:38.670
was writing this company, Culture and Values, I read a
835
00:42:38.730 --> 00:42:45.679
book entitled The Customer Comes Second from Hal Rosenbluth. And He,
836
00:42:46.110 --> 00:42:48.449
and that was his mentality and I just loved it. And,
837
00:42:48.650 --> 00:42:51.429
you know, because I was an hourly associate, you know,
838
00:42:51.469 --> 00:42:54.030
I would, you know, I never really felt like the
839
00:42:54.090 --> 00:42:56.610
company necessarily cared about me too much, but I remember
840
00:42:56.670 --> 00:42:58.469
over this one company I worked for, we had a
841
00:42:59.110 --> 00:43:01.570
one year anniversary party for the newest, all the associates
842
00:43:01.590 --> 00:43:03.090
have been there since day one. They rolled out a
843
00:43:03.130 --> 00:43:04.650
great dinner for us and drinks and we had a
844
00:43:04.670 --> 00:43:07.869
ball and how good that made me feel, you know?
845
00:43:07.929 --> 00:43:12.230
And so we, we now, we, so we adopt that
846
00:43:12.250 --> 00:43:14.719
from the very beginning. It's not that I don't, care
847
00:43:14.739 --> 00:43:16.920
about great guest service and the guests. I mean, I
848
00:43:16.920 --> 00:43:19.679
always say runs to the deepest depths of my heart,
849
00:43:19.739 --> 00:43:22.059
you know, and I love to take care of people,
850
00:43:22.119 --> 00:43:25.780
but those associates, I look as a triangle relationship with
851
00:43:25.820 --> 00:43:27.730
CEO of a restaurant company. And when I say the
852
00:43:27.769 --> 00:43:30.269
associates come first, they're the ones that we have a
853
00:43:30.269 --> 00:43:33.269
relationship with every day. They're the ones that deliver the
854
00:43:33.309 --> 00:43:36.949
Cameron Mitchell restaurant experience. Not me. I'm a desk jockey. Uh,
855
00:43:37.010 --> 00:43:40.130
they're the ones out there. So, um, we, our guests,
856
00:43:40.150 --> 00:43:41.989
we see, you know, once a week, you know, once
857
00:43:42.050 --> 00:43:45.710
every couple of days, once a month, once a year, Unfortunately,
858
00:43:45.750 --> 00:43:48.780
sometimes once and never again, it happens very rarely, but
859
00:43:48.820 --> 00:43:52.340
not very often. And, and so, but it's our people
860
00:43:52.380 --> 00:43:55.500
we see every day and, and they don't care. They'll
861
00:43:55.579 --> 00:43:58.239
never care about our guests until they know how much
862
00:43:58.280 --> 00:44:01.599
we care about them. And, and, and they truly do
863
00:44:01.699 --> 00:44:05.610
come first in our organization. And we do hundreds of
864
00:44:05.650 --> 00:44:09.980
things we do throughout the organization, but like tonight, For example,
865
00:44:10.019 --> 00:44:12.269
I've got 200 people coming to my house tonight. So
866
00:44:12.309 --> 00:44:16.170
it's our annual company holiday party. So it's all the
867
00:44:16.210 --> 00:44:18.920
people from the home office and the spouse, all of
868
00:44:19.139 --> 00:44:21.480
our operating partners around the country. We fly them in
869
00:44:21.500 --> 00:44:24.500
and our guests to come in for the weekend and
870
00:44:24.519 --> 00:44:27.369
beat our house. My wife and I open up our home. Uh,
871
00:44:27.670 --> 00:44:30.329
every year we'll, we'll, a group called the young leadership
872
00:44:30.369 --> 00:44:33.489
group was about a dozen young managers in the company.
873
00:44:33.530 --> 00:44:36.750
We kind of handpicked to, to help, uh, and work
874
00:44:36.809 --> 00:44:38.949
on projects from the company and the senior leaders of
875
00:44:38.969 --> 00:44:41.809
the company to get to know them better and so forth.
876
00:44:41.829 --> 00:44:45.909
So they're invited with their guests and, um, and they,
877
00:44:45.969 --> 00:44:48.179
they just love it. And our catering team rolls out
878
00:44:48.219 --> 00:44:50.719
the red carpet, you know, they want to make this
879
00:44:50.780 --> 00:44:52.460
the best party and I'm, I want to make this
880
00:44:52.519 --> 00:44:54.409
the best party they've ever gone to in their lives and,
881
00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:59.780
and people just feel that care and that concern um
882
00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:03.349
you know an associate has a tragedy in their family
883
00:45:03.409 --> 00:45:05.650
we we step up and help them i mean i'm
884
00:45:05.670 --> 00:45:07.849
going on and on i think you do and when
885
00:45:07.889 --> 00:45:11.320
they feel that care and concern and they in return
886
00:45:11.389 --> 00:45:13.619
care and concern about have care and concern about us
887
00:45:13.699 --> 00:45:16.380
and therefore care and concern about our guests and and
888
00:45:16.420 --> 00:45:20.230
doing the right thing uh within our organization so It's
889
00:45:20.510 --> 00:45:22.480
a triangular relationship. We take care of our people. Our
890
00:45:22.500 --> 00:45:24.389
people take care of our guests. Our guests take care
891
00:45:24.409 --> 00:45:25.909
of our company. That's the way we look at it.
892
00:45:26.420 --> 00:45:28.980
I'm curious about, and I don't know how much of
893
00:45:29.019 --> 00:45:32.920
this you do today, but I was reading about David Miller,
894
00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:35.519
that hire, because he's from Dayton. I think he was
895
00:45:35.559 --> 00:45:37.219
out in LA and he wanted to move back to
896
00:45:37.300 --> 00:45:39.769
Ohio and you ended up hiring him, I guess, more
897
00:45:39.809 --> 00:45:43.510
than 20 years ago and now he's your president and COO, correct?
898
00:45:43.869 --> 00:45:45.889
When you are, because I think this applies to anybody
899
00:45:45.909 --> 00:45:48.429
in a leadership role, when you're looking to make a hire,
900
00:45:49.219 --> 00:45:52.019
to add someone to your team, specifically in a leadership role,
901
00:45:53.019 --> 00:45:57.110
what are What are some of the characteristics or quality
902
00:45:57.150 --> 00:45:59.309
you look for in a person to bring onto your team?
903
00:46:00.570 --> 00:46:04.989
Well, first let me preface it that we don't outside
904
00:46:05.380 --> 00:46:08.739
hire very much for leadership positions or management positions. That's
905
00:46:08.920 --> 00:46:13.659
usually 80 plus percent of our people from within. That's
906
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:15.730
again a value we have. I don't ever want to,
907
00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:18.199
I wouldn't want to be a manager working for a company,
908
00:46:18.260 --> 00:46:22.030
working to become a general manager and busting my hump
909
00:46:22.110 --> 00:46:25.059
and doing a great job and have the company outside
910
00:46:25.119 --> 00:46:28.159
hire a general manager on top of me. That does
911
00:46:28.219 --> 00:46:31.739
not seem right to me. So the majority of people
912
00:46:31.780 --> 00:46:34.730
we bring in are from the inside. Now we do
913
00:46:34.789 --> 00:46:39.429
outside hire. And when you look at, you know, everybody asks,
914
00:46:39.449 --> 00:46:42.690
I get questioned literally thousands of times, you know, where
915
00:46:42.710 --> 00:46:44.849
do you get such great people and how do you
916
00:46:44.869 --> 00:46:47.590
deliver such great service all, you know, every day? And
917
00:46:47.610 --> 00:46:49.730
that's what you even led with how we got together.
918
00:46:49.750 --> 00:46:52.489
And I said, you know, they think we have some,
919
00:46:53.590 --> 00:46:56.650
unique system that you know hiring system and so forth
920
00:46:56.690 --> 00:47:00.550
and we don't we um you know we just talk
921
00:47:00.570 --> 00:47:02.849
to people and if we like them we feel good
922
00:47:02.889 --> 00:47:05.010
about them we bring them in and we you know
923
00:47:05.030 --> 00:47:07.619
we do you know i hired a new cfo uh
924
00:47:08.340 --> 00:47:10.579
our last cfo was with us for 23 years and
925
00:47:10.619 --> 00:47:13.159
she went to a part-time position to do special projects
926
00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:15.760
with me and she actually ran the process to hire
927
00:47:15.780 --> 00:47:18.300
a new cfo but we did we had our search
928
00:47:18.340 --> 00:47:20.820
firm and we did i went through all the interviews
929
00:47:20.840 --> 00:47:24.530
and all that but And this person ended up being fabulous.
930
00:47:24.570 --> 00:47:30.050
But my whole theory is, listen, just hire them. And
931
00:47:30.530 --> 00:47:33.630
we're one of those companies that onboard or offboard quickly,
932
00:47:33.670 --> 00:47:36.190
I should say, they're either, you know, and you either,
933
00:47:36.550 --> 00:47:38.199
you have one or two flavors with our company. You're
934
00:47:38.219 --> 00:47:41.599
here for a few months and you're out or you're
935
00:47:41.619 --> 00:47:46.119
here for many, many years and you stay. And so
936
00:47:46.739 --> 00:47:49.940
not everybody works out. You can't, I mean, I've used
937
00:47:50.019 --> 00:47:53.659
all the, predictive, you know, tests and all that. And
938
00:47:53.780 --> 00:47:57.719
it's all, you know, it doesn't really change your batting
939
00:47:57.780 --> 00:48:01.989
average very often. It's, it's really, we're looking for good people, um,
940
00:48:02.130 --> 00:48:05.130
that are busy, that are active and, and, and that, uh,
941
00:48:05.170 --> 00:48:07.949
want to grow and, and, and, but ultimately you're just
942
00:48:07.969 --> 00:48:10.840
taking a chance. Yeah. And so, and you, you can,
943
00:48:11.780 --> 00:48:13.679
you can't do much to mitigate that chance.
944
00:48:13.780 --> 00:48:15.960
So, so really the people you're hiring aren't any different
945
00:48:15.980 --> 00:48:16.719
than anybody else.
946
00:48:16.739 --> 00:48:18.440
That's what I say. I tell people the same people.
947
00:48:18.460 --> 00:48:20.119
So what do you think it is once they get
948
00:48:20.380 --> 00:48:21.860
into a camera culture.
949
00:48:21.659 --> 00:48:23.400
And the value, they love the company. And we have,
950
00:48:24.139 --> 00:48:26.719
I will also tell you, uh, to frame that a
951
00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:31.050
little bit further, we have, uh, we've had a number
952
00:48:31.110 --> 00:48:34.150
of people leave the company to, you know, they get
953
00:48:34.190 --> 00:48:36.969
an offer over here, another restaurant company or an offer
954
00:48:37.010 --> 00:48:40.989
to move up. And, and, and, um, Or they might think, well,
955
00:48:41.039 --> 00:48:43.019
I've learned what I can from this company, whatever their
956
00:48:43.059 --> 00:48:46.059
reason might be. And we don't have a lot of people, very,
957
00:48:46.099 --> 00:48:50.500
very low turnover, obviously, industry low turnover. But the ones
958
00:48:50.519 --> 00:48:54.420
that do leave, we've had, I don't know, hundreds of
959
00:48:54.480 --> 00:48:56.539
stories over the years of ones that they come back.
960
00:48:57.139 --> 00:48:59.599
You know, and a lot of companies don't even like
961
00:48:59.639 --> 00:49:01.940
to hire people that don't have a rule. You can't,
962
00:49:02.039 --> 00:49:04.510
once you leave, you can't come back. And my theory
963
00:49:04.550 --> 00:49:07.050
is just the opposite. I think when people leave the
964
00:49:07.110 --> 00:49:10.260
company and the grass is not greener and they They
965
00:49:10.300 --> 00:49:12.679
come back to the company, even more endeared to the company,
966
00:49:12.719 --> 00:49:16.070
and really understand that culture and the values and how
967
00:49:16.110 --> 00:49:18.670
important that is to them and the great quality of
968
00:49:18.710 --> 00:49:23.300
life that they have here with our organization. So we've
969
00:49:23.320 --> 00:49:25.539
done that hundreds of times over the years and it's
970
00:49:25.559 --> 00:49:26.400
been great for us.
971
00:49:27.059 --> 00:49:31.219
I know you're also a pretty amazing gift giver. You
972
00:49:31.260 --> 00:49:35.239
went through a time where you sold I believe it
973
00:49:35.300 --> 00:49:39.800
was 94, which then shifted to $ 92 million worth that
974
00:49:39.820 --> 00:49:42.840
you essentially took off the table from Ruth's Chris.
975
00:49:42.969 --> 00:49:45.710
Yeah, we sold 22 of our fish front restaurants to
976
00:49:45.929 --> 00:49:47.590
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for.
977
00:49:47.349 --> 00:49:50.050
$ 92 million. And at that time, to your senior leaders
978
00:49:50.070 --> 00:49:54.650
or your leadership team, you gave them all amazing gifts, experiences.
979
00:49:55.329 --> 00:49:58.530
in addition to the bowling party. Uh, so what, talk
980
00:49:58.570 --> 00:50:02.619
to me about your philosophy on, on gift giving when
981
00:50:02.639 --> 00:50:03.599
it comes to your people.
982
00:50:03.659 --> 00:50:05.639
Well, yeah, that's a good story. So first of all,
983
00:50:05.719 --> 00:50:07.800
I gave 5% of the purchase price to our team.
984
00:50:08.699 --> 00:50:11.059
So I was $ 4. 6 million. I divvied up to our
985
00:50:11.099 --> 00:50:14.159
team and, um, our management team. And I did it
986
00:50:14.469 --> 00:50:16.269
in a kind of unique way, which I think is cool. We,
987
00:50:16.989 --> 00:50:20.090
you know, um, it's like the executive team, for example,
988
00:50:20.130 --> 00:50:21.559
got 2% to the deal. So they got 920,000 bucks and, and,
989
00:50:24.980 --> 00:50:29.159
I put them into two categories. One was their years
990
00:50:29.219 --> 00:50:31.099
of service to their company and the salary. So I
991
00:50:31.139 --> 00:50:36.710
split the pot in half. And so if you had
992
00:50:36.710 --> 00:50:39.030
10 years with the company and there was 100 years
993
00:50:39.070 --> 00:50:41.510
in the total, you got 10% of that pot. And
994
00:50:41.590 --> 00:50:43.829
if your salary was 100 grand and there was a
995
00:50:43.889 --> 00:50:46.289
million bucks in that salary pot, you got 10%. But
996
00:50:46.309 --> 00:50:52.000
it was a great equalizer. So it equalized everybody's gift. But,
997
00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:55.329
you know, and That was nice, and it's a good story.
998
00:50:55.670 --> 00:50:59.710
Give away $ 4. 6 million off that. And my theory was,
999
00:51:00.710 --> 00:51:02.070
those are the people that got us there. So I'm
1000
00:51:02.090 --> 00:51:05.110
not going to not share in the spoils of success
1001
00:51:05.250 --> 00:51:05.610
with them.
1002
00:51:05.710 --> 00:51:07.329
Right, technically you didn't have to do that.
1003
00:51:07.349 --> 00:51:08.469
No, I didn't have to at all, but I wasn't
1004
00:51:08.489 --> 00:51:12.110
going to put my head on a pillow knowing I
1005
00:51:12.150 --> 00:51:15.590
didn't do that. So that's number one. But one night
1006
00:51:15.610 --> 00:51:17.730
I'm laying in bed, and I wake up kind of
1007
00:51:17.949 --> 00:51:21.610
in the middle of the night, and as we're approaching...
1008
00:51:22.119 --> 00:51:27.039
closing this sale, and it just wasn't enough. Money is
1009
00:51:27.159 --> 00:51:29.880
one thing that's great, but it is just money at
1010
00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:32.659
the end of the day. I want to do something heartfelt,
1011
00:51:32.800 --> 00:51:36.639
something that was above and beyond that. So I got
1012
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:38.659
up and went down to my desk, my office, and
1013
00:51:38.699 --> 00:51:41.409
down at home and was up the rest of the night.
1014
00:51:41.619 --> 00:51:44.269
I figured out what I could give to each one
1015
00:51:44.309 --> 00:51:48.170
of our executive team members, something special, so that would
1016
00:51:48.210 --> 00:51:52.380
be really meaningful to them. And for me, it was
1017
00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:54.639
from my pocket. It wasn't from the company's pocket. It
1018
00:51:54.699 --> 00:51:59.179
was out of my pocket. And I wanted to somewhat
1019
00:51:59.219 --> 00:52:01.980
be in the same range, but that really didn't need
1020
00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:05.989
to be. So certain examples are vice president of operations
1021
00:52:06.829 --> 00:52:08.829
never was able to really save for his kids' college.
1022
00:52:08.849 --> 00:52:10.889
He had three kids in college or going to college.
1023
00:52:10.909 --> 00:52:13.030
And I knew it was weighing on him, so I
1024
00:52:13.760 --> 00:52:15.480
I told them, you know, so I wrote a handwritten
1025
00:52:15.500 --> 00:52:18.619
note to each one of them. And I said, you know,
1026
00:52:18.739 --> 00:52:20.579
thank you for all you've done for the company. And,
1027
00:52:21.119 --> 00:52:23.469
you know, I would like to pay for the first
1028
00:52:23.489 --> 00:52:26.269
year of college for each one of your three kids
1029
00:52:26.570 --> 00:52:30.510
at Ohio State, you know, local state school. And or
1030
00:52:30.550 --> 00:52:34.800
equivalents if they went somewhere else. But, you know. our
1031
00:52:34.900 --> 00:52:37.780
CFO had been working so hard on the deal, and
1032
00:52:37.800 --> 00:52:41.309
she's a mother of three kids, and husband, and crying,
1033
00:52:41.329 --> 00:52:43.190
you know, this is killing me, you know, I'm not
1034
00:52:43.230 --> 00:52:45.510
seeing my husband, and all that stuff, so I got
1035
00:52:45.530 --> 00:52:47.550
her a nice trip with her husband, and flew her
1036
00:52:47.590 --> 00:52:50.369
down on a private jet to a resort for three days,
1037
00:52:50.449 --> 00:52:53.230
and to reconnect with her husband, and after this was
1038
00:52:53.269 --> 00:52:55.699
all done, that sort of thing, so we had this,
1039
00:52:55.719 --> 00:52:59.280
you know, again, we sold for 19 million bucks, you know,
1040
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:02.539
pretty big deal for us at the time, and So
1041
00:53:02.579 --> 00:53:05.019
I wanted to do just the opposite. Instead of champagne
1042
00:53:05.079 --> 00:53:09.159
and all that, we went to a local pub and
1043
00:53:09.199 --> 00:53:11.679
had beers and cheeseburgers. And then we had bowling shirts
1044
00:53:11.739 --> 00:53:14.449
made for everybody. We went bowling that afternoon. And at
1045
00:53:15.010 --> 00:53:18.070
this pub at lunch is when I gave everybody their card.
1046
00:53:18.090 --> 00:53:20.110
And everybody kind of read out loud what their card
1047
00:53:20.150 --> 00:53:24.449
was to each other. And everybody was crying. It was just...
1048
00:53:25.630 --> 00:53:29.710
my HR director was a huge Pittsburgh sports fan. So
1049
00:53:30.510 --> 00:53:34.329
I got him four tickets on a third baseline to, to,
1050
00:53:34.610 --> 00:53:37.059
for the pirates game season tickets. And I got him
1051
00:53:37.719 --> 00:53:41.119
season tickets, I think on the close to the 50 or, uh,
1052
00:53:41.219 --> 00:53:44.719
for the, uh, Steelers games and for that year, for
1053
00:53:44.760 --> 00:53:48.679
that season, you know, and, and, and so that, that
1054
00:53:48.760 --> 00:53:51.760
kind of thing is, uh, where people, that people don't
1055
00:53:51.800 --> 00:53:54.400
forget it. They, they never would forget it. And, And
1056
00:53:55.119 --> 00:53:57.610
it's more than the money. The money is important. And
1057
00:53:58.510 --> 00:54:01.389
we have people who have double, triple, quadruple, quintuple their
1058
00:54:01.409 --> 00:54:04.269
salary since they started with the company for sure and
1059
00:54:04.329 --> 00:54:08.730
making nice livings for themselves. But it goes to the
1060
00:54:08.769 --> 00:54:13.599
care and concern the company has for them. And I
1061
00:54:13.639 --> 00:54:16.159
gave our director team and leadership team for our 25-year
1062
00:54:16.179 --> 00:54:22.099
anniversary I wanted to share our 25-year anniversary with our
1063
00:54:22.679 --> 00:54:27.340
five people we want to make raving fans of. For
1064
00:54:27.389 --> 00:54:30.349
our director team and our executive team, who are really
1065
00:54:30.369 --> 00:54:33.639
the main leaders of our organization, and everything was in 25s.
1066
00:54:33.630 --> 00:54:33.909
It was a 25.
1067
00:54:33.889 --> 00:54:36.070
We did the book for the 25-year anniversary. We did
1068
00:54:36.070 --> 00:54:44.050
25% off for our guests on just everything. And so
1069
00:54:44.360 --> 00:54:46.039
I gave that team two and a half million dollars
1070
00:54:46.079 --> 00:54:50.539
for the, for the 25 year anniversary, you know, and, um, and,
1071
00:54:50.739 --> 00:54:53.139
and surprise them all with their checks. And I broke
1072
00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:55.280
it up again the same way, but in it, you know,
1073
00:54:55.300 --> 00:54:57.460
it was a huge amount of money to, it was
1074
00:54:57.480 --> 00:55:00.539
a huge amount of money, but to that group of people,
1075
00:55:00.559 --> 00:55:04.139
there's probably 40 people in that group, you know, it, it, uh,
1076
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:07.960
but it was enough that they didn't expect it. It
1077
00:55:07.980 --> 00:55:11.380
was enough to make an impact in their lives and
1078
00:55:11.420 --> 00:55:14.849
so forth. And, Um, and I was just sharing our
1079
00:55:14.909 --> 00:55:16.250
company's success with them. Yeah.
1080
00:55:16.429 --> 00:55:19.570
I also get the sense that family is a big
1081
00:55:19.610 --> 00:55:21.989
deal to you, both your family, as I'm looking at
1082
00:55:22.030 --> 00:55:24.150
a picture of your family, as well as you treat
1083
00:55:24.190 --> 00:55:28.510
your people you work with like family. Um, how, how did,
1084
00:55:28.530 --> 00:55:32.260
I think it was 1998. I believe. Yeah. That you
1085
00:55:32.280 --> 00:55:35.219
guys are in 25 million in revenue and you had
1086
00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:38.739
your first son, Charlie. Uh, we have a daughter named Charlie,
1087
00:55:38.760 --> 00:55:42.920
so we love that name. Uh, and, uh, How did
1088
00:55:42.960 --> 00:55:46.599
that change you or what impact did having a child
1089
00:55:46.739 --> 00:55:50.300
and the way you view work and family? Because I
1090
00:55:50.300 --> 00:55:53.489
think there's a lot of people who obviously have that
1091
00:55:53.530 --> 00:55:54.030
going on.
1092
00:55:54.070 --> 00:55:57.269
It's something to think about. Well, I have a lot
1093
00:55:57.309 --> 00:55:58.750
of thoughts on that. I hope I don't take too
1094
00:55:58.769 --> 00:56:01.730
much time. But one of the things that's interesting is
1095
00:56:01.969 --> 00:56:04.739
I used to tell people all the time, I'm working
1096
00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:06.449
for a wife and kids I don't even know yet.
1097
00:56:07.110 --> 00:56:10.710
And it truly was. Driving back and forth every weekend
1098
00:56:10.789 --> 00:56:17.250
to New York City, pushing to build a company. I
1099
00:56:17.289 --> 00:56:19.110
didn't know my wife at the time. I didn't know
1100
00:56:19.210 --> 00:56:20.690
my children. I didn't know who they were.
1101
00:56:21.190 --> 00:56:21.969
You thought that way, though?
1102
00:56:22.090 --> 00:56:24.460
Oh, absolutely. I said it a hundred times to people.
1103
00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:26.119
I'm working hard for a wife and kids I don't
1104
00:56:26.159 --> 00:56:31.860
know yet. And I married my wife. I met her actually.
1105
00:56:31.860 --> 00:56:34.599
30 days or 90 days after we opened, she came
1106
00:56:34.619 --> 00:56:36.840
in as a guest at the restaurant with a girl
1107
00:56:36.860 --> 00:56:38.880
that I knew and she introduced us and I, uh,
1108
00:56:39.579 --> 00:56:41.940
we went out for a date and, um, we both
1109
00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:43.420
knew that night we're going to marry each other. So
1110
00:56:43.440 --> 00:56:44.099
it was kind of great.
1111
00:56:44.119 --> 00:56:44.739
Did you say that?
1112
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.039
Uh, yeah, not to her. She wrote in her diary
1113
00:56:49.059 --> 00:56:50.659
and I told my buds the next day, I think
1114
00:56:50.699 --> 00:56:51.219
I met the girl.
1115
00:56:51.599 --> 00:56:52.159
How did you know?
1116
00:56:52.949 --> 00:56:54.530
Just the way we hit it off. We went at
1117
00:56:54.570 --> 00:56:56.550
Friday's for a drink at nine o'clock and she was
1118
00:56:56.590 --> 00:56:58.070
a teacher. I didn't know at the time she was
1119
00:56:58.090 --> 00:57:00.110
a teacher. she had to be up at five 30
1120
00:57:00.110 --> 00:57:02.050
in the morning and we ended up closing the bar
1121
00:57:02.090 --> 00:57:05.880
that night at one in the morning. And, um, I
1122
00:57:05.920 --> 00:57:07.559
just knew, I mean, you know, you just know when
1123
00:57:07.579 --> 00:57:11.440
you know. And, uh, we dated for what, 70 months
1124
00:57:11.500 --> 00:57:12.920
and I asked her to marry me on my, her
1125
00:57:12.940 --> 00:57:16.880
birthday on her 25th birthday. And, um, she's had her
1126
00:57:17.300 --> 00:57:20.500
50th birthday, uh, a couple months ago and I got
1127
00:57:20.539 --> 00:57:22.929
her a nice new ring to commemorate that. And 25
1128
00:57:22.929 --> 00:57:25.909
years earlier and I asked her to marry me. And so, um,
1129
00:57:26.030 --> 00:57:29.349
I thought it was fitting, but, um, And then to
1130
00:57:29.409 --> 00:57:31.789
have that, uh, I was just telling this story literally
1131
00:57:31.809 --> 00:57:34.070
the other day, like two days ago, we were talking
1132
00:57:34.090 --> 00:57:36.579
with some guys that aren't married and I was talking
1133
00:57:36.599 --> 00:57:40.000
about that walk, which you've experienced that walk when your
1134
00:57:40.039 --> 00:57:42.400
wife is in a wheelchair and new baby in hands
1135
00:57:42.420 --> 00:57:43.840
and that walk to go get the car.
1136
00:57:44.039 --> 00:57:44.980
Oh yeah. We got a little video.
1137
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:50.110
You know, and, um, and that there, there, I don't
1138
00:57:50.130 --> 00:57:52.190
know if I've had many more moments of clarity in
1139
00:57:52.210 --> 00:57:54.369
my life than that, that, you know, that I'm, when
1140
00:57:54.389 --> 00:57:55.710
I get in the car and I come back and
1141
00:57:55.769 --> 00:57:58.409
pick up my wife and our newborn, uh, that, that,
1142
00:57:58.969 --> 00:58:03.409
Child's life was in my hands, you know, and my responsibility.
1143
00:58:03.429 --> 00:58:05.130
The rest of, I guess we choked up to think
1144
00:58:05.170 --> 00:58:10.289
about it, the rest of, you know, my life. And so, and,
1145
00:58:10.719 --> 00:58:14.059
you know, you're seeing this picture. I have this picture
1146
00:58:14.099 --> 00:58:17.239
up on my wall here. This portrait, a picture of
1147
00:58:17.320 --> 00:58:20.139
my family, my wife and three kids. And, you know,
1148
00:58:20.159 --> 00:58:24.119
everybody sees the outward success, you know, and the family
1149
00:58:24.260 --> 00:58:27.300
is the inward success, you know. And I said long ago,
1150
00:58:27.360 --> 00:58:31.420
I never wanted to build a, business uh and be
1151
00:58:31.460 --> 00:58:33.219
successful and at the end of the day be divorced
1152
00:58:33.280 --> 00:58:34.860
and not know my kids and i've seen it happen
1153
00:58:34.900 --> 00:58:37.059
to too many people and i feel i could have
1154
00:58:37.119 --> 00:58:39.409
easily built a billion dollar business if i wanted to
1155
00:58:39.469 --> 00:58:41.210
but i would have had it would have been the
1156
00:58:41.269 --> 00:58:43.190
expense of something it would have been at the expense
1157
00:58:43.230 --> 00:58:45.329
of my family and that wasn't going to happen in
1158
00:58:45.349 --> 00:58:48.829
the cards for me so um and as you know
1159
00:58:48.869 --> 00:58:51.679
of having a young child that you know it's not
1160
00:58:51.739 --> 00:58:55.679
easy you know and Uh, but it's labor of love and, and,
1161
00:58:55.880 --> 00:58:58.320
and so forth. So, uh, I work probably just as
1162
00:58:58.340 --> 00:59:01.440
hard to build that family and that family unit as
1163
00:59:01.519 --> 00:59:03.949
I did, uh, to build the business. Yeah. So to
1164
00:59:03.969 --> 00:59:05.969
me there, uh, we, we have a saying in our
1165
00:59:06.030 --> 00:59:08.730
company that, uh, you can't be successful at home if
1166
00:59:08.750 --> 00:59:11.059
you're not successful at work and you can't be successful
1167
00:59:11.239 --> 00:59:14.039
at work if you're not successful at home so we
1168
00:59:14.699 --> 00:59:21.150
as a company embrace that and we embrace people's life
1169
00:59:21.210 --> 00:59:24.389
and balance and making sure they can do anything they
1170
00:59:24.429 --> 00:59:27.510
want you know I want to tell our managers listen
1171
00:59:27.550 --> 00:59:28.909
I want you to make more games than you miss
1172
00:59:29.389 --> 00:59:31.559
you know what you're going to miss some, there's no
1173
00:59:31.599 --> 00:59:33.179
doubt about it, but you got to make more than
1174
00:59:33.199 --> 00:59:36.000
you miss. And, you know, if you had daughters recital
1175
00:59:36.079 --> 00:59:38.639
or whatever, you better come hell or high water. Never
1176
00:59:38.679 --> 00:59:41.059
miss that work is not more important than that. So
1177
00:59:41.079 --> 00:59:44.139
when we frame it that way as a company, that's
1178
00:59:44.179 --> 00:59:46.039
why we have people building their careers in our company.
1179
00:59:46.059 --> 00:59:49.739
You know, uh, they get eight weeks paid vacation, you know, uh,
1180
00:59:50.260 --> 00:59:52.449
after 20 years of service in the retail business, it's
1181
00:59:52.469 --> 00:59:55.550
just unheard of, you know, and, and, you know, they
1182
00:59:55.570 --> 00:59:59.449
have control of their time. Um, I always say, listen,
1183
00:59:59.469 --> 01:00:01.659
you sit around friends, Hey, let's go here. Let's go
1184
01:00:01.679 --> 01:00:03.980
to the beach next to three weeks from now, you know,
1185
01:00:04.019 --> 01:00:06.500
whatever you don't have to go, Oh, I can ask
1186
01:00:06.539 --> 01:00:09.199
my boss. I'm not sure I get the time off. Yes.
1187
01:00:09.219 --> 01:00:11.980
Does he answer? What's the question? You know? So, uh,
1188
01:00:12.079 --> 01:00:14.780
you know, yes, you ask your boss, Hey, can I
1189
01:00:14.820 --> 01:00:17.059
go to the beach with my friends? Uh, take that
1190
01:00:17.099 --> 01:00:19.440
weekend off and three weeks from now, but you know
1191
01:00:19.460 --> 01:00:21.059
what the answer is going to be, you know.
1192
01:00:21.579 --> 01:00:26.780
It's looking back now and all the restaurants and they're everywhere.
1193
01:00:28.059 --> 01:00:29.639
But was it like this from day one?
1194
01:00:29.659 --> 01:00:30.940
Yeah.
1195
01:00:31.099 --> 01:00:33.340
Because that's the thing people want to hear or at
1196
01:00:33.380 --> 01:00:35.980
least learn more about. It's easier to say it now
1197
01:00:36.199 --> 01:00:39.260
once the money's flowing, the restaurants are here. But I
1198
01:00:39.300 --> 01:00:41.730
talked to Jason Freed, a great CEO of a company
1199
01:00:41.750 --> 01:00:43.650
called Basecamp, and he's like, we want to build a
1200
01:00:43.750 --> 01:00:46.710
calm business, meaning it's not like I'm going to work
1201
01:00:47.010 --> 01:00:49.829
like crazy and then have a life. It's I'm going
1202
01:00:49.849 --> 01:00:52.929
to work hard and have a life at the same time,
1203
01:00:52.969 --> 01:00:54.940
and that's what he calls a calm business. I don't
1204
01:00:54.960 --> 01:00:57.349
know if I'd call this calm, but I would say–
1205
01:00:58.170 --> 01:01:00.010
how are you able to do this even before you
1206
01:01:00.090 --> 01:01:03.769
technically made money or became successful? Or you said, this
1207
01:01:03.849 --> 01:01:05.510
is the reason that we're successful.
1208
01:01:05.530 --> 01:01:09.530
Is that how you view it? Well, listen, there are,
1209
01:01:09.989 --> 01:01:13.800
were many, many, many moments along the way that, um,
1210
01:01:14.820 --> 01:01:19.980
you know, our culture and values today is ingrained in concrete.
1211
01:01:20.019 --> 01:01:22.699
I mean, it is, you know, uh, everything else is
1212
01:01:22.760 --> 01:01:25.289
up for discussion except for our culture and values. It's
1213
01:01:25.309 --> 01:01:28.190
just not, you know, there's just, not even for debate.
1214
01:01:28.489 --> 01:01:32.460
It is what it is and it will always be there. Um, it,
1215
01:01:33.320 --> 01:01:38.000
it would not have that strength today if over the
1216
01:01:38.039 --> 01:01:41.860
years we didn't, we threw it out the window or
1217
01:01:41.940 --> 01:01:44.340
we didn't, we didn't honor, I mean, you have to
1218
01:01:44.960 --> 01:01:47.199
day in and day out. I remember our first restaurant,
1219
01:01:47.219 --> 01:01:50.050
I just opened my second restaurant and one of our
1220
01:01:50.210 --> 01:01:52.949
cultural values is we treat people with eloquent language and
1221
01:01:52.989 --> 01:01:56.170
we care and respect for our people. You know, this is, uh,
1222
01:01:56.690 --> 01:01:59.269
we were doing the me too thing 25 years ago.
1223
01:01:59.329 --> 01:02:01.710
I mean, it's not, you know, it wasn't really new
1224
01:02:01.730 --> 01:02:04.090
to us. So we had this chef who was my
1225
01:02:04.150 --> 01:02:09.110
opening chef, who was really great chef. Uh, but he
1226
01:02:09.150 --> 01:02:12.409
was difficult and he called one of our managers in
1227
01:02:12.449 --> 01:02:15.980
a heated moment, you know, uh, the C word and, and, uh,
1228
01:02:16.730 --> 01:02:19.429
in front of everybody else and so forth. And, and
1229
01:02:20.420 --> 01:02:23.900
if our associates didn't come first and our values didn't
1230
01:02:23.920 --> 01:02:26.309
come first, if I was, If I was really worried
1231
01:02:26.349 --> 01:02:29.269
about the guests, that was my top priority. I would
1232
01:02:29.309 --> 01:02:33.260
have said, come on, go over, talk to her, apologize.
1233
01:02:33.300 --> 01:02:37.300
You know, you didn't mean it. But instead, he was
1234
01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:40.400
out of the building within five minutes of my arrival. And,
1235
01:02:40.739 --> 01:02:46.289
you know, I didn't have a backup chef. I just
1236
01:02:46.369 --> 01:02:49.690
opened a second restaurant. I couldn't even be there. And
1237
01:02:49.710 --> 01:02:53.469
I promoted two young guys to co-chefs, two young, wet-behind-the-ear,
1238
01:02:54.369 --> 01:03:00.219
green sous-chefs. And, but we've had those cultural moments all
1239
01:03:00.260 --> 01:03:03.300
along the way. And if, uh, if we didn't live
1240
01:03:03.340 --> 01:03:07.519
that culture from day one, um, and live it every day,
1241
01:03:07.800 --> 01:03:10.510
even when we get challenged, then it becomes no good
1242
01:03:10.929 --> 01:03:14.150
and it becomes weak. And so, um, we had to,
1243
01:03:14.170 --> 01:03:18.789
I remember in, in 09 after the sale transaction, you know, we, we,
1244
01:03:19.210 --> 01:03:22.469
we went and built a bunch of restaurants over expanded and,
1245
01:03:23.010 --> 01:03:25.449
you know, the world's coming to an end and, You know,
1246
01:03:25.469 --> 01:03:29.369
I hear Stacy, my assistant, comes in and says, and
1247
01:03:29.389 --> 01:03:32.260
we kept our whole team. Even though we sold 22 restaurants,
1248
01:03:32.280 --> 01:03:34.340
we kept everybody because I was going to rebuild the business.
1249
01:03:34.360 --> 01:03:37.119
And I didn't want to fire anybody, right? And so
1250
01:03:38.519 --> 01:03:40.039
she comes in about 11 o'clock in the morning and says,
1251
01:03:40.059 --> 01:03:41.369
you know, a bunch of people in the back are
1252
01:03:41.409 --> 01:03:45.010
talking about, worried about layoffs, getting laid off and so forth.
1253
01:03:45.050 --> 01:03:46.449
I said, I want you to call an all-staff meeting
1254
01:03:46.469 --> 01:03:50.210
in five minutes. come back, get everybody together. I said,
1255
01:03:50.230 --> 01:03:52.610
I understand there's fear there's going to be some layoffs.
1256
01:03:52.650 --> 01:03:54.659
And I said, yeah, we're in a very difficult time.
1257
01:03:54.739 --> 01:03:58.039
I said, but, you know, peace about the associates come first.
1258
01:03:58.300 --> 01:04:03.420
I said, we're currently spending about $ 700, 000 in advertising and marketing.
1259
01:04:03.480 --> 01:04:05.760
I said, you know, you just come in every day,
1260
01:04:05.780 --> 01:04:07.929
you go up and see Carolyn, our VP of marketing,
1261
01:04:08.010 --> 01:04:11.170
and are we still advertising and marketing today? Then you
1262
01:04:11.190 --> 01:04:12.429
know there's not going to be any layoffs because I'm
1263
01:04:12.449 --> 01:04:15.010
going to cut our advertising budget and our marketing budget
1264
01:04:15.050 --> 01:04:19.260
before I cut the people budget. Okay? And, Then I said,
1265
01:04:20.840 --> 01:04:22.280
so as long as that's happening, you know there's not
1266
01:04:22.300 --> 01:04:25.139
going to be any layoffs. I said, secondly, if we
1267
01:04:25.179 --> 01:04:27.760
cut the marketing budget, we still need to save another
1268
01:04:27.780 --> 01:04:30.739
million bucks or half a million bucks or whatever. I'd
1269
01:04:30.760 --> 01:04:34.260
have another all staff meet and say, listen folks, we've
1270
01:04:34.280 --> 01:04:36.840
got to let six or seven people go or I
1271
01:04:36.840 --> 01:04:40.320
need everybody to take 10% pay cut. And I'm going
1272
01:04:40.340 --> 01:04:42.510
to leave the room and let you all decide. And
1273
01:04:42.570 --> 01:04:43.949
I assume I'm going to come back and you're going
1274
01:04:43.969 --> 01:04:46.530
to say we'll take the pay cut, not the layoffs.
1275
01:04:47.210 --> 01:04:49.889
So until we have that meeting You need to understand
1276
01:04:49.909 --> 01:04:52.659
there's never going to be any layoffs. And then if
1277
01:04:52.679 --> 01:04:56.380
that meeting happens and we still don't, then there might
1278
01:04:56.420 --> 01:04:58.059
be some layoffs and I'll have another meeting and tell
1279
01:04:58.099 --> 01:05:01.199
you that might be coming or when that's coming. I said,
1280
01:05:02.199 --> 01:05:06.139
so until then, no layoffs. And I said, but with
1281
01:05:06.159 --> 01:05:10.010
that said, yeah, we're in some deep shit here. I
1282
01:05:10.030 --> 01:05:14.170
need everybody's best and brightest. If you've got an idea
1283
01:05:14.210 --> 01:05:16.309
to save $ 100 or $ 1, 000 or whatever or how to
1284
01:05:16.329 --> 01:05:17.690
do it better, I want to hear about it. And
1285
01:05:17.710 --> 01:05:19.920
we need all hands on deck. We're in a storm
1286
01:05:19.960 --> 01:05:23.320
right now. We need everybody rowing hard. And what do
1287
01:05:23.340 --> 01:05:26.789
you think they did? Went back to their desk, fully committed,
1288
01:05:26.949 --> 01:05:30.809
fully engaged in the organization, sent me all sorts of ideas,
1289
01:05:31.190 --> 01:05:34.360
and we made it through without any layoffs. But if
1290
01:05:34.409 --> 01:05:36.460
it wasn't for that culture and values, if it was
1291
01:05:36.480 --> 01:05:40.760
all about making a profit, if I held profit and
1292
01:05:40.820 --> 01:05:44.820
higher esteem than our culture, then I might have said, okay, yeah,
1293
01:05:44.840 --> 01:05:47.070
we got a layoff and right size of the ship
1294
01:05:47.119 --> 01:05:51.929
and so forth. So It's amazing how those decisions all
1295
01:05:52.010 --> 01:05:55.889
flow through the culture and values. And those culture and
1296
01:05:55.909 --> 01:06:00.639
values has to be non-negotiable. And that's the key.
1297
01:06:00.940 --> 01:06:05.010
You don't really know. your values are tested most when
1298
01:06:05.050 --> 01:06:07.869
it gets really hard. When it gets really, it's easy
1299
01:06:07.909 --> 01:06:09.650
to say the values when things are good, just like
1300
01:06:09.690 --> 01:06:11.250
it's easy to be a leader and to be a
1301
01:06:11.289 --> 01:06:12.510
captain when things are good.
1302
01:06:12.550 --> 01:06:13.050
It's hard.
1303
01:06:13.610 --> 01:06:15.570
It's really revealed when things are tough. And that's when
1304
01:06:15.590 --> 01:06:18.429
you know, is this really one of Cameron's values or not?
1305
01:06:18.829 --> 01:06:20.880
And when you're able to do that, that's really what
1306
01:06:21.179 --> 01:06:24.340
the action is. Cameron, I would imagine that whether it's
1307
01:06:24.539 --> 01:06:28.639
somebody from Columbus State or CIA, places that you're really
1308
01:06:29.079 --> 01:06:33.110
generous with your time and money, that you're sitting potentially
1309
01:06:33.119 --> 01:06:35.050
like this, or maybe on the phone with, with somebody
1310
01:06:35.110 --> 01:06:39.889
who is younger, uh, but ambitious, they want to make
1311
01:06:39.929 --> 01:06:42.079
a positive contribution in the world. And they say, Hey,
1312
01:06:42.110 --> 01:06:47.210
what's some general life slash work advice that you would
1313
01:06:47.250 --> 01:06:49.769
give to me as I want to not necessarily just
1314
01:06:50.130 --> 01:06:51.710
do exactly what you've done, but I want to make
1315
01:06:51.750 --> 01:06:54.670
a positive contribution like you've done. What are some, some
1316
01:06:54.710 --> 01:06:57.030
things I should be thinking about in order to make
1317
01:06:57.070 --> 01:06:57.570
that happen?
1318
01:06:59.789 --> 01:07:02.170
Well, I mean, I guess I always talk about integrity,
1319
01:07:02.269 --> 01:07:05.889
you know, that integrity takes years to build and days
1320
01:07:05.929 --> 01:07:10.929
to ruin. And, you know, you have to live your
1321
01:07:10.969 --> 01:07:12.969
life that way. You need to lead with integrity. You
1322
01:07:12.989 --> 01:07:16.010
need to grow with integrity. You know, it's Sunday night.
1323
01:07:16.110 --> 01:07:18.840
It's midnight. You want to get out of work. You know,
1324
01:07:19.440 --> 01:07:21.280
are you doing the work needed to clean that walk
1325
01:07:21.340 --> 01:07:22.920
in the way it should be? Or, you know, are
1326
01:07:22.940 --> 01:07:27.139
you skipping cutting corners? And, you know, cutting corners in
1327
01:07:27.179 --> 01:07:30.780
life will get you nowhere, you know, and. I, people
1328
01:07:30.840 --> 01:07:32.219
used to get my hair get up on the back
1329
01:07:32.260 --> 01:07:34.079
of my head when, when people lead with what we
1330
01:07:34.119 --> 01:07:37.139
can do it easier this way. You know, I said, well,
1331
01:07:37.199 --> 01:07:40.559
you know, that's great, but great restaurant tour is difficult.
1332
01:07:40.579 --> 01:07:42.820
If it was easy, everybody would do it, you know?
1333
01:07:43.260 --> 01:07:45.650
So I don't necessarily want to the easiest way. I
1334
01:07:45.639 --> 01:07:48.090
don't know the right way. If we'd live by the
1335
01:07:48.150 --> 01:07:51.630
right way and do things the right way, uh, we'll
1336
01:07:51.650 --> 01:07:55.389
be successful. That's number one. Number two, positive mental attitude,
1337
01:07:55.730 --> 01:07:59.510
you know, uh, it's 7am in the morning. My house
1338
01:07:59.530 --> 01:08:01.530
is the same as your house. That's what you do
1339
01:08:01.550 --> 01:08:05.059
with your day that defines you, you know, and how
1340
01:08:05.199 --> 01:08:09.539
you conduct yourself throughout that day. So, um, you need
1341
01:08:09.559 --> 01:08:12.760
to be constantly aware of that, how you're, you know,
1342
01:08:12.840 --> 01:08:14.679
and yes, you're, you're young, you're going to grow, you're
1343
01:08:14.699 --> 01:08:17.760
going to make mistakes, et cetera. But, um, I was
1344
01:08:17.800 --> 01:08:22.590
always unwavering in my, uh, work ethic and, you know,
1345
01:08:22.630 --> 01:08:27.170
my integrity ethic and we're, we're, uh, pushing forward every
1346
01:08:27.210 --> 01:08:30.050
single day. And life is a journey. It's about a thousand,
1347
01:08:30.130 --> 01:08:33.010
some of thousands and thousands of steps, you know, and
1348
01:08:33.029 --> 01:08:36.869
it's not just one step, you know, and, um, you know,
1349
01:08:36.970 --> 01:08:39.050
as we go through our journey, we make mistakes. We
1350
01:08:39.090 --> 01:08:41.649
hit off in the wrong direction sometimes, but it's a
1351
01:08:41.689 --> 01:08:43.949
matter of then you backtrack and you come back and
1352
01:08:43.989 --> 01:08:47.689
get back on the right path. But, um, it just, uh, we,
1353
01:08:47.750 --> 01:08:50.399
I've made my mistakes, you know, and But you don't
1354
01:08:50.439 --> 01:08:52.819
punish yourself for those. You live by them. You learn
1355
01:08:52.859 --> 01:08:56.899
from them and you grow, you know. So uh, young people,
1356
01:08:56.939 --> 01:09:00.020
I think, uh, that's a little misnomer out there, you know,
1357
01:09:00.399 --> 01:09:02.479
millennials and so forth. They don't want to work hard.
1358
01:09:02.520 --> 01:09:05.720
I find, um, our millennials want to work very hard.
1359
01:09:05.779 --> 01:09:08.159
They just want to be more inclusive and, and some
1360
01:09:08.199 --> 01:09:10.800
other things they want, but they, they haven't lost their
1361
01:09:10.840 --> 01:09:13.239
work ethic per se. Now they want things a little
1362
01:09:13.260 --> 01:09:16.930
sooner sometimes than it takes, but, um, You know, success
1363
01:09:16.970 --> 01:09:21.689
does not happen overnight, very rarely. Yes, there's examples of that,
1364
01:09:21.770 --> 01:09:27.100
but that's about as often as someone winning the lottery.
1365
01:09:27.579 --> 01:09:31.500
It's mostly hard work and dedication to one's career or
1366
01:09:31.619 --> 01:09:37.239
one's path or one's integrity or one's leadership over the years.
1367
01:09:37.550 --> 01:09:41.329
And it's the sum total of all those steps that counts.
1368
01:09:41.649 --> 01:09:42.310
What's next for you?
1369
01:09:44.539 --> 01:09:48.739
Well, moving into my goals over here, I talk about
1370
01:09:49.260 --> 01:09:54.460
the two S's. And for me, yes, 40 years in
1371
01:09:54.479 --> 01:09:57.399
the restaurant business. I joke my little fuel light's on
1372
01:09:57.420 --> 01:10:00.739
a little bit, you know. And I do want to
1373
01:10:00.779 --> 01:10:02.180
live a little bit off the fat of the land
1374
01:10:02.199 --> 01:10:06.140
a little bit now. And, you know, my kids, my wife,
1375
01:10:06.819 --> 01:10:09.390
my youngest daughter will leave the house to college a
1376
01:10:09.430 --> 01:10:12.890
year from August and retire. We'll be empty nesters. My
1377
01:10:12.930 --> 01:10:15.670
wife will be retired from her job as a stay-at-home mom.
1378
01:10:16.470 --> 01:10:18.850
So I want to travel more with her and with
1379
01:10:18.909 --> 01:10:21.989
friends and be with our kids and do those things.
1380
01:10:23.149 --> 01:10:27.000
So with that said, I'm moving more into the chairman's
1381
01:10:27.060 --> 01:10:29.739
role of the company and really focusing on the two S's.
1382
01:10:29.819 --> 01:10:33.680
One is strategy, chief strategy officer. So I'm not going
1383
01:10:33.699 --> 01:10:36.880
to do all the heavy lifting anymore, but I'm still–
1384
01:10:37.220 --> 01:10:39.710
as long as I'm capable, I'll still be in up
1385
01:10:39.750 --> 01:10:43.270
in the bridge and, and being, and making sure, uh,
1386
01:10:43.329 --> 01:10:45.270
the ship is in safe Harbor. You know, we're not
1387
01:10:45.510 --> 01:10:48.590
sailing into the Titanic, the iceberg or into the teeth
1388
01:10:48.630 --> 01:10:52.380
of the storm or a ground that we're in safe Harbor. Um,
1389
01:10:52.920 --> 01:10:54.920
and I love that. So as long as I'm capable
1390
01:10:54.939 --> 01:10:57.260
to do that, I'll be the chief strategy officer. And
1391
01:10:57.279 --> 01:11:01.359
the other S is stewardship and the chief steward. And
1392
01:11:01.420 --> 01:11:05.829
so really stewardship is broken into three facets. Really it's, uh,
1393
01:11:06.300 --> 01:11:09.100
Stewardship of the company, of our people, you know, and
1394
01:11:09.140 --> 01:11:14.800
our company and tending to that and giving to that
1395
01:11:14.880 --> 01:11:19.439
and so forth. And then stewardship of our industry, you know,
1396
01:11:19.840 --> 01:11:23.220
whether it be the National Restaurant Association or Education Foundation
1397
01:11:23.300 --> 01:11:26.760
or building a hospitality management school at Columbus State or
1398
01:11:28.060 --> 01:11:30.460
any of those things we've done in our industry to
1399
01:11:30.479 --> 01:11:32.680
get back to this wonderful industry that's been so great
1400
01:11:32.720 --> 01:11:35.229
to me. So stewardship of our industry. And then the
1401
01:11:35.270 --> 01:11:37.989
third is stewardship of our community. You know, Columbus community,
1402
01:11:38.010 --> 01:11:41.710
which we live in, you know, and giving back. I'm
1403
01:11:41.789 --> 01:11:45.229
on a number of boards here and, you know, support
1404
01:11:45.270 --> 01:11:48.229
our children's hospital and our cancer hospital and all those things.
1405
01:11:48.880 --> 01:11:51.880
And just making impact in people's lives. So stewardship of
1406
01:11:51.939 --> 01:11:56.199
our community. So those three aspects of stewardship I'm focusing
1407
01:11:56.260 --> 01:11:59.319
on right now. So that's where I'm changing a little
1408
01:11:59.340 --> 01:12:02.859
bit and spending more and more time doing that. And, yeah.
1409
01:12:05.289 --> 01:12:07.810
I don't want to take a tremendous amount of risk anymore.
1410
01:12:07.869 --> 01:12:09.630
We're still going to grow. We're going to continue to
1411
01:12:09.670 --> 01:12:12.649
push the envelope, but we don't need to get crazy
1412
01:12:12.689 --> 01:12:15.390
about it anymore because I want to be able to
1413
01:12:15.409 --> 01:12:19.729
do things like this and give a tremendous amount of
1414
01:12:20.069 --> 01:12:23.689
resources and time and money to some of these other
1415
01:12:24.289 --> 01:12:29.119
institutions that are helping general humanity out. Yeah.
1416
01:12:29.220 --> 01:12:31.699
Personal question. If I wanted to take my beautiful wife
1417
01:12:31.779 --> 01:12:33.479
on a lunch date today, where should I go?
1418
01:12:33.500 --> 01:12:36.039
Ha, ha, ha. Well, not all of our restaurants are
1419
01:12:36.060 --> 01:12:36.560
open for lunch.
1420
01:12:36.579 --> 01:12:37.659
I know. We thought we were going to go to
1421
01:12:37.680 --> 01:12:40.079
Del Mar, actually. Then we looked and it was not open.
1422
01:12:40.100 --> 01:12:42.579
The Guild House would be a great experience for lunch.
1423
01:12:42.600 --> 01:12:44.279
Which one? The Guild House. It's right across the street
1424
01:12:44.300 --> 01:12:45.890
from Del Mar and a short north. That would be
1425
01:12:45.909 --> 01:12:50.449
a great experience for lunch. For a more casual lunch,
1426
01:12:50.529 --> 01:12:53.470
but busy, you know, would be Cap City Diner here
1427
01:12:53.670 --> 01:12:56.289
in town. But those are your two best choices. And
1428
01:12:56.310 --> 01:12:58.579
I think those are probably the only two. Our Cap
1429
01:12:58.600 --> 01:13:00.979
City Diner is open for lunch. Hudson 29 is open
1430
01:13:01.020 --> 01:13:05.550
for lunch. But a majority of our restaurants are dinner only. Gotcha.
1431
01:13:05.630 --> 01:13:09.689
Well, Cameron, thank you so much. I would love, both
1432
01:13:09.729 --> 01:13:12.340
being Ohio guys, I'd love to continue this dialogue as
1433
01:13:12.380 --> 01:13:15.619
we both progress. I'm so grateful that you welcomed us
1434
01:13:16.020 --> 01:13:17.880
to your beautiful office here in Columbus, man.
1435
01:13:18.239 --> 01:13:19.770
Well, great, Ryan. It's been a pleasure to be with
1436
01:13:19.810 --> 01:13:22.930
you today, so thank you. And I wish everybody lots
1437
01:13:22.970 --> 01:13:25.390
of success in their life out there. Thanks, man. Okay.
1438
01:13:26.829 --> 01:13:29.829
I am so grateful to Cameron for having us, my
1439
01:13:29.890 --> 01:13:33.140
wife Miranda and me, in his office in Columbus, Ohio,
1440
01:13:33.189 --> 01:13:35.960
to record this one. It was evident from our time
1441
01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:41.859
together that Cameron is fanatical about company culture. Every person
1442
01:13:41.899 --> 01:13:45.729
we interacted with in his office had a warm, welcoming
1443
01:13:45.859 --> 01:13:50.770
smile and seemed genuinely excited to see us. I just
1444
01:13:50.970 --> 01:13:54.210
really enjoyed the experience. Some of the parts I found
1445
01:13:54.630 --> 01:14:00.500
most impactful... The five questions to ask yourself as a leader.
1446
01:14:00.579 --> 01:14:02.779
Who are we? What do we want to be? Why
1447
01:14:02.819 --> 01:14:05.640
are we in business? What is your role? What is
1448
01:14:05.920 --> 01:14:09.880
our goal? Then writing your core values, the benefit of
1449
01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:13.119
putting pen to paper, and then having the courage to
1450
01:14:13.399 --> 01:14:17.229
act on them, including firing a superstar if he doesn't
1451
01:14:17.310 --> 01:14:20.010
live up to the values set. Near the end of
1452
01:14:20.050 --> 01:14:23.050
the conversation, when he was talking about his family, he
1453
01:14:23.149 --> 01:14:26.930
briefly choked up when speaking about fatherhood. And being a
1454
01:14:26.970 --> 01:14:29.760
great dad and husband, I just thought it was a
1455
01:14:29.819 --> 01:14:33.539
really human moment. I loved it. Hope you enjoyed this
1456
01:14:33.680 --> 01:14:36.279
one as much as I did and found it useful.
1457
01:14:36.460 --> 01:14:38.500
If so, I would love it if you would tell
1458
01:14:38.680 --> 01:14:41.710
a friend or two, perhaps one that has never listened
1459
01:14:41.750 --> 01:14:43.930
to The Learning Leader Show, tell them to check this
1460
01:14:44.069 --> 01:14:47.630
one out with the great Cameron Mitchell. Thank you once
1461
01:14:47.689 --> 01:14:51.029
again for continuing to give me the opportunity to do
1462
01:14:51.069 --> 01:14:53.880
what I love on a daily basis. For that, I
1463
01:14:53.960 --> 01:14:55.720
will forever be grateful.
1464
01:14:56.090 --> 01:14:56.449
Grateful.
1465
01:14:56.529 --> 01:14:58.300
Thank you so much. Talk with you next week.
1466
01:14:58.470 --> 01:14:58.750
Can't wait.