Michael Chernow (2:58)

Lot of experience with this because especially.

Unknown Speaker 1 (3:00)

In the early days of business, in the restaurant business. You know, the restaurant business is very different than Creatures of Habit. But it is so difficult to, to find great humans. And fortunately great humans require more money. Now you can think that spending more money on a human to help you run your business, help you manage your business is going to come right out of your bottom line. But that's thinking short sighted. When you pay for the better human, that human is going to bring way more value to your bottom line. So that bottom line is going to grow. It's just the facts, if they're the right person. And so I always used to think about this and how am I going to get these great managers in these great, in these restaurants when we don't have a lot of money to spend, you know, And I was not thinking about it the right way. How can I find the best human and pay them what they're worth so that they can make the business a lot more money? That's actually the way to think about it right now. It creatures a habit. It's a small, small team and we all get paid essentially the same amount of money. Like I get paid the same amount of money as the other people on the team, give or take 10 or 20 grand. And that's because I just know that I need people that are thinking the way I am. And in order to get people that are thinking the way I am, you gotta pay, you gotta pay. And they're probably worth more money, but they believe in the business so much that they're willing to take a little bit of a hit. For the time being. The GM of Creatures of Habit makes the exact same amount of money as I do. And our brand director, she makes just.

Michael Chernow (5:17)

A little bit less.

Unknown Speaker 1 (5:18)

And that's really like the full timers at the company, small team. You know, we have a bunch of part time people and some fractionals. But I just, when I heard that quote, pay peanuts, get monkeys, I was like this. It's just true, it's just true, it's just true. You know, like when you make an investment into something, let's just call it a stock, you buy a stock, you pay more for the stocks that have performed better. And the goal is, is that you invest into this stock so that down the road that stock is going to make you a lot more money. You know, and obviously there's risk in that. But historically that has been the case. Over the course of time, the stock market has made People, over the course of long periods of time, more money. I think about business and human capital that way. If I, you know, like, I don't have enough money to get rich on penny stocks, so I'm not going to play penny stocks in business. I'm going to take. I'm going to. I'm going to be making bets on. On Apple. I just. So it's the way to do it. You know, I've got stung so many times in the restaurant business because I thought, man, if I could just, you.

Unknown Speaker 2 (6:33)

Know, if I could just pay $10,000 less, if I could pay $15,000 less.

Unknown Speaker 1 (6:37)

And it wasn't about. It was just immaturity in my business acumen, not understanding that you make the investment in the better person, that person is not only going to pay for themselves, but ideally they're 5xing their salary in revenue that they're bringing because they're just better. So I just. When I heard that pay peanuts get monkeys, I was like, all right, I gotta talk about that on the pod, because, you know, I think a lot of us are, you know, trying to make the best decisions for our businesses. But this. This also goes for, like, anything in life. You try to take the cheap way out of it, you are typically going to end up with cheaper products. It's so funny.

Michael Chernow (7:24)

This is.

Unknown Speaker 1 (7:24)

I'll give you one great example, and then I'll shut up and let you go on about your day. I get caught on the TikTok ads, man. I just get caught on them because the things look so cool when I'm like, if I'm zipping through TikTok and something catches my eye and it typically is for toys for my kids. That's a fact. I'm a target for that. But, like, I'm like, oh, man, that thing looks so cool. What? What? It's only 18.99. Poop buy. It shows up, breaks within a week. I do it consistently. And my wife is like, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? And it's is a. It's a clear example of pay peanuts get monkeys. Like, that is exactly what is in real time. Because, you know, there are times where I still just kind of have that mentality, man, that's so cheap. It's got. It looks so cool. I'm going to. I'm going to pick that thing up, throw it in. Doesn't work. Doesn't work. So anyway, I appreciate you guys listening. Thank you so, so much for being a part of this community, being on this journey. It means the world love you, appreciate you.