Why That Worked #9: Michelin Star—How a Tire Company Created the Most Prestigious Award in Food

Summary

Podcast Summary: Marketing Made Simple

Episode Title: Why That Worked #9: Michelin Star—How a Tire Company Created the Most Prestigious Award in Food
Release Date: March 5, 2025
Hosts: Donald Miller & Kyle Reed
Presented by: StoryBrand AI

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode kicks off with Bobby Richards introducing the new podcast series, "Why That Worked," a spin-off from "Marketing Made Simple." He emphasizes that each episode will delve into the reasons behind the success of various brands, trends, and cultural phenomena, providing actionable insights for listeners. He invites the audience to subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel or follow the podcast on their preferred platform to catch new episodes every Monday.

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2. Personal Anecdotes on Memorable Meals

Donald Miller and Kyle Reed start their conversation by sharing their favorite meals and dining experiences. Kyle reminisces about his best meal at Nomad in New York City, highlighting the unique "hot dog in a croissant bun" crafted by chef Will Geta [03:13]. Donald shares his fondness for comfort food, specifically mentioning flavored nacho cheese hamburger helper as a favorite from his upbringing [07:59].

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (03:22): “The meat was just made in-house... that was the best thing I've ever bitten into in my life.”

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3. Transition to Michelin Stars and Restaurant Excellence

The dialogue shifts to the topic of Michelin stars, with both hosts discussing their limited experiences with Michelin-starred restaurants. Kyle underscores the challenge and prestige associated with earning such awards, while Donald reflects on memorable dining experiences that combine excellent food with great company [11:10].

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4. The Role of Competition in Culinary Excellence

Kyle explains how Portland, Oregon's competitive food truck scene fostered culinary excellence, leading to the rise of exceptional brick-and-mortar restaurants like Le Pigeon [10:00]. He contrasts this with the burgeoning food scene in Nashville, highlighting how increased competition elevates overall quality.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (13:44): “I think culinary is the hardest of all [art forms]. Consistently creating great art in the form of a plate of food is harder than any other.”

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5. Perceptions and Challenges of Achieving Michelin Stars

The hosts delve into the subjective nature of Michelin ratings. Kyle argues that culinary arts are uniquely challenging due to the perishability and constant evolution of food, making consistency a significant hurdle [14:12]. They discuss how Michelin inspectors counteract subjectivity by conducting multiple visits over years to ensure consistent excellence [16:11].

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (15:15): “Everything is constantly changing while you're creating it. To keep that up in terms of consistency, I would think would be... that’s why it’s the hardest form of art.”

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6. The History of the Michelin Guide

Donald Miller provides a historical overview of the Michelin Guide, explaining its origins as a tool to sell more tires by encouraging driving. Over time, the guide evolved to focus on restaurant quality, establishing criteria and trust with its audience [21:18].

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller (21:45): “The guide was so good, the maps were so good that most in World War I, the Allied troops used them as guides because the maps were so well made.”

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7. The Impact of Trust and Consistency in Ratings

The conversation highlights how Michelin’s commitment to excellence and rigorous evaluation processes have built trust. Kyle emphasizes that maintaining high standards without pandering for sales ensures the integrity of the Michelin stars [24:15].

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (25:06): “We're going to underwrite it so that we actually get the most objective or the best, that it's disassociated from pandering for dollars.”

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8. The Human Element in Pursuing Excellence

Kyle shares personal stories illustrating the profound impact of excellence combined with humility. He recounts his interactions with notable figures like Charles Koch and experiences at prestigious restaurants, emphasizing that true excellence involves seeing others as equals and uplifting them [33:17].

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (34:34): “The whole point of this episode... the only benefit of excellence is that you can actually make other people... you can heal their souls if you are excellent.”

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9. Introduction of New Segment: "What Also Worked"

Towards the end, Donald and Kyle introduce a new segment titled "What Also Worked," where they discuss additional successful endeavors that may not warrant a full episode. Donald mentions the documentary "I Am Tim" about artist Avicii, and Kyle recommends "City of Gold," a documentary about LA food critic Jonathan Gold, praising its insightful and well-written reviews [36:03].

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10. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The episode wraps up with reflections on the relationship between excellence, trust, and human connection. The hosts reiterate the importance of maintaining high standards and treating others with respect to foster admiration and loyalty.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed (35:11): “We want the best, but yet we want to know what the best is. We want to experience.”

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Key Takeaways:

• Michelin Stars as a Marker of Excellence: Originating from a tire company's need to promote driving, the Michelin Guide evolved into a respected culinary standard through rigorous and consistent evaluation.

• Competition Drives Quality: Highly competitive environments, like Portland’s food truck scene, can elevate overall culinary standards and foster innovation.

• Trust and Consistency are Crucial: Maintaining trust through consistent quality is essential for the credibility of any rating system or award.

• Human Connection Enhances Excellence: Achieving high standards while maintaining humility and treating others as equals creates a powerful and positive impact.

• The Art of Culinary Excellence: Unlike other art forms, culinary arts face unique challenges in consistency and perishability, making excellence particularly difficult to maintain.

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Recommendations:

• For Aspiring Restaurateurs: Focus on consistency, trustworthiness, and creating a unique yet accessible dining experience to strive for excellence akin to Michelin-starred establishments.

• For Marketing Professionals: Understand the importance of providing clear, consistent value and building trust with your audience to achieve long-term success.

• For Listeners: Explore documentaries like "I Am Tim" and "City of Gold" to gain deeper insights into the journeys of artists and critics who embody excellence in their fields.

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This episode offers a compelling exploration of how the Michelin Guide transformed from a practical tool for drivers into the pinnacle of culinary recognition. Through engaging personal anecdotes and insightful discussions, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed unravel the intricate balance between excellence, trust, and human connection that makes the Michelin Star a symbol of prestige in the food industry.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feedback, but only for a limited time. Each episode of the new show is going to deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. Now, here's the deal. Like I said, this is only for a limited time. If you want to catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it from me. So grateful you're here and enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI. You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Donald Miller]

Don, the best meal you've ever had.

[Kyle Reed]

That's a great question, difficult to answer, and of course I'm gonna take 12 minutes to answer it. Knowing that today is about. Yeah, knowing that today's about Michelin stars and the whole history of the Michelin star in terms of restaurant award systems or whatever. Right. I gotta just be brutally honest. I like a good steakhouse with comfort food sides. So if you're asking me to be honest, what's the best meal you've ever had? I'm going Cane Prime. I'm going the Oak. I'm going, you know, Hole in the wall. Fort Worth, Texas, after a long keynote presentation late at night with my buddies who were happened to, who happen to live in Fort Worth. You know what I mean?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. We should not have recorded this before lunch because you're already. I'm getting. I'm getting hungry.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, exactly. And also, you know, a great restaurant to me has some telltale signs. One is a metal Chair with red plastic covering. And the waitress says, be careful, hot plate. Like, that's, That's. We know we're in Don Miller's neck of the woods. That said, moving comfort food that is available in almost every town aside, which is better than most Michelin star restaurants, by the way. Best meal I ever had was at Nomad in New York City, which is a hotel. And they have a small, like, breakfast restaurant. I don't even know if that's called Nomad, but the Nomad bar is there. And somehow Brian Canlis, Canlas restaurant in Seattle, found out I was going to Nomad. And we were texting back and forth. He said, order the hot dog.

[Donald Miller]

So Nomad, which is very familiar to a lot of people listening to this, right? You're going to Nomad. And he says, order a hot dog.

[Kyle Reed]

Which I'm convinced he's joking.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Like, there's no way a fine dining bar or whatever has a hot dog. And sure enough, they did. On the menu. Realized he's not kidding, ordered the hot dog. And that might be the very best thing I've ever bitten into ever in my life. It was like a hot dog in a croissant bun. And the meat was just like, made inh house. I mean, like, they made that hot dog from scratch. And that is. They cut it up into, like. I mean, it was the best thing.

[Donald Miller]

They cut it up.

[Kyle Reed]

I think they cut it up. I think, if I'm not mistaken, they cut it up. This is Will Guerra, by the way.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Will Geta did this. He did Nomad.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And holy crap, that was amazing. Okay, you're sitting there, you're sitting in a little library at Nomad Hotel. And, you know, the ambiance is amazing. The drinks, obviously, are incredible, and everything on the menu was sort of like upscale comfort food. And it was astonishing.

[Donald Miller]

Wow.

[Kyle Reed]

Bets and I also ate at Iniki e's Petart. By the way, for listeners in the background, we've been, like, looking up, trying to figure out how to pronounce this stuff because half of it's in French.

[Donald Miller]

Forgive us.

[Kyle Reed]

This guy's name is Inaki es Petart, and he has a restaurant called Le Chateaubriand.

[Donald Miller]

Nailed it.

[Kyle Reed]

The women are swooning as they listen right now. And it was. What do I got to say here? I'm so nervous I could pass on that restaurant again.

[Donald Miller]

Really?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, now I shouldn't say that because that restaurant is great because it turned a Michelin star quality restaurant into a very accessible culinary experience. Prices are not Insane.

[Donald Miller]

You could get in.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. But I don't know what it says about me that, like Killen's Barbecue in Pearland, Texas. Yeah, they. The line starts at 9:30 or 10:00am it doesn't open till 11. So you get in line at 9:30 or 10am and at 11 they open and you just hope that they don't run out of food. I mean, you're going to get in and you're going to eat. They tend to run out of food around 2, 2:30pm but they. Then they just close because they don't have any more food.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, they're out of food.

[Kyle Reed]

And that is. That is the best barbecue I've ever eaten. I've never eaten at Franklin. I've never eaten at some of the places around Austin, Texas. That guy graduated from high school with me and he created one of the best barbecues in the state of Texas barbecue restaurants. You know, I'm comparing all this French stuff to that and I'm like, be great on a bun, whatever this is, you know. So, Kyle, best food, best meal you've ever eaten, and then best meal in this sort of upscale category. Best, you know, which includes experience and all that kind of stuff.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that's. I'm in your vein to the degree I have not eaten at a Michelin star restaurant.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

To my knowledge.

[Kyle Reed]

You done Audrey here in town? Here in Nashville?

[Donald Miller]

No, no, I haven't done that.

[Kyle Reed]

Audrey. Sean Brock's place would be like Michelin star.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So I have not done that. Some of the best experiences are similar to you, where it's the steakhouse or it's those experiences. Honestly, one of my favorites. I. I don't know. Maybe it was just because we were on a trip. Me and my wife were in Mexico, but we go to this all inclusive resort and their restaurants there are just out of this world eating things that I'm like, that looks.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, probably a lot of it was fresh.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah. It was just a lot of the.

[Kyle Reed]

Fruit and vegetables were fresh.

[Donald Miller]

If you were like, hey, what last meal? What would you pick? I picked this soup from this restaurant in Mexico.

[Kyle Reed]

Wow.

[Donald Miller]

I would never. But this soup, it's like we talk about it on a regular basis. What was it? I don't remember. It was green. That's all I remember. So what did it taste like?

[Kyle Reed]

You got to do better than that.

[Donald Miller]

It was creamy. It was just the flavors in it were ridiculous. So good with some bread. It was designed really cool. It's been a couple years, so I don't remember all the extent of it.

[Kyle Reed]

Don't you love it when you go somewhere and you start eating and you realize the food is five levels up?

[Donald Miller]

Oh, it ups the experience to another degree. And I think for me, that's what. So when I think about best meals, I think about another one. There was some. I'm from St. Louis, and right when my wife and I first got married, she was the foodie. I was not. I grew up Midwest. Meat and potatoes.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You know, a big night for us was if we got the, like, flavored nacho cheese hamburger helper. It added a little extra flavor.

[Kyle Reed]

Big night period. Not for you.

[Donald Miller]

That's true. That's good. I'm glad. I've always been nervous to say that out loud, but I'm glad I have some help, Someone who agrees with me. Nacho cheese hamburger helper.

[Kyle Reed]

She whiz.

[Donald Miller]

That probably disqualified me from a lot of this conversation. All I had to say, she grew up Southern, so sheep flavors is huge. So when we first got married, she.

[Kyle Reed]

Extra butter, man.

[Donald Miller]

She introduced me to just all these different spices and things, and it was. It kind of opened up my palate. But when we first got married, we went to St. Louis. We were visiting my parents, and we were looking at places ago. We looked online and there's this place called the Tavern. I was like, all right, you know, cool.

[Kyle Reed]

Again, what was it like? Reviewing.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, just like it was in St. Louis. It was new. And I was just kind of thinking.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, the Tavern doesn't sound like.

[Donald Miller]

It doesn't sound nice.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

We walk in, they have a chef's table. It's open. They're like, here, come sit by the chef's table. We get to watch these guys prepare a kind of tapas style, but five course meal. And it was some of the best food I've ever had. I've ever had. And so the experience, but the food and just the attention to detail was amazing. But also, I think for me, some of it is the best meals I've had is the people I'm with, the company. It adds to the experience. Listen, I gotta make up for the nacho cheese comment now.

[Kyle Reed]

You're gonna push back on this because I know you're not a fan of Portland, Oregon. Going from the food scene in Portland, Oregon to the food scene in Nashville, Tennessee was like stepping out into a. Into a cold rain.

[Donald Miller]

Just that different.

[Kyle Reed]

No, I mean, Portland was. Well, the. The year that I left Portland and came to Nashville, the New York Times wrote an article that said Portland, Oregon had surpassed new New York City in terms of quality of restaurants. Bottom line is there are two very competitive culinary schools in Portland, Oregon. Then what happened was they could all start food trucks in parking lots that the city opened up. So you had easy access to starting a restaurant without much capital. And what it created was this massively competitive food scene. Whoever survived the food truck scene got brick and mortar.

[Donald Miller]

Makes sense.

[Kyle Reed]

And so what it created was a ridiculous number. I remember we used to go and try to get in at Le Pigeon because they only served eight hamburgers a day. And so you'd go to the Pigeon and try to get one of those frickin hamburgers.

[Donald Miller]

How much was a hamburger?

[Kyle Reed]

It's like 40 bucks.

[Donald Miller]

Okay. Bad business model, but yeah, well, I.

[Kyle Reed]

Mean, listen, they had. That's not the only thing on the menu, right?

[Donald Miller]

Burgers a day.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. You had to get a reservation. You couldn't get like a seven. When you wanted to eat, you had to get a five, because otherwise you're not gonna get one of the hamburgers. And it was stuff like that. And the food scene was just absolutely insane. I mean, it was everywhere you go, you ate great food. And then I came to Nashville and you know, the best meal in town was Jay Alexander's and thank God Sean Brock moved to town and started upping the competition. Then Lotus opened up here. There started to be some great places to eat and the food scene is changing, but I mean, it was terrible.

[Donald Miller]

So I'm curious, so Portland, you know, do you think, because this kind of hints into the Michelin star thing, do you think there was a driver on competition to be the best that drove the excellence? What, where do you think?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, I mean, I think all these, I mean, these are, this is all theory, but it's a pretty good theory. I think these chefs came out of these culinary schools and they got competitive and it was, you know, Portland is a go your own direction, be an artist. We're actually not paying attention to anybody else in the country. Is very kind of proud of that stuff. And it just created this soil that great, great restaurants could rise up.

[Donald Miller]

Here's what I love about chefs about just this whole conversation is the desire to innovate, right. To reimagine something I think is so fascinating. I also think so. My wife and I, we love the show the Bear. We love it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And one of the twists in the Bear is they, you know, Carney decides, I'm, we're going to go after a Michelin star. And to do that, we have to do these things so we got to change our process, we got to change the restaurant, we got to change our quality of food. And he's the whole, like the, the whole show is, does he get the Michelin star? And it drives the narrative forward and.

[Kyle Reed]

It, it, that's the open story, Lou.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, it's an amazing story, but I.

[Kyle Reed]

Actually looked up when I was, when I was preparing for this episode what a chef would do if they wanted to win a Michelin star. Like if you suddenly announce to your team, we're going to win a Michelin star, and, you know, pretty obvious stuff. Focus on culinary excellence, enhance the dining experience, develop a unique concept, invest in staff training, emphasize seasonal and local sourcing, innovative and evolving menu, consistent quality over time, and then seek feedback, build a strong brand identity, engage with the culinary community, and then be patient and persistent. That's a heck of a, an objective, you know. And here's a question for you. Yeah, I'm going to make a statement, okay. Agree or disagree in terms of art forms, painting, music, the literary category where you're writing books or writing novels or whatever, movie making and cheffery.

[Donald Miller]

Cooking.

[Kyle Reed]

Culinary. I think culinary is the hardest of all of them. I think consistently creating great art in the form of a plate of food is harder than any of that other stuff. Harder than Bob Dylan writing like a Rolling stone, harder than, you know, Picasso. Harder. Painting, it's harder.

[Donald Miller]

So you're wondering if I agree or disagree. I'm curious.

[Kyle Reed]

Why, why do I believe that?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, I don't. I'm running in my head, why do you think that?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, here's why. Because if I'm a painter, nothing against painting. I'm not saying it's easy. If I'm a painter and I screw up, I paint over the top of it and it's permanent. I just painted something permanent. The Mona Lisa was painted however many years ago and it's still there. Now. Do that with a plate of biscuits and gravy. Yeah, this 400 year old plate of biscuits and gravy. Just taste it.

[Donald Miller]

Unless it's a McDonald's burger, it's not lasting a day.

[Kyle Reed]

And the reason is it's constantly changing, much less expiring, and it's getting worse. Like the second you take that thing out of the kitchen and it's crossing, it is evolving and changing. As the waiter brings it to the table, it's changing. Not only that, you know, I remember going to a fine dining restaurant that was known for something particular, and I ate the salad and the crouton on the Salad almost broke my tooth, it was so stale. And I remember literally thinking, is there a hidden camera? Like, is this a joke? This is a hundred dollar plate of salad here. And the reality is, who knows, it'd set out for an extra three hours. So to get to know like that bin of croutons is we got to throw that out. Everything is always evolving and changing while you're creating it. And then to keep that up in terms of consistency, I would think would be. That's why I say it's the hardest form of art.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And I also have the most grace. Like if I go to a really nice restaurant and some of the food seems a little cold or whatever, I'm just like, you can't nail this every night. You're going to get, you're going to get 10 really great bites tonight and they're going to be amazing or taste some good things. But let's suspend all judgment because this is actually the hardest form of art.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Okay, I see where you're going with that. That makes a lot of sense because like most art, it's subjective. Right. So it's all on the user experience of what tastes good to them. But what I heard you saying, what's interesting is it's almost like a little bit of a battle because the chef is battling against the freshness of the chef.

[Kyle Reed]

Your actual art form is fighting you.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

The whole freaking time.

[Donald Miller]

But the people you know eating it, the experience, there's so much subjective, so it's actually interesting. Like Michelin star, the rating system is subjective as well to the person giving them out. Right.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, I think one of the reasons that Michelin stars have succeeded is they actually put some things in place to counter that. For example, nobody gets a Michelin star without multiple visits, sometimes over years.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Did you know that?

[Donald Miller]

No, I didn't.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. So the food reviewers go in and they go in, you know, once and they take notes. They come back, they come back, they come back and sometimes it's years because consistency is part of it.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

It has to be a consistency great experience.

[Donald Miller]

So do once you get a star, do they come back and make sure that you're holding up to the brand?

[Kyle Reed]

You can, you can. Yeah. I did a little thing on. You can lose stars.

[Donald Miller]

Really?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. In fact, Alinea in Chicago is, you know, it's kind of a, a known thing that they're always under the threat of losing a star because they're just so freaking innovative and they've changed so much and it's just hard to keep that stuff up. I haven't eaten at Alinea. I really want to.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, it sounds like we need a road trip podcast episode.

[Kyle Reed]

But I mean, think about, you know, like, Sean Brock here in town at Audrey. Sean is probably the best known chef in town. He's probably one of the greatest chefs in town, if not the greatest. Won, I think, two or three James Beard awards. He made a little bowl of grits with an egg in it and some sort of green sauce that's just sort of splashed over it. And I'm telling you, man, top five things I've ever eaten in my entire life. So Henry Cloud calls and says, hey, let's get dinner. I go, audrey. Because he lives down the street from Audrey. Can we do Audrey? The girls aren't with us. Let's just eat. Let's just eat for hours. I get there, hate the grits thing.

[Donald Miller]

Ah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, we took that off the menu. You've got to be kidding me. You took it off the menu? And you know, imagine why. Because whatever was in that is no longer fresh and available. So Sean's not gonna make it and serve it.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

That to me is like, you know, hey, you can't use blue as a painter. By the way, Van Gogh blue is expired this season. You gotta wait till next spring. Can you think of any other art form that is this hard?

[Donald Miller]

No, that's true. I mean it. And it's so, you know, you're right. Everything is battling against you, which is maybe what makes it so appealing for people, but also so anxiety driven, you know, for the chef and for the experience.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, let's also. Let's also say that or admit or acknowledge the fact that in order to even do it, you have to have a ton of money.

[Donald Miller]

Okay. Just for the ingredients.

[Kyle Reed]

If you're going to do a fine dining restaurant, you probably need to be funded because how are you going to get a clientele to come in and pay 400 bucks, you know, for the meal that night, without the reputation, without the environment, without any of that stuff? How are you going to do that? You're going to have to have millions bankrolled in order to make it happen. And then you've got to, you know, you've got to figure out where you're sourcing this food, where it's coming from. To me, it's just like, you got to be kidding me. You know, to use a food analogy, I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze. Because think about Mashama Bailey in Savannah Georgia. I actually put. When the team was smaller, before you were on my team, I got two of those Rockstar buses, those overnight where you could get in a bunk and sleep overnight. Rockstar bus showed up in our back parking lot at like 8pm, 9pm we all get on two different buses and we wake up in Savannah, Georgia, and we go eat at the Gray. I'm getting choked up because Mashama Bailey's story is amazing. First black woman to ever win a Michelin star in America. And you know, it's an old bus station that used to be segregated. And now she won a Michelin star out of it when she turned it into a restaurant. I mean, it's just. And they gave us a back room and treated us like royalty and we all ate back there. And then we went to a Savannah Bananas game. It was an awesome trip. But, you know, we're eating Michelin star food and, you know, for her to be able to figure out what seafood is available at the local, you know, whatever, bay and all that kind of stuff, I just think, I don't know, you got to be some sort of obsessive compulsive in order to pursue this.

[Bobby Richards]

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[Donald Miller]

One of the things I found fascinating about the rating and just kind of the pursuit of it all was they started with excellence. So when the Michelin brothers first started the guide, it was all in pursuit of, as some have heard the story, who have not heard was to sell more tires for the Michelin company.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, explain that. Because a lot of people may not know that. They think of Michelin and they think of. They don't think it's associated. I didn't know.

[Donald Miller]

No, it's.

[Kyle Reed]

I knew this. I knew this until like 10 years ago. I didn't know this until, like, 10 years ago. There's actually a travel guide started by the Michelin Tire Company, which is a French company.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. And then like, early. Early, late 1800s, early 1900s, the way the guide started was they actually, it was a map for people who were driving. Because I think if. Forgive me on if this number is wrong, but I think there's like a total of 3,000 cars in the world at that time. So it made no sense what they were trying to do. They wanted to sell more tires, so they needed to get people to drive more tires.

[Kyle Reed]

Probably lasted not a very long. Yeah, 800 miles.

[Donald Miller]

What do the roads look like, you know, back then? But one of the things that they put in there was, like, instructions on how to drive, where are gas stations.

[Kyle Reed]

That was all in the first Michelin guide there.

[Donald Miller]

And the guide was so good, the maps were so good that most In World War I, they used them. The Allied troops are kidding. They used them as guides for when they went over there because the maps were so well made.

[Kyle Reed]

And they probably, like, flipped through and said, oh, we should stop here and get the hot dog.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, exactly. That's probably. They saw, hey, I heard this place called Nomad. And so as they started going through, they started realizing that what people were looking for and gravitating to was restaurants. So they started to expand that and they started putting rules around. Here's how we give out Michelin stars. Here's the things we're focused on. You read those earlier, and they started categorizing, you know, A1 stars, this, A2 stars, this, A3 star means this. But what I found so fascinating about it was from the very early on, they gave this guide away for free. They could have made it, you know, kind of crappy, just like, go check out.

[Kyle Reed]

That's where you think, I wish we knew who did it, because the Michelin brothers, they hired somebody who was an obsessive compulsive enneagram. One.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

I mean, think about the process of reviewing a restaurant taking two to three years. That's insane. That is a commitment to excellence. You're not driven by selling a bunch of books at that point. You're driven by becoming the best at. And we're talking about why Michelin star worked. And I think I shared with you the number one reason is human beings want to know what the best is.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, 100%.

[Kyle Reed]

And the number two reason is we eat three meals a day. So how many meals is that over the course of a lifetime? It's hundreds of thousands of meals. So it's a commodity that we're consuming constantly. So it's a very, very familiar thing, food that you want to know what the absolute best is, and then you want to know who the best is to say it's the best.

[Donald Miller]

That's right.

[Kyle Reed]

And Michelin Starr and James Beard would probably take those.

[Donald Miller]

Well, they developed categories home, they developed a process of excellence, but they also importantly developed a process of trust. So I think if they cheapened on anything in the process, they lose trust. If they cheapen on the process of the food, the criteria, just the focus on the standards of what is a Michelin star, they kind of, you know, diluted it a little bit. Yeah, you lose trust with your audience. And one of the things I was thinking about was, was for them, if they're going to focus on excellence, on something great, it deserves effort. And I commend them for that because I think in those processes, you know, most people when they're trying to sell something, it's super easy to just go, yeah, let's just make something really quick so we can sell more of it.

[Kyle Reed]

That is also. I'm a capitalist. Let me tell you, I'm a capitalist. The benefits of capitalism are massive in terms of feeding the hungry. Probably the most successful experiments we've ever had in terms of reducing poverty. Capitalism, however, let me also state, and this is a big plus for like National Public Radio and the arts and Patreons of the arts, when you don't have to make money doing something, you can commit to longer timelines, more research, going to a restaurant three times. So when something is underwritten, and I would imagine the Michelin review is underwritten, I can't imagine it's selling a truckload of copies every year. Maybe it is, I don't know. But I bet their budget is bigger than they are. It's not about making money. And so I would actually say that's one of the benefits of taking some things and saying, you know what? We're gonna. This thing doesn't have to make money. We're going to underwrite it so that we actually get the most objective or the best, that it's disassociated from pandering for dollars. Right.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, they tie.

[Kyle Reed]

And I think it's fair to say, like the Michelin star restaurants that win a Michelin star have the same commitment of excellence to excellence that the actual Michelin star guy does.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

That they've actually said, well, if we're expecting them to be so Excellent. We have to be excellent too.

[Donald Miller]

And it's so interesting because in the standard of the way that they rate restaurants is primarily, they say they focus on the food. But what I love is restaurants, when they pursue winning a star, multiple stars, they overhaul everything because they are, they are. To your point, they're committing to the long term process of developing. We are going to be excellent at every single thing.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And to the point of earning a star means that you have the stamp of excellence. I thought it was interesting as well as, like, why. And I couldn't think of very many other categories where we as humans kind of outsource our rating. Most of the time it's word of mouth, like, hey, go check out this movie, Check out this book, whatever that may be. We might read the customer reviews on.

[Kyle Reed]

Right on Amazon.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Why is it though that we look at a mission start, hold it to such excellence? What is that in us to kind of go, hey, that's a stamp. I gotta eat there now? Because someone said, that is great.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, it goes back to, you know, I grew up very, very poor. We stood in line for welfare when I was a kid. We, you know, it was a great upbringing, but we just didn't have any money. I was always very intimidated by the people who live on the other side of the tracks. You know, Mr. And Mrs. Canlis, Chris and Alice have a house. They had a house at the time on not wasn't Puget Sound. It was whatever that lake Washington is. And you know, I was just super intimidated by the fact that they run this restaurant. They won like 20 something grand awards in a row from Wine Spectator. 25,000 bottle dollar bottles of wine. They would always say, don, come by the restaurant. I'm like, there's no freaking way I'm going by that restaurant. Right. I don't even have a. I don't have a sport coat. And he had to have a tie at the time. Now, Mark and Brian changed that. They made it a little less formal. But finally, when I married Betsy, we were on our way to Hawaii. We stopped in Seattle for a day and I took her to Canlas. And when I walked in, they made us feel. They didn't make us feel anything. We were so welcome in that place and treated like royalty. And I just remember thinking, oh, I was wrong. These are not. This is not a pretentious place. Now here's the magic one, two, punch. Maybe the greatest thing that you think about in terms of building a business. Their commitment to excellence in everything they do at Canlis makes Them very authoritative, and their belief that you are an equal to them no matter who you are makes them winsome. And it's a one, two punch. The one, two punch is, you are clearly better than me in some category. Wealthier, better looking, athletic. I'm talking about cross universal, like, why we admire people or institutions. Clearly better than me, but don't believe that you're better than me. In fact, I had lunch with Charles Koch. He's worth $100 billion and actually had the honor of writing the foreword for his book, the Principles of Human Progress, which I'm also going to publish, by the way, that comes out probably next year. And Charles Koch's worth $100 billion, one of the most brilliant people on the planet. And I went and had lunch with him, and I was shocked at how he put me at the head of the table. He sat next to me and he peppered me with questions the entire time as though I were the one who were better than him. I will never get over that, how good that man made me feel. And it wasn't like he was being manipulative. He was genuinely interested in my knowledge of story and story structure and story brand and all these kinds of things. And to me, I think the reason I admire him so much is he's clearly better than me. He's worth over $100 billion. Global Titan, by the way. At the time we had lunch, he was 88 years old, and he was running circles around me intellectually. I said, hey, can I take a stab at the foreword? And I wrote it in his voice. So I wrote the introduction as Charles Koch. Can you imagine the arrogance of this? And I sat there at Stay golden, and I wrote it, and I wrote it with this voice of the only reason that I know what the principles of human progress are, are because I've made so many mistakes. In fact, if you're reading this book, there's a 95% chance I've made way more mistakes than you have, and you are probably better than me and make less mistakes. However, these mistakes have allowed me to learn. And everything you're going to read in this book is about what I've learned by doing dumb things and making mistakes. And I was like, do not send this off. I mean, I had to have two or three meetings with his team before I could even have lunch with him on how to talk to him, because the man doesn't waste time. And I emailed it off and I didn't hear anything back for months. And I'm like, you just Burned a bridge. Because you literally put the words into the mouth of Charles Koch that I make a ton of mistakes. And maybe he's the kind of guy who doesn't talk about that. Anyway, it was just a misunderstanding. They forgot to get back to me or whatever. And they wanted to actually make it the whole theme of the book or all these mistakes that Charles Koch made. But that made me, of course, love him even more. And there is a one, two punch in your business and in you as a person that in order to play the guide and those who've read Building a Story but know what I'm talking about. In order to play the guide, you have to have mastered something. You have to be better than most people, if not almost everybody, if not everybody at something. And then you have to believe that everybody is your equal. And if you can do that, the people around you will admire you more than anybody else that they know that's the one, two punch. And I say that because that's what I learned eating at Canlas. In fact, when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and given two years to live, she was actually given a year to live. But they put her on a medicine that extended that. I said, what do you want? Anything you want. She said, I want to travel before I get sick. And I put her on a first class. She'd never been on a first class flight, so I put her on a first class ticket to Seattle and we went to Canlas. And I said, don't order wine because I might have to mortgage my house if you mispronounce anything. We're just going to do cocktails tonight, Mom. And I wanted her to be treated like an equal to somebody by somebody who was clearly better. And it was a very beautiful. I trusted them to make her feel like a million bucks. Food. Food was great, don't get me wrong. But I wanted her to feel like a million bucks. And that was. That's the one, two punch. And I would say for anybody listening who's won a Michelin star, which would be like nobody. Unless Gordon Ramsay is listening right now.

[Donald Miller]

Sixteen of his or whatever.

[Kyle Reed]

He has freaking stars. We didn't even get to that.

[Donald Miller]

He could, by the way.

[Kyle Reed]

He doesn't even have the most, really. No, There's a guy named Alain Ducasse or Ducassi in Paris who's 120 for his various restaurants. Anyway, to me, the big benefit of accomplishing something excellent, winning a gold medal, like Scott Hamilton, who we know Scott's another guy, won a gold medal, multiple gold medals. Unbelievable commitment to excellence. And you sit down with that guy and 30 seconds in, you realize, this guy does not think he's better than me. And he clearly is. It's literally like, in his psyche of, like, we are equals. And to me, the benefit of accomplishing something that's so excellent is the ability to make people feel amazing. Because they're looking at you with such admiration, and you're looking at them as an equal, and it just elevates their whole soul. That's why it's not good enough to mail it in ever. It's not good enough to sit around your mom's basement and smoke pot. You gotta make something of yourself. I realize I'm on a sermon here.

[Donald Miller]

Sure.

[Kyle Reed]

But to me, it's the whole. The whole point of this episode. If you get into Michelin stars and restaurants and culinary experiences and art, is that's, to me, the only benefit of excellence, is you can actually make other people. You can heal their souls if you are excellent.

[Donald Miller]

Wow. Yeah. There's something that's powerful. What you're saying, there's something human about it, to me is, how so? What do you mean, if you're so. The human side of. What I was thinking about as you were talking was there's a pursuit of excellence from the chef. There's still, like, if you're at that level of excellence, you're on such a higher level than I'll ever be about a knowledge of food.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And yet you're pursuing something that someone else says is great. But you're inviting me into experience.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And I don't care if you have the greatest taste buds in the world or if you ate nacho cheese.

[Kyle Reed]

Which I did.

[Donald Miller]

Mac or whatever. Yeah, Nacho cheese. Hamburger Helper. You're welcome here. I want you to experience this. And that, to me, is the human experience that we all are pursuing to some degree, that we are pursuing something excellent.

[Kyle Reed]

We want the best, but yet we want to know what the best is. We want to experience.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. And to your point of like. But we also don't think we are better than anyone else. And that's the human side of it. That. That's. That's pretty.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, I think that's the healing side of it. And they have to go together. You can't. You know, if you are the most. The world's best at something and you're a jerk, you're literally just hurting people with your opinion of them. But if you're the world's best at something, you see everybody as equal. You're a healer of human beings. Well, man, I mean, what a. You know, I didn't. I didn't know if we were going to actually record this episode and keep it or not, because neither of us know anything about anything. But I really like the conversation. We are introducing a new segment.

[Donald Miller]

This is exciting. We've come up with a new segment. You want to introduce it?

[Kyle Reed]

It's called what Also Worked. And these are things that also Worked that don't deserve an episode or maybe aren't we not going to be able.

[Donald Miller]

To talk to them for 30 minutes?

[Kyle Reed]

And you got one.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So recently I watched a documentary called I Am Tim. I've been hounding you about it to watch it. I Am Tim. It's about the artist Avicii and Netflix just released it.

[Kyle Reed]

Was that a painter?

[Donald Miller]

It was a dj Avici.

[Kyle Reed]

And he's an artist.

[Donald Miller]

He was. He passed away, unfortunately. But that's what.

[Kyle Reed]

That's what the push. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

No, that's what the whole episode is about, is his journey from start to. Unfortunately, he took his life, but just kind of the journey he went through is making art. And I highly recommend it as a.

[Kyle Reed]

So is the thing that also worked is that documentary?

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

What was the big takeaway from that documentary that you thought, everybody needs to watch this because of this?

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Because you've actually told me about this, like 12 times.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I keep hounding you about it. It's the. To me, it was the. The willingness to deviate from what's working. And he was such an art. He wrestled with this idea of, I'm an artist, but I don't feel like I'm an artist because I use my computer to make music. So they bring that theme out of, like, he tried to play the piano and guitar, and then at the height of his career, he had this massive smash hit called Levels. He decides to go the complete opposite direction and introduce live instruments into a performance. And when it was. I don't want to ruin.

[Kyle Reed]

It's like the opposite journey of Bob Dylan.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

It's just a band and everybody goes crazy.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. And he. That's the crescendo of the documentary, I would say.

[Kyle Reed]

But, I mean, do they talk a lot about philosophies of art and that sort of thing?

[Donald Miller]

No, it's more about his journey, but also just like his pursuit of art. And then. And honestly, another angle to look at it is this pursuit of kind of marketing and things that come in of.

[Kyle Reed]

How to build a brand.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. He's wrestling with the labels, telling me that you have to hook someone within five seconds. How do I do that and should I do that and should I care? And that was a lot of the theme, too.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, I've got one for you. Since we're talking about documentaries, my what also worked is a documentary called City of Gold about a food critic in LA named Jonathan Gold. And for some reason, I started watching this thing, and he's a scruffy dude. He goes into all, like, the strip malls, like this Thai restaurant in the back of a strip mall that nobody knows about. And he writes these reviews that are just Steinbeckian. I mean, they're just so fricking well written.

[Donald Miller]

Is that why you loved it?

[Kyle Reed]

Just the way I loved it, because the writing was so good and it was. And the food that he was talking about, it's a combination of all my worlds, right? But this guy would write reviews that were, you know, they were. The food was what it was. The reviews were inspired. It was like he was channeling God in writing a description of this soup.

[Donald Miller]

City of Gold.

[Kyle Reed]

City of Gold. And he's a scruffy dude. Misses all his deadlines. Can't remember where he put his pad and paper. You know that guy.

[Donald Miller]

City of Gold. Me. This has been fun. Thanks for another episode.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, thanks, Carl.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messages? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free, customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.