Greg Provance, Author of Loyal AF

Summary

RESTAURANT STRATEGY Podcast: Greg Provance, Author of "Loyal AF"

Host: Chip Klose
Guest: Greg Provance
Date: May 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features Greg Provance, hospitality consultant and author of Loyal AF: How to Build a Ride or Die Team that Grows Sales, Wows Guests and Never Leaves. Host Chip Klose and Greg dive deep into the challenge of retaining staff in an industry plagued with turnover and burnout. Together, they explore how intentional, systematized culture—and a renewed focus on "who" rather than simply "how"—can help restaurants build a truly loyal team that grows alongside the brand.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Is Employee Loyalty Still Possible?

[00:01]

• Chip questions whether loyalty is even possible today, given economic pressure and staff mobility.
• Introduces the episode's main focus: systematizing team loyalty in restaurants.

2. The Lingering Narrative: “Good Help is Hard to Find”

[03:52]

• Greg explains the book's genesis—“As long as we are carrying that narrative [that good help is hard to find], then we're basically resigned to that being our experience."
• Pushes back on post-Covid defeatism in the industry.
• Advocates for culture as a process that can be systemized like any operational task.

3. Defining and Systematizing Restaurant Culture

[05:02]

• Chip cites Seth Godin: “Culture comes down to seven words: People like us do things like this.”
• Greg fully agrees: "Every business has a culture... there's a real opportunity for us to understand that we can affect that." [05:39]
• They emphasize that culture will form regardless—owners must actively define and sustain it.

4. From Complaining to Agency

[06:44]

• Chip: “Complaining means you have no agency, you've got no authority.”
  [08:40]
• Greg: "The first step... is changing our own mindset around how we see this problem. That has to happen before anything, before we can create anything. If you're walking around believing these things, that's exactly gonna be true for you."
• Shift from victim mindset to owner mindset is essential.

5. Making Core Values Actionable

[10:34]

• Greg's system:
  • Monthly mandatory all-staff meetings anchored around two-way discussions on values (e.g., respect, integrity, love).
  • Daily pre-shift huddles (even if only three minutes) infusing values into routine.
  • Recognition and coaching tied to core values.
  • "If they're not talking about [the core values] and they're not owning it, it doesn't exist. It's just on the wall.” [10:38]

6. Culture in Action – Real-World Examples

[13:32]

• Chip details the "Above and Beyond Award" at his restaurant—a nightly peer-nominated recognition for outstanding acts, reinforcing the value of going beyond expectations.
• Greg underscores: “This is going to be awkward at first... Your people are gonna look at you like you're kind of crazy at first.” [16:05]

7. Making Values Tangible: The “Fun” Example

[16:34]

• Chip explains a client whose single core value was “fun”, but challenges the staff to make that tangible at every guest touchpoint.
  • Example: greeting birthday guests with sparklers upon arrival, creating immediate celebration and buzz.

8. Loyalty and Identity in a Tough Industry

[21:54]

• Greg: “Loyalty is really about identity, you know, identifying with the environment and really kind of seeing your place in it.” [22:46]
• Acknowledges restaurant work is hard and sometimes a “means to an end” for part-timers, but tangible culture and belonging foster voluntary buy-in.

9. Day-One Fit & Self-Selection

[24:16]

• Both Greg and Chip advocate for a "stage" (trial shift) for all positions, not just chefs, to ensure mutual fit.
• This process helps weed out misaligned hires and gives natural leaders a chance to shine.

10. Rethinking Scheduling for Flexibility & Identity

[24:45]

• Chip shares a client’s radical approach: transitioning from full-time to all part-time staff, with seniority-based schedule selection.
• Empowers employees to choose shifts, strengthens their connection to the workplace identity.

11. Key Takeaway from "Loyal AF"

[29:31]

• Greg: “The big shift...I want people to make...is that going from the how to the who is a game changer.”
• Encourages leaders to leverage the entire team’s input—not just leadership—focusing on the people to drive success and scalability.

12. Building Loyalty Through Conversation

[31:05]

• Chip: “We used to do twice a year, we meet with every line level, every hourly employee... and every single time we would ask...what do you need from me so that this becomes the kind of place where you can stay another year?”
• Responsive action—schedule flexibility, new responsibilities, skill development—fuels loyalty.
• “You grow the people, you'll grow the business as a byproduct, 100%.” —Greg [32:58]

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Notable Quotes

• “As long as we are carrying that narrative (that good help is hard to find), then we're basically resigned to that being our experience.”
  —Greg Provance [03:52]

• “Culture comes down to seven words: People like us do things like this.”
  — Chip Klose quoting Seth Godin [05:02]

• “Complaining means you have no agency, you've got no authority.”
  — Chip Klose [06:44]

• “If they're not talking about [the core values] and they're not owning it, it doesn't exist. It's just on the wall, right?”
  — Greg Provance [10:38]

• “Loyalty is really about identity... Do I fit here? Is this somewhere I feel like I belong and I want to come back to?”
  — Greg Provance [22:46]

• “The big shift...going from the how to the who is a game changer.”
  — Greg Provance [29:31]

• “You grow the people, you'll grow the business as a byproduct, 100%.”
  — Greg Provance [32:58]

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• [10:38] Greg shares his monthly staff meeting strategy for keeping values front-and-center.
• [13:32] Chip recounts the “Above and Beyond Award” as a method to activate daily recognition.
• [16:34] Fun interpreted through immediate guest engagement (birthday sparklers).
• [24:16] Advocating for staging/trial shifts for all new hires.
• [24:45] Radical scheduling shift: part-time status for all, empowering staff with choice.
• [31:05] The key loyalty-building question: what would keep you for another year?

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Resources & Connect

• Greg Provance:
  • LinkedIn (search: Greg Provance)
  • gphospitalitypartners.com

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Final Words

• Greg: “Just be good and kind to people… We just need to be kind and thoughtful and think of others first. I think that'll go a long way.” [34:14]

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This episode serves as a guide for any restaurateur seeking to transform high turnover and uncertainty into stability and culture-driven growth. Greg Provance’s advice, driven by personal experience and detailed systems, reaffirms: with intentional culture and a focus on people—loyalty is not only possible, it’s profitable.

Transcript

[A]

When it comes to employee retention, I honestly want to know whether loyalty is even possible anymore. When there's so many places to work, so many great places to work, people can get up and move, different markets, different cities, and they're always chasing more money, which I don't blame them for doing. I do it, you do it, everybody does it. So how do we provide any sort of loyalty? Is that even possible? That's the conversation we're having on today's show. Do go anywhere. There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is restaurant strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking. Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. I am your host here of the restaurant strategy podcast. Put up two episodes every single week. You know me by now. I run a coaching program. It's called the P3 mastermind. I write books. My first book, the restaurant marketing mindset, came out in 2023. My next one. Shh. Don't tell anyone. My next one's gonna come out in just about six months, so keep an ear out for that. I also give talks all over the country and I do on site coach coaching. Here's the deal. If this is interesting to you, if you want to bring me out to talk to your. Your community, your collection of restaurants, your staff, I'd love to have a conversation about that. The best way you do that is just email me personally. Chip close.com c-h I p k l o s e dot com. Let's start a conversation. We'll talk about how it works. Talk about the best way to get the most out of my time there and the most free for your team. Again, [e-mail] c h I p k l o s e dot com. Let's have a conversation. All right, so one of the coaches who works with me is a guy named Rev Cncio. I think he is hands down the smartest restaurant marketer I know. He works at hundreds of restaurants all over the country and he's an operator himself. He's a restaurant owner. He works with the P3 members. He teaches the weekly marketing call that we do in the program. And then again, he. He acts as like a fractional cmo for hundreds of restaurants all over the country. Did you know every time he works with a new restaurant, he insists they use marquee, Right? We recommend marquee all the time, but he insists on it. It helps with listings management, SEO and reputation management. With Marquee, you get to manage and respond to all of your reviews right From Google, Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Grubhub, on and on and on in one step, Central Place. Because of that, they help you improve your star ratings with consistent review responses. They will even respond for you if you don't have time. Marquee also makes sure that all your hours, menus and information matches across the entire Internet, which places you higher in near me searches, which ultimately helps you get more butts in seats. If you're curious to learn more, visit marquee.com that's M A R key qi.com as always, you'll find that link in the show notes. So my guest on today's episode is Greg Provence. He is the owner principal of GP Hospitality Partners. He also happens to be a published author and we're going to chat about his new book. It's called Loyal AF how to Build a Ride or Die Team that Grows Sales, Wows Guests and Never Leaves. There's so much in here to dig into. Greg, thanks for carving out the time to chat with me.

[B]

Oh, thank you, Chip. Such a pleasure to be here, man. I really appreciate it.

[A]

All right, so in a nutshell, give me the quick little logline. What's this book about? Why did you write it?

[B]

Yeah, great question. I was having a lot of conversations with business owners, specifically in our industry, and I think a lot of us have experienced something like what Covid presented to us, which kind of gave us this narrative of good help is hard to find. People don't wanna work anymore. We all had that experience going through that period of time. And the thing about that is that that narrative kind of carried forward now into this day and age and people are still thinking that way and they're still kind of believing that. And as long as we are carrying that narrative, then we're basically resigned to that being our experience. And so I had to push back on that a bit and help people to understand that, you know, it doesn't have to be that way. You know, we can have a culture that of people that are really loyal to the brand, that are, that are stepping up and making ownership style decisions that are, that are growing and scaling alongside us. Right? And so, you know, so I wrote this book to help people to understand how they can systemize their culture just like they would systemize any other process in their restaurant.

[A]

This idea of culture keeps coming back over and over again, especially over the Last, like, year, year and a half. I hear everybody talking about it. And Seth Godin, he put it best. I probably heard this from him 10 or 11 years ago. And he said, he says culture is so connected to marketing, which, of course, he's this marketing guru. And he says culture comes down to seven words, right? People like us do things like this. It's what are the norms? What are the routines? What are the habits? And so in any restaurant, any business, really, norms exist. Routines, habits exist. So culture exists, whether you've defined it or not. It's just a matter of whether you've defined. Defined it. Would you agree with that or how do you approach it?

[B]

100% agree with that? Yeah, absolutely. Every. Every business has a culture, you know, and, you know, and so that's the thing. That's a real opportunity for us to understand that we can affect that, right? We have, you know, things that we can do, conversations we can have, you know, and things that we can systemize to ensure that our culture grows with us in the way that we want it to. That's aligned with why we started these businesses to begin with. You know, it's so easy to kind of lose that along the way when we're in the pursuit of scaling, right? And in the pursuit of, like, you know, revenue and, you know, market share and growth and all that kind of stuff. I find that oftentimes when. When I'm working with a client or where somebody comes to me, it's because, hey, we've somehow lost sight of what all that's supposed to be. And it's kind of like going back now to try to recorrect. And that's a hard thing to do once you've, you know, you've set those standards or you've allowed those standards to set themselves, right? And so, you know, if you come to it with a, you know, more of a proactive approach from the very beginning, man, we can. We can really build some incredible things.

[A]

So underlining this entire thing you're saying is about. Let me read between the lines here, is that a lot of restaurant owners or a lot of business owners complain. Complain about their people can't find good people, can't keep good people. People don't want to work anymore, right? Am I'm on the right line? And I am absolutely allergic to this idea of complaints. So one of the things I tell all of my clients, certainly all the restaurant owners I work with is complaining means you have no agency, you've got no authority, right? When you're stuck Right. I wish I didn't have to be here today, but I do. But. And as a restaurant owner, you don't. You do whatever. Do whatever the hell you want. Like, it's your place, your name on the door. So everybody is there because you want them to be or you let them to be. So when we are complaining, it baked into that is. That is the idea that I can't do anything. And one of the things that I try to get everybody to see, certainly all the people I work with, is that they have agency. And you've talked now a couple times about, you know, systematizing certain things in the business so that we make this automatic, so we make it repeatable and all of that. I always like to say to my owners, I say, listen, if you embrace the problem, meaning if you take ownership of the problem, you also get to take ownership of the solution, right? Because if the problem is because of me, then the solution will be because of me. The complaining really stems out of this place of, like, there's nothing left to do and there's no owner who's got nothing left to do. You can close the restaurant for two weeks, fire everybody, rehire everybody. That might be inconvenient. It might not be totally possible, but. But you could. So if the people are really not working, you find people that will work. So talk to me about, like, systematizing and how you get people out of that frame of mind.

[B]

Oh, man, I 100% agree with everything you just said there. And it's so spot on. The first step to that really is just what you mentioned. It's changing our own mindset around how we see this problem. That has to happen before anything, before we can create anything. If you're walking around believing these things, that's exactly gonna be true for you. So we gotta change mindset, get out

[A]

of that victim role.

[B]

And so once we agree, okay, this, we do have the power to change this now, we can start to work on the system, right? And there's generally, you know, there's several parts to this and there's a lot, you know, kind of too. And I explain in the book, but, you know, really, it. It starts with, you know, day one, right? When you, you know, when you are looking to be an attractant for the best talent. Like if I want to hire the best GM that I've ever seen, right? Somebody that's better than me at everything, right. I gotta be able to attract that person, right? So I need to have something that's attractable, okay? And so we really need to set out on this journey of understanding. Like, okay, what am I trying to create here? What kind of culture really do I want? And it goes always back to our core values. It goes back to our mission. It goes back to why we're doing what we do, who do we serve and how. Right. In really starting to embed more conversations around those principles, it's one thing to say, I think I'm going to put my mission statement on the wall or I'm going to talk about core values in a meeting every once in a while and expect that to stick. It's not going to happen. We really, really need to make a concerted effort to really start to make those things, those principles, active in our conversations, active in our actions. And then you're going to start to see it come to life. Then you're going to start to see a completely different outcome. And those standards that we say we want to hold, right, from a cultural standpoint, will actually become something you experience.

[A]

So how do you make the core values actionable?

[B]

Great question. And this, this, this is my favorite question because this is where I think most people fail and not because they have bad intentions. Right. I don't think there's many owners or operators out there that go into this thinking, I want a crappy culture. You know, they're. No, they really want to create something great. They have great intentions, but the problem is they haven't worked it into their system. So I'll give you an example. When I opened the second location of one of my Italian restaurants, my partner and I. My partner had a great culture at his first location when I partnered up with him. And partly that was because he was there all the time. He was the lifeblood and the energy of the place. He could keep things motivated and moving. And so then we were opening second location and we had plans for three and four. We knew enough to know that we had to also scale the culture. We needed to know that the experience over here and the experience over there and at all of our locations needed to be as amazing as, like, I don't know, Chick Fil A or In N Out, right? You know, and we're like, how are we going to do that? And so we set upon this journey and this is kind of where the system kind of came from. Every single month we had a manager meeting, or not a manager meeting, all staff meeting for both stores, right? And this, mind you, is like 8 o' clock in the morning on a Saturday with a bunch of college kids. You figure most people are Gonna look at that and go, we could never do that. Well, we did it and it was mandatory. It was non negotiable. And during that meeting, for the first 30 minutes, we would talk and have two way conversations around our culture and core values. Our core values were respect, integrity, and love. Those were our three main core values. And so I would ask the team members, hey, how did love show up in your shift the other day? Give me some examples. Let's talk about it. And we would have these two way conversations around culture and mission and values. And it became something that they could get behind, because if they're not talking about it and they're not owning it, it doesn't exist. It's just on the wall, right? And so then we took those conversations and we brought them into our daily pre shifts. And you might say, I don't have time for pre shifts. BS you do have time for pre shifts. You can make it happen. Three minutes is all you need, right? To have an amazing pre shift. And we would always infuse the core values into that. Right? And so now we're having the conversation every single day. And it happened in our coaching conversations, it happened inside conversations, it happened in our praise of when they did a great job around it. And so again, now we've created a system that's reliable, that we can employ and deploy and have those conversations all day, every day, basically. And it starts to become alive. It starts to become something that they're proud of and that they do. And the best part about it is when you come in and you hear a new team member training somebody, like, you have a new team member on team and you have somebody training them and you have them having that core value conversation, and you can hear that across the room, dude, that's like gold. It's like, it's amazing.

[A]

Yeah, I love it. We, I opened a restaurant a bunch of years back at this point, and one of the things that we really wanted because we knew how stressful restaurant openings are, I've done it, I don't know, half a dozen dozen times, I mean, nine times, I think something like that. And it's one of the things we did is that every night in pre shift, we asked for, we called it the above and the above and beyond award. I was like, hey, does anybody want to nominate somebody for the above and beyond award? Which meant you had to point out something that someone else did the night before to go above and beyond. So it would like. And in the beginning, it was pulling teeth. People, like, didn't get what we were doing. I said, no, no. Like when you saw someone and then eventually be like, oh, yeah, hey, listen, I, you know, Jamie, yesterday on, you know, last night, we had this really difficult woman who really didn't like any of the salad dressings and kept asking for new salad dressings. And Jamie went down, got all nine dressings and, like, vinaigrettes that we had down there and brought them up on, like, a beautiful tray. And so, you know, ma', am, I just wanted you to try all of them, right? And explained what each one was. And she was, like, blown away. Like, she was just used to. We short circuited her regular, her routine, because she would go to restaurants, I'm sure, all over the city and say, I don't like this one. Can I have another? I don't like this one. Can I have another one? And Jamie went down and got this thing, and he was like, hey, listen, I just want you to try everything. And I don't know exactly what you're going to love or if everything's going to go right, but, like, you be the judge. And what he was doing is he was trying to save himself from 17 steps at a time, you know, another three, four, five, six times. And so you'd call out, be like, yeah, listen, last night I had this really. This woman who was really difficult. She couldn't find a dressing she was happy with. And, you know, Jamie kept running up and down, and he had the presence of mind to put all of the dressings on one thing. He brought them up to her. She was so overwhelmed. And he explained what each and every one was, and it was awesome. And it was like, stuff like that all night long of, like, you know, like the. And we called it the above and Beyond Award. And it changed. So, like, it's how we activated it. Like, we're the kind of place again, people like us do things like this. As Seth Godin says, we're the kind of place that looks for when other people are going above and beyond and we call them on it the next day. And so every night. And then it would usually be like a 20 or $25 gift card to, like, Starbucks or something around the. Around the neighborhood. And then we had trades with other, like, businesses. And so whoever got the end, it would, like, you know, whoever. The above and beyond award, they would be like three nominees. And then we'd vote. Like, usually it was like the GM or the maitre D would vote on it and be like, yeah, listen, I also saw Jamie do that. And I Agree. I think that was awesome. Like, Jamie, you won the award tonight. Every single night we were giving out little gift cards to the businesses around us. It was awesome.

[B]

Dude, that's amazing. And you know what, you said something really impactful. And I know you're somebody who really likes to give people actionable items that they can take away. And I will just tell you this is going to be awkward at first. If you're trying this and you haven't done it before, it's not going to just magically be something that, oh, the culture's alive now. You gotta like, you know, your people are gonna look at you like you're kind of crazy at first. Right?

[A]

It has to be fortified. It has to be over, over and over again.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

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And they finally came back. Two different groups. We broke them all up into breakout groups. And two of them came back, and they were like, I don't think we have three. And I was like, okay, explain. They're like, I think our word is just fun. Like, I think that's what this place is. I was like, okay, explain. And they were like, well, like, there's this and this. There's lots of different components to the business, right? There was, like, this big, beautiful bar, like, 32 seats. And there was, like, 140 seats in the restaurant. There was a game room downstairs, and, like, a. Like a cool bowling alley in the back. And there was, like, a little speakeasy, little tiki bar down the hall. Like, there's all this stuff. And they were like, there's so many different components. But, like, I think fun is the through line. I think people come here for a lot of first dates. I think people come here to celebrate a lot of anniversaries. Cause it's a fun place. We do a ton of birthdays here. And then we got a lot. Like, it was just all. They were like, I think fun. And I was like, okay, I'll buy it. But then how is it fun when I open the door? How is it fun when you pick up the phone, right? You say hello, and I say hi. Like, that's not fun. That's just like. That's how people answer the phone. That's like, the same. If I call my, like, you know, home security company. And they were like, oh, it's like, how is this fun? How is that fun? I challenged them to come up with fun. They started coming up with, like, all this different. And my favorite part of it. And this didn't scale. This lasted two weeks, and they got rid of it because it was too hard. But I loved the idea. And they said, you know, it's really weird. And I was like, tell me. They said, it's really weird that we only, like. We get a little. We know when it's somebody's birthday and we put a cow in their dessert, or we send out a dessert at the end. And that's the first time we really acknowledge it. And this kid was like. He's like, but it's weird because, like, if I'm celebrating, like, my mom's birthday and I see her, I get out of the car, the first thing I do is say, hey, happy birthday, Mom. I was like, okay. He's like, we should say happy birthday right away. Like, just, like, we'd say to, like, our mom or our brother or, like, our friend, like, it should be happy birthday. And I was like, okay, I totally buy it. And they came up with this idea to greet the table with sparklers. So if they found out it was somebody's birthday, they come over with menus in one hand and sparklers in the other hand, and they say, hey, welcome to the restaurant. I understand it's someone's birthday. And what happens is that everybody turns towards the birthday girl and they all point and they say, oh, it's her birthday. It's her birthday. And this person is mortified. And everybody brings out their phones and starts taking pictures. And the server would hand the person the sparkler, and there's videos and photos, and she's embarrassed, but they all start singing to her. And then they done. And they was like, great. And we're gonna do it again later when you get dessert. Cause I'm gonna sing that one. And it was like, that's what the thing. And I was like, that's fun. And what was cool is that one out of every three tables, two out of every three tables was celebrating something. And a lot of birthdays, so people were just watching sparklers go by. So for the rare people who weren't celebrating anything, they were like, what's going on with the sparklers? Like, oh, this is how we greet people if we know it's their birthday. And they're like, oh, it's actually his birthday. Boom. Hold one second. There were sparklers everywhere, and it was just. It became unwieldy. But for those two weeks, like, they understood the assignment, and they made the place even more fun than it was before. I was like, great, I got it. So bottle that and let's find something that. That scales. But, like, it's, again, how we wove it into how made those core values or that one core value actionable.

[B]

That's exactly right, Matt. Dude, what a great example. And I love how you zeroed in on that and just held them accountable to actually saying, look, no, let's. Let's. Let's make this active. Because that's the point, right? It's like, you know, we talk about values, and we. Everybody agrees they're important, you know, but how do they really, really, really show up? Yep. And that's such a great example of that. I love that.

[A]

Talk to me, because now the book is called Loyal af. And I love when people like to talk about loyalty. Oh, people don't want to work. You know, our jobs are hard, right? They're long days, long hours, late nights, weekends, holidays. You know, it's on our feet. Whether we're in front of house or back a house, you know, we're on our feet and we're customer facing. We get people who are like bossing us around like it's, it's hard to do and it's fast paced. So it's like. So I always love when people say, oh, people don't want to work here anymore. It's like, well, listen, it's a really hard job anyway. I think this is. There's plenty of people who like, wouldn't thrive here. It's a special breed of people who say, yeah, I want to do this, I can do this. This is where I want to be. So what do you say to that? Where we talk about loyalty in an industry that's as hard as ours. What's the takeaway there?

[B]

Yeah, man. Well, look, I think, I think in so many ways loyalty is really about identity, you know, identifying with, you know, the environment and really kind of seeing your place in it, you know, and you're also, you know, you're dealing with a lot of. It's kind of a transient business too. Right. A lot of kids are in school and they're just doing this to get by. It's like a means to an end. So it's like, how do you get them to buy in? You know, and it's just a paycheck for them initially. But it really comes down to, I think a lot of times, identity. You know, do I fit here? Is this, this is somewhere I feel like I belong and I, and I want to come back to. We talk about getting our guests back all the time. Right. Having our guests wanting to come back more and more and more all the time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We don't often talk about having our team members not like always wanting to come back. Right. Like, how, how do you get them excited to come back to work? Right. You know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you're dealing with, you know, some of these people that might be their first experience at work, you know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so there's so many different levels and facets, so many different cultures, so many different, different types of people that are. We're throwing into this environment and we're asking them to be loyal to this brand. And you can't really do that by, you know, you know, kind of forcing that upon them. They have to elect into that. And I think that starts with day one. It starts from the moment they walk through the door. You know, I started, you know, what we started doing is we started, you know, how a lot of chefs will stage right before they hire the chef on, so they want to see how they work in the environment. We started doing that with every single position.

[A]

I agree. I used to the same thing.

[B]

Right. Because it's like, you know, we want to know if you feel this is a fit here just as much as we want it to be a fit for you. And I'll tell you, man, you probably experienced this too. Like, you know, you can, A, you can weed out a lot of people that way that would have ultimately been bad hires. But B, there's people that I found that I wasn't really sure about that just lit up once they were in environment. And our team self selects.

[A]

That's what we would do.

[B]

You know, it's, it's, it's really important. The identity piece.

[A]

And I think the key to that. So I love that. I mean, I think the key to it, right, is understanding that for a lot of people this is just a means to an end. It's the college kid, it's the actor, it's the musician, it's, you know, the teacher working on her weekends. It's stuff like this is a means to an end. But I still think we can meet people where they are. And I think it doesn't have to be. I don't think it has to be so serious. I think you can be good at this and there's ways. As long as we keep building a place that works, that fits within these people's lives, doesn't have to be just always what we want. I was talking to somebody, I guess about a year ago at this point and they said we get rid of all full time employees. I was like, what? We got rid of all full time employees. We have only part time employees. And the more senior you are, the basically the schedule is done by lottery and the senior people get their first pick of like Friday, Saturday night. And so once you've been here a certain amount of time, you're like a tier 1, tier 2 or tier 3 employee. The tier 3 employee gets first access to the schedule. So manager doesn't schedule the employees, like pick the shifts and then any of the ones that left over, then the managers have to go and like go door to door and like sell them off. But like the whole idea was that like, no, man, so many of our people just want part time anyway. They either work multiple jobs or they're in school or they got other gigs going on. So, like, we literally just decide to, like, put our money where our mouth is and everybody there and they talk about identity. Then suddenly it's this entire place of people who see themselves in the rest of the workforce. They're like, oh, yeah, like, we're all just here for means to an end. Like, I don't need to make, you know, a huge amount of money here, but I need to make a little something to supplement all the other stuff I'm doing. And it was like, I was like, dude, it was crazy. When they talked about the scheduling thing, they were like, oh, yeah, people pick their schedules and, and then we just fill in the rest. I just thought, oh, then you're, then you're, you're better leveraging your manager's time rather than having them pour over a schedule, trying to make it fair and trying to make it fit. You're just like, man, here's a schedule. Here are all my open shifts. You guys, you guys pick them.

[B]

That's brilliant, man. That's brilliant. And I love the creativity of that. It's like. And that's the thing. It doesn't have to be fit in any one shape. You know, I mean, there's so much leeway to get creative with this kind of stuff. So I love that. That's awesome.

[A]

Totally. And they said there was tons of people just sort of swapping shifts every week. And they said, you know, we had like, you know, really, we probably only needed like 18 full time people, but we had like 30 part time people. And he was like, I don't know. We've been doing it for about a year and a half. It's just continues to work out. And I think a big part of it was this culture piece that you're talking about this. Do they identify with the place where they work and does the place meet them where they are?

[B]

Well, and I think that's going to be the key component because you probably have a lot of people listening to this right now going, oh, dude, that sounds like crazy chaos.

[A]

Right?

[B]

You know? Yeah, but again, it's the foundation. Is. Okay, is, is that, is that thread of culture strong? Is that something that we can orient around? Because I think that would be crucial for something like this.

[A]

So I got to tell you, it's funny, I told my clients about this in one of the Mastermind sessions again about a year ago when I first heard this, and somebody was like, I'm going to do this for December. So because December, you know, the Fridays and Saturdays and the Thursday nights with all the private events and everything. And they said, we. And we basically did that. And they said, in order to get these Friday and Saturday nights, you've got to be willing to work these holidays. And it was like, it's like, preference will be given to the people that are willing to work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. And if you work those, you get your pick. You know, if you work three out of the four or something. They said basically the managers were, like, always stressing out about filling them. Everybody's going away on vacation and all that. Which basically we're like, man, if you want the good December money, like, it's you, you got to help me out. Like, this is what I need from an operational perspective. So, like, this is. This is how the fairest way we know how to do it. And I was like, dude, and basically did that. Like that. Cherry picking the schedule. If you do this, if you work these things, you get first access to pick your schedule if you only, you know, if you work four of them, you get first access. If you work three of them, you get second if you work two of them. And like, by the end of it, you're like, well, you get what you get, man. You're working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday lunch, and like, Sunday evening. Like, that is what it is. I just thought it was a really interesting way of doing it. Yeah. Okay. What's like, the biggest takeaway? So this book is out, right? So the time of recording it is not out yet. It's in the film, final stages of getting put together. But by the time the people are listening to this, it will be out. What's the biggest takeaway you want to like, why would somebody pick up this book? Why would somebody read this book?

[B]

Yeah, that's a great question. Look, there's. Again, I go back to. There's so many people that are kind of struggling with this idea of how do all these pieces fit together and how do I scale a team and all of the things contribute that we just talked about, all the different types of people that are in organization, the different reasons we're there and all of that. But the big shift, I think that I really want people to make as they're building and they're scaling their brands and they're building their dream. Right? Is that going from the how to the who is a game changer, right? It's like, we like to. I'm an entrepreneur. I like to figure out how. I like to figure out solutions to problems, right? I like this, you know, I like to solve things, you know, and so I get stuck in that how. And sometimes I forget that there's probably a who out there that can help me get there a lot better and a lot faster. And guess what? That, that who is all around you. And it's not just the leadership team, right? It's some of the, some of the best who's we have around are those, those, those utilitarian players, the people in the dish, the people that are, you know, busing tables, all that sort of stuff. These people have ideas, they have ways of doing things that maybe we can learn from, you know, and so really by investing in and focusing on the who at all levels, it's a game changer, man. It will transform your business, it'll transform how you look at things, how you serve people in general and your guests. And it'll certainly improve and help how you scale your brands ultimately. And it's profitable.

[A]

Well, that's the bottom line. Because it's expensive. It's expensive to turn staff over. One of the questions we used to ask all the time when we sit down for our. We used to do twice a year, we meet with every line level, every hourly employee twice a year. And every single time we would ask something to the effect of, what do you need from me? So that this becomes the kind of place where you can stay another year, right? Like, what do you need from me? How can I make this the kind of. And sometimes it was like, man, if I could get two more bucks an hour, right? It's like, let me look into that. Sometimes, like, you know, I'm starting to get really bored in my station. Like, if I can start learning something else, you're like, great, we can do that. Sometimes it was like, you know, I really wish I understood this, or I really wish my schedule could change. Like, I really wish I had more time on the weekends with my. So, like, more pay, different schedule, like team development, like, but you don't know unless you ask that question. And I think it's really key, like, that's how you. I mean, I think that's one of the secrets to loyalty, is that's got to work both ways. You've got to make sure to continue to provide the circumstances that would keep them there for longer and longer and longer. Like, listen, you're not here because you need the money. You're here because this is an easy way. This is a, this is a good way to make money, right? Either most of the people work for Us, they're capable. They can make money many other ways, either in working another restaurant, another industry, whatever, so, like, continuing to keep this the place that makes the most sense for their life, man. I asked for a new schedule. They gave me a new schedule, man. I told him I was getting bored at my station, and they gave me a path to learn, like, prep line, hotline, cold. Like, they worked me around, man. They started teaching me how to do, like, ordering and set pars, man. They taught me how to manage a budget, man. They taught me how to do payroll, man. Like, you keep teaching people, and that's not right for everybody. But just by asking, say, hey, man, like, what would make. What would make this the kind of place you stick around for another year? Like, what do you need from me, dude?

[B]

That's. That's incredible, man. I couldn't agree with you more. And I started doing that in every single interview. You know, when I was interviewing people, I would always tell people, hey, if you have not learned or grown in some, even a small way, having worked here, then I've failed my job. And to your point, it doesn't need to be massive changes. These can be small shifts for people that 1% better. My hope is that we can continue to make people better in our organizations. And you grow the people, you'll grow the business as a byproduct, 100%.

[A]

Listen, 25 years ago, Jim Collins wrote about it. It's the very first chapter of his book, Good to Great. It's a business classic, says, get the right people on the bus in the right seats. So to your point, who, not how, is crucial? Greg, where do we send people if they want to learn more about you? The book, check it out. Where should we send them?

[B]

Yeah. So I would say first and foremost, if you want to connect with me, hit me on LinkedIn. That's the easiest way to get me, you know, and certainly you can go to my website, GP Hospitality Partners dot com. I know that's a mouthful, but you can check me out there as well. And, yeah, be happy to have conversation with anybody out there that wants to learn more or just connect. Yeah, totally happy to do that.

[A]

And we'll include all those links in the show notes. All right, Last words of wisdom before I kick you out of here. Oh, man.

[B]

You know what? Just be good and kind to people. That's all. That's my. That's my advice. We just need to be kind and thoughtful and think of others first. I think that'll go a long way.

[A]

I love it. It's a good. As good a place as any to leave it. I'm Greg. Thank you for carving out time in your day to chat with me. Congrats on the book. I really appreciate you being here.

[B]

Appreciate you, Chip. Thank you so much.