1222: Three Elements that Define Excellence with Rudy Miick, Part 1

Summary

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Restaurant Unstoppable #1222: Three Elements that Define Excellence with Rudy Miick, Part 1

Host: Eric Cacciatore
Guest: Rudy Miick (Founder & President, MEick Companies)
Release Date: September 25, 2025

Episode Overview

In this first part of a three-part series, industry consultant and frequent guest Rudy Miick joins host Eric Cacciatore to explore the foundational elements that define excellence in the restaurant business. The focus is on developing and truly utilizing vision, purpose, and values as operational tools—not just platitudes. Rudy provides actionable strategies to embed these elements into restaurant culture and operations, emphasizing their real-world impact on performance, staff engagement, and sustainable growth.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Power of Being "On Purpose"

• Personal Mantra:
  "My mantra on a daily basis is to be on purpose."
  — Rudy Miick [04:54]

• Explanation:
  Rudy describes "being on purpose" as living and leading with intentionality in all aspects of life and business—where intention aligns with impact.

• Quote:
  “Am I grounded in why I’m here and am I conscious of the impact that has throughout the day, with my company, my family, and myself?” — Rudy Miick [05:09]

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2. Restaurant Excellence as Performance & Practice

• Performance Metaphor:
  Rudy analogizes restaurant operations to music and sports: excellence requires clear standards (the score or playbook), rehearsal (training), performance (service), and reflection (debriefs).
  “The stage goes up the second we turn on the lights and open the door for business. That is the performance.” — Rudy Miick [08:06]

• Continuous Improvement:
  Drawing from martial arts, he stresses that mastery (like a black belt) is just the beginning of deeper learning and growth.

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3. Purpose, Vision & Values as Tools (Not Wall Art)

• Grounded, Guided, Pulled:

  • “Purpose grounds us. Values guide us. Vision pulls us.” — Eric Cacciatore [25:15]
  • Rudy expands: “Every day we pull consciously towards the vision that we’re headed. We move the company, we move consciously. But if we don’t pull towards that goal grounded, the rubber band snaps back into the old habits.” [26:06–26:33]

• Restaurant Root Meaning:
  The root of “restaurant” is “a place one goes to be restored”; the restaurateur “a restorer of soul.”
  — [30:59]

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4. The Three Strategic Drivers: Culture, Strategy, Structure

• Bird’s Eye View (50,000ft):

  • Culture: Exists by design or default. Is it what you want? If not, what must change?
  • Strategy: “Where we want to go and how are we going to get there?” [17:14]
  • Structure: Systems, standards, routines, even the way you communicate. Supports strategy and maintains or shifts culture.
    “Something as tiny as, is my doorknob loose? What is the signal that sends? Maybe I don’t care. Maybe I do care.” — Rudy Miick [18:46]
    “Structure is where purpose shows up: from door handles, to systems for communication or money handling.” — [18:13–20:45]

• Why Strategic Change Fails:
  85% of strategic planning fails because old cultural habits snap back like a rubber band. Without supporting structure, strategy alone isn’t enough. [18:06]

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5. Building and Training Purpose, Vision, & Values

Purpose

• How to Build Purpose:

  • Involve a diagonal slice of your team—top to bottom, diverse and high-performing, to articulate purpose together.
  • “The owner’s purpose is strong, but every single time the team comes up with a stronger, more buy-in purpose.” — Rudy Miick [39:11–40:25]

• How to Train Purpose:

  • Signal purpose from the job post (“You’re not just a cook/bartender, you’re a restorer of soul”).
  • Reinforce in interviews, onboarding, and ongoing rituals.
  • “If you post ‘I need cooks,’ you get cooks. If you post about your purpose and culture, you get your people.” — [56:45]
  • Use purpose and values language in daily operations and feedback.

Vision

• How to Build Vision:

  • Preferably collaboratively, set clear targets for 3-5 years out:
    “How much money, how many restaurants, how many people have we graduated, how much time am I taking off?” — [67:33]
  • Vision can be a few focused paragraphs (not just a catchy phrase).

• How to Train Vision:

  • Embed in goal-setting, team meetings, and feedback loops.
  • Break long-term vision into tangible milestones; update regularly.
  • Reference visionary leaders (e.g., Ari Weinzweig/Zingerman’s) for more on vision construction [73:04].

Values

• How to Build Values:

  • Make them verbs, present-tense, “collective I/we” statements.
  • Avoid broad abstractions like “integrity” or “loyalty”—these are results, not values. Specify behaviors:
    “We communicate openly and honestly, treating each other with dignity and respect.” — [46:07]
  • Individual and collective: “We do X, I do X.”

• How to Train Values:

  • Use in training, orientation, and daily operations.
  • Encourage language and feedback referencing values:
    “What’s the issue? Which values apply? Go do that, report back.” (IVS approach: Issue, Value, Solution) — [53:30]
  • Model with high consistency; expect culture carriers to reinforce.

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6. Embedding Purpose, Vision, & Values in Daily Operations

• Start Training from the Job Ad:
  “What if training starts in the job post?” — Rudy Miick [55:19]
• Interview Practices:
  Have candidates demonstrate alignment (e.g., “Find 3 things we could improve. Show me how you’d move on a Friday night.”) — [57:44]
• Ongoing Use:
  • Have the whole team “speak in values” daily.
  • Rituals: Use language in shift meetings, check-ins, and peer feedback.

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7. Why People Struggle Defining Values

• It requires intentional reflection and deep honesty.
• Tendency to default to generic terms (“integrity,” “loyalty”) which are outcomes, not actionable behaviors.
• Need to clarify: “What behaviors build trust, loyalty, engagement?” [78:32]

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8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Purpose as Restorer of Soul:
  “The actual root of the word restaurant is a place one goes to be restored... Restorer of soul. That’s purpose.” — Rudy Miick [31:03]

• Systemic Change is Hard:
  “85% of strategic planning fails because the existing culture snaps back. There’s so much gravity in the habit we’ve had for 10, 20, 30 years.” — Rudy Miick [18:06]

• Leadership and Feedback:
  “If I’ve got a coach that goes ‘Nice carry, great greeting, thank you for wiping the front door’—that’s conscious feedback, and that builds engagement.” — Rudy Miick [64:24]

• On Building Buy-In:
  “How much more likely are they to buy into something they helped create? Now it’s not coming from the top down, but from within.” — Eric Cacciatore [40:25]

• Culture is Not What You Say:
  “We can talk all day long about who we think we are, but our behaviors actually are the data. No matter what we say, what we do and the ripples from what we’re choosing to do is the culture.” — Rudy Miick [23:18]

• Finding Purpose:
  “Start with passion. Where is the juice—what has inspired you over time? That leads you to purpose.” — Rudy Miick [58:38]

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Important Timestamps

• 04:54 — Rudy's daily mantra: "Be on purpose"
• 08:06 — Restaurant operations as performance, rehearsal, reflection
• 18:06 — Three drivers: culture, strategy, structure (and why strategy fails)
• 25:15 — Purpose grounds us, values guide us, vision pulls us
• 30:59 — Etymology of "restaurant": to restore, restorer of soul
• 39:11 — Team-led purpose creation and the power of buy-in
• 46:07 — Values as "collective I/we" statements, not just words
• 53:30 — Practical use: Issue, Value, Solution (IVS) tool
• 55:19 — Recruiting for values and purpose in the job post
• 58:38 — How to find purpose (start with passion)
• 67:33 — Building actionable vision: money, scale, graduation, lifestyle
• 73:04 — Ari Weinzweig/Zingerman’s as vision reference

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Additional Resources Mentioned

• Simon Sinek (“Start with Why”)
• Ari Weinzweig & Zingerman’s (visioning process, books)
• Patrick Lencioni (“Five Dysfunctions of a Team”)
• Dr. Benjamin Hardy (“Be Your Future Self Now”)
• Restaurant Systems Pro & EOS as structural tools

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How to Connect with Rudy Miick

• Call: 720-641-7565
• Email: [e-mail]
• LinkedIn: “Rudy Miick”

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Parting Thought

This episode sets the table for excellence by making clear that vision, purpose, and values are not just conceptual—they must be lived, trained, and used as daily tools if a restaurant’s culture and performance are ever to rise above average.

“The more I use the values in my language, the more the values show up, and people actually look forward to coming to work and getting feedback.” — Rudy Miick [77:03]

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Next Episode: Part 2 will delve into the Drama Triangle, conscious communication, and how to use these foundational elements in tough conversations and operational challenges.

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Find all Rudy Miick episodes at:
restaurantunstoppable.com/miick

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Transcript

[A]

What up, Unstoppables? This is your quick reminder that this podcast needs your support. And the best way you can support this show is by helping me help you. And the best way I can help you is by you getting into Restaurant Unstoppable Live. This is our live events where you can get access to me twice a month and access to the people that I would go to tomorrow if I.

[B]

Was opening a restaurant.

[A]

I spent the past 12 years and 1200 episodes building this list of best badasses that I trust that are just incredible. I never set out to be the guy. I, I set out to find out who that guy and gal are and to help you connect with them and to ring every lounce of every ounce of knowledge out of these individuals. And that's what we're doing at Restaurant Stoppable Network. And it's in the form of mentoring sessions, workshops, power hours. We are having multiple events every week where you're getting access not just these experts, but peers, people to hold you up when things get tough. Maybe you need somebody to talk to and listen to you. That's what's happening at Restaurant Unstoppable Network. And it's only $47 a month. People who are showing up have saved thousands of literally thousands of dollars because they're, they're getting the best deals out there and they're getting scholarships. And you can be a part of this. What are you waiting for? Head over to Restaurant Unstoppable.com live and.

[B]

Be a part of this transformation of the industry. Can't wait to meet you. We'll see you there.

[A]

Welcome to restaurant unstoppable. For 10 years and over 1,000 episodes, I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable. This episode is Made possible by Me is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus, and nail food execution at scale. We know to scale you need consistency because consistency builds trust with your guests and your staff. We all want to know what the.

[B]

Job done right looks like.

[A]

And when you have systems, your systems.

[B]

Are a picture of perfection, of what.

[A]

That job done right is. And that puts us to peace. We are so happy when we know.

[B]

We'Re doing a good job.

[A]

Me will Be the one source of truth for your entire team. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn [e-mail] Unstoppable. That's www. Do you wish you could have all of your restaurant needs and solutions under one roof?

[B]

Well, you can.

[A]

It's called Restaurant Systems Pro. And with Restaurant Systems Pro, you get accounting systems, budgeting systems, costing systems, purchasing systems, inventory management systems, labor management systems, training systems, and systems to create and implement checklists. And on top of all this, Restaurant Systems Pro has their own native general ledger and they're in the process of launching their own pos which they are so appropriately naming serve because that's exactly what they do. To learn more, head over to restaurantunstoppable.com RSP where you can schedule your own demo, watch a demo that I did with Restaurant Systems Pro CEO Fred Langley, or catch every and all testimonial we've ever recorded on the show.

[B]

That's restaurantunstoppable.com RSP with excitement, allow me to introduce to you today's guest, founder and president of the MC Companies. Six time soon to be nine time repeat guest on the show because I love him that much. Rudy. Mick, my man. Rudy, are you feeling unstoppable today?

[C]

I am exceedingly unstoppable, sir.

[B]

I. It's good to see you. I always get excited for our conversations. This is our first ever, I think three part series where I've had you on and we're gonna be talking about the three elements that def excellence today. Focusing on part one, how to, you know, vision, purpose, values, all of that as tools. And this is, it's interesting because this is something that I feel like isn't groundbreaking. Everyone knows about the significance of vision, purpose and values somehow. Yet we, we struggle with actually executing on this stuff and looking at these things as tools. So I'm really excited to get into it. But before we dive in, let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with the success quoter mantra. What do you got for us today?

[C]

My mantra on a daily basis is to be on purpose.

[B]

To be on purpose. Yeah, I love that. What does that mean to you, being on purpose? I say live intentionally, but I like being on purpose too. That's, that's. I think I might have to steal that.

[C]

So, so tied to the very content that we're talking about this morning or today is do I have a sense of purpose, groundedness that ties to vision in my daily life? Do I have it for my company? Do I have it for my family, tied to intentionality. So how do I be in caps Uppercase. Being decisive, being choiceful, being conscious, purposefully. So that my intention on a daily basis matches the hopeful impact or that the impact actually matches even more. So the impact matches my intention from morning through the day, through the evening, through the work, through my. Whatever, whatever. My daily Persona is focused on that I'm intentional, I'm being on purpose.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And I think that is a great. Yeah, 100%. I think that's a great quote to get today's conversation rolling to purpose. Being one of the big core fundamental frameworks that we're going to be on packaging. But what triggers all of this? Let me ask you that.

[C]

What triggers all this for me, early on in my career, what really made a difference in restaurant opening, Right. Concept development, really? Choiceful performance on a daily basis. Coincidentally, in my world, it was in the world of restaurants, how. How to have us perform consistently, have us perform and exceed yesterday's performance, right? So that kind of picture became pretty obvious to me very early on in the world of work as a result of high performance in sports, high performance in various other life passions, right? For me, it was, oh, in music, oh, in sports, oh, in learning, just being a voracious learner. So now come back to whether it's athletics or musical performance or stage performance, call it. And then it's not too much of a stretch to the world of work. And I personally, as a young leader and then a young manager, it just got really clear to me very quickly that putting the same fires out every day time and again, time and again and. Or hearing, oh, nobody told me, right, Those. Those kind of iterations on a daily basis, especially in restaurants, drove me crazy. And so the concept of, well, what if my restaurant was musical stage? What if it was an athletic field? How would we. We would prep, we would. We would be rehearse, consciously practice, right? We would rehearse and time and time and time again. And in our world, we would call that training. The rehearsal would be training, right? So we define what excellence is. We rehearse it, practice it. The stage goes up the second we turn on the lights and open the door for business, right? That is the performance. And then post production or post production, product meet or, you know, athletic pursuit. We would debrief, watch film, watch film. All of those metaphors that we take for granted as we're watching whatever sport, passion, performance that we love, that process, repeat, rinse, improve, do it again and just keep raising the bar became very clearly, well, why are we in business in the first place?

[E]

Right.

[C]

And so you and I have had the conversation many, many times of, of Simon Sinek's work around the golden rings and golden circles and what's the magic? Why? What's the magic? How? What's the magic? What? And in my world, way earlier on, a couple decades earlier, that same language construed itself as purpose. Guided by how the values to accomplish what incredible service, incredibly effective quality and consistency. And then raising the bar on a daily basis with Bob Sloop in our audience today. And the mastery of kaizen from a martial arts place. It's identically the same picture of. I go from a white belt to name the colors, ultimately to a black belt. And on one level, black belt is considered. Oh, that's the mastery. And in fact, black is. I remember when my daughters got their first degree black and the senseis would go, ah, now you're ready to learn.

[E]

Right.

[C]

It's not the culmination, it's actually the doorway to begin real learning. So that acumen of continual education, continual growth in menu production, service.

[E]

Right.

[C]

All the crazy stuff. Our industry has gone through pandemic, post pandemic recessions, etc. We're constantly using the words pivot or, or shift or whatever. And all of that is much easier when we're grounded with why are we in business in the first place. We can talk more about that, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Guided by what values, etc.

[B]

I love that. And you know, hearing you talk about relating the restaurant industry to sports or theater or, you know, what goes to my mind is the top performers, the gold medal winners, the champions, to train, to work that hard, to be the best, to be the best in the hospitality industry, in the restaurant industry, it's hard work. It's hard. It's really friggin hard to be the. It's not even to be the best to get by is hard, to be the best is like, who needs something? You need something higher.

[E]

Right.

[C]

It doesn't happen by. Exactly. And it doesn't happen by accident.

[E]

Right.

[C]

And so you're 100% correct. And so meanwhile, the great majority of the industry moans and groans about, oh, I can't find good people. Oh, I can. You know, people are the hardest part of the business. And that might be true in many respects, but to your point, purpose gives me the ability to inspire. Vision gives me the ability to inspire values when we actually use them is inspiring as well.

[E]

Right.

[C]

So the process is how we're not just, even, even if somebody is just with me For a season in a resort environment or the summer, if they're going to college or going to high school or whatever the case may be. Even if I just. Whatever amount of time you're with us, we work inspired. We work on purpose, intentionally, to be the best.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

There's a reason why my statement is inspire, empower and transform. Because it starts with inspiration. It starts with, here's where we're going and here's why we're going there. Are you coming with us? And I think, you know, like, and that's the whole idea, like, if we can inspire the industry through the education, the knowledge, empower them with people like you and inspire them with the stories of other operators and help people understand that we have transformative power in this industry, we can transform communities. You know, I don't know. I'm going off on one of my tears. I apologize, but.

[C]

Well, it's good.

[B]

It's important stuff we're going to unpackage today.

[C]

Well, 100%. And you know, as we talk about these significant foundation tools for a brand.

[E]

Right.

[C]

That define our business culture, to your point about inspiration, I would say all of this actually starts when we're looking for candidates, when we're looking for A plus players, whatever that might mean in a given concept or segment of our business. My first criterion is, is this applicant passionate? Are they full of passion or are they just kind of dead eyes and dead energy? I, I don't care what they're passionate about, but I want to see some kind of fire in their eyes and fire in their energy and from there, there. Now we find purpose and grounded and move it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we gotta stick to the, the framework here. I could just spit and fire with you. I'm already having fun. So. Okay, so we have a note here to ask you what's the trigger?

[E]

Right.

[B]

And under that you see strategy, structure, culture. Get into that before you start diving into.

[C]

Well, early on as an operator, early on as a student of leadership, a student of high performance, I was mentored and learned very quickly from, from some amazing other business owners and coincidentally, Olympic coaches. From a 50,000 foot view, there's really three drivers for brand and frankly for culture. So it's at 50,000ft, whether we're McDonald's, we're Microsoft, we're Apple, we're Hooters, we're Cracker Barrel. You know, name some of the brands that are waving in the air out there in the moment and have incredible opportunity from 50,000ft. There's really three drivers. I've got an existing business culture. It might be conscious, it might be unconscious. That is just kind of ad hoc, right? Not really thought through. But the culture exists in the business on a daily basis, either by accident or intentionally. So the first question is, am I happy with what we're doing in my business? And the stuff that I'm happy about, I want to maintain.

[E]

Right?

[C]

The stuff that I'm not so happy about, I want to improve or change or shift. Shift. So I look first to your point from, again, 50,000ft. Think about culture as the foundation. There's strategy, there's structure. So I'm happy or I'm not happy with the existing performance. We create strategic planning to, oh, we need more training. Oh, we need new equipment. Oh, we need a coat of paint. Oh, we need whatever it is we need or we need to stop some behavior that we're doing, right? We're out of cash. We're not hitting our margin. We're whatever it is.

[B]

So strategies where we want to go and how are we going to get there?

[E]

How.

[C]

So there's lots of thinking, and everybody on this in the audience understands strategic planning, right? There's thousands and thousands of books on strategy. The irony is strategic planning, about 85% of the time fails because the existing culture snaps back. The new strategy. There's so much gravity in the habit that we've had for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, whatever our age is, there's so much habit that strategy on its own, will tend to snap us back like a rubber band. So the key piece of this is structure that supports the strategy to move the culture.

[B]

Okay, so now we have culture, we have strategy, and we have structure.

[C]

What is.

[B]

Get into structure a little bit more.

[C]

So the structure is where purpose shows up. Oh, my God. Structure. So structure might be a brick and mortar building. It might be. Are our windows clean or dirty? It might be our door handles. I'm with a client right now that, you know, hey, on the. On the doors into the restrooms, the door handles are loose. What. What is the signal to the guests about that?

[E]

Right?

[C]

So something as tiny as. Is my doorknob loose? What is the signal that sends. Maybe I don't care. Maybe I do care. So that brick and mortar door handles, tabletops, that is structure. Which pos. What's our tech stack? All of that is structure. But now go deeper. How we behave with each other, how we treat each other, the way we give each other feedback is also structure. So can we put a system in place that says, here's how we're going to treat money, here's how we're going to treat raw product, here's how we're going to treat each other. And we begin to build systems and structure that supports the strategy. Because every day we don't pull towards the vision of the company. The old habits snap us back because. And think about this, everybody that's listening, a 40 year old habit is way harder to break than a two day old habit.

[E]

Right.

[C]

It's got much more bandwidth. So we're constantly using, oh, sense of purpose to ground us, values to help our decision making. That's actually how we're used. They're not just platitudes.

[E]

Right.

[C]

So structurally purpose, values, vision, mission. The way we communicate is exactly as articulated as the way we treat our cash. The way we treat a descending budget.

[E]

Right.

[C]

A day, we call it daily costing.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Whatever a declining budget series is.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Fred and you know, other sponsors, Bob's on the call. Declining budgets we live by and we look at our numbers every single day. That would be part of the structure as well.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

To support and now track daily, weekly, monthly, year to date, all against budget. That is the performance and conscious attention to improve.

[E]

Right.

[C]

All of those pieces become structured.

[B]

Right. So strategy is how to get to where we want to go. Like prioritizing the things that need to change. Like we have what we like, we know what we don't like. How do we change what we don't like? Structure is one word that comes to mind when I think of structure is the standards and the systems to maintain those standards. And I think you hit it on the nose. We don't have systems in for how to communicate. One of the reasons why I love EOS so much is because that is literally a system to communicate where we're going. And it's a company beats company pulse. I know you have systems for this too, Rudy. And then you know one thing again. The three things we're talking about right now before we dive in further is strategy, structure and culture. And you didn't really unpackage culture. People might be thinking to themselves if they listen to this. But the thing is everything that you just shared with us is culture. And I think that we think of culture as like what we say we are. But the reality is culture is what we're literally doing every day.

[C]

100%.

[A]

This episode is made possible by Me's Mies is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus and nail food execution at scale. Consistency builds trust with your guest and and your Staff. No more messy spreadsheets or scattered systems.

[B]

Whether they want to admit it or.

[A]

Not, your team loves systems because systems equals peace of mind, because we all want to know what the job done right looks like. And Mises paints the picture of perfection and is the one source of truth for your entire team. By locking in recipes in training before service starts, Mees makes sure every dish is consistent, every team member is aligned, and every location runs like clockwork. So when the report rolls in after sale, they tell the story you're after. Higher profits, better margins, and repeat guests. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getmes.com unstoppable. That's G-E T M E-E-Z.com unstoppable.

[C]

And we can talk all day long about who we think we are, but our behaviors actually are the data, right? And no matter what we say, what we do and the ripples from what we're choosing to do is the culture. And again, so from strategy, structure, culture, am I happy with what I've got in my brand? Because the culture is right. One of our big trademarks is culture drives brand. And only in the last few years have we even really finally figured out, oh, culture is the way we is brand. Exactly right. So the brand execution comes as a result of those strategies supported by structure. And a daily part of the culture is we actually go back full circle. Have we used the values? Have we made I statements? Are we talking about data? Or are we all in drama hookups and pointing fingers and othering which is happening all over the country and all over the world. And it's easy to slide into how do we shift those its and that's and those things to definitive data that we can track like we would basis points or tenths of percents with our money, with our margins and speak in the same way and those again, all of this stuff intermingles. The strategy is, oh, treat each other with dignity and respect. The structure is, do we actually do that? And if yes, then the culture shifts and it shifts and it shifts and it shifts. We just get better and better and better the higher we perform.

[B]

So, and I want to echo something that you shared that I thought was super powerful. Purpose guides us. Values. Sorry, purpose grounds us. Values guide us and vision pulls us. Purpose, you know, purpose grounding us. That is our why that is the thing that we go back to. That is our center line, right? Values are the filter, are the literally every decision we make. Is it going, is it can it Fit through this filter of values. And then vision pulls us. Okay, this is where we're going and this is. And it kind of brings everything in. Like this is where we're going. Does it go through the filter? Yes. Is it, is. Is it serving our purpose? Yes. And how do we show up to get there? Like that pulls us. And I think all these, like, we talk about these things, but we don't really always put them together and see how they all kind of work together. And I love that. Just simple purpose grounds us, values guide us, vision pulls us.

[C]

Well, exactly. Here's this tiny little rubber band, right? The vision pulls the value, the purpose grounds us. Vision pulls. And yes to what you said. Just like this little kind of each side of the rubber band, every day we pull consciously towards the vision that we're headed. We move the company, we move consciously.

[E]

Right?

[C]

But if we don't pull towards that goal grounded, the rubber band snaps back into the old habits. And here we go again. Hey, what do you mean you don't understand? Counting the inventory. What do you mean you don't understand? Shelf the sheet. Let's back up, try it again.

[E]

Right.

[C]

How was. How we just spoke about a topic Equitable? Not just equal, but equitable to each team member.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Right.

[B]

I think we've laid this ground the foundation pretty well, Rudy. So let's get into more of the details here. So, you know, we talked about what key steps, the why. Purpose grounds us, values guide us, vision pulls us. We. We defined purpose. We defined vision. Or, sorry, I'm all over the place with my notes right now. I'm trying to keep up with. Well, we define strategy, we define structure, and we talked about how cultural is all of that. So let's get into, you know, the, the first thing. Do you want to talk about purpose or vision first? What do you think makes sense?

[C]

Well, I'm good either way. There is thinking that, hey, I want to start with vision first. Where do I see myself out here in a decade? And what is this thing that pulls me again? Literally. So vision is very potent. And the more definitive, I can have vision be out here in the future. I can set my sights on that another way. My personal preference is to actually think about why am I doing this concept. So if we stay specific to restaurants, why this concept of all concepts? Why this footprint? Why this price point? Why this tech?

[E]

Right?

[C]

What, what is it that we actually provide beyond food and beverage or through food and beverage, through our delivery mechanism, through our. Doesn't matter if it's carryout. Delivery, catering, pop ups, doesn't matter. Fine dining, full service, Michelin beard, doesn't matter. The process is why this. And how does this purposeful choice on my part become the tool I'm going to grow to be this thing out here in the vision.

[A]

Right, let's start with purpose.

[B]

Or are we starting with vision? Well, we're doing both right now.

[C]

We are doing both. So let's start with purpose. You and I and many of the folks in the audience have heard certainly Mick talk At Mick, we talk constantly about the definition of the word restaurant. Amazingly enough, so many of us in the industry actually don't know that definition. And Danny Myers and Will Guidera and just so many brilliant people in our industry talk about hospitality all the time and treating people really well and this grace that comes when we're hospitable. And as an early restaurant owner, way before I became a consultant, as an early operator and chain owner, I was, I just, I love dictionaries. And so I looked up the word one day restaurant. And the actual root of the word restaurant is a place one goes to be restored. You and I have talked about this so many times. And restaurateur literally translates the root definition is literal translation to, I am a restorer of soul. That's purpose. So did I. I don't care what my check average is. I don't care what my concept is. Have we just impacted my client, my guest, my customer, my neighbor? Have we impacted their life? Not just fed their belly? And how does even the handoff of my product create an experience that says, oh my gosh, come back?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So we talk, we talk all the time about trial capture, frequency.

[E]

Right.

[C]

And then loyalty. Well, in my career, time and again, every single restaurant's got their own purpose statement. Every one of our clients does. And somehow it relates to how do we, in our consciousness, restore the soul? How do we impact our neighbors? How do we impact our team? How do we.

[E]

Right.

[C]

How do we provide value?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Can I go on a table?

[C]

Yeah, go ahead.

[B]

So, like, just what's going through my mind right now as you're sharing this? And, you know, and I, I think sometimes people think I'm crazy when I say my mission is literally to change the world. Like, my why is to change the world through inspiring, empowering, and transforming the industry. And I think when I hear those words, restore, I think the industry needs a lot of restoration. I think that when you think of, like, what, what is the root of the, the word restaurant to restore into, like the restaurateur is a restorer of souls. I think that we've gotten away of what it means, the, the purpose of the industry, right? And when I think of that, I think of like, what were restaurants 100, 200 years ago. There were literally the, the, the, the center place, the soul of a community. If you were a colonial, like in the colonial times, like if you wanted.

[A]

To start a town, the first, first.

[B]

Thing you had to do was build a public house in that town. Like, that's where pubs came from. And the purpose of that public house was to literally to be the. It was where you got your mail, it's where you got your entertainment, it's where you got your food, your restoration, your spirits, your, Your camaraderie. It was, it was, it was the center of, it was the center of the wheel, you know, and. Well, I think we forgotten how much we need that in society. Like it's not there anymore.

[C]

Well, and how about now, right? What if, what if my restaurant, right? And Schultz at Starbucks with all the challenges Starbucks has got, what a brilliant concept. Way back when Starbucks started with. And Schultz just puts out, hey, we're going to be the third place we are going to write into. What you're talking about historically is the hearth, right? For all of us. All of us know, right, when we have a party, when we're lucky enough to be home or we've chosen to be home, the party is in the kitchen, right? Well, there's the hearth, right? Literally the fireplace, the place that all the cooking is happening. There is the hearth, there is the center. And so again, to your point, no matter the check average, no matter what it is I'm purchasing, to me, when, when I think of a concept, my mouth starts to water, right? I take the. I see it, I smell it, I take the first bite and I just go, oh, yeah, God, right. It's great to be back.

[B]

Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. So what I, you know, bring it back to purpose. This idea of restorer of souls. What I love about that is there's a million and one different ways to restore, you know, 100, I think focusing on that, there's literally, what is the thing that. What is the change you want to see in the world? What is the, like, what, what is that thing for you? And how can you use that thing to restore and create community around you? Back to purpose, right? So how to build, how to train and how it actually use these things, like get into that. So how do we build purpose? How do we train purpose?

[C]

Well, let's, let's actually talk about those tangible pieces, right? Let's. Let's put some. Some hammer some nails into some. In. Into some wood, screw some screws in. Headline one. If we've defined, at least in my experience, so we've got purpose, we've got values, we even have vision. The question is, are we using them? And most companies forget restaurants, most companies don't. We have them, they're up on a wall or they're in a file cabinet somewhere. They've been defined, but we actually don't know. We're not very good at using the tools. So let's talk about how to.

[B]

We lack structure.

[C]

We lack structure within the strategy of. Hey, I've got the stuff. Good call, good call, dude, I'm trying.

[B]

To keep up with you.

[C]

Okay? So first and foremost, think about whatever. For everybody listening, whatever my concept is, I have some sort of dish area, some sort of place that we're cleaning. And in typical spots, no matter what the concept is, if there is a dishwashing area, a pot area, that the person that's working that station is typically the lowest person on the totem pole, right? And in an awful lot of places, we'll wing a plate at them or we'll push everything in, and maybe that's where we swear to blow off steam. Or the language isn't always pretty in those places. It's not always the easiest place to work, and all of us know it. But imagine we can't restore anybody's soul. We can't do anything purposefully with dirty glasses, with dirty plates, with dirty flatware, whatever. So what if this person looks like a dishwasher or a prep cook, but they're actually a restorer of soul? And so the respect starts there. Oh, I've got a host, I've got a phone person, I've got what Again, whatever. My concepts are line cooks, bartenders, whatever, bar backs. Doesn't matter what the job is. Oh, this person is on is a restorer, and that's the end game for them. But they look like a host, they look like a bartender, whatever. Okay, so if that's the outside result, how do we get there? So here are three steps for us. I'm kind of giving away the. This is some free info, our choice and how to use these as tools. If I'm in a startup and it's just me and you, Eric, right. We're the two partners, then we'll probably do our purpose and our values together. But if I've been in business for 8 years, 9 years, 10 years, 20 years, who cares? I might. And what we highly recommend is take a diagonal slice of the team from highest, highest job to entry level job, right? Dish, dish, Pit to managers, some representative group of folks on my team, and include them. So what in the definition of this work, right, it's pretty cool. High risk, but really consistently effective. And the criterion are I don't care what your job position is, but I want as diverse a group as possible on the team. I want as much different attitude and action and background on that team from top to bottom. Most important is, are they passionate about the brand and are they A plus performers, right? So if I can amass that team and collectively we work on the purpose, it's. That is a powerful, powerful aspect.

[B]

Why is that so powerful? Why is that so powerful? When you pull other people in, how's it hit harder?

[C]

Well, here's what happens. And I've literally had owners before, so typically for us, this is a two day extravaganza, right? Even with AI, it's an extravaganza. It's a serious piece of work. I've had owners, some serious players in the industry that will get frustrated and halfway through they'll write out the purpose and go, this is, I think, where we're headed. There you go. Okay, bear with me. Hold off for half a day. Don't throw that away, hold on to it at the same time. Let's see. My bet is the team is going to develop a stronger purpose than this. Let's see. Inevitably, every this happened without exaggeration, four times that I can remember. I was going to say three, but there's actually four, not more. But in those cases, when we get to the culmination of here's the purpose written by the team, the owners look across the room at me, kind of get a Cheshire cat grin, crumple up their paper and throw it away. Go. These guys just blew it out of the water for me. Go ahead.

[B]

I think the power of having your team come up with this now, how much more likely are they to buy into something that they help create? Now it's not coming down from the top, but it's coming from within that.

[C]

Welcome. You're so smart, right? And so here the, the process of this is now the fireside story, right? But if we're sitting around the campfire telling stories about how our company started or how we have evolved, now imagine that storytelling. And we can literally, three years from now, even with turnover, that we call it a mission team to work on purpose and then work on values, we can tell the story that. Oh no. Henry and Jose and Julia and Juliana and Marie all had a voice in this.

[E]

Right.

[C]

And we had every position in the company participate. That is a robust piece as opposed to. Yeah, I'm Moses. Bringing the Ten Commandments down.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And what I love about this too, when we think about how do you scale culture, it always comes from, you know, if I'm talking to, I think it was Schultz, Chris Schultz. If I get that name incorrectly, I apologize. But he was a part of the Starbucks team and he says you have to take your culture carriers and they are the people that go and open your next location. But I think this idea of culture carrier starts at location number one in defining what your culture is. And that to your point, like you're taking the slice and you're taking the A players throughout your organization. These are the culture carriers relative to the work that at every point of our organization. And they're steering the ship. So like identifying your culture carriers from day one to define your culture. And then those culture carriers become the, the bench for location number two, three and four. Right, because.

[C]

Or, or six, seven, eight, nine, or 19, 20, 21 or 41. 81. 101. Yeah, exactly.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And you know, it's fun. We're getting a little off subject, but I like doing this, so we're gonna make it happen. So you and I, I think we've had conversations about Dunbar's number in the past, have we not?

[E]

Uh huh.

[B]

So Dunbar's number is this idea that we can handle between 100 and 200 relations, relationships as a human species, as this human primate, and as our brains gets bigger, we can handle more social. We can handle more social relationships, but on average it's about 150. What's cool is that as we're scaling our organization and there's this book called the Social Brain, and it's written with Robin Dunbar and two other business people. And they found that as you're scaling an organization, there's this number that we tend to like stall at. And it lines up perfectly with the restaurant industry. How it translates is at like three or four locations, we tend to stall and we have to slow down and then we have to scale really fast to get to like 10 to 12 locations. And then we have to slow down and then we have to scale really fast to get to 30 locations. And the reason for that is because we need to build up our culture carriers because.

[C]

Well, because we have to build up.

[B]

The relationships, you know, so anyway, I guess Where I'm going with this, like just that idea of identifying this is what triggered the thought in my head that the, the significance of identifying your culture carriers from day one and building them up, you know, and echoing their voice and their values. Go, go for it.

[C]

Well, so again we're, we're tap dancing around how do I implement so that we actually get traction to do what you're talking about.

[B]

Right, but it starts from so zero.

[C]

Like or one location 100, 100%. And it's far better off to do it at number one than number 20. Right, but, but wherever you are, start. Right, right. So the, the one of the big failures. Oh, we've done purpose. Oh, we've got values.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, what are they? Let me look them up.

[E]

Right.

[C]

So the storytelling stops, we get in the heat of the shift, the heat of the battle, the heat of the performance, and we forget. As opposed to letting those. What you're talking about. Here's a concept. Instead of 10 culture carriers, I want everybody in my team to be a culture carrier. And it's so robust that we're speaking on a daily basis in our nomenclature or in our vocabulary are the values. So let's back up again. Purpose or values. For Criterion, have it be. Have the purpose be a verb. Have the values be a verb so we communicate. How so is there, Is there. I'm jumping to values real quick, but is there a value for each contact point with guests and team, Marketing, communication, training, growth, fiscal diversity, if it's interesting, environment, if it's interesting, if it's in alignment with. I don't want a sustainability value. If I don't believe in sustainability, God forbid, but hopefully we do. And hopefully we're awake. But the process of. Are there values that touch? Think of our purpose as the hub of the wheel. Values are the spokes of every touch point of the wheel as it rotates and the whole system of the company. Now for Criterion, how do I write these? Because there's a whole bunch of folks that would say it doesn't matter. I think it does. In my experience, it does. What's been effective for us is this as opposed to having a single word. There are a lot of players that love single word values and they're there. And oh, okay, we have integrity, honesty, you know, whatever. Respect, quality, profit. Okay, they're out there. Those ideas are out there. How do we talk about them? Another thing is, another way is to talk, talk about or write out. We are in business. The letter or the word to, to provide community. Except that Way out here instead of here. So how we treat this at mec, what we bring to the table is individual and collective I statements. So whose value is this? We. Our. Each of us. So we communicate openly, honestly, treating each other with dignity and respect. Okay, so that co. Collective I, the we actually connects you and me to the value. It's not to. It's. We do this written so that I can go to the singular I, I do this. So each one of us and all of us, we collective take out any wiggle room. Think about how often we see, oh, a value or a purpose. Strive. We strive to do this. Or we believe in. I call those wiggle rooms. So we get rid of all the wiggle, all the loose. Forget strive, forget try, forget, believe, forget attempt, forget to someday.

[E]

Right?

[C]

What we, we communicate, we train. We are fiscally healthy. So even if we aren't, we're actively working to get fiscally healthy because that's our value.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And I'm thinking of Dr. Benjamin Hardy right now. In his book, I always say be tomorrow you today. But I'm pretty sure that's not the title. That's like the way I like to say. It's like be future you now, I think is the name of the book. And in that book, he talks about the power of language and how to manifest and like, to be that. To not say, like, yeah, well, next week we're too small to do these exercises. Yeah, we'll do that later. We. We're too small to do a budgeting and costing in inventory weekly. Like, we're too, like, we'll do that stuff later. Like, those are big company things. No, you mother effort. Do that now. Now do it now.

[C]

Like, do it today.

[B]

We are fiscally responsible. And then when you start, like, speaking like this, the power of language, like you. You show up differently. Like, be tomorrow you today.

[C]

We from day one.

[E]

Right.

[C]

The day of opening restaurant number one. Day one. First thing to do inventory.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

What is. What is our starting inventory?

[B]

Yeah, you know, but it's just like, period. You'd be amazed. I mean, I don't have to tell you this, Rudy, but people write to me and like, they. They're interested in some of the tools I promote. Like, let's say restaurant Systems Pro. And they're like, well, I don't know if I'm ready for that now. And it's just like, when are you gonna be ready to do these things? Like, like, that's what a successful operation does. Like, it's not like you don't get ready for it. Like, you start doing it and that's how you become successful.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

So anyway, I digress.

[C]

So. Well, and so. And most. Most of us understand this. I think in the business, the kiss of death is inconsistency, and the second is lack of discipline. So the discipline to choose what we're doing and do it to the best of our ability and figure out tomorrow how do we get even more effective.

[E]

Right.

[C]

And if we can measure it. Measure it. To, to your point about EOS a little bit ago, EOS is such an amazing structure of what should I be doing.

[E]

Right.

[C]

In terms of checklists and stuff and format. But we've still got to decide what it is we're doing to move a rock.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Or whatever it is. We. We've still got to do the work to fill in the blanks. So, okay, we can do that whether we're using EOS or not. But, you know, just. Or same thing. If Restaurant Systems Pro, if I don't have the budget for it yet, I can still count inventory, track it, do create a declining budget and the. And set aside money to get RSP as fast as I can get it.

[B]

Right. The add more structure. Right. Because it provides that structure for you. You can build the structure or you can plug it in.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

Go ahead.

[C]

Well, so back to the structure. So collective I present tense. So we are fiscally healthy. We communicate this way. We train and grow through ongoing development. Right, Whatever, whatever. The statement is present tense. No wiggle room. And the value or the purpose is a verb.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So now we put those tools in place on a daily basis, and here's a little secret on how to use purpose and values on a daily basis. What's the issue? So instead of me being the firefighter, we train this stuff to our teams. Starts in the interviews, starts actually in the job posts, talking about the culture, talking about purpose and values. Shows up in the interview, shows up in orientation, shows up day one by providing feedback that is values driven on purpose to get us to the vision. Okay. From. From that perspective, we have a tool called IVS Decision Making Issue Value Solution. We asked three questions. What's the issue? Team member? What's the issue? Which values in our company apply to that issue? How does the purpose apply? What would be the behaviors from those values and our purpose?

[E]

Name them.

[C]

Go do that. Report back. Right on to the next thing.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So like in. In the language that I understand, that's kind of like the rock. Like, what is the benefit of achieving that rock? How is that going to move us towards our vision.

[E]

Right?

[B]

Like what is the, what is the strategy?

[E]

Right.

[C]

And then, you know, what's the structure?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, structure.

[C]

And suddenly we've got team members that are passionate on purpose, making decisions guided by our values rather than a policy manual and inspired to figure out what performance is. What does clean mean? What does quality mean? What is the spec? Whether we're making a burger patty or we're cutting a steak or we're doing ramen.

[D]

Yeah, right, yeah.

[B]

So we had some, Speaking of structure, we had some structure set aside for today's conversation. And I know whenever rude and I get talking, it's just like we just. I love talking to you, Rudy. So I want to make sure if I'm referencing, you know, this, the structure that we had laid out in front of us, I feel been bouncing around a lot, but it's all been great. So don't get me wrong. But okay, under purpose, values and vision, right, we're going to be talking about how to build, how to train and how to actually use these things. We were just talking about values, right, how to build your values using verbs.

[C]

I mean, so whether, so whether it's purpose or values, the use would be the same.

[B]

Got it, got it. So have we gotten into how to train purpose?

[C]

Ah, what a great question. So training.

[B]

That's why I get paid the big bucks, Rudy.

[C]

Training starts. This is again back to the mantra, be on purpose.

[E]

Right?

[C]

What if, here's counterintuitive. What if training starts in the job post.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So that I'm not, I'm not hiring cooks, I'm not hiring bartenders, drivers, I'm hiring those positions.

[E]

For.

[C]

But what I'm offering is if you're not happy where you are and you're looking for a sense of purpose for community, for a values driven company and you're in our industry or not, we've got these positions open, but what we're actually selling is our culture and our brand and the way we treat each other.

[B]

A purpose.

[C]

So if you. On purpose. And so the story and the cool part of social media now and job posts across the industry is I can tell that story in a job post and if all I do is post, oh, I need cooks, guess what, I get cooks.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But if I tell the story about our purpose and our values and where we're headed.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

And oh, by the way, here are a multitude of positions that you can apply to and live that way. Come and check us out. So the story starts there in the interview. I position Questions. And frankly, we'll do a mini stage in the interview. We'll do two or three exercises. We're not just going to sit and ask some random list of questions. We'll actually go, hey, take a walk through the restaurant, come back with three things we could improve on and move like it's a Friday night. Or pick your busiest shift, a lunch, A lunch, gig, a drive, whatever it might be. Pick your busiest shift, show me how you move on a Friday night. Come back with three things we could improve in our restaurant. Go.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

So we. Can you believe we're almost at an hour of recording time? It goes by fast. Rudy, I love talking to you. So can we say that purpose has been unpackaged?

[E]

Okay.

[B]

Is that safe to say? Is there anything you want to bring to the surface in terms of purpose?

[C]

The things. So where I would. I will bet I say something akin to how does the purpose apply to this? Or how does the purpose relate to this issue? Or how in what you're sharing with me, how does purpose apply? Some variation on those three inquiries, I'll bet. I say 40 times a day.

[B]

Okay, let me ask you this question. How does one find their purpose?

[C]

Start with passion. Start with. For those of us with a little bit of age, it's really fun, I think, to look back a little bit and figure out where is the juice? Where is that thing that has inspired you or excited you in everything you've done over a period of time. Maybe you're only 20 years old, but as a little kid, as soon as you were conscious, what are the things that excite you? And notice how they roll out. So for me, as an example, I realized, oh, my God, I've been a guide, a sounding board, and a team member since I was as young. My earliest thoughts are about five years old or so. And I can look back and think, there is a string that is straight as a snap line that leads me to, oh, I'm a. I'm a teacher and guide and I'm a learner.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

That is my purpose. Yeah, Right. Which is why I do what I do.

[B]

And I can do that too. Like, when I think of that, for me, like I. I remember looking at all my classmates when I was like in the first grade and just thinking to that, to myself, like, all these kids are so good at stuff. Like, Johnny's great at throwing the football. Like, Sally can recite a poem from memory. Like, that was a big deal. When you're a little kid, like all these, like little things, like these talents that Everyone had. And I just remember thinking to myself, like, wow, like, just admiring the talents of other people and always wondering to myself, like, what's my thing? And it didn't hit until like my mid-20s, late 20s. Like, I'm good at seeing what other people are good at. I'm good at giving purpose to other people. I'm good at connecting the dots. I'm good at promoting and connecting, you know, so.

[C]

Yep. And that's my percent. Well. And so here you are, right? So to me, passion leads me to purpose over a period of time and it, it would coming back to our business in tangible ways that these ideas apply, right. I, I think of what is that crazy nuance that has. Some people love kitchen production and other people love being in the front, right? Guest facing. What is that thing that some people just love building, right? Or designing, right? Think of, think of the design community out there that builds and designs kitchens for us or thinks up equipment, right? Of just how do I do this better? And in many respects for me, on a personal level, my personal purpose is around finding a better way and becoming masterful at it and building trust and delivering trust that people can count on us to do what we say we'll do. A kitchen person. Some, some of them, some of us in the world are loving tweezers, right. You know, well, some of us are loving, you know, Jimmy John's. Just get, well, just get a sandwich out, right?

[B]

The cool thing is we're all different and that's the beauty of diversity, right? It's the. We're not all meant to be amazing at everything. We're meant to be good at what we're good at. And. But when we come together, we become unstoppable because we can lean on the, the.

[C]

And I'm, I'm. We have the grace to be able to see Tom and, and Ben and Bob on the call and stuff. And I'm loving Tom's smile as we're talking about this. It's cracking me up.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Right, so go ahead, go ahead.

[B]

This is the, the, the challenge with doing remote interviews is there's that slight delay where you go for it, go for it.

[C]

It's all good. So, so purpose is this thing that grounds me. And it's going to be a little bit different for each of us, right? Some of us are teachers, some of us are builders, some of us are mechanics, some of us love numbers, right? I love hitting my financial results. But I, when I get to, when I'm so fortunate to get to work with Bob, Sloop. He goes wild when he, when he gets two pennies to balance. Right. I love that.

[E]

Right.

[C]

I just like he's hungry for that. Right. It's so fun.

[B]

You know, I think that they say that the peak of emotional intelligence is self awareness and I think that you don't. This is why it's so important as leaders to tell people what they're good at because we help them become more self aware. And I think it's that universe giving us that feedback constantly over time where like we just let somebody know what they're good, good at because they might not be aware of it until you tell them.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Well. And so that may be. Go back to values. Okay. Here's this purpose. One of our values might be giving feedback like you just named Eric.

[E]

Yeah, right.

[C]

Is I want, I want a robust think of the different energy in a restaurant. If I've got a coach, a manager that's acting like a cop, slapping hands, hey, you're not doing this, you're not doing that. Hey, you guys are right. Do this, change that. As opposed to a coach that has gone through. Nice carry, great eyes. Oh my God, what a great greeting.

[B]

Feedback, feedback.

[C]

I love that you went back out and wiped down the glass front door. Thank you.

[B]

Subconscious feedback, like that stuff, it compounds.

[C]

It's conscious feedback. It's data based.

[E]

Right.

[C]

Those would be an example of a value in the way we coach or the way we communicate. And we'll watch instead of watching. Loyalty. Forget loyalty of guests. We want loyalty of guests. Get it. In my team, I'm not going to drive loyalty with hand slapping. What I will build is engagement through catching people doing something right and then building on it.

[B]

I love it.

[D]

I love it.

[C]

To take your performance further, do x.

[B]

One more question around purpose and then I want to focus on vision and values. And we have a good show up today. So I want to make sure these people can engage you and ask their questions. We got to think about wrapping up. But do you think. Tell me if you agree or disagree with this and I don't want to spend too much time here, but do you think a good way to find your purpose is to ask you this question? Ask yourself this question. What. What am I willing to die for?

[C]

It's a great question. I don't know that that's purpose. Yeah, yeah. I would, I would go, what is the gift I bring? Or what was I? What is the common thread? So as a worker, as a manager, as a director, as an owner, what is the common thread in my behavior? What Is what is the thing that gives me, I call it juice. What is the thing that excites me? What is the thing that makes my eyes tear, pop out of bed ever so slightly? Right, yeah.

[B]

Got it.

[C]

To me, that would be purpose.

[B]

Got it. Okay, so vision have we dove into how to build this and how to train this? Has this come out of the conversation?

[C]

No, not yet. So, I mean, we are in my world some again, vision very similar to values or purpose. Vision can be or is supposed to be three sentences or one sentence, or maybe it's a little tagline thing. In my world, vision might be two or three paragraphs, but I want it to be 20 years ago, we might have done a 10 year vision. The world is moving so fast now that I think three, not more than five years out because things are changing so much. But purpose, if we do it right, will last hundreds of years. Values, at least a generation, two generations, maybe three generations, we might tweak them a little vision. If we build a three year vision, typically we'll achieve everything in two. So we do another vision. Oh, how do we use all these tools to do the next step?

[E]

Right?

[C]

You were talking about 20 restaurants, 40 restaurants, etc. So for to me, the vision elements are data. How much money, how many restaurants, how much. How many people have we graduated? How. Notice that language. How many people have we graduated? What is our. What am I doing for fun? How many months of the year? How much money am I making ski? Exactly.

[B]

How much time do I have off? How much time does my staff have off?

[C]

Bingo. Bingo. All of those pieces would be then vision elements. And so the vision is sitting here. And we've all heard about imagery, you know, imaging and imagination, putting pictures up on a mirror in the morning, whatever that, that quantum physics and brain physiology field theory I'm a believer in. We've seen it work time and time again. Oh, imagine those vision elements are out here every day again and we are moving towards the vision on purpose, guided by our values.

[B]

Got it. Behind every great restaurant is a great person.

[A]

The key to being great is to be of service to others. And this holds true for all organizations, not just restaurants. After spending a month in Phoenix, Arizona being hosted by Restaurant Systems Pro CEO Fred Langley, I got to experience firsthand Fred's desire to serve. It all started when I got there. Fred gave me the keys to his house and to his office building. When Fred leaves work every day, I witnessed him go coach one of his two sons baseball teams. And when Fred's neighbor lost power when they were hosting their son's birthday party. Fred offered to host the party at his house. Eric, why are you sharing this? Because how you do one thing is.

[B]

How you do everything.

[A]

And believe me when I say that the desire to serve extends to Fred's restaurant clients. There are no secrets or shortcuts to life or restaurant success. There's only discipline, hard work, and the desire to do the right thing. Fred and his team at Restaurant Systems Pro are here to serve you with the systems and, and resources to be more disciplined so you can do the hard thing, which nine times out of 10 is the right thing. With Restaurant Systems Pro, you get accounting systems, budgeting systems, costing systems, purchasing systems, inventory management systems, labor management systems, training systems, and the systems to create and implement checklists. On top of all this, Restaurant Systems Pro also has their own native general ledger and they're in the process of launching their own pos, which they are so appropriately naming serve. And you know what, if you don't want to change your pos, that's absolutely fine because Restaurant Systems Pro integrates with all major POS providers. To learn more, head over to restaurantstoppable.com RSP and you will find a link to schedule a demo with their sales team. A demo I personally did with Restaurant Systems Pro CEO Fred Langley and all 18 of our testimonials that we've recorded.

[B]

Since the beginning of Restaurant Stoppable.

[A]

Again, that's Restaurant Unstoppable.com RSP so one.

[B]

Way I like to think of this, I think as we're looking further out, like imagine standing in the middle of the desert. You can see a horizon, right? That horizon maybe might be your 10 year vision or your 20 year vision. It's very faint. You know that there's trees over there. I think your far out vision can be kind of blurry. It's like a general like, okay, like this is the direction we're going. But as you get shorter in time, your vision gets clearer because you know, your two year, your three year vision, you can see that that's like much closer. You can tell that there's trees and palms. Like you can see what kind of trees they are. You can see that there's a little like, you know, you can get more detailed the closer the vision is. But I think it's, I mean, have you heard that analogy before? Like, you know, have a general vision of where you want to be and what your company wants to look like, generally speaking, in the future. But then as the, you get closer, your, your two year vision Your five year vision is a little more detailed, it gets a little bit more granular. Yes, things like that.

[C]

You know my I on a personal level, on a company level. Absolutely right. I might look out 20 years. What do I, what do I see? My, you know, for instance, my company this year is 45 years old and we are right now looking out 40 years. Where are we going to be in 40 years? In the next 40 years. And I doubt I'll probably be around 40 years from now, but I might be here in 20 years. So we'll see where that goes. But the focus is with our tools, with our process. Yes, exactly. Where do we take the company in the next 40 years?

[B]

Right.

[C]

And how do we do in the next three years to get us on that journey? Yeah, 100. That's exactly what we're doing.

[B]

And there's a good resource out there. I'm sure you're familiar with Ari Weinzweig and Zingerman's and the work that they do. They in his books and a lap.

[C]

Ari is the ultimate vision first. He's the vision guy beyond.

[E]

Right.

[C]

His career. In my career I've always started on purpose first. He consistently says vision, vision, vision first. Yeah, he's brilliant. So he's such a good guy.

[B]

Had him on the show to do a workshop on vision. If you guys want to go deeper into this subject. And his book elapsed Anarchist Approach to Building a Great Business. Those essays on vision are really great too for if you really want to dive in deeper. And one more thought on vision. I think it's important that we do a vision for, for our business but we also do a vision for ourself. And how does our business serve the vision I have for myself. So you can reverse engineer that life you want. I think sometimes we forget to think about how do we fit into that role within our organization. How does our business serve me, you know, so I think that's just the last thing I would add. And then in terms of training, do you want to mention anything on training when it comes to vision or how actually how these things are used?

[C]

Well so with. Within the training structure.

[E]

Right.

[C]

So we talked about as early as a job post. So then in the interviewing here we are with talking about and referring to the purpose and the values and the vision of the company. Now here we come into training. Jobs training. So two pieces with this we train positions, not jobs. So the position of a server, typically in all of our research over the years, a server in a full service restaurant, whatever that means. Full Service is doing typically 19 to 24 jobs. Same thing with a bartender. About 23 to 24 jobs under the position of a bartender, hosts about 18, 19, et cetera. So. And then forget managers, it's off the board. But the, the, the point of this is that at each of those jobs, the question becomes, how does the purpose apply? Which values apply to this job within this position? So that we're constantly values driven in the job to deliver our purpose and achieve our vision. So you've said a couple times on the call, we're kind of bouncing around. But all of these pieces in my mind were not at all because these things are all tethered together. I work on purpose, driven by the values to achieve the vision. And in every single job we are teaching and applying the purpose, the values. We're using what we call conscious communication tools to train those jobs on purpose, guided by the values. So literally the whole team is using the language of the values. We don't have to say, hey, go memorize this stuff. The memorization happens because we're using it. There's no dust on the purpose and values.

[B]

Right. And I think, you know, that's the whole nother conversation on rituals and how we tie rituals into communication to intentionally surface this language.

[C]

Right. And then one last piece about training. We'll do job one, Play it through. Experientially. Play it through. Play it through. Play it through. What'd you do? Well, to take your performance further, what would you do even more of? Now, job two, then we'll tie together one and two on purpose, guided by the values, then three. One, two, three, all the way to 24. And it's almost like getting scripting or without a script with a dance move on purpose. That's how it works. And it works every time.

[B]

I love it. Okay, should we move to values?

[C]

Sure. We can say more on values.

[B]

I mean, is there. Let me just ask you this. Is there anything we haven't talked about yet? Because I think you have kind of touched on a lot of these things. How to build, how to train, and how these things actually work. Is there anything we haven't brought to the conversation yet?

[C]

I think at this level of the process, the headline I would leave with is what I just said. I would reiterate again, the more I use the values in my language, the more the values show up and the more I talk of them and use them, what's the issue? Which values apply? What are the behaviors do that the more robust the values become. And people actually, our team Looks forward to coming to work. And oh, by the way, culturally, here's an impact. If the restaurant typically has 140% turnover, 180% turnover, in a quarter, we'll be down to 20% turnover. Because people look forward to coming to work and getting feedback.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Where. Where I would go is, I think, to see what questions we've got in our. Our viewer audience or listening audience. I think that might be interesting.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And just one last question. Relative to values, why do you think people struggle so hard just like, getting that down to paper? I feel like people really are. So they. Whether it be stating your vision or stating your purpose, I think values is the one that people really, like, wrestle with.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Why do you think that is? And what is your place?

[C]

I think there's. I think there's two or three things. Pieces. The biggest headline is this actually takes a little bit of time to actually get some quiet time and reflect on.

[E]

And.

[C]

And again, I think an activity that can really support is think through that hub and spoke piece of what. How do I communicate? How do we train?

[E]

What.

[C]

How do we treat money? How do we. What does clean mean? What does sustainability? What is environment? What is diversity? What are those things that are important to me and my company? And then ponder. Okay. In communication, what do I believe?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

One exercise I recently went through that helped me and kind of re. I mean, it's been 12 years of restaurant unstoppable now really kind of reflecting on, like, what was it about me? What got me here? What is it that I do that is uniquely me that got me here? And I think that was a really great exercise for me personally.

[C]

Yeah, 100%. One of the other stumbling blocks for me or that I watch time and time and time again is we talk. And frankly, at a USA level where this is troublesome because we allude to American values, but we never really define them. And so we're in the midst of. Without getting political on the show, we're in the midst of, in many respects, a values conflict of saying, what do I believe in? What do you believe in? Where can we join?

[E]

Right.

[B]

And for the record, I think that is all engineered by outside influences. I'm just going to throw that out there. Not to get political, but, like, we're trying to be divided there. People are trying to divide us right now. Put your fricking phones away. Talk to your neighbor. Sorry.

[C]

So. So here's. Here's a couple headlines people taught a lot of business owners. Oh, what do I respect? I. What Do I really want. What do I value? I value loyalty. Great. Except that's not a value, it's a result. Oh, I value integrity. Yeah, well, Hitler had a lot of integrity to his belief system.

[B]

He said. He said what he said he was going to do or he got really close to it.

[C]

At least he. And he was you.

[E]

Right?

[C]

Hitler did what he said he was going to do. He had integrity to his system. Pay attention out there. And so if I throw the word integrity out as a value, what? Integrity to what?

[E]

Yeah, yeah, right.

[C]

So the, the, the definition of integrity. Pay attention to loyalty, trust. You know, if you read Lencioni's work Five Dysfunctions and all of his other amazing books, trust is this big driver. Oh, wouldn't it be lovely to have trust as a value? But trust is a result, not a value. It's an outcome of behavior that is consistent that I can count on and that I appreciate. Loyalty is a result. So what are the behaviors that will build loyalty? Ah, those are values. The way we communicate, the way we train, the way we treat our buildings, the way we treat each other, et cetera, et cetera.

[B]

Got it. All right, so we gotta wrap this thing up. This is again, we are going to open it up to Q A. But real quick, I just want to let our listeners at home know that this is part one of a three part series we're going to be having you back tomorrow. Not tomorrow, next week we're going to be talking about Cartman's what was it? Drama triangle. And then also conscious communication. And then the last part will be tying all these three, these three things together. You know, your vision, purpose, values, Cartman's drama triangle and conscious communication. And then how those three things tie together. This was a lot of fun. Rudy, before we say goodbye, how do we connect with you? What is the best way to reach out?

[C]

So the way to. The easiest way to connect with me is through. I'm happy to give you my cell at 720-641-7565. That's my direct line and my email is rudyc.com with two eyes. M I c k dot com.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And depending on what other apps are out there, what you're working on, WhatsApp is my cell number as well. And messenger all of those things. LinkedIn, LinkedIn profile. Just look up Rudy.

[E]

Mick.

[C]

Yeah, and any of those ways are ways to connect. And Eric, one last piece. The show, our next show with conscious communication and carbon is more how to use the purpose, the values and the vision.

[B]

Awesome. Our, our Listeners are going to be jacked up on Rudy Mick by the end of this month. Three back to back to back episodes. It's going to be good stuff. And Rudy has agreed to make himself available for mentoring sessions and power hours within Restaurant Stop Network. I don't know if we got onto terms of when and how frequently, but this guy is spent in a lifetime doing what he's discussing right now. To have you be a part of our community, to make yourself available to my community, my listeners, is just so impactful, man. And if you do choose to work with Rudy on a full time basis, he is willing and more than willing to support this mission by paying Restaurant Stoppable account commission. So if you want to support this podcast, make sure that you mention to Rudy that it was Restaurant Stoppable that helped you discover his work and you're supporting our mission here to inspire, empower and transform the world by transforming the industry. And thank you in advance. So we're going to say goodbye, we're going to open it up for Q and A and if you were a.

[A]

Part of Restaurant Stoppable Network, you could.

[B]

Be joining the conversation right now. We're going to offer, we're going to open it up to our members who have joined us and we'll say goodbye and see you time next next time.

[C]

Thanks so much Unstoppables.

[B]

If you enjoyed today's episode and you're itching for more Mick, we got your solution. Head over to restaurantstoppable.com I I c k restaurantstoppable.com and we'll have a playlist of all the Rudy Mick episodes there waiting for you. He's been featured on the show now over six times. So you can go back into the archive and get all the Mick your little heart can desire. Plus, we have early access to part two of this three part series, the three elements to define excellence. Those elements are culture, which were the purpose, vision, values as tools that we discussed in part one and then in part two which will give you early access to. We're talking about the the second and third elements which are carpenter, drama, triangle and conscious communication. So you'll get early access, early release of that part two episode. And we're going to give you the link to join us live on October 1, 2025, 11:00am Eastern for part three where he ties all this together. So we'd love to have you join us. Head over again to restaurantunstoppable.com M I I C K We'll get you the link in that playlist early access. We'd love to have you join and we'll see you there.