1227: Jason E. Brooks, Keynote Speaker, Author, and Profitability Coach

Summary

Restaurant Unstoppable Episode 1227: Jason E. Brooks – Keynote Speaker, Author, and Profitability Coach

Release Date: October 13, 2025
Host: Eric Cacciatore
Guest: Jason E. Brooks

---

Episode Overview

This episode centers on what makes restaurateurs successful, using the personal journey and expertise of Jason E. Brooks. As a keynote speaker, author, and profitability coach with over three decades in hospitality, Jason shares his evolution from a dishwasher with a speech impediment to a hospitality leader influencing multi-unit operations and franchise systems. The conversation covers leadership mindsets, trust, culture, structuring effective teams, scaling, goal-setting, and coaching—providing actionable frameworks for restaurant professionals seeking sustainable growth and meaningful impact.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Firefighters to Fire Chiefs: Evolving Leadership (00:00–01:33, 39:40–41:22)

• Firefighting Mentality: Many restaurant leaders run operations by constantly putting out fires.

• Fire Chief Mindset: Jason advocates shifting from being "firemen/firewomen" to "fire chiefs," who watch the whole business, coordinate others, and investigate root causes.

  “We have to stop being firemen and fire women and we have to start being fire chiefs. A fire chief watches the whole building and then has firemen and fire women that they then send...”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (00:26 & 40:16)

2. Systems, Routines, and Culture: The Foundation for Success (01:33–03:10, 33:42–34:12)

• Rituals and Systems: Standardized daily, weekly, quarterly, annual routines define culture—not just values or statements.

• People Like Us Do Things Like This: The actual processes and adherence to standards are what really create organizational culture.

  “That's called culture. That's called ‘people like us do things like this.’”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (01:33 & 41:22)

• Blurred Lines: Many confuse “culture” with mission statements, but Jason emphasizes practical routines and how the work is performed daily.

3. Leadership Mindsets: Manage, Lead, Coach, Repeat (06:56–09:45)

• Three Mindsets:

  • Manager — Focus on tasks, systems.
  • Leader — Sees the industry and future direction.
  • Coach — Focus on people, especially one-on-one development.

  “Managing gets a bad rap... Leading is different... Coaching is... building the environment to help make the individuals on our team better.”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (07:24–08:52)

• Importance of Coaching: Most neglect the coaching aspect, which is vital for real team improvement and succession.

4. Jason’s Personal Journey: From Dishwasher to Stage (11:59–14:57, 58:20–60:41)

• Origins: At 15, Jason took a dishwashing job because stuttering made customer-facing roles intimidating.

• Personal Growth: Overcame speech difficulties through roles of increasing responsibility, brevity in communication, joining Toastmasters, and embracing public speaking to empower others.

  “I needed to find a way to use the least amount of words to make the greatest impact.”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (13:46)

5. Four Walls, Four Blocks, Four Miles: Levels of Impact (18:40–21:19)

• Operational Focus:

  • Four Walls: In-house—even window displays and guest feeling.
  • Four Blocks: Local community—partnerships with schools, events.
  • Four Miles: Broader industry or region—scaling influence.

• Delegation: Assign roles like “mayor of four walls,” “governor,” “president” to expand impact via empowered leaders.

  "You have to create those people to help that focus stay in place...to help you focus on other things while you will get distracted."
  — Jason E. Brooks, (20:16)

6. Scaling with Trust and Model (23:24–25:12)

• Jason’s MODEL Acronym:

  • Master your KPIs
  • Owner-like orientation
  • Delegate by creating mini-GMs
  • Engage through 1:1s
  • Lead with right mindset

• Trust Is Everything: Trust and systems are the backbone of scaling, whether it’s adding locations, catering, or off-premises channels.

  “If you truly want to go from one restaurant to just 20, you have to learn how to build the trust between the people that you are creating as new mayors…”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (24:28)

7. Career Evolution: Key Turning Points (28:44–36:28)

• “Gear Shifts” in His Growth:
  • 1st–3rd Gear: Multi-unit management at Bennigan’s—learned he wasn’t as prepared as he thought (missing mentorship, systems, trust).
  • Third–Fourth Gear: Lime Fresh Mexican Grill—multi-state, multi-market complexity.
  • Fourth–Fifth: Moe’s Southwest Grill—the franchise consultant role; understanding franchisee/franchisor nuance.
  • Fifth–Sixth (Current): Publishing and keynote speaking—spreading the 10 Keys framework.
• Mentorship: Ruby Tuesday's structured program and leaders like Kimberly Grant taught Jason the value of coaching and systematic people development.

8. The Franchisee–Franchisor Relationship & The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) (68:21–76:24)

• Franchisee Lifecycles: Different needs at different stages—eager newbies to established operators seeking autonomy, inclusion.

• 4Dx Model (Stephen Covey):

  • Define “wildly important goals”
  • Focus on lead measures (drivers, not just lag outcomes like sales)
  • Keep a compelling scoreboard (dashboard)
  • Establish a cadence of accountability

  “...we think that the lag measure is the lead measure. Like, for example, sales growth... what's the lead measure? What are the lead things that are leading into that lag measure?”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (73:00)

• For Franchisors vs. Franchisees: Franchisors obsess over unit growth, franchisees over profitability, but both should measure what they can control.

9. Goal Setting vs. Goal Getting (101:49–102:41)

• Common Trap: Many post goals on a wall or website but lack a process to achieve them—“goal getting” is about practical, systematic accountability.
• Jason’s Superpower: Creating the space and framework for teams and leaders to not just set but actually reach their goals.

10. Never Stop Training & Ongoing Development (89:11–92:55)

• Always Be Training: Whether there’s budget or not, top teams are cross-training, rotating, and developing people at every step—from interview to exit.

• Human-Centric: Even those who aren’t hired or who leave should be treated as ambassadors; you’re always representing your culture.

  “Never stop training... Are you treating them as if they are still a customer or are you ghosting them?...when you put in the two week notice, you're in this gray area... all training stops, all feedback stops. Why?”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (89:11–92:55)

11. Purpose, Freedom, and Unique Lanes (44:35–47:54)

• Inverted Values: Freedom of purpose and relationships should trump money and time for authentic success and happiness.
• People Development as Legacy: The industry now offers more equity paths; building organizations with clear roles and growth ladders is the future.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Culture:
  “Culture is the reality of what you’re doing every day, and the standard at which you do it.”
  — Eric Cacciatore, (01:36)

• On Personal Growth:
  “Trying to find my voice, both literally and figuratively and understanding what is it that I’m bringing to the table for myself and for others.”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (58:20)

• On Coaching vs. Leading vs. Managing:
  “The average business professional weaves through all three mindsets multiple times per day without even knowing. The question is: what's the right one for the right situation to get the best outcome?”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (87:22)

• On Never Stop Training:
  “Training starts at day zero and goes all the way to the very end that someone leaves, not just when they put in their two week notice.”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (89:11)

• On Real Purpose:
  “Mental freedom... that’s what drives me.”
  — Jason E. Brooks, (44:35)

---

Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• Fire Chief Mindset: 00:00–01:33, 39:40–41:22
• Systems & Rituals as Culture: 01:33–03:10, 33:42–34:12
• Leadership Mindsets: 06:56–09:45
• Personal Story—Overcoming Adversity: 11:59–14:57
• Four Walls Framework: 18:40–21:19
• Scaling & Trust: 23:24–25:12
• Career Evolution: 28:44–36:28
• Mentorship at Ruby Tuesdays: 36:28–38:19
• Franchisee–Franchisor & 4Dx: 68:21–76:24
• Goal Getting: 101:49–102:41
• Never Stop Training: 89:11–92:55

---

Recommendation for Restaurant Pros

• Start with a clear, actionable culture—rituals, checklists, routines, and standards trump statements.
• Prioritize people development at all levels; invest in one-on-ones and coaching.
• Deliberately shift leadership mindsets depending on circumstances: know when to manage, lead, or coach.
• Systematize goal setting (“what gets measured gets managed”)—but don’t stop at setting; create infrastructures for “goal getting.”
• Embrace structured frameworks (like 4Dx, EOS) to keep teams accountable and focused.

---

Connect with Jason E. Brooks

• Website: jasonebrooks.com
• LinkedIn: Jason E. Brooks
• OPGA (Off-Premise Growth Academy): Partnership and resources for catering/operational growth
• Podcast: The Leadership Table

---

Further Learning & Next Steps

• Recommended Book: The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Stephen R. Covey
• Jason’s Book: “Every Leader Needs Followers: The 10 Keys to Transform Restaurant Managers to Hospitality Leaders”
• Action: Evaluate your “firefighter vs. fire chief” behaviors; implement one-on-ones and clear training routines this week; redefine your “culture” by clarifying rituals and standards, not just values.

---

Suggested Future Guests

• Renee Suyin (VP, Runza)
• Kimberly Grant (Leadership at Ruby Tuesday)
• Steve McAloon (Franchise/4Dx Specialist)
• Sean Walsheff (Cali BBQ/Media)
• Others mentioned with deep industry mentorship and operational expertise

---

Concluding Message

The path to an “unstoppable” restaurant isn’t about chasing every new trend or technology—it’s about mastering fundamentals, fostering trust and culture, empowering people, and having the humility to continually coach and be coached. Jason’s journey is a compelling testament to this, showing that operational excellence and people development are not mutually exclusive, but mutually necessary.

Transcript

[Jason E. Brooks]

Our industry is great at creating firemen and fire women. Firemen and fire women walk through the restaurant like they're Terminator. Their neck is on swivel, their eyes are 20ft wide and 20ft deep because they're looking for that next fire. As soon as they see that fire, they pull out their hose and they're hosing that fire down until it dies. But the thing about holding a fire hose is all your attention is on one spot.

[Eric Cachetori]

Meanwhile, there's 10 other fires catching.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Boom.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah.

[Jason E. Brooks]

So we have to stop being firemen and fire women and we have to start being fire chiefs. A fire chief watches the whole building and then has firemen and fire women that they then send so they can keep an eye on all four sides in order to put out those fires and then figure out what happened.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. So you kind of create this self awareness during this first three years of, you know, during your time as a GM with Bennigan's.

[Jason E. Brooks]

You're.

[Eric Cachetori]

It wasn't until 2006 to 2009 you start getting the. The. Sorry, not 2006, 2009, 2012, where you start surrounding yourself with these mentors that you really start to realize that it's a matter of all the stuff we just unpackaged, the one on ones, the trust, the, the building, the systems, building the zones, having checklists. Like, there is only one way to do the job. You know exactly when to do it and how to do it. And it's a. It's a ritual. These are your daily routines. These are your weekly routines. These are your quarterly routines, these are your annual routines. And there is no question when and where to do them and how.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That's called culture. That's called people like us do things like this.

[Eric Cachetori]

I love that you just call that culture because people don't think of that as culture. People think of, oh, like what are our core values and what is our mission statement and what is our vision? That is also culture. But the culture is the reality of what you're doing every day into the standard of which you do it. And that systems and processes. There are so many blurred lines in this industry. What up unstoppables? Eric Cachetori, host of Restaurant Unstoppable. Here to remind you that we have some live events happening in Restaurant Unstoppable Network. Tomorrow the 14th, we have a workshop on limited time offers and what you need to know. We have a P and L power hour at 4pm on Wednesday with Fred Langley, CEO of Restaurant Assistance Pro. And then we have Sean Finter coming back to host his second Bar Operations Power Hour. These are some big hitters. If you need help, if you need support, if you want the community, we're here waiting for you. Head over to Restaurant Unstoppable.com live. 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 and 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 job done right looks like. And when you have systems, your systems are a picture of perfection, of what that job done right is. And that puts us to peace. We are so happy when we know we're doing a good job. ME will be the one source of truth for your entire team. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getme.com Unstoppable. That's www. G E T M E Z dot com Unstoppable. Do you wish you could have all of your restaurant needs and solutions under one roof? Well, you can. 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. That's restaurantunstoppable.com RSP with excitement, allow me to introduce to you today's guest, keynote speaker, author and profitability coach Jason E. Brooks. My man. Jason, are you feeling unstoppable today?

[Jason E. Brooks]

You know what? I'm feeling very unstoppable. I got some cardio in this morning and it felt great. I tell you What?

[Eric Cachetori]

We followed that with a nice healthy lunch. Today we're at the. What was it?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The Optimist Hall.

[Eric Cachetori]

Optimus Hall. Beautiful venue. If you ever want to record a podcast there, make sure you get permission. We found out, but we have a backup plan. We are here at the Wendy's. This isn't the Wendy's headquarters, but it's the North Carolina.

[Jason E. Brooks]

It's the Carolina Restaurant Group. They've been around for so many years and they. Quint Graham actually is the owner.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

He's been around since the Dave Thomas years. Knew the man personally.

[Eric Cachetori]

Wow. That's a while back.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. And you a past client of yours?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. I was a franchise operations coach for Wendy's. This was one of my groups. I worked with some of the larger groups for Wendy's International and being. Being able to help franchise owners. Not just franchise owners, but the franchisee and the franchisor. My role was that middle. That middle bumper, that person that helps to make a gel.

[Eric Cachetori]

And I'm thinking it was your time. And we'll get to this. A little teaser. It was your time at Moe's Southwest Grill where you really kind of sharpened the saw of how to be this consult. This, this franchisee consultant. And I think what Moses doing. You're now the third person that I've spoken to who had that title of franchisee consultant, which is interesting. I mean, Mose was doing something back in, you know, back 10, 15 years ago, or I think it was around the time that maybe it was five or six years ago. My timelines get a little bit off. We'll get into that. But before we kind of get the ball rolling real quick. Get. Let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quote or mantra. What do you got for us?

[Jason E. Brooks]

My mantra is manage, lead coach.

[Eric Cachetori]

Manage, lead, coach. Repeat. So manage, lead, coach. Is there overlap there? Are those all different things?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Those are three different mindsets. Now, sometimes people think that it is an overlap, but let's break it down. Okay. Manage tasks, systems, certain things that you have to do. We are in a managing mindset for most of our business day. The average business professional is in a managing mindset.

[Eric Cachetori]

Why?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Because we're a business first. We're a business first that has great people, that pours amazing drinks. We're a business first that has great people, that makes scratch made sauces. But we are a business first. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, managing gets bad rap because the average person becomes a manager before they're even readily trained for it. So Some, some want to say we need to banish the term manager. We don't need it. It's not true. We are a business person now. Leading is different. Leading versus thinking. Thinking about what's in the four walls. You're thinking about the industry as a whole. What's going on outside your four walls. Where is your business going? Not just the systems and things that are in it. Where's the industry going? Most leadership really shines when you get to this challenge that's so tough. No one knows what the next step should be or could be. And then that leader helps to paint that picture so vividly, but leaves room for others to paint brushstrokes as well. The coaching mindset. Coaching is very different. If managing and leading is the mastery of large groups, coaching is the mastery of small groups and one on ones. The coaching aspect is the one that we tend to not lean on the most. We know how to manage, we know how to lead. But building the environment to help make the individuals on our team better. Yeah, that's the one that we need to truly dial in on more and gets left behind. So manage, lead, coach and repeat.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, I think most of my listeners today will probably identify with that, that leader mindset, that leader identity, that leader of. I know where we're going. This is the vision. Come with me. Come follow me. Like you say, every leader needs followers. And really a lot of the times the leaders aren't great with the management. They're not good at keeping the train on the track. But they damn right know where that TR chains going. They at least they know where they want to go. But they need help getting there and it's those managers that help them get there. But then the idea of coaching means you gotta be able to take people with you and you gotta climb, you gotta make yourself better and you gotta pull people up with you. And that's the coaching.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Correct?

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. Great way to get this thing started. So real. Like let's. I want to go back to 30 years in the industry and you've, you've got quite the career, man. Like I've got this, this list of experiences that we have to unpackage today. But where are you today? Paint a picture of what your portfolio is.

[Jason E. Brooks]

What my portfolio is today? I am a professional speaker. I am a author. Second book does release this year and the third book will be next year as well.

[Eric Cachetori]

Do you have any early editions I can get?

[Jason E. Brooks]

You will get one, absolutely. Because I know you already have the first one, but the second one you will get A pre. Pre copy. Trust me now. So we have speaker, we have author, we have restaurant coach and the restaurant coach, restaurant consultant. Two different things. Coach works on the individual. The consultant works on the business aspect per project. Can I do both? Yes. But I love the coaching aspect, which is one of the things that helps drive what I do every single day. I also am a partner with opga. The OPGA is Off Premise Growth Academy. That's something started by Earl Dardick. Now Earl Dardick is known as the godfather of catering. Uh, he came out with Monkey Media back in the day with Mo Asgari. And Earl and Mo created this wonderful platform of how restaurants can do catering better. Put true systems behind it. Since then, he sold Monkey Media, now is focused on opga, off premise Growth Academy and cater linked a nice community for catering specialists to help grow together together. So we have speaking, we have coaching, we have consulting, we have a partnership with the opga, and I have my podcast, the Leadership Table podcast. That podcast as well focuses on the great conversations we tend to have at a table just like this. Everyone wants to have a seat at the table. But what are some of those conversations that help bring you to that point? What's some of those conversations that drove you from your. Your past to sit at that table now? What are you doing to bring others to that table as well? So that's a small gamut.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got a lot going on, man. You got a lot going on just a little bit in 30 years to get here. And where does it make sense to start sharing your story? Like, when did you know that this was going to be your path? The restaurant this year was going to be your path.

[Jason E. Brooks]

I think that we all fight it. I think that we all fight the thing that we end up being good at. If you think about most restaurant operators, they tend to. They, they tend to be really well, at an early age. I started out 15 years old, washing dishes. Mom and Pop Seafood Restaurant Fayetteville, North Carolina. Okay, and the reason why. This is going to sound strange, but the reason why I chose to do that, and no one can tell this right now, but I used to not be able to finish a sentence without.

[Eric Cachetori]

Stuttering, oh, wow, you've come such a.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Far away, such a far. It's like trying to. It's like you have a fear of water. And you go from a fear of a glass of water to jumping off of a cliff at night into the ocean. That's where I came from. From wanting to wash dishes because I couldn't finish a sentence. And I Knew that I could face a wall and wash dishes to speaking on stage at some of the largest restaurant conferences and working with some of the largest restaurant brands, doing workshops, speaking in front of total. Strange, very different. But it's also part of the things that I help teach leaders now. How to aim, how to drive and how to scale. How to know what the end goal is, how to use systems to get you to that end goal. Now how can you scale that? I took a thing and we all do that. We all have this thing that when we were younger, drives the way our mind thinks either holds us back or helps us to become stronger. And once we find that root cause, we can use that to move forward and be better and build a strength from it.

[Eric Cachetori]

What was your root cause?

[Jason E. Brooks]

My root cause is it was hereditary. My. My father also stutters. Okay. And so it's just something that I just started from back then and it all the way into my 20s, it didn't matter. And there's just something that clicked in me when I was in the restaurant business. And I saw the better that I did, the more that they shifted me from dishes to pantry, from pantry to grill, from grill to saute, from saute to assistant kitchen manager to bar manager to service manager. And as I kept moving forward, I saw that I needed to find a way to use the least amount of words to make the greatest impact. Think about your alley rally, your huddle, your pre shift huddle. You get people together for two to three minutes and you have to reorient them to hit a goal for 2 to 3 hour, 4 hour, 5 hour, 7 hour shift and use the least amount of words to get the most impact. So I went into Toastmasters to figure out how can I shape words better in a better way? And then from there, that's when I started getting into public speaking professionally.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, I love it, man. So this is all before 2003.

[Jason E. Brooks]

This is, this is all before 2003.

[Eric Cachetori]

This is all before 2003. And when did you, like, what was. When did you have a clear vision of where you wanted to be? When, when did your vision of what you wanted to do for the rest of your life come into frame or start to come into frame? And I don't think it's ever truly crystally in frame. You get closer and you realize that, you know, you have like, you see the horizon, you get to the horizon, there's a new horizon, you know, so like going Back to like 2000-2002-2001-2003, this time at the Turn of the millennia. Where did you think you were going to be? What was your vision for yourself?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, in September 11, 2001, I was doing orientation at O Charlie's.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. Is this the restaurant, the seafood restaurant?

[Jason E. Brooks]

No, this was a pretty nice sized brand back then. And I was doing orientation in order to be a manager. And I worked with a gentleman named Mark Himes. Mark Himes was the most amazing four wall mayor I've ever met. He was the mayor of four walls. This man knew every single person within his restaurant, meaning customers and the people that worked for him. He knew what made them tick, what made them break, and he knew what motivated them. And he knew everyone at the home office. He was the true mayor of his four walls. And when I saw how he did what he did, that was my first motivator of. It's not just about cooking food. It's not just about creating specials. Creating specials is fine. I was a sous chef at a mom and pop Greek restaurant in Fayetteville. I got my first set of Wusthof knives. I was cutting some calamari there. This hot waitress. I was talking. I looked up while. While cutting, I cut two tips off. Oh, man.

[Eric Cachetori]

Anyways, but I didn't even notice you still got those.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah, it's still slightly right. Right here and right here. I was going to say.

[Eric Cachetori]

I shook that hand earlier. I didn't notice any nubs.

[Jason E. Brooks]

So. So it, it's, it's. It's more the. The food and the drive and the specials and fresh herbs, creating stuff from scratch is all amazing. But when I saw what he could do on the leadership aspect of things, of driving through his people and extending his network beyond his four walls, that's when I first understood what it meant to be the mayor of your. Of your four walls. And that catapulted me to do something different.

[Eric Cachetori]

Right. It's. It's interesting. You know, I'm always fascinated, I think, that there's so much chatter in the world today about the next best thing, the next piece of technology, best way to market yourself, being in all these different places, managing your online reputation. And I think there's a place for that. But at the same time, I think we get so distracted by the new shiny things to. To promote ourselves that we forget that if we just focus on being the mayor of your four walls, focusing on relationships, taking care of the people that come in that front door, taking care of the people who show up to help you take care of those. Those people. If you focus on that four walls, marketing that Was coined by, you know, Fridays. Right. I think it was Fridays that coined that term, four walls marketing. If you just focus on that, man, you can, you can almost forget everything else and be okay. But the thing is, it's that hard to be that good at focusing on four walls management today. And I think, I don't know, may maybe you disagree, like, can we just focus on four walls marketing? Is that enough today or.

[Jason E. Brooks]

No, I don't believe that it is easy. I even teach four walls, four blocks, four and four miles. Yeah. And then that way that gives you the understanding of what do your windows look like, what is the feel when you walk into your restaurant? What do people feel when they walk into your business? That's, that's that four walls plus what you advertise and, and what your team talks about. Then that four blocks is getting more into the community, partnering with schools. And then the four miles is when you're looking beyond that leadership down, down, way down the road throughout the whole industry. That's that four walls, four blocks, four miles. Is it easy to just focus on the four walls? Yes and no. I think it's easy to be able to put people in a situation to where they can be your GM of the four walls. They can then be your GM of the four blocks and your GM of the four miles, or you're the four miles. But you have to create those people to help that focus stay in place. You have to know what the strengths are of your team to just focus on the four walls. Because let's be honest, as a owner, there's so much going on outside of your four walls, it can and will distract you. The question is, do you have enough trust to build someone up to be able to help you focus on. On other things while you will get distracted with things outside?

[Eric Cachetori]

What are those distractions you're talking. When you say there's four of those distractions outside the four walls, what are you talking about?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, man, I'm talking about laws and regulations and things that are outside of your control. Real estate.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah.

[Jason E. Brooks]

You know, we are in this space right now and, and this is a. A franchise owner here in the Charlotte market and one of his core executives was just talking about how real estate changes so much. We to think that if we just focus on where we get the carrots from, where we get our steak source from and the eggs and things like that, things will just work. Well, we can, yes. But there's a lot out there that is putting constraints on the business aspect, the core of your culture. Is the restaurant. Yes, absolutely. You focus on that. At the same time, you can't lose focus on the things outside of your four walls. That's how you build a network, a team within your business to help you pull the right levers, the right time so you can make the right decisions. And it's not just on your shoulders.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, really. So what I'm hearing is you gotta, like, build those layers between you and the four walls. So, like, it starts with you within the four walls. You build. You lift people up to your place of managing being the mayor. You, you elect a new mayor, then you move to becoming, you know, the governor.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes.

[Eric Cachetori]

You know, and then, then you elect new governors and then it's going for president.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yep.

[Eric Cachetori]

You know, and. And it's. You're constantly remove. You're going to the next level so you can create space below you and to pull people up into those spaces. And, and that's when you, when you get to that president, you know, mayor, or is it governor above Mayor? President. Governor. You know, that's when you start to really start to affect the. The bigger picture. Things like the real estate, like the laws, like the regulations and stuff like this. So this episode is made possible by Mees. 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 your staff. No more messy spreadsheets or scattered systems. Whether they want to admit it or 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 Mies paints the picture of perfection and is the one source of truth for your entire team. By locking in recipes and 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 the 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. This guy kind of in your storylines, you saw that this was kind of this bigger picture. It's not so much about the food, it's not so much about the experience. It's a. It's this idea of being a mayor and getting away from the. And seeing the big picture.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That big picture is so key. And the reason why it's so key, I actually teach, I Have a model that stands for a acronym. It's master your KPI's owner like orientation delegate. By creating mini GM, engage through one on ones and L leading with the right mindset M O D E L. And whenever you have the ability to create those mini GMs in your business, that's whenever you can scale. Now scale doesn't have to be scary. Like I don't want more than one restaurant. That's great. You don't have to have more than one restaurant, but you do have to scale on whether you bring in catering. You have to scale on whether you bring in doordash and Uber eats for third party. But scaling your business still has to be different. But it all starts with building that trust. You and I talked and had a great conversation earlier, right before we had lunch about how do we get regional owners to learn how to scale better. How do we get them to think more like big companies? Not that they want a thousand locations, but it all falls back to one word that even you said. Trust. Trust that T word. That trust goes a long way in a systematic approach to build your business bigger. If you truly want to go from one restaurant to just 20, you have to learn how to build the trust between the people that you are creating as new mayors within the four walls, within the next city over, within the next county over and the next state over as you grow. But that trust and a systematic approach to trust helps you to then scale up to what you want to be like.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, and I think really at the core of it, we what my hope is, you know, the mission statement is to inspire, empower and transform the industry. And in doing so, I think we can change the world. Because if you change the restaurant industry, if you empower restaurant owners and we get more 20 unit operators out there and fewer 1,000 unit operators and spread that, that money out and. But you have to, we have to start encouraging little business owners, small business owners to think like big business owners, to, to create that opportunity to have that trust to, to get outside the four walls so they can have an impact locally on their communities and to educate the consumer. You know, I think it's a, you know, and I hope that by sharing your story today and sharing your knowledge today, we can create, you know, get one step closer to this vision of changing the industry. So real quick, I just want to kind of get in the airplane, climb up to 30,000ft, cruise to, you know, how you got to where you are today. So for, I'm just going to kind of hit on the titles that I got from your LinkedIn account, basically. And the thing I love about LinkedIn is that it's titles and companies and years. So from 2003, so basically, I think as far back as I could go in your LinkedIn profile was 2003. Bennegan's, you're a GM. 2005, 2006, you're with a company called Trips, you were the culinary manager. 2006, 2009 you were with Romano's Macaroni Grill, managing partner. First time as an owner or managing partner. And then 09 to 2012, Ruby Tuesdays managing partner. 2012 13, you're with Lime Fresh Mexican, you're a director of operations. 2013 to 2020, you're with Moe's Southwest Grill and you're the VP of operations there.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That was on the franchisee side. So I came on as a franchise business consultant and I was on the franchisor side and then with one of the franchisees that, that, that I worked with.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

He wanted to bring me on as his VP in the Raleigh carry market.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it. And then you were there for most of your career during this time. And then from there to 2020 you're with. You're a franchise consultant for ways I can. I have a little double here. 2121. That's when he went to Wendy's.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah.

[Eric Cachetori]

202021 to 2024, three years with Wendy's working with this group where we're sitting today. And then from 2024 to 2025, your most recent client runs restaurants. And I'm sure you have. This is where life starts kind of getting crazy for you.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Y Runza. That's not. That's more of a contract. I actually do a OP X masterclass with their district supervisors and with their GMs. This opx masterclass helps to teach operators not just goal setting, but goal getting. It's a big difference. We can set goals all day long. Like I always say. What's the systematic approach to actually goal getting? What are we doing on a week to week basis? So that's what I work with Runto with right now.

[Eric Cachetori]

I would love to unpackage that deeper when we get to kind of where we are today. And I have, I actually took notes on the things you're doing. You have a very well rounded off LinkedIn profile, man. They help me with my research for sure. And so. Okay. So I guess what I like to focus on when I'm talking to my guests is like the, the points of evolution. So thinking man. I was like, you know, when in 2003, if you're in first gear as like a restaurant leader manager, what were the, if you're in fifth gear today, what were those points of evolution for you climbing through? So like reflecting on your career, you know, whether it was Bennegan's or Trips or Romano's Macaroni and Grill, where do you think you went from first gear to second gear?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Actually, when I was with Bennigan's, I went from first gear to third gear because that's when I became a multi unit operator and I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.

[Eric Cachetori]

What were your biggest challenges during this 23 year period? Period.

[Jason E. Brooks]

During a 23 year period was understanding how to be effective in multiple locations and not think that I'm a super gm because that's what most people go through is that when they first get that first multi unit role or multi unit business, they think about it as a super GM versus a delegator.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay, so if you went from first to third gear at Bennigan's, trying to figure out how to be effective in multiple locations, when was your third to fourth year shift? When was that for you?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Third to fourth gear?

[Eric Cachetori]

Keep in mind we're in sixth gear right now and maybe we might upgrade to a seven gear car eventually. But if you're in, if you're in sixth gear right now, what was your, your, you know, your third to fourth gear shift?

[Jason E. Brooks]

My third, my third to fourth gear shift had to be first. Coming on board most Southwest Grill. No, no, no, sorry. Lime Fresh.

[Eric Cachetori]

Lime Fresh.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. Cuz at Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, that wasn't j just multi unit. That was multi state. That was dc, Charlotte and Atlanta.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

As a, as a director of operations and understanding those three markets with a brand that was brand new within that Lime Fresh had originated out of Miami and Ruby Tuesday first came on board Lime Fresh as a franchisee. So Ruby Tuesday was the franchisee and Lime Fresh was the franchisor.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it.

[Jason E. Brooks]

After about eight months they bought Lime Fresh and then became the owner of Lime Fresh and then started to open up in different markets. That's when was third to fourth gear.

[Eric Cachetori]

Third or fourth or that was fifth gear.

[Jason E. Brooks]

No, third to fourth gear.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Fourth to fifth gear was. Was Mo Southwest Grill. Yeah, was Moe's Southwest Grill. That's whenever Scott Schotter said, Jason, what do you think about being an fbc? And I'm like, what's an FPC franchise? Business consultant. And that's when I really began to understood the franchisee franchisor relationship.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. And then if you're in sixth gear now, what, what's the, what's the last shift that you've made?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The last shift that I made was when I wrote my first book.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. And that was in 2023.

[Jason E. Brooks]

I. My first book was a six year project and it was released in 2024. As, as a matter of fact, fact, I released that book when I was on the stage of Bar and Restaurant Expo in Las Vegas on March 18th. 2024 is when I released that book.

[Eric Cachetori]

And that's when you cover the 10 keys.

[Jason E. Brooks]

And that's when I covered the 10 keys to transform restaurant managers to hospitality leaders.

[Eric Cachetori]

All right, let's get back in the airplane. We're going to fly in reverse. We're going to go back to 2003. Working with Bennegans. You're going from first gear to third gear. Take me through those struggles. You're trying to be a super manager. You realize you couldn't be in all these places at once. When did you start to realize what you had to do to get into the next gear of your career?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I actually had to downshift.

[Eric Cachetori]

Oh, take a step back to go forward.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Huh? I had to take a step back to go forward. At that time I was working for a franchisee and their office was out of Maryland. And understand that's my first time getting into first multi unit it and two, a franchisee franchisor role and what that really means. And I just thought that I could just be a super gm. I've been in the restaurant business my whole life. Why can't I do five locations? Why not? And why can't you? Why can't I? Because I did not take the time to get trained.

[Eric Cachetori]

Well, first, knowing what you know now, what were you missing back then?

[Jason E. Brooks]

A mentor.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. What were you doing? I mean, so you didn't have this person to lift you up to teach you the key things. What were the key things you didn't figure out yet?

[Jason E. Brooks]

First one still goes back to that damn word trust. That I did not know how to put trust in people. Second thing is systems. I didn't understand the systems. In a multi unit environment, it's very different from the four walls. The best GMs in the world will have clipboards on every damn wall of all the things and timers. And they will be hiring and cross training and training. And someone to run the front closet, they own that front closet. Someone to own the freezer, the walk in. They Will have all these people owning different pieces and things get done even without them thinking.

[Eric Cachetori]

So it's compartmentalizing all the different, different zones, the different areas of different tasks. But when you move in the tasks associated with those areas.

[Jason E. Brooks]

But when you move to multi unit, it's like we go wild west. We, we start shooting from the hip. Oh, just give me 10 minutes, I'll walk inside your business and I'll tell you what's wrong versus where's your clipboards, where's your timers, where, where are your mini gms that help you to run each location? That's what I was missing.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay, so you didn't have this mentor to teach you this. You didn't have the systems, you didn't have the trust. What do you mean by you didn't have the trust?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I didn't have the trust. I didn't build, I did not have a systematic approach to build trust. And do you know what that is?

[Eric Cachetori]

No. Hit it with that, please.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That's called one on ones. I wasn't doing one on ones with my managers. One on ones gives you the opportunity to get to learn the person across the table from you. We have as a leader, as a manager, we have a thousand vehicles to be able to dump information on the people that report directly to us. Email, Slack, text message, phone calls, you name it. We can keep dumping information on the people that report to us. When do we create the time to get to know them individually? When do we stop talking, talking and for 30 minutes listen to them and hear about what's going on within their world and do it scheduled, not once a quarter, not at the end of the year, but once a week.

[Eric Cachetori]

Once a week, Yeah. I mean it's also that time for you to let them dump that information. That's, it's that inner circle feedback loop. Loop of like, what am I missing? Like you're the one out here doing all the systems, like where are the holes? How can we make it better? Also just taking that time to literally see, see and hear and value people that just giving them that, that point to be heard, to be seen is a literal human need that we try to automate and create systems around. And you can't, you can't replace that human need. You can't streamline that human need. You have to be present. Yeah. So you, you learned who was your mentor? Let's give that, this person. Like who was the person that taught you this?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The person that really taught, taught me how to do that. I would have to say that it was when I shifted into that fifth gear at Moe's Southwest Grill.

[Eric Cachetori]

But you didn't know you said that it was during this time you went from first to third.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. And then after that, I shifted down. I went down to managing partner. I went down to running individual restaurants again. Then I got into direct of operations. So really, actually.

[Eric Cachetori]

Really?

[Jason E. Brooks]

And actually at Ruby Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday really brought in the mentorship. Now that we're really charting my path on this plane, Ruby Tuesday really brought me to understand what mentorship really was. They had an amazing training program. It's too bad that we focused so much on that aspect of the Ruby Tuesday part and saving that mothership. But they're training their people, their leadership. From Kimberly Grant, who is, oh, just amazing to a lot of people. Danny Koontz, you name it. Tim Prunty. Oh, Tim Prunty. Rob Prunty. Tim and Rob Prunty. There were so many great leaders from this, that route, from that Ruby Tuesday. And that's when I understood mentorship and creating the space to be able to get to learn the individuals.

[Eric Cachetori]

So Tanny Coons, Tim and Rob Prunty. And who was the first woman you mentioned?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, Kimberly Grant. Kg. She actually just accepted a role as CEO of the brand. Escapes me, but she just accepted that role, I think two weeks ago. But you.

[Eric Cachetori]

We were talking before the. The interview started, and I was trying to explain to you my process of how I find future guests. And I think I just found three future guests right here. It's in the research, man. And like, this is how I like to find people to make an example of. So it was during this time Ruby Tuesdays where you kind of found your mentors. But I'm a little confused. So from when you were with Bennigan's, you learned about systems and trust, that's what you were saying?

[Jason E. Brooks]

No, that's when I. That's. That. That's what I needed.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. You were missing this. And this didn't come until later.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That did not come that you were.

[Eric Cachetori]

Trying to be the super manager and.

[Jason E. Brooks]

I did not have the right tools in order to do it.

[Eric Cachetori]

But how did you grow doing it? Was it just a self awareness that you couldn't do it alone?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Self awareness that I couldn't do it alone or self awareness that I was just failing and I wasn't doing well at running multiple locations?

[Eric Cachetori]

How were you feeling and what's not.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Doing well look like not doing well was not knowing what was going on within the other businesses that I was supposed to be overseeing. And that came down to not just product, but people.

[Eric Cachetori]

So why didn't you know? Was it because you weren't doing the one on ones because of what you were.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, I was definitely not doing the one on ones. Absolutely. No.

[Eric Cachetori]

But what did it look like? What does doing it wrong look like?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Doing it wrong is I'm a pull up, I'm a find out what the fire is. I'm going to pull out my hose that's on my hip, and I'm a douse that flame and then I'm going to give some high fives. Yeah, great job. And then I'm going to drive to the next location.

[Eric Cachetori]

Meanwhile, while wherever you spilled the water, it's starting to dry out and there are, you know, live wire sparking, ready to pick it back up where you. So. Yes. So, like, it's a matter of going back and fixing the problem, which is building. Maybe it's putting electrical tape around the sparks. Maybe it's re. You know, building electrical system that is appropriate to handle the job. Right. Whatever. Fixing the system, fixing the root cause, putting systems in place versus just jumping.

[Jason E. Brooks]

In position in in order to make something happen. One of the other things that I teach is that we have to stop being or first. Our industry is great at creating firemen and fire women. Firemen and fire women walk through the restaurant like their Terminator. Their neck is on swivel. Their eyes are 20ft wide and 20ft deep because they're looking for that next fire. As soon as they see that fire, they pull out their hose and they're hosing that fire down until it dies. But the thing about holding a fire hose is all your attention. Attention is on one spot.

[Eric Cachetori]

Meanwhile, there's 10 other fires catching.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Boom.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah.

[Jason E. Brooks]

So we have to stop being firemen and fire women and we have to start being fire chiefs. A fire chief watches the whole building and then has firemen and fire women that they then send so they can keep an eye on all four sides in order to put out those fires and then figure out what happened.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. So you kind of create this self awareness during this first three years of, you know, during your time as a GM with Bennegan, you're. It wasn't until 2006 to 2009 you start getting the. The. Sorry, not 2006, 2009, 2012, where you start surrounding yourself with these mentors that you really start to realize that it's a matter of all the stuff we just unpackaged, the 101s, the trust, the. The building, the systems Building the zones, having checklists like. Like there is only one way to do the job. You know exactly when to do it and how to do it. And it's a. It's a ritual. These are your daily routines. These are your weekly routines. These are your quarterly routines. These are your annual routines. And there is no question when and where to do them and how.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That's called culture. That's called people like us do things like this.

[Eric Cachetori]

I love that you just call that culture because people don't think of that as culture. People think of, oh, like, what are our core values? Values, and what is our mission statement and what is our vision? That is also culture. But the culture is the reality of what you're doing every day into the standard of which you do it. And that systems and processes. There are so many blurred lines in this industry. Yeah. So do you mind talking about, you know, 2006 to 2009. This is three years of your life with Romano's girl. You're a managing partner. This is the first time you have equity in the business. You're telling me that there were no lessons during this time where you're as an owner, so.

[Jason E. Brooks]

So with the managing partner aspect of Romano's Macaroni Grill, you get a larger percentage of bonus. You have to show you, you, you, you have to show the aptitude to be able to do more than just run your business. It's kind of like a mini district manager. Whenever your DM is on vacation, you're the one that gets all the phone calls. So the managing partner model for Romano's Macaroni Grill, you did not have to put money in first. Not during that time period, frame.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Prior to that, Macaroni Grills managing partner aspect, definitely you had to put money in.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay, so you didn't own a percentage of this Macaroni Grill. You were the. Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

The only ownership percentage was when I was the VP of operations with Mo's Southwest Grill.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it. Got it. That came later. I'm curious. You kind of just sparked something in me in this idea. Me studying successful restaurateurs. I found that. And I get a lot of pushback on this. That. But the pattern that I see in the conversations that I have is to really get people to treat it like they own it. You.

[Jason E. Brooks]

They have to pony up.

[Eric Cachetori]

Own it. You know, pony up. Do you think that we should expect people to treat it like they own? If they don't own it, what's the incentive for them to treat it like they own it if they don't own it.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That is a very good question. And that goes fast forwarding some back to run Runza. Runza does a very good job of having a true managing partner runs where you are today. Runza is one of the groups that I help today. Yes. And they have a managing partner program. They've been open for 76 years and they have people that's been with them since the age of 13 because at the age of 13 in Lincoln you can actually go work. And so they have people that started at the age of 13 and they are 660 right now and are still with that brand running restaurants and they have that managing partner program. And that is. It changes your mentality about work. It becomes more than just yes, work is. Work is work. And we should separate work life from personal life. But drive. Drive is something different. What's different about drive Drive is what motivates you to do more, to move forward, to think about shifting gears years, to think about checking that dashboard, to, to optimize what's going on.

[Eric Cachetori]

What motivates you to move forward?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, that's going to depend on person to person. If it's. For me, it's mental freedom, to be quite honest. Mental freedom meaning that I like to go where my heart follows. And when I feel like I'm a caged animal, that, that, that's, that's why I worked for 20 different restaurant brands back in my youth. Because I always felt case. I always thought, oh man, this, this old man or this old matey, this old lady is trying to change me. I don't want to be like them. I want to be like me. But what I did not understand back then was that they were trying to show me a systematic approach to do something. It took me getting wiser to understand what that was. So yes, I like to have my mental freedom to go where I go. And that's what drives me. How can I get more mental freedom to choose what makes me happy and blend that into what already fuels me to wake up every day, which is working with people, helping to coach them up, helping them to get those aha moments, to build it, to build true environments, to buy back time so they can get shit done. Done. Yeah, that's what fuels me.

[Eric Cachetori]

Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy in the book 10x is easier than 2x talk about this idea of the four freedoms and they talk about my. I found out recently that my number one core value is freedom and they talk about this four freedom. So that really resonated with me. And they, they say from top down the way that they address the four freedoms is freedom of money, freedom of time, freedom of relationships, and freedom of purpose. And I think we need to invert those things to really, if you, if you really want to be happy, you want to prioritize freedom of purpose, freedom of relationships, freedom of time, and then freedom of money. If you're, if you have freedom of purpose, if you have freedom of relationships, if you're doing what you want to do with who you want to do it, time doesn't matter because you're, it flies by and it isn't. I mean, you will make money because you, you will, you know, the money will come when you have your purpose and you're doing it with the people you're choosing to work with because you know they have the same values that you have, they have the same destination you have. You'll be able to outwork other people because you just can show up because you're loving the work you're doing, the money will come. But if you prioritize money over all those things, like, you'll burn. Like, if you prioritize money over relationships.

[Jason E. Brooks]

You won't spoil those relationships.

[Eric Cachetori]

If you don't have purpose, you won't be able to have the, the enthusiasm, the energy, the motivation to show up. But if you invert that, you know, and I think to bring it back to how we got here is when you're the skin of the game. Purpose. When people have their own purpose, when they have their own skin in the game, when they, when they have this feeling of, of, of ownership and identity and self actualize and like they, the level of pride and like, this is my role, this is my purpose within this organization because collectively, here's where we're going. And I'm a part of this because I'm literally an owner owner. Like, I'm, I'm in this. I'm invested. Let's go. You know what's going through your mind as I'm saying this?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I love your inverted part better than the original.

[Eric Cachetori]

What do you mean?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The purpose?

[Eric Cachetori]

Right.

[Jason E. Brooks]

First, then the relationships, then the time and then the money.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Because you are absolutely right. If your, your purpose, if it aligns. And that's a, a lot about holistic coaching or even holistic leadership. You're focused on the individual first and their purpose. And then you then connect their purpose to your company's missions, to its values. And now whenever they are working with you, working beside you, they're doing it for more than just money. They're, they're, they're actually seeing what aligns with their purpose and your company's purpose and helping to move it even more.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. So Lime Fresh is where you actually got the equity in the business, right? Or with the franchise. Or is that.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That. That was with most Southwest.

[Eric Cachetori]

So three to four was shifts gear from three to four at Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. What was that? Fourth gear? Have we identified that? Fourth gear?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I don't think that we actually identified it. I think that that the best tag for that would probably be is understanding the franchisor franchisee relationship.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That's. That's where I fully understood or was introduced to that. Of course, that's always changing, but that's where I was then introduced to that aspect of a lot of industries. Because it's not just restaurants that do that, car washes do, hotel do, but that's that third to fourth gear was at Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. Sorry, At Moe's Southwest Grill, we were.

[Eric Cachetori]

Talking about Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. Did you get that right the first time? The third. The understanding the franchise. Franchise or relationship?

[Jason E. Brooks]

No, that. Then.

[Eric Cachetori]

Then my analogies are all over the place. So my, my. So at fifth, you said fifth year is franchise business consultant, and that's when you figure that. That out. But he was also with Mo's when you became a partner. When you went from the franchise consultant today, you recruited you as an equity. Equity partner in front of the. The franchisees.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yep.

[Eric Cachetori]

Franchisee operations. So back to Lime Fresh, because I don't want to skip over anything. How did you. How. What was your growth during Lime Fresh?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Growth during Lime Fresh was understanding different markets, different regions. Dc, Charlotte and Atlanta. Atlanta.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Very different.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. So what? Dive more into that. Why do you have to treat every market differently?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, and especially with a brand like Lime Fresh that was coming in new. There were three locations that were in dc, three locations in Charlotte, and three locations that were in Atlanta. That was a very different understanding of how I'm able to influence leaders from hundreds of miles away.

[Eric Cachetori]

So how are the leaders in these markets different? The.

[Jason E. Brooks]

The pace of life, the D.C. market very, very fast. The heck. The dang lease, the house note, for lack of better terms, in D.C. that was. Was 10, $12,000 a month. One of those locations was close to $20,000 a month for just the lease. So understanding that aspect versus a Charlotte. A Charlotte I actually helped build from the ground up. Oh, it's not Charlotte. Sorry. Raleigh. Raleigh Carey. In the Raleigh Carey market, I actually came in. They brought me in from Ruby Tuesday, sent me down to Miami I came back to Raleigh, Durham, Cary area and I was there whenever they were pouring concrete on the very first location. And I had to build a team and then open two more locations within that market. Then I took over DC and then, and then Atlanta. That was a very big challenge. That wasn't easy. And to understand how each market is where you're at in your stage of growth, where you're at in your stage of marketing, in catering. Because catering for Lime Fresh was huge. Any Southwest Tex Mex brand catering should be your absolute stable. It's a very easy grab and go business meeting, type of, of meal and truly understanding what that means for all three markets. You have to look at that picture differently and trust the people that have the boots on the ground more. It's less my gut instinct and it's more listening and less trying to push things out.

[Eric Cachetori]

So you're realizing that you really have to adapt the business model to meet the market demands and meet the market pace to meet the market unique challenges like the real estate. I mean if you could go deeper into any of those subjects we just covered to pay forward to our listeners. A lesson you learned during this time, whether it be catering, I know that's a big part of what you do. You said kidding was huge for Lime Southwest. Was it Lime Fresh, Mexican Grill? What like what advice do you have for how to break into a market, how to scale a catering operation?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Best advice is, is don't do your whole menu. There are too many times that everyone thinks that, you know, I'll just take my whole menu and whatever you can get on the menu is what we are going to cater. And that's not how is the most efficient thing for you because you still have to have some kind of control on that experience. If people want to order large orders of everything on your menu, that's different. But once you say you cater, once you say you are going to to package this baby into something, transport it many miles, build up this table, get your sternos out, get your ice out, make sure that the temperatures are great and that once you eat that food that it's going to taste very similar to what you get in your restaurant. That's either bad advertisement or great. So you, you have to fully understand what should you you cater what on your menu makes sense to advertise many miles from its original location. Then you have to understand that profit aspect and then the technology too. There are so many pieces to catering versus just drop it in a pan, put the pan in a bag, put the bag on the floor of a U Haul truck, take a picture and say look at all my catering and then drop it off somewhere. Where? Anywhere would you want to see your food placed on the floor of a U Haul truck?

[Eric Cachetori]

Nowhere. So.

[Jason E. Brooks]

So catering isn't just about putting everything on the menu in bulk. It's about having the right process and the right marketing towards putting your brand out there to make sure that it is done well and it tastes just like it came out the kitchen.

[Eric Cachetori]

So how do you grow a marketing program? What is your approach to marketing your catering program?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, I'm not a marketing expert, I am an operations one. But of course we talked about this earlier, we talked about social media and yes, that's great. But to be quite honest, the very first part to marketing your brand for catering are the people that are wanting walking in your four walls. The people that are walking in your four walls are already brand ambassadors and you letting them know and truly understanding what makes sense on your menu that they would like to have at their office, paying attention to the third party orders, to the large orders, what is the bulk of, of what is going on and even breaking it down to what is it that can hold longer than 30 minutes. Not French fries, not hamburgers for the most part, unless you build the burger bar there. But you have to have almost a scientific approach and understanding that the people coming into your business and listening to their wants and needs to get to that middle ground of what makes sense for catering. Then there's the profitability aspect of, of it. You doing large orders and disrupting your business within the four walls to bring out catering. It's going to happen. The question is how can you make the products of what you're advertising for catering? How can you make it make sense that it is a part of your daily process already versus you creating something new. Because your team will also get stressed, they will also drop the ball and if it's catering everything and they have to create new processes for bulk items. So there's, there's a great technology that OPGA has that has you put in all of your information to understand what you currently have, what your menu currently is, what your goals are in order to help you map what that map looks like for you to be able to truly, truly deliver catering the right way.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it. I mean, I feel like we're covering so much, man, there's tons of value here. One thing I feel like I'm not really getting from you is your personal journey and growth. Right. So a lot of different, I think you alluded to it, you were listening to these people and. And you felt like you're being put in a box and you wanted the freedom. And over time you started to realize that, you know, they're just trying to coach me and steer me in the right direction. Action. You know, you're with some really great brands that I'm sure we've all heard of. Macaroni Romano's Macaroni Grill, Ruby Tuesdays Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, Moe's Southwest. And it seems like around, like what was your personal. I mean, I think from 2006 to 2013, the six to seven year period, how were you really growing as a professional before you kind of figured it out? Was it these mentors at most Southwest? Was it, you know, I think you gave me those. Or maybe this was at Ruby Tuesdays. Kimberly Grant, Danny and Tim and Rob. Were these like, help me understand your personal growth.

[Jason E. Brooks]

My. My personal growth there, man, that is a mixtape. That's not even a album. That's a mixtape. My personal growth is trying to. Was. Was trying to find my voice, both literally and figuratively and understanding what is it that I'm bringing to the table for myself and for others.

[Eric Cachetori]

When did you figure that out?

[Jason E. Brooks]

That was. That. That was still during Ruby Tuesdays. Still during those Ruby Tuesdays days, is. Is where I was trying to figure out what is it that I'm actually doing? Am I actually wanting to run restaurants? Am I wanting to lead people? Am I wanting to. At that point, what's. What's not on there? I actually attempted to start my own magazine called NC Travelers.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Just about traveling in North Carolina because from Asheville to Wilmington, life is so different and everything that's in between. Between and all of the nuances around. Vacationing in North Carolina, I was a manager for a music group for some time. One of the artists and one of the managers helping them to get on stage and in magazines. When you're in the restaurant business, there's. There's always side hustles that are. That are going on on the restaurant.

[Eric Cachetori]

Business is what you're doing to support the side hustle until you realize maybe I should have stayed.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah, that's exactly what the hell happened.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah.

[Jason E. Brooks]

And once I figured out that I am good, for lack of better terms, not a marketing specialist, but understanding how to get the word out, the difference between different regions, how to use my words better, how to lean on my people and build trust and put systems in place, I think at some point, I can't put my finger on it, but that's whenever things started to click and really started to shift at the end of the Ruby Tuesdays times and and lime fresh times and shifting into Moe's Southwest Grill.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay, behind every great restaurant is a great person. 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 Arizon 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 how you do everything. 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 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 program, 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 Restaurant Unstoppable.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 since the beginning of Restaurant unstoppable. Again, that's restaurant unstoppable.com RSP during this how old were you in like 2009, 2012 when you were really trying to.

[Jason E. Brooks]

2009, 2012 is 20002025 now. 13 years ago. So I was like 35, 35.

[Eric Cachetori]

I think it's around that time. You know, I think, you know, I think we're constantly growing. I think the people who figure it out at the age of 18 get lucky. You know, they took, they choose a path and they choose. They end up loving it. And it's just.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eric Cachetori]

But even for men, you know, our frontal lobe doesn't fully finish rounding off until we're 28. And then it takes time, you know, seven years of self awareness, which is really the peak of emotional intelligence that when that frontal lobe is fully matured of just being like, okay, this is who I am, this is what I love. And then like, okay, you, you try different things based off of this newfound self awareness. And it takes about seven years to like, really start to catch traction and understand and, and to like, know your lean. I'm 39. I feel like just recently, recently I've. I've come into my like, oh. Like, I'm not a coach, I'm not a consultant. I don't want to be those things. I don't want to be told. I need to be those things. I love promoting, like the truth and being a truth seeker. And I love curiosity, you know, And I think it. You really just got to try and stab into the dark until you catch a little piece of meat, you know? So for you, what is the meat? When. When did you take a stab and say, oh, that felt good. And maybe let me. Let's stab in that direction one more time.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, I first have to say that I'm glad you put it that way. I've never heard about the 28 is the frontal lobe. And then seven years self awareness, that right there just painted a whole nother picture for me of what I was probably going through. But the first stab of piece of meat was probably not specifically, but was probably when I had to start presenting to different executives about what was going on within my regions. And that piece of meat was, man, Jason, you did that really well, you know, And I'm like, yeah, I took time, I studied, I prepared, I knew my information, I knew my people. I wanted to make sure that people learned from what I was speaking on. And that was back when I just had to report out on different regions. And that piece of meat, that feeling, that aha moment. Even as a franchise business consultant, having to go out and teach others quickly within different areas and being at the front of that stage, front of that class classroom, getting them to stay dialed in, don't fall asleep, things like that, that's whenever I'm like, ha. I really like this workshop type setting now. How can I take what I learned and be better from my past to help teach people and give them that shortcut help them fold time in that learning so that then they can get their frontal lobe processed even faster.

[Eric Cachetori]

Faster, yeah. And in this frontal or this franchisee franchisor relationship and in dialing that in all for you, really happened at Mo Southwest Grill. And when you joined Moe's in 2013, what were you hired as?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Franchise business consultant.

[Eric Cachetori]

And. And how did you find this opportunity?

[Jason E. Brooks]

It was Moe's Southwest Grill a year and a half before. So I think that that was 2013 when I joined Mo and in 2000, 2012 or 11, Moe's was rated the fastest growing Tex Mex brand in the US and I was on LinkedIn then, and I sent a LinkedIn message to Scott Schotter, who was the VP of Operations during that time. And I was with Lime Fresh. And I said, congratulations on beating out Chipotle on being the fastest growing Tex Mex brand for 2018 or 2012. And he said, thanks. Where are you from? And. And I was in Raleigh. And. And I'm like, I'm in the Raleigh market. He goes, well, I'm going to be there at some point in the next few months. How about we meet for lunch? So we actually met for lunch about three, four months later at Crabtree Valley Mall. And they had a franchisee that was in that mall area. Her name was Jennifer for Wade. And, and we met there, we talked and then we talked for a few weeks more. And that's when he asked me, hey, what do you think about being in. In fbc? And I was like, what's an fbc? And then that's when I was introduced to franchise business consulting.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it. I mean, I had Steve McAloon on the show and I know that he went through that program too. So I mean, Moe's had a really great program. Yeah, I mean, I. So I think the story goes, Steve and I also had his current business partner, Jason. So many names going through my head at the whole time. Jeff Gothard on the show. They met at Schlotzky's. And then I think Steve did what he was or Steven did what he did for Schloskies with Southwest Grill. And, and I mean, like, what, like how did you grow during this time? And like you, like you said, you really understood the franchise franchisee relationship. Like, what is that relationship? Get into that.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, Greg Nathan, he's actually an author. He's out of Australia. He does a great job. I forget the book and I have a copy that's on my shelf. And that's whenever I really started to Understand it it more the difference of the different stages of growth from a new franchise, new franchisee to a tenured one. And there's different stages that they go through during this process from when they first sign on to oh this is great, I'll do anything to yeah now I really need to learn to oh man, this is hard to it feels like it's just me I'm not getting any help to now I am a ghost in the system. I'm not going to reach back out to now wanting to jump on board of different councils, different advisory councils for the brand to then really locked hand in hand with that franchisor and you defining where is your franchisees for your area within that growth segment and then how can you help them for what they really need. So that's the Greg Nathan aspect. But Steve McAloon, when, when whenever he was my director he introduced the 4Dx model to the FBCs and this was something since since Moe's was a part of Focus Brands which is now Go to Foods. They changed their name two years ago to Go to Foods. Focus Brands is a matrix like org. They have Moe slotsky's, McAllisters, Cinnabon, Annie Ann's, Carvel Jamba and Seattle's Best Coffee. Okay so they have multiple brands. But Moe's was back then really advanced in bringing in different things and he introduced 4 dx for the franchise business consultants to understand what. What are your wildly important goals? How do you have a dashboard to be able to view these wildly important goals and then how do you track it and then getting all the way down to the accountability aspect for it. But that 4Dx model also had me thinking differently about what I do with the franchisees that I worked with because there's a ton of times we're only focused on the day to day. Yes, we have other things that we're focused on. It's not that black and white but we're so day to day that we lose track of what our goal was, what's the end result that we wanted and then what are those lead measures that help to get to it, those KPIs. So even a lot of what I teach still at some point to the core deals down to goes back to what are your goals, what are the lead indicators, the KPIs? What's your dashboard like on a car dashboard? You have oil, you have RPMs, you have miles, you have temperature, you have all that stuff.

[Eric Cachetori]

What is the health of the vehicle in this moment right now?

[Jason E. Brooks]

But you don't need all those things all the time, but there's certain times that you need to check maybe one or two of those things if there's some kind of red flag. Flag that is going off. So what is your key? What is that dashboard? And then who is accountable? So that really shifted again, within me of how I view business with. Within this industry.

[Eric Cachetori]

So just to kind of REINFORCE what you shared, 4Dx stands for the four disciplines of execution. It is written by Stephen R. Covey.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes, Stephen Richard Covey.

[Eric Cachetori]

And that is also the Author of the 7 Habits of Highly effective people. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yes. Yeah. And achieving your wildly important goals is a subtitle there. And it's the narrow. The focus. Acting on lead measures, creating a compelling scoreboard and having a cadence of accountability, which is really just like the. So, I mean, narrow focus is like, where are we going? What's our. Like what. Like, what are the. Like what are the key. Like, where are we going? Right. Acting on the key measures. Like, what are the things that are measuring whether or not you're getting there? Like, are you making prizes? Are you moving the needle? Creating a compelling scoreboard? Is that more about moving the needle? Am I mixing. Acting on the. No, the. Acting on the lead measures are like your rocks. Like, what are the. The. The. The. You know, if we are all. If we're all going here, how do we divvy up the work and we have our core focuses to get us there. Like, what do we have to do in the next whatever period of time to get closer to that overarching destination?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Plus to add on to that, there's too many times we think that the lag measure is the lead measure. Like, for example, sales growth. That's the lag measure. After everything's done, then there's sales growth, even food cost, after everything's already sold. And you recounted that is the lag measure. Everything has happened. What's the lead measure? What are the lead things that are leading into that lag measure? Moving that needle or not, you have to define what are the lead measures of the wildly important goal.

[Eric Cachetori]

So lead measures are targets.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. And what three to four targets make that wildly in. Wildly important goal happen? So if you can't define that, it doesn't matter.

[Eric Cachetori]

So this is the actual versus the theoretical costs and things like that, Correct? Yeah. Budgeting, you know, Pat, like, that's looking back.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Ordering. Yes. So it's all of the things that lead to great food costs or to sales growth.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. And then creating A compelling scoreboard. That's the dashboard that you're talking about.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That's the dashboard.

[Eric Cachetori]

And then having the cadence of accountability, that is the communication. The daily, the weekly, the quarterly or the monthly? The quarterly. The annual. Okay, are we, in five years, are we going here?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Y.

[Eric Cachetori]

What do we have to do this year to get to that five year goal? What do we have to do?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Who is their responsibility of getting this done and by when?

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, yeah. So there's that book, the Four Disciplines of Execution. And I have to say listening and going. I haven't listened to the, to that book yet. It's been referred to me a few times now. It sounds very eerily similar to eos, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, Gino Wickman and the book Traction. Whether you're learning from Gino Wickman and you know, the, the school, it's all the same. It's just using different words, you know, and people just bundling this approach differently. But you need to do something. And whether it's four disciplines or eos, the Entrepreneur Operating System, I mean, a lot of people I'm getting on the show are, look, it seems like it's the same thing. It has to be very similar. But I digress. I do want to go back. I am curious in terms of the KPIs, the scoreboard relative to, I mean, you, your focus is on the franchise franchisor relationship. What are those KPIs like, if you could. Like what if you're looking at a dashboard, what is the actual dashboard? What are the things you're measuring?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, it's going to be different for both sides. And not many people, people want to admit that if you're a franchisor, most of the time your most important KPIs is going to be growth. How many more locations can you get open and, and how can you increase sales for the franchisee? It's going to be about profitability. Now, there's a ton of franchisors that help the franchisee focus on that profitability. A lot of the profitability levers, though, are left within those four walls. The franchisor can't legally really push them to do XYZ on their profits or their people. But they can though, help to give them guidelines into what the brand should look like, what the food should look.

[Eric Cachetori]

Like, what the job done right looks.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Like, what the job done right looks like. But the KPI for most franchisors, not every though, is opening more units each year if they're in that growth mark. And as a Franchisor, you are always in that growth mindset.

[Eric Cachetori]

Where do you fall on. So there's three ways for a franchisor to make money. There is the royalties. There is from selling the actual franchise. Yeah. And then there is the supply chain. Where do you fall on leveraging those three verticals of profitability or cash flow?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Man, it all depends on your business model. I. I don't know.

[Eric Cachetori]

Would you agree with that statement? First and foremost, that's what I.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. First, I would agree that those are three of the biggest levers that you could pull for profitability as a franchisor. Yes.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. So if you agree with that, where do you. Do you have opinions on ethics associated with those three different verticals?

[Jason E. Brooks]

My attorney could not make it to this podcast today.

[Eric Cachetori]

All right. I don't want to push you too hard. I do like to push the envelope, though. I mean, and I don't know, you know, I have heard that the supply chain thing, more and more people are moving away from that. I'm not upcharge, not profiting on rebates.

[Jason E. Brooks]

And things like that.

[Eric Cachetori]

Essentially, it's affiliate marketing.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Right. It is.

[Eric Cachetori]

You're like. You are. Basically, you're selling a franchise. There are certain systems and processes and goods you need to execute that franchise. And you can save money on, like, bulk purchasing or getting people to buy the tools and services and goods they need to execute your system, or you can pay that savings towards the franchisee so they have a higher likelihood of being successful. I think there's a shift that I've understood from talking to different people that they're going in that direction, but I don't know what legal liabilities you have, so I'll talk not knowing anything. I am completely ignorant about all the relationships you have, but that's what I've heard. So, I mean, you can plead the fifth on that if you want that.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That is true now. I still believe it. It deals with where the franchisor is within their growth.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. Because you can use where the franchise or. Or is in their growth.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. Not the franchisee, but the franchisor. Because you. You can help use some of those rebates, for lack of better terms, in order to get more marketing out regionally, locally for the franchisees that their local marketing spend doesn't come. So you can use that to help grow the brand for them to drive more traffic.

[Eric Cachetori]

So it's a holistic. Like, we're. This is like, almost like a tax to make us all better.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes.

[Eric Cachetori]

Right.

[Jason E. Brooks]

A tax to make us all better. Right.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. And that's what taxes are for. Right. To make society better. But you're just allocating that cash to make sure everybody who is a part of the entity is benefiting.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Now, you still have to keep your ear to the ground, your ear to the franchisees of what's going on within their restaurants, within their business. It's not just restaurants within their business. In order to say, do we need to make a shift. Yeah. Do we now need to funnel this more into their profitability side to help them save money versus help grow the brand? We can argue both sides that growing the brand means that, like, let's just say for McDonald's, the reason why they do so well is because you can go in a. In a small town of 50,000 people and still have five McDonald's, but you put another brand in there, and those, those five McDonald's will do four, five, six million dollars each. You put a Burger King in there, you put one in, and maybe they're only doing 2 to 3 million. The argument is, if we can get to 5, the sales will also increase. It's not that Burger King is less better than McDonald's. It's the fact that some will argue that there's more opportunity to build loyalty because there's five in that town more versus just one. It is more convenient. So then it goes to, well, the more we can grow, the more your sales will be and then your sales volume can grow. Some will say no, because then you're stepping on my toes. You're pulling away sales from my location if it's too close.

[Eric Cachetori]

Let's look at the case study of P. Terry's in Austin, Texas. Are you familiar with that brand? No. 16 locations before they ever moved outside of the Austin market. Market within Austin. And they are basically Austin's in and out burger in terms of, like, the product they offer.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Wow.

[Eric Cachetori]

Like very small menu.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eric Cachetori]

Burgers, fries, smoothie. Like, I think they have shakes too.

[Jason E. Brooks]

And then Shake Shack style chicken. Yeah. Option in our style. Yeah.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. But I mean, it, it. And when he found out that In N Out was moving east, he got aggressive and he scaled. And he owned the habit of the Austin market. And that's what, that's why he grew so fast. He knew he had to go to every corner that In N Out would go to potentially and own the market. And they got the 16 locations before they went outside of the Austin market. Where they went where? 20 miles. Not even 20 miles. Maybe 30 minutes south on 35 to San Marcos. That was the Next market they went to, you know, so that like, so.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Not even like going to Houston or going to Dallas or San Antonio.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, they went just centrifug circle growth. And then I think they're, they're at 36 locations now. They're at, I think I want to say like close to 24th or right around 24 or 25 on, just outside of the Austin market. I'm talking like Pflugerville, Round Rock, you know, San Marcos, New Braunfels. These are basically like, like within a 30 minute radius to Austin. And they have I think a couple, three or four locations in San Antonio, two maybe in Houston. So they, they doubled down in that market and they just own. They have a customer to your point to come full circle. They have the, the loyalty, the habits of that market and, and, and they just own it. And, and I want people to think like this, like own your market and no, not until you own that market. Ever consider going out of that market and then maybe go like an hour outside that market and you'll have that loyalty. But some people would argue that you, if, if you want to scale a franchise or a brand, a corporate, if you want a corporate scale, you want to see if the concept has legs in different markets.

[Jason E. Brooks]

I've seen that a lot to where one brand has five locations that's in Atlanta and then their sixth location is in Las Vegas.

[Eric Cachetori]

What do you think about that?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Or the seventh is in Denver. It all depends. I mean, yes, we love to go on vacation, go over to the Mediterranean and see an amazing pizza joint, pasta joint, and say this would do so well back in my town and then we bring it back to where we are and then it does. Well, that's what happens whenever someone comes to AP Terry's and then they're from Michigan and they're like, yeah, this would do great in Detroit. And then they try to go do it. And that resemblance that, that loyalty isn't there. Yes, great brand, great food, but it tends to be a challenge. So there is definitely the argument of staying within your four miles in order to really grow. But there, there are those brands that do really well. We know lots of great brands that only has one in one state that's doing $10 million and they'll do another one in a different state doing $10 million. I don't think that it's for everyone. There's not a silver bullet. But I think that the science makes more sense when you do own the market.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, so. So during your time with Mo Sell with West Grill. You really understood the five. You know, or sorry, the, the 4 dx. The 4 dx franchising relationship between the franchisee and the franchise franchisor talked about the, you know, that model of, you know, communicating KPIs goals and you know, your rocks. So I don't, what do they call it?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The lead, the lead indicators and lag. Big rocks.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, yeah, big rocks and pebbles. What else in terms of that relationship did you learn here? I think painting the picture of what the job done. Right. Looks like. Any other, like big lessons, any, anything we haven't gotten out during this time before. We kind of talk about where you are today and like what's happened since 2020. Your book, the Sixth Gear. Right. That's not the name of your book. The book is called Every Every leader needs Followers.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes, I, I think that that book kind of defined the lessons that I fought hard against even when I wrote that.

[Eric Cachetori]

What were the lessons you most resisted in this book?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The lessons I most resisted in that book? Oh man. I would have to say leading with the right mindset. Key number five, managing versus leading versus coaching. Because I did not have, have a full understanding of what that was until I started reading and that's how we.

[Eric Cachetori]

Kind of started today. Yeah. You know, to come full circle. Do you mind if I share the 10 keys without getting into any detail? So it's the 10 keys to transform restaurant managers to hospitality leaders. Those 10 keys are master your KPIs owner like orientation, delegate by creating mini GMS, engage with one on one ones. Leading with the right mindset. That's the managing leading versus coaching Master your meetings never stop training. The art of giving feedback, closing the gap and using the power of influence. So a lot of these little sayings have come to bear fruit in today's conversation. Right. You're seeing some patterns here.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes.

[Eric Cachetori]

So I mean we're not here to talk about your book today. I would love to have you lead a word workshop and maybe one or two of these elements or whenever you want to come back we can go deeper into this sort of thing. But you said that, you know, the biggest thing you resisted was this idea of leading with the right mindset, I. E. Managing, leading and coaching. We talked about that earlier. Do you want to bring that back to the surface?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes, I, I, I just think that, you know, the average business professional, again, not just restaurants, average business professional weaves through out all three mindsets multiple times per day without even knowing. The question is what's the right one for the right situation to get the best outcome, not just a good one, because we can argue, use any mindset, you'll get a good outcome. But we run in a very busy environment and we need to always be focused on the best outcome for our people and our business. And that's. That to me, is one of those things, the changing mindsets. And understanding those mindsets is the core of what I weave throughout everything that I teach.

[Eric Cachetori]

Got it in this chapter. I mean, chapter five. I mean, when you talk about mindsets, is it strictly the managing leading versus coaching? Because you lead, you. You share examples of different mindsets.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. So it's, it's not just the general mindsets, but it's the most popular style. So is it a persuasive management in authoritative management style or the laissez faire? The laissez faire style is actually started in France in the 1700s, and it literally means allow to do. That's where you take power and you put it in the hands of key employees in order to get. Get things done. This is best used with field teams or with teams that may have more knowledge on topics than the manager does.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. I mean, if we. We're at an hour and 23.

[Jason E. Brooks]

I didn't even realize that. I'm sorry about that.

[Eric Cachetori]

You know, going through, thumbing through your book, getting the big takeaways from your book, I mean, some of the big things that really stood out to me, obviously, you know, I think one thing I, I found that is crucial, I know that this is big for you is the never stop training. And I think that that kind of manifests in a lot of the different elem of the other keys. Like, it's all tied to this idea of, like our job in the restaurant industry, some people would say is, you know, creating great experiences. And they're like, oh, it's not about the food. It's about creating great experiences. And I would go to say, our job in the restaurant industry, to your point, is to replace ourselves with others to create opportunity for growth. Is we're literally in the business of developing people. And I. And when you say never, I would like to go deeper into the. Deeper into this idea of never stop training. What does that cadence look like? What is training done right?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Look like I will keep it simple on this so that we don't go to two hours and 20 minutes. Okay. Never stop training is that you have two camps. You have two camps of managers, slash leaders or coaches. One camp is I can only train if I have a budget. The other camp is I'M always training. It doesn't matter what my budget is. I'm always training. I'm always cross training. I'm always flipping people out every quarter into certain tasks. I'm always delegating tasks throughout my business to teach people how to do it and not just teach them how do I teach them them the right way, but never stop Training is that even from day one, even from day one we train the people that we don't hire, what our culture is. Think about this. You may interview a thousand people and, and to interview, I mean look through their resume, say whether you're going to move forward with a host, a cook, a new chef, a new bartender, you may interview a thousand people. Out of those thousand people, you may hire a hundred, maybe it's fifty. What are you doing with the other 950 people? Those 950 people are still within a two to three mile radius of your business. Are you teaching them about the culture of your business? Are you treating them as if they are still a customer or are you ghosting them? Are you like just don't call them back or do you talk to them, teach them about your business to where they're like, huh, I didn't get the job, but I didn't know that they do all of this work. So that's one part of training. Training starts at day zero. Training goes all the way to the very end that someone leaves, not just when they put in their two week notice. Have you noticed that when you put in a two week notice for anyone that's ever had a job, that when you put in the two week notice, you're in this gray area, you're in this dead zone, you're in this thing that you no longer kind of exist. All training stops, all feedback stops. Why? That's whenever you should truly start to even press more on training them for what? For their next role. Training them how to come on board into their new business, how to get to know their new team, how to figure out how decisions get made. But you should be training them in that two week time frame for how to shift into their new role. You having to hire one other person in order to replace them doesn't take time away from you still training that person for their next role. Because guess what, let's say they go to that next role and things don't work out. We get promised all of the time the grass is always greener. Grass is always greener. And then we get there and, and it's mud. It's not just brown grass. It's mud. If you, if you're teaching and training them all the way up to their last day of how to be profitable, how to be successful in their next role, guess what? The people still working for you, they see that and they're like, man, that's amazing. Eric is still teaching Cindy everything she needs to know to get onto her next role. I want to stay working with Eric forever. And whenever Cindy goes and sees that the grass is not greener, guess what? Cindy may be coming back in like four months. Like, you know what, I'm sorry Eric, that I left. I really wanted to come back. I did not know what I was missing. Can we make this work? So that's why you never stop training. Don't ghost people from the beginning because they're still your guest and don't stop training them when they put in their notice. Help them be more successful at their next role.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, I mean I love it and you know, I love this idea too of like that tying in the one on ones which is another one of your. I believe it's one of your.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yep, that's engage through one on one's key number four.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. And if you're doing really your job and you're, you're figuring out where what is this person's vision for themselves is their next role, a role I can create to keep them here and then and like you know, it's, it's like it's really just about developing people and helping people try to self actualize. And I did tie back what we were saying earlier about the this, the skin in the game in buying state. I think that that business model of vetting people, finding good people who have your culture, who are what you're trying to build and to give them a career within your organization. There are more equity roles within this, the restaurant industry than ever before. It's no longer about cooking food. There are so many things you have to be good at today. Whether that be you know, cooking the food or HR or marketing. Marketing and technology. Technology ctos like. And there's so many things, unless you are a freak of nature, which only like 1 or 2% of people are. Most people have lanes and in order to go to distance you need to go together and you need to have an army of people who are, who are on board, invested to get there. You're seeing more and more marketing professionals that have equity in the business, more and more HR professionals that have equity in the business, more and more. More accounting professionals, attorneys that are having stake in the business. More CTOs. Like I think like the world of fractional CT. Like there's just so much opportunity as we scale and as we figure this out. And it's really about creating as you start small, creating opportunity, creating roles to grow organically from within, you know, and if you can help identify who these people are from day one by having these one, those of 101s by, by, by literally developing destinations within your organization for people, vertical, tangible growth paths of growth. And then once you've gone down that path, help other people come with you down this path. You know, it's, it's, it's really cool where we are right now with sharing this knowledge and getting it out there and knowing like this, this, the future of the restaurant industry is promising.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Very much so.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah, man, I do want to talk about where you are today. You said you're working with Runza restaurants. You, you're developing the OP X masterclass. That looks like, what does that look like? I mean, on your LinkedIn profile, I have some notes here, man. Coaching skills, operational consistency, mindset driven stuff, leadership, using the plans in learning with the right mindset. I mean, I don't know how much of this you're going to be able to recite from memory, but like dive into what that looks like.

[Jason E. Brooks]

All right, so first with Runza, they actually saw me on stage at the Florida restaurant show. The vp, the vice president, Renee Suyin, she saw me on stage twice, back to back, two years back to back. And she was like, you know what, this Jason guy, he actually speaks our language. I want to bring him in to help, you know, to help teach our team what he's speaking on. I, I was speaking on the five keys to never lead alone a game. And she's like, my team needs this. You know, she, she could have went back and regurgitated because on every keynote or breakout session that I do, I give them a copy of my whole presentation. It's the PDF copy, but you get the whole copy. I, I give you that content. And she wanted to bring me in to work with their team. So first it was going to be, well, I'll come in and get on stage and do a regional meeting and then leave out and give them some rah rah. But the thing about rah rah is sometimes it's not sticky, right? It may feel great for a week, but how do you make that be, how do you make that become real change? So we then work through. Well, well, how about we build out a workshop for the multi unit managers to understand their different mindsets, how to set goals and then how to get those goals and then how to repeat that within their locations in the field. So, so I have a OP X, a operations excellence masterclass. That masterclass can be done either weekly or bi weekly. And we take one multi unit manager, one general manager, and up to 12 restaurants on this call. We can do as little as three, as much as 12. And they're going through what's the wildly important goal.

[Eric Cachetori]

So that the key that is.

[Jason E. Brooks]

First you have to figure out what is the goal. What are the three most important things? We do a business review, a insight review, and a customer review. We want to know what are the customers saying? What do we see when we're in and around the restaurant? And then what does your data say? We take those three and then say, now what are the three most important things that we want to change in 90 days?

[Eric Cachetori]

All right, and that's number one. One.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That is number one.

[Eric Cachetori]

And this is of the five keys.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, no, the, the. Well, it, it is master your KPI. So yes, you are still correct. It still falls within the five keys. It still falls within the five keys of master your KPIs. What is that goal? Or three goals that you want that location to work on that location, that multi unit manager. What are those goals? But, but you, you have to get the data first. The data from your sales, the data from the customer reviews, the data from you walking in the restaurant, you walking around the restaurant, the exterior, the interior. What do you see now? What are the three most important things that you want changed in 90 days?

[Eric Cachetori]

So that's, that's one element of this.

[Jason E. Brooks]

That'S one element of the, of the five. Well, weird. We don't per se do the whole five for the OPS X masterclass. Are there five keys used throughout it? Yes, but it's not focused just on those five keys.

[Eric Cachetori]

So what do you focus on with the masterclass?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The first thing is goal setting and goal getting, figuring out what the goals are and then creating the dashboard to keep up with those goals week to week. And then the cadence of meeting each week and then adjusting and then bringing in your whole team on what those goals are in order to hit the. Hit those goals.

[Eric Cachetori]

What's number two?

[Jason E. Brooks]

The second thing? Well, it's not really a number two.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay.

[Jason E. Brooks]

But the second thing that, that we are then focused on is what is the cadence, how often are we meeting and what are we measuring? So it's every single week that they take their head out the water from Swimming through those high tides and pausing and saying, out of my three goals, how did I do?

[Eric Cachetori]

What's the third thing then? You. That you're then focused on. On.

[Jason E. Brooks]

And then after that is then the adjustment after you pull your head out the water. See how you did. What adjustments do I need to do and who helped me make that needle move or what hindered me from moving that needle. And you make those adjustments and then you have your bite size all the way to the 90 days. Some people have to stay longer than 90 days.

[Eric Cachetori]

Is this the. The fourth thing that you're then focused on?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I wouldn't call it number four. It's just a part of the process.

[Eric Cachetori]

Okay. Is there a fourth and fifth step? I'm just trying to figure. I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.

[Jason E. Brooks]

No fourth or fifth step. It's really creating bite sized chunks of your business. Because in the restaurant business, yes, we make bite sized chunks of food, but we do horrible. We do horrible at making bite sized chunks of our business. We make big, lofty goals. And three weeks in, we forget all about it because it's a goal for the year.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. I think I might have just found our next subject for the next time you're on the show. Maybe. I think this would be really great to go deeper into really the structure of this conversation, to offer a teaser. But I don't want to make you verbally commit to anything.

[Jason E. Brooks]

No problem.

[Eric Cachetori]

You want to keep a secret, you got to make that money. Right. You got to have no something for, you know, to be a mystery.

[Jason E. Brooks]

There is no secret. This is everything that you can find. I only help create the environment for them to do it in. That's it.

[Eric Cachetori]

Anything we have not discussed today, my man. Things that you were hoping would come out of today's conversation.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Oh, man, there's so much more. Let's keep it going for another hour. No, no. This is. Eric. You are amazing. You are a therapist. You know how to follow the trail. You are blood hound.

[Eric Cachetori]

Thank you, sir. This has been a lot of fun for me too. I do have a couple questions.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yeah.

[Eric Cachetori]

To, you know, wrap it up before we say goodbye. So what is one thing about your business? A value, a process. A system that's uncommon and makes you truly unstoppable.

[Jason E. Brooks]

It goes back to me being that broken record. But not just goal setting, but goal getting. Helping people to create the process and put a systematic approach at actually getting their goals. Because we do great at putting things on a wall. Wall on a pretty plaque with some pretty paper. And high fiber. Yes. That's, that's what we're gonna do.

[Eric Cachetori]

At the end of the year, our culture is done.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. And then the year ends and nothing happened.

[Eric Cachetori]

Or like a, there's like a, a closet in front of that thing that you put on the wall.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Or you go ask the hostess. So what's the goals? And they're like seat tables in two minutes. And they're like, oh yeah, no, that's actually not the goals that I'm talking about. So trying to, trying to. That is my superpower. That thing that makes me unstoppable is creating the space for leaders and companies to not just goal set, but goal get to make it real.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. The mission statement is to change the world. I know that's very ambitious. By inspiring, empowering and transforming the restaurant industry. And I think we're gonna do that by sharing individual stories of transformation. So how have you personally transformed. How are you a better man to. Than the man you were when you got started in this industry?

[Jason E. Brooks]

I really gotta say it's been me focusing, not focusing, taking something that was a weakness. And even though I thought that I would have that thing for the rest of my life, that, that, that held me back from communicating and turning that into something that I never thought of. Getting in front of total strangers and be able to change the way they think. They may have heard it a thousand times from their direct supervisor, from their boss, from their wife. But to be able to find words and say it in a way that gives people an aha moment. Just not in feeling but in actual change process. That's been the biggest transformation for me, was for me to take that I got to say it weakness and change it into a strength and help others do the same thing.

[Eric Cachetori]

I love it, man. And if you got the news, you'd be leaving this world tomorrow. All the memories of you, your work and your restaurants would be lost with your departure. Or your coaching business would be lost with your departure. With the exception of three pieces of wisdom that you could leave behind for the good of humanity and your legacy, what would those three pieces of wisdom be?

[Jason E. Brooks]

Those three pieces of wisdom would be never stop training. Second one is, is that every team needs coaching. And that's whether you're a street sweeper or you're in executive. Everyone needs coaching. They need to be coached. They need that individual one on one time. So that's, that's the second thing. And then the, the third thing is always understand what you want the end result to be. We focus so many times on the journey after we made the end result, we know we want to hit the top of that mountain and we get concerned because we're at this base camp or that base camp or we're on this ridge or that ridge. The journey there. Yes. Enjoy. Enjoy it. But don't let it define what you already said that the end goal was. Be very clear on what the end goal is. Be bendable to the journey. But keep your mind focused always on the end result and enjoy that journey while you're doing it.

[Eric Cachetori]

I love this man. This has been so much fun. Who do you respect and admire? Somebody that you think I should get on the show. Some of you think that they were a guest on the show. Man, you would, you would be absolutely tuning into that episode. Or maybe somebody who's already impressed you and you want to make sure that I amplify their. Their perspective and their knowledge.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Well, one of them you already had on your show. So I guess. Who's that name? Sean Walshef. Man, that guy. Sean. Cali Barbecue. Cali Bar. Cali Barbecue Media that defines taking a restaurant and turning it into a product production company. And people think that you're crazy because of trying to do that. Not just that, but to use your voice for storytelling to truly connect and say just because you said it once doesn't mean that people really know it. You have to. You're the only one that can speak up for yourself. Yeah. So do that. And always focus on putting your story out there because it's going to help that next person as well.

[Eric Cachetori]

Yeah. You mentioned, mentioned some names earlier that I want to make sure we get these people in the Midwest.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Yes. So I definitely want to call out two people. I think that Renee Suyin S J U L I N she's the vice president of Runza Building in in amazing third generation family legacy from one location in Lincoln, Nebraska and is now synonymous with the Midwest West. Her and her brand is amazing. And then the next person, Steve McAloon which you already had on, he helped me to really view the 4 dx and and then Kimberly Grant kg. She was a large part of Ruby Tuesday's growth. Sandy Beal was the founder of Ruby Tuesday but she actually really, really helped to shape that leadership model. So I think she would be a great person.

[Eric Cachetori]

Renee, look out. I'm coming after you. Steve, I've had you on the show. Maybe we'll come back to talk about 4dx. I think that'd be a fun workshop. And Kimberly Grant, look at you. Look out. I'm coming after you as well. And I just thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me, to get open, to get vulnerable, to be generous with your knowledge and your perspective. I literally cannot do what I do without people like you. Man, you're truly unstoppable. How can we connect if we enjoyed today's conversation and we want to continue the conversation with you?

[Jason E. Brooks]

First of all, LinkedIn, I'm always there and don't just like when I what I say or me like what you say. Let's make conversations. Second, you can always go to jasonebrooks.com and then third, I am a partner with the off premise Growth Academy, which is also a part of K Linked, so you can catch me there as well.

[Eric Cachetori]

That's C A T E R L I N K E D E D. All right, there we go. And you know, I'm not sure what episode number this is going to be. There's a part of me that wants to bump this one up, to get it released sooner than later so we can get you back to lead a workshop. Man, I'd love to go deeper with you and we'll figure out exactly what that workshop looks like.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Say less. I'm in.

[Eric Cachetori]

All right, man. Cheers.

[Jason E. Brooks]

Later.

[Eric Cachetori]

If today's episode stirred something in you, if you're feeling a little unstoppable, you're not alone. Join us at Restaurant Unstoppable Network where we are guiding restaurant owners to proven experts, tools and services based on real world success stories. You'll get access to my network of restaurant owning mentors, hand picked industry experts and organically referred vendors. You'll get access to these individuals through workshops, power hours, mentoring sessions and product demonstrations. Multiple events, live events every week. You'll get access to me twice a month where I'll answer any of your questions. And you get access to all the recordings through RU Network podcast, early access ad free bonus content all pushed directly to your phone. Plus the Unstoppable, our closed source AI tool fence with over 2400 hours of transcripts from the best in the biz and all future conversations that we have, whether that be bonus content or episodes, all fed to the AI Daily access to our private Facebook group and I think this is the coolest part, the ability to influence future content here at Restaurant Unstoppable. Your problems are my priority. Look, you don't have to do it alone. As a matter of fact, you will go further if you can go together and you are the average of those you surround yourself with. And at Restaurant Unstoppable network you're surrounding yourself with the best. Head over to restaurantunstoppable.com live if you want all of this, including the live events. And if all this sounds appealing but you don't really want access to join us live, then just head over to restaurantunstoppable.com R U library.