This episode 125, the Hospitality Development Gap with our very special

guest, Lauren Fernandez of Full course.

You'll wanna stick around because Lauren will reveal the three ways that

you can use to close the development gap in your operation, which.

You know, we've talked about this mm-hmm.

on end.

And so I know that there's gonna be some really juicy takeaways from this.

As always links to the videos and other things discussed in the show can be

found in the comments and show notes.

Lauren, welcome.

Hi Lauren.

Hi, guys.

Having me.

Oh, it's a pleasure.

Just wanted to quickly mention that you were, you and your.

at full course, we're just named to the Nation's Restaurant News 2022 Power

List, a list of 50 emerging leaders from across the restaurant industry who have

big ideas, determination, and hustle, but also the runway ahead of them to

make their mark on their companies, their colleagues, and the industry.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

What is, what does that mean?

I, I feel like we got a high five for being a little bit disruptive and

sharing a lot of love with our industry.

We are definitely here to build it back better.

And a hallmark of full course's investment strategy is to invest in people,

and that starts with our education through our nonprofit foundation and

is true through our entire development cycle, even after investment.

Maybe you could give us kind of a thumbnail sketch around like what

exactly full course is, because it seems like you folks do a lot.

We do.

We do.

It is a complete solution for restaurateur.

And food and beverage companies to grow their brand while staying in control.

And helping to get the companies to its next level, really, where

the company has achieved a certain level of enterprise value that you

don't see in the vast majority of restaurants that are out there.

Right.

Because we know that 70% of all restaurant locations are a single location.

Mm-hmm.

and.

Contrary to what we've all kind of seen is actually they're not all

franchised or chained restaurants.

Most of them are independently owned and operated.

It's two to one, actually independent, two franchised.

So there are a number of opportunities out there to help people achieve

more value for their brand through very strategic growth.

And that is what full course does.

We partner with early stage brands.

We have a team of experts in product develop.

Franchising, you know, non-traditional development and also company store

development where we really can help robustly build out these brands.

So they have multiple channels of revenue, right?

They're more financially stable, and in the end we get a higher

valuation for them at Exit.

And so, We have a nonprofit foundation called the Full Course Foundation, which

supports the educational initiatives behind training and development

of the people behind these brands.

Starting with leadership and going all the way down to back of house as we

wanna involve the employees of the brand.

With this educational initiative, we have a management company

that sits in the middle.

that supports our investments and our consulting clients with operational

expertise, but also development services.

So helping brands grow in all of those major channels, which we just discussed.

And last but not least, we felt like an important piece of full courses

initiative was to bring fair and ethical capital into our industry.

Mm-hmm.

. So we fundraise.

Specifically invest in these early stage brands before we even put them

through our acceleration process.

So we are equal parts investor, you know, incubator and accelerator for brands.

And we are here to really make a big impact on our industry because one of

the things that we focus on are brands that are run by women, minorities are

that are culturally representative.

So we really wanna make sure that we're setting a place

at the table for everybody.

That's amazing, Lauren.

And I'm just curious, where do you find fair and equitable capital?

? You fundraise it yourself is the answer to that question.

You know, look, I, I'm an attorney turned restaurant, operator turned.

Now private equity fundraiser apparently is my full-time job.

It was very important to me that we have command of the

capital and how it was deployed.

If you are going to change and level the playing field, you have to make

sure that all aspects of the business have that purpose and mission.

And so while the fund is a lot more work, For us, it's worth it because

it allows us to bring investors in who support our mission and purpose.

There's a ton of industry clout executives and experience who value what we're

doing and have put their dollars behind it and their reputation and their

networks to help us grow this company, and we couldn't do it without them.

One, one more question before I kick it to Jim.

, what possessed you?

to , to to switch gears and, and go headlong into the hospitality space.

Yeah, so I had, as an attorney, I'm a jd, M B A, and I have spent most

of my career in product development.

Which ultimately led me to the general council role at Focus Brands.

And in that role, I fell in love with restaurants in the industry.

I, I sort of have got, I got the bite, but I really wasn't

hooked until after I left Focus.

I went to go invest in some restaurants.

I wanted to become a franchisee and I was looking to create, I'm a, I'm

the daughter of an immigrant, frankly.

I had seen all these people just absolutely crush it

in our franchise system.

And I.

Why can't that be me?

So I pushed some chips in and with a partner through Origin Development Group

that we started, we became the owner and operator of three Chicken Salad

Chick restaurants, which we very quickly grew to 11 units in just 20 months.

So when we exited our investment, I had some time to think I had turned 40.

And I was like, what am I gonna do now?

Right.

But I had the bug, man.

I was so hooked.

I love development.

I love being out in the field.

Connecting to our teams.

I'm such a people person, but I also had some deep experiences through that

journey that I realized needed to be solved for our industry on a larger scale.

So I spent a year really incubating the idea for full course pressure, testing it

with people that I trusted and coming up with a solution that we felt would work.

And in the end, it solves three main problems that I see.

One.

Many independent operators out there don't understand this playbook for

growth and that it has to be in multiple avenues for revenue development.

Two, even if you understand that playbook, you know, it's very

hard to find fair capital or debt.

I tell people all the time, candidly, we are registered as a woman owned and

minority owned business, and I get offered debt on a daily basis that's north of 18%.

That's without checking my credit score, knowing anything about my company.

Somehow they think that that's being fair to a woman in minority owned

business is to do me a favor, 18% set.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, guys.

I mean, it's, it's endemic.

It's terrible.

There's a lot of predatory lending in this space.

And the third issue is, let's just assume for a minute you figured out

the playbook, you know how to grow, and you've figured out how to fund it too.

That's awesome.

I see it happen every once in a blue.

The real issue here is it's a very different skillset to develop

a brand, especially in these multiple channels as opposed to

operating restaurants best in class.

And even if you can do both, I don't recommend it.

It nearly killed me.

Trust me, I wouldn't try it.

So we're here to really kind of plus those gaps.

And to me, education and information is the key to doing this.

If you can share the playbook, if you can walk as a player, coach in their

shoes next to them and you can give them the capital to get the win, so

they're fully funded and they don't have to sweat it, that's where we're really

gonna see some change in this industry.

Because look, I make no apologies.

We are in this to kick out the next generation of restaurant leadership

and it's coming and it's coming fast because that's where we really think

the future of this industry is.

Jim, I was hoping that you could help kind of frame this conversation based

upon a conversation you and I were having a couple weeks ago just to kind

of give context to, to it, if you would.

Well, first of all, I mean, I kind of chuckled there, like, I mean, you said you

got a high five from you know, being in that article about 50, I mean, let's give

you another one cause you're just, there's so much cool stuff going on here, right?

I mean, you and I spoke for the first time, I think about a year ago, and I was.

I mean, I was impressed then and based upon what you just told

us, you've kind of got it all.

It seems like you've got it all covered.

So, and, and I think, you know, Adam and I have talked lots over the, the

last year or so about this concept of, you know, new hospitality culture,

about the new normal of restaurants, about, you know, something that, that I

speak about a lot, which is, you know, improving the career experience for the

next generation of restaurant operator.

So, you know, there's so much alignment there.

I just think we are doing some amazing, but.

You know, Adam, to what you were saying, we had a good discussion, Lauren, I,

we mentioned this a little bit to you earlier, but we had a good discussion a

few weeks ago about this development gap that exists in hospitality right now.

Mm-hmm.

, and whether it's based on tradition of how, you know, people move their

way up through the, through the industry, whether it's based on you

know, the investment side of things where there are a lot of people.

You know, might have some, some capital and say, I want to get into

the restaurant business, but may have not, may not have done it before.

Or there's this, you know, this bit of a, a challenge that exists right now

based on coming, at least what we say is coming out of the end of this pandemic

or the tail end of the pandemic, where the development and the skillset that

people would've learned from years of experience in hospitality is different.

because they were worried about different things for three years.

Mm-hmm.

in the sort of really core time of, you know, when they would've been learning

how to be an operator in a restaurant.

Mm-hmm.

. But there's this interesting dynamic that's going on right now.

I'm curious, you know, I know we wanna spend some time talking about that today.

Okay.

Oh yeah.

, pick one.

Maybe.

I dunno if I look.

Well, let's, let's, facts right.

We were down over a million jobs.

Hmm.

Last year.

At the start of 22, we were down 1 million.

The start of this year, we're down half a million.

One of the things our, our industry is notorious for is churned.

Right.

We have a really bad problem with retention.

We're not good at it.

, you know?

Mm-hmm.

. And so you layer on top of that, the massive wipe we.

and job loss during the pandemic, and then you put people back into these new

environments where you're right, like maybe the manager only has two years of

experience in the bulk of which, as you were saying, like with, you know, packing

food to go during the pandemic, you know?

Mm-hmm.

. So there's a skill gap, not just at the bottom levels looking

to climb up and create careers in our industry, but there's.

Skill gap at the top.

And that creates a number of issues for us, not just in how we execute and

deliver to the consuming public, but I still view that as a major retention

issue because people who do not have the right skills ultimately end up

with misaligned jobs where you get that kind of friction and they're not

gonna be happy and feel successful and have fulfillment in what they're doing.

because they lack that kind of skillset.

So we gotta act fast and act quickly, and that's something that

we are doing even within our found.

To constantly be plugging those holes in the education gaps that we're seeing and

responding to them with offerings because, so what is full course doing about that?

What's the, how do you address that issue?

Like, let's say, let's pick the, the top of the, the operational.

Levels, you know, the general manager and up, how are you, how are you

supporting those people to increase that?

Yes.

So two things, right?

Because you hit on something earlier, Jim and I, I just wanna, I wanna

highlight this because I think it's really foundational to why we designed

the products we did to solve this.

Okay?

So, When you are in a restaurant, and let's say you come in as

an hourly employee, right?

90% of people's first jobs are in our industry, and we are the

third largest employer in the us.

Mm-hmm.

. So we have a constant awesome opportunity, a phenomenal chance

to change people's lives, even if we only touch them for a moment.

And we're that.

First job, but we also have an opportunity to keep them right.

Traditionally, the way that you keep people and you ladder them up in a

restaurant from hourly to salaried employees is on the job training, right?

But as we indicated, a lot of these managers are missing that kind

of passing of the torch, and that on-the-job training where you are

learning from those who came before you, what to do, what not to do, how to

handle certain situations, et cetera.

So the first step that we took was very simple.

We recognized that we needed specific leadership training for existing managers.

So full course has a number of independent courses you can take on your own.

But we also do workshops that brand owners or owners can buy

to help train their managers.

And frankly, let's be honest, let's go deep in the bench.

Possible high potential people who could be a manager who are

being framed for leadership.

So that leadership piece is so critical to what we do.

It's something that we offer not only to the consuming public as

part of their development within the restaurant, but also within larger

brands for them to buy, to support their franchisees development, et cetera.

So that's number one.

And I, I can't stress enough, I think that those leadership skills, sometimes

they're soft skills, but sometimes they're practical skills, like mm-hmm.

, how to read a p and l and connect your instinct as a manager for

what's going on in the restaurant.

Two, what you're seeing on the financials.

So there's some aspects to the leadership piece, which I think have a

higher level of thinking and thought.

I think strategic thinking, I'll say that around the management of the restaurant

and the people in the restaurant.

I, I think number two, missing some of the, the beauty of learning from others.

And if you can't recreate that within the restaurant, what we can

do is pool those resources and.

Folks who are very highly experienced in operations and share that

knowledge in a cohort type situation.

So we've developed a program called Navigator.

Navigator is a $29 a month monthly subscription coaching service.

It's specifically designed for managers and for leaders in the industry.

And it's there to help you gut check, right?

Remember, you know when you, when you call another manager from

another location, you're say, Hey, has this ever happened to you?

What, what got subbed for you when we ran out of paper towels?

What did you know?

Just having that moment where you can do one of these.

So there's group coaching.

There's monthly webinars and we interview other operators in the

industry to share current techniques and trips, tick tips and tricks like

that so that we can really give them that missing piece where you might

have had learned it on the job before.

Now you can learn it in our cohort, which represents brands all over the united.

Adam, where's your mind going on this?

Because mine is going, man, I could have used that when I was blind

leading wine trying to figure out how to run a restaurant.

Yeah, I mean this all kind of leads back to this, the trope about being

handed the keys at the end of the night and say, you ready to close up, man?

Cuz now you're supposedly a lead without any skill training.

And you know, I think I'm on record.

I'm saying, you know, currently nobody teaches leadership.

Mm-hmm.

within the industry.

I'm sure there's some culinary schools or, or management schools that, that have

those topics, but clearly the managers in the field do not have the soft

skills in order to manage appropriately.

And we see this every day because the first clue would be, what's

your retention rate for associates?

Mm-hmm.

, you know, I, I also look back to, you know, if there's

nothing else but communication.

, like how do you master workplace communication in such a way that

the associates feel heard, they feel seen, they're not talked down to.

And those are such important soft skills that, again, as a, as someone

who came up you know, off the street.

In my culinary career, I didn't go to culinary school, although

later I went but I had to go outside the industry in order to.

, coaching skills, leadership skills, and then come back.

Because I noticed it wasn't around, so I think to your point, Lauren,

number one, leadership training.

Yeah.

And the cool thing is, is that it's ongoing, you know, with cohorts, you

know, group gets together and then there's another group in another group

and another group, and it becomes this longstanding continuous learning curve.

that they get to use in real world, real world situations because they get to

apply exactly what they learned there.

Mm-hmm.

. So I think it's incredibly important and thank you for, for offering that skill.

And the other thing that you mentioned right before we got on

the show, Lauren, is that this doesn't necessarily, that this gap

does not necessarily exist within.

independently owned restaurants.

It also exists in franchise.

Mm-hmm.

systems where someone might have one unit and how the hell do they grow it to 10.

Mm-hmm.

, can you speak on that a little bit?

Yeah.

So, you know, look, I am a minority.

I'm a, I'm a diverse franchisee.

I was a multi-unit franchisee.

and there are a number of impediments that stand in the way of very sophisticated,

amazing operators that may exist within your own franchise system already.

One of them is, again, access to fair and ethical capital or debt, right?

So that's a big issue.

And especially when banks.

Pull back on lending, on established restaurant brands.

It, it can be really tough right?

To self-fund out of cash flows.

Mm-hmm.

. So one of the things we need to consider is if you are truly invested as a brand,

In growing your diverse and minority franchisees, you have to kind of lower

some of the barriers to entry, and I'm not suggesting you give anyone a free ride.

What I'm saying is maybe you could structure the deal a little

differently so it's back loaded.

Instead of having higher costs up front for the franchisee, maybe you

can delay some of those costs or payments so that they can get the actual

physical unit open and operating you.

. I think there's also this idea of reinvesting in people, right?

So if you have trained them well and they are operating as a sophisticated

franchisee, layering some additional leadership training on top of that

and helping them understand how the differences in running one

unit and two is, is exponential.

Two to five is another leap and beyond five is another one right there.

Helping them understand the types of systems they will need

internally for their own business.

Helping them understand how to scale their people and grow their

people from within, because frankly, that's the magic sauce right there.

Mm-hmm.

If you teach a one, a single unit franchisee, how to develop and

cultivate talent for their flywheel, for management from within their own

organization, you've just really done something to move the needle for them.

you're not just investing in them, but you're helping them

invest in their people too.

Mm-hmm.

. So there's several layers to that.

It's, it's a little complex, I'm not gonna lie, but I am deeply appreciative

of the brands that are taking steps and working with us to help change

the face of what their franchisees system looks like by reinvesting in

their own franchisees and their people.

Would it be appropriate to to ask you for a few names, , because, well, I think

what we're desperate for, what we really need is some real clear examples of what

this stuff looks like on, on the ground.

Mm-hmm.

, because to be talking is great, but to see something in action is really powerful.

Yeah.

So I, I will give you some examples of brands I think that are doing well

without respectful courses involvement.

So one of them is, is Jersey mics.

I think Jersey mics is doing a lot to highlight the success of some

of their multi-unit franchise.

To shepherd their franchisees to grow as multi-unit operators.

I'm super impressed with that system.

You know, and Young Brands has a whole educational program that's

designed to cultivate diverse franchisees, first time franchisees.

And you know, they have done a phenomenal job in funding that and partnering with

the university at the University of Louis.

To house that entire education program.

So there are brands out there who are taking steps to reinvest

in their franchisees and their education and their betterment.

And I wanna applaud all of them.

I think, you know we, we've seen a lot of movement in this direction, especially

with the sort of wake up call that we got, . I don't think we could avoid this anymore.

You know, but full course does regularly work with brands and look, from where I

sit, I could care less if it's identified as a full course product or not.

What I care about is that, that that brand is taking that

step to make that investment.

Mm-hmm.

, I want them.

To do what we do when we invest in brands and grow franchise systems, I

want them to have all of those tools that we use to help develop their own folks.

Because the more of us that invest back in people, the better this

industry will be in the end.

And I think the faster we'll get there.

Yeah, Jim?

Yeah.

Interesting too, how you were speaking about the.

You know, not to jump all over the place, but I just wanted to make sure

we, we touched on this, is that concept of going from one location to two.

Mm-hmm.

and two to five and five to 10.

Mm-hmm.

, I mean, I've had this discussion not in terms of specifically franchising, but

just that, that management ladder that people, client, you know, when I was a

night manager getting promoted to a gm, I thought that was a big leap, right?

Mm-hmm.

and I was quite like, this is crazy, you know?

Now I'm in charge of the whole thing.

, when I went from GM to district, that was a whole nother mm-hmm.

because it's, I mean, and I, so I tell people all the time, and

Adam, I know you spend lots of time with chefs moving forward in their

careers and trying to take on more responsibility and, and, and grow.

That's the biggest leap I find for people is the one unit to

multi-unit, whether it's management or franchises, it's a, that's a big jump.

Yes, it's a, we, we have a course, you know, obviously specifically designed

to teach these issues, you know?

Mm-hmm.

and it's all the things you wouldn't think about, right?

Yeah.

Suddenly you get over 50 employees, you trigger different HR accountability

and different other, you know?

Right.

So the stuff that kind of gets in the way will end up kind

of clogging up the machine.

And what I often see is when someone goes from one unit to.

They still keep trying to wear all the hats, but there are some hats that

are appropriate to hand off, whether with a very sophisticated vendor,

a part-time employee, et cetera.

So it's about knowing when to let go and knowing where the high risk areas

are in the business as you're growing, and what the appropriate steps are to

take so that you can be more scalable.

Because what I don't want to see is that what we know happens when it's

the burnout, the entrepreneur burnout.

Mm.

Where they try they're, they say, I can't do anymore.

I'm not scalable, is usually when they give up and call us.

Right.

It's somewhere between unit two and three, sometimes three or four because

at that point you can get away with kind of holding all the lids on the pots

and shuffling the stuff on the stove.

And you probably haven't burned out yet, but you're about to.

Yeah.

And so really teaching entrepreneurs in this.

What to let go of, who to give it to and when to do it is the secret sauce, right?

You have to not all do it at once.

We don't wanna load you up with overhead that's unnecessary.

So between two units, two and three, there's some back office stuff

that we really highly recommend, whether that's accounting.

Outsourcing your hr, et cetera, and those gain you extra speed when you

go from unit three to seven, right?

So we're kind of priming the engine a little bit for growth,

even as we're giving you more breathing room to grow yourself.

Yeah.

Chris is just typing in multi-unit management is not simply GM on steroids.

It's a different skillset that many do not get trained properly on,

and then they struggle and to your.

Lauren, then there's the burnout.

No, I mean, nobody likes doing a shitty job, but if you don't have, if you've

never been provided that skillset, then I speaking for myself, it's kind of a great

place, dark place to be when you know you really wanna do a great job but don't

necessarily have access to the tools.

And so I have two questions for you.

Number one, I was more of a statement, so if you haven't checked out full

course.com, you really should as an operator, as a chef, as a team leader,

whatever it, I was just on your educational page and you know your

programs are going for like $99, $39, create positive culture, 35 bucks.

They're video courses.

I.

, you don't necessarily need to be flush in order to use these assets, whether

or not you go for full course or you team up with a a local hospitality

school, or there's all kinds of places to go to get this type of information,

to be able to support your staff.

and, you know, I've always felt that job number one for a manager or a

team leader is to develop number one A, a safe and equitable culture

with which they can do their job.

And the other part is to develop and deepen relationship, period.

Mm-hmm.

and everything else is just a detail to that point.

And so when you talked earlier about you know, identifying and cultivating talent,

to me that landed very, very powerfully because the deeper you can go with

succession plans and and scripting where, you know, everybody has a clear trajectory

through the, through the operation, and then layer that training in so that they

always feel competent when they make it jump from here to here is priceless.

Mm-hmm.

. Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

And I'll add, I'll add this.

You know, I, I see this.

Awesome.

We, we would have high potential.

In our restaurants all the time and identify them very quickly and try and

put them into our management track.

You know, that we had developed internally because we were

growing restaurants so quickly.

I did eight openings in 20 months.

I mean, I was constantly sourcing talent.

It was just constant.

And you know, one of the things that struck me, Absent the, my example

of, you know, making a career in restaurants, a lot of these folks would

not have considered a longer career than just an hourly wage position.

Mm-hmm.

and part of me being vocal in my story and sharing my journey, and

frankly, that of my team as well.

We're all former operator.

We're industry executives.

We are a great example of all of the different kinds of careers that you

can have in the restaurant industry.

And we want to make, I, I want to make it a great place to work.

I just don't wanna be the stop over air quotes here.

First job that everybody's had.

I really wanna help highlight all these amazing ways that you can create

a fulfilling career in our industry.

And I, I think that's part of what we're missing.

We had a little egg on our.

But the truth is the pandemic didn't do that.

79% of operators reported being understaffed in 2019.

Yep.

And I was one of 'em.

This is a true story.

I, one of our units was really struggling.

We had burned through two managers in a very short period of time,

and I was about to go get married.

I had a scheduled date.

I had to be out of town getting married, and I.

The general manager of one of our units.

You know, here we are in a multimillion dollar company.

This is a true story.

We could not train up someone fast enough.

And this one unit that we had was, we called it the bucking Bronco.

Man.

It was crushing volume, just an absolute grind at lunch, and

it was a hard one to master.

And I looked at my partners and I said, I'm gonna get it done.

We're not gonna drop the ball.

And they're like, but Lauren, you're running ops in development.

I'm like, I'll handle it.

And it was so brutal.

So much of that experience that I had.

Informs why we take these positions as full course, because I know what it's like

to not have someone run a shift for you for three weeks while you're training up

frantically training up a new manager.

Right.

You know?

So I really believe that this is a magic.

Bullet here, and I, and I don't wanna simplify it, but it's so simple.

It's investment in people and it's investment in your chain of command.

Everyone in the restaurant who has talent and wants to learn is capable, right?

It's more than just cross-training them.

And on the job training, we have to invest in them, in their

professional and personal betterment.

Well said.

I think yeah, you're, again, I said this earlier, but you guys, what you're doing

is just so appropriate, I think, for our industry because there're, there's

a thousand examples going through my mind right now about, you know, exactly

what you just said, that mm-hmm.

the bucking Bronco example where you're trying to hold onto things that are

happening in the restaurant while you're trying to manage all these

others and train people at the same time and find the next rising star.

It's yeah, it can be a lot for people.

So well let, let's talk about that, Jen.

Like there isn't often a lot of time to do on-the-job training.

Mm-hmm.

, the other issues with on-the-job training, so if you're short-staffed training's,

the last thing that you're worried about, like you literally, we know this, you

guys, everyone's lived this, you throw people in, it's a baptism by fire.

You, you're, you're like showing them while you're doing and it's

a little bit harried and frenetic.

The problem with that kind of training, if you're, if you're understaffed,

it's just impossible to do.

Two, there's not a, a tremendous amount of consistency, right?

How one person does it and one manager does it in one place,

may not be the same as another.

You know you know, three.

It's not how people learn.

Not everyone learns that way.

There are visual learners, there are tactile learners,

there are audio learners.

And so what we really are trying to do here is, look, I don't want

to take away on the job training.

It is necessary.

, but I want it to be the icing on the cake.

We got the cake for you, right?

So let us bake you the perfect cake.

We'll put together what you need.

We'll teach them how to read a p and l.

We'll teach them how to do leadership, how to talk to people, how to

develop culture within a restaurant, and then they can augment that

with your on the job training.

And the, the thing to consider here is accessibility.

Because I really wanna hit on this.

We have a tremendous amount of Hispanic and Spanish language

employees in our restaurants.

Mm-hmm.

and I, you know, never thought in a million years I would be

the person waving this banner.

But it needs to be said.

It is a language barrier to, so one of the things that is on high on my list

this year is, yeah, we are gonna keep kicking out amazing content that people.

but we're also gonna be translating it into at least one LA other language

and that being Spanish, because I feel very strongly that we are need

to remove some of these barriers to upward mobility within our own

opportunities in our restaurants.

And that includes for those people who may not speak English is their first language.

So speaking of accessibility, is full course.

Any state, any market.

Mm-hmm.

, Canada.

Canada, in Canada.

Yeah.

I mean, as soon as we flip this stuff into Spanish, I wanna push it even more

deeply into Central and South America because I think there's some opportunities

for us to, again, where the playbook, I just wanna share the playbook.

I want this information out there.

Look, we have this educational.

All of this is parked in a 5 0 1 nonprofit by design.

My dream is that this is fully funded someday, so no

one has to pay a dime for it.

That's my, that's my mission.

So if anyone wants to write me a check, I'm right here.

, we're good.

I'll put your name on the door.

I don't care.

You know, that's really what this is about.

You know, it costs money for us to produce this content.

It costs money for us to translate it all into Spanish.

I wish I had all the hours in the day I could do it myself, but I can't.

So for us to continually le leveling the playing field means that we're

out there identifying where the gaps are, we're helping fill them with

the right courses and content, and.

We're being proactive in the way that we're solving these problems in our

industry, but that takes time and money.

So right now we charge just a nominal amount so that

people can help us with that.

But man, that be a beautiful thing.

, if we could just teach everybody for free.

Yeah.

Oh, Adam, we can't hear you.

Sorry guys.

to come back to Your accessibility statement.

I also recognize having worked in Florida for South Florida for 20 some

years, that there was a moment where I just, you know, called up the local

extension and and got folks down there for ESOL English as a spec special

second language, and actually had them hold classes in the restaurant on the,

on the hours that they were close and opened it up to everybody on the street.

So it didn't matter which restaurant you worked at, but You know, I'm

have a Latin heritage, although my Spanish is really, really bad, but

the attempt to be able to communicate in their language is viewed by.

associates is like a real plus.

Like at least you're making a, an attempt, right?

, it's like going to France and trying to order a coffee in English.

They're like, oh, sorry until we ignore you, until you at least

try in bad French to order that.

Then they're like, oh, sure, no problem.

I speak English . Yeah, and I think Adam, in those situations, this is

something that I'm adamant about.

You know, I, I am bilingual, but.

You know, I'm very conscious about speaking Spanish in front

of people who don't understand it unless they feel expressed.

So there is this natural thing that happens, and especially when you have

Spanish speaking talent in your kitchen and it just furthers that divide

between back a house in front of house.

Right.

True.

So I wanna give all kinds of runway to those folks.

I don't care if they're a dishwasher, a buser, a sue, they're busing, you

know, they're, they're serving tables or they're, you know, at the host stand.

I want all of those folks to have an opportunity to better themselves

through education in our industry.

And I can't do that if we don't give it to them in a format.

They understand, whether that's language or the way that they learn like video.

Audio.

Mm-hmm.

written content or on the job or some mix of those.

And, you know, here's, here's the thing.

If you are gonna put language classes in your restaurant, which I have done

it on two occasions with different brands that we've worked with.

Please do it in both directions.

So have your English speakers learn Spanish, but also have your

Spanish speakers learn English.

And if you do that, you are really, truly being equitable in

the way you propose that solution.

Cuz it's not just one way, it's both.

Excellent.

Point.

Point.

Is there something that franchises, it's like Jersey mics and,

and Yum as you pointed out.

Is there some takeaway that we can, we can pull from their current successes

in closing the gap and translate that to someone who's a single unit

owner who's, you know, struggling to keep his p and l above water.

What, what can he do or she do to close the gap that seems to be yawning

even wider with every day that goes?

Yeah, so I, I am gonna say this.

I, so as the daughter of an immigrant, I was taught that education is

the key to unlocking opportunity.

. And so we clearly have hung our hat on that at full course.

You know, I love that we're an investment firm and we are changing the game with

the way we invest in restaurants, but the most sacred and important thing we

will ever do is our investment in people and the way we educate them, period.

Now, all of that said, I do wanna make a point here because we've

talked a lot about education.

Yeah.

But seeing somebody who looks like you and has a story like yours,

succeed is incredibly powerful.

And for those of us who have made it over this bridge in our careers who

are successful multi-unit operators who have come up in careers in the

industry, who have been executives, who have started companies.

you have come over that bridge and worked really hard to get

there, but your job is not over.

You have to turn around and lift up and carry over that bridge.

All of the people who are coming up behind you in the next generation of leadership.

That is how we make a difference in this country.

It is incumbent on us to share our stories and sometimes.

It's uncomfortable.

I'm not gonna lie.

It is not always easy for me to walk in and be the woman in the room.

It is not always easy for me to walk in and feel like I have to wear the

banner for our Hispanic culture.

Cuz you know this Adam, we're so wildly different.

Even within Hispanic culture.

I Oh yeah.

But like my met friends who are Mexican, totally different from my

friends who are Costa Rican, et cetera.

And my point just here is to say, if I.

, if I step back and don't share my story because I feel uncomfortable carrying

the banner, and I'm not even suggesting that's what it is, but it feels heavy.

It feels like a heavy mantle.

I'm not doing any justice to the people who just need to see an example.

They just need to see that someone out there cares about them and

who has worked hard to succeed.

That is massive and it's happened to me even at this stage in my career.

I have been humbled and so motivated and empowered.

By other executives in our industry who are also Hispanic.

who've said to me, you're doing an awesome job.

What can I do to help you?

I really value what you're doing.

This is so powerful.

And I'm like, me?

Like, what?

Re ok?

No, because these fan girl, a little bit on your heroes.

And to me, anyone who looks like me and has a story like mine

and has immigrant parents, you know, like that lands with me.

Inspires and motivates me.

So what I do wanna say is, when you have these successes and these brands and

the programs you're doing are working and you're growing multiunit franchisees

and growing leadership opportunities, track that stuff and share it.

Talk about it because other brands need to see that it's working too, right?

That it equates to actual results and reward for the brand.

Don't be shy about.

Please , please share.

Man, you're eloquent.

with all those years of, of debate team and, and all Stars suppose.

Thank you.

That was very kind.

Listen, this conversation is so juicy and we could go on for a lot longer,

but we want to be appreciative of everybody's time and our listeners and

viewers, and thanks very much for Chris for your comment, Doug, your enthusiasm.

We're gonna actually end this broadcast, right?

But we're actually gonna go into another studio and record some bonus

content that will only be available tomorrow when we do our recap of the

show and put the bullet notes in there.

So you wanna look for that post because there's gonna be some free bonus

content where Lauren is really gonna.

Kind of like, like, like she is, she's just gonna lay it out for us.

1, 2, 3, what can we do to close the gap?

So join us there.

Thank you very much, Lauren, Jim viewers, listeners, thank

you so much for your time.