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Welcome to Turning the Table, the Most Progressive Weekly podcast for

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today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff centric operating

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solutions for restaurants in the hashtag new hospitality culture.

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Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark 60 and Adam Lamb as they turn the tables on

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the prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in favor

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of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.

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Thanks for joining us, and now on to the show.

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This episode is made possible by e vocalize.

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To find out more, go to Turning the table podcast.com/e vocalize.

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Welcome back.

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Thank you very much, brother.

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Good to have you back.

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I am tickled to be here in more than one way.

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And forgive me folks, if I'm a little creaky on the dial on the platters

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because I've been out for almost six weeks now on A little journey

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of personal health and development.

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And so that's gonna fit in really great with our conversation when we

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bring in Tucker in but I wanted to say, Jim, it's awful nice to see you again.

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You too.

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Good to have you back.

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And as always, we had a couple questions to ponder before the show starts.

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What if this is as good as it's ever gonna get for your career?

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Have you ever sat wondered holy crap man is, it ever gonna get any better?

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Do you wonder why you can't seem to attract the right

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talent for your operation?

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It's been a huge challenge for a lot of operators, while some operators seem to

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be fully fully, employed and loving it.

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And the third question I'd ask before we bring on our leadership development

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coach and mentor, Tucker Bascom, is Have you actually taken on a commitment to do

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your own work, to take on your own shit?

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Because the title of this show, episode 1 42, is why nothing

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will Change until you Do.

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And just on my experience nothing did change until I decided that it

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had to start with me first and then everything started to flow from that.

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Jim, does any of that ring a bell for you?

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Yeah.

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All of it.

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I'm, looking forward to this conversation with Tucker too, to get into it a bit

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because there's, you said before we jumped on here, you were like I think,

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I'm pretty sure you're gonna have some comments about this, and do you have a

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remember a time or something like that?

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Sure.

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Relevant, and I, think my response was, which time?

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So there's lots of ways we can look at it.

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Yeah.

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And I really appreciate.

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That, that comment because it's like, yeah, if we're actually paying attention,

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it's every 10, 12 years it seems like we need to tighten up our game a little

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bit or make a concerted effort to bring in a new tool to add to our tool belt.

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But I laughed when When training some new cooks and they

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thought, Hey I'm done with math.

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If high school is over, I don't even have to help deal with that anymore.

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And as a rise higher in the food chain of the management structure of hospitality,

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you work with that much more often.

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But that's not news to our friend Tucker welcome Tucker.

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How you

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doing?

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Welcome.

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So, glad to be here, gentlemen.

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Happy.

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I was worried maybe we weren't gonna be able to make this happen today, Tucker.

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So it's good to see your face and have you on the show.

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Yeah.

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And Tucker's bio is really, simple.

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He says, I train leaders.

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And then he also builds aligned organizational cultures and structures.

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And he's very passionate about protecting mental health in restaurants.

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And we actually have a a pledge That I stole from Tucker's website, that I

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will put the link in the show notes for anybody who wants to sign on as making

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mental health a priority in our industry.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, Adam.

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Thank you.

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It's good to see you and I'm so glad to see that you're recovering.

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It's incredible.

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I'm glad to have you here.

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Thank you.

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When I saw the, when I saw the title of this, why Nothing

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Will Change until You Do.

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I was, Like, man, you are hitting the nail on the head and hopping

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right back into action with a topic very near and dear to my heart.

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And when I think about why nothing will change until you

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do really what c comes to mind.

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And I'm wondering if you guys have read the book, seven Habits

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of Highly Effective People.

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Stephen Covey has that chapter of the Circle of Influence

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and the Circle of Concern.

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Does that ring a bell?

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Yeah,

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sure.

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Yeah.

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So for those who haven't read that chapter, or maybe it's been a while,

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the circle of influences is really what we feel like we can control, right?

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And then outside of the circle of.

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Influence is the circle of concern.

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All of the things that we're concerned about that we feel

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like we have zero control over.

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The news, the weather, natural disasters in the restaurant industry,

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it's the mood of the customer when they come in to order food from you.

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It's the supply chain.

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When, you're 86 of your, ribeye for the fifth straight week all of

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the things that we can't control.

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What Stephen Covey teaches us, reminds us is when we focus on

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what it is that we can control.

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I can't control the customer's attitude, but I can control the

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way I, I show up for the customer.

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I can't control the supply chain, but I can pivot the menu if I need to.

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When we focus on that circle, what happened?

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Is it grows and it grows and the things that we were concerned

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about that we thought we had no control over tend to find their

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way into that circle of influence.

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But we can never grow the circle until we get clear on what it

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is we can actually control.

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And I, think the art of.

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Changing yourself so that you can change other things is really getting

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clear and prioritizing what is it that I can control and what is

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most important for me to control.

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To, to me that's always the best place to to start in this whole conversation

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of personal development and self master.

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That's such a good such a good reminder for just, I think the

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whole restaurant industry right now because we've had three years of.

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Out of control.

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Yes, very much.

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I, think anybody who's been in the industry for the

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last three years is hyper.

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Aware of all of the things that they can control such as a

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pandemic and, how anybody even deals with being in a pandemic.

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The variety of ways that team members dealt with it, the variety

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of ways that customers dealt with it, how suppliers dealt with it.

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It was just every single day was like a Pandora's box.

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Of what news is going to come out, that's going to just

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completely throw my life into a,

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whirlwind, right?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I think it was interesting that we still reference the pandemic.

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Theoretically it was Covid 19, so basically from St.

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Patrick's day, one year to the St.

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Patrick's Day, the next year we were in some form of lockdown or whatever, and.

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Yet it seems to be right on the tip of everybody's tongue of

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it's still affecting us even now.

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And so if folks are willing to put in the work to do their own

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personal work, and I think that's probably a great place to start.

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What does that look like?

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It's also an acknowledgement of We haven't had time to grieve, we haven't had time

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to mourn the people that we've floss.

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We even wistful gosh, I wish it was like back in the old days conversations.

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We don't have time for any of that because we're not only has the hustle culture just

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went into overdrive, but now it's impacted by all these outside outside influences.

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And Tucker, what was your life like when you finally came to that?

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That self-inquiry, like when you were actually willing to sit down and do

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the work about where you wanted to go, how, who you wanted to influence.

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Yeah, and I think everybody gets to that.

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Point differently.

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I, love kind of asking other people that question because it's just

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inspiring to hear their story.

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I, could probably chalk it up to a few different points in my life.

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One, one being a a D U I that I got and as a freshman in

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college, that was eye-opening.

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But we don't need to open that up maybe for another podcast.

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Really I'd say when I taking personal development At making it a priority was

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when the owners of the franchise that I operated for were giving me some feedback.

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That was a bit tough for me to hear.

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I had high turnover probably actually I know as a result of my own leadership

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and some of the other people who I had put in leadership positions who

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were doing what I was asking them to, but who were not leading effectively.

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And there's a difference there.

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And so they invited me to They, sponsored my attendance to a seminar.

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I had no idea what to expect in this particular seminar.

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There's a lure where you don't they, intentionally make it so

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that you don't know what to expect until you get there by design.

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And I came out of that weekend emotionally and mentally exhausted

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raw and ready to think about my life.

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Differently And that inquiry, that curiosity of what could my life be like?

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And Adam, I think you, you have a mantra how good can it get?

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Like really embodying that to where it's driving all of the

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questions that you're asking.

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And when you start asking better questions you get way higher quality answers and

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your life tends to change rapidly once you start looking for different things, right?

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That was the catalyst for me actually designing a leadership development program

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for the franchise that I operated for.

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Using a lot of those tools, being exposed to different materials and then

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putting together a program that our shift leaders could then go through

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in order to get their promotion.

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And for me, the best way to learn anything is to teach it.

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That really drives it home when you start teaching the things

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that you're talking about.

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And so I was probably the best student that I had because I

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was learning the entire time.

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But fortunately, other people got benefit outta the program as well.

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And that really started putting our culture on a trajectory of personal growth

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where people weren't afraid to ask hard questions really be passionately committed

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to the wellbeing of the other person, whether it's a customer or a team member.

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We were all using similar language and, that tends to be when things

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start to to catalyze quickly.

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That's amazing.

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So that's, that was the beginning of what you do now then, right?

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Yeah, very much I facilitated that program for that franchise for about five

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years, and then the owners sold in 2021, which was their goal from the get-go.

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That was their, moment.

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They wanted to exit.

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I exited with them and I was like, what do I want to do now?

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What did I enjoy the most?

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It was facilitating that leadership training program.

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And yes, that was the inspiration

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for my company.

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So what did you think was the biggest there's lots of things that I'm sure you

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took away from it and that jumped off the page at you when you started doing some

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of this stuff, but, What was the gap?

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What was the biggest aha moment or biggest opportunity for those people?

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The people in the program?

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Yeah.

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I am consistently surprised at how few people actually have a vision for what

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they want their life to look like.

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Particularly in the service industry where people's backgrounds

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are, they vary so greatly.

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Who knows what their home life is like, what kind of parenting that they've had,

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what kind of school systems they were in.

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But a lot of people don't have a vision for what they actually want their look

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life to look like a year down the line.

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Five years down the line, they pull their vision from social media and

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as we know, that's not a great yeah.

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Source of inspiration for what you want your life to look like.

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And so I'd say the most impactful thing that we did together in those programs

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was put together a vision for what they want their life to look like.

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Like actually asking them, Hey, five years from now, what

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does success look like for you?

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And once they start to crystallize that vision, we can start to put very clear

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steps in place to help them get there.

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And what I always was very careful to try to do.

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Is link where they were at now, which was working at this restaurant that

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we're working at together and, linking that to the vision that they have for

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themselves and whether their vision included the hospitality industry or not.

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Most times it didn't, to be frank.

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How can this job right now at the restaurant move them closer

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to where they want to go?

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And mapping out those steps.

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And then my job is to hold them accountable to make sure that they're

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actually taking those steps, asking them the questions, Hey, why did you

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not follow through and execute on this?

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Hey, can we think about this differently?

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I think it's going to help you move you closer to your, vision.

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And any coach's job is to hold the vision for the student to Sure.

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Sure.

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To hold them accountable to actually get, there.

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That's the outline in the premise of anybody who I work with and I think

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a good leadership development program incorporates that into anything that

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they're doing as opposed to just, this is how you take inventory, this is how you

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make the schedule, et cetera, et cetera.

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It's really looking at the bigger picture and linking it to

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their vision for their own life.

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Interesting.

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Tucker, do you have a Do you have a, way of, creating meaning in your own

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life when you talk about leadership?

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Okay.

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So totally get once, once we can write it down on a piece of paper and, okay, this

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is my life five years from now and this is what I'm doing on my perfect day and

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da And that's still a little all heady.

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But when we flip the switch of okay, so what does it feel like

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to actually be in that space?

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That's, really when, the energy starts moving.

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And so as you developed your, core teachings about leadership

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and stuff like that what did that leadership development mean to you?

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To be able to assist others to find their growth edge and inspire

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them to take their work on?

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That's a really, great question.

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And, I will be very, honest.

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Honest please, there was definitely a lot of ego and personal gain

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to be had at the beginnings of the development of, this program.

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There was a lot of Personal gain for me, I was using it to get people to stay on

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longer and increase retention because it dangle that carrot of, hey, you could

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get a promotion and make more money.

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And while I do think the people in the first couple of programs did

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get a lot of value because lessons or lessons and wisdom is wisdom the

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motive behind it, at the beginning there was a lot of ego and a lot of,

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gosh, if I can do this, I can really.

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Elevate my own career.

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Funny enough I, saw a quote yesterday by psychologist Jordan Peterson,

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where he was talking about how when people have children that tends to

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expedite how quickly they mature.

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And the sign of maturity is being able to put somebody else's needs.

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Above your own.

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Yeah.

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When I had my son and I was thrust into a position of fatherhood, my entire world

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started to turn on its head where you realize that someone else's needs may

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actually be more important than your own.

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And that kind of trickled out into the team members.

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Members and the people who I was responsible for leading and putting

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their needs ahead of mine and actually adjusting the program to better serve

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them and put my own needs aside I think really made the program a lot better.

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To answer your question the, meaning aspect of it, I think scrapping meaning

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together on a daily basis is one of the most difficult things for us humans to do.

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It's just freaking hard to find meaning every single day.

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I have found the most effective way for me to get meaning and extract

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meaning out of every single day is, this going to help my son?

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Live a better life in the future and, putting his needs

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and putting him on a pedestal.

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Is this going to help him somehow, even if it's just me doing breath work or

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meditation in the morning to center myself, is this going to help me show up

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to be a better father so that my son has a better opportunity to thrive in his life?

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And if it's not, My son, it's a client that I'm working with or it's a a leader

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who I'm developing at a restaurant chain, like substitute my son for anybody.

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Obviously my son is my son, but it's a template of putting other

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people's needs above my own.

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And I get satisfaction and meeting out of prioritizing their wellbeing.

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So question for you on this.

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This stuff is, amazing and incredibly powerful for people who are listening

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to us talk about this right now, and they're working in a restaurant right

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now and they don't have access to you.

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What do they do?

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We always talk about it.

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Okay, the show's on Thursday, what do people do to this

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weekend in the restaurant?

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Yeah.

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So like, where did if I'm someone listening in working in a restaurant

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somewhere in the world and I'm going, I need to do more of this, where

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do I even start?

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Yeah, that's so this is where, I started was adjusting my feed

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on social media who I follow.

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There are so many trash accounts.

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And, I followed every single one of them.

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Realizing you know what?

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Seeing these people on a yacht drink lots of alcohol and dance with parade with

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women actually isn't making me feel good when I view that I'm going to follow time.

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Bill, you or Steven Covey or Adam Lamb, Jim Taylor what it really is, it's

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putting yourself in proximity to people who are doing what you want to be doing.

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And what, is it?

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You are the sum, what's the quote?

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You, are the sum of the five people you hang around most.

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Yeah.

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Is your environment flat out.

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It is your environment that is producing the stimulus that is then

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producing the thoughts that you think.

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And if you don't feel good on a regular basis, take a look at who

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you're spending your time with.

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It is so hard to dig yourself out of a rut or a hole.

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And we've all been there in some way, shape or form.

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The, lowest common denominator that you can do type in personal

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development and Instagram.

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Just see what comes up.

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Like bare minimum takes you five seconds and just follow different accounts.

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I think in today's day and age and 2023, that is the easiest thing anybody can

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do is just follow different accounts.

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Yeah.

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Now, especially for the push there's been I've only been aware for.

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Of it for probably the last year.

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This desire by some folks who are on LinkedIn actually use

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it as driving content that that their audience will value.

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That then creating a, larger audience.

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But this idea of like just providing value, like there's some

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folks I know or I've seen online, like they give away everything.

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Because if, the giveaway stuff is that good, then what am I holding

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back And you gotta pay for, right?

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Is that kind of like mental gymnastics?

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But I also know that that's not a great long-term strategy, but it seems like

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it's a great place to, hone skills.

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Be connecting with somebody.

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How do you DM somebody in a way in which they'll respond.

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All these things those are the things that I focus on when I start following

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different accounts on LinkedIn.

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It's like how to actually Mac maximize the platform.

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And so Jim and I will have this conversation how, can we like focus

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on more on, on potential clients.

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And and when he first brought that up, I was like so excited

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oh my god, that sounds perfect.

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And.

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If I step take a step away, it's yeah, ultimately that's what

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this whole package looks like.

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This, turning the table that we do every Thursday is about giving two or

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three actionable tips that folks can take right back into their operation.

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And I know that the top of run really is a little esoteric for most folks.

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They just wanna comment.

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Punch the clock, work their station, get it done, get it over with.

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I don't necessarily want to have to do more reading or listening when

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I get home or on the way to work or whatever, yet to come back to the title

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of the show, speaking only for myself.

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Nothing changed in my life until I started to change.

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So I used the same mindset for 10, 15 years, got to the top of the the food

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chain looked around and said, now what?

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And then basically used that same type of methodology to To bring

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me here, sitting in this seat.

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And I just got done with getting a spine, a failed spinal fusion re redone.

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So these guys had to take that stuff out and put, it was like being an erector set.

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But that's, the culmination of, how I was being for all those years.

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It took it in my body.

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That energy stayed and Gosh, if you were only here 10 years ago, you

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could have saved me so much trouble.

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Tucker.

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You did a Dr.

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Joe Spencer event, didn't you?

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A lot of done several, the language you just used to

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describe that entire experience.

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I can tell you did some work with Dispenza, cuz a lot of that.

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Ener energetics.

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And, that's, that, that's why, what's the lowest common

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denominator that anybody can do?

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It's expose yourself to new information.

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Yeah.

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Expose yourself to new.

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Information that will give you the language and the words to use.

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So when you're ready to have that conversation with a manager or a coworker,

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or a parent or a friend, hey I don't feel good right now and here's a couple

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reasons why I think I don't feel good.

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Here's what I want to do.

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You have the language ready to use to actually verbally speak

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to somebody else because you've exposed yourself to new information

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and your vocabulary has increased.

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So important.

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So important.

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I, know I shouldn't dive down any rabbit holes, man, cuz We'll, just

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be here all day, which I'm, sure some folks wouldn't mind at all.

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But again, we want to keep it snap doodly.

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So I'm wondering what it takes for other folks to like, be ready.

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To get to put in their work to like your own self-discovery is like the

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most radical action you can take.

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It frees you from fuck control and all kinds of stuff.

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And you're right, you call me out on the Joe Dispenza stuff, and it's

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not like I'm banging the gong for.

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For energetic medicine, but I know for myself, taking that time out

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to meditate every day is a little piece of medicine that I give myself.

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And you also mentioned Tucker earlier that your, inquiry every day is how can

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I make this planet better for my son?

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And I think that's an incredibly powerful way to go about it as well.

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So how, to encourage others to step into the circle and take their own work on.

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In my experience, most people when they have embarked on this

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journey tend to have one or maybe multiple rock bottom experiences.

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And I would hate to send the message that if you're not on that path yet, then

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it means you haven't hit rock bottom.

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I don't believe that.

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I think that rock bottom is objective and everyone's a different height.

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Everyone has different skills and everyone has a different ability

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to climb themselves out of the hole that they've dug for themselves.

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And anybody at any time can decide what their rock bottom was implying.

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You don't have to.

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Create one in order to catapult yourself.

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And I, after my d u I that I mentioned I, started attending a lot of AA meetings.

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And in those meetings I learned that my, what I thought my rock bottom

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was, a mountain compared to what some of these other people had been

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through their rock bottom moments.

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And I realized, goodness, I can decide that this is my rock

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bottom now, so I don't have to.

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Experience a different rock bottom in the future, because that just sounds terrible.

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Yeah.

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And so I decided I've had my rock bottom and I'm, only going to go up from here.

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And so anybody who, who feels like, gosh, what's my motivation?

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Listen to some other people's stories and decide for yourself,

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do you want to experience that?

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Or perhaps could you decide that you're at your rock bottom now and

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you're going to change tomorrow?

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Because you don't want to see what the hole tomorrow looks like.

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You just wanna start climbing that mountain, and that's an internal thing.

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But listening to other people's stories may inspire you to

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course correct sooner than later.

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I'm

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just listening to you guys.

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There's some fascinating stuff that you're talking about here and, that's a

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really good way, I think Tucker, the the, mountain versus the rock bottom, right?

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It's all per based on perception.

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And I'm sitting here thinking, cause before we jumped on the

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show, Adam was asking me about okay, how has this landed for you?

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And I'm going, listening to you guys thinking about.

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Examples of nothing changes till you change in my career or my life.

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And just from a going back to the what can someone do this weekend in the

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restaurant, if they're the one that's okay, yeah, this is all cool, but

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I'm closing tonight and I open again tomorrow and I work a double on Saturday.

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I'm thinking about in my career, and I by no means did this perfectly I

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think sometimes one of the challenges, at least that I had, Was if I thought

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about where I wanted to be the final destination in life kind of thing

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of what's the perfect scenario?

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It's fuck, that's really hard to get to and I'm closing tonight.

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Yeah.

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And I'm gonna be tired tomorrow.

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And I'm just trying to go on vacation once this year and things Nice kind of thing.

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And so I think back to when I was going through that and the first, I think,

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iteration of that for me was I was.

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That was bartending.

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I was managing one day a week.

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I was getting my feet wet in the industry and I wanted to move forward.

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I wanted to start a career in hospitality.

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So the first thing I did, what you're talking about in terms of the

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Instagram thing, except this is a long time ago and Instagram didn't exist.

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It was what's the first thing I can do?

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And it's stop partying with all the people that I'm trying to be

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professional around every day.

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Yep.

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And the way I was said it was, it doesn't matter if you go to the

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party, just be the first one to leave.

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Really Something like that.

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Wait, a second.

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Wait, Kim, before.

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Say that again cuz I think that was so powerful and we

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shouldn't just gloss over that.

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Let's be honest cause it's so true.

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Social environment.

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And I met my wife working in restaurants, some of my best friends, the best

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man at my wedding, all of that stuff.

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They're all people that I worked with that, and it's not like you never go

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out and have fun with them, but my role for me was, I can go, I'm just

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gonna be the first one to go home.

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Because I never wanted to be the one that they were talking about the next day.

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And that was the first one, first thing that I tried to do.

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The second thing was I was in management and I wanted to be a gm.

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And I knew that earlier in my life I didn't have the, most

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positive views on education.

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I didn't love school.

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I went to university, but I didn't finish.

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I started my work, my career in hospitality and that kind of thing, and

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I realized that there was a bunch of people in this company or this industry

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that all wanted to get to that level of be the next gm, be the best gm, get the

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biggest promotion, all of those things.

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And I looked at it and said, okay, I'm getting lots of good

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experience working in the restaurant every day, just like they are.

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But maybe now education is more relevant than it was before.

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So what can I go and learn?

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Similar to what you're saying, what can I go and learn that's gonna help

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me move forward and differentiate?

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So it was all these different, I think thinking about where am I at right now and

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what's the next positive step and what's one thing I can do to get towards it?

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Rather than, not to discredit what you're saying, but that horizon thing,

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it, the horizon will always be there.

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It's right.

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Yes.

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I've always tried to think about the gap theory, right?

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It's, you've gotta really spend time looking at where you've come from as

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opposed to where you're trying to get to.

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Both are important, but that horizon theory, I've always thought is very

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important because if you chase the horizon, you're never gonna get to it.

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I love You're, I can go to the party, but I'm gonna be the first one to leave.

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And I would argue that was probably so effective because even though your

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environment may not have been different, you've been to that place where the

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party was and then you went home where you go home every single night,

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you interacted with it differently.

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And, that is one way to change your environment, is to just interact with

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your environment in a different way.

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I think that's Very, good advice for anybody looking for just one

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thing to start changing and moving

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forward.

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And Jim, that's so brilliant, man.

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Thanks for bringing that up because just thinking back in my own career, like

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when were, the times that I actually stood and looked around myself and

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wondered okay, how can I change it?

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How can I make it better that whatever that conversation

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was, but being paralyzed.

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By the fact that I was so close to the associates and the team.

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And when I started training others and saying, okay, there needs to be a a

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respectful bo we didn't have the word for it then, but it was a boundary.

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So one week one, we didn't know we needed to articulate or even that it existed.

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But then, but I remember making that change and feeling like l

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like a little bit lost emotionally.

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Shit, man, I, it was always great to go even if it was just one pop at the

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service bar at two o'clock in the morning to stop by and clap everybody by around

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or whatever, and then that's gone.

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It's oh gosh.

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It was like, that was an emotional fuel for me and now,

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how the hell do I get back?

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And so I think for me, what happened was is as I got clearer on.

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Where we landed within those boundaries, it ac it helped fuel my interest in

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their their education and development.

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Where I started going beyond just being a chef and actually becoming a mentor,

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which I think is the unspoken truth that we're gonna be living in the next several

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years is that, The associates coming into the industry, they don't want, they don't

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want a boss, they don't want a coach.

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What they want is they want a mentor.

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They want someone who's gonna be elbow to elbow with them.

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And I, I hate to say create a safe environment because at some point

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we all have to take risks and, fail and fall a little bit short.

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But always have a safety net there.

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And this kind of, these kind of conversations really bring me a lot of.

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Hope because again, there, there are organizations and operations out there

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that are doing all this stuff, that are trying this stuff that are hiring Tucker,

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that are talking to you, Jim, about content development, marketing, and kudos

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to our sponsor e vocalize for really creating an amazing solution for mid-range

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chains to really master their, marketing just by pushing a couple buttons.

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I feel like really well steeped in this sauce of here

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we go for our transformation.

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Tucker, if someone wanted to learn more about you, cuz I know you got a couple

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different things, you've got this seven taps thing, which I think is really

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cool, but I won't say anything about.

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So other people discover it links in the show notes to his website to him on

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LinkedIn and one of the most accessible people I know and always ready to To

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return a DM or just say a quick hi.

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So I appreciate that from our relationship.

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And I think what you're doing is critical work, man.

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For sure.

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Thank you so much.

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Thank you.

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I would agree the work you guys are doing I think it takes an entire

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team it takes a, group effort.

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Takes an industry effort to see the transformation we want to see.

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So I'm encouraged to see you two find gentlemen and people who are watching

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and other people in the industry who are making the concerted effort to

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transform themselves so that they can also then transform their team,

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their company, and the industry.

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Yeah.

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Any last any last bullet in the gun to shoot As far as Okay.

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What's, something I can try this weekend?

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I love Jim, your point.

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And Tucker, you brought up a couple other points.

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What's one, one more thing that somebody might wanna play around with to create

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a more structured and resilient team?

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The quickest way to ensure you have a great day is to delay the time in which

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you look at your phone by 30 minutes.

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I think a lot of people wake up and look at their phone as soon as they awake.

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I would encourage anybody to wait 30 minutes.

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I don't care what you do in those 30 minutes.

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And, just wait before you plug in to, the network.

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Oh man.

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Yeah, that's good for anybody in any industry, right?

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Because it's such a knee jerk reaction.

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When I found out that there were people who were becoming intimate and still

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were on their phones, I thought that was like the height of craziness.

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But, it's but it's so automatic to, to roll right out of bed, since I've

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been in recovery for over the last several weeks, I've had weeks where

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I shut my phone off and don't look at it, and it's been the weirdest thing.

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There's part of, there's part of me that was constantly always wanting

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to grab it or touch it or to like, I'm looking for those dopamine hits.

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And and yet I had to choose to not have those dopamines as a way of

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kind of thinning the receptors out.

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And.

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Give me one last thing.

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So from here to there, shortest distance between manager, leader,

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action thought what, are you looking

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for?

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For me it would be like make tomorrow more about the team than you.

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Like focus, focus outward first before focusing inward.

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Cuz I remember many, mornings walking in back door and strapping

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my arm around getting ready.

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Here comes the madness as opposed to like being outwardly focused and Tucker,

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what can I what can I do for you today to make your job a little bit easier?

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Not take anything from you, but as a way of mentoring

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them into their own greatness.

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I will take a quote that Ike Shahada, founder of Ikes Love and

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Sandwiches, the franchise I operated for, or something that he taught me.

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Love means to be passionately committed to the wellbeing of the other.

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Be love in as many contexts and situations as you could possibly be, and you won't

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be able to help but transform your life.

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Nutshell, be passionately committed to the wellbeing of the other.

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Ah, that's good.

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And Adam, this reminds me of a, conversation that you and I have

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had before about that filter around.

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Just do what you need to do to make sure that people love

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working with you every day.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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And we, I know we always end it end at this particular place in the

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conversation, but man, I wish I was, I had been there to kinda see what,

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were the things that you were doing?

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What were the questions that you, were asking?

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How did you actually check in with people?

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Were you touching them on their elbow in order to create a

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physical connection with them?

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All those things, like when I think about what someone else can, do

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for me so that my day doesn't suck.

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I'm sure there was a point in my life where I could give 'em an entire list,

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but I know that really the only person who can actually change anything is me today.

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And that's by shifting my perspective, my energy, my thoughts and to show

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up tugger, like you said, be love.

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So how, are you be loving?

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How were you being love Jim?

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Me?

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In, in that scenario, yeah.

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It was just about things like.

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Ask before you tell.

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Someone's having a, someone's having a shitty day at work and

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they're just not doing a good job.

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They're dropping plates, they rung in orders wrong.

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They the, previous me would've sat them down and been like,

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what's going on with you suck.

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Phil, filter of enjoy.

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Make sure people enjoy working with you every day.

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Was, how are you doing?

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What's going on?

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Is there anything I can do to help you?

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I notice you're not yourself today.

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What is, there something that we've done or have we put you in a position

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or we talk about this, Tucker, you and I got into a long discussion about

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workload management a few weeks ago.

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Have we put too much workload on your plate and it's causing you

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stress and you can't handle it?

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Like we call, we create this for people sometimes.

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What?

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Yeah.

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I think that it was all about ask questions before you assume something.

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It was about ask, don't tell.

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It was about just making sure that you're there to protect people's

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experience lots of that kind of stuff.

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Courtney, its thanks for the, positive feedback and, we're looking forward

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to having you on the show soon too.

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Yeah, so I think just lots of that kind of stuff and the, comment that my mentor

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said to me, and I'll repeat this cuz Adam we've talked about this before, talked, I

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don't know if I've ever said this to you.

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He challenged me to be the type of leader that people just do whatever you have to

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do within reason, obviously to make sure that people love working on your shifts.

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And the follow up comment to that was because if people don't love working on

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your shifts, You won't be running shifts.

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I'm gonna got it.

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I'm gonna pin this Jim by following up that conversation with something that

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our good friend Michelle Moreno always talks a lot about his love, right?

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So at some point in the industry, love became you can't say that word.

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You can't use that word, the.

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Because of any other connotation it may have as a phy physical or whatever.

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But I can't think of anything more important than bringing back the

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love, not only for ourselves, but for the people that we work with and

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for the guests that are coming in.

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So that be love is more about like how you were talking about Jim.

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Like it's not it's the uniform of the day for you.

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You're crisp, you're clean, you got it all in and right in your top pockets.

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This beloved man I'm, just gonna be love.

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And that doesn't mean.

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Giving her power away or accepting poor behavior from someone else because you

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manage by standard, not by personality.

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Tucker

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My grandpa was a service manager for at and t for a very long time, and there

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was always two things he knew about every single person who worked for him.

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He managed.

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Hundreds and hundreds of people.

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He knew what city you grew up in and he knew your favorite sports

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team every si hundreds of people.

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He knew where they grew up, what their favorite sports team was.

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And so anytime he interacted with them, he acknowledged that was his way.

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Of, being loved in any situation that he was amazing and he found that out

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about every person he worked with.

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So a very, practical way to just show people you hear them and you, you know a

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bit about them and you appreciate them.

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Very cool.

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I love it.

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I'm just po posting this in the chat because that seems to me to be a And, the

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reality is, that if you've been a certain way for a long time and all of a sudden

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you show up as being someone who really cares about their people and wants to

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talk to 'em and have con, people might think that you're a little nuts at first.

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Because they're so used to the way you used to show up and

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now you're doing this pivot.

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And I would encourage you to get everybody together and just say, Hey, listen, I'm

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trying something different this weekend.

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Don't know if it'll necessarily work.

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But these are the things that I'm gonna be working on and I'd appreciate

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you appreciate your feedback if this is all done, because it's not

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just retina and sand, but like just a little bit more transparency and

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vulnerability, I think goes a long, way.

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I love you guys.

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Dr.

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Thanks so much for the knowledge bombs today.

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So good.

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Oh it was

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so fun.

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Guys.

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I love chatting with you.

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Any, time I can.

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Thank you and that this has gotta

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be one of the fastest 43 minutes.

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It's just flew.

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Unbelievable by.

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Unbelievable.

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Yeah.

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We've got links for for your website, for you on LinkedIn for assigning the

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pledge for mental health awareness in the industry, and also a link for the

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seven taps that you've got going on.

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So when you talk about, we're not gonna get in to have time for it this

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week, but I definitely want to get next time talk about this microlearning.

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As, a as a tool to really engage and drive significant training to

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the associates or to the managers.

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It be because that's something that can be done in a standup right before.

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And so that really fills me up with a little bit of charge because

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I know that if I'm engaged in that type of relationship, then

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I'm all growing as well, right?

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It's just not.

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One way, it's a symbiotic relationship.

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Let me know.

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I could get you connected with some the micro-learning

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community is very tight-knit.

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We, could get some really, cool micro-learning experts to to

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chat about that if you'd like to.

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I, love that idea and we'll definitely do that.

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Jim Tucker, thanks so much for this episode of Turning the Table.

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And we look forward to seeing you all next week.

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Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with

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me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

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We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry for the better by

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focusing on staff mental health, physical and emotional wellbeing, by proactively

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measuring and managing staff workloads.

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Join other hospitality professionals co-creating the hashtag new

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hospitality culture by subscribing to our weekly newsletter at ww dot.

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Turning the table podcast.com/news.

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In every edition, you'll find innovative solutions ready to test and validate

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Plus, listen to exclusive bonus content just for you.

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on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

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It helps other hospitality professionals.

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Just like you find the show, or better yet, grab the show link

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and share it with a friend or colleague who you wanna see succeed.

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Thanks for stepping in and speaking out for an industry craft and

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Remember, retention is the new Cool y'all.

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This podcast was written, directed, and produced by me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

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Turning the table is a production of Realignment Media.