Qu - Restaurants Reinvented - Donald Burns
[00:00:00] Donald Burns: You gotta know your mission, your core values and vision. What do you stand for? What is it you're trying to accomplish? Where are you trying to go with this thing? Hi everyone and welcome back to Restaurants Reinvented. This is Jen, and today's episode is the third episode in our new Labor series. Now, when I started the labor series, I had no idea that it would quickly become a leadership, people management and culture series. What I'm seeing, and apologize if I'm late to the game here, folks, is that the issue plaguing restaurants is really not so much about a quote unquote labor crisis or war on talent, or even about minimum wage pay and benefits.
[00:01:05] Jen Kern: It's about evolving the way we lead and manage people and the culture we build inside the restaurant. Now, in full disclosure, I'm as guilty as anyone, I was raised in old school nineties-command-and-control management. As Donald Burns and I discussed today, this is simply no longer the way to lead and manage people, as he calls it the "carrot and stick approach." The new generations are
[00:01:32] taking over fast, and millennials and gen Z simply demand more. In fact, they can see right through your external, external brand and marketing directly to your real culture and how well you treat your people. I believe that this conversation that we had today must be had over and over again in various incarnations,
[00:01:52] as we all work together to improve restaurant work and culture for the better. We need to mentor, encourage, and coach eachother. We also need to care for each other and be compassionate and kind. In fact, my favorite part of our conversation today is when Donald talks about self, self care and mental health,
[00:02:13] and it all starts with you and flows from there to the next human in your path. Okay. Enough out of me, enjoy the show, much love and self care to each of you, and as always, thanks for listening. Have a blessed day.
[00:02:28] Hello everyone and welcome back to Restaurants Reinvented. This is Jen Kern, and today I am joined with The Restaurant Coach, none other than Donald Burns. Hello, Donald. Welcome to the show.
[00:02:43] Donald Burns: Happy new year.
[00:02:45] Jen Kern: And, happy new year to you.
[00:02:46] Donald Burns: Happy new year. Here we are.
[00:02:48] Jen Kern: It's 2022. Like, what happened?
[00:02:51] Donald Burns: Never would have I, you know, if you asked me in the 1990s, if I was to say, "Happy 2022," they would say, "You're crazy," you know?
[00:02:59] Jen Kern: That's the thing. I'm kinda starting to feel old. I'm like, "2022, sort of a big number."
[00:03:04] Donald Burns: Telling ya. Yeah, it's starting to add up. They're starting to add up the years, just starting to add up a little bit. Yeah, that's definitely true.
[00:03:11] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. I'm starting to feel well seasoned.
[00:03:14] Donald Burns: If, imma start using that, "I'm well-seasoned." Not old, I'm just well-seasoned. That's all I am, folks.
[00:03:22] That got a lot of spices in this one.
[00:03:24] I'm aged properly.
[00:03:27] Jen Kern: There you go. Well, I think my listeners, hopefully, will know your, your name as The Restaurant Coach, and as the Author of two books, "Your restaurant sucks" and "Your restaurant still sucks." And, you know, it's good branding and marketing because it catches your attention. I mean, when I heard the title of your book and I'm like, "Okay, I'll remember that."
[00:03:46] Right? No.
[00:03:49] Donald Burns: Oh, so I was at it, so originally, this is a really fun story. So originally, my book was going to be called "Restaurant Unleashed." I thought that was gonna "Oh, that's it. Restaurant Unleashed. That's it." And, I was working with my editor and he's like, "All right, that's not going to do it." I'm like, "What?
[00:04:04] It's
[00:04:04] good."
[00:04:05] He goes, "No, it's not gonna do it."
[00:04:06] He goes, "Tell me about some stories about, you know, coaching with your clients. Tell me about some stories." So I was telling him this story about this one client I was working with, and as I'm sitting across the table from this client, and he's just venting. And, I'm sure everyone can relate, it's just like, everything's horrible.
[00:04:22] He's like, "Oh, you know, you know, my, my cook suck, my bartender suck, my servers suck, my location sucks, my, you know, my managers suck, my guests suck." Everybody, everything, everything was horrible. And, I would just sitting there listening and letting him vent, like I do, and then when he stopped venting, I just calmly sat back in my chair
[00:04:41] and I said, "You know, if your restaurant sucks, it's because you suck running it." And, he was a big guy. I'm big, I'm 6'3, right? You saw me at the MirTech. I'm a big, I'm 6'3. He was bigger than me, and he grabbed a hold of the table and he started, like, coming up over table and I'm like, "Well, this is it." He's, he's going to punch me in the face,
[00:05:01] and I just sat there, "Okay. Here it comes." And, he got, like, halfway over the table and all of a sudden he got this look in his eye, he took a deep breath, he sat back in his chair and he goes, "You're right. This is all my fault." Then I said, after I said, "Okay, he's not going to," I was like, "All right. Now, now we can fix it."
[00:05:21] And, we actually, a year later, had his restaurant completely kind of revamped, had his whole attitude revamped, has culture revamped. He was taking vacations. He was actually moved remotely to where he was actually managing his restaurant from Florida, from his condo in Miami, living the life he wanted to,
[00:05:39] and it all started with just that self-realization that, you know, "This is all my fault."
[00:05:44] Jen Kern: Wow. Wow. And, and, like, I've heard you say before, it does come down to leadership and it comes down to culture, and that's why I really wanted to talk to you and have you on today because you know, we keep hearing, "There's a labor crisis, there's a labor crisis," and it's like, "What? Is it a labor crisis or is it a culture and employee experience and team experience crisis,
[00:06:04] or is it a leadership crisis?" It's all of that.
[00:06:07] Donald Burns: It's all of it. All of it combined. Yes.
[00:06:09] Jen Kern: How do we solve this, like, for restaurants? And I want to, just before, before we jump in, actually, I want you to help me understand, is this, why is this so
[00:06:23] pronounced in restaurants, right? Because, culture, you could talk about and all the things we've been talking about on this series apply to really every industry,
[00:06:30] but I did hear you say that for some reason bad cultures and toxic cultures have permeated and plagued restaurants. Why is that?
[00:06:40] Donald Burns: We've done this to ourselves. So we've done this to ourselves. It's years and years because we've clinged to outdated mindsets. We clinged the outdated management styles. I mean, you've heard of, and I mean, just, I mean, just to kind of say it's allow the management styles and techniques that restaurant owners and restaurant managers employ are from, like, the fifties and sixties.
[00:07:00] And, we still use these. Or, you know, the carrot and stick, you know. You do good, you get the carrot, you do bad, you get the stick. The problem was that this is not sustainable. Because every time you give them a carrot, now it's like, it's like, reward systems for, like, dog training, you know. Now they want another treat, now they want a bigger carrot
[00:07:18] and so it's not sustainable. So every time we do this kind of behavior modification because that's really what leadership is, it's about behavior modification, when I reward good behavior and I give rebonuses, or I give paychecks, or I give gift cards, now I've got this kind of incentive and almost, and now we create this sense of entitlement.
[00:07:36] When I don't get it, I feel entitled, like, "What the hell happened? Why, how come I'm not getting what I used to get?" And, we've done this to ourselves, the industry, for years and years. I mean, if you look at social media, you will see hundreds and hundreds of memes about restaurants, and it's kind of a joke, you know, "We, we're gonna, we're going to work you to death," you know, "You're never going to see your family.
[00:07:59] We're gonna pay you dirt," you know. No one's, you know, minimum wage, livable, livable wage, "No, we're not gonna pay that." You're gonna, if you're lucky, you might get to eat out of a deli cup, standing over a trash can, or you might get to duct down on the line and grab a few bites of food while you're waiting for the next order to come in.
[00:08:15] Donald Burns: We've done this to ourselves as this, as a industry, and if we want to do better, if we want to make the restaurant industry a viable option for people, 'cause I'm telling you right now, when the pandemic hit and restaurants were shutting down or cutting down their, you know, cutting down their staffs and cutting back, or a lot of people were just like, "Hey, you know, do I really need to, like, go out there and do this and get that, treated like that?"
[00:08:40] We gotta start treating people like human beings. We got started treating people better, and it all starts with us treating ourselves better. Like, what do we expect from ourselves? How can we become better leaders? And, the thing I think the industry has to do is we have to understand that, "How do you change an industry?"
[00:08:54] One restaurant at a time and it starts with your restaurant. Starts with you stepping up and saying, "You know what? I don't have to accept the status quo, I don't have to keep doing the things that we've been doing. Just because that's the way it's been, it doesn't mean it has to be, it has to be the way we keep doing things."
[00:09:10] We can start moving forward. We need to progress. We need to evolve. We need to start looking openly, and challenging some of the perceptions we have. I bet you heard this one a few. And, my, you know, I don't know if you know, I, I apprenticed with my father, my father in high school. I did it with my dad. And, my dad was, like, the Gordon Ramsey of this time.
[00:09:30] My dad's favorite management technique, leadership technique, was the, "Build them, it'll break them down and build them up." Let me ask you a question, Jen, have you ever taken anything apart and put it back together?
[00:09:44] Jen Kern: Yes. I just took my podcast microphone apart.
[00:09:47] Donald Burns: But, but you ever put something back together and then you have, like, there's a screw left, you're like, "Huh."
[00:09:52] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Donald Burns: See, that's what happens when we try and do this with people. We try to break people down and build them back up. The bad part is, is that you broke Johnny. You broke him and now Johnny's in the corner talking to himself and you don't know what you did because you're not a psychologist, a psychiatrist.
[00:10:09] So we're great at breaking people down and we're horrible at putting people back together.
[00:10:14] Jen Kern: So you're essentially saying we need to treat our employees better? Okay.
[00:10:18] Donald Burns: It starts with ourselves too. How many restaurant owners I know, how many restaurant leaders I know still play the martyr, working 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, you know, not taking care of themselves. You work in a restaurant yet you don't eat right. Your health is terrible. You don't get, you don't sleep right,
[00:10:38] you don't exercise. You don't do anything to take care of yourself. You're not taking time to read, read something good, you know, walk outside, "Oh my God," you know, "There's a sun out there."
[00:10:50] Jen Kern: Yeah. Quality of life, quality of life, but yeah. Okay.
[00:10:53] Donald Burns: But we feel like we gotta be a martyr, we gotta sacrifice ourselves, "No one works harder than me."
[00:10:57] Why are you working so hard?
[00:11:00] Jen Kern: Well, this is, this mentality of, you know, working in a 50, 60, 70, 80 hour weeks, what, no matter what industry you're in, it's definitely a dying, it's dying with each generation. The millennials don't want to do it. The Gen.
[00:11:13] Donald Burns: They don't want to do it. They want quality of life.
[00:11:15] Jen Kern: Forget about it. So it's gonna happen one way or another, I believe, but here's, here's a question.
[00:11:20] So I drove by my local McDonald's two days ago. There's this enormous sign now out on the lawn, saying they're play, paying premium, $15 an hour and up. So how much does 'cause that's most of the buzz you hear about, again, labor crisis is about the pay, the benefit. The "solve right now" is the pay, the benefits and flexibility.
[00:11:44] Right?
[00:11:45] Donald Burns: Yeah. How are commodities traded on the market? High price.
[00:11:50] Correct. So when all we're doing it's just competing and we're just throwing out there, "I can throw, I can pay you $15 an hour. I can pay you $17 an hour. I can pay $18 an hour," we have this, this commodity-price-set kind of mindset that we all have, and here's the thing, you've got to break free. It's not sometimes about the money.
[00:12:11] These piece will, are putting out huge bonus hiring and incentive plans, but they still find that no one's applying. You know why? It's because you're not attracted to me. So you're going to pay me a little bit more, but I'm still gonna be treated like crap? That's not a good, that's not a good scenario for most people.
[00:12:32] Here's what I think restaurants can do to help break this situation. Number one, you've got to start showcasing your culture. Culture to me is the brand differential. That's what separates the good, the bad from the outstanding. And, I use a great chain as an example, Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A is well-known for their culture.
[00:12:54] Someone, someone once said to me, "I mean, how does Chick-fil-A get those happy people?" And, I was like, "Well, they hire happy people and then they treat them really great, and that's when you end up with happy people." If you treat people good and you treat people like human beings, they tend to stay, they tend to like the work environment.
[00:13:12] Culture is the brand differential. And then, a lot of people will say, "Well, Donald what's, how can you, explain the difference to me between brand and culture?" Here's my simplest definition in the world. Branding culture. A lot of people say brand and culture are the same. Well, yes and no. They're very similar and they have a symbiotic relationship,
[00:13:29] they co-exist with each other. Think of it like yin-yang. They have, they basically have to live and it's, you know, w, they compliment each other. Brand is what your guests say about you to their friends, to their family, what online reviews. Culture is what your team says about you to their friends, to their family.
[00:13:49] You know, that's the difference. You have to have, brand has, brand kind of supports culture and culture supports brand. Now, here's the thing. What is your team saying about you? What is your team is saying about your place? Most restaurants do a great job of marketing their food. They're great at marketing their food.
[00:14:09] And, I even go on social media and I can point out a hundred different restaurants and I will say 99% of them are showing me pictures of their food, which if I'm hungry in the moment, that's going to make me go. How many restaurants you know really showcase and do video story or storytelling about their culture? Like, "This is, you know, this is Jen.
[00:14:30] Jen works here part-time, you know. She's a single mom, you know. In her part-time she likes to, you know, she actually, you know, volunteers at the local food bank to help give out stuff." Showing people working in a restaurant, having a good time, show me why you're, you're the employer of choice. Don't just throw money at me because here's the thing.
[00:14:48] You throw more money at me, all I'm gonna think is like, "All right, I make more money. Is that going to offset still being treated like dirt? Not eating, you know, a decent meal or being able to get like leftovers or, you know, not seeing my family, not having a flexible work schedule?" There's more to life than just money, but we think that's what drives people.
[00:15:08] Yeah. It's, it's not it's, it's, it's definitely not. So when the, when these chain restaurants, like, you know, when they throw out the "More money, more money," then you gotta say you're not connected to what really motivates people.
[00:15:21] Jen Kern: Right. But I got to think like a chain that big, like McDonald's.
[00:15:26] Donald Burns: They still don't have people.
[00:15:28] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:15:29] Donald Burns: Did you notice like there, just the other day they said there was a thing that McDonald's made a big, huge announcement that they're having to cut back hours. They're gonna be cutting down or cutting off stuff off their menu because they just can't, you know, nobody wants to work there.
[00:15:41] Jen Kern: Right, right. Turning it, turning a ship around that big.
[00:15:46] Donald Burns: That's huge. I mean, it's huge, but you know what it is? It all starts with culture and culture, I would say hashtag, write this down, culture flows down and it doesn't flow up. And, it starts with the people at the top of the organization, you know. A lot of the, a lot of the big restaurant groups, and I would tell you this, a lot of big restaurant groups, they become so disassociated that they need to go out and actually do a little hands-on, like a little work side by side, elbow to elbow, you know.
[00:16:16] Your cover boss was great about showcasing how, you know, how people, like, don't, they have a disconnection between their employees.
[00:16:23] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:16:24] Donald Burns: I think a lot of restaurants, especially the groups, they would do so much better if they just actually took some of that time and just actually just got dirty with their team.
[00:16:34] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:16:35] Donald Burns: You know?
[00:16:35] Jen Kern: Well, well you reminded me, just even last night I went to my, one of my favorite fast casuals, which, it's like a salad-bowl place, and I go in there, I mean, I love the food, I go in there and the people, they, first of all, I seriously doubt there's a manager around. The people that work there seem so miserable.
[00:16:58] It's, like, painful. It's painful because I walk in, I'm always pretty happy. I'm like, "Hey, how you doing?" Like, yeah. yeah.
[00:17:05] They just seem miserable.
[00:17:07] Donald Burns: Yeah,
[00:17:08] Jen Kern: I want to say there're probably about 60, 70 locations in the Northeast, and w, where would you, where would you tell them to start? Like, how do you, how do you do that?
[00:17:18] How do you, how do you turn the culture around? I mean, like you said, it's one restaurant at a time, but it's, it's really one person at a time.
[00:17:23] Donald Burns: One person at a time, but it also starts with culture. People need to have a sense of purpose, it’s one of our human drives, our human needs. We have to have a sense of purpose. We want to be, especially as millennials and Gen Zs, they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. So I always, whenever I work with restaurant groups and restaurant brands, the first thing I'll do is I, you know, and they all have these lofty, you know, core-value statements and these mission statements,
[00:17:48] and they're basically around, so, "The purpose of our organization to facilitate the community and growth of local population and throwing food and changing your experience that will expand to." Okay, my God. It's horrible. How many people at the ground level, at the unit-level can say, can actually, if I walked into a restaurant, and I'll tell you right now,
[00:18:07] if I walked into an average restaurant here in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I walked up to somebody and you go, "Hey, quick, pop quiz. Name me your core values and your mission," I would get a blank look like a deer in the headlights, "What are you talking about?" You got to connect with who you are. That's why culture is so critical and that's why culture, I call it the triad,
[00:18:30] you gotta know your mission, your core values, and vision. What do you stand for? What is it you're trying to accomplish? Where are you trying to go with this thing? It becomes, now, when I talk about core values, especially it becomes your compass, you know. Co, core values are a compass. They're also a magnet in the sense that they attract,
[00:18:51] you know. My friends are, like, my best friends, the friends I hang out with, my inner circle, they have very similar core values to me. People that are not in my inner circle, they have different core values, I mean, there's a reason why they're not in my inner circle. Same thing, if I don't attract the right people, that people that have those kinds of core values, I will end up with anybody.
[00:19:10] If you don't know who you are and what you stand for, you basically will fall for anything. Well, Disney even said, "It not hard to make a decision when you know what your core values are."
[00:19:19] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:19:19] Donald Burns: You know, Roy Disney actually said it, I won't.
[00:19:22] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah, Well, and that's, it really resonated with me when I heard you speaking at the MarTech Exec Summit because the whole topic was around, you know, this employee crisis that we're having, but you came at it from a brand perspective.
[00:19:37] Donald Burns: It is. It's a culture problem. It's not a brand problem, it's not an industry, it's a culture problem. We have done such a bad job of really creating a culture. I mean, and th, th, I go back to Chick-fil-A a lot, just because I think Chick-fil-A has a culture that attracts a certain people, you know, I've never been to a Chick-fil-A and they made, they got a line around the block, no matter where you are in the United States.
[00:20:04] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Donald Burns: And, these people close every Sunday.
[00:20:08] Jen Kern: Yeah,
[00:20:10] Donald Burns: And, they still do three or four more times in sales volumes than what the average McDonalds does. There's, okay, take it apart. I always say whenever I see something happening, the first thing I'll do is I'll say, "I need to reverse engineer that," and I'll take it backwards. Now, I'll be honest, I mean, I like Chick-fil-A, isn't the greatest chicken sandwich you've ever had in your life?
[00:20:34] The questionable, questionable, right? It's questionable.
[00:20:37] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:20:39] Donald Burns: But why do keep, people keep going back? 'Cause you know why? They have such a great culture and it makes you feel invited. They're so friendly, they're so appreciative, "Thank you so much for coming," you know, "My pleasure. Have a great day," you know, "Oh, thank you so much for being here."
[00:20:54] They go out of their way to make you feel like you're like the only person in the world that matters, you know. Starbucks used to be like that, you know?
[00:21:06] Jen Kern: Why do you think we lost it? Where did, how, how did we?
[00:21:09] Donald Burns: We started chasing the bottom line.
[00:21:12] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:21:12] Donald Burns: You know, we put profits over people.
[00:21:16] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:21:17] Donald Burns: And, I think if you really want to get back to the heart of the matter, you got to put people before profits.
[00:21:23] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:21:24] Donald Burns: You know, you really have to. I understand. I understand, especially, like, a lot of people are listeners of your podcast and stuff like that,
[00:21:32] I know they're a big, huge corporations, a lot of them have shareholders, they have to, you know, to appease and stuff like that. We've got to be able to come back and say, "Listen, we need to invest in our people. We need to invest in making sure our people get the resources they need." I mean, the majority of people in the restaurant industry, a lot of them, I would say over 50%, probably suffer from some kind of mental illness.
[00:21:55] What are we doing as far as resources, helping people get the tools they need, helping you get the, you know, the programs that need to deal with stuff? When people have depression, have a lot of mental illness, what's, if they don't know how to deal with it on their own, what's the number one thing they go to? They go to, first alcohol, and then they go to drugs.
[00:22:12] Why do you think we have rampant alcohol and drug abuse in the restaurant industry? Because we haven't addressed the real problem, is that they need some help and we need to help them get the proper resources.
[00:22:24] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:22:24] Donald Burns: You know?
[00:22:25] Jen Kern: Yeah. And then it, then it comes down to the benefits discussion and the healthcare discussion.
[00:22:29] Donald Burns: Healthcare discussion, you know. But even just on a local, local level, I mean, there's tons of free programs available for mental health. You know what, when I have people in my organization, "Oh, I had my restaurant and somebody was having a problem," first thing is like, "How can I help you?" you know, instead of like, "Dude, you know, you showed up late three times now and you're always hung over, all the time." Instead of, like, blaming them, "Hey man, what's going on with you?"
[00:22:57] you know. Show a little, show a little empathy, "Hey, what's going on with you, man? How are things at home? What can I do for you?" you know. I've got, I got a Rolodex. I got access to a lot of professionals, you know? I mean, especially, like, I know a lot of people in the restaurant industry are veterans. I'm a veteran from the military. Veterans have tons of programs available, they're all about mental health.
[00:23:24] Hey.
[00:23:24] Jen Kern: Because sometimes people aren't comfortable talking about it at work. Right? You might say, "How are you?" And, they might say, "Fine."
[00:23:30] Donald Burns: Of course you're going to say, "Fine."
[00:23:31] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:23:32] Donald Burns: You know what, "Fine" stands for, right?
[00:23:33] Jen Kern: Yeah,
[00:23:35] Donald Burns: "It's not good." It's not good, an acronym by the way.
[00:23:38] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah, I don't use all those expletives right now.
[00:23:40] Donald Burns: Yeah, no, I know. Nuts, insecure, neurotic and emotional.
[00:23:45] Jen Kern: Like, yeah.
[00:23:47] Donald Burns: Put it that way.
[00:23:48] Jen Kern: Yeah. Let's just put it out there.
[00:23:49] Donald Burns: Let's just put it out there.
[00:23:49] Jen Kern: Not everybody knows it.
[00:23:51] Donald Burns: Everybody knows it. Yeah, you know. And, here's the thing. You can't, if we're going to be better leaders, we gotta be, we gotta take better care of ourselves. Again,
[00:24:01] I'll say this a thousand times, culture flows down, it doesn't flow up. It starts with you. What are you doing to take care of yourself? Do you even know, and I'll ask, I'll ask leaders all the time, "Do you know what your core values are? What's your personal core values? What do you stand for?" I have every one of my clients, we make a mission-and-core-value card, and they use it as a tool.
[00:24:20] I mean, it's a physical tool, it's a card they print out and they keep it with them, and every time they sit down and they talk to an employee, that core-value-and-mission card between them and them and they employ, the staff member, the team member, and they're always circling everything back. Remember, your core value is like a compass.
[00:24:37] Now, think of I, like, if, if you and I worked together, right, and I said, "Jen, here's our, this is our compass, this is our ethical compass. We're going to use communication, we're going to you use respect, we're gonna use integrity, right? We're going to use hospitality. These are our core values. Now, if, these are the core values I want you to follow all the time.
[00:24:55] This is your compass. Anytime you feel lost, anytime you feel confused, you don't know what to do, look at the compass." The compass always, when the compass comes from your heart, always points a true north. Now I say, "Jen, this is your tool." And, I give you this compass, and I say, "If I'm not here, you don't know what to do,
[00:25:12] always look at the core value card. It always points north." And, you say, "All right, this guy's really upset. Am I following this communication? Am I following integrity? Am I following respect? Am I following hospitality? Am I acting in alignment with our core values?" If you are, you can't make a wrong decision in your brain.
[00:25:31] That's when we don't give people the tools they need to make better decisions because most people don't know what they stand for, honestly.
[00:25:38] Jen Kern: Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, I've been, I've been working in marketing for years and we've been doing, you know, mission, vision, core value statements since the beginning of time, and my, my experience with those is you do them, they go in a brochure
[00:25:53] Donald Burns: That's it.
[00:25:54] Jen Kern: and they get forgotten. And, unless you do, there was one organization I worked at where we would go around and
[00:25:58] test, "Hey, what are our, what are our five core values? What's our, what's our mission statement?" And, and then we would give out, like, people that could recite it or remember it, they, would get, like, a little award. Now, this is in a corporate environment, I think in restaurants, like, I love this idea of having this card almost like a menu card.
[00:26:14] Donald Burns: But still, now look back at that organization where you did that, where you actually test people, what was the culture like?
[00:26:19] Jen Kern: It was pretty good.
[00:26:20] Donald Burns: There you go.
[00:26:21] Jen Kern: It
[00:26:21] was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:26:23] Donald Burns: You know, restaurants could take some, some stuff, you know, you don't want to go, like you said, most corporations are so stuffy, like, you know, "Oh, we did, oh, mission, core values checklist,
[00:26:34] all right, check, check, check. All right. It's an employee handbook? All right, perfect. Okay. We got that off. Let's move on to the next thing." Oh, there's five things. I tell them, my, all my, I call it the daily five sermon, and if you're listening to this, this is the f, if you're a leader in your organization, these are the five things you should preach every day.
[00:26:53] You should preach your mission, your core values, your vision, should always talk about your standards and expectations. All business problems are people problems. All people problems are communication problems. A lot of times we don't tell people or declare and share what our standards are, expectations are. And, I'll give you a great example.
[00:27:13] I, and this is when I was, like, first started off, I had my first restaurant, I give the guy a checklist, like everybody else, I'll give the guy a checklist to clean up kitchen and it said, "Sweep the floor." I mean, come on, sweep the floor. Right? So I'm checking them out. I'm like, "All right, hey, hey Johnny, let's check out, man.
[00:27:30] Let me see. Sweep the floor, look at the floor, dude. You just, like, you swept right down the middle. You didn't get underneath the equipment or move stuff around." "Well, it didn't say that. All it said was, "Sweep the floor." I swept the floor." "You know what? You're right." You know, I did not explain what my expectations were,
[00:27:46] "Hey, in the future, when you sweep, I want you to get down underneath stuff, get, you know, move that table, it has wheels and a purpose, move the table. Let's get behind it. Get that edge in the wall, you know, where all that stuff falls into." Right? That's my fault for not explaining my expectations. I really apologize.
[00:28:02] Instead of me, it's like, beat him up, it's like, "Dude, you don't know how to sweep the floor? Come on, man. It's not that hard, you know, I can teach a monkey to sweep the floors." Instead of me beat them up, always critique the performance, not the performer. So now I explained to him and I always take responsibility, "You know, that's my fault.
[00:28:16] I didn't explain to you properly. I'm going to fix that right now. I'm gonna show you exactly." And, I'll actually demonstrate. And, I get the broom and I actually showed them how to sweep. Now, you think Johnny ever got the sweeping wrong ever again? No 'cause now he felt understood. I didn't insult him and treat them like an idiot, actually took responsibility as the leader, like, "You know, that's my fault for not setting the expectations, dude.
[00:28:37] I apologize. You know what? I'm going to fix it right now. And let me, let me, let me go through it with you. Let me go and let me show you how exactly how I'd like it done." Right? So you talk about your mission, your core values, your vision, your standards, expectations, and then five is, you should give out words of affirmation appreciation.
[00:28:54] I can walk into any restaurant in the world, Jen, and I can pick it apart. I've worked with thousands of restaurants right over the last, I've been in the restaurant industry 40 years, I could easily walk into even the best restaurants in the world, I could pick something apart. I could also walk into any restaurant and world, and I could tell you some great things they're doing.
[00:29:11] We tend to focus, human beings have a kind of a propensity to be negativity bias. Why don't you start looking at the good things going on? Why don't you appreciate the things that are good? I always say, "Praise in public, coach in private." So whenever I'm talking to the team, I want to, always want to give them, I made a rule when I had my restaurant, I never left the restaurant without walking up to everyone at work that day that was there,
[00:29:37] I looked him in the eye, I shook their hand and I said, "You know what? Thank you." Two words. So powerful, so underutilized in this industry, you know.
[00:29:49] Jen Kern: Absolutely.
[00:29:50] Donald Burns: We don't say, "Thank you" enough. We don't say, "Thank you," to anybody enough.
[00:29:54] Jen Kern: "I appreciate you." I miss, I like to mix it up a little bit, you know, "Thank you," or, "I appreciate you. Grateful for you." Yeah.
[00:30:01] Donald Burns: And, "You're amazing. Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your hard work."
[00:30:04] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:30:05] Donald Burns: You know, "God, you're a rockstar."
[00:30:07] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:30:08] So you are a coach, you're a mentor, you are a consultant, you're the restaurant coach guy, you work with, I know, a lot of different types of restaurants. Can you walk me through an example of one that had a really toxic culture
[00:30:23] Donald Burns: oh, yeah.
[00:30:24] Jen Kern: that you helped turn around, and what were some of the things they did that,
[00:30:29] I mean, we, we're talking about leadership and culture, but give me some examples of things they did and where they went, from what to what.
[00:30:38] Donald Burns: So the basis of all my coaching is based on a, basically, a process, what I call the 3P framework. And, the 3P framework is this, it's people, product, process. Here's the trick. Most people know the equation, but they have it in the wrong order or they're not focusing on the right stuff. So when I say people, product process, most people focus on the product part because every restaurant in the world has a menu.
[00:31:03] Everyone has the product. And then, they start realizing, "Oh, you know, we probably need some checklists in place. We probably need some financial stuff just to know where our numbers are a little bit, so they work on the process part. And then, you know, we probably need some training stuff in place and they start working on the people part." I would say it's people, product, process for a reason. People feed the process
[00:31:24] and process feeds the people. And then, what happens is if you put them in order, like people, product, process, people feeds process, process feeds people, with people, with product in the middle. And, when those two work together, the people in the process work together. Basically, if it performs, it basically forms this kind of protective barrier around your product, like, a force field, and protects your product, which, you can usually use the word "product" for brand. Because here's the thing, I've had restaurant owners call me and say, "Hey Donald,
[00:31:54] I'm frustrated," and I go, "Why are you frustrated?" They say, "Well, you know, the team won't follow the checklist," you know. And, I'll say, "Well, what's wrong with the checklist?" And, they're like, "Well, nothing's wrong with the checklist. In fact, you gave me the checklist." And, I'm like, "All right, well, if the checklist is good, the process is right,
[00:32:08] look at the 3P framework. It's the people part. You haven't sold them on the culture. They don't understand the "why," they don't understand your mission, core values, vision. They don't understand your standards and expectations. They don't, and I haven't bought in, they haven't drank the Kool-Aid to buy why it's important to do."
[00:32:22] And, and vice vice-versa. I've had people call me again and say, "Donald I'm frustrated." "Why are you frustrated?" "Well, I, you know, I took a little break and went home and feed the dogs. They come back and everyone's just standing around not doing anything, and I'm really angry because they're not doing anything."
[00:32:33] I said, "What, do you have processes in place? Do you have checklists? You have running side work? Do you have timesheets for them? Do you have things that they should be doing every hour on the hour? "Oh no, but they should know." "Oh, well, they don't know because you didn't, again, explain your standards and expectations."
[00:32:50] So that guy who I told you about with the book, you know, he said, he was complaining everything sucked. He had probably one of the most toxic cultures I've ever seen. It was so toxic, you know? And, he was, had, he had turnover, like, left and right, and like a lot of owners, what happens when we have a lot of turnover? "It's their fault,
[00:33:10] you know, they just weren't a good fit, or,
[00:33:12] you know, they just didn't work, they didn't work out." "Why didn't they work out?" "They weren't a good fit for me." Or, "What happened?" "Well, you know, they just quit." So, you know, a lot of times I'll say, do we really have a war for talent, or we have, really, actually, have a war with talent? you know. That's something to think about.
[00:33:32] I mean, do we really have a war for talent out there or we have, actually, a war with talent? We've been fighting with our own staff so much that we really don't understand where the real fight is. There's a great African proverb out there, it says, "If there's no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm." And, I tell people all the time, the fights not, between, front of the house, and we do this to ourselves all the time,
[00:33:53] this is a classic, front of house versus back of the house. You heard that, right? There's a back house. Was always front of house versus back house, and it's always day staffers and night staff. I say, stop doing this. "What do you mean?" Stop using those words. It's not front of house versus back of the house. It's one team, one fight.
[00:34:12] It's your restaurant against the other restaurants in your market that are trying to take your market share. That's the fight, you know. So this guy had a really horrible culture, toxic. Well, the first thing I had to do is, again, I got to work with him, understand what's his beliefs. Now we have a lot of global beliefs in our head,
[00:34:29] and when I say global beliefs, you have, like, this written programming in your head, and I talk about, this is about mindset and stuff. And, one of the things I studied early on in my coaching career, I studied NLP, neuro-linguistic programming. And, your brain has allowed these kinds of pre, preconceived kind of beliefs,
[00:34:47] and I'll give you some great examples. Right away, without overthinking it, I'll ask you to say the first thing that comes to your mind. Ready? People are?
[00:34:58] Jen Kern: Smart.
[00:34:59] Donald Burns: Yeah. All right. Money is?
[00:35:02] Jen Kern: Not important.
[00:35:04] Donald Burns: Right. The world is?
[00:35:06] Jen Kern: Large.
[00:35:07] Donald Burns: Yeah. Happiness is? Great. Yeah. So you're, you're, you have a really good outlook, but a lot of times I'll ask owners these kinds of questions, I'll say, you know, and I'll ask them about the restaurant, I'll say,
[00:35:19] you know, "Money is?" and they'll say, "Oh, yeah, it's money's evil, you know, it's the root of all evil," you know? Or I'll ask him like, "People are?" And they'll say, "Lazy." And, I'll say, "The world is?" "Mean, cruel." All right? These are global leaps that hold them back. And, I'm telling you right now, if you think people are lazy, what do you tend to see when you see people coming into your door to apply for a job? You see lazy people.
[00:35:45] There's a beautiful thing in psychology called the Pygmalion effect. Well, basically, the Pygmalion effect means is that people tend to rise to your level of expectation. If I think I got a bunch of entitled, lazy people working for me, look around, you got lazy entitled people working for you because you would basically attract that to you.
[00:36:06] So the first thing I have to do is I have to kind of break through these kinds of limiting beliefs they have about the world and about people, understand that, you know, and the easiest way to do it is this, if you're, like, going through an exercise and you're thinking, "People are," you know, or, you know, "My restaurant is," and you have these, like, global beliefs that are holding you back,
[00:36:24] the first thing you want to do is challenge yourself and ask yourself, "Is that really true? If I had to go to court and prove that without a, you know, without a shadow of doubt, would a jury convict it? People are lazy. Is that really true?" No, there's some great people out there. There's amazing people out there.
[00:36:43] You know, "People are stupid. Is that really true?" No, because if people are stupid, you put yourself in that group, that means you're stupid too. Right? Like, "Oh," like, "Oh yeah. I never thought about it like
[00:36:55] Jen Kern: that."
[00:36:56] So you're part psychologist, part therapist.
[00:36:59] Donald Burns: A little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. A lot of psychology goes into this.
[00:37:04] Yeah. So soon as I get the owner on the right track, start breaking them free, then we got to get, again, and get clear on their mission, their core values, and vision. Because they got to know what they stand for, and you got to draw that line in the sand that, "I'm not going to, I'm not going to tolerate these things anymore."
[00:37:19] You got to have, I always tell people, if you want to have a better restaurant, I can give you three words, raise your standards.
[00:37:28] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:37:28] Donald Burns: You know, just raise your standards of what you expect.
[00:37:32] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:37:32] Donald Burns: And then, whenever you have, like, no, so we talked about the daily five sermon to people, it's talking about your mission, your core values, vision.
[00:37:38] When we talk about standards and expectations, I would say you're always really calm about it. You never, like, lose your temper. When you get emotions involved, you lose control, when you lose control people tighten up. So it was always like, you know, "No, it's not the way we do it. We do it like this. That's not the standard way we do it."
[00:37:57] And, I always say, use the restaurant's name, like, you know, that's not the, you know, that's not the Taco-Casa way. That's not the way we do it, you know. We do it like this. I'm always calm about it. Now, this is the way we do it. It's not open for debate, it's not open for negotiation. That's the way we do it. Because your team has.
[00:38:11] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:38:12] It's really true, like, that calm sort of vibe. I mean, I'll just be totally honest, I, sometimes, I have a hard time, but that's sometimes.
[00:38:22] Donald Burns: So a lot of people do.
[00:38:24] Jen Kern: I mean, I have a, yeah, I have a practice. I meditate every day. I go for walks outside. I meditate
[00:38:29] Donald Burns: every
[00:38:29] day, and the reason I meditate, so I stay calm.
[00:38:32] Jen Kern: Right, right. Because what, what do we do a lot of times, is we take on too much, and I'm sure that happens to a lot of your customers.
[00:38:39] Donald Burns: Exactly. We all, everybody does it. Everybody does it, you know what I mean?
[00:38:42] Jen Kern: Then you're rushing, and then you're not calm. I hate that. And then, your adrenaline's up, and then, like you're saying, people pick up on that. I see that, I mean, my whole team is virtual, so we're on Zoom all the time, but they, I, I can see it on the screen now 'cause I'm looking at my damn self all the time. You do that?
[00:38:58] Donald Burns: Here's the thing. Again, it goes back to this communication, kind of communication rules. We communicate, there's three numbers that everyone needs to understand about communication, 7 38, 55. 7% of how we communicate is the word itself, 38% is tone, 55% is not verbal.
[00:39:14] Jen Kern: Body language.
[00:39:15] Donald Burns: Body language is all, you know. Sometimes not exactly,
[00:39:18] it's not what you say, it's how you say it. It's delivery. That's why I say, whenever you're delivering standards, expectations, I'm always calm about it, I know that we're going to do it like this. Okay? You know what, that's my fault. I mean, you know, and then when I'm like that, it's like, I'm not like you and the guy who didn't sweep
[00:39:32] right, "Jesus, man, you don't know how to sweep? Come on." I could easily lose my temper with him, and the way it would end is I'd just beat him up. Right? Same thing, guys, you know, a person comes in late to work and I see this all the time, you know, you come in late to work, this is the third time you're late this week,
[00:39:47] I'm like, "Jesus, Jen, can't you get here on time? God damn, you know, I'm really tired of you getting here late." Right? Right? Now I just beat you up. Now, and especially if I do it in front of the team, oh God, now you just, now you're really mad, now you feel embarrassed. All right? Now, think about this. You're a server at my restaurant.
[00:40:06] You walk in late, I just jumped on you and for everybody, "Jesus, Jen, get here on time." You don't get your act together, right? Now, you're upset. Now you're back in the wait station. You're putting your apron on, you're in a, you're in a bad mood, and now I'm going to put you out in the floor and interact with my guest?
[00:40:22] Well, I'm a stupidest manager in the world for doing that to you now. Now you go out there and now you're really kind of in a pissy mood, and now I'm going to turn you loose on my harder and guests, that was the stupidest thing to do. But instead, what, if I do this? When you walk in, we have a core value card, and I say, "Hey, Jen, you got a couple minutes?
[00:40:38] Just, let's go talk a real quick." And, we sit down because a lot of times when we're talking to people we're standing up. Now, I'm a tall guy.
[00:40:45] Jen Kern: How tall are you? Hmm, how tall am I, 5, 6.5
[00:40:49] Donald Burns: Yeah. So I'm 6'3 and you're 5'7, I'm talking to you, I'm looking down at your, right?
[00:40:54] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:40:54] Donald Burns: Right? Now, how, how physically does that intimidate you?
[00:40:57] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:40:57] It's
[00:40:57] intimidating.
[00:40:58] Donald Burns: It's intimidating. But what if we sit down at the table, now we're kind of a equal,
[00:41:01] same height. Yeah.
[00:41:03] Same height. And, I predict that core value card, I put it between you and me and say, "Hey Jen, you know, when you don't get here on time, you know, looking at our core values, you know, we've got respect, integrity, communication, hospitality,
[00:41:15] by not showing up on time, which of those core values do you think that steps on?" And, I'm just quiet and I'm letting you tell me what you think. See, now Allie got a game because now it's me not lecturing you, telling you why you're wrong and why you need to get here on time. Now you look at the core value card and go,
[00:41:34] "Well, integrity. I said I'd be here at nine o'clock. I kind of told it, you know, 9:20 and, you know, communication. I should have communicated with someone else I was going to be late, you know. Hospitality is definitely not having that kind of hospitality thing." "Hey, that's awesome. Let's do a better job of making sure we're living our core values.
[00:41:48] What can I do to help you get here a little bit better? Or what can I do to help you? You know, what, how, what do you need from me to help you?" So now it's not a lecture, now it's a communication, now it's a, now it's a conversation about, "Hey, I'm really concerned, but, you know, we gotta live in a current of our core values that we, that we live here everyday."
[00:42:09] Now you understand where you stepped on the core values. Now you feel like, "All right, you know, yeah, that's my fault. I can do better." See, now we got a conversation, an honest conversation doesn't embarrass you, doesn't, you know, devalue you, and it also gives you the opportunity to become a better person.
[00:42:27] Jen Kern: Yeah, I like that because it also takes the person, the focus on the person out of it.
[00:42:32] Donald Burns: It does. Remember, I always say, critique, always, always talk, always coach the performance, not the performer.
[00:42:39] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:42:39] Donald Burns: Yeah, and that's how we do it. That's how all my clients do it with their core value card. They use it as a physical tool. They have to, like, sit down and talk to people. They're not allowed to have a conversation with anybody on their team without a core value card.
[00:42:50] Jen Kern: Wow. I love that. All right. Let me ask you another question. It's funny. You're asking me questions. I'm asking you questions. Oh, now I lost it. What's the question I was gonna ask you. See. So what happens when you're well-seasoned?
[00:43:03] Okay. What type of restaurants do you eat at the most? Do you eat at full-service,
[00:43:07] fast, casual, or quick-service the most?
[00:43:09] Donald Burns: All.
[00:43:10] Jen Kern: You eat at all of them?
[00:43:11] Donald Burns: Yeah. I eat at all of them equally. I would, if I had to say a percent, I'd probably a little bit more of full, a full day, full-service more.
[00:43:18] Jen Kern: Okay. What percentage of times do you go into a restaurant and you leave, and you're like, "Wow, they're miserable. The people that work there are miserable."
[00:43:28] Donald Burns: 80% of the time.
[00:43:30] Jen Kern: 80% of the time? That's what I'd say too. But 80% of the time. Okay. Prediction time, trend time, crystal ball time.
[00:43:36] Donald Burns: All right.
[00:43:38] Jen Kern: How long do you think it's gonna be before
[00:43:41] it's 50% of the time? Not 80%, but 50 'cause it's the same for me. It's about 80, sometimes I might say 90% of the time.
[00:43:49] Donald Burns: It, yeah, I would say it's going to take us a couple of years.
[00:43:53] Jen Kern: At least a couple.
[00:43:54] Donald Burns: So here's my thing I always tell restaurants. However back, however long your restaurant's been running a muck, fixing culture's not a quick fix. So let's just say like, you, you come to me as a client and you say, "Donald, I got this restaurant, it's really in a bad spot."
[00:44:10] So I'll say, "How long have you been open for?" It will be an open for two years. Right? I will tell you upfront, it's going to take me at least half that time to get you in the right direction 'cause I got to fix a lot of bad behaviors. Right? Remember, I haven't, I have a poster on my wall right here to my right,
[00:44:28] it says, "Your restaurant is a reflection of your habits."
[00:44:31] Jen Kern: Of your
[00:44:32] what?
[00:44:32] Donald Burns: Habits. Yeah. So I would say if your restaurant's running really smooth, you got more good habits of bad habits. If your restaurant's, really rocky, you got more bad habits of good habits. Beautiful thing about habits though, is that learned behavior.
[00:44:43] So if I can learn a behavior, I can unlearn it, but then I have to replace it with a positive behavior. Right? You just can't stop a bad habit, something's going to take its spot. The universal whores a vacuum. Remember that. So have you been, if you come to me and say, "I've been, you know, my restaurant's been running two years," I'm gonna honestly tell you it's going to take me at least a year to get you going in the right direction.
[00:45:01] Then it probably, in our six months, to get you going full force in the, in the new direction.
[00:45:07] Jen Kern: Regardless of the size of that restaurant? Yeah. Okay.
[00:45:11] Donald Burns: And, as an industry overall, I mean, we got a couple of years of heavy duty work. But stuff like this, your podcast, my podcast, these are things, I think, that are, start giving to people's tools that make them, start, just, if nothing else, think, is just sort of thinking like, "You know, maybe there's a different way.
[00:45:28] What is a better way I can run my team? Maybe there's a better way it could be a leader," you know. When we start thinking about possibilities, now we opened the door to opportunity. Yeah. And, that's where it all starts. It all starts with having conversations like this, getting people to just sit down and just basically say, "You know what?" Because, and I'll give you a great example,
[00:45:47] so most of us are conditioned by who we've worked with before, you know. If you, and here's the thing, if you had really good leaders that you grew up with, or you trained with, you tend to be a pretty good leader naturally because you had really good examples. We're all a product of modeling. My father, the brilliant chef,
[00:46:09] he was, horrible, horrible manager, horrible leader, I mean, treated people like dirt, cussed and sweared at people, so when I first.
[00:46:17] Jen Kern: Was
[00:46:17] he Gordon Ramsay? Your dad?
[00:46:19] Donald Burns: Kind of, he was the Gordon Ramsey of the time. But when I first became a sous-chef and a chef in my early twenties, the only model I had of how to treat people and how to lead people was from my dad,
[00:46:31] so I did the exact same thing. Break them down, build them up, carrot and stick, you know, embarrass them, get them to comply. And, then I realized like, you know, and then I did the same thing a lot of people did. I had tons of turnover, "They just don't want it bad enough. They weren't a right fit for my restaurant."
[00:46:50] And, then I started really, then I had an epiphany one day is like, I just sat there and go, you know, I think I really chewed into someone really bad, and I actually, I made the guy cry, you know, and I went back my office, and I just said, I.
[00:47:04] Jen Kern: Donald, that's so mean of you.
[00:47:05] Donald Burns: I know, oh, it's in my early twenties. I made the guy, actually started talking to myself like, you know, I mean, I started feeling bad about this, like, "Man, you know, I don't feel good about this." So then I started thinking, "Hey listen, just because that's the way it was, that's the way I was trained to be a chef, doesn't mean I have to be that way." So then I started thinking about alternatives and I started thinking like, you know, I had a great martial arts instructor,
[00:47:27] his name was Terry Brian, and Terry was really, really great about explaining the "why." He was really calm, he was really patient, "Don't do it like this, you know, do it like this. No, make this adjustment. This is why we do things." So I started thinking like, you know, what if I dumped that old framework of how a chef should be and what if I adapted this kind of teacher-coach kind of mentally,
[00:47:50] "You know what? I'm going to try it out." So I came in and I started like, you know, and of course, you know, it was new patterns, new habits, but slowly I started working on it over a couple of years and I noticed that my turnover started dropping down and I actually had people start coming to the restaurant and asking,
[00:48:07] "Hey, are you hiring? I heard you, you have a really great culinary program and I heard you really teach a lot of good stuff, and I, you know, everyone says that they learned so much working with you as a chef, you know, when you're just, you know, in your kitchen, you know. I'd love to work with you. If you have anything for me, man, I'd love to, I'd love to get a spot."
[00:48:22] People started coming to me and then I'd realized that that was the way. Yeah. And, it changed my whole life, when I started realizing that, "Listen, I didn't have to accept the status quo." I think, as an industry, we all have to take this thing where we're just like, "Hey, listen, just because it's always been done that way,
[00:48:43] does that mean we have to do it that way?"
[00:48:45] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:48:47] And, you know, your answer, your 80% and my 80 to 90%, like, that just makes me so sad.
[00:48:54] Donald Burns: It's sad.
[00:48:54] Jen Kern: Because, because, well because I go out a lot, I eat out a lot, like you, mostly fast, casual and, and I'd say, you know, full-service, and I see all these unhappy people. And, I mean, honestly, it kind of brings me down.
[00:49:10] Donald Burns: It does. No, no it does because you know why?
[00:49:12] Jen Kern: And, it's like, a minute.
[00:49:13] Donald Burns: It's contagious. You're that person. You walk into a restaurant, you're high-bubbly, I'm telling you, when you go into a, when you're high-energy and you walk into a restaurant that has low energy, it sucks the life out of you.
[00:49:25] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:49:26] Donald Burns: And, you leave just thinking like, "Oh, it was okay."
[00:49:28] Jen Kern: Yeah. And, not even that, but just, even just, like, the energy could just be more so-so, I probably would be okay with that, but to see, like, so many unhappy people and, you know, your, your comment earlier about mental health is a, you know, you're making me think about things I haven't really thought about.
[00:49:47] Like, It's a really good point. And, and I think we've gotten more comfortable talking about mental health. Right?
[00:49:51] Donald Burns: We need to, we need get more open about it.
[00:49:54] Jen Kern: Yeah. And, this isn't just something that plugs restaurants, but I think, like you said, it
[00:49:59] probably is a little bit higher-skewed there.
[00:50:01] Donald Burns: And, it all starts with self care. If you're a leader in your organization, I'll tell you right now, if you're a leader listening this podcast, will tell you right now, you need to take better care of yourself. You need to start drinking, I'll tell you right now, it starts with this, water. Drink more water. Every week I have all my clients give me the, they have a report to do,
[00:50:21] it's called a 5-15, and they have to give me three items for self care. I would say the 90% of every week, everyone always puts in there, "Drink more water." Drink more water.
[00:50:31] Jen Kern: What else do you do?
[00:50:34] Donald Burns: Me? Yeah.
[00:50:34] Oh, I have tons of stuff I do. I have, like, a smart ring. I wear that, it measures my activity, measures my sleep. I have a amuse headset I use for my meditation.
[00:50:45] I have tons of, of tricks and stuff like that. I have a playlist on YouTube, a motivational playlist. I send out all my clients, they listen to it every morning. Yeah, we do, we do tons of mindset stuff, but no one ever signs up for a restaurant coaching program for mindset. It's like, they all want the shiny object.
[00:51:04] I always say, "I sell them what they want, but then I give them what they really needed."
[00:51:08] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:51:09] Donald Burns: It's the bait and switch.
[00:51:10] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you talked about some other things earlier, you know, just getting outside, getting some
[00:51:16] sunshine.
[00:51:17] Donald Burns: Getting fresh air. Exercise is a huge thing.
[00:51:19] Jen Kern: Yeah. The movement. Moving your body, letting things flow through. That's a big one, and one for me. I love yoga.
[00:51:27] Donald Burns: I love any kind of movement, mental exercises, mind, you know, meditations, just taking time to relax and just read and just reflect. Getting a good night's sleep, you would be shocked. I just downloaded a new app, it's called "Rise." It's risescience.com. No plug from them, but they have this app and it's really, really great,
[00:51:48] and it's in, in the sense that it measures what your sleep, your sleep debt is and it tells you when, like, your peak activities are. It kind of tells you when, like, you're winded down, you know, when to start unwinding, when your melatonin window is for sleep. It's really amazing. It's really helped me a lot lately.
[00:52:06] Jen Kern: It's really cool. I use my "Fitbit" for that and it tells me.
[00:52:09] Donald Burns: Same with Fitbit.
[00:52:10] Yeah, it tells me in the morning what, when I, when I look at my sleep score, it breaks it down by REM, deep sleep, light sleep and awake.
[00:52:18] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:52:20] Jen Kern: And, I really pay attention to the deep sleep and the REM because the deep sleep is the muscle regeneration, your, your body restoration and the REM is, is your mental restoration.
[00:52:33] And so, if I'm a light and then they're giving me a score, that's like, you know, a 90 is, like, obviously an A, which is it's hard to get. I don't get it that much.
[00:52:40] Donald Burns: Yeah.
[00:52:41] I don't either, usually.
[00:52:42] Jen Kern: I'm usually in the B.
[00:52:42] Donald Burns: I'm working on it.
[00:52:43] Jen Kern: In the eighties. Yeah. But you're right. It,
[00:52:45] like, brings a lot of visibility to 'cause yeah, I feel completely different when I've had a good night's sleep versus when I don't.
[00:52:52] Donald Burns: My suggestion is stop watching those TV reality shows and invest a little time into learning about self-care and improving your sleep. That's what I'm going to say.
[00:53:00] Jen Kern: Okay.
[00:53:00] Donald Burns: Giving you that note. How's that?
[00:53:02] Jen Kern: Hey. Yeah, listen, I came on here, I did not think we were going to talk about self-care and meditation and mental health, and I.
[00:53:09] Donald Burns: I do. I talk, every day I talk about, "What are you doing today for self care? What are you doing today?"
[00:53:13] Jen Kern: All right. So how can people reach you, Donald?
[00:53:16] Donald Burns: You can go to my website, therestaurantcoach.com
[00:53:20] Jen Kern: Okay.
[00:53:20] Donald Burns: and you can check out there, I have links to my podcast, the Restaurant Coach podcast, of course, links to all my books "Your Restaurant Sucks," "Your Restaurant Still Sucks." And, my new book coming out later this month, "Your Restaurant Culture Sucks."
[00:53:31] Jen Kern: The trilogy. All right, folks. It is time to focus on culture. No more excuses.
[00:53:36] Donald Burns: That's it.
[00:53:37] Jen Kern: Take care of yourself. Take care of your people. One person at a time, one restaurant at a time. What are your closing comments? You've given a lot of great little tidbits, but.
[00:53:46] Donald Burns: Restaurants become better when the people in them become better people.
[00:53:50] Jen Kern: All right.
[00:53:50] Donald Burns: And, that starts with you.
[00:53:54] Jen Kern: Okay. I'm going to meditate on that.
[00:53:56] Donald Burns: Mic drop.
[00:53:57] Jen Kern: Yes. Thank you so much, Donald, for joining us on Restaurants Reinvented.
[00:54:02] Donald Burns: Pleasure, my honor, I appreciate you so much. I love what you're doing out there, and the message you're sending out to the world is really well-needed. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.
[00:54:10] Jen Kern: And, you too. Thank you for the closing Namaste.
[00:54:16] Holding hands. I love it. I love it.
[00:54:18] Thank You. Stay positive. Stay awesome. Keep spreading the good news. We, we will get there. We will get to the 50%.
[00:54:25] Donald Burns: One restaurant at a time, right?
[00:54:27] Jen Kern: Hail, yeah. Thank you. You have an awesome day.