Nuanced. - 160. Stephen Yeung: McDonald's Business Owner on Hiring, Scaling, & Workplace Culture

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Ever wondered how to effectively manage young staff in today's challenging job market? Join us as Stephen Yeung, a seasoned entrepreneur operating five McDonald's locations, shares his insights on fostering a positive workplace culture, bridging generational gaps, and maintaining a productive and respectful environment.Stephen Yeung is a McDonald's owner-operator known for balancing work, community involvement, and employee care. Transitioning from managing gas stations to five McDonald's locations, he fosters a positive workplace culture and supports new hires with continuous communication. Recognized for exceptional customer service, Stephen is committed to making impactful decisions, benefiting the community through initiatives like McHappy Day, Ronald McDonald House and local fundraising.Send us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Welcome back to another episode of the Bigger Than Me podcast. Here is your host, Aaron P. Running and scaling a business is not easy. Today I'm sitting down with a person who's started gas station businesses, run them successfully, and is now running five different McDonald's locations. We talk about hiring young staff, how to support them in their development in a time of inflation and challenging job markets. We talk about workplace culture and supporting and understanding the staff and ultimately how to create a stronger community through your business. My guest today is Stephen Young. Stephen, I've been looking forward to this for some time now. Would you mind briefly introducing yourself?

So my name is Stephen Young and I am a McDonald's owner-operator. But before that, I have been a business owner for some time also. So I would say all together, I have been a business owner probably close to 20 years and the last 14 years has been with McDonald's. So right now, I'm a five

restaurants operator in Vesa Valley. I couldn't say I am only coming from one city with all my restaurants because they all scatter. They're all along the highway. There's one location in Hope, two in Chilliwack,

and two in Apple's foot. But the commonalities, they're very close to the highway. The part that I'd like to start with that really stood out to me is right now we're in a time where it feels like we're underestimating the youth. We're kind of saying that they're not as driven. I don't know if you've heard, but there's across Canada, there's a decline in productivity. And you bring a different lens to this.

What are your thoughts on the youth of today? I think obviously they're different. I cannot say they're the same. the day that when I grew up and the way that my parents' education teacher talk to me or the way that they try to influence us is very different than nowadays. In the past, I mean, I don't know. I mean, probably you would ever see the days that, I mean, people still holding away, like, go do things.

I mean, my culture, where I born and raised, obviously not in Canada, I born in Hong Kong, I moved to Canada when I was 14 years old. So a very different cultural background to factor in into this whole conversations and considerations. But it's very different nowadays. I mean, the way that we communicate with our youth, the way that we want to influence them,

we want to start a conversation is very different than how it used to be. So as a result, I don't see the way I don't see actually, I don't want to say the politivities alone. nowadays with the youth, I would say it's the way that we manage them as for the way that we open the conversations, right? Is it supposed, I mean, in the past people used to be very more directive. Aaron, do this. Nowadays, when we want to get someone to do something for

us, then we sit for understanding, we see for the buy-in. We use a very different tone, Aaron, I would like you to do this for me right now, and this is the reason. If you do this, then, well, someone come in next, they might sleep on the floor. So you have to do these couple of things, put a wet floor signs up, make sure that, like, safe working environment, then you mop the area, then you put the mob away, so that everyone in the workplace will be safe, and the customer will be safe and with a safe environment. The way, and obviously, well, I mean, the tone of voice nowadays, I mean, needs to be more respectful than ever, because we're in an era that we basically talk way more about our

emotionals and health and all those good things. And it's important that we'd be nice to people by the other day. So that's why the tone of voice, the way that we talk about things, just a different way of communications. If you ask me if the positives is actually lower, I would say no. But if you say that the way that we're managing, not just teens or youth or even in all generations, even we managed someone with a Gen C or Minennial or any background. It's just a different way of operating. So I wouldn't say the politivities drop. I would just comment it as a different way of operating.

And it requires more skill sets. I'm not crazy, right, though, that the rhetoric around our youth is pretty negative, that people think that they don't want a job right now. They're not willing to work for money. Like the mindset that at least we're hearing in the culture, it's pretty negative. Well, I mean, I would disagree about that because I strongly believe that, well, I mean,

right now when we look at the youth or the younger generations that we raise, we've exposed them with more things. Many times one thing I always keep saying is, and actually since you talk about that, I also challenge myself a lot. I mean, how can I be able to communicate with the youth? because eventually, I always believe they're smarter than me in a different way.

One good example is this year I try to, I have set a challenge with my daughter. Basically, it's, well, I mean, I told my daughter, I mean, I will use, I'm a window person all these years. But all the new generations that I like Apple for some very strange reason, I don't understand why. They like iPhone, I hate my iPhone, I'm still using it. But I lock it up a launch. I told my daughter, how about I also use the Apple? iOS platform, like an Apple Pro or whatever that is. So I've been torturing myself and training myself how to use the Apple device

since the beginning of this year. It's been six months. I have to say I still feel very unfamiliar with what's going on with the iOS device, with the Apple device. But what I'm trying to say is, but when we look at our younger generations, when they use all these new technologies, new tools, they have no issues. it seems like I'm the one that have difficulties to adopt to what they can do

then they can adopt to what I can do because eventually where one day I'm in the midway of my 40s I don't want to tell anyone my age but I think slowly and slowly I probably have 20 years left in my career as what I'm doing right now

but when I look at my daughter she's 15 years old turning and And she probably had another 50 years in the workforce or to build her career or influence other people as a career. So when I look at that, then it seems like, well, I mean, their influence on people will be bigger than my influence on people. If you look at this down the row. So that's why I think it's more about how to bridge that gap when we look at the whole communications. Or when we actually try to pass our knowledge to the younger folks, how do we take that approach?

I would not say they are not as good as what cool we are or what we are doing. It's just a matter of how we approach as for like once again I mean many times I think when we're working with the youth I think one of the biggest challenges how to get the engagement

because eventually if we use the very old school mechanism just basically go once again just use my first example with you Aaron mop the four okay I can mop the four what you want me to do after, right?

Or what you want me to, like, they're important. Because the engagement, the buy-in is not there. So once you explain, if you do it for you, it's not only good for yourself. You're also good for the folks that's surrounding you. It's the public safety matters. It will actually help everyone be able to have a safe environment when they're using the space.

So once people get that buy-in, then I think people will tend to do it rather than people command someone to do it. Once again, it's the communications and I think even as a management, as a person that has been operating a business more than 20 years, I can also comfortably to say

and confident to say, my style has been changed gradually. From a very command, a directive style, now it's to more people and personal style. When I see personal, it's not, personal attack, but it's more opposing people in a more personal way so that I know, because I understand you, like your background, your difference, your diversity, or whatever backgrounds you have, then I come with you with a more customized approach, is what I'm trying to say.

And it's important because everyone is more different than ever, because we have that self-recognitions now that we are all different. So when we communicate, we need to respect that as a factor, and then we used to make sure that because we all understand we are different, we approach each other in a very different approach, if that makes sense. Absolutely. The reason that I find you so interesting is because McDonald's is such a place that's always been known for hiring young people. And I've always heard throughout my life that you get a job at McDonald's and you kind

of get those skills, then that opens so many doors. And it sounds like from your perspective that hasn't changed. But I'm wondering, what would you say to a person who's like, I need to hire young people for this work. How do I keep them engaged? How do I meet them where they're at? I think that one thing I always find it very important is if you want to actually employ someone into your organizations,

especially youth, doesn't matter youth or any age group. Basically, to understand that process or that person is not after that person clocking the first hour or after they have the first issue arise. To the seek of understanding timing should start as soon as that application shows up in your website that you use or once that person's first job of the resume, that conversation, that understanding need to start so that you know a little bit better about that person. And then down the role, when you do your orientations, when you do your

In our organizations, we have seven days review, 14 days and 30 days review. We check on the new high employees so that we can get the feedback. We can understand a bit more. Okay, what is something that you feel very happy? You're very engaged so that we can make you broaden in those areas. But what are some of the things that you feel challenges? Either we use a little more training to offset the negative feelings or we have a conversation to explain some counseling

to make sure that, well, why mopping that for is important, right? I think it has to be, that process needs to start at the very, very beginning because many, many times when people draw the conclusions about a relationship is not working, it's after so many events. It's a compound of all the bad events and then people form their conclusions. One of the mechanism that we find it very useful is to minimize this impact is a constant communications. So before things happen, you talk about it. Some conversations might not be the most happiest one, I would say.

Some of the conversations might not be even comfortable because we are actually trying to identify each other boundaries. But I think through these conversations, it's like exercise. It's like testing each other boundaries. And once we find harmony that each other want, then I think that will be the spot on how we avoid those negative outcome. Because many, many times people don't talk about the process. They talk about the outcome. So I would say, yeah, focus on the process and focus on the very beginning

so that you understand that person a little bit more. or when that person drop off the resume, have a conversation, you might get a really good feel that if that person actually is good for your organizations or not, or have a coffee or just have a very informal conversations. Maybe the other person, after they talk to the employer, they might figure out that, oh, this might not for me, right? And then you can avoid some of the misunderstanding down the role. You're in a circumstance where it's you, but you have a scaling issue,

When you have different restaurants, it's not always you who's going to be in those meetings. How do you make sure those don't, those conversations, those counseling opportunities that support doesn't become a tick box where people are like, you're good, you're good, you're good, we're not going to worry about it. How do you make sure that it's meaningful the way you're describing? Yeah, yeah, one thing that we actually really focusing on is we do it very differently in the past couple of years, especially after pandemic. One thing we find out after pandemic is people are way more focusing on their work-life balance,

is one, and the other thing is their mental health. And obviously, well, I mean, as the society evolved, we will be focusing more on the DEI aspect, and that also become something that we always focus on and being conscious. So one thing that we have been doing very different is very traditionally, right, in a restaurant, or in a business, then, I would say especially restaurants or the business that I have been involving in,

I mean, we do not spend too many times to look at those things that I talk about. So in the past, especially for years, we actually separate certain people. Obviously, we have the potentials. And we will ask them actually, we actually have a title for them

that the market people lead, they don't work in the restaurants necessary, but they will constantly go in and doing check-ins and observe what's going on, holding focus group, or one-on-one meetings, so that when, so that they're outside perspective.

Because one thing we find out is, let's say if we find a people managers, we have people managers in our restaurants, too, they look after all the stuff that, like orientations and all those stuff. but many times because they're working in the restaurant so when a crew actually have the concerns

they always have the I don't want to use the term bias maybe too negative they have to prospective that well because that is my supervisor by the day they might be part of the problem because they are the supervisor

so that's why we have some external as a market employee they will they don't involve in operations at all they just come in they'll just, they basically like the everybody friend, if you say it that way. So they will come in, they will, they don't talk about ops, but they will sit down, they'll do some one-on-ones. They will, they're more focusing on your personal well-being than your work performance.

Because work performance, the restaurant managers or the management team inside restaurants should handle that. But anything outside of that, we have to market people. lead kind of like create a different message. If you really feel that you don't think this matters can be addressed with the management team and the restaurants, feel free to reach out

to the market people lead. Because every team member that join our organizations will have at least two one-on-ones with the market people leads so that they build that relationships. So if anything happened,

they know where to go. So that's something that we, as we scale, right, like, I mean, right now we have, we have two, two market, we're one and a half market people need doing that. We have about 400 employees. Yeah, so far it's working really well when people have issues that they think, well, I mean, I cannot adjust it through the restaurant's management, manager's channel. I can reach out to the market people need because when market people need reporting anything,

they will come back to me. Right. So then I know, okay. I mean, is it makes sense or does it make sense or what strategy we need to use to resolve the matters? Compensation is becoming a growing topic with inflation, interest rates, cost of living challenges that people are facing. I'm wondering, from your perspective, is this something you start to hear from your employees more and more about? How do you kind of address that as a business owner of a McDonald's? Cost of living? Good questions.

it depends, I mean, who are you talking to in our organizations? Because when you look at our full-time employees and our part-time employees mix, I mean, obviously, as always, part-time youth will be a bigger group than our full-timers. So when you look at the part-timers, the cost-of-living aspect really doesn't impact that much because most of them are still in school, they are still living with their parents. So the cost of leaving peace really not healing them. But when you actually look at the other part,

which is the full-timers, then yes, I mean, those conversations always come up. But one thing that we always telling our people are, I mean, we incentivize our people based on their, based on their positions. So one thing that we always ask everyone is, well, I mean, if you want to actually, if you want to have more income, then, well, I mean, drive through the promotions. Yeah, because eventually the last couple of years, minimum pay basically keep increasing.

So it, I mean, obviously looking after the cost of living is a very important aspect. But I think one of the side effect is because of the minimum pay increase, it does wash off some of the perks in the organizations. We are not as flexible like how we want to be because everyone is getting the same wage and same pay. But on the other hand, right, I mean, one thing we keep encouraging our people are, okay, I mean, especially with McDonald's,

we have a very systematic training system and a development roadmap. So let's say, well, I mean, if you become a manager, I mean, well, I mean, even a supervisor or even an operation manager, there are people actually making, as an operation manager, there are people basically making more than six digit per year. So, I mean, one thing, when that conversations happen,

obviously it depends on a skill set too. Some people might not have the skill set. Then, yeah, then we will try to accommodate. But if people that actually have to decide to grow, all that, then, yeah, they can leverage the growth opportunity to compensate the infractions and all that stuff. One thing on the cost of living and minimum wage part is I've heard it said from business owners that one of the challenges they face is they try and pay above minimum wage, but as it's chipped

away at, that person who might be making $5 over minimum wage or $10 over, they're starting to lose that kind of position that they have within the organizations that they've earned through hard work and determination as a consequence of minimum wage starting to catch up with where they were. How do you grapple with that? Yep. I mean, we call that compressions in our industry. And I think it is happening, unfortunately, because as the wage actually keep like compounding each year, because eventually I think the government does have a schedule every year in June and the wage will be according

the wage increase will be according to the increase of the cost of living so unfortunately that is happening and one thing that we actually focusing more to compensate that is well I mean we in my organizations I haven't compressed the seniority scale So anyone actually worked from 1 to 10 years, they have a scale of, based on the seniority, then yes, I mean, we use that to continue that scale. We haven't changed it. But as for the position-wise, yes, I mean, it is shafting away.

But one thing that we always emphasize in our work relationships or our workplaces, Well, eventually, I mean, well, I mean, we look at the EVP or IVP now. The wage puts, what else we offer? I mean, we also... Sorry, what do the acronyms mean? EVP is employment value prepositions. Okay. So, recently we changed the IDP.

That means that it's an individual now. So we're not just looking at like a bigger umbrella. We just look at individual. So it depends on what employees actually need. We does including different parts into the package so that we can offer a little bit more than what another person can get. For example, bus passes. Or if someone work late, then they cannot have bus.

Then we have employees that we actually compensate them with an override. It is included. It all depends, too. Like even some of the employees depends on their availability, full-time or whatnot. We cover 100% of their dental and medical benefits. Even for benefits, just talk about that. In the past, we do not cover our managers 100%, but recently we start covering our managers 100%.

So, moving aside from the wage, actually there is also more just to look at, more than just the wage. Like, what else can we offer, right? A flexible work schedule. Things that, like, I mean, and some other jobs cannot, like, a 9-to-5 jobs cannot provide. Like, we provide that. But, yeah, I mean, to answer your question, yes, that compression does happen. Okay.

The other piece I want to talk to you about is workplace culture. because I think you're doing something really cool if people go see what you're doing on LinkedIn and the stories you're sharing. It's really inspiring because it seems like we kind of just get into the same old routines and people stop thinking about how can I do this differently?

How can I show my appreciation? Would you mind sharing some of the anecdotes that you've posted on LinkedIn? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do many different things. I think it's important that many times what the employees want more than a middle-aged person want when we look at the IVP and all those stuff.

So basically, I mean, we try different things. I mean, at one time, I think the one that really eye-catching for you is a concert ticket and basically the singer or the band, I don't even know what cool that is. And then we put it into our workplace communications. and then basically we asked the crew, and I mean, do you know who that person is? And everyone was like, yeah, we want the concert tickets. So let's go get it.

So at the end, we capture 50 attentions less than two hours and then the commitment. Basically, that's the commitment. If we get 50 attentions less than two hours, then we'll go buy the concert ticket at the end. We really got them. And then we purchased, I think, we purchased five sets of concert tickets

and we have crew basically do a draw and then they can go to the concert. But over the year we do many different things we try to explore different options. This year we have Canucks tickets like for management team and for crew to go to the games and this year we actually might go to Chilliwack Chief and see if we can explore the same.

opportunities. Yeah, we do different things. But even as for the restaurants, because of the diversity and of everyone, we hold different things too. We have cultural week. We have, we do potluck and all that. So people can share a little bit about, okay,

what they do at home, just other than work. We also have like clothing, like casual clothing days. So to know that well, I mean, what do you dress like when you're out of work? Yeah, we try different things. I mean, and one of the things that we want to make sure is we try to understand everyone a little bit more outside of work. When they come to work, obviously, all the time the conversation is very work-driven,

but we also want to make sure that there are moments that people can share, okay, outside of work, who actually I am. When we talk about how to reach the gap for better communications, little events like this might seem to be very tiny or not important, but when people be able to have a conversation to understand each other a little bit more, then we also believe that sometimes that just help each other get a bit closer. So when the moment gets difficult at work, maybe there's a rush, maybe we're done a person today because that person was not feeling well,

and we know that person hasn't been feeling well for a long time. So everyone get a little bit more understanding to accept, okay, if that person have a health condition, then because some of the casual conversations they have, then let's work a little bit harder today for that person that cannot be here. Now, I have a personal belief, and it dovetails nicely to the work you do, that one person can make a difference, and that sometimes we'll make comments like,

oh, they're just a McDonald's employee. Oh, they're just a front level retail person. And we underestimate a person, even though you don't know the next 10 years of that person's life where they're going to end up, what they're going to go do. I worked at Dairy Queen one point in my life. Now, I'm in a completely different circumstance. And so these are the building blocks of a person and that we have to admire. Like, I notice when we get good service from a McDonald's employee, when the food's done properly, when they ask, they double check your order. They let you know what's going on.

Like, you notice those little. moments and they can be either really good or really bad. And we underestimate those moments and those people sometimes. When did you start to realize how important it is to recognize the individual? There are a couple of things about our team philosophy, right? Like one thing that I always ensure that everyone understand, especially the upper management in our team is obviously anyone to be able to promote to upper management. They must be the high performer.

They all have their specialties. They can probably understand the system really good. They can do things really fast. they can achieve their goal really, really quickly. But at the same time, sometimes the buying spot with upper management is because I know how to get there really quick, they're not sure if the people that don't have the same capability

or don't have the same specialties, how do they be able to do things or have to follow the same pace. That's why I always refer our team actually is a big marathon team. We run a big marathon. Like, I mean, this marathon, basically, I don't know how long it's going to be, like for the distance, but we know the team size probably is about 400 people. So the team marathon goal is to make sure that everyone win together.

So let's say we have 400 people in the team. If only 399 people pass the finish line, we still lose the marathon. So we need to make sure that all 400 people pass the marathon. So many times I remind everyone in our team, make sure that we understand our pace, make sure that we understand when we look at the things that we want to introduce,

the things that we want our people to do for us based on a couple of things. One is, will they understand the reason? Back to the first point, sitting for the communications. The second thing is, are we able to carry every single person to that finish line that we want to get into? Because once again, I mean,

leaving anyone behind us, I mean we're winning. Living someone behind, that means that, well, I mean, we might get the short-term success that we want, but it's because we left a bunch of people behind. Then later on, when you look back, we might have to go back and help those people get to the finish line again. So are we actually winning? We are not winning because we go forward, we move back. Then we push or pull and move things going again. So that's not winning in my definitions.

So that's why many times the way that I calibrate my team is there are a moment that I push, but there are actually more moments that I have to pull, like pull everyone a little bit slower so that we can get the whole team past the finish line. Can you tell us about the process? You started with one McDonald's. Now you're up to five? Yes. With the vision of, I am sure, growing further.

Can you tell us about taking on the one, turning it into five, how that all came about? Taking on the one basically is like a baby learn how to walk, basically. I mean, the funny things I always don't mind to share is I haven't failed too much face-to-face interview in my life. I only felt one in my life, actually, which is when I was 15 years old, I applied to McDonald's and they say no to me. They're like, no, we're not hired you. So you go somewhere else. So it turns out at the end, I actually go work in another franchise model, which is Petro Canada. And then I actually stay there as a part-time.

And at the end, they offer me training to be an operator as a Petro-Canada franchisees. They pay for all the training and all that at that moment, which is nice for them to doing that. And then once I grow to, I think it's 11 locations with Petro Canada, that's the time that I think, well, I want to do something else. And then I go back to McDonald's and applies as a franchisees. So when I apply as a franchisee's and being accepted, obviously I received the training. But when it comes to like the day-to-day, like really hands-on things, I got exposures but not like a seasoned veteran. Right. Sorry, really briefly.

How did you choose McDonald's? How do I choose McDonald or why choose? Because I like the business model. I like the business model that I can focus on one spot. And when I observe the business model, I can see when an operator being very involved in the business, it will reward the operator in a positive way. Did you look at any other opportunities, Subway, Wendy's? I did. But I did my market quest.

I sit in a dining room, I observe the business model. At the end, I choose McDonald's because I witnessed it. I saw an operator, indeed, with my own eyes. He's working really hard. He's working with the crew, and then he knows the regular guests by name. He pulled them a coffee, and then put in a cup, and then he's a refill, and it is inspiring. When you see a business owner be able to have that connections with their guests, it is something special. It's not something that I can see in my other market quest when I

try to look at other business models. It's not something I can witness. So that's why it's very, very, it's very, very powerful. So that's why when I become a being accepted as a McDonald's operator, then obviously, I mean, I start with one locations. So for those years, basically, I use those moments to learn, to understand the business more. And I think the good thing is it trains me really, really hands-on. And it trained me in a way that I can be a grease monkey. I can take a screwdriver fixed thing in the restaurants. I can just do it like that.

So when I grow from one to two, then that is where some of the changes need to start. I start to actually telling my team I need to be more self-discipline now I cannot be someone like how I used to be and don't expect me can be the same way because I need to delegate I need to empower people more I need to be more hands-off

so that you guys can learn what I know because environment change I can be always there in one place but I cannot be always there in two place so when we actually grow to two then, well, I mean, I start to train myself that mentality. I also tell my visions to my team, okay, this is the new Stephen now. It's the Stephen 2.0.

So let's try that. So as we actually grow from two, and then last year we turned to four, and this year become five, it's the same philosophy, basically. As the business evolve, I also need to be evolving. I cannot be the same person that be everywhere at the same time. So that's why my conversations right now with my team is more about how to scale, how to make sure that we can operate with lots of self-discipline. If you are the decisions maker, then make sure that you are the decisions maker.

If you're the action with that role, then you're the actionable. respect the boundaries because many of us right now actually especially in my management team they used to be the actionable people they used to just like go into the restaurants take a screwdriver or walk into a process they can fix it right away because they have the knowledge they have the skills but as we scale back how do we influence our people once again going back to our very very first point how to talk to people communicate inference we we we find that that's why with the proper approach, with the proper understanding, with the proper mechanism, when you approach people, no matter their youth, elders or what age group, what generations we're referring

to, if we find the proper way to let them know that, well, this is our goal, this is our visions, use the proper way to communicate, use the proper way to coach, train, provide feedback. The successful way is actually pretty high. You will be a I mean, people are not as hopeless as some people describe how they can be because bottom line is the whole process is just about seeking for understanding between two persons or with a group of people. Right. Yeah.

One area, I'm just thinking about, like, do you feel successful? Are you able to process? I work in my First Nation community. I've been able to apply for grants that allows somebody to have a job that pays their bills that helps reduce any of the financial stress, that gives them a quality of life. And that's incredibly rewarding, and you're doing that at scale with different locations. Are you able to process that and take that in? I would not call me successful or not successful.

I see it a very, maybe I can go back to my, many times people surrounding me ask me, what is your ambitions? Like, what ultimately what you want? many, many times I say it, and I have folks in my organizations actually managing my finance and they hate when I say it, but I always say, well, I mean, we just don't look at the P&L, right? There are things more than a P&L. There are decisions that we made just more than a P&L. Profits and losses for people who don't know.

Yeah, yeah, there are times that when we look at things, I mean, what's the impact to the community? What is the impact that to that group? What's the impact that to that person, right? If it's just based on the dollar value or figures, then many times I challenge back to my controllers in my team. I mean, we actually, we're not rich. We're the poor one. We're the one that we, like, poor in the whole process.

Because we're so poor that we just look at money. Because there are things just more than money. Because many times, one thing I talk to my upper management is, At times, I use very blunt examples. This is one of the very, very brutal one. I always say, eventually you and manager A, we eventually cross path because of this job relationships. I say it many times. I don't know who's going to teach each other.

You might leave me, I might leave you. It won't last forever, that relationship. because you might find something really, really good in your career. You might, you need to move on to grow personally. But even for myself, I might retire or sometimes I might, I will even say maybe I just drop that outside of the doorway by a heart attack. So I teach you immediately. But by saying that, right, I always want to make sure when that,

when we have that relationships, you learn one or two things really good from these organizations. Maybe not from me, but from the team, from one of your supervisor. And then when you leave the team, you'll be able to tell somebody that, well, I used to work for Stephen. I learned this. I think, well, it's something that I can use as a skill to carry on for the rest of my life. Or they will probably say something like, I learned this thing from Stephen. Then that's something that I should not do. I will never do this in my life as a life lesson.

Because, indeed, I didn't, I have met real person like that in my, in different, in different business who have McDonald's experience. They come out and basically say, I used to work in McDonald's. I learned good work ethic. That's good ethic actually carry me for the rest of my career. And I am who I am right now. I have come across with people like that. So I hope my success will be based on that. When people actually come out from this whole encounter, they will come out with a very positive experience or experience that they can tell other people, I learn this from this person.

And it's a lifelong skills that I can carry on. That is how I measure the success. Yeah. I've heard that from Mayor Victor Smith, who says anybody who's worked at a. at the Hope McDonald's for a year is somebody you can absolutely hire and depend on. And I think that's such an amazing legacy. Would you mind talking to us first about the altruism of the McDonald's operations that you have? What's that community impact that you look for?

Many times I think when I say community impact, I would actually say more about partnerships with the community. The way that we operate in the community is obviously where we reach out. I mean, we see things that we are passionate on. We are very passionate on, for example, like, I mean, school activities. We don't mind sponsoring, like, different things. We are passionate about, like, helping different, like, groups or recently we have a relationship with a Salvation Army, we donate certain things to them.

We reach out. But at the same time, we also want to make sure that when the word spread out, it's like what you say. People are not afraid to ask us if there's anything fall through the gaps. Like, we have things that happen very last minute. We used to have people just called Stephen.

We miss certain deadline. We need coffee. We need something. pastry, like tomorrow. Can you make that happen? And obviously, well, we will always say yes. I think it's both ways. We reach out, but we also want to make sure that don't be afraid to reach out to us because they know that, well, we will not say no if it's under a reasonable request, yeah. Right. Can we talk about McDonald's generally because they have Ronald McDonald's House? Yes, that's right. What's your perspective on the work that McDonald's is doing broadly?

Yeah, I mean, if my number is correct, I mean, we serve more than 1,300 families in B.C. last year in the house. I just actually looked at the annual report yesterday for the B.C. house. And there are people stay in the house more than 300 days in a year for treatment purposes, because it's very close to the children's hospital. So many times when people like serving, they need, especially they live in a little bit more away from the children hospital than because getting a hotel in Vancouver is very expensive. So if they actually go to the house, they can, they can be, the family can stay in the house in a more affordable rate and then they can do the treatment in the hospital. So when I look at it, their family actually stayed more than 300 days. I was like, oh, that is a lot. and that's a long time

I do feel sorry for the kids have to get sick for that long but at the same time well I mean we do a lot

with the house I mean I'll give some example we have at double room program in the house so each each year we

sponsor a month to the room to support the cost of that room and And in this market, we have two rooms adopted right now so far. McHapy Day is also a very big thing that we always do. The restaurant in Chilliwack, indeed, is the number six fundraised restaurants in Canada this year.

Wow. So, yeah, McHapy Day, but once again, I mean, it's not just a Stephen effort. It's a team effort and it's also a community effort. But I can strongly, especially the past Make Happy Day, I can strongly feel that there's a big connection between the community and the restaurants and the house. Because otherwise, I mean, we couldn't fundraising that much. But at the same time, well, I mean, there is one charity I think is very special because it always helped people in their hard time, especially we, we,

go to hear different testimony. Sometimes you hear when a six years old have to go through a cancer treatment. And sometimes it just happened immediately. They're being airlift to the hospital. They have to find a place to stay and all that. The house usually stepped in

at that moment to help that family. So, that's why there's one charity that I think if people don't have a chance to actually look at the detail, maybe go to their website and there are lots of good information there. And you understand way more. I mean, what the house is just not a name. It's more

than mediates on that. Yeah. You're a person where I just love your philosophy. I love the approach that you're taking. But it's even more shocking when you find out about your background and all the things that have brought you here today. Would you mind taking us back to the beginning and starting your entrepreneurial journey? Oh, okay. So actually my entrepreneur journey, I would also include the entrepreneur influence because my family, my father never received lots of educations. I'm very proud my father. He's a very good role model.

I mean, as a business person, as a family person and all. He's a really good role model. So he never received lots of educations. and so he learned carpentry painting finishes and all that from his employer and then he's opened his own business with the blessing and then he opened his own business and then his own finisher shop so I remember when I was a kid we always hang out in the shop Saturday, Sunday when we were not going to school, we hang out in the shop

because someone needs to keep the shop open so there's nothing to do we take a sandpaper, we're sending the woods, we do different things in the shop, like when we were even as a kid. So I remember I built my first furniture and when I was 12 years old and then someone basically said, oh, you should do your father business and all that. I'm like, oh, maybe. Anyway, so we close the shops. We moved to Canada. So when I moved to Canada, it's about 14. And same thing, we opened a shop and adopting, using the same business model in a different country and adopting to Canada is a formula of failure, just so you know, my father admit that too, so he don't mind I say that. So, but we operate a not very successful business

at that moment. So try to save money. Me, my brother, my elder brother, we used to be, after school, we also helped deliver finitures when we have to do a delivery because we couldn't afford to hire other people to do delivery. So there are times that we have to move solid wood furniture of a couple, like two, three story house. So yeah, they were heavy. Wow. Yeah, they're not IKEA away. They are salted with furniture. They're salt filled. So we carry them and all. Imagine, right, my brother actually is a very successful person too. He has a very successful career. He's an engineer. He's the VP of a global company. So but imagine you have you have two guys like actually doing not bad now, but you look back

those two guys also like doing financial delivery. So that's how it influenced me when I actually did the whole entrepreneur mindset. So that's why like when I think about, well, I mean And that's why I like the challenge as an entrepreneur, but I learned from the good for my parents. And I also learned the things that if I have my business in the future, that's something that I might do it very differently. So that's why I continue my schooling when all these happen. And when I get to, yeah, I talk a little bit. Then then they apply to McDonald's. McDonald's don't hide me.

They apply pet chicken. They hide me. And then it meant to be a part-time anyway. And it just basically a job that I just want some spare money. Okay? And then, yeah, okay, I mean, yeah, it's good enough to pay off the car insurance, some expenses. I can go with my girlfriend, which is my wife right now,

and just some casual money, like never meant to be important or anything. And I continue my schooling during while I'm working in Petrucan. but opportunities lock on the door so when Patrick can actually ask me Steven do you want to become a business owner we can provide you training we can provide you all the things that you need we'll even pay you during your training

which is I say it's pretty amazing and so I start the journey so I dropped school I didn't finish my university and my mom indeed I think some time ago she still bugged me about Stephen are you going to finish it I'm like, yeah, maybe we need to find time to do it, but not right now. But yeah, and so I dropped school, and then I finished the training with PetroGan.

They offered me my first opportunity. So from one gas stations, I grow to 11 before I say, okay, I mean, I want to do something else. So I sold all 11 Petrocan consolidated to one McDonald's. So from one McDonald's, we grow to $1,000. five McDonald's now. So pretty happy about the whole journey. But when I talk about the whole entrepreneur insurance, right, I think it's my parents' experience actually taught me

you need to evolve in your business model. You cannot always keep doing the same thing over and over. Because even if they believe or he believe, the things that he'd done in the past is the perfect way of doing things. it might not be working after so many years because maybe it's not my father change it's maybe because the environment change and it's proven right now

that environment changed faster than ever so we need to adopt. The other thing that actually influenced me a lot is the whole scale, how you scale your business. When you actually as a one person business, when you scale up to three, five, 100, now I have 400s. So how do we scale to make sure that things are still working? I think those are the things that when you ask, what is that entrepreneur,

then experience or journey, that that's where it's all coming from. I love that. I really love your whole mindset around it and your passion and the growth that you've experienced, the gratitude and admiration you have for your parents and the role they played is super important. We're going to do a quickfire round of a few questions. So we'll get your thoughts on this. Does hard work pay off? Is it a yes or no thing, or I can use one word to answer you?

You can use as many words as you like. Smart hard work. Smart hard work. Favorite TV show? The office. The favorite meal you have at McDonald's. McChicken meal after my first dental checkup in Hong Kong, it was a luxury back then. There's only one McDonald's in Hong Kong, and that's the treat that my father gave to me,

because he know that I was suffering in pain. Can one person make a difference? No. Stephen, this has been an honor. How can people keep up with the work you're doing at McDonald's? Sto myself down. Yeah, I mean, if that's the question, right? Yeah.

If people can keep up, I need to slow myself down. Right. So that everyone can move to the finish line. Right. Yeah. Amazing. Is there any way people can follow? you, LinkedIn, Twitter? Are you on?

Yeah, yeah, they can go to my LinkedIn. Yeah, and they can find me there. And yeah, that's probably one of the things that I talk a lot about my business. I don't use social media too much anymore. But Lincoln is one way that I can keep connect with the business world. I love it. I love it too. It's such an honor to follow your work and reminds us that we can approach things differently and start to try new things. And I think that's really admirable. Okay. Thank you. Perfect. Thanks for having me here. I'll