The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 372: Will Guidara - The Nobility Of Service: Lessons Learned From The #1 Restaurateur In The World

Episode Date: June 28, 2020

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk Text LEARNERS to 44222 Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com #372: Will Guidara Notes: Sustaining excellence = Everyone has the capacity for excellence Hard work Giving a lot of yourself to something -- A" passion for the thing you're excellent at doing." The nobility of service It requires getting up on a day when you're tired and not feeling it "You need to be on even when you feel off" The "pre-shift" meeting -- "As a leader, you have a responsibility to share what inspires you." "Everyone craves affirmation." Lessons from his Mom: She became a quadriplegic when Will was nine You can talk things into existence - Will's mom said she wanted to stay alive until he graduated college. And she did it by one day. Doctors said she should have died when Will was 12. "What would you attempt to do if you could not fail?" The power of non-verbal communication. Integrity in the face of adversity - Life is not always awesome. There's always ups and downs. Perspective is key. Eleven Madison Park - Setting the goal to be the #1 rated restaurant in the world. In 2010, they were #50. Seven years later, they were #1. "You need to love what you're doing to be great at it." There is power in having extraordinary intention Strategic planning -- Be specific and actionable Have endless reinvention Be willing to take risks "Unreasonable Hospitality" You need to decide what you want to embody "Business like life is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and that hard." - Danny Meyer Hiring: "We hired dream weavers from art schools, designers..." Experiential design separated them from the rest Be present Listen to what is being said and what's not being said. Engage with people. Serve them. Meet them where they are. "Hospitality is one size meets one" - Have to meet them one at a time What's the secret to a happy marriage? "Never stop pursuing each other" Ruth's Chris - The special calamari strips -- Not on the menu, but available to make an experience exceptional The nobility of service... The four words: Hospitality Excellence Education - "A day you aren't learning isn't a day worth living" Passion - "Our work matters. What we do matters." Meeting at The White House: Restaurants during the pandemic His dad's advice -- "Adversity is a terrible thing to waste" "It's not what happened to you, it's how you respond." "Through crisis comes community" The Welcome Conference "Hospitality is just as much a craft as cooking." Will's dad is his hero "Next level intense responsibility" He never complained "Name what you want to accomplish and do it" "The secret to happiness is always something to look forward to." Here is WHY joining a Learning Leader Circle is a good idea...  

I think one of the things that's most important about anyone that achieves some level of success is you need to decide what you want to embody and use that as a litmus test for any decision that you make. Are you curious about taking a more proactive approach to your leadership development? Have you thought about the people you are surrounding yourself with as you strive to get better? If so, the new Learning Leader Academy may be for you. It's been designed to not only provide you with online training videos. In fact, I filmed 30 of them sitting side by side with the greatest mentor of my life, my dad. But the Learning Leader Academy also gives you the opportunity to interact with an active community of leaders with growth-oriented mindsets.

If this sounds like something that you would like to do, check out more details at Ryanhawk. That's Ryanhawk.me for the Learning Leader Academy. Welcome to the Learning Leader Show presented by Rixie and Meyer. I am Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Text learners to 4422 in order to join tens of thousands of learning leaders from all over the world. Mindful Monday updates, what I'm reading, writing, watching, thinking about. Also give you more details about how my book, Welcome to Management, can help you become a more effective leader.

Text, learners to 44222. Now, on a night's featured leader to great Will Godera award-winning restaurateur based in New York City. In 2011, he established Make It Nice hospitality group, which owned and operated 11 Madison Park and Nomad. In 2017, 11 Madison Park was named the number one restaurant in the world. A few of the topics we discussed, the nobility of service and why that's vital for your success as a leader. We'll told some amazing stories about this. And then the three lessons will learn from his mom and how they apply to you.

And then how to build a community wherever you are, whatever industry you're in. Ladies and gentlemen, this one is so good. What the great Will Gadera. All right, Will, Gadera. It's so good to have you here on The Learning Leaders Show. Welcome, man. Thank you so much, man. I'm happy to be here.

I mentioned to you briefly before we started recording that I am fascinated by leaders who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time. And not only have you done that, but you've also surrounded yourself with others who have as well. So I'm curious, Will, from your perspective, what have you found to be some of the commonalities among leaders who have sustained excellence? You know, it's interesting. I think that anyone has the capacity to be excellent. I think that excellence requires hard work. Obviously, it requires like giving a lot of yourself to something. And so I think the reason why it's come, it's been a part of my life or perhaps a part of the people around me's lives is that people,

have had an extraordinary amount of passion for the thing that they're excellent at doing. I'm not saying that it's impossible to have sustained excellence in pursuit of something that you're not extraordinarily passionate about. Perhaps you're the kind of person that's just passionate about winning and sustained excellence is a byproduct of that.

But I'll tell you what, I'm a restaurant guy, right? I've given my life to hospitality. I do that because I love hospitality. I believe in the nobility of service. I love the gratification I get from enriching someone's life, whether it's over the course of two hours that they're in one of my restaurants for dinner or over the course of a few years while they're working in one of those restaurants. And so being excellent at anything,

it requires getting up even on a, day when you are tired and you are not feeling it on a day where for all intensive purposes everything that is everything about the situation you should be off and somehow managing to be on and i think it's only possible on those difficult days if you're so fulfilled by what you get to do on a daily basis, that leaning into your work is actually life-giving, as opposed to the other way around. One of my favorite things to do in my restaurants is do pre-service,

where I gather the entire team together right before we open the doors and start welcoming guests. It's the most important 30 minutes of the day. It's where the team ceases to be a collection of individuals, and it starts to become a team. It's where we inspire, where we teach, we learn, where we share, where we invest in one another, where we show vulnerability, and we affirm and we celebrate.

There are days when I'm tired. There are days when I don't feel like I have a lot to give, and part of my instinct is to not do that meeting because I'm probably not the right guy to do it that day. And sometimes I don't. If I don't have enough energy to inspire the people around me, I should take a step back and let someone else step up. but those meetings are actually the thing that refills my gas tank enough where I'm able to leave it all on the field, even when I didn't think I had that much to leave.

Can you take us inside one of those meetings right before you welcome your guest? The reason I'm going to ask this, Will, is because I'm curious how this could be done in outside of the restaurant space, in the business world. Maybe you're a person who's managing a team of 14 people. And you may not necessarily have guests within your place of work, but you are leading your team. You will be making sales calls, for example, or doing something in order to help your business succeed. And maybe somebody who's listening could draw from what you have done with your team right before you're going to welcome your guests. The things you say, why you say them, how your team then,

becomes a team and how they respond. Can you take us inside that, Will, so we can feel what that's like? And I love that you're asking that question because I've spent the last two years telling everyone who does anything that if they don't do pre-shift at the beginning of their shift, that they're leaving a lot on the table. I don't care if you're managing a branch of a bank or if you're running an insurance office. What I said before is the 30 minutes, and by the way, it doesn't need to be 30 minutes for every group. Maybe it's a 10-minute thing.

but the importance, listen, I believe in compartmentalizing life from work to an extent that when people go home, they should be their own thing, right? Like, some people can't leave work behind, and I'm not saying that, like, you work 9 to 5 and you're not plugged in at all for the balance of the day. But we need to be as invested in being individuals as we are invested as being a part of the team. and it's in that 30 minutes where that happens. And so, listen, that happens from a standard meeting for us in the restaurant business. It might be me opening up the meeting and talking about something I saw that inspired me, something I've read, an experience I had. I believe as a leader, you have a responsibility to share the things that inspire you outside of work when you get back to work.

so that the team can feel that sense of inspiration as well. I think a pre-service is a beautiful opportunity to affirm someone for their good work. I think everyone, no matter how old you get or no matter how cool you think you are, craves affirmation. And celebrating someone for a job well done not only motivates that person to continue trying to do that more often, but it gives everyone else a taste of what affirmation looks like so that they can work that much harder to achieve it.

It's an opportunity for a leader to call themselves out if they do something wrong, to show confidence in being vulnerable and to show a willingness in criticizing yourself, because how is anyone going to ever want to receive criticism from you if you're not just as willing to criticize yourself? It's an opportunity to share stories, to laugh, to bond, to connect, and then, of course, to teach,

because there are also just technical elements, the job that change on a day-to-day basis, no matter what you're doing. And it's a great opportunity to level set and make sure that people are focused on what the objectives are for the shift to come. Wow. So, Will, you run a conference called the Welcome Conference. And I was watching one of your speeches today that you gave at it called Lessons from my mom. And there's three primary lessons. And I think each of those three keys or those three lessons

probably could lead to an entire podcast. And I love, I would though love to because I feel like especially well, really all three of them are very important. But number one, when it comes to speaking something into existence, it happened for you at 11 Madison Park. And so can I, if for you, let me tee these three up. And I'll say all three and then maybe we can dive into each one. Are you cool with that? Yeah, for sure. So at the speech, you're on stage. By the way, an incredible speech.

It's like a TED Talk length, but I wanted it to be longer called Lessons from my mom is incredible. One, you can talk things into existence. Number two, you learned the power of nonverbal communication from your mom. And we'll share why that is. And three, having integrity in the face of adversity. So there's a lot to get through from each of those, but I wanted to tee it up and also tease for our listeners here because it's part of building a show about why this is so critical. And I absolutely love it.

So first, you can talk things into existence. Maybe you can share some of the story about your mom and then how you used that to some of the things that you accomplished at 11 Madison. park. Yeah, when I was very young, six years old or so, my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer. And the tumor ended up being malignant. And for those of you don't know what that means. A malignant tumor means that it's kind of spread. And so it's not easy to just remove in its entirety. And so they removed the tumor and had to do radiation treatment. in an effort to kill what remained in her brain. And this was a long time ago.

Radiation treatment has come a long, long way since then at the time it wasn't that refined. And so after the surgery, she was more or less okay, save that she could no longer use one of her legs and one of her arms, but she can move and talk. But then radiation treatment or radiation damage started to happen. And what that looked like was a slow, physical deterioration. such that over the five, six years that followed, she became a quadriplegic.

I'm able to move, hardly able to speak. It was a very, very challenging thing to go through for her. I can't even imagine the idea of having a fully functioning brain without the ability to express thoughts and ideas. Anytime, I mean, right now we're going through this extraordinary crisis, financial ruin, so many things that are challenging so many people. And the moments that I start to feel bad for myself, I try to just remember what she faced and how strong she was as she did.

The reason I say the power of talking something into existence is, Because at a certain point, they said she had just a few years left to live. But my mom was dead set on seeing me graduate college. And I remember just saying over and over again, over again, I'm not dying in three years. I'm going to see my son graduate college. And against all odds, she did. She was supposed to pass away when I was like 12 or something.

And she passed away the day after I graduated college. and I think that's extraordinary and listen that's been a part of my life in a ton of different ways whether it's personal goals that feel unachievable or no one will ever

accomplish anything if you don't have the courage and the conviction to say out loud that you're going to too many are scared to say what they really want to achieve at a fear of letting themselves or those around them down my dad gave me a plaque when I was a kid

and it said, what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? And the way he raised me was just to answer that question and try to do that. Because it's the old adage. It's better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all. At 11 Madison Park,

we were added to the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world and we went to the ceremony unsure of where we were going to land on the list and we're sitting there. And the awards are much like the Oscars, except at the Oscars, if you're nominated, all you want them to do is call your name. when you're nominated for one of the 50 Best Awards,

you get there, and you know you're in the top 50, you just don't know where, and they start at 50, and they count down to one, and so you want them to not call your name for as long as humanly possible. And so they started,

and I was trying to figure out where I thought we'd be, 50, 35, 20, 15, based on where we're sitting relative to our heroes, and they started off, and they're like, and at number 50, a new entry from New York City,

11 Madison Park. In that room, we'd come in last place. And we went back to the hotel and we wrote down on a piece of paper, we will be number one in the world. We went back to our entire team and had a big meeting and said, hey, guys, we get it, perspective being what it is. We have plenty to celebrate.

We were one of the 50 best restaurants in the world. But in that room we were in last place. And man, talk about getting your competitive juices flowing. And so we said to the team, we will be number one. Now, some would say that's a reckless thing to do. If you're at number 50, you're one spot away from dropping off the list. And to set an unreasonable goal for your team and then fail to achieve it is objectively bad for morale. You're taking a risk.

But in the absence of saying it out loud, it will never come true. And so we said it every day for the next seven years. And then we became the number one restaurant in the world. Wow. saying it is one thing. Putting in the work over the course of those seven years is a different thing. Because there's a lot of people can talk, but not a lot of people can actually do and execute in order to then achieve that goal.

What were some of the key behavior changes that you took over the course of those seven years in order to basically will that into existence from 50. And then over the course of those seven years, I believe in 2016, you were number three. And then 2017, you're number one. In 2015, you're five, 2014, you're four, 2013, you're five. Like, you're getting close. Every year you probably thought you had a great shot of winning.

Yet technically you probably felt like you lost, even though you were top four, top five restaurant in the world. That's true. What were some of those things, like actual behaviors that you and your team did in order to eventually achieve that goal seven years later? You know, I mean, I think it comes back to your point about sustained excellence. You need to be passionate about it. Otherwise, I mean, to focus on a single goal for that long and not achieve it. Like, you need to love what you're doing for reasons beyond the accolade, right?

The accolade is not your reason for being. It's the celebration for the work you're doing in pursuit of a passion. But there were a lot of, I mean, a lot of things done with extraordinary intention. One of the biggest things about the culture was that it was always based on the spirit of collaboration. Upon the recognition that 150 brains

would always be much more powerful than one or two at the top. And so the idea that every decision that was made between number 50 and number one was mine is a crazy idea, right? Like every year we'd close the restaurant for a couple days and have strategic planning. We'd have our mission statement and we'd have our strategies for the year.

And we'd talk about what was important and what we wanted to focus on. And then we'd break the entire group up to come up with specific and actionable things that we could do in order to get closer to achieving that mission. So collaboration, extraordinarily important. Endless reinvention.

which doesn't mean changing for the sake of change, but it means not being so attached to any single thing that you do that you're not willing to look at it with a fresh set of eyes. Being willing to take risks. Learning to trust your gut, understanding what rules exist and knowing which ones you want to break. I mean, there's a thousand, there's a thousand things. But listen, I think what we did,

the other two words we wrote on that piece of paper at the end of that night in London were unreasonable hospitality. I think one of the things that's most important about anyone that achieves some level of success is you need to decide

what you want to embody and use that as a litmus test for any decision that you make. To be number one in the world, okay, it's ridiculous the idea that you can say one restaurant is the best restaurant in the world. What it celebrates is What restaurant is impacting the industry in some sort of meaningful way?

Restaurants before us that had reached that spot on that list. Some were celebrated for pioneering molecular gastronomy, El Boulé in Spain. Another was celebrated for pioneering like the true local food movement with foraging and all of that Noma in Copenhagen. And I believed that what we had, restaurants have become very intellectual, a lot of chefs. It's like going and like being in the temple of the chef. And our belief system was that, man, restaurants are where you should go to be cared for. And we should be completely unreasonable in our pursuit of making people feel welcome. What does some of those things look like?

What does some of the actual? What does it feel like when you walked into 11 Madison Park in 2016, 2017 that that was different that distinguished the number one restaurant in the world when it comes to unreasonable hospitality we had a so one day I was working the floor at lunch and it was a it was a table of four they had their bags with them they were going to the airport to fly back to Europe at the end of their meal and I was serving them something and I ever heard them say what a trip we've eaten a momofuku we've eaten per se Danielle Lamberdinand And now 11 Madison Parked.

The only thing we didn't have was a street hot dog. Oh, well, we'll get it next time. And it was one of those moments where, like, a light bulb goes off. And so I ran out to the street cart and bought a hot dog. And we brought it back in the kitchen. We cut it up into four little pieces and put them perfectly on the plate with a little canelle of sourcrow. And a canelle of relish and a swish of mustard and a swish of ketchup. and right before their entree,

we served them a street hot dog. Now, keep in mind, we spent months conceiving of and cooking every other dish on the menu, and I guarantee you that is the dish that they will remember the most for the rest of their lives because it was bespoke to them.

And it was exhilarating. Listen, I think people in the restaurant business, the people that I want to surround myself with anyway, they all fall loosely into a group. There are people that like to give gifts the holidays and there are those that like to receive them. I want to surround myself with the people that like to give gifts. Now, make no mistake, both groups are just as selfish,

because the people that like to give gifts love to look at the expressions on other people's faces when they receive those gifts. That's the gift you're getting. And we realized, oh my gosh, the best thing we can do is be listening to people reading their body language and reacting and doing things that are completely, improvisational, improvisational hospitality. And so we ended up doing more and more of that to the point where we hired people just to make things come to life.

And we called them Dreamweavers. And we hired them from art schools and design schools. And, you know, a guest was coming in because we had a last-minute cancellation. And they booked it. And they were coming in dinner because their vacation to the beach had gotten canceled because it was snowing and their flight was canceled. and our private dining room was empty. So the Dreamweaver ran out and got a kitty pool and some beach chairs,

and we set them up up there after dinner and served them mitis. A fortop from Spain was in with their children, and it started to snow. And we overheard the parents saying to their kids, look, it's your first time seeing snow. And so at the end of the meal, we had an Uber SUV outside with sleds there, ready to take them to Central Park. It's all about the experience, the experience.

Like you always feels to me like you're constantly thinking of how can we make this an experience they'll never forget. And there's, and to relate this for the average person listening who is not in the restaurant industry, to relate this is there's no reason why you can't have the same mentality, regardless, as you said, even if you work in a bank, regardless of what you do, why couldn't you think the exact same way that Will Goderah thinks about about hospitality? I mean, that's what it feels like to me. I don't think there's any industry where you can't go a little bit further. Yeah. By the way, here's the thing, like, okay, for anyone

that worked in the dining room and anyone that works at a dining room in any restaurant, you're serving the same dishes night in and night out. Everyone craves, you know, something that makes a day feel different, something that makes a day feel special. And even if you're one of those people that likes to get gifts at the holidays, it feels good to give someone something. And it doesn't need to be something expensive.

It just needs to rely on, like one's ability to be present enough when you're communicating with people such that you're actually there and listening to all the things they're saying and all the things they're not saying. I mean, whether you're a real estate agent, whether you're a banker.

Like, if you have the capacity, well, if you have the willingness and the capacity to engage with people, enough where you can get to know them even a little bit, and then take what you've learned about them and turn that into something extraordinary, some little act of kindness. It makes your day better, it makes the person that you're serving, it makes their day better.

And honestly, I believe if everyone out there started doing stuff like that, the world would be a better place because generosity and graciousness is pretty addictive. The second lesson you learned from your mom is the power of nonverbal communication. And you've already shared a few examples of, I think having that awareness of understanding nonverbal communication. Can you share more about how your mom talks, taught you that. As I said, by the time I was 12 or 13 or so, my mom, she couldn't talk anymore. But man, could she smile?

She had this big, overwhelming, like, toothy smile. When you're, like, a 13, 14-year-old kid, like, you want to feel the love of your mother and the thing that, like, I don't care who you are. like when your parents tell you you did a good job I mean you're going to work really hard to get that again like there are few things that anyone wants more than like hearing from their parents you did a good job

my mom couldn't tell me I did a good job no matter what it was but she could communicate it to me and when she was proud whether it was through the smile or the light in her eyes, I felt it. And I think, I mean, listen,

sometimes nonverbal communication is a hell of a lot more powerful than anything you can say with whatever words you have at your disposal. And I think that, like, it's important in hospitality. It's important in service. And when I say hospitality and service,

I'm not talking about restaurants and restaurants alone. I'm talking about every single industry where we serve other people. And by the way, these days, that's almost every industry. And so whether it's just maintaining eye contact with the person you're speaking to and doing so, showing them that you care, I mean, that's on the giving side, it's also on the receiving side, the amount that you can learn from someone's body language or the

look on someone's face, you can pick up so much about where someone's at. And the more you know about where someone is at emotionally, the better equipped you are to serve them to meet them there. Hospitality is a one-size-fits-one thing. If you approach everyone with the same schick, right? That's exactly what it's going to be. It's going to be a schick. But if I can pick up on the fact that you look tired, or if I can see based on your energy that you're restless, or if I can see that you're excited and you're looking to celebrate someone, if I can see that you're anxious. If I can see that you need me,

it's just crucial. And it's something that people don't often see as in the power of as much as they should. You worked with Danny Meyer, who wrote a great book called Setting the Table. And one of my all-time favorite quotes of all-time, not just in business in general, is from him.

And it's business like life is all about how you make people feel. It's that simple and it's that hard. And I feel like that is what you seem to embody with understanding that really business in life, they go together and they're all about how you make people feel and you make a conscious effort to make people feel something through their experience, whether it's at a restaurant or just within your relationships and your friendships in your marriage to be very intentional about how you make other people feel. And I think from a leadership perspective, this is something that should be on the forefront of our minds is how are we making people feel? And it sounds like a soft skill. And I hate that

term. It's an essential skill if you want to be good. And I'd love for you to share your philosophy on that aspect of business and life and it being all about how you make people feel. It's that simple, yet it's also that hard. I mean, it's funny. I think most lessons in life apply to business, and most lessons in business apply to life. I think at the end of the day, if you're approaching your work in the right way, it's just a collection of relationships.

And the same rules that you apply to your marriage or the relationship with your parents or loved ones or friends, many of those lessons can be applied to the way that you manage people, the way that you allow yourself to be managed, the way that you lead, the way that you follow, the way that you take care of people. Yeah, it is about how you make people feel. I mean, listen, anyone that you talk to, any married couple that's been married for a really, really long time, and you ask them what their secret is to a healthy marriage. Every answer I've ever I think I could rearticulate it as follows that they never stopped pursuing each other. And I think that's easy and that's hard.

I think it's sustained excellence. I never stopped pursuing someone to care enough about them that you continue to pursue them. And that, by the way, is someone that works with you or for you pursuing them because you care about them. That, by the way, is a table that comes in and they're completely unreasonable and they're not super nice, but you don't stop pursuing them because you want them to leave happy. You want them to feel good. So, I mean, listen, that's a big question. There's a million of answers, a million answers you could give. But I do think it has a lot to do with pursuit.

Yeah, I love that. word, the pursuit of excellence, the pursuit of of, of, of, of, of anything is a fascinating thing to study when you, when you look at people's stories. And I think on this podcast, it's part of what I try to do is elicit stories, understand stories and how we can apply our learnings from other stories to our lives and make them better. I'm talking about the pursuit of people. Yeah.

Not the pursuit of an idea, the pursuit of a human being. Yeah. And speaking of that, there's a great example I've heard you share when it comes to people that you learned at a young age. And I'd love for you to tell it. I don't want to, maybe I can tee it up and then you can finish it. But you're 15 years old, I believe. You're working at Ruth's Chris steak. Is that right?

Steakhouse when you're 15? And you guys had a method of making people feel extra special there by serving them something that wasn't on the menu. Can you share the philosophy behind that and what it was and what you learned at a young age that helped you later on? Yeah, I mean, it's generous to say that you guys had a way. I was like the lowest man in the totem pole. I was just all along for the ride. So, so Ruth Chris is a chain restaurant franchises. So that means it's a chain, but different people own the individual units.

And part of being a franchise is that you don't get to create a new menu. Everyone serves the same menu, but you own the same. that specific business and you execute it and you pay a franchise fee to the company and then it's yours. But whoever it was that owned that place, I didn't know the owner. I have no idea. I was I was a kid. There was a dish. It was a fried calamari dish, but it was cut into strips, not rings. And it wasn't on the menu. It wasn't allowed to be on the menu. You couldn't sell it. But any time a regular came in or a VIP, they got that fried calamari. And let me tell you. Let me tell you. It was extraordinary. I got it once and I will never forget it. I thought it's one of

the best dishes I've ever had in my entire life. No. How much of that is real versus nostalgic? I don't know. But it taught me a lesson. Listen, I get a restaurant and in our industry we take care of one another. And so you always get a little extra something that you go to a restaurant, let's say it's your anniversary that send you an extra dessert or, or, an extra appetizer or whatever it is. You can open the menu up and see how much that thing costs. You can say, well, they love me times $14. The thing I loved about what they did at Risk Chris is it was priceless.

You couldn't get it unless you were being shown love, unless they were showing you they cared about you, unless they were showing appreciation or consideration. That's why we have dreamweavers to put sleds in the back of a car. I think that the best acts of graciousness are ones that you could not otherwise have unless the restaurant is pursuing you. You mentioned earlier the nobility of service.

And as we've been the kind of the theme of this is that applies to all businesses, not just as running a restaurant. what does the nobility of service mean to you? How did you come up with it? Why is that so important to you? Does it come from a family trait? I'm just curious why that is meaningful to you. I mean, we talk about the nobility of service.

Yeah, I'm sure it's inspired to some extent growing up with my mother and her condition. Like knowing the power of serving someone who relies, completely on you serving them. But where that really came from was in one of the first strategic planning meetings, we did. We came up with basically those strategic planning meetings, as I explained, every year we'd come up with the to-do list. All the stuff we're going to do over the course of that year. And those ideas are worked out as to where we were. But in that first year, before we could start deciding what we wanted to do, we had to first identify who we were, what we wanted to do.

what we wanted to be. And so we came up with a list of four words, none of which individually were that groundbreaking, but we decided as a collective that if we can embody them simultaneously, they would be. The first was hospitality. The idea that we wanted to surround ourselves of people who derived significant and genuine pleasure

out of being kind to other people, not for financial gain or karmic bump, but just because the act of bestowing graciousness on someone else made your day a better day. excellence was the second word. I'm a perfectionist. Perfection is unattainable. So we just wanted to surround ourselves with people

who wanted to get as close to it as humanly possible and didn't get frustrated and stop trying to achieve it once they realized it wasn't achievable. Third was education that listen to the restaurant business. We served doctors and lawyers and bankers all day, every day, all of them require secondary and tertiary education. but we decided that a day where you weren't teaching or learning was not a day worth living. And the fourth was passion.

And that just meant that we wanted to find people who were hospitable and strove for excellence and who wanted to teach or learn, not because it was a part of their job description, but just because that's who they were. So those were the four words. But at the end, we decided something perhaps even more important that our work mattered. I don't think anyone becomes the best at anything unless they don't understand that what they do for a living has importance. In the absence of naming that for yourself,

those days where you're exhausted, there's nothing there to get you out of bed. And so we named that day, okay, we're not saving lives. But what we do is important. because in restaurants, we have the opportunity to help people celebrate some of the most important moments of their lives. Similarly, or conversely, we get to give people to grace, even if just for a few hours, to forget about some of the most difficult moments in their lives. And if we're really, really nice to people, as I said before, we can make the world a better place simply by them going out into the world and being nicer to other people, too.

There is nobility and service. And so for me, the nobility of service is another way of saying that what I do for a living is important enough to give it everything I have to give. Speaking of that, so circling back to lesson number three, your mom, the lesson that you were, I thought we'd fallen off at this is good. We're not falling off. Well, I'm sticking to it. you're just too good of a storyteller I get caught up and I'm taking notes here too I'm trying to

learn integrity in the face of adversity and I think this one I want to relate it to actually what you did yesterday because normally I like to make these timeless but there will always be some sort of adversity whether it's the type of adversity that's happening now or whatever it is if you're listening to this five years from now there's a don't be a different type of adversity that someone may be facing. And if it just so happens to be now, then you're dealing with a pandemic. And because of that, one of the industries that's getting absolutely crushed is the restaurant industry.

A friend of mine owns three restaurants here. Fortunately, his takeout business is pretty good, but they're still getting hit. And I know there are countless others all over the country. And one of the things that happened because of this is the president asked you to come to the White House to talk about this. and that's what you did yesterday. And I'd love to, I guess as much as you're allowed, can you take us inside what that meeting was like yesterday at the White House,

dealing with how to manage what's happened to restaurants over the course of this pandemic? I mean, yeah, the meeting was about, like, working with, you know, President Trump and Vice President Pence and Secretary of Mnuchin and the rest of the cabinet on, where restaurants are out right now and what relief is needed to get us through this. Restaurants are one of the biggest employers in America, like by far. The ecosystem supported by restaurants, whether it's farmers or meat purveyors or fish mongers

or wine producers or real estate. The restaurant industry economically and culturally is a hugely important part of this country. And it's facing unprecedented challenge right now. And so we were brought down there to have a discussion on what needs to happen in order to get us through this. This is what I'll say, I wasn't alone. Obviously, it was me and other people from the business. And I think, listen, my dad has this thing, he says all the time. It's one of my favorite quotes of his,

adversity is a terrible thing to waste in any time of adversity. And we all face adversity constantly in different shapes and sizes. And the adversity itself is unavoidable. You can't, that part's out of your control. Things are going to be hard sometimes to varying degrees. It could come in the form of a pandemic. It could come in the form of brain cancer. It could come in the form of a divorce, a lost job.

I mean, it could come in the form of a stubbed toe. It's not what happens to you. That's how you respond to it that defines you. And more often than not, there's opportunity and moments of adversity to either become a better version of yourself to learn a lesson that hopefully you hold on to it when you get to the other side. And I'll say, like,

one of the beautiful moments or things about this moment in time is that through crisis has come community. I was at the White House representing a group that I helped to form called the Independent Restaurant Coalition.

And just look at that first word, independent. It represents 30,000 chefs and restaurateurs across the country. all of whom are vehement in their independence. And yet right now we are working together as a community because we have to. And because, I mean, there's a seven-week-old organization, and because we're working so closely together as a community,

we were invited to the White House, which is nothing that any one of us as individuals would have ever achieved. And so, listen, in adverse times, you can feel bad for yourself, You can put your head in the sand. You can retreat. Or you can stand up and fight. And fight's a tricky word. But I think you know what I mean.

You talking about community, when I was watching the videos from the welcome conference and reading about it grew inspired. It also made me miss events like that. I'm excited to get back to them. I'm curious. what that means to you and also the name. The naming of things to me is really important. And it's a beautiful looking stage. You could see the people in the crowds behind you.

There's just a big picture that says, welcome. Can you share more about that? Why you decided to do that and continue to do that? And I know we're all excited to get back to that. But what that means to you? So, I mean, I started that with a good friend of my name, Anthony Rudolph, I guess eight years ago now. Because I was speaking at all these food conferences all over the world. But every one, I found I was the only dining room guy there.

And these conferences were extraordinary. And the craft of cooking evolved considerably because these conferences, you had a ton of like-minded people coming together, sharing ideas. inspiring one another and connecting to form community. And then as that community strengthened, the exchange of ideas and the comparative notes, just, you know. And yet there was nothing like that for hospitality. And I believe that hospitality is just as much of a craft as cooking it.

The more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more you study it. The more you strengthen that muscle, the better you get at it. And so we started the welcome conference because, man, for a minute there, food was getting a lot better

and service in America was getting a lot worse, and that doesn't work. And it's a day, it's not like we get together and we do like service demos or something like that. It's meant to be a day where we talk about the nobility of service.

We talk about the responsibility we have to create magical worlds in a world that needs more magic. It's a day where people get their gas tanks filled, where they gain insight and perspective and run back into their little worlds as individuals wanting to be better versions themselves than they were before, whether it's professionally or personally.

It's a special day. I can't wait until we get to have it again. I want to close with another really important person in your life. Your dad, you've mentioned him a number of times. He's got great sayings. I know I've read that you said your dad is your hero. I love adversity. It's a terrible thing to waste.

I've actually used that quote with you and your dad quoted in speeches before because I'm a firm believer in that as well. So it brought me some joy. you saw me smile when you said that quote, as well as, you know, what would you, you know, the gift that he gave you, which is what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? It's probably, if somebody asked me to kind of share an answer about my dad, it would take two hours from the answer. So I know you could answer for the rest of the day. But I'm curious, what are, what are a few kind of things you've drawn from your dad additionally that, that we

haven't talked about yet, that why he's, he's your hero? I mean, And my dad was a restaurateur when I was growing up. My mom was a quadriplegic. We went through all this stuff. But that balance is hard. And he was a dad, right? And so that means you're working 14-hour days and still raising a kid and taking care of someone. That is like next level, intense responsibility, unlike what most people can even conceive of.

And he never complained, not even once. And he wasn't one of these old, like, manly men that didn't show emotion. He showed emotion, but he never felt bad for himself. And listen, like he's a super intentional person. He like, talk about adversity being a terrible thing to waste. My dad and I are extraordinarily close. I don't know that we would be nearly as close as we are.

Were it not for my mom's condition? That brought us closer together. That's one of the silver linings of that. When I was like 12, he always believed in the importance of naming what you want to accomplish. And when I was 12, he said, well, we got to decide what your goals are in life. I was like on the way back from SeaWorld or something.

And he made me write down my three goals. They were to go to Cornell to the hospitality school, to open my own restaurant in New York, and to marry Cindy Crawford. So I got three and a half out of three. I think I out did the third. And all along the way, he was very intentional in guiding me to achieve those goals.

you know i was i was working for danny mire and he made me quit because he didn't want me to get too settled until i'd learned from bigger companies so that i could compare the lessons from bigger companies to that of the smaller company that danny was at the time um and there's so many sayings what is it is it calvin coolidge the one uh persistence and determination alone or umnipot or woodrow wilson i always get it confused what about uh i heard you talk about gift giving of experiences to your dad. This is something that I've started to be able to do with my profession, and it is the coolest thing in the world because it was been done for me for so long.

And if you're the reason that you get to go, like, we got to go to the final four and this really neat event with coach John Calipari, and we go to the games, and we did this big thing on stage. And I got to bring my dad as my guest. And I paid for, you know, it was paid for and everything. and it was like one of the coolest things ever. And I crave, I want to do it more. And I know this is something that you're big on doing.

And maybe other people could hear your story and it'll inspire them to do things maybe for their mom or their dad or someone else that's important in their lives. How cool it would be to give a gift like that to somebody that you love. I'm not sure what gifts you're talking about, but I have a sense. I'll give it a shot and tell me. Okay. My dad spoke at the welcome conference.

And we give gifts to everyone that speaks of the welcome company. My dad's a big Patriots fan. Yeah. I'm not a huge football person. I've learned to love football in pursuit of him. Gotcha. But one year, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl. I think they were playing Atlanta.

My wife and a good buddy in mine were out having Korean barbecue. We got back to the apartment and the game was half over. We turned it on. And the Patriots were guests. They were just getting crushed. Just getting destroyed. And there's halftime, and I call my dad. And I was like, you know, dad, what's up with your team?

They're having a hard time. And he goes, don't call me during the Super Bowl. And I was like, dad, it's halftime. He goes, fuck you and hangs up the phone. By the way, my dad doesn't curse. Like, that's how competitive he is about football. Anyway, that game, if you're not familiar with it, the Patriots had like the best second half in Super Bowl history.

And Tom Brady played the game of his life. And they came back and won. And it was unreal. And I called my dad after the game, and he'd screened my call. He didn't pick up. And instead, he just texted me. He goes, that's how it's done.

So he spoke at the welcome conference the next year, and this was not an easy one to pull off. But I got him one of the balls from that game, and it was signed Frank. That's how it's done, Tom Brady. Wow. And it was a fun one to go. that's pretty awesome man I love it will um I'm gonna give you one more yes I know that's what you're

about to say this is the last lesson I'll share for my I would go all day but I mean I want to be respectful so go ahead uh the secret to happiness is always having something to look forward to you want this to be timeless and this is timely but well it's also timeless right now there is fear and anxiety in the uncertainty of everyone's lives as we navigate through this crisis. And that fear and anxiety it materializes in people in different ways.

Some people just throw on the towel. Some people stop feeling encouraged or optimistic. And by the way, I'm the last person to try to paint too rosy a picture about what's happening, it's going to be hard and it's going to go on for a long time. But I think one of the most important things right now is to maintain some optimism

and to make sure you have those things that you're looking forward to, not just on the other side of this. But on a daily or a weekly basis, find rhythms and routines and moments of celebration, even when it doesn't feel like there's much to celebrate. Because as long as we all always, is have something to look forward to.

There's always something to be happy about. And no matter how hard things are, there's no reason we all shouldn't still be allowed to be happy. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for investing your time, Will. This is just fantastic. I absolutely loved actually the process of

preparing for this conversation. There's so much depth. There's so much there. And so I just want to thank you for that as well. Where would you send my listeners to learn more about you online? I think the welcome conference. I think it's welcomeconference.org. A lot of good speeches on there in addition to yours.

Like just a click through. It's, I'm not able to go watch my speeches. I only have a few. them up there. Yeah. More, I think the best way to learn about someone is to learn about the things that they care about. And a lot of the videos that are up there represent the things that I care about.

Absolutely. Well, thank you again for investing your time. Well, I'd love to continue our dialogue as we both progress. This has certainly been my pleasure. Thank you so much, man. Take care. Wow, what an intentional and thoughtful leader, Will is. This one might be worth it for you.

to jump over to YouTube to watch and see the facial expressions and the mannerisms, him leaning back and forward as he answered. I'm really glad we got this one on video. I think you might like it there too. A few of the key takeaways for me, the lessons he learned from his mom. One, you can talk things into existence. We'll certainly made that happen. then the power of non-verbal communication and developing the skill to see this in others as well as yourself

and then three integrity in the face of adversity remember his dad's advice adversity is a terrible thing to waste then two as a leader it is your responsibility to share what inspires you with your team. Send them emails. Share what you're thinking about, what you're reading, what you were inspired by. They want to see that. Then three, what would you attempt to do if you could not fail, that paperweight that Will has from his dad? And I asked that to you, what would you attempt to do if you could not fail? It's an interesting question that certainly makes you think. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did. If so, I would love it. If you would tell a friend or two, perhaps one that has never listened to the Learning Leader Show. This one with Will Godera is fantastic. Because you continue to spread the word, you give me the opportunity to do what I love,

to what I'm inspired by on a daily basis. And for that, I will forever be grateful. Thank you so much. Talk with you soon. Can't wait.