Artwork for podcast Turning the Table
116: What Do You Stand For and How Would Anyone Know?
Episode 116 • 17th November 2022 • Turning the Table • Realignment Media
00:00:00 00:59:05

Share Episode

Shownotes

In this episode, we welcome our good friend, Chef, Advocate & Antagonist in the Hospitality Industry, Jensen Cummings.

He speaks to Jim and me about several posts he created lately that caught our attention because he was using a trigger word that always gets us lit up: VALUES.

We talk about three things you can do right now to clarify your core values, how to leverage them to find your perfect place of employment, and supercharge your career growth.

About Chef Jensen Cummings

5th Generation Chef | 22+ Years in the Restaurant Industry | 400+ Episodes of Best Served Podcast | Consultant | Coach | Marketer | Certified Cicerone

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensen-cummings-09b9894b/

https://www.facebook.com/BestServedPodcast

https://www.facebook.com/groups/231221154823850

https://www.bestservedcreative.com/?r_done=1

https://www.bestservedpodcast.com/


The Values Videos

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkeK3TwMcV9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkMLo0wg-Pl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link


Support for The Hospitality Industry:

I Got Your Back

The Burnt Chef Project

Chef Life Coaching

Grab your copy of the Porch Poem


Books Talked About in this Episode:

Radical Candor

The Peter Principle


Join the only free online community dedicated to chefs who want to enjoy their careers without sacrificing their lives, The Chef Life Brigade.


Turning the Table is the most progressive podcast for today's food and beverage industry featuring staff-centric operating solutions for restaurants in the #newhospitalityculture.

Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb as they "turn the tables" on the prevailing operating assumptions of the restaurant business in favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.

Check out the weekly videocast on

Youtube

Linkedin

FB

Benchmark Sixty sponsors this show; check out their unique staff retention solution.

In Partnership with Chef Life Coaching

Turning the Table is a production of Realignment Media.



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

Transcripts

Adam Lamb:

Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table, my

Adam Lamb:

name is Adam Lamb and I'm a career coach for chefs and hospitality

Adam Lamb:

professionals@cheflifecoaching.com.

Adam Lamb:

And we have our co-host, Jim Taylor of Benchmark 60.

Adam Lamb:

Welcome Jim.

Adam Lamb:

Morning

Jensen Cummings:

or afternoon.

Jensen Cummings:

I think I say that , depending on the time zone, how are you?

Jensen Cummings:

Right, right, right.

Adam Lamb:

Great.

Adam Lamb:

This is episode one 16.

Adam Lamb:

What do you stand for and how would anybody know?

Adam Lamb:

On this episode, we'll be speaking to chef, advocate and antagonist

Adam Lamb:

for the hospitality industry.

Adam Lamb:

Jensen Cummings, about several posts he created lately that caught

Adam Lamb:

the attention of both Jim and me because he's using a trigger word

Adam Lamb:

that always gets us lit up values.

Adam Lamb:

And we're gonna be bringing him in about 30 seconds, and you'll wanna

Adam Lamb:

stick around because we're gonna talk about three things you can do right

Adam Lamb:

now to get clear on your core values, how to leverage them to find your

Adam Lamb:

perfect place of employment, and also how to supercharge your career growth.

Adam Lamb:

And at the end of the show, we have a very special announcement

Adam Lamb:

that you're gonna want to hear.

Adam Lamb:

You'll be the very first ones to know about this, and we're

Adam Lamb:

really, really, really excited.

Adam Lamb:

We're gonna be talking about a lot of stuff.

Adam Lamb:

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

Adam Lamb:

found in the comments, in the show notes.

Adam Lamb:

And we wanna welcome our good friend.

Adam Lamb:

Jenson Cummings.

Adam Lamb:

Welcome

Jensen Cummings:

chef.

Jensen Cummings:

Happy to be here.

Jensen Cummings:

Chef.

Jim Taylor:

How are you?

Jensen Cummings:

A picture of us.

Jensen Cummings:

A selfie picture of us.

Jensen Cummings:

And I saw Jim smile cuz he could see me in the back studio

Jensen Cummings:

being Yeah, you were busted.

Jensen Cummings:

That's amazing.

Jensen Cummings:

Taking your picture.

Jensen Cummings:

I love doing it cuz my setup is like in the, in the basement.

Jensen Cummings:

I got baffling behind me.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm on a stack of books and this is how you get shit done in the,

Jensen Cummings:

in the content game, you know?

Jensen Cummings:

Well,

Adam Lamb:

dude, look at me.

Adam Lamb:

I'm in the dish.

Adam Lamb:

You know, what are you gonna do?

Adam Lamb:

? For those of you who've, you know, have been living under a rock

Adam Lamb:

for the last four years, Jensen Cummings is a fifth generation chef.

Adam Lamb:

He's got 22 years in the restaurant industry.

Adam Lamb:

He's got 400 episodes of his best Serve podcast, which he started in his car with

Adam Lamb:

towels hanging over the windows during covid because said, because he said

Adam Lamb:

something has gotta get done, brother.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, much respect.

Adam Lamb:

There can be lots of links for everybody to,

Jensen Cummings:

they were hoodies that I had hanging around me

Jensen Cummings:

in the parking lot of my gym.

Jensen Cummings:

Right, right, right.

Jensen Cummings:

And we actually coming up.

Jensen Cummings:

November 18th.

Jensen Cummings:

Wow.

Jensen Cummings:

This week, November 18th.

Jensen Cummings:

Tomorrow is the three year anniversary of the launch of Besser podcast as an

Jensen Cummings:

audio only podcast on Anchor, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

And then when we really got deep into, it was March 18th, 2020.

Jensen Cummings:

Went live on Facebook for the first time.

Jensen Cummings:

No idea what the hell I was doing.

Jensen Cummings:

Was horrible shows to start, but I just needed to stay connected

Jensen Cummings:

with people's restaurants.

Jensen Cummings:

Shut down, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

And I was.

Jensen Cummings:

Five and a half months, seven days a week with an average of nine shows a week.

Jensen Cummings:

It was just to stay connected with people that I learn a lot about.

Jensen Cummings:

What it took to kind of tell stories, create content, and

Jensen Cummings:

that's how everything built.

Jensen Cummings:

Just start making, start putting your story out there no matter

Jensen Cummings:

how clumsy and awkward it is.

Jensen Cummings:

And I know we're gonna get Absolutely.

Jensen Cummings:

We a lot how we're

Adam Lamb:

gonna get into that.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

You know, before we, before we dive into a lot of that stuff though I

Adam Lamb:

was wondering if we could Do a tip of the toque to the folks at Chow

Adam Lamb:

Bobby Mulvaney from Sacramento.

Adam Lamb:

The I got your back project.

Adam Lamb:

I was wondering if we could just kind of take temperature of the room, you

Adam Lamb:

know, are you rare, medium, rare?

Adam Lamb:

Medium.

Adam Lamb:

Medium.

Adam Lamb:

Well burnt.

Adam Lamb:

Jim, what's your temperature today?

Adam Lamb:

You

Jensen Cummings:

know what, I'm, I'm feeling pretty good today.

Jensen Cummings:

I mean, I'm so, I guess I'm, I mean, rare to meet him.

Jensen Cummings:

Real.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm not burned today, . I'm not, I don't think I'm meeting well.

Jensen Cummings:

Could have slept a little better last night.

Jensen Cummings:

We have a 12 week old.

Jensen Cummings:

She's 12 weeks today.

Jensen Cummings:

Congratulations.

Jensen Cummings:

Congrats.

Jensen Cummings:

So she didn't wanna look.

Jensen Cummings:

She was partying all night last night.

Jensen Cummings:

Good time.

Jensen Cummings:

But, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Jensen Cummings:

I think there's good momentum starting to be some good momentum

Jensen Cummings:

in terms of people starting to look at things a little bit differently.

Jensen Cummings:

And I'm really excited, you know, what we get into today in our discussion.

Jensen Cummings:

So, you know, I think I'm somewhere in the medium rare, I'm

Adam Lamb:

in a previous spot.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And I did wanna mention that, you know Jensen, you're a chef, but

Adam Lamb:

you're also much more than a podcaster.

Adam Lamb:

You're a consultant, you're a coach.

Adam Lamb:

And you are one of the ones out at the tip of the spear with this

Adam Lamb:

hashtag new hospitality culture.

Adam Lamb:

And I say thank you very much.

Adam Lamb:

And I know that you've been doing this, as you said, without really

Adam Lamb:

knowing what you're doing because you lived it, you saw it and you said it

Adam Lamb:

can't fucking go on any longer period.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah, I mean, that was a part of the problem.

Jensen Cummings:

I know.

Jensen Cummings:

We'll, we'll talk about that.

Jensen Cummings:

And what's interesting when you talking about taking, you know,

Jensen Cummings:

taking Tap and Yeah, shout out to Chow Culinary Hospitality, outreach

Jensen Cummings:

Wellness, John Hinman, Aaron Boyle.

Jensen Cummings:

What they're doing is, I think, really incredible.

Jensen Cummings:

Jasmine, you know what, what I mean, what, what Patrick and I got your Back is doing

Jensen Cummings:

out there, and there's a lot of entities.

Jensen Cummings:

Entities not nine to five.

Jensen Cummings:

I know we all collaborate with a lot of these organizations and

Jensen Cummings:

the fact that they're asking.

Jensen Cummings:

Just slow the fuck down.

Jensen Cummings:

Take a second and like check in.

Jensen Cummings:

I think it's something that It's incredibly valuable and we haven't

Jensen Cummings:

done enough of personally and how that blends into professionally mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And so what's interesting for me is my default is, is

Jensen Cummings:

for sure medium rare, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Which is, I think in the kitchen, the default of how you cook a steak.

Jensen Cummings:

Anyway, and for me right now, I think I'm a little bit more medium.

Jensen Cummings:

I think I have so much excitement and so many great things are

Jensen Cummings:

happening within the industry.

Jensen Cummings:

You mentioned the 12 week old.

Jensen Cummings:

13 week old.

Jensen Cummings:

Oh, really?

Jensen Cummings:

And and right now we're in like rsv.

Jensen Cummings:

I can, I can't remember what the hell that stands for, but whatever that sickness

Jensen Cummings:

is with kids and Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

You know, and so we've been like, sick on and off for like three

Jensen Cummings:

weeks and kids have missed school and, you know, all of that's going.

Jensen Cummings:

I got to go to breakfast with, with the, the middle kid who's in kindergarten.

Jensen Cummings:

You know, and make a tiny little Turkey.

Jensen Cummings:

So like a lot of exciting things, but also at the same time, sleep

Jensen Cummings:

deprivation and sickness and like we've gone through, I don't know

Jensen Cummings:

how many boxes of Kleenex and stuff.

Jensen Cummings:

So I think it's an emotional rollercoaster.

Jensen Cummings:

It's snowing right now in Denver.

Jensen Cummings:

So it's just like a lot of highs and lows, a lot of peaks and bits right now.

Jensen Cummings:

And and I think just being aware of that, I'm excited and I'm also

Jensen Cummings:

like, It's like, it's, it's not gonna be spring for a minute.

Jensen Cummings:

So, yeah.

Adam Lamb:

You know, I, you know, I wanna thank you for shouting out to

Adam Lamb:

all those people, Jensen, because, you know, I thought, man, why don't

Adam Lamb:

we just model this on the show?

Adam Lamb:

Like, let's show other people what that actually looks like.

Adam Lamb:

At least a small piece, because it doesn't take any time, doesn't take any money.

Adam Lamb:

And yet it's such a great tool for not only gauging where the, where

Adam Lamb:

the room is or the container is emotionally, but also this idea.

Adam Lamb:

You know, actually showing, like doing something that the staff can

Adam Lamb:

actually see, touch, see, and hear, feel with their heart that we give a

Adam Lamb:

shit enough about them actually ask.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

So if I got it, you're Jim, you're a medium mirror?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, I think so.

Adam Lamb:

And, and Jensen, you're about the same.

Adam Lamb:

Oh, I think I'm medium.

Adam Lamb:

Okay.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Well I'm gonna, I'm gonna call myself out and I'm gonna

Adam Lamb:

say I am burnt and well done.

Adam Lamb:

And Don't really want to go into a lot of it, but I am not okay.

Adam Lamb:

And that's okay.

Adam Lamb:

So, you know, I almost lost somebody that I love very, very dearly Oh.

Adam Lamb:

At the beginning of the week.

Adam Lamb:

And the idea that I would never get a chance to tell them I

Adam Lamb:

don't, but I love them again.

Adam Lamb:

This fucking killed me.

Adam Lamb:

So I'm still trying to process that stuff and don't wanna

Adam Lamb:

do that here on this space.

Adam Lamb:

I sit with men in circles and do men's work, and I've gotta call out to a

Adam Lamb:

couple buddies who are gonna help me process this stuff in a safe container

Adam Lamb:

so I can just fucking let it all go, because I'm finding myself stumbling a

Adam Lamb:

little bit, you know, from day to day, moment to moment, previous to the column,

Adam Lamb:

like walking around the house, like I had no idea what the hell I'm doing.

Adam Lamb:

And everything worked out fine in the end, but the 48, 72 hours of,

Adam Lamb:

of constant running and, and you.

Adam Lamb:

Making sure that there was medical attention and, and legal representation.

Adam Lamb:

And, and not knowing.

Adam Lamb:

Just not knowing.

Adam Lamb:

And it took me slowing down and coming home from the mountains.

Adam Lamb:

And that's when it really fucking hit me, man.

Adam Lamb:

I would just, if I actually let myself get there emotionally,

Adam Lamb:

I know I would be undone.

Adam Lamb:

Undone man.

Adam Lamb:

And not even knowing how to get back.

Adam Lamb:

So I went on Facebook and I wrote this post.

Adam Lamb:

And I said, listen, I just need to say something I, I don't

Adam Lamb:

want anybody to ask about.

Adam Lamb:

Like, I don't need your prayers or your thoughts, right?

Adam Lamb:

I'm like, what I want you to do is I want you to grab somebody and I want

Adam Lamb:

you to show them how much you love them.

Adam Lamb:

So there's a couple different refrains in this.

Adam Lamb:

I'm sitting on my porch in the rain right now, reflecting on

Adam Lamb:

the vents of the past 72 hours.

Adam Lamb:

What I'm most present to is how fragile and precious life is, and how the

Adam Lamb:

bonds that tie us together can unravel.

Adam Lamb:

So, All we've come to know and rely on can dramatically change in the blink

Adam Lamb:

of an eye on a darkened county or a county road late at night, and nothing

Adam Lamb:

will ever be the same after that.

Adam Lamb:

And in this moment, I'm a man blessed beyond my current comprehension

Adam Lamb:

because I have another day to tell somebody just how much I love them.

Adam Lamb:

And yet I know that this opportunity could have just as easily been

Adam Lamb:

lost to me for all time on a darkened county road late at night.

Adam Lamb:

Grab somebody you love right now.

Adam Lamb:

Hold them so tightly that they never, ever doubt how much you love them

Adam Lamb:

because it's later than you think.

Adam Lamb:

And time is running out.

Adam Lamb:

Some of us won't ever get that chance again, and for.

Adam Lamb:

I agree.

Adam Lamb:

Their loss sitting on my porch in the rain bottom.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, man.

Adam Lamb:

And if anybody would like to have a copy of that pdf and frame it and put it

Adam Lamb:

somewhere, they can see it every day.

Adam Lamb:

Because my experience was, is that I thought today was

Adam Lamb:

gonna be the same as yesterday.

Adam Lamb:

I thought tomorrow's gonna be the same as today, and never once thought

Adam Lamb:

that I needed to take a moment to.

Adam Lamb:

Tell somebody how I, how much I love them, because who knows

Adam Lamb:

what the hell's gonna happen.

Adam Lamb:

And then it happened and it's like, holy shit man.

Adam Lamb:

So chef life coaching.com or slash porch if you want it.

Adam Lamb:

I, it's served me.

Adam Lamb:

And like I said, I'm, I'm still burnt, so if it's okay that I'm

Adam Lamb:

not okay, then I get to put my big boy pants on and ask for what I.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Which is something that in our industry, or speaking specifically for me as

Adam Lamb:

a man, got no practice at mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, right?

Adam Lamb:

Suck it up, sunshine.

Adam Lamb:

Keep going.

Adam Lamb:

Don't ask.

Adam Lamb:

Just keep going.

Adam Lamb:

And so what I'm gonna ask for right now in this space is some

Adam Lamb:

compassion and understanding that I might stumble a little bit.

Adam Lamb:

But I'll get back on the topic . And I don't really need anything else other

Adam Lamb:

than, you know, just some clarity, some transparency, understanding.

Adam Lamb:

And know that, you know, all of us have days like this.

Adam Lamb:

All of us have moments like this.

Adam Lamb:

And if we can ask for what we need, it goes a hell of a lot longer towards

Adam Lamb:

our mental and emotional health.

Adam Lamb:

Instead of holding it all in thinking, nobody gives a shit

Adam Lamb:

that your voice doesn't matter.

Adam Lamb:

And that's why every once in a while we wanna make sure that everyone else

Adam Lamb:

knows that, you know, organizations like the Burn Chef Project, you know,

Adam Lamb:

four out five hospitality professionals report having experienced at least one

Adam Lamb:

mental health issue during their career.

Adam Lamb:

So for free resources in the United States and Canada, you can text home

Adam Lamb:

H O M E to 7 4 1 7 41 in the uk.

Adam Lamb:

You can text a burnt Chef to 8 5 2 5 8.

Adam Lamb:

And they have services in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia again.

Adam Lamb:

And we thank them for their.

Adam Lamb:

for our mental health, Adam.

Adam Lamb:

Cause I don't know.

Adam Lamb:

I don't know about you.

Adam Lamb:

Jenson.

Adam Lamb:

. We had a conversation a couple months ago.

Adam Lamb:

He said, you're thinking too small.

Adam Lamb:

Like you're thinking too small.

Adam Lamb:

Dude, that I said that to you.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

You said that to me.

Adam Lamb:

You challenged my vision or my, where I wanted to be.

Adam Lamb:

And that's when I came back and said, okay, my stand is that we is that we

Adam Lamb:

don't lose another hospitality profess.

Adam Lamb:

Due to suicide because they didn't have access to resources, they

Adam Lamb:

thought that their voices did matter and that no one cared.

Adam Lamb:

That's my mission, and that's why I'm so , you know, kind of tickled

Adam Lamb:

that we could actually model that for other people and say, Hey,

Adam Lamb:

listen, let's just take a second.

Adam Lamb:

Let's just check the temperature in the room.

Adam Lamb:

What the fuck is going on?

Adam Lamb:

Need a minute?

Adam Lamb:

I can, I'll cover your station , whatever

Jensen Cummings:

that is.

Jensen Cummings:

So, yeah, you know, I think that's, that's interesting.

Jensen Cummings:

when I like kind of dubbed a mental health me and plus like years ago, was an

Jensen Cummings:

attempt to try and reconcile things that historically we're good at and things

Jensen Cummings:

historically that we fucking suck at.

Jensen Cummings:

Yep.

Jensen Cummings:

And so our mental health has just been horrible.

Jensen Cummings:

Our physical health, our emotional health, our financial health has.

Jensen Cummings:

Been garbage.

Jensen Cummings:

It's been absolute garbage.

Jensen Cummings:

Yep.

Jensen Cummings:

Yet we do some things really well.

Jensen Cummings:

Our mason Plus setting your stations.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

Those check-ins that we do for pre-shift.

Jensen Cummings:

Yes.

Jensen Cummings:

Can we, can we internalize those and then also be able to externalize

Jensen Cummings:

those into methods, approaches, systems, steps of service.

Jensen Cummings:

Steps of of operations.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

that allow us to deploy a strength against a historical.

Jensen Cummings:

And so, you know, can we make it more matter of fact we've talked

Jensen Cummings:

about, I got your back a few times.

Jensen Cummings:

He's got the box right that just is shoebox, where somebody drops one of

Jensen Cummings:

four colors that anonymously, that then expresses kind of where you're at.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

and somebody can look at that and take a temperature of the whole team.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

And then be able to do something about it and have the, the methodology and the

Jensen Cummings:

tools to be able to do something about it.

Jensen Cummings:

So it can be very matter of fact.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, right?

Jensen Cummings:

It doesn't always have to be so heavy, so daunting, right?

Jensen Cummings:

So you can be like, here's today's specials.

Jensen Cummings:

Here's low calls, here's 86 Es, and we're feeling a little blue today.

Jensen Cummings:

So what are we gonna do to rally around each.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

Oh yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

Awesome, awesome.

Jensen Cummings:

Noted.

Jensen Cummings:

Got it.

Jensen Cummings:

Okay, let's, let's deploy the two, three things that we know how

Jensen Cummings:

to do in a situation like this.

Jensen Cummings:

Let's just have a little bit more of, of an awareness and not just shout

Jensen Cummings:

30 seconds to the window, but take a moment to put your hand on that person's

Jensen Cummings:

shoulder, look them in the eye and say, are we good in 30 seconds, be

Jensen Cummings:

that the actual ticket you're calling or the dynamic at play between humans.

Jensen Cummings:

Couldn't agree more.

Jensen Cummings:

Part of what I'm always excited and interested.

Jensen Cummings:

When we're able to take, again, what we are historically good

Jensen Cummings:

at and deploy against things we're historically bad at now.

Jensen Cummings:

Now I feel like I've gotta chime in here for a second.

Jensen Cummings:

Go ahead, Adam.

Jensen Cummings:

I mean, well, you know, you and I have been spending quite a bit of time

Jensen Cummings:

together over the last six months, and one thing that I know about

Jensen Cummings:

you is that you are one of the most dedicated guys to helping other people.

Jensen Cummings:

Especially people in our industry that are, you know, how do we move forward?

Jensen Cummings:

How do I find a way out of the rut?

Jensen Cummings:

How do I do things differently?

Jensen Cummings:

How do I look through a different lens?

Jensen Cummings:

Right?

Jensen Cummings:

And you know, you do a lot of work for yourself.

Jensen Cummings:

You do a lot of work with men's groups.

Jensen Cummings:

You do a lot of work.

Jensen Cummings:

Work with chefs.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

But let me tell you something from the other side of the continent, you

Jensen Cummings:

can call me any day of the week, man.

Jensen Cummings:

. Anyone else who's listen.

Jensen Cummings:

You know, if, if you need that minute, I know you have people

Jensen Cummings:

in your life for that, but you need that minute, you call me

Adam Lamb:

any day.

Adam Lamb:

Well, and, and here's the thing, Jim, and I wanna say thank you because I think

Adam Lamb:

we all, like, I went from thinking that no one gave a shit to like kind of being

Adam Lamb:

overwhelmed with like offers for people.

Adam Lamb:

Like, oh, you can reach out to me.

Adam Lamb:

And I also get that, you know, people got shit going on in their lives.

Adam Lamb:

So I'm like connecting with people, leaving messages knowing that they have

Adam Lamb:

lives of their own, which kinda led me down the rabbit hole of like, this

Adam Lamb:

idea of who's like, who's your 2:00 AM.

Adam Lamb:

Like, who do you call when you wreck your car at two o'clock in the morning?

Adam Lamb:

And will they actually pick up and how critical that is that

Adam Lamb:

we have at least one person.

Adam Lamb:

You know, I was supposed to go to The Bahamas with my wife this

Adam Lamb:

week to work on a retreat to cook for her, cook for her group.

Adam Lamb:

And I kept saying, Nope, I'm not supposed to go.

Adam Lamb:

I'm not like, I'm checking in with my inner guidance.

Adam Lamb:

So like, no, I like it.

Adam Lamb:

Doesn't make any sense.

Adam Lamb:

Put her on the plane Sunday or Sunday morning at six o'clock.

Adam Lamb:

One o'clock in the morning that following, I get a text from my ex-wife.

Adam Lamb:

Hmm.

Adam Lamb:

And so, you know, sometimes things like link together.

Adam Lamb:

So I appreciate that.

Adam Lamb:

I need another 2:00 AM buddy.

Adam Lamb:

Thank you Jason.

Adam Lamb:

I know like 2 45 is usually when you're answering your phone for

Adam Lamb:

those 14 minute appointments.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

I've had 4:00 AM calls with you.

Jensen Cummings:

You can, I know you have call with me Denver time.

Jensen Cummings:

I know you're lucky cuz it's six you guys it's 6:00 AM for you.

Jensen Cummings:

. Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

I've even had Sean Walsh, who I know.

Jensen Cummings:

We all, we all know.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm respect as well.

Jensen Cummings:

He's gotten on with me.

Jensen Cummings:

We hold each other accountable and he's 3:00 AM cuz he is in San Diego.

Jensen Cummings:

So yeah, in more respect, we have an up at two 30 in the morning Denver time.

Jensen Cummings:

And.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm on that hustle man, but allows me to then also go from 7 45 to eight

Jensen Cummings:

30 and hang out with my boy, right?

Jensen Cummings:

And, and make little paper turkeys and like do that life something I never got

Jensen Cummings:

to do when I was in the kitchen, right?

Jensen Cummings:

I missed every wedding I missed.

Jensen Cummings:

I mean, Betsy had to go stag to every single one of her best

Jensen Cummings:

friend's weddings and, and any other family event or anything like that.

Jensen Cummings:

So the fact that I can get up at two 30 in the morning, have

Jensen Cummings:

that moment of solace and.

Jensen Cummings:

Be able to do my thing, be able to put some positivity and some action

Jensen Cummings:

out into the world, and then be able to take an hour and a half, however

Jensen Cummings:

much time in the morning it puts around, take the the boys to school.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

like that, that's meaningful.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. Cause I have intention to do that.

Jensen Cummings:

, and that's what we're talking about right now.

Jensen Cummings:

We have intention to be able to speak differently, think differently, act

Jensen Cummings:

differently, communicate differently.

Jensen Cummings:

How do we then take that and apply it to the approach both

Jensen Cummings:

personally and professionally?

Jensen Cummings:

That's mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, that's gonna be the trick.

Jensen Cummings:

That's the unlock.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

So, so I completely, yeah.

Adam Lamb:

Because it leads into the topic of the conversation today.

Adam Lamb:

You know, values, like, do you have any, and how the hell would

Adam Lamb:

anybody else know about that?

Adam Lamb:

Well, we'll get to that in a second cuz I wanna round back

Adam Lamb:

to, I got your back for a second.

Adam Lamb:

Because yes, it, it's one thing to understand where everybody's at, but

Adam Lamb:

they've actually looked at a solution step, which is there is always

Adam Lamb:

somebody on staff that's trained.

Adam Lamb:

not necessarily being interventionist, but as like a check-in.

Adam Lamb:

And these are the people that are wearing these little purple hand.

Adam Lamb:

Pins, so there's always two on staff so that they can get

Adam Lamb:

pointed out in the lineup.

Adam Lamb:

Like, listen, this is totally anonymous.

Adam Lamb:

But if you feel like you actually need to spend some time with somebody that is the

Adam Lamb:

person that you want to get, and they're actually scheduled and worked around so

Adam Lamb:

that they are so that they can be not only emotionally available, but time available.

Adam Lamb:

Because I've, during Covid, I've had conversations with service

Adam Lamb:

staff in a guest hallway and.

Adam Lamb:

Server is completely breaking down and she's like looking over her shoulder cuz

Adam Lamb:

people are walking, walking past her.

Adam Lamb:

And I just look her straight in the eye.

Adam Lamb:

I'm like, go ahead.

Adam Lamb:

I'm strong enough to hold this space for you right now.

Adam Lamb:

I don't give a shit about what they think, right?

Adam Lamb:

You need, I need, I can be completely 100% present for you.

Adam Lamb:

And that could have gone on for 10 minutes, 15 minutes.

Adam Lamb:

And I also know that there have been conversations I've had at my office

Adam Lamb:

with the door closed and another person.

Adam Lamb:

and if and another person that acts as a facilitator because I need them

Adam Lamb:

to know like, nothing is gonna take me away from you in this moment.

Adam Lamb:

Okay?

Adam Lamb:

So you need to go where you need to go and let it all hang out cuz

Adam Lamb:

nobody's like looking away or like making it up that it's not important

Adam Lamb:

or shit, we gotta get on the line.

Adam Lamb:

None of that crap because an infrastructure is set and.

Adam Lamb:

Yep.

Adam Lamb:

You know, the awareness is good.

Adam Lamb:

It's a good step.

Adam Lamb:

And that's what I love about some of the organizations that we're aligned

Adam Lamb:

with and are working with because they actually have solutions, right?

Adam Lamb:

They didn't just say, well, it's awareness is enough.

Adam Lamb:

No, man, awareness is not enough.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

You gotta make it programmatic.

Jensen Cummings:

It's interesting the, the challenge, so you mentioned the challenge I put

Jensen Cummings:

to you the challenge I put to a, a.

Jensen Cummings:

A lot of those organizations is how we actually apply it to the business model.

Jensen Cummings:

Correct.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

And so one of the things that I told them as like we've built,

Jensen Cummings:

we are, we are the warehouse.

Jensen Cummings:

Now what Best Serve does, especially through the strategy consulting

Jensen Cummings:

side, and then hyper-specific to what we call workplaces Worth working,

Jensen Cummings:

is developing the actual programs.

Jensen Cummings:

And so I was like, look, here's the thing.

Jensen Cummings:

I love what you're.

Jensen Cummings:

It's not easy for a restaurant to onboard that into our programs.

Jensen Cummings:

It's just not , right?

Jensen Cummings:

It's not realistic.

Jensen Cummings:

I know who I should get what from?

Jensen Cummings:

Who do I get mental health first aid training from?

Jensen Cummings:

Okay, we have peer network stuff.

Jensen Cummings:

All right?

Jensen Cummings:

There's other resources and training.

Jensen Cummings:

All right, now I'm working with another group for diversity,

Jensen Cummings:

equity, inclusion, belonging.

Jensen Cummings:

But when do those things happen and who needs to be involved and how much does

Jensen Cummings:

it cost and how much time does it take?

Jensen Cummings:

Easy to be able to put into operational systems.

Jensen Cummings:

Correct.

Jensen Cummings:

So a lot of those solutions are living in a vacuum right now, and what we're trying

Jensen Cummings:

to do is apply them to the, to the model.

Jensen Cummings:

Because what we house is the financial aspects of it.

Jensen Cummings:

Correct.

Jensen Cummings:

The business aspect of it, the operational aspect.

Jensen Cummings:

So any solution you have, My team, especially Andrew Parr,

Jensen Cummings:

who's the genius behind all this, I just say ridiculous things.

Jensen Cummings:

He figures out how to actually work is we can create from, from end to end.

Jensen Cummings:

Here's the investment model.

Jensen Cummings:

Here's how much it's gonna cost.

Jensen Cummings:

We've restructured and operating budget completely to be able to

Jensen Cummings:

be, matter of fact, the way that we want to do business in the future.

Jensen Cummings:

Not copy and paste the old business model, right?

Jensen Cummings:

But if I can't figure out a way to bring your solution, Into existence in an

Jensen Cummings:

equitable, profitable, and sustainable way, right than it lives in a vacuum.

Jensen Cummings:

And that's part of where we're at right now, is we need to

Jensen Cummings:

be able to take these amazing solutions and make them actionable.

Jensen Cummings:

And make them part of the business model, because otherwise you're always counting

Jensen Cummings:

on that one person who decided, this is my, I'm gonna champion this today

Jensen Cummings:

for right now because I'm interested.

Jensen Cummings:

And they leave.

Jensen Cummings:

And then that program crumbles because it's not a part of the business model.

Jensen Cummings:

So that's, it's not strategic,

Adam Lamb:

is what you're saying?

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, it's,

Jensen Cummings:

it's too much reli.

Jensen Cummings:

On an individual to carry that torch.

Jensen Cummings:

And what we wanna do is make it matter of factor the way that the business operates,

Jensen Cummings:

so that anybody and everybody can contribute in meaningful ways, be it small

Jensen Cummings:

or carrying the ball all the way down the field, whatever that ends up being.

Jensen Cummings:

And that right now, Is the solution that we work on.

Jensen Cummings:

So we have things like the w c builder.

Jensen Cummings:

We believe that the four buckets of investment in your people, your most

Jensen Cummings:

valuable asset, you guys know wages, benefits, culture, and education.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And so our operating budget has those line items.

Jensen Cummings:

All 346 line items in the budget are meant to be able to invest in all the

Jensen Cummings:

right areas, not just blindly follow prime costs, not just blindly follow.

Jensen Cummings:

The numbers that Benchmark 60 and Jim, look at when we look at the way we're

Jensen Cummings:

scheduling, cuz we fucking suck at forecast, we thought about how much I

Jensen Cummings:

have to blow up status quo of industry standards that we're gonna go there.

Jensen Cummings:

That's, that's, that's the modality that we have to get to.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to, it cannot be.

Jensen Cummings:

A different color lipstick.

Jensen Cummings:

It has to be foundational.

Adam Lamb:

So I completely, you know, champion all of that because for me it

Adam Lamb:

comes down to foundational principles.

Adam Lamb:

Like are you gonna manage by personality?

Adam Lamb:

Are you gonna manage by standard?

Adam Lamb:

Are you gonna manage by process and.

Adam Lamb:

I know that there's a lot of people out there who like look at that stuff

Adam Lamb:

and go, eh, you know, like, what?

Adam Lamb:

It's not creative enough.

Adam Lamb:

You don't have the flare in it.

Adam Lamb:

Like, what the fuck?

Adam Lamb:

I remember getting challenged by this general manager after they took

Adam Lamb:

over, Starwood took over this hotel.

Adam Lamb:

They had 65 hotels at that time.

Adam Lamb:

Starwood, one of the biggest hotel REITs in the world.

Adam Lamb:

Now the the transition general manager comes walking into the kitchen.

Adam Lamb:

Now, mind you, Hair down to here.

Adam Lamb:

It's a French braid in my back.

Adam Lamb:

I've got pencil stuck in like a geisha.

Adam Lamb:

. Jensen Cummings: This fucking tattooed

Adam Lamb:

to do things.

Adam Lamb:

No, no, no.

Adam Lamb:

He just kind of sid up to me and he is like, you know, chef,

Adam Lamb:

you do a really great job here.

Adam Lamb:

Like, like what you do is fantastic the other way.

Adam Lamb:

I like it.

Adam Lamb:

I'm just curious.

Adam Lamb:

Do you, do you always wanna be chained the stove?

Adam Lamb:

Do you wanna work in your business or you wanna work on your business?

Adam Lamb:

And I'm like, what?

Adam Lamb:

Like, I'd never heard that before.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, did you know the next day I came in and I, I had my head shaved.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, I know that he wasn't telling me to shave my head.

Adam Lamb:

He never fucking brought it up.

Adam Lamb:

Sure, yeah.

Adam Lamb:

But as a outward manifestation of my, of my creativity and my bohemian

Adam Lamb:

lifestyle, he challenged me right up.

Adam Lamb:

I'm like, man, I don't want, like, I don't wanna be changed.

Adam Lamb:

And then this gets me to, to our next.

Adam Lamb:

. I love to say why we brought you on, but I always love that at in this

Adam Lamb:

I'm here, Adam, in this container.

Adam Lamb:

In this container.

Adam Lamb:

It goes everywhere.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, our conversations are always so rich, but I wanted to say that you

Adam Lamb:

clearly made a decision to get up at two 30 in the morning to do a certain

Adam Lamb:

thing for a certain time so that you can be present for your children

Adam Lamb:

in the morning when they get up.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

. To me, that sounds like you've got your fucking values figure.

Adam Lamb:

And that you've taken action to actually make those values manifest in the world.

Adam Lamb:

I put in, I put in the chat two links to Instagram videos that that

Adam Lamb:

both Jim and I were like Florida.

Adam Lamb:

I'm like, that's fucking awesome.

Adam Lamb:

Talking about values, like what do you stand for?

Adam Lamb:

Like, how do you know?

Adam Lamb:

And I said, okay, that's it.

Adam Lamb:

Let's do this.

Adam Lamb:

And so they're in the chat, but I don't wanna take words out of

Adam Lamb:

your mouth, like, why values?

Adam Lamb:

. Why congruency?

Adam Lamb:

Why now?

Adam Lamb:

Why are

Jensen Cummings:

they important now?

Jensen Cummings:

I mean, it's long, long overdue.

Jensen Cummings:

Here's an interesting thing.

Jensen Cummings:

I have been a part of owned multiple restaurants where we wrote really

Jensen Cummings:

cool fucking words in graffiti on the wall that were like, this is

Jensen Cummings:

what we believe in, and never talked about it ever again, ever again.

Jensen Cummings:

But it looked really cool and we did a press release.

Jensen Cummings:

And the media liked it, and so again, it has to become

Jensen Cummings:

foundational to the business, right?

Jensen Cummings:

So I'm always like thinking about that.

Jensen Cummings:

I have been talking a lot about my own inequity in the way that I

Jensen Cummings:

approach understanding what it meant to be a chef, what it meant to be a

Jensen Cummings:

leader, a manager, a boss, an owner, a representative of hospitality.

Jensen Cummings:

So often that happens because we get into this industry when

Jensen Cummings:

we're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old.

Jensen Cummings:

We don't fucking know any better.

Jensen Cummings:

Nobody comes an investment banker at 17 . Right?

Jensen Cummings:

And so we get stuck in that mindset.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, and we keep treating ourselves like we're 16 year old kids

Jensen Cummings:

when we're grown ass adults.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And should be treating ourselves in each other as such, but we don't.

Jensen Cummings:

We're stuck in that place.

Jensen Cummings:

And so one of the things I think this really started made with Kim Smith's

Jensen Cummings:

book, radical Candor, like had me thinking about rock stars and superstars.

Jensen Cummings:

If you don't know about, look into it, superstars have a steep trajectory.

Jensen Cummings:

Rock stars have a more stable trajectory.

Jensen Cummings:

And I think about that.

Jensen Cummings:

And so it got me really thinking about attributes and skills.

Jensen Cummings:

And how we correlate those.

Jensen Cummings:

And so rock stars are those ones that just show up.

Jensen Cummings:

They're amazing at their job.

Jensen Cummings:

Maybe they're a great trainer because they know exactly how to like articulate

Jensen Cummings:

what it takes to do this one job because it is their sole focus.

Jensen Cummings:

And a superstar is more like they wanna be able to get to that leadership role.

Jensen Cummings:

They wanna ascend their ambitious, they wanna do all the

Jensen Cummings:

stations and be able to move up.

Jensen Cummings:

And what happens a lot is we put rock stars.

Jensen Cummings:

Into roles that are for superstars.

Jensen Cummings:

The rockstar doesn't wanna be a manager.

Jensen Cummings:

How often have you seen your best cook, your best server, your best

Jensen Cummings:

bartender, become your worst manager?

Jensen Cummings:

Because we don't understand who they are.

Jensen Cummings:

We put them into this, this linear expectation, and then they

Jensen Cummings:

struggle and then they find their way out the door one way or the.

Jensen Cummings:

And so I've been thinking about attributes and skills a lot.

Jensen Cummings:

I ask people all the time, and this is part of what you saw on social

Jensen Cummings:

media, all I do is ask questions.

Jensen Cummings:

That's all I.

Jensen Cummings:

That's why I'm good at anything social media.

Jensen Cummings:

It's why I'm good at at leadership, it's why I'm good at consulting,

Jensen Cummings:

because I ask questions and so I ask the question, what do you value most?

Jensen Cummings:

What attributes are most important to you in a great employee, a great coworker,

Jensen Cummings:

and I get all of these attributes.

Jensen Cummings:

People say, coach.

Jensen Cummings:

Team player motivated, right?

Jensen Cummings:

That they are punctual, like all of these things.

Jensen Cummings:

I go, that's amazing.

Jensen Cummings:

That sounds like a great person to work alongside.

Jensen Cummings:

Then I'll ask, what do you base raises and promotions on?

Jensen Cummings:

And they flip and everything is ROI skills based.

Jensen Cummings:

They have to prove to me that they bring value to the company, that they

Jensen Cummings:

can be productive in X, Y, and z.

Jensen Cummings:

And then I'll ask a follow up.

Jensen Cummings:

So you must deploy an open book management policy and program, allowing

Jensen Cummings:

them the opportunity to understand those numbers to the depth and degree

Jensen Cummings:

that they can then say, here is exactly how I create value in the, within

Jensen Cummings:

the construct of this business model.

Jensen Cummings:

Well, I use a lot of fucking big words there.

Jensen Cummings:

And they go, whoa, whoa.

Jensen Cummings:

No, we don't show them any of the numbers.

Jensen Cummings:

Right?

Jensen Cummings:

But would we be able to tell you the value?

Jensen Cummings:

That they bring to your business.

Jensen Cummings:

And we're telling people that attributes matter, that that's what it means to be

Jensen Cummings:

a great employee, a great coworker, and then they never are allowed to be able to

Jensen Cummings:

accomplish anything within that construct.

Jensen Cummings:

And so what you end up with, and I like, I like what Simon Sinek does

Jensen Cummings:

when he, when he talks about the Navy seals, how they evaluate the, the most

Jensen Cummings:

dynamic team on the planet, right?

Jensen Cummings:

And they have, they have an access.

Jensen Cummings:

One says performance, and the other says trust.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

And what they obviously want is a person in the top right corner,

Jensen Cummings:

high trust, high performer.

Jensen Cummings:

The the worst person is low trust, low performer.

Jensen Cummings:

Those are easy, right?

Jensen Cummings:

But you would think a high performer, at any rate, would be the most valuable.

Jensen Cummings:

But they think that a high performer of low trust is the most toxic

Jensen Cummings:

person you can have on a team.

Jensen Cummings:

Sure.

Jensen Cummings:

They would rather have somebody high trust of medium or even low perform.

Jensen Cummings:

Over somebody who's a high performer of low trust.

Jensen Cummings:

And what that means to me is we so often know who is the highest

Jensen Cummings:

performer, who's an asshole that nobody wants to work with, right?

Jensen Cummings:

But they're the highest paid person because they're the most productive

Jensen Cummings:

and they've checked more of your skills-based pay and promotion.

Jensen Cummings:

Versus the person who everybody wants to work around who may be a little bit

Jensen Cummings:

slower on the, on the pickup, who may not be that high, high performer, but

Jensen Cummings:

they raise up everybody around them.

Jensen Cummings:

Those are the people that I'm the most interested in now.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

that I overlooked every single time when I was in it.

Adam Lamb:

Totally get it.

Adam Lamb:

And you know, when you're talking about radical candor or reminded me

Adam Lamb:

of this really, really, Management book called the Peter Principle,

Adam Lamb:

which was written in the fifties.

Adam Lamb:

And the general premise it was, is that in any organization, people will be promoted

Adam Lamb:

to their level of incompetence because.

Adam Lamb:

Just because you're a good server doesn't mean you're a good manager, right?

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, and I know in speaking with Jim, by the way, Jim, I don't think that you're

Adam Lamb:

slow on the pickup or anything, but I totally get, if you were on the floor,

Adam Lamb:

I would wanna work with you because for me it's high trust and high skill.

Adam Lamb:

What?

Adam Lamb:

Say

Adam Lamb:

? Jensen Cummings: Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

That, that top right quarter, that's most you're going for, for sure.

Adam Lamb:

It's, but when it's not clear cut.

Adam Lamb:

It's when it's not obvious.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And the thing about it is, and you mentioned this, we have all these tropes

Adam Lamb:

that we perpetuate of like, you're only as good as your next plate up.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

Leave your shit at the door.

Adam Lamb:

Smile, that's party over your uniform.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

We are perpetuating those, hate that shit.

Adam Lamb:

And so again, the 17 year old kid will like, that's what I have to

Adam Lamb:

do to be successful in this model.

Adam Lamb:

And so what I thought I had to do to be successful was exactly that.

Adam Lamb:

So I had.

Adam Lamb:

The toughest, the strongest.

Adam Lamb:

I had to work harder than anybody.

Adam Lamb:

I had to show up early.

Adam Lamb:

I had to stay late.

Adam Lamb:

I had to come in unpaid.

Adam Lamb:

There's a story I tell that used to be a story of a badge of honor

Adam Lamb:

that I'm like, fuck, what an idiot.

Adam Lamb:

Why did, right?

Adam Lamb:

That was the thing.

Adam Lamb:

I went almost seven years without taking a single sick day.

Adam Lamb:

And boys, I like throwing up in fucking trash cans between services.

Adam Lamb:

Sick.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, right?

Adam Lamb:

And I also thought, you know what?

Adam Lamb:

I'm gonna let somebody else take a day off.

Adam Lamb:

I'm gonna pick up their shift.

Adam Lamb:

I'm gonna hold it down.

Adam Lamb:

And in those micro moments, there absolutely was a level of of respect

Adam Lamb:

that that that individual had for me.

Adam Lamb:

Going, wow, you're willing to do that for me, that you're

Adam Lamb:

willing to lead from the front.

Adam Lamb:

And we have to understand that that is a razor thin line that we're walking.

Adam Lamb:

Because the other thing that I did was I show.

Adam Lamb:

I modeled that the only way that you can be successful is to do what I do, right?

Adam Lamb:

And what I do is not take care of myself.

Adam Lamb:

What I do is show up every single day no matter what.

Adam Lamb:

And what that does, it sets an unrealistic expectation.

Adam Lamb:

Mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

, and people go, I don't, I don't want that.

Adam Lamb:

And then I go, well, I don't want you to work here then.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And so we are creating this dynamic where it's, it's a actually a race to the.

Adam Lamb:

Even though we think that the trajectory is this way, we're sliding

Adam Lamb:

down that scale, not up that scale.

Adam Lamb:

And that's why we burned so hot for so long, 22 years that

Adam Lamb:

I've been in the industry.

Adam Lamb:

And that that timing especially was, you know, the food network effect

Adam Lamb:

of, of opening a lot of eyes to food and the culture behind it, and

Adam Lamb:

also making it into a caricature of.

Adam Lamb:

That I and so many of us bought into because we did go from

Adam Lamb:

being, you know, slightly outcast.

Adam Lamb:

I tried to pretend that I was smarter than the cool kids and

Adam Lamb:

cooler than the smart kids.

Adam Lamb:

First out, I was actually not as smart as the smart kids and

Adam Lamb:

not as cool as the cool kids.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

Cause

Adam Lamb:

you the game, you're not gonna play that.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

I found that when I found the kitchen, I found where I could be great at something.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

and I was 17 years old and as you mentioned, fifth generation.

Jensen Cummings:

So it's my family restaurant.

Jensen Cummings:

We've had restaurants since 1900.

Jensen Cummings:

Now I'm like, how do I then apply what I now know to leave

Jensen Cummings:

it better than we found it?

Jensen Cummings:

Because now I do have those young kids.

Jensen Cummings:

Now I'm like, would I want them to be the sixth generation of our family

Jensen Cummings:

to be of service to this industry?

Jensen Cummings:

And a few years back, my answer was absolutely fucking not, no chance.

Jensen Cummings:

And so I'd either walk away and I did in several ways and tried to,

Jensen Cummings:

and I decided I had to like triple.

Jensen Cummings:

Hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to do something different.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to invest in a different model, and that's what we're building now.

Jensen Cummings:

Because if I can hold my head high and say, We left it better than we found

Jensen Cummings:

it, and that my kids with no pressure from me can decide to be the next

Jensen Cummings:

generation or anybody because we're always trying to empower and educate

Jensen Cummings:

the future leaders of this industry.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, it is not the fault of any 22 year old kid that is entitled, quote unquote,

Jensen Cummings:

that is not as committed, that is not as dedicated, that is not as motivated.

Jensen Cummings:

That's not as hard working the inequity of this industry.

Jensen Cummings:

It's our fault as elders of this industry.

Jensen Cummings:

We built this and now we're trying to blame.

Jensen Cummings:

Because they're not willing to go through the same bullshit that we

Jensen Cummings:

did and call that a badge of honor.

Jensen Cummings:

Correct.

Jensen Cummings:

They're like, why would I want your abusive, toxic job culture

Jensen Cummings:

and get paid 1214, $16 an hour?

Jensen Cummings:

Yes.

Jensen Cummings:

I know you lived in a house with four people eating Top Ramen, remembering

Jensen Cummings:

when you got a raise up to 7 25 an hour.

Jensen Cummings:

This is me and I'm gonna cash shade on you because you're smarter than

Jensen Cummings:

I am and you have options and.

Jensen Cummings:

Fuck you.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm gonna go flip shit on eBay and make $62,000 an hour later.

Jensen Cummings:

I, I don't blame them.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to build something differently and we have to create the sense of

Jensen Cummings:

belonging to bring them back into this industry because I really believe you

Jensen Cummings:

think about culturally in our country.

Jensen Cummings:

Be the Google of your industry guys remember that, right?

Jensen Cummings:

That was hot for, for a decade.

Jensen Cummings:

What that didn't mean is that you had foosball tables and bouncy chairs, right?

Jensen Cummings:

That was a byproduct of the culture.

Jensen Cummings:

What it meant is you were at the forefront of innovation and

Jensen Cummings:

culture, of shifting that culture.

Jensen Cummings:

However, they now have been called out for having grow culture, right?

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

But you know, that also meant that most of the engineers were sleeping

Adam Lamb:

on bunk beds in their offices.

Adam Lamb:

Right, right.

Adam Lamb:

So there was, so there was that, that weird dichotomy and that they

Adam Lamb:

felt, you know, in with the in group, like smarter than everybody else.

Adam Lamb:

Just like we did.

Adam Lamb:

You know, I want to kind of refer back to that, that idea of like having,

Adam Lamb:

like doing more than everyone else.

Adam Lamb:

I refer that as like being the apex predator and the aquarium, right?

Adam Lamb:

and look and looking at the ways my behavior showed up.

Adam Lamb:

And looking back, you know, with some regret and shame and yet that's why

Adam Lamb:

I still stand here in this space.

Adam Lamb:

I always knew that it could be different.

Adam Lamb:

I always knew that it could be different.

Adam Lamb:

Just because it wasn't different for me doesn't necessarily mean

Adam Lamb:

it can't be different for others.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

So and again, I want to kind of get back to this values thing.

Adam Lamb:

So why do you think it's so important for hospitality and professionals to connect

Adam Lamb:

to their personal values as opposed to like, you know, Being in love with the

Adam Lamb:

allure or the dream of what it could be.

Adam Lamb:

I call

Jensen Cummings:

that the facade.

Jensen Cummings:

We spend a lot of time on the facade, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

And it doesn't matter what's going on with you, the guest

Jensen Cummings:

has to have a great experience.

Jensen Cummings:

And look, there's absolutely some, some strength and validity to those things.

Jensen Cummings:

Again, it's about the balance and it's about understanding where those,

Jensen Cummings:

those lines and those boundaries are.

Jensen Cummings:

And so for me, you need that north.

Jensen Cummings:

You need something that when the shit hits the fan and it always hits the fan.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

that keeps us both grounded and anchored and aspirational and motivat.

Jensen Cummings:

And, and working towards something with meaning and

Jensen Cummings:

purpose and a sense of belonging.

Jensen Cummings:

Right?

Jensen Cummings:

And so I think it's important for us to do that.

Jensen Cummings:

Now the problem is, and you know I mentioned it, is we

Jensen Cummings:

put these words on paper.

Jensen Cummings:

We have this big long employee company handbook, right?

Jensen Cummings:

That has a whole bunch of legalese and doesn't say shit.

Jensen Cummings:

And nobody ever, they signed the, the 47th page and they never look at it again.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And it is not, again, a part of the business model, the things

Jensen Cummings:

that we do day in and day out.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

And so we talk about the culture is the byproduct a lot of times

Jensen Cummings:

of having those core values.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, without a doubt creates, and culture is such a buzzword, and

Jensen Cummings:

it can mean absolutely nothing.

Jensen Cummings:

And I think quite often it does.

Jensen Cummings:

Culture I I like, I like.

Jensen Cummings:

One of the statements that I heard was culture of the decision

Jensen Cummings:

that's made when nobody's looking.

Jensen Cummings:

Sure.

Jensen Cummings:

You know, I, I really like that kind of, and there's lots of riffs on that

Jensen Cummings:

and I like that, where it's like we, we take responsibility and accountability

Jensen Cummings:

for that culture because we believe in it and we work on it and in it.

Jensen Cummings:

They're not just words that are up on a wall somewhere or on a piece of paper.

Jensen Cummings:

So I think that's the, the core principle of core values.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

of having something that, again, keeps you grounded and

Jensen Cummings:

aspirational at the same time.

Jensen Cummings:

Jim, thoughts, reflections.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah, I, I mean, culture's, what happens when you're not around, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Like you.

Jensen Cummings:

And the values thing, I mean, I gotta go back to Jensen, something you

Jensen Cummings:

were talking about a minute ago when someone, that concept of I don't want

Jensen Cummings:

to be like you, or I don't want your job, or I don't want your, you know,

Jensen Cummings:

that that what you were presenting as.

Jensen Cummings:

The right way to do it.

Jensen Cummings:

And when I say you, I don't mean you specifically.

Jensen Cummings:

I mean a lot of us and me specifically.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

And me specifically too.

Jensen Cummings:

And me specifically.

Jensen Cummings:

I will never forget a conversation I had with a rockstar that was on my team

Jensen Cummings:

at one point, and I thought this person was probably gonna take my job one day.

Jensen Cummings:

Right.

Jensen Cummings:

They were just so good at what they were doing, you know, climbing

Jensen Cummings:

the ladder, moving forward, the whole team loved working with.

Jensen Cummings:

. And one day she comes and sits me down and, and I was the GM of the restaurant

Jensen Cummings:

at the time, and she was, you know, moving forward in, in the program.

Jensen Cummings:

And she just goes, I'm done.

Jensen Cummings:

I quit.

Jensen Cummings:

No notice done.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And I went like, totally caught off guard.

Jensen Cummings:

I said, what do you mean?

Jensen Cummings:

She goes, I don't want your job.

Jensen Cummings:

That's it.

Jensen Cummings:

And I, I said, what do you.

Jensen Cummings:

I have a great job.

Jensen Cummings:

I have, I love my job.

Jensen Cummings:

I, I make good money.

Jensen Cummings:

I have good flexibility.

Jensen Cummings:

I, I work Monday to Friday.

Jensen Cummings:

I, you know, I was, I, I had, in my opinion, a pretty good thing going and she

Jensen Cummings:

said, you call me every night to ask me how the restaurant, how things are going.

Jensen Cummings:

You come in here every weekend, one on one or of the two days.

Jensen Cummings:

Check in, you know, and I was doing that because I cared and I was doing

Jensen Cummings:

that because I, I loved my job and I was doing that because I believed

Jensen Cummings:

that it was helping the team.

Jensen Cummings:

But what I was showing them was that this is a 24 hour a day job, and

Jensen Cummings:

if you don't approach it that way, you probably won't be successful.

Jensen Cummings:

And immediately I went, , you know, the values of what people are looking

Jensen Cummings:

for in moving forward in that, you know, in that model, how I'm presenting

Jensen Cummings:

that does not, it's not working.

Jensen Cummings:

And that, that was a big wake up call for me.

Jensen Cummings:

So I'm glad you mentioned that cuz it reminded me of that, that conversation

Jensen Cummings:

that I was like, devastating too.

Jensen Cummings:

When you like realize that damnit, I thought I was, I

Jensen Cummings:

thought I was the good guy.

Jensen Cummings:

I think about that dark night quote all the time.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm.

Jensen Cummings:

I a hero where you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Jensen Cummings:

and I have had to go, shit, I was the villain in many chapters of this story.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And it's hard to separate those, like emotionally.

Jensen Cummings:

It's hard to separate those.

Jensen Cummings:

Cause when I think about some of those moments of toxicity towards myself or.

Jensen Cummings:

or towards others.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm like, we also like did so many good things and mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, we raised money for charity and we, we introduced people to new cultures and

Jensen Cummings:

new cuisines and new techniques, and I have some long lasting friendships

Jensen Cummings:

and amazing memories and life moments, and I was a fucking asshole.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, how do you reconcile those?

Jensen Cummings:

So we try and pretend like those were the good old days.

Jensen Cummings:

Can't stand.

Jensen Cummings:

The good old days are just an excuse that we don't want to work towards.

Jensen Cummings:

Anything else we think we already accomplished.

Jensen Cummings:

We already did the thing.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, we were playing the infinite game to Simon Sinek points.

Jensen Cummings:

Again, we're playing the infinite game, not just a finite game.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to think about the legacy of what we're trying to create and pass on.

Jensen Cummings:

And before we go on the next thing I was gonna say, Aaron Fish and Jemiah.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

Our fucking rock stars and superstars.

Jensen Cummings:

Whatever you want to be.

Jensen Cummings:

You are it.

Jensen Cummings:

Because I love this.

Jensen Cummings:

I mean, I see like YouTube clips and Simon.

Jensen Cummings:

Oh yeah, man, that's awesome.

Jensen Cummings:

You guys is dropping nuggets like mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. I absolutely love the engagement

Adam Lamb:

right now.

Adam Lamb:

It's the community man.

Adam Lamb:

It is the community that we are creating.

Adam Lamb:

I'm our internal community.

Adam Lamb:

I'm gonna get in

Jensen Cummings:

their stuff, I'm gonna tag them on some annoying

Jensen Cummings:

attributes, posts on TikTok.

Jensen Cummings:

At some point they're gonna go, right, it's enough.

Jensen Cummings:

It's enough.

Jensen Cummings:

So I just, you want Jenson the takeaway that, and Adam, I

Jensen Cummings:

just want to just Yeah, please.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

The last comment on that, the takeaway that, and I think for anyone who's

Jensen Cummings:

listening to this, there's, there's good value in, in this conversation.

Jensen Cummings:

Takeaway that I had from that conversation.

Jensen Cummings:

Big picture that changed a lot of the way I approach things in my ops career.

Jensen Cummings:

I thought I was showing support by calling the restaurant every

Jensen Cummings:

night seeing, and they perceived it as though I was not trustworthy

Jensen Cummings:

and micromanaging and had no life.

Jensen Cummings:

And they, I found out after that they used to joke about What time is Jim gonna

Adam Lamb:

call tonight?

Adam Lamb:

Oh.

Adam Lamb:

That's what

Jensen Cummings:

time did Jim finish dinner today?

Jensen Cummings:

Yep.

Jensen Cummings:

Well, Jimmy needs dinner at six o'clock because he calls us at seven about

Jensen Cummings:

that stuff and I didn't know about it and I thought I was showing support

Jensen Cummings:

and they thought I was showing lack

Adam Lamb:

of trust.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, like sad Jim.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah, get a

Adam Lamb:

life gym.

Adam Lamb:

So, so I feel I need to kind of, and again, that's why get so juiced up in

Adam Lamb:

these conversations because I get that, you know, we could go on and on and on.

Adam Lamb:

And the show is about solutions and things that people can start working towards.

Adam Lamb:

By the way, I wanted to say thank you, Jensen for calling

Adam Lamb:

out Elderhood in our community.

Adam Lamb:

And that you place yourself there because I also place myself there willingly

Adam Lamb:

because I know for so many years that nobody gave a shit about Elderhood.

Adam Lamb:

Burn him down, get him out.

Adam Lamb:

I want his job.

Adam Lamb:

Right?

Adam Lamb:

. And so it's both an act of courage and it's also an act of faith.

Adam Lamb:

And it's also an act of love for the industry that we all still love.

Adam Lamb:

And I'm finding more and more and more.

Adam Lamb:

With my particular coaching clients, that it's only until they're actually

Adam Lamb:

grounded in their core values.

Adam Lamb:

Not only their, not only like what they stand for, but why they stand

Adam Lamb:

for and how they stand for it.

Adam Lamb:

That they can actually make a clear decision about what

Adam Lamb:

organization to be with.

Adam Lamb:

So we always talk about mission statements with businesses and

Adam Lamb:

things of that sort and mm-hmm.

Adam Lamb:

and.

Adam Lamb:

And I always look for like, okay, so in these postings, like

Adam Lamb:

where are their core values?

Adam Lamb:

Where is it in the job listing?

Adam Lamb:

Are they, are they, are they trumpeting those, or it's kind

Adam Lamb:

of like down at the very bottom underneath must keep a clean uniform.

Adam Lamb:

Do you know what I'm saying?

Adam Lamb:

Like companies that are completely clueless about what people are actually

Adam Lamb:

looking for, which is the narrative to fall in love with the narrative to pair

Adam Lamb:

with like, I need a reason to be here.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, give me a reason.

Adam Lamb:

Give me some.

Adam Lamb:

I don't think it's unreasonable, but unless they know what they stand for,

Adam Lamb:

they're gonna fucking fall for anything.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah.

Jensen Cummings:

We should talk about, we, we need to do another show on interviewing

Jensen Cummings:

because we've shifted what we call now a job description.

Jensen Cummings:

It's called a job story in our world.

Jensen Cummings:

There you go.

Jensen Cummings:

We write a compelling story.

Jensen Cummings:

And we start with I I keyword, right, because I recipe.

Jensen Cummings:

Right, right, right.

Jensen Cummings:

And so this is a very actionable thing that anybody can take.

Jensen Cummings:

I talk about this with hospitality professionals.

Jensen Cummings:

What are you good at?

Jensen Cummings:

Again, deployed against something we're bad at.

Jensen Cummings:

We're not very good at writers quite often.

Jensen Cummings:

That's why we loved Bourdain, because he was.

Jensen Cummings:

And what we, what we need to be able to do is articulate.

Jensen Cummings:

What we can do is build a recipe.

Jensen Cummings:

So I keyword write.

Jensen Cummings:

I don't write sentences.

Jensen Cummings:

I have no structure.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm an idiot.

Jensen Cummings:

I have two writers on, on our team that have to like rewrite everything.

Jensen Cummings:

. What I do, keywords, what are the keywords, the core values, what do I

Jensen Cummings:

want to express in this moment in this?

Jensen Cummings:

in this story.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm trying to tell in this job, in this business plan, whatever it is, what is

Jensen Cummings:

the story I'm trying to tell exactly.

Jensen Cummings:

I write 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 keywords.

Jensen Cummings:

Those are core values that then from that, that's your center of the plate item.

Jensen Cummings:

Then build around that.

Jensen Cummings:

All right, let me take this one word I like.

Jensen Cummings:

I wrote eight words, but these three words are really the core,

Jensen Cummings:

core words that I want to get to.

Jensen Cummings:

I want to tell my story around these three words.

Jensen Cummings:

I'll write a sentence for each of them.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. I can do that.

Jensen Cummings:

I can write a sentence and I won't even sequence them.

Jensen Cummings:

I'll just write a sentence.

Jensen Cummings:

What that is is like, okay, here's now I want two ounces of this, four ounces

Jensen Cummings:

of this and three ounces of this.

Jensen Cummings:

I can start to build my recipe that.

Jensen Cummings:

And then I'll sequence them together and say, if I was gonna tell a

Jensen Cummings:

story, what's the arc of that story?

Jensen Cummings:

Right?

Jensen Cummings:

And I'm gonna start with this word, this word, this word.

Jensen Cummings:

And then I'll fill in everything to composite.

Jensen Cummings:

A complete story.

Jensen Cummings:

A complete narrative, A complete job story.

Jensen Cummings:

Job description.

Jensen Cummings:

Mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

. And so that's a really actionable thing.

Jensen Cummings:

Keyword writing is a very great way to express what you do.

Jensen Cummings:

Write it down.

Jensen Cummings:

Just like you have that little notepad that you pull out mm-hmm.

Jensen Cummings:

, you write all the notes that chef just told you about how to

Jensen Cummings:

execute that dish flawlessly.

Jensen Cummings:

Write down, highlight underlining, circle some of those keywords because

Jensen Cummings:

that's gonna be the foundation of who you are and the type of businesses

Jensen Cummings:

that we're gonna build in the future.

Adam Lamb:

So the, so the importance is strategic, strategically deploy.

Adam Lamb:

Must be core to the business as in systems and actionable items becomes

Adam Lamb:

easy, whether that's a checklist or whatever it is, like a day two orientation

Adam Lamb:

where everybody gets walked around and, and really nurtured and like they

Adam Lamb:

know where everything's at and da da as opposed to, here's your recipe book.

Adam Lamb:

Get the fuck off the line.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah.

Adam Lamb:

And there are gonna be things that we think that are going to.

Adam Lamb:

That are aspirational right now that we'd like to see yet we can't

Adam Lamb:

actually fit them into the business from an operation standpoint.

Adam Lamb:

And then I'm also hearing that, you know, as a professional, it's really

Adam Lamb:

important to understand what's most ipa, what's most IPA important for you?

Adam Lamb:

And that that changes Six years ago, your children might not necessarily have

Adam Lamb:

been like getting up in the morning, have breakfast, might not have been

Adam Lamb:

a big thing, but then things change.

Adam Lamb:

And so to stay clear eye.

Adam Lamb:

About like what matters.

Adam Lamb:

Then you can actually start adjusting.

Adam Lamb:

Not only your expectations, but the things that you're looking

Adam Lamb:

for, like what you want to do.

Adam Lamb:

Am I getting you to correct?

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah, and what's interesting is what you're talking

Jensen Cummings:

about is, is we kind of talk about the four access is what I

Jensen Cummings:

think about the way that we work.

Jensen Cummings:

And so I've talked about the business model.

Jensen Cummings:

We've restructured so many things like we're, that's actually the easy part.

Jensen Cummings:

Like we know how to make the numbers work.

Jensen Cummings:

We, Andrew knows how to make the numbers work.

Jensen Cummings:

We can move things around that chess board all day long.

Jensen Cummings:

That's actually the easy part.

Jensen Cummings:

Then there's the three other access that are really.

Jensen Cummings:

because they're humans, they're emotional, right?

Jensen Cummings:

We have to convince the bosses, leaders, managers, owners,

Jensen Cummings:

investors, that this ship matters.

Jensen Cummings:

That's really difficult because in the past it didn't matter and

Jensen Cummings:

we had successful businesses, so why should it matter?

Jensen Cummings:

Now we have to convince the the public.

Jensen Cummings:

That they should spend their money at places that invest in things that

Jensen Cummings:

matter, not the ones that have just more shiny shit than somebody else.

Jensen Cummings:

Correct.

Jensen Cummings:

Absolutely.

Jensen Cummings:

And finally, we have to, we have to convince ourselves that we're

Jensen Cummings:

worth investing in to that level.

Jensen Cummings:

And that is the most difficult part about all of these things

Jensen Cummings:

that we're talking about.

Jensen Cummings:

And so unless we start to break through those stigmas, Those boundaries that

Jensen Cummings:

we've set for ourselves, we're never gonna break through to what it means to

Jensen Cummings:

be whole in this industry and be able to invest in the things that we value.

Jensen Cummings:

And where we spend money does in fact show.

Jensen Cummings:

What we value, where we spend time does in fact matter and a breakthrough.

Jensen Cummings:

A lot of times when we're talking about mission statement, vision

Jensen Cummings:

statement, core values, they're like, that's some corporate bullshit, right?

Jensen Cummings:

They just throw some words out there to fake you out, to be able to get

Jensen Cummings:

you into their, their meat grinder.

Jensen Cummings:

That's not us.

Jensen Cummings:

We're independent.

Jensen Cummings:

We do things our way.

Jensen Cummings:

I am, I'm not wasting time on all those fake words.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm just about the work.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm about the business.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm about the food.

Jensen Cummings:

That's all that matters.

Jensen Cummings:

Just take care of the food and every and the people will come.

Jensen Cummings:

That's just never actually been true and not true.

Jensen Cummings:

Now, if it's only about what's on the plate, then you are commoditized and

Jensen Cummings:

you'll only be valued by what's on.

Jensen Cummings:

If it's about who gets it, the plate, how we get it to the plate, right?

Jensen Cummings:

Well then our value is exponential.

Jensen Cummings:

Then we become pillars of both culture and commerce in our community.

Jensen Cummings:

Then other industries, not the Google of XYZ industry.

Jensen Cummings:

Other industries would be like, I'm the hospitality X, Y, Z of my industry.

Jensen Cummings:

Because I understand the value that that creates internally and externally

Jensen Cummings:

for my business, for my employees, for my customers and clients.

Jensen Cummings:

And that's the opportunity we have because hospitality is unlike any other

Jensen Cummings:

dynamic in business that you can imagine.

Jensen Cummings:

Because we're in the relationship business, which is very, very

Jensen Cummings:

different, very unique, and other industries are trying to look to us

Jensen Cummings:

now, and we have to set an example.

Adam Lamb:

Doug Doug New Hook is just saying, great shit.

Adam Lamb:

Jensen, the Cummings.

Adam Lamb:

Thank you.

Adam Lamb:

Can't wait for the hiring story episode.

Adam Lamb:

Let's go.

Adam Lamb:

And if, and if we're gonna, if we're gonna put a pin in the hiring,

Adam Lamb:

because I love that cuz a lot of what I'm doing also is like it's

Adam Lamb:

like this weird interview prep I got.

Adam Lamb:

I have a call right after this.

Adam Lamb:

I'm so excited about it.

Adam Lamb:

But I also specifically, if it's okay with you, is to schedule some in the future to

Adam Lamb:

talk about the access, the four points of that access and strategies around how we.

Adam Lamb:

Not only as professionals, but as operators actually punch

Adam Lamb:

through those limitations.

Adam Lamb:

Cuz I get that, you know, in talking to 60, 70, 80 chefs and hospitality

Adam Lamb:

professionals, you know, one of the biggest things that they continue to

Adam Lamb:

talk about is this feeling of, of of being undervalued by the customer.

Adam Lamb:

Ooh.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And like catering customers who are coming in trying to beat them down on price

Adam Lamb:

or, or like other stories like that.

Adam Lamb:

I mean, there's a victim story in that as well, and I get that however, You know,

Adam Lamb:

to assist others to gain their sovereignty so that you know, this is my price.

Adam Lamb:

This is what I do, da, da, da, da.

Adam Lamb:

It's a powerful thing at kind of resetting the table as it was, or on this show.

Adam Lamb:

Flipping the table,

Adam Lamb:

, Jensen Cummings: don't,

Adam Lamb:

Negotiate on value.

Adam Lamb:

Always on value.

Adam Lamb:

You never take away.

Adam Lamb:

You always add.

Jensen Cummings:

Always, always, always on value.

Jensen Cummings:

We cannot diminish what we do.

Jensen Cummings:

You can't self commoditize.

Jensen Cummings:

Unfortunately, we've self commoditized.

Jensen Cummings:

We've taken a picture of our food.

Jensen Cummings:

Put it on Instagram, said, come buy my shit.

Jensen Cummings:

It's transactional.

Jensen Cummings:

We have to flip that narrative and, and for who was it on LinkedIn?

Jensen Cummings:

I just see LinkedIn user on my end.

Jensen Cummings:

Thank you.

Adam Lamb:

That was Doug Newhook new.

Adam Lamb:

I love

Jensen Cummings:

doing great shit.

Jensen Cummings:

That's my whole goal is to be fight of the night.

Jensen Cummings:

Anytime I show up for sure fir tidbit, I do something now that nobody else

Jensen Cummings:

is willing to do, and I do it myself because I wanna prove the concept.

Jensen Cummings:

Every single interview.

Jensen Cummings:

First interview is a 10 minute phone.

Jensen Cummings:

I ask three questions.

Jensen Cummings:

They ask three questions, and then we decide if we feel

Jensen Cummings:

good about a next interview.

Jensen Cummings:

Perfect.

Jensen Cummings:

I do a 22nd video for every single person that I'm going to

Jensen Cummings:

do that initial interview for.

Jensen Cummings:

I say, hi, my name's Jensen.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm excited to talk with you.

Jensen Cummings:

I saw from your resume that you did this worked here.

Jensen Cummings:

Did that, love that?

Jensen Cummings:

Excited about that.

Jensen Cummings:

Can't wait to hear about.

Jensen Cummings:

And I spend that time and effort, the amount of people, I dunno, 75%

Jensen Cummings:

of people over dozens and dozens and dozens that I've done this test model

Jensen Cummings:

on have thanked me going, wow, that was great that you sent that video.

Jensen Cummings:

And I know that a high percentage of people who show up to that interview

Jensen Cummings:

might have skipped your interview because you didn't take that tiny little step.

Jensen Cummings:

Sure.

Jensen Cummings:

That I'm willing to take to humanize this process.

Jensen Cummings:

And so many people tell, tell me that's a waste of time.

Jensen Cummings:

Most of 'em aren't gonna.

Jensen Cummings:

Yeah, but what if four more people, six more people do show up that

Jensen Cummings:

weren't going to show up, that you hire, that become the linchpin to

Jensen Cummings:

the future success of your person?

Jensen Cummings:

Is that worth a 22nd video?

Jensen Cummings:

I believe it is, and most people do not.

Jensen Cummings:

That's the difference.

Jensen Cummings:

That's what we'll we'll talk about in hiring stories.

Jensen Cummings:

Oh my God, that's so

Adam Lamb:

good.

Adam Lamb:

Because, you know, again, that's, that's, it's it's extending this

Adam Lamb:

boundary of, of communication in that, you know, do you wanna hire people?

Adam Lamb:

Do you wanna hire the right.

Adam Lamb:

Right.

Adam Lamb:

And very often that energy around like, Hey, listen, I'm gonna take 20

Adam Lamb:

seconds to do a video with this person.

Adam Lamb:

You know, do they always work out?

Adam Lamb:

You know, I, I don't know what the percentages are, but I could certainly

Adam Lamb:

feel in my own heart, someone send me a little video about that and go

Adam Lamb:

like, no, dude, I wanna be there.

Adam Lamb:

I wanna be there.

Adam Lamb:

I don't wanna be over here.

Adam Lamb:

Here.

Adam Lamb:

So Chef Jensen Cummings, thank you very, very much, Jim Taylor.

Adam Lamb:

Jim, you've like, you're just listening, dude.

Adam Lamb:

Like

Adam Lamb:

. Jensen Cummings: That's

Adam Lamb:

He's like, I can't wait to listen.

Adam Lamb:

I was like, well, I'll talk a lot, I'm sure.

Adam Lamb:

All right.

Adam Lamb:

One last piece of business before we go.

Adam Lamb:

Oh, no, there's actually no programming notes.

Adam Lamb:

So upcoming shows Thanksgiving.

Adam Lamb:

Yeah, you're not off.

Adam Lamb:

We're not off.

Adam Lamb:

So Jim and I, we're gonna hold down the fort and we're gonna do

Adam Lamb:

a an episode servant leader.

Adam Lamb:

Comma really.

Adam Lamb:

And then we've got Michelle Moreno from Qab Leadership, Jennifer

Adam Lamb:

Kern from restaurants reinvented.

Adam Lamb:

And on 1215 we got Kelly feathering him from Kelly

Adam Lamb:

Feathering Leadership Coaching.

Adam Lamb:

We love her book abc.

Adam Lamb:

Fantastic.

Adam Lamb:

And I just wanted to say very, very lastly, That this been

Adam Lamb:

coming on for a long time.

Adam Lamb:

But actually Chef Life Radio or chef life coaching.com is

Adam Lamb:

finally done, finally complete.

Adam Lamb:

And I'd like to debut the only online community dedicated to servers to

Adam Lamb:

serving chefs in hospitality professionals who want to enjoy their

Adam Lamb:

careers without sacrificing their lives in the new hospitality culture.

Adam Lamb:

Come join the Chef Life Brigade.

Adam Lamb:

It's open chef life brigade.com, and we're gonna be celebrating

Adam Lamb:

that with a live stream next.

Adam Lamb:

November 22nd at 6:00 PM with the British bordain.

Adam Lamb:

This dude, he's crazy . He's a good copy man.

Adam Lamb:

What can I say?

Adam Lamb:

Jordan Clement.

Adam Lamb:

And he's a fantastic chef and doing some really great stuff.

Adam Lamb:

And he is got a very powerful story to tell.

Adam Lamb:

So that's on my side.

Adam Lamb:

Jim, any last.

Jim Taylor:

I, I, think that we could have, I mean, we just spent an hour

Jim Taylor:

and, and we could have spent five.

Jim Taylor:

So Jensen, I just appreciate you, you coming on, you've always got incredible

Jim Taylor:

nuggets and you know, I think you've been invited the night today there was go.

Jensen Cummings:

I'm here for it.

Jensen Cummings:

Appreciate you guys.

Jensen Cummings:

Everything that you're doing doesn't go unnoticed across the industry.

Jensen Cummings:

We, we need more people willing to, to speak, to create platforms, to

Jensen Cummings:

bring more voices in the conversation.

Jensen Cummings:

So I'm just grateful.

Jensen Cummings:

And if I spark one person today to go out, do their thing, tell their

Jensen Cummings:

story, shift their approach, believe in themselves, a huge fucking win

Adam Lamb:

for me.

Adam Lamb:

You know, Jens.

Adam Lamb:

When you guys were doing the 86 86 86 challenge in, in best served, and I

Adam Lamb:

just want to kind of end with this.

Adam Lamb:

I had the opportunity to either submit an article or sponsor

Adam Lamb:

articles as Chef Life Radio.

Adam Lamb:

And I love to write as anybody who knows me, knows that.

Adam Lamb:

And I very consciously took a sponsorship position because I wanted to provide

Adam Lamb:

an opportunity for folks who maybe.

Adam Lamb:

Un practice to having their voice heard, right?

Adam Lamb:

Providing an opportunity for someone to say I don't really know what I'm

Adam Lamb:

doing, but I'm gonna write this anyway because there's something inside

Adam Lamb:

me that's, that's speaking to me.

Adam Lamb:

And I think that that's an integral part of Elderhood.

Adam Lamb:

Like, yes, we hold a lot of knowledge, but what's most important for us is

Adam Lamb:

holding space for that next generation.

Adam Lamb:

Those leaders who are coming up who may not necessarily you know, agree

Adam Lamb:

with what we're doing, but you know, it's gotta be a safe space for all

Adam Lamb:

of us to speak or, or what the hell

Jensen Cummings:

are we doing here?

Jensen Cummings:

Spec.

Jensen Cummings:

Love

Adam Lamb:

you.

Adam Lamb:

Thank you very much everybody.

Adam Lamb:

This has been another episode of turning the table