Game-Changing Tips from a Restaurant Expert and Restaurant Owner

Hey there, restaurant pros. It’s David Scott Peters and welcome to the Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast. For over 2 decades, I’ve been guiding restaurant owners to success with the proven principles of something I call the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I originally created the formula based on the daily practices of the most successful restaurateurs I’ve coached and it’s now the foundation of what I teach restaurant owners like you so you can achieve success. What I mean by success? Success is a restaurant owner who dictates the terms of their life and their bank account instead of their restaurants dictating those things for them. Success is a restaurant owner who has the freedom from their restaurant and the financial freedom they never thought possible. How you define success is up to you, but I do know the way to achieving it is using the restaurant prosperity formula. This season, I’m diving even deeper into the core elements of the formula, leadership, systems, training, accountability, and taking action. Along with my insights, you’ll hear from special guests, industry experts, and inspiring success stories from fellow restaurant owners who’ve turned their businesses around and found their definition of success. In this episode, number 114, we’ll be doing a segment I call Flip the Table. where a member takes over and interviews me. Today I’ll be interviewed by one of my most successful and inspiring members, Chris Schoenberger. Get ready because he’ll be asking the questions. Listen in and see how Chris asks some really powerful questions and gets really personal. Let’s get started. But first, a word from our sponsor. We all know managing costs is one of the most important parts of running a profitable restaurant, especially now. But between fluctuating vendor prices, waste, labor, and the never-ending list of tasks that demand your attention on a daily basis, it can be challenging for even the most experienced of us to manage costs well. That’s where Margin Edge comes in. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that automatically uses data from your POS and invoices to show you food and labor costs in real time. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Margin Edge gives you tools to make decisions in the moment, like a daily P&L, price alerts on key ingredients, and real-time plate costs, all without ever having to touch a spreadsheet. Take control of your costs, work more efficiently, and be more profitable. Go to www..marginedge.com forward slash DSP to learn more and schedule your demo today. Chris, I want to thank you so much for doing this with me today.
Absolutely my pleasure.
So we’ve got a long history together now from my beginnings or beginnings of your business and tail end of my old business. Tell people a little bit about who you are, where you are, and the restaurants that you run.
Yep, so my name is Chris Schoenberger. I own five different locations in northeastern Illinois and one in southeastern Wisconsin, city of Kenosha. And then I have four locations in Illinois. Three of them are one brand, BBQ Productions. And then I own a new concept I just created a couple years ago called Station 51. And then I also have the Lehman Mansion, which is a wedding in the event center in Lakeville, Illinois. So, you know, got started in this. I often say by mistake in 2009 was catering for friends and family and 14 decided to jump in feet first. And shortly after I opened, like within 24 hours of opening, my partner in crime who was doing this with me was my mom. She passed away. And, you know, it was one of those things where I felt like the world was pulled out from underneath me and I had no clue what the hell I was doing. And literally within, I want to say it was, I don’t know the exact time frame. I want to say it was within probably about 30, 45 days. I got a little thing on Facebook from you and your old company and it said, enter here for a drawing to win a trip or whatever to Arizona. I clicked on it and then like a week later I got a phone call from somebody, it might have been your mom, and said, oh, you want a trip to Arizona? And I’m like, yeah, like what is this? And then it was for a seminar. And I originally was like, I know, should I go to this or should I not go to this? And I’m like, well, Arizona school, so why not go? So I went and it was really cool. I still remember sitting there day one, not sure, like, is this the right thing? Because you were teaching a lot of like, Not about the restaurant stuff, because day one is always about your core values and what I call the roots of the tree. And then day two, where I was like the light bulb is really where it went off. And I’m like, this is the old saying of you could take a horse. I always eat a horse of water, but you can’t make him drink it. And this was making me drink it. So it was like somebody not to get too spiritual, but I feel like somebody had sent you to me in saying that this is the person who’s going to take you to the promised land and that’s exactly.
What you did. Well, we’ve made a lot of changes since then. That was a three-day workshop. Now I just do the two-day seminars, kind of mixed up a little bit, but it’s the same systems. You’ve been out for it as well, more recently with some of your team members. So we’ve known each other now and worked together. Is it a decade?
I’m in your 10.
I just hit my 10th year. So if anybody knows me, it’s going to be you. You’re one of the on the highlights there of knowing who I am because you were in my mastermind group of my old company. You are currently in my mastermind group, this company. So we have literally shared meals together, maybe too many drinks together, maybe. I don’t know about too many, but we’ve been out and we’ve done some stupid **** together. So you not only know me as the restaurant expert, but you know me as a ******* restaurant person too. So I want to really thank you for doing this. is the segment we call Flip the Table. Flipping the Table where you as a member and friend get to interview me. We have no idea what the questions are going to be. We’re just going to have a conversation and hopefully people listening to us or watching us if they’re on YouTube are going to learn a little bit and connect. So take it away my friend. What is your first question for me?
First question for you DSP is where was the very first restaurant you ever worked at?
The very first restaurant I ever worked at would have been… Man, I cannot remember the name because I lasted about 3 weeks. I was 12 years old working under the table underage as a dishwasher for this little quick serve restaurant that was in my hometown of Margate, New Jersey. And I mean, I literally couldn’t tell you the name because I was like, I hate dish washing dishes for this guy, even though it was like, it was like very first job ever. And it was under the table underage. From there, I remember working at an Italian restaurant and my parents’ restaurant, and I was a first mate on a boat. That’s the next summer where all of a sudden I was legally able to work. So I had three jobs that summer, as a matter of fact.
So that’s interesting because obviously, you know, I talk about this with my staff all the time where it’s like the generation now doesn’t want to work. You know, it’s very hard to find them that want to work, but that I find that there’s this age of that age where kids are begging, hey, can I work? So tell me and tell everybody else, how the hell did you get a job at 12 years old? What lie did you tell?
I actually didn’t have to tell a lie. A friend of my best friend, Steven Plotka, he found out that it’s like, hey, I got, I found a job and he needs another person, da, da, da, and it just kind of fell into it. The bottom line for me is I’ve always been somebody who wants to work. Now I’m A Gen. Xer. I was a latchkey kid. My parents got divorced when I was 8 years old. So dad was 45 minutes an hour away. So I grew up with my mom and she had a full-time job, multiple full-time jobs at times just to make ends meet. So, you know, I was home alone. And for a summer, someone who’s sitting around doing nothing. Plus, I like money. And I learned that if I didn’t create the money, there really wasn’t a lot of money for my mom to share with his kids. So if I wanted stuff, I had to work for it. So I think that’s kind of where that happened. It’s like, I want stuff. I like stuff. And my friends all came from, you know, I want to say just about all of them came from a place of money. I did not. And so work was my path to money.
Very interesting because we’ve never ever really shared that story. And that is exactly kind of the same thing. My mom had multiple jobs growing up. She worked overnight delivering newspapers. She’d come home at 6 o’clock. She’d get some sleep, then she’d go work at Fannie Mae, the candy store. You know, so my parents divorced when I was young too. I was 14 when that happened. So again, I had a paper route at 8 years old. My mom was the boss. So I technically had one at 7, you know, under the table. Back then, paper routes, which I think paper routes is what really helped define the worth ethics of some of the kids back in the day. Obviously, now paper routes are a thing of the past. So, you know, I think those are one of the things that are never going to ever come back, but really help to find the generational of wanting to go out there and work your *** off to be able to buy the things you want to buy. Same thing, like if I wanted a trip somewhere, I had to go work, make some more money on the paper route. So, Well, we can change this.
I’m going to chase the squirrel just a little bit further. My first entrepreneurial experience, which you didn’t ask, was my friend and I created, this is a kid from South Philly. He was just moved into the area. He was quite a character. And we created what we call the simonizing business. So waxing cars, washing and waxing cars in our driveway. But we were 16, so we weren’t legally able to drive. And we would go up and down, knock on people’s doors, and they would hand us their fricking keys. We’d take their Mercedes and their Cadillacs and all of a sudden drive them to one of them to my house, put it in the driveway. We’d wash the car, wax the car, we would then take it back. So, you know, think about, you know, where you go, that work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit started really young with me.
Yeah, no, that’s I look back at those times. My first entrepreneur thing was I sold rocks on the side of the road. I used to go find like rocks. Legit. But here’s the thing, and I’ve said this story to you plenty of times. I could sell rocks at six because I was cute. I can’t sell BBQ at 30 because I’m cute because it doesn’t work. So, but yeah, I used to sell rocks and then I started a little handyman company at 12 years old, which that was a **** show in itself. But yeah. So, but very interesting. I didn’t even know that we had those some Morris ties that. So let’s go back to the restaurant, restaurant industry. Obviously, you’ve worked all different things in the restaurant. You’ve worked from dishwashing to serving to bartending to managing. What is your absolute favorite thing to do inside the restaurant? What position?
Man, I will tell you. There are three and I kind of rank them. At the bottom when I was in college, I was a doorman at a bar. That was pretty cool for all different reasons, but primarily because I got to flirt with women all day long and bust people’s heads. Not TSP.
Not TSP.
My next was really bartender. Bartender, you were on stage. Like at the time I was an improv comic, performing on the weekends, and it was like, you know, so I was always on, always, always on, always on. But my all-time favorite is a manager on the floor. because the whole restaurant was my station. it’s the whole place. And I got it to a point where I worked for an independent operator, Bill Girard. He was a banker, retired banker. We had a brew pub called Kaidu Springs Brewing Company and Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, the first location. When I started working with him as a bartender, we were doing $700 on a Sunday. And we were growing and moved into management and I was on the floor. And it got to a point where People stop saying, I know Bill the owner. Is Bill here? They say, is David here? And at that point in time, Sundays were my day. We went from $700 on a Sunday to $7,000 on a Sunday. I mean, I owned that place. I loved it. was magic. But so all time number one favorite is a manager on the floor. I’m a front of house guy.
So let’s flip that. What is the worst position you hate? If there’s one position you never had to do ever again.
I don’t ever want to wash dishes again. I was more amiable to it when I was a manager because I was filling in and this was a it was necessary evil. But as a teenager, my God, it’s thankless. And this is why I tell people that in the restaurant, the most important person in the restaurant on a busy night is your dishwasher. On a slow night, they’re bleeding you dry. But on your busiest night, if you don’t have tongs, if you don’t have pots and pans and plates and glassware, like there’s nobody more important than your dishwasher. And so when you’ve got a great dishwasher and they stay with you for years, like they are worth every penny you pay them because they make the place go round. But man, I sit in a dish pit and getting soaking wet and not my thing.
So funny. We’re exact opposite. I love the dish pit. Instant satisfaction.
No, I want I want I want people I want give me a give me a give me a show. Let me go out there. Be the show. That’s what I want to do.
All right. So you just talk about people. Let’s talk about the people. Obviously, the hospitality industry is all about taking care of the guests that come through the door. Tell me a memorable experience that you’ve ever had with a guest that just, it’ll never forget, never leave you. It’ll always go with you and you’ll always remember either a guest or a story or an interaction you had with somebody on the floor, whether you were managing, owning, anything like that.
You know, that’s a tough one. I don’t know that I have one magic moment in my head through all the years. There’s just so many, I think about this. Instead of a magic moment, a specific person or interaction, it’d be multiple interactions when Coyote Springs was young and we were building one customer at a time. And I got to a point where, I’d come around the corner and I would stop at table after table after table and these people became regulars and they started to love the place and the sales started to build and we had this fun energy. And I think one of my favorite memories of Coyote Springs, and this is how I met my wife, God bless America.
Can’t imagine.
After 9 o’clock, we were a bar. We were a restaurant, and then we were a bar. And for birthdays, we would give away a shot. And the shot happened to be the ******* shot. And don’t do this today. Why am I not surprised? Don’t do this today. So I would come out and make a big thing about it with this, you know, a tray and a ******* shot with the whipped cream and the whole bit. And I’d go, hey, everybody, it’s Suzie. birthday. She’s going to do a *******. Make sure no hands. I’d make them put their hands behind their head, swallow that thing, kick it back. Believe it or not, this is how I met my wife. I didn’t know at the time. She later became a server for me, which makes the story even worse. But you know, that was the fun part. It was just creating this energy and fun. Wouldn’t do it today, day and age with sexual harassment claims and all the things. But it was a blast. I just remember creating so much fun on the floor. And that was one of the little things that just got me jazzed.
And it’s crazy because out of all the stories that I’ve had with you and all the conversations I had with you, know, I know that you’ve worked in numerous places. That is the one place that I always remember as Coyote Springs. So your passion behind that was, you know, it’s something that I can remember every single story revolves around that place.
It was magic. I mean, that was the opportunity. I was I was a franchise sales and compliance person coming out of college and I got laid off. And so I went and bartended so that I could start my business doing franchise compliance and sales. And while I was building that business, I got sucked back in. Like I’ve tried to get out of this business at least three times in my life. And the reason being is I love the business. I love hospitality. What I didn’t like was the culture and my boss. I had a general manager at Coyote Springs, as a matter of fact, that I just, I wanted to strangle. And I, in fact, one point in time gave my notice to Bill Girard, my owner, and he said he wouldn’t accept it. And next thing you know, five years later I left. But with that said, you know, when you’re in hospitality, it is magic. There’s just, To create memories for people, to create that experience that they’ll remember forever, even if it’s just the memory is you took care of them in a downtime or an uptime. I just, there’s something magical about it. And I can’t imagine doing anything else, but I’ve been sucked in.
No, I can’t remember because we’ve shared so many stories, but I remember early in us talking here, you also did own a restaurant at one point too, is right.
No, it was our family’s restaurant and catering business. Yeah, your family. Sorry, I’ll be here for you. Yeah, in Lynnwood, New Jersey. It was called Friar Tuck’s Tavern. So it would be custom burgers and French onion soup and some really neat things. It was like a monastery inside. It was really kind of Disney before Disney was a big deal. It was fun. But I can tell you worked my *** off. don’t have a lot of warm memories because my mom would ride my sister and I twice as hard as anybody else. Like I can remember getting stiffed by one of the servers. I was a busser at the time. I’m like, I didn’t get my tips. And she’s like, basically, suck it up, Buttercup. And you know, like, you don’t want to hear that. Go get my money. No, tough **** you know. But again.
The one thing I do notice, the one thing I don’t mean to cut you off here, but I want to say something that everyone’s who’s listening here because something that I just noticed and if you watch this on the replay, you’ll notice it. But the way that you just lit up talking about your family’s restaurant was really cool. So, and I think that’s what goes into this industry is like you said, like hostility industry is fun and stuff like that. But when you can talk about something and you light up like a Christmas tree, that’s memorable, obviously, and it’s going to take with you the rest of your life. So obviously, that was fun for you.
Yeah, it’s identity too. I mean, it’s pretty cool to go, that restaurant, that’s my family’s restaurant. my mom, my stepfather worked their *** off in there. My sister works there. I work there, you know, provides for our family. The community loved it. People go, oh, I love that place. You know, it’s just when you become a fabric of the community and it’s pretty damn cool. So I get why a lot of the members I work with, like you, are like, hey, this is my baby. You know, and when people screw things up, you take it so personally, because it is an extension of you. And that’s why we have to work so hard at making these places run so well.
I often say you never get a day off because you just can’t disconnect from it.
Yeah, it’s you.
So let’s transition a little bit. We talked about your background. We talked about restaurants and working in them and favorite positions, stuff like that. How do you transition from that to the expert? How did you go from in the industry to being the math equation of the industry.
Well, I’ll tell you, the short answer is it started at Coyote Springs as I moved into an operations manager. And I was separated from 2 schedules for two weeks to write a budget. And three years later, I left that position. And I learned the importance of cash flow and budgets and systems. And we put all these things together to make the restaurant run better. We learned about leadership. We learned about all these things. Well, I went to Famous Sam’s, a 30 unit restaurant sports bar chain. the director of operations and I they were we were franchising and the guys bought the company wouldn’t take it public we opening eight stores I created all the training redid it I brought in my own team and it was gangbusters and it was it was work your *** off and the next thing you know I am I am trying to decide as everybody’s leaving the ship because they’re bankrupting the damn company I left taught at Scottsdale Culinary Institute was consulting the minority shareholders became the majority shareholders. And a year later, like, come back. And I’m like, no, And it was about a month before Tyler, my first kid was born. I said, okay. And I walked into a disaster company should have been bankrupt. But I was told, I need you to turn this company around and sell it in five years. And I always tell people in speeches, I missed that goal by three months. Well, into year four, I knew as people were looking at us to buy us that I was going to sell myself out of a job. And my mother actually, long story, my mother goes to a seminar, what’s called a previewed seminar. For $100, she goes to this seminar. The whole goal of that seminar is to sell her into a four-day seminar. That is $20,000. $100 to sell you into this $20,000 seminar. It was, I think it was $4,000 up front and then you were going to pay in profits. My mom goes to this thing. And a little background, my father was an NLP speaker, neurolinguistics programming or processing of the programming. It’s about like Tony Robbins stuff. And he was a motivational speaker. So I was a speech comm major in college. I graduated with a speech comm degree. So my mom goes to this thing and says, I signed up for the seminar. I’m allowed to bring somebody with me for free. Basically, before you lose your **** here’s the process. I’m like, what? did you do? What? You know, I’m protecting my mom. I’m like, this better not suck. And I literally start thinking about it. I’m at another trade show. I was at the restaurant leadership conference, watch speakers. I go, man, I could see myself doing this. I was an improv comic. I was a speech comm major. I love attention. I was a great manager. Like, I want to do this. And so we go to the seminar. We’re sitting in the, I think it was front row, maybe second row. And my mom sitting there and I’m still *****. I’m *****. You spent how much money for? What the hell are you thinking? You know, I got to protect my mom. And I go, is there a manual? She goes, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I said, there better be a manual. Like for this much money, I’m like getting real defensive for my mom. By the end of day one of a four-day workshop, I am lit up like a Christmas tree. I know exactly what I would do. I’m like, my mind is moving 1,000,000 miles an hour on this new business of taking all the systems and tools. that I’ve learned and take what basically then I would say, take the franchise systems and tools, teach them to independent restaurants that they can make more money. And all of a sudden, that’s how it started. So I was able, in fact, I lied to you, it was two years before I left because the last year I was there, that’s when I started the business and I had already done my first four day workshop and I think we only had 16 people in the room. But that’s what, you know, going from scratch back then for the internet was huge. That’s what I put in a room. I started with a $97 product and here we are today, 21 years later.
And I think it’s crazy because I look back at the time where I went to the first, my first seminar with you and even to this day, like one of the things that I find in struggle is the eye-opening experience of going to that. And obviously, as the guy who’s teaching it, you’re gonna get people, and I see them all the time, you deal with them pretty well, but there’s people who had that same eye-opening experience, but then you have some people who are just doubters. Throughout this journey of transitioning from where you were to becoming the true expert, and I say this to everybody, like, you have your **** together, and I often question, like, does he not know anything? Because you know so much. is that detail of convincing someone to come and listen and try and experience what you can bring to them versus the people who are going there because they’re dragged to by their boss or something like that. How do you transition or how do you deal with those type of people that are the doubters or the naysayers of saying, oh, you’re the expert which I know you are, because I’ve been through it and I’ve lived the savings of, I often talk about the portion of the French fries, like, how do you deal with those naysayers? And then on top of how do you deal with the naysayers, because I think I know you’re going to go with it, is how do you take that and turn it into fuel to make more people profitable?
So it’s kind of a double-edged sword. There are some people we can help, some we can’t. So #1, if you are traveling, you know, we have people coming internationally. We’ve had somebody from Guatemala this time. We have people from Canada, this last one, but we’ve had them all over the world. China, Japan, Trinidad, Tobago, Kirk and Kaikos, and like you name it. If there’s a country, damn near been there. It’s been amazing, a 21-year journey. If you come there and you’re the restaurant owner, you are already at least open to change. You don’t know what you don’t know and you want to learn. So I’ve already got to step up with you because you’ve invested money, time, and you want to make a change. So for the majority of that room of restaurant owners, we’re in a good spot. But there are certainly those naysayers. Our good friend Brad Hackard, who became a coach and consultant for me for so many years and now is just a rock star in Florida slash Alabama at the Florabama group. he’s a rock star, but he came to the seminar because it was in Vegas. He says, if it sucks, at least I’m in Vegas. Well, he’s stuck in there when it was a four-day seminar or workshop all four days because, you know, I’m kind of a bug light. Once I get started, you know, I say my claim to fame is I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I will present the most boring information, more real-world, exciting, and entertaining than anybody else. I’m a math teacher and I get you excited about counting **** and doing the things right. And so I’ve got a great leg up on that. So if you’ve gotten there, I’ve got your attention. I’m going to tell you what your pain is. I’m going to tell you how we can fix the pain, and I’m going to show you the path on how to get it. And the reality is. The things I teach are extremely easy. that they’re easy as hell. The hard part is the people part. And that’s what I keep stressing is you’ve got to become the leader your restaurant needs. Now they may have brought a manager with them and the manager may be like, ******** what is this stuff? You know, this is real work. You’re going to make us corporate, all that wonderful stuff. And I to a person now say right at the beginning, I said, one of two things is going to happen with the manager you brought. They’re going to be so excited. Either they’re going to be so excited to go home and they want to make change and they are motivated and they’re going to **** *** or they’re going to quit. They’re going to quit within three months or so, maybe even quicker because they’re like, oh **** this is real work. I said, either way, you win. Like, I don’t want to take any more of my time and money and invest in somebody who’s going to sabotage the change that we need. and I go right at it. I say, hey, if you leave this room and you go home and allow the one, two, three employees tell you why it can one work in your restaurant. Like you’ve got to let them go. You’ve got to let them make a choice because not everybody likes change. No matter whether the change is good or not, it’s just change. And you’ve got you’ve got to be, you know, strong enough to say boogie. But I think that the biggest thing is when they get that motivation, those people that do buy in.
Makes you feel good too.
It’s my love language. It’s seeing that energy level and people come talk and go, oh my God, I’m so, I can’t wait to go home and do this. The real world says though, you’re going to go home and you’re going to have people say, you know, can’t be done. You’re going to have people who slow down the process. You’re going to have **** hit the fan and it’s going to derail your process. The key is getting something done. Pick that one, two things that you from the seminar and go put it in place, get success and then you get motivated, you get motivated, you get motivated or you go the complete opposite route in the sense of. You join the group coaching program and you go, I need help. I need someone over my shoulder telling me, get this **** done, hold me accountable, teach me what I need, answer my questions, a group of other restaurant owners and be a community that I’m not alone. And that’s kind of it. I’m either going to go home, do it on my own and battle and hopefully get one or two things done, or I’m going to become a part of the coaching program and really change my life a lot faster. But of course, you have to invest in it. And that’s the trade off.
I think that’s the hard part too is like even the people like I talk to, it’s like, they’re struggling and then making that decision that they want to get help or something like that. But the thing that I think is unique is the group. we’ve talked about this in the past between me and you with your old group and now with the new group and the, and you also talk about mindset. The mindset of the group is just, it’s priceless. If that group costed $3,000 a month, the amount of money that you gain from going to the group or the resources you have is incredible. So I think that as we talk about that journey of going from the expert to the seminars to now you have these groups, the coaching calls and stuff like that, it truly is an incredible journey. I know that I’ve lived through a lot of it myself. You know, you talk about the three most important things that a restaurant needs. And, you know, it’s like you’ve instilled that into my body, you know, recipe costing cards and budgets and, you know, just all these different these tools and resources. And as you go through this, you develop relationships, you develop friends and and memories. And now you’re back into Las Vegas for your new group, which going there, I think is I often tell people that it gives me an excuse to go to Vegas three times a year. So it’s a lot of fun. So so so tell me, you know, we’ve been through this transition of going from old company to new company. You know, I’ve saw you going to go through that too, you know, and what it did to you as a person. And I think it for the people that are listening, even for me, like it’s an emotional time. It was very emotional for me. I can only imagine for you and I can feel my eyes getting heavy right now because like we’ve been through a lot together. How do you It’s been tough for me. I love you like a brother. You’ve been through some **** dude. How do you get through it? Because as a guy that loves you as much as I do, it hits me. How do you get through the tough part of, especially the tough part that you have been through, the tough part you have been through of everything that happened with your old company into your new company? Because I’ll be honest, I think right now you are at the top of your ******* game. Thanks, man. And I thought that you were at the absolute bottom. So, and I know as a restaurant owner, I’m going through that right now. Where I feel like I’m so like, how do you as DSP, the guy who’s going through this journey, how did you get through all that? And what advice can you give somebody like myself of how to fight and fight to get to the other side? Because there’s something better coming.
Yeah, I think so. A little background without giving out too much. I don’t want to talk badly about anybody. I just tell you that my old company, getting into software and being a software developer was a new thing. I was the restaurant expert. I wasn’t the software expert. And so it cost a lot of money. We bootstrapped everything. Our funds were not borrowing money necessarily. It was sell more, sell more, sell more, do more consulting, do whatever it takes to develop the software. And I’m extremely proud of what we had created at the time. And as all of my coaches and everybody came in the beginning from membership. They were owners who made changes in their business. And it finally got down to a point in time where we had an office and one of my members who became basically a mentor and then a coach and then a consultant and then was my right hand person. I had given a part of some membership, and he had a path to purchase some membership, I’m sorry, ownership, and he was able to purchase some ownership. And we got to a point where we were having a financial struggle. And for about a year, I didn’t pay myself. You know, like any entrepreneur, you think the next month is it, the next year is it? Like if I just invest a little bit more, so I can’t be any more committed than any other independent restaurant owner who goes, this is my life, this is what I’m doing, I’m going to do whatever it takes. And we’re going to make some decisions, some tough decisions. And that’s when my business partner, who was a member, eventually became a business partner, approached me and said, would you think about selling? And I really didn’t want to. Like, that’s not what I want to do. I had a goal. I think I wanted to make it a $20 million company and sell it. And all the ideas of grandeur with software. And I made a decision that it was probably a good opportunity for me and my family. But the truth of the matter is, as soon as the business was gone, unfortunately our relationship did not stay strong. And that made me sad because he was like a brother to me. And then I lost my identity. I didn’t know who the, excuse my French, but I didn’t know who the **** I was anymore. I was the restaurant expert. It was the restaurant expert.com. That was my, that was who I am. I was on the road 4 * a month speaking at shows or doing my own seminars or consulting or, you know, having meetings or I was just, I was always on the road being the guy and it was gone and I had to build from scratch and I was down. I mean, I was scary. I was pretty close to, what you might call clinically depressed. I don’t know if I was quite there, but I was there. And I’ll tell you one of the things that picked me up was the energy of starting something scary, even though I’d done it once before. But it was when I realized that I had all of my eggs in one basket as the restaurant expert. that’s when I started rowing again. At that point in time, just before I got bought out, I had a heart attack. I was for the heaviest I’d been in a while. So when you see my training videos, I’ve got this puffy white pale face. It was literally right after I had the heart attack, I started rowing again. So I rowed in high school. I was a scholarship athlete in college, rowed to a D1 school. And I took 30 something years off. And now I’m three years, four years back into rowing, three years competitively. I’ve traveled to Germany and England to row and race and Canada and it’s been amazing and so all of a sudden I’m now a restaurant expert and I’m a rower again and I’m a dad and I’m a husband and so Now I’ve got this balance that all of my identity is not weighed in one thing because the realization with building that my past company is I was like a typical independent owner. I was working way too many hours. I was doing whatever it took. I was missing my kids’ birthdays. I was, oh, there was a speech in New York. Sorry, Brooke, this is the 4th year in a row. I’m not going to be home for your birthday because there’s a show I got to go speak at. And so I think it was when I started to balance my life with some other interests because rowing while it’s an amazing physical thing to get me in shape and all those wonderful things it is still a passion for me like it’s I was a D1 rower like in my brain I’m like I was the **** now I wasn’t at the top of my game at Northeastern but I was still a D1 rower and that brings me joy it’s like some people like the golf they shut everything down when I’m rowing I can’t think about anything but in the moment, what the workout is, the person in front of me, we’ve got to flow together. I’ve got all these mechanics that have to happen at the same time, improving. And it’s like, it’s like a vacation and I’m on water. Like that’s just my, that’s my love place is to be on water. So I grew up in Margate, New Jersey, which is Atlantic City. It’s A seven-mile island. And there’s Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate, Longport. And my hometown was a mile long, a mile and a half deep at its widest point on the island. we had 10,000 summer or winter residents 40,000 summer residents like it’s water is just it’s where the magic happens for me as far as relaxing and being one and so I think what got me through it was finding my way back to another passion that my identity wasn’t just one thing it was being multiple things and I think that I was out of balance.
So from somebody who’s been through that with you like I just want to tell you, I’m proud of you for what you’ve been through. I know you’ve said to me plenty of times and for stuff that I’ve been through, but I think you are in the highest from the time that I’ve known you that you’re highest of everything right now. And I’m so excited what our group is doing. I love being a part of it. I love seeing the magic, you know, and that’s one thing you always strive to make sure everybody understands is about the group. It’s never about you, which is so magical because you could literally just sit there and not say a word. We could ultimately all run the show and there’s going to be magic that happens. So, you’re still the coach there that helps coach us along, but it’s truly incredible to see the amount of lives you’ve changed in the time that I’ve known you in 10 years. I appreciate you for everything you’ve done for me and changed my life. And, you know, it’s really cool to see you really grow from the restaurant expert to the restaurant genius. So I’m super proud of you, brother. I’m excited for where you go from this. I got two follow-up questions for you. Okay. Second, the last one I’m going to have for you before I do my last one, which would be a little bit more fun, is what advice can you give to a restaurant owner out there who’s struggling, who might need a little bit of pep or a little bit of advice for the future?
So I think it goes back to the basics. Number one is There’s something I always say. I’ve said it to you in the past and I live it as an entrepreneur. Forget about whether you’re a restaurant owner. As an entrepreneur, we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Like when I was a manager, I was God’s gift to the restaurant business. You couldn’t told me any different. I was the best server, host, busser, food runner, expo at the same time than anybody else. I could just pile on hours and I was awesome at what I did. The moment I became an entrepreneur, I became the black hole of death. My desk, like I just, and I joke around that I’m undiagnosed ADHD. So it was like, where’s the next thing? And did I finish this? And oh, I got a deadline, deadline, deadline, deadline to get things done. Well, as an entrepreneur, you feel all this pressure and we’re allowed to have bad days. Give yourself permission to have a bad day. You can cry, you can have a pity party, you can drink yourself to sleep or smoke your joint, whatever, debauchery, eat, you know, whatever it is. My comfort is comfort food. I just, I’ll just eat way too much and just, and then regret it. Doesn’t matter. So do your debauchery, whatever it is that makes you think you’re going to feel better, which it never does. Have your bad day. The key is what you do tomorrow. the next day. If that bad day becomes two days, three days, three weeks, three months, three years, then we’re always going to be stuck. And it’s hard. And it doesn’t mean we don’t, it’s not a straight path up. It is a roller coaster. We go up, we go down. We go up, we go down. The key is that when we’re at our down moment, that we realize tomorrow I’ve got to take action. What can I do? What’s in my control? I just got kicked in the teeth because of a loan payment. I got kicked in the teeth because of the government. I got kicked in the teeth because of an employee. Doesn’t matter. Something happened and that was out of your control. What can you control? I can tell you there are times building this business even and there’s still a roller coaster with the economy and COVID and all these things, kick restaurant owners in the ding ding and all of a sudden nobody wants to spend any money with coaching. And so it becomes really tough and I got people to pay and things to do. And so, when sales are down, I get there, I get all frustrated and go, my gosh, what am I going to do? And then I start searching the internet. Is there a coach I can work with? Is there a new software? What can I do? I’m going to do another webinar. I’m going to go out there, do another speech. I’m going to get on the phones. Whatever it takes, I’ll do whatever it takes. And so you as an operator, when you’re in the gutter, you’ve got to realize you’re the only person that can pull you up by your bootstraps. You have to switch from a fixed mindset, oh **** all these things are happening to me, to all these things happened to me, but on a growth mindset, I will find a way. I will outwork it, I will outspend it, I will find a way I will be successful. And I think that’s the biggest thing. If you’re going to try and make that change. And then the next thing is what I preach. You have got to become the leader your restaurant needs. And that’s where you need systems in place for everything that you do. You need to learn every day. And once you learn it, you need to train your managers because if you’re the only one who knows how to do it, you’re a prisoner. You got to hold people accountable. Without accountability, **** doesn’t happen. And more importantly, as my dad said, ideas are cheap. It’s the people that put them into practice that are priceless. You have to take action. You can gather all the information in the world. You can put training in place. You can even try and hold people accountable. But if you never take action, none of it happens. And that is the restaurant prosperity formula. It’s not it’s not rocket science, but it is really how you get it done.
Amen. All right. Ready for the last one?
Sure, man.
This is the fun one. It’s going to be a 30 second hot seat question. Just answer your first first answer that you can think of. Ready.
OK.
It’s going to be it’s in a series of five questions. First one, what’s your favorite color?
Blue.
Good choice. On your shirt. Favorite pizza topping?
Pepperoni.
Favorite sports team?
**** I don’t have a favorite sports team. Give me another question. I really don’t. I’ve stopped watching sports avidly. I don’t follow anybody.
All right, here you go. What sport did you, what’s your favorite sport to play?
Rowing crew.
OK #4 favorite car?
It was my old Audi A7.
That’s the one that I saw. Is that the is that the one that I saw when you’re driving around?
It was the red. No, it was red. No, the black one was my Z. I had a Z. Okay.
I like that one. All right. And last question. This one’s a fun one, but you can’t expect anything less from me. If you were a professional wrestler, what would your wrestling name be?
Dooms Dave.
Dooms Dave. I love it. That’s all I got, my friend. Hey, thank you so much. This was a blast. Honestly, I like to throw that question out there too. The other question I always ask people is if you could be any shoe in the world, what kind of shoe would you be and why?
I would be a water shoe so that I can go anywhere I want, whether in the water, on the rocks, through the mountains, the shrubs, doesn’t matter. I’d be a water shoe. It gives you the flexibility to do whatever I want to do.
There you go. That’s my last one.
I appreciate you very much and I look forward to doing this again with you sometime in the future. Thanks, brother.
Of course, brother. I love you, man.
Love you too.
Later, buddy.
Ready to take the next step towards achieving restaurant prosperity, freedom for the daily grind, and the financial success you deserve? Book a discovery call with Ryan James to learn about our group coaching program. Ryan will guide you through how our program can transform your restaurant and help you achieve the prosperity and freedom you’ve been striving for. Click the link in the description below or visit dsp.coach/talk-to-ryan to schedule your call now. Hey, that was an awesome episode. I want to thank you for taking the time to take action on building a better, more prosperous restaurant. Before you go, I want to give you these three thoughts. One, by combining leadership and taking action with systems and training being checked by accountability, you are on your way to creating prosperity for you and your restaurant. Two, I have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you happen to listen to podcasts. By leaving us a review, other restaurant pros seeking out this information are able to find it. I read the reviews, and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me. And three, if you find any of the discussions helpful, share them. The more restaurant pros who have access to them, the better we become as an industry. For more restaurant resources or to get in contact with me, connect with me at DavidScottPeters.com. Be passionate about what you’re doing. Be persistent, but more importantly, become better and help everyone around you become better. And your restaurant is going to kick some ***.