Take Action Like this Restaurant Owner to Transform Your Restaurant

Hey there, restaurant pros. It’s David Scott Peters, and welcome to the Restaurant Prosperity Formula podcast.

For over two 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 coach, and it’s now the foundation of what I teach restaurant owners like you so you can achieve success.

What do 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 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 128, our guest is Ian McCall. Ian is the founder and owner of ISM Brewing in Long Beach, California. Opened in late 2023, ISM Brewing quickly gained national attention, winning multiple World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival medals in short order.

With two decades of brewing experience under his belt, Ian now operates a brewpub with a full kitchen while overseeing brewing and distribution operations. The team at ISM is composed of experienced hospitality veterans who are passionate about friends, family, and fresh beer.

In this episode, Ian shares his journey from life as strictly a brewer to becoming a restaurant owner and entrepreneur. Listen in as he talks about his challenges with kitchen operations and labor controls, and how he’s now in control of his restaurant, brewery, and life.

Ian’s story is truly inspirational. Let’s get started.

Ian, I want to thank you so much for doing this with me today.

Thank you, David.

Dude, I want to kind of set the stage. You are somebody who truly exemplifies taking action. The Restaurant Prosperity Formula talks about leadership. You’ve become the leader your restaurant needs. It talks about systems. You’ve embraced all the systems. You’ve talked about learning and training, and you do all of that and share with others. Talk about holding people accountable. Accountability is critical. You do that.

But the biggest thing is, man, you do not sit still. When we first met, you literally told me, “I will do this work.” And I’m thinking, knowing what I knew in our discovery call, that you had some major challenges going on, are you sure? Based on where your volumes were at the time, based on your headaches at the time, and based on you being the only one to pretty much get it all done, I was more than skeptical.

But you looked me in the eye and said, “Gosh darn it, I’m gonna get this shit done.” And you really did. It’s been really, really impressive, so much so that later on we’ll talk about how you got invited to the Mastery Plus group and what that was like for you.

Those are my top contenders. These are the people who, when you sit around a room with them, get things done and truly want to make a difference in their lives.

So tell me a little bit about what was going on in your life and business before we met. Things weren’t going so easily. You’ve had a long experience in the industry, but why don’t you talk a little bit about your history, how you got to where you are, the name of your restaurant, a little bit about it, and, again, more about where your challenges were.

Thanks, Dave.

So, yeah, I’ve been brewing beer for 20 years. I started brewing beer back in 2004 at a really small brew-on-premise operation. We were making beer in 15-gallon batches. It was a blast. I loved it.

I got a chance to actually teach my now wife how to make beer back in 2008. From there, I went to a brewpub and got my first job as a professional brewer. I stayed at that brewpub for about eight years, about seven and a half to eight years. I left that brewpub and went to another job, took a gig as a head brewer, which ultimately turned into director of operations for another brewery.

In 2023, I got the opportunity to buy the original brewpub where I worked in downtown Long Beach. We opened up, and it’s called ISM Brewing. ISM Brewing stands for my name, Ian Scott McCall. We share a middle name.

It’s been a labor of love. I love brewing. I got back into this industry and stayed in it because I have a passion for it and a drive for it. I love brewing craft beer and being able to enjoy it with my friends and our community.

But what I didn’t know that I didn’t know was all the restaurant stuff, and that’s been a big struggle for me.

Just rewind back a little bit more. When I came in here, I was super stoked. I got a chance to bring on one of my former coworkers. His name is Gene Wagoner. He’s our head brewer, a phenomenal brewer. We got a great brew staff and brew team over this last year and a half.

The brewery has just been cranking, cranking, cranking. We’ve won five World Beer Cup awards in a year and a half, and one Great American Beer Festival award on top of a few other local awards. The brewery itself has developed a great following so quickly.

I never envisioned myself becoming a restaurateur. It wasn’t on my vision map, so to say. I had no clue.

But as I started interviewing pop-ups who were operating in the brewery, in this brewpub before me, I would ask them, “Do you have any vegan options? Do you have any vegetarian options? The community wants more than just a smash burger and fries.”

Eventually, they’d all say, “Well, you tell me what you want me to do, and I will write a recipe for that.”

I’m like, “I don’t want to tell you how to run your business. I want you to come up with something creative that’s true to who you are and show that to the community.”

But I just didn’t get that vibe, that feeling.

So I called a few restaurant buddies of mine and a meat purveyor friend of mine, and he actually introduced me to my first chef.

Things were going well. We got our doors open. The food was great. I have no qualms about the food. The food was awesome. We ran this Mexican Baja California-style menu with tacos, salads, and a few really cool sandwiches.

But it wasn’t long after we got started, maybe five or six months, when the money in our bank account that represented our extra capital started to wear down or wear thin. That was when I started thinking, “Man, something’s not firing, and I’ve got to figure out what it is.”

So food cost was high, labor cost was high, but you had happy customers. You felt really good about where the company was going. But you realized, in some respects, five-star reviews don’t pay the bills, right? It’s that, “Holy shit, this is real money sitting on my shelves. This is a lot of people standing around and not doing anything.”

So talk a little bit about the menu. What was your food cost running? Do you remember where you were when we first met?

We were high. I remember our prime cost when we first met was 83%. That’s just food and labor.

Then we talked about our rent and occupancy costs here, and our occupancy cost was an additional 20%, basically. So, just among those three things, rent, food, and labor, that was all of our money. And that was before I spent the $5,000 to $10,000 a month on the brewery.

Right.

And we can talk about that later, too, because there are two different cash flow models we’re operating within. That puts huge stress on my bank account.

But separately from that, learning to dial down our food costs has been a huge game changer. When we started, to answer your question, we were probably running 45% to 50%, if we were lucky, in terms of food cost and cost of goods.

Right. And if I remember correctly, food sales were a small percentage of your total sales because you truly were a brewery, a brewpub. The beer was what people came for, and there was this food component. But your labor in the kitchen was so much higher than front of house, even though it was doing maybe 25% of sales, perhaps a little more. It was sucking you dry.

At the same time, you had a chef who made pretty food that tasted good but didn’t have an understanding of profitability, didn’t have recipe cards or systems in place, and had lots of people standing around. Would that be an accurate statement, or am I blowing that out of proportion?

I didn’t require recipe cards when we opened because I didn’t quite realize I needed them. We had recipe cards for the brewery. I tracked my brews. We knew exactly what was going into them. We even had cost of goods for the brewery, but I didn’t know where to start in the restaurant.

By the time we got maybe six months down the road and I started listening to a few of your podcasts, I was asking him for recipe cards. What I got was a smattering of Excel spreadsheets and Google Sheets that I think were a decent representation of what was actually going on, but I had no way of controlling or adjusting those if the cost of goods went up or down.

Right.

When our meat prices went up or salmon skyrocketed or eggs went up or down.

So let’s talk a little bit about labor. At the same time, labor was out of control. At an 82% prime cost, 20% occupancy cost, you were at a deficit. You were losing two pennies for every dollar that came in.

It’s almost as if everybody walked in the door and you said, “Oh, you want to spend how much money? Let me give you two pennies, two pennies, two pennies.”

The labor of love was literally that. It was depleting your money.

It didn’t mean you weren’t a good operator. Again, you had great reviews. The community embraced you. Your beer was winning awards. Sales were building. Lots of positive things were happening, but it was a little bit out of control.

Talk a little bit about how that affected you as a leader. How did it make you feel when you started looking at this and thinking, “I’ve got all these accolades, I’ve got all this success, but holy shit, paying my bills is tough”?

You know, the hardest thing, and still to this day, is that I get people who come up and slap me on the back and say, “Gosh, you’re crushing it. You’re doing so great. It’s so amazing to see.”

I say thank you, obviously, but in the back of my mind, I think, “If you only knew.”

Yeah, and you know who knows? All the people who are in your group. We all know.

But there is a separation between what people see out front and what’s actually going on in the back, right? It not only begins to instill a sense of fear, but also insecurity. It really affects my confidence and the way I’m feeling. I was down on myself. I felt like I was failing, but I got into this without a plan to succeed.

You know, that brings up two things.

Number one, I think lots of people listening to us right now as restaurant owners understand what it is to have a successful business but, dare I say, feel like a failure because we’re not making money.

We do restaurants and hospitality right. We give people a great product and great service. We have accolades out the ass, and you think, “But wait a second, why? I’m working my ass off.”

Like you, I was in that building basically 24/7. You were doing everything. You were going home and doing more work. You were doing all the things you had to do to make sure the business worked, yet you weren’t seeing the rewards.

You had no freedom. You didn’t have the financial rewards to go along with the awards and all the reviews.

The second piece is that you said, “I didn’t have a plan for success.”

Let’s talk a little bit about what you did before, and I’m going to lead us to a budget, which was really the game changer for you.

What did you try before you and I started working together? Did you listen to my podcast? Did you read books? Did you bring in a consultant? What did you do?

So, yeah, as soon as I started to see the downhill trend, we were trending downhill fast. Not business-wise, but bank-account-wise.

There were times I would go back to my partner, my wife and sister-in-law, and say, “Hey, I’m $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 short. I’ve got to make payroll.”

We’d get that flush of cash, and I’d say, “I think we’ll figure it out. I’m going to figure it out.”

Then the next month, it was the same shit all over again.

I started by looking for books. I looked at leadership books and kitchen books. I listened to audiobooks as I was driving to and from work, looking for little gems I could pull out.

I started listening to podcasts, whatever I could get my hands or ears on. Shortly thereafter, I found you.

I think I consumed, I don’t know, you have hundreds of podcasts out now. I want to say I consumed 75% of them, back-to-back-to-back-to-back, as quickly as I could to start wrapping my brain around the way I needed to adjust my thinking about being a restaurant owner.

For me, it was a huge jump from brewery operator to restaurant owner. The jump from brewery operator to brewery owner isn’t that big. It’s the jump from brewery operator to restaurant owner that was very significant for me.

It is tough. I think you and I have talked about it. Anybody who’s listened to me for any length of time knows that when I was a restaurant manager, I thought I was God’s gift to the restaurant industry. There was nothing I couldn’t do.

The moment I became a business owner, I became the black hole of death.

It’s very different for those of us who’ve come up in the restaurant world to become owners and realize, “Oh shit, I don’t have to just worry about my little cube of information. I’ve got to worry about government regulations, sales, human resources, marketing, procurement, labor, and HR.”

All of a sudden, it becomes overwhelming.

And you’re in California, which makes it even harder. Running a restaurant there can feel like breaking the law is inevitable. It’s almost impossible not to break a labor law. You sneeze, and somebody’s going to sue you.

So it’s a tough place to do business.

But with that said, you sit there and say, “Hey, I’ve got all the drive and all the desire to be great.”

What was missing was the knowledge, right?

We often talk about what’s the biggest thing that stops most of us from doing anything. It’s fear. And what’s the thing that fixes that? Knowledge.

It’s uncomfortable to learn. It’s uncomfortable to put things in place. But once that knowledge becomes yours, it really becomes empowering.

I want people to understand we’re now talking about nearly 365 days from the day you started. We’re within weeks or days of your one-year anniversary in the program.

Talk a little bit about that decision a year ago to make the leap and join a group coaching program, to become part of what you learned in our system. What went through your mind?

I mean, again, to reiterate, after I had my first call, either with you or with Mary, we ran through the basics to figure out whether we could work together.

I didn’t have the money. I had to make payroll. I didn’t have the money to do this. But I knew that without a coach, without somebody who could train me on the things I didn’t know, and more importantly, the things I didn’t know I didn’t know, there was no way.

We would have closed our doors within the first year, and I would have been another brewery that failed, not because we didn’t make good beer, not because we didn’t have great people or a great community, but because I didn’t have the knowledge. I didn’t have people around me who had the knowledge at that point in time to get over that first hump.

I still hear it all the time. When I open up about our issues and problems, people outside the food industry and beer industry tell me, “Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s not that big of a deal. All businesses have a hard time during their first three years. You won’t even see a profit until year five.”

For me, that’s impossible. My wife, my sister-in-law, and I are financing this thing ourselves, and that’s not an option.

You’ve made incredible changes. From where you were a year ago to where you are today, the future is bright. There’s nothing but optimism. You’ve nailed the systems.

What we’re trying to do now is fix some of the problems from the past that are still affecting you today.

With that said, what were some of the first changes you made? I’m putting you up there with some of my top members, period. The changes you’ve made in one year are incredible because you said you were going to do it, and by God, you did.

What were some of the first things you put in place that you saw changes from? Then I want to get to the budget because I think that was the springboard. Maybe that’s the thing that changed everything.

You know what comes to mind for me is the first time I listened to “Chef Means Manager.” I think I mentioned this to you in Las Vegas. For me, that was eye-opening.

I got goosebumps thinking about it right now because it changed the way I dealt with my chef at the time. It changed the way I oversaw the kitchen and took control of that situation.

I no longer let him dictate what was going to happen in the kitchen. I looked to him for answers, and I knew very quickly that the answers I was looking for weren’t anywhere to be found.

Changing my mindset that way started us down this path, which obviously led into the budget.

The budget was huge. It was another eye-opening moment for me because I saw what the future could hold if I didn’t make significant changes.

Those changes are never easy to make. Whether it’s implementing food-costing software or changing our POS system, all the changes we make as a business are difficult.

The worst ones of all are personnel changes. They hurt. The time spent implementing MarginEdge or changing over a POS system is just time.

Right.

But personnel changes hurt. They’re personal.

I can remember when we got the budget going, and we could attribute your kitchen professionals’ losses beyond compare. It wasn’t even a matter of being a few points off. It could make or break your business.

There was a point where there was some willingness to learn and do, but we were far past that.

We were paying a premium for this person, and your restaurant did not need a chef. You needed a kitchen manager. You were bleeding both food and labor costs, which were the biggest expenses in the smallest portion of your sales.

You take the brewery and the taproom, and the kitchen was the tiny part of the business, yet it was your biggest expense.

I remember having the discussion with you that no matter how much you loved this guy, and whether it was your fault or not, you couldn’t afford to keep him.

That was difficult for you. You liked the guy. He worked hard for you, and he wasn’t a bad person.

No, not at all. He made great food and had a great team. He brought in people who worked hard.

The fact that we had too many of them, I’ll even wear that. I’m happy to own it. I should have said, “No, we can’t afford that. We shouldn’t do it.”

I’m guilty of allowing him to step on top of me and help make decisions I wasn’t aware would ultimately be detrimental to the health of my business.

I wanted our kitchen or front of house to have a dishwasher so they wouldn’t have to wash dishes. I wanted the line to be fully staffed so that when we got hit on a Friday or Saturday afternoon or evening, we could handle it.

But it was really tearing me down every single day.

We went from a fully staffed kitchen with probably nine or ten people to now rocking a kitchen with four. We’ll have five by the end of the week.

Basically, the staff is in half.

You had a second-in-command in the kitchen who stepped up and is crushing it. You have a general manager and implementer in Andrew, who loved the education side and already loved your business and you. He’s been kicking ass and making changes, helping you lead that business.

There have been nothing but huge changes in your business.

Talk about the culture change. We talk about numbers and systems, but culturally, you’ve got a team that would do anything for you. They knew and still know the hardships you’re going through and what the future looks like.

Yeah, I really am the luckiest person in Long Beach. I have a great team.

I’ve mentioned it earlier, but I’ve got a phenomenal brewing team. I’ve got three guys in that brewery who make a beautiful liquid product that results in 75% of our revenue. It’s amazing.

My front-of-house team is always on point. They deliver great hospitality and service. They’re doing their absolute best every single day to provide our community with great service and hospitality.

Our kitchen team steps up time and time again to cover when somebody’s sick, somebody’s out, somebody’s mom is hurt, injured, or hospitalized, or whatever it is. It’s phenomenal to see.

And all of this happens while they support me in running the business and taking our brand across the country.

Since I’ve known you, I’ve probably been to Portland three or four times. I’ve been to Northern California three or four times. I leave for Georgia next week for an IPA festival.

My staff sees it. They support it. They see the vision. They see where we’re at now and where we’re going.

And they’re not getting too big-headed about it. Does that make sense?

I try my absolute damnedest to be transparent with my staff on all levels. You want to see my P&L? I’ll show you my P&L. There’s nothing to hide.

There’s no money going into an offshore bank account that I’m just pulling out of this business while paying you what I pay you.

I want to pay them more. I wish we were twice or three times as successful and everybody could get paid more than what they’re worth. It’s just not where we’re at right now.

I’ve found over the last year that transparency and honesty help build the bond among our staff and between ownership and staff as well.

You can see it. In the budgetary process, you learned to make tough decisions. You learned that you’d already built a great culture because the people who wanted to step up and help you did so because you were transparent.

The new people came on board and bought into your vision.

That has translated into you not having to be there all the time. You’re doing all these different things, whether it’s competitions or collaborations with other breweries. You’re competing, and you don’t have to be in the restaurant 24/7 anymore.

You’re moving forward and doing things to grow your brand.

At the same time, you’re seeing an increase in sales. Week after week, you start talking about record weekends and record weeks. Sales are going up. Your service is improving. You’re adding more service to your restaurant because you’re getting busier.

You’ve truly turned the corner. We’ve got some old problems we’re still dealing with, but you’ve turned the corner.

It’s a profitable business. It’s a great business. It’s one that doesn’t rely on you being there all the time.

On the financial side, let’s talk about prime costs. You said you started at 82%.

83%, yeah.

83%. Where’s prime cost today?

Prime cost today is right around 55%, 55% to 56%.

And you’re in California, and your kitchen is still probably your largest labor portion of the business.

How does it feel to go from 83% to 55%? A lot of people don’t believe it’s possible, especially not in California. Yet you were empowered by having a budget to say, “I have to make these decisions, and this is what I’m going to put in place.”

You moved a little faster than most because you had to make the changes. What does it feel like to take that kind of control of your business?

For me, it’s knowing the numbers and being confident in the numbers.

If you had asked me a year ago, I wouldn’t have told you I’m a numbers guy. I really wouldn’t have. I sit down at a computer and work spreadsheets for a few hours a day. It wasn’t my forte. It’s not what I wanted to do.

Still to this day, I’ll tell you I want to be back on that brew deck. I want my business to run so well that if I want to brew tomorrow, I get to brew tomorrow and don’t have to worry about invoicing, cost of goods, and running spreadsheets.

But it’s confidence.

I sat down with a local restaurant owner yesterday and was talking about MarginEdge, food costs, recipe development, and how we’re altering and changing our menus going forward.

When I told her that nothing is leaving our kitchen right now above a 21% or 22% food cost at the maximum, ideally 20% or lower, her jaw hit the floor.

She said, “I don’t know how you do that. I don’t know how you can make the foods you make at that food cost. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

I explained that the reason I do that is because we’re going to assume a two- to three-point loss for theft or waste, which will put us at 25%. I want to stay at 25% or below rather than follow the industry average of 30%.

That’s my ultimate goal.

When I tell the kitchen I want them to come up with new ideas all the time, I mean it. Come up with a new idea. Let’s spin it out there. Let’s play with it.

But pretty early in the process, sit down with me and Bobby, our kitchen manager, and let’s write down a recipe. Let’s figure it out.

If the food cost is going to run us at 31% or 32%, game over. We’re not even going to entertain that idea. We’re going to move on.

It’s been empowering, not only for me but for the kitchen as well.

And lower food cost does not mean buying inferior products. It doesn’t mean gouging your guests. It doesn’t mean you’re not putting out a fantastic product.

People seem to think that, but it’s all the self-inflicted wounds we create in our restaurants when we don’t have systems in place.

We don’t track waste. We don’t make sure we prevent theft on a daily basis. We don’t take inventories. We don’t have recipe cards. We don’t look at menu analysis. We don’t have checklists.

Most operators are blowing seven to nine points or more in food costs because they’re just not managing the damn thing.

For sure. It makes total sense.

The waste tracker is a huge one for us. Just tracking waste every day and having our cooks think about it, whether they’re consciously thinking about it or not, makes a difference.

I promise you, they don’t want to write on that waste log what they wasted that day. If something was dropped, they don’t want to write that down.

That helps control waste as well.

Talk to me a little bit about the process and what it’s providing you today. I mean the process of learning.

It’s really what you’ve done. I didn’t do the work. You’ve done all the work. You get all the accolades.

I will brag about you. I’m putting you on the top shelf of operators. I really am because you crushed it.

But you had to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You had to decide you were going to learn. You had to decide you were going to do the work.

In fact, you did the work sometimes two or three times. You went backward, relearned it, and did it again. There was no quitting you.

What’s that experience like?

Yeah, it was fast. It was the length of a marathon, but I was sprinting the entire time.

Yeah.

You know, that first three months was go, go, go.

As soon as I started diving into your programs and getting through the individual modules, another question would come up, and I’d think, “Oh, how does this connect to that? I’ve got to figure out how this connects to this.”

Then I’d contact Mary and ask her for access to a module ahead of me. I just kept jumping around.

I took off running, and I had to watch a bunch of the modules to help my brain wrap around how everything was interconnected.

That’s what happened with me. When I dove in, I dove into the deep end.

Then, as I surfaced and wanted to teach Andrew, our implementer and general manager, how to start implementing and utilizing these spreadsheets and systems, I went back and watched everything a second and third time to make sure we were really dialing it in.

You also came to the seminar. What the hell possessed you? A lot of people sit there and say, “If I go to your coaching program, why would I go to your two-day seminar and learn the same systems?”

Why did you go to the seminar, and what was that like?

In all honesty, I was bought in. I was 110% in.

I knew that whether it was DSP, another coach, or whoever it was, I needed somebody I could believe in who was going to help get me to that next level.

I was looking for somebody. I found you, luckily.

But sharing my belief with Andrew, who is a good friend of mine and also my general manager and now implementer, was the hard part.

Taking him to the seminar allowed him to learn to believe in you and believe in the systems without me just telling him, “Hey, this is the deal.”

Believe me, as soon as I can get Bobby there, Bobby’s coming. Then we’re going to work through the team and get everybody out there.

That’s awesome.

We liken it to what we call drinking the Kool-Aid. Not the Kool-Aid that kills you, not Jonestown, but the kind that gets you to buy in and believe.

That’s what it is.

Was there anything unexpected that came about while going through the program? You knew you wanted financial stability and leadership skills, but was there anything that made you think, “Holy shit, where’d that come from?”

You know, one of the coolest things about DSP is the environment.

There are so many other great restaurant operators who are part of it and involved. Being able to ask any question at any point in time, whether it’s about food costs, labor, or even local jurisdictions and ordinances, has been huge.

I’ve got three, four, or five different text threads with bar managers, accountants, and local restaurant owners here in Southern California.

But getting input from restaurant owners all around the country and the world was huge for me, and it still is to this day.

So community is part of that. It’s not about me being the only one with the answers.

I often tell people I’ve learned so much from you guys as operators. You bring things through a group coaching call that help somebody, and they bring something else because you’ve all walked in each other’s shoes.

For the first time in your life, instead of having the restaurant next door that you love, where you trade things and buy each other’s beers, you still look at each other and hope the other person dies because they’re taking your lunch business, right? We’re never going to share.

This group shares. They’ll give you anything and everything.

In fact, when you and I were talking about this last week, we invited you to our Mastery Plus group, which is my mastermind group of top operators.

Talk a little bit about what that was like. I think of it as a group coaching call on steroids. What’s it like to be in a room with more than 20 restaurant operators who’ve already accomplished a lot and are working on bigger issues?

I had such a great time. I wish Bobby could have come with me. I wish Andrew could have come with me. I wish my entire staff could have come.

It was inspiring. It really is such a great group of people.

The conversation was fun and unique, but also very productive. Everybody who was there in Mastery Plus is there to make a difference, not only for themselves and their families but within their businesses.

Beyond that, they are people who have made a difference and shown they can take things to the next level.

The opportunity to be part of that group is flattering. I’m honored, and I can’t wait.

Well, you belong. You belong.

Like I said, before we started recording, the group welcomed you with open arms. You belong there because you’re somebody who gets things done, is willing to share, and embodies all the things that match our core values.

What’s your life like today? What’s your business like today?

You know, it’s still challenging. I don’t think that’s ever going to change. It’s not going to stop being challenging.

The brand today is stronger than ever. Like I said, I get to take my son to Georgia next weekend for an IPA festival. It’s insane.

But I can do that while knowing the brewery, restaurant, and everything else are under control.

My kitchen manager has the kitchen under control. My general manager has the front of house under control, and my brewer obviously has the brewery under control.

There are still things I do on a day-to-day basis. I still handle all the distribution logistics for the brewery, along with the administrative work, HR, payroll, and everything else.

But I can do most of that from anywhere I want.

I got to see both of my kids this morning. They both finished up second and fifth grade, so I got to watch them cross the bridge.

That’s the stuff that really matters. It’s the soccer games, baseball games, cheer competitions, gymnastics competitions, and everything else my crazy kids are involved in.

I want to continue growing ISM Brewing. I want it to be around for a long time, but I also don’t want to miss out on family while doing that.

And that’s important, too.

We talk about restaurant prosperity as freedom from your restaurant and the financial freedom you deserve, but there’s also personal freedom.

You don’t get a second chance at the firsts. You don’t get back the time you miss with your grandparents on their 80th birthday or your 25th wedding anniversary. You miss your kids’ baseball or basketball games, maybe a state championship, and you can’t get those things back.

It’s so important that when we envision ourselves as entrepreneurs and imagine owning a restaurant, a brewery, or something similar, we envision freedom.

We don’t envision, “Holy shit, I have to be here all the time.”

It’s gratifying for me to see you make that change and live your life.

Again, as you said, it’s the restaurant business. There will always be challenges. But I believe you now have the confidence and community to take on any challenge.

There’s nothing you couldn’t fix, period.

I would 100% agree. I really do.

And it’s not just me blowing smoke. No matter what comes my way, I know where to go to get answers. I have friends and family who can help me overcome anything.

That’s awesome.

Let me ask you a question. If somebody is listening to us and is looking around because there’s so much out there on the internet, and if you get into my stratosphere, I’m going to pollute your Instagram and Facebook feed. You’re going to see my ass every time you’re in there.

But there are other coaches, other programs, and other things vying for your time, attention, and effort.

What would you tell somebody who’s thinking, “Maybe I should get on a discovery call and learn about David’s program”?

I mean, obviously, I’m going to promote your program all day long, every day. And I’ll get back to that.

What I would say, though, is that if you’re at a point where you’re thinking about jumping into a program, find one and jump in.

Whether it’s DSP or something else, get the coaching you need, the coaching you feel you need.

Whether it’s restaurant coaching, marketing coaching, life coaching, or leadership coaching, find a coach and jump in. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.

That goes for all parts of life.

However, I will say that what I got with DSP, what I got with you, was way more than I was prepared for.

I think I told Ryan on our introductory call, “I’m going to dive in. I’m going to get everything done in three months. Then I’m good. I’m just going to cut it off, stop the financial bleeding, and run with it.”

I remember him telling me, “Well, after three months, you’re going to want to stick around. You’re just going to want to keep learning more and more.”

I think I was pretty close to getting through the majority of the modules at three months. There’s still stuff I’m working on and learning every single day, but I was pretty darn close.

What I’ve learned since those three months were over pales in comparison to what I learned beforehand.

I was head down, nose to the grindstone, working my ass off to get through these systems like they were homework. I had a final exam on the line, and I had to get through it.

But what I’ve realized since is that it’s not just about learning the information. If you can’t put it into practice, if you can’t put it into play, you need a coach who can support you and make sure you’re doing it right.

We just changed over POS systems, and it threw our DSR off.

I gave the DSR to our shift leaders months ago. Aside from looking at it three to four times a week and assuming it’s correct because everything lines up correctly, I have to think about it.

Now, every single day, we’re going in there and double- and triple-checking to make sure the numbers we’re receiving from the POS every night are correct.

That’s the point of it. It’s this ever-revolving cycle of learning it, teaching it, training it, and doing it again.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. There’s no finish line.

I’ve told members all the time that at no point are we going to high-five each other and say, “Woo, we got it all done.”

There’s always something else.

Because you attack things with such ferocity, you got into labor systems that most people don’t see for two years.

You were working on dollars per labor hour across all three levels, from the 15-minute perspective to the down-and-dirty calculations in the budget, to tracking and making sure you’re operating efficiently.

You can slice and dice more numbers, but if you can’t see them, you can’t use them.

If you don’t free yourself from the day-to-day headaches, you cannot see the forest beyond the tree in front of you.

That’s the crisis management most restaurants operate in.

You’re now in a position where you’re leading your business and doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

It’s pretty damn impressive.

I really appreciate you doing this today.

Is there anything you wish we had talked about? Do you have a favorite quote, book, or something else you’d like to share with people before we sign off?

I’ll just circle back on something really quick.

One of the big challenges for me was when we worked through my budget and split out classes.

My accountant suggested class accounting. DSP and Steve were like, “Oh, I don’t think so. I think we’re good without it.”

But the reason I stuck with it is because there are two very distinct cash flow systems operating here in the brewpub.

One is the standard brewpub model: kitchen cost of goods coming in, labor, and food going out.

The other is the brewing and distribution brewery model because we distribute about 45% to 60% of our beer in any given month.

That’s from San Diego to Northern California, Oregon, Las Vegas, and Colorado. Sorry, not Arizona yet.

That cash flow model takes much longer. Sometimes we’re talking three months, sometimes six, before we see that money come back around.

That’s from the day the money goes out for the cost of goods, for the grain, hops, and yeast.

The disparity between those two models was another challenge we overcame as a business. I had to learn how to overcome it.

What I’m trying to get at is that if you’re out there and you’re a restaurant owner or own a brewpub just like me, we’re all having the same issues.

Let’s talk about them. Let’s be transparent about them. Let’s bring them to each other and work on them together.

I think that’s one thing I’ve gotten from DSP, your entire team, and the community: support to work through issues one at a time and really see them through to resolution.

If we can’t get all the way to resolution, at least we know which direction we’re going in.

I don’t feel as scatterbrained as I once did.

Amen to that.

When you can take the time to add clarity to your challenges and find solutions, it’s so much easier to run a restaurant or a brewpub than it is to just keep killing snakes.

Ian, I want to thank you so much for doing this with me. Who knows, we might do it again, but I know I’m going to see you in Vegas three times a year with the Mastery Plus group. I’m going to see you on group coaching calls.

Know that I appreciate you, my friend. I couldn’t be any more proud of anybody for the changes you’ve made in such a short time.

Thank you very much. It means the world to me.

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 leave you with three thoughts.

One: By combining leadership and taking action with systems and training, all checked by accountability, you’re 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 this information can find it. I read the reviews, and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me.

Three: If you find any of these 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 ass.