How this Owner Grew from Caterer to a Multiunit 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 coached, 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 as a restaurant owner means dictating the terms of your life and your bank account instead of having your restaurant dictate those things for you. Success means having freedom from the restaurant and achieving the financial freedom you never thought possible. How you define success is up to you, but I do know the way to achieving it is by 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 own definition of success.

In this episode, number 135, our guest is Linda Grace Sidonian. Linda Grace is the owner and operator of Piccadilly Grace Cafe and Market, with locations in San Marino and South Pasadena, California. With eight years of experience running her cafes, she is passionate about hospitality, cooking, creating, teaching, and leading. Linda is known as a dedicated community fixture who brings warmth and creativity to everything she does.

In this episode, Linda shares her journey from a career in middle-market finance to starting a small catering company and eventually becoming a multi-unit restaurant operator. If you think you’ve seen some challenges in your days, wait until you hear what she’s had to overcome and how her life has changed for the better, so much so that she’s back to loving what she does.

Let’s get started. But first, a word from our sponsor.

Boost your restaurant’s performance with Service with Style’s secret shopping program. Get comprehensive reports with photos, customized visit templates, a vast network of experienced shoppers, and a fantastic scoring system so you know exactly what your guests are experiencing.

You control the frequency and rotation, with no minimums, no contracts, no cancellation charges, and no hidden fees. Enjoy industry-leading reporting and scoring software, plus a 10% discount off the price, and your first shop is free. Set up a quick call today at www.servicewithstyle.com/DSP.

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

Thank you, David.

We’ve had about a year together, and you’ve got quite a story. I’m going to let you tell it, but I want people to understand something. Before we got on this, I was talking about how, for the last six weeks, I’ve been gushing over the change you’ve made. The majority of that change isn’t even about the numbers. It’s really about where you are centered as a leader, coming from a place where there was a lot of chaos when we first met, a lot of real crises. Not just regular restaurant stuff, but we’ll talk about where you are now and the fires and all the things that happened to you.

The fact of the matter is, there was this urgency to make a change. You were ready to make that change, and then everything started burning down, figuratively and literally. You had to lead your way through all of that to get where you are today.

Now you’ve got managers in place. You’re calmly deciding whether somebody is going to make it or not. You’re calmly deciding what you need to do. You’re spending time like a restaurant owner working on your numbers and marketing, and you’re leading the team.

You went from being your best prep cook, for all intents and purposes, to being the leader of your business. That’s what I want people to understand as we talk about your transformation. It’s truly incredible.

Do me a favor. Tell people a little bit about how you got into the restaurant business and the challenges you were facing when we first met.

Thank you. Yeah. Professionally, I came up through two different careers. I started in middle-market finance, and I was doing that when my children were very little. Then I realized, wait, I can’t spend any time with my kids.

I started a very small catering company. We made these Middle Eastern dumplings, and I shipped them all over the country on dry ice. I did that for a while, and then I thought about how I was making a living in finance and went back to it.

A couple of years into that, the girls started getting a little bigger, and I just wasn’t happy. I knew food and hospitality were where I wanted to be, but I needed to figure out how to make it work.

I put my vibes into the universe, and an operator contacted me. He said, “Look, I’m leaving this cafe. Do you want it?”

I had never managed, run, or done anything with a brick-and-mortar business. I had no idea what I was doing, and, of course, I said yes.

Six weeks after I signed the lease, I opened my doors. I remember sitting there the night before, putting together a chicken salad recipe and a menu. We trained the staff in six weeks, and then I opened my doors.

My first year was horrible.

I had to figure out what it meant to do food at volume and how to take care of a whole dining room of guests. It was very different, and I had no experience.

By years two and three, I dug my heels into the ground and said, “I am going to figure this out.”

And it started working. I thought, “Oh my gosh, I could actually pay my bills. This is cool. This is great.”

But then the business started growing, and I didn’t know how to scale.

Then the pandemic hit, and I was kind of forced to figure things out. We did really well. All I really knew how to do was reach out to the community and say, “Hey, guys, I can feed you. I’m friendly, I’m nice. Come and eat my food.”

It was working, and the business started growing more and more. I opened my second location, then my third location.

Then inflation hit, and in Los Angeles, food and labor costs rose almost 40% overnight.

I thought, “Okay, my sweet spirit and good food are only going to get me so far.”

I had grown enough to make a living. There was volume there, but I had to sell off my third store. I had to cut that weakest link, and I still really didn’t know what I was doing.

I didn’t have any restaurant background or restaurant coaching. I was basically figuring things out on spreadsheets, through trial and error, and by going, “Oh, shoot, I can’t do this this month.”

I was winging it for years.

I was in the trenches with the team. I was on the line, on the register, and all over the place. This great idea I had about spending more time with my kids turned into my kids watching Mom grind away and hold this business together.

Look, it gave them a whole other level of strength, which I’m grateful for.

The real turning point happened toward the end of 2024.

I just hit a wall. I couldn’t keep going anymore. I was tired.

I started searching and listening to podcasts, and I came across your podcast. I thought, “I’ve got to talk to this guy.”

I reached out, and Ryan contacted me. We started talking, and I was telling him my woes. He seemed like he’d heard it all before, which made me apprehensive. I wasn’t sure. I thought, “Okay, is this just another thing? What am I doing?”

I was already so overwhelmed that I couldn’t see past anything. My creativity was compromised. My spirit was compromised. I was tired and trying to figure out how I was going to make payroll, pay rent, buy food, and talk to the vendors. All those problems were just stacking up.

I decided to go for it and started the program.

Within weeks, the Altadena fires happened. I’m in the Pasadena area, and Altadena is a community literally five minutes away from me. The entire community was devastated. It was heartbreaking.

We mobilized and tried to figure out how to keep serving the community. Hospitality is everything to me. It’s how I built my business. I didn’t have systems, but I had a lot of heart, and that worked for me for a very long time.

We reached out to the community and did what we could. But the money, the finances, the rent, and the payroll were still issues.

I started getting on calls and trying to understand what was happening and how to position everything.

Then, in February, my father passed away.

The fires happened in January, and then my father passed away in February. It was grief on top of grief. Life was really lifing.

I took a step back and thought, “Okay, I love my restaurants. I love my cafes. I love what I’m doing. I am not going to be defeated.”

That was a mindset shift. I wanted this. I was committed to it, and I would do whatever I needed to do.

I got on the calls and started talking to you guys. We began working on budgets and checklists, and I started infusing my brain into your systems.

Like I said, I had a lot of heart, but I had no systems.

Slowly, things started to change. I had a couple of implementers, and you kept talking about getting an implementer. I thought, “Okay, well, this is the wrong implementer.”

Eventually, I brought on the right implementer, and she started putting things into place.

I realized, “Oh, wait. I can do this. I can’t do it alone, but I can do it with an implementer and this supportive group.”

Things started changing. Bills started getting paid, and I wasn’t freaking out three days before payroll.

It’s not perfect by any means, and I wasn’t looking for perfection. I was looking for insight and a little bit of balance.

I’m a very hard worker, but I knew I needed something more.

I think that’s what this program has really given me: insight. I talk about it on our calls all the time. Support is a huge thing for me. I need to be able to come to the arena and say, “Ah, is anybody else going through this?”

And you do. It’s so valuable.

Different people get different things out of the program, but for me, the value has been in the support and having people say, “Hey, why don’t you think about it this way?”

At the end of the day, none of that matters without your commitment to your business and your commitment to yourself. I think that’s key, and it’s the first step.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Do me a favor and talk a little bit about what things were like before you made the decision to join the program. It was 2024, and you were at your wit’s end. What had you tried before that to try to right the ship and give yourself some breathing room?

From what you’ve described, it sounds like you needed a life. It wasn’t just about the money, although the fires came later and created another financial challenge. Before all of that, what were you trying to do to improve things? Were you listening to podcasts, looking on YouTube, or exploring other avenues for help?

No, I had no idea I needed to look at my costs the way I eventually learned to.

All I knew was, “Oh my gosh, labor is high. Let me fix the schedule.”

Or, “Oh my gosh, let me put a spreadsheet together.”

I’d listen to someone talking about how labor and food costs needed to be within certain percentages, but nobody was really showing me how to get there.

There wasn’t a systematic way I could follow.

I had spreadsheets that never went anywhere, waste logs that never went anywhere, and checklists that would just go under the door.

Then I started hearing you guys talk about all this stuff: systems, tools, and the Restaurant Prosperity Formula.

I thought, “Oh my gosh, why do I need to reinvent the wheel when what I’m doing isn’t even working? Let’s be honest. It’s not working.”

There’s this other world where I can use these tools and have access to this support. It’s been totally life-changing.

What was the decision like to actually make that move? You got on a call with Ryan, who’s a restaurant owner who’s been through the program and been successful. I think he’s phenomenal at listening to restaurant owners tell their stories and truly understanding and empathizing with them.

You also mentioned that you listened to Angie and Doug’s podcast and identified with their story.

What was it like going from listening to the podcast to getting on a discovery call with Ryan and then actually making the decision? It’s not an inexpensive first move. You have to be a risk-taker to say, “I’m going to invest in myself. Oh, and I have to do the work. I hope this works.”

I’m sure there was some doubt in there. What was that like?

Yeah, look, I’m a mom who went for it.

I could have stayed in my little finance job, but there was something beating inside me for years, and I knew I had to do something.

Listening to that podcast, I heard two people who took a chance and got into something they didn’t know much about. They talked about how difficult it was, what they thought it would be, and what they actually experienced.

It was real. It wasn’t staged. It was real life happening to people, and I think people who get into the restaurant business are definitely a certain breed. They’re a certain type of person.

I really related to that podcast, and I felt safe enough to reach out. I thought, “Oh, this isn’t going to be some bogus sales pitch. This feels real and authentic.”

When Ryan started talking to me about the pricing, I thought, “I can’t even afford to make payroll. How am I going to afford this?”

Then I thought, “Come on, Linda. You know how to afford anything you put your mind to.”

As restaurateurs, we’re really good at that. We kind of invent money from places.

So I went for it.

It was a slow and bumpy start. That’s the honest truth. But I stuck with it. You guys really worked with me, and it’s nice when you have other people who believe in you.

That was the safety point for me. I felt like you guys were speaking my language. It was a safe place to be, a good camp. I thought I was going to get something out of it.

Week after week, more value was uncovered. Month after month, things felt more valuable because I was also learning how to work with everything that was available to us.

The coaching calls are a big deal for me. I think I utilize those coaching calls more than anything else.

Even within the library, there’s so much information. Take budgeting, for example. I used to wonder, “How do I budget?”

Now you guys are teaching me how to do that.

That’s huge for me.

You came into the program before we had one-on-one coaching. You could get access to me if you had a problem, and you still had Mary as a solutions coach you could call anytime.

While you were already in the program, we brought one of my old coaches, David Miltello, back into the company. He’s phenomenal. What was it like to have that added benefit of a weekly call with someone who operates restaurants and has put all of this in place?

As we talked about, I’m the jazz-hands guy, and he’s the very level-headed, calm person who keeps you on pace.

What was that additional benefit like, transitioning from group coaching to also having somebody to talk to individually?

He was kind of like a quiet ninja.

I came to him loud and explosive, saying, “Hey, all this stuff is happening. What’s going on?”

He would give me these little nuggets of solutions without really making them seem like solutions. He’d talk things through, and I’d go, “Oh, yeah.”

Then I’d make the changes and come back saying, “Guess what I did? I did it, and now all this is working.”

And he’d say, “Yes, little grasshopper.”

I really liked those calls. They meant a lot to me.

Things move really fast for all of us in the restaurant business. We’re always dealing with something. But now I can take a step back. I’m not really in the weeds anymore.

I’m doing more events at the cafes, and those are all about wasting life? No, that’s where I get to enjoy life. I love that stuff. I love being able to do it.

I don’t want to sit there stressing over payroll and schedules. I don’t want to do that. It’s not fun. That’s the reality for me.

I want to entertain people, feed people, and make people happy. That’s the best part of this business.

I think we get into this business and lose sight of a lot of that because we get stuck in the weeds, and it sucks. That’s the honest truth.

What I found was that I got support. I get on these calls with David, and I get on these calls with all the other restaurateurs, and we’re talking about this stuff.

The problems start to feel smaller. They aren’t the one thing I wake up to every morning anymore.

I get to do the things I love because I’m finding solutions for the other things I don’t love so much.

What were some of the first changes you made? Was it a checklist? Something more basic? Or was it something more advanced, like a budget?

I was manually figuring out my labor.

I had scheduling tools and things like that, and they gave me a percentage, but that percentage was never right when I compared it against my P&L.

My P&L said one thing, and the P&L is the voice of all of this.

I really started drilling into what labor looks like and trying to understand that just because the cooks want to work 50 or 60 hours a week doesn’t mean I have to give them those hours.

As I started digging into my numbers differently, I realized I hadn’t been as on top of them as I thought I was. I thought I understood my numbers until I met you guys, and then reality hit.

But when I started looking at my numbers through a different lens, I started making better decisions.

I began to understand that this is my business, and sometimes I’d gotten lost in trying to make everyone happy.

I care about my team so much. I want my team to win, and I want my team to be happy. I can’t do this without my cooks, my front-of-house team, and my managers.

But ultimately, if business is slow, I don’t get paid, and they do. If business is booming, I can pay all my bills, and they get paid. Maybe I get paid, too.

It was about making better decisions for myself as an owner and for my team.

I started learning boundaries. Just because the community wanted something or the cooks and front-of-house team wanted something didn’t mean it was going to happen.

I learned how to make people happy while still making the decisions that were right for the business.

That meant becoming a better owner and a better leader.

That’s where I am right now in my growth.

I absolutely agree. You probably came in feeling a little bit like a victim of everything that had happened to you, and now you’re literally driving the ship.

There’s a reason why I put leadership first in the Restaurant Prosperity Formula. I tell people that the number one reason restaurants fail is a lack of leadership.

Just because we own a restaurant doesn’t mean we’re born leaders. That’s where systems and support come in. They help make up for our weaknesses as leaders.

If you’re the hospitality person, the gift-giver, the social worker, the person making sure guests have a great experience and employees are taken care of, you might not always pay attention to the numbers, the KPIs, and the systems you need to put in place.

But when you start adding those things, leading becomes so much easier.

You’re not only taking care of guests and employees. You’re also working with a budget and sales goals. If you don’t hit those goals, you know you need to cut labor. If you do hit them, you may be able to add labor.

You’re guiding the ship, not just based on your gut, but with numbers to back up your decisions.

With that in mind, was there an unexpected shift after joining the program? Did something happen that you didn’t expect, or did you get everything you thought you would?

I think the biggest surprise was getting into the numbers, really understanding what the business looked like, making decisions based on that, and seeing how that translated into my own leadership growth.

I always thought I was honest with myself, but I had a reality check. I had to get out of my own way.

That was the biggest transformation.

I’m a middle-aged woman who looks at what she’s built over eight years and thinks, “Look at me. I did all this revenue. I did all this stuff. I’m great.”

But I had to be honest with myself. If I wanted to keep growing and become the leader I said I wanted to be, I needed to get out of my own way.

I needed to put my ego aside, get humble, and do something differently.

That was my biggest shift. I had to recognize that there were facts I needed to make decisions based on, but I also had behaviors and mindsets I’d adopted that I needed to shed.

My numbers weren’t going to improve, and my hospitality wasn’t going to improve, until I got out of my own way and learned how to do things the right way.

That’s a very humbling experience. It’s not easy for anybody.

It’s hard enough to say, “I need help,” especially in the restaurant business.

Oh my God, you’re going to get a coach? You’re going to bring in a consultant? You’re going to do what?

In any other industry, a company might spend millions of dollars on a consulting firm and everyone would applaud the decision. But in the restaurant business, if you need help, people ask why you can’t run the restaurant yourself.

It’s a weird stigma.

It’s one thing to admit you need help. It’s another to say you want and need help. And it’s another thing entirely to listen to what’s going on, change what you’re doing, and follow through.

You can correct me if I’m wrong, but early on, during our group coaching calls, you and I would sometimes go toe to toe. You’d tell me why something I said couldn’t work because I didn’t understand that your restaurant was different.

We’d battle a little bit.

Over time, those battles became conversations where you’d listen and consider what other members were saying. Eventually, things flipped, and you started making changes and helping other owners on those calls.

Talk about that shift. Because you were a little defensive in the beginning. Am I misstating that?

No, you’re right.

Those defenses were what got me as far as I’d gotten, so I put a lot of value into them.

I’d think, “You don’t understand what I went through. I survived a pandemic. I’ve gotten through fires. You don’t know what I’ve dealt with.”

But a lot of that was just noise.

We can let go of those things and allow ourselves to listen, grow, and admit that maybe what got us this far won’t get us any further.

I wanted to go further. Those behaviors weren’t going to help me. Those habits weren’t going to take me to the next step. They were going to keep me in a place I didn’t want to be.

I had to take a step back and say, “Okay, just listen to your coaches. Now it’s time to listen.”

Yeah, that was a big one. You got me to admit it, David.

Again, it’s one of the hardest things to do. It’s hard enough to say, “I don’t know what I don’t know. Let me reach out.”

It’s another thing to make the decision to part with real money and think, “This better not suck. This better not be a scam.”

I was on a call with a woman just the other day who had spoken with Ryan and wanted referrals. I don’t give her growth. I want my members to sell for me.

And, by the way, what am I going to do? Give you somebody who’s happy with me? What does that prove?

She was adamant because she’d been burned so many times before. She talked about consultants, different software packages, what was promised, and what actually happened.

I was honest with her. I said, “I just want you to know that you’re doing the work. I’ll give you what I’ve got, and I’ll support you. But the value comes from you doing the work.”

I want you to address that part, because you made the decision, and at some point, you let your defenses down and did the work.

What is it like when I say, “I suck. I create work”? Do I create work?

At first, it felt like, “Okay, that’s great.”

But then something shifted.

It doesn’t feel like work anymore. Now it feels like I’m just on top of my business.

All you’re doing is giving us tools to look at our businesses differently. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. If we had everything figured out, why would we listen to coaching calls? Why would we search for answers?

This is a really tough industry. When you’re in an industry where profitability is razor-thin, you better know what you’re doing or get out of the business.

I don’t want to sound harsh, but if you love it so much, you better figure it out.

I needed help figuring it out. I wasn’t going to lose. I was going to win, and I was going to figure out how to improve my margins, pay my bills, and have fun again.

When you approach it that way, it doesn’t feel like work.

At the beginning, I was thinking, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to get through all this stuff? Why is he giving me homework?”

People know me. When nonprofits come to me asking for donations, they’ll give me a pile of paperwork, and I’ll say, “No, you’re asking me for something. You do the paperwork. I’ll give you a gift card.”

I don’t need extra homework.

But this feels like I’m investing in the business I chose to build.

So what is life like now for you? It’s not all peaches and cream, honey, and flowers. There are still challenges, but what’s life like for Linda?

When my dad passed away in February, I started thinking about my family legacy.

My grandfather had a restaurant on the banks of the Tigris River, and he called it Piccadilly.

After my father passed away, I decided I was going to continue that family legacy. I rebranded my businesses as Piccadilly Grace. Grace is my middle name, and Piccadilly represents my family legacy.

I’d thought about doing this for a while, but the transition made it feel like the universe was telling me, “Okay, Linda, it’s time. Let’s go.”

I started rebranding. I hired a designer, repainted signs, and began reconnecting with the community.

People started connecting with me again because I opened up and started telling my story.

I think I’d been in a cocoon for a while, just trying to survive. When adversity and tragedy happen, having a supportive community makes things easier.

I started giving more of myself, and things became so much more fun.

Business is great. We’re growing. Now I just need to figure out how to become more efficient because we’re growing a lot faster.

Connecting with the community, giving them more of myself, and sharing who I am is something I strongly believe in.

I’m feeling better about myself, and I’m having music at the cafe and doing events. I’m having a great time again, and it feels wonderful.

Isn’t that why we all get into this business? That needs to be the reason.

The most successful restaurateurs I’ve worked with are passionate about hospitality and persistent. You’re both of those things.

There are people who get into this business who shouldn’t be in it. They don’t like people, and they don’t want to put in the work.

If you don’t love hospitality and truly creating memories for people, this probably isn’t the place for you.

We have the privilege of creating memories for people.

The beautiful part of watching you is seeing how you got your passion back. You pulled yourself out of a hole you couldn’t see your way out of. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.

Now you’re looking at things and saying, “That’s what I’m working on next.”

You’ve been working on social media, creating videos, connecting with the community, and telling your story. Your sales are increasing.

You’re able to do that because you now have systems in place.

We’re still working on building a stronger management team, but you have people stepping up and taking responsibility. They’re making sure checklists are completed, money gets to the bank, and labor is controlled.

You’re becoming a coach to your team instead of the superhero who has to do everything.

I can’t even imagine how exhausting it must have been to run around making the coffee order, dealing with running out of ice, and then trying to do the schedule on top of everything else.

You can’t manage a business that way.

I think I managed that way for a long time.

I’m learning how to grow as a leader and become better at running this business. It’s very different from working in a billion-dollar corporation. It’s one thing to manage in that environment, and it’s another thing to manage 30 employees and run a restaurant.

I’m learning to make better decisions. I don’t give myself a choice. I don’t give myself an option. I don’t have an out.

Because I love what I’m doing, I’ve figured out how to make it work.

Thanks to you and everybody on the team. Mary, Steve, everybody. You guys have been through this over and over again.

Maybe we all feel like our restaurant is different, but at the end of the day, somebody’s got a box to check.

People, it’s better. There isn’t some magic exception because we’re seasonal, in a small town, or in a big city. It doesn’t matter. There’s a common path, and if you get that down, you can figure out all the other stuff.

I couldn’t have said that any better myself. I love that. I might have to steal it. We’re going to clip that and put it on my website.

That was awesome, and it’s so true.

Let me ask you a question. If somebody is listening to us right now and circling around the idea of getting on a call with Ryan, wondering whether the program is worth it, whether David and his team really deliver, and what this whole thing is about, what would you tell them?

I’d tell them to take a step back and think about value, because everybody values different things.

What do you want? Get really clear with yourself. Even if that means having conversations with you guys, figure out what you’re looking for.

Are you looking for systems? Leadership? Are you trying to get out of a financial hole? Is it all of the above? Are you looking for more time with your family?

What is it that you want?

Sometimes, when we’re circling around a decision, it’s because we don’t really know what we’re looking for.

Having conversations about that can help, because the value will be different for different people.

Some people might need guidance on implementation. Some might already be great leaders. Others might be looking for personal development.

There’s a lot of development that happens in this program, but I’d recommend drilling down and finding out what you want and what you need, then connecting with you guys to figure out whether that’s something you can provide.

You have an arsenal of information and support. It’s really up to the operator and the owner to use those tools.

This isn’t a one-stop shop where all your problems disappear overnight. There’s no such thing.

But it’s something incredible. If the owner-operator is willing to peel back the layers, figure themselves out, and use the systems, they’re going to be successful.

That’s awesome. Thank you very much. I appreciate you doing this with me today.

I actually learned some things I didn’t know about, so I’ve got more questions for you when we’re done.

In the meantime, if there’s anything we didn’t talk about that you wish I’d brought up, a favorite book or a favorite quote, the floor is yours.

I’m completely obsessed right now with AI, ChatGPT, and that whole world.

I believe this is the biggest technological shift we’ve seen in a very long time.

As a restaurant owner, I’m fascinated by the idea of bridging the generations. I think the Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Z all have something to offer.

I think Gen Z is incredible, and I don’t think we give them enough credit yet. I believe they’re going to shift and change the way we operate across all industries.

I’d love to talk to you about that because I know you have a background in software and technology. At some point, I think we should talk about what the future of restaurants will look like over the next five to ten years.

We can make that happen.

Linda, thank you so much for doing this. I look forward to seeing you on the next group coaching call and seeing where your journey takes you.

Again, I’m nothing but pleased and proud of the progress you’ve made.

As I said, I think people listening to us right now don’t understand how much has changed. Over the last six calls, I’ve kept gushing about what you’ve done. When I say gush, I mean I’m proud of you.

When you started, life was very different. On top of everything else, you had the fires and your father’s passing. You couldn’t have been dealt a more challenging hand.

And, of course, you’re in California, where the minimum wage for fast-food workers has reached $20 an hour, and food costs, liability insurance, workers’ compensation, and everything else are through the roof.

Yet you’ve found a way to make it work.

That’s what a leader does. That’s what you truly are.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

My pleasure.

Ready to take the next step toward achieving restaurant prosperity, freedom from 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 leave you with three thoughts.

By combining leadership and taking action with systems and training, supported by accountability, you’re on your way to creating prosperity for yourself and your restaurant.

I also have something I need from you. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By leaving us a review, you’re helping other restaurant pros who are seeking this information find it. I read the reviews, and hearing how this information has benefited you does wonders for me.

Finally, 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.