[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_139":-5,"_140":-5,"_141":142,"_143":144,"_145":146},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/3145/people-follow-leaders-they-respect-regardless-of-age","id",3145,"title","People follow leaders they respect, regardless of age","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.720\nPeople have followed young leaders since the beginning of time. It's not like a\n\n2\n00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:03.280\nnew thing.\n\n3\n00:00:03.280 --> 00:00:06.960\nYou know, Alexander, Alexander was 28. Julius Caesar was young when he was a\n\n4\n00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:07.520\nleader.\n\n5\n00:00:07.520 --> 00:00:11.000\nLike, there's been young leaders and people are fine with it if they respect\n\n6\n00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:11.600\nthe person.\n\n7\n00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:15.760\nSo a lot of it is about, do they respect the person? If a person's young,\n\n8\n00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:22.130\nbut they feel like is capable, intelligent, makes good decisions, has good\n\n9\n00:00:22.130 --> 00:00:23.040\njudgment,\n\n10\n00:00:23.040 --> 00:00:27.680\nthey will follow, right? Because they respect the person. So a lot of\n\n11\n00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:28.480\nleadership, no matter\n\n12\n00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.000\nyour age, is self-improvement. It's becoming the best version of yourself so\n\n13\n00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:32.400\nthat people\n\n14\n00:00:32.400 --> 00:00:37.280\nare willing to follow you is number one. And then number two, I'd say, if you\n\n15\n00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.160\n're defensive,\n\n16\n00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:41.280\npeople feel that. And they wonder why you're not confident in yourself. It sort\n\n17\n00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:41.840\nof betrays\n\n18\n00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:45.760\nthat you might be lacking, right? Because they wonder, if you don't trust\n\n19\n00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:46.160\nyourself,\n\n20\n00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:52.600\nwhy should they trust you? So defensiveness or blatant self-doubt will make it\n\n21\n00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:52.880\nharder for\n\n22\n00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.800\nfor people to follow you, so you need to sort of develop confidence.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",1310659,"end_time",1368439,"keywords","Age, youth, respect, judgment, young, trust, defensiveness, self-belief, confidence","slug","people-follow-leaders-they-respect-regardless-of-age","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","jsgdaD6RJW73Pk0067nitpWNtkmt4R5S3Gv01MD9hDxQo","mux_asset_id","rmZtqiy3OMeADYDF6LW5t73N602vtS3v02DWmAprtfAMQ","leader_id",257,"episode_id",409,"updated_at","2025-12-11T16:49:18.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/3145/people-follow-leaders-they-respect-regardless-of-age","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_106":107,"_25":108,"_109":110,"_61":111,"_58":112,"_113":114,"_68":115,"_39":116,"_117":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_118":119,"_90":120,"_44":121,"_122":123,"_124":125,"_46":-5,"_126":127,"_128":129,"_94":130,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":-5,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":89,"_90":-5,"_46":-5,"_91":92,"_93":-5,"_94":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Show the path to success","show-the-path-to-success","Listen to this leadership podcast with Damola Adamolekun, CEO of Red Lobster, and discover how to lead with both hope and honesty.","summary","

Can Red Lobster pull off the greatest comeback in restaurant history? After filing for bankruptcy, shedding value, and losing relevance, it won’t be easy.

But it’s the kind of challenge that Damola Adamolekun thrives in. After returning P.F. Chang’s to profitability, he is now making waves as Red Lobster’s youngest-ever CEO.

In this episode, he shares what it’s like to lead at a young age, the strategies that work in a turnaround, and how to show your team a clear path to success without sugarcoating the truth.

You’ll also learn:

The #1 reason companies falter after longstanding success
Practical tips for anyone leading in a struggling business
A mindset shift to help you better at accepting criticism
Why your energy around the office matters more than you think

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000\nHello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead.\n\n2\n00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.000\nToday, David sits down with Damola Adam-Laken, who is the CEO of Red Lobster.\n\n3\n00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.710\nAt just 30 years old, he took over a CEO of PF Chang's during COVID, and at 36\n\n4\n00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:16.000\nyears old,\n\n5\n00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.490\nhe's taken on one of the most challenging turnaround situations in restaurant\n\n6\n00:00:20.490 --> 00:00:21.000\nindustry history\n\n7\n00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.000\nas he seeks to be the guy who returns Red Lobster to all of its glory.\n\n8\n00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.490\nAnd if he is successful, he believes it'll be the greatest turnaround in the\n\n9\n00:00:30.490 --> 00:00:32.000\nhistory of the restaurant industry.\n\n10\n00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.440\nSo enjoy this conversation between David and Damola, and I'll see you at the\n\n11\n00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:37.000\ndebrief.\n\n12\n00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.510\nWith pressure in general, if you're too worried about the pressure, it takes\n\n13\n00:00:40.510 --> 00:00:42.000\naway clear thinking.\n\n14\n00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.490\nYou can recognize pressure and not let it affect your day-to-day or your\n\n15\n00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:47.000\nmentality, right?\n\n16\n00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.580\nYou don't want pressure to force you into a mental corner where you're making\n\n17\n00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:51.000\nbad decisions.\n\n18\n00:00:51.000 --> 00:01:00.000\nYou need to make decisions calmly, regardless of the stakes.\n\n19\n00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.100\nI'm going to get into Red Lobster, but right off the bat, I got to ask you, do\n\n20\n00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:06.000\nyou still have those cheddar bay biscuits?\n\n21\n00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.000\nWe have them today, and we'll have them forever, my friend. Yes, we do.\n\n22\n00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.000\nSignature item.\n\n23\n00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.490\nYou're 100% right. That's a classic, and it's a fan favorite, so those aren't\n\n24\n00:01:14.490 --> 00:01:15.000\ngoing anywhere.\n\n25\n00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:20.000\nThat's good to know. I'm glad you've got good judgment, you know.\n\n26\n00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.540\nAs I understand it, you played football at Brown, which is a great Ivy League\n\n27\n00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:27.000\nschool, and you were a defensive back.\n\n28\n00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:32.400\nWhich NFL receiver do you think you'd have the hardest time locking down these\n\n29\n00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:33.000\ndays?\n\n30\n00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.840\nEither Jamar Chase or CD Lamb, they're both insanely quick over short distances\n\n31\n00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:40.000\n, they're great acceleration, and they'd be there shifty.\n\n32\n00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000\nThey're hard to keep up with, so I'd say one of those too.\n\n33\n00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.620\nThat's good. You sound just by the way how you described that. You had to be\n\n34\n00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:48.000\npretty good back then.\n\n35\n00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.440\nWell, you know, my strengths, I'm tall and I'm fast in a straight line, but\n\n36\n00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:56.130\nthese little guys that go side to side incredibly quick, you know, you have to\n\n37\n00:01:56.130 --> 00:01:59.300\nstay low center of gravity and do your best to try to keep up with them, but\n\n38\n00:01:59.300 --> 00:02:00.000\nthey're difficult.\n\n39\n00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.610\nWhat was your welcome to college football moment? You know, that one hit play\n\n40\n00:02:04.610 --> 00:02:07.000\nor mistake that you'll never forget?\n\n41\n00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:13.320\nYou know, I was a wing back in high school and court and a safety, but I was\n\n42\n00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:15.000\nplaying against high school players.\n\n43\n00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.350\nWhen you get to college, you start trying to hit college running back, some of\n\n44\n00:02:18.350 --> 00:02:23.570\nwhom were trying to go to the NFL, and you're 165, playing deep safety, coming\n\n45\n00:02:23.570 --> 00:02:26.000\nup to tackle 250 pound running back.\n\n46\n00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:30.000\nSometimes that's your welcome to the college football moment.\n\n47\n00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.000\nGo low, try to take some legs out and survive the hit.\n\n48\n00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.000\nAnd stay away from those concussions. I hope you didn't have any of those.\n\n49\n00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:40.000\nExactly, exactly.\n\n50\n00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.490\nWell, Demol, I can't wait to hear about your leadership journey and, you know,\n\n51\n00:02:44.490 --> 00:02:48.000\ngoing deeper into what you're doing to turn around Red Lobster.\n\n52\n00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.920\nBut what's the story from your childhood that's shaped the kind of leader you\n\n53\n00:02:53.920 --> 00:02:55.000\nare today?\n\n54\n00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:00.000\nYeah, you know, I've got a something of a unique background and upbringing.\n\n55\n00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:03.190\nYeah, I was born in a small town in Nigeria, so I had an international\n\n56\n00:03:03.190 --> 00:03:04.000\nbackground.\n\n57\n00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:09.920\nI was born in Nigeria in a town called the Late Effet, lived abroad in Nigeria\n\n58\n00:03:09.920 --> 00:03:14.000\nand Zimbabwe and in the Netherlands through my childhood.\n\n59\n00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:17.460\nAnd then moved to the States when I was nine to Springfield, Illinois, first,\n\n60\n00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:21.000\nand then Columbia, Maryland, before I went to college at Brown.\n\n61\n00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.960\nSo, for me, I had a childhood that required a lot of adapting from place to\n\n62\n00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:30.000\nplace, country to country, different types of people, different languages,\n\n63\n00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:37.010\nwhich taught me how to do well in any situation, a very widely varying\n\n64\n00:03:37.010 --> 00:03:38.000\nsituations.\n\n65\n00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.070\nI think I learned a lot about people, obviously the differences in these places\n\n66\n00:03:42.070 --> 00:03:46.290\n, but more importantly, the similarities across geographies and cultures and\n\n67\n00:03:46.290 --> 00:03:47.000\npeople.\n\n68\n00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.780\nAnd what kind of the threads that humanity kind of have in common, no matter\n\n69\n00:03:50.780 --> 00:03:54.620\nwhere you are, which I think is an important part of leadership is being able\n\n70\n00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:57.000\nto connect to a wide range of types of people.\n\n71\n00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:01.710\nAnd then finally, I'd say I learned that, you know, the best way to do well in\n\n72\n00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:05.000\nany place that I went was just to be good at stuff.\n\n73\n00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.450\nRight, so I learned that excellence travels if you're a good athlete in\n\n74\n00:04:08.450 --> 00:04:12.380\nZimbabwe or in Springfield, Illinois, you're going to make some friends right\n\n75\n00:04:12.380 --> 00:04:15.670\nso I learned to I learned to try to be good at stuff that I did and that was\n\n76\n00:04:15.670 --> 00:04:17.000\nalways the best way to fit in.\n\n77\n00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.070\nI love that excellence travels that is so true, no matter where you go, if you\n\n78\n00:04:21.070 --> 00:04:25.000\ncould take excellence with you, it definitely gives you a heads up.\n\n79\n00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:31.170\nYou know, and I've heard you say when it comes to excellence that your parents\n\n80\n00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:33.000\nset a real high bar.\n\n81\n00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.000\nWhat's something they did or said that still plays in your head today?\n\n82\n00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:43.000\nYeah, you know, I think for me it's all about expectations.\n\n83\n00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.520\nSo, you know, my parents always, when we got to America, what my father said\n\n84\n00:04:48.520 --> 00:04:53.000\nwas, you know, in America, it doesn't matter what you do because you'd look at.\n\n85\n00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.780\nYou know, we had a barber that was driving an S-Class Benz because he had the\n\n86\n00:04:56.780 --> 00:05:00.000\nbiggest barbershop in the town in Illinois and Springfield.\n\n87\n00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.530\nAnd my dad would say, it doesn't matter what you do if you're a doctor or a bar\n\n88\n00:05:03.530 --> 00:05:04.000\nber.\n\n89\n00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000\nIf you're the best at what you do, you can do well in this country.\n\n90\n00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.000\nRight, so it's never about forcing us to do anything in particular.\n\n91\n00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.220\nIt was all about whatever you do, aim to be the best and let your work speak\n\n92\n00:05:12.220 --> 00:05:13.000\nfor itself.\n\n93\n00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000\nSo that was the ethos within my family.\n\n94\n00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.790\nAnd, you know, I remember I complained because I'd get all the A's and one B\n\n95\n00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.000\nand my dad would want to talk about the B.\n\n96\n00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.930\nAnd I'd say my friends would be, you know, they'd get money if they got one C\n\n97\n00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:27.000\non their report card.\n\n98\n00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.420\nSo my football friends and my dad, you know, would say, look, when you have a\n\n99\n00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:34.150\nchild that's doing 99% perfect and you see one thing that can be better, we're\n\n100\n00:05:34.150 --> 00:05:35.000\ngoing to work to make it better.\n\n101\n00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.000\nRight, so that was always the mentality.\n\n102\n00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.270\nAnd it was all about doing the best you can and striving for excellence and\n\n103\n00:05:40.270 --> 00:05:42.000\nperfection in everything you do.\n\n104\n00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:43.000\nYeah, that's like my dad.\n\n105\n00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.960\nI remember I could hit three home runs and if I let that ground ball get behind\n\n106\n00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:48.000\nme a third base.\n\n107\n00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.000\nThat's what we talked about after the game.\n\n108\n00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000\nSo it's great having the parents that raised the bar for us like that.\n\n109\n00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.000\nYou know, and so you moved to, you know, the United States from Nigeria.\n\n110\n00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.650\nHow did that move to the United States compared to what you thought it was\n\n111\n00:06:02.650 --> 00:06:04.000\ngoing to be like?\n\n112\n00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.590\nI mean, I know you're only nine years old, but you know, I'm sure you had some\n\n113\n00:06:07.590 --> 00:06:09.000\nanticipation.\n\n114\n00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.000\nWas it about the same or different?\n\n115\n00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.000\nYou know, what was your impression?\n\n116\n00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.240\nWell, I'm not sure Americans appreciate just how important America is to\n\n117\n00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:22.610\neverybody else in the world and how much people, how much the culture of\n\n118\n00:06:22.610 --> 00:06:25.680\nAmerica influences all the far corners of the world, including the town that I\n\n119\n00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:26.000\ngrew up.\n\n120\n00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.000\nRight.\n\n121\n00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.000\nSo I knew about Michael Jackson.\n\n122\n00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:33.440\nI knew about Michael Jordan and some of the big movies that made it to to where\n\n123\n00:06:33.440 --> 00:06:34.000\nI was.\n\n124\n00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:35.000\nRight.\n\n125\n00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000\nSo there was an element of fascination with American culture.\n\n126\n00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.400\nI remember I watched the Atlanta Olympics in '96 and got to see Atlanta, which\n\n127\n00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:44.000\nis a place my dad had been before.\n\n128\n00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.000\nSo asked a million questions about it.\n\n129\n00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:51.000\nSo, yeah, look, American culture is drives world culture.\n\n130\n00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:56.000\nSo there's a level of anticipation and excitement about coming to America.\n\n131\n00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:00.000\nI'd say it limped up to all of my, all my best expectations at nine years old.\n\n132\n00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.490\nI really enjoyed my time in Springfield and my time in Maryland and I was\n\n133\n00:07:04.490 --> 00:07:07.000\nreally excited to be to be in the country.\n\n134\n00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:13.000\nAnd, you know, you, you know, you obviously did well in school, great football.\n\n135\n00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:17.530\nAnd I understand you got an internship at Goldman Sachs when you were 19 years\n\n136\n00:07:17.530 --> 00:07:18.000\nold.\n\n137\n00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.000\nHow'd you pull that off?\n\n138\n00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.000\nYeah.\n\n139\n00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:25.000\nLook, I was, you know, I was ambitious and bold at that age.\n\n140\n00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.960\nAnd, you know, I think it's, I had big goals and there was nothing in my world\n\n141\n00:07:29.960 --> 00:07:32.000\nat the time that told me that these dreams were unachievable.\n\n142\n00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.460\nSo I just sort of went for everything that I wanted, whether that was football\n\n143\n00:07:35.460 --> 00:07:39.330\nand trying to play in college, which wasn't a given, but, you know, I had to\n\n144\n00:07:39.330 --> 00:07:41.000\nkind of work to make that happen.\n\n145\n00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:47.230\nWhen I, before I went to college, I won $10,000 for a speech contest for extem\n\n146\n00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:49.000\nporaneous speaking.\n\n147\n00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000\nIt was the scholarship that gave me a check.\n\n148\n00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.000\nSo what I did is I opened an account to start investing.\n\n149\n00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:58.470\nSo I learned about finance via reading Motley Fool and reading Warren Buffett\n\n150\n00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:02.000\nletters and doing my best to be a stock picker.\n\n151\n00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.490\nAnd so when I got to Brown, I had an interest in finance already based on my\n\n152\n00:08:06.490 --> 00:08:08.000\nkind of self teaching.\n\n153\n00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.830\nAnd when I got to Brown, I joined the Brown Investment Group, which taught me a\n\n154\n00:08:12.830 --> 00:08:16.540\nmore formal understanding of finance and investment banking and all the\n\n155\n00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:19.000\ndifferent elements of the capital markets.\n\n156\n00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:23.000\nSo for me, freshman year, I kind of had an idea. This is what I wanted to do.\n\n157\n00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:27.430\nSo I applied for an internship at Goldman and I was fortunate to get that and\n\n158\n00:08:27.430 --> 00:08:31.000\njump right into the, to the deep end, working on Wall Street.\n\n159\n00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:35.490\nYeah, you're obviously a great communicator. Does that come naturally to you,\n\n160\n00:08:35.490 --> 00:08:38.000\nDemolos, or have you spent a lot of time working on it?\n\n161\n00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.790\nIt comes naturally to a degree, but you can also improve on anything, I believe\n\n162\n00:08:41.790 --> 00:08:45.000\n, the things you're good at or the things you're not so good at.\n\n163\n00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.500\nSo it certainly improved based on practice. I think being in speech in a Bayon\n\n164\n00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:53.000\nHigh School was great for me.\n\n165\n00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.660\nNow, I joined the team because my English teacher asked me to join because she\n\n166\n00:08:56.660 --> 00:08:58.000\nnoticed the way I spoke.\n\n167\n00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:02.000\nSo I had a talent before that, but she helped me refine that and improve it.\n\n168\n00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.000\nAnd I think that's what you do with all of your gifts.\n\n169\n00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:09.180\nAnd, you know, I'd say stepping into leadership roles early in my life, you\n\n170\n00:09:09.180 --> 00:09:11.000\nhave to speak no matter what you lead.\n\n171\n00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:15.400\nYou're going to speak to the group, you're going to communicate ideas, you're\n\n172\n00:09:15.400 --> 00:09:17.000\ngoing to debate, defend ideas.\n\n173\n00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:20.000\nSo stepping into leadership positions early, there's a lot of benefit.\n\n174\n00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:23.290\nBut one of them is you learn to communicate your ideas and defend them and\n\n175\n00:09:23.290 --> 00:09:28.000\nexplain them, which is, I think, a critical skill for whatever you do in life.\n\n176\n00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.500\nYou know, besides having high standard parents, you know, we have another thing\n\n177\n00:09:30.500 --> 00:09:33.000\nin common. I was on the debate team too.\n\n178\n00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.250\nSo what did you learn about, what did you learn about, you know, taking the\n\n179\n00:09:36.250 --> 00:09:38.000\naffirmative and the negative side?\n\n180\n00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.600\nYou learned to be a flexible thinker, right? Because as you know, in Lincoln\n\n181\n00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.000\nDouglas, I'll debate, you don't know what side you're going to get.\n\n182\n00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.160\nAnd I don't know if they still do this, but back then they were controversial\n\n183\n00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:49.660\nissues, right? And they'd give you a side and you'd have to argue whichever\n\n184\n00:09:49.660 --> 00:09:51.000\nside they gave you.\n\n185\n00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.000\nSo you had to walk into the day prepared to argue either side of an issue,\n\n186\n00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000\nwhich means you needed to understand both sides.\n\n187\n00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:01.400\nIt's a good practice and a habit because, you know, when you take one side of\n\n188\n00:10:01.400 --> 00:10:05.110\nan issue, it's not that everybody on the other side is necessarily dumb or\n\n189\n00:10:05.110 --> 00:10:06.000\ncrazy or stupid.\n\n190\n00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.580\nIt's like they have a different perspective. And that exercise forces you to\n\n191\n00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:12.000\ntake both perspectives, understand both perspectives.\n\n192\n00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.490\nAnd it makes for, I think, a better communication style and better\n\n193\n00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:19.000\nunderstanding of issues as you go down the line.\n\n194\n00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:23.490\nAnd, you know, in debate, you have to get fact-based evidence and you go to\n\n195\n00:10:23.490 --> 00:10:26.000\nyour evidence and support your points.\n\n196\n00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:30.000\nHow fact-driven are you and your process of leadership?\n\n197\n00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.000\nAs much as you can be, but, you know, the reality is a lot of our decisions,\n\n198\n00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000\nespecially in the restaurant business, are subjective by nature.\n\n199\n00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:41.060\nAnd it's about things that people want or will like, right? And you can measure\n\n200\n00:10:41.060 --> 00:10:45.370\nthat to the best of your ability, but to some level, it's a subjective question\n\n201\n00:10:45.370 --> 00:10:46.000\n, right?\n\n202\n00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.380\nLike, what's the right color? What's the right scheme? What's the right design\n\n203\n00:10:51.380 --> 00:10:52.000\non a plate?\n\n204\n00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:55.900\nYou test it, but a lot of times it ends up being kind of some people like this\n\n205\n00:10:55.900 --> 00:11:00.300\nand some people like that, right? And you try to do your best to solve for what\n\n206\n00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:06.000\nthe percentages might say or what the best outcome is relative to your guest.\n\n207\n00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:10.490\nSo we try to be data-driven, but you recognize you can't get 100% answers on\n\n208\n00:11:10.490 --> 00:11:15.090\neverything. And where you don't have 100% answers, you debate, you discuss, and\n\n209\n00:11:15.090 --> 00:11:18.000\ndo your best to take the right decision.\n\n210\n00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.900\nYou know, back to communication just for a second. What advice could you give\n\n211\n00:11:21.900 --> 00:11:25.000\nother leaders on how to develop that skill for themselves?\n\n212\n00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:30.240\nPractice, you know. And I think there's different forms of communication. There\n\n213\n00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:33.350\n's foremost or written communication where you have a speech and you need to\n\n214\n00:11:33.350 --> 00:11:35.000\ndeliver it. That's one thing.\n\n215\n00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.830\nBut I think what's most important is what's called extemporaneous communication\n\n216\n00:11:37.830 --> 00:11:42.000\n, which is discussion, debate, thinking on the spot.\n\n217\n00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:46.440\nSo engaging in conversation, engaging in debate, engaging in broad-based\n\n218\n00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:50.380\ndiscussion, these are things that will help your extemporaneous speaking, which\n\n219\n00:11:50.380 --> 00:11:54.000\nis what you use the most in real life and in leadership.\n\n220\n00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.900\nWhat's the most stimulating conversation you've had in the last few weeks, just\n\n221\n00:11:57.900 --> 00:12:01.590\non the business itself, where it really opened up your eyes, or everybody\n\n222\n00:12:01.590 --> 00:12:03.000\nreally got super engaged?\n\n223\n00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.450\nYeah, look, I think discussions with my board are always really interesting.\n\n224\n00:12:06.450 --> 00:12:09.750\nThey're very intelligent people with a lot of different businesses and a lot of\n\n225\n00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:12.000\ndifferent perspectives they bring to the board.\n\n226\n00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.490\nSo, you know, some of those conversations, you know, without getting into the\n\n227\n00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:21.000\ntopic, but discussions with my board around strategy, marketing, menu even.\n\n228\n00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.590\nSo there's a lot of good, you know, it's the restaurant business. As you know,\n\n229\n00:12:23.590 --> 00:12:27.360\neverybody has a point of view, whether they're in the company or outside of the\n\n230\n00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:29.000\ncompany. They have a point of view on the business.\n\n231\n00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:33.000\nSo it's always, there's always great conversations to the head.\n\n232\n00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:36.510\nHello, friends. I hope you're loving this conversation with Demoa. I know I am\n\n233\n00:12:36.510 --> 00:12:40.970\nloving it, and I'm also quite inspired to go get some beige-heddar biscuits at\n\n234\n00:12:40.970 --> 00:12:43.000\nRed Lobster for dinner tonight.\n\n235\n00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:47.650\nBe sure to stay tuned to the very end of the episode. David and I, as we always\n\n236\n00:12:47.650 --> 00:12:52.070\ndo, are going to debrief this conversation so that you can take away some real\n\n237\n00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:57.000\npractical, tangible tips that you can apply to your leadership and to your life\n\n238\n00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:58.000\n, to your work, to your relationships.\n\n239\n00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.420\nYou'll get David's take on some of the themes that he and Demoa discussed\n\n240\n00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:07.000\nduring this conversation. So stay tuned to the debrief, and we'll see you soon.\n\n241\n00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:11.000\nYou know, and back to Goldman Sachs for a second is when you were an intern.\n\n242\n00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.660\nWhat was the biggest lesson you learned at Goldman Sachs that you carried with\n\n243\n00:13:13.660 --> 00:13:14.000\nyou?\n\n244\n00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.480\nYou know, I joined Goldman right before the crisis. I did my summers there in '\n\n245\n00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:20.000\n07 and '08.\n\n246\n00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:25.160\nSo I got to see the boom times, and I got to see what it all crashed down. And\n\n247\n00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:30.060\nthat was informative. And it was, in a way, a perfect way to start my career\n\n248\n00:13:30.060 --> 00:13:33.570\nbecause, and I'm not saying that because it was a good thing that happened to\n\n249\n00:13:33.570 --> 00:13:35.000\nthe country obviously created a lot of issues and pain.\n\n250\n00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.000\nBut from a strictly professional standpoint, I got to see both sides of the\n\n251\n00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:42.660\ncoin, right? And when things are good and when things can go south and what\n\n252\n00:13:42.660 --> 00:13:45.000\nthat can look like and how you deal with crisis.\n\n253\n00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.440\nSo that was an informative way to do my first couple internships and I think\n\n254\n00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.670\nshaped my view first on investing and then also in managing businesses through\n\n255\n00:13:53.670 --> 00:13:55.000\nvarious cycles.\n\n256\n00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.490\nNow, in after college and after, you know, Goldman, you got a job in private\n\n257\n00:13:59.490 --> 00:14:04.000\nequity. You went to business school, then started working at a hedge fund.\n\n258\n00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:08.930\nAnd the story that I've heard is that while you're at this hedge fund, you saw\n\n259\n00:14:08.930 --> 00:14:14.000\nPF Chang's was for sale and you went after. Tell us that story.\n\n260\n00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.440\nI spent my career in these places, as you said, mostly focused on consumer\n\n261\n00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:23.000\nretail businesses, right? So Goldman, I was in the consumer retail group, TPG.\n\n262\n00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:28.400\nI was a generalist, but I mostly did consumer retail deals at Paulson. I did a\n\n263\n00:14:28.400 --> 00:14:32.000\nlot of things, but again, covered retail and consumer for John.\n\n264\n00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000\nSo that was kind of my niche already.\n\n265\n00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.440\nAnd PF Chang's came up for sale and the person who was leading the sale process\n\n266\n00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.970\nwas a gentleman I'd worked with at Goldman, who had this point and moved to\n\n267\n00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:44.000\nBank of America.\n\n268\n00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:49.200\nSo in catching up with him, he told me about the company that was for sale. You\n\n269\n00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:53.300\nknow, he wasn't quite sure it'd be a good fit for us, but wanted to share it\n\n270\n00:14:53.300 --> 00:14:54.000\nwith me.\n\n271\n00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:04.990\nSo we did a bunch of work and found that we thought it was an interesting deal.\n\n272\n00:15:04.990 --> 00:15:05.400\nAnd I pitched it to John and to the investment committee at Paulson as an\n\n273\n00:15:05.400 --> 00:15:06.000\ninteresting opportunity for us a bit different than what we've done.\n\n274\n00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:10.010\nBut, you know, they're flexible thinkers and they're open to new ideas if they\n\n275\n00:15:10.010 --> 00:15:12.000\nthink it's going to be profitable.\n\n276\n00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.800\nSo we were able to, I was able to get approval to do the deal. I chased it down\n\n277\n00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:21.900\n. We ended up winning the process and we bought PF Chang's in the beginning of\n\n278\n00:15:21.900 --> 00:15:23.000\n2019.\n\n279\n00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:26.680\nSo how did you get, how did you get these smart guys to say, yes, I mean, what\n\n280\n00:15:26.680 --> 00:15:30.620\nwas it, you know, how did you think about, you know, that presentation and that\n\n281\n00:15:30.620 --> 00:15:34.000\npitch, you know, what was the key to made it that made it work.\n\n282\n00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.760\nYeah, look, I think it's, it's different depending on the firm you work for you\n\n283\n00:15:38.760 --> 00:15:43.380\nneed to understand the style of the people that are making the investment where\n\n284\n00:15:43.380 --> 00:15:45.000\nI worked was an arbitrage.\n\n285\n00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.440\nDriven based shop, you know, john Paulson started his career and merger arbit\n\n286\n00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:51.000\nrage and that extended to a bunch of different things.\n\n287\n00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:55.490\nSo there was an arbitrage opportunity I saw with the delivery business\n\n288\n00:15:55.490 --> 00:16:00.120\nspecifically where it hadn't been developed, but it was a business that should\n\n289\n00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:03.000\nhave a delivery business, Chinese food.\n\n290\n00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.530\nAll the systems were available and it could be built relatively quickly so you\n\n291\n00:16:06.530 --> 00:16:10.170\ncould buy a business at a certain price without the delivery business, build it\n\n292\n00:16:10.170 --> 00:16:13.000\nquickly and change the value of the company completely.\n\n293\n00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.370\nRight, so that was kind of the baseline thesis around delivery, which proved\n\n294\n00:16:16.370 --> 00:16:20.020\nfortunate, given it was 2019 but of course I didn't know COVID was coming but\n\n295\n00:16:20.020 --> 00:16:24.290\neven before COVID the delivery thing made a lot of sense informed the crux of\n\n296\n00:16:24.290 --> 00:16:25.000\nour thesis.\n\n297\n00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.470\nAnd then there was other things that we thought were upside opportunities remod\n\n298\n00:16:28.470 --> 00:16:31.710\neling the restaurants and getting that to be in a state where you could drive\n\n299\n00:16:31.710 --> 00:16:34.000\nthe dining business and improve trends there.\n\n300\n00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:39.710\nVarious things around technology improvements and efficiency and simplification\n\n301\n00:16:39.710 --> 00:16:40.000\n.\n\n302\n00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.680\nSo we're able to build a pretty comprehensive point of view that we could get\n\n303\n00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:47.980\nthe business at an attractive price, make some improvements, drive traffic\n\n304\n00:16:47.980 --> 00:16:52.000\ndrive off premise dining business and get to a good outcome.\n\n305\n00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.000\nAnd, you know, as I understand it, you didn't made the shift and you actually\n\n306\n00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:01.000\nbecame the CEO of PF Chang's you know, how did that happen.\n\n307\n00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:05.000\nYeah, look like I just described all these things we wanted to do right so when\n\n308\n00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.000\nI get the green light there's a list of stuff that's expected to get done.\n\n309\n00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:09.700\nAnd when the deal closes, you know, we brought in a CEO who was wonderful,\n\n310\n00:17:09.700 --> 00:17:15.620\nnamed guy named John Etiaco, who used to run a number of different businesses,\n\n311\n00:17:15.620 --> 00:17:21.000\nincluding 711 and blockbuster back in the day and.\n\n312\n00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.000\nSo he's a very good CEO but opt operationally oriented primarily.\n\n313\n00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:28.380\nAnd so when we started he wanted to focus on the operational work and we were\n\n314\n00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:31.820\neager to get going on all these strategic initiatives let's call them these\n\n315\n00:17:31.820 --> 00:17:36.560\ngrowth initiatives, building a delivery business building the app building the\n\n316\n00:17:36.560 --> 00:17:38.000\nportal signing up with the third party\n\n317\n00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:42.490\npartners remodeling the restaurants. I'd say we were moving slowly on that\n\n318\n00:17:42.490 --> 00:17:43.000\nstuff.\n\n319\n00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:47.490\nAnd, you know, the bosses at Paulson were, you know, they called they asked me\n\n320\n00:17:47.490 --> 00:17:51.000\nright what's how are we doing on this what's the status on that so.\n\n321\n00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:55.430\nAt some point when you're making phone calls from New York to headquarters, it\n\n322\n00:17:55.430 --> 00:17:59.370\n's hard to get a good sense of how things are moving and how you can accelerate\n\n323\n00:17:59.370 --> 00:18:00.000\nthem.\n\n324\n00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.160\nSo I started going to Scottsdale and just spending time there to understand\n\n325\n00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:06.360\nwhere things were and try to move things along, you know, the CEO we hired an\n\n326\n00:18:06.360 --> 00:18:09.890\nAntioch who appreciated me being there I was able to take some things off his\n\n327\n00:18:09.890 --> 00:18:10.000\nplate.\n\n328\n00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.530\nAnd help him focus on core operations and I just moved forward with some of\n\n329\n00:18:14.530 --> 00:18:19.890\nthese initiatives. So, you know, you effectively asked me to step in as chief\n\n330\n00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:24.010\nstrategy officer to help him with some of these strategic initiatives so he\n\n331\n00:18:24.010 --> 00:18:25.000\nproposed that.\n\n332\n00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.440\nWhen we went to Paulson Paul said okay so I ended up working at both for about\n\n333\n00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:33.650\n12 months I'll fly out to Scottsdale every week and fly back to New York every\n\n334\n00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:35.000\nevery weekend.\n\n335\n00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:40.180\nAnd so I did that for a year with with Antiocho and it worked pretty well we\n\n336\n00:18:40.180 --> 00:18:44.000\nmade a lot of progress we got the delivery business really built up that year.\n\n337\n00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.020\nAnd then COVID hit, all the restaurants got shut down Antiocho stepped back you\n\n338\n00:18:48.020 --> 00:18:51.780\nknow the travel is going to be too much for him during COVID he was older, we\n\n339\n00:18:51.780 --> 00:18:54.000\nwere left without a CEO in the middle of COVID.\n\n340\n00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.900\nAnd the only part of the business that worked was the part that I had just\n\n341\n00:18:57.900 --> 00:19:02.010\nbuilt which is delivery business so ultimately Paulson asked me to step into\n\n342\n00:19:02.010 --> 00:19:03.000\nCEO and in COVID.\n\n343\n00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.390\nAntiocho recommended me versus hiring. So I stepped in in April 2020 a CEO and\n\n344\n00:19:08.390 --> 00:19:12.790\nI took over from there. And you got that job when you're 30 years old and and I\n\n345\n00:19:12.790 --> 00:19:17.000\n've noticed, you know, as I've done my research, you know, almost every time\n\n346\n00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.000\nyour name is mentioned in the\n\n347\n00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.600\nindustry it also lists the age that you're so young and you know how do you\n\n348\n00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:30.290\nthink about that. You know I don't much. I recognize, look, when I, when I,\n\n349\n00:19:30.290 --> 00:19:35.000\nwhen anything you do you need to recognize your strengths and your weaknesses.\n\n350\n00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:40.400\nYou know I have a lot of strengths but there's in this situation experience is\n\n351\n00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:44.270\nclearly a weakness. Right, there's people who've done it for 20 years and I had\n\n352\n00:19:44.270 --> 00:19:47.290\nnot so long as you can be a perfect candidate for anything there's always going\n\n353\n00:19:47.290 --> 00:19:49.000\nto be some area where you're weaker.\n\n354\n00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.670\nSo for me it's about recognizing that and accentuating your strengths and sh\n\n355\n00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:56.310\noring up your weaknesses so for me I had a ton of experience at the restaurants\n\n356\n00:19:56.310 --> 00:19:59.000\nat a ton of experience at the headquarters at a great COO.\n\n357\n00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:02.000\nSo I had experience around me so long as you're willing to listen to that that\n\n358\n00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:05.040\ncan become your own experience right so long as you're willing to engage with\n\n359\n00:20:05.040 --> 00:20:06.000\nthese people.\n\n360\n00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:09.630\nSo I never felt like there wasn't information, you know, if I didn't have it\n\n361\n00:20:09.630 --> 00:20:14.610\nmyself it was around me. And so my job was to align the team, build a strategy,\n\n362\n00:20:14.610 --> 00:20:20.560\nmotivate people, get things moving, empower the right people, promote the right\n\n363\n00:20:20.560 --> 00:20:21.000\npeople.\n\n364\n00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:24.480\nAnd so long as I was able to do that we built a great team and we're able to\n\n365\n00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:28.800\nmove the business forward. You know when you're the CEO the job doesn't care\n\n366\n00:20:28.800 --> 00:20:31.000\nhow old you are you own the results.\n\n367\n00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.770\nWhat's the moment early on that made you feel the full weight of that\n\n368\n00:20:34.770 --> 00:20:36.000\nresponsibility.\n\n369\n00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.960\nYeah I mean I knew the responsibility from the beginning you know I spent a lot\n\n370\n00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:43.590\nof time in the restaurant so you see a lot of people's livelihoods are\n\n371\n00:20:43.590 --> 00:20:47.000\ndependent on making successful decisions at headquarters.\n\n372\n00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.000\nYou understand the scale of it from you know I did at least from the beginning.\n\n373\n00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.810\nWith pressure in general if you're too worried about the pressure it takes away\n\n374\n00:20:54.810 --> 00:20:58.620\nclear thinking because you become stressed so you can't I think maybe a benefit\n\n375\n00:20:58.620 --> 00:21:02.730\nof playing sports you can recognize pressure and not let it affect your day to\n\n376\n00:21:02.730 --> 00:21:05.000\nday or your mentality.\n\n377\n00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.610\nRight you don't want pressure to force you into a mental corner where you're\n\n378\n00:21:08.610 --> 00:21:12.340\nmaking bad decisions because you're freaking out about the stakes you need to\n\n379\n00:21:12.340 --> 00:21:15.000\nmake decisions calmly regardless of the stakes.\n\n380\n00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.910\nSo so I recognized it but I don't I wouldn't say that it I tried just to make\n\n381\n00:21:19.910 --> 00:21:25.330\nclear common sense decisions think through what we knew what we didn't know get\n\n382\n00:21:25.330 --> 00:21:30.970\ninformation use data and just execute as well as we could regardless of the\n\n383\n00:21:30.970 --> 00:21:31.000\nstakes.\n\n384\n00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:35.480\nYou know almost every leader who's on a fast track will tell you one of the\n\n385\n00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:39.810\nmost difficult challenges they have is is to learn how to manage people that\n\n386\n00:21:39.810 --> 00:21:43.000\nare older and more experienced than than they are.\n\n387\n00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.750\nWhat kind of coaching you can you give people on on how to do that because you\n\n388\n00:21:46.750 --> 00:21:49.000\n've obviously been able to navigate it.\n\n389\n00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:52.580\nYeah look I'd say that people have followed young leaders since the beginning\n\n390\n00:21:52.580 --> 00:21:56.000\nof time it's not like a new thing you know Alexander Alexander was 28.\n\n391\n00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:59.970\nJulius Caesar was young when he was a leader like there's been young leaders\n\n392\n00:21:59.970 --> 00:22:04.000\nand people are fine with it if they respect the person so a lot of it is about.\n\n393\n00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:08.960\nDo they respect the person if a person's young but they feel like is capable\n\n394\n00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:14.420\nintelligent makes good decisions has good judgment there they will follow right\n\n395\n00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:17.000\nbecause they respect the person.\n\n396\n00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.490\nSo a lot of leadership no matter your age is self improvement it's becoming the\n\n397\n00:22:21.490 --> 00:22:25.670\nbest version of yourself so that people are willing to follow you is number one\n\n398\n00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:26.000\n.\n\n399\n00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:29.630\nAnd then number two I'd say if you're defensive people feel that and they\n\n400\n00:22:29.630 --> 00:22:33.590\nwonder why you're not confident in yourself it sort of betrays that you might\n\n401\n00:22:33.590 --> 00:22:37.490\nbe lacking right because they wonder if you don't trust yourself why should\n\n402\n00:22:37.490 --> 00:22:39.000\nthey trust you.\n\n403\n00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:44.410\nSo defensiveness or blatant self doubt will make it harder for people to follow\n\n404\n00:22:44.410 --> 00:22:45.000\nyou.\n\n405\n00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:51.340\nSo you need to sort of develop confidence the final thing I'd say is include\n\n406\n00:22:51.340 --> 00:22:54.000\npeople and empower people.\n\n407\n00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.280\nIf you come in and you're young and you don't have a ton of experience but you\n\n408\n00:22:57.280 --> 00:23:01.010\n're listening to people you're including people you're incorporating people they\n\n409\n00:23:01.010 --> 00:23:04.000\nfeel heard they feel like they're helping shape the direction.\n\n410\n00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.190\nIt's a lot easier to lead that way and you still own the decisions you know and\n\n411\n00:23:08.190 --> 00:23:11.980\nso you have to but you're confident that you own the decision so you're not\n\n412\n00:23:11.980 --> 00:23:14.000\nafraid to be debated or to debate or listen to people.\n\n413\n00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.900\nSo you engage you incorporate them and ultimately you take the decision because\n\n414\n00:23:18.900 --> 00:23:20.000\nthat is your role.\n\n415\n00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.640\nYou know is there one mindset or habit that you have that you really think\n\n416\n00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:29.210\nhelped you rise above all the noise of age I mean you just gave some great\n\n417\n00:23:29.210 --> 00:23:33.510\ncoaching there but if you had to look at yourself and you said okay what's the\n\n418\n00:23:33.510 --> 00:23:35.000\none thing you did to really\n\n419\n00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:40.490\ndemonstrate to people that you were you you may not be the oldest guy in the\n\n420\n00:23:40.490 --> 00:23:45.000\nroom but you were the right guy to be able to lead the company.\n\n421\n00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.530\nYeah look I'd say that number one I never felt like I was the right guy I did\n\n422\n00:23:49.530 --> 00:23:54.890\nit out of necessity the business was failing it was it was middle of COVID the\n\n423\n00:23:54.890 --> 00:23:59.160\nrestaurants were shut down it was my deal and somebody had to go save it and I\n\n424\n00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:00.000\nwas best positioned to do that.\n\n425\n00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.900\nRight so I went in there not out of some like I'm here to save the day because\n\n426\n00:24:03.900 --> 00:24:07.780\nI'm annoyed by God but it needs to be done and I'm the only one that can kind\n\n427\n00:24:07.780 --> 00:24:11.000\nof do it right now so I'll come in here and we'll get it done.\n\n428\n00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:14.000\nSo you know that was my perspective.\n\n429\n00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.580\nAnd so I think because of that I wasn't coming in to like have people worship\n\n430\n00:24:17.580 --> 00:24:20.840\nme I came in and put you know put the hard hat on and we're in the trenches\n\n431\n00:24:20.840 --> 00:24:22.000\nright from day one.\n\n432\n00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.890\nSo you know I was in the trenches with the team we're trying to survive we're\n\n433\n00:24:25.890 --> 00:24:28.000\ntrying to make decisions quickly.\n\n434\n00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.000\nSo there wasn't there was never a moment where I had to like convince people I\n\n435\n00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:33.000\njust came in and people were ready to go to work.\n\n436\n00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.670\nAnd they knew me to be fair I spent a year there almost every week so they knew\n\n437\n00:24:37.670 --> 00:24:41.000\nI was you know a serious person and a capable person.\n\n438\n00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.640\nBut but at the same time it wasn't there wasn't a lot of time so it was you\n\n439\n00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:49.720\nknow you get in you roll up your sleeves you go and you know people get on\n\n440\n00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:53.570\nboard and if they don't then you know you have you have to just address that\n\n441\n00:24:53.570 --> 00:24:54.000\ntoo right like\n\n442\n00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.490\nthere's not a lot of time to have people not following you but it's easier when\n\n443\n00:24:58.490 --> 00:25:02.560\npeople want to follow you so coming in and incorporating people is the best way\n\n444\n00:25:02.560 --> 00:25:03.000\nto do that.\n\n445\n00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:10.000\nAnd you were CEO of PF Chang for almost five years had excellent success there.\n\n446\n00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:13.000\nHow did you find your way to Red Lobster what was that process.\n\n447\n00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:18.920\nI wanted a more difficult challenge I found the hardest one possible is what it\n\n448\n00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:20.000\nends up being.\n\n449\n00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.000\nThat's what everybody's told me when I say I'm interviewing you today.\n\n450\n00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:30.030\nYou would even take that job. Yeah it's exactly no it's a difficult challenge\n\n451\n00:25:30.030 --> 00:25:34.790\nand I'm not I don't want to understate the difficulty that the company was in\n\n452\n00:25:34.790 --> 00:25:36.000\nwhen we took over.\n\n453\n00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:40.880\nBut you know for me after the success of PF Chang's you know I went back on the\n\n454\n00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:46.000\ninvesting side and you know was approached by the folks who owned Red Lobster.\n\n455\n00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:51.400\nAnd you know what I saw was a company that was in worse situation than Chang's\n\n456\n00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:56.620\nfor sure it was in bankruptcy sales had tumbled during the bankruptcy lease\n\n457\n00:25:56.620 --> 00:26:01.000\nissues from the sale lease back some bad stores you know etc.\n\n458\n00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:05.440\nYou know you've been here everything you can imagine on the on the on the\n\n459\n00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:06.000\nnegative side.\n\n460\n00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:09.990\nBut it had a couple positives right it had a brand that people loved that was\n\n461\n00:26:09.990 --> 00:26:12.000\niconic that had a ton of history.\n\n462\n00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.000\nIt had a followership that wanted to see the company succeed.\n\n463\n00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:19.150\nAnd I thought it could be an opportunity to do something you know incredible\n\n464\n00:26:19.150 --> 00:26:22.000\nand save this company that's mattered so much for so many people.\n\n465\n00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.580\nYou know when I took the job I wasn't under an impression that it'd be easy and\n\n466\n00:26:25.580 --> 00:26:29.800\nit hasn't been but we've made a lot of progress and we'll try our best to make\n\n467\n00:26:29.800 --> 00:26:32.000\nthis a successful outcome.\n\n468\n00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:37.390\nDid the fact that a lot of people see Red Lobster as a as a as a dinosaur did\n\n469\n00:26:37.390 --> 00:26:42.000\nthat just really motivate you want to take the job even more.\n\n470\n00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:49.160\nNo not more or less I'd say that I look it's there's a lot to be done to\n\n471\n00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:52.810\nimprove the guest experience when you're starting to place where not much has\n\n472\n00:26:52.810 --> 00:26:54.000\nbeen done recently.\n\n473\n00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.440\nIt's a lot of opportunity to be better and a lot of low hanging fruit to\n\n474\n00:26:58.440 --> 00:27:02.830\nimprove the guest experience for sure because not much had there hadn't been a\n\n475\n00:27:02.830 --> 00:27:07.000\nlot of emphasis placed on that by the people on this company before us.\n\n476\n00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.490\nThat's an opportunity but at the same time that's a you know it's it's a it's a\n\n477\n00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:15.540\nchallenge because of how much there is to do right and where do you invest your\n\n478\n00:27:15.540 --> 00:27:20.240\ntime and where do you start and how do you organize the sequence of things that\n\n479\n00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:21.000\nneed to be done.\n\n480\n00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:24.900\nYeah it's a you know blessing in a curse in a way but we've been able to kind\n\n481\n00:27:24.900 --> 00:27:29.000\nof chip away at it and make some improvements and we'll keep doing that.\n\n482\n00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.430\nAnd yeah you have to you know figure out where you're going to spend your time\n\n483\n00:27:33.430 --> 00:27:37.450\nand you know the the problem with a lot of leaders when they get in turnaround\n\n484\n00:27:37.450 --> 00:27:42.000\nsituations there's a temptation to try to fix everything at once.\n\n485\n00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:46.960\nAnd you know what's been your approach to how to prioritize what you can\n\n486\n00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:49.000\nactually do and execute.\n\n487\n00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:52.900\nYeah look I mean I start with the guest experience you know as you know you you\n\n488\n00:27:52.900 --> 00:27:56.830\ncome from young which is a place that has done a tremendous job focusing on the\n\n489\n00:27:56.830 --> 00:27:58.000\nguest over time.\n\n490\n00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.350\nYou know you start with the guest experience and understanding what's most\n\n491\n00:28:01.350 --> 00:28:04.000\nimportant there and what you can most affect quickly.\n\n492\n00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.440\nSo for us there's a lot to fix but service and hospitality was an area where we\n\n493\n00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:12.560\ncould make a change quickly and we did some things that changed that were very\n\n494\n00:28:12.560 --> 00:28:17.570\neffective and my COO who came from Brinker did some things there that were very\n\n495\n00:28:17.570 --> 00:28:18.000\neffective.\n\n496\n00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.820\nSo we're able to build a plan around service and hospitality quickly and roll\n\n497\n00:28:21.820 --> 00:28:25.680\nthat out quickly which was a tremendous win we call it red carpet hospitality\n\n498\n00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:28.000\nred being recognized engage and delight.\n\n499\n00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:31.020\nAnd there's somebody greeting them at the host and to recognize them right or\n\n500\n00:28:31.020 --> 00:28:33.910\nor you walk past a guest instead of just kind of putting your head down and\n\n501\n00:28:33.910 --> 00:28:35.000\nshuffling your feet.\n\n502\n00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.490\nYou wave at them if they're within a certain distance or say 10 foot roll you\n\n503\n00:28:39.490 --> 00:28:43.480\ngreet them and four feet you speak to them hello are you anything I can help\n\n504\n00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:47.480\nyou with right so trying to just make it more hospitable make it feel like you\n\n505\n00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.000\n're taking care of guests in your home.\n\n506\n00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:53.760\nSo it's recognized engage when you're at the tables serving a table engaging\n\n507\n00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:57.590\nwith them understand is it their birthday what's going on and speaking with\n\n508\n00:28:57.590 --> 00:28:59.000\nthem engaging with them.\n\n509\n00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.000\nAnd then delight right finding opportunities to go above and beyond right when\n\n510\n00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:05.000\nyou recognize there's something you can do that's going to make their day.\n\n511\n00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.620\nSo, you know we we rolled out a program around that some stuff on the menu we\n\n512\n00:29:09.620 --> 00:29:14.220\n're able to do quickly rolled out some cool new items like the seafood boils\n\n513\n00:29:14.220 --> 00:29:16.000\nwhich launched in June.\n\n514\n00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:20.400\nSo yeah, but there's still lots to do we got to remodel the restaurants they're\n\n515\n00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:24.000\nstill old right that's that's a capital question and a time question.\n\n516\n00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:28.690\nDo more with I want to get more value on the menu it's a hard hit consumer and\n\n517\n00:29:28.690 --> 00:29:32.000\nvalue matters a lot and we can do better there.\n\n518\n00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:35.250\nSo there's we've done some things there's lots more to do but you try to just\n\n519\n00:29:35.250 --> 00:29:38.000\nrank them in terms of importance and ease of execution.\n\n520\n00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:42.680\nCan you tell us the story about a decision you've already made that was really\n\n521\n00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:47.000\nreally hard to do and wasn't necessarily the most popular thing to do.\n\n522\n00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:50.750\nWell I'll say that the menu decisions are always tricky because you're trying\n\n523\n00:29:50.750 --> 00:29:54.590\nto keep the menu simple and innovate at the same time so anything you possibly\n\n524\n00:29:54.590 --> 00:29:57.880\nwant to simplify is going to affect some people so you try to just make the\n\n525\n00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:00.000\nbest decisions you can there.\n\n526\n00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.330\nBut I'll say what's rewarding is on the flip side is when you come in with an\n\n527\n00:30:03.330 --> 00:30:06.820\nitem that you're not sure how well it's going to perform and it performs out of\n\n528\n00:30:06.820 --> 00:30:10.240\nthe out of the out of the box well right like our seafood boils that we\n\n529\n00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:11.000\nlaunched in June.\n\n530\n00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.400\nSo the trade there's always trade-offs with menu if you just add and never\n\n531\n00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:17.920\nsubtract it gets large but anything you consider it is going to be it's going\n\n532\n00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:21.000\nto be a tough decision right because it's on there for a reason.\n\n533\n00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:26.420\nNow you you're predicting and this is a bold one you know but I read where you\n\n534\n00:30:26.420 --> 00:30:31.610\n're predicting that this will be I quote the greatest comeback story in\n\n535\n00:30:31.610 --> 00:30:34.000\nrestaurant history you know.\n\n536\n00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:37.580\nYeah they always take that part of the quote but they forget the first part I\n\n537\n00:30:37.580 --> 00:30:39.000\nsaid if we're successful.\n\n538\n00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:43.920\nOh if we're successful and I say that just because of where the company started\n\n539\n00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:48.070\nright it started in such a depressed state that if we're successful I think it\n\n540\n00:30:48.070 --> 00:30:51.000\nwould be I've never read about a company that would have come back from the\n\n541\n00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:51.000\nsituation\n\n542\n00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:57.890\nthat would have been to be successful. Yeah and why did you why did you go\n\n543\n00:30:57.890 --> 00:31:00.890\npublic with with a statement like that because people do cut off maybe that\n\n544\n00:31:00.890 --> 00:31:02.000\nlittle the little caveat.\n\n545\n00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:05.340\nWell it's it's true I just live in the world of truth you know I don't mind\n\n546\n00:31:05.340 --> 00:31:07.000\nsaying things that are true.\n\n547\n00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:10.020\nAnd I've said that to the team too if we can succeed here then it'd be the\n\n548\n00:31:10.020 --> 00:31:13.460\ngreatest comeback in restaurant history as far as I'm aware that I think that's\n\n549\n00:31:13.460 --> 00:31:14.000\ntrue.\n\n550\n00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:17.970\nThat's all but but it's no guarantees of success we have to work hard there's a\n\n551\n00:31:17.970 --> 00:31:21.690\nlot of things to do you know these are the other things I say that aren't as\n\n552\n00:31:21.690 --> 00:31:23.000\nquotable perhaps.\n\n553\n00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.910\nBut it's day by day and that is the goal that is the price right so it's about\n\n554\n00:31:27.910 --> 00:31:30.000\ntaking it one day at a time.\n\n555\n00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.440\nYou know I've been in turnaround situations before and it can feel a little\n\n556\n00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:38.000\nlonely obviously and there's a lot of weight on your shoulders.\n\n557\n00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:42.800\nBut you got to go in every day energized you know and giving people a sense\n\n558\n00:31:42.800 --> 00:31:46.000\nthat you know you can actually get this done.\n\n559\n00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:50.000\nWhat do you do to do that is that important to you or.\n\n560\n00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:53.180\nYeah people it is important you know that because you've let some you've let\n\n561\n00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:56.000\nsome great companies but people watch you every day as you know.\n\n562\n00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.060\nAnd the attitude you come in with the demeanor you come in with is noticed\n\n563\n00:32:00.060 --> 00:32:04.080\nright so what I try to do is be even keel because if I try to come in like high\n\n564\n00:32:04.080 --> 00:32:07.000\nenergy you can't sustain that so some days you'll succeed and some days you'll\n\n565\n00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:07.000\nlook like you dropped off.\n\n566\n00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:11.080\nSo I don't try to be any different but I try to come in even I try to come in\n\n567\n00:32:11.080 --> 00:32:12.000\nas myself.\n\n568\n00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.650\nI try to be positive but I also try to be realistic and honest about\n\n569\n00:32:15.650 --> 00:32:21.940\ndifficulties and challenges right so that way you're kind of moving at even\n\n570\n00:32:21.940 --> 00:32:27.690\nversus spiking super excited one day and then down the next day because you can\n\n571\n00:32:27.690 --> 00:32:28.000\n't maintain\n\n572\n00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.320\neveryday some super hyped up positive energy you got to be you got to be\n\n573\n00:32:31.320 --> 00:32:33.000\nyourself and you have to be even.\n\n574\n00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:36.650\nThat's a great insight and you know and anytime I've ever gone into a\n\n575\n00:32:36.650 --> 00:32:41.830\nturnaround situation I've always found that morale is usually down and people\n\n576\n00:32:41.830 --> 00:32:43.000\nlack belief.\n\n577\n00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:46.000\nHow do you get people to believe again.\n\n578\n00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:49.940\nWell you show a path right and again I try not to guarantee victory because it\n\n579\n00:32:49.940 --> 00:32:54.000\n's not guaranteed and this this was a super challenged company so there's a lot\n\n580\n00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:56.000\nof ways where things could go wrong.\n\n581\n00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:00.440\nBut at the same time you show a path to success right like how could things go\n\n582\n00:33:00.440 --> 00:33:02.000\nright and how could we win.\n\n583\n00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.000\nRight and that's the that's what you try to zero people in on is how to win.\n\n584\n00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:11.480\nRight and it's not simple it's not you know it's not without risk it's not\n\n585\n00:33:11.480 --> 00:33:15.260\nstraightforward in a situation like this but there is a path to victory and you\n\n586\n00:33:15.260 --> 00:33:17.000\nshow them that and you try to walk that path.\n\n587\n00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:21.650\nRight and when things go wrong I think you got to be honest right and say there\n\n588\n00:33:21.650 --> 00:33:26.170\n's we have to make these changes and there's a challenge and we have to make\n\n589\n00:33:26.170 --> 00:33:30.660\nsome adjustments so you try to communicate honestly but at the same time keep\n\n590\n00:33:30.660 --> 00:33:32.000\non a path towards\n\n591\n00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.000\na potential win and and then celebrate the small wins right because it's hard\n\n592\n00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:39.980\nto wait till you're at the end of the mountain if something small goes well I\n\n593\n00:33:39.980 --> 00:33:44.000\nthink it's good to celebrate that and let the teams feel good about it.\n\n594\n00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.000\nAbsolutely can you give an example of when you've done that.\n\n595\n00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:50.900\nYeah look I mean I think the seafood bowls were a really good win and I wanted\n\n596\n00:33:50.900 --> 00:33:54.710\nthe culinary team to take pride in that so in my town hall I shouted them out\n\n597\n00:33:54.710 --> 00:33:58.000\nand all the work that went into it and how well it performed.\n\n598\n00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:01.720\nRight so that's one example and then there's you know it's not all it's not a\n\n599\n00:34:01.720 --> 00:34:05.590\nit's not a straight line up right and it's a lot of times it's jagged there's\n\n600\n00:34:05.590 --> 00:34:07.000\nwins and there's setbacks.\n\n601\n00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:11.530\nAnd so you want to acknowledge the setbacks and correct course and you want to\n\n602\n00:34:11.530 --> 00:34:16.000\ncelebrate the wins where you can so people feel like there's progress.\n\n603\n00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:19.000\nSo you have to you have to do both.\n\n604\n00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.900\nYou know everybody knows how important culture is the work environment is not\n\n605\n00:34:22.900 --> 00:34:27.000\nonly in every restaurant you have but within your restaurant support center and\n\n606\n00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:31.000\nyou know you're as a CEO you're you're building this culture.\n\n607\n00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:35.490\nWhat's the what's the single biggest thing that you're really trying to drive\n\n608\n00:34:35.490 --> 00:34:40.000\nfrom a behavioral standpoint within the company to turn the business around.\n\n609\n00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.910\nWell I think in this company one of the things we can do better is is be more\n\n610\n00:34:44.910 --> 00:34:47.000\nis be scrapier be quicker.\n\n611\n00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:51.010\nYou know it's a company that came from a large large company right this used to\n\n612\n00:34:51.010 --> 00:34:52.000\nbe part of Darden.\n\n613\n00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:55.720\nAnd it was the biggest brand in Darden so there was a you know when you're at\n\n614\n00:34:55.720 --> 00:34:59.000\nthat scale there's a certain bureaucracy that takes hold.\n\n615\n00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:02.000\nWe're just not that company anymore right this company's been bankrupt it's\n\n616\n00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:04.000\nshed a lot of locations it's shed a lot of value.\n\n617\n00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.000\nIt's small now relative to what it used to be.\n\n618\n00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:11.440\nSo now it's time to act like a smaller company and do things more quickly to\n\n619\n00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:14.000\ntry to create value and create momentum.\n\n620\n00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:19.000\nYou know that's a cultural shift as much as it is any sort of directive.\n\n621\n00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:22.900\nSo it takes time and I think we're better now than we're a year ago but it's\n\n622\n00:35:22.900 --> 00:35:25.000\nalways you know it's always progress.\n\n623\n00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.490\nHow much of the past do you feel like you have to hold on to to go into the\n\n624\n00:35:29.490 --> 00:35:30.000\nfuture?\n\n625\n00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:35.000\nWell you need to hold on to what's made the company great over time.\n\n626\n00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:38.000\nYou know you can't overnight try to change what the company is.\n\n627\n00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:40.000\nThere's a lot that you hold on to.\n\n628\n00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:42.000\nYou'd start the interview with the Cheddar Bay Biscuits.\n\n629\n00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:44.000\nWell hold on to that.\n\n630\n00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.000\nYou know hold on to the things that made the company great that people love\n\n631\n00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:51.000\nright and try to innovate where we can while maintaining the court.\n\n632\n00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:56.000\nAnd you innovate it as you mentioned with the seafood boils this summer.\n\n633\n00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:02.580\nWhat did that rollout teach you about listening to and then responding to\n\n634\n00:36:02.580 --> 00:36:04.000\ncustomers?\n\n635\n00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:08.000\nYeah look we had a big viral rollout right and it was again not by accident.\n\n636\n00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:12.440\nIt's a really great job by our culinary and marketing teams to identify the\n\n637\n00:36:12.440 --> 00:36:14.000\nopportunity and execute against it.\n\n638\n00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:17.480\nWe tested it of course but what we didn't test or anticipate is how many new\n\n639\n00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:20.000\nguests came in that weren't part of our customers set before.\n\n640\n00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.490\nSo we attracted a brand new guest of people who like love seafood boils and try\n\n641\n00:36:24.490 --> 00:36:26.000\nthem in all their local places.\n\n642\n00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:28.000\nSo the expectation level there is just different.\n\n643\n00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:31.890\nAnd so we noticed that quickly and there was people that wanted it to be more\n\n644\n00:36:31.890 --> 00:36:33.000\nspicy for example.\n\n645\n00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:37.490\nSo I pushed the team to deliver on what we could quickly to satisfy these\n\n646\n00:36:37.490 --> 00:36:38.000\npeople.\n\n647\n00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:40.000\nThese new guests that we had brought in.\n\n648\n00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.000\nSo we made some changes a few weeks later just to give people options.\n\n649\n00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:45.000\nThe spicy option and the extra spicy option.\n\n650\n00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:46.000\nWe did that within two weeks.\n\n651\n00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:50.490\nRight so you know that was a quick reaction to what we the feedback we got\n\n652\n00:36:50.490 --> 00:36:54.890\nright away and you can't always do that of course but when the moment calls for\n\n653\n00:36:54.890 --> 00:36:58.000\nit and it's important enough and we can move quickly enough then.\n\n654\n00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:00.000\nYou know we tried to we tried to deliver that.\n\n655\n00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.410\nWell that's a great example of your scrappy culture that I commend you guys on\n\n656\n00:37:04.410 --> 00:37:08.550\nthat it's fantastic you know and something else happened this summer and I know\n\n657\n00:37:08.550 --> 00:37:09.000\nyou're.\n\n658\n00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.830\nreputed to be an avid learner and and you know cracker barrel got a lot of\n\n659\n00:37:13.830 --> 00:37:18.000\npeople's attention trying to re reimagine their brand.\n\n660\n00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:23.570\nThey had to pull back after getting so much backlash and what were you thinking\n\n661\n00:37:23.570 --> 00:37:25.000\nand what were you.\n\n662\n00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.020\nYou know observing as you watched all that go down as it relates to what you're\n\n663\n00:37:29.020 --> 00:37:31.000\ngoing to be doing at Red Lobster.\n\n664\n00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:35.490\nI mean a lot a lot right we watch that you watch you watch the competition\n\n665\n00:37:35.490 --> 00:37:40.000\nclosely watch others and what they're doing what's working what's not.\n\n666\n00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:43.990\nBut you know in that I think it appeared to us from the outside and of course I\n\n667\n00:37:43.990 --> 00:37:47.980\ndon't have all the facts but from the outside it appeared to just be a bit of a\n\n668\n00:37:47.980 --> 00:37:53.000\ndisconnect with the core consumer in terms of what they were expecting and what\n\n669\n00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:55.000\nthe direction the leaders wanted to take the\n\n670\n00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.880\nconnection to their brand and perhaps that's the right endpoint but perhaps\n\n671\n00:37:59.880 --> 00:38:02.590\nthey moved too quickly and weren't considered enough about how people might\n\n672\n00:38:02.590 --> 00:38:03.000\nreact to it.\n\n673\n00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:06.820\nSo it seemed like a slight disconnect or maybe more than slight based on the\n\n674\n00:38:06.820 --> 00:38:11.000\nbacklash but you know they course corrected now I'd say but leading up to the\n\n675\n00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:12.000\ncourse correction.\n\n676\n00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:15.810\nThere's perhaps some communication that could have taken place to ease the\n\n677\n00:38:15.810 --> 00:38:19.590\nbacklash but eventually they got there and they pulled back and it seems to\n\n678\n00:38:19.590 --> 00:38:23.000\nhave all quieted down so you know they seem to have managed it well at the end\n\n679\n00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:24.000\nbut.\n\n680\n00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:26.900\nSo quickly do you want to move how much change you want to impose and how much\n\n681\n00:38:26.900 --> 00:38:29.920\nare you listening to your guest in the interim to make sure that you're doing\n\n682\n00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:31.000\nthings the right way.\n\n683\n00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:34.720\nDid you and your team get together and talk about that and try to codify the\n\n684\n00:38:34.720 --> 00:38:38.660\nlearnings or is this just something you kind of packed in the back of your head\n\n685\n00:38:38.660 --> 00:38:39.000\n.\n\n686\n00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:42.660\nNo we talk all the time right so we talk about it you know not just the bad but\n\n687\n00:38:42.660 --> 00:38:45.000\nthe good people who are doing things well.\n\n688\n00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.570\nYou know this is part of ongoing observation and communication so it's yeah we\n\n689\n00:38:49.570 --> 00:38:53.000\nare we're constantly watching and learning where we can.\n\n690\n00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:56.000\nAnd everybody these days is talking about AI.\n\n691\n00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:01.910\nWhat's something about AI that that has made you maybe stop doing as you're\n\n692\n00:39:01.910 --> 00:39:08.000\nleading the brand and maybe something that it's allowing you to start doing.\n\n693\n00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:13.000\nIt's a large degree it has already so it'd be silly to ignore it.\n\n694\n00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:19.380\nFor us I encourage people to use it in their day to day work we have a license\n\n695\n00:39:19.380 --> 00:39:25.000\nvia our technology provider so people should use it to be better at their jobs\n\n696\n00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.000\nit helps with a variety of things that you do day to day for everybody.\n\n697\n00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.000\nSo I'm heavy on encouraging people to use it.\n\n698\n00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:36.020\nWe haven't implemented an organizational use case for it in terms of what's the\n\n699\n00:39:36.020 --> 00:39:39.980\nthing that we do as a company that AI could replace but there's a lot of people\n\n700\n00:39:39.980 --> 00:39:41.000\nworking on that.\n\n701\n00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:45.490\nA lot of our partners are working on that inventory management labor scheduling\n\n702\n00:39:45.490 --> 00:39:47.000\nguest comment management.\n\n703\n00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:50.670\nSo there's a lot of use cases that I expect in the near term AI will become\n\n704\n00:39:50.670 --> 00:39:54.590\nmore and more a part of I think a lot of that will happen through our partners\n\n705\n00:39:54.590 --> 00:39:57.000\nand they'll provide solutions for us to use.\n\n706\n00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:00.890\nVersus us developing it in a house but nonetheless I think it's going to be\n\n707\n00:40:00.890 --> 00:40:03.000\nmore and more part of our business.\n\n708\n00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:07.880\nAnd for you personally how are you using AI right now to make you more\n\n709\n00:40:07.880 --> 00:40:09.000\neffective.\n\n710\n00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:12.410\nYeah like I said you can use you can it can help you with a variety of tasks I\n\n711\n00:40:12.410 --> 00:40:16.590\nthink a lot of administrative and organizational tasks it's good for a lot of\n\n712\n00:40:16.590 --> 00:40:18.000\nresearch it's good for.\n\n713\n00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:23.040\nTo you know pull comb the internet and pull research on a particular topic it's\n\n714\n00:40:23.040 --> 00:40:27.780\ngood for so I use it I think most people that I know use it in some capacity\n\n715\n00:40:27.780 --> 00:40:31.000\nand it's a it's a I think a wise thing to do because it's here to stay.\n\n716\n00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:34.120\nWell this has been a lot of fun and and I want to have some more with my\n\n717\n00:40:34.120 --> 00:40:37.000\nlightning round of questions are you ready for this.\n\n718\n00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000\nSo rock and roll.\n\n719\n00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:40.000\nThe three words that best describe you.\n\n720\n00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:41.000\nBold.\n\n721\n00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:42.000\nEmpathetic.\n\n722\n00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:43.000\nDecisive.\n\n723\n00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:47.000\nIf you could be one person for a day beside yourself who would it be.\n\n724\n00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:49.000\nYou know Tom let's go Tom Brady.\n\n725\n00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:51.000\nWhat's your biggest pet peeve.\n\n726\n00:40:51.000 --> 00:40:55.430\nI don't like dishonesty I think not accepting truth is a mistake and when I see\n\n727\n00:40:55.430 --> 00:40:58.000\nit I try to tell people to live in the truth.\n\n728\n00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:03.000\nWho would play you in a movie.\n\n729\n00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:05.000\nI don't know.\n\n730\n00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:08.000\nLet's do a little smith you played the stockbroker in that one movie.\n\n731\n00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:11.900\nWhat's something you missed the most about Nigeria if you if you remember it\n\n732\n00:41:11.900 --> 00:41:14.000\nsaid you left at nine years old or do you go back.\n\n733\n00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:21.000\nNigerians generally are just a very kind of warm culture it's very connected.\n\n734\n00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:28.380\nAnd you know it's it's it's a it's a it's a nice thing to be a part of if\n\n735\n00:41:28.380 --> 00:41:32.000\nanybody has a chance to visit Lagos I'd encourage it you'll be welcomed.\n\n736\n00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:36.440\nPeople are very kind and very loving and it's a great culture to be to be\n\n737\n00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:37.000\nsurrounded by.\n\n738\n00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:42.000\nWhat's your personal record for cheddar bay biscuits eaten in a single setting.\n\n739\n00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:46.410\nOh I mean sometimes I'm there for a long time all day with it with the team so\n\n740\n00:41:46.410 --> 00:41:49.000\nif I count that as one setting it's going to be a big number.\n\n741\n00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:53.050\nIt's going to be let's say it'll be over a dozen across a couple meals it'll be\n\n742\n00:41:53.050 --> 00:41:55.000\nit'll be in the dozen couple dozen.\n\n743\n00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:00.540\nDo we have a cheddar bay biscuits a national contest coming like Nathan's hot\n\n744\n00:42:00.540 --> 00:42:01.000\ndogs.\n\n745\n00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:04.610\nOkay I think that's a good idea we're gonna name it after you we're gonna roll\n\n746\n00:42:04.610 --> 00:42:05.000\nthat out.\n\n747\n00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:08.000\nI had to give you one idea you know.\n\n748\n00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:11.580\nWhat's something you've been curious about lately that has nothing to do with\n\n749\n00:42:11.580 --> 00:42:12.000\nwork.\n\n750\n00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:18.530\nYou know I'm curious about I think we have a lot of difficulty in certain\n\n751\n00:42:18.530 --> 00:42:22.240\nsegments of the consumer and this has to do with work but it also has to do\n\n752\n00:42:22.240 --> 00:42:26.350\nwith the socio-political climate that we live in which I think is tied to the\n\n753\n00:42:26.350 --> 00:42:27.000\neconomic climate.\n\n754\n00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:30.310\nSo understanding what young people are living through right now and people you\n\n755\n00:42:30.310 --> 00:42:33.370\nknow call me young of course I'm talking about the people graduating from\n\n756\n00:42:33.370 --> 00:42:37.450\ncollege now and what their opportunities are and how it's affecting them socio\n\n757\n00:42:37.450 --> 00:42:42.000\npolitically especially to try to understand what it means for our future.\n\n758\n00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:47.000\nSo that's a curiosity that I think it's work related but not totally.\n\n759\n00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:49.000\nWhat's the one thing you do just for you.\n\n760\n00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:52.930\nI'm just trying to figure out every morning and so I think that's for me that's\n\n761\n00:42:52.930 --> 00:42:56.790\nthat's you know you say how do I come in every morning with energy by staying\n\n762\n00:42:56.790 --> 00:43:00.000\ntrying to stay fit stay active and you'll have more energy.\n\n763\n00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:01.000\nI agree with that.\n\n764\n00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:05.000\nBesides your family and friends what's your most prized possession.\n\n765\n00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:07.590\nI don't think much about possessions to be honest I like my house my house is\n\n766\n00:43:07.590 --> 00:43:08.000\ngreat.\n\n767\n00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:11.000\nIf I turn on the radio in your car what would I hear.\n\n768\n00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:14.380\nJazz music these days I'm again they say I'm young but I'm an old man just\n\n769\n00:43:14.380 --> 00:43:18.000\nlisten to my jazz and relax that's kind of most of what I'm listening to.\n\n770\n00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.000\nAnd why is beyond your ears what's something about you few people would know.\n\n771\n00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:27.000\nFor me it's just I like to just make it clear to people that I had a normal\n\n772\n00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:30.880\nhigh school pre high school upbringing I like to make it clear that anybody can\n\n773\n00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:33.710\nachieve anything so not that they would know or wouldn't know but I like to be\n\n774\n00:43:33.710 --> 00:43:36.000\nclear that I didn't come from any sort of special\n\n775\n00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:39.000\nbackground in terms of what I'm aside from good parents and a good household\n\n776\n00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:42.000\nbut people should feel like anything is possible and what I'm doing is\n\n777\n00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:46.000\navailable to them and and the world is their oyster.\n\n778\n00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:51.400\nWhat's your work out what's one of your daily rituals that you you you never\n\n779\n00:43:51.400 --> 00:43:52.000\nmiss.\n\n780\n00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:58.300\nThis isn't daily so don't send a group to have an intervention but I like to\n\n781\n00:43:58.300 --> 00:44:03.000\nsmoke cigars and probably most days I'll have a cigar.\n\n782\n00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:07.490\nI can't handle that that's one thing I can't do I'm happy you can but I'm not I\n\n783\n00:44:07.490 --> 00:44:12.000\n'm not mad enough for the cigars you know that's my that's my thing I know.\n\n784\n00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:16.490\nWe're out of the lightning round grid good job appreciate I got a few more\n\n785\n00:44:16.490 --> 00:44:20.880\nquestions now you said yes to to P.F. Chang's and now you're doing it at Red\n\n786\n00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:24.000\nLobster you're you're celebrating the small wins but you got.\n\n787\n00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:29.000\nYou've admittedly said you got a ways to go and it's not going to be easy.\n\n788\n00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:33.490\nWhat do you like so much about doing things that are hard because you're not\n\n789\n00:44:33.490 --> 00:44:35.000\ntaking it the easy way.\n\n790\n00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:38.410\nI like challenges you know and there's no there's no way to live like a super\n\n791\n00:44:38.410 --> 00:44:41.000\nimpactful life without going through hard things.\n\n792\n00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:43.850\nI just don't I just don't I don't think there's ways to make impact without\n\n793\n00:44:43.850 --> 00:44:48.000\nsubjecting yourself to some degree of difficulty because by definition the most\n\n794\n00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:51.000\nimpactful things are the hardest things if they were easy everybody would do\n\n795\n00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:51.000\nthem.\n\n796\n00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:55.580\nSo I don't mind if there's a upside case or reward to it I don't mind I don't\n\n797\n00:44:55.580 --> 00:45:00.730\nmind putting myself through something difficult and you're not guaranteed to\n\n798\n00:45:00.730 --> 00:45:04.000\nwin either and people need to recognize that you're not guaranteed anything in\n\n799\n00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:04.000\nlife.\n\n800\n00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:08.490\nSo you do your best you try your best to win it's not a guarantee but you take\n\n801\n00:45:08.490 --> 00:45:12.000\nall the challenges and you let it turn out as best as I can.\n\n802\n00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:17.450\nYou know if you had to summarize and you're in the process of turning the\n\n803\n00:45:17.450 --> 00:45:23.630\nbusiness around at Red Lobster you know and P.F. Chang's was no piece of cake\n\n804\n00:45:23.630 --> 00:45:28.110\neither you know one of the top two or three things you've learned leading a\n\n805\n00:45:28.110 --> 00:45:33.000\nbusiness in distress that others can apply to their own situation.\n\n806\n00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:37.440\nOne of the most important things is when you take over a business that's\n\n807\n00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:41.000\nperforming badly assumed the downside conservative case to start and not\n\n808\n00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:45.260\nbecause you want to be a pessimist but you want to prepare the company to be\n\n809\n00:45:45.260 --> 00:45:48.000\nready in case things don't improve as quickly as you want them to.\n\n810\n00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:52.930\nSo in all of your planning and forecasting and budgeting assume a downside case\n\n811\n00:45:52.930 --> 00:45:57.000\nas a baseline and then try your best to beat it is what I advise.\n\n812\n00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:01.490\nIn addition to that I think it's important to make sure everybody understands\n\n813\n00:46:01.490 --> 00:46:06.000\nthe difficulty of the work that's required but then lay out a path to victory.\n\n814\n00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:09.210\nRight so that's two things you don't come in and say everything's great and it\n\n815\n00:46:09.210 --> 00:46:12.470\n's going to be just fine you say we're in a really challenged situation and here\n\n816\n00:46:12.470 --> 00:46:15.890\n's all the problems and there's no guarantee of success but here's how we're\n\n817\n00:46:15.890 --> 00:46:18.470\ngoing to win and here's how we're going to try to find a way through it and\n\n818\n00:46:18.470 --> 00:46:20.000\nhere's the strategy and here's the path.\n\n819\n00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:25.200\nRight so getting people on the same page not being over optimistic on your your\n\n820\n00:46:25.200 --> 00:46:30.480\nforecasting will prepare you to grind your way out of the situation that you're\n\n821\n00:46:30.480 --> 00:46:31.000\nin.\n\n822\n00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:36.400\nYou take over Red Lobster Red Lobster has a great history and was a leader in\n\n823\n00:46:36.400 --> 00:46:40.000\nits category and you know had his glory days.\n\n824\n00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:47.800\nWhat is it that you've learned that brands like that do that that take them\n\n825\n00:46:47.800 --> 00:46:50.000\ndown the rattle.\n\n826\n00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.000\nThey take their eye off the guest.\n\n827\n00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:56.490\nThat's the number one thing I've seen is things are going well and it maybe\n\n828\n00:46:56.490 --> 00:47:00.540\nbecomes more about optimizing margins maybe becomes more about you know\n\n829\n00:47:00.540 --> 00:47:02.000\nexpanding the tent.\n\n830\n00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:05.820\nThey take their eye off the core guests and do some things that make the core\n\n831\n00:47:05.820 --> 00:47:09.780\nguests unhappy and come visit less and it's not that's not correct to quickly\n\n832\n00:47:09.780 --> 00:47:13.000\ncan snowball and you can start to see the traffic declines.\n\n833\n00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:16.580\nAnd in our business traffic is king you know traffic starts to decline and you\n\n834\n00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:19.000\nknow the whole business will start to struggle.\n\n835\n00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:23.710\nThat's the number one thing and if people can stay focused on on the guest and\n\n836\n00:47:23.710 --> 00:47:28.000\non driving positive traffic they tend to do well for a long time.\n\n837\n00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:33.640\nAnd what do you do to make sure that as you lead the company that the company\n\n838\n00:47:33.640 --> 00:47:39.000\nstay the company stays front and center focused on the customer.\n\n839\n00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:42.260\nYeah that's that's a lot of my job you know and it's a great question because\n\n840\n00:47:42.260 --> 00:47:45.600\nyou have a lot of competing priorities so you just have to make that decision\n\n841\n00:47:45.600 --> 00:47:48.000\nthat that's going to be your number one priority.\n\n842\n00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:51.900\nAnd it's not always easy because there are trade offs right but but if you make\n\n843\n00:47:51.900 --> 00:47:56.000\nthe decision you're going to prioritize that then the team will do the same.\n\n844\n00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:00.890\nAnd last question here what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who\n\n845\n00:48:00.890 --> 00:48:03.000\nwants to be a better leader.\n\n846\n00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:07.080\nLeadership is self improvement understand yourself and what your strengths are\n\n847\n00:48:07.080 --> 00:48:10.800\nand where you can be better because the stronger you are as a person the more\n\n848\n00:48:10.800 --> 00:48:13.000\npeople are going to want to follow you.\n\n849\n00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:17.000\nSo if you want to be a better leader become a better person that's my advice.\n\n850\n00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:20.600\nAnd how do I have to ask a follow up on that you know what's your self\n\n851\n00:48:20.600 --> 00:48:22.000\nawareness process.\n\n852\n00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:26.000\nTruth honesty right how do you get it.\n\n853\n00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:28.750\nWell the problem is most people are sensitive and they don't want to be\n\n854\n00:48:28.750 --> 00:48:31.930\ncriticized and they don't even want to think about criticizing themselves so it\n\n855\n00:48:31.930 --> 00:48:33.000\n's hard for people.\n\n856\n00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:36.380\nSo at some point you have to not take it personally it's almost like you have\n\n857\n00:48:36.380 --> 00:48:40.020\nto separate yourself from yourself you're not talking about you you're talking\n\n858\n00:48:40.020 --> 00:48:41.000\nabout this person.\n\n859\n00:48:41.000 --> 00:48:44.000\nRight and what's this person do well and what's this person do better.\n\n860\n00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:47.480\nAnd so if you can if you cannot take it personally then you can be self\n\n861\n00:48:47.480 --> 00:48:51.620\ncritical which I think is important because that's how you improve right or you\n\n862\n00:48:51.620 --> 00:48:55.000\ncan accept third party criticism and not take it as a personal attack.\n\n863\n00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:57.000\nIf it's coming from a good place.\n\n864\n00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:01.490\nSo that's how you improve is just by being honest and not being afraid to\n\n865\n00:49:01.490 --> 00:49:03.000\nrecognize your weaknesses.\n\n866\n00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:07.490\nWell to all I've really enjoyed this I see why you're in in the role and see\n\n867\n00:49:07.490 --> 00:49:12.110\nwhy you're you're making good success and if you're successful I want you to\n\n868\n00:49:12.110 --> 00:49:17.200\nknow something you will be leading the greatest turnaround in the history of\n\n869\n00:49:17.200 --> 00:49:18.000\nthe world.\n\n870\n00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:30.000\nYeah, restaurant industry. Thank you.\n\n871\n00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:35.240\nDavid after that interview I for one cannot wait to hit up a red lobster. I'll\n\n872\n00:49:35.240 --> 00:49:38.670\nprobably go tonight for dinner. Demola got me so excited for all the amazing\n\n873\n00:49:38.670 --> 00:49:40.000\nthings that he's doing there.\n\n874\n00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.880\nIt's not to do it he's the first admitted. And but I like the fact how he's\n\n875\n00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:49.150\ncelebrating the small wins. You know, and you know I think when you're in a\n\n876\n00:49:49.150 --> 00:49:53.000\nturnaround situation you can't wait till it's finished and it's over.\n\n877\n00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:57.000\nYou've got to build momentum and finding those small wins.\n\n878\n00:49:57.000 --> 00:50:01.890\nThose are those are key, whether it's his, you know, hospitality program or the\n\n879\n00:50:01.890 --> 00:50:05.000\nnew product that he just rolled out this summer.\n\n880\n00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.400\nYou know, he's he's he's building momentum but making progress and you know he\n\n881\n00:50:09.400 --> 00:50:13.270\n's he's got this path to victory I like him how he talked about you gotta give\n\n882\n00:50:13.270 --> 00:50:18.120\npeople that's a sense that they can win and there's the steps that you need to\n\n883\n00:50:18.120 --> 00:50:19.000\ntake to get there\n\n884\n00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:24.800\nand you know we'll see what happens I think that is very impressed I mean this\n\n885\n00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:30.320\nguy is he may be 34 35 years old but he's he's an old soul and he's wise beyond\n\n886\n00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:31.000\nhis years.\n\n887\n00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:34.900\nI agree you know this is not the first restaurant turnaround situation he's\n\n888\n00:50:34.900 --> 00:50:38.590\nbeen in he did it at PF Chang's when he took over a CEO during COVID and turn\n\n889\n00:50:38.590 --> 00:50:42.560\nthat business around and he's trying to do the same thing at Red Lobster I love\n\n890\n00:50:42.560 --> 00:50:45.000\nwhat he said though David when you asked him about\n\n891\n00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:48.970\nyou know how do you prioritize the things that you need to do in a turnaround\n\n892\n00:50:48.970 --> 00:50:52.000\nsituation because everything feels like it's on fire.\n\n893\n00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:55.900\nAnd he said you know you have to rank the things in order of importance and\n\n894\n00:50:55.900 --> 00:51:00.000\nease of execution and then he says you start with the guest experience.\n\n895\n00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.440\nThat seems like such an obvious thing to do especially in the restaurant\n\n896\n00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:08.570\nbusiness but from your perspective David if their listeners listening to this\n\n897\n00:51:08.570 --> 00:51:12.000\nwho might be really leading companies during a time of crisis.\n\n898\n00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:17.000\nIs that always the thing to do is start with the customer like in any scenario.\n\n899\n00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:22.910\nWell I mean it is a basic and you think that it should never not be done but\n\n900\n00:51:22.910 --> 00:51:29.000\nanytime brands go afar it's when they lose touch with their customers.\n\n901\n00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:34.600\nAnd anytime someone brings them back they get in touch with their customers so\n\n902\n00:51:34.600 --> 00:51:40.000\nyeah it's an obvious thing that you should do but too many people don't.\n\n903\n00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.670\nAnd you get too internally focused and you're not really focused on what really\n\n904\n00:51:44.670 --> 00:51:49.340\nmatters which is baking your customers or your guests are really happy and that\n\n905\n00:51:49.340 --> 00:51:54.000\n's why I asked them what what made Red Lobster get in trouble in the first place\n\n906\n00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:55.000\nand he said they lost track of their\n\n907\n00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.440\nguests and I can tell you what's going to get Red Lobster back on track is if\n\n908\n00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:03.810\nthey can can can really satisfy and delight their guests which is really what\n\n909\n00:52:03.810 --> 00:52:05.000\nhe's trying to do.\n\n910\n00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:11.000\nRecognize the guests engage with the guests and delight the guests.\n\n911\n00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:15.340\nI also love when you ask him you know how do you deal with all the pressure as\n\n912\n00:52:15.340 --> 00:52:19.670\na young CEO and you're trying to revive this brand that's been around for you\n\n913\n00:52:19.670 --> 00:52:25.000\nknow over 50 years cutting deals all that pressure and I loved his answer wrote\n\n914\n00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:25.000\nit down\n\n915\n00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.000\nhe said pressure takes away clear thinking.\n\n916\n00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:34.160\nAnd I just love that because he's so right you have to stay tethered to his he\n\n917\n00:52:34.160 --> 00:52:39.000\n's big on truth and honesty and not let the pressure of the moment.\n\n918\n00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:42.740\nCloud you're thinking David what else would you say to someone who is in a\n\n919\n00:52:42.740 --> 00:52:46.790\nleadership role dealing with a lot of pressure maybe even not in a turnaround\n\n920\n00:52:46.790 --> 00:52:50.640\nsituation about staying focused on the things that really matter so that the\n\n921\n00:52:50.640 --> 00:52:53.000\npressure doesn't cloud your thinking.\n\n922\n00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:58.400\nI like his comment about the importance of staying even killed you can't get\n\n923\n00:52:58.400 --> 00:53:03.740\ntoo high you can't get too low I think you know staying even killed and doing\n\n924\n00:53:03.740 --> 00:53:06.000\nwhat he said focus on the truth.\n\n925\n00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:10.650\nYou know keep keep bringing the reality front and center in terms of what your\n\n926\n00:53:10.650 --> 00:53:15.250\nyour customers are telling you what your people are telling you and and also\n\n927\n00:53:15.250 --> 00:53:19.000\nyou know wanting that truth is a leader so you can get better.\n\n928\n00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:24.980\nAnd you know I think he understands the that that's that's key to the success\n\n929\n00:53:24.980 --> 00:53:30.980\nof this turnaround but it's also key to the success of of keeping a business\n\n930\n00:53:30.980 --> 00:53:33.000\nthat's humming humming.\n\n931\n00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:38.180\nI also wrote down and all caps after listening to that interview a quote from\n\n932\n00:53:38.180 --> 00:53:41.000\nhim he says I live in the world of truth.\n\n933\n00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:44.580\nAnd obviously we talk about truth tellers and establishing the reality of our\n\n934\n00:53:44.580 --> 00:53:48.100\nbusiness and most of the interviews that we do but for some reason that really\n\n935\n00:53:48.100 --> 00:53:50.000\nhit me I live in the world of truth.\n\n936\n00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.440\nYou know especially at such a young age and dealing with all this pressure to\n\n937\n00:53:54.440 --> 00:53:58.590\ntry to turn around this business it would be really easy to let yourself drift\n\n938\n00:53:58.590 --> 00:54:03.300\naway from that truth so aside from having truth tellers in your life and\n\n939\n00:54:03.300 --> 00:54:04.000\nstaying grounded\n\n940\n00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:07.000\nand the reality of what's going on in the business.\n\n941\n00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:10.890\nWhat else would you say to people to just stay laser focused on what it is that\n\n942\n00:54:10.890 --> 00:54:12.000\nreally matters.\n\n943\n00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:15.580\nWell I think you have to define what really matters you know every great\n\n944\n00:54:15.580 --> 00:54:19.320\ncompany has process and discipline around what really matters you know the\n\n945\n00:54:19.320 --> 00:54:24.000\ncustomer the operations that satisfy the customer the quality that satisfies\n\n946\n00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:25.000\nthe customer.\n\n947\n00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:28.900\nYou identify those key things that you know that if you get them right you have\n\n948\n00:54:28.900 --> 00:54:32.720\na chance to win if you get them wrong you know you're not going to win and then\n\n949\n00:54:32.720 --> 00:54:37.000\nyou've got everybody in the organization know what those winning factors are.\n\n950\n00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:38.660\nAnother thing that was really clear throughout the conversation is that Demola\n\n951\n00:54:38.660 --> 00:54:44.980\nis someone who is constantly learning and constantly trying to refine and\n\n952\n00:54:44.980 --> 00:54:50.000\nimprove not only the aspects of the business but himself as well.\n\n953\n00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.420\nAnd that final question where you asked him what piece of advice would you give\n\n954\n00:54:54.420 --> 00:54:57.980\nto anyone who wants to be a better leader he said leadership is self\n\n955\n00:54:57.980 --> 00:54:59.000\nimprovement.\n\n956\n00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:03.440\nAnd I love that so much I mean self awareness and self improvement is also a\n\n957\n00:55:03.440 --> 00:55:07.360\nthing we talk about a lot but I'm just curious what you took away from kind of\n\n958\n00:55:07.360 --> 00:55:12.330\nhis emphasis on this idea of self improvement and leadership being defined as\n\n959\n00:55:12.330 --> 00:55:13.000\nthat.\n\n960\n00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:18.400\nWell I think continuous improvement perpetual improvement these are these are\n\n961\n00:55:18.400 --> 00:55:22.000\nthings that every business has to do to stay on top.\n\n962\n00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:27.000\nAnd when you stop improving your you start to the decline and when that decline\n\n963\n00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:31.000\nhappens it compounds and it gets worse and worse and worse.\n\n964\n00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:33.000\nAnd the same is true if you're a leader.\n\n965\n00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:37.440\nYou've got to be into perpetual improvement you've got to constantly turn\n\n966\n00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:41.190\ntrying to make yourself better and you got to be seeking the truth so I think\n\n967\n00:55:41.190 --> 00:55:45.470\nthe idea of seeking the truth defining reality for your customers and then\n\n968\n00:55:45.470 --> 00:55:47.000\ndefining your\n\n969\n00:55:47.000 --> 00:56:03.100\nself as a leader. I think it's the is the way to go. And if you had to boil it\n\n970\n00:56:03.100 --> 00:56:03.270\ndown if you don't start out with high self awareness of what needs to be done\n\n971\n00:56:03.270 --> 00:56:03.460\nin the business that you're leading and for you as a leader, you'll never\n\n972\n00:56:03.460 --> 00:56:04.000\nmaximize the potential of your business or yourself.\n\n973\n00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:05.830\nYou mentioned this in the interview David but you know you can't see Demola's\n\n974\n00:56:05.830 --> 00:56:13.100\nname in the press right now without somebody mentioning that he's 34 or 35\n\n975\n00:56:13.100 --> 00:56:15.000\nhowever old he is.\n\n976\n00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:18.330\nAnd I love when you just talk to him about it you said, well how do you deal\n\n977\n00:56:18.330 --> 00:56:21.900\nwith people talking about how young you are and I love what he talks about when\n\n978\n00:56:21.900 --> 00:56:25.590\nhe says how he kind of hedges that he says he surrounds himself with great\n\n979\n00:56:25.590 --> 00:56:27.000\npeople and listens to those\n\n980\n00:56:27.000 --> 00:56:31.870\npeople and that becomes his experience. After talking to Demola, like let's\n\n981\n00:56:31.870 --> 00:56:35.550\njust say David you're still at young brands and you're looking for a CEO of\n\n982\n00:56:35.550 --> 00:56:40.000\nTaco Bell or Pizza Hut. Would you seriously consider someone who is that young\n\n983\n00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:42.000\nto take over a brand that big\n\n984\n00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:47.190\nthing? Probably not. You know I think that what about him do you think got him\n\n985\n00:56:47.190 --> 00:56:51.120\nto the place that he is? Well I think he was put in these situations because\n\n986\n00:56:51.120 --> 00:56:53.000\nnobody else wanted the job.\n\n987\n00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:57.490\nAnd you know I mean and he's the first to admit that and I love that. And I\n\n988\n00:56:57.490 --> 00:57:01.650\nmight you know I don't know I might take his shot on him you know I you know\n\n989\n00:57:01.650 --> 00:57:05.690\nbut I'm saying most most leaders would not most leaders would come up with\n\n990\n00:57:05.690 --> 00:57:06.000\nreasons\n\n991\n00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:10.480\nin fact I used to get in real arguments with my team when I would hear them say\n\n992\n00:57:10.480 --> 00:57:14.560\nyou know he he or she doesn't have the experience I said well what were you\n\n993\n00:57:14.560 --> 00:57:16.000\ndoing you were 37.\n\n994\n00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:20.490\nYou know I know what I was doing I was running marketing you know at Pepsi Cola\n\n995\n00:57:20.490 --> 00:57:25.000\ncompany I know what Roger and Rico was doing he was the president of Pepsi Cola\n\n996\n00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:30.610\nand you know these people did a lot of you know we all did a lot of things\n\n997\n00:57:30.610 --> 00:57:32.000\nyounger but when you get older you think people\n\n998\n00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:36.490\ndon't have that kind of you got to have all this experience that you gained by\n\n999\n00:57:36.490 --> 00:57:39.000\nputting in the hard yards and that's just not the way it is.\n\n1000\n00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:42.570\nYou want to find talent you want to give him the opportunity. I would hope that\n\n1001\n00:57:42.570 --> 00:57:45.000\nI would want to put somebody like him in a big job.\n\n1002\n00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.850\nThe other thing I really liked what he said is that just look at history look\n\n1003\n00:57:49.850 --> 00:57:56.000\nat all the great people in the past who've been you know 24 25 years old when\n\n1004\n00:57:56.000 --> 00:57:57.000\nthey had big jobs.\n\n1005\n00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:01.960\nYou know I thought that was great and you know if you can use use history to\n\n1006\n00:58:01.960 --> 00:58:07.740\ninspire people with with what's possible you know and I think that's that's\n\n1007\n00:58:07.740 --> 00:58:13.000\nkind of when hey who was it they said was 24 25 I forget right now.\n\n1008\n00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:14.000\nAlexander the Great.\n\n1009\n00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:17.000\nOh hey Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.\n\n1010\n00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:18.000\nYeah.\n\n1011\n00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:19.000\nThey were younger than me.\n\n1012\n00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:25.100\nWell hey you go for it big guy. I love that and you said listen this is not a\n\n1013\n00:58:25.100 --> 00:58:27.000\nnew thing there have been young leaders since the beginning of time.\n\n1014\n00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:32.000\nThat's because back then people died when they were 34 and 35.\n\n1015\n00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:35.800\nBut anyway I think this guy's got a lot of potential and I think what leaders\n\n1016\n00:58:35.800 --> 00:58:39.620\nhave to do is find people who have potential and put them big jobs as big jobs\n\n1017\n00:58:39.620 --> 00:58:45.000\nyou think you can handle as fast as you can because I, you know my dad always\n\n1018\n00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:47.000\nsaid potential means you haven't done it yet.\n\n1019\n00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:50.600\nBut I tell you what when you have potential that means you can do it and you\n\n1020\n00:58:50.600 --> 00:58:54.000\nwant to you want to test somebody as fast as you can and that arena.\n\n1021\n00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:57.690\nWell I too am so impressed with a mola he's just so smart and he is an old soul\n\n1022\n00:58:57.690 --> 00:58:58.000\n.\n\n1023\n00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:01.710\nI mean I can just picture him after a day of work like sitting back on a recl\n\n1024\n00:59:01.710 --> 00:59:05.620\niner smoking a cigar having maybe a glass of bourbon and reading a book about\n\n1025\n00:59:05.620 --> 00:59:07.000\nAlexander the Great.\n\n1026\n00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:11.480\nHe's an old soul but it's that energy that he brings to his work and the\n\n1027\n00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:16.000\npassion that he has to really make this iconic brand iconic again that I think\n\n1028\n00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:16.000\nwe are going to witness.\n\n1029\n00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:21.000\nIf he is successful the greatest comeback in restaurant history.\n\n1030\n00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:25.000\nNo in the history of the world he's got a big job.\n\n1031\n00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:28.000\nHe does have a big job he does have a big job indeed.\n\n1032\n00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:31.000\nDavid that does it for another episode of How Leaders Lead.\n\n1033\n00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:34.000\nBe sure to tune in next week and we'll see you soon.\n","is_pinned",false,"pinned_at","is_featured","featured_at","mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL8629307608.mp3","dx_media_id",2609,"video_media_id","thumbnail_image_media_id","published_date","2025-12-11","itunes_episode_id",269,"youtube_id","zIEWigGv53E","2025-12-11T16:19:55.000000Z","dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/tkIXJqseQdAUVEMpPd7yTp5tVLe6jTrO28rOTgkc.mp3","dx_filename","tkIXJqseQdAUVEMpPd7yTp5tVLe6jTrO28rOTgkc.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","X3WQ00XbZXI774jblhQljeTJhWa02HMJU0084EtXcRiw1o","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/2609.json","video_url","video_mux_playback_id","duration",3574299,"thumbnail_url","https://img.youtube.com/vi/zIEWigGv53E/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_image_url","dx_media",{"_13":66,"_95":79,"_96":77,"_97":-5,"_31":81,"_33":98,"_99":-5,"_100":83,"_86":87,"_101":-5},"video_media","thumbnail_image_media","filename","url","status","NWCO8nQOnEvxLdhLmV01cay3eOIupsVfqb8hulsuyWHc","mux_upload_id","waveform_url","preview_media_id","first_name","Damola","last_name","Adamolekun","job_title","Red Lobster, CEO","Damola Adamolekun, CEO, Red Lobster, hospitality, restaurant, BIPOC, African American, Black, minority","external_links","https://www.linkedin.com/in/damola-adamolekun,https://www.instagram.com/damolaadamolekun/,https://fortune.com/article/36-year-old-former-investment-banker-red-lobster-ceo-damola-adamolekuns-greatest-comeback-story-dining/",0,1,"image_media_id",2597,2598,"2026-07-28T18:08:07.000000Z","send_push_notification_at","image_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/JwZNOeJXqRETjbYCcxtQp2KwhSXNS00aXeeOZP78.jpg","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/inM03u20g8NKKanHoPzY03cNAcA9b8qDsKoY5Gxp.jpg","https://www.howleaderslead.com/leaders/257/damola-adamolekun","industry_id",8,"industry",{"_13":123,"_134":135,"_136":138},"industries",[133],"image_media",{"_13":114,"_95":132,"_96":119,"_97":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_99":-5,"_100":-5,"_86":-5,"_101":-5},{"_13":115,"_95":131,"_96":120,"_97":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_99":-5,"_100":-5,"_86":-5,"_101":-5},"inM03u20g8NKKanHoPzY03cNAcA9b8qDsKoY5Gxp.jpg","JwZNOeJXqRETjbYCcxtQp2KwhSXNS00aXeeOZP78.jpg",{"_13":123,"_134":135,"_136":137},"name","Food and Bev","pivot",{"_35":36,"_122":123},{"_35":36,"_122":123},"user","token","favorites",[],"collections",[],"env",{"_147":148,"_149":150,"_151":152,"_153":154,"_155":156},"GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID","644017954836-qpllhu38r0tsrtfq85ukntcvsb0akbht.apps.googleusercontent.com","APPLE_CLIENT_ID","com.howleaderslead.webapp","APPLE_REDIRECT_URI","https://www.howleaderslead.com/auth/apple-callback","APP_URL","https://howleaderslead.com","GTM_ID",""]