David Novak 0:04 

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. You know, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the Quality Matters in your organization. But a lot of leaders do struggle to take that ideal of quality and actually turn it into a day to day reality for their team. In other words, how do you operationalize quality? Well, today's conversation with Scott Redler, is going to help you answer that question. Scott is the co founder of Freddy's frozen custard and steak burgers, and the chairman of the National Restaurant Association, which supports over a million restaurants nationwide, Scott is so passionate about doing things the right way, with quality and attention to detail, not only for his franchise, but also and how he leads at the National Restaurant Association. But that's the thing, he doesn't leave it to chance. In this conversation, you'll see how Scott has codified standards that ensures quality, and how as a leader, he's creating a clearer picture of what quality means by building that into the culture. This conversation will get your wheels turning for how you can codify your standards. And to be totally honest, is probably going to have you craving a burger and fries too. So let's get to it. Here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Scott Redler.

Scott Mahoney 1:50 

You know, I want to

David Novak 1:51 

start at the beginning. When did you first fall in love with the restaurant business?

Scott Redler 1:55 

You know, I'm one of those 15 year old kids that a friend of mine was going to get a job. And he was 16 he could drive I went with him. And the catering company said, Hey, do you want a job too? I said, Absolutely. And never ever have in the intention of having a career in the restaurant hospitality industry.

David Novak 2:13 

So you never anticipated this as a career. And here you are. You're the chairman of the National Restaurant Association with close to a million restaurants. I mean, that's it's kind of hard to believe I imagine

Scott Redler 2:25 

it is I you know, one time I've wanted to be a lawyer and accountant at that point at 15. And, you know, it gets in your blood, the excitement of walking into a restaurant and the energy and hospitality, friendship. It's just an amazing industry.

David Novak 2:39 

Now, what's your biggest leadership challenge is the chairman of the National Restaurant Association.

Scott Redler 2:45 

I think it has to do with a little town called Washington DC. So David, I'm a big person who really believes in fair and reasonable, what's wrong with fair and reasonable and that's what we're looking for. We're not looking to take advantage, we're looking to be fair, we're looking for everyone to win. And there are so many plans out there and programs that people get in the way.

David Novak 3:07 

You know, Washington DC, obviously can be a challenge. But what do you see is the big issues for the industry that you're trying to address with Congress in Washington?

Scott Redler 3:18 

Well, let's understand that in the last two years, the cost of operating a restaurant have gone up by 18 or 19%. When most people have raised their menu prices, call it eight to 10%. In an industry that makes an average bottom line of 5%. Well, the math doesn't work, right. And we need to understand that we cannot have policy and procedure that are being brought up. Here's a great example, the joint employer, you know, right now, our government is telling a franchisor that you cannot help a franchisee become a better operator in a lot of ways. If you give them too much information, then you're going to be responsible for all their employees. And if someone gets sued, they're going to sue the franchisor versus the franchisee? Well, I don't see any pragmatism, I don't see any common sense in that. We're here as a franchisor trying to help our franchisees be a better operator, what is wrong with that? And the franchisee is the one writing a check for land building equipment, opening the restaurant, they have all the risks. They're the business operator, and to try and take that burden to a franchisor. I don't understand it.

David Novak 4:25 

When you think about the biggest misperception that you have to deal with in Washington. What do you think that is?

Scott Redler 4:31 

I think the biggest misconception is that when you own a business, you make money. Everybody thinks, Oh, you got a checkbook. But that's not the case. It's very difficult. It's getting tougher. We've seen construction go up by 35 40%. We've seen food costs go up labor costs go up all these components that make it tough to, you know, put black ink on the bottom line. And I think our congressmen and senators need to understand that it's not easy out there. That even though you walk into a restaurant on a Friday night. And there's a line out the door. That doesn't mean that restaurants making money. So we need to do everything we can to help independent restaurant tours, franchisees chain restaurants have a reasonable chance for success with what they do.

David Novak 5:16 

And one thing that, you know, I know is an absolute fact is that, you know, the industry gets slammed for minimum wage and low wages. And you know, what's your view on that?

Scott Redler 5:28 

It's just not really the case anymore. We start people a Fridays 12 to $14 an hour, I think in most locations, up to 17. So you look at that. But here's the other component. We are the industry of opportunity I look at when I left college, and went to work for Google, Robinson, Bristol, bar, grill Creek core, Missouri, I was making less money than a lot of my friends. Two years later, that wasn't the case. We are the industry of opportunity. We are the industry where you go in with good common sense, hard work, good ethics, good morals, you are going to succeed further than you ever thought you could. And I think that that understanding in our industry, and there's so many stories like that are what make us what we are today.

David Novak 6:12 

You know, as as the leader being the chairman of this massive industry, what do you find to be the biggest challenge working inside the industry itself.

Scott Redler 6:22 

The challenge inside the industry today is finding staff that want to work. And you know, we're trying everything doing everything we can to the right message is that someone that works in the restaurant industry, typically falls in love with it, and never leaves the store. I can give you story after story after so I was going to be a dentist but now I'm a general manager of a of a Freddie's amazing, right? And understanding that component, we are the industry that not only gives you a great opportunity, but you get to go to work and have fun every day. It's fun taking care of people, it's very rewarding.

David Novak 6:56 

I agree with you having been in the restaurant industry, there's no career or job that opens up more doors for people and give them more opportunities in the restaurant business.

Scott Redler 7:06 

There's so many stories out there and I could do 10 But a gentleman that came into Freddy's at 16 years old with a friend got a job similar to me, Hey, do you want a job, the manager says, I'd love for you to work for me, started with us became a cook, a supervisor, a manager, a general manager, general manager of a training location, and then broke out and now he's a franchisee with six locations. And here's somebody that you know what would have happened to that person? It would not have been that similar path. And now he's very successful and and has helped others come up throughout the industry. Do you

David Novak 7:40 

like being chairman of the association?

Scott Redler 7:42 

I've loved it. I'm very fortunate that my role at Freddys is now chair only. It takes a lot of time. But I really enjoy going to the various states and talking to their members and open floor conversation on what are their challenges, what are their issues? And what can our association do to help them and it's been a tremendous amount of pride and respect. The the National Restaurant Association has a pretty incredible team in all these different areas. I mean, people don't even talk about ProStart with the Education Foundation. 1800 schools have ProStart programs that teach kids about hospitality and culinary 167,000 students are involved in ProStart in our country. These are all National Restaurant Association and educational foundation programs. It's amazing. It's so rewarding. I was at the annual contest, the championship for ProStart. The energy, the passion, the excitement from teachers, parents students was off the charts and anybody that walked out, you walked out of there and you were floating.

David Novak 8:47 

Well now you're the co founder of Freddy's which which you started in 2002. Describe the restaurant concept and give us a snapshot of the business that it is today.

Scott Redler 8:57 

You know, one of the one of the fun parts of our story is that my two partners bill and Randy Simon, we did this kind of as almost as a hobby I was running and we own steak houses Randy owned and was running a group of Panera bread's and we really miss frozen custard and great burgers. And we opened the first location, never intending to open a second. Now let's understand we're getting ready to open our 500th location. Right? So it's an amazing thing but really coming in and going, cooking everything to order. I've been a full service restaurant guy, most of my career, and we just do things. There's a term we call it the Freddy's way. What does that mean? It means bringing in the best ingredients cooking everything to order. We all know that. You know we shouldn't have a burger seven days a week. We get that but when you get a burger, you take a bite of our Friday steakburger hot steam comes out right and it just an amazing thing the fresh the quality buns that are butter toasted fries that are just coming out of the fryer. Who wants a cold fry? I don't know anyone

David Novak 10:00 

Hey, I don't need it, but you're making me hungry. Keep it up. Well,

Scott Redler 10:04 

I'll go into custard and frozen custard. It's premium ice cream, right with minimum 10% butterfat and egg yolk, rich, creamy, made fresh throughout today and you're sitting in a room and somebody orders are number one seller which is a turtle sundae, freshly made vanilla frozen custard, toasted pecans, whipped cream, hot caramel hot fudge. I mean, what else is there it just makes you happy.

David Novak 10:29 

You know, when I was the Chief Marketing Officer at Pizza, I lived in Wichita, which is you know, is where Dan and Frank Kearney opened the first Pizza Hut. It also happens to be where Freddie's was started. What's in the water in Wichita, you think that helps logic great, these great restaurants.

Scott Redler 10:45 

So don't forget White Castle. And taco Chico. Also, both out of Wichita based companies and you know, there's a spirit of entrepreneurship. Wichita State University was was one of the first centers for entrepreneurship in the country. And you get that attitude of, you know, why not? Let's try, let's go for it. And that energy, whether it's, you know, we make, most of the private aircraft in the world are made in Wichita, Kansas, through companies based here, you get that kind of attitude, Koch Industries, right. There is not a company that thinks more like entrepreneurship, and market based management than coke. So you get the right attitude. It is in the water, maybe coke puts it in the water for us. I'm glad they do. And it's an amazing city that my wife and I moved here in 1990. From Washington, DC, for a two year commitment. It's now been 32 years, it's a wonderful place to live.

David Novak 11:39 

I loved it. When I lived in Wichita and worked at Pizza Hut. I remember I was about a mile and a half away. I lived in East borough, little community right near the headquarters. And I'd have to drive around the block a few times before I could go into the house just to kind of get the intensity level down. Nothing's too far away there.

Scott Redler 11:58 

That is so true. It's the if I've got a nine o'clock meeting I can leave at 850 it's a quality of life thing.

David Novak 12:05 

I'm just curious, did you learn anything from Dan and Frank Carney's success that helped you scale Freddie's?

Scott Redler 12:13 

You know, when you look at the way Frank and Dan started everything, and I was fortunate to know both them, they really did it with the intention of let's make other people successful. And I think there's a lot of companies out there that, quite frankly, can be greedy. I don't think they were I think they were sharing a great product, a great idea at a reasonable price for them. And I think taking that attitude really does work, especially in the franchise world.

David Novak 12:37 

Well, you're now close to 500 Freddy's locations. What do you see ahead in terms of restaurants for that for that concept?

Scott Redler 12:46 

Well, we're gonna open up 50 to 55 this year. And if we could get if you got a tractor trailer with a bunch of electrical panels, and air conditioners, we'd open up 10 more. The supply chain is a challenge. But we're gonna continue on a path that's escalating. There's a lot of the country out there. We're in 38 states, I believe, now. And it was fun. I was in one, the second one we opened up in New Jersey a couple of weeks ago. And it is fun to watch the energy, the excitement, the franchisees we get are truly passionate about our brand, and want to do things the right way, the Freddie's way. You've talked

David Novak 13:22 

about this Freddie's way. When was it that you coined this term? And how do you use it?

Scott Redler 13:29 

It was coined about I guess, were seven or eight years ago, you know, when it comes down to business businesses basics, right? I'm a big person that goes into BVM basic business model. So what's the basic business model? The Freddie's it the three legged stool that a lot of us use that terminology. With food, hospitality and sanitation facility, the Freddy's ways doing them the right way, doing what makes sense. We all know we want fries that are coming straight out of the fryer to you. Because the first thing a guest does, when they grab their tray in a restaurant is easy to fry. The first thing someone does in the drive thru, by the way before they even pull away is eat a french fry. Right. And if they're fresh and hot, we want and that is so critical to keep up those standards. You know, we use premium beef, and it's cooked order we butter toast our buns, we don't pre cook buns, all the things that people have done to become more in their mind more efficient. I think we take a long term approach to the quality of our food, the quality of our custard, the hospitality level that we have. And I think it makes a huge difference.

David Novak 14:35 

You know, I've also heard you say that you've never made a decision to lower the quality or portion of any food item. Will you share a story of when that was easier said than done?

Scott Redler 14:46 

So I'm gonna use a term I call it management by too many MBAs and I don't mean it directly to an MBA immediate by the attitude of let's make more profit. And I think it's a short term thought process in my mind. To me if you take care the guest and are proud of what you do and charge what you need to charge. And the guest walks away happy. You're great. And a great example of this is we used to have a concept called Timberline Steakhouse and grill. I don't know, if we were around when you were in Wichita, and I had a guest come up to me and go, Scott, you don't come in here every Friday night? Yes, you are. Thank you, we'd greatly appreciate it. He goes, I always get a sirloin. I go, yes, you do. He goes, Well, there's another steakhouse down the street. The sirloins are $2 cheaper. I go, Well, why aren't you there? He goes, Well, your steaks are a lot better. Everything we get here is a lot better. I go, what's your question? Be proud of what you do make that long term, guests will quickly forget the extra 50 cents or $1 that it truly does take to get people premium quality. But they won't forget a poor meal or poor hospitality.

Koula Callahan 15:54 

Have you ever wondered what David is thinking as he interviews our guests each week? Or have you been interested in hearing David's take on some of the questions that he asks his guest? Well, I do and I know a lot of you do, too. My name is Kula Callahan. And together with David I host the three more questions podcasts that airs every Monday. These episodes are just about 15 minutes. And in them, I asked David three questions that dive deeper into the themes of his episode with his guests. David shares incredible insights and stories from his career leading yum brands. And all of His answers are super practical and inspiring. Like this great insight David shared and one of our most recent, three more questions episodes.

David Novak 16:36 

You know, in our company, when anybody had any personal adversity, you know, we just did everything we could to support that person in every way that we could, you know, so cool. I think it's really important for leaders to know that when something goes wrong with somebody that they work with, you know, that's the time you need to show up. That's the time you really need to be there. And when you are there, people will never ever forget it.

Koula Callahan 17:04 

Get the three more questions, podcasts and your feed each Monday and dive even deeper into the episodes you know and love. Just subscribe to how leaders lead wherever you get your podcasts.

Unknown Speaker 17:22 

Scott,

David Novak 17:22 

I understand that you view your role as being the protector of the brand. Explain.

Scott Redler 17:27 

Well, so now I'm on the board only. And that's a unique position and great relationship with our CEO. And we were bought off by a private equity firm, about two and a half years ago. And if I see something that I don't agree with, I'll make sure I'm vocal about it. You know, I've learned a lot. I have a good friend that's run restaurants all his life. And he taught me one thing that I thought was critical. There's opinion, and there's facts. And when you have an issue of something if you're dealing with facts on things, everybody listens. Right now I'm very proud of what we do every day in every Freddy's with steak burgers and custard and fries and hospitality and having the right number of team members there to take care of our guests every day.

David Novak 18:08 

You know, the success of your business as a franchisor is contingent on you having a great relationship or good relationship with your franchisees. What are you doing to be intentional on that front? What advice could you give to others?

Scott Redler 18:23 

Well, so I'm gonna go into the rules for becoming a franchisee or Freddie's. And these are Scott's rules, and they've had him for a long time. Number one, you've got to have the financial wherewithal to do it. Number two operational expertise or the ability to hire it. If you're going to hire someone, please make them a partner. You want an owner operator makes a big difference. Three, a territory that we all agree on. And we can make you know how you're going to grow, what level how many per year all those kinds of details. But last and most important, and I'm going to call it the no jerk rule. It's very important for a potential franchisee to come to Wichita, Kansas, to enjoy a meal to get to know someone and we want people that really enjoy being around other people. And not just to hear oh, I've never been to a Freddy's but I hear that make a lot of money. Well, that's not our franchisee we want someone who goes I went into Freddy's. And just by accident, I had a double steak burger. It was the best burger I ever had the fries were amazing. How do you get your staff to be so great. And then they went back the next day, the next day? And then they called us. That's the perfect franchisee. And if they happen to be in the industry, that's a bonus.

David Novak 19:30 

You know, you may have already answered this question somewhat, but how do you build a culture where you have all these franchisees? Yet you can't control the actual way they they run their business and run their restaurants. You know, how important is culture and how do you build

Scott Redler 19:46 

you know, inspect what you expect, but culture, it takes years to build culture and you can mess it up in five minutes, right? Finding the right franchisees initially that have a passion and understanding of why either a Freddy's franchisee it's because they're proud of the food, proud of what we do how we do it, proud of the we call it a Freddie's family reunion every year when we get together, it's a family. And we're all we all have the same mission. And if we can relate to that mission to keep it focused, we're going to win. And if there are some that don't quite get it, we need to figure out a way for them to exit the system.

David Novak 20:23 

Can you give us an example of where you had that kind of conflict? And how you handled it?

Scott Redler 20:28 

You know, we've had a franchisee that, for various reasons, ended up owning some Freddie's that wasn't his initial goal. And I think a very honest, direct conversation was great. It's not good for either

David Novak 20:42 

party. And so you just tackled it head on and laid it out and head on, you have to

Scott Redler 20:46 

I mean, it's like, look, you're not operating the way we want it. But here's the good news. It doesn't happen often. Like, in 22 years, I think maybe twice, right? But we got to catch it. And we got to address it. Just like if you walk into a restaurant and they're not operating, right, we help them out. And we try and fix it first. I mean, we're not trying, oh, no, we don't think you're ever gonna get fixed. We try and help them to learn and understand. And if they can't do things that Freddy's way, we really need someone running the operation that can do things the Freddy's way.

David Novak 21:20 

Now you're a minority owner, and you're on the board, you still have a lot of skin in the game, and you spend most of your time thinking about the customer experience at Freddy's. Talk about where that's taking you and where you see the future going for Freddie's?

Scott Redler 21:38 

Well, first of all, I like to call on guests, not customers. And the importance of understanding of teaching that to the next generation of leaders is what's critical. And a lot of times I'll when I see a general manager, and we're talking about things, they will come walk with me, we walk outside, we face away from the restaurant, I say, close your eyes for a minute. All right, great. Now let's turn around, let's walk back in your restaurant, as if it's the first time you've ever walked in there, as if you're a consultant trying to help that restaurant become better. And taking that guests perspective really does make you win.

David Novak 22:12 

Now, let's talk about the guests perspective. Why do you why do you believe in guests for the customers? What's the thinking behind that?

Scott Redler 22:18 

You know, when somebody comes in, I can tell you stories, we had a guest come in that someone didn't have enough money to buy a custard and one of our cashiers actually pulled the pull their credit card out and bought the customer for him. You know, a customer is a relationship of buyer seller done. A guest is someone that you become close with, and invite in your home very often. And I think we want we want guests because we want somebody to come to Freddy's Oh, three or four times a month. We're not trying for that transactional guests. We want someone who becomes as we call it a redhead. And they're passionate about our brand. They're they're selling our brand more than we are.

David Novak 22:58 

Yeah, there's nothing like word of mouth in the restaurant business.

Scott Redler 23:00 

100% agree.

David Novak 23:03 

You know, how important do you think it is for a leader to find their way you talk about closing your eyes and imagine what it's like. But how important do you think it is for a leader to find a way to really understand how their guests looks at it or how to rethink about the guest experience?

Scott Redler 23:18 

Well, it has to be in the system. And when you've looked at companies well compared to one of your the old competition Domino's right that how many years ago Did they say we had a really bad product and now we fixed it right? Somebody lost focus there of what truly excites someone when you're entertaining them in a restaurant. You're giving them relief you're helping them with a family event with Friday's it could be you're after a soccer or baseball game, whatever. It is so important to understand what a guest sees when they walk in the door. What is your menu board look like? Right? What is your I'm a big person on door thresholds is one of my pet peeves. They have to be clean. It's the first thing that really takes you over the gateway into a Freddy's. And when you look at these details, the people that noticed that he tells the guests notice it and sometimes the white elephant have they don't really notice it, but they know something's not quite right. When that occurs, you lose.

David Novak 24:13 

You know, in the restaurant business, there's just a ton of competition probably the most competitive industry in the world. How do you look at competition?

Scott Redler 24:22 

Well, it's funny when we started Freddy's and I'm telling my friends we're going to do burgers and frozen custard and fries. And they're going like, really? While you do I mean, it's like isn't there enough of those already. But what there wasn't was a place that did it the right way. And I think as long as you focus on, you know, there's different ways to do business being the best that you can be. That's when I think that someone can take and go and that's what made Friday's what it is. I mean, we opened two Fridays in West Wichita. And after opening that one, you know in Wichita as you know, we had to drive 18 minutes to get there. It's almost like you I almost needed to get a passport and a vaccine. And I location became available on Rock Road. And that's really what triggered us to grow.

David Novak 25:09 

So you started out though you said you didn't expect to have more than one. It wasn't because you thought you could do that well with just one or what temperature, your ambition at the beginning,

Scott Redler 25:19 

it was really a toy for us. For the three of us. We all wanted a better burger. We wanted burgers away. I grew up in St. Louis, I grew up on a popular steak burger place. And we just wanted it done the right way. And Randy and Bill Frozen Custard Lake of the Ozarks a lot. And we ended up just going, Okay, we want this done, right we want to place for ourselves. We both had very successful businesses at the time, it wasn't our focus to do this, which actually turned out to be a great thing. We opened the second one, because we were tired of driving that far. I didn't understand I had never, I've done everything from business and institutional and, you know, upscale five star dining, I've done everything in my career. I had never done a drive thru. And it scared me, wait a minute, you're gonna drive your car up to a window, or speaker box, and you're gonna order food. And I've got to admit, in five minutes, I'm gonna give you freshly made quality food. And it scared me so much so that at the First Fridays, I actually turned my car around backwards for the first two weeks, and a sign on the back window. Drive Thru opens tomorrow. I did that for two weeks. It's kind of like the free beer tomorrow that you see a bar is always fun.

David Novak 26:32 

I love it. How do you go about driving innovation.

Scott Redler 26:36 

You know, restaurant industry is kind of interesting. There's really no new ideas. There's taking someone else's and adapting them and changing them to make them a little better than what you've seen. So I think innovation is understanding of watching and seeing and going out to a lot of restaurants and my wife and I enjoy that trying everything. One time we were looking to doing a donut concept. And spend two days with our kids in the back of a Volvo station wagon face backwards, eating, I don't know, 40 different donut places. I mean, we got to see what everyone else is doing. And then you go, Okay, let's go to the fact that we're shooting for a craveable food, something that once you have at once you take a bite of a fraidy steakburger to go. Okay, I get it. We just recently had somebody who lives on the East Coast. We're not that populated up there yet. And I met this person, he goes, Okay, I'm gonna go to Fridays. And he ended up going to Fridays and email because How come I didn't know about this a long time ago. Now he goes with his family every week.

David Novak 27:37 

Do you test a lot of things in your restaurants or

Scott Redler 27:39 

we do. So initially, most of the testing was done in my house. And I mean, the the funny story is called The summer of the hot dog. Before we open Fridays, we were trying to decide what hot dog to use. And, you know, suppliers don't give you a pound to hotdogs, they give you a 10 pound case. So I had 100 pounds of hot dogs at my house. And I had two girls that were five and seven at the time. And we tested them narrowed it down to three broader group together, we selected Vienna beef, which is Chicago's hot dog, and really one of the best top dogs in our country. It's my favorite. So then I have 97 pounds of hot dogs leftover. My two daughters, one of them ended up doing an internship with the end of beef and driving around a little mini cooper with a hot dog on top. My other daughter came up one day to my wife and said, Hey, lady, no more hot dogs because every time we're friends, we're over. All we serve was hot dogs. So we want tacos. We want burgers, we want pizza.

David Novak 28:37 

Can you tell me a story about a test that maybe you tried something that may maybe didn't work, but led to a bigger and better breakthrough?

Scott Redler 28:45 

We have definitely had things that didn't work. I mean, footlong hotdogs that we ran a limited time offer on footlongs. And this is probably 15 years ago. And I think there's still warehouses with footlong hotdog containers in them if we tried, you know, you talk about innovation, I was in Los Angeles. And somebody said, You got to go to Pink's hot dogs. And so we went to pinks, and they had a hot dog and a stretch dog. And the stretch dog was like another inch and a half longer, right? And came out outside the bun. So I'm sitting here, I'm leaving there, and I'm going well, this is what we need to do. So innovation occurs because you see what other people do. And so we had our hot dog failure. Yet, at the end of the day, we increase the size of our hot dog to make it look better because we went somewhere else. That's what innovation it's worked great.

David Novak 29:35 

How do you coach your team to think about failure? How you

Scott Redler 29:38 

respond to failure is critical. You know, we're all gonna make mistakes. I still remember running a restaurant company in DC where we had all the GMs and I made everybody raised their hand and go, I messed up. Let me say messed wasn't the word I haven't used by the way. But and you know what, we're all gonna make mistakes, as long as we're honest about it. And we talk about it and we and Understand what we did and what won't happen again, we're going to try things. But if someone came to me and said, Scott, we need to paint the inside of a Freddie's purple sales would go up by 10%. And they have a logical reason you got to try it.

David Novak 30:17 

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Scott Redler in just a moment, but get this. He's not the only Scott, I know with an eye for quality. Scott Mahoney is the Chairman and CEO of Peter Malarkey, he and his team are willing to do the work that most others don't in order to deliver an excellent product to their customers.

Scott Mahoney 30:36 

It's not about margin, it's doing it right. It's controlling distribution, it's doing the right things, it's treating your customers, right, make your products great. And having integrity in your company and in your products. Take a deep dive

David Novak 30:53 

on quality this week and listen to my entire conversation with the other Scott, Episode 59 here on how leaders lead.

Shifting gears for just a second, I want to take you back at what's a story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader you are today.

Scott Redler 31:14 

You know, I think we all have mentors and the people that we work for Teach you what's important. My first job was in a catering company, where where he fed from two to 10,000 people. And I ended up working there even coming back and help him when I was in college. But Lee was the kind of leader that number one so focused on food quality, nothing was going to be secondhand. I remember a and you have all these lessons, I remember we're in the catering truck, he's driving, and I had made these little veal cord on blues, which are amazing, that were fried, and three blocks from the kitchen, he pulls over, opens up the door and rips the tin foil off these covered fried food. So last time I covered fried food by the way, all the way, because you don't do that because it gets soggy. These are the things all these little stories in the people you work for helped shape you as a manager. I remember my first general manager at Bristol Bar Grill and Creek Corp, I learned so much from this person. He was truly a leader, he ran a great restaurant. It was kind of in the era when everybody was starting to realize that wait a minute, as general manager of a restaurant, you're running a multimillion dollar business, we turned into professionals almost overnight. And what I've learned from different people has really been the thing that has helped shape my direction.

David Novak 32:31 

Well, obviously you're a big believer in people and how do you incentivize people to stick with you and grow within your company.

Scott Redler 32:39 

So I'm a believer that the general manager is the king of any restaurant company, and the probably the most important person that can be there. And we put an incentive, a three tier bonus program, including a five year long term bonus program, including a program that you're actually an owner operator, when you get someone as a general manager to think like an entrepreneur to understand that when you invest money in your business, when you do things the right way. You want someone that understands the long term success of a business is what makes you win. And I think incentivizing general managers to do this wins. And just to give you an example of how big believer I am, I'm involved in a barbecue concept in Kansas City called Meet Mitch barbecue, which Mitch is just one of the best pitmasters I've ever seen. I'm a bird dens guy. And the general manager is now our operating partner. And she's a wonderful individual, but it's her restaurant, she makes a difference. I don't make a difference from sitting in a corporate office. But we can come up with ideas and thoughts and processes and theories and all that kind of stuff. But the rubber hits the road in the restaurant. And the general manager controls the attitude everyday the culture of that business, and is the most important person to enable the success of that business.

David Novak 33:59 

You know, Freddie's is obviously your crown jewel, but I understand you've developed, you know, 20 or more restaurant concepts, love helping other people develop concepts, what's behind all that, you know, your desire to help others, you know, put a restaurant on the map?

Scott Redler 34:16 

Well, I'm in a very fortunate position today. And so let's also understand that not everything, I did work, I get phone calls weekly, and I help a lot of people and meet with them. But I do not have a magic wand. I'm trying to find out where it is. If I find it, I'll let you know. But you know, there's a reward you get with helping others and seeing other people grow and watching other people succeed. And if you don't worry about yourself and worry about other people and their success and their family success and everything else. I think you win in life. It's not always about the money the money happens.

David Novak 34:47 

I couldn't agree more with that. I've been you know, the and by the way, the the research says that people who are other directed are the happiest people in the world and you're obviously a pretty happy guy. You know, you're also someone that it's pretty clear to Me, you're intellectually curious, you're an avid learner, you, you look at what's going on in the world and try to apply it. How do you go about sharpening your AX and getting better every year as a leader?

Scott Redler 35:12 

It's talking to people and having open conversations, and not being the one to talk. I mean, there are so many wonderful leaders in our industry and in the world and, and listening and understanding why they're successful. What has made them successful? What are their priorities? What are their goals? What is their true mission? And the mission is not to make as much money as you can. The ones that think that I think never win, I think you you take care of everything else, and the financial success just happened. But I still have people that I'll call up today and say, Hey, I got a problem. Here's my issue helped me with this. I called someone last week, and on a significant issue. I wanted their perspective. And it was a great, great help.

David Novak 35:55 

You know, this has been so much fun. Scott and I want to have some more of my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? Okay, here we go. Okay, what's one word others would use to describe you?

Scott Redler 36:07 

Persistent.

David Novak 36:08 

What would you say is the one word that best describes you? Focused? If you could be one person for a day besides yourself? Who would it be?

Scott Redler 36:17 

That's a tough one. I you know, going into culinary thing. I would love to be Thomas Keller for a day and understand what it takes to execute at the level that he does in his restaurants every day.

David Novak 36:28 

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Scott Redler 36:31 

Dirty restaurants.

David Novak 36:32 

What's your go to custard order?

Scott Redler 36:36 

Vanilla Custard liquid peanut butter, Reese's Pieces. Reese's Peanut Butter Cup? It is amazing.

David Novak 36:41 

What's something about Wichita only you would know if you live there.

Scott Redler 36:45 

You know, this is a hidden gem. My parents who lived in St. Louis, when they visit the go, we could have lived here. This is an amazing place. You know, 550 600,000 in our DMA, right sized town. It's such a wonderful place to live affordable. And there's amazing, wonderful people here.

David Novak 37:04 

You call Freddie's loyalists, Fred heads. You mentioned that earlier. What's one of your favorite thread head moments?

Scott Redler 37:12 

You know, what's fun is when you get an email from someone, and they talk about an experience that they had inner Fridays that just blew their mind. One of our team members did something out of the ordinary. All of a sudden, they're afraid head for life. And I think those are always the best stories for redhead

David Novak 37:28 

for life. I love that the slogan, is there anything that you collect?

Scott Redler 37:33 

I like yeah, cars and wine.

David Novak 37:37 

If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear?

Scott Redler 37:40 

Well, if I'm driving somewhere, I am a I like listening to musicals. And most people don't know that about me. I find it very relaxing.

David Novak 37:48 

Alright, just a few more questions for you. That's the end of the lightning round. Good job. You know, we talked a bit about this earlier, but you have a passion for developing people and giving them opportunities. Tell me about the Redler Institute of Culinary Arts and your partnership with Butler community college in Wichita.

Scott Redler 38:07 

Yeah, so you know, sold a company and Betsy and I said, alright, we want to do one big thing to start. And I'm on hospitality boards at Mizzou, K State and Butler, I've been on Butler's for 2528 years. And the kitchen that we're using really was not very nice. It was in a rec center with old equipment. And our vision was to take this to the right level. And, you know, when you look at the opportunity that students have, you know, this is a great school, it's 11 or 12,000 bucks a year, and you're getting an amazing education. Now you're in a first class facility. And I used to talk to the classes, and I would talk to the top three students. And usually we'd hire them. Two of them still work for Freddie's and are doing very, very well. But community college not everyone is made to go to a four year college. And somebody who needs an opportunity at an affordable price can go through culinary or management at Butler and truly accelerate their career and win to an amazing level. The culinary kitchen is named after a young lady who very abusive growing up, she's public about this, and went to Butler and learned everything and now she owns a catering company. These are the stories that you go, wow, this is a special thing, right? And if we're able to change lives for the better, and give people a place to go to take themselves to a level they never thought possible. Then everyone wins. And I'm a big believer in everyone winning.

David Novak 39:38 

You know, I understand that your daughter had a Freddy's fry sauce fountain at her wedding. Yes, she did. And you know, how have you involved your family and your different business ventures over the years?

Scott Redler 39:49 

Well, we did whenever we would do a kid menu. My kids were definitely involved, whether we were doing steakhouse or anything. My family has been heavily involved. They've been heavily involved in the r&d component and my wife Betsy He had been supportive of everything I've done understanding. You know, this is a tough industry and there's times you're working long hours and working holidays and weekends. And my wife has been so supportive of that. And kids also it. It really is great. Both my kids did work at Freddy's. And, you know, David, when you talk about winning moments, Obama was speaking in Eldorado and our Fridays and Eldorado they weren't sure whether they were gonna get the crowd, they ended up letting some people go early. Yet they got the crowd. Well, my daughter was one listening to Obama speak, and she goes into Fridays with her friends. Were in the weeds, as you know, we're behind. They need a little more help. And my daughter looks at the general managers and goes, Mr. Woodburn, I'm Katie Redler. I'm trained in custard and cash, can I help you? And she grabbed the hat off the mannequin in the lobby that we used to sell the hats, put it on her head, went behind the counter, washed her hands and helped make customers and you know, so talk about the value in life. You're gonna be judged on how are your kids, both my kids, my daughters are very successful, have good ethics, good morals, made it through college in four years. And there's not many things I'm more proud of than that.

David Novak 41:09 

That's great. You know, and you've been in the restaurant industry for I think, coming up 50 years. What's your unfinished business? Scott?

Scott Redler 41:17 

Well, you know, I'm still wanting to help help other people grow and franchise and build companies. But I'll only do it. If the culture matches, I will not go into a company that I don't think the culture is 100%. Right. And then, you know, I'm a food and wine person, I love upscale food. I like dining. And I still think maybe someday, this is gonna be hard for me to say, David, but I want to open a restaurant that I'm not focused on making a profit. Wow, that was hard to say. But it would be open maybe, you know, Tuesday through Saturday. And it would be a great wine selection, and a tapas food menu 20 items, a chef and team that could work five days a week.

David Novak 41:58 

You know, what's interesting is you mentioned that the best leaders in the industry, they don't think about the profit, they think about making their customers happy, you might make a lot of customers very happy, make a lot of money with that concept.

Scott Redler 42:10 

You never know. Right?

David Novak 42:11 

You'd never know. Last question here. What's one piece of advice you've given to someone who wants to be a better leader?

Scott Redler 42:18 

You know, I think you've got to learn something every day. I mean, it's a basic piece of advice. It's common sense. You learn from the best. So understand, everybody you've worked for, take the good traits that you've witnessed and observed. And watch them play out in a business, whether it's restaurant or not, and take the bad ones, emulate the good ones, throw out the bad ones, and you're going to be a better leader. And I think that's is so important. We've all had leaders that we go, wow, people love working for this person, turnovers low in this restaurant or this business. There's a reason for that. It's not just magic, and understand what causes that.

David Novak 42:56 

You know, Scott, it's always fun for me to talk to two great entrepreneurs, and in particular restaurant entrepreneurs, because I love it. But the thing I love the most is, is just the common sense that you have. And the fact that you understand what the true formula for success is, you know, it's it's making people happy and satisfying more guests, and then you make the money. So I really appreciate you sharing your insight today.

Scott Redler 43:21 

Well, thank you, I really enjoyed it. It is all about the people that always will be there's nothing that will ever change that when you make other people successful you win.

David Novak 43:39 

Well, I just love leaders like Scott, who understand that when you do the right things, the right things happen. He won't cut corners on quality for the sake of profit. Because for Scott, if you take care of those quality details and delight your guests, the financial success will follow. But here's the catch. Quality can't be a vague ideal. You've got to get specific about those standards. For Scott and his team at Freddy's. It's about the size of the burger, the buttered bun, even the cleanliness of the thresholds at the door when you walk through the door. by codifying those standards and labeling them the Freddie's way. He's giving his team a clearer picture of what quality means. This week. Ask yourself what factors really drive quality in your work? What are those non negotiable standards that you've got to meet in order to keep your customers happy? Don't guess what they are? define them clearly make a list. You can even take a page from Scott's playbook and give them that handy label like Freddie's way. Because when you make your standards clear and simple, your team doesn't have to guess at what quality means or what they need to do to deliver it. They'll know. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders codify their standards Coming up next on how leaders lead is Diana Murphy, Managing Director of rock solid holdings, a private equity firm focused on small business and real estate in the southeast, as well as the former president of the United States Golf Association.

Diana Murphy 45:15 

The more you can get a group together and work together for a common goal that's positive and share the success of that. Why would you want to be part of that and you're going to be much more successful with more people.

David Novak 45:30 

So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be