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 don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that 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 Stakeburger's 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 in 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 clear picture of what quality means by building it into the culture. This conversation will get your wheels turning for how you can codify your standards. And to be totally honest, it's probably going to have you crave in 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. You know, I want to start at the beginning. Why did you first fall in love with the restaurant business? 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 having the intention of having a career in the restaurant hospitality industry. 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 kind of hard to believe, I imagine. It is. I, you know, one time I 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 in the energy and hospitality, friendship, it's just an amazing industry. Now what's your biggest leadership challenge is the chairman of the National Restaurant Association? I think it has to do with a little town called Washington, D.C. 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 in programs that people get in the way. You know, Washington, D.C. obviously can be a challenge. But what do you see as the big issues for the industry that you're trying to address with Congress in Washington? 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 8 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. Join employer. You know, right now our government is telling a franchise or that you cannot help a franchisee become a better operator in a lot of ways. If you get them too much information, then you're going to be responsible for all their employees. If someone gets sued, they're going to sue the franchise or versus the franchisee. Well, I don't see any pragmatism. I don't see any common sense in that. We're here as a franchisee or trying to help our franchisees be a better operator. What is wrong with that? And you know, the franchisee is the one writing a check for land, building equipment, opening the restaurant. They have all the risk. They're the business operator. And to try and take that burden to a franchisee or I don't understand it. When you think about the biggest misperception that you have to deal with in Washington, what do you think that is? 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 put black ink on a bottom line. And I think our congressmen and senators need to understand that it's not easy out there. Even though you walk into a restaurant on a Friday night and there's a line out the door, that doesn't mean that restaurant's 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. And one thing that I know is an absolute fact is that the industry gets slammed for minimum wage and low wages. What's your view on that? It's just not really the case anymore. We start people of Freddy's 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 Gilbert Robinson, Bristol Barn Grill, Creek, or 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. As the leader, being the chairman of this massive industry, what do you find to be the biggest challenge working inside the industry itself? The challenge inside the industry today is finding staff that want to work. And we're trying everything, doing everything we can to the right messages that someone that works in the restaurant industry typically falls in love with it and never leaves. I can give you a story after a story after someone. I was going to be a dentist, but now I'm a general manager of a Freddy's. Amazing, right? And understanding that component, we are the industry that not only gives you 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. 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. 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 somewhere 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 has helped others come up throughout the industry. Do you like being chairman of the association? I've loved it. I'm very fortunate that my role at Freddy's 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 National Restaurant Association has a pretty incredible team in all these different areas. I mean, people don't even talk about Pro Start with the Education Foundation. 1800 schools have Pro Start programs that teach kids about hospitality and culinary. 167,000 students are involved in Pro Start 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 Pro Start. The energy, the passion, the excitement from teachers, parents, students was off the charts and anybody that walked out of there and you were floating. Well, now you're the co-founder of Freddy's, which you started in 2002. Describe the restaurant concept and give us a snapshot of the business that it is today. You know, 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 in we own steak houses. Randy owned and was running a group of Panera breads. And we really missed frozen custard and great burgers. And we opened the first location, never intending to open a second. Now, let's understand we're getting right 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 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 a Freddy's steak burger, hot steam comes out, right? And it's 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. I don't need it, but you're making me hungry. Keep it up. Well, yeah. So we're going to custard and frozen custard. It's premium ice cream, right? With minimum 10% butter, fat, and egg yolk. Rich, creamy, made fresh throughout the day. And you know, you're sitting in a room and somebody orders our number one seller, which is a turtle Sunday, freshly made vanilla, frozen custard, toasted pecans, whipped cream, hot caramel, hot fudge. I mean, what else is there? It just makes you happy. You know, when I was the chief marketing officer at pizza, I lived in Wichita, which as you know, is where Dan and Frank Carney opened the first pizza hut. It also happens to be where Freddy's was started. What's in the water in Wichita, you think, that helps launch and create these great restaurants? So don't forget White Castle and Taco Tico, also both out of Wichita-based companies. And you know, there's a spirit of entrepreneurship. Wichita State University 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, Coke Industries, right? There's 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, D.C. for a two-year commitment. It's now been 32 years. It's a wonderful place to live. Yeah, I loved it when I lived in Wichita and worked at Pizza. I remember I was about a mile and a half away. I lived in Eastboro, a 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. That is so true. If I've got a nine o'clock meeting, I can leave it 850. It's a quality of life thing. I'm just curious. Did you learn anything from Dan and Frank Carney's success that helped you scale freddies? You know, when you look at the way Frank and Dan started everything, I was fortunate to know both of 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. Well, you're now close to 500 freddies locations. What do you see ahead in terms of restaurants for that concept? Well, we're going to open up 50 to 55 this year. And if we could get if you've 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 going to 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 freddies way. You've talked about this freddies way. When was it that you coined this term and how do you use it? It was coined about, oh, I guess we're seven or eight years ago. You know, when it comes down to business, business is basics, right? I'm a big person that goes into BBM, basic business model. So what's the basic business model of freddies? The three legged stool that a lot of us use that terminology with food, hospitality and sanitation facility, the freddies 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 eat a fry. The first thing someone does in the drive-through, by the way, before they even pull away is eat a french fry, right? And if they're fresh and hot, we won. And that is so critical to keep up those standards. You know, we use a premium beef and it's cooked or do 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. 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. Well, you share a story of when that was easier said than done. So I'm going to use a term, I call it management by too many MBAs. And I don't mean it directly to an MBA, I mean it 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 of 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 timber line 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 know, I'm in here every Friday night. Yes, you are. Thank you. We greatly appreciate it. He goes, I always get a sirloin. He goes, yes, you do. He goes, well, there's another steakhouse down the street. The sirloin's 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. I guess we'll quickly forget the extra $0.50 a dollar that it truly does take to give people premium quality, but they won't forget a poor meal or poor hospitality. 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 guests? Well, I do. And I know a lot of you do too. My name is Koolah Callahan, and together with David, I host the three more questions podcast 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 young brands, and all of his answers are super practical and inspiring. Like this great insight, David shared in one of our most recent three more questions episodes. 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 Koolah, 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. Get the three more questions podcast 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. Scott, I understand that you view your role as being the protector of the brand . Explain. 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 with 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. You know, the success of your business as a franchise or 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? Well, so I'm going to go into the rules for becoming a franchisee or Freddy's. And these are Scott's rules. And that 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 are here. Oh, I've never been to a Freddy's, but I hear they make a lot of money. Well, that's not our franchisee. We want somebody goes, I went into Freddy's and just by accident, I had a double stake 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 and 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. You know, you may have already answered this question somewhat, but how do you build the culture where you have all these franchisees yet you can't control the actual way they run their business and run their restaurants? You know, how important is culture and how do you build it? 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 they're 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 Freddy'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 and 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. Can you give us an example of where you had that kind of conflict and how you handled it? You know, we've had a franchisee that for various reasons ended up owning some Freddy's that it wasn't his initial goal. And I think a very honest direct conversation was great. It's not good for either party. And so you just tackled it head on and laid it out and head on? You have to. I mean, it's like, look, you're not operating the way we want it. 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're walking to 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 going to get fixed. We try and help them to learn and understand. And if they can't do things the Freddy's way, we really need someone running the operation that can do things the Freddy's way. 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 Freddy's. Well, first of all, I like to call them 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 when I see a general manager and we're talking about things, they'll 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 guest perspective really does make you win. Now, let's talk about the guest perspective. Why do you believe in guests for the customers? What's the thank you behind that? You know, when somebody comes in, I can tell you stories of we had a guest come in that someone didn't have enough money to buy a custard. And one of our cashiers actually pulled their credit card out and bought the custard for them. You know, a customer is a relationship of buyer, seller, done. A guest is someone that you become close with and inviting your home very often . And I think we want guests because we want someone to come to Freddy's, oh, three or four times a month. We're not trying for that transactional guest. We want someone who becomes, as we call it, a Fred head and they're passionate about our brand. They're selling our brand more than we are. Yeah, there's nothing like word of mouth in the restaurant business. 100% agree. 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 guest looks at it or how to rethink about the guest experience? Well, it has to be in the system. And when you've looked at companies, well, compared to one of your, the old competition dominoes, 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. Giving them relief, you're helping them with a family event with Freddy'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 does your menu board look like, right? What is your, I'm a big person on door thresholds. It's 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 notice the details, the guests notice it. And sometimes the white elephant, they don't really notice it, but they know something's not quite right. When that occurs, you lose. 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? 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? Why 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 Freddy's what it is. I mean, we opened a Freddy's in West Wichita. And after opening that one, you know, in which, as you know, we had to drive 18 minutes to get there. It's almost like you almost need to get a passport and a vaccine. A location became available on rock road. And that's really what triggered us to grow. So you started out though, you said, you know, you didn't expect to have more than one. Was it because you thought you could do that well with just one or what tempered your ambition at the beginning? 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 done the right way. And Randy and Bill, frozen custard, like the Ozarks a lot. And we ended up just going, okay, we want this done right. We want a 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. But I understand I 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 through and it scared me. Wait a minute, you're going to drive your car up to a window or a speaker box and you're going to order food and I've got a, in five minutes, I'm going to give you freshly made quality food. And it scared me so much so that at the first Freddy's, I actually turned my car around backwards for the first two weeks and I had a sign on the back window drive through opens tomorrow. I did that for two weeks. It's kind of like the free beer tomorrow that you see in bars, right? Always fun. I love it. How do you go about driving innovation? 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 and 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, you 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 it once, you take a bite of a Freddy's steak burger and you go, okay, I get it. We just recently had somebody lives on the East Coast. We're not that populated up there yet. I met this person, he goes, okay, I'm going to go to Freddy's. And he ended up going to Freddy's and emailed him. He goes, how come I didn't know about this a long time ago? Now he goes with his family every week. Do you test a lot of things in your restaurants or? We do. So initially, most of the testing was done in my house. And I mean, the funny story is called the summer of the hot dog. Before we opened Freddy's, we were trying to decide what hot dog to use. And suppliers don't give you a pound of hot dogs, 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 a time. And we tested them, narrowed it down to three, brought a group together. We selected Vienna Beef, which is Chicago's hot dog and really one of the best hot dogs in our country. It's my favorite. So then I have 97 pounds of hot dogs left over. My two daughters, one of them ended up doing an internship with Vienna Beef and driving around a little mini coupe or the hot dog on top. My other daughter came up one day to my wife and said, Hey, lady, no more hot dogs. Cause every time her friends were over, always sort of was hot dogs. So we want tacos. We want burgers. We want pizza. Can you tell me a story about a test that maybe you tried something that maybe didn't work but led to a bigger and better breakthrough? We have definitely had things that didn't work. I mean, foot long hot dogs that we ran a limited time offer on foot longs. And this is probably 15 years ago. And I think there's still warehouses with foot long hot dog containers in them for months. If we tried, you know, you talk about the innovation. I was in Los Angeles and somebody said, you got to go to Pink's hot dogs. And so we went to Pink's 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 increased the size of our hot dog to make it look better because we went somewhere else. That's what innovation, it's worked great. How do you coach your team to think about failure? How you respond to failure is critical. You know, we're all going to make mistakes. I still remember running a restaurant company in DC where we had all the GMs and I made everybody raise their hand and go, I messed up. And let me say, messed wasn't the word I had them used by the way. And you know what, we're all going to make mistakes as long as we're honest about it and we talk about it and we 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 Freddy's purple sales will go up by 10% and they have a logical reason, you got to try it. 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 Millar. 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. 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, making your products great and having integrity in your company and in your products. Take a deep dive on quality this week and listen to my entire conversation with the other Scott, episode 59 here on How Leaders Lead. Hifting gears for just a second, I want to take you back. What's the story from your childhood that shaped the kind of leader you are today? You know, I think we all have mentors and the people that we work for teach you what's important. My first job was an in a catering company where we fed from 2,000 to 10,000 people. And I ended up working there and even coming back and helping them when I was in college. But Lee was a kind of leader that number one, so focused on food quality, nothing was going to be secondhand. I remember, and you have all these lessons. I remember we're in the catering truck. He's driving and I had made these little VL-Chordon Blues, which were 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. It's the 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 and the people you work for help shape you as a manager. I remember my first general manager at Bristol Barn Grill in Creve Corps. 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 multi-million 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. Well, obviously, you're a big believer in people and how do you incentivize people to stick with you and grow within your company? So I'm a believer that the general manager is the king of any restaurant company and 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 a believer I am, I'm involved in a barbecue concept in Kansas City called Meat Mitch. It's just one of the best pitmasters I've ever seen. I'm a burnt-ends guy. 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. Look, 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 every day, the culture of that business, and is the most important person to enable the success of that business. Fredi's is obviously your crown jewel, but I understand you've developed 20 or more restaurant concepts, love helping other people develop concepts. What's behind all that? Your desire to help others put a restaurant on the map? 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 there's a reward you get with helping others. It's 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. I couldn't agree more with that. And by the way, 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're also someone that it's pretty clear to me, you're intellectually curious . You're an avid learner. You look at what's going on in the world and try to apply it. How do you go about sharpening your acts and getting better every year as a leader? 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 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 take care of everything else and the financial success just happens . But I still have people that I'll call up today and say, "Hey, I got a problem. Here's my issue. I'm going to be with this. I called someone last week." And on a significant issue, I wanted their perspective and it was a great, great help. 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? Persistent. What would you say is the one word that best describes you? Focused. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be? That's a tough one. You know, going in the 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 . What's your biggest pet peeve? Dirty restaurants. What's your go-to custard order? Vanilla custard. Liquid peanut butter, Reese's pieces, Reese's peanut butter cup. It is amazing. That's something about Wichita only you would know if you lived there. You know what? This is a hidden gem. My parents who lived in St. Louis, when they visit, they 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. You call Freddy's loyal as Fred Hedge. You mentioned that earlier. That's one of your favorite Fred Hedge moments. You know, what's fun is when you get an email from someone and they talk about an experience that they had in a Freddy's that just blew their mind. One of our team members did something out of the ordinary. All of a sudden, they're a Fred Hedge for life. And I think those are always the best stories. Fred Hedge for life. I love that, the slogan. Is there anything that you collect? I like cars and wine. If I turned on the radio in your car, what would I hear? Well, if I'm driving somewhere, I like listening to musicals and most people don't know that about me. I find it very relaxing. All right, just a few more questions for you. That's the end of the lightning round. Good job. 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. Yeah, so you know, sold a company and Betsy and I said, all right, we want to do one big thing to start. And I'm on the hospitality boards at Mizzou, K-State and Butler. I've been on Butler's for 25, 28 years. And the kitchen they were 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 Freddy'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. You know, I understand that your daughter had a Freddy's, Fry sauce fountain at our wedding. Yes, she did. You know, how have you involved your family and your different business ventures over the years? 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 has 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 really is great. Both my kids did work at Freddy's and you know what, David, when you talk about winning moments, Obama was speaking in El Dorado and our Freddy's in El Dorado, they weren't sure whether they were going to 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 Freddy's with her friends. We're 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 and custard in cash. Can I help you? Can you grab 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 custard? And you know, so talk about value in life. You're going to 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. 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? Well, you know, I'm still want to 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 going to 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 toppess food menu, 20 items, a chef and team that could work five days a week. 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. You never know, right? You never know. What's the best question here? What's one piece of advice you've given to someone who wants to be a better leader? 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 watched 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 is so important. We've all had leaders that we go, wow, people love working for this person. Turnover's low in this restaurant or this business. There's a reason for that. It's not just magic. And understand what causes that. You know, Scott, it's always fun for me to talk to great entrepreneurs and in particular restaurant entrepreneurs, because I love it. But the thing I love the most is just the common sense that you have and the fact that you understand what the true formula for success is. It's making people happy, satisfying more guests, and then you make the money. So I really appreciate you sharing your insight today. Well, thank you. I really enjoyed it. It is all about the people. It always will be. There's nothing that will ever change that. When you make other people successful, you win. 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. You 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 but tered bun, even the cleanliness of the thresholds at the door when you walk through the door. By codifying those standards and labeling them the Freddy's way, he's giving his team a clear 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 Freddy'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 that 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. 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 wouldn't you want to be part of that? And you're going to be much more successful with more people. 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. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]