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Speaker 1: It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. The

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Speaker 1: Michael Arry Show is.

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Speaker 2: On the air.

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Speaker 3: Ah Yes, the euphoria of success, the euphoria of America

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Speaker 3: being back, the return of common sense and decency and excellence.

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Speaker 4: Ah Yes, heavy day, heavy day, en.

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Speaker 5: Waity war quen see the way he loves.

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Speaker 6: A happy day or a happy day? Happy or happy day?

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Speaker 5: When you those wars a pretty warm wouldn't do those

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Speaker 5: war see you the way he loved.

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Speaker 2: It's a happy day, a happy day.

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Speaker 5: Or happy day? Happy winter of war? Oh wheny war

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Speaker 5: winder of war three years away? You need a love

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Speaker 5: happy day, happy d.

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Speaker 4: Heavy deal.

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Speaker 5: God, happy deal or happy day? Or habitay? When ge

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Speaker 5: those walls? Oh, waity world, when g those warm seven

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Speaker 5: the way he needed to up the habit day. One

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Speaker 5: of the.

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Speaker 1: Sound bites that.

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Speaker 7: I didn't get to this week that I'm going to

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Speaker 7: make sure I did it comes from Jordan Peterson, and

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Speaker 7: he's talking about the unbelievable might of the American people,

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Speaker 7: our willingness and ability to do good things not only

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Speaker 7: for ourselves, but in so doing, for the world. I'm

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Speaker 7: America first. It is time we take care of the

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Speaker 7: American people first. But when we do that, we create

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Speaker 7: a model to the rest of the world, and we

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Speaker 7: tell the bad guys we are united behind our own

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Speaker 7: excellence and strength and results. President Trump called himself in

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Speaker 7: his inaugural speech a peacemaker and a unifier. Believe it

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Speaker 7: or not, Peace through strength works. This was what Jordan

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Speaker 7: Peterson had to say. And I didn't want to get

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Speaker 7: through the week without playing for a.

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Speaker 8: Long time the people who held conservative and then even

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Speaker 8: classically liberal values of being on the defensive.

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Speaker 1: And that's not a good strategy.

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Speaker 8: And it would be a lovely thing to see.

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Speaker 5: And I think we will see it that the.

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Speaker 8: Virtues that made America green will be unabashedly promoted and sentered.

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Speaker 1: That's a high probability event.

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Speaker 8: And I think if that happens, the place of loom

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Speaker 8: I was here. Tammy was as well in the United

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Speaker 8: States and the nineties when the internet book first hit

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Speaker 8: and this place just thrived. And you Americans, you do

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Speaker 8: that on a fairly consistent basis. And I think we're

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Speaker 8: on the verge of here something like that again. And

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Speaker 8: so it'll be very interesting to see what the opening

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Speaker 8: moves are because Trump has done this before, and he's

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Speaker 8: more prepared this time, and I'm hoping that the unbelievable

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Speaker 8: bite of the American people will be unleashed again and

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Speaker 8: that'll be salutary and useful for the whole world.

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Speaker 7: I think President Trump understands how powerful the swamp is

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Speaker 7: in a way that even he didn't recognize. I think

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Speaker 7: he understands how the court around him, the palatial politics,

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Speaker 7: the knives are out, and he has to have loyal

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Speaker 7: people of great resolve around him. But I had to

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Speaker 7: tell you he is a different man than he was

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Speaker 7: eight years ago. He is ready. This is his moment,

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Speaker 7: and he has risen to it, and he has learned.

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Speaker 7: I think you have to have I think you have

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Speaker 7: to get knocked down to rock bottom, which he has

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Speaker 7: been to be in the position that he has to

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Speaker 7: lead this nation. And I feel very very optimistic about it.

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Speaker 4: Live, laugh, learn, doing it big.

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Speaker 7: On the Michael Berry Show, I often speak about the

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Speaker 7: importance in life to having mentors, and I describe it

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Speaker 7: as a man who was once a boy in that

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Speaker 7: and I often say that I particularly believe that boys,

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Speaker 7: as they grow into men, need mentors, and then as

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Speaker 7: you get older, you still have mentors, but sometimes those

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Speaker 7: mentors are your peers. They're your same age. They may

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Speaker 7: be your same station in life. You hang out, you

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Speaker 7: may play poker, or shoot shotguns or go fishing together.

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Speaker 7: But in many ways you learn from them, you draw

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Speaker 7: from them, you seek to emulate them. I had a

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Speaker 7: Sunday school teacher tell me twenty five years ago that

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Speaker 7: if you want to know what you're going to be

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Speaker 7: in five years, look at the people around you. And

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Speaker 7: my wife heard me say that one day at home.

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Speaker 7: I don't let her listen to the show because I

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Speaker 7: wouldn't be able to talk about her. And she said, well,

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Speaker 7: women need mentors too, we just don't do it as well.

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Speaker 7: Women don't understand in the workplace in the home. You know,

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Speaker 7: women need mentors as well. They need people to tell them.

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Speaker 7: You know, as a mom, how do you deal with

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Speaker 7: you know, the demands of being a mom. Mentors are important,

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Speaker 7: and I preach on this frequently. I jokingly use the

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Speaker 7: term preach for those of you who wonder if I

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Speaker 7: think I'm a per pastor. I don't, but I talk

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Speaker 7: about this a lot because I think it's very important

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Speaker 7: and I have made it business. In fact, there was

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Speaker 7: an article a woman who wrote for a magazine was

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Speaker 7: in Houston. Houston has a superior cancer treatment center, and

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Speaker 7: she was getting cancer treatment in Houston, and she heard

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Speaker 7: our show, and she heard me talking about the fact

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Speaker 7: that my friends are not people who live next door

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Speaker 7: to me, or who I happen to go to school with,

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Speaker 7: or who I happen.

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Speaker 1: To be related to.

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Speaker 7: I choose my friends, and I choose my friends on

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Speaker 7: the basis of people that I admire, that I respect,

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Speaker 7: and that I want to be like, who I can

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Speaker 7: learn from. And that's because you only have so much

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Speaker 7: time in life, and the time you spend, even in recreation,

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Speaker 7: can be time that makes you better as a person.

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Speaker 7: And so she wanted to write an article and did

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Speaker 7: about what I called strategic friendships. And I realized, to

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Speaker 7: some people that sounds like a person that is a

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Speaker 7: schemer or whatever.

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Speaker 1: It's not.

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Speaker 7: There are people you associate with because you sell products

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Speaker 7: to their company, but that's not your real friend. We

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Speaker 7: use the term friend, and social media has put that

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Speaker 7: term into to too often a use. You know, how

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Speaker 7: many I don't have three hundred and fifty one thousand friends,

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Speaker 7: which is what my old Facebook account has. You just

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Speaker 7: have a few real friends, people you trust who trust

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Speaker 7: you anyway? So I like to share what I learned

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Speaker 7: from these people i'm around. And I asked Russell Lebarro.

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Speaker 7: I said, it's been a while since you've been on

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Speaker 7: the show, but every time I talked to Russell Lebarro

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Speaker 7: and I have this problem with mattress Mac too. We

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Speaker 7: tend to talk about things we're doing for the community.

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Speaker 7: Camp Hope needs money, or here's a great programmer, here's

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Speaker 7: a great success with Camp Hope, thank you for doing that.

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Speaker 7: And with Russell, it's every cause we're involved with He's

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Speaker 7: always he Connie Stagner at Corey Diamonds. There's a few

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Speaker 7: folks that just jump right in. I don't have to

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Speaker 7: ask twice. And I said to him recently we were

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Speaker 7: talking about site selection for restaurants and his business acumen

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Speaker 7: is amazing, and I said, you know, Russell, I'd like

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Speaker 7: to do an interview with you on air where we

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Speaker 7: talk about business, not service to the community, not all

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Speaker 7: the wonderful things you're doing. I think people would really

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Speaker 7: enjoy hearing your perspective because he's a very very smart businessman.

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Speaker 7: The way Tilman Fritita is the way Jim mcnabelle is

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Speaker 7: is a very smart businessman. And I said, well, you

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Speaker 7: do me a favor and we do an interview on that,

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Speaker 7: and he said anytime. So now is that time. I

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Speaker 7: also want to say, as something that makes me very happy,

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Speaker 7: the folks at Oracle knew that we do these business

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Speaker 7: leader interviews and wanted to sponsor these interviews.

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Speaker 1: And I'm all up for that.

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Speaker 7: So I will tell you because I believe it to

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Speaker 7: be true that if you got data all over the

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Speaker 7: place at your company, if you are a decision maker

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Speaker 7: like a Russell Lebora, and you're trying to decide, hey,

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Speaker 7: we're gonna look at opening a location. Let's say this

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Speaker 7: may not be true, but I'm just making it up.

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Speaker 7: We're looking at open a location north of the Woodlands.

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Speaker 7: And he calls his team and says, I need data

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Speaker 7: on what our sales are at our location that's fifteen

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Speaker 7: miles away, and where the people are coming from, and

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Speaker 7: what their zip code is and how much they're spending

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Speaker 7: in all that. If he's got to close, he's got

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Speaker 7: to get a contract on deal, he's got to make

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Speaker 7: a decision fast, and if he can't get that information fast,

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Speaker 7: he can't make a decision. A good decision based on data.

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Speaker 7: Everything's data driven now that enables his company to be

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Speaker 7: efficient and effective. That's what NetSuite does. And you can

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Speaker 7: get the free cfo's Guide to AI and Machine Learning

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Speaker 7: at NetSuite dot com slash my last name, Barry, netsuitet

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Speaker 7: dot com, slash Berry. They're going to be sponsoring our

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Speaker 7: business interview whenever.

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Speaker 1: We do them. I love to do them.

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Speaker 7: I do them every day if I could, but I

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Speaker 7: know at some point I got to talk about what's

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Speaker 7: in the news as well. But they love the fact

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Speaker 7: that we talk about the secret sauce behind the success

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Speaker 7: of businesses. And they have a program called Success from

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Speaker 7: Scratch and they asked if they could sponsor it, and

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Speaker 7: I said yep. In fact, I got one coming up

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Speaker 7: with Russell Obara. So if you want, and I hope

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Speaker 7: you do, the Chief Financial Officer's Guide to AI and

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Speaker 7: Machine Learning, go to NetSuite dot com, slash Barry my

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Speaker 7: last name, Russell Obara. It is an honor to have

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Speaker 7: you back on the show. I want to talk, as

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Speaker 7: I said, business principles and the success you've had in

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Speaker 7: business and how you make those decisions regarding most every

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Speaker 7: aspect of your career. But I have to ask you,

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Speaker 7: if I had asked you when you were ten years old,

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Speaker 7: what do you want to do when you are the

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Speaker 7: age that you are right now, which I think is

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Speaker 7: sixty three?

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Speaker 1: Is that right? That's correct?

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Speaker 7: If I'd asked you at ten or twelve, would you

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Speaker 7: have said a drummer in a band, a professional baseball player,

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Speaker 7: because I know you were good at both of those things?

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Speaker 7: Or what what would you have said you were going

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Speaker 7: to do?

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Speaker 1: You left out Elvis Presley, I want.

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Speaker 7: To be any Yes, yes, good call all the above.

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Speaker 1: Yes.

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Speaker 9: But you know, I was fortunate to grow up in

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Speaker 9: the presence of a dreamer and an entrepreneur and my

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Speaker 9: father who had started a restaurant chain in the early sixties,

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Speaker 9: and so just being exposed to his way of thinking

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Speaker 9: helped start developing my way of thinking. And I would

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Speaker 9: like to think that I evawved. You know you every

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Speaker 9: generation should aspire to get better than the previous, and

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Speaker 9: I think I've done that because I've always kept an

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Speaker 9: open mind to new idea is wherever they come from.

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Speaker 9: I don't have to be the one that comes up

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Speaker 9: with an idea, but my team and I we come

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Speaker 9: up with some great ideas, because we really do brainstorm

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Speaker 9: and come out.

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Speaker 1: With the best of the outcome whatever we're doing.

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Speaker 7: Our conversation with Russell Ibara, the master Enchilada roller at

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Speaker 7: Gringostexmex dot com, Gringos Tex Mex and Jimmy Changa's and

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Speaker 7: a whole lot.

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Speaker 4: More HIV Spooky VAGINOSI.

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Speaker 7: Sinning with your naked bod is evil and atrocious. Yes,

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Speaker 7: let's follow up on what you were talking about with

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Speaker 7: regard to I forget how you said it, but I

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Speaker 7: heard Bill White, who I ran against for mayor back

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Speaker 7: in two thousand and three. He was the first person

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Speaker 7: I heard use this phrase. You can get a lot

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Speaker 7: more done when there's no pride of authorship. When you

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Speaker 7: don't need to be the one that gets the credit,

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Speaker 7: your team will be more effective. And I have found

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Speaker 7: that to be true in so many ways. How did

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Speaker 7: you say you learned that lesson? Who did you learn

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Speaker 7: that from?

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Speaker 9: Well, just one small example. When I was younger running

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Speaker 9: El Matador Food, the Frtia factory that my family owns today,

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Speaker 9: I remember that there was one particular employee working on

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Speaker 9: the production floor and he was doing something he shouldn't

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Speaker 9: have been doing and I wanted to catch him, so

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Speaker 9: I came in one morning, really early, around five o'clock

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Speaker 9: in the morning, just to catch him during production. And

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Speaker 9: I caught him, and I presented the problem to my father,

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Speaker 9: who told me, hey, you can terminate him, but just

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Speaker 9: be sure and find his replacement. And that was going

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Speaker 9: to be the hardest part of that entire equation.

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Speaker 1: There.

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Speaker 9: There's just no way I was going to be able to.

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Speaker 9: So in business you have to really stand back and

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Speaker 9: always look at the larger picture and house one decision

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Speaker 9: is going to impact the entire organization. Of times, it's

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Speaker 9: not your way, it's really the best way in terms

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Speaker 9: of you know, what is the best outcome for the company,

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Speaker 9: and if you can approach approach it that way, you'll

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Speaker 9: come out a lot better.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 9: There was a Instagram post that I just saw recently,

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Speaker 9: and it's this owner of I want to say, seven

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Speaker 9: different restaurants in the California area at Los Angeles area,

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Speaker 9: and he was talking about one of his locations where

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Speaker 9: he's been in business since two thousand and one, so

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Speaker 9: he's at the time he posted this, twenty three years

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Speaker 9: in business, and over the twenty three years he's had

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Speaker 9: fifteen general managers. Well, that told me a lot, told

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Speaker 9: me almost everything.

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Speaker 1: I need to know about this individual.

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Speaker 9: Because Gringos, the original Gringos and Pareland, has been in

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Speaker 9: business thirty two years and we've only had four general managers,

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Speaker 9: and the three that are no longer general managers have

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Speaker 9: only moved up to the company, not moved out out.

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Speaker 9: And that's the kind of things that are red flags

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Speaker 9: for me when there's high turnover. There was this other

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Speaker 9: gentleman years ago when we had the Burritos franchise. I

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Speaker 9: received a letter from a window washer, someone that actually

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Speaker 9: cleaned his windows there at the restaurant, and he sent

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Speaker 9: me a letter complaining about this franchise e. And I'm

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Speaker 9: thinking to myself, how bad of a person do you

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Speaker 9: have to be to where you can actually stop a

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Speaker 9: window washer from his daily activities to write a letter

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Speaker 9: to complain about someone. I mean, you have to really

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Speaker 9: be a certain type of individual. So at the end

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Speaker 9: of the day, we are again, we're a people business.

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Speaker 9: We deal with our customers are people, and our staff

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Speaker 9: or people, and so they have to be our priority

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Speaker 9: and how we approach everything we do in business.

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Speaker 7: Everything The problem with talking to you is that halfway

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Speaker 7: through your answers, it raises fifty more questions that fascinate

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Speaker 7: me and made me want to answer them. I learned

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Speaker 7: so much from this dude. This is what it's like

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Speaker 7: when we hang out. He's not a big drinker. He'll

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Speaker 7: have one beer. He's the consummate moderation except in moderation person.

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Speaker 7: But I just asked him questions because I learned so much.

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Speaker 7: Let's go through your life. Some people I've talked about

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Speaker 7: your bio, Let's quickly go through your life so people

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Speaker 7: kind of understand where you are. And I'm not speaking

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Speaker 7: ill of you. Some people won't understand this. You've had

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Speaker 7: failures that are terrible failures that most people would hide from,

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Speaker 7: and instead you embrace them. You talk about them, you

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Speaker 7: brag about them, because from those failures you have succeeded.

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Speaker 7: But let's start step by step to and just take

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Speaker 7: one point the time and I'll speak to get you

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Speaker 7: to the next one. Kind of where you were born

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Speaker 7: in real quick answers because I think your story, your

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Speaker 7: your timeline is fascinating. So where were you born?

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Speaker 9: I was born in Pasadena, Texas, grew up in Laporte

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Speaker 9: family size I have six brothers and one sister.

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Speaker 7: Your place in the number three, I'm number three, yeah,

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Speaker 7: which was a great spot, by the way, and it

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Speaker 7: was a great spot. The quick story only because I

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Speaker 7: only have so much time and there's so many things

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Speaker 7: I want to get to with you on the reason

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Speaker 7: your father went into the restaurant business, because this is

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Speaker 7: a great one.

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Speaker 9: So my father when he was a young tea, well,

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Speaker 9: let's go back a little further when his parents his

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Speaker 9: parents divorced when he was three. He was dropped off

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Speaker 9: at his grandmother's house by his mother to live there permanently.

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Speaker 9: So it was very shocking to a little five year old,

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Speaker 9: as you can imagine. And so he had plenty of

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Speaker 9: aunts and uncles to help raise him, which thankfully they did.

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Speaker 9: And when he graduated from high school, he sold batteries,

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Speaker 9: but he knew that wasn't going to pay the bills,

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Speaker 9: and so he opened up a restaurant in the port

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Speaker 9: called Laport Mexican Food, that's all it was called.

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Speaker 1: But in junior high he had broke his arm.

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Speaker 9: And the reason to open up a business because it

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Speaker 9: never held back properly and he could never pass a

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Speaker 9: physical to get a job with the city or the

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Speaker 9: county or wherever he was applying. So that kind of

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Speaker 9: forced him into becoming a business person. But he had

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Speaker 9: to drive like no other and definitely a visionary because

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Speaker 9: he was doing things back in the seventies, way before

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Speaker 9: Google that amazed me even today, the fact that he

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Speaker 9: had a central kitchen set up. He had these huge

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Speaker 9: sixty gallon pressure cookers, growing pressure cookers to do gravy

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Speaker 9: inchoada gravy and refried beans and taco beat and what

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Speaker 9: have you. And he even went to Mexico wants to

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Speaker 9: buy an avocado farm, only to learn that you couldn't

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Speaker 9: import avocados at the time, so that killed that. And

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Speaker 9: I remember pulling up to a halopenial pickling plant there

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Speaker 9: and outside of Monterey, Mexico, because he was interested in

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Speaker 9: buying this plant, this halopenial pickling plant, and that would

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Speaker 9: have been an incredible investment. But I don't know what

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Speaker 9: happened there, But anyway, he partnered with his brother in

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Speaker 9: law and them two together grew ill trolled to as

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Speaker 9: many as eight locations at one time, and then the

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Speaker 9: sisters could not get.

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Speaker 1: Along, so they ended up. My father bought his brother.

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Speaker 9: In law out and then the two of them individually

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Speaker 9: could not do well in operations or in business in general.

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Speaker 9: They were really a team. So that was something that

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Speaker 9: I recognized early on. But my father was fortunate that

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Speaker 9: his oldest sons were graduating from high school and they

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Speaker 9: came on board to start helping him try to not

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Speaker 9: only run but grow the restaurant chain, the Ultroll chain.

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Speaker 9: But only my father's last three restaurants that he opened

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Speaker 9: he ended up closing, and one of them was the Greenos,

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Speaker 9: the original Gringos in Pentland, which I took over in

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Speaker 9: nineteen ninety three. But myself, I mean, I was a

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Speaker 9: C student in school, and I always tell people when

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Speaker 9: I say I was a C student, I'm bragging because

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Speaker 9: it was worse than that, and I did not go

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Speaker 9: to college. I got married very very young, and fortunately

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Speaker 9: I had a good set of eyeball, as my wife

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Speaker 9: is as beautiful as the day we were married.

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Speaker 3: And I.

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Speaker 9: Had a drive in me to succeed, and I tried

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Speaker 9: a lot of things in my twenties, from selling satellite

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Speaker 9: dishes to selling sports cars and some other things. I

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Speaker 9: even ran an ad believer or not on the back

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Speaker 9: of the Star tabloid magazine. Trying to sell these little

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Speaker 9: chain alarms sounds funny, but I did. I mustard up

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Speaker 9: all the money I needed to run one A and

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Speaker 9: I actually sold quite a few of them.

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Speaker 7: But Russell Lebarro of Gringos text Mex is our guest.

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Speaker 4: More, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mitch,

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Speaker 4: Michael Barry, Genius.

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Speaker 7: Russell Lebara, the owner of Gringos Tex Mex dot com

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Speaker 7: and Jimmy Changa's and a lot of other things, is

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Speaker 7: our guest.

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Speaker 1: I want to thank Oracle.

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Speaker 7: They have a They have a program called NetSuite, and

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Speaker 7: you can get the Chief Financial Officer the cfo's Guide

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Speaker 7: to a I N Machine Learning at NetSuite dot com

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Speaker 7: forward slash Michael. They wanted to sponsor our interviews we

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Speaker 7: do with business owners, and I thought that was a

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00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 7: great idea. So you can get that at NetSuite dot

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Speaker 7: com slash Barry. Did I say Michael Barry? My last

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Speaker 7: name nets nets wheat dot com forward slash Barry Russell Ibara.

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Speaker 7: We're talking about his business and how he arrived where

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Speaker 7: he is and how he makes decisions and what we

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Speaker 7: can all learn from that, whether we own a business

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Speaker 7: or not. It might be running your household. You were

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Speaker 7: talking about your father's physical impairment that prevented him from

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Speaker 7: going to the army and doing a lot of other things,

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Speaker 7: and that closed a door and another door opened, and

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Speaker 7: that was entrepreneurship. You had the virtue of growing up

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Speaker 7: watching your father's success with El Toro and El Mattador,

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Speaker 7: and he didn't have that. Where did he develop the

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Speaker 7: savvy to be so successful to build to build this

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Speaker 7: restaurant empire.

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Speaker 9: That's a great question, I mean, other than he partnered with.

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Speaker 9: So his chef that he hired around nineteen sixty three

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Speaker 9: was a gentle named Juan Martinez. We called him mister John.

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Speaker 9: And if he saw him, you could understand why he

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Speaker 9: was in the restaurant business.

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Speaker 1: Or he was a chef.

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Speaker 9: He was a large man, and he just had a

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Speaker 9: unique palette for foods and was an excellent chef. And

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Speaker 9: I got exposed to that as well, and one of

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Speaker 9: those being that mister John only used the highest quality

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Speaker 9: ingredients that craft foods ever served at the time, are

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Speaker 9: sold at the time, and so being exposed to that

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Speaker 9: really helped shape a lot of what we do at

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Speaker 9: Gringos today.

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Speaker 1: But again, even.

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Speaker 9: One of the things that I did in the early

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Speaker 9: eighties was started a tortia factory because of my father's

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Speaker 9: equipment that he had there at his commissary. He had

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Speaker 9: a corn to tea line and he had a flower

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Speaker 9: tortia line, and so I would go out selling tortillas

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Speaker 9: to any Mexican restaurant that we wanted to buy them,

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Speaker 9: and I ran into one problem was that I called

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Speaker 9: it guilt by association. Anytime that a potential client would

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Speaker 9: consider buying tortise for me if they found out that

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Speaker 9: my family had restaurants because I operated under a different name,

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Speaker 9: it was Il Matador, and so if they found out

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Speaker 9: that my family also had restaurants, they would stop buying

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Speaker 9: from me. So that was a little frustrating. But one

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Speaker 9: of the bigger lessons that I learned running L Matador

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Speaker 9: was a lot of the equipment my father had. It

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Speaker 9: was very old equipment and I could not produce a

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Speaker 9: consistent product out of it. And one of the accounts

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Speaker 9: that I picked up in the late eighties was castole A.

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Speaker 9: I was selling costa A all of their flower turtias.

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Speaker 9: Larry Poorhan was kind enough to give me an opportunity,

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Speaker 9: but I did something very stupid and it was definitely come.

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Speaker 1: Back and bite me.

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Speaker 9: And that was when I ran samples to his offices.

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Speaker 9: I hand selected the product. I mean I literally hand

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Speaker 9: selected the even the best of the best, right, But

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Speaker 9: that was going to catch up with me sooner or later,

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Speaker 9: and it did and I ended up losing the account.

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Speaker 9: So when I opened up Gringos in a building that

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Speaker 9: my father had owned and had already been of the restaurants,

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Speaker 9: I was very paranoid about consistency. I borrow some ideas

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Speaker 9: from Consolay. They pack all their spices and pre portion

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Speaker 9: to all their spices for batch cooking, so that would

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Speaker 9: ensure a consistent product from batch to batch locations the location,

439
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 9: and I did everything in my power to make sure

440
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 9: no matter what we served, it was consistent and true.

441
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 9: Kathy with Chick fil A says that you can you

442
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 9: can serve a terrible cup of coffee, just be sure

443
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 9: and serve it that way each and every time. So

444
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 9: that's the kind that's the kind of proach that we've

445
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 9: taken at Grigos that no matter what we serve, let's

446
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,320
Speaker 9: make sure it's consistent. And so there are a lot

447
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 9: of systems and procedures that we have to put in place,

448
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 9: and that's all we ever talk about, is how if

449
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:48,800
Speaker 9: we're going to roll out a new menu item, how

450
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,200
Speaker 9: are we going to do it to ensure consistency across

451
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 9: all twenty three restaurants.

452
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:57,000
Speaker 7: I owe you a debt of gratitude for the fact

453
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 7: that I did this exact interview with Larry foehand fifteen

454
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 7: years ago, maybe longer, and you set that up because

455
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 7: of a friendship you' all developed, not as competitors but

456
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 7: of peers in a similar industry. I don't know if

457
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,719
Speaker 7: I ever told you, but Caso Olay was in Orange

458
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 7: and Casa Olay was the fast fanciest restaurant in Orange

459
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 7: when I grew up, like it was a special occasion

460
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 7: if you went to casta Ola Casa Ola for an

461
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 7: occasion like that was a big deal. Later in the career,

462
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 7: in the lifespan of that business, it wasn't that. But

463
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,959
Speaker 7: at that time, boy, that was that was really fancy,

464
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 7: all right. So tax take us to the next step

465
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 7: in your in your life's journey.

466
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 9: Well, you know, after when I when I first opened Grengos,

467
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 9: in which we just celebrated thirty two years this past Saturday,

468
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 9: January eleventh, and when we opened in ninety three, knowing

469
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 9: the history of that building, you forced me to have

470
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,479
Speaker 9: a paradigm shift in that I was no longer focused

471
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 9: on making money and I'm still not even focused on

472
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 9: making money today. That's not my that's not my primary focus.

473
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 9: It's about delivering a quality product, a good value, a

474
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 9: fair value, and then taken care of everyone that touches

475
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:19,520
Speaker 9: that product, meaning our guest, our staff, the community, everyone

476
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 9: that supports us, because without them, we're We're just a

477
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 9: building at the end of the day.

478
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 1: But it's it's the people in the building that makes

479
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 1: it successful.

480
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 9: So I've always just wanted to focus on what matters

481
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 9: the most and and you know, and and be consistent

482
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 9: with that. I mean, you know a lot of people

483
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 9: they change over time when they become successful. But I

484
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 9: want to I would like to believe that I'm the

485
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 9: same person from the in terms of how I treat others.

486
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 9: You know, from day one, I haven't changed as an

487
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 9: individual of anything. I would like to think that I've

488
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 9: improved in lots of work.

489
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, I think you have changed.

490
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 7: I've changed in the time I've known you because you've

491
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 7: grown older, you've grown wiser, Your family has expanded, which

492
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 7: I think also changed you for the better in the

493
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 7: way that family changed me for the better. And I

494
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 7: also think you have watching you and I've learned a

495
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 7: lot from this. You have come to understand your responsibility

496
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 7: to the community, to your employees, to your family, and

497
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 7: how much is expected of you. And that is way

498
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 7: more than maybe is the standard or the typical or

499
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 7: what we see from other people, but that your your

500
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 7: standard should be high. So, yeah, you have changed, but

501
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 7: I see that as as continual improvement, which I hope,

502
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,280
Speaker 7: I hope I'm able to do that. All right, So

503
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 7: take us to the next phase.

504
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,440
Speaker 9: Oh well, the next was, well, I'm building the team.

505
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 9: I mean, that's been a huge component of our success.

506
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 9: My first team member that I hired was Ugo Vera

507
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,720
Speaker 9: Uh nicknamed those cabayos because he did the work of

508
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 9: two men, and uh Ugo Uh is still with me

509
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 9: today two years later. And then John Fernandez was the

510
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 9: second piece of the puzzle that I hired. Coming up

511
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 9: on thirty years is coming June, which is incredible. And

512
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 9: then Jonathan Kim, the president of the company, is this

513
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 9: coming June will be twenty five years, and I'm just

514
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 9: that that obviously makes me more proud than anything that

515
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 9: these individuals have been with me that many years.

516
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: I mean, Heather McKinnon, she started eighteen years old.

517
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 9: She's a nerved a mid forties, and she sees our

518
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 9: COEO and you know, go on and on, Matt Boucher

519
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 9: or Danny Hanks, all these guys, And I guess what

520
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 9: makes me proud about it is that I know that

521
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 9: the company that we had built, our team is built

522
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 9: over the years, can continue way after I'm going from

523
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:53,520
Speaker 9: Miss Earth and with the same same vision and focus.

524
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 9: And it's funny because we talk about all these other

525
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 9: brands that started, let's say in the late.

526
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: Eighties, the Wells leb hold right there, hold right there.

527
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: I'm up against her break one moment,