HEATHER EWING: The CRE RUNdown
Are you intrigued by Commercial Real Estate? Join Heather Ewing, CCIM each week as she dives into CRE trends, Deals, and Developments throughout Madison, WI. Learn the crucial role of Mindset in CRE and Marathons! Success leaves Clues.
HEATHER EWING: The CRE RUNdown
Ep. 44 Ryan Gromfin - Transforming Restaurant Success Through Strategic Systems and Trends
Discover how to transform your restaurant business with the expert guidance of Ryan Gromfin, famously known as the Restaurant Boss. With a prestigious background as a chef in five-star hotels, Ryan now dedicates his career to helping independent restaurant owners enhance their operations through strategic systems and processes. We delve into the nuanced distinctions between leadership and management, dissecting how these are skills that anyone can learn. By implementing structured systems akin to assembly lines in car factories, restaurant owners can maintain consistency and quality, all while fostering an environment where their teams can innovate within defined boundaries.
As the restaurant industry navigates a rapidly changing landscape, Ryan shares his perspective on emerging trends and the pressing need to adapt traditional business models. From the decline of home cooking skills to the growing appetite for niche culinary experiences, we explore how restaurants can capitalize on these shifts. The conversation deepens into how establishments must rethink their employee dynamics and wage structures to cope with rising labor costs. Whether you're a seasoned restaurateur or just starting out, this episode is packed with insights to help you stay ahead in today's competitive market.
Welcome to Heather Ewing, the CRE Rundown. I am your host, Heather Ewing, and today I have a fantastic guest for you. It is Ryan Gromfin and he is the restaurant boss.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, how are you doing? Thank you so much for having me, Heather. It's really an honor and a privilege to be here, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Definitely so. We both love eating retail. It's all this beautiful synergistic arena, and why don't you take a moment here to share with our guests what you do, so they can better understand?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I have a background as a chef. I grew up and I worked in a couple of five-star hotels around the country one in Beverly Hills and one in Dallas and through that experience I kind of learned like, oh, this is how you operate a restaurant. And then one day I decided to. I wanted to open up my own place. So I went to go work at some independents and I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 2:This is not what it was like in a five-star hotel, and so I'll spare the details for brevity. But basically I teach independent restaurant owners how to build systems and processes and procedures so they can scale their business. So maybe a single unit restaurant operator is experiencing really high volume and really growing and they're getting stretched thin. We can help put in place the systems and processes and procedures, help them develop their team and build all of that out so they can scale. Or maybe they're opening up a second or a third, or some of my clients are opening up their 24th location and so obviously the systems and the processes get bigger. But I like to say I help restaurant owners scale their business.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's perfect and it's definitely an essential tool because, to your point, there is a big difference between one, possibly two, and then getting into double digits and things of that nature.
Speaker 2:So a messy system is going to equate to a painful bottom line right, yeah, of course. Bottom line, right, yeah, of course. And I would encourage any of your listeners out there, even if you're maybe not in the restaurant business. But there's still. What I tell people all the time is like what I teach restaurant owners. I teach them because I know restaurants, but it's the same systems and processes and procedures for scaling any business any, anything that you have team members and employees and sales and customers and all that messy stuff.
Speaker 1:Exactly, it all goes together, yeah. So what would you say? Is you know of the systems, the practices, procedures, all of that? Is there one particular area that just seems to get people more than others, or is it just across the board, depending on the type of restaurant?
Speaker 2:I think there's probably two things that I see happening the most, and the first is I like to say that leadership and management, first of all, they're two separate things. So let's always. We can talk about that if we have time, but we can talk about the difference between leadership and management, but leadership and management are separate. However, I find that people think that they should naturally be good at that, and then they're disappointed if they're put into a management position or if they've opened up their own business and now they are managers, they are leaders, and they're not good at that. That is a learned skill. It is not survival. It is not survival. We aren't born with instincts as humans to be great managers and to be great leaders. We're born with skills of like find food, kill, eat fire. You know things like that. Management is a very like. In the last hundred years of of evolution, we've had to learn how to lead and manage people, and so people are not good at this naturally, and that's okay. So get curious, explore, go to seminars, read books. Don't feel like you're less than because you're reading a personal development or a professional or self help book, Like don't label that. That's no different than learning math or learning English. So I think the first thing is, just like this base level knowledge of just learning how to manage people and how to lead people.
Speaker 2:The second thing is this idea of systems I don't want to micromanage my team. I want my team to be free thinkers and I want them to feel that they have a voice. I'm not saying in any way your team members don't or shouldn't have a voice. What I am saying is I love micromanaging. What I am saying is I love micromanaging. I love it and you should too. It should not be a bad word. Micromanaging became a bad word because team members want to complain about their bosses and so they say you're micromanaging me.
Speaker 2:The reality is, all great processes are micromanaged. You want your car. You want the assembly line of the car that you drive to be micromanage. You want your car. You want the assembly line of the car that you drive to be micromanaged, Because if it's not, you're going to have rattles and you're going to have wind leaks and you're going to have a loose transmission and you're going to be leaking oil because it's not put together well. So we all want products that were a product of micromanagement, but for some reason we don't want to be micromanagers.
Speaker 2:So I think the second part of this is systems actually create freedom. When you have systems in your business, your team members will be more free to create. When we have systems that allow us to know what we're allowed to operate within I call it railroad tracks when we have systems that say you know you have to operate within this zone, the railroad track then you have freedom within those railroad tracks, but just don't go left of it, Don't go right of it, but stay in your zone. And so again I think, kind of recapping, that the two biggest things are one it's okay to not be good at this. Go learn it. It's a learned skill, it's a muscle.
Speaker 2:When you start running, you're not going to run a marathon day one, You're going to barely make it around the clock, but six months later you're a marathon runner because you ran. And so the second part of this too is like just get rid of that word micromanaging. Stop thinking that's a bad thing. Stop thinking that systems and processes and procedures are bad thing. Stop thinking that systems and processes and procedures are bad. There is no business in this world that got big thinking, small and not systems and processes is small thinking.
Speaker 2:So if you have a small business and you want to get big, start thinking and doing big. If you have a small business and you want to stay small, keep thinking small.
Speaker 1:And now that's a very valid point. And for whatever reason the terms discipline and systems to your point have's a very valid point, and for whatever reason the terms discipline and systems to your point have such a negative connotation, as well as micromanaging? And I think what happens is that, like you say, it truly does give freedom in the brokerage world, right In the early days of cold calling, canvassing, all of those different things. Sure, it's discipline, but it gave you freedom because then you had a full pipeline, you were enjoying the sales, You're taking trips, You're doing things, You're investing. So it really is the ticket to freedom. So people need to shift that mindset. So, working with restaurants do you also work with fast casuals, or is it restaurants only?
Speaker 2:Yeah, anything in sort of the food and beverage space bars. Is it restaurants only? Yeah, anything in sort of the food and beverage space Bars, nightclubs, restaurants, food trucks yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, perfect, no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's usually this interesting thing where, like brick and mortars, want to add a food truck. Ok, don't do it. And food trucks want to. Sometimes you know they start growing and they want to go to brick and mortar. When I say don't do it, I'm joking. What I guess I'm trying to say is like know what you're getting into, because it takes different skills, it takes different um, operational things that are. They're just different. So but yeah, um, we see that a lot. We see, we see that a lot.
Speaker 1:Perfect. And then I understand you're in Austin, texas, we're here in Madison, wisconsin. Do you work throughout the country? Then? Any international work? Where is your? I have clients all over the world.
Speaker 2:I say I have clients on six of the seven continents and I think that's only because there are no restaurants in Antarctica.
Speaker 1:But yeah no.
Speaker 2:I've worked with clients in China, which is a challenge because my YouTube channel, my emails none of that gets through to China. But I actually have. I have some people who've moved to China and I and I've worked with them. But yeah, I work with clients all over. If you speak English, we can, I can, I can work with you.
Speaker 1:Excellent, I like it. You're easy to refer then for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, that would be awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. How would you say especially? We all know everyone took a major hit through COVID several years ago and restaurants coming back, it's you know it's hurt some degree because of people not being in the offices. Obviously, in restaurants you have to be in person more frequently than offsite. What would you say you've noticed in the past two years, and where do you see us going with restaurants and fast casuals?
Speaker 2:So COVID was as a whole. Covid was very good for the restaurant industry, Like if we look at total restaurant in office. They struggled a lot. So overall, I think the restaurant industry is healthy. I think it will remain healthy. I think there's a couple of things that we need to be looking at.
Speaker 2:I think there's a couple of things that we need to be looking at.
Speaker 2:One is the shifting of how we eat, and I don't mean what foods, I mean we don't cook anymore, Like some of us, dinosaurs still cook, but we're not teaching our kids how to cook. They're watching it on TV and some of them are picking it up because they're foodies, but your average everyday family is not cooking as much is not teaching their children how to cook and as we get generational, generational, generational, we're just going to lose that skill completely. So we have to be focusing more on the delivery, the ready to go meals, the meal prep, but just basically the getting the food into the home to go pick up, all of that. The second thing, which is a little more abstract, is more about how we are consuming food and what we're looking for. A couple of things have changed in the last 10, 15 years and we're seeing an acceleration of this now. One is this level of expectation from our guests. I talk about Food Network and TV shows, food cooking shows, all of that. The level, the expectation of your guest is higher than it's ever been.
Speaker 2:Everybody watches something food related, whether it be on TikTok or YouTube or Food Network or Cooking Channel or anything. And so when we go to a restaurant now, if we see a burger and we look at it and we're like that doesn't look like the burger at the restaurant I saw on TV the other day, we're disappointed Because our world has gotten smaller. No matter where we live now in the world or in the country, even if we live in a tiny little town, we have access to the whole world visually. So our expectations are higher. So if you're just serving average food, you're in trouble. There is no room for average anymore. You have to be exceptional, because that's what the world expects. That doesn't mean expensive, but you have to be exceptional in what you do.
Speaker 2:The second part of this is because of the internet and everything. We don't just go to Italian restaurants anymore. We don't just go to Mexican restaurants anymore. If we want pizza, we go to the place that has the best pizza. We don't care if their pasta is good, we don't care if their chicken dishes are good. Now, maybe they serve all that, maybe they don't. But what are we going to do? We're going to Google best pizza, we're going to read reviews and we're going to find out who has the best pizza. If we want a burger, we're not just going to go to a restaurant that serves everything. We're going to go to burger restaurants. So we're seeing this niching down which I love, by the way but we're seeing this niching down of concepts to where.
Speaker 2:Stop thinking about it. If you're looking at opening something up, stop just thinking I'm going to open up a Mexican restaurant. Are you going to open up a fajita restaurant, a burrito restaurant, a taco restaurant? But like just opening up a Mexican restaurant, just opening up an Italian restaurant, just opening up an American restaurant? Look, every town needs a couple of them. But that's not where the growth and excitement is, and it's a good thing.
Speaker 2:The reason I said I love it is because, as labor is getting more expensive, harder to find, less people are specializing in cooking, less people want to cook, less people want to run restaurants. We're going to have to specialize in our product, shrink our menu, because we're not going to have these masters of all jacks of none, these amazing chefs, anymore. We're going to have more teenagers and kids who are working in restaurants and we have to be able to teach them how to do a very specific job. That's why you're seeing like Chick-fil-A explode, because, one, it's food that people want in a way that people want it, but two, chick-fil-a can grow as fast as they want because they don't have to worry about finding team members. They could have a team member up and running in like two hours, whereas most of these restaurants it takes weeks or months to get someone trained.
Speaker 1:So we've got to start thinking about that. Well, and if you think about it too, Chick-fil-A right, I think they've really connected with people from a sense of community. Yeah, absolutely really connected with people from a sense of community. Yeah, absolutely their stance.
Speaker 2:They're closed on sundays they have the the three-lane drive-thrus even in wisconsin.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, it's unbelievable wide yeah, no, they just, they have one the one near us started as a one-lane drive-thru during covid.
Speaker 2:They expanded it to two. Now they're expanding it to three like like you said it's gonna be like. It's gonna be like the 405 freeway in la pretty soon. But if that's not a testament to prove what I'm saying, then you're not. You, then you. Our audience is just not paying attention because chick-fil-a is absolutely crushing it right now. Oh, look what they sell definitely chicken sandwich, but yet we open up restaurants that serve everything under the moon and we can't figure out why people aren't coming to us.
Speaker 1:Right, right, because it's all kind of there Right and that's also why the footprint sizes are reducing. Also to your point, the staffing, the niching, all of that, when you can control the bottom line easily and you don't have to worry if Harry or Sally are showing up for work, you don't have to worry if Harry or Sally are showing up for work, it's not going to have as big of an effect that that's a win in so many ways for the different operators.
Speaker 2:But how would you?
Speaker 1:say mindset is also shifting right. So we're niching. How do you think the mindset is shifting? And also the role between the ownership and the employees. It seems like here locally, there's a lot more that's being invested in healthcare and different things of that nature for certain restaurant groups, others are not, and so you'll see a difference in longevity of employees. But what are you noticing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, look, it's a good thing. I mean anytime we can improve the quality of our team members lives and we can do things to help them grow and to develop a career or build a career, versus just like a transient job. It's a good thing for the industry, it's a good thing for the company. It's really hurting the restaurant industry because the restaurant industry, the restaurant industry, is a broken industry. The business model that we have all been operating under worked when labor was cheap, when labor was readily available and labor was cheap. Restaurants worked. All the restaurants we're talking about, the big restaurants, the big menus, the this, the that.
Speaker 2:When labor got really expensive, really quickly, and when labor numbers reduced, the entire restaurant business model broke. And so now restaurants are struggling. They're trying to figure it out. They never had to offer healthcare because there was a ton of people willing to work in restaurants for cheap without it. Well, they're not willing to do that anymore because they have new jobs now. The people who were historically applying for entry level positions into restaurants can now go work for Amazon delivering packages and get health care and all this other stuff and get decent pay. And so why would they work in a restaurant. So unfortunately, like I say, it's good for the world Restaurants have to rebuild. They have to rethink their business model so they can either operate with less higher paid labor or they have to be able to operate. They have to be able to sustain that higher labor level financially.
Speaker 1:No, it makes complete sense. So what would you say is the usual transition time from when you start working with people, right, like, who's that ideal client for you and, roughly, what's a ramp up period for them to get some of these different systems procedures in place? And I know there's a lot of variability, but if you just had to assign something really rough, Sorry, I'm laughing so hard and it's not because it's not a great question, because, like I'm trying, instantly I'm trying to figure out how am I going to answer this without being a complete jerk?
Speaker 2:I?
Speaker 1:just threw a curveball on that one, Ryan.
Speaker 2:So, look, it's going to 100% come down to the individual you. You mentioned my instead earlier, right? Um, all growth happens outside of the comfort zone. So I do an exercise with people where I tell them to draw a circle on a piece of paper, label it comfort zone and then put a dot on that piece of paper where growth happens. Most people are pretty good, they'll put the dot outside the circle, but then when I ask them to do something that's uncomfortable, they won't do it. They don't understand that growth happens outside the comfort zone.
Speaker 2:If it was comfortable then it wouldn't be growth, we would already be doing it. So the first thing is that question is I have people who literally can be on the phone with me in five minutes, who can watch one of my videos and send me an email and say I watched one of your videos. I made that change instantly. Three weeks later I've had these massive effects in my restaurant because they did the work. Yes, so the reality is like I could get. I have clients that I've worked with for two years who don't do any of the work.