Home | People & Staffing |Transforming Restaurant Managers Into Leaders With Jason Brooks (Ep 209)

Transforming Restaurant Managers Into Leaders With Jason Brooks (Ep 209)

publication date: Mar 13, 2024

author/source: Jaime Oikle with Jason Brooks

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Running Restaurants | Jason Brooks | Transforming Restaurant Managers Into Leaders

In this episode, RunningRestaurants.com founder Jaime Oikle hosts Jason Brooks, the founder and CEO of HospiVation, who shares his expertise on leadership in the restaurant industry from his book, Every Leader Needs Followers. Brooks discusses the importance of understanding KPIs, the benefits of systematic leadership, and the need for effective delegation. He emphasizes the value of an "owner-like orientation" for new employees and the significance of one-on-one reviews for building team relationships.

Brooks also highlights his goal to support Giving Kitchen by selling 10,000 copies of his book. The episode offers practical advice for restaurant managers to improve their leadership skills and make a community impact, including:

Importance of understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) and systematic leadership approach
Mastering KPIs and understanding brand-level, multi-unit, and store-level KPIs
Importance of breaking down large targets into smaller, manageable goals
Enhancing employee onboarding processes and instilling an ownership mentality
Effective delegation and structured training
Challenges of delegation and the impact of leadership mindset on team development
Engaging in one-on-one reviews and building relationships with team members
Leading with the right mindset: managing, leading, and coaching

Timestamps and other highlights from the episode include:

Mastering Your KPIs (00:05:45)

Understanding and managing key performance indicators in the restaurant industry.

Owner-Like Orientation (00:13:43)

Improving the onboarding process by instilling an owner mentality in new hires.

Delegate by Creating Mini Games (00:20:43)

Effective delegation by prioritizing tasks, identifying strengths, and proper training techniques.

Delegating (00:24:43)

Reasons for poor delegation: lack of understanding, trust issues, power hoarding.

Engaging with One-on-Ones (00:26:50)

Importance of regular one-on-one check-ins, listening more than talking, building relationships.

Leading with the Right Mindset (00:32:36)

Differentiating managing, leading, and coaching mindsets, their tactics and styles.

Supporting Giving Kitchen (00:37:09)

Jason Brooks' mission to donate $30,000 in 30 days through book sales, and how to help.

Be sure to check out the episode. Find out more at https://www.jasonebrooks.com and https://www.runningrestaurants.com.

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Transforming Restaurant Managers Into Leaders With Jason Brooks

We've got a great episode for you with Jason Brooks, Founder and CEO of HospiVation, author of the new book, Every Leader Needs Followers. Jason, I'm looking forward to talking about the book. I read a lot of books you see here. I love consuming that. Tell me how the book came about from you. Share a bit about your backstory because I'll probably lead right into it. What do you have?

It's a six-year project. It's something that took me some time just because when I sought to write the book, I didn't want it to be a memoir. I looked at my experience. I've been in the restaurant business for over 30 years now. That tells me my age, especially with no hair. I look back at the times that I struggled the most with being a manager within this industry.

I thought back to what are some of the key things that if I knew, if I had a systematic approach, would make it easier for me to find out who I was and my style of management. When I sought to write the book, I was getting feedback from different figures and different people that I've had the pleasure and honor of working with to help find the voice of the book. It's a six-year project, it's built towards making sure that managers will never lead alone again. It is ten keys to transforming restaurant managers into hospitality leaders.

We're going to go through some of those keys for sure. You mentioned 30 years. How did you start? Where were some of the brands you've worked with over the years? Tell people a little bit more of that.

We all have very similar origin stories starting out banging out dishes at the age of fifteen, Mom and Pop Seafood restaurant in Fayetteville, North Carolina. From there, I went on to prep, then pantry, to grill, and then to sauté. I've been a sous chef, a bar manager, a general manager, a managing partner, a franchise business consultant, and a franchise operations coach. I've worked for twenty different brands within 30 years.

During those twenty different brands, I tell you what I've seen, the Mona Lisa painted in twenty different ways. Some of it is real pieces of art, and some of it has been some real pieces. That's what got me to understand what perfection looks like within the eyes of different leaders, of different managers? How is that executed? We all have our vision of what the business should be and then how it executes when it's in the four walls in front of the customer.

Having that vision of seeing that in different ways also helped to build out this book. Now, I've worked for brands from local brands to Hilltop House, which is fine dining in downtown Fayetteville, from the Holiday Inn to O’Charley’s, to Chi Chi’s, to Outback. Many large brands, Mom and Pop brands, franchise brands, and corporate-owned. It's given me a different piece. My background has given me a piece of not just being creative but also being systematic and then finding ways to build that relationship when it comes to a franchisee and a franchisor as well.

A lot of stuff there, I appreciate it. You threw a couple of names that I remember. Is Chi Chi still around, by the way?

They aren't. They went through some challenges. Some brands go through challenges and just don't make it, while some brands like Chipotle went through challenges and then their stock ended up being over $2,000 per share. It's just crazy. It's how we react to those challenges and what can bring us through them or be our demise.

Some brands go through challenges but ultimately fail. It's how we react to those challenges that determines whether they become our stepping stones or our downfall.

Mastering Your KPIs

One of the things you hit on that’s interesting is, let's say you work for one company for 30 years, then you only have that one perspective and you have a narrow way of how things go, but I liked the way that you're bringing in so many different viewpoints. You've seen what's worked in various places over the years and can bring all those things to bear into one stream of thoughts. Let's go to chapter one of the book and see where the conversation kicks off. You talk about mastering your KPIs, Key Performance Indicators. How do you think restaurants should manage it? What should they do? What's most important? What do you think?

Mastering your KPIs has to be the key for every manager getting into that role. This book is geared towards the GMs, the DMs, and even regional managers. Knowing your numbers and knowing what they mean has to be the key foundation because that's what we are graded on every business because it is a business first. It's a restaurant second.

Knowing your KPIs and also knowing those acronyms. Whenever we first come on board, we hear many different acronyms and then we shake our heads like, ‘Yes I know exactly what that means.” Then it's like, “No, I've never heard that three-letter word in my life.” Knowing what your KPIs are and not just what the normal KPIs are, there are typically three different levels.

There are the brand level KPIs that when the brand makes their business plan and they make it for the overarching goal for the year you have that level. Then you have your multi-unit or your DM level KPIs, which are the KPIs that are set for that region or for that area according to how they did last year or are doing this year, and then there's the store level. You could be surpassing some of those KPIs or underperforming. You're finding ways to know what is the brand KPI, what's the area, and what is my store.

Now, how do I break that down into bite-sized chunks? We do a bad job in our industry of making bite-sized chunks. We do great at making huge targets. It's typically three targets or three KPIs, sales, labor, and food. We have these huge targets, but still, people struggle to hit large targets. That's because those targets are typically set for too long of a period.

People struggle with hitting large targets. That's because those targets are typically set for too long a period. We have to find smaller targets that make sense for the team members and then consider what they mean for their positions.

Finding ways to find smaller targets that make sense for the team member, makes sense for just the bar or just the host or the cook or for the prep person. What does that goal or target mean in their position? When we make bite-sized pieces, seven days, and goals for their position. Now we're talking about not just goal setting, but goal setting. That's how we get to hit targets when we break that big KPI all the way down to the busser, to the prep person, to that sauté cook, and what they do within their world to help put the human element to that number.

A lot of people are guilty of not breaking it down to the busser or the host. How does your job impact it? It's easy to say, “Let's boost sales by 10%, or let's cut costs by 10% and so forth.” What does that mean? How do you break it down and how do you manage that and forth? Jason sent me an advanced copy of his book, first of all, in saying that, when does it officially come out?

Monday, March 18, 2024. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon. The actual Kindle version is ready now to pre-order. The paperback and the hardcover will be available on March 18, 2024.

We got that out of the way. March 18, 2024, go reserve your copy now. We'll talk more about how to get that towards the end. I saw an advanced copy. One of the things I liked at the back of the section, you have a whole bunch of quotes and you pulled them from the piece. You didn't necessarily talk about this aspect when you were just talking about this one stuck out to me. It's a quote from one of your people in there, I guess, Pat Peterson. He talks about how we praise the top 10% and shame the bottom 10%, but that 80% in the middle is where the opportunity is. Do you want to add some color to that? Yes.

Pat Peterson is spot on. First of all, he is an absolute genius. I've had the pleasure of knowing him man for probably the past twelve years now. There's too much time that we spend the most time with the bottom 10 or the top 10. How you move companies or how you move brands. Just move your brand to that middle 50 or the middle 80. That middle 80 is where it's the most people asking for the most help.

It's finding ways to take the learnings from your top 10%. What they do great, what their habits are, what their culture is. Then getting that top 10% either with you, whether it's your top 10% of servers, your top 10% of cooks, or your top 10% of restaurants, and finding the leaders within that segment. Then helping to delegate out to show to be shoulder to shoulder in a very formulated way of how to create that same culture or similar within those locations.

We are known to find the fire, break out the hose, and start spraying water on it. That's what our industry does. We are always looking for the fire. One of the other keys that I have that's in the book is called closing the gap. That's key number nine. On key number nine, we are like terminators. Whenever we are walking through any restaurant, our neck is on a swivel.

We are looking 20 feet wide and 20 feet out because we are looking for that next fire, the next thing that is out of place, a buzzer that isn't set, food that's on the counter that should be in the cooler, and we're always focused on that next fire. What we have to focus on instead of the fire is how to be fire chiefs. Now, the fire chief does it differently.

The fire chief isn't just looking for that bottom 10% nor looking for the wrong thing. The fire chief is talking to his fire crew and coaching them on how to look for those things, and where to be at with that fire. If we're the ones that are always holding that hose, we can't see the fire on the backside of the building or the left or the right. That's one of the things that we have to do better whenever we are looking at that middle 80, don't focus much on the fire of that 10% or the good stuff of the, of the top ten, cause we're missing a huge swath of that 80 that's in the middle.

Owner-Like Orientation

I liked the fire chief analogy and talk there. That brings it home for sure because the restaurant business is the moment, in the time, the busy part. What's next? Where is the next fire? It's not proactive. It's reactive. Of course, we can pull out a quote from somebody if you're just being reactive, you're not going to be successful. You got to get ahead of it and get around it. Let's go to your chapter 2.2, Owner-Like Orientation. This big piece bringing people in and getting started. What are some tips there?

We suck at it. If you think about what usually happens whenever we do orientation, we have a hire and we make them an offer and half the time the offer sounds very cold and very lukewarm. Then we bring them in for their first day. We may have some aprons, shirts, hats, and paperwork. Then we bring them over to the table, we sit them down, we say, “Let's fill out this stuff here, and then let's head to the back.” As we head to the back, you then break out the laptop, put them on the laptop, get them some training, and then put them in their one position.

Now, that's how we usually do orientation, but that is wrong. We are teaching them to only be focused on three things. The first thing is their new break table. Have you noticed that the table that you typically do orientation at happens to be their new break table? The second thing is then a laptop for their training. The third thing is one position.

The only things that they're focused on for the next six weeks are those three areas. As soon as you say, “Can you help do this?” or “Can you help do that?” “That's not my job.” “That's Billy's job.” or “That's Sarah's job.” What we should do is still set up that table but instead of bringing them right on in, “Thanks for coming to orientation. Let's head outside.”

You head outside and you take them to the front curb of the building. You say, “This is my restaurant. This is where the customer sees that. Every customer that chooses to eat here or not still sees this view as they pull in. Let's walk the lot.” Then you walk them around the whole building. You talk them through, “We sweep this parking lot every single day. We clean the windows, we do sidewalks. This is all of the trash whenever we are out here, we bring someone out three or four times per day to make sure that there is no trash.”

“Here are the dumpster bins. At the dumpster bin, if we drop trash, we get this swept up as soon as that happens to make sure that we don't have flies, and then we keep those doors closed. This is the backside.” You're walking them all the way through and then as you walk in, you're talking to them about what they see as they walk into the restaurant, what they hear.

As you're talking them through, you're giving them one, three, and five views of what they're seeing or hearing. One is a low point, three means par, and five means above par. As you're doing this, you are teaching them some of the almost same customer feedback scores most restaurants have. Then Billy says, “That's one, I need to be at a five.” or, “That's a three, I should be at a five.”

You're walking them through as the customer walks in, whenever they get greeted, as they walk up to order, as they sit down when they're sitting down, but you're using this all on day one. What does this do? What this does is it gives that new hire a much better feeling of the big picture of your restaurant, of your business.

What it also does is for your trainers. Your trainers will notice that these new hires that are coming in, are on point. They are picking up trash whenever they are outside. They are helping at the front. They're helping in the whole kitchen almost on day one. Maybe not that extreme, but the ROI you get from painting an owner-like walk for a new hire on day one. Your ROIs are ten times more fold than what we usually get now.

I can guarantee you probably have a number somewhere of how often that happens. What you just talked about. It's unfortunately low. The ownership mentality, instilled into your team is priceless and you know that already, but having people think beyond their role and think beyond their job to understand and appreciate the full piece of it drives home results in the long term.

You already hinted at the secret there. That big picture, I love it. Take the owner's mentality, go outside, walk the curb, and show everything that matters. The ledge is all dusty. This seat's broken. That lights off. If you have 50 sets of eyeballs looking for those things in your restaurant, because you instill that, you're going to be better off than having your general manager. He's the only one who cares. It can't be that way.

I want to go to your quote section again, this one's from Sarah Wetzel and hits your point home and maybe you can layer on it. She says, “I truly believe that onboarding is an art. Each new employee brings with them the potential to achieve and succeed. Losing the energy of a new hire through poor onboarding is an opportunity lost.” Big opportunity to lose there. Anything to layer on?

Yes, I found Sarah Wetzel’s quote online that has been used. I said that this is spot on because we tend to lose even the happiness and joy of a new job. How many times do we get a new job? It is like, “Yes, we got it.” It's like asking someone, “Will you marry me?” Then they say, “Yes.” Then you're silent for the next four hours.

How awkward would that be? There should be after saying, “Yes, I will come on board.” There should be some ongoing talking, texting, emailing, some swag bags, something helping them to get acclimated to their first date. How many times does it suck whenever you come into a new job and you have to remember everyone's name and face and it takes you a week?

What if we took pictures of the six people that they will be working with and put just their first name and set that to them before they even got in the restaurant? What if we sent them a list of their acronyms? What if we sent them a mini swag bag? The things to help reconfirm saying yes to this marriage was the right thing versus riding home for four hours after seeing us in silence?

Delegate By Creating Mini Games

Nothing that you just mentioned is very difficult, by the way. All that is very, very achievable. Let's push on into area three, delegate by creating mini GMs and that builds on the process. If you can't do it all, you need more hands, more eyes, and you need more people invested. What do you have?

The main takeaway is that whenever you delegate, it's not just passing off the things that you don't like. Whenever you delegate, it is a form of training and of understanding who the key players within your business are within your ranks. Knowing what their role is to the KPIs that you have under you. Looking at your daily and weekly tasks, listing them under priorities for one, two, or three, and then admin level of one, two, or three.

Whenever you delegate, it's not just passing off the things you don't like. It's a form of training that helps you understand the key players on your team and their roles in achieving your KPIs.

What do I mean by admin level? Admin one is only a GM can do it, or only you can do it. An admin two level is that maybe it's any manager, any person with keys. An admin three level is any key employee, and looking at and then listing everything you do weekly or monthly. Then saying, one, that they're all important, but a priority level one is it has to be done and if it isn't done, it is a detriment to the customer.

Two, it has to be done. If it isn't done, then it's going to be a bad experience, but it's not like the lights are going to go off. Then three, it has to be done, but it can be done last. If you notice all three things, they have to be done. That's why they're on your list. You're figuring out what is it that I have to do? What needs to be done first? Once you make this list, choose one, two, or three people who are on your team by their strengths and also what they do within your restaurant, and then say, “I'm going to have them do this.”

It's not just things that you don't like, it's things that make sense for how they help within your role. Looking at those KPIs and then training them the right way. There are too many times that we say, “Okay, watch me do the truck order. Here's a truck order. I'm going to show you only once. Good job.” Then the minute they mess up, “See? I told you, you suck, I knew it. I've always done my truck order perfectly. That's why I've never given you anything.”

Versus training them the right way, “In the next three weeks, we are going to start teaching you the truck order. It's a four-week training process. In the next two or three weeks, figure out any questions you can ask me, but this date is when we start. When we start, you will then watch me. I will then ask you some questions and show you all of the information. Then you're going to do it while I supervise you, and then I will be following up.”

It's a four-point technique of making sure that over a four-week timeframe, you're teaching them the right way and still following up. That's just one of the more important steps within delegating by creating mini GMs, not just passing off tasks, but making a true checklist of what's important, what's least important, and then how to pass that off.

Delegating

Have you found, in your travels, that some folks just couldn't let go of their ego and the importance of a role? They just couldn't let it go. Then, some folks just were good delegators. They kept them here, and they were able to pass it off, and they did it successfully. I'm not asking you to name names or anything, but any tips you can see from that second group? What personalities do they use? What techniques do they use psychologically? It's a tough thing to let go of inside control.

We still have to cover some of the first group to figure out the second group because the first group typically faces three reasons why they don't delegate well. The first reason is that they don't understand the information. They don't know how to teach it. They don't know that X and Y make Z. When they don't understand it, it's hard for them to teach it.

The second reason is that they have trust issues. That is a real thing within any industry. The third one is the worst. Some people think that there's power in holding back information. That is the worst type there. Now, the second group typically finds that they know they're not overbearing on their team. They know that when they hire people to work for them, they're not going to work for them all their life. Those days are gone, whether they're with you for one week or ten years.

The thing is, though, what are we teaching them when they go on to be teachers, rocket scientists to run their shop, or whatever? What is it from the business side of what we're doing that we're helping them be better at? Those from that second group come to understand that aspect. I have to get them ready for whatever they want to do in the future and find delegating that much easier.

Engaging With One-On-Ones

That's interesting. Those people who won't let go and want to hide and protect, that's not the leader that you want to have on your journey. This one I like, because this is also done poorly in a lot of settings, engaging with one-on-one reviews and bringing them up. It certainly shouldn't be done only once-a-year check-ins. There's usually a formal process, but I'm talking about checking in with our people both formally and informally. You're going to layer on a lot better than I can and that and that little thought process. What do you have?

Engaging with one-on-ones is the most controversial because we think that our team knows exactly what's going on. I chat with my team all the time. I got them on a group text chat. I can text them. They know exactly what's going on. I can forward them all the emails from my boss so that they know what's coming down the pipe. All we're doing is that we have time to dump things on our team. A one-on-one is a key to coaching, which we'll get into with the next key, which is managing versus leading versus coaching.

The one-on-one, you are mastering the art of building that relationship for people to make the right choices at the right times when you're not in the building. A lot of that is going to come from questions from your team, not from data dumping. One of the keys to a great one-on-one is that you have to talk for 35% and listen for 65%. That's why we have one mouth and two ears. You are doing more listening than talking. Frame it in 30 minutes.

In a one-on-one, you are mastering the art of building that relationship so your team members can make the right choices independently. One of the keys to a great one-on-one is that you have to talk for 35% and listen for 65% of the time.

Have it for the first ten minutes. They can talk to you about anything. They can talk to you about the game last night, the Super Bowl. They can talk to you about anything that is on their plate, whether it comes to family or even work. The next ten minutes are for you to follow up on the things that they talked about from the last one-on-one. Any questions that they asked during that timeframe, that ten minutes is for you to say, I heard your questions, I did the research, and here's the answer. Make sure you stick to ten minutes.

The final ten minutes are for them to talk about their development and things that they have some challenges with, things that they want to work on for work, or any additional questions. When you do that, you are truly building a real relationship with your team so that when you're not in the building, they can help take care of some of the fires for you versus what you're doing.

I love the framework that you just had. That's probably going to slice that out as a piece by itself. That framework of a meeting is good. You mentioned the Super Bowl and I don't know when this will come out. I'll come out pretty soon before your book, but the Super Bowl was last night. We'll date ourselves. I watched it. We talked about it right before going live in our recording. That big game happens and hopefully, that was a good day for a lot of restaurants and bars out there.

It is a pretty good game that went overtime which is always exciting for the fans, and whether you're ready for this one or the other, it ended up being a good game. Let me ask you a question. That interaction and the format that you gave were good. The listening piece, I'm sure from history, doesn't work out much. The manager wants to speak so much for that session. Give another little hit on the head to managers to do that listening piece. How could you convey that even more?

One of the best ways is to have a one-on-one template, something that's written in front of you. The other tip is no devices during the one-on-one. Some people say, “I use my notes on my phone to type it in there.” No, because it makes someone feel you might be mashing out a text for a spouse for a friend or work, or an email. Make it authentic. Use a handwritten form that makes them feel a lot more comfortable.

We all have things that are on our minds. We have bills, spouses, work, personal things, and doctors. Using a template makes you look at it and say, this is what I'm focused on next. This is what I need to be doing during this one-on-one. Most people don't want to use forms. They don't want to use checklists or anything because they want to show how well their memory is. In the restaurant business, our memory is shot. We can't remember a day. There are too many things that are going on.

Thanks for those two tips there. Help bring it home. The templates, no devices. It's getting bad. We're all doing this. We're sitting at our dinner table, there are five of us in the house, and we're all looking at our phones. Come on, we got to put them down sometimes. You got to get away.

I shake my head cause I do it too. Yes.

Leading With The Right Mindset

We're all addicted. It's happening. Let's do one more and we're talking much. I'm going to bring you back in the future. We'll do the second half of the book. We'll talk some more. Leading with the right mindset is the next one. Is that okay? Let's do that and then we'll go towards wrapping. Leading with the right mindset. What do you have?

What you may not realize is what you just did. You just went through what I call the MODEL. It is an acronym. Master your KPIs and Owner-like orientation, Delegate, Engage, and Lead. That is the five-step repeatable model that managers can use to help run their businesses more effectively. The L, leading with the right mindset. It is that we have three interchangeable mindsets that we can use to help be better at everything we do from training to engagement to even developing our teams.

Managing versus leading versus coaching. It's not a one versus the other. It's knowing which is the right approach in the right situation to reach the best outcome. Now, some may say that if you manage or you lead or your coach, you can get a good outcome, but you don't want a good outcome. You want the best. Managing is the art of taking a group of people to make sure that they stay within the guardrails to hit a certain point by a certain time within a certain budget.

Managing is the art of guiding a team to achieve specific goals within set timeframes and budgets.

We use managing more than anything else throughout our day within this industry. Managing isn't bad. It's not an evil tool. It's something that we have to rely on to help stay within budget but then there's also the leadership or the leading mindset. The leading mindset is whenever those fires come and a group of people can't find out what is the next step to do.

It's helping to paint that picture of where to go next to reach the runway, to get to that vacation spot, even before the plane is built or while it's being built and they're still hopping on. Just because you've painted a picture that's clear and vivid, they choose to jump on that plane, even while it's being built. Coaching is different. Coaching is the mastery of one-on-ones or small-group feedback.

Coaching is taking someone knowing what their strengths are, and you find that out through the one-on-ones, finding out what their goals are, and then you're training them to get to the place that they need to go. That's the one-on-one relationship building that helps you and your crew to get to the places that they didn't think they could.

Now, each of those mindsets has different tactics. They have different styles, whether it's holistic or democratic, autocratic, or authoritative. There are different types of styles that you can use within each mindset to help you get better at what you do. The book lists some goods and some cautions for every style within that mindset so that you can understand what the best outcome is that you want.

I appreciate you. Looking at one of the quotes from this section of your book that just boom, we'll circle, and bring everything you just talked about. Coley O’Brien, the Chief People Officer at Wendy's, says in simplest terms, “Managing equals doing, leading equals inspiring, and coaching equals helping to be a highly effective leader or team member.” I think you have to be skilled and willing to do all three at different times.

Supporting Giving Kitchen

Knowing which one is, the art of it. Knowing when you have to tell people to do something and sometimes you have to build that vision. I wrote down how you did it when you're painting that picture of jumping on the plane, even if it's not built yet. How do you bring people along? It's charisma, it's vision, it's a way of being, and not everybody has that tactic and that one's important. Coaching people individually and understanding them. All those things are important. Jason, you speak, you talk, and you consult. What else is going on in your world?

My main focus right now is this book and I'll tell you why. It is because this book has put me on a mission, and I'm on a mission to give $30,000 in 30 days to Giving Kitchen. Now, Giving Kitchen is a phenomenal nonprofit. Many people in this industry have heard of them because they've helped much. They started in Atlanta, and they turned nonprofit in 2013. They've given almost $8 million back to food service workers in need.

I want to give them $30,000 in 30 days. That's a thousand dollars for every day this industry has given me. Giving Kitchen helps food service workers in need. I help food service workers transform into hospitality leaders. My goal is to get 10,000 books into the hands of food service workers. It does two things. It gives back to a great nonprofit, and it also helps to give a good training tool to managers that need it, especially these days.

How are you spreading the word? How can we help? Is it the website? Is it sharing more content? What else?

Sharing more content. It is the website. Right now, it is on Amazon. The official launch is March 18, 2024, but every book sold from March 18th to April 18th, including all pre-orders, puts it towards hitting that goal of $30,000 back to Giving Kitchen. There's going to be a pretty big marketing push starting March 1, 2024. I didn't want to start too early, but that's what's going to help give back. If this goes well, I want to do this yearly, every March to help give back to to Giving Kitchen.

I love it. JasonEBrooks.com is your main website. Is that you on social as well? Other websites? Are there other places to find you?

I am on social @2LeadNSucceed, which is on Twitter or X. That's also on Instagram @2LeadNSucceed. JasonEBrooks.com is the best website. The book is on JasonEBrooks.com. It's also on Amazon. You can search for Every Leader Needs Followers, Jason Brooks and it'll pop up right there.

I have not read every page of the book yet, but I can tell you from what I've read, this is one of those easy no-brainers, you have to get a copy. You've got to go through this. It is excellent. If you just read what Jason had discussed for the last 30-plus minutes with us, if you are saying that you don't need to know more, I don't know what you're thinking, because this is good stuff.

I appreciate you, Jason. Folks, Jason Brooks of HospiVation. Find them on the web at JasonEBrooks.com for more great restaurants, marketing, service, people, and tech tips as well. Stay tuned to us here at RunningRestaurants.com. If you could do us a big favor and hit that like or subscribe and give us a review. We would appreciate those things. Thanks, folks, we will see you next time. Appreciate it.

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