How to Protect Your Energy as a Leader and Lift Your Team

0:03Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. And today's topic, energy. And Arturo, I am really excited about this episode because energy is one of the things that I specialize in. So let's start with this. What is energy in relationship to leadership? Well, I think it's one of the key components of being a great leader. I think the challenge with driving teams and motivating people is always finding that next level of energy to kind of push the agenda, push individuals to either become better or to meet the purpose of the business or the objective. And so, super important concept in leadership.

0:57All right, I completely agree there. But as we all know, energy comes and goes from the morning to the afternoon to the evening. Things happen in life for everyone because everything's not always puppy dogs and rainbows. So everybody's not always at a 100. So let's talk about why is this important to have good energy as a leader?

1:19Yeah, I mean, I think when you know, I think we've all really noticed it. It's something that maybe we don't pay attention to all the time. I certainly do. I certainly am. I'm very cognizant of my level of energy, as it relates to, you know, the specific needs of my leadership roles. And so, you know, in the morning, in the mornings, when I'm when my energy, for me, is obviously the is the highest, you know, it's like literally launching out of bed, excited about what the day has in store. But I think we've all seen experience or experienced instances where, you know, there was, you're walking into a business or you're walking into a group and you're instantly able to feel the energy. And so when you walk into, you know, I'll give you a quick example. When you walk into a business that has that energy or that charm, it's a place that immediately makes you feel at ease and makes you feel very comfortable.

2:18And I think that we all have those spots, whether it's our favorite steak joint, whether it's our favorite, you know, ice cream place, whatever it is, there's a certain charm about that business. And that charm really is, it's a number of things. It's, it's, it's happy staff. It's well organized environment. It's a lot of things. But all those things, in my opinion, are driven by somebody who's driving the energy of that business, which then ultimately flows down to staff. And then the customers, guests are receiving on the receiving end of that.

2:54And the thing that I believe is most important, which actually completely relates to what you're talking about is energy is transferable. So why do you want good energy? Well, one, it's going to be good for you. And a lot of the things that we're going to talk about are going to a reference past episodes, like starting with number one, I'm someone who is team good vibes. So I've always got a positive mindset. So my energy is always 100.

3:20100. It's great for me, because it allows me to show up and have a certain way that I carry myself. But guess what, you can feel this energy, you can transfer this energy, people can radiate off the energy. And then as you're saying, when we're dealing with teams, or you go to a place right there, all right, you've got the leader, and you've got these other people, and there's a vibe to it. And you know what, I believe this is something that is a skill, in terms of your ability to build a vibe, or the pulse of something in with it being summertime Chicago right now, I think a great example of this is anytime you go onto a patio on a weekend, and it's sunny outside in Chicago, you can you step right there, even the guy checking your ID, he's smiling, he's happy, you go there, the people on the patio, you feel this vibe in this pulse, and that is actually energy.

4:14That's right. You know, so so again, I mean, energy is a force. It's an attitude. It's magnetic, it's motivating, it's, it is something that I think that we all crave. And if you look at, if you look at situations where there is either tremendous energy in a space in a room in a situation, or a lack thereof, people are always going to gravitate towards the highest level of energy.

4:39And so when you're trying to motivate staff, and you're trying to really staff and or anybody, this is actually, this is actually applicable to yourself, right? This is actually applicable to yourself, you can manage there. We'll, we'll talk about it. But I think that there are things that you can do 100% that can help manage your energy. But in, as we've mentioned in the past, leadership is not just that environment in which you work.

5:05There are aspects of leadership that you bring home. And whether it's with your, you know, your family, your children, your wife, other people that are participating in your life, energy is such an important factor. When you look at, you know, the biggest, or the, let's not even say the biggest, let's talk about some of the most successful companies in businesses, and sports teams, you know, you mentioned sports teams. I don't think that in any one of those situations, you can actually go back and look and say that there was a lack of energy.

5:34You can tell that there is something about the spirit of the group. So in athletics, the teams that have won at the highest levels, you look at, you know, Dabo Swinney, and you look at the Clemson team, and you see the amount of morale that exists within the players, the cohesiveness in that group, you see coaches on the sideline that have energy for days.

5:58And all that plays into development of heart, stamina and success because it is hard to have that stamina without energy as a driver. And sometimes that energy is coming from your teammate or it's coming from your coach. Wherever it's coming from, it's an important component of how success is actually achieved. And positive energy is very much contagious. I do think it is important for us to also talk about the inverse, negative energy, because negative energy is all around us right now. Negative energy is pushed to us, whether through media, social media, email, people trying to take your attention.

6:41And there's a term that I learned that I use in my life. And it's called energy vampires. You want to beware of energy vampires. And what's an energy vampire? An energy vampire is someone who is there to suck your energy dry. And guess what? It's something that might not be conscious for the other person. But if you think about it, if anybody's ever been a Debbie Downer, someone that is a coworker or a friend or a family member or an acquaintance, when they're around, they're always just talk about, woe is me, doom and gloom.

7:15And they bring the energy down. And just like positive energy is transferable, so is negative energy. And you have to do a lot more to overcome negative energy. And energy vampires, one can be other people, but two, you know who else it can be? Yourself. You need to catch yourself. And guess what? None of us are perfect, but we can drain the energy from other people. So once again, transferring this to leadership. As a leader, it is so important for you to, one, understand what your energy level is at, and then two, beware of energy vampires because it only takes one energy vampire to kill a room. So you need to beware of whose energy is not good so that you can create the best environment for success.

8:04Super, super valid point. And I'm going to, you know, I want to share a quote from a book that I'm going to actually recommend at the end of this, but it's a quote from the Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading. It says, you know, low negative energy just brings trouble. Okay. And that's just a fact. And it, and I think that as young kids, we start to realize that there's certain people as we were growing up that just had that. And sometimes it was, we were getting guidance from our parents, from other adults that were saying, hey, maybe you shouldn't hang out with those particular kids because they're, they're not, they're bad news.

8:38So for whatever reason, I mean, I think that the concept certainly is something that we have, we have grown to try to understand. Hopefully we'll, we'll drive it home a little bit more during this episode, but positive energy brings innovation. It brings creativity, it brings caring, it brings big ideas and it brings extra effort. And so, you know, as you're talking about these effects, so each negative and positive or high and low energy, both have extreme opposite effects in terms of the spectrum.

9:13The thing that you mentioned in terms of being the consciousness and this responsibility of leaders to have this awareness of energy that goes into the, you know, when you really talk, when we talk about the EQ and we go, we go back to that episode where we spoke about that, you know, I think I even referenced, you know, part of EQ is really being like spackle.

9:36It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it is being able to, as a leader, deliver your energy into the areas of deficiency. And so, but as somebody, as a leader, the responsibility through EQ is that we have to, we have to honestly be listening and just emotionally aware of where the energy level is of our teammates at all times.

10:00And so, you know, anytime that I go into work, it's, it is, it is, there's an opportunity for me to check in with everybody that's on my team. And so that might be a hello, how you doing? How's your day? What's up? Whatever the case is, there's some form of communication or some type of touch that, that occurs, you know, an emotional touch or check-in rather. And that allows me to actually understand where they are from their energy scale.

10:29And if I can immediately sense that somebody is, they're either having a bad day or they just, they didn't get a good night's sleep, whatever the case is, my next job is to go in to try to focus, to bring their energy up. And that sometimes is just letting them know that, Hey, whatever's going on, we got your back and there's plenty of love here. And there's plenty of, plenty of energy and let's go. So, and this is a great segue to how do we do this or work on this?

10:58So we want to be better leaders around the world of energy. And you just great gave a great example right there, but can you talk a little bit more about sort of how you work on managing your energy and or cultivating your energy? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's going to be a lot of the stuff that we've already spoken about in some of these previous episodes.

11:18And I think that, you know, the exciting thing about what we're talking about today and in some of the future episodes is really kind of bringing more depth and understanding to some of the things that we were speaking about. But, you know, some of the things that I would recommend is obviously that the whole concept of number one and the whole concept of taking care of yourself. Well, you can't distribute energy to other people if you yourself don't have that energy.

11:42And so one of the things that I think, you know, tends to be an energy suck for all of us is disorganization. And that comes in a, in a bunch of different forms and it could come, you know, just the simplicity of actually having a tidy, organized home living environment. But, but organization is a, is a extremely broad concept.

12:04But I think that individuals that really are focusing on organizing themselves, their lives, I think have a greater capacity to deliver energy to other people. Obviously you talk about health and love, but health, you have to mean energy is a, is a physical output thing that if you're not getting a good night's sleep or you're not taking care of yourself, or you're not eating the right things and you're not exercising, it's gonna be very difficult to actually deliver a level of energy to other people.

12:34And so love, you know, to me, love is the, is the most powerful level of energy. I mean, that really lets people know immediately that there's some emanating force coming from you that is about caring, that is about coaching, that is about making sure that they're going to be okay. Okay. And so taking care of number one is, is a, is a critical piece. Cause again, you can't take care of number two, number three, number four, if you're not taking care of number one.

13:03And that really involves that energy output. It's, it's that give, right? I think when you talk about, you know, we go back to again, the episode on grit, where we kind of highlight a purpose versus passion. If, you know, when you look at some of the most well-run and maybe from the surface or even internally, if we were to ask some of the companies that have some of the highest levels of morale, I think those organizations really have purpose.

13:32And so when you have, when you talk about the purpose, the individual's purpose, right. And I recommended that everybody kind of go through this exercise and that you really dig deep to try to find your purpose. I think it's one of the greatest questions that we will encounter in life in general. And so I think it's important for us because purpose, if we have an individual purpose as individuals, we can be convinced we will have a path.

14:01We will have a guiding light to really continue to get better at the things that we want to get better at and make sure that we are coming in at a hundred to pursue that personal purpose. Again, back to you, when you get back to corporations, when you talk about businesses that have a fundamental understanding of who they are and what they're about, I think give less confusion to staff, give less confusion to customers, thus create more time to actually work on the fundamentals and actually more time to actually be who they've intended to be.

14:34And so to me, that equates to a lot of great energy. And so, you know, this can exist within a family unit. This can exist on a, on a team. This can exist in a corporate environment, having a purpose and a fundamental path of where you're going is something that allows everybody else that's on that team and all teammates to have a little more comfortability and actually focus on the things that really matter.

15:01And that is really kind of bringing energy and finding, you know, fulfilling those goals. And I think we just kind of touched on it before this is the component of EQ and it's, it's just, you know, and there are ways to work on it. And we spoke about that in that, in that particular episode, but understanding where the deficiencies are, the energy deficiencies, that's like for us, everybody's got a little switch, right?

15:27They all, everybody's got a power switch. And so you're moving around the room and whether it's guests, I mean, you can pick this up from, you know, your guests, you can pick it up from your staff. You can pick it up from anybody that's in the room has either an on or off switch from an energy standpoint. So us as leaders, we're responsible for really dissecting that and understanding it and, you know, essentially going to turn on the power button on for everybody.

15:51And so I think those are the main things that I would say we can do to really continue to drive energy. And some people may say, you know what, I don't, I'm not a super energetic person. I would say that if you're doing something that you're super passionate about and that you find purpose in, I guarantee you that you have a smile on your face and that you're excited to do it. There is, there is no exception.

16:17And some, you know, and the people that are maybe low energy individuals, maybe you're doing the wrong thing. Maybe you're not, maybe you're not with the people that you should be. And so there's a reason to have an introspective look at where you are in your life, where you are in your work life. And, and all those things matter. I'm telling you that there is an opportunity to have high levels of energy and happiness when you're doing the things that you love. And we've all been there. We know it.

16:47I love that. So there's a few things that you said. One, I am not a super energetic person. If anybody ever says that to themselves, please throw that in the trash. Why? Because I am a master of language. I listen. If you tell yourself, I am not a super energetic person, guess what you are believing? You're putting out into the world that I am not a super energetic person. The inverse is actually true. If you wanted to be more energetic, what would you say?

17:15I am a super energetic person. Say that over and over again. So here's what I'm going to do. How do I turn on my power button, my switch? So a lot of the things that you talked about resonate so much with me. I'm, um, I have a passion for what I do. I'm so purpose driven. So every morning I wake up and say today is going to be a great day, but guess what? I've got to work on a boot sequence to get me that. So here's what you can do to help turn on your power switch.

17:43One priming your mind. And what is that similar to that affirmation of I am a super energetic person. What are the things that you say to yourself or that you read that says, who are you now? Who do you want to be in the future? So the way that you can be more positive and have more energy is to start building that into your routine. Number two, meditation. So what do I say? And I've mentioned this before.

18:10One of my mantras, I'm doing this for myself and I'm doing this for others. And I'm actually getting more energy by doing nothing. It is the absence of thoughts in this always on world. Number three, gratitude. And this goes to your love example because love and gratitude are cousins of each other. When you're thankful for something, you know what? You're smiling. When you're smiling, you have energy. So sit there and whether you're brushing your teeth.

18:39So one thing that I do when I brush my teeth in the morning, I sit there and I say, what are the three things that I'm thankful for? Boom, simple way to get some gratitude. Here's the next one. Visualization. I want you to visualize your dreams, your best outcomes, the scenarios that you want. No different than a professional athlete who has done the same shot a million times in their head. The same is true for visualization. So Arturo, going back to that, I'm not a super energetic person.

19:08And is everything really, are they around the right people and all of that? Well, let's visualize what does that life look like for you where you are the energetic person. And then last thing here, be selective of your inputs. Why is this important? Because guess where all the energy vampires are. They are all around you. The news, social media, emails. Get that out of your life and replace it with good stuff.

19:35We've talked about how you can use music to help uplift your spirits and give you good energy. I love listening to Bob Marley. Why? It gives me good vibes. So be selective for your inputs. And guess what? Arturo, you know how much money it costs to do any of those things? Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero dollars. Every single person can do this. Takes no money. So what are your thoughts on that?

20:02I mean, I think, you know, when you, so there's an interesting concept in meditation. You mentioned meditation. It's the concept. It's not even a concept. It's a name in Buddhism. It's a name in Buddhism, the Bodhisattva. And so that is, it is a monk, an individual in Buddhism that has really reached enlightenment. But this individual makes a vow to basically, instead of taking the path of ascending into enlightenment, they actually stay to make sure that their energy and their enlightenment is spread amongst other people. And it's a, I get, you know, I get it. It's a deep concept. But it resonates with me.

20:48It resonates from an energy standpoint in the responsibility of a leader that we have. We have, we have to pursue our own enlightenment. We do. Okay. And in that process, it's up to us to coach and to guide people to that next level. And that's what we, that's our responsibility as leaders. We are responsible for leaving the world a better place than where we, than what we found it. Okay.

21:16And so that to me is coaching. It's mentoring. It's giving that guidance. It's giving that energy. And that is, you know, something, again, I think that that's what the world looks like to me filled with energy. I love that. And you know what? This is something you can also do when no one is watching. I'm just like you. I want to leave the world a better place.

21:42And whether that means I'm picking up a piece of trash when I'm walking down the street in West Loop or I'm helping somebody out. You know what? I feel like it is my duty to go above and beyond and to set the example because guess what? I know and that other person knows. And making the world a better place happens one action at a time whether anybody else sees it. You know, it's, you know, the super great concept. And you actually, you just reminded me of something that I read.

22:11I forgot what book it's from. But I actually do it. I used to do it very religiously. And now that we're talking about it, I'm going to probably jump back into it. But the recommendation was to, as you're walking down the street or as you're, you know, moving about your day, when you see somebody, whether you know them or you don't, to wish them the best.

22:35To hope nothing but goodness and greatness for that individual. And it actually is a very super enlightening kind of thing, like going through your morning and literally looking at strangers and just saying, I hope the best for him. I hope the best for her. I mean, it's an exercise that you hope other people are doing for you, right?

23:03You hope that that energy is being passed to you as well. But that is just being, bringing some of the mindfulness into play every day to make sure that you're keeping that mindset. And it's a positive mindset. And, you know, the world or the energy that positivity brings is a remarkable thing. And those are really the stories, the strong stories of success that we've all heard are driven by people that have extreme optimism, high levels of positivity and great energy. I love that because that is something that I do on a consistent basis. And I can give you one example where I always do it. When I run from my place in West Loop down to the Riverwalk, I run down Lake Street and then right where Canal is, there's like an overpass.

23:51And there's always homeless people sitting there or sleeping. And I'm usually running in the morning. And you know what? Every single time I run past them, I wish them good vibes and for something good to happen to them. Because my heart really feels for them. And for me, just in that moment when I see them and there's the cardboard boxes there, I just say, you know what? I hope something good happens to this person today. And you know what? Every episode we have an action item or a takeaway.

24:18And you know what, Arturo, I think what you just said is by far the best thing that we can do is we should all go in over the next week. Make it a point once a day to wish good things for someone else that you don't even know. Just make it part of your consciousness because I think the key of this is the awareness of it. And when you become more aware, it's going to become something where it's automatic for you. Right.

24:44You know, I think the other, you know, so that exercise and then just the power of a hello or a good morning has an extraordinary effect. I mean, it's really interesting. You know, as I walk through the neighborhood with my daughter and she's got this little motorized four-wheeler thing or whatever. But she's one of the most social kind of high energy, you know, little people that I know. And she'll say hi to really to anybody.

25:13And it takes people, almost knocks them off their feet because they just weren't expecting it. It's amazing that people don't expect other people to say hi or to smile. That's no longer an expectation. And, you know, you talk about the energy domino effect. The idea that we can set this effect off in a very positive way is a strong thing.

25:40And I think that we've all had instances where either we were treated poorly or negatively. And that had an effect on us for the rest of the day. It's like we're almost transferring that bad energy to the next person. So if somebody's rude to us, mean to us, puts us in a bad mood, it can. And then we automatically are starting to move that bad energy from person to person. And so the adverse effect happens too.

26:09So imagine, again, the power of a hello or a good morning. I mean, that has the ability to actually change somebody's day and their entire perspective on how things look based on the fact that you've actually just delivered some good vibes, some good energy. Here's a tip. One of the simplest tips I can give. 100% of the time when someone says, Rob, how are you doing? You know what my response is? Amazing. Excellent. Awesome. This is no joke. 100% of the time. Why?

26:38Because it sets the tone exactly what you just talked about with your daughter and then the inverse on the negative side. When I come out, people are like, whoa, man, you're always positive. I'm like, of course, there's so many good things for us to be optimistic about, but you don't want someone. We've all had it. Hey, Arturo, how are you doing? Fine. Okay. You're like, whoa, what is this? Like, that makes no sense. So you as a leader, a very simple thing you can do, make sure that word that you say is awesome, amazing, great, and feel that.

27:08So here's the last thing that we're going to do, Arturo. Give some book recommendations. I've got two of them. One is Wake Up Happy by Michael Strahan. Really enjoyable read. And the second one is called The YUSA Guide to Balance. This one is a little bit more along the lines of people who like to meditate and visualize and has a little bit of a spiritual internal element to it. But guess what?

27:36I like to be a student of the game of all things, and it's a unique perspective. Do you have a book recommendation? Yeah, I do. I kind of referenced it at the very beginning. So Zingerman's Guide to Leading. Zingerman's is a small – well, they're no longer small. They're a $40 million, $45 million company out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. So Zingerman's Guide to Leading, it's a multi-edition series. Being a Better Leader is the book that I'm referencing.

28:05Probably half of the book is actually about the effects of energy on a business. And it's such a tremendous book. So if you ever get an opportunity to read it and energy is something that you're really interested in, pick it up because it's great. It's actually – I read it many years ago, and it actually changed my entire perspective on how I need to be – how I need to better manage my energy so that I can create the output that I want to create.

28:32All right.

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.

0:04Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. And today's topic, positive energy. And today we have a special guest joining us. And Arturo, I'm going to let you do the introduction. Super excited today. Good friend of mine, Carrie Luxem, who I have tremendous respect for. She's a public speaker, entrepreneur, author, and also the leader of the Restaurant HR Group. So I don't want to steal her thunder. I'd like to give her a little opportunity to actually introduce herself and tell us a little bit about where she's focused right now.

0:46Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for inviting me onto your show. I've been listening to your podcast. It's some unbelievably valuable information that you guys pump out. So I am honored to be a part of this show. So to give you kind of the quick story of my my whole life story, but I'll try to do it very quickly because I know we only have 30 minutes here. But I started in the restaurant industry back when I was 15 years old. I had, you know, it was really life changing for me at that time in my life.

1:14I was not going down a great path. And I get this one job at Dairy Queen where there's great leaders, positive, you know, franchisees, great systems. And it really helped turn my life around and shape me, keep me in school and kind of that path that started there. I'm a very naturally entrepreneurial person. So as I was a teenager, I was selling M&Ms and, you know, stuff in balloons and like whatever I could do to make a buck. Right.

1:40So I decided I grew up in Rockford, Illinois, which is a small kind of town, you know, and I wanted to get out of it, that city and try something. I knew there had to be something bigger for me. So I moved to Chicago in the late 90s. And I crossed paths with the visionary behind Potbelly Sandwich Works. And this guy's name is Bryant Keil.

2:03He's an absolute, you know, the guy that kind of gave me the chance when nobody else would believed in me before I believed in myself kind of a thing. But he had these three restaurants in Chicago and he had this unbelievable vision for growing the company and impacting lives. And I wanted to be a part of this. So I begged and kicked and screamed and pleaded until he gave me the job to head up his HR department at three stores.

2:27So I started the HR department, not really knowing I had a great attitude and a lot of passion and stayed with Potbelly for over 10 years. We grew to 220 plus restaurants over the course of the time that I was with Potbelly. And I just learned so much about people, about hard skills and operations and soft skills, interpersonal skills and what really matters and how I could be an expert at supporting restaurant operators.

2:56I'm very passionate about this industry. And so I left there in 2010. The company had gotten really big, great, nothing but positive things to say about it. But my husband was starting, my husband is a Dunkin Donuts franchisee and he was starting his business. And I was like, I'm a mom and I had two small kids at the time. I'm like, I'll take care of my kids.

3:18I'll help my husband. And I had this vision for helping restaurateurs set up their HR systems and processes and how to find and develop great leaders as that's what I had helped Potbelly do. So I started my business sort of as like a part time gig. I'm a mom. I'm helping my husband. But let's do this. And it just really kind of started with that. And, you know, we had a real niche and we grew the business. I've been in business for over 10 years, almost 11 years that we've been in business.

3:46And at Restaurant HR Group, we basically support restaurateurs with their payroll benefits and HR administration. Where I am currently is I operate that company. You know, I oversee the company, but it really runs very seamlessly. I have great people. And my focus right now is I'm finishing my second book. My first book was a playbook for setting up your HR systems. My second book is a soft skills playbook.

4:12So it's basically I'm touching on soft skills, positive energy, positive attitude is one of the chapters, you know. So I'm doing that. I definitely do some keynotes and things like that. I have a membership platform that we, you know, we support people that can't necessarily or don't want us to do their HR to be the outsourced service. They can become a member and we support them through the membership platform and that sort of thing. So finishing my second book in hopefully March of 21.

4:41And then in May of 21, I'm starting my own show, the Carrie Luxem show. And I have a hat for both of you guys. I'll send it to you. But anyway, I'm going to go out into the world. A lot of people are doing podcasts and, you know, there's so much great stuff out there. This was actually supposed to start in 2020. I was going to launch at the restaurant show this year. Of course, that didn't happen. So we're doing it in hopefully 2021. But with the Carrie Luxem show, I'm really on a mission to help create more restaurant success stories.

5:08And I'm going to do that through going out and talking to and interviewing savvy restaurateurs, CEOs, general managers, anybody that has success. And some of these soft skills or how they built their franchise or started a business. And we're going to learn through them and their wisdom. So I'm going to do these short shows in person. I'm going to be all over. I've been locked up here for the last six months. I'm really excited to get out and do that. So that's kind of where I'm at. You know, I love this industry.

5:37And I'm on a mission to help create more restaurant success stories and leadership stories. And so I appreciate the platform like this to help me accomplish that mission. Wow. That is a whole bunch of awesomeness. And Carrie, one, I can feel your energy radiating and I absolutely love it. And before we actually booked the show, we gave you a few options for what you wanted to talk about.

6:03And you chose positive energy, which made me feel amazing. But I'm curious why you chose positive energy because I think it's going to be a good baseline for us for the rest of our conversation. Yeah. It is very important to me. I will tell you it's single-handedly probably what has kept me going throughout my life. I am like so many other people in this world. I have a husband and, you know, we have our ups and downs. I have two teenage boys, you know, nothing said there.

6:33I have my problems. I'm going through the pandemic just like everybody else is. I lose clients. I, you know, I have, you know, teammates that are happy one day and not the next. Life can be stressful. But what I have made a decision to do is I'm very deliberate in my intention on focusing on the bright side. And positive energy isn't about extroversion to me. It's not about I am a highly extroverted person.

7:01My husband is a very introverted person, but he's got a very positive outlook on life. It's about it's about fast foot forward. It's about looking at the bright side. I failed at something. I lost that client. What can I learn from it? You know, you win or you learn, you know, that kind of a mentality. And so if I didn't have that positive outlook through my life when I, you know, made mistakes at work or my father passed away or I had problems with siblings or whatever it is.

7:30If I didn't if I didn't teach myself to do that. I don't know how this building a business could be sustainable for me. And I give a lot of the credit to the success in my companies to the fact that I am very focused on being very positive. And I surround myself with people, whether it's online or offline or family or whatever that are like that have a that tend to look at the bright side of things. But that does not mean I'm happy every day. And I have this, you know, upbeat.

7:59I mean, on podcast I am. I mean, it was funny. I got to tell you that last night we had a rough day yesterday and I told my COO, it's really funny. I'm doing a podcast tomorrow on positive energy because I wasn't so positive yesterday. But I knew when I woke up today, this is what I've trained myself to do. You got to be positive and you got to look at what we've learned from the stress that happened yesterday. So that is why I'm so passionate about this.

8:25And I think if people can train themselves to focus on the positive things that come from the negativity or how to have, you know, positivity or surround yourself with those people, I think that they can sustain things longer and have the success that they want to have long term. Yeah, it's very much a mindset and a lifestyle. So Arturo, I'll let you jump in. No, I completely agree. Yeah, Carrie, I mean, you know, we've known each other, I think, for a good amount of time.

8:54But I think it's – and I've always known you to be an extremely positive, outward person, like you mentioned. How do you – what are some of the recommendations? I mean, you're speaking to some, you know, very powerful restaurant CEOs. And I think that the ability to harness positive energy or to create that in the workplace is part of the success story that many of these people have.

9:20And when I look at times, at least in our own lives or in my business life, entrepreneurial life, where we had real success, it's because we had a team that really believed in the concept of positive energy. And then there's times where we really struggled. And no matter how much energy, enthusiasm that I brought to the pie, we still struggled because there were certain individuals in the chain that just were not positive people. So are there recommendations that you have to – I mean, how do you hire right and filter that in the early stage process? Because it's – that really determines how things get kicked off. Right. Well, the first thing I'll say is life happens to all of us.

10:07And I don't care who you are. I give this – people know me as being overly positive. And, of course, I'm going to get on videos and I'm going to do this. But I have my life, real life, too. Ask my husband if I'm positive all the time. You know what I'm saying? But the reality is people have lives. And when you're hiring people, you know, what you want to look for, it's not necessarily, like I said, energy.

10:31But you can focus in and hone in on things to find out how people are hardwired or what they're going through in their life. And sometimes when you can make a connection with somebody, you know, people always talk about, you know, you're just born that way. You know, Carrie, you're just naturally that way. Like you just – you can't teach that. And I just don't agree with that. I didn't know – I have not always been a person that focuses on positive energy. I used to get down on life and feel sorry for myself and be negative.

10:59And I had great leaders around me who lifted me up or who taught me how to enjoy the journey or gave me the confidence to fail and learn from the failure. Failure is part of success. It's not the opposite of success, right? And so all of these things and constantly being around leaders that taught me that or even leaders that were the opposite of that. I didn't want to be like – I don't want to be a leader like that.

11:26So to answer your question, Arturo, you know, when you're going through like the interview process, people tend to focus on highlighting their mission and focusing on the hard skills. But really dig deep and have in-depth conversations about what makes people tick. You know, what is it that makes you happy? What makes you not happy? You know, how do you learn from your mistakes? What kind of person do you like to be around? Where do you – because truthfully, some people – I think about my kids, right?

11:57They're sporty, very sporty kids. Remember the Luxem name because we think they're going to be, you know, baseball, basketball players. I mean, if he's 14 and he's 6'3", he's going to be something, right? But the truth is, you know, he's – they both – I have two boys. One's 12, one's 14. One of them is very inspired by the kind of coach that lifts him up and supports him. The other one likes to be beaten up a little bit. They like a coach that's going to, like, tell them how it has to be.

12:26And they both are, you know, they both are motivated and inspired differently. So, as you're interviewing and hiring and onboarding and trying to retain people, you've got to know your people. You've got to understand how to connect with them emotionally and, you know, and figure out what they need. And that is not one size fits all. There's no HR person or book or, you know, leader in the world can say, these are the 10 things that you do and you are going to have success hiring or retaining people. I mean, I know operators that are really the opposite of how I lead. You know, how – the way I – I'm a very over-the-top pat on the back. You know, I might overdo it a little too much. I know some of the most impactful leaders in my life, they were the opposite of that. They were straight talkers. If I got a pat on my back, it was, like, once every three years.

13:21And I just loved it, you know. But I was inspired by the way they cared about me and their compassion. So, I mean, I think you've just got to know your people. You've got to dig deeper into the interview process and find out what matters to people that are coming to work for you and how they are – how they operate and what is it – you know, what is it that they want out of life and try to accomplish that. What's going to make that person want to work hard for you?

13:48And that's not the same as the next guy that you're interviewing, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense. I think we're talking about, you know, there's a large part of that onus and responsibility being on the person that's actually hiring the person, right? And so that, you know, that concept of energy flowing downhill and actually creating a culture where people feel safe, where they feel comfortable, and they can develop and they can flourish, I think is a really important concept.

14:16And so I think that that really is where the culture is created, right? Yeah. But on the flip side, Arturo, I think kind of this is where you're going with it. So you get those people in your company that are toxic or that are just always negative, no matter what you do, no matter how much you try to show them energy or know who they are. Those people can't be in your company, you know? And so if you've got a person that no matter what it is you do, you try to connect with them, no business owner, no company. I don't care if you're like identified as one of the best concepts in the universe, whether it's a really great, like a Chick-fil-A or an In-N-Out Burger or Google or all these companies that really seem to do it well. There's going to be people that have negative energy and that bring people down. They need to be held accountable just as though they broke a policy or violation in your company.

15:07They need to understand how catastrophic that toxicity can be in your restaurant. And if they can't fix it, to me, that's like more important than somebody that's underperforming because they don't know how to do the job. And oftentimes it's not as measurable. It's harder to really go, okay, this isn't a violation that I see on page 24 of the handbook. So how am I going to hold them accountable? You've got to live it and breathe it and connect why, you know, this hospitality, this energy, connecting with people on your team, it's important and it's essential. And I'm going to hold you accountable for it. It doesn't mean we can't have disagreements and that you can't come to me with negative feedback or whatever, but it's about a mindset. It's about how we treat each other. It's about respect and trust and all those things. If you don't have those things, the faster you can get that person out of your company, the better. I mean, I think toxic people can do so much damage so incredibly quickly.

16:05They can quickly turn things to a negative environment. I've been there. I've had that culture before in my company. So how do you, is there recommendations? I mean, I kind of sit on the fence where I believe that obviously I think that the positivity and the decisions that we make on a daily basis to either approach and embrace something from a different perspective, I think can be learned, can be coached.

16:34I also believe that there's people that are generally born with an energy to them that can find that path to positivity much quicker. Yeah. And so I've had a bunch of instances in the past where we've had individuals that were negative, and those are hard discussions. The discussions of really trying to create a program for them to step outside of, basically step outside of themselves and to actually reevaluate how they're interacting with people, because they do have choices. So are there certain things that you've done in the past or a program like a DAP or something that you guys have that's kind of like off the shelf to implement with those situations or not really? You know, I would say not really. And I mean, I do a whole bunch of different things. And again, I don't think there is, you know, like one answer to this, but I think that I do think that people are born with innate skill sets, right? They, you know, in terms of like, I'll never be super organized or detailed or whatever. It's born a certain way. But I think in terms of teachability and desire, everybody is different. I wanted a life different than I had when I was in my early 20s. And I was negative and I was not focused on the right things. But I had this desire and I was, you know, open to learning and growing and all that.

17:57So I just got, you know, fortunately under the right leaders that were hard enough for my personality, but soft enough and showed their compassion for me. So I think it's, you know, what I believe really is the key. If you pull it down to one thing, it's really consistency. You know, two things, consistency and authenticity. So Arturo, you're a restaurant operator. You go into your restaurants every day and you are consistent with who you are. You're a very authentic person.

18:27You are going to be who you are. You know, people try to say that a leader needs to be this, this and this. Be who you are. And hopefully that's a good person that's compassionate. That's going to, otherwise you are going to have, your culture is going to be one of turnover. And, but you are no matter how I write, I'm writing books on this stuff and I struggle with this. This is, we're trying to figure out people and it's hard to do. But I think if you, I wake up every day, I stay true to my own values.

18:55I, you know, I'm super consistent with how I treat my clients, my people. I, and that constant consistency over the years builds what? It builds trust, right? And when you have trust, people are going to be loyal to you. And then when you get somebody that comes into the team that doesn't live that, it's so clear and obvious that they don't fit into, you know, they can't do the job because they don't fit into the culture that I have. And, you know, people use that like higher for cultural fit.

19:25Again, that to me is not energy. That's not positive energy and extroversion. That's can you do the job? And in order to do the job here at Restaurant HR Group, you got to be passionate. You've got to be, you know, and passionate is a loose word, but you've got to have, you've got to have the right attitude because we are nurturing caregivers to our clients. We want to make sure that they're giving them the support that they need. If you have a bad attitude or you're a terrible communicator or you're not able to adapt your style and those things, you can't have success here. It's not going to work. So, you know, I think that, I think that the, you know, the system that I use is just really about understanding who I am, being very true to my, you know, to my values, hiring people that are very different from me, but that have similar values, meaning they work hard, they care about people, they, you know, and then I reward that.

20:20And when they fall short or they make a mistake, I don't just say, oh my gosh, that person made this huge mistake. They're gone. I understand that people are people that we're going to make mistakes. I, if I was fired at Potbelly for all the mistakes I would have made, I would have been fired on day two and probably every single day until I left there. But instead I was empowered to make mistakes and to learn. And I learned, I learned my mistakes, most of them at least, you know, but, you know, but I think, I think it's just a way of being. And I have never relied on technology or a program or some training to do what needs to be done for my people. I am responsible for leading them. And I lead them by making emotional connections with each and every person on my team and being real with them. And so when things are tough or somebody is in tears, or I am not happy with performance, it's, they know that I'm going to come to them very authentically and tell them the reality and they're going to be hopefully loyal. And sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't, but I'm going to stay grounded and consistent with, you know, with everything that I do, including that dealing with conflict. That's amazing. Yeah. So Carrie, one thing that the pandemic has opened up is remote work for a lot of people who have been in office.

21:45Yeah. And I loved a lot of the things that you said about connection and caring and compassion. And I'm someone who has worked remotely for 14 years. So of all people, I know what it's like to work from home for extended periods of time. And you can feel isolation and you can feel periods of where you don't feel positive. And you have to be extremely intentional about your positive inputs and changing your environment.

22:10I'm curious your thoughts on how companies and leaders can have more positive energy in a remote environment. Right. Right. I mean, I think that's a great question. And you know what? It comes down to caring about it and understanding that you don't have all the answers. And so we went from, I mean, I've hired two people through the pandemic. I've never met them in person. Right.

22:35So like, it's very, it's very challenging, but I am very, I lead very empathetically. So I think, all right, I've got a new person or I've got a team that's used to being in meetings twice a month and we get together. What can we do? And I avoided the whole Zoom call with the team at first. I told myself I didn't like that, but it's not about me. So we do regular Zoom calls and we, I literally, I reach out maybe more than I would if we were being face-to-face through text or send that good morning, you know, message to everybody or just trying to do those things to show the team that even though we're not in physical, physically, we're not together. We're still a team. We're still pumping out great stuff. We're signing, you know, new deals. We have new clients and it is a different challenge. But again, we all care about each other and we have set up certain things.

23:32We have new clients through Zoom calls and conference calls and meetings and that we are ensuring that everybody continues to feel as much love as we can. And, you know, it's, I think it's too, sometimes when things like this happen and operators are like, well, I don't know what the answer, I don't know when we're going to be able to go back to the office. I think just saying those things here, I don't know, this is like, you guys don't know, guys, I have no idea what's going to happen here in the next three months.

23:58So kind of communicating the fact that you don't know either and that you're, you're just a human and you're vulnerable and you don't have all the answers, but we're in this together. I think that goes such a long way. And I find that a lot of times managers or operators or leaders, they shut down when they don't have the answers because they're supposed, they think they're supposed to have the answers to everything. So I think it's just, it's just, again, being yourself, putting yourself in the shoes of the people that you lead.

24:26And if you were one of the employees there, what would you want? Would you want to hear from me? Would you want to do a conference call and try to execute those things at a whole different level? And I have to imagine there's going to be elements of leadership where leaders are going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable because you may not be used to jumping on at 8am and doing a rah zoom call with everybody else on your team. Yeah, no, absolutely.

24:53I mean, I was, I really, you know, what happened was this whole pandemic happened. Then I saw some video about how some girl accidentally took her phone into the bathroom and she was doing a zoom call and she didn't realize it was on video. I'm like, that would be me. Okay. I don't want to do these zoom calls. I like fought the whole zoom call thing. And my team's like, we need to see each other. And it pushed me and it's the funnest thing ever now. I mean, we, you know, we tease now, like, do we really want to go back to the office? These are really fun.

25:21You know, we, and we're, we're doing things to try to make them, you know, we've got a number of people on there, so that can be difficult, but we've, we've added some props. Like we ask questions and they put up a prop. I mean, we just try to have fun with it. It's just who we are. We have not stopped our culture of learning. I mean, we get on our zoom calls and we do a minimum of two a month. And one of them is focused on something that's going to teach our people, whether it's soft skills or the hard skills or technical or whatever it is.

25:49And so we just have kept that momentum going with technology. There's no reason that you can't do that with the fact that we all have cell phones, picking up the phone and calling somebody, you know, writing a little handwritten note to your people and popping it in the mail. There's so many things that you can do to show people that you care about them. And, and leadership is about making and keeping that emotional connection with your people. And if you do that well, you know, you're going to have more success in the highs and the lows as you evolve as a company.

26:19And Arturo, before I throw it to you, Carrie, I want to double down on the handwritten note because about two feet from me right now are a bunch of postcards that I purchased that say you are awesome. And it's something that I'm going to be sending to others. And it's a simple way for us to transfer positive energy to someone else. You get caring, you get connection and you get surprise.

26:45And the reason I did postcards is because you know what the excuses were for why I wasn't doing handwritten notes. I don't have a card. I don't have an envelope. I don't have the stamp, the whole process of it, but a postcard, all I got to do is write it on one side and throw that stamp on there. I've taken a step out of there, but for me, I know it's one of the biggest game changers because we've gone so digital right now that tell me the last time any of us have consistently received a handwritten note from someone.

27:14So just a little tip that if I'm doing it and if Carrie is doing it, we all know the power of it. So use that as an action item here. Arturo, I'll throw this to you. Yeah. I mean, I have, I think I have one last question and Carrie, everything you've shared has been awesome. I actually didn't know your story of the Potbelly background. I know, I know Bryant very well. Great guy. I've known him for probably, I don't know, 10 or 12 years, but that's an amazing story. So, so the restaurant industry is on the ropes right now in a, in a very bad way. And I think that, you know, certainly in the Midwest and certainly in Chicago, I think that the there's still treacherous waters in front of us. It's my opinion that HR is more important now than ever. What would you tell somebody that is contemplating whether or not to bring a full HR solution into their environment and, or somebody that is potentially thinking that it's now is the time to look at it as an expense rather than necessity? Yeah. Well, I think HR is something that should matter to everybody in the company. So you're, if you're, you have two or three stores and you can't hire an outsource service to manage your HR care about the leadership things, care, teach your managers, the importance of building systems throughout the life cycle of an employee. How do you go out and recruit great people? How do you hire them? How do you onboard them? How do we lead and train and coach people? So making HR something that isn't just an HR thing, you know, and you know, that's, I think, you know, HR is what it's human resources. Are you guys a human company? Are you, whether you have one restaurant or you have a hundred, do people feel connected, you know, on a, on an emotional level to you guys? So that's like the first thing, but in terms of whether or not, you know, somebody can afford or wants to make that investment, I do think that, you know, the reality is with my business. So we outsource the HR payroll and benefits and handle the compliance and help with employee relations with our clients. And we do it in a way that's like affordable enough for them, hopefully to afford it. And it's just, it's such a proactive way of operating that it makes sense for, I mean, the reality with the world today, even pre, you know, before pandemic stuff, I mean, operators and business owners keeping up with the laws, the regulation. I mean, I think of Chicago alone, my husband has a few Chicago research, all the predictive scheduling to the child labor laws, to the minimum wage changes, to the sexual harassment compliance. It's so hard to keep up with that. So you've got to have systems and processes in place to understand that, to keep ahead of that and to be proactive. This is all we do. So it totally makes sense for us to manage this for you. And that's why I built my company the way I did. I give, so my company goes kind of like, you can get supported from us or information from us for free.

30:28That's what I do on the social platforms. I pump out a ton of content for free. I teach operators how to lead or build systems, or I say, Hey, reminder, minimum wage changes, updating, keep your eyes on it or call your payroll company. So I do that. It's, it's not as it's not an order. I mean, it's just, I just post these things on five different social platforms that people can, you know, that's why I have a lot of followers. They look for that kind of free advice. The next level is they can buy my playbook and I'm going to second, I have a second one that's $26. If they want to do all the work to build their systems, it outlines it in this book, you know, and then if they want more support, so they need to reach out to somebody, but they're going to do all the work. That's why I have the membership platform. And that's a few hundred dollars a year. We're going to be increasing the prices in next year because we have this platform we're getting our clients are reaching out to us. It's more like a digital HR department and we have all the compliance stuff spelled out and tons of content and all that good stuff. And then the fourth way that we support is by us just doing it. We do all the heavy lifting. You hire us. We, you know, you guys pay us a monthly fee. That's like, we equate it to like a salary. It's always less than what you would have to pay somebody internally to do the payroll and benefits administration. And we, of course, I'm the CEO of this company. They get the value, right? But, but I get it. Sometimes people just don't have the budget. So follow my work and get, if you care about it, you know, if you care about it, you know, operators always say recruiting and hiring and onboarding and building a great team is the most important thing in my company. Yet they spend the least amount of time focusing on it. You know, so even if you're not hiring a company to do it, how are you going out and recruiting a diverse team of people? I bet you're probably placing an ad on Indeed, the same ad that you've had for the last seven years over and over and over. Okay. Diversify that a little bit. How do you, what do you do when you're interviewing them? Are you asking them, are you downloading a template that you found on Google that has six interview questions on it? And you're asking those questions. You're not having an in-depth conversation. Are you not checking references? Are you not, do you not have a plan for orientation?

32:39So it's about investing the time, whether it's through a company that you pay for, or you do it yourself. If you want to put aside a few hours a week and dedicate to thinking about the life cycle of an employee. So how do I recruit and hire all the way to how do we handle determination? And if you put little systems in place throughout that process, it's not that overwhelming, you know, and that's what we pride ourselves in being, we are operate. The clients that we work with are just like, that's you. Like, I appreciate your membership, but I don't want to know, like, just do what you need to do for us. You know, that kind of thing. It's such a huge fan of, of HR and what it brings to, what it brings to companies and how it actually, uh, I think allows, uh, entrepreneurs or business owners to actually shape culture in the right way. I think it's going to be such an important piece of actually getting out of this mess. I think the people that are going to survive are going to survive because of compliance, they're going to survive also because of teamwork and they're going to survive because they've provided the right tools for people to have success in a really very, um, you know, kind of, uh, confusing time. So, um, so I love it. I love it. Those are all the restaurants that will thrive and, and make it out of this pandemic or whatever happens in the world as things are going to happen. This isn't going to be the last tragic event that happens. This has been hard on the restaurant industry, but it's very simply, you're really skilled at managing and building the systems, the things that, you know, make people's lives easier in your company. And you're a great human being, you make emotional connections and you lead, you influence, you inspire people.

34:27The combination of those two things, you know, managing systems and leading people is really, you know, as simple as that sounds, that's the key differentiator. All of the work that goes into that is where the hard comes, you know, that it's hard to do that. Uh, you know, it's not easy to just have a system, you know, and a lot of times people create systems and then they don't, they don't follow those systems or whatever it may be. So, but I think if they, if you first and foremost make a decision that you're going to focus on it and you're going to do your best to invest in this process, that is so important to hire and retain great people, you're going to be ahead of the game. And again, everybody says they want to be great here, but what are they willing to do to get to great? You know, that's really what the key differentiator is. So, totally. Rob?

35:15So, every episode, we like to end with an action item or a takeaway. And I think all three of us should do that. And Arturo, I'm going to allow you to lead the show, carry the way. Do you have an action item or takeaway from this episode? Yeah. I mean, I think my takeaway, you know, I mentioned it, I'm, I'm extremely passionate about what human resources means for a company. And this is beyond, I think, you know, beyond this is any industry, any company, any business that has people working in it. And I think that people, I think carry is a tremendous resource. And I think that people should, as they begin to try to put their plans together, to look, if you can even try to look beyond this next month, two months, three months, what 2021 should look like, or can look like. I think that people that haven't really made the full dive into the potential game changing opportunities that I think proper HR can bring. I think that's what people should do. I think that they should study it. And if they don't think it's, it's entirely right for them or their organization, I think that they would find a lot, a lot, I think that their mind would change if they actually invested a little bit of time to what that potentially means for their organization. Right. And Carrie, I'll throw this over to you. Do you have an action item or a takeaway from this episode? Call me. I'm kidding. You know, I mean, I think that, you know, kind of piggybacking on what Arturo said, I think, you know, I think you've got to, you've got to care about this stuff, this human resources stuff and whatever that means for you in terms of how you're going to build a great company. There's no, there's no one size fits all. Everybody has, everybody's in different areas of the country and there's different, you know, there's different difficulties depending on where you live. But if you care about your people, focus on building simple systems for them to follow and be a good human being focused on, you know, you know, leading people by making emotional connections, by caring, by being compassionate, you know, and we are this whole topic of positive energy is, you know, I feel like just kind of ending this, the power of positive energy. If you can focus on being positive as you move forward, it literally will become a game changer for you. So, you know, lift others up, you know, focus on, you know, learning from your mistakes, stay true to yourself, be authentic. And if you focus and deliberately think about being that way, you will wake up every day and hopefully be excited to kind of move forward. A positive attitude gives you the power over your circumstances, instead of your circumstances having the power over you. That's a, quote from Joyce, what's her name? A really great author, Joyce Meyer. And it's such a powerful, it's a, it's a powerful quote. But so I think just being deliberate in that like mindset that you have and focusing on like what positivity is coming from everything that you're going through is the biggest action item I can lay out for today. And on my end, I'm proof of the power of positive energy. I know when I left the corporate world to start my entrepreneurial journey, I realized that negativity didn't serve me. It was not going to help me accomplish what I wanted and get me closer to my goals. So I was like, well, I'm only going to be the leader of team good vibes because it's way better than the alternative. This negative life is not getting me where I want to go. Does it mean it's easy? No, it's not. But guess what? You show up every single day with a smile on your face. And for me, I've got a very simple action item for how you can build a positive mindset and have more positive energy. And what I want you to do is at least once a day in the morning, I want you to say to yourself, today is going to be a great day. And it's something that for me, I have said that the very first minute I've woken up for the last seven years, I wake up and I say today is going to be a great day. And then I probably say it, read it or write it probably five to seven times in the first two hours that I'm up. Why in the world do I do that? Well, let's take someone who says today is going to be a great day once a day for 365 days in the morning. How many great days do you think they will have opposed to the person who does not say it? Because we talked about the power of negativity versus positivity. I want to say that negativity spreads seven times faster than positivity does. So by doing this, you're actually stopping a negative force and replacing it with a positive one. And we can all do it. It takes one second and all it takes is intention. And I've heard that deliberate and intention so many times on this conversation that we've had. So say to yourself, today is going to be a great day. And then let us know what happens. So Carrie, we appreciate you coming on so much. You are a wealth of information and positive energy.

Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.