Interview with Josh Kopel, host of the FULL COMP podcast, about making hospitality media, the benefits of scarcity, and elevating the restaurant industry.
Josh Kopel’s journey from successful restaurateur to media personality and business coach is one of resilience, vulnerability, and a commitment to helping others. As the host of Yelp for Restaurant’s podcast Full Comp, he has asked the hard questions and shared his battle scars through more than 400 episodes.
Watch now to learn about making hospitality media, the benefits of scarcity, and elevating the restaurant industry.
Josh Kopel’s journey from successful restaurateur to media personality and business coach is one of resilience, vulnerability, and a commitment to helping others. As the host of Yelp for Restaurant’s podcast Full Comp, he has asked the hard questions and shared his battle scars through more than 400 episodes.
Watch now to learn about making hospitality media, the benefits of scarcity, and elevating the restaurant industry.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I hope you're ready.
00:01I am.
00:02I don't even know what we're going to talk about.
00:03I'm just excited to do it.
00:05Let's fucking go.
00:07I only talk about three things.
00:09So like if it's not those three things, it's going to be a weird
00:12conversation.
00:13Okay.
00:13Well, I'm going to let's get weird.
00:20Welcome to Restaurant Influencers.
00:22I am your host Sean Walsh.
00:23If this is a Cali BBQ Media production in life in the restaurant
00:28business and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons
00:32and stories.
00:33My job on this show is to find the best storytellers in the
00:37hospitality space, the best storytellers in restaurants and to
00:41bring them to you.
00:44The listener, the viewer, the person here, and we're so grateful
00:48that Toast, our primary technology partner at our barbecue
00:52restaurants in San Diego, believed in storytelling, gave us the
00:56opportunity to continue this show to start this show back in
00:592022 so that we could bring on the best of the best.
01:04This is a dear friend of mine, a fellow storyteller, a fellow
01:08restaurateur, Josh Copel.
01:10He is host of Full Comp.
01:13If you don't know about Full Comp, you need to know about Full
01:15Comp. It is one of the best top shows for restaurants.
01:21And not only we do not compete with one another, but we're friends
01:25and not only friends, but one of the coolest things I like about
01:29Josh is how far we've come as fellow men.
01:35He's also a father.
01:36He's also a husband.
01:38He's also someone that has suffered in the restaurant like myself
01:41and he's also succeeded.
01:43So Josh, welcome to the show.
01:45Thank you, Sean.
01:46Are there more good things you would like to say about me?
01:48I've got time.
01:49I cleared out like more than an hour for this.
01:51Well, your website has all the good things.
01:54That's it.
01:54I mean your website, your website has got you have no stains, my
01:58friend.
01:59No, no, I am a huge fan of self-promotion as we will find out
02:04through the course of this interview.
02:06So let's not talk about self-promotion.
02:09Let's start with truth.
02:11I've known you.
02:13I want to say the first time we met.
02:16I can't remember if I was on your show or you were on my show.
02:19It doesn't matter but it was during the pandemic.
02:23We had a great conversation.
02:24I really enjoyed what you had to say about hospitality which you
02:27had to say about marketing branding.
02:30I learned your story.
02:31I learned about who you are and what you do and we've been following
02:34each other on all the digital platforms, whether it was Clubhouse
02:37or LinkedIn or Instagram or listening to your show you listening
02:41to my show.
02:43We would see each other at trade shows National Restaurant Association
02:45show in Chicago and I watched you evolve what you were doing for
02:51our industry.
02:53Recently in Chicago.
02:55I had the opportunity to watch your keynote for Yelp.
02:58So you were giving a keynote at the National Restaurant Association
03:01show in Chicago and the beginning of the keynote made me so proud
03:09because it was a different Josh.
03:12It wasn't Josh the self-promotion Josh the Michelin star Josh the
03:17Hollywood restaurateur Josh.
03:19It was the Josh fuck restaurants almost ruined me.
03:24You started getting to the truth.
03:27You started uncovering the mask and you got real fucking vulnerable
03:30up on stage.
03:32Can you share?
03:35Why?
03:39Yeah, I think I think it's very easy.
03:43I think what people find most interesting are the useful tidbits
03:47right?
03:48A lot of those are born out of success.
03:49Some of those are born out of failure, but when I was a restaurateur
03:54which I spent more than two decades of my life in that role.
03:58I always felt really isolated.
04:01I was the least successful restaurateur.
04:03I know like to my knowledge right because you would ask everyone
04:08like how's business business is great business was always better
04:12for everyone.
04:13I you know, I so vividly remember this moment when I realized that
04:17I was screwed and maybe we were screwed as an industry.
04:21So I passed this other restaurant.
04:23I used to have to go to the bank like every day like everybody else
04:27and I would go to pull cash for tips and every now and then I would
04:31see this other restaurant or it was like catty corner to me and
04:34he'd be outside like setting up putting out the tables and I'd
04:37always ask him how it was going.
04:38He was like really well and I saw him and I swear to God it was
04:42like a Monday into Tuesday see him on a Monday.
04:44How are things going?
04:45They're great.
04:45How was your weekend?
04:46He was like it was really good and I'm thinking to myself.
04:48Well, I didn't have a great weekend because like it rained all
04:50weekend.
04:51So like this guy's having a great weekend and literally the next
04:54day when I walked to the bank, he had a sign out front that said
04:58he was closed for business do just win at a business like I was
05:03his neighbor.
05:03I was his neighbor for like five years, you know, and at any point
05:08did he say hey things could be better.
05:11There was no there was no transparency.
05:13There was no vulnerability and I think that in any conversation
05:19you're only able to go as deep as the shallowest person and
05:24when you look at when you look at like the stage that I had and
05:28I'm standing in front of what a hundred hundred and fifty people.
05:32I don't want them to think that my expertise was born out of
05:36success because it most certainly was not it was born out of
05:39failure.
05:41And so I wanted everyone to know that in my lowest moment.
05:45I probably got lower than a lot of people listening today, you
05:48know that not only had I burned through all of the money I had
05:52but I had overextended.
05:53I burned through all the investor capital.
05:55I was working off cash advances and as deep and as dark as that
06:00was it did manage to turn it around.
06:03And so all I really talk about these days are those things that
06:06worked for me.
06:09Shame.
06:11Oh, yes, so much shame me the truth in what you try to do.
06:17What I try to do is to get away from the success and get more
06:21into the things that we don't want to talk about because it's
06:25uncomfortable, especially for people that talk a lot you and
06:28I talk a lot and it's hard to get to those dark moments.
06:32Have you done any work on yourself like because I'm noticing
06:36you not just as a friend as a colleague but from the outside.
06:40I'm watching your progression of the things that you're talking
06:43about.
06:45And I was so proud in Chicago to see that vulnerability vulnerability
06:51for you to start talking about the things which makes you have
06:55so much more conviction, which makes you have so much belief
06:58in the things that you're doing now, but but what was the work
07:00like because it didn't happen overnight.
07:03I mean, this is just the four years that I've known you.
07:06What is your do you have a coach?
07:07Do you have a therapist?
07:08What are you doing?
07:09Yes, and yes, and yes, I do.
07:11I have a coach.
07:12I have a therapist.
07:13I mean no different than like therapists have therapists, right?
07:16If you want to get better.
07:19Yeah, I think that you need to work with people that are better
07:21than yourself and they don't need to be miles ahead.
07:23They just need to be a few inches ahead of where you are on
07:26the path that you mutually won't want to tread.
07:31My coach told me that my career would not would not blossom
07:39the way I wanted it to until I was willing to have difficult
07:43conversations.
07:44Basically what you said was is that my capacity to succeed
07:49would be directly related to my ability to have difficult
07:52conversations.
07:54And again, I think that you build trust through vulnerability.
07:59So, you know, it started on the show and it started with, you
08:04know, you look at full comp and you look episode 1 to episode
08:07400 and the irony is I probably talk more on the show today
08:12than ever before but it's because I think that context is
08:17important and sometimes I ask questions that I know the answers
08:20to and sometimes I ask questions that I don't know the answers
08:24to sometimes I share a personal aside, but it's all about
08:27pulling the listener in trying to make sure that we're all on
08:31the same page and that no questions go unanswered for me if
08:36I've become a better coach or better consultant or a better
08:40media personality.
08:42It's rooted in empathy.
08:44It's rooted in vulnerability.
08:47Do you remember one of the first conversations where you shared
08:50something that you weren't okay sharing or you didn't think
08:53you were ready to share?
08:56Yeah.
08:56Oh, yeah.
08:57So I had my former business partner on the show my executive
09:03chef and it was so interesting.
09:05I so when I started the show in 2020, I mean he and I were both
09:10gainfully unemployed and you know trying to figure things out
09:15and I could tell he wanted to be on the show same Sammy.
09:18I tell that he wanted to be on the show that he was interested
09:20in it not because he wanted attention or audience just because
09:23he wanted to help and you know, he had said, oh, well, you know,
09:27why don't I come on the show because I know you better than
09:29anyone and I can ask you questions and and I mean the idea
09:33was vulgar to me.
09:34It just turned my stomach the idea that you know, even though
09:38like for a living I try and turn people inside out that somebody
09:42wanted to do that to me.
09:46I didn't like it.
09:47I didn't like the idea.
09:47I didn't feel good about it.
09:49And so I didn't do it the first year or the second or the third
09:54flash to the fourth he and I were catching up because we still
09:57talk with frequency and I said, you know about that thing.
10:01Why don't why don't we do that thing and you don't have to
10:04interview me like let's just hit record and talk and we'll talk
10:07about yesterday and today and tomorrow and let's just see where
10:12it goes and it was such a cathartic exercise and it's also
10:18one of our highest rated episodes because it was an opportunity
10:23to mend old wounds while reconnecting with someone that I love
10:30on such a deep level and then also talking about the future and
10:35our futures are not intertwined.
10:38He went down one path and I went down another but at the same
10:43time it was an opportunity to root for each other and to talk
10:46about what we love most about each other.
10:47And so it was thought it was fantastic.
10:51Was there any actionable information in there, which is my
10:54commitment to everybody?
10:56I don't fucking know but it was it was definitely one of the
11:00most meaningful conversations I've had on the show.
11:03How did you build upon that?
11:06That I started it's a great question.
11:11I started I started peppering in I fancy myself well-researched
11:14for every interview and so I made sure that I made sure that
11:20I started every interview by being vulnerable which empowers
11:24them to go a bit deeper and I also made sure that every time
11:30I mentioned a win from my past that I also mentioned a defeat
11:36as well.
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11:58Walsh F on Instagram.
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12:05We want to hear your toast story.
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12:13today.
12:14What were the defeats that started to bubble up that started
12:22to become stories that you start to share on stages?
12:28The realization more than anything that I was almost exclusively
12:33motivated by fear for most of my career that it was never, you
12:38know, you open these things Sean and you're filled with so
12:43much hope and joy and I mean like that if it was a cartoon like
12:49the header over your head is what's the worst that could happen
12:53and then you open and you find out really fucking quick that a
12:56lot can happen.
12:57A lot of bad things can happen and they have a tendency to pile
13:02on especially in the early days weeks and months and this thing
13:06that you open to spark joy is met with abject rage and disappointment
13:11and pushback and if you're not careful and I wasn't it doesn't
13:18go away and all of the hope dissipates over time and then you're
13:23just left with anxiety, you know for me the lowest point in my
13:27career was the highest point in my career when I took out that
13:30$50,000 Amex cash advance that required no personal guarantee
13:34to turn my business around.
13:37I was all out of fucks to give it just didn't care anymore.
13:41Like it was one of those things, you know, so many of us try and
13:44hold on to these things so tightly and they're not worth holding
13:49because it is just this endless series of compromises that we make
13:54again and again and again till this thing that we gave birth to
13:57looks nothing like the original concept and I just got to the
14:02point where I was like, I'm just going to take this 50 grand.
14:05I'm going to spend every penny of it and I'm going to try and
14:09build the thing that I wanted to build from the beginning and
14:12it just so happened that you know, it worked for me.
14:17Bring me back to a story from 504.
14:24Like a good one or a bad one always the bad always the oh my
14:28god.
14:31What was the lowest point at 504?
14:34So this is a New Orleans inspired bar on the Walk of Fame in
14:38Hollywood.
14:39Yeah, and it always made money, which is a you know, not many
14:45people can say that about their businesses, but despite the ups
14:49and the downs the thing made money from the day it open.
14:52What kind of annual sales are we talking about?
14:54We were doing about year one.
14:55We did 1.4 million out of 900 square feet.
14:58Amazing at like a third mid 30s profit margin.
15:03It was all booze.
15:04It was like 90 10 don't tell my insurance company that
15:08What do you know?
15:11Like 5050 that's a different topic, right?
15:17Insurance that was never talked about.
15:19Yeah.
15:19Yes, but I don't know, you know, it was it was the culmination
15:26of all of my dreams.
15:27It really was all I had ever wanted in the world was to own
15:31this bar.
15:32And I think that the reason that we did so well was because
15:38we served as an anecdote to loneliness.
15:41I don't think anyone patronizes any of our places for food
15:44and beverage.
15:46I think that Seth Godin thing that people like us do these
15:48things.
15:50I felt lonely and isolated in the second largest city in the
15:52country coming from what was a very small town in the Deep
15:56South and I was not alone.
15:58A lot of other people felt the same way.
15:59So when I opened the place and I built a culture where people
16:02felt included where you could go by yourself and not feel alone.
16:07I think that that worked really really well.
16:11What didn't work?
16:12Well was the food program?
16:16At all and I brought in I mean I could list like famous la
16:21chefs that I brought in to redo the food menu again and again
16:25and again and again and again trying to figure out like what
16:29food offering is going to resonate with.
16:32I mean, I brought in Luke Reyes and Bruce Kalman all of these
16:35people but the kitchen never made money.
16:39Not not that it should have in that model, but it was very
16:42important to one of my partners that it did so I worked to do
16:45that and we just couldn't sell food.
16:50But here's what makes it so sad.
16:54I invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in what was a failed
16:57food program hundreds of thousands that I could have put
17:00towards my child's college fund that we could have invested
17:04in growth and all of this and so what it what it showed me more
17:10than anything was that just because you want something to
17:14be true does not necessarily mean that it is that there are
17:18specific drivers in our business and that if there's no demand,
17:24you know, if you open a bologna sandwich restaurant in the
17:26middle of a vegan community, it doesn't matter how good your
17:29marketing is, you know, if people don't want it, they don't
17:32Want it and that was a painful lesson to learn because at the
17:35time I was a younger man and it felt very much like rejection
17:39and from my partner's perspective, it looked very much like
17:43failure.
17:46I would love to hear the Josh Copel Yelp story.
17:51Anyone that listens to this show knows that there's a Sean
17:54Walsh have toast story.
17:57Bring me into the Josh Copel Yelp story for sure.
18:02You just you never know.
18:05Let's start there.
18:08I was meeting with a one of the executives over at Yelp like
18:12a high-ranking community manager over there in 2018 and 2019.
18:18He come out of the Hillstone group and then eventually ended
18:20up working for Yelp, but he was like an operators operator.
18:24Like he was a guy that knew the industry.
18:27He had asked me to join and I think you did the same thing
18:29for toast community board for Yelp, which never really got
18:32off the ground, but he would come to me with questions every
18:35now and then and at the time we met without motive.
18:42I would get lunch coffee breakfast with this guy once a
18:46month once every couple of months like a year year and a
18:50half.
18:50And again, I couldn't tell you why other than I enjoyed the
18:53guy's company.
18:55Tangentially, my publicist wanted me to become a media
19:03personality at least wanted me to dip my toe in the water.
19:05My chef chef Sammy had been doing it for a while with great
19:09success and I had always thought that I had something to
19:12share.
19:12Maybe that's just hubris, but she had set me up with a
19:16videographer.
19:18I had shot a couple of things and I had shown one of these
19:22little like video snippets that I had shot on which when I
19:26look back now at like what I said, like it looked great, but
19:28I sounded like an idiot.
19:30I didn't know anything about anything, but it showed it to
19:34him and I was like, hey, what do you think about this?
19:35And I like texted it to him.
19:37It's like, oh, hey man, that's cool.
19:40And so more time passes.
19:42There's a global pandemic.
19:43Maybe some people watching are aware and we sold everything
19:48in fourth quarter of 2019.
19:50I sold two of the three assets for my restaurant group leaving
19:53only the fine dining restaurant because that's all I was really
19:56interested in at the time.
19:58I thought that I could double sales volume.
20:00I thought that we could win more accolades as a result.
20:02I was going to use that restaurant to create a national
20:05platform.
20:06I thought it could be Will Godera's best restaurant in the
20:09world.
20:09And that's what I wanted to commit my time to global pandemic
20:13hits my rents $21,000 a month.
20:16I don't know how many hot dogs.
20:17I'm gonna have to sell out of the back of that thing, but it's
20:19more than I'm willing to make Sean.
20:21So well, what well optimism was still high in the earliest
20:27days of the pandemic.
20:28We sold it and then I was left without a job and like when
20:33you hear that I sold it, you're thinking well, what did he
20:35do with those millions of dollars?
20:37And let me assure you there were not millions of dollars.
20:41We just about covered all of our net 30s and all of that.
20:45We were able to make amends with the landlord and all of
20:49that and then, you know, there was enough, you know, there's
20:52probably 90 days worth of runway there and it's not like I was
20:56out of a job.
20:57It was like it was out of an industry and I got a call.
21:01I got a call from that guy Michael from Yelp about two weeks
21:05into the pandemic and he goes, how's it going?
21:09And I was like things could be better and he goes, what's
21:12your plan?
21:13And I said, I don't know.
21:15I said, do you remember that video that I made?
21:18I said, I mean video now is not a time for video, but I want
21:23to do something like I want to have I think there's a bigger
21:26conversation to have because how did I have all of this
21:30internal external success and internally still feel like a
21:33failure?
21:34Is there an easier way to get there?
21:37Which was the, you know, the genesis of full comp and he
21:39goes, well, I can tell you that Yelp is interested in media
21:43as well and they've never done it before, but the guy that's
21:47heading it up is a former restaurateur as well.
21:50And his name is Steven and he goes, let me link you up with
21:52Steven and let's have a conversation and he did and full
21:57comp was born like three weeks later.
22:01I mean, it was that quick of a turnaround that I went from
22:04being a restaurateur to a podcaster and five weeks probably.
22:11What have you learned over 400 episodes published?
22:16What's been the the big learning?
22:19I mean you you just like me.
22:20We get a lot of people that go.
22:21Oh, we should I start a podcast?
22:23What do you tell them?
22:25Oh as it relates to starting a podcast.
22:27Should you um, wow.
22:31Well, I guess it's never too late because I mean it was too
22:34late when we started Sean.
22:37So it's never too late.
22:38I think I think that the quote this quote that I heard ages
22:43ago still holds true, which is do you know what you can do
22:45with a big audience anything you fucking want?
22:50And I think that that still holds true.
22:53I think that if you are maniacally focused on just serving
22:56yourself that you would be well served by it for me.
23:01The podcast was less about media and more about context.
23:05If I ask the questions that I asked the people that I asked
23:07these questions to without a podcast, it would result in a
23:11restraining order.
23:13But the podcast gives it context.
23:15It gives it purpose.
23:17So like when I dig into your PNL and I'm asking all of these
23:20specific questions the podcast makes it.
23:23Okay.
23:24Yes.
23:26And so I would say that, you know, regardless of what your
23:29media platform is doing that works really well.
23:33And if people are as fortunate as I am, they're not special.
23:38I am incredibly ordinary every concept I've ever built.
23:41I built for me and as it turns out, I'm just like everybody
23:44else. When you look at the largest cross-section of the
23:47market, we're all interested in the same shit.
23:50We're all trying to get to the same place.
23:52And so for me, I found that the media was great for building
23:58audience.
23:59I thought it was great for building connection and the great
24:02irony of it is this even if nobody listened Sean, I knew like
24:0715 people as a restaurateur.
24:10I didn't have a big network because I spent all of my time
24:13working.
24:14I would argue that 400 episodes in there's no one that I don't
24:18know that I can't touch that if I wanted to talk to I couldn't
24:21talk to them.
24:23And so the power of media the power of this context is that
24:27it enabled me to build a beautiful network.
24:30How many restaurant coaches are there out there?
24:36Probably a million how many are worth mentioning like five?
24:41What makes you worth mentioning?
24:44Oh, that's a great question.
24:46So probably that I make you do the fucking work.
24:52That's it.
24:52Like it's like do you see the same ads?
24:54I do, right?
24:56I see them all.
24:58If you just by the way, if you're one of the five restaurant
25:01coaches, I see all those ads for sure, right?
25:04If you give me five weeks, I'm going to turn how many weeks
25:09does Josh Copel need?
25:11Oh in order to make a sustained like difference in your business
25:14about six months six months six months.
25:17We spend the first month or the first five days changing your
25:20mind and then it's just about executing from there.
25:24It's you know, I would say that I probably have the least sexy
25:27thing because I'm not an agency because I'm not going to run
25:29your fucking social media.
25:32I'm not I think I think the boring stuff works and I've got
25:36a proven track record.
25:37I've coached more than 200 people at this point and it works
25:42like the boring shit works.
25:44I'll never forget.
25:45I had this client and I love him to death.
25:47He's still client to this day.
25:49Like when we first started talking it was like I had this
25:51vision for a commercial and like and then he set the stage
25:55and told me exactly how the commercial is going to be shot
25:58what it's going to be all of this and then like when he was
26:01done, he kind of looked at me waiting for a response and I
26:04said, do you do a monthly newsletter and he goes no and I
26:07said, can we can we fucking do that?
26:10Can we can we start there with like the least sexy things to
26:15create value in the mind of your customer because those are the
26:19things that really move the needle.
26:22I also think I have a really interesting perspective in the
26:24way that I think everybody should make money today.
26:28Everybody what is that perspective?
26:32I don't know about you, but I was always told by bookkeepers
26:35and accountants that the only way to make more money was to
26:37make more money.
26:38But what I found was when I made more money, I made more work
26:41not necessarily more money.
26:43And so the first thing that I do whenever I get with a client
26:46is we make them profitable today.
26:49That we pare down the business to its most essential profitable
26:54elements.
26:55And I think that that's not that's not a popular idea.
27:01I mean, have you met anyone that says that they want to run
27:03the most profitable version of their business today?
27:05No, everybody wants new customers, baby.
27:08That's it.
27:09If I wanted to like have ads that converted at a high level
27:13as I can bring you 10,000 new customers in 24 hours and it's
27:18only going to cost you six free sandwiches.
27:21None of that shit works, you know, and I also think that,
27:26you know, I come from an operators perspective, you know,
27:29the type of marketing that I do doesn't cost any money.
27:32It just costs time and effort because what we're trying to
27:35do and I think it's a relatively unique idea is we're trying
27:40to build one-to-one relationships at scale.
27:44You don't talk to everybody you talk to somebody.
27:47Why does catering matter?
27:49Oh my God, so much because I think that most of us misunderstand
27:54the business that we're in.
27:56I believe that my fine dining restaurants day-to-day operations
28:00existed to promote event sales.
28:04I believe that the brick and mortar for my fast casual concept
28:09existed to lure people into my catering funnel.
28:12Why?
28:13Because I don't want to make money $20 at a time at a 10%
28:17margin.
28:18I want to make tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of
28:21dollars and I want it to be predictable when you look outside
28:25of our industry.
28:26What's the brass ring?
28:27It's monthly recurring revenue.
28:29When you look inside our industry, what's the brass ring?
28:33It should be the same.
28:34And so like how do you create monthly recurring revenue?
28:38It's in the B2B space.
28:40It's it's using customers to attack businesses so that we can
28:45create predictable revenue week over week over week.
28:47That is that is how I scale the profitability of my own businesses.
28:51And it's like one of the core tenants of the program.
28:55So for you as you build out how you help restaurant tours, are
29:00you adding people to your team?
29:01Are you running a more profitable model for yourself?
29:07I don't think I understand the question.
29:09Like the when we add more people to the program, I love the
29:15idea that you've put before us that you can reduce if you simplify
29:21things, it actually becomes more powerful.
29:23How does Josh keep his life simplified?
29:26That's great scarcity.
29:30That's it.
29:31You don't trade time.
29:32I don't I don't so I believe I believe in leverage.
29:36So there's a lot of data around how like group coaching models are
29:40far more effective than one-to-one that the elements of community
29:44and accountability watching someone else.
29:46That's a little bit further ahead succeed how that impacts your
29:50ability to succeed.
29:52There's all this so I run a group coaching model, but I don't let
29:57everybody in and I don't let everybody in all at once.
30:00So I run cohorts and as a result, I turn away a lot of business.
30:06But I also have the opportunity to have a huge impact in people's
30:10lives while making the money that I want to make.
30:13That's the trick Sean Walsh at the trick is this that's what we're
30:16here for that, but you got to know when to stop right so I could
30:23turn this into we we had this conversation separately and I said
30:27like you reach a point where if you continue to grow, it's more
30:30work.
30:31It's exponentially more work for incrementally more money.
30:34Lunch service dinner service appetizer late night, right and like
30:41I'm not I'm not going to do that.
30:43I'm not going to do more money for more money.
30:45I know exactly how much money I want to make I'm going to make
30:47exactly that much money and I'm not going to do anything outside
30:51of that it that it just so happens that you know, having a scarcity
30:55model has a tendency to firm up demand, which is great for me, but
31:01I've also built in systems to give people the help they need without
31:08me helping directly and that's the monthly challenge where I help
31:12people for free for a week every day giving them the foundations
31:18of what we're doing in the program itself so that people that don't
31:25have the money can't learn the same things that the other people
31:28are learning and the people that do have the money that want to
31:30get there faster potentially have the opportunity to work directly
31:34with me and the team.
31:36What have you learned about working as the president of the LA
31:40chapter of the California Restaurant Association?
31:44Did everybody swimming in the same toilet Sean Walsh of explain it
31:50was like every restauranteur is different.
31:53Every restaurant is different, but every restaurants problems are
31:57the same.
31:58Yeah, you know, there's this idea that.
32:00You know, how's the phrase go that Bill Gates and homeless people
32:05both have money problems.
32:06They just have different money problems.
32:10It's and it's very much the case with the restauranteurs the same
32:14issues that you have at 50 locations are not the same issues.
32:18You have at five locations or one location that's open five days
32:22a week, but there are these foundational issues that we all
32:27struggle with around profitability around labor around cash flow.
32:32And so I believe that if you're able to foundationally solve those
32:37issues, it doesn't matter how many locations you have that all of
32:41those big ideas scale.
32:43So we believe that community is very important.
32:49We believe that you're not alone.
32:50That's why we do this show.
32:51So if you're listening, if you're watching, we would love for you
32:53to join us on LinkedIn live every Wednesday every Friday.
32:5710 a.m.
32:58Pacific time 1 p.m.
32:59Eastern time 6 p.m.
33:00London time.
33:01It's a chance for you to be on our show.
33:04So we actually repurpose that into a digital hospitality episode.
33:07So follow Callie BBQ media on LinkedIn and you can get the link
33:12for that.
33:12But before I let you go Josh, I need to know about your personal
33:16tech stack.
33:18So we talk about restaurant tech stacks all the time.
33:21You and I we we talk about all the latest and greatest digital
33:24Hospitality tools that are helping restaurant tours become more
33:27hospitable.
33:29But I want to hear about your personal tech stack.
33:31So are you an Android or an iPhone user?
33:33I'm an iPhone user.
33:35What what version?
33:37I don't even know.
33:38Is that a thing?
33:39When was when was the last time you got an iPhone?
33:42Oh last year last year.
33:45Oh, I thought you're talking about software.
33:46I don't know but I said, but I don't even know which version is
33:49it's like last year's phone.
33:50That's fine.
33:52Do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
33:55Neither does it really can it go without being said?
33:59Are you always on airplane mode?
34:01I am you know this I am always on do not disturb always.
34:06What is your what is your notification management system?
34:10There is none if I don't check it.
34:13I would not know that it exists.
34:15I don't get prompts for anything.
34:17Do you organize your apps?
34:20Your home screen is it organized?
34:22Yes.
34:23What way is it organized?
34:25What not which apps do you use the most?
34:27You can look you can it's okay.
34:28I'm looking I'm looking now.
34:29Do there's no way.
34:30I'm not going to look.
34:31Okay, so there's Indle.
34:34Are you familiar with Indle?
34:35No, let's talk about it.
34:37So Indle is E-N-D-E-L.
34:39It's this like brainwave thing that I click on and then it's set
34:44for 20 minutes so that I can get like a nice like deep work focus
34:47stretch in and like it does like the different sounds and there's
34:50like doot doot doot and it's great.
34:52Okay, so that works for Indle.
34:54It's like a meditation app.
34:56Yeah.
34:57Okay, I'm into it.
34:58But it's not a meditation app.
34:59It's like a deep work like while you're working you listen to it.
35:02Got it.
35:02And it like makes your brain work Libby.
35:05I think Libby is like the greatest life hack on the planet.
35:08Are you familiar with Libby?
35:10No, it's oh my God.
35:11Okay, Sean.
35:13So I love to read I'm an avid reader.
35:17I am I am the I am like one of those people, you know, they say
35:20like force yourself to read until you love it.
35:22I did that and it was so worth it.
35:26So I'm going in between probably five to ten books at any given
35:30time which would be incredibly expensive.
35:34So what the Libby app is is it's digital access to all of the
35:39public libraries so that you can download and then send to
35:43Kindle if you read books digitally, which I do like every
35:49book on the planet and it doesn't cost any money.
35:52And so at any given time like I'm pulling from Libby into my
35:56Kindle and the nice thing about library books is also the shitty
36:00thing about library books.
36:01You only get 21 days with it.
36:03So like I finish all of the books in 21 days because that's
36:07the time allotted.
36:08Okay Libby Libby and that's a free app or is a subscription.
36:13It's a free app.
36:13It's a free app.
36:15I know you just all you have to do is sign up for your local
36:17library.
36:18San Diego library is great for this.
36:20I'm also I have a library card at the LA library, which is
36:23great as well.
36:26My notes app.
36:27I use the notes app a lot.
36:29Okay, Apple podcast and then my calendar, but that's really
36:34it. How many emails do you get a day?
36:37A lot.
36:4130 to 50.
36:43How many do you enjoy reading?
36:45I do my best not to read any of them.
36:47I try to only check email twice a day and I'm bad about this
36:51but like emails not on my phone with purpose.
36:54I try and check email in the morning and in the evening.
36:57Do you prefer taking photos or videos?
37:02Videos.
37:03I have a six-year-old so like I mean how like what an amazing
37:07time capsule.
37:08There's like no videos of me as a child, but like I've got this
37:12child just wandering through the halls of Target, you know,
37:16like did capture it all is amazing.
37:20Where do you listen to music?
37:21Which app Apple music Apple music, which map app?
37:26Do you use Apple Maps Apple Maps?
37:29Why because I'm it's on my phone.
37:34You don't you don't have Google Maps on your phone.
37:36No.
37:37No.
37:38No.
37:39Is it better way better?
37:41Is it really?
37:42Oh my God?
37:43Yeah, I had no idea.
37:45Download it.
37:46I really did.
37:47I will I will download news about Google.
37:52Today's episode is brought to you by Google Maps Google Maps.
37:56There you go.
37:58Is there any question that I should have asked you that I
38:00didn't ask you?
38:05Yeah, I think so.
38:07I think the only the only question that I think people, you
38:11know, like like ultimately when you look at like how I turned
38:15around my business how I turn around other people's businesses
38:18like the highest level imaginable, like what are those
38:21things that get it done and I'll ask the question and then
38:25I'll answer it.
38:25So the first is revenue.
38:28I used to think I had a thousand problems as a restaurateur,
38:31but I didn't the only problem I have is money.
38:33So like once I fixed money, I didn't have any more problems
38:36because I could throw money at the problems.
38:38So I think revenue has to be the first focus instead of waiting
38:41to be profitable at some nondescript number in the future.
38:45We work to be profitable today.
38:48The second is awareness.
38:50Every business I have ever worked with either has a product
38:53market fit issue or they have an awareness issue meaning people
38:58know and they could give a shit or nobody knows but if they
39:01did they would care and so figuring out which one of those
39:04you are I think is critical and then the third is customer
39:08frequency the thing that nobody seems to give a fuck about
39:11what would happen to your business if everybody that came
39:13in once a month came in twice a month and the truth is for
39:16many of us.
39:17We be Scrooge McDucking.
39:19So like I know there are a thousand distractions out there
39:25as it relates to our industry and this app does this thing
39:29and all of this I would argue that you write revenue awareness
39:33and frequency as headers on the top of a sheet of paper and
39:37you look at all of your efforts and if they don't directly
39:40correlate to one of those three things.
39:43It's a fucking distraction.
39:46There it is.
39:47Josh Coppola best place for people to find you Josh Coppola
39:51dot-com not on snapchat.
39:53Definitely not on snapchat.
39:56Josh dot-com don't look for him on snapchat.
40:00He won't be there.
40:01Don't look.
40:01I will not don't look for him on tik-tok.
40:04You're not there.
40:05You're not on tik-tok.
40:06No, but your website is full with amazing content.
40:11It is that you've been putting the work in.
40:13Yes, sir.
40:14Trying to create as much values as humanly possible.
40:17There it is.
40:19Josh.
40:19I appreciate you.
40:20I look forward to our next conversation.
40:23I hope you get more vulnerable up on stage on your shows.
40:26I appreciate the time and the effort and as always to our
40:30audience stay curious get involved.
40:32Don't be afraid to ask for help.
40:34Catch you guys next week.
40:37Thank you for listening to restaurant influencers.
40:39If you want to get in touch with me, I am weirdly available
40:42at Sean P.
40:43Walshef.
40:44SHAWN PWALCHEF Cali barbecue media has other shows.
40:51You can check out digital hospitality.
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40:56We also just launched a show season 2 family style on YouTube
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41:24Take a look at room for seconds.
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