Cooking and Leading from Faith at Soulman's Bar-B-Que

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

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Working on Purpose. Thanks for tuning
in again this week. I'm your host,

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Elise Cortez, joining you from Dallas, Texas, which is home base

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for me. This program is all
about helping people more meaningfully and productively connect

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with their work and equipping organizations to
do the same for their employees. It

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was originally inspired by the meaning and
work research I've been doing over the last

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fifteen years and now compliments the work
that I do it in a Sydnium,

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which is a global menage but consulting
firm. If you know this program has

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been around for a while, then
you know that I have to thank my

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media partner and sponsor at jobbing dot
com. They are the leading locally focused

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job board in the nation and They're
dedicated to helping employers find quality talent in

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their own backyard. While giving job
sects control over their search, they can

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find work close to home. Great
partnership. Thank you jobbing dot Com.

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Last week, if you missed the
show, we were on the air with

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Jamie Hanson, the author of Expanding
the Conversation. Because real leaders leverage gender

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differences to create a competitive advantage in
business. We talked about how many organizations

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still employ traditional genders speak attribution towards
skills in the workplace, and how doing

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so limits the individual contribution as well
as the overall team performance. Beliefs such

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as women tend to be nurturing and
empowering leaders while men are more results driven,

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which is not accurate and is a
very limiting paradigm that needs shifting.

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Very thought provoking conversation invited us all
to join the expanded Conversation and movement toward

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a more gender differences embracing dialogue.
Really good stuff with us this week is

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Brett Randall, the restaurant here who
has been at the helm of Sulman's Barbecue,

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the beloved North Texas based restaurant chain
that boasts low and slow cooking over

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Hickory. Is there a time honored
tradition. Solman's Barbecue has fifteen locations and

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employees twenty and twenty five employees,
and in fact is opening a brand new

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location here in Mansfield, Texas,
where Brett joins us today. Welcome to

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working on a purpose. Brett,
Hey, Alista, thanks for having me.

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Well, this is so much fun. I'm just getting hungry already thinking

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about the conversation though it smells right
over here. Do something about that,

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all right? Well, to get
us into this here, I want to

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just start by hearing you know,
in our initial call, you talked about

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how you found your way into the
restaurant business, and I love the story.

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Will you share that with us on
our listeners now? Oh? Absolutely?

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Yeah. You know that's a that's
kind of a long story, and

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I kind of backed into the business
a little bit, but it's a great

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story and it's a sort of humble
beginnings. But I studied at the University

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of mississipp and when I got out
of college, my dad was kind of

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going through a little bit midlife crisis
and he was buying restaurants and bars.

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And the only problem was that he
was a surgeon and not a restaurant tour,

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so he didn't exactly know how to
run restaurants and bars. Muddy wanted

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a place to hang out, so
he had them. Well, so I

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was I guess I was twenty one, twenty two years old, and want

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a better place for a kid to
work than a bar that his dad owns.

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And so that's what I did.
I went to work in one of

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his honky talk clubs called east Side
Country Club with all things, and I

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went to work as a bar back. So I did that for a little

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while, and then soon after he
bought a sports bar, so I kind

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of graduated over there to that and
then started bartending a little bit. And

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during that time I really kind of
found that I loved customer service. I

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loved interacting with people, just talking
with them and at the end of the

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day making them happy. I guess
probably a year after I gotten out of

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school, my dad purchased a fine
dining restaurant, as you can see the

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progression here and so and so I
moved over there, and that was a

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little different animal, and so I
was in a little more upscale environment and

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and so that was a lot of
fun. The only real problem was after

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a period of time, the restaurant
really was not doing well at all.

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It was it was losing a significant
amount of money a month to month,

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and so at one point they decided
to close it. And so I kind

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of had a back room discussion with
my dad and his two partners and said,

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hey, you know, what do
you have to lose? Why don't

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you give me a shot at turning
this thing around? And so I did.

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We went, we went to work
hard, and we did a lot

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of a lot of cool things,
and within about a year a year and

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a half, we had that place
completely turned around. And the rest,

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as I say, is history.
So I was in the restaurant business from

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now on. You may remember from
our first conversation, Brett, that I

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grew up in the restaurant business,
and I know what hard work it is,

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and I also know how rewarding it
can be. So all the more

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reason that I wanted to have you
on the show and showcase what you've done,

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because I really respect and admire what
you've done, and are you're right

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matter it is hard work. Well. One of the things you also said

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to this end, and you said
this in a very humble way, Brett,

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is you said, you know,
I had a little success running around

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my dad's restaurant. And I've read
a couple over time as I recollect,

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and so I want to understand to
what do you attribute that success? Why

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do you think you were good at
that or are good at that? Well,

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first of all, I would say
that they say that success follows a

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happy worker, and in my case, I was certainly true. I was

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having so much fun and that my
passion just kind of fuel the business.

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But I think, to be fair, I think the successor in those days

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can really only be attributed to God's
blessing. And honestly, I really didn't

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know much anything. It was mainly
hard work and a little common sense.

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I had a great partner in operations
that I met during that time as a

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great friend of mine named Brent Smith, and he handled a lot of the

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food side of things, and I
handled the service into the business. And

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we didn't know anything but to attack
every angle. We took the service,

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we took food, we took the
menu, we took the decor. We

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did everything we could to try to
upgrade everything. And our hope that was

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that if we examined every aspect of
the business, then we couldn't help but

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improve performance, and it worked,
and I really haven't changed from that model.

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That's what we do. It's old
man's barbecue every day too, and

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so that's that's pretty much what I
can attribute that early success too, because

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I had no knowledge of the restaurant
business and very little knowledge of business period,

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but I know if I could improve
at every single aspect that I would

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get better. A wonderful response.
Bread. The reason I wanted to ask

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you that question is, and you
kind of alluded to this early on,

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something about the worker being happy makes
for a big difference in terms of results,

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and of course what's my show called
working on purpose. Well, the

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distinguishing point here is that it's one
thing, quite one thing to have a

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passion, quite another thing to turn
it into a profit, to find a

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way to make it into a viable
business. So I wanted to be able

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to have you share with the listeners
just how you did that. So thank

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you for entertaining it and answering it
as completely as you did. That was

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great. They're welcome. So the
next thing I want to get to that

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I also think is interesting, is
you went to culinary school to develop your

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talents, but this would have been
well into your restaurant career. So how

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did it happen that you have made
that decision? And what'd you get from

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the experience? Another pretty good story. Let me go back to right after

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we took that restaurant over, and
it was called the Plantation Grille in Albany,

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Georgia, and it was a fine
dining restaurant. Well, Brent and

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I had had challenged the owners to
let us, let us kind of take

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it over and see what we could
do with it. Well, as I

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alluded to, attacking every angle,
we wanted to come out with a new

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menu. Well we did, and
we rolled it out on a Friday night

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to about a hundred covers were booked
for that evening. Well, at about

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five o'clock, the entire kitchen staff
walked out. So five guys walked out

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and left Brent and I standing there
holding the bag basically, so we looked

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at each other. We called our
wives. My wife came up and helped

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wash dishes, and his wife came
up and helped wash dishes. And and

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just to back up for a second, I did not know how to boil

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an egg at this point, I
could not I couldn't cook a flat pan

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if I needed too. So this
was quite an undertaking. But Brent and

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I got back in the kitchen and
we gutted it out and we got through

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it, and the best we knew
how it was. It was a mess,

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but we got through it. Well. What came of that is just

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this love for the food and part
of the business. So I started cooking

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quite a bit at that point.
And this is right about the time when

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Emerald Legassi was on the Food Network, you know, BAM, And so

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during my breaks, I would come
out and I would watch Emerald Legassi on

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the Food Network out in the bar
area and come up with new specials and

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all this kind of good stuff and
just really fell in love with food and

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the preparation of food, how it
made the guests feel. And so it

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really fueled my passion for the business. And so after about two years of

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doing that, I was at a
point in my life where where I could

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kind of move on. I didn't
have a whole lot of ties I knew.

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We married, my wife was pregnant
of all things, but we decided

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that I needed to go to culinary
school just to learn and kind of hone

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my skills, and so we did. We moved all the way over to

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Dallas, Texas, where I am
now, and I went to culinary school

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for two two and a half years. That's how it worked. And what

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is just a couple of little pearls. What'd you get out of going to

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culinary school? Do you think it
was an amazing experience? I always tell

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young young people that are going to
culinary school, but it kind of is

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what you make it. It's sort
of a tech school environment. And I

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went to school with a lot of
people that probably still aren't in the business.

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They were kids coming out of school
that had no restaurant experience. I

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was different because I had restaurant experience
and I wanted to be in the restaurant

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business afterwards. And so I was
about the same age as most of the

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professors. So we we hit it
hard and I learned a lot. I

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learned. Probably the most important thing
that I learned was food science, and

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I still use that every single day
to this day. Is how how food

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reacts to different temperatures, how to
fix different things that aren't right, and

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so it's very valuable knowledge. Probably
the second thing that I would say is

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probably the most important thing that came
out of my move to Dallas is I

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actually met the founder of soul Man's
during that time, and I worked for

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him part time while going through culinary
school, and so that kind of set

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the stage for what I'm doing now. Great, great, interesting. You

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know, it's amazing what happens when
you go to school a little bit later

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in life. I didn't go to
college until I was twenty four, Brett,

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and so I appreciate very much what
you're saying about you your professors being

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peers. They weren't peers to me, mind you, but boy, it

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was a different experience when you had
skin in the game and knew why you

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were really there. So we love
that. Great. Well, the next

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thing I kind of want to get
to here is still kind of talking about

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the business aspect of what you're doing
here. You have fifteen locations, you're

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opening your brand new location there in
Mansfield as we speak. You got two

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terre and twenty five employees, which
is a pretty big ton of employees.

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And you've got I think you said
ten or fifteen or so in your corporate

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office. So I want to get
to just if you can call out again

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for the sake of people putting their
purpose around a business. Some key operational

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parts of the business that you've executed
through executed through that you think have helped

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make your business successful. Well,
you know, you can talk about different

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operational benchmarks in the restaurant business and
different profitability benchmarks all you want. We

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try to keep it very simple operationally. You know, first off, my

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team and I have a passion for
excellence, and I think whatever business that

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you're involved in, you have to
have a passion for excellence with your product,

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with your service, whatever whatever it
may be. Early on in my

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career I read a quote by Charlie
Trotter, who was a restaurant tour out

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of Chicago, and it simply read
this, if you strive for perfection,

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you wou at the very least,
achieve a high level of excellence. And

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I'm already always lived by that,
So I've always really shout for the stars

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and then at the very least,
you know, you hope for the moon.

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In our business, we are laser
focused on doing three things right each

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and every day, and we talk
about this stuff all the time. Serving

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great food, friendly and sincere service. That sincere is very very important,

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and of course an unmatched cleanliness in
our restaurant. So so three very simple

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things. If we feel like we
can consistently get those things right each and

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every day, sales will continue to
grow. And if we take care of

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the cost basis of the business,
our profitability is going to follow right behind

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that. But as you know,
in most businesses, sales cares off,

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so we keep it, we keep
it very simple. I love the Christmas

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of that Brett. I think that
just having that laser focus on what are

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we going to do today? What
is our intentionality? I think that is

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brilliant and a great lesson for our
listeners, just the kind of stuff,

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the takeaways that I was hoping for
for them. Anything else you want to

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add to that, I have one
more question that I want to que up

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before the break, But anything else
in operational that you want to talk about,

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I think that's I think that's pretty
much got it. I mean,

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again, keeping it simple, making
sure to focus on the on the benchmarks

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of your business, and making sure
that you get everything right. I think

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the other thing to call out is
just the fact that you have there are

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three basic things that you focus on. Then I got to believe that your

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efforts are not deluded. Right,
It's easier to focus. Those are three

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things. You got to hit them
right every day, all the time.

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I think there's something in that too
for our listeners to be beyond. Let's

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execute to those list of twelve things
will actually work. Yeah, too many.

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It was in the restaurant business.
It's not rocket science. Sounds good.

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Well, speaking of that, the
one thing I wanted to also ask

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you before we go on break here
is it occurs to me, as somebody

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who now has spent a little bit
of time with you and I know a

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little bit about how important your faith
is to you, that if there was

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anything to the fact that the business
being called Suliman's that called to you when

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you met the owner? Or is
that your own creation? Did you call

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it Soliman's. No, Actually,
the name goes way back before me.

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We were founded in seventy four,
and if I was born in seventy five,

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so I didn't name the business.
But there were two partners in the

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beginning, and one of them was
an African American man and he named it.

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He named it soul Man's. Now, I believe that God has a

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purpose in everything, and I believe
it's named Soulman's for a reason and so,

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but I think there's definitely divine appointment
in that. But I had nothing

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to do with the naming of it. I had to ask is certainly for

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me? Knowing what I know of
you so far, there seems to be

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a pretty good connection that I liked
to call out. So thanks for entertaining

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it, you bet. And that
takes us to our first break already.

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I'm your host, Elie Cortez.
We've been on the air with Brett Randall,

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who is the restaurant too, who
has been at the helm of Soulman's

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Barbecue, the beloved North Texas based
restaurant chain, and who prides himself in

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the culture and purpose and faith he
and his team have created for their business.

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He joins us today from Mansfield where
they're opening a brand new location.

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We've been talking about how he got
himself into the restaurant business and I's been

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training himself in it. After the
break, we're going to get into the

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culture that he's purposely trying to create
for the business. Stay with us,

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become our friend on Facebook, post
your thoughts about our shows and network on

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our timeline. Visit Facebook dot com. Forward slash Voice America. Alise Cortez

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is a speaker and engagement and development
catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development,

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00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:30.759
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring
her expertise to your organization. She

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00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:36.400
will help ignite meaningful development within your
workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance

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00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.720
and retention. To learn more or
to invite Elise to speak to your organization,

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please visit her at www dot Elise
Cortez dot com. She would welcome

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the opportunity to help get your employees
working on Purpose. Have you friended us

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timeline. Just go to Facebook dot
com, forward slash Voice America or search

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for Voice America. This is Working
on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach

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our program today, please call in
to one Triple eight, three four six

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nine one four one. Again that's
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four one. You may also send
an email to Elise ali Se at Elise

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00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:51.319
Cortez dot com. Now back to
working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with

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00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.240
us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose if you're just joining us.

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00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:57.880
My guest is Brett Randall, the
restaurant two who is behind soul Man's Barbecue

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at the beloved North to Exist based
restaurant chain that boasts low and slow cooking

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over hickory as their time honored tradition. Brett studied business at the University of

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Mississippi and began his career in restaurant
manage before studying the culinary arts at the

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Art Institute of Dallas. I'm your
host, Alice Cortez. Before the break,

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we were talking about how you got
yourself into this business, which was

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a great story. Now I want
to focus on this segment if we can,

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on the culture. I know that
is a really important part of your

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heartbeat there, Brett, and that
for your team that you're purposely creating something.

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So you describe the soul of your
business, it's culture as the heart

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of your offering and your success.
So would you say a bit more about

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soul Man's Barbecue. Soul. Yeah, you know, the soul of our

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businesses are people. People are They're
the head wind, They're the ones that's

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great. The customers serve the customers, and it's all Man's Barbecue. We

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are committed to billing and maintaining a
strong people's focused culture. We're like a

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big family. Our culture UTU revolves
around the premise that we're not just coworkers,

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but that we're brought together for a
purpose. And I think that's really

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really important. To serve people and
to serve one another. It really makes

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for a special atmosphere at least for
us or people can reach their full potential.

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That's all Man's. Well. You
know that hits every one of my

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buttons, Brett, right, you
know that already about me, And I

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love that and I really appreciate and
again, what I want to get across

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to the listeners that you have been
able to create a business for yourself,

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that you get to live, breathe, and express your values through your business

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in a way that lets you serve
not only its purpose, but for that

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of your employees. And I just
really want to call that out and I

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think it's beautiful. Thank you for
saying that. Yeah, And to that

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end, one of the other great
things that you get to do that not

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all businesses get to do, maybe
because there their public or whatever else it

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is, but you weave your faith
into the way you run your business.

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Will you say more about why this
is an important part of your culture and

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just how that shows up for you
all. Absolutely, it's it's definitely you

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say it hits all your buttons.
This hits all my buttons. We have

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a sign hanging on the wall of
each one of our restaurants that reads great

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barbecue, great service, and great
God. It's all man's. Our faith

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in God, his providence and his
love for people compels us to treat our

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customers employees like family, you know. Put simply my team and I believe

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we are part of something larger where
they will graft it into a family or

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a company that cares for people,
both customers and employees. Most business professionals,

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kind of as you alluded to,
Christian or not, they tend to

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compartmentalize their lives. They're one way
at home, one way at church,

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and then a totally different person at
work. We try not to do that.

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It's all man's We aspire to walk
out our faith no matter where we

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are. Most importantly, I think
is that we create a safe environment where

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employees are not only safe expressing their
faith, but are also encouraged to do

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so. So, yeah, it's
it's very important to us. There's so

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many things you said there that I
could talk about. One thing I definitely

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want to call out, Brett,
is this notion of helping your your employees

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to be very aware and know every
day that they're part of something greater.

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And what I know about that,
Brett, because of what I've been doing

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for my meeting and work investigation,
is that is one of the biggest things

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that can make people feel really connected
to their work and give them a sense

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of purpose and meaning is to feel
like what they're part of is way bigger

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than anything that they can create on
their own. And the fact that that

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you call that out as swiftly and
beautifully as you do, and that it

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clearly is you know very much in
the water that you swim in every day.

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It just it's in fact, I
will tell you, very very frankly,

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you move me to tears when you
we're talking about that. It was

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so beautiful. Well, thank you. Yeah, we we just believe that.

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That's the heartbeat of everything that we
do, you know, our belief

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in God. As I say,
it compels us to do the things we

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do, and we take care of
our employees and we take care of our

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customers. But it's it's much much
more than that, Like you said,

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it's part of being a part of
something. You know, everybody, anybody

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can come and just serve barbecue every
day, but who can come to work

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and pray for each other and pray
for customers and you know, it's just

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something really special. You know that
may not be for everyone, and I

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understand that, but it is for
us and for those that believe and those

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that are passionate about their relationship with
God. It's just like I said,

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it gives them a safe environment to
express themselves that way, and it just

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it creates an incredible environment. Well, one of the things that I always

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tell my students. I think I
might have mentioned to you that I teach

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lots of senior students at Southern Methodist
University how to get in to keep their

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first job. Yeah, and one
of the things I tell them is that,

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you know, look, when you're
going through the interview process. You're

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going to opt in to the company
culture if you like it, or you're

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00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:15.000
going to opt out if you don't. And the very fact that you are

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as forthright as you are. This
is who we are, This is our

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heartbeat. If you like it,
great, come join us and pray with

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us, and play with us and
serve with us. If you don't,

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cool, you know, it's all
right, all right, that is as

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good as it gets, I think
for everybody. Yes, and that happens

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sometimes, that happens both ways.
M Well, I want to have you

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talk if you will a bit bright
because part of what another reason I wanted

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to have you on the show is
that you know, when it comes to

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the world of work, culture is
so important. In fact, we talk

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about how culture eats strategy for breakfast. It's just so important and how important

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it is to be mindful and intentional
all the time about making it what you

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want. So you talk about creating
a work environment where employees really want to

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come to work. You talk about
how you pray for each other and for

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your customers. Would you say more
about what are you doing and practicing to

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encourage this creative intentionality of your culture? That is a great, great subject.

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That's what we talk about all the
time. At least, how can

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we create an atmosphere where our employees
are excited to come to work? And

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that right there is just the crux
of it all. And if you'll remember

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earlier, the heartbeat is our people. So again, having them excited to

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come to soul Man's Barbecue to work, to serve barbecue and be part of

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our vision is incredibly important. Now
we understand that in order to expect superior

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performance from our employees, we must
create and maintain a compelling place to work,

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a place where people can grow and
learn enduring life skills. Our goal

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is to make working for us more
than just a job, but a place

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where people can realize their personal and
professional aspirations. Now, this is a

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huge undertaking obviously, and my team
and I have developed a strategic plan just

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to address these things, and we
call it the Strategic Culture Plan. Among

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others, we tackle topics like our
leadership and how we can improve team development,

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training, quality of life, competitive
pay and benefits, among many other

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things. Now, being a small
company, the challenge will always be scaling

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the additional costs in for these programs, but in the end, we believe

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whatever we spend to retain and develop
top people who will return to us in

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abundance. So it's very important to
us. You know, one thing,

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another thing that I want to call
out about what you're saying as I'm listening

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to you, Brett, and it's
something that I'm very aware of because of

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the work that we do here at
Insignium around breakthrough performance and organizational transformation.

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Is that the way that anything occurs
for us is you know, that's the

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context, right, and that context
determines then what it is that we tend,

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how we feel about the situation,
then what we choose to do,

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and then the results that we get. Right. So the very fact that

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your first employees occur for you as
these are people I love and I want

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to grow and develop and they're part
of our bigger family. And your customers

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are people that you want to serve
in the same way that you would serve

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God. That is such an enormous
thing to call out about what anchors your

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culture and the way that you go
about creating your culture. Yeah, that's

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exactly correct. I mean, our
belief in God and our faith system again

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compels us to love our employees and
the want to create an atmosphere where they

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want to come to work. They
just go hand in hand. You can't

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00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:02.720
have one without the other. And
that's the important thing about what we do.

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00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:10.279
And again, we don't compartmentalize our
culture away from our work environment,

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and so they all go hand in
hand, and it's all based on what

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we feel God would want our employees, how he would want them treated.

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00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:25.640
Well, let's talk next about your
customers. So, as I'm sitting here

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listening to you, I have this
very distinct, imaginative feeling that if I

390
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were to walk into any of your
locations, that the very first thing that

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I would get was a big,
fat, warm smile that said, Man,

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00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:41.359
I'm glad you're here. Right,
That's somehow I just get that that's

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how it would be. So I
want you to speak to if you would,

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00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:47.680
what experience are you trying to create
for your customers. I know you

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00:28:47.720 --> 00:28:51.240
want to serve them as as you
say, as God would expect you to,

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00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:55.680
but I'm guessing that there's a whole
bunch more in addition to that that

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you're trying to do. You know, this is something that we say all

398
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:06.440
of the time, and it's very
simple, but it's very profound. We

399
00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:11.160
want to be their place to eat
barbecue. And there's a lot and there's

400
00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:15.440
a lot behind that, because barbecue
is very endearing to the soul Everybody has

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00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:21.039
their place to eat barbecue. There's
a reason for it. That's the way

402
00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:25.160
they like it, it's the way
they're treated, you know, whatever the

403
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:29.519
reason. They have a place that
they go eat barbecue. And barbecue is

404
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:32.960
a lot as different from a lot
of other foods. Like I said,

405
00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:37.680
it's very endearing food. People have
grown up with it. They tell stories

406
00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:41.799
all the time about how people grew
up with soul Man's barbecue and that's why

407
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:45.759
they take their kids to eat.
And so put simply, we want to

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00:29:45.799 --> 00:29:49.599
be their place to eat barbecue.
When family or friends come to town,

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00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:55.640
we want to be the place where
they take them. We achieve that by

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00:29:55.720 --> 00:30:00.920
creating an atmosphere where absolute customer satisfaction
is the highest prior already every single day,

411
00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:06.599
and we feel like if that customer
is a priority, and just as

412
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:11.400
you said, exactly as you said, the way you've imagined walking in the

413
00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:14.400
soul Man, that's exactly the way
we want it to be. And so

414
00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:18.079
again, but simply we want to
be their place to come eat barbecue.

415
00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:22.640
M I gotta tell you, so, I've only been in Texas for fifteen

416
00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:26.559
years. I'm from the Northwest originally, and it's not really a place that's

417
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:27.960
known for barbecue. As you probably
know, we do have some of it

418
00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:32.039
up there, but I have had
some good barbecue up there. But I

419
00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:37.000
came to Texas and I learned bought
an old smoker off Craigslist, and you

420
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:38.200
know, it was taught how to
fire it up, et cetera. And

421
00:30:38.759 --> 00:30:44.759
now I make pretty darn good brisket, if I can just say, and

422
00:30:44.759 --> 00:30:49.160
and I take a tremendous amount of
pride in hosting people and feeding them my

423
00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:53.240
barbecue, my brisket. And you're
right, there's something in that. There

424
00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:59.839
is your if there's something special about
the food that is different and distinguished from

425
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:02.720
other kinds of cooking. And I
like to host lots of parties, but

426
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:07.039
there's something very different about barbecue.
There is something very different, you know,

427
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:11.559
food in general, at least you
know it's it's very biblical. Breaking

428
00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:18.039
bread is a very spiritual event for
friends and family, as it was for

429
00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:22.839
Jesus and his life and his disciples, and so food in general is very

430
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:26.920
special. But but barbecue, when
you spend twelve hours smoking something, it's

431
00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.799
going to be great and people are
gonna love it. And so yeah,

432
00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:36.480
there's something very special about both food
and especially barbecue. Love that we're talking

433
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:40.480
about it here in the summertime too, although people will be listening to this

434
00:31:40.519 --> 00:31:44.000
podcast for quite some time. You
might have somebody to fire this up in

435
00:31:44.039 --> 00:31:47.960
December and then just be aching for
summertime. But they could still cool,

436
00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:49.920
be ready, So that's that's right, they could still come down to see

437
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:55.400
you. So well, you know, you've talked about what it is that

438
00:31:55.440 --> 00:31:57.880
you're trying to do for your for
your customers, and right, there's always

439
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:01.680
it's interesting as a a business person. I'm a management consultant. I work

440
00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:07.160
with businesses to help them transform their
businesses. And of course oftentimes there's a

441
00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.920
disconnect between what an organization or a
business wants to achieve for their customers and

442
00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:15.839
what their customers are actually experiencing.
So what do you actually hear from your

443
00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:21.160
customers about their experience of dining with
you? What do they say? We

444
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:27.440
hear so many cool and inspiring stories
that just continue to encourage us each and

445
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.599
every day, I'll tell you one
in particular. This is a really cool

446
00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:37.319
story. Some of our restaurants sit
adjacent to truck stops, and because they

447
00:32:37.319 --> 00:32:40.519
sit adjacent to truck stops, we
have a lot of customers that are long

448
00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:47.160
haul truckers. One in particular was
named John Journelle, and he stopped at

449
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:52.839
soul Man's weekly on his route for
twenty years or so living in Ohio.

450
00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:59.599
Now he's disabled and no longer drives. He contacted me a couple of years

451
00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:06.759
ago Facebook and said that on his
bucket list was to have one last meal

452
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:14.079
at Soulman's. Now this is nine
hundred and seventy six miles away. So

453
00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:17.319
he and his wife, who are
on a fixed income, I might add

454
00:33:19.079 --> 00:33:22.400
because of his disability, made the
nine hundred and seventy six mile trek to

455
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:29.319
Royce City eight and turned around the
next day and drove back. Now I

456
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:32.279
met he met the store and bought
his dinner, and we talked for several

457
00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:37.680
hours about about his experiences with soul
Man's. And now isn't that amazing?

458
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:45.519
M It sure is amazing, And
to me, that story tells it all

459
00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:52.440
about how good our food look is
and how well we touch customers, and

460
00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:55.799
I still I still talked to him
this day on Facebook. So great story,

461
00:33:55.880 --> 00:34:00.279
great guy. But we hear so
many cool stories about you know,

462
00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:02.440
how people grew up, you know, being a forty three year old brand.

463
00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.680
We now have grown adults that just
grew up eating soul Man's all their

464
00:34:07.720 --> 00:34:12.039
life and that's the barbecues that they
eat, That's what nurtured their existence.

465
00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:15.519
That's right, That's right. That
it is a great story. The niner

466
00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:19.880
and seventy six miles is nothing,
just just needs it if you're not disabled

467
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:24.119
for gosh six Yeah, when I
think about what you just said, I

468
00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:27.639
mean, for this man, it's
been twenty years of his life, every

469
00:34:27.679 --> 00:34:32.920
week eating with you. You were
an important keep component of his Livelihood's right,

470
00:34:35.159 --> 00:34:38.559
that's right. And you know,
truckers are just by nature, they're

471
00:34:38.599 --> 00:34:45.239
lonely individuals. I spend hours and
hours and hours behind the wheel, and

472
00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:47.880
when they get out, I want
somebody to talk to. And at soul

473
00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:52.920
Man's we have four truck stop locations
and we talked to those folks. We

474
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:58.599
treat them, We treat them very
well, and we give Lindon ear to

475
00:34:58.599 --> 00:35:02.400
to hear them out. And we
love we love our long haul truckers and

476
00:35:04.280 --> 00:35:09.519
there's the fruit from that right there. MM So every human being craves to

477
00:35:09.519 --> 00:35:14.400
be listened to and understood, and
if that's part of what you're offering in

478
00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:19.239
terms and alongside a great meal,
I think you've got it made. That's

479
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:22.760
great and that takes us to our
next break. I'm Elise Cortez, your

480
00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:25.119
host. We were on the air
with Brett Randall, who is the restaurant

481
00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:29.400
too, who has been at the
helm of soul Man's Barbecue, that beloved

482
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:34.000
North Texas based restaurant chain that prides
itself and its culture and purpose of faith

483
00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:37.599
that he and his team have been
building over the last several years. He

484
00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:39.840
joins it today from Mansfield, Texas, where they're opening a brand new location.

485
00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:45.199
We've been talking about how he's been
purposely creating his culture within soul Man's.

486
00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:49.000
After the break, we're going to
talk about his leadership approach and what

487
00:35:49.039 --> 00:36:01.920
he's doing there. Stay with us, Become our friend on Facebook, post

488
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.719
your thoughts about our shows and network
on our timeline. Visit Facebook dot com,

489
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:12.519
Forward slash Voice America. Elise Cortez
is a speaker and engagement and development

490
00:36:12.559 --> 00:36:17.280
catalyst. She designs and delivers professional
development, leadership and engagement workshops and can

491
00:36:17.320 --> 00:36:22.159
bring her expertise to your organization.
She will help ignite meaningful development within your

492
00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:28.360
workforce that will increase employee engagement,
performance and retention. To learn more or

493
00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:32.119
to invite Elise to speak to your
organization, please visit her at www dot

494
00:36:32.199 --> 00:36:37.119
Elise Cortez dot com. She would
welcome the opportunity to help get your employees

495
00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:43.559
working on Purpose. Have you friended
us on Facebook yet? Why not?

496
00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:46.760
Just go to Facebook dot com,
forward slash Voice America or search for the

497
00:36:46.840 --> 00:36:51.519
keywords Voice America. Once you are
part of our Facebook network, you'll receive

498
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:54.519
daily messages about what's happening with our
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499
00:36:54.639 --> 00:36:59.280
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500
00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:02.199
voice to the he's active discussions at
our timeline. Just go to Facebook dot

501
00:37:02.199 --> 00:37:15.760
com, forward slash Voice America or
search for Voice America. This is Working

502
00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:20.360
on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To
reach our program today, please call in

503
00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:23.960
to one triple eight three four six
nine one four one. Again that's one

504
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:29.280
triple eight three four six nine one
four one. You may also send an

505
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:37.119
email to Elise ali se at Elise
Cortez dot com. Now back to working

506
00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:40.639
on Purpose. Thanks for staying with
us, and welcome back to working on

507
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:44.880
Purpose if you're just tuning in.
My guest is Brett Randall, who is

508
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:50.119
the restaurant two who created or I
shouldn't saycredity, actually assumed Soulman's Barbecue,

509
00:37:50.159 --> 00:37:53.559
the beloved North Texas based restaurant chain
that boasts low and slow cooking over hickory

510
00:37:53.800 --> 00:37:59.000
as their time owner tradition. Brett
studied business at the University of Mississippi and

511
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:01.400
began his career in rest st management
before studying the Colony of Arts at the

512
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:06.320
Art Institute in Dallas. Great training. I'm your host, Alice Cortez.

513
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:09.480
So before the last break, we
were talking about culture and what you're doing

514
00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:15.719
there to purposely create that and keep
it alive there at Soulman's. For this

515
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:17.280
last segment, Bread, I want
to talk about leadership. I know that's

516
00:38:17.280 --> 00:38:22.360
a really important part and heartbeat of
what you do there. So first,

517
00:38:22.440 --> 00:38:28.760
how would you characterize your own leadership
style? Oh, great question. The

518
00:38:28.880 --> 00:38:32.800
lease you know, leadership to me
is such a tricky and deep subject.

519
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:39.159
I say that because I believe Leadership
is about achieving results, but results can

520
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:44.559
be quantified in so many different ways. For instance, we obviously value the

521
00:38:44.679 --> 00:38:49.400
leader that increases sales, keeps the
cost basis in line, and ultimately makes

522
00:38:49.400 --> 00:38:54.119
the company more money. However,
to us, it's just as important how

523
00:38:54.159 --> 00:39:00.920
that leader achieves those results. I
want to be a leader that's known for

524
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:07.800
having uncompromising, high standards, high
morals, that is approachable, one who

525
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:15.920
listens before he speaks, one is
fair, patient, yet decisive, you

526
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:20.000
know. Ultimately, I want to
be remembered as a man who loved God,

527
00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:24.239
loved others, and achieved his goals
to that end. And so I

528
00:39:24.360 --> 00:39:29.280
hope, I hope that that's the
type of leader that I am and can

529
00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:34.559
be well again, very Christmas to
sink. And what I also like about

530
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:38.360
that Breton want to call out is
that I'm often asked to speak about leadership

531
00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:42.320
to groups, and one of the
things that I frequently say is for people

532
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:45.239
to get really clear on the kind
of leader that they really want to be

533
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:51.719
and then authentically execute to that.
And it's really clear to me that who

534
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:54.400
you just described yourself is how I've
experienced too, and I have no doubt

535
00:39:54.440 --> 00:39:57.440
that's how you show up as a
leader as well. So the fact that

536
00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:00.079
you could you could articulate that as
to sink as you did, I think

537
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:04.119
is part is probably the very first
part of the process, right, being

538
00:40:04.159 --> 00:40:08.480
able to do that so gorgeous,
thank you, Yes, you're welcome,

539
00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:13.400
and then thinking about how it is
that you work from that vantage point.

540
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:15.719
I know that you write a month
of leadership email and I think it's called

541
00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:20.360
the Leadership Series, So I want
to I want to understand a couple of

542
00:40:20.360 --> 00:40:23.239
things. I want to know what
is your key message and what is your

543
00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:27.320
motivation to write it? What are
you hoping to actually do through the series?

544
00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:32.079
Well, thanks for the question.
You know, the Leadership Series has

545
00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:37.760
been a lot of fun and it's
helped us all kind of galvanize the message

546
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:43.159
together. Now Ian fuse scripture,
in my life experiences, quotes, and

547
00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:47.039
quite a bit of humor to get
the point across. The message again being

548
00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:52.280
that we that we do value results, that there may be another way to

549
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:58.719
approach those results, and so that's
always the challenge in those the emails.

550
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:04.760
My motivation and for writing him is
really to inspire people to value their relationships

551
00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:08.880
and that through those relationships, who
will find that results, since fulfillment will

552
00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:19.320
follow close behind. Teaching that looking
at leadership through spiritual lenses is important.

553
00:41:20.519 --> 00:41:25.039
Always end each series with a simple
phrase lead well, which hopefully sticks with

554
00:41:25.119 --> 00:41:30.239
them when they have a difficult situation
to handle that they may not know what

555
00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:35.719
to do. So, yeah,
it's been a lot of fun and it

556
00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:40.119
seems to have really grown legs.
The guys tell me that they forward them

557
00:41:40.159 --> 00:41:45.199
to their wives, and their wives
ford them to their friends. And you

558
00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:47.880
know, I'm not always great about
doing it on time, but they let

559
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:52.079
me know when they're ready for one, so they'll say, hey, hey,

560
00:41:52.079 --> 00:41:55.800
hey, it's time, send it. And so they don't. They

561
00:41:55.800 --> 00:41:59.800
don't let me falter on it.
But it's been a lot of fun.

562
00:42:00.639 --> 00:42:04.960
M This is related to what we've
already had spoken about, but I think

563
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:07.280
it's important to call it out here
for this leadership part of the discussion,

564
00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:12.119
Brett, and that is I want
to know what are your key operating values

565
00:42:12.159 --> 00:42:15.840
you draw from in your leadership.
I know, obviously your faith is right

566
00:42:15.880 --> 00:42:20.960
there front and center. What else, Yeah, yeah, totally. You

567
00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:27.519
know. I developed what I call
a pyramid, and I call it the

568
00:42:27.559 --> 00:42:35.599
path the leadership and the pyramid and
descending ordered list, the following leadership being

569
00:42:35.639 --> 00:42:38.159
the culmination of this pyramid. At
the very top, it's my relationship with

570
00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:43.679
God. Based on the scripture seek
first the Kingdom, and so I have

571
00:42:43.719 --> 00:42:47.880
to seek God first in anything that
I do. Number two on that list

572
00:42:47.960 --> 00:42:53.119
is being a good husband. Number
three is being a good father, and

573
00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:58.960
the four being a good son,
family member, and friend. And then

574
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:04.360
number five is is really interesting,
it's called being a creative follower. I

575
00:43:04.400 --> 00:43:07.599
don't know if you're familiar with a
gentleman by the name of Jimmy Collins.

576
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:13.760
He served as the president of Chick
fil A for over thirty years just under

577
00:43:13.840 --> 00:43:20.079
Truett Kathy, and it just tells
of a fascinating journey of his leadership through

578
00:43:20.199 --> 00:43:24.079
following and so basic the basic premises
is that you have to be a good

579
00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:29.239
follower before you can be a leader, and so I really draw that.

580
00:43:30.039 --> 00:43:35.039
And then last, but not least, is if you achieve all of those

581
00:43:35.079 --> 00:43:42.000
things, then you can be an
effective leader. And so that's pretty much

582
00:43:42.039 --> 00:43:47.360
my operating values with being a leader. I appreciate that there's structure around that.

583
00:43:47.480 --> 00:43:51.599
Sometimes people might have a harder time
being able to reticulate what are they

584
00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:54.679
working from you did that gorgeously.
I gotta follow up with this idea here

585
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:59.960
of the creative follower. What makes
for a being a good creative follower?

586
00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:08.880
You know, probably number one are
things like doing what doing what makes the

587
00:44:08.920 --> 00:44:15.079
boss happy, doing the things that
a follower does, and not necessarily a

588
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:22.079
leader. So, for instance,
I have a founder and owned that that

589
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:27.760
still owns the company's he's retired,
but it's still important for me to follow

590
00:44:27.840 --> 00:44:31.519
his vision as well too, in
order for me to be a good leader

591
00:44:31.559 --> 00:44:37.159
to our two hundred and twenty five
employees. What happens so often is a

592
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:40.960
leader gets so heady and they get
so in tune with what they're doing that

593
00:44:42.039 --> 00:44:49.039
they forget about about following and doing
the things that are important for the business.

594
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:53.400
And so for me in my role, it's important that I follow the

595
00:44:53.480 --> 00:44:59.559
things that are important to him and
then work everything my vision around what's important

596
00:44:59.559 --> 00:45:05.280
to him. I almost get the
sense there, Brett, that what I'm

597
00:45:05.320 --> 00:45:08.320
hearing from you is a way to
describe that is you're you're being an enthusiastic

598
00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:15.480
follower. Is that fairly okay?
Absolutely? Yeah? So how has your

599
00:45:15.480 --> 00:45:19.920
own leadership evolved over the years.
Do you think when you first started,

600
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:22.800
and you're just you're that young,
twenty two year old guy in the bar

601
00:45:22.079 --> 00:45:24.960
trying to figure it out. I
don't know if you're leading back then.

602
00:45:25.079 --> 00:45:30.320
But how would you say your leadership
has evolved over the years, Oh man,

603
00:45:31.039 --> 00:45:37.400
A really good question. You know, many people believe that leaders are

604
00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:40.360
born. I don't. I don't
really subscribe to that. I tend to

605
00:45:40.440 --> 00:45:45.039
lean on the premise that they're that
they're developed. I always say to my

606
00:45:45.159 --> 00:45:50.119
guys that leadership is a journey,
and I believe that it is, and

607
00:45:50.480 --> 00:45:54.320
for me it certainly was. I
started fairly young, as you alluded to,

608
00:45:54.679 --> 00:46:00.559
and really sailed miserably many times.
Although I ended up being successful now,

609
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:06.519
I waffled between being too strict or
being too lenient. I lost more

610
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:09.119
people than I kept. You know, dude is just not knowing how to

611
00:46:09.159 --> 00:46:15.440
deal effectively with people. It wasn't
really until I realized that that being fair

612
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:21.360
was really what people wanted that I
stumbled on to some some success through the

613
00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:28.000
years. I've noticed that, you
know, if people respect you for whatever

614
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:31.960
reason, they'll follow you. And
for me, I've just tried to become

615
00:46:31.960 --> 00:46:37.360
more respectable through the years, and
that's that's kind of that's kind of my

616
00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:40.719
journey, and it's it's not over
yet. Trust me. I learned every

617
00:46:40.800 --> 00:46:47.519
day and hopefully I'll continue to learn
for for years on years. Yeah,

618
00:46:47.559 --> 00:46:52.199
I don't think it ever ends,
this journey of leadership or anything else of

619
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:54.440
being a human being. But a
couple things I want to peel back on

620
00:46:54.480 --> 00:46:58.840
there. How do you work at
being more respectable? What do you what

621
00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:04.480
are you doing to cultivate that?
You know? Number one? You know,

622
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:08.719
I always talk to my guys about
about trying to be the best at

623
00:47:08.719 --> 00:47:14.280
whatever you're trying to teach. And
what I mean by that is your product,

624
00:47:14.320 --> 00:47:17.119
as your knowledge of the product,
knowledge of the process. Know,

625
00:47:17.280 --> 00:47:22.360
the easiest way to lose respect,
in my opinion, is not knowing what

626
00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:28.639
you're talking about. And so for
me dealing with barbecue being a chef,

627
00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:31.400
you know, just because I'm a
chef does not mean I know barbecue.

628
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:37.360
And so when I first joined soul
Man's Barbecue, I set out to be

629
00:47:37.400 --> 00:47:43.280
the best barbecue cook that I could
possibly be because I knew that I would

630
00:47:43.360 --> 00:47:46.920
gain more respect from these guys who'd
been cooking barbecue their whole life if I

631
00:47:46.960 --> 00:47:52.880
had just as much knowledge or more
about the product. And so I think

632
00:47:52.320 --> 00:48:00.440
I think number one answer to you
would be know what you're talking about be

633
00:48:00.559 --> 00:48:07.159
the best. Number two is is
that you always have to back up what

634
00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:12.480
you talk about. So if I'm
talking about all this faith and talking about

635
00:48:12.559 --> 00:48:16.079
culture and then I don't really live
it out, I don't walk it out,

636
00:48:17.239 --> 00:48:23.039
then I immediately lose respect. So
I'm always trying. I'm always trying

637
00:48:23.079 --> 00:48:30.559
to make sure that I am living
what I preach, and sometimes that can

638
00:48:30.559 --> 00:48:34.960
be very difficult. And people,
when you're in leadership and you know this,

639
00:48:35.159 --> 00:48:39.039
you're always under the microscope. Yes, people are always trying to find

640
00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:44.079
holes in your game and pick you
apart, and you have to be tuned

641
00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:50.320
into that. So those two things
are probably the biggest things that I work

642
00:48:50.400 --> 00:48:52.719
on all the time. And you
know, going back to number one,

643
00:48:54.559 --> 00:49:00.199
you know, me being the CEO
having sixteen restaurants, I'm not always in

644
00:49:00.239 --> 00:49:05.000
the restaurants as much anymore. So
getting in there, getting back used to

645
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:08.440
doing operational things and making sure I
don't say I don't fall out of touch

646
00:49:08.599 --> 00:49:15.159
is an extremely important part of the
process. So two more things to follow

647
00:49:15.159 --> 00:49:17.599
that up really quick? Is this
such an important, great thing? The

648
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:21.719
Great conversation about leadership, Brett.
So, this whole notion you said about

649
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:25.239
you know knowing your stuff, what
I also think you're saying there is that

650
00:49:25.280 --> 00:49:29.159
when you don't know your stuff,
that you admit that you don't try to

651
00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:32.760
bluff what you don't know, and
that authenticity of being willing to say,

652
00:49:32.800 --> 00:49:35.840
hey, I know this. I
think I know this pretty well, but

653
00:49:35.880 --> 00:49:38.159
this part over here, I don't
know this. I think there's something that's

654
00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:44.159
really really incredibly engaging about that that
make people want to trust you even more

655
00:49:44.280 --> 00:49:47.559
because you've called out what you don't
know. That's no kind of okay,

656
00:49:47.599 --> 00:49:52.519
good, yeah, okay, good
this notion take it till you make it

657
00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:54.639
thing. You know, there's some
smart people in the world, matey,

658
00:49:55.199 --> 00:50:00.320
they don't always fall for that for
that game. So you know, honesty

659
00:50:00.400 --> 00:50:04.840
is always the best policy. Kind
of like you say, you know one

660
00:50:04.880 --> 00:50:07.800
thing that I did when I came
to soul Man's and I wanted to learn

661
00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:12.519
how to be the best barbecue cook
Because I went to the best barbecue cooks

662
00:50:12.519 --> 00:50:15.360
and said, hey, teach me
what, teach me how to do this?

663
00:50:15.480 --> 00:50:21.000
And that show that show those guys
that I was willing to learn and

664
00:50:21.159 --> 00:50:24.320
I wasn't too good to stand next
to them and learn from them. And

665
00:50:24.400 --> 00:50:28.960
I still do that to this day. And so, yeah, you know,

666
00:50:29.719 --> 00:50:32.320
you have to be humble and you
have to be willing to learn,

667
00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:39.280
because nobody knows everything that's right,
that's right. And I think back to

668
00:50:39.320 --> 00:50:44.760
your thing about culture and engagement.
When we solicit the expertise of people who

669
00:50:44.800 --> 00:50:47.760
work with us, there's nothing better
than having them feel like, Hey,

670
00:50:47.800 --> 00:50:52.039
I'm really contributing to this thing,
right, I've got something to share with

671
00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:54.119
the boss, with the business,
I mean, and he or she is

672
00:50:54.199 --> 00:51:00.800
listening to me and takes me seriously. Oh yeah, absolutely, If we've

673
00:51:00.840 --> 00:51:02.679
got time, I'll give you a
quick example that sure, go for it.

674
00:51:02.719 --> 00:51:07.360
We have a we have a fairly
new employee out here in Mansfield who's

675
00:51:07.679 --> 00:51:10.920
who's a chef, And I went
up to him the other day. I'm

676
00:51:10.960 --> 00:51:15.960
trying to create a new LTO limited
time offer, and I said, hey,

677
00:51:15.960 --> 00:51:20.239
how about you and I getting in
here next week. You make your

678
00:51:20.239 --> 00:51:23.800
best thing, I'll make my best
thing, and we'll let the employees decide

679
00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:28.400
which LTO we're going to do next. And man, he just lit up,

680
00:51:29.159 --> 00:51:32.639
and you can just tell that he
really wanted to kind of have that

681
00:51:32.800 --> 00:51:39.239
cook off with me, and that
I had really acknowledged his expertise and was

682
00:51:39.280 --> 00:51:43.639
willing to get in there and cook
with him. And so it was a

683
00:51:43.679 --> 00:51:46.679
really neat moment for us. But
that kind of speaks to exactly to what

684
00:51:46.719 --> 00:51:52.239
you were saying. Great example.
And one more thing too that I want

685
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.119
to call it for a listeners that
you said earlier about all the mistakes that

686
00:51:54.199 --> 00:51:57.840
you made as you came up in
your leadership journey, and I just wanted

687
00:51:57.840 --> 00:52:00.440
to call it. Have you ever
read the book Black Box Thing King by

688
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:05.480
Matthew said, I have not okay
for our listeners. It's a great thing

689
00:52:05.559 --> 00:52:08.360
that really reinforces the notion that not
only is it good to make mistakes,

690
00:52:08.360 --> 00:52:14.119
but learning from our mistakes in an
ongoing, purposeful, intentional way can really

691
00:52:14.159 --> 00:52:16.639
set us apart, whether it's in
terms of our leadership journey, our business

692
00:52:16.679 --> 00:52:21.119
journey, our personal journey. Trying
to get that man on my show,

693
00:52:21.159 --> 00:52:23.159
I think he's got such a great
message. So it really resonates with what

694
00:52:23.239 --> 00:52:27.760
you're saying about the mistakes that you
made and how you learn from them went

695
00:52:27.880 --> 00:52:30.199
right along there. So I had
to call that out. Yeah, that's

696
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:34.559
that's awesome stuff. At least you
know. I have three signs and I'll

697
00:52:34.559 --> 00:52:38.199
tell them all the time that everybody
makes mistakes, but it's not your mistakes

698
00:52:38.199 --> 00:52:44.119
but define you. It's it's what
you do with those mistakes that define you

699
00:52:44.199 --> 00:52:47.559
and such. That's so true.
Yes, sir, Well, we are

700
00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:52.119
coming to a close and I'll have
to give my guests the last word whenever

701
00:52:52.239 --> 00:52:54.440
I can, Brett, so just
say media and thirty seconds or less.

702
00:52:54.480 --> 00:53:00.320
What would you like to leave our
listeners with today? Well, here's what

703
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:05.760
I'd like to leave them with.
I think that everyone has leadership ability inside

704
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:10.000
them. Find your path and make
it more about relationships and people than about

705
00:53:10.039 --> 00:53:19.320
profits, and when you get there, lead well. Fantastic way to finish,

706
00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:21.679
Brett. Thank you so much for
joining us. It was an absolute

707
00:53:21.719 --> 00:53:25.079
stupendous pleasure. I do want to
call out that one of my SMU students

708
00:53:25.119 --> 00:53:29.199
is in part the reason that you
came on the show, because she put

709
00:53:29.239 --> 00:53:34.639
together my business objective for the show
and your soulful working on purpose and said

710
00:53:34.639 --> 00:53:37.519
this is a no brainer. So
thank you so much for joining us and

711
00:53:37.559 --> 00:53:40.639
being with us and sharing your passion
with us. It's been incredible to learn

712
00:53:40.679 --> 00:53:45.840
from you and be inspired by you. I had an absolute blasts a last

713
00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:49.639
thanks for having me. You're welcome, So listeners, if you want to

714
00:53:49.719 --> 00:53:52.800
learn more about Brett Randall and soul
Man's, you can go to soul Man's.

715
00:53:52.840 --> 00:53:59.599
It's just s O U L m
ans dot com and there are sixteen

716
00:53:59.639 --> 00:54:04.039
locations here in the North Texas area. The newest is in Mansfield, so

717
00:54:04.159 --> 00:54:07.519
come take a visit. I will
be doing that soon. I went online

718
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:10.199
to see what locations were closest to
me, So who knows, Brent,

719
00:54:10.320 --> 00:54:15.960
you, I just might show up
and surprise you. I would welcome that,

720
00:54:16.719 --> 00:54:20.320
all right, So I'll see you
next week. I'm looking forward to

721
00:54:20.440 --> 00:54:22.280
our conversation with our next guest.
Remember that work is one third of our

722
00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:32.280
lives, so let's work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program.

723
00:54:32.320 --> 00:54:37.079
Be sure to tune into Working on
Purpose featuring your host Alice Cortez every

724
00:54:37.079 --> 00:54:43.119
Wednesday at six pm Eastern Time three
pm Pacific time on the Voice America Empowerment

725
00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:47.400
Channel. This week, find your
life's purpose at work