The 5 Rules That Transform Grocery Teams and Can Elevate Any Business

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: In today's episode, we're talking about leadership and the five behaviors that change how your team shows up every single shift. Today's guest has spent over 50 years in retail running companies that have over 10,000 team members, hundreds of stores, and he was personally mentored by John Maxwell for over a year. He wrote a book recently distilling these five rules that he has learned over his 50 years in business.

If you lead a restaurant team, you already know the hardest part of the job is not the menu. Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. thank everyone out there for joining us as I like to say each and every time. I know you guys have got lots of choices, so thank you for hanging out today.

I am joined by a business leader, a thought leader, somebody that I got introduced to very recently and, um, he and I just jive so well. like, I gotta have you on the show. Cause I need to talk a little bit about kind of what you've been doing, but Steve, why don't you, uh, give our listeners a little bit of a background. Who is Steve black?

Um, you know, I guess. not the technology, not even the marketing, it's getting all of the people on your team from 30 to 50 to 100 to 500 to row in the same direction each shift. most of us are coaching to the numbers ⁓ we really need to be considering coaching to behaviors. Sales, labor, food costs, ticket times, all of the things that we talk about on the show ⁓ just outputs the behaviors that your staff is doing.

background, career background, and then can talk a little bit about, you know, kind of ⁓ your new go-to-market stuff that you've been doing that really I think is going to change some people's lives. Steve Black: All right. Thanks for having me, Jeremy. I appreciate that.

I've been in the grocery business this this next year will be 50 years. started out right out of high school with Supermarkets in Oklahoma. And I spent 27 years there and then proceeded to move around to I my move after there was kind of Oklahoma City with Bifidilus. And then I went to Bruno's in Alabama.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: If you don't have common language for how you treat your guests, how you treat each other, and how you treat the work, the numbers are not gonna be sustainable. In this conversation, we walked through all five rules, including the one rule he had to rename after he watched leaders misread it as soft. We talk about how to spot real drama in your team versus the real life events somebody is carrying into the door.

We all have those people that are just filled with drama as well as Steve Black: Well, I worked on my Southern draw a little bit while I was down there. I left there, went to all the way out to Arizona with Sunflower Farmers Markets. And then Sprouts acquired us, came on at Sprouts as ⁓ VP of and then into the CIO role and then the Chief Marketing Officer role for that company, we went public and that was quite an adventure. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: those that truly have life issues. And we get into a phrase his coaching that every leader should steal. ⁓ me when you need something. Oftentimes, in my world, I get my team, ⁓ you're so busy, I don't want to bother you.

⁓ But leaders are there to help ⁓ make that they ⁓ help staff get to where they want to get to. ⁓ If new to the channel, ⁓ my is Jeremy Julian. I am the Chief Revenue Officer at CBS Northstar. ⁓ If haven't already subscribed, please do so.

Steve Black: And then a couple years after that, moved to Colorado where I live now. I worked for Lucky's Markets up here in Colorado as president. couple years there and then went to Louisiana to Rouse's Markets and was president and chief operating officer there. ⁓ had 64 stores, three states and about 7,000 team members.

about four years ago, I semi-retired from there. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: sure. And today's episode, I am joined by Steve Black.

I've known of Steve for quite some time, but he and I hadn't gotten a chance to connect until very recently. He's been over 50 years in grocery, United Supermarkets, Sprouts as the CIO and CMO through their IPO. He was the president of Lucky's Markets. He was the COO at Rouse's, 64 stores down in the Southeast.

worked with John Maxwell and now he has written a new book and working harder now than before. Before you retired, I'm sure. Steve Black: Well, I'm working hard, but in the grocery business, it's five, six, seven days a week. So I'm kind of semi-retired, honestly.

And then I wrote my book, which you just showed me up. You held that up a while ago and had it, but sent that to you to read. But then started speaking in the National Grocers Association. And then Rafta, several of the grocery associations and Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: recorded an audio, translated it to Chinese, translated it to Spanish, built a master class. He is a true leader's leader. And his and my episode continues to resonate my brain as things that we need to continue to do. So I would encourage you to check it out and try and implement some of these solutions into your brand.

And now onto the episode. Steve Black: just really had people then come up to me and interested in the five rules, which are the five expected behaviors of your team. I would tell you after 50 years in the business, if you can get everybody behaving the same way, using same common language, you really have something there. you know, were, ⁓ we then had the book come out in English and the audio book, which I recorded the audio book.

And then had it translated into Spanish. And then I had to hire somebody to translate it into the audio book in the Spanish because I don't speak Spanish. And then I just recently translated it into Chinese. So I'm working with the IGF stores over in China and we're going to work.

We're going to do some workshops over there because the guy I work with there said there was a lot of leadership books in China, but not any that came out of the grocery business. And so a lot of value there. And Then went on to launch an online masterclass. the biggest question I always got was, we love these five rules, how do we get them out in all these stores and to the leadership in all the stores?

So that's the beauty of a masterclass. So I up with Jonathan Perkins from ⁓ Social And he helped put together this whole ⁓ online which at this point, I've had over 20,000 people go through the masterclass. So it's been ⁓ very Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah.

That's incredible. Steve Black: And it's changing behaviors. So that's the fun part that I'm having now is kind of being able to influence. ⁓ that's what leadership is, is influence and be able to influence some of the, especially young leaders coming up in the business.

And I've even got some clients that have been selling groceries for over a hundred years ⁓ never invested in leadership training before now. And the biggest comment I get is, if we'd had this 20 years ago. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah, what a difference that would have made.

Well, that was part of why I, you know, for any of the long time listeners or people that know me outside of kind of the podcast, they know that ⁓ I'm a prolific reader. I'm constantly trying to invest in myself, but that's not always the way that you do things out there in the world. And unfortunately, you know, there used to be kind of mentorship systems, you know, years ago, you'd kind of come underneath somebody's wing and Steve Black: Okay. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: and they would help lead you. anymore, it's kind of like, hey, sink or swim, go figure it out. And if you're not a self-motivated person. The other thing that I was thinking about while you were explaining, Steve, we're on the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, but restaurants just a form of retail.

And so every once in while we'll get somebody that's in the grocery space or, you know, they're adjacent markets. They serve a lot of the same consumers. I guess I'd love for you to just kind of share with our listeners really. Business is all about people and leading people and helping them to go there before we kind of dig into the five rules.

Cause I'd love to dig through each of those. But why do you think our listeners should listen to a 50 year grocery guy if I run a restaurant? Because you know, I know the answer to that, but I'd love for you to share a little bit of that before we keep rolling. Steve Black: That's good.

I love that question. And I'll tell you this, my first slide in my keynote speech on the five rules has two images. The first image is we're a people business. And the second image is everyone deserves to be led well.

So when you think about that, you're in a restaurant or convenience store or grocery store, Simon ⁓ says and it's kind of tongue in cheek, 100 % of your customers ⁓ are 100 % of your team members are people 100 % of your owners ⁓ people. So ⁓ in the world you wouldn't focus on people is beyond him, the way he describes it. And I, and I so agree with that. And I, and I can tell you throughout my career, I've been real involved in tech, as former CIO at sprouts and, and you can so much about the business, but if you don't truly understand, if you're not a student of people, You're going to have a hard time.

again, from a technology standpoint, I I used to, I was able to, worked for United Supermarkets when we transitioned from non-scanning to scanning. I had gotten my certification. I could, I could shut a store down, replace the hose, end system, bring it all to life, the store by 7 a.m.

the next morning. And when became president of the company, you know how much value that skill had for me? Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. But leading people. Yeah. Nobody cared that you knew how to, cable went in where and how to, how to do those things.

But, ⁓ again, ⁓ ⁓ say it all the time and I know it's, you know, it's, it's similar to your Simon Sinek thing. ⁓ business is a people business. ⁓ matter what you're doing. Every business is a people business at the end of the day.

Right. Steve Black: Zero. Nobody was impressed. Right.

It is. Yeah, yeah, I tell the grocery channel for sure. Try to run one of these things by yourself. doesn't work.

It does not work. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, so you've been in leadership, you've been in kind of a place of influence for quite some time, Steve.

So I guess walk me through the inception of kind of where the five rules came from, because typically books don't just come out of thin air, you know, unless your name is Sean Maxwell, who I know you're an understudy of, and it seems like that guy has a book, you know, but typically they're percolating for years before you actually put them down on paper. So I'd love for you to kind of... talk through some of the lessons before we jump straight into the rules, because I do think, you know, the ideas have been there.

You've lived them. I've read through at least what the five rules are, and you kind of sent me a gift box, and I'll put it up for those listeners that, you know, that are out on online, you know, watching. you know, I guess, where did the whole inception of the idea of creating the book before the masterclass and even all of that come from? Steve Black: Yeah, that's great.

as a leader, and John Maxwell, I was in his inner circle for a year. So he personally mentored me for a year and he challenged me one night at dinner to write a set of five rules and live by him, teach by him, coach by him. And, you know, that was kind of ⁓ it started. And then ⁓ had worked with a guy that ⁓ Stafford with AWG.

Kansas City and ⁓ had set of three rules and the first one was do your job and his third one was no surprises. I him if I could borrow those and I built on those. I changed rule number two and then I added rule number four and rule number five. And ⁓ I brought him to life honestly when I was at Sprouts ⁓ about years ago, 12 years ago.

And before went public, our CEO there, Doug Sanders, wanted me to really you know, teach on the five rules. So it was kind of the first time I ever put together a full presentation on them because we had talked about them and it was a set of rules that I went by. I expect my team to go by and so they had already kind of garnered some attention, you know, in the Sprouts world. And so anyway, before we went public, he asked me to present that to the entire executive team.

So that was my first time, honestly, to present the five rules as we kind of know them today. And you can only imagine as a company that's about to go public, very important that the behaviors are right. And one of the rules really fit in good to that, to that meeting that we had and then the launch. And then it just really gained momentum, you know, after that.

And each, you when I was at Sprouts and with Lucky's and with Rouse's, I mean, ⁓ we, we, walked the door with the five rules. Everybody jumped on board of the five rules. And they're still alive and well today in the companies that I came from. And ⁓ I semi-retired, I was a little concerned that ⁓ five rules would have any kind of impact if I wasn't really one of the executive team members ⁓ the company.

And of that was laid to rest because people just grabbed a hold of them, embedded them their culture. And again, today, ⁓ it's just to see the transformation that takes place when you focus on people and how you behave. when you don't behave properly, you get called out. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Mm-hmm. Well, and the other thing that I love about it, and you said it at kind of the onset, Steve, is the whole idea that says once you've got people rowing in the same direction with the same set of rules, it's amazing. You know, it's it almost reminds me of kind of that Archimedes, know, like, you know, give me a long enough lever and I can move the move the world. Same idea with this five rules is like you've got the ability once you've got everybody rowing in the same direction.

So why don't you start with rule number one? What is rule number one? Again, for those that haven't gotten the book yet, Why don't you talk, what is rule number one and why do you think it's so critical to be number one? Cause you picked it as number one for a reason.

Steve Black: is a great question. ⁓ rule number one is do your job. And ⁓ real simple. I focus on each of the three words.

It's do your job. It's action. I tell the team, I always tell my teams, you know what, it's okay to hurry. So do your job.

⁓ And then need you to just do your job. Focus on your Don't worry about everybody else. Over my years ⁓ the business, I've so many people that just wanted to Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Steve Black: Be sure to point out what everybody else is doing wrong. And they really just needed to focus on what they're doing. And then the last word obviously is job.

We're paying adult money. So we'd like for you to give me adult performance here with the way you're going to do your job. And you never want to back up to a paycheck. So you really want to do your job.

And if everybody on the team does their job, everything works. And when they don't, Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: when you get the conflicts that arise ⁓ the business.

⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Well, and I think we've, we both have led for a number of years. And I think there's oftentimes that we get stuck in this. like to call it sideways energy where you're constantly thinking about, they're not this and they're not that I've got, you know, three teenagers and a 10 year old at home.

And well, this, you know, kid didn't do that. It's like, stop you continue to do what you're supposed to do and don't worry about anybody else and spend all of that energy doing what you were trained to do, what, ⁓ you ⁓ be doing, ⁓ worrying about. you know, somebody else's role in the, in the deal. I guess I'd love for you to kind of, kind of share what kind of impact do see when people own this role?

Steve Black: Well, and that's what's fun. way I explain it, know, at end in the book, I have five life lessons under each rule on how to do that rule only better. So I share that ⁓ the in the book and in the podcast and in the ⁓ class. But doing job is something you need to first of all know what your job is.

⁓ And that's I can tell you throughout my career. There was so many people, myself included. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm.

Steve Black: the training was not where it needed to be. didn't get trained like, you know, kind of thrown in there and figured out the way I kind of learned a whole lot of stuff in my early years. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: included probably change on the front end of those stores back in the day, right?

It was like, don't know, figure it out. Hopefully, hopefully you can open the next morning, right? Steve Black: Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

That's a little pressure there, ⁓ really need to know what your job is. You need to do it. You need to own it. And you need to be adult to accept that ⁓ that's you're hired on to do.

And it's really like chess pieces on a chessboard. Each player ⁓ move a way, hop so many And that's the way it is with teams is it takes really the orchestration of everybody that knows what their job is. And they simply... do it and they do it every day.

one of the challenges we've had throughout ⁓ career and I see it every day today is consistency in doing your job. One day you do it good and the next day you kind of slap it off and don't do it so good. I tell you that do your job gets repeated throughout the grocery industry ⁓ and clients ⁓ businesses it comes up a lot honestly ⁓ when not doing their job. we have these wristbands where we everybody gets these wristbands with the five rules on them.

If everybody's wearing a wristband with the five rules on them and somebody's not doing their job. And you need to have a coaching conversation with them. ⁓ real easy to just reach over there and touch that wristband and say, Hey, that rule number one is do your job and you're not doing your job. And if you'll let me coach you a little bit, I'll help you get there.

That's one of the things ⁓ I think these rules help. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: Again, it's a common language throughout the organization.

And once you're introduced to the five rules and you hear one of them again, you're like, ⁓ you're right. Do your job. Do your job. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Yep, yeah, and I think it's incumbent upon us leaders to help people to do their jobs successfully because people, I fundamentally believe that people want to do a good job, but they need clarity, they need leadership, they need direction that says this is what a good job looks like. the second rule is slightly akin to a family rule that we have. ⁓ And as we raise our kids, we often would say, was that loving and was that kind? Steve Black: Absolutely.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: And so this was, know, ⁓ somebody stole my toy. Was that, you know, and I hit them. ⁓ was that loving and was that kind?

And our best friends would pick on us. We'd vacation with them and they'd like, they'd always tease us as the adults that later after the kids went to bed, was that loving? Was that kind? But at the end of the day, I love that idea that says, you know, so rule number two, guess, dig in a little bit deeper.

What does it mean to buy by being kind, I guess? Steve Black: Yeah. And the rule used to be when I first did just the three rules, rule number two was be nice. People misinterpreted that as soft.

So I changed it to kind because there's no really misinterpretation of kind, ⁓ I will also tell you that now that this is implemented out in so many ⁓ across the country, I've had so many people come back and say that's been the most impactful rule. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: with our teams because our teams, we're finding that our teams are kinder to our customers.

They're kinder to our vendor partners. They're kinder to each other. If that's not a win, I don't know. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Yeah. and sometimes even being kind sometimes mean it's having a hard conversation. ⁓ being kind goes back to rule one that says, you really doing your job because it's hurting our customer or it's hurting our vendor ⁓ it's hurting ⁓ fellow team member. So sorry to me to interrupt you there, but I love that role.

And I, you know, wanted to just remind everybody that kind doesn't always be nice. ⁓ means that that kind might mean that we've got to achieve this goal and you got to go work a little bit harder to get there. Steve Black: Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, my son Travis Black has the five rules in his car dealership in Waukee, Iowa, and he's got a big sign up on the wall and he's got it's, you know, real number ones do your job. Real number two is be kind and there's a little asterisk by be kind. And when you look at the bottom, it says he's if you don't do rule number one, I don't have to do rule number two.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: that the truth, right? ⁓ all probably had some unkind conversations with ⁓ members and ⁓ certainly have with my children. That's for darn sure.

Steve Black: So. Yeah. Well, and I teach this all the time. It's easy to be kind to kind people.

The challenge comes in when they're not unkind, when that customer walks in and they're infuriated and they're mad. Well, a test or you got a team member that's not doing their job and you just keep having to talk to them or they're creating drama or whatever. And, know, I do since COVID, Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm.

Steve Black: The world seems to be angrier than it's ever been. I don't know why. don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true.

Yeah. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah, definitely more isolated. I think it's more isolated.

You know, as I look at my teen kids, they're able to live a life completely devoid of having to be a real human around other people. Steve Black: Yeah, that's right. But you know, and there's never really a reason to be unkind. And in my presentation, I play the Chick-fil-A video about every life has a story.

And think about everybody that you work with, every customer that walks in your store, they got stuff going on. And man, if we ever, if there was ever a time for kindness to be front and center, it's today. you just don't know what kind of battles people are fighting when they walk, when they come to work, when they come in your store. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: And you know, even the vendor partners that are delivering bread to your store, you don't know what they faced before they got there. So take it easy on them, you know, and assume the best first. Don't just jump right in the middle of somebody, but being kind is, is, has really been a game changer.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, no, I, that one definitely of the five, would say that that one probably resonated with me the most. Steve, just because I've shared this video, ⁓ Chick-fil-A video with a few people, can you just walk through it for just a second?

Cause ⁓ it ⁓ might have been one of the most impactful videos I've ⁓ watched. ⁓ I saw it probably 10 years ago at a John Maxwell ⁓ and it still resonates with me where, ⁓ that whole, you don't know what the story that else living with. ⁓ They just got diagnosed with cancer. They lost their mom last night.

I guess, give everybody a picture real quick and I'll see if I can find the link to put it in the video before I post this. Steve Black: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. it's and you can find it on YouTube.

Just every life has a story Chick-fil-A and you can find it. And they've actually got two versions of it now. So but I was in the Chick-fil-A offices with John Maxwell when they debuted that video and we were kind of set up theater style. There was about 300 of us.

And I'm glad they had boxes of Kleenexes around because there wasn't a dry eye in that in that audience when that video stopped playing. it really every customer that walks in the door, it kind of shows a blurb of what's going on in their life. And it makes you pause ⁓ again, there's some gut wrenching stories that's going on in people's lives, ⁓ it's death or cancer or child in the that's gone off to war or you know, there's a little girl in the video that hurt, you know, that the mom died in childbirth and the dad blames her and, and ⁓ my gosh, ⁓ know, it just pulls your heart.

come out of your chest. But what it did for me was I never walked into my corporate office or any store or any any really any venue that had several people that that I wasn't replaying that video in my mind. And I've watched it thousands of times, thousands of times. And it still chokes me up and it puts my feet firmly on the ground to be reminded why we need to be kind to people.

We shouldn't have a really have to have a reason to be kind to people. But sometimes we have to be reminded why we need to be kind to people. mean, and ⁓ went through that, you know, when I was with Rouse's in New Orleans, I mean, I'd go into stores and I'd talk to people and they'd tell me maybe something they'd experienced. And I'm like, ⁓ my gosh.

⁓ they're there with a smile on their face, taking care of customers. And then maybe they had a child that got murdered last night or a parent that was killed in a car wreck. And you're just like, how are you even here? Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you're here bagging groceries or you're here stocking a shelf or whatever else. Yeah. Yeah.

And I love that. We don't, we don't know. And again, to your point, there's times even in kind of the do your job where you show up and you're not fully present to be able to do your job. But oftentimes it's because something else has got on your brain.

You had a kid that was up sick all night and you're not willing to tell your boss that, but your performance is not exactly where, where you need to be. That's where Steve Black: Yeah, yeah. yeah, what a lesson for us as leaders. Thanks.

Yeah. Yeah. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Be kind really, I guess can make a difference as a leader.

Steve Black: Yeah, I read a story the other day where this guy was was constantly being late to come to work and his boss pulled him in his office and said, hey, what's going on here? You've been late a lot what are we what are we doing here? And he goes, ⁓ I'm taking my wife to chemo and I'm having to take my kids to school and I'm sorry, here's my resignation letter. And he just knew that he needed to resign.

And the boss took that resignation letter and tore it up. He said, no, you can be on half days till you get past this crisis. And when you think about what we're supposed to be, is leaders forget the policy guide, forget all of that. When somebody's going through something, it's OK to pick them up and carry them through that valley.

⁓ really a big missing piece in corporate America today is ⁓ to policy, we can't do this, can't do that. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: hate it. hate it.

⁓ well, let's take through ⁓ number 3. Steve, so no surprises. As a leader, I love this one ⁓ because too often I get less kind when I get surprised by things and I'm now on my heels trying to deal with something. But where did no surprises come from?

Steve Black: Well, initially it came from, from as a CIO at Sprouts, there would be times my CEO or COO would be out in the stores and the stores were always happy to report to them that they had two lanes down or three credit card machines down or a printer down. And the first person they'd call was me. I'm like, I'll tell you what guys, I'll make you a deal. Why don't you just call me in the first place?

And that's kind of where the no surprises came from was. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: ⁓ huh. Yeah.

Steve Black: was because usually when I'd get a phone call like that, I'd be like, well, first I've heard of it. know, can't fix what I don't know is wrong. And ⁓ and throughout the whole business world, there's so many times ⁓ surprises. I did a recent podcast with Greg Rush of the Houchins food group, and he said no surprises is probably the ⁓ most rule from his They'll walk in the door or send him an email or send him a text and say.

This is under no surprises, boss, so you need to know this. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: We're giving you bad news early and often. I tell my team that all the time.

Give me the bad news early. I'd rather know about it before it becomes a problem than after it becomes a problem, Steve Black: Yeah. Yeah. Right.

And that's what I talk about in the book is, is we got to solve problems at the spark level, not the roaring fire level. And when you set on information, as we all know, that bad news never gets better with time. we have to ⁓ it as soon as possible. And a lot of times I'd have people say, well, you're so busy.

I hate to bother you. And I ⁓ always ⁓ I say, bother me. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: ⁓ gosh, if I don't hear that 10 times a day from my team.

⁓ huh. Steve Black: Please bother me and as you know, sometimes you can get things done that they can't get done and you can get it done quicker. Especially when there's so many moving parts, moving fast and all that. If you'll tell me as soon as you know you got a problem you can't solve, raise your hand.

That's another one of my lessons is raise your hand. It's not a crime to have a problem, but it's a crime to have a problem and not raise your hand. When there's thousands of people that can help you. Don't think you gotta do your job by yourself.

It just means part of doing your job is knowing when to raise your hand and ask for help. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah. And it might not mean that you moved the monkey off of your back onto the leader's back.

might be that you just now are at a place where, Hey, we recognize, you know, we recognize that this is a, this is something that, that I can help you work through. And it's still going back to rule number one of do your job, but me and now as the leader can help accelerate you. Steve, what's rule number four. Steve Black: Thank Right.

Rule number four is no drama. again, that's a crowd favorite because we all live in ⁓ levels of drama field lives. it wasn't till I was doing some research on the book that I realized there were drama addicts. There's people have been raised in a cesspool of drama and gossip and they think it's normal.

Well, it's not normal. Yeah, it's not. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yeah, they seek it out.

They seek it out from time to time. We had somebody in our life group and our smoke group. was like, they just like living in the whitewash. It's like, come on, man, get out of it.

Steve Black: Yeah, I've known people that if there wasn't drama, they were going to create it because that's just where they're comfortable. you know, and Dave Ramsey has a no gossip policy in his company and he'll warn you one time. And that video is in my masterclass, but that's a pretty, pretty direct video to you. He'll warn you one time.

Here's your somebody else hears you, then you're gone. No, they don't write you up. They don't give you put you on a pip plan or nothing. You're gone.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: And he had to fire one or two people when he first started his company. And now he doesn't have to fire anybody now for gossiping because the team takes care of that.

If there's a group in the break room and somebody's gossiping, just drama. And a team member on his team will look at him and say, Hey, we don't do that here. And that puts a stop to it. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Well, because as a leader all too often we're dealing with the internal drama between team members or so I heard so and so said this about so it's like, you know what, that rule alone just sets such a foundation of success to be able to say, Hey, back to my, my comments about sideways energy. I that's a, that's another one for me is stop the sideways energy. You got a problem, go deal with it directly with that team member. I'm struggling back to some of these rules.

Good. Hey Steve, it really hurt me when you do this and teaching them how to, to have that hard conversation with them. Steve Black: Yeah. All right.

Yeah. That's great. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: makes so many things so much easier, right?

Steve Black: Yeah, that's right. And I have a little practical thing I do when I when I give seminars is I have a drama towel. ⁓ have people that have these hanging up. ⁓ hanging up right outside my garage here, my garage door.

And when I come home from work, I reach over there and wipe that work drum on that towel. I come in my house and I'm present. And ⁓ like when I leave in the morning to go to work, I reach over there and wipe that home drum on that towel and I go to work and do my job. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Yeah, I love that. Mm-hmm. Great. Steve Black: know, because ⁓ that you work with and everybody you live with has drama.

There's no need to add to that. ⁓ they can't solve it anyway. It's just it's just gossip and drama. Man, if we just we really have no drama not in the room and in the if you're in a conference room, ⁓ you trying to have a meeting and somebody starts bringing up drama, you just say, we're not going to talk about that here.

And it's really that simple. It's hard to believe it's that simple to stop it. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yes.

Steve Black: But as soon as you stop it, then don't have that conversation again with you. But, ⁓ we've got to understand the difference in drama and real life events. If can't pay their mortgage or they had a car wreck, that's not drama. That's a life event.

We need to give them time to go take care of that ⁓ or be that they're going through that. And so ⁓ again, there's huge difference in drama and real life events that people need. They need ⁓ grace ⁓ get that. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Yeah, and I guess a little bit deeper as a leader in the past or ⁓ you train in the masterclass, ⁓ do you help people to discern the difference between drama and real life situations? ⁓ ⁓ are people on everybody's team ⁓ create the drama. ⁓ amazingly, ⁓ they ⁓ have something they're carrying into work every day and that is drama. And then there's other times that they truly did have a...

flat tire on their way to work, is why they're why they're later, whatever else. Steve Black: Yeah, and it's really almost a case by case situation. But everybody becomes cognizant of drama, and drama really is talking to somebody about something that can do nothing about it. And a best definition that I've come up with on how to deal with it.

you just to, ⁓ somebody in room has to stop it. And if there's only two people in the room, then you're the person. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: You got to be that person to have that hard conversation.

What's the last rule, Steve? Again, I feel like could sit and talk to you about every one of these rules forever and we'll give everybody the opportunity to go find the book as well as ⁓ figure out how to get involved in the masterclass before we get over. But what is the fifth rule? Steve Black: The fifth rules protect the brand.

initially that rule was protect the mothership. ⁓ the reason I changed it to protect the brand ⁓ obviously the brand encompasses everything. what ⁓ early teachings was, especially in a multi-unit environment, can have a store or a restaurant do something that could potentially bring the mothership down. And so that's really the lesson.

The illustration used in the book was back Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Okay. Mm-hmm. Steve Black: you know, several years ago, 20, 30 years ago, Food Lion had somebody in there, recording ⁓ bad hamburger meat grinding and that went viral.

And want to talk about ⁓ almost the mothership down that one event. And of course today everybody's got a cell phone that walks in your store. So if you're doing something or restaurant, you're doing something today, there's a chance it's going to be on the, on social media within ⁓ two minutes. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...

: Yeah. Well, the other piece that even back to your comment about the no gossip or no drama, ⁓ often will find, we'll go out and hear something about the brand. You'll be at a cocktail party. You'll be at the football game.

You'll be at ⁓ you at a golf round and somebody will say something, well, I ⁓ so and heard so and so about this brand ⁓ back to them. The brands say, no, ⁓ I think there's something about that story. And I've heard people say this. And then, you know, as somebody that might be a leader in that business, you're go back and fix that, but you're going to protect the brand even in those social settings, because those things have a chance to catch on fire, like you said.

Steve Black: yeah, yeah. ⁓ really think I'm kind of working on a second book and it may be protect the brand and all facets of the brand. Obviously when you're selling food, especially prepared food, if don't do things right, somebody could get sick or worse, they could die. So one of lessons too is you always ask yourself, what's the worst that can happen?

Well, ⁓ if the that can happen is somebody could die, you better pay to what you're doing. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Black: And so, but from an initial standpoint on Protect the Brand, as I say, we're the brand. not the logo on the shirt. It's not the logo on our business card. It's not the sign on the building.

It's us. It's the people in the organization. We're brand and we have to protect each other. And what seen throughout my career is sometimes we're the meanest to the ones we ⁓ work with the building and are supposed to be taking this company and this business forward.

And yet we're not protecting each other. We're just piling on, kind of shooting our own wounded, to speak. And so from a protect the brand standpoint on the people front is we protect each other. Just like a family, we ever let somebody say something bad about my brother or my sister, my mother, my kids.

⁓ It's you don't want to go there. And I think the same to your point. Somebody brings up something bad about the brand and you're like, no, that's not the whole story. There's more to that.

And you truly each other. ⁓ Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Steve Black: And if you really have a problem with a team member, get with them one-on-one and have an adult conversation don't sugarcoat it and don't exaggerate it, but just have a conversation.

⁓ need to talk about this because you're not protecting the brand. And I use the acronym SAD. You protect the brand by what you say and how you act and what you do. And really emphasize that before we went public.

one of big teachings on especially public officers, you go out and do something crazy, get arrested and all that kind of stuff. The headlines will never have your name in it. It'll be your role in the company you work for. You want to talk about protect the brand.

know, there's a lot of people that that needed to learn about protect the brand before they went out and did ⁓ made a bad decision and got in trouble then then then really tarnished the brand. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Yep. Well, and all too often, I mean, you think back about some of the biggest business scandals.

It wasn't that Enron started day one being that way. There was lots of things that happened before Enron fell. There was lots of things that happened before each of these things. There were so many warning signs and back to the protect the brand and doing the hard things and doing it right is critical.

And I love the all five of those lessons. You didn't stop with just the book. You talk about the masterclass. I'd love for you to wrap a little bit.

What is the masterclass? I know you shared it with me directly, but I'd love for our listeners to hear, how do you embed these? Yes, reading a book is awesome. I love that you've distilled them down, but it's really hard to embed these into the frontline workers.

Most people don't read nearly as much as I do for sure. So how do you embed these in and how does it make a difference in the organizations? so I know you've got a path for people to ⁓ do that. Steve Black: Yeah, so what I'd actually done with one of my clients down in Pearl River, Louisiana, AWG, Mike Schumacher, he brought me in to teach the five rules, teach on the five rules.

And I went through, so there's five rules underneath each lessons, five, each rules, five life lessons on how to do that real better. So there's 30 lessons. So I created a PowerPoint. And I actually go through each one of those rules and lessons with me embedded in a small video circle in that class.

And then I have homework at the end of each rule where there's two homework assignments. really is. the videos are only five to seven minutes a piece. So attention span ⁓ those of us in the grocery world and obviously probably the restaurant world as well is you don't want to sit in front of a computer for hours.

Nobody to do that. we really Recommend take 30 weeks one lesson a week and and you watch it Your team needs to watch it and then you talk about it in your weekly staff meeting and so it in Maxwell companies We talk about learn a little do a little learn a little do a little learn a little do a little ⁓ so really take it ⁓ dissected bite-sized chunks and Take this week's lesson go bring it to life in the sales floor and with the team next week's lesson, same thing. So you repeat that for 30 weeks.

And it's that's been one of the most, you know, formulaic things we did was was really broke it up because you can set and read the book in two and a half hours. You can watch master class in three hours. But it's all about retaining and teaching, retaining and teaching. And so that's when you see the five rules come to life in an organization and people just grab onto it and bring it to life in their circle.

So when you're affecting circles throughout your organization, that's when culture is impacted the most. that's when people have seen these good results ⁓ the five rules. But then also, ⁓ amazing how when get the values right, instead of in the grocery business, we've always coached the numbers. If we'll coach to these five behaviors, the five behaviors is what's producing the numbers.

So let's get the behaviors. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Mm-hmm. Those are just an end result of the behaviors that you're doing with your guests and with your team members all the time.

I try and remind people it's getting up and doing your job. It's getting up and living these five rules that ultimately lead to the success. I tell a very true story. Years ago, I was working with In-N-Out Burger, a very, very successful brand.

Obviously, anybody in the restaurant space knows them. And I had asked, what makes it so successful? And almost every one of your rules was part of what they said. Steve Black: Yeah.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: We find the right people, a second chance, but if you haven't figured it out, you're gone, so we can't ⁓ with the culture. We really only measure two things ⁓ the time. They were only measuring two things because everything else was part of the spec, and if you did the things right, ⁓ rest of it took care of itself.

And so it is a simple game, but it's not easy. It's simple, it's not easy. ⁓ Steve Black: right. That's right.

That's right. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: you still open, Steven? I don't even know the answer to this question.

Are you still open to larger brands coming in and doing workshops as well ⁓ you know, the book and kind of the masterclass? Okay. Steve Black: Yep, for sure. Yeah.

And that's, that's what's kind of been fun about the evolution of writing the book, doing the audio book, the Spanish version, the Chinese version, the masterclass. Now I'm in a position that if somebody wants to, you know, I usually get brought in to do the keynote and launch it with the teams. then they, somebody in the organization usually, you know, whether it's a CEO, COO or, or head of HR, I mean, they'll take it and then help pulse it out throughout those 30 weeks. And then, and then sometimes several of my clients, we then come back and had a graduation ceremony where when everybody gets through with the 30 weeks, then I'll come back in then and do a graduation Cause I talk about being a river, not a reservoir.

⁓ so once you've learned this, don't hold onto it like a reservoir does be a river and keep spreading that down, you know, throughout the, throughout the valleys of your teams and ⁓ the, ⁓ teams ⁓ that way. So. Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: awesome.

Love it. So how do people get in touch, Steve? How do people learn more? How do they engage?

know, obviously, you know, the five rules, I'll show it back up on the screen. I'll have a link to it. You know, I know that that's there. I know that you've got the master classes, you know, what should they expect?

They've now listened to 40 minutes of us talking ⁓ are like, I need this. How do I figure out how to get engaged? Steve Black: Yeah, so my website is abriterday.live on the front page is there's a link to see the master class.

There's a little video that explains the master class and how to sign up. And then there's a, can contact me ⁓ my website. And ⁓ also write ⁓ monthly leadership article for the Shelby report. It's trade magazine for the grocery business that goes out to about 74,000 subscribers every month.

And so I have those all of those lessons as well blog form on my website. and I have I'm proud to have both of my sons have written leadership ⁓ ⁓ son, Jared Black, my son, Travis Black. They have second generation leadership lessons on my website. And then my grandson, Vax Black, he a ⁓ leadership there.

So we've got some generational leadership content on website. So that's available. But honestly, the way to Contact me is through that and email is just steveatabrightarday.life and ⁓ be glad to follow and get back with somebody on that.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Well, Steve, I thank you for the book. I thank you for writing the book. I thank you for distilling down so many of life lessons that you've learned over your leadership journey.

And love to hear the impact ⁓ these are making, not just in your family, but in the businesses that you've impacted. And so thank you for sharing the wisdom and bringing things to light for our listeners. Steve Black: Thanks Jeremy for having me. It's been fun.

Jeremy Julian - Restaurant ...: Awesome. To our listeners guys, like I say at the beginning, you guys have got lots of choices. So thanks for hanging out.

Please go check out Steve's book and his website and make it a great day.