117: Succession Planning

Guests: Jeff Keesel (Outgoing CEO, Restaurant Technologies) & Alyssa Partee (Incoming CEO, Restaurant Technologies)

---

Episode Summary

This episode tackles one of the most requested topics from restaurant operators: succession planning. Not the glossy version, but the real one where founders have to look in the mirror and ask, "Am I still the right person to lead this business?" Jeff Keesel shares his 21-year journey building Restaurant Technologies and the intentional process of transitioning leadership to Alyssa Partee, who spent four years building the people and culture infrastructure before stepping into the CEO role.

---

Key Takeaways

1. Don't Fall in Love with Yesterday
What got you here won't get you there. Change readiness and adaptability are essential. The business that worked last week might need a different approach this week.

2. Start Succession Planning Before You Think You Need To
Jeff began thinking about succession before their 2022 sale process concluded. The first question from the new board: "Are you going to continue as CEO into your late 60s and early 70s?" That conversation accelerated everything.

3. Look Inside Before Looking Outside
They spent 18 months interviewing external candidates before realizing the right leader was already in the building. Internal successors bring institutional knowledge, cultural alignment, and established trust that external hires can't replicate.

4. Develop Leaders by Treating Them as They Should Be
Jeff's philosophy: "I'll treat you as you should be, not as you think you are." The most talented people rise to higher expectations. Throw them in the deep end with a safety net.

5. Collaborative Tension Builds Better Decisions
Jeff and Alyssa want the same outcomes but often disagree on how to get there. That healthy tension, grounded in trust and transparency, produces better decisions than constant agreement.

6. Hire for Grit
Jeff's go-to interview question: "What's the hardest thing you've had to overcome? How'd you do it? What'd you learn?" People who have overcome real struggles bring resilience that can't be taught.

7. The Transition Should Be Invisible
When they announced the change internally, the response was cheers and excitement. No surprises. The team had watched Jeff and Alyssa work side by side for years. Where Jeff was, Alyssa was. The handoff felt natural because it had been happening gradually all along.

---

Timestamps

• [00:00] Introduction: Why succession planning matters for independent restaurant owners
• [03:15] Jeff's story: When succession planning became real
• [08:42] The external search: 18 months of interviews and what they learned
• [14:30] Alyssa's journey from CPO to operations to CEO
• [21:15] Collaborative tension: How healthy disagreement builds better leadership
• [28:00] Identifying grit in the hiring process
• [35:45] How to know when your organization is ready for change
• [42:30] The emotional side of stepping back as a founder
• [48:00] Advice for restaurant owners: What Jeff and Alyssa wish they'd known earlier

---

Questions for Reflection

1. Who are you developing right now? And do they know it?
2. If you stepped away tomorrow, would your business survive without you?
3. Are you building something that can outlast your daily involvement?
4. When was the last time you had healthy tension with a leadership partner that led to a better decision?

---

Resources Mentioned

• Episode 90: Alyssa Partee on "Do You Know Your Business Well Enough to Change It?"
• Book: Multi-Unit Mastery by Christin Marvin (free copy at IRFBook.com)

---

Connect

• Christin Marvin: christinmarvin.com/contact
• Restaurant Technologies: restauranttechnologies.com

---

About the Podcast

The Restaurant Leadership Podcast coaches independent multi-unit restaurant operators to build systems that drive profitability and reclaim time, so they can scale with confidence and spend their energy where they want to, not where they have to.

P.S. Ready to take your restaurant to the next level? 

• Get the Independent Restaurant Framework that's helped countless owners build thriving multi-location brands. Grab your copy at https://www.IRFbook.com

Here is my calendar link so you can book time with me: 

• https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/bookings/christin-marvin-personal-calendar-r1jjarmnw

Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Don't fall in love with yesterday. That's something Jeff Keesel, the outgoing CEO of Restaurant Technology, said during our conversation today. And I want you all to sit with that for a second. Because if you're an independent restaurant owner who's built something real, something that runs on your energy, your relationships, your name on the door, those words might make you a little uncomfortable. And they should. Because the thing that got you here is not the thing that's going to get you there. Welcome back to the show, everybody. We are talking about one of the most requested topics I get from operators at every stage of growth: succession planning. Not the glossy version, the real version. The one where a founder has to look in the mirror and ask, am I still the right person to lead this? And then actually do something about the answer. Restaurant Technologies has been a trusted partner of Calmbine Hospitality. And when their team reached out with the really exciting news that they were promoting Alyssa Partee to CEO, I knew this was a conversation that we had to have on the show. I don't do many interviews anymore, and I'm pretty intentional about who I bring onto this mic, but this one, this one was a no-brainer. What you're about to hear is a master class and how to build a bench before you need one. How to identify and develop the leader who will one day take the wheel from you, and how to make the transition land well for the team, for the culture, and for the business. If you've ever wondered whether you'll be able to step back from your restaurant, whether you're building something that can outlast your daily involvement, this episode is your answer. And the answer starts with one question: Who are you developing right now? And how do they know it? Today I'm joined by Jeff Keisel, who's been the president and CEO of Restaurant Technologies and helped build the company into what it is today, and Alyssa Parti, who is stepping into the CEO role after four years of building the people and culture infrastructure that made this transition possible. Jeff, Alyssa, welcome to the show. Let's get into it. Welcome to the Restaurant Leadership Podcast, where we coach independent, multi-unit restaurant operators to build systems that drive profitability and reclaim time so they can scale with confidence and spend their time and energy where they want to, not where they have to. I'm your host, Kristen Marvin, restaurant coach and author of Multi-unit Mastery. If you are an independent restaurant owner managing multiple locations, you know the chaos that comes with growth. Inconsistent execution across your restaurants. Managers who won't take ownership. Constantly answering questions your team should already know the answers to. You're stuck in your current role when you want to be playing a bigger strategic role as you scale. You don't have the right leaders in place, or you keep losing them. And you're not sure how to find great people and actually keep them around. We work with passionate independent restaurant owners who found success with their first few locations and are ready to scale strategically. Our clients aren't looking to just survive expansion. They want to thrive through it. They're committed to developing strong leaders and creating exceptional guest experiences. Through the independent restaurant framework that we teach in multi-unit mastery, we coach independent restaurant groups to move from chaos to confidence by focusing on three pillars: people, process, and profit. You can grab a gifted copy of the book at irfbook.com. On this show, we bring you real coaching conversations, leadership strategies, and the frameworks that you need to lead like a CEO instead of operating like a worn-out manager. And here's the thing: coaching has changed our clients' businesses and can change yours too. If you've never experienced what it's like to have someone in your corner who actually gets the restaurant world, we'd love to connect. We offer one-on-one and group coaching. Head to kristenmarvin.com slash contact for a complimentary coaching session and let's talk about what's possible for your restaurant group. Jeff, let's jump right in. When did you first start thinking seriously about succession and what was the moment that made you stop putting it off?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Great question. It was actually uh before the conclusion of our last sale process in 2022, which concluded in April. And it um because at that point I knew that not all the senior team would want to continue, be it a three or a four or five-year hole. And um, so that was the beginning of the thought process. And then our first board meeting with our new owners, the first question uh, the executive session was okay, um this feels like a very founder-led business that we paid a whole lot of money for. And we've never done a founder-led business. And are you observation number one, question number one was Are you going to continue to be CEO into your late 60s and into your early 70s? And I said, I think the answer is no. So with that, they said, okay, we have to start thinking about how we would transition to a new senior executive team. And then the discussion got serious in that you know, we had to make sure that the next two levels of our organization was strong enough to be at the size that we if we would double it again in the next three, four, five years, then we need to have a team in place to do that. Now Alyssa and I had started working down that path, but the the succession first question out from the board was certainly highlighted the importance of us really focusing in on the senior executive team. And with that, uh we had one of our independent board members, George Chavelle, Alyssa and I really were charged with creating our succession game plan strategy, and then you know delivering on the tactics.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Walk us through a little bit about how you evaluated your options. Did you look outside the organization? And what made you ultimately decide that the right answer was already inside the building with Alyssa?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Boy, that's a long answer. So uh we we went outside. Uh we didn't have an internal successor. Alyssa was probably two years in a CPO. So while I recognize her for what she is, a special person, smart, driven, a lot of capabilities, just kind of too early, you know, to put her into the succession thought process. So we spent um between Alyssa, George, and I, probably 18 months working with an outside recruiter, and we interviewed dozens of folks. And you know, we eventually we got it down to three or four that were pretty interesting. And then um, you know, things just changed. Uh we had a an operations leader that wasn't keeping up. Uh, we had um another couple layers of people that were not keeping up, and so we really had to address that before we addressed the CEO role. So we shifted our focus on that. Um Alyssa raised her hand and said, Look, I'll take on part of operations, which she did with Operations Excellence, which is really process, technology, Six Sigma, and lead concepts applied to our operations. And she took that over, and I took over the operations. So we got, well, that was good practice for us, you know, working together in such a dynamic and intimate way in the same organization, operations. And eventually Alyssa, you know, created that, stood it up, and had great results, you know, within a year. And then with that, she took over to the whole operations organization January of 24. And has just uh really uh done a tremendous job since then.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

That's awesome. Alyssa, when Jeff first brought this to you, what was your gut reaction? Where and and were there any real hesitations that you had to work through before you said yes to this new position?

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Uh it's been always a kind of a conversation. Um well at first when that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

When she took over operations, then it then she became a viable candidate. And then performing for so long. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Yeah, there was like a couple iterations of this. At first, it was like, hey, we're in 2022, to Jeff's earlier point, it was uh we're likely going outside, and here's why. It's like I get I all I want is what's best for RTI. And I have said that since day one. And as that story changed, and we could kind of see the writing on the wall and certain certain reasons that we changed to come back inside and make some other changes, like he alluded to. Um and I remember where we were at in Chicago, I was actually heading to the NRA show, and he goes, Well, what about starting with operations? And I said, I'm I would be leaving a job I love for a job that I think I would love as well, which is leaving the people side of the business to kind of focus on the operations side of the business, which is always a big part actually of getting the people side of the business right and and where our front line is and how big of an organization that is for RTI. And um, they were always really tightly um melded together. So that was like, okay, I think we could do that. So that was a big change. Um, but I said I we we had a couple of things that we were gonna do together, and a lot of it was spending a lot of time in the field together, and we embarked on that journey, and then it just kind of grew from there. Ops excellence, like you said, we've got that stood up, and a lot of that was change management. So you take a lot of the learnings on the people side, which is winning hearts and minds, and applied that to a very operations-centric um belief system, right? Which is tell me what you need done and I'll get it done. And those got married up really well as we took over operations, and it's been an amazing two years. When the CEO, when he called me about stepping back the external search on the CEO job, I remember where I was at on that call too. Um, and he said, I think we've got other things we want to focus on first. And so I remember all these really critical points along the journey. The nice thing is, is with our relationship from the very beginning, and I think this is so critical for CEOs, whether it's a CPO relationship or succession planning in general, is trust and transparency through the whole process because that's what keeps the conversation headed in the right path, no matter what the outcome is going to be.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah. I Alyssa, I love your love that you remember where you were with those when those calls came in, but love your approach too of whatever the company needs, I'm here for. When we talked last, when the three of us got together and started kind of planning this call, you had you had thrown out a phrase and I forgot to write it down, but I think that you, when we were talking about your relationship and Jeff and how you worked well together, I think you called it collaborative tension or some sort, some sort of tension. What did you call that? And will you speak a little bit more to that?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, we have a healthy uh like tension when it comes to collaboration. So I think what we were talking about uh was we and we've actually shared this in our communications with the teams as we talked about um the change. We said throughout the last many years, actually since I started, Jeff and I have always wanted the same thing for RTI, which is uh great jobs, a great experience for our customers and our employees, high growth, a healthy, thriving business. Um, but how we would get there was has always been a great discussion and a healthy tension of debate. And sometimes that's a very public debate with our teams, and sometimes it's not very public. Like that's the joys of having one-on-one time with each other, too, and out in the field or out on a walk or whatever it might be. So we have a very constructive tension that we can work through, but it's based on a lot of trust and transparency, which drowns us in everything we do.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

So I love that. How do you get really good at that? How are you cultivating that tension? What's that? How are you cultivating that tension?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Well, she doesn't agree with me. So the tension just pops up.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

But I don't agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Where are we going for lunch, for God's sake? Um, you know, from the get-go, uh Alyssa, you know, we have Bob Bob Weill CFO here for a long time, and then we had other folk other folks come in and out. But um as I remember hiring and going through the CPO process and hiring Alyssa, there's a there was an it factor around uh the mixture of her smarts, her um her character, intensity, ability to laugh at herself. Uh, but there was just a spark of hey, let's just get after it. You know, let's just kinda go. And we can figure it out. We just have to go. And so that that's a magic that for all senior hires that we have and all the people under that report to those folks really have to have that to be successful here. And it's hard to describe what it is, but you know it when you see it.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Especially in high high growth, fast-paced companies. I think you need that grit. Yeah, and you have to. It's like a you need to be able to make some decisions quickly and not get stalled out by what we call it analysis, paralysis. Do we have enough information to keep moving forward?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yeah. How are I'm so curious how you're identifying that grit in the hiring process?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

The it's a tough one. The it's easy to say people from a similar background, regardless of race, creed, or color, but the background of having to overcome something difficult, being part of a team and striving to win. Sometimes you can't win, but you have to have that strive to win. Those things come out. I don't care if you're playing in the band, I don't care if you're an individual sport. I'd love to see more team sports or team things, like in a band or something where you have to sync with other folks. Uh, leadership early on uh is helpful. But but I think there's something about the what did you struggle with? You know, that's a question I always ask. What what is the hardest thing you had to overcome? How'd you do it, and what'd you learn from it? And if that's um, hey, you know, someone stole my lunch in fifth grade, okay. Well, that's not really deep thinking. Uh, but it can be anything. It could be, you know, a family issue, friend issue, business issue. It's always in there. And if you can have that story, um, and you can you can tell whether it's heartfelt or not. That that's a big question for me. I don't know how you do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yeah, I I would add like passion has to come through for it too. So I think it comes into when you love something enough, you're willing to fight for it. And if you love what you do, you're willing to fight to make it better. And if you love like the industry we serve or the company you work for, or the team you work with, um, you naturally will bring something forward that looks like grit, but it actually is a form of I'm willing to stick with it where when it's hard. Um, and I think that's that's ultimately what grit is. Um grinding through something and not bailing when it's hard. And so we have a pretty unique people say this all the time, you have a pretty unique relationship where you can go toe-to-toe, but at the same time, um you get along, you get along remarkably well. And it's like, yeah, well, we we don't bail on each other when it's hard or when the conversation gets difficult or uncomfortable. And so you start to look for people who also want to have that. You look for people who are passionate about this industry, passionate about what we do. Uh, you build teams who care about each other, and they they start to, if you can model it, then they can start to do it too in a safe, healthy environment.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Yeah, and it sounds like the result of that is really, I mean, you're looking for people who have that grip and also who are resilient, right? Who can look at the challenging times and and find the opportunities and rally the team to collaborate and have that that tension, it sounds like that collaborative tension is you're modeling it, but it also sounds like it exists in your culture as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah, it does. It does.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

In the industry we serve too, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, 100%. One thing I'd throw in there, Kristen, is you don't fall in love with yesterday. I mean, so you got to be change ready, adaptable. So we think about the macro environments we've been through, five different owners, changes, you know, in people over time for whatever reason. You know, we just we just okay, great, that worked last week, this week, we're doing this.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

I'd love that. I love that. Alyssa, you spent four years building the people and the culture infrastructure at RTI before stepping into um to this role, right? How did that experience shape how you're approaching this new CEO role?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

I uh I say I had the luxury of seeing it from two very distinct perspectives in the business. So the people side of the business and the operation side of the business. Um the one core foundation to both is the people drive, the people, when you get the talent right, it's like 80, 90 percent of it. And uh, even when we were talking earlier, you say when you started in operations, did we have the right people to run the business? If the answer is no, it kind of doesn't matter what you're doing. Um, and so even going into the next role and opportunity, we have the some of the best talent in the company. That's why this handoff is um an exciting one. You can look around and say, is RTE going to continue to win? And we can say yes, because we have some of the best talent running the business, and we're gonna continue to do well to serve our customers and our employees. But talent is the heartbeat of it, and I just get to have that unique perspective of honoring and respecting both sides and not just coming at it from, okay, well, we got to get stuff done on one side of the business, or what does it take to make sure the people are taken care of? It's like speak both languages, bring both forward, and then um have everybody else kind of join in the conversation as well.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Yeah, you're absolutely right. We talk about this a lot with restaurant owners. They say, How do I make great decisions for the business and great decisions for the people? Right. Both. And it's like it's this, it's one and the same. You start by taking care of your people, like you said, making sure you've got the right people in place and and they run the business, right? Take care of them. Yeah, yeah. I think Jeff and I have said this before.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Either you're serving the guest or you're serving the customer, or you're serving somebody who is. If we're not taking care of our employees, they can't possibly take care of our customers. They can't. Yeah, yeah, it's still a balance. We always talk about that balance. We'll go out. Uh, we've done our a lot of depot visits. It's probably the best part of our job.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

And they'll say, Why can't we get this? or why can't we get why? We talk about the balance we have to maintain to run a business for the long term. And then if you just sit down with them and talk to them for a little while and say, here's why everything's in balance, because we want to be able to run a business for 50 years. So you have a career for 25 years and your colleagues have a, you know, that's why it's like, okay, I got it. That's why it's important. But you get to have the conversation with both, or you know, uh, for both reasons, taking care of you and taking care of the business for the long haul. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Alyssa, what do you think is your biggest opportunity to put your own stamp on the company in this new role?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Biggest opportunity. Well, I think we are coming into a really just unique time, and I think it's more serendipitous than I think I'm just lucky in terms of timing, but it is a big chance to put a mark on it, and we just have some new growth coming in front of us. So new products in terms of like how our total oil management comes to life and geographic experience. Expansion and then a new oil type. Like all three things are layering up to be a really exciting expansion of what we do best. And so I think if people look around and say, oh wow, what a wow factor first couple of years out of the gates, it's more lucky and well-timed. But if we do that well, we're gonna access a lot more customers in the near term. Um and I think that people will, I don't know, it's hard. It's hard to follow somebody who's been here for 21 years and say what's the wow factor next. But I'll take I'll take a chance on the new growth that we've got come in.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Yeah, I think that's that that's a good one. But I also think it really is an extension of what all of us have created over the last four to five years.

SPEAKER_07 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

So there's just if you look, if you just pull things back and say, okay, gosh, this looks like another chapter in the history of the build of the company, and the chapter usually leads with people, then it's opportunity, and then you have make sure you put the right people on the right opportunity to deliver. Now we can't get it right all the time, but you know, right now we've had the foundation of better people that are thinking about the business differently, and then there's a level of openness and again an intrinsic motivation for the team to win and the company to win, that everybody's chipping in and maybe doing some things that they normally wouldn't do, but they're loving doing it, stretching people in different ways.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Jeff, did you talk about in this succession planning? Have you talked with Alyssa about what the approach looks like for the first 90 days when she's in the role? Or or how, if you haven't, how will you support that first 90 days?

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yeah, good question. The fact of the matter is there there will be no 90 days, is that we're moving a lot faster than that. And uh it is it's the gift of who she is, it's also the gift of how we have spent the time over the last nine months, really just um working through the operation side of the business, uh getting uh Alyssa introduced to our budget and our our budget, our board and our owners in a different medium. So rather than just myself or myself and the CFO, I brought Alyssa along at these meetings, you know, with our investors, with our lenders, that sort of thing. So um it's been a longer transition than normal. And the the proof and the pudding was when we did our internal announcements a couple weeks ago, it was nothing but cheers, and we knew it, and this is great, and what an opportunity for Alyssa and the rest of the company to continue to do what we do, but even at a better pace. So it the transition has been longer. Now that we're quote unquote out of uh there are no secrets for the last couple weeks, now to the world. Um, I think I'm being very aggressive and pointed is okay, I am not, don't call me on this. I'm not the person, I get it. It's July 1, it's not is the official date, but I want to be very clear that Alyssa is making the decisions now.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Yeah, I love that. Alyssa, what's your perspective and approach for the first 90 days, knowing what Jeff just said?

SPEAKER_02 25:32

Yeah, we've been first of all, he and I are very aligned on any messaging internally and externally. So I think that's important for us to stay aligned. And because there was uh there was no surprises with the organization and they kind of grew to expect it over, I would say over the last couple of years. I think they were just like, where he was, I was, where I was, he was, and it was like, well, no duh. Like this this makes a lot of sense. Um, and there was also well, I think it's important to share when organizations do it well and right, they don't miss a beat in terms of continuation of priorities. And there's there's not that, oh no, what's gonna happen with the culture shift? It's just this like sigh of relief that we got to experience of okay, this is great. We get to continue on with everything we've been working on. So we get to continue that momentum. And um, what I would say is I've been doing some additional listening, like listening experiences and saying, let me just meet with the teams that I haven't had as much time with that he's had time with, but coming back and saying, I'm hearing something a little differently because I'm coming at it from a new perspective and able to incorporate that into future thinking. Calibration is still important, but also and like a little bit of that fresh perspective, new eyes is important to bring forward. But um there's also that I would say safety of continuing on that we're gonna build on, and over time we'll continue to infuse new thinking when it's right and when it's when the organization says this is the time to do it.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

Yeah. Jeff, what do you need Alyssa to bring that you this might be a spicy question?

SPEAKER_04 27:25

What do you what do you need Alyssa to bring to the CEO role that you knew the business had outgrown in you?

SPEAKER_05 27:35

That that had outgrown with me and lead leaning.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

I think it's uh really getting each of the organizations completely aligned. There was some progress made, but now we we it just needs to be completely um I don't want to say streamlined, but it's got to be completely integrated. So we we don't think of saying we're we're we're getting close, we are close at the senior executive team, but now we gotta get each one of those teams that reports to the senior executive team to be just can flow like water. Okay, I'm I'm working on this opportunity or this issue or this um initiative. I'm not just gonna think about it from one perspective. I'm gonna be completely prismatic about it. So I'll know how it naturally affects finance operations, sales, marketing, etc. It's just that integrative flow to really take our change readiness to the next level.

SPEAKER_06 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

And we have the right people, the right leader, that that's the expectation that that's just gonna continue to be.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

I love that global mindset. That's awesome. Um, Alyssa, what did Jeff see in you that maybe you didn't fully see in yourself for this role?

SPEAKER_01 28:58

I know that uh I just want to make sure I'm gonna agree in everything.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, I was gonna say let's see what let's see it, let's see what she comes up with.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

And then this is a tough one because um I've always I don't want to ever dis I'm fearful of disappointing this guy. Um and not I don't want to let anybody down. I would say he's he's modeled, first of all, he's modeled really good um take the hardest job. Okay, so that's he's always promoted that and created a pretty decent safety net to do it. And his development strategy is like throwing somebody in the deep end and then them learning how to swim. Um, it's not like a formal development strategy, it's the one he's used the most. Do you have a framework? Yeah, is there a framework in that?

SPEAKER_05 30:04

That's the one he's picked the most.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

The only development strategy is used on me. So I don't know. I'm gonna call it my swimming ability.

SPEAKER_07 30:14

Is that uh think or swim?

SPEAKER_02 30:18

I don't know. I would probably say it's gotta uh probably the no the no fear, like let it rip, uh, give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen? Um I it I ask a lot of questions. Um, I'm not afraid to say what's going on with this. I'm I think that there's a level of transparency that he's he's said he's said more than once. He's like, you have to really be that transparent. Um tease me about my level of sarcasm. That's probably got us through a couple hard days. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Uh what's that fish? What is it? Keep on swimming, keep on swimming, than that Disney Nemo.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yeah, it finds you Nemo.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Nemo. Okay, so Nemo.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

At least I'm Nemo, not Dora in that.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So, okay, so um I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

You answer that. That's way easier for you to answer.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

What did she not know about herself? So, first of all, uh you can call it thrown in the deep end, but it is the actual philosophy of leading people is I'll treat you as you should be, not as you think you are. So uh the most talented people rise to that. And so here's Alyssa, extremely smart, extremely driven. Uh people naturally have an affinity for being around her and and then has grown into following her. That that's been a great development. I don't know if she knew she had that natural capability. I think she thought she had it. She has it's been pointed out to her in the past, but I don't think she really understood how her ability to gain followership would really be a double-down and a cubed kind of mathematical way to become a better person.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

I love that. Alyssa, it's so hard to hold up a mirror and look at ourselves uh and identify those blind spots. So thanks for letting me put you on the spot a little bit there. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Um I see that question written here on this piece of paper.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

You've talked a lot about change management, successful change. Um, how did you know that the organization was ready for this kind of change?

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Um just being with Alessa, going to the things that she hadn't been before, and seeing how she naturally picked it up. Also seeing firsthand, I mean, going to a depot at 6 a.m. That's our local we call our locations, and meeting with people that are just starting their shift or leaving their shift, and then seeing how her relatability and her ability to coach people at all levels of the organization grew dramatically into the second and third month. You know, the first one was hey Jeff, are you I got this thing? And I said you kind of do, but let's just let's just do a few more. And then um, I didn't even have to bring it up again. Then it then the magic of both of us really understanding what's going on in the depot, relating to others, and then I could slowly take over less and less of the conversation, and that's when you know there was a huge step in our both our relationship and Alyssa's followership and leadership of the rest of the company.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Alyssa, how do you know that the company's ready for this change?

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Um, I didn't honestly, I don't know if I realized it until we shared it. Um because you know, from my seat and watching uh the reliance on Jeff just from involvement and trust in his decisions and how he shows up when he's not in the room, too, like the impact he has on decisions, that you're thinking, okay, are they ready for him to not be in the room or not be part of the decision? Like that that he's kind of everywhere. And so you sit back and say, This is going to be a big change. When when I knew it was coming, he knew it was coming, and I could watch it. And I was like, How is this gonna be received? But then you share the news and you're like, oh wow, there was more people ready for this, but they just hadn't shared it. Um and when we first had, you know, four years ago talked about the change, you nobody really said much then. It wasn't much of a conversation. We just said, hey, we're gonna be starting the CEO succession process, and it was very quiet. This one was they kind of knew something was going on, maybe it wasn't as overt of a communication, but certainly um there's always conversations about what why you know Alyssa's always with Jeff, and there's stuff like that going on. But um I didn't realize it. Like I said, I don't know if I realized that was they were ready for it until then, because there he's everywhere. I just in all conversations, he's got fingerprints kind of everywhere in the organization. But they certainly in the conversations I've had now, there's like a huge honor that people have with the legacies he's created. It's pretty fun to hear the stories that have come out and the impact that he's had. And it's how do you how do you honor all of the work that's been done so far, and then also make room for what people are ready to have conversations on too in a in a very respectful way of saying, okay, what's got us here? Even we get to have in a couple weeks from now, we get to have a group before he leaves. We're gonna have a group for pulling together just to have a conversation. What got us here and what's gonna get us to the next level is kind of a meeting of the minds before he leaves, and before I fully take over, which is a pretty cool opportunity to say, what could be next? And he's gonna be in the room, and I'm gonna be in the room as a little bit of a passing of the torch with a handful of our next leaders just to hear them out, and that'll be a funny.

SPEAKER_03 36:33

I love I love that at your level and that the size of your company that you two, like you said earlier, Alyssa, that Jeff, you've got your fingerprints all over everything. And Alyssa, that you are in the depots having conversations with people first thing in the morning and you know, when they leave in the afternoon or the evening. And I, you know, we I want to reference for anybody that's listening to this episode. You know, we had Alyssa on the show a while back on episode 90, and we talked a lot about, you know, do you know your business well enough to change it? And this is just, you know, a couple of examples of how leadership really inserts themselves in the right areas in front of the team to know the business well enough to change it. So kudos to both of you. Just so inspired by your leadership. Um, I'll ask you each one more question, then we'll we'll wrap up here. Jeff, let's start with you. What do you know now that you've gone through this process that you wish someone had told you before you started?

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Um the the number one, uh doing an internal succession for uh for me is a great capsule. So it it's uh strength on top of strength is the best way to put it. And I I I am 100% confident that business is going to be significantly better because we we changed the leadership at this time. The other one is um hey, it's hard.

SPEAKER_05 38:05

It's hard to um make this change easier to do it with you know a great friend, but it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

And so I guess if someone described it'd be hard, I'd go, yeah, no, that's alright. It'll be it'll it'll work through it, it'll be fine. But it's hard.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Is it hard for you emotionally?

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yeah. But also, you know, what do you um and then you have this, okay, you know, people contacted to do, hey, how about this? You want to do this, you want to do this. And I know I need to, like, okay, let me just take a breath here. Um, so working through that stuff, anybody I talk to just say, just take it easy, Mr. Impatient.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

But um, you know, when you're a CEO, you no longer have a job. You have a calling.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

And the best way that um Larry Bossity told me this, he was who uh of uh GE and Honeywell fame. He said, make no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Everyone that works for you, their family is talking about you.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

It could be good, it could be bad, it could be I support or the guy's a knucklehead, but how do you even get here? Doesn't matter. You're responsible for them and they have an opinion. And you either just you accept the responsibility and then the accountability to the company as well as the people that are in it. So it just kind of uh it just puts it in perspective, and going through this, it's like right there. Got got you, Mr. Bosse.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Yeah. And Jeff, I'd love to for us to connect in six months and do another show together and talk about what that transition has looked like for you. We work with a lot of owners that are working through their own succession plans, which is why I was so excited to do this episode. Yeah, and sometimes we do a lot of planning on what does life look like out of this role when you've been moving at this specific pace. And now the purpose is changing a little bit, right? You're still gonna be involved, but it's gonna look a lot different. And so a lot of times they know what to expect, but they don't.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Well, let's book it. It'll be interesting to see.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Yeah, and Alyssa, you same with you, right? Like let's check in six months later. But Alyssa, let's go back to you with this question. What do you know now that you wish someone would have told you before you started this process?

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Um there is uh the first thing is is no one gets to this position alone. That's the first thing. No matter what you do in your own merit, you'll never make a job like this on your own accord. You you get there by working well with others and and being part of high-performing teams. And that means you're working well with others. Um, so I have to give credit to incredible teams I've worked with over the last few years, not just at RTI, but things I've learned from other other people and I've taken with me into the roles I've had here and the decisions I've made here, and how I've worked with everything to give me the opportunity to even have a chance to lead in this capacity. So you can't do it alone. And if anybody thinks that they can, you're sadly mistaken, and you'll get into the role for all the wrong reasons. Um, and then the other thing I would say is I still don't have it all figured out. So what do I what do I know now? I know that I don't know it all, and I need to be humble enough to keep asking a lot of great questions because we've got talented people in the business and outside the business, and I'll learn a lot from our customers, which I'll get I'll continue to get closer to. Um I'm lucky that I've got Jeff serving in a different capacity that I'll get to call and bother every once in a while. But um, and then also for my set, it's hard too. It's really hard going into what could be a it's an exciting change, but it's a hard change. Um Jeff and I have been friends too, you know, like you spend a ton of time together in a capacity of uh whether it's chief people officer or chief operations officer, you spend a lot of time, there's early mornings and there's like long meetings and there's debates and a lot of conversations. There's phone calls at different hours of the day, and some really tough phone calls that we've taken. Um hard employee decisions and sad losses and big celebrations too, highs and lows. And um in a couple weeks, he's he's meaningfully in a different role. So it's a it's a loss in a way outside of a gain. So it's hard. It's hard too. Yeah. But um exciting for many reasons at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Yeah. Well, super excited for both of you and the journey and the company's journey. It's just thank you for giving us an inside look into this whole process. Again, it's none of this sounds easy, but it sounds like you've got incredibly smart, talented people and just have cultivated such an environment of, like you said, transparency and trust. And I think that that's really rare in in companies these days and just really, really, you know, give you so many kudos for that. I think there's so many wonderful things that we've touched on today that apply to restaurants of making sure that you have the right team in place, that you're positioning yourself for change. You know, Jeff, I love what you said about not falling in love with yesterday and you know, thinking differently is something that we talk about all the time with our clients and we hear a lot, oh, the industry is so hard now, it's not as good as it, you know, it's not as easy as it used to be. And and I think there's something so powerful about again, building resiliency with your team and always looking at every single day, celebrating the opportunities or celebrating the wins like you all have, and then being able to identify those opportunities to take it to the next level. And um just so inspired by the process that you've gone through, the amount of time that you've taken, the all the due diligence that you've done to come to this place, and just couldn't be more excited for both of you. Yeah, well, thank you so much. Absolutely. Thanks for coming on the show. Um, everybody, thanks for listening. We'll put um the link to episode 90 in the show notes so you can go back and learn even more about Alyssa and RTI and her approach to leadership, which is just magic. Um, and we will talk to you next week.