#8 Troy Hooper on Scaling Smart, Building Winning Teams, and Mastering the Restaurant Game 🎙️

In this episode, Sebastian Stahl sits down with Troy Hooper, CEO of Hot Palette America and the driving force behind Pepper Lunch’s expansion in North America. With 30 years in hospitality, Troy shares his hard-earned insights on what it really takes to build successful restaurant brands.

From transforming distressed assets to leading high-growth franchises, Troy breaks down his approach to leadership, team-building, and scaling without losing control of your business. This conversation is packed with practical strategies for restaurant owners looking to grow their operations while maintaining quality and culture.

🔥 What you’ll learn:

• How to scale a restaurant brand while keeping your standards intact
• The importance of empowering teams to run the business effectively
• Key leadership traits that drive long-term success in the industry
• Why building a brand people can connect with is your biggest asset

If you're looking to learn from someone who's been in the trenches and scaled businesses the right way, this episode is a goldmine.

🎧 Listen now and get ready to level up your restaurant strategy.

Restaurant Leaders Unplugged with Sebastian Stahl

Follow us on social media to stay updated:

Instagram: @sebastian_stahlb | @breadthrestaurantmarketing
YouTube: @SebastianStahlb

Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help other restaurant leaders find us!

Transcript

Sebastian Stahl (00:01.344)

Alright, welcome Troy to the Restaurant Leaders Unplugged podcast. It's really a pleasure to have you on here. Again, it's just really great to have this opportunity to talk to you.

Troy Hooper (00:13.352)

Awesome to be here, Sebastian. Great to see you again. Really looking forward to this.

Sebastian Stahl (00:18.51)

All right, so Troy, of course we've each other for a while. We actually worked on some projects together, but I do know a little bit about your background, but not fully. So can you start at the beginning? What, how did you get in the industry? I know you've been in the industry for about 31 years. So did you stumble upon it? How did you get into it?

Troy Hooper (00:40.084)

Yeah, you know, I grew up in Miami where you are. My dad owned a couple of construction companies. One of them specialized in restaurants, bars and nightclubs, predominantly because he liked to have a good time and throw parties and go to these types of places. So he figured the best way to become a VIP at the local club restaurant or night, you know, bar would be to build them, right? And get in with the owners. So he kind of had a specialty in that as part of one of the things his company did.

Sebastian Stahl (00:44.631)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (00:55.672)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (01:01.368)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (01:08.724)

And so I actually grew up on the construction site of a restaurant bar and nightclub. I actually thought I wanted to be an architect until Hurricane Andrew destroyed three years worth of plans that I had drawn. My dad was teaching me drafting and I was so dejected and so distraught that I had put all that time into something. It just sort of took it away. And so the other thing is that again, he threw a lot of parties. You know, I grew up in the seventies and eighties in Miami. know, a house party was a pretty regular thing.

and he loved to cater food and make food and he was a very good cook. So he taught me very young how to do these things and I used to do those 1980s rolled ham, rolled salami, cubed cheese, what now is a charcuterie. Boy, I wish they had charcuterie trays back then and tables back then, grazing tables back then, but I really enjoyed that. And so I decided, well, maybe I want to be a chef. And I went to culinary school at 17 and I decided that I thought I

Sebastian Stahl (01:37.634)

Ha

Sebastian Stahl (01:48.983)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (01:56.352)

You

Sebastian Stahl (02:01.986)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (02:06.846)

I always wanted to own a restaurant. I wanted to do this thing, you know, and to do that, I needed to be a chef. You my dad was an entrepreneur. I could learn sort of business basics from him and customer, you know, care from him, but I needed to become like understand the restaurant business. So I became a chef and I cooked for six years and I worked in some big brands and some family restaurants and you know, family owned type restaurants all over the board and realized that, know,

looking for other people in that capacity was not really a passion. It was a job. was something to learn. It was a good skill to have and understand the back of the house. But really I was an entrepreneur because everybody in my family was an entrepreneur. Nobody in my family had a job. They all owned their own business or practice or whatever it was. And so I went to business school and I said, I've got to get this education. I've got to understand the mechanics of the P &L and the mechanics of investment.

Sebastian Stahl (03:03.085)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (03:05.494)

and finance and things. So I went to business school and took a little sidestep. I got recruited in business school to Procter & Gamble. I resisted it until I couldn't anymore. They made it too well worth it. And it was really a pivotal moment in my life because the foundational elements and the benchmarking of professionalism that Procter & Gamble instills in its people and the investment it makes in its people really formed the person I am as a leader, as an employee.

Sebastian Stahl (03:05.965)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (03:14.402)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (03:34.146)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (03:35.226)

as a co -worker and it really gave me a lot of skills and insights and obviously at the highest level of one of the biggest companies in the world and I did very well there early on so it was an excellent first job out of school so to speak and it put me in a position financially and professionally to be able to walk away after a few years about five years and I found my calling coming back to hospitality and

Sebastian Stahl (03:44.93)

Hmm

Sebastian Stahl (04:03.277)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (04:03.822)

I decided to go to the luxury resort, hotel, fine dining side of the business for a number of years, which led me to consulting for others. It led me to opening a management company that did turnaround business. So distressed asset and distressed asset transition turnaround. And we had a management company that helped those companies and brands improve and turn themselves into viable businesses.

Sebastian Stahl (04:11.234)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (04:22.855)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (04:32.786)

And I learned so much being forced to do that in my business that it just put me in a good position to have a lot of experience in a fairly short career, to be well informed about what works and what doesn't work in the hospitality and restaurant specific business, which has led me here today.

Sebastian Stahl (04:36.171)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (04:52.375)

Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, that's quite a career. So, but now, now I know you're currently the CEO of Hot Palette America overseeing Pepper Luncheon North America. Can you share how you became involved with Pepper Luncheon? What drew you to the brand?

Troy Hooper (05:08.436)

Yeah, so about eight years ago, I wanted to wind down my management company. It was quite taxing. I was really kind of burnt out. It wasn't super scalable. These were large long -term projects, couple years at a time. And my partner at Kiwi, who would become my partner on the restaurant side of Kiwi, I added this division. He was out here having a lot of fun. He was taking on lot of clients as a one -man consulting shop.

Sebastian Stahl (05:14.594)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (05:36.034)

and his name is Mark Bailey and he's my partner at Kiwi Restaurant Partners and now my COO at Pepperlunch. He was taking on some new projects and he needed some help. And I just thought what he was doing was really cool. He helping emerging brands develop their infrastructure, skill up their leadership and founders, give them the roadmap and resources and vendors and tools they needed to scale their restaurant brands, mostly in the franchising model.

Sebastian Stahl (06:03.842)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (06:05.434)

Not always, mostly in QSR fast casual, but sometimes casual and full service. But man, I was just kind of jealous. I was like, you're having all this fun. I want to come help. He's like, I need help. I was like, all right, let's do this under the Kiwi banner. Let's create a restaurant group and let's go get some more help. Let's go find some people like us that can help us scale and we can help more of these emerging brands do what we do, which is a little unique in that it's A to Z. We wanted to...

Sebastian Stahl (06:10.531)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (06:21.409)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (06:32.611)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (06:33.942)

help build the infrastructure, develop all the aspects of the business, like you, that's how we found you, was on the marketing and brand development strategy side. And so we had vendors like you that we knew did great work that we could call on as needed based on the circumstances of the project. And we sat with these founders for 18 to 24 months. And so we started doing that about eight years ago.

Sebastian Stahl (06:42.049)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (07:00.855)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (07:02.074)

and we started to somewhat create a little bit of a name for ourselves. You know, we're really in the background. A lot of people don't know the projects we worked on or the founders. We helped develop their brands and that's okay. But we also wanted to kind of get out from behind the shadows and be a little bit more forward centric and pepper lunch fell in our laps. Quite frankly, pepper lunch literally fell in our laps because I did a podcast. I did a podcast like this that led to a couple of conversations that led to an introduction when the folks at

Sebastian Stahl (07:07.81)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (07:13.059)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (07:17.613)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (07:23.98)

Hm. Hm.

Troy Hooper (07:29.642)

Hot Palette were looking for help in North America and they found us. they frankly thought they were asking us initially to introduce them to other consultants and vendors and help them solve the problem. What we realized together very quickly was we already had the team, we already had the roadmap, we already had the experience. We had built something to do exactly what Pepperlunch wanted to do, which was really come into North America in a very strong way, grow very quickly, do a phenomenal

Sebastian Stahl (07:46.38)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (07:51.256)

Mm

Troy Hooper (07:58.592)

quality job, be a best in class franchisor on a global scale. And we had the recipe to make that happen. so initially Pepperlunch hired Kiwi. We did sort of a consulting strategic plan project. They asked me to come on as CEO in North America and help join the executive group on the global scale. And ultimately my first act as CEO was to hire Kiwi, my company.

Sebastian Stahl (08:02.531)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (08:10.687)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (08:20.14)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (08:25.203)

Hahaha

Troy Hooper (08:25.782)

to bring the outsourced infrastructure team to support initial development. And so that's how this started. Since then, we've brought Mark on as COO and other members continue to support. And we've built out a leadership team for Hot Palate, for Pepperlunch here in North America. And we've spent about 19, almost 20 months now standing up that brand and growing it and selling franchises and supporting franchisees in their development and opening of their stores.

Sebastian Stahl (08:29.216)

Right? Right.

Sebastian Stahl (08:33.933)

Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (08:40.674)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (08:50.431)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (08:56.332)

The process continues and it's been just a heck of a lot of fun.

Sebastian Stahl (08:59.926)

Right? So for the people that don't know the concept or might not know about it, can you describe in a few words what Pepper Lunch is about?

Troy Hooper (09:07.638)

Pepper lunch is a 30 year old global Japanese teppanyaki for one concept. It's a fast casual Japanese teppanyaki. It's a hot plate concept where you get a sizzling hot plate brought to your table with all of your ingredients, protein rice, veg or protein pasta and vegetables. You can customize those plates based on our ingredients. We have six proprietary sauces. So you can have a curry dish, a teriyaki dish.

Sebastian Stahl (09:19.989)

Mm

Troy Hooper (09:37.128)

a kimchi Korean style dish. You can have it the traditional Japanese way, which is just black pepper and salt, which is like the pepper rice category of our menu. So you have a lot of flexibility in really a pretty reasonable size menu, but it's experiential, fast casual. So you have this sizzling hot plate, you have the sound, you have the smells, you have the vapors, you have the beautiful food that comes to your table.

Sebastian Stahl (09:49.26)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (09:55.127)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (10:00.855)

Mmm.

Troy Hooper (10:05.43)

And then you just sizzle and stir sauce and savor it your own way. You just make it the way you wanna make it for yourself on your plate. And it's just a whole lot of fun. The quality of the ingredients are incredible. You're in and out in 20 minutes, generally on average for under $20. So true fast casual, but with elevated quality food and experience.

Sebastian Stahl (10:14.413)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (10:22.327)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (10:26.968)

That's very cool, man. Bringing that experience element into the mix. That's pretty unique. Not many fast -gassed restaurants have that.

Troy Hooper (10:35.156)

No, really, it's the newest or it's one that I think is unique since down the line pizza. So since Blaze Pizza really invented the Chipotle of pizza, right? So we have Chipotle down the line, Build Your Bowl. Then we have Blaze come along in the pizza category. And you have lots of sort of copies of that in sweet greens with salad or Mediterranean concepts like Cava, right? But on the Japanese side or the Asian food concept side,

Sebastian Stahl (10:43.061)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Sebastian Stahl (10:49.784)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (10:54.84)

Sure.

Troy Hooper (11:02.742)

Outside of Korean barbecue, which takes an hour to an hour and a half and generally costs $45 to $65, there wasn't a fast, casual, a convenient way to get that high quality Asian food experience. And Pepper Lunch has been doing it for 30 years. So I like to say they, we, they built a brand 30 years ago for today's challenges.

Sebastian Stahl (11:12.387)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (11:16.131)

Ready.

Sebastian Stahl (11:25.748)

That's fantastic, So, Troy, throughout your career, I know you've helped build new concepts, rebrand restaurants, improve a lot of iconic venues. What has been the most rewarding project you've worked on?

Troy Hooper (11:38.236)

I'm gonna make a dotted line over to a similar question I get a lot. Some people know that I've been a scuba diver my whole life since nine years old. And I've had the great fortune to co -own the largest dive travel business in the United States at one point. I have been very fortunate to travel and dive most of the world. And people ask people like me all the time, especially people who are into diving, Troy, what was your favorite dive? Where should I go?

Sebastian Stahl (11:45.794)

Heh.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (11:57.827)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (12:06.474)

What's the best diving in the world? And the answer is the next one that I haven't done yet. they're all so different. So it's like asking, what's your favorite child, right? You know, quite frankly, one of the most rewarding is today is Pepper Lunch because we've had the opportunity to completely own and control the trajectory of how we built, what we build, who we bring into

Sebastian Stahl (12:12.398)

Hahaha!

Sebastian Stahl (12:17.442)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (12:24.962)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (12:35.83)

the team and who we bring on as franchise partners and what we create for the future of this brand. We have complete and total control of that. And we do that with looking back at the legacy of the brand. We do that by looking forward at the future of the brand. We include everybody who's been at this company for 20, 25 years, but we also ask the newest members who come on to give us their outside ideas about what this brand.

Sebastian Stahl (12:39.394)

Mm

Troy Hooper (13:05.174)

could evolve to be. And just that is so invigorating. It's so energizing, right? It's so much fuel for the soul, especially when you're in emerging and creating and you're in that kind of mindset. Pepper lunch has definitely been one of the most rewarding and continues to be one of the most exciting projects and brands I've ever worked with. I say that, but I want to leave one sort of nugget to look back at the past. And that is that

Sebastian Stahl (13:10.359)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (13:20.141)

Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (13:25.315)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (13:34.602)

The thing is most rewarding for me is that after I or the team or this consulting company or whatever has moved on and we've set something up and we've run something for some time and we've, we've, we've, you know, left the nest, so to speak. My favorite scenario is when I can go back to that restaurant, golf club, hotel, resort, whatever it's been in our career, when I can go back and there are still employees there.

Sebastian Stahl (13:57.894)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (14:04.798)

that we hired, that we worked with, that we upskilled. Or it's even as rewarding when we stay in touch or we hear from those people years later and they've moved on in their career, but they can look back at the foundational education and effort and care that we took in helping develop them. That's the most rewarding. One day I won't be at Pepperlunch probably, right?

Sebastian Stahl (14:05.002)

Mm -hmm. Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (14:28.215)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (14:32.482)

Right.

Troy Hooper (14:33.308)

and or at Hot Palette and maybe other brands we have that we bring on in the future. But but when I look back, I know that we did something special if we can point to the people that are either still there or have stepped up to run the company and be a bigger part of the leadership or that have moved on and they were able to move on and elevate their careers because of that experience. And that's something I'm really mindful of. I try to be mindful of every day.

Sebastian Stahl (14:50.604)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (14:59.853)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (15:02.928)

And so that's sort of a two side of the same question, two answers to the same question that are really important.

Sebastian Stahl (15:07.16)

Sure.

Yeah, no. mean, that's... Well, you're talking about leadership there and hospitality at the same time. Those two things, right? And so that leads into my next question. I know, you know, as a leader in the industry, what do you believe are the core qualities, you know, that have driven your success over the years and that you still practice to this day?

Troy Hooper (15:14.644)

Yep. Yeah.

Troy Hooper (15:28.53)

Empathy, empathy. know, I, it, it can be hard as you sort of end up at the top of any given group or company. And look, I have a boss. Everybody always has a boss at the end of the day. But you know, when you're in a position that I'm tasked with being in and it's a responsibility, one realizing it's a responsibility and realizing that it is my job to give information, resources, tools, knowledge, experience.

Sebastian Stahl (15:30.039)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (15:58.326)

to everybody on this team so they can excel and do the best that they can do. And the best way for me to do that is to have empathy. And what I mean by empathy is not high fives, hugs, and birthday gifts. What I mean with empathy is remembering when I was the little guy, remembering when I was the expo at Benningans or the kitchen manager at Benningans, or I was the prep cook.

Sebastian Stahl (16:03.714)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (16:17.196)

Mmm. Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (16:22.23)

Right.

Troy Hooper (16:27.862)

in college and in culinary school, right? Remembering how I felt when I had good leaders, remembering how I felt when I had leaders I didn't feel connected with us or me or their style, and trying to remember that each one of these people responds differently, right? They have different motivations. They have different styles. They have different ways of interpreting information. And...

Sebastian Stahl (16:31.021)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (16:53.482)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (16:53.511)

And so understanding that my way of communication doesn't always resonate. And I have to find it's my responsibility to find the ways, the tools, the resources, to find a way to get them what they need in their way, not force them to adapt to my way of leadership, my way of communication. So that's what I mean when I say empathy. And honestly, that's the answer. Like that's the only way to be an effective leader, to move the needle.

Sebastian Stahl (16:58.54)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (17:09.432)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (17:13.484)

Right.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (17:21.601)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (17:22.72)

to achieving goals and innovating and growing something is to understand that the people come first, you owe them, they don't owe you, and you have to be in their shoes to understand how to get them where they wanna get. Because if they get where they wanna get, they're gonna give you what you need.

Sebastian Stahl (17:24.792)

Hmm.

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (17:31.384)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (17:36.316)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (17:41.42)

Hmm. And that's, mean, Troy, that's, that's fantastic, man. I totally resonates with me as well. I for this process and for, being a leader, it just, requires a lot of self -awareness, right? Of, know, how you come across, how you talk, who really, what's going on with you when you're leading other people, right? And when you just described it, it's that, you know.

Troy Hooper (18:04.478)

Yeah, and I've had a lot of getting smacked upside the head with a two by four around self -awareness in my career. I promise you, and it still happens occasionally today and it needs to, I need that. I surround myself with people that I look up to and I accept but also encourage them to correct me and to call me out and to say, hey, the way you said that, don't think the message got across what you were trying to say, Troy. You might want to rethink that. And I've had that happen.

Sebastian Stahl (18:15.5)

Mmm. Mm -hmm.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (18:25.091)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (18:29.282)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (18:34.482)

in recent months, actually. But self -awareness is hard. I will say this. I have given up on the volume of my voice and I have given up on crafting my language so carefully. When I'm on stage in a panel or a keynote or in a group of people, look, an F -bomb's gonna fall. I'm from Miami in the 70s and 80s. And it's gonna happen. I'm gonna tell it like it is and I'm kinda getting too old to sort of...

Sebastian Stahl (18:36.812)

Hmm. Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (18:48.154)

Hahaha

Sebastian Stahl (18:53.302)

Hmm.

Right.

Troy Hooper (19:02.814)

soften the edges and be politically correct about every word and every sentence. But at the same time, you have to have self -awareness of who you're talking to and where they're coming from. And that is an exercise and it's effort. It takes effort.

Sebastian Stahl (19:04.664)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (19:17.215)

For sure. And it requires also humility. Because, you know, are you really open to listen? Are you really open to understand what other people are telling you? Because when we're in a leadership position, we can fall into the traps like, I'm directing so I'm the one that knows. But the truth is, stay humble, open. What am I not seeing? Because we can't see many times.

Troy Hooper (19:20.298)

For sure.

Troy Hooper (19:36.438)

Sebastian, I'll say this because I think it's important based on what you just said. I got very lucky and found Stephen Covey when I was 26 years old and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I'll admit it's not an easy book. It jumps around. It has a lot of examples and things. It's kind of written for everybody, so tries to talk to everybody. But if you read it three or four times, you'll eventually sink in. But speak first to understand, then be understood is essentially my mantra because I need it.

Sebastian Stahl (19:43.958)

Mm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (19:56.131)

Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm. Mm. Mm.

Troy Hooper (20:05.352)

I need to be reminded to ask. And one thing I'll say that I think will help with any leader listening at any level, doesn't matter if you're one store restaurateur or you're the CEO of a major brand or organization, it's important to remember to be curious. And this is my trick, or this is the tip, is if you enter a room or you enter a conversation, you enter a meeting, you enter a scenario with genuine curiosity, I wanna know what they are doing. I wanna understand.

Sebastian Stahl (20:05.57)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (20:34.124)

Mm. Mm.

Troy Hooper (20:34.67)

They're doing it why they're choosing that path you may go in thinking and having an opinion, right? You may go in like why are they doing that? Why would they go? I wouldn't go that route. But if you go in with curiosity Curiosity looks like humility and it actually will make you humble because you'll hear things you weren't expecting you'll get insights you weren't thinking of you'll understand the perspective of somebody else's goal that's not your goal and so that's an employee at the

Sebastian Stahl (20:45.869)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (20:52.547)

you

Hmm.

Right.

Troy Hooper (21:03.954)

Entry level, that's a leader in your team and that's a competitor and that's anybody that you want to work with. So how I try to maintain that humility is to enter a room seeking first to understand the perspective of everyone in that space and then formulating and expressing my position or my thought or my idea or my suggestion. And in some cases, my direction, right?

Sebastian Stahl (21:05.229)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (21:19.917)

Mmm.

Mm. Hmph.

Sebastian Stahl (21:28.77)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (21:33.452)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (21:33.736)

I may have to direct us in a different direction despite that information, but at least I was informed. At least I gathered the collective perspective. And I think that's a very important element to leadership.

Sebastian Stahl (21:36.554)

Mm. Mm. Right.

Sebastian Stahl (21:46.99)

100%. That's a really, really old principle. We both know where it comes from. But true.

Troy Hooper (21:53.588)

Well, I have stitched it in the back of my sports coats. So in the back, under the collar of my sports, it's kind of like a tattoo you don't know people have. Nobody knows I have it. I don't stare at it, but I know it's there. On the back of my neck, it says, seek first to understand. That's like, hey Troy, when you put this jacket on, this is your tape. This is your superpower. Your superpower today is to walk into the room with humility and learn something. Not walk into the room with the intent of

Sebastian Stahl (21:57.154)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (22:10.339)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (22:18.667)

Love it, man.

Troy Hooper (22:22.001)

sharing or teaching or telling something.

Sebastian Stahl (22:24.43)

Such a different attitude, man. And the results are so different every time when you really come from a place of humility. That's just... Yeah, man. That's it. That's it. That's Cool. Troy, so when we're talking about all these things, like what do you think is the most challenging moment in your career that you faced? And can you share a little bit, you know, how that was and how did you overcome it?

Troy Hooper (22:48.532)

Yeah, you know, we took over a golf club in Southern California that we were hired by the management company because the management company was not solving the problem. This business had lost money for eight of the last nine years. So it's being subsidized by its ownership. Very large owner, but at the same time, nobody likes to lose money.

Sebastian Stahl (22:54.209)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (23:04.589)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (23:15.662)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (23:16.928)

This was their last effort to bring somebody or a team in that could bring some kind of new perspective, some new energy, some new vision, some new skill set and system. And it was very challenging because the employees had been made to be, what's the word I'm looking for?

had been coddled and treated as equals. so, entitled. They were really entitled. And there were some toxic pieces to that. When you entitle the wrong people, they tend to sort of, Lord of the Flies take over and the wrong leaders become leaders by default. And so that was challenging. And then the membership base, right? The customer base, it was a mixed public and private. So there's a private golf club with a public clubhouse.

Sebastian Stahl (23:50.167)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (23:54.893)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (24:11.028)

And so the private members were really just kind of tired of BS and poor service and poor food and poor experience and things not being maintained and something like this. So that was really challenging because we had to both win over the owners, win over the management company, win over the employees so we could actually get the thing done and ultimately win over the customers, which were the members. And we had to also bring the community back who had basically abandoned this business.

Sebastian Stahl (24:27.095)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (24:40.714)

because it was one of the most beautiful places to have events, weddings, company events, celebrations, things like this. the service and food was so bad over time that they had walked away. And so we had to win everybody back. And this was the biggest challenge I think in my career was to go in there and understand all of those elements and to bring the right team together and to elevate the right leaders and empower them and educate them.

Sebastian Stahl (24:49.24)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (24:52.876)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (25:07.926)

Hmm. Hmm.

Troy Hooper (25:10.462)

and give them the tools. and by the way, we did this with zero budget. They paid Kiwi, and then there was no money for Kiwi to spend on improving everything. So we really had to juggle and shuffle and move things around and be over budget sometimes and just, you know, ask for forgiveness and not permission. But, you know, this was a very challenging environment. And so the answer to your question is I started with the people.

Sebastian Stahl (25:16.365)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (25:30.84)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (25:40.628)

You have to go in and interview. I interviewed every employee. I made the space safe. said, whatever you say in here, I'm going to take notes. And when I'm done collecting the notes and comparing my notes across all of these conversations, I will shred them in front of you guys. I will burn them in front of you. Nobody will ever see what you say. I need to know the truth. And some of the questions were very generic and very simple. And tell me the history and why are you still here? But ultimately, I ended up asking him,

Sebastian Stahl (25:40.706)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (25:51.576)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (26:03.48)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (26:10.88)

Who needs to stay and who needs to go and why? And what members need to stay and what members need to go, right? Literally, who do we need to fire, both customer and employee? And that didn't mean I did what they said, but it gave me insights as to why. And so starting with the humans, and I made a pledge and a promise on day one, some of you are not going to be here in a little while. Some of you are not going to choose to be here in a little while. And some of you are gonna step up

Sebastian Stahl (26:13.24)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (26:26.574)

100 %

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (26:40.842)

and you're gonna be the leaders of this thing and all of it is possible and it's up to you. And at the end of the day, you're in charge, I'm not in charge. My job is to give you knowledge tools, resources, information, experience and help guide you guys to lead this company and empowering them and giving them tools and encouraging them and then rewarding those who do step up by giving them responsibility and accountability. That's the way, it's not the fast way.

Sebastian Stahl (26:47.201)

Mm.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (26:55.48)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (27:04.972)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (27:09.47)

It's not the easy way, but when you talk about this a lot, Sebastian, building the long -term vision, building a long -term, resilient, successful company is the slow way, is the right way.

Sebastian Stahl (27:11.256)

Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (27:23.82)

Hmm. That's right. And so Troy, it's very interesting because all of these things that you're sharing, when you think about scaling, right? And you've scaled a few concepts and now with Pepperlunch in North America, you know, how are you navigating, you know, scaling a brand like this and maintaining those principles, that culture, that people first culture?

into and transmitting that into franchisees and beyond. So how are you going about this? And that's the slow process and I know it's tough, but.

Troy Hooper (27:57.514)

Yeah. It starts with divorcing my deep love of sleep. So very little sleep it starts with. Look, the answer really is people. You have to attract and welcome and empower the first line of leaders that are going to be able to scale you and your

Sebastian Stahl (28:04.96)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (28:11.704)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (28:26.061)

Mm

Troy Hooper (28:26.986)

You know me and Mark, right and and whoever else on our team We have to scale the leadership the my the the thought leadership the accountable leadership the financial leadership It has to be scaled and the only way to do that is not to interview and hire the people with the experience who've done this before but to find the people who Learn about and become to believe in your vision. You have to sell a vision

I had to sell what hot palate and pepper lunch could, should, and would be, and I had to invite people to elect themselves, elect to join this cause, right? You put up a banner, you put up a flag, you put a statement on the wall, you point people to it, and you let people raise their hand to volunteer. And those who volunteer and agree to sacrifice and agree to give it their all,

Sebastian Stahl (29:16.675)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (29:25.556)

without real self concern, ultimately puts together the right team to get in the boat and all row together. And there's so many analogies, whether you wanna use sports teams or military and many others you can use as analogies to what you do when you build a small dedicated core of people who've chosen to do this thing together.

Sebastian Stahl (29:28.995)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (29:35.437)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (29:51.318)

Hmm, right.

Troy Hooper (29:53.812)

Because the motivation is not money, the motivation is not sleep, the motivation is not vacation, the motivation is we are doing something remarkable and ultimately we're doing it for pride.

Sebastian Stahl (30:05.538)

Hmm. So would that be, sorry, you would say the advice that you would give, you know, restaurant owners that are looking to scale? And what are some pitfalls also that, you know, that you advise for them to avoid when they're scaling? Because sometimes you see people trying to go really fast or they're going to really slow or they're going in many different paths. So what would you suggest?

Troy Hooper (30:31.08)

Yeah, to the latter part of your statement there, speed doesn't matter. There's a sacrifice of negatives and positives, pros and cons to both, right? There is no optimum. There is what's right for you and your way and your style and your brand and your market, there's many variables. The answer to the scaling question and starting off is you have to first acknowledge that

Sebastian Stahl (30:40.931)

Mm

Troy Hooper (30:58.822)

You are not going to achieve the highest success and the highest goals for yourself and your company Alone, you are not going to will it to be by yourself There is a limit to your capacity to your experience to your knowledge and you need help Everybody needs help. I said it earlier. I have several mentors who have been further done more are bigger than I will likely ever be but

Sebastian Stahl (31:07.362)

Mm

Troy Hooper (31:26.672)

I can look to them and ask them for advice on very macro tactical simple idea all the way to the most biggest thought and evolutionary ideation. But none of us can do it alone. We must have help. Now, the second part of that is do not hire for experience and do not hire for skill. Hire for the person who is most motivated.

Sebastian Stahl (31:41.195)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (31:55.053)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (31:55.574)

just because they've done it before doesn't mean it matches what you need. Because you grew Chipotle, no offense, Bobby Shaw, just because you were part of growing Chipotle doesn't mean you're the right person to grow this thing with this founder or this leadership group. But you have to have humility. And my favorite phone call is, hi, Troy, I've got five or 10 stores. Everybody on my team has been with me since day one. Everybody has bled and cried.

Sebastian Stahl (32:13.453)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (32:24.47)

and sacrificed, but I know that this team, as they are today, are not ready and or are not capable of taking us from 10 to 30 or 50. I know that. We all know that. We admit that. Now, everybody on this team has the opportunity to learn, has the opportunity to pivot. We will change titles. We will change responsibilities, et cetera, but we need help. How do we start? And the answer is knowing

Sebastian Stahl (32:33.39)

Hmph.

Troy Hooper (32:53.706)

what you yourself are best at and Doing that and letting everybody else do everything else stop being a generalist stop working in your business and Start working on your business because the only way to scale from anything here to anything there is You have to give up controlling everything you have to give up being the most knowledgeable person in the room

Sebastian Stahl (32:58.296)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (33:22.922)

You have to give up decision making on many things. You have to let people take the reins and help you grow this thing. so having humility, knowing, self -awareness of knowing what you're good at and being willing to do that at much better than you can because you're spread thin now. Now you can focus just on that and whatever that is. I don't care if you're the marketer, you're the chef.

Sebastian Stahl (33:23.085)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (33:33.026)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (33:47.298)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (33:50.826)

You're the culture builder, you're the best trainer in the company, whatever you're best at, just do that and empower everybody else to do all the other things because everybody being a specialist in their area allows the entire thing to grow and scale.

Sebastian Stahl (33:55.949)

Yeah.

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (34:10.268)

For sure man. And I think that applies to any business. great, great advice. And Troy, I know what you, in your position and many in this industry and leaders in this industry, know, these positions can be highly stressful because you're dealing with a lot of things, especially when you're scaling. How do you personally handle stress and how do you stay focused when things get rough?

Troy Hooper (34:31.574)

In the most extreme forms I take a nap I give myself the grace to know that I'm pushing harder than most or many and I'm ahead Right now of where a lot of people might be So if I lose a day a half a day or an hour on the couch That I'm not failing myself and I'm not failing this company. I'm not failing my

Sebastian Stahl (34:35.659)

Hahaha!

Sebastian Stahl (34:46.764)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (35:01.366)

team or anybody who needs me. The real answer is being available nearly 24 seven, but also turning the phone off. So my phone is currently scheduled to go into sleep mode, not do not disturb mode at nine 30 at night until six a Now I work from four 45 or four 50 a Until six 30 when my son wakes up and that's my quiet time. That's my

Sebastian Stahl (35:02.264)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (35:27.724)

Hmm. Yep.

Troy Hooper (35:30.41)

Reflective time. That's my thinking time. That's my catch up on emails or post my LinkedIn post, which is actually what I usually do But but finding a structure that allows you to Stay on task of the big things and giving yourself grace When you do need that downtime when you need that quiet time be vulnerable ask for help ask for forgiveness

Sebastian Stahl (35:54.285)

Right.

Troy Hooper (35:57.934)

admit that you're going to fail. I'm going to miss a call. I'm going to double book myself because I didn't let my assistant do it. Like I'm going to make mistakes and I'm going to own them. And then I'm going to figure out how to hopefully not do it again. But, you know, those are just sort of a random collection of lots of thoughts around, being humble, being human, and accepting the truth. and then when I'm not in those modes,

Sebastian Stahl (36:13.379)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (36:20.664)

Yeah, being human.

Troy Hooper (36:28.704)

Go hard. Go, go, Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (36:30.222)

100 % man, that's great advice. So now switching here to marketing and I'd like to talk a little bit about that. You know, I'm passionate about that subject, but you know, with Pepperlunch, you know, it's a unique concept, right? And they focus on, you know, the experience through your own view of yourself. How have you successfully marketed this concept in the different regions in the U .S. because, you know, it's sort of a new market. So what are you guys doing for that?

Troy Hooper (36:58.258)

Yeah, so a couple thoughts there. So we are just now starting to transition from infrastructure development, building the company, building the team, introducing the concept, attracting the franchise partners, onboarding and supporting them, right? So when you look at Pepperlunch restaurants, anything, so it's Pepperlunch restaurants, plural, on any platform, what looks like consumer

Sebastian Stahl (37:10.061)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (37:14.69)

Yup. Yup.

Troy Hooper (37:25.638)

advertising or social media organic or anything like that. It's actually brand building for us. We're not actually today in consumer acquisition conversion mode specifically. It is a byproduct. It does happen. I ask people in our restaurants every day, Hey, ever been here before? No, my first time. And it's really obvious actually, when it's your first time people behave very differently when it's their first time than when they've been there before. And so

Sebastian Stahl (37:37.558)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (37:50.476)

Right.

Troy Hooper (37:51.798)

You know when you ask him, but ask him and they, man, Instagram or I found this or my friend told me and whatever. So we've got a pulse on where they're coming from and how they're finding us, but that's not actually the intent. The intent is building a brand image, a voice, et cetera, as you understand. And we don't know what that is in the United States. I do not pretend to know what Pepper Lunch is in its best form yet. We've been doing it for 19 months.

And so we're testing, we're playing, we're throwing things out there, we're gauging the reaction, we're looking at what is resonating and trying to do more of that, trying to understand more of that. And that takes time. I have the patience and the will to not be perfect today, because I'm not perfect, and you're never perfect, and you're never done, right? But we don't know that, so we're testing nonstop. So we're actually doing it for B2B.

Sebastian Stahl (38:19.971)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (38:28.907)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (38:33.878)

Hmm. Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (38:39.5)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (38:47.092)

So everything you see about us in the egos today is to attract the right franchise partners to build those businesses. Now, we're in that transition phase where we have to keep doing that, but we have stores opening. We're going to open four or five stores between now and the end of January. So yes, we have to have a strategy. We have to have a go -to -market plan. We have to have a tactical budget for those things. And the brand does a percentage of that.

Sebastian Stahl (38:50.915)

Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (39:04.471)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (39:14.75)

And the franchisee is the business owner for that market has to do percentage that, but we have to be partners. And that's the biggest message I want to share here, Sebastian, that maybe is not said out loud enough is that we owe them products and services and they owe us results. And together there's places where we have to be partners. And marketing to me is one of those places where we have to be partners. They have to deploy, they have to create, they have to share with us things that they're doing that are working.

Sebastian Stahl (39:37.261)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (39:43.252)

And we have to create assets and resources and tools and share services with them, whether it's agencies or SaaS products or deployment tools. We have to work together as an ecosystem to effectively evangelize this brand. And just like a franchisee created the Big Mac and a franchisee created different things, different brands, we have no doubt that our franchisees are going to be our best form.

Sebastian Stahl (40:02.509)

Right.

Troy Hooper (40:13.45)

of innovation and our best feedback loop. And so we try to stay very close to that and build a very strong, positive, friendly relationship with them and make sure that we're always mindful that we owe them, just like our employees, we owe them for the pay, the fee that they pay us. And then they owe us really good execution, right? And together we build a brand that resonates and connects and

Sebastian Stahl (40:35.967)

Mmm.

Troy Hooper (40:39.775)

creates resiliency and creates attractiveness to new generations. So for us, it's a big, big picture that has a lot of moving parts.

Sebastian Stahl (40:43.885)

Right, right.

Sebastian Stahl (40:48.972)

Yeah, yeah. that's great. So when you're talking about testing, you guys are doing a ton of testing when you're talking about marketing. And that's great because you understand this and you know it's about patience and testing different things. What would you say, you know, because there's a lot of restaurant owners for me being also in the industry and marketing side of things. It's like, they're like, I want to see results right now. You know what mean? And sometimes they have that mentality and it's the short term, quick fix, you know, mentality.

Troy Hooper (41:11.573)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (41:18.198)

What would you say to restaurant owners that are thinking this way when it comes to marketing? Especially with, know restaurant marketing is an e -commerce marketing which is very different because the paths aren't straight. So what would you say about that?

Troy Hooper (41:33.27)

Stop it. Knock it off. That's enough. That's my answer. Stop it. You're never going to measure the dollar you spend effectively. Now, lots of tools, lots of systems, lots of analytics, a lot of it's bullshit. There's Detroit for you. A lot of it's garbage. And I'm sorry, Sebastian, but look, whatever you measure, if you measure it consistently, then it's a metric worth measuring. It doesn't matter what you measure, as long as you consistently measure the same thing.

Sebastian Stahl (41:34.963)

hahahaha

Sebastian Stahl (41:44.162)

Hmm. Yeah.

100%.

Sebastian Stahl (41:59.352)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (42:01.706)

then you can see trends. You're measuring like for like apples to apples, right? But the reality is you're gonna buy apples and you're gonna get Tomahawk steaks. Like it's not even in the same, you know, kingdom of existence. So it's really, really difficult. Now, of course sales. Now, it's not always sales going up. It's not always a particular product in your sales make changing in sales. But in today's environment, I'll give you this.

Sebastian Stahl (42:02.348)

Yeah, sure.

Troy Hooper (42:32.18)

You know how I know it's working is I go and I talk to my customers and they tell me they're there because of Instagram or they recognize me because of LinkedIn or they're eating this dish because they saw it on Snapchat, right? Great. That's direct loop, right? And there are lots of tools to do that. We use a softwares like momos and a Dentro and ovation to and freets, which is a direct survey of sending customers into do surveys. We use these products. The first four or five SAS products I employed

Sebastian Stahl (42:43.49)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (42:56.088)

Mmm.

Troy Hooper (43:01.77)

When I started, we're listening tools, customer engagement tools, employee empowerment tools. How do I get as close as I can to the customer so I can build a community with them? Because they are going to tell me. The employees are going to tell me. We really listen to the frontline employees. We launched a new menu. We updated, upgraded, changed recipes, consolidated, introduced new products on our menu on July 9th. We are every day accepting that maybe the thing we thought was amazing is not so amazing.

Sebastian Stahl (43:05.496)

Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (43:11.575)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (43:32.15)

And we're willing to consider the change necessary to accept that feedback. So the answer is find ways to listen to the customer, listen to the employee, believe what they tell you, okay? Take it in aggregate, take that information in aggregate. And then for me, like at Pepperlunch, most of our contemporaries in fast casual are shrinking 1 .5 % to 3 % the last five to six months. Sales are down.

Sebastian Stahl (43:46.957)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (44:01.664)

Okay, share of wallet is stretched. Customers are eating out less often and spending more on single eat out experiences and doing it less often. EverLunch is up.

Sebastian Stahl (44:11.831)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (44:15.542)

Under 3 % but we're up and and and we're tracking that month to month quarter to quarter half year half year annual annual we're tracking it on every metric we can and Our sales mix is stable people are still buying the same things and so they haven't traded down in value They're ordering the same things But I do know that it's not the existing customer that's floating us on a growth trajectory. It is new customer We are losing people we are in aggregate losing

Sebastian Stahl (44:29.358)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (44:41.208)

Mm.

Troy Hooper (44:44.67)

some percentage of the total spend of the customer's wallet, but we are making it up and we're making it up in a variety of ways. There's no silver bullet. So that's my answer. There's no silver bullet. It's very difficult to measure, but if you are flat or growing in today's market over the last six months, you are actually ahead of the market because the majority of the market is shrinking.

Sebastian Stahl (44:48.419)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (45:03.436)

Hmm.

Right, right. So now that we're talking about this and trends and everything that's happening in the industry now, where do you see it heading, Because I know raising costs, labor costs, all that craziness. I have my own theories about this thing, but I'd to hear your take on this.

Troy Hooper (45:21.514)

Well, I'd love to say the sexy answer is robotics and AI. And in some cases, it actually is. It's a piece of the puzzle. I've been saying this for about five years. I said this for two years before COVID. It doesn't make me a genius. It's just the obvious when you see the power of social media, you see where attention is, you see how human behavior can be molded over a pretty short period of time.

Sebastian Stahl (45:24.936)

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Sebastian Stahl (45:42.061)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (45:49.622)

And the answer is the mediocre middle is in big trouble. I don't think the mom and pop corner deli who sells the best sandwich in town is in trouble. They have legacy, they have brand recognition, they have a quality product. They also aren't trying to open 100 of them, right? I think you're fine. I think the 10 to 25, 30 unit brand that...

Sebastian Stahl (45:53.304)

Hmph.

Sebastian Stahl (46:08.3)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (46:15.954)

is not investing internally, not listening to a customer, not listening to the, especially not listening to the employee, which is the biggest failure point, is not willing to adapt, is not looking at where the market's going. The market is going to small sliders, Swig, Dutch Bros. There's a segment of the market that's going to the highest form of convenience, the most uniquely differentiated product, and the best or uniquely differentiated service.

And the other side of the market is going to full experiential, right? Experiential, I'm gonna go out once a month, but I am going to pay and I am going to enjoy and I am gonna get something unique for that. And the fact that Vegas has been as hot as Vegas has been hot, Nashville is probably the hottest place in the country for visitation and spend today, tells you what people want. They want experience and they're willing to focus their energy, effort and money

Sebastian Stahl (46:48.46)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (47:09.09)

Hmm. Right.

Troy Hooper (47:14.216)

in a very niche place. So it's both ends of the market. It's the book ends of the market, fast, low cost, high value, convenient, and experiential, high dollar, very rare occurrence. And it's everybody in the middle of that that is in trouble. And you're seeing it with bankruptcies, closures, mergers, short sales, sales for debt in many brands that we all felt like, my God, how is that possible?

Sebastian Stahl (47:28.322)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (47:36.209)

yeah.

Troy Hooper (47:44.298)

Well, they wake up one day and realize they're not relevant. You know, don't be Sears and Kmart for the people in my age range. Don't be Sears and Kmart. Or slightly younger, don't be Circuit City. Find a way to pivot, and that doesn't mean react and chase trends and add a burger to a Mediterranean concept. It means niche down, focus on what you do the best, and find the people who want that. And the only examples I can give you are Raising Cane's

Sebastian Stahl (47:51.145)

Mmm.

Right.

Troy Hooper (48:14.39)

Dave's Hot Chicken, Big Chicken, okay, they're all chicken. In -N -Out Burger, In -N -Out Burger's not changing, On the West Coast not changing, anything about itself in 50 years, okay? I don't even think they've changed the price in 20 years. So niche down, focus on what you're best at, and do that maniacally. Be the best, scream it from the rooftops, and stay true to that authentic self.

Sebastian Stahl (48:22.53)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (48:27.202)

Great.

Sebastian Stahl (48:36.225)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (48:42.488)

Right, right. That's great, man. And I agree with you in how things are playing out and that does the right experience. Streamlined, you know, those were the two sides. So I'll switch gears here to personal, a little bit on the personal side, Troy, because this also as a leader, you know, these are things that, and we've touched on some of these things, but as a leader, there's things that set us apart, right? So in your career and your demanding career, and what you're doing now,

And this is important for, I think, a lot of people. Like, how do you balance, Is there such thing as a balance when it comes to life and work? I would say family life more than anything, because I know you have also a daughter. So, you know, how do you balance that? Sorry about that, Troy, your son.

Troy Hooper (49:25.686)

Son so if my wife listens, yeah, it's okay. No, it's okay. This is gonna be His name's Austin Yeah, great question I actually get this asked a lot because I'm pretty public with my travels and my activities and all the things we're juggling and Telling we're building in public in many ways And so I get this question a lot two pieces of this One recognize that there is a sacrifice to be made in the short term

Sebastian Stahl (49:39.149)

Mm -hmm.

Troy Hooper (49:54.358)

and my family and I made that decision together. Not unlike somebody going to politics or starting a company. By the way, I've done the latter a couple of times and my wife's put up with that. Having a very strong family connection that understands, believes in and supports you unconditionally. Sacrificing some of those times of work to do the family thing. And I'm very, very fortunate that I'm owned by a Japanese company.

My partners and leaders are Asian and for the most part, and my partner and Mark and others on our team all share this belief system of family first. And so when family needs to be priority, it is priority. I time block, quite frankly. I don't do it on 15 minute blocks, but I time block. And the time block is that I'm not available until 8 a period.

Sebastian Stahl (50:33.89)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (50:44.877)

Mm

Troy Hooper (50:45.846)

From 630 in the morning to 8 a I get my son up. I do breakfast We we get the day started together as a family I am NOT available from 430 to 630 p I pick up my son from school when I'm in town, of course and I And I spend time with him and then my wife comes home and we spend time as a family we dinner together and then we share or hand off the nighttime routine responsibilities because I'm

Sebastian Stahl (51:11.341)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (51:12.598)

Because my leadership and much of our support system is in Asia, I actually am on the phone from 6 .30 to 9 or 9 .30 several nights a week. So I go back to work at night. that. And then when I'm on the road, again, I don't care what it is. It does not matter. Those time blocks, I will FaceTime my family. I will spend quality time on the phone with my family. I will not rush it. And I have stepped out of dinners with famous, rich people.

I have walked away and stood outside of a restaurant for 20 minutes pacing in the parking lot talking to my son because a fire truck went by and he wanted to talk about the fire truck. That does not make me a great human. That does not make me super dad. Does not afford me the award of the year. I'm just saying that by the way on the flip side of that, that sounds like a very small amount of time. And in some cases it is, but we take one weekend day off together no matter what. I'm in a unique position that my wife's in a very high.

Sebastian Stahl (51:48.694)

Mmm. Yeah.

Troy Hooper (52:12.758)

high -power executive position as well. So we balance this, believe it not, together. There's no nanny, there's no home care, there's none of it. We're doing it together as a family and as a team. So it's just the life that we've chosen the way we're choosing to do it for now. And also, by the way, you're almost to 19 months in. I am slowing it down a little bit. I am taking weekends off, at least most of the weekend or...

Sebastian Stahl (52:17.494)

Right.

Sebastian Stahl (52:29.932)

Right.

Troy Hooper (52:40.566)

We're setting aside two hour window on a Saturday morning to do some work or four hours on a Saturday afternoon to do some work and juggling that. But at the same time, we're starting to realize that that pace is not a forever pace. You cannot continue that forever. And so we're starting to be a little smarter and a little bit more mindful. And also with my travel, the biggest question I get is travel. It's seasonal, right? So it's 12 weeks in the fall and basically 10 or 12 weeks in the spring.

Sebastian Stahl (52:53.378)

Right. It's not sustainable.

Sebastian Stahl (53:09.111)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (53:09.694)

two three -day trips in the summer for work and one of them was my family came with me because it happened to be at a beach destination. you know, balancing it that way.

Sebastian Stahl (53:18.488)

Right? Yeah, yeah. That's great, Troy. That's, and for sure the supporting family is everything. And especially, you your wife will definitely understand you both are in similar positions. That's great, man. So here's something, here's a personal question for you, another one. What do you fear most in life? Not in business, but your personal life.

Troy Hooper (53:40.384)

Well, that's a fantastic question that nobody's ever asked me. What do I feel most, look, the health and happiness of my family at the end of the day. And yes, does that change when you have children? Of course. And when you made promises to your wife and your family and they've made sacrifices for you, letting them down or putting them in a vulnerable position. So, you know, first the health and equally the happiness of them.

Sebastian Stahl (53:47.277)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (53:54.22)

Yeah.

Troy Hooper (54:10.462)

And so it just means that when you're present, you're present. And that's not easy. You got to put the phone down. I get called out. I call out my wife. There's no perfect math. There is no being right all the time. There is no doing it correctly. It just doesn't exist. We're human, and we're all going to fail, and we're going to have to get back on the same page and get realigned and all those things that have to happen. It's being mindful at the end of the day.

Sebastian Stahl (54:27.597)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (54:39.143)

You have to be self -aware, mindful, and accept when you fail in those elements that it's okay and you're gonna get back on track. That's all you can do. And then, you know, reevaluate and pivot as necessary.

Sebastian Stahl (54:58.018)

Right, right. And so finally, Troy, in closing this last question, you know, when we often think about success and leadership in terms of achievements, but what is the deepest lesson you've learned about yourself through the journey hospitality and business? If you had to sum up the impact your career has had on your personal personal growth, what would that be?

Troy Hooper (55:19.446)

It has been the development of humility. As a young leader, as an aggressive, yeah, Miami guy, you know, that East Coast Miami, know, machismo from being raised by Cubans, kind of like being raised by wolves, you have a lot of bark, right? So, you know, I have always projected confidence. I've always projected...

Sebastian Stahl (55:22.913)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (55:29.74)

Miami native.

Troy Hooper (55:47.742)

ability and willingness to do more and give more and be more focused and and and maniacal and and aggressive to have a lot of a lot of goals and and aggressive goals to achieve in and be unrealistic and have those big hairy audacious goals as some people say but you have to be very careful and I have learned many times by basically having my

Sebastian Stahl (56:06.825)

Mmm. Mmm.

Troy Hooper (56:14.004)

my collar jerked enough times by people I respected that it's a very delicate balance to project confidence and to be cocky. And I have struggled with that until later in my life. And we talked about this, and I before, humility is a daily practice. It's a minute by minute practice. And the way I do it is by having empathy for people around me.

Sebastian Stahl (56:23.213)

Mm.

Sebastian Stahl (56:29.069)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (56:42.57)

being curious about other people's input or their perspective or their experience, their ideas, and soliciting those actively, which makes me listen and makes me think and makes me realize that I don't have all the answers. I don't have to have all the answers. That's a very hard thing in leadership to be tasked with the end accountability to everything, but then not feel responsible for being the person to give all the answers. These are things that...

Sebastian Stahl (56:52.683)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (57:10.002)

I struggle with and I think a lot of street people, a lot of leaders coming up and through their journey have to struggle with. So I'm very pleased to have found genuine, authentic humility and to have practiced for so long, walking into a room with curiosity and empathy. I don't do it perfect every time. I still don't. I still walk in ready to be a bull in a china shop. But I've also empowered the people around me to say, Hey Troy, and my wife actually will say the words bull, china shop.

Sebastian Stahl (57:21.995)

Hmm.

Troy Hooper (57:39.584)

to me. Sometimes she just says China. She'll say, Bull, you know, hey man, you walked in kind of heavy, you walked in kind of hot, like back it off a little bit. You're commanding the room here. Let other people have some oxygen, you know. Boy, that, you know, it's just DNA and how I was raised. So as long as we're not talking about football, college football particularly, I'm pretty humble. You put me in a room with a conversation around the University of Miami Hurricanes and

Sebastian Stahl (57:39.671)

Ha

Yeah.

Sebastian Stahl (57:51.409)

Mm

Sebastian Stahl (57:56.962)

Hmm.

Sebastian Stahl (58:02.19)

Wait.

Troy Hooper (58:09.392)

I lose, like Gary Vee says about the jets, I am not the human being you think I am. I am a different animal, for sure. Let's go, Canes.

Sebastian Stahl (58:12.985)

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome, man. And for sure, it's, you know, we have two choices with all of these things that you described. We either learn by insight or by pain. I usually choose pain without even knowing something. But I learn.

Troy Hooper (58:32.096)

Yeah, that's... I've learned almost all my lessons in life, not from the successes, but from the failures and the pain along that journey, for sure.

Sebastian Stahl (58:40.578)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, Troy, thanks so much, my friend. Thank you again for doing this, for this conversation. It's been fantastic. And again, just for anybody, potential franchises, anybody interested in Pepperlunch and learning more about the concept and getting in touch with you, how do you get in touch with you?

Troy Hooper (58:59.638)

Super easy, pepperlunchrestaurants .com, Pepperlunch Restaurants on LinkedIn. 99 % of the communication and community engagement is me, believe it or not. so check us out, go experience it in a city where we are and are coming and feel free to reach out. I like to say as Sean Walsh taught me, I'm weirdly available. So you'd be pretty easy to find me and communicate with me on all platforms.

Sebastian Stahl (59:27.814)

That was cool man. Thanks so much Troy, appreciate it. Alright, take care. Alright, bye bye.

Troy Hooper (59:30.784)

Thanks, Sebastian. Glad to be here.