The Virtuous Act of Hospitality: Restoring Generosity and Culture with Steve Fortunato

The Virtuous Act of Hospitality: Restoring Generosity and Culture with Steve Fortunato

👤 Guest:

Steve Fortunato
Founder & CEO, Hospitality Collaborative
Author of The Urgent Recovery of Hospitality

📝 Episode Summary:

In this episode of The Leadership Table, Jason E. Brooks sits down with Steve Fortunato to explore hospitality as a virtuous act—one rooted in generosity, intentionality, and human connection.

From his early experiences in a hosting home to founding roomforty, Pharmacie Bar + Kitchen, and the broader Hospitality Collaborative, Steve’s journey reframes catering not as an afterthought—but as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for meaning and impact.

Steve also shares insights from his book The Urgent Recovery of Hospitality, unpacking how value creation, not value extraction, defines the future of great leadership. The conversation covers practical frameworks for speaking the good, building team culture, and creating virtuous cycles that elevate both guest experience and internal growth.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Hospitality is fundamentally about creating meaningful, affirming experiences.
• Foundational moments—especially in childhood—shape leadership instincts.
• Catering should be mind-blowing, not “good for catering.”
• Intentionality matters more than appearance or volume.
• Value creation is the defining trait of future-ready leaders.
• Recognizing and celebrating others fosters lasting loyalty.
• Small, authentic check-ins build strong team culture.
• Leaders grow by noticing, affirming, and re-centering on purpose.

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 – The Essence of Hospitality
 01:59 – Foundational Experiences in Leadership
 04:56 – Convergence of Values and Intentions
 07:57 – Redefining Catering in Hospitality
 13:50 – The Virtuous Act of Hospitality
 19:48 – Creating a Virtuous Cycle in Leadership
 26:22 – Building Culture and Accountability
 30:38 – Leadership Lessons from Influential Figures

💬 Sound Bites:

“It’s a virtuous act.”
 “Catering should be mind blowing.”
 “We are encouraged into growth.”

🔗 Guest Links:

• Website: stevefortunato.com
• Instagram: @steve_fortunato
• LinkedIn: @Steve Fortunato

📣 Subscribe & Share:

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

If this conversation resonated with you, please:

• ✅ Subscribe and leave a review
• 💌 Share it with a hospitality or service-minded leader in your circle

For more insights, tools, and frameworks to scale smarter and lead stronger, visit jasonebrooks.com and check out the weekly coaching circle at aimdrivescale.com.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to The Leadership Table
• 5:01 Growing Up in a Hosting Home
• 11:53 Shaping Leadership Through Convergence
• 20:37 From Restaurant Dreams to Catering Success
• 33:17 The Urgent Recovery of Hospitality
• 39:18 Building Culture One Moment at a Time

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the Leadership Table, where we dive into conversations that help hospitality leaders scale smarter and lead stronger. I'm your host, jason E Brooks, and today I'm joined by Steve Fortunato, founder of Hospitality Collaborative and the author of the Urgent Recovery of Hospitality. Steve's work is a powerful reminder that hospitality is more than service. It's a virtuous act, so let's get into it. Steve, welcome to the leadership table.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 0:42

How's it been?

Speaker 2: 0:42

going. It's been going really well. It's been going really well. It's been an exciting time. It's been fun.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Good stuff, good stuff. You are in the Southern California area where it's always sunny, never rainy. Is that actually true? Or is that just some cool 90s R&B song of? It Never Rains in Southern California.

Speaker 2: 1:06

I love that song. I love that song. You just dated yourself. I just felt completely in good company. It's sunny most of the time, man, really. Yeah, currently I'm actually in Montana and it is beautiful and there's trees everywhere and it's a little more temperate. Southern California can get to the 90s in March, so it's nice to be on a trip.

Speaker 1: 1:38

You not only travel in life, but you've also traveled within your career. You know your journey begun busing tables at 15 to building out hospitality collaborative. That is incredible.

Speaker 2: 2:06

What foundational experiences shaped your leadership approach early on. I would say one of the earliest foundational experiences would be my childhood, just growing up in a hosting home and growing up with an attention to detail and seeing how details set the table and it sort of provided a container for the experience. Simultaneously, I would say I couldn't name this. But a second foundational experience would be the dissatisfaction with what was happening at the table, feeling like we have gone to these lengths and I feel like this should feel more comfortable. I feel like conversation should be more engaging or more fun. That would be a second experience.

Speaker 2: 2:57

I think the third experience was just cannonballing into the restaurant world and into the hospitality world, as you said, as a very young person. I was 14 and 15 when I first started working in restaurants and I was by far the youngest guy on the totem pole. I was working with post-college students and there was a recognition from the management that for a teenager, this kid has intuitive instincts around a table and I think that was a foundational experience, recognizing a comfortability and a familiarity with guests sitting at a table, with serving, with clearing, with talking about food, with reading intuitively what was happening at a table. So those were some early experiences.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Now you said hosting home. What do you mean by that?

Speaker 2: 3:51

What I mean by that is that my parents were often inviting people over to stay in our home or to come over for a meal, and my mom would prepare a meal and what that looked like was sort of elaborate meals with recipes. At the time she read Gourmet Magazine and so she would read this elaborate recipe and she'd be cooking for a while, and I grew up with seasonal dishes, so we had a set of dishes for each season and then we had the china cabinet that we'd bring the you know the fine china out of which was don't get me wrong, that was my home. I also grew up a surfer romping around in the Redwoods, so I was. There was definitely a some paradox to my early years to my early years.

Speaker 1: 4:48

You know it's great that you are on the right podcast with the leadership table, and your table did revolve a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life. Not only that, but then, once you got into the business, you were also understanding a very different view of what that table is. How do you think that that shaped you getting into building brands and reflecting your values?

Speaker 2: 5:23

I would describe it as convergence. Hmm, I would describe it as convergence, I think, often early Jason, how do I get to Tennessee? And you said, well, you definitely don't go to Oregon, you really don't want to go to Oregon. I get it, but how do I get to Tennessee? How do I accomplish where I want to go? And so once reaction and sort of anti gets out of you, then you have to set your North Star.

Speaker 2: 6:06

So that was certainly a component, was getting really clear on what I didn't want to do, but I think, simultaneously feeling like in my early years there was attention to detail but we missed the forest for the trees and and the intention had come a distant second to the attention of detail.

Speaker 2: 6:40

Something has entered the world of hospitality the experience of our gatherings. That is not the highest goal of why we're gathering, which is attention around this restaurant, attention around this chef, attention around the design. All of those things are meant to serve what I believe is a higher purpose, which is what is happening amongst us relationally and collectively and energetically, as we sit and eat together and experience beauty and then try to reflect that beauty. So that was sort of the second thing that shaped my approach. And then I think the third thing was being really inspired as an entrepreneur by brands that were disrupting questions that they were asking why do we have to do it that way? What if we did it that way? What if we did it this way? And studying the lives and the business trajectories and the work cultures of some of those companies really inspired me.

Speaker 1: 7:37

So I think all of those things sort of converged to begin to shape how I approached what I was building of converge to begin to shape how I approached what I was building, even as you say that, when I of course did my research on Room 40 and pharmacy bar and kitchen. It is a very different type of gathering space, a different type of catering approach, even down to the skills put into the seating and the tables. How did you? You just explained that truly. But that approach in building brands is it common? Do you think that it really fills the void of what you saw from your past, or what you saw that customers guessed not just customers guessed needed in order to see that intentionality in where they were eating, why they were eating there and then the conversations that they're having at that table?

Speaker 2: 8:44

that they're having at that table. Yeah, I want to be careful to not represent this over. Clear picture of the future. Intention and path are sometimes two different things. You can set your intention, but then the reality path sets in. You know, you can set your intention to be a great fighter and, as Mike Tyson said, everybody's got a plan until they get hit in the mouth.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Until they get hit in the mouth.

Speaker 2: 9:12

Yeah. So I think that there was some intention set and, like all entrepreneurs, you kind of fail forward and you hit some brick walls and you experience the emotion of that and the whatever emotion you're having, the incredulity, the sense of failure, the confusion, thinking I thought I saw where we were headed. But invariably, if you let those brick walls actually begin to shape your path, you kind of stumble in to what your path is meant to be and there's sort of an aha. And that's really what happened for me is that I had this intention of what I wanted to accomplish. I had some really good advice and someone came and said start doing some gatherings, do it outside of the restaurant.

Speaker 2: 10:02

I worked in a white tablecloth restaurant and at the time the lines around white tablecloth and fine dining were drawn very clearly. Pop-ups were not yet a movement yet and so I started doing these gatherings, that sort of juxtaposed fine dining and unorthodox spaces and museums and galleries and private estates, talking about this restaurant that I was going to open called Room 40. And the brick walls came in force as I was sending LOI after LOI after LOI to these landlords trying to get a restaurant lease, and I could not get a restaurant lease, which I found confusing because restaurants open and close in LA all the time and people were coming to these dinners that I was doing saying, man, I wish we had this as a catering event. Man, I wish you could have catered my wife wedding, I wish you could have catered my 40th. But you know you're not doing that. You're opening a fancy restaurant and I kind of read the writing on the wall as I spoke about earlier disruption, blue ocean thinking, which is everyone's doing all these ideas very similarly and it's turned into a red ocean. There's a great big blue ocean out there. What could we try, what if? And I just had a real change of perspective and paradigm and I realized catering is a follower.

Speaker 2: 11:23

In the hospitality space, restaurants are the leader and that's kind of tragically ironic because you go to these phenomenal restaurants and it's just thursday night but on a once in a lifetime, once in a decade event, you kind of go. It wasn't bad for catering, which is ironic because you're never going to experience this event Again. Catering should be mind-blowing. And that's when I kind of had a change of perspective and I said you know what? What if there was an experience of catering that really closed that gap between the great restaurant experience and the catered format, which is really hard for lots of reasons Obviously, the logistical reasons, the lack of a commercial kitchen on some of the event spaces that you go to, one of the greatest problems working with an itinerant staff it's a gig-based worker economy.

Speaker 2: 12:16

So you have this grand canyon of investment between the client and the front line. The client has never been this invested in the event. You know if you're spending $1,000 or $300 at a great restaurant experience, you're spending $30,000 at, you know, a catered event. So you've never been so invested as a client and as a frontline worker server, bartender you might work for 10 different catering companies and this is just one more event on your gig roster. So how do you close that gap and really provide that great experience of service? How do you execute six courses in a vineyard up on a mountain? How do you continue to get catering events in the space that you want to cater when catering, especially in Southern California, is cyclical? So there was a lot of challenges in embracing that as the world I wanted to get in, but 18 years later I'm really glad I did.

Speaker 1: 13:22

And it sounds like you're doing very well. Now I actually work with the Off-Premise Growth Academy with Earl Dardick, and I didn't even know we were going to really get this deep into the catering world is levitating miles above what most people picture catering as. But the way that you just defined it, it's very specific. In you go to a nice restaurant, a really nice one, and, yes, it's just another Thursday, and how catering should be is a once in a lifetime event. That's how we should treat it within the execution as well. I think you said that so elegantly, so you know. I also want to get into your book. Your book frames hospitality as a virtuous act, similar to how you view catering as well, you know, one that rebuilds communities. What sparked you to write the Urgent Recover of Hospitality and what's the core message you hope leaders take away?

Speaker 2: 14:44

What sparked me was recognizing in myself an inner conflict. I was trying to build this company that was mission driven, that was disruptive, and I was trying to build this company that was mission driven, that was disruptive. And companies that are disruptive for a good cause they often get noticed and it creates this sense of inertia. Where they've set what it is that they want to do, they start doing it, they get noticed, they're able to accomplish more good, they're able to increase their impact, and it felt like that kind of recognition was eluding me and I was really frustrated by that. I had been building my company and I had been working hard to create a great culture and a great product and it felt like the recognition and the value that I was looking for as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as a service provider, as a you know, we call ourselves moment architects as a moment architect, it felt like that was eluding me and I was frustrated. And I had this moment of clarity where I realized I'm looking for recognition, I'm looking for our company to be valued in an industry that is all about, or should be all about, recognizing others and valuing others. And I realized that as I identified that dilemma inside of me. I began to see that dilemma inside of me, I began to see that dilemma outside of me and I began to file a lot of my experiences in hospitality in two vastly different categories. Some of them just felt so welcoming and they brought something out in me by way of gratitude and generosity that I just wanted to return to the provider and it just created this virtuous cycle, this sense of generativity where we had a great conversation or a memory was made. Then there were these other experiences where I felt like I was a kid in a playground trying to get in the game and there was a bouncer checking to see if I qualified and I wanted to look at them and say you know, I'm the customer right. And I identified what is the through line in these two vastly different experiences within the same industry. Ah, one of these experiences is looking to get value, is looking to be recognized for the value they bring for their craftsmanship, and one of them is looking to value others and recognize others. And I saw that, that conflict that I had identified in myself looking to be valued, proving my value, looking for validation, for recognition, in a moment that should be about recognizing others, valuing others. I recognized that dilemma and that paradox within my industry. And then I looked beyond my industry and I recognized it and identified it everywhere, recognized it and identified it everywhere. And just our interactions as humans.

Speaker 2: 18:09

What happens when we whether it is an interaction with a fellow parent on the PTA community, or a spouse or an employee or someone that is checking you in on an airplane, whatever level of interaction we're having with people when both parties are looking to be valued, when both parties are looking to be recognized, it breaks the sauce. But when someone goes I'm going to go first. It's very similar to breathing, jason. If I want to get that next breath that is critical for my existence, I have to give the breath that I have away. And when I give that breath away, I make space to take that other breath. And that is how life happens, that is how generativity happens, that is the ecology of value, of existence.

Speaker 2: 19:02

And so I know that sounds wildly esoteric, but as I played this thing, you know, as I sort of reverse engineered, recognizing this dilemma in me going, I'm trying to be valued and in these moments I should actually be valuing others.

Speaker 2: 19:21

I'm trying to be recognized and in these moments I should be recognizing others. I'm trying to be celebrated for my craft and instead I should be leveraging my craft to celebrate others. I recognized this dilemma and the circles that I saw this dilemma existing in just got wider and wider and wider, and that is what really sparked this desire to write this book, not from a place of. I have realized this, I have mastered this, and now let me bring the pearls that I've mined to everybody else. More like, oh my God, this tension so exists inside of me and I'm discovering ways that I can reset my North Star and it's creating something different, energetically with me and my people with me and my relationships with me and my clients. So it was really from this place of enthusiasm and excitement that I wanted to say here's some things I'm discovering that are helping me. I'd love to share it.

Speaker 1: 20:31

What are some ways that our listeners, business owners, operators, executives how can they take this virtuous cycle and begin viewing guest experience differently, or team development differently, within their four walls or within their organization?

Speaker 2: 20:55

Well, there is a framework that I unfold in the second part of the book, but I think the very first thing is just recognizing it. I think that this movement from looking for recognition what I call the vicious cycle this movement from the vicious cycle to the virtuous cycle, it's not a one and done transaction. There's no snake oil formula that's going to permanently transform you into operating on the virtuous cycle. I think it's just noticing. It's noticing what's happening inside of ourselves first and that's really what EQ is is it's recognizing the impact of us on others. And I think that in noticing these cycles, the first thing we do is we recognize our intentions. What am I trying to get out of this moment? What do I want out of this interaction? And I think then, once we've noticed that we talk about four things that leaders can do to begin to create more of these virtuous cycles and it's a four-part framework, virtuous cycles. And it's a four-part framework, it starts with speaking the good, honoring those you serve, earning the respect of others as opposed to expecting it and then celebrating and improving. Sometimes we have these cultures of celebration and it's just enthusiasm and everything's great. Other times we have these environments that are just unrelenting in their push for growth. I feel wisdom is found in paradox. So speaking the good words have power. What you focus on grows, and I think the very first thing leaders need to do is they need to speak the good in themselves. Oftentimes leaders are really really hard on themselves, but that is an economy if you're existing in, even if you are trying to edit your language to those that you lead and those that you follow. Inside there's an internal critic and that sense of criticism is going to leak out in your leadership and I believe that we, as hosts, can't make people feel at home until we're at home with ourselves. So the way the first thing we do is we just start to speak the good inside of us. We just start to notice the good. Because we are over the long tail, we are encouraged into growth. There is certainly a short season, maybe for one accomplishment, one accolade, one vista that we're trying to climb, that driving voice might get us there short term. But if we're looking at growth as a long-tail game, nobody is berated into growth. If you think of a little kid when they're learning how to walk or learning how to do something new, the parents are around jumping up and down saying you're doing it, you're doing it, keep going. The parents are around jumping up and down saying you're doing it, you're doing it, keep going.

Speaker 2: 23:46

And, as you know, as a host of leaders and as a leader yourself, leadership is very lonely. It's a very difficult journey to quantify for those around you, and so it really starts with speaking the good in yourself. Then we talk about speaking the good in your company, your colleagues, your clients. Oftentimes there's a tendency to get loose-lipped with our exasperation with clients, sort of that reaction from the customer is always right, knowing the customer is not always right, but we can get exasperated with these clients. And I think that when we begin to speak the good toward our clients' intentions, our colleagues' intentions, our company's intentions, and we don't fall for that us against the man thing, but we actually go, what's the good that I can speak? That starts the cycle beginning to turn, and I won't go through the whole framework, but there are practical, there's principles, and then there's practices that I talk about in the book.

Speaker 1: 24:55

Now, steve, I love your framework. Whenever you and I spoke a few weeks ago, we talked through both of our frameworks or approaches to what we coach, to our mantra, to how we build and live, because it's not just a business, it's how we view life, and your framework reminds me of two of my frameworks. Of course, one is aim drive, scale, and that drive phase is when generosity fuels accountability and teams move from being reactive to proactive in their leadership, because, even though it is a team under or working for a individual there, they they are still being proactive within their own leadership as well. Leadership isn't just a tag for a boss, it is how you view and and approach things. How you view and approach things.

Speaker 1: 26:03

One of my other frameworks is leading with the right mindset, and one of the core questions that I think whenever leaders are able to have the right mindset going into situations, is, by asking a very simple question of what does this situation need from me, or what does this person need from me, and giving that pause and thinking through what does this situation need from me or of me, you're able to, more so, lead with a.

Speaker 1: 26:41

Does it need structure? Does it need vision? Does it need growth, does this person need growth? But taking that pause to be able to understand where you're currently at, what the goal is for this situation, to help move to success for that environment, person or situation, that's what helps to give that right mindset. So, as you speak through your frameworks, it also helps me or reminds me thinking through mine, with the aim, drive, scale and also with the leading, with the right mindset, which is managing versus leading, versus coaching. Now, a lot of what we teach helps to build culture within individuals, also within brands, and building culture across multiple brands is no small feat. How do you instill leadership and accountability inside your teams while still keeping the heart of hospitality at the center?

Speaker 2: 27:47

I've learned the power of leading small moment by small moment, small interaction by small interaction. I think the concept of protracted periods of silence, followed by a quarterly review, followed by a quarterly review, that model, I think, is becoming more and more antiquated for people to feel seen, for people to feel guided, for people to experience what you have tried to set as your culture. So how have I done it? I do it one small moment at a time, whether that be a specific check-in about you know someone's life. Hey, how was your weekend? How was your daughter's graduation? I know you were celebrating your mom's birthday. How did that go?

Speaker 2: 28:37

Noticing something that they're doing, catching them doing something right, not making it this formal presentation, not making it a sit down, but saying something more specific than you know good job, which is obviously something I'm sure you've heard. You know good job is not specific. So, giving, we all need to hear an attaboy, attagirl. We all need to feel like we're doing, we're on the right track. And then, secondarily, when it comes to accountability, I think accountability starts with clear expectations. One of the things that leaders often presume is that they're being heard, and so one of my small practices is, after I communicate, I say what is it that you heard? And after someone else communicates to me, I say this is what I hear you saying. Did I get that right?

Speaker 2: 29:33

And giving people the opportunity to clarify, because I think that feeling seen and feeling heard are two prerequisites to people feeling engaged, people feeling part of your culture, people wanting to follow your leadership, people feeling safe and trusted. So we could assume, based on someone's body language or based on their eye contact, that they are feeling seen and they are feeling heard. But I think it requires a check-in. Did I hear what it was that you were needing me to hear? How are you feeling after this interaction? Did you get what you needed? Or, if I'm the one communicating, what is it that you hear me saying?

Speaker 2: 30:19

And oftentimes they'll repeat something back which was not at all what you were saying, and it gives you the opportunity to clarify and say no, I'm not saying that, here's what I really want you to hear, and take a second pass at it. So those are small little practices. They're not grand philosophies, they're not esoteric treasures. They're just little ways that, day in and day out, we begin to ask questions, clarify, set expectations, mirror what we heard, ask other people to mirror what they heard. Check in with them. On a personal note, those are the types of things that we do that help imbue culture and hold people accountable.

Speaker 1: 31:19

Every single leader listening and watching right now can take today and apply today that clarification, that verification of how you're being heard, if you're being heard and also what you're hearing as well. That can close the window on so much confusion within not just our business life but our personal life as well. Now I know I've I have had you hostage for almost 30 minutes now, so we are going to close with some signature questions that I ask everyone that comes to the leadership table, questions that I ask everyone that comes to the leadership table. If you had a seat at a leadership roundtable with three others, living or historical who would you choose and why?

Speaker 2: 32:16

Oh man, jason, that's a tough question for lifelong learners. I see your bookshelf you can imagine mine's packed with the lives of leaders that have so inspired me. I am really inspired by Yvonne Schuenard culture and great impact on the planet on a cause greater than themselves. Even if you might not identify with the cause that he has picked as his own, there is an alignment that he has worked into the fabric of his company, where his products are, like I said, they're very high quality. Nobody would ever second guess the quality of Patagonia and they are an adventurer's or a nature person's product. It's not a product for people that aspire to nature but don't want to pay for the higher quality, and his culture is filled with people that are passionate about what he's passionate about, and his impact and what he does with his profits goes beyond his own interests. I find that very inspiring.

Speaker 2: 33:36

I find the leadership of Pete Carroll very inspiring. I'm a football fan. I've been a Seahawks fan. I've been struggling with what to do now that he's the coach of the Raiders. But whether or not you are a football fan, one of the things that Pete Carroll doubled down on was that you could draw out excellence, the highest level of excellence from your team while being an encourager and an affirmer of them, and that is in no way to say there's an absence of accountability. People get cut from the team left and right, people get benched, people get disciplined, but he doubled down on the way to actually draw sustained, long term excellence while simultaneously building a great culture. I'm going to do that through affirming people, by noticing the good and also taking a holistic view of leadership. You know, pete Carroll was the first NFL coach to invite Brene Brown into the locker room and most people would not think of you know someone like Brene Brown? Now they would, but at the time, brene Brown coming into an NFL team room was a jarring juxtaposition and I just really admire his leadership.

Speaker 2: 35:02

I think Joe of Trader Joe's you know, in looking at how he was incredibly savvy, how, again, he was a disruptor, he didn't look at the way that the grocery experience happened and go how can we do it? The same, but just a little bit different? You know, he literally had a fraction of the number of SKUs that most grocery stores had, which was just. It defied logic. Well, if it's a grocery store, you need to have 12 different types of X, and you know to this day, trader Joe's. You know, if you go to a certain grocery store and you say do you have tahini paste, they'll say I don't know.

Speaker 2: 35:48

And if you go to other grocery stores and you say, do you have tahini paste? They'll say check out five. If you go to Trader Joe's and you say, do you have tahini paste? They'll say come with me. And the way that that vision has, for decades, worked itself out into his front line, where here you have an experience of baggers, checkers, stalkers, and they feel happy to be at their job, even amid what is happening in our current society with how people feel about work and how people show up for work. You walk into Trader Joe's and it's a different experience. How did he do that? That inspires me and I would love to just sit down with those three leaders and ask a couple questions and then shut up.

Speaker 1: 36:40

Well, I am absolutely jealous of your roundtable leadership board members. Those three are amazing. So now for the final question Can you share a single conversation? I know you've had lots of conversations throughout your journey and you're still having them to this day, but can you share a single conversation maybe unexpected that shifted how you lead, hire or serve today?

Speaker 2: 37:19

serve. Today I'm actually sitting in the place where I wrote a lot of the book. I'm up in Montana and I brought a friend, a very dear friend, with me and I describe this in the book. I brought a very dear friend with me who is also a writer and a thinker and basically we were on a writing retreat and our wives had given us their blessing to take off and we were. He was on one floor of the house and I was on another floor of the house and we wrote for 13 or 14 hours a day and I sort of was wrapping up my philosophy that I had espoused in the book.

Speaker 2: 37:56

And he looked at me and he said you know, society has been in a hunting and gathering mindset since we have existed. We have been in a value extraction mindset and the leaders of the future will be thinking about value creation and they will shift from a value extraction mindset to a value creation mindset. And this is one of my best friends, brock, and he was essentially saying what he had just heard me describe in great detail, but it so encapsulated everything that I think we need to be focused on in our leadership, everything that we need to be focused on, on what it is that we're creating, the ideas we're trying to mobilize, the thoughts that we are trying to espouse, the learnings, the discoveries, the reconciliations that we're trying to unfold, the conflicts that we are trying to deescalate trying to unfold the conflicts that we are trying to deescalate and the problems we're trying to solve. If we think about value creation instead of value extraction, what can I get out of this? What can I take out of this? You're still going to get something.

Speaker 2: 39:06

Again, this is not being altruistic, it's being strategic. It's going the way that I get what I need is I give what I want, and if I give value, I'm going to get it back. But someone's got to go first. And I think that recognizing that that is not altruistic, that is not being a doormat, that is not forfeiting our interests and our needs, it's recognizing the way the ecosystem of value works is someone goes first and when you go first, you begin to kick off that cycle, that virtuous cycle of generativity, and I think that it was that conversation that really it put a casing around the sausage of what it is that I've been describing.

Speaker 1: 39:58

That sounds like it was an amazing writing trip. It's great that your wives were able to say, yeah, go do your thing. My wife won't let me leave for four hours. She's like honey, get your butt back home right now. She's like honey, get your butt back home right now. But no, steve before we close.

Speaker 2: 40:27

Where can listeners connect with you? Learn more about your brands, learn more about your framework? Or pick up a copy of the Urgent Recovery of Hospitality. Thank you for that. You can get the book anywhere books are sold Amazon. Wherever you buy your books, I think the easiest way for people to look at my content would just be stevefortunatocom. You can contact me via that website. That website will take you to you know the different brands, to room 40, which is our catering company, etc. But probably the easiest way is to just go to stevefortunatocom.

Speaker 1: 40:52

Excellent, and we will definitely put that in the show notes, but probably the easiest way is to just go to SteveFortunatocom. Excellent, and we will definitely put that in the show notes. Steve, thank you for pulling up a seat at the leadership table. Your heart for restoring true hospitality and leading through generosity. It's something we all need to be reminded of every single day To our listeners. Thanks for also pulling up a seat with us today. If you're building a people first brand and this episode sparked something for you, subscribe and share it with anotherasonebrookscom and learn about our weekly coaching circle at aimedrivescalecom. Until next time, keep leading with clarity, with consistency and with care. And remember manage, lead, coach, repeat. Thank you, have a great day.