Tony Moarbes - Eat Lebanese

In this episode of How's Business I talk witih Tony Moarbes from Eat Lebanese. 

Tony's talk about running a hospitality business, transitioning from full time athelete to business owner, mindset and crazy stories of the kitchen.

I really want to thank Tony for his time I know alot in the business community are going to get alot from this episode 

Tonys instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonymoarbes/

Eat Lebanese: https://www.instagram.com/eat.lebanese/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thank you for joining me again on another episode of How's Business, where we interview real business owners with real business problems and real business wins. Today we have the legend Tony from Eat Lebanese and so many other things. Tony, thanks for coming on the pod, mate.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

No worries.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Thank you for having me. So let's get started with the first question. How's business?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Yeah, thank God. Business is good. Uh it's challenging, it's uh keeps me up at night, but it's the right type of challenging. So yeah, pretty happy with things at the moment. If you asked me maybe a few months ago, I would have had a different answer. But right now, yeah, things are good.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Answer might change in 24 hours. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Every day, just wake up we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

100%. So for me and the listeners, uh, let's wind up what right back. When was your first business?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Uh first business I owned. So the first business I set up and the first business I owned are two very similar timeline, and uh, I think they kind of lead to each other. So my dad, he had like fruit and veg markets my whole life, so I kind of got involved in that at a younger age. That was my job, a standard job I had to work there. So every Sunday morning type of vibe? Every morning before uni, um every afternoon, closer shop, you know, every weekend. You weren't allowed to work anywhere else. You didn't get paid for the first few years, like you know, it was within the classic, yeah. The classic, but uh he he shut down one business where we were living at the time and he needed to open something else. So I was at the time I was living and working in uh Western Australia. So I flew back from Western Australia to help him get back on his feet. So I feel like I actually really set that business up because my brother and I both just took control. He wasn't really um confident in setting up a business on his own, he didn't really know how to do it. He was always he always had partners that handled like you know the accounting and the software and the technology and all the other stuff. He was really good at buying and selling, that was it. So I set that business up with him, and we ran that for like six months, and then I kind of went hands off. Um, but then while I was doing that, my brother and I had talked about um opening a cafe one day. It'd be cool. We would because we had a deli in the in the fruit market, and we were like, you know what would be really cool? We just like juices, smoothies, coffee, like that should be something that we do one day. Where maybe we do this. This is in Cornella, so right. That's our that was the kind of guess the start of us kind of getting into Cornella. Um, yeah, so we had that conversation, and I went back to LA. I was living in LA, uh, I had moved to LA at the time. Um, so we had that conversation earlier, and then one day my brother calls me, goes, Hey, you know, bro, we always talked about opening a coffee shop. Um, look, man, the coffee shop across the street is just like leaving, and I was thinking of taking the lease. I was like, take it, bro. I'll fly back next week and we'll just get going. So I didn't come in as a partner initially, I just came in to help my brother set up. I was like, I'll put two months in, um, we'll build it by hand, whatever it takes, you know, bootstrap the thing. And at the time I had been spending a lot of time in LA, and LA's like cafe scene, and it was buzzing, and my downtime I'd go have coffee, have brunch with friends. How long ago was this? This was 2016. Okay. So, yeah, 2015, 2016, around that time. Um, so yeah, so flew back, did that with my brother, worked with him for a little while, and then left. Went back to LA to continue um jujitsu, which was what I was doing there, and then um came back, I guess nine nine months or a year later. He was having some issues with staff. I had been I had written like the drink menu, I had contributed to the food menu. The concept was a bit vague at first. Um, and then yeah, we had a conversation where I was like, you know what, bro? Why don't we partner on this? Um, and I'll do these things, you do these things. And he's like, Yeah, that would be great. So then that was it. From that moment on, I was an owner with him 50-50, and that was 2017, I guess. And from there it was just like, okay, run. What's the next thing I can do? How can I make this better? How can I impact this business? How can I improve the sales? Like, what is it actually looking like? My brother was a bit um overwhelmed, I think, with managing all the different aspects and unable to even get to simple tasks. So having me come on board was really helpful. Um, I could kind of look at things from a professional background and from a top-down background. Yeah, and I never really made coffees before, had to become a good brew star. You know, you had to learn everything from the ground up. So I feel like I had a good education helping him in the start, and then it was like, all right, what about food? What about the chef? What about the concept? What about this? What about the branding? How about we do our own coffee? And then all these ideas I was having, and I was like, he gave me kind of free reign. Yep, come up with whatever idea, we'd discuss it, yeah. I want to do that, and then I'd come back three or four weeks later. He's our new brand, he's our new package.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

It's very similar to us. I have two brothers that I run the business with one's very conceptually thinking, one's actually like backhand, like proper systems, and then the other one is marketing. So it's really cool that you're in business with your brother. Uh another thing we have in common is you're in martial arts as well. Correct. How long were you in LA and were you just training jujitsu like full-time there? What were you doing in LA?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yeah, so I moved to LA to pursue jujitsu as a career. Um, so I guess I'd always done jiu-jitsu and I had always done martial arts. Muay Tai when I was younger. Um, I really wanted to take that seriously. And then I in high school, uh my dad was just really strict on me not getting in the ring. So I do trips to Thailand, I'd train five, six days a week. It was my escape, you know. I grew up in a bit of a rough neighborhood, things are a bit tense, you know. So it was kind of my escape. And the gym was like a second family. My coach was literally like my dad, he would raise he helped raise me. Um, so I fell in love with martial arts, like in a big way. From when this like the earliest memories I have was me wanting to be a boxer, like just in the back, uh like in my room, shadow boxing, watching the Oscar de la Hoya, like um, you know, the highlights before the fight would come up and just getting really inspired. Manipulate one for Mani Pacquiao, exactly. Yeah, and you know, those showtime reels that would come up in the documentaries, yeah, so good. I'll just sit glued to the TV, and my mum was like, Well, just play soccer, you know, she didn't want me to fight. But so I was obsessed with it. And uh anyway, I played soccer and I did martial arts. Those are the two kind of things that I did, and uh found out about the UFC MMA, and I was like, Oh, jujitsu, I don't know any of that. I should I should learn that if I'm gonna get into the cage and have a fight, because that was my goal. Get into the cage and have a fight. So I told my my Muay Thai coach, I remember it, like my heart was pounding through my roof. I'm gonna tell him I'm gonna go do jujitsu. So I started that, fell in love with it, and then let go of striking altogether. I completely just once I started jujitsu, I just got obsessed. Fell in love, fell in love and literally let go of striking. I thought I'd go back and do some sessions, not nothing. Um, even to the point where it's like uh it consumed all of my thoughts. I started competing, I started doing well, I started having some good results. I get my blue belt, it's doing well. I got my blue belt in six months. Like, I was like, okay, I'm good at this, I'm better at this than I was at striking. Yeah, yeah. Maybe my body's better suited for this sport. Uh, at the same time, I was going to uni. Like we had no option. So, with my family, you know, doctor, engineer, lawyer, that was the options. Classic, classic uh Middle Eastern family, Lebanese background, immigrant parents. So, yeah, you can do your sport as long as you're studying and working. That's it. It was like a little they saw it as a hobby. Anyway, so I did all the right things, checked all the boxes, boxes, and was competing, moved to Western Australia, and then at that point there, I was working in mining and I like lost jujitsu. There was no jiu-jitsu there at all, nothing. Um, met a guy who had a blue belt, met another guy who had a purple belt, and it was like, okay, we can roll. And then I found a judo club. This is close. I'll do judo. It's pretty close. Yeah, let's do that. I'll start so I started judo, you know, within three months. I'm on the state team now. I'm doing state championships now. I'm thinking about doing nationals. And every day at work, like I'd work 12 hours a day behind a screen as an engineer. But every day, like YouTube videos, all the fights, all the matches, all the tournaments, and I just missed it. So I was like, you know what, I've got to give this thing a shot because it's gonna bug me. I'm 24 years old. Like, this is the only time I have. There was this weird visa you could get after graduating. You had 12 months from your graduation ceremony to apply for this J1 visa where you could work and live in the States for a year. So I was like, this is cool. I'm still just at the very end of my graduation ceremony was like six months after I finished uni. So I'm at the very end of this, I'll apply for the visa. Did that. I said, I'll give myself 12 months. I'm gonna go to LA, I'm gonna go train at this gym, and I'll know within 12 months if I can actually do jujitsu as a job. Like, can I actually be good enough to compete at the world stage? Um, and I was like, set some goals, all right. If I get a sponsorship, if other people recognize it, if I get some podiums, then I'll continue. Very familiar, yeah. Yeah, so okay, get there, first tournament, third place, big big tournament. Cool, good. Second tournament, medal. Alright, third tournament, medal, cool. I'm doing well. Sponsorship comes in. I start getting some gear, alright. So it's ticking the boxes, and then that was it. I was like locked in all the way in, and then that became my life. So I was just doing jujitsu full-time, traveling, competing, teaching, training. Um, you know, and then that was a good time of my life. Three and a half to four years there. Um, but a lot of back and forth with Sydney. Visa issues after that was difficult. You know, I had established my life, I had an apartment, I had a lot of friends, and um, I got a really bad injury in my back, which was another reason why I uh decided to transition into business full time.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah, let's talk about that for a sec. So, how how many days a week are you training? At that point, yeah, yes, uh six days a week. Six days a week. Sometimes seven. So you're obsessed with this thing? 35 hours. Yeah, that was the goal. Similar to me when I was when I was fighting full-time as well. Yeah. When you did your back, how did you do your back? And then what did what did that do to you mindset wise?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah, so I uh I honey two discs in my back. Um how I did it, like I guess honestly, young, broke. There's no money in jujitsu, especially back then. Same as Taekwondo. Yeah, there's no and now there's a little bit of money, I guess, in submission grappling at the moment, and only for the top tier. But back then, you're young, you don't have much money, you don't have time, you're not really eating like and resting and ice baths and so on. This is all like new stuff. Yeah, we're just there, and all you're doing is drilling all day long. You're stretching, you know, you're kind of malnourished at this point, 35 hours a week. I could eat a gallon of ice cream and still lose weight. There's no education, any of that stuff. None of that. And I mean, look, to be honest with you, like a lot of the guys were on like you know, PEDs, and I wasn't like I just was I was clean and too much training, too many competitions, not enough. Um yeah, my body was in bad shape. So I was just wrecked, and then I one injury led to another, which led to another, and then I remember it, I was like the Pan Ams, so the Pan Americans, a big a big tournament. I had won my first round, I'd done a good job. I was in my second round, I was winning, I was up on points. The guy stacked my legs onto my like so I'm getting stacked, it's like folded up, and I'd fighting off, pushing with my legs on his body. Oh, sorry, yeah, pushing with my legs on his body, and then I just felt my back go and I was like, that doesn't feel good. So I'd already had a couple of injuries that felt a little bit like nervy and disky, and then that was the first that was the first one, and then that was like six, three, four months of recovery. With I had a chiropractor that was in our network, sponsored me, and you know, you're trying to get treatment sponsored by people, like that's how crazy it is. You have no money to pay for them. So you got chiropractors, physios, doctors that are all training, that love martial arts, that are trying to help you on your journey, and they're like just treating you for free at this point. Um, but it wasn't enough. So then more training. I come back to Sydney, I see a sports doctor, multiple cortisone shots in my back. Got the worlds coming up. I've got to get ready. You know, the goal is to get ready for worlds. Yeah, third round at worlds, and boom, there goes the back. And that was it. I fucking could barely walk off the mat. Um, I was done. It took me in total uh 18 months before I could walk properly with without my foot kind of dropping on its own. And like I remember my goal was to get through one cafe shift pain free. Pain free. Yeah, one. I was miserable. How old were you? 27. Okay, so this is like 2018? Yeah, 2017. Yeah. Yeah. 2016 to 2017. Around that point there. So I had I had got to the US at 2014, that was when I arrived. And so yeah, mid-2017 I was back and I was in so much pain. Like so much pain. Uh every day on on um, you know, anti-inflamms, painkillers, trying to do natural treatment. I was just miserable. I was just like, it was so hard. Like you're walking around and just shooting nerve pain down your leg, and you're like, I don't want surgery, I don't want to fuse my discs. And the physios are trying to help you, but you that's it's nothing you can do. Yeah, and they're like, I gotta work, I can't even miss down my feet. You know, um they'd catch me at the back, just hanging from the um the ledge at the back, trying to decompress my spine. I became like a physio for myself. So, yeah, um, that's that's what basically ended my career in jujitsu at that point there. I was like, you know what? I actually had a conversation with this uh this older dude who's past now, so rest in peace, Bobby. But shout out, yeah. Shout out to Bobby. Uh his son was an Olympian uh cyclist, and we had a really frank conversation one day. I think he was worried about me because he saw the transition and I was struggling with it. And he's like, you know, Tony, when I spoke to my son, I told him, like, it's okay to hang up the bike, but you have to hang up the bike, and that's it. You gotta leave it on the wall. Like, you can't keep going back and forth, back and forth. It's gonna kill you. So just like that conversation. Uh another one of my friends um who we also know, Hader. Shout out. Yeah, shout out to Hader. Uh actually, I I don't know if you remember this conversation, but we had met like maybe six months before that. I was at his he was good friends of mine, one of my best friends. We were at uh his apartment, there was a bit of a party, we were chatting. I'm like, Yeah, how did you how did you handle it, man? Like, you know, transitioning out, like leaving the sport. He's like, and uh his words were a bit intense. I don't know if it's friendly for the pod, but he's like, man, I just thought about it. Like, if I can't do anything else with my life, like what a what a sad, you know, like yeah, how sad would that be? And I was like, Yeah, it's a really good way to look at it. Because I was also still doing business, but also still trying to hang on to it. Yeah, and like those conversations, being around people who have been through similar things kind of helped me just let go, and then I just fell in love with business, like at the same time. So lucky, you're one of the lucky ones, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I fell in love with what I was doing. Very similar to you. Um I was training uh three times a day, every day from 16 to 22, and then I blew out my ACL. Team Korea came down training with us. I'm I'm we're doing a test match, fighting their captain. So Koreans have a captain of every team. Yep, me and the captain, same weight division. I'm winning. I'm like, hell yeah, I'm fine, I'm finally there. Like this guy is mine now. Youth Olympian, like silver medalist. Okay, I'm there. Like you can see the podium. I can see it. I'm I I belong with these guys, and then he kicked my knee that was on the floor, it's a legal blow, and it snapped my ACL, snapped my MCL, did my patella, everything. Shattered, shattered. This is the same year that me and my brothers were homeless, so we were living out of our gym, couldn't afford surgery, couldn't afford any of that. And I was ready for all these fights. I had enough money put aside for all these fights, fought for a whole year with one leg, won some comps, lost some comps, did all that, did the surgery. No excuses, no excuses, did the rehab for a year, came back, and then COVID hit. And then I was and then you can't go anywhere, you can't fight. So that that transition as well. I was like, Farad, I need to I need to be doing something. At at the time, my my now wife was my girlfriend, and she even she was saying, Look, what do you want to do? Because we're 23. Yeah, there's no money in Taekwondo. I know you want to do Taekwondo, and I'm gonna support you, I'm gonna do everything. And then you start to think, Fire, like, what are the chances? Yes, I want this, yes, I could keep going and do it. Who knows how long this lockdown's gonna be? And that transition period for me was the hardest. It was trying to figure out okay, if I go full-time fighting, how can I provide for this family? And then also bring in money for like my brothers and the business and all that, and be a full-time fighter when there's no money in the sport. Yeah, it's one of those sports that's you've got to respect everyone in it. You gotta you've really got to respect everyone at the top because they're not in it for the money.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

They're I mean, you can respect the ones at the top and the bottom, and it's just like, and also no judgment. For the guys that stay in it and stuck it out and ended up not having so much money and different opportunities, like good for you guys. Yeah, it's inspirational. Uh it's not for everyone, like you had someone you were thinking about. Yeah, you had a girlfriend, you know, yeah, who was gonna become your wife. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

You had a bigger picture. So for those that are in that moment, try and figure out okay, what can I put all these hours to, what can I obsess over? That's the main thing I tell my students that sort of transition out of it. 100%. You need to find an obsession that can replace it, not a not an obsession to distract from it.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Use all those skills you have. Use the mind state, right? Like I think for me, there's not a single week that goes past where I don't think about my coach. Yeah, so my coach in LA, Cabrina, the best like featherweight like ever in the sport, essentially. The best, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

All the advice he gave you.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

I mean, he would just drop nuggets on a regular, like he'd kind of lecture us, you know. Like I remember I was no one in that room in the beginning. They didn't know who I was, I didn't know who anyone was. I kind of knew the main guys, and then slowly, slowly you become one of the guys. And slowly you become one of the main guys. And then people are visiting the gym of your weight class at your belt trying to train with you. And uh Cabrina's the kind of dude, he's like a robot, like he's disciplined and he does not make mistakes. He will eat perfectly, he will sleep on time, he will get to work on time, he will train harder than everyone in the room, even if he's not competing. And at 37 years old, like won a the the like a grand slam essentially of every single tournament there is to win a gold medal in every tournament and ADCC, but like in the same year, in his late late 30s, like an inspirational dude. Lead leading from the front. Leading from the front, exactly. Never complained, never gave any excuses, um, and would always like just get in the head, like get it into our heads that um there's no losing. There's no losing. You win or you learn. Yeah, similar to business, you have to actually sit and look at what's not working. You have to actually look at it, yeah. Face the mirror.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Well, that's a perfect that's a perfect mindset to have. And he's drilling into it, drilling you into your mind. Absolutely. But it's not just for martial arts.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Man, and like just being in a room with a guy at at anything who's achieved that level of excellence, it's gonna rub off if you want it to. If you want it to. Yeah. So he he was all about like in his jujitsu philosophy, a system. So you know, there are all these guys that like, for example, jujitsu. I'm sure in Taekwondo as well, where there's like the dudes that have the one tr the one-hit wonder, they have a trick, they have a met something that works, and they win a bunch of tournaments, and they just fade out. Why? They don't really have a real system. There's nothing that's like concrete and that that's gonna apply and be well work for everyone. And then like this guy was barely ever injured. I've trained in heaps of gyms with a head coach, like chronically injured. Yeah, yeah, and this is what happened to me. So I trained in different environments, and you end up becoming like these people because you train like them and you live like them. Because you're you know, you're basically idolizing the people in front of you. Yeah, um so like learning from that, and I and then I was able to like take everything I had, the discipline, the focus, like the tunnel vision, the non like it's a subjective look at outcomes. I if I had negative feedback, I loved it because I actually could improve. Yeah, hey, cool, you didn't like the coffee? Why? Tell me. Yeah, uh the food's the food wasn't what you expected, great. This is the feedback I want. Absolutely. And the engineering side comes in, it's like, okay, feedback loop, improvement, feedback loop, improvement, until you optimize. Yeah, you know, but what are we optimizing for? So, yeah, all of those things in martial arts are actually the biggest blessing. Handling immense amounts of pressure. I mean, like you're at a restaurant, you're on public display, you're serving the public, they're right there in front of you. Oh, I've been in stadiums with 50,000 people in the in attendance, and I've got to go out there, get my ass kicked, you know, and everyone's gonna not everyone's watching me, obviously, but you're there, it's a lot. It's pressure, it's pressure, it's pressure, and you're there, you're being recorded, it's going on, it's live streams, people are watching. If you lose, and it's if you lose in a humiliating way, might become a meme. Exactly. You could become a meme. There's all this stuff. And I was like, Well man, I'm just serving food, I'm just serving coffee. Like no one's trying to kill me, no one's trying to rip my head off.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Okay, so you've you've wrapped up your martial arts career, unfortunately. Yeah, I've been there. It's all good. It sucks. Uh, but you you make the decision, okay, I'm gonna go all in on business. Yeah, you have the cafe at this time. Correct. How did you transition over and what changes did you make to sort of make it successful?

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah, so I mean, look, uh at the time, obviously, martial arts wasn't paying so well. So when I was working, um, I was getting paid. Uh, just you know, whatever, between my brother and I. And then when I became a partner, we um basically just kind of said, All right, we'll we will share the load and we'll grow. Our goal is to grow this business. Um, and I had, you know, I had I have a pretty good I have a pretty good brain on me. I feel like you know, doing engineering at UNSW, yeah, it's good training for your brain and thinking about life differently when I was overseas, you're on your own in a new country, figuring it out. So it's like alright, I'm gonna be on the back. I don't want anyone to know I own this. You everyone already knows my brother? I don't I don't I don't need any recognitions. I just need the bottom line. Just want to make that money. That's it, that's all I care about. So I don't need the oh, he owns a cafe, it doesn't matter at all. I'm like, where are we at? How many kilos are we doing a week? Why are we buying coffee from someone else? How do we get our own roast? Well, what do we like about this coffee? Yeah, at the time it was like we had no menu, it was a visual menu, which meant you walk in, you look at the cabinet, whatever's there on display. We had this chef who was doing a vegetarian-only cuisine, and she pigeonholed my brother. My brother even went vegetarian to try and live the lifestyle, but it wasn't really resonating with him. So I employed a chef on a contract basis. Hey man, I need your help. We had we this is a small 28 square meter cafe, tiny. Yeah, it was called the it's called the press, it's still around. Yeah, yeah, so it's in Cornella. Yeah, familiar. Yeah, everyone knows the press. Yeah, um, we got that place pumping, essentially, slowly. So I I realized, okay, well, why the hell aren't we doing bacon? Bacon and eggs, like, bro, what kind of coffee shop doesn't do bacon and eggs, you know? And my I had to kind of get my brother to change his perspective, like, all right, bro, I understand we have this identity, but identities can change, right? And I will credit my mum for this. My mum, bro, she's the sweetest and best lady in the world, but she's pushy. And she does she pushes in the right way. Yeah, when she when she feels like you need to do something, she just keeps prodding you along one way or another, until the pressure eats away from the inside, and then you. Have to make her happy. So she kind of gave us that nun. Why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing this? And it's and in her mind state, because she actually owned a cafe when we were young.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

It's not that hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

You know, it's not that hard, Tony. It's not that hard, Josh. Like, just cook some bacon. You got the Rowan sandwich press, just do it on there. I'm like, you know what, Mom? I'll try and work on it. So I contracted this chef, helped me write a menu, and he did it. He helped me write a menu. And then I just wasn't that impressed. I was like, wow, I paid him this much money for this work. And what did he do? Patched up some bacon, cooked some eggs, put a sauce on it. And what what did I learn from him? That it's not hard at all. Okay, cool. I was already cooking for myself, like on the regular. I've grown up with a mum who's basically like a drill sergeant at home. You wanna you wanna watch Nickelodeon? Yeah. I've got potatoes to peel, carrots to cut, we've got to stir the pot. I need you to make me a coffee, you know, and just get out getting us working. So from a young age, we're in the kitchen, we're helping her with everything. Oh, you've done all your work? Okay, go watch Nickelodeon, go play with your friends. And did you do your extra homework? You know, I and she my mum had it in her, like, we were gonna come out perfect. So, yeah, basically I've taken on that challenge and I was like, alright, there's so many things I can do here. I'm gonna cook the food because at that time no one else was available. We didn't have a chef, I don't have a cook, I didn't want to hire one. I'm like, I'll just do it. And then the engineering me, it's like okay, flow chart, you know, process, formula, you know, recipe. Cool. How can I get every item out in under 10 minutes or under eight minutes? What's the metric? And then I was like, what am I even trying to achieve here? Yeah, what is this business? I was like, okay, it's a takeaway coffee shop. Cool. How do I make this the best takeaway coffee shop in the world? That was my goal. So going from jujitsu world champion to coffee shop number one in the world. Yeah, perfect. Okay, cool. I just had to have I just had to have something, something like a light to guide the vision, right? That was the vision. Could we achieve that realistically? No. Like the best coffee shop in the world, that's such an arbitrary thing. But it gave me like a litmus test for every decision I made. Would the best coffee shop in the world do ABC? And then if the answer was no, scrap it, you know. So then it's like, all right, bringing in ethnic items that weren't in the area before, the little like triangles, spinach and lemon, cheese, czar type of things. So I was like, all right, we can try that. And then basically I started working on branding because I contracted a lady to do the branding, and I was like, I paid, I paid her this much for that. Yeah, let me go figure this out, man. I'm gonna get Adobe Illustrator. How hard can it be? And then I had a girl that worked for us, she helped me with it. Okay, cool. I'm learning this now. All right, what's the brand? Can we do our own coffee? How hard is it to organize our own coffee? Not that hard. So just slowly figuring things out and building confidence along the way. At that point there, I was like, all right, we changed the concept. We got to 100 kilos a week of coffee through the machine. Damn. Yeah, that's a lot. Damn, that's pressure, yeah. So like a hundred kilos a week through the machine, plus retail sales to customers. We had our own retail going and we're pumping the food out. We had uh I had a contract with a bakery, a Lebanese bakery, they'd provide us with um, you know, like small baked goods. We had coffee deals going on. We were we would get someone's coffee down within two or three visits. Not even the name, it's not important, just the coffee. Walk in, I'd have you, you know, your pickle already. You strong, flat, white, two sugars, bang. And that's how we won people in and out. Okay, we're becoming the best takeaway coffee shop in the area. You know, everyone's kind of fighting for second place in Cranola, mostly. Yeah, we started to fight for first place. There was definitely months and weeks where we were like neck and neck with the big guys, which was good. So, but I was building my confidence, and then I got bored. So we opened another shop and then we started doing wholesale, and then you know, step by step. Their next shop was also the same branding center. Same brand in Kingsford, right? UNSW. I was like, all right, we'll do a little hole in the wall. Why? Because we have a model that's easy to copy. So we were just trying to grow now. Our goal was to grow.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Before you keep going, it seems like you were solving your own problems going up. So you bring in illustration, you learn illustrator, you learn photography, all those different types of things. Correct. How did you let go of some parts of the business to expand the business?

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Yeah, so basically, um I had help at the time. I had my brother who was running the ops, dealing with people, hiring, firing. He was handling that. I was training them on those systems, teaching them about cooking, how to get things done, teaching them the metrics, making sure that things were done properly, and focusing on branding, marketing, um, and focusing on growth and strategy. So we had we had our separate roles. Um, we are no longer business partners now at this point in our journey, but at the time it was a very good partnership and a really nice structure. So things flowed really easily. Anything that came down to people, team, rosters, payroll, everything, etc. Yeah, we had our thing. So it was actually good because then I could really focus on all right, taking us to the next level. And we saw that it would be like 50% growth month on month. It's mad. It was crazy. Yeah, and like when you look back at it, you're like, we went from a couple hundred grand in sales to like more than half a million in a year. Yeah. Well, we more than doubled our sales in a year, you know, it's like, wow, what the hell is this? So so you make the decision to expand and get to the second location. Yeah, because we I wanted to benefit from scale. My goal was to get through. So this is my goal. My goal was to have coffee for free at the shop, as in we don't pay for our own coffee anymore. We sell 100 kilos, but it's for free. So I need wholesale. So I need wholesale to buy a certain volume to get to that point where our coffee is now free, so it's all profit. So no risk, right? So I was building up a wholesale business, but I was like, ah, I need to get more brand exposure closer to the city where people can see the brand. Cornella's good, but it's far, no one's driving there. So, okay, where can I be? Anzac Parade, bang, perfect. You're gonna see our logo. Every time you drive past to the city and back home, the press. You're gonna see it, the press, the press, the press. So I was like, all right, that's a good part, that's a good spot, hole in the wall, easy rent. Let's expand. We'll do this now, we'll set it up, 12 months, and we'll do the next one, and the next one, and the next one. And our model is small, hole in the wall, great coffee. And to the point where I can do a ton a week in coffee. One ton. Yeah, I want to do a ton, one ton a week. That was my goal. So we'll get in close. Obviously, we didn't get there in the end. We had COVID hit us. Um that lot we lost Kingsford as a result of COVID. Um, a lot of our customers kind of also went down. So, but the shop was pumping, everyone was in the neighborhood. Yeah, so I I guess that answers the question.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

So you had two cafes, COVID got rid of one, of course, but you were running running hot. How did your next venture come about?

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Yeah, which is uh eat Lebanese, right? Yeah, so I had two cafes running and basically had so much time on my hands um that I was I was always trying to look for a competitive edge. I'm like, but I'm paying rent. I had read about this concept. This is early days. I called it ghost kitchen or a dark kitchen. This is no one even knew what I was talking about. They thought I was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

For those listening, what is that?

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Yeah, so a ghost kitchen or a dark kitchen is essentially like a virtual brand that exists in a place that doesn't necessarily have retail frontage. So you could walk past a burger shop, but you don't know that in the background they're selling dumplings or noodles or Lebanese food. It's just online, it's on Uber Eats, they may have a website, and you're buying from them. It's made from the same kitchen, but there's no real like physical, physical it could be in a warehouse or it could be in an existing business. Love that. Yeah, so I was like, wow, this is a huge competitive advantage because I'm already paying rent and I'm not using the space after 4 p.m. daily, it's just dead. And at the time, like coming back from the States, I had been eating a lot of uh chipotle. Chipotle is like this modern Mexican. I don't know if you've ever tried it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's I was living off that man. Like every day after training, go get a bowl, pick your rice, pick your meat, pick your salad. And I was like, yeah, people like the Mexican cuisine in the US is so advanced because they have so many Mexican people. We don't have that here. No, but we have Arabs, we have Lebanese people, people are familiar, everyone's had hummus, everyone's had babacano. Most people know garlic sauce, you know, falafos, a kebab. Everyone in Sydney at some point has eaten a kebab, like on a drunk night out. They know what it is, right? Yeah, it's a tabule, a fatouche salad, like the familiarity. I was like, well, we're kind of like the Mexican immigrants of Sydney, like that's yeah, we're kind of like that, right? So I'm like, well, I was getting fed up. I was going down to El Jana in in Kogra, charcoal chicken and chips with a shit tabule. Or you're going to like Alasil, and you get this big mix plate, and there's no options, you can't change nothing. So nothing in the middle. Man, this is frustrating me. I don't want to I don't want to eat your set mixed plate. I want to change things. I don't like chicken. I don't eat chicken. Yeah. So I want two lamb skewers, I want a kafta, you know, I don't want your hummus, it's not that nice. I want you can't change no modifications of that. This is frustrating, man. And I don't want to charcoal chicken and chips every day. Like, I want like Lebanese food on demand the way I want it. Why isn't anyone doing this? Okay, so what's the concept? The concept is build your own plate, build your own bowl, like Chipotle. Will people get it? That was the real question. And I was working on this in the background prior to COVID. Um, you know, okay, here's the Lebanese concept, and I think Sydney might be familiar with it. And the reason why I was confident to try it in Cornella is because my mum had been pushing us to sell falafels, to sell kaftar uh at the shop. Do a falafel wrap, try it, you know. And there was resistance from me and my brother. Uh no, no, just try it. And so she'd make some falafel mix, we'd fry it up, and people would love it. So her falafels were flying out. Okay. So now you've got the confidence, there's the taste for the food. Now I've got the um, what's the word? Um validation.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Isn't that funny?

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, it makes sense backwards. It makes sense 100%. And anyway, you can what Steve Jobs said it, it's not until you look back in life that you can connect the dots. So you were practicing even back then. Yeah. Uh I mean, always, even now. So um essentially what happened in the end was I just said, fuck it. Yeah, I'm just gonna go for it. Um, gonna come up with a brand and just go. My brother and I kind of disagreed about a lot of things, um, but agreed that it was a good idea. We disagreed about the fact that we're gonna be working morning tonight. He had a relationship he wanted to focus on, and I was like, fuck this, let's just fuck it all in. I get it. You know, business, business, business. I get it. He's like, bro, I want time with me and the missus, yeah. Yeah, so arguments kind of started there and whatever, but anyway, we launched the brand. I was still running the menu the day of, I was writing the menu the day that I launched it. Still, I hadn't finished it. I was like, Yeah, you can choose chicken lambkaft, falafa, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, got that, launched it on Uber Eats, um, and launched it online. And we had an existing network of customers, so everyone knew us from the fruit shop, which was across the street. Um, we had the press, the coffee shop, everyone knew us. So at this point, now it was 2020. 2020, okay. So it's four years in business at the press. Yeah, you know, and prior to that, okay, it's already like uh yeah, two two more years in business at the fruit shop. So we had a community, we had a network, people knew us, and they were willing to give things a shot if we pushed it forward.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

And you launched it out of the press?

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Yeah, so I wanted to do it in the evenings, four nights a week, Thursday to Sunday, essentially, just from you know 5 p.m. until 10 or whatever. That was my goal. Um, and it was a good start. Again, feedback. Yeah, yeah, it was okay. Bro, we didn't have a child, but it's a 28 square meter shop. We're cooking on sandwich presses, yeah, little countertop deep fryers, like it was rubbish. The setup was insane, but it worked. The perfect concept is I had to figure out ways to do it. Yeah, and I'm not a trained chef, I had to learn on the job. So I'm like, there, okay, how do I get the colour on the meat? It's cooking on a sandwich press. Get a blow torch, start blowing. That worked. So seal it out with a blow torch, then hit it on the grill, and it looks and tastes the same. Cool, that works. All right, let's try that. And yeah, so that's how I launched Eat Lebanese at the same time as running two stores. Um, this is all right before COVID, right like on the cusp of COVID. Um, and then yeah, so four nights a week, that was the job, and put it on Uber Eats, and it was a slow start. Like we had a good initial wave, and it kind of started slow, and then and the lockdown happened. Yep. Right as the lockdown's happening, I'm getting live on Uber Eats, and I just don't know. Are we gonna be able to trade? Are we not? What's gonna happen? No one knows. I was in a relationship with a girl from overseas, so this is all these question marks. I'm supposed to fly to see her in April. She just left Sydney in Feb and I'm setting up this business, and what's gonna happen? And then it locks down and no one's flying out. The only thing you could do was go out and eat. Next thing you know, I don't know who posted. Someone posted in a Facebook group, Everything's Southern Shire. The post got like 50,000 likes or something. It was like some insane amount of traction. What was the post? Just someone posted about they went to the pop-up and enjoyed it. Damn, that was it. It's a real community post. I didn't even do any real marketing. We barely posted anything on Instagram, and like it came in like a flood of it. The hardest night was me. My brother had one of my cooks to Rupak. Shout out to you, Rupak. I'll never forget you for this day. We got slaughtered, bro. We had a 90-minute wait time. Fuck and at the end of the day, we just sat on the floor like this, like head in hands. Like, what the fuck was that? What was that? We just literally sat on, no one got off the floor for like 10 minutes. My brother turns around and he goes, Well, that was fucked. And I'm and everyone's like, Yeah. He's like, You guys want a beer? I'm like, Yeah. So we cracked a beer, um, and then we're like, Okay, what are we gonna do about tomorrow? Yeah, and then everyone's like, Alright, I'm gonna prep up more, I'm gonna get this all right. Systems, yeah, more people, and then it's like immediately so we had that 10 minutes of just like what happened to us, and it's like light bulb went off. Holy wow, this is crazy business. This works, this works, yeah. Yeah, not only does it work, uh we need to we need to get we need to we need to now race to catch up with the demand. We need to jump on it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

So um would you how how would you compare it to launching the cafe? Two completely different things two completely different things. Was this one was this one more like you're building the ship as it was flying? Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, definitely. So um menu updates live, Uber Eats was the initial the initially the only way you could order it was on the phone or Uber Eats, and then I I was like, okay, Uber Eats is taking like 30 something percent, man. This is crazy, you know? Um really yeah, right. It was wild. We're giving them so much money and we're bringing so many customers to us who were just shopping on Uber Eats, and then I had traveled overseas. I had two weeks in lockdown in a hotel room. So I s I built our website and I built an online ordering system. It became a real business on its own. And then immediately, I was like after the first week, uh no, sorry, in the first week, initially I was like, nah, we're not gonna open to the public, it's not gonna happen. First day we opened to the public. The first day, my brother's like, bro, we have to open the window, we can't not open the window.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Yeah, and this is still out of the press. This is too out of the press.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

So we did that for a total of 18 months. Wow, it got to the point, bro, where it was making two times as much sales as the shop was. Yeah, in four nights a week. That's usually what happens. Yeah, yeah. So the shop was falling apart, things were breaking. Like I'd be there at midnight. Like, this is the where the arguments will start with my brother. Like, I need a new fridge. The fridge doesn't fit. Well, I'm gonna cut the bench, move shit around, and put get a new fridge. Why? Because this is making money, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the sales are there, yeah. I understand. Right. We'd do 180 kilos of chicken breast in four nights. 180 kilos of chicken breast a week. We'd do that in four nights. 180 kilos of chicken breast, bro, and skewers. Frick. That's insane. 100 grams of skewer. Whoa. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, dude. 1800 skewers of chicken. That's just chicken. We had lamb, we had kofta falafels. The cranala likes the Lebanese food, huh? Right, it was crazy. It was, and no one had anything else to do. This is the thing. So people were just posting about it, and you know, that's the hype. The hype started rolling, and it's so flavorful too. Yeah, and there's nothing like it in the area, and it's cheap, bro. I was doing it cheap because we could afford to make it cheap. Yeah. Because we had no rent. Yeah. Minimal overheads. We had already covered all of our expenses with the copyright. With the press. Yeah. Yeah. So it was basically now just free rain. Yeah. So we had, I felt like what happened was I felt like I had turned the tap on and I had unlocked something.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yeah. And I was like, wow, we just saved more money in the last three months than we've made, you know, in six months.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

It's always the case. Like we started out with martial arts gyms, right? We started martial arts products for the last 12 months. Yeah. It's grown quicker than the martial arts gym has, like, by a thousand percent.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

And it just keeps going.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

It just keeps going, but you need to do one to start the other, right? Correct. So what how did you get from the pref shop working what did what did you call the term? The ghost kitchen. Ghost kitchen. How did you come up? Like, when did you make the full we've got now?

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Um, so like I actually I actually was very conflicted about this because I'm like, I have scale, I have margin, I can just keep this going forever, you know? But the shop was falling apart. Um, no, literally, like, bro, like we had four one sandwich press for chicken. Like it was basically that shop had morphed into um eat Lebanese and the press, no longer the press and eat Lebanese. That's how dominant the Eat Lebanese team was, the sales were like it was so dominant. So um there was contention between my brother and I about where we're heading, and I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, well, I've just spent the last three, four years pulling my hair out every night, trying to figure out how to make more money in coffee, and we just unlocked it. This is how we do it. So we had disagreements, and then through those disagreements, we decided, well, it's time to open a restaurant. Okay, yeah, we can do that. And then, well, what type of restaurant? Just another takeaway shop, a full restaurant? What are we gonna do? So we did that for 18 months, we saved a ton of money, um, and then used all of that money, took out a loan, leveraged myself to the end, and just went all in. Um, initially I was meant to have my brother as a business partner. We decided to just keep things separate. Um, he'd focus on the press, I'd exit from the press, and I'd focus on eat Lebanese, and that was a good agreement. And we had another dude who was interested. Yeah, he turned out to be like a bit of a shark. It was a good thing that we kind of stepped away from him. Yeah, he I guess he saw the opportunity and he he saw us as young and naive.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

But um it's extremely mature of you and your brother to know that though, to separate.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Well, I mean he was mentoring us for free. I guess this is the red flag. So he was offering free mentorship and he was helping. But he and through that mentorship though, he kept trying to like you know get involved. So, anyway, look, uh, I don't have any hard feelings towards him. I just basically presented him at a different partnership where he wasn't uh as big of a shareholder and he just didn't want it, so we walked away. Yeah, um, but it's good because they wanted so he really wanted to keep it small, and I wanted to get bigger. And even now I think I should have gone even bigger than with the space I have. But yeah, take the plunge leap of faith, and I saw man, I went from making so much money and having so much going on to then having nothing, being in debt and opening a restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Alright, so you found your new space, eLebanese opens. Yeah, so uh run me through how that started and then how it's going now.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Alright, man. So in a nutshell, what happened to me was I was overseas getting married to my partner, and while I was overseas, someone turned off the tap and shut the business down and gave me an ultimatum, go find a restaurant. So I had no time. I had been taking my time looking for a space, and I offered on this spot a year ago, like a year before, and he he was too greedy. Uh the landlord wasn't having it, and it sat empty for over a year. So then I went back and I said, Are you willing to take this offer now? He's like, Yep. I'm like, because I want a space now. He said, Yes, signed, boom, next thing you know, move it in, and it's just time to get to work. So found the space in the same street where I was. Um, it was good, hundred square meters. Three I thought it was huge. Turns out it's too small, but yeah, got it, got a builder in, and things always take longer than I expected. Take ten times as much more than you think it's gonna take. Like, so much money that I didn't think it was gonna cost it over budget, like just yeah, so just went for it and even I ran out of money, like threw that the fit out, uh, and had to like wait another 12 months to finish the vision. Yeah, you know, so I ran it for a year, proved the concept, and let the concept pay for itself. Went to the bank, got more money out, did the second stage fit out, turned it into a more beautiful spot, built a bar, built the booths, did the nice finishes, cocktails, wines, and kind of I just I grew with the business. I was becoming a better chef as we go, and the business was becoming a better business as we went. So we're growing the online takeaway sales, and now we had a new thing dine in the you know, refined, elegant dishes and the space the brand evolved immensely.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Branding's beautiful, man. Thank you. Branding's beautiful. As soon as I went on the page, I was like, Whoa, where am I? Am I in Sarre Hills or something? Oh, it's Cornella. Oh shit, yeah, let's go. Thank you. How how would you describe Eat Lebanese one sentence?

SPEAKER_00 42:01

One sentence. Uh Eat Lebanese is an elegant casual take on modern Lebanese cooking.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Are you happy with it? Uh yeah. You're never gonna be happy.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Never gonna be happy with that. Uh I guess look, man, eat Lebanese is it's an extension of me. Yeah, you know, I think I've just wanted to bring my experience of Lebanese culture, having experienced it very much so, going to Lebanon very often. Um, we're from a coastal part of North Lebanon, so my family's from there. Things are a bit more than meets the eye in Lebanon. Like we have different regions. It's a small city, it's a small, it's a small country the size of Sydney, but there are regions. So, and each region is a little different, and each experience is a bit different. You know, we're very seafood focused. Um, I love the minimalism and the more the austerity in the mountain culture in Lebanon, where my mum's side's from. You know, the focus on quality, less ingredients, peeled back. Yeah, peeled back, less steps, better. Yeah, you know, more execution. Yeah, so I guess for me, it's like if I like it and it makes sense from my experience of how things fit, um, then I'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

You've had a lot of hiccups along the way, even the fit out, things like that. Yeah. What's your motivation? What's your why?

SPEAKER_00 43:07

Um, you know, I just I feel like every day I thank God that I get it to wake up and do this, and I get to create an experience for people. My why right now is just I want to create a place where people can experience Lebanese food, Lebanese culture, and it adds value to their life. So they can come and see things like as I think it should be, you know. So for me, it's like I have the freedom, I get to hit tick many boxes, the creative aspect, the structured aspect, I get to feel really fulfilled my work. I get to build people up. So I've created a space where people love. And that um I have like people that come two, three times a week, regulars, seeing them there, like this is their spot. Yeah. And I just I'm like, okay, this is good. I've created something that people love. This is why I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

What advice would you give to a business owner who's lacking that motivation or can't find that way?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah, I think sometimes taking a little bit of time off, it sounds like the wrong thing to do because you're probably struggling as well financially, but you need a little bit of downtime. I think most people who struggle with the why often don't have gratitude. I think gratitude's a big one. Sometimes you just get really down, like oh, this is this is bad, this is shit, there's no money, there's too many bills, this is breaking. I don't my staff is hard to deal with. I can't find workers, but you find things to be grateful for. Like I have a very positive mindset. I will find everyone has negative moments, but you need to be able to jump out of it quick. It's like competing in jiu-jitsu. If you get caught up in your head and you just go in that spiral, then you're done. So you actually have to be able to do the self-talk. Find the positive, you know, be grateful. Wake up. Well, I'm grateful that today I get to go and be my own boss. I get to go and impact my team. I get to go and we're only as good as our last plate, make it even better than yesterday. Yeah. So they're the things that keep me humble because it could be a lot worse. Business owners, would you recommend them getting into martial arts? Even if they're older? Anyone should get into martial arts, absolutely. Depends on the martial arts. But you've got to find a gym and a martial art that resonates with you. That's the first thing. But I think yeah, it's really good for confidence, discipline, focus. Um think it translates in business? Definitely, definitely even if you're older. Yeah, even if you're older. Yeah, older or younger. I think especially for kids, it helps shape them into people who are focused and disciplined and respectful and understand hierarchy and structure, which is important in a business. Yeah. But I think for older people as well, older I guess older people they just need a challenge. Yeah. You know, like something that really challenges you and makes you want to grow. Yeah. Um, business will do that to you, but by force. Like if you can, you know, expose yourself to the environment in martial arts, I think it would help.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

I've noticed um a lot of business owner friends of mine have put them onto jujitsu. They don't live here, they live wherever. Yeah. And they've all messaged me like, bro, I have not turned my brain off in a long time. And when I'm in that class, I'm only thinking about that class. Yeah, I'm not thinking about the cafe or the restaurant. I'm just the 100%, man. 100%. Um, can you give me a yeah? That's right. That's what I'm doing now. Please no. Uh, can you give me a day in business?

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Uh yeah, man. Which day do you want? You know, they've got Monday. Give me busy, give me a busy day. A busy day. I'll give you yesterday as an example. So Sunday, I'm running three sites at the moment. So we've got uh the restaurant in Cranala, um, we've got our food truck, which is leased in Alexandria at Indoor Paddle Australia. Um so I'm aligning my interests, guys. Uh, and we've got uh a marquee set up in the Biennale uh you know contemporary art show. So it's a 14-week event every Saturday and Sunday in Roselle. Okay, so everything's a little bit far apart, but kind of a lap of Sydney. So I get up in the morning, Sunday morning, 7 a.m. start, get to the shop. I've already done my prep work um the night before. I've got the team to help me as well. So we've prepped up all the all the stock we need to restock the markets in Roselle. I go, I get in the I take the Ute down to Crenella, pick my stuff up, pick up the guys I'm taking to the site, get them started. Okay, now get back to Cornella, check in with my team there, make sure everything's running well. Um, and then um check in with the food truck. So what does he need? You know, how's it going? Where is he at? Uh take a bit of downtime. Sundays I like to have a couple of hours to myself. I went down to Easton Creek, got to watch some car racing yesterday, which is cool. But then back to work in the afternoon. So get a phone call from a customer. Um, you know, my orders being cancelled at the food truck. Is it there's something out of stock? I'm like, let me let me call the guy and get back to you straight away. Call the guy, realize we're out of stock, we're really busy, so get back in the car, deliver stock to Alexandria. Uh so that's kind of my days at the moment have been a lot of running around, um, just basically trying to make sure that everyone has what they need to be successful. You know, so it's good, best case scenario. Every single location has been busy, the weather's been good, everyone's pumping. Um, but it's challenging because you've got to forecast, you've got to make sure the prep's done, and exactly. So then Monday's my admin day, um, meetings for new ventures that I'm taking on. Tuesday's the start of the week. So Tuesday's food truck for me, Wednesday's food truck for me, Thursday semi shop and food truck, Friday, Saturday, shop, shop, Sunday, shop, and events. You know, so that's kind of how I've broken up my week at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

There you go. Um, to wrap up the pod, I've got a few questions left. Uh can you give me your best day in business?

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Yeah, I think it's something we've already kind of talked about. Um that first day. That first day, yeah. I was just like, um, it was just a it was a moment where just things changed and it just stands out in my memory. Uh like, wow, we've created something and people like it. Can you give me your worst day in business? Yeah, I can give you my worst day. I um six months into opening my restaurant, I fired my whole kitchen team. It just wasn't resonating with anyone. Um, I couldn't do it anymore. Like I had come back to the shop, my fridge was open, eight hundred dollars worth of meat was gone. Uh just carelessness and I had one kitchen hand to help me and I fired two guys. I sat outside on the steps at the front of my restaurant, my my then partner, I had my head in my hands, I was just crying. I was just literally crying. Uh I was like, I I want to quit, I don't want to do this anymore. I I just I can't. This is too hard. Um she's come over, she's left me alone for a little bit. She knows she knew how to deal with me. Um, hand on the on the on the back. Um, you've got this. You're gonna be okay. And what I want you to do now is just suck it up, get back in, cook those orders, and then we'll deal with it tomorrow. I was like, all right, one more day, one more service. That was the worst day, but you know, we turned it into a win.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Sounds like an episode of the bear or something.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Yeah, it was it was you know, it is like the bear. It is the bear is so close to reality. Like, I've lived scenes like the bear. Yeah, a lot of shit. I've made the mistakes with like in the show, which is crazy. Where I forgot to turn off pre-ordering, and that happened to us at the pop-up. And then next thing you know, you've got a hundred and a hundred something orders coming out all at the same time, and we're trying to figure out where they're going. My sister-in-law's in the corner breaking down. I've got seven different cooks freaking out what to do. It's like, cook everything now. Literally, I've lived those scenes.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, uh, what is the best piece of business advice you've ever gotten?

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Uh best piece of business advice, I guess, is uh yeah. I mean, this too shall pass. Like when the good times come, you know, it's not gonna stay forever. Make the most of it, and when the when the bad times are there, just get through it. It's gonna it'll be okay.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

And last question of the pod. Uh, there's someone listening, they're thinking about starting a business that might be in their 30s, they might be in their 20s, they might be in their 40s, 50s, whatever it might be. What piece of advice would you give them to jump in?

SPEAKER_00 50:08

Man, look, if you have that inside you, that voice, that calling to open your own business, you're one of the few crazy people. That's first of all, recognize that, you know. Uh, I think it's never gonna turn off. It's just gonna get worse. Just figure out what you want to do, really focus on what you're trying to achieve with that business and go for it. Have faith, you know, strengthen yourself, have faith and build it, and there will come. Just go for it. Like, but if you don't have the calling, if you're opening a business because oh, I should open a business, I don't, you know, I don't uh working for someone else, it's uh it sucks or whatever, it's probably the wrong reasons. It's gotta be something inside, like you know, I have something I want to do. This is something for me, and I need to do something for myself. When you have that, then you can't turn it off. Just go for it, have faith. 100%. I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

I couldn't uh I couldn't think of a better way to end the pod. Nice. Uh brother, thank you so much for your time. I know I got a lot out of it. I know a lot of people get a lot out of this pod. I hope so. Yeah, so um if you're if you're in canala, please check it out. Eat Lebanese, uh say hello to Tony. But thanks again for your time, brother.

SPEAKER_00 51:09

Thank you, brother.