Transcript
Speaker: There's lots of people that talk the talk. but The question is, do you walk it? right Everybody today has buzzwords, including culture. If you don't believe it in your heart, if you can't if you can't walk that walk, you're not goingnna you're not going to pull it off today.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Regenerative Design Podcast. I'm your host, Mathieu Mehuys, and in this show, I interview the leading authorities in the world of regenerative practices, people who do good and do well.
Speaker: Are you a person that cares about your environment and our planet, that wants to leave the planet to our children to be something that we can be truly proud of? to enjoy for many generations to come. But are you also a person that believes we can do all of this and do good in business?
Speaker: I have really good news for you. You're here listening to the podcast that is all about making our planet a better place and making your business more successful. Enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to an another episode of the Regenerative Design Podcast with your host Mathieu. And today we're inter interviewing someone very special. Today we're interviewing Rick Rosenfield, who is the co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen.
Speaker: And you may be wondering, like, what does a California Pizza Kitchen have to do with regeneration and helping our planet? Well, Rick has an incredible story of how he started the company in 1985. He co-founded it.
Speaker: he co-founded it ated he created it he created it in such a way that it became a whole movement. and um And he told me his story, and I want to unpack that today and learn from it, because I want to use that to build a regenerative movement, a movement that that is all about how can we do good for the planet.
Speaker: So first of all, Rick, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? I'm very good, Mathieu, and thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm super excited. So I'd i'd love to, um again, for myself, because I love your backstory, but tell me, like, you you were an attorney and you decided to have a whole other career. Just give your backstory.
Speaker: Well, the backstory was I started my business life as a federal prosecutor in in Washington, writing briefs in the Supreme Court right out of law school as a federal prosecutor. And then...
Speaker: fell in love with the weather in l a when I went out for the summer as a special prosecutor, just for get some trial experience. And, uh, The US attorney offered me a job, and I ended up moving to LA and becoming a prosecutor in LA.
Speaker: And then, that's where I met my future business partner, Larry Flax, who was also assisted US attorney. And then we went off and practiced law ourselves as criminal defense attorneys for 12 years. But we always wanted to be in the restaurant business, like a lot of people that that love restaurants, and say, yeah, i should be in the restaurant business. as well After a long trial in San Francisco of about four months, our frustration finally reached a level where we decided, came back from that trial, let's do it.
Speaker: Oh, that's incredible. And so you, what happened next? Like, okay, yeah did did you grew up as a as a kid taking the out California pizza or how did it get him out? No, I grew up in Chicago eating deep dish pizza. So at calo California pizza.
Speaker: when we started 1985 in Beverly Hills was in its complete infancy. It wasn't defined, it it was just an idea that started from Chez Panisse in Berkeley.
Speaker: And that's Alice Waters, who I think you'd appreciate because she's considered the mother of California cuisine. So, and and and literally the beginning in America of the farm to table movement.
Speaker: and So alice Alice legitimately gets credit for that. well but But then she started this concept of this style of pizza where you could put fresh vegetables on it and get away from tomato sauce and goat cheese and, again, farm to table.
Speaker: and and then and And because of her ah California cuisine halo, it was really a new style of pizza called California-style pizza.
Speaker: well And then, I'm not sure she put that name on I'm not sure who put that name on it, quite frankly. But then Wolfgang Puck, the famous celebrity chef, who became famous over this, opened his Spago in Los Angeles.
Speaker: And he brought down a creative pizza chef that was experimenting in San Francisco down and created duck sausage pizza and smoked salmon pizza.
Speaker: ah And so that's where it sort of stood at the at the time that we thought, we, me and my partner and I said, you know, this is a great idea, is this should be not for celebrities. I don't mean not for celebrities, but now so would for celebrities at Spago where you couldn't get a reservation.
Speaker: But this would fit a family setting, this idea of having this individual size pizza and having getting away from you know all the traditional toppings that are the American toppings.
Speaker: And it felt like an innovative way to go about it. And that's literally the idea that we latched on. really Yeah, that's so super interesting that it happened from that idea in California from ah Alice Waters. Yeah, ah farm to potato movement.
Speaker: I'd love to talk more about that. But I find like what I i understood from your story is that the real value that you created is that you had a set of values and a vision that was so strong from the beginning where you said this is what we're going to create and we're not going to diverge from it.
Speaker: So yeah, please tell me a bit more about that and And why you did that? Why you just didn't see it? It's kind of like crazy. Right. So our so our our vision, again, it was a naive vision in a sense. you know We said, well, let's take this platform and let's turn it into an international chain, this new idea.
Speaker: But that was before we had a menu. i mean So what happened was we ended up hiring the former pizza chef from Spago, and he And he created the original menu at California Pizza Kitchen in Beverly Hills.
Speaker: And most of those exotic ideas didn't work. Rabbit sausage, pizza, lamb sausage, radicchio, pine nut, grape leaf. None of those worked. What worked was barbecue chicken pizza.
Speaker: So instead of tomato sauce, it had barbecue sauce and and and boneless chicken breast and sliced red onion and cilantro and smoked mozzarella smoked gouda.
Speaker: right And people would come into the restaurant right when we opened it and say... I don't even like pizza. i love this. This was this new idea, something new going on in pizza.
Speaker: And then that's what triggered. And the chef and us got along like oil and water. He was a a the worst epitome of what a chef, of worst stereotype. He fit the stereotype of the egotistical chef.
Speaker: And he would tell us, you lawyers, you shouldn't even be in the restaurant, leave the business to me. ah That was never our intent. We had this idea of blowing. Anyway, he lasted about six weeks, but and gone.
Speaker: But then we barbecue chicken pizza was changed the game for everybody. Meaning. There was no interest in duck sausage pizza or rabbit sausage pizza, but something people could identify. So then immediately we created the Thai chicken pizza with a peanut saute base, right? and ah And a BLT pizza with mayonnaise, right? So it opened our our eyes.
Speaker: and But plus when you, all of that was about this hook that created ah this hook was the barbecue chicken pizza. That was the craze. It became an immediate craze.
Speaker: But what Mary and I saw, that we actually never thought about. We were just naive. like i did I really describe it. We thought, and this I think is the critical part.
Speaker: We thought, well, we're these clever lawyers. We have this new idea of, of you know, new idea of pizza. And from that, we actually thought we could build a world of business, which is ridiculous.
Speaker: Because what we found out right away, based first on this interaction with this chef, oh my God, we could be dead in the water in the first restaurant in a matter of weeks if we can't get people that we trust that rely on our vision And so we fired the chef because he pulled something that was horrible with relation to a server.
Speaker: And the most important thing was he said we should support him. He was insupportable. And we we looked at him and said, no, we're not going to support you.
Speaker: We're always going to do the right thing. Yeah. And that became our mantra before we ever understood culture. We didn't even know the word. i don't know if the word was even particularly bantered around in the mid 80s, certainly like it is today, but I'm not sure that it was. We didn't. We certainly didn't know any business terms.
Speaker: But that we realized that in order for us to be successful is we had to rely on people. And that was the start of our learning experience about how to build a business.
Speaker: Hmm. That's incredible in the sense like so simple, like lot of people try and come up with like crazy new business ideas. And obviously you had a crazy business idea.
Speaker: And I love the fact that you were so naive about it because, uh, Someone once told me that you need a healthy portion of naive naivety because if you would know all the things you have to go through, you would never start.
Speaker: so that's shut night it's it's kind of that that's that's how i That's how I reflect. In the book, I reflect on that. I if i knew everything then that I know now would I have done it?
Speaker: And the answer I say is probably not, but in truth is the answer is more likely no, right? that but So we didn't know the word. So that culture though is later in later years, is probably seven years into our business, we had, you know, probably,
Speaker: ah or when we had about 50 restaurants, maybe eight or nine years into our business, we wanted to codify it. Now we were learning business terms and trying to create a mission statement because photodos they said, oh, you should have a mission statement. okay Well, somebody suggested our mission statement should be sell more pizzas than anybody in the world.
Speaker: And we said, well, that's actually not our mission statement. anyone You of all people would understand that, right? That that and was never our goal, right? But by that point, we were experienced enough to to understand that our success was dependent, had already been dependent on growing people from within,
Speaker: of of this group of people that believed in us, that believed in our vision, that cared about quality and they cared about... Well, so we we sat down and we said, we meaning my partner and I, literally are in a matter of minutes.
Speaker: So how do we define what matters to us? And the first word came up was respect, right? And because we had been telling everybody and our all of our team members And that's how we thought of ourselves as team members, not employees. I never really loved the word employee.
Speaker: And it wasn't it wasn't goofy. you I mean, I'm not saying, you know, to trying to say something more exalted than it is, but we thought of ourselves as as team members all along and we' were all vested in this.
Speaker: And we said, and we used to say, Chris, you can't, you can't, ah you don't get respect. You earn respect. And it goes, again, it it goes both ways. You give respect and you expect respect, but you have to earn it.
Speaker: And then the other one, which went sort of hand in hand, was ah was communication. yeah The same thing, right? That you you have to listen. And we did. and we changed a lot of policies that we thought were we had by listening to people over time.
Speaker: So we had that. So we had communication. And then we had... a word that isn't often associated with businesses, but really was the way we thought about ourselves.
Speaker: And that was kindness.
Speaker: We promoted kind people from within. So now we had RCK. That's really how it worked. And then we said, oh wait minute. We owe for opportunity. Now we have rock.
Speaker: Now we have. Destroying opportunity. Yeah, yeah. so So it just evolved organically. We didn't, it wasn't, You know, it wasn't done to create something fanciful, but now we had rock, which conveniently and amazingly allowed us to give rock star awards.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. So we gave ah awards to our rock stars, respect, opportunity, communication, and kindness. So most important thing is from that moment on, it sort of codified how we promoted people.
Speaker: Larry and I would look at each other, we'd say, that person's up for promotion or or however we'd say, are they rock stars? Are they kind people? So this became our, again, our mantra. So what really separated out everything in there, it's kindness.
Speaker: Because what we found but from all the tensions that we had gone through from the beginning and at various points, that we the excitement that CPK created was that people loved working there.
Speaker: Why did they love working there? They loved working there because we had great values. we were We were honest company. We cared about quality. But we all work kind to each other.
Speaker: but And so what we believed was that that's what really mattered, that one word kindness, because people want to surround themselves with kind people. Larry and I did, and everybody else did too. But also importantly, people don't want to surround themselves by unkind people, right? Because one unkind person in your organization ruins everybody's day.
Speaker: It makes you not want to go to work. And we wanted everybody to feel like we did, to go to work. So that kindness is how we separated people. We not only did not promote kind people, we threw unkind people out. What some people said wasn't kind, we said, well, no, it's actually kind. It could be kind to them because they're not going to succeed. It's kind to our organization, right? It's maybe not nice, okay?
Speaker: But it is nevertheless kind. yeah But irrespective how we handled that, that became what I think the secret of CPK's success was our rock stars.
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Speaker: Yeah, that's so cool because now you have... a team of people that connects with your brand and they become like superheroes, in this case, super rock stars.
Speaker: give You know, Matt, too if i can if I can interrupt, I had a conversation yesterday. I did a podcast with somebody I respect who's the editor of Nations Restaurant News, which is major publication.
Speaker: i consider it the Bible in the restaurant industry. And and and he, during the course of that podcast, said, You know, I've talked on, that's what I do. I talk to entrepreneurs and successful business people and everybody now says the same thing.
Speaker: It's all about culture. Yeah. Right. And it seems so obvious now. Right. But it it wasn't as obvious then. it should be obvious. And then he asked the question and I'm i'm gone cutting through it for a moment because I reflected on it overnight. He said, so what would you, you know, and I get it all the time. What would you tell people about to start a business?
Speaker: Right. And I think maybe the first time I articulated it, I said, you know, here's what I would say. If you care about people, if you're going to start a business, a restaurant business or any business you you intend to expand into a large business of whatever large means, if you if you are so committed and you care about people, I'd say do it.
Speaker: But if you're a person that can't delegate, that can't trust people, right, that, that, that, has a cynical view, you know, wants to micromanage everything, i'd say don't do it. Yeah.
Speaker: I love that because that means you have to become a rock yourself first in in respect, opportunity, communication um and kindness.
Speaker: If you don't embody that yourself, you can put it on your website or have a mission statement that and then you have a culture, right? Right, right. you you said You said something very important, which is this. If you don't embody it yourself, right? So it's what I call, it's it's so clear after all my years, I guess it's 41 years ago that I started this at all. And we went through so many different things. We were public. We had private equity guys. We had strategic partners. We were up. We were down.
Speaker: There's lots of people that talk the talk. The question is, do you walk it? right Everybody today has buzzwords, including culture. right and That's sort of what I was just trying to cut through right now.
Speaker: If you don't believe it in your heart, if you can't if you can't walk that walk, you're not going to you're not going to pull it off today. yeah That's so important. because Yeah, it's become, like you said, a buzzword and that people want create a culture.
Speaker: So I think before COVID, it was like, oh, let's put a ping pong table in our office. Now we have ah a culture. Well, that was enough, right? Right. but it's Yeah, it's not.
Speaker: ah I think that's super insightful because they also in in my industry, landscaping, farming, consulting, doing things good, things for the environment of the planet, we often get very, or I'm saying we, but it's maybe the the industry gets very cynical and, oh, it's climate change, ah we're we're suffering and focusing on on all the bad things. But I don't want to be a i don't want to create a ah culture where it's all about playing and, oh, whose fault is it? like
Speaker: We've had enough of that. That started in the 60s with like, oh, ah we're screwing up our environment. That has not brought us anywhere. 2026, it's 60 years later. Sorry, it's more than four years later since we are kind of like got clear about ah how much the environment is that in is is ah is in danger, so to speak. So we don't have to focus more on that. We have to focus on what you said. How can I empower my team so that we can scale our business faster?
Speaker: How can I have my clients be part of this movement? So that's what I want ask you. Also, so you focus a lot, of course, on your staff and your team, but I find I have so much fun with my clients, but they are also fully engaged in my process. So I design gardens, properties, and I have a series of different clients. But the ones that are like, tell me how you do it, how you design it, they want to be part of it.
Speaker: um Did you see that in your in your industry, like that people be the the customers became part of it? or Or how did that happen? Well, i think I think that's the CPK story, right? That that so many people have a story. So we built a family restaurant. So was people it wasn't pizza.
Speaker: so they Pizza was the hook. But we built a full-service family restaurant of which pizza was only a part. But it was a place where people went on their first dates, it was a place where parents, grandparents and kids did not think was the secret from day one.
Speaker: We wanted to create a ate restaurant where everybody could agree in the family could agree to go. Where the kids want to go, but the parents also want to go. And then the grandparents always want to go. That was our success. We did that. Everybody has the CPK story growing up in in in America.
Speaker: i didnt And I hear it. I don't care whether was they grew up in Boston or Atlanta or or or Dallas or or or Hawaii. um yeah that everybody grew up with CPK as being part of their everyday experience. And that's what we what we tried to do. that But going back to to, because you and I hadn't really spoken a much before, and what what you were just discussing is I like your approach, which is, you know, climate change and the discussion of this has become so political and on the broad scale, right?
Speaker: But... What I like is you're actually doing something. It's like something talking about it and making it a political statement gets nowhere. Doesn't actually get anything done, right? It it it it doesn't doesn't move the needle at all. It's just what moves the needle is getting, in which i go bi which is getting grassroots people engaged in in the process.
Speaker: And so going back and with CPK, It was such a fun place to work. And like like like as I go to our restaurants now, that person's been there 38 years and this one's been here 33 years.
Speaker: I live in Florida now, my closest CPK. That's it. One person, he was a trainer and a server in you know over the last 33 years and in various cities. and And they all talk about how much fun it was to go to with opening teams from the where we would gather people, our best trainers from Chicago and from LA and we're opening in St. Louis, you know, and if it's this team, you know what, the way I think about which I mentioned the word team before the restaurant business is a team sport.
Speaker: It's a team sport and went at its best. That's everything's flowing because it's all about teamwork and the team being engaged. And that's how we always saw the business.
Speaker: We wanted to be a work, we wanted, you know, we called ourselves again, walking, so walking the walk. We called ourselves a work with, not a work for company, which gets walking to why, why our, why our home office wasn't a home office or corporate offices.
Speaker: It was a restaurant support center. really And then what we often thought too, again, as we got more into business over the years, then we started using the buzzwords. And one term we used was a reverse pyramid where it wasn't the customer at the top and the, or sorry, not the CEO at the top, right?
Speaker: It's what we were the CEO and the people at the support center were the bottom and we put the employee at the top. As our view was happy people that care about the customer will mean we have a great business where the customer wants to be.
Speaker: Yeah. Anything, anything less than that, we don't have a good business. No. And I think that's so, so, so important. Like I myself, I like to go to nice restaurants and obviously the food has to be good, but more than anything,
Speaker: ah When the food is like even mediocre, but you have the service that is like and fun they're they look like they're having fun. Like, man, that food tastes double as good.
Speaker: Absolutely. It's something magical. and the And the term today that's used is hospitality. right that and that's the term we didn't use that term then but it is today that people recognize hospitality is more than service in a sense yeah right yeah it's not mechanical it's well it's from the moment you walk in from then you're greeted hello nice to have you to the moment you leave thanks for coming everything in between that's done right and that whole flow is hospitality
Speaker: yeah that's Yeah, and maybe for some people it's it's not hospitality, it's like hostage. Right. Keeping their clients hostage. That's not a good business model. But um but anyways like i love that and and i want to Today, the world has has changed in many ways. Of course, restaurants are are still the same in many ways, but we've come to a world that is also very digitalized.
Speaker: And I see it in my own company. I have ah ah an awesome team from people all over the world. We have someone in Turkey, one of my architects. We have someone in the Philippines. We have someone in Belgium.
Speaker: ah I myself am from Belgium, but I live in the Azores. So we're global as a team. And as you're explaining this, Let's just use the word culture for the sake of it that you created.
Speaker: How can I do that I don't know that I know how to do it digitally. I think that that every step of the way is the groundwork that you're doing, right? And what what I've learned today. So it's the same thing I would say, you know, ah I have my book out, you know, and yes, I'd like to sell the books. Yeah, I got that. But but that's not really,
Speaker: My purpose is really telling the story like this, right? But what I've learned today that the more of your contacts, the more books you'll sell, right? That that i I don't do book signings regularly. only have a couple. I'm doing one. I live in Palm Beach and I'm doing one for the Palm Beach Library. ah shortly and But today you reach people like this, by but by doing podcasts, by doing interviews, it's by expanding your connections.
Speaker: So the more people you can reach through your connections, the more you can get your message out. And my message that I'm getting out is far broader than selling the book.
Speaker: they you know it's It's a fraction of the people that I speak to will ever buy the book. but I think I can still affect people by speaking to them and then sending my message, which is what this is about.
Speaker: and And quite fun for me, I might ask, or answer, or quite say, yeah yeah it's quite fun for me. Yeah, I think that's amazing. So I also, like, i I have such a big vision for my company to create a and global movement with teams of people all over the world, and then we would, we could,
Speaker: flying everyone into location to have an awesome time for a weekend and do all kinds of projects. But that's also my and long-term vision. And yeah, I actually love to talk a little bit more about, let's say, the more unconventional topics of your business. Like what were some of the hardest moments in your business?
Speaker: ah Because I've had a few and how were you able to overcome them? So we, you know, ah people see the customer sort of saw CPK as a ah you know, a great trajectory ah of success, right? So we went through, we we sold two thirds of the company to PepsiCo after seven years in business.
Speaker: ah And we had 25 units and then we, under them, we put in another, let's see, 40 units, units. But that's a time that PepsiCo owned Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. So they actually were the largest restaurant chain in the world in terms of units.
Speaker: think they had 30,000 units. But there was but that we overexpanded. We sipped the Kool-Aid of having their money and growing too fast too soon.
Speaker: And they pulled the plug on the money and they literally we started cutting our quality. And that was the lowest point where we actually had to lay off people because we had built up this whole team based on building 30 restaurants or 40 restaurants a year.
Speaker: And we went from that to zero. ah And I think that was the hardest part when when we had to lay people off and they cut the quality. That's probably the lowest of the low.
Speaker: but But because we had good we we are lawyers, but we also had a good lawyer, right? And ah our great lawyer had the contract created a contract where they couldn't sell us without our approval.
Speaker: So when they created and spun their restaurants into what became Yum!, They couldn't spin us, they sold us to private equity guys that we participated in And then we went through a period that private equity guys ran the company and we were still chairman.
Speaker: We still didn't run it, but it was taken public. And then a period where we, didn't the CEO was asked to resign by our board and Larry and I were asked to run the company, which we did as a public company for eight years.
Speaker: So now we hit that and now comes the big blow, which was the great recession of 2008, 2009, which plunged us.
Speaker: And then two years later, when we recovered, we sold the company. So I've seen the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, every form of ownership where I've run it, not run it.
Speaker: And then then for 15 years, which is the last 15 years, had nothing to do with the company where they, where after we sold it to the private equity guys, they decided, you know, that they didn't want anything to do with us because they wanted to create it in their own image and remake the brand the way they saw it and had no relationship at all. Now there's new buyers and we are having a very friendly conversation. I don't have any relationship or any business relationship with them.
Speaker: But I think we have a new group now that is committed to its success, which is great to hear and see. So i've seen it I've seen a lot in those last 41 years. Well, that's incredible. note I'm just going to close my window. Is there some sounds?
Speaker: Yeah, we'll take that off from here. So yeah, I think that's very interesting too. So you started with... few restaurants and it became lots and then i I'm assuming that you wanted to ah grow much faster by getting equity in ah But that's a ah risky business because i've I've heard from many people actually in Belgium where I'm from that they they grow their business, it works well and then they get in in equity, private equity and then some people of those firms they did like half of the shares or even less than half the shares and then they deliberately kind of sabotage the business so that it kind of starts to crumble and it goes lower in value so that they can buy the whole thing at a discount and i i was like holy shit i'm just a friend someone that i've gone through that and it's like your baby is being demolished Yeah, there are there are lots of different private equity playbooks, right? Not all that' ah not all work out, right? so when you When you have a business model, which most of them have, which is...
Speaker: Um, you know, we invested a lot of businesses. We, we win some and we lose some, then we hope we win more than we lose. And that's how we pull it off. Right. There's a, there's a lot of collateral damage along the way. And CPK in that last version was collateral damage.
Speaker: So they ran it, they put a lot of debt. Now there's a playbook where they put a lot of debt on the company. The company wasn't able to sustain the debt. It went into bankruptcy during COVID and emerged from bankruptcy, was run by the banks with no money to put, no money or capital to put into anything for the past five years.
Speaker: And now got bought by new private equity guys. But like I, so far as I'm hearing, I like their playbook. Their playbook seems to be investing in the company.
Speaker: so um So we'll we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. maybe they'll have to Maybe they'll call you again and say, like hey, can you help create this culture again? We seem to have lost it.
Speaker: Well, I'm having having discussions with them. I like them. and we'll willll We'll see. i'm not I'm not involved right now, but I do think they they bought an iconic brand. That's why they bought it.
Speaker: Right. To to expand it and to bring it back in many ways. And yeah i'm hopeful I'm hopeful I'm hopeful for my legacy, my partner's legacy, ah that they're that they're successful and I'm happy to help them.
Speaker: Nice. So, yeah, Rick, i'm I'm also curious, like, what's what's next for you? you you You've been extremely successful within the restaurant business. what What are your other ambitions? yeah I know you you love fishing and diving, you talked about it offline. is What else is there?
Speaker: Well, that's ah those have been my hobbies, and I've been a golfer my entire life, and I was on the board of directors of Callaway Golf for 23 years, which is the number one golf number one galllfs company in the world. so I was there during nus so during their whole growth, but but my back and hips aren't doing so well these days.
Speaker: So ah that's out. But so I'm now an Amazon number one bestselling author. Wow. With the book, you the California Pizza Kitchen story.
Speaker: And I'm doing this. and And so what I'm up to now is getting the message out, trying to help people i understand. and you know And I'm honing that message, which is we've covered a lot of that today about culture. And people want to know, how do I start a business? And should I start a business? right And and and i'm i'm I'm refining the message.
Speaker: to try to help people and and and enjoying it. So, you know, it's very interesting. Am I doing this for the for the world or am I doing it to make myself feel good? Well, it makes me feel good, right? Which is- That's good. right I mean, so that's why we do things essentially, right? That yeah we want to be successful. we want to be successful And this is just my next chapter.
Speaker: and helping people and helps me feel good. I love these discussions. It keeps me active and my brain working. i Fortunately, i have I have my health. My brain seems to be doing fine. and I'm 81.
Speaker: Congratulations. Hanging in there. Nice. So, yeah, if you want to help people, and what what do you think is the the best, and let's go crazy and even unconventional again,
Speaker: that my industry needs. Like I see that there is a a huge business opportunity within creating environments that people love creating healthy food, like farm to table, gardens, like our our environment is under a lot of pressure. So creating environments where people love to spend time in is my biggest passion.
Speaker: And I'm mostly doing it because I think that our environment needs it. So what is your best advice or idea of something that you would do or is something we could even do together to to scale my business to whole new level?
Speaker: Well, I would actually have to know a little more about your business. I'd be happy to to do that so because I don't. meaning And so i'd be happy I'd be happy to talk to you more about it.
Speaker: ah you know i i ah but Yes, ah I don't have any quick answer. Okay, that's okay. Yeah, we could talk more um offline, or or are you keen to actually discuss it right now?
Speaker: as we um um happy I'm happy to discuss it. Yeah, we still have a bit of time. So um I'll give you a quick run of my backstory. So I grew up on a farm in Belgium. ah Farming is the environment I grew up in.
Speaker: Then I studied garb design as a bachelor. But I was like, ah don't just want to design gardens. And I did a master engineering for landscape architecture, which is part of like city development, green space, public space. But I always felt like I want to do something with farming and land.
Speaker: And so fast forward, I'm now five years in business and we have clients in five continents where we consult them from small backyard gardens to we're doing a big 150 hectares estate ah in Costa Rica, which is it's private, but it will be also public. It's basically You know a bit about the farm to table movement, but the idea of that 150 hectares farm is that people can live on the farm. You can come there as a visitor.
Speaker: You can learn about super healthy food. There will most likely be also a restaurant. So my vision is creating like like across the globe, creating these projects where people come to, where it's about food, it's about community, it's about health, it's about movement and adventure.
Speaker: ah preferably close to a surfing beach because I love surfing, but that's kind of a bonus for me personally. yeah um But yeah, I want to do tons of projects and I also coach people on how to do that themselves. So some of my clients, instead of me doing it for them, I coach them how they can do it themselves.
Speaker: So that's in ah in a nutshell. So you have to link me to your, or send me info on your website, right? So I can, so so get a little broader picture to think about, you know, how you could turn that, that,
Speaker: make that into a business that I could ah contribute some thoughts about, right? Which I i don't, I just don't have off the top of my head because I like to see the scale. But once again, you know, I'm in the hospitality, but meaning hospitality business, right? So yeah it's how do you how do you turn that into a, yeah if from my standpoint would be as a,
Speaker: How do you turn that into a place where people want to be? What kind of facilities by did do you do you offer for people ah to come visit that?
Speaker: ah you know It's interesting in in it in another relationship that I have is ah where Larry Ellison is doing Sensei. in in in haa on the island of Lanai that he owns. And there he's doing something. I think you'll be fascinated as well because they... sense yeah they Is it part of Hilton?
Speaker: Or is is it part of Hilton or is it a tree? No, no, no. this is yeah it's know its it's ah There's only, but as a hotel concept, there's just two. there're It's Larry Ellison of Oracle.
Speaker: right and and And he owns 98% of the island of Lanai and he wants to turn that island into a completely self-sufficient island based on regenerative farming. He's doing hydroponic hydroponic farm there. And then he's opening he's his Four Seasons Hotel, which is called Sensei there, it is a wellness retreat.
Speaker: and then he hast And then he has another one in Rancho Mirage on a property called Porcupine Creek that he owns. And that's Sensei. Take a look at Sensei. S-E-N-S-E-I. Actually, this is getting very interesting because I interviewed someone on my podcast. I'll send you the the episode who talks about that, too. And she's a regenerative hospitality expert.
Speaker: So maybe there's a direct connection between all of that. So that but no that's ah and that's the link in my mind of anything I've ever had any contact with. um But that that was super interesting to dig deeper into that because side that the the types of hospitality that I can create with creating a bundling beautiful landscapes, gardens, everything. I think it's worth looking. You look at at what Larry's doing in Lanai. I'm actually partners in a business on Lanai called Pineapple Brothers, which is oh cool which which is we control the guided hunting on Lanai because Lanai is overrun with excess deer that are not natives.
Speaker: oh and And they have a great for us. They have a very serious de batt very serious deer management problem. But hunting is the culture of the island. So it is basically through the four seasons there. Our pineapple brothers but brings people, brings them guided hunts to help manage the island. It's a unique experience.
Speaker: That's great. And I've been involved in that. that was very As it turns out by coincidence, Larry Ellison is my lifelong friend. We grew up together in the South Side of Chicago. So ah it's always interesting to see what Larry's doing. And I think when you look at what he's doing, you'll you'll be very impressed you know with his vision.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll definitely look into that. And that's something yeah something we could think more about. Yeah, that's so interesting. And like I said, I'll send you the info of what I have.
Speaker: And ah it's already been extremely valuable. that Even if you could look for a few minutes, that would be worth gold. So I really appreciate your time being so giving. like that's That's rare to find people that just give more than they can take. it's That's what I like to live by as well.
Speaker: and So, yeah, thank you very much for coming on the show. do you have or yeah where can people find your book? Obviously on Amazon. um Where can people find other things about you, social media? LinkedIn,
Speaker: um you you can go in. Take a look at my website, which is rickrosenfield.com. R-O-S-E-N-F-I-E-L-D.
Speaker: And then it's it's available on Amazon, the book and wherever else you go. But you can go to my website and click on and and buy the book as well. And I have an opportunity if people wanted to buy it where actually I will sign it and mail it myself.
Speaker: ah So that that's an opportunity if people care about that. A couple of some people do. so anyway, it's it's fun and I appreciate it, Matthias. Thanks.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you for having me I'll send you a copy of my book. ill We'll sort that out right now. Awesome. Thank you for coming. Great. My pleasure.
