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The Roadhouse: Interview with Aaron Lenz
70 Plays4 months ago
In this episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, host Phillip Ramsey interviews Aaron Lenz, a remarkable entrepreneur who defies the odds in the restaurant industry. Aaron shares his inspiring journey from a small pizza joint in Perry, Iowa, to managing multi-million dollar restaurants in major cities, and eventually owning successful establishments in Orange City. His story is a testament to resilience, strategic decision-making, and the pursuit of passion.
Aaron dives into the complexities of restaurant ownership, explaining why the adage "restaurants are where good money goes to die" holds true yet can be overcome with proper management and vision. Through detailed anecdotes, Aaron illustrates the hard work, narrow margins, and high costs that define the business. He emphasizes the importance of empowering employees and crafting a unique customer experience, shedding light on his philosophy and entrepreneurial drive. Despite the challenges, Aaron's journey underlines the rewards of creating a thriving dining establishment in unexpected places, making a compelling case for following one's dreams.
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Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you. Hello, listeners.
Meet Guest Aaron Lenz
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of the Uncomma Wealth Podcast where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. We have a guest today. Super excited to unpack this. Aaron Lenz has owned and operated The Roadhouse, a restaurant of all things. For three and a half years, he's married to the love of his life for over 10 years, almost 11 years, and have two kids currently and rocking and rolling. Aaron, welcome to the show.
00:00:51
Speaker
Thanks, Philip. Good to be here. I feel like we should have like applause. I'm going to see if the editing team can do that. Although they hate that. They're like, Philip, don't ever say that. It just makes us embarrassed. So, okay. I want to start with this because I have heard, and I think many have, and you've probably had a great answer for this. Go open up a restaurant. That's where good money goes to die.
Can Restaurants Be Successful?
00:01:10
Speaker
Is there any truth to that? And how in the world are you doing? You have two stores of the Roadhouse. So obviously it's not always true. Is there any validity to it? And then tell us your story. This is a hard business. I always tell the antidote of if you want to go and open a restaurant, the best way to do it is find a restaurant that you already love and go in there. You'll need to go about 20 times. The first few times go and tip the host a hundred bucks. They're going to give you the best seat in the house. They're going to treat you like royalty.
00:01:45
Speaker
And the next time you come and do it again, but this time tip your server a hundred bucks as well. And every time you go in, you're going to strategically tip at least two people a hundred bucks every time you go. And at the end of a month, you're going to so have spent $20,000, let's say. Okay. And then they will all treat you like you own the place. And that is the cheapest, easiest way to buy a restaurant. That's right. Why do you think that say exists? ah Because everything costs more than anybody could ever imagine and we run on razor thin margins.
00:02:25
Speaker
Uh, so it's the margins that get you. Cause I would say just in general, small businesses, like what is it? 85% of small businesses fail. But then if you talk about small marginal, like margins, like then you can see how like, Oh boy. And if things were more expensive than anybody ever could conceive, that's probably why that saying is in existence. Would you agree? Absolutely. 100%. And yet, Aaron Lenz.
Aaron's Journey to Restaurant Management
00:02:50
Speaker
And yet I can make it work. You own two. Let's go. No, own two and want to own more. That's right. Okay. So obviously you're in common. That's why you're on the show. So what is your background and how in the world did you get to this point?
00:03:05
Speaker
Oh, let's see. We'll give you the abbreviated version. I started throwing pizzas in a small little pizza joint when I was 14 years old and went, this is great work. I get to eat and work and make money all at the same time. And I get to take home pizza every night. Like what a spectacular world. And on good nights, the owner would buy us ice cream. This is wonderful. In Orange City, by the way, because there's not always that was in Perry, Iowa. Oh, Perry. Yeah, and that's my hometown. and Okay. So yeah, when I finished up high school and went, let's find a big kid job, I decided I'd get into pharmaceuticals and quickly found out that that was not nearly as much fun as restaurants. Wait, what position were you in pharmaceuticals? Were you in sales? I was a pharmacy tech. So basically I counted pills and delivered drugs. I was a legalized drug dealer.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah. I was in the pharmaceutical world too. So I hear you. Okay. Keep going. So decide that went I went to Iowa state as a hotel restaurant management degree, uh, worked in fine dining restaurants and Ames that whole time. Which one? And then went on, uh, ant mods. Yeah. Great place. Spectacular stuff. Still amazing to this day, but yeah. Um, went to the CIA, the culinary Institute of America and New York after that. why Make it all like legit. Got all my credentials. um And then went straight into management of restaurants for the next 15 years in New York, in Atlanta, and then in Denver. Managing places no less than what, $7 million dollars a year in sales type volume. So huge, huge operations, mostly in airports.
00:04:49
Speaker
Interesting. I love the management end of it. I still get to eat for free. so you know Still love that, still coming back for more. I love it. And believe it or not, I'm not a big guy either. No, you're not. So what was it that you saw that kept making you come back? Because there were some horror stories, I am sure, of restaurants you worked at and you were like, oh my goodness. But yet you kept leaning into it. Like that to me is something that not a lot of people do. They usually see the behind the curtain and they're like, run for the hills. Not you, Aaron, not you.
00:05:23
Speaker
Nope. So I find somebody asked me the question a few weeks ago. they what could They go, one question, what's the best and worst part of your job? And I said, the answer is the same. It's people. ah People could be terrible, but people can also be wonderful, yeah. And that goes for our guests and our employees both, but there is nothing better to me than taking up an employee that has been overlooked and misguided and and turning them into the best version of themselves. wow Where I can go, hey, here's all the tools that could possibly give you knowledge, resources, whatever that is.
00:06:01
Speaker
and say, you're on your own, go and do it. I'm here for support if you need it. And most people have never been given that level of autonomy in their world, especially in restaurants. People love to micromanage and that's not how I work. So then they run with it and they're like, Oh my gosh, I'm really good at this. And then I give them more support and more resources. And that which takes things off your plate. It's brilliant. Absolutely. But to watch that happen and watch people like truly own that is amazing. That's cool.
00:06:33
Speaker
And like boring in the leader it's like leadership maned concept crazy but and i would I would say that there is something about restaurants in particular that there are, man, people are just weird with their food. Like they get persnipity quickly. And so it's it's taken out that hangry factor of people. Yes, tensions are high. Why we serve stuff fast. Tensions are high. And so tensions are high, although the, like, is it the worst thing? Like you got mayonnaise on your hamburger, man. You said no mayonnaise, we'll fix it. But there's still, the tensions are high. And so to be able to have like a incubator to focus on somebody's leadership skills,
00:07:13
Speaker
There's not a lot i'm sure there is but not that i can think of a lot of other environments that it creates such a pressure cooking moment for people which is great to manipulate them and help them like grow as a leader and like lead them well and. Give them responsibility and see how they do and so i kinda like it all right i mean some people love it some people like that's the restaurant industry is so much fun. I can never imagine like what you do in in watching something grow and build and develop over just years and years. We're like three minutes at a time. Start to finish. I get to see the end result. And there it is. It tasted good or it didn't. And if it didn't taste good, we'll do it again in another three minutes and we'll improve on it or it'll change.
00:07:59
Speaker
Brilliant. So, okay. So you go to New York, right? To get your CIA, yeah get your license. Was that a tough process? Um, I did not, I already had a degree. I was already, I knew what I wanted to do. So it made it a whole lot easier watching the 18 year old kids go straight from high school into culinary was entertaining because they have no idea what they want to do.
Education for Better Management
00:08:23
Speaker
yeah Um, And they just think restaurants are fun and yeah this sexy montage of, ah you know, the before you start to peel back the layers of what makes it hard. They just see the Instagram version of restaurants and go, this will be fun. I can be a star celebrity chef somewhere.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. And throw a lot of money to go to debt. It's not realized. Yeah, to go to debt for this. Like, oh, I don't know. Not the best moment. So you come back. was Yeah, school was a blast. 57 kitchens or something like that in they in the school itself. So you can try and do just about everything. And what did you exactly want to go for? Like you said you you knew what you wanted. What was that? I wanted to know how to better manage chefs. So by knowing how to do things better or more efficiently than them, I can then teach, guide all the things that we already talked about. So yeah I did not want to work in kitchens. That's never been my desire. I want to teach people how to work in kitchens. It's good. Okay. So you come back to the Midwest and you go to a more high-end restaurant. Is that what I heard?
00:09:34
Speaker
I never went fine dining. I have a rule that I'll never work in a restaurant that I can't sit down at a table with my guests and just shoot the shit. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. also went So in New York down to Atlanta and got into airports. So it's managing. okay Oh goodness. We had 1400 employees in the Atlanta airport. I was in charge of five restaurants and like 110 employees. Oh, and it was great cause I got to learn, I got to learn super high volume there, but then I also got to learn a very, very different culture yeah from growing up in small town Midwest. So loyalty factor is just not there. Oh yeah. Well, on our average employee was a 35 year old black female. I was the only white manager they'd ever had.
00:10:20
Speaker
Oh, so they were like, the staff was very apprehensive when I walked in. And it probably took about three months before they saw that, frankly, I don't care what your background is or what your beliefs are in life. If you're here to show up and work hard, we're going to be best friends. We're going to be fine. Yeah. Right. and so I learned several several things about Southern culture and the big one I take to this day is you walk in the door and it's not guns a blazing, we got stuff to do. It's, hi, how you doing? We're going to have a great day. It's introductions every single day. That changed how I interact with people and how I take the the analytical half of myself and plug it into the people half of myself. and
00:11:07
Speaker
Put it in the back burner for a second. Yeah. Get a relationship first. So tell me this, cause I've always wondered about this. You had to go through security every time you went into that and every day went to work. Did that ever get old? And how how much longer did you have to, or how or much earlier did you have to get to work just to do that? I feel like I get anxiety just to go to like, I don't want to go through security. It's gotta be a new process. We kind of had backdoor ways to get in. So you didn't have to stand in line with everybody else. Okay. so So that was, that was helpful. But yeah, the process, I mean, you still had to park in like airport parking, like there's staff lots, but then you got to get shuttled in. It's a whole thing. You'd probably be adding half an hour onto your day on either end of it. Yeah. No. Okay. All right. So then when you got out of that. Airports pay great. So it's worth it. I have heard that by the way.
00:11:57
Speaker
Okay, so you get back, you get out of that, and then where do you go next? Midwest? Are you there yet? I go to Denver. Denver. Some people call Denver the Midwest. I don't. It's mountains. I don't either. That was my calling in life, was to be in the mountains. To hike and stuff? You're a hiker? Oh, everything. Snowboard. You're a snowboarder. Snowboard, hike, climb mountains. You name it. That's my thing. Yeah. Working restaurant there. Yeah, so it was at DIA, Denver International Airport. oh Was that a promotion? Uh, it was lateral at first, ah but then the company created the first ever kitchen manager position within an airport. And I was first on that list. Right. Did they kind of recruit you to go from Atlanta to Denver?
00:12:43
Speaker
um I asked for a transfer and there was nothing open initially. So I just moved and then we figured it out later. And were you married at the time? These are all questions. I feel like these are important to me. Yeah. Nobody else. Just living on my own. Okay. i go I left Atlanta and went, where do I want to go? I went and toured three different cities, like Phoenix and Minneapolis and and Denver. And I went, yeah, I got to be near mountains. Yeah. Did you get any like, uh, discount in flying or travel? No, no. Not related. Just food. I'm in it for the food, Philip. Just throw me a pizza. Give me some ice cream now and then I'm in. Okay. All right. I mean, you figure you eat three times a day. How often do you fly? That's true. There's validity to that. Aaron smart guy. Okay. So you're in Denver. You're loving it. Where's your favorite place to ski in Denver? Oh,
00:13:36
Speaker
probably Keystone. ah Ah, yeah. But see, I lived in Breckenridge for almost three years as well. Yeah. And so I'd ski all the time and you go to each mountain and you kind of play it by year by each day. Yeah, you can be a better snow. And what's the sun look like? And yeah, you know, all these variables that most people don't. Yeah. You can't be that in Iowa. You're just like, it's in a mountain. It's in. I'm in. We're happy. Yeah. It's not when you live there. All right. Um, so what do you think your biggest lesson you learned at the Denver international airport as the kitchen manager? Oh, so I traveled all over the country, actually all over North America, opening restaurants, like more craft, smaller, like local restaurant concepts. Cause that was right. As airports were starting to go, wait, we don't just have to be subway and Burger King and, uh, like.
00:14:30
Speaker
chain restaurants. So they started to get into more of these craft concepts. And that's what I was doing at DIA was i we I was running the Denver Chop House. So a steak house in an airport. Then the companies in the airport started to realize that this works really well and people want this stuff. So then since I was the expert in the field, I would go and travel to other restaurants and or other cities across the United States and help open these concepts. Right, so I would go out for three weeks at a time. I'd spend two or three days completely learning a concept in their stores and whatever town it was. And then I'd go into the restaurant or into the restaurant in the airport.
00:15:12
Speaker
and basically teach people how to open that concept. And you were still working for the company though. Like this wasn't like on Aaron's time. This is just like. No. Extracting Aaron's knowledge for the company's. Yeah. You got it. I like to say when I opened my first restaurant on my own, that was the 23rd restaurant I'd ever opened. Huh. So I had that down pretty well. Yeah, so you had some experience. I think a lot of people just like kind of like your friends in New York who like I've seen it on TV. I can do this. Yeah. You actually had experience. This is easy. Yeah, right. That's brilliant. All right. So you get married and then Orange City you go because why not Orange City? Oh, yep.
00:15:57
Speaker
And then what do you like things about Orange City? It's a nice place. It was actually my it was actually my idea to move back to Iowa from we'd built a house in Breckenridge like 10 months before. And we decided to move to Iowa. And it was my idea. And my wife still thinks I was crazy for a minute. That's right. And so you met your wife in Denver or. Yep. Right. OK. And then you decide, like, listen, this is to mount me for us. We have to go to someplace flat. Yeah, something like that. Okay, tell me this story. This is the best part. So we're at my father-in-law's retirement party in Orange City. He was a city administrator forever. okay And while we were there, I had what the city economic developer and the a Chamber of Commerce director for Orange City both approached me and said, hey, there's a restaurant that's going out of business in in town.
00:16:54
Speaker
We hear, you know, a thing or two about restaurants. Would you be interested in looking at it? And I initially chuckled as most people would to go orange city, Iowa. I'm not moving there. That's crazy. So that was December of 2019. And it was February of 29 or 2020 then that. My wife and I were talking and I went, let's go look at it. Let's go at least check it out and explore the option. Why not?
Buying a Restaurant During the Pandemic
00:17:29
Speaker
wow So in March of 2020, we were standing inside the restaurant that was was closed down out of business um on the same day that the governor of Iowa shut down all restaurants in the state of Iowa. Cause this wonderful little event we call COVID started. bid
00:17:47
Speaker
f hit us ah So we looked at each other and we went, what are we doing? We're looking at buying a restaurant at the same time that the restaurant industry isn't complete upheaval. Shutting down, which has never been done. Never. Never. It's completely it's crazy. Bonkers. we should We should turn and run. And instead I said, I think our bargaining position just got really good. Yeah, right. And like let's be honest, like your job back home, there's a question mark there.
00:18:24
Speaker
Travel in and of itself is getting locked down too. like There was a lot of things. Yep. Okay. so So yeah, we went, all right, i'm gonna throw I'm gonna throw this guy an offer that's gonna be absolutely crazy. And I'm gonna justify it with a bunch of data and logic that makes any level of sense as everything's shifting in the market. And he ignored it for about a month. before I think reality set in, because I checked back in and said, hey, where are we at on this? Then he finally came back with the counter offer. And needless to say, I got it for a third of what they were asking for the place. Which still is a pretty good number, if you think about it. Spectacular. Oh my gosh. For him and for you, like it was a win-win. Oh, otherwise it would have sat empty for no less than a year. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. No one's coming at you for this, man. No one.
00:19:21
Speaker
right So yeah, we hit the ground running in yeah September of 2020. Yeah, moved to Orange City, what, July, June or July? How many kids did you have at that point and what age were there? Two kids. ah Let's see, they would have been eight and five somewhere in there. Okay. How did they handle the move? Oh, they love it. They don't care. Because grandpa and grandma that are there. Oh yeah. Yeah. They were, they were already coming to a place they were familiar with. And yeah, grandparents were here and a very supportive community. And we had moved, we averaged a movie year for 10 years. Our kids just moved or just grew up being transient lifestyle. It was wonderful. We packed late. All right. So then you start, what's your first day? You started, uh, the road house. That we opened too. Yeah.
00:20:17
Speaker
Uh, it was the beginning, I think it was the second week of September, 2020. All right. Cause we opened only to go. Okay. It was all to go business for two weeks. So we could dial in our kitchen operations, put out awesome food and not have to deal with all the variables of the COVID restrictions that were happening then. Yep. Right. And then yeah, we, it was the last week of September that we fully opened then full dining spaced out six feet apart. and Yeah. Yeah, you did. You got to wear a mask to walk in the door and all my staff was in masks and it was, it was what it was. yeah i do about it You're not going around it and you don't want to get caught not doing it.
00:21:02
Speaker
What Tom, the best, the best part about that whole time was dealing with the 60 plus year old white males that could not get it around their head. That it was a state regulation that you had to wear masks to be in public places and to stop yelling at my 17 year old female hosts. All right. So when did you look at your wife and be like, we made a right, the right decision. Cause I'm sure for a while you're just eyes wide open. Like, Oh, here we go. Oh, yeah, of course. But that's I've been through that so many times because ah it's that first month that's just bonkers. Right. So it was. But never with your own money with your own money. It's a whole very true. OK, there was nothing like.
00:21:44
Speaker
every single week after we opened the doors of going, Oh my gosh, we are spending so much money to have, you know, ah a cash reserve of a hundred grand to start with and just seeing it just absolutely nothing but a downhill slope on that bank account. Deuteriorate. Oh gosh. But it was, it was about two months of that. And then we started to actually cashflow and make money and, We went, all right, I do know what I'm doing. Yeah, yeah. Because usually, I mean, your average restaurant spends a year losing money. You spend another year breaking even, and then you're in your third year, you're starting to turn back up that that upward cashflow. Yeah. It took me two months, so. Yeah, and kudos to you because you bought something that was existing, pre-existing.
00:22:36
Speaker
ish yeah kind of I mean, we changed the entire concept of it. It was a pizza joint. We turned it into sports, bar burgers, milkshakes, barbecue. Right. But like you had equipment because I feel like a lot of people that, okay, let's start this thing. And then they just have to like hemorrhage money. Oh yeah. And then there's really no equipments. Double the cost of what you think it could possibly be. That's right. And then you have no mouths to be feeding. It's just, you got to keep going. So like that trajectory is a lot steeper. It is first you of like hey alright i'm stepping into it we're gonna change the concept but eventually we're gonna be able to cash flow a little faster cuz we don't have yesterday build the walls the walls are there. I just need to get the people back and you did three months that's a huge turnaround man. Yeah and now we're we're gonna be completely debt free at the end of year four wow that's a huge i'm sorry at the beginning of year four yeah well.
00:23:34
Speaker
Uh, okay. So you have two restaurants. So we talked about one. When did you open up the second? Uh, let's see. That was actually a real estate purchase. There was a coffee shop in town that went out of business that I went, this is spectacular location and seems like a pretty good investment. So I bought, it's just downtown orange city, spectacular big building right on the corner of where The yearly tulip festival celebration happens, which is this week. The Dutch just love the tulips. Oh yeah. Love it. Love it. And you love them too. Yeah. Because they buy- Of course. And everything everything's clean. Like it's a spectacular little town in the middle of nowhere. Good for you. So you've bought the building. You own the building. that ah
00:24:20
Speaker
Yep. On the building, we leased it out to a guy that wanted to do an ice cream shop bookstore thing. yeah um So he ran that for just over a year. And then as most do, figured out the restaurants are very difficult. He might've been in over his head a little bit. So he bailed and we decided to put in our own concept. So we did we went kind of Italian with it, when pastas and salads um have transitioned a bit and added in sandwiches. and
00:24:54
Speaker
Some other little kind of casual, it's geared around being a lunch place. So very quick, casual, nothing fancy. I'm trying to stay away from the Italian like name on it. Cause people have the impression that it's either Olive Garden or it's super fancy. and Sit down full service thing. And this is all counter service. Think, think Panera bread meets Fazoli's. Ah, got it. That's where you live. Great. And then you have more, you have an idea to open more. Is that right? Oh yeah. And that changes every three days. Yeah. I hear you. What's your growth? I don't know. It's changed 19 times. just think i can tell you Just make more sales and more money and more complexity and just make my life harder, but somehow it's worth it. No, but I do think that's interesting being debt free. Like there is something that like, oh, you can think differently when that's the case. It just frees up more resources. Right. makes so so Makes it a lot easier to take a leap in the future. Yeah. So tell me, I always give are our guests some time. So tell me where you'd be at without your spouse next to you.
00:26:01
Speaker
uh, snowboarding in the mountains. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. I'd be trying to own a restaurant there, but the problem is, I mean, your cost of entry is over a million bucks to get into that. And what kind of person living in in one of the most expensive areas of the country has that kind of crazy cashflow behind them. Right. Right. Huh. What does your wife currently do? Does she work outside the home? Oh, she's super boring. She does medical billing at our local hospital. Okay. So she's she's our stable rock, you know, nine to five jobs, salary, all the benefits, all that fun stuff. Right. So she lets, she gives me the ability to be uncommon.
00:26:49
Speaker
Love it. And this is like this, the just complete consistency of that. You have no idea how life giving that is when you're trying to put your neck out there it yeah and just benefits alone. I've talked to a lot of people and they're like, that's the part where I just can't get over. Like I have this great idea, but I can't figure out the benefits. Like, so that's, that's, it's hard to get out of that lifestyle. I mean, you know, is corporate America is built for and works for a reason. Right. It's stable. It's easy. It's consistent. How many employees do you have? Currently I'm just shy of 50. Okay, wow. And what's your like, do they have like a process to like level them up? Is there like a path to management to?
00:27:34
Speaker
Nothing formalized at the moment. Okay. Cause I, I basically operate as, as people show that they want more. I figure out how to give them more, but depending on the circumstance of yours, hey I can also do this. Yes. Well, but that's, and that's a, I'm at a point right now where when I find the next person that goes, I want to do something more and bigger. That's when I go and buy another restaurant. Mm. That's, I'm not going to do it before I find those people, because that bear that's the hardest part, is finding the people that want to or are able to think like me and and have that desire to just make something work. Yeah, right. There is something. You can't really train this, but things are not going to go your way. And how do you respond when it doesn't?
00:28:26
Speaker
know Especially when you're dealing with people and food. Yeah. Okay. So the future has owned a lot of these. How many are you thinking? However many you can get? Because the building idea is brilliant, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I don't know. I and you probably need to define that, but it's basically, I want to grow my net worth to be in about 5 million. ah And then what? Whatever that comes out to.
Aaron's Financial Goals
00:28:48
Speaker
And then I can find out how I sell it all out and just now I can go be a bartender at some brewery in Colorado. And we're back in the mountains, baby. You got it. That's great. what ah What do you think your kids have learned from your uncommon path? That's a great question. um We were talking about.
00:29:14
Speaker
That was just yesterday. My wife and I were talking about a friend of hers that has similar age kids, and they said that, or they asked if my kids enjoyed going out to Olive Garden. And my wife goes, we've never taken our kids to Olive Garden. But we quickly realized that in this area, that is considered like a fancy a fancy restaurant that you go out to on special occasions. Well, in my world, and my kids' viewpoint on this is that Olive Garden is trash.
00:29:50
Speaker
now yeah And that we go to more of a local, unique restaurant if we're going out, because one, I support that all the time, but two, it's usually a heck of a lot better value, experience, et cetera. And you're not just feeding into this corporate machine that's just feeding the masses. Right. Wow. Yeah. They're, you know, they learn hard work and I mean, they're in the restaurant all the time. Like over the summer when they're not in school, they basically just tag along with me for most of the summer. We'll go to a kid's activity for half the day, but then we'll go work in my world for the other half of the day. They don't love it. They're kids, but right they're they're absorbing and seeing and nothing like being
00:30:41
Speaker
born on the other side of the curtain for somebody, you know, most people don't see on what happens in the back end of most businesses. Right. What would you tell your younger self? What advice?
00:30:55
Speaker
Sorry, I just had three thoughts all at the same time. Stay out of restaurants. No, really? No. There's so much easier work out there. What would you do instead? Oh, I have no idea. i almost i would I'd probably get into law enforcement. And I know that's even more bonkers crazy, but. Oh, yeah. I mean, just think about that. I'm going down that path. We're doing it. Like, just think about that. You're carrying a gun to work, you know, and for a reason, by the way. Like, i fascinating. So full disclosure, Aaron and I.
00:31:29
Speaker
met at that ah Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. He and I clicked pretty quickly. um But I went to Perry to try to like, I don't know, Jackie asked me to like go talk to him. You did go to that. I did, yeah. ah Adam and I both went. I love Adam, by the way. Anyway, so we went there and like, the first question I was like, how are you guys doing? And like, they're like, we're tired, Perry's strong. like but the Like, they're unified, but like just thinking of the unknown. We're like, you and I have unknown parts of our our life, but like, okay, we can deal with that. When you're talking about pulling out your gun on any moment, like there is something that is just exhausting about that. I feel like, like, I'm just like, Oh, absolutely. So, you know, I think it gets into that root. Like I love,
00:32:19
Speaker
seeing the best in people. I love seeing somebody transition from a bad spot to a good like spot in their world. I'm sure it's linked somewhere at some psychological level. Oh, for sure. But like, think about how fast that would go away, Aaron. Like, think about your dealing with people who are like, not just your coworkers I could see, like, all right, that's still, but like, the people that you're going to get, like, oh boy. It's like a level of, I don't know if duplicity is the word, but I think there is this level of evil that's like, I don't even know how to comprehend that. Like, how do we get out of that? And it's like, oh, we're not getting out of that. And every day you're going into it, seeing this, like, you could see how it would taint you over time.
00:33:02
Speaker
I don't know. you're right spot my and let's go that's That's probably why I didn't get into it. Ultimately. And frankly, I deal with the same people. I mean, our workforce is, you know, they're heavy drug users. They're not the most well educated people in the world. It's like. The end of the day, it's the same demographic, not entirely. It is a massive overgeneralization, but but the restaurant industry is not seen as being a career that you can do for your whole life, which is ironic because it's the second largest industry on this planet. Right. Right. And I mean, everyone seems to have had an experience in like serving food. Yeah. as't Well, they should. Right. Appreciate it. Understand that people work hard to feed people every day. They really do.
00:33:48
Speaker
um Okay, so I love your uncommon path.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:33:51
Speaker
Again, why in the world are you on the show? I feel like this show is out there to try to inspire other people to like pursue their own uncommon path. And so I hope you guys had some feedback on this. Obviously our feedback line is 515-446-8158. We would love to hear from you. Aaron, I love what you're doing. And if any of our listeners wanted to reach out or in they're in Orange City, how do they look you up? How do they reach out? Tell us about how they kind of connect with you. So the Roadhouse and the Corner Kitchen, both in Orange City, ah I'm pretty easy to find. I'm on every platform. I'm a restaurant. like We're very, very easy to get a hold of. But yeah, coming come and check it out if you're ever in our corner of the world. Just some accolades here. In 2023, we won the second place in the best pork tenderloin in the state
00:34:46
Speaker
of Iowa. So that's completely legitimate. ah Next year, we're going to win best burger in the state of Iowa. 2022, we were awarded the second best pulled pork in the state of Iowa. Wow. I mean, we got accolades that I have a hard time bragging about, I guess, but they're kind of a big deal. Yeah, they are. They are. So we got good food. You got good food at the end of the day. All your experiences as have so done something, not only that you can help impact others, but you're benefiting from it. So I loved your uncommon story. Thanks for sharing it with us. And yeah, you've been listening to on Commonwealth podcast till next time. Go be in common. Thanks.
00:35:26
Speaker
That's all for this episode, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.