Ep 92- Crafting a Scalable Restaurant Model with Pete Mora

Transcript

Transcripts are generated by machine learning, so typos may be present.

BTB (00:00):

Welcome to the Building Texas Business Podcast, interviews with thought leaders and organizational visionaries from across industry. Join us as we talk about the latest trends, challenges, and growth opportunities to take your business to the next level. The Building Texas Business Podcast is brought to you by BoyarMiller, providing counsel beyond expectations. Find out how we can make a meaningful difference to your business at boyarmiller.com and by your podcast team where having your own podcast is as easy as being a guest on ours. Discover more at yourpodcast.team. Now here’s your host, Chris Hanslik.

Chris (00:49):

In this episode, you will meet Pete Mora, founder of Fajita Pete’s. Pete shares great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to start and grow a business. Pete stresses the importance of good systems and processes to allow you to scale your company. Alright, Pete, welcome to Building Texas Business. Thanks for taking time to come on the show. Thank you for having me. I’ve been a big fan of your food for years, so really excited about this opportunity.

Pete (01:21):

Well, thank you. I know you told me that the babies grew up eating some of it, so those are always my favorite stories when we get to see multi-generational type of business. We’ve done some kids from kinder through college now that’s how old we are.

Chris (01:35):

That’s how long you’ve been around. I love that. No, but I hope my daughters listen to, they don’t listen to all these, I think I know that to be true, but they’re going to listen to this one. And Hayden and Holland grew up on fajita pizzas for sure. Awesome.

Pete (01:47):

Thank

Chris (01:47):

You. Okay, fajita Peet’s, tell us what that is, what you’re known for.

Pete (01:53):

Alright. Well, fajita Pizzas, we’re a very small footprint restaurant. 98% of what we do is off premise, so that’s kind of our thing. It’s either pickup delivery, catering is a huge part of what we do and by catering we specialize in corporate catering.

(02:07):

So office lunches like here at your firm, people call us up, 30 people, 1130, 14th floor, 29, 25 Richmond. And then we just show up. They like the ease of it. We do three types of deliveries. We do with the warmers, with the servers if you need ’em or just drop off and get out of your way, which is the most popular one. But we specialize in a very limited menu so that way we can feed the hundreds of people we do every morning on caterings. And then at night we turn into a delivery company, kind of like a pizza company. You call us up, fa us for four, boom. We show up at your door with the food

Chris (02:42):

And I can attest that you show up fast.

Pete (02:44):

Yep. Yeah. That’s from those small menus. So we specialize. There’s very few things I’m good at, so I try to do as little as possible so I can be good at those things.

Chris (02:53):

Yeah, keep it simple, stupid.

Pete (02:54):

Exactly.

Chris (02:54):

I love it. So I would think keeping the menu narrow that helps you with controlling food cost and inventory and managing the cost side of your business.

Pete (03:05):

Yeah. Business wise, it is good on a lot of levels. The fixed cost, like you said, the rent. So the menu decides your kitchen layout, so it decides your equipment package, it decides much how many fee. I mean you can get very granular with these things. It decides how many feet you need between the equipment, how you lay everything. Our menu specifically allows you to get high ticket items in the small area, fajitas and group type of events. So we got a high ticket average for the restaurant industry and that’s because our items are sold for families or for big groups like this. So it allows you to crank out a lot of food in a short amount of time and allows you to keep it fresh. And it’s also a menu that transports well. You can compartmentalize everything and it arrives the way you want it

Chris (03:46):

To. That makes sense. So let’s go back to the beginning. What was the inspiration for you to start this in the first place

Pete (03:55):

At the beginning? Well, I waited tables to school. I’m naturally from Columbia, south America. When we moved here, I grew up in a leaf, went through high school here. I went to U of H, got into the entrepreneurship program at U of H, and that was a program that taught me how to really think about what I can do and scale. Having waited tables, I said, well, restaurants really allow you to find out very quickly if you’re going to make it or not. And my mom always told me, we didn’t bring you here to fill out applications, we brought you here to do something.

Chris (04:28):

Wow. I love that.

Pete (04:29):

So with that mentality, I was blessed enough to get out of the entrepreneurship program and run into the Meyer family, Meyerland Meyer Park, and we were able to get a very good deal on a restaurant that had been closed for a few years. Mr. Meyer was very gracious, allowed me to go into his office. I learned a lot through that negotiation. And we started a full service restaurant right out of college, 60 tables in Meyer Park. And that really taught us a lot. I mean, typical immigrant story. We made the tables in our garage, walked through the snow and the Houston Summers, all that stuff. Uphill both ways. Yeah, exactly. So that experience was very good. And I always mention the full service restaurant because it led to what ended up being

Chris (05:21):

Fajita pizza. Yeah, it’s part of your journey, right?

Pete (05:23):

Yeah. Taught me, the first year was just survival. Second year was figuring out, now that we kind of know what we’re doing, because you never know, you kind of know what you’re doing now, how do we add revenue? And that’s how catering became a topic. It got to, over the six years we were there where we grew the catering business to where it was doing more than our lunch business. And so when it was time to renew a lease, it just didn’t really make sense to have the 6,300 square feet. We took a leap of faith and went to a 1200 square foot kitchen in West University and thank it worked out and that’s, we were able to keep what we liked from the restaurant business and do it in a way that allowed me to keep doing it because maybe if I was still in full service, I wouldn’t be in the business anymore. It was just a very, starting at 23 and it was just very hard to get it going. But it taught all the lessons I wouldn’t have learned. I mean, you know how they say you learn more the first six months out of college than you do

Chris (06:23):

The four years in, right?

Pete (06:24):

Yeah.

Chris (06:25):

So what was the name of that first restaurant?

Pete (06:27):

Poblanos Mexican Grill. Okay. It was in what’s Meyer Park now? They tore down that area. There’s Kohl’s there. It’s a nice development. I’m very grateful to the people in that area. They were very nice to us. We still deliver to them a lot. We have people that come by the kids, like I mentioned earlier, we’ve been able to feed kids from, since they’re little to college and when they’re into town, they come and say hi. So it is been a very good community based business from the beginning and I think that’s what allowed us to really get the roots down that allowed us to withstand all the problems that come with a new business.

Chris (07:01):

So let’s talk a little bit about those early days. You just said and alluded to it, those first six months out of college

Pete (07:08):

You

Chris (07:09):

Felt like you learned a lot more than you did in the four years in college. Anyone in any business starting out on their own, there’s a lot of headwinds, there’s lessons learned. What were some of the things that, the challenges you faced that you might share with the listeners to say, man, I went through this. You’re likely to go through it too. Here’s what I did to help. And maybe something you experienced that someone might learn from your experience to avoid anything that you share from that perspective.

Pete (07:40):

I think at the beginning with the restaurant business, you’re in the people business and the biggest issue that you don’t get practice at is managing your employees, your team, your coworkers. I think that was a big eyeopener because maybe people, you run into people that don’t have the work ethic you have. So you have to learn at a, and I was young and my mom always told me, start when you’re young and dumb because if you’re smart enough, you won’t do it. If you were smart enough, you wouldn’t do this. So it’s enough.

Chris (08:11):

Well, there’s plenty of people that have come on the podcast that have said, yeah, you’re never really ready. You just got to take the lead. Yeah.

Pete (08:17):

It’s like having a child, you’re not ready. It just comes and now you have figure it out. So dealing with the crew, setting up the importance of setting up systems from the beginning and not willy-nilly as you go, which I did at the beginning, that’s a problem. I said, well, we’ll figure it out. Follow your heart. I think during those trying times, at the beginning it was that developing systems, figuring out how to be a better leader to the people and also all that while controlling cost and what really helped me through it, because businesses failed from being undercapitalized or mismanaged, and what helped me through it is that we were always able to live very below our means to really withstand those pressures that came at the beginning.

Chris (09:03):

Okay. Yeah. So yeah, it’s good insight. You talked about the challenges of managing a team. There’s challenges in building the team, right? Yes. Because you got to get it right and you’re going to run across times where you make bad hires. What are some of the things that you’ve learned over the years to try to perfect that? Either the interview process or whatever to make sure you’re hiring the right team members that can kind of buy in and get aligned behind your mission and your beliefs?

Pete (09:33):

I think it’s hiring. When you hire out of necessity, you’re already at a weak disadvantage. That’s

Chris (09:38):

Beautiful.

Pete (09:39):

You just need bodies. I think hiring, getting the right person, even if you don’t have a spot for them and making a spot for them, somebody that you think can be good for your team, 85% of the employee issues are solved at the hiring table. You need to get better at picking people who represent. And now people, when they’re applying, they talk very well. So you got to get used to looking through the bs.

Chris (10:05):

That’s the hard part, right?

Pete (10:06):

And we’re in the industry where we’re talkers the restaurant industry and also understanding and being compassionate that most people that are in the restaurant industry didn’t, that wasn’t their goal originally. We get a lot of people that end up in this industry, so you have to be understanding of the path they’ve been through.

Chris (10:26):

Yeah, I didn’t think about that.

Pete (10:29):

So you have to allow them a growth path within your company. Allow them a system that shows ’em respect and treats them like people. Because I hear horror stories about how people get treated other places and it’s just the industry word. So I think having that empathy and looking at the same time, looking through the BS and making sure the person you’re hiring has somewhat the same values and goals, or at least providing a structure to where it’s very clear what you expect from them. I think that’s the only fair way to hire somebody because at the beginning I was hiring people and I didn’t have a structure. So that’s unfair to them because I figured they’d figure it out. I’m doing current,

Chris (11:07):

You’re living and breathing it.

Pete (11:08):

Yeah.

Chris (11:09):

Someone you hire may not. They just need expect no, they need a

Pete (11:11):

Job. So learning that immaturity I had at the beginning, that was key as well, and it was unfair to the employee. So really creating systems becomes a way to be more fair to your employees. Set clear expectations, trackable expectations and achievable expectations. I think that’s key to them.

Chris (11:28):

So you had this restaurant full service for six years or so and you make a decision that’s pretty significant to really change up your entitled kind of business model. What was it that kind of led you to get the, I don’t know if confidence or the ability to take that risk,

Pete (11:51):

Everything else? Necessity. Necessity, right? Because you’re signing an extension of a lease and it feels like a plea deal. That’s not a good sign that you shouldn’t sign that extension. So then luckily some of my, Greg Lewis is a gentleman who found the spot for me at West U and I’m always very grateful to him. He was just a customer of mine. He said, Hey, there’s this spot. If you really think about doing it, there’s this spot that’s available. You should check it out. And so I’m very grateful to him always. He does a lot of real estate here in Houston, and it was a leap of faith in that I knew that in 10 years I didn’t want to be doing what I was currently doing.

(12:28):

So I always think if you don’t want to do it in 10 years, then don’t do it today because what are you doing? So I said, I like this part of the industry, and it was also more scalable. The model I was creating was more scalable and coming out of the entrepreneurship program, I mean you go there to scale businesses, they teach you a lot of things. So I said, this is more scalable with my small brain. It was easier to fill in the spreadsheet and really explain to myself and prove to myself that it was going to be more profitable in the

Chris (13:01):

Long run. It’s interesting because I wrote a note to come back to this because when you were talking about full service to what you’re doing now, it struck me that what you’re doing now is way more scalable than a full service restaurant. It is tough, and there’s plenty of great examples in town that are still very successful restaurants, but those full service restaurants seem to have, they gain the ones that sustain develop a personality typically around that founder and the entrepreneur who’s there. And we have lots of great examples. I frequent them a lot, but they’re tough to scale. Maybe they go to two locations, but it’s like it’s hard to get beyond that personality of that person. And what you’ve done is created something that still has great quality food as your stamp on it, but doesn’t require you to be at all the locations for it to be successful.

Pete (13:52):

And I think that comes from the low operating costs, the simplified menu we spoke about earlier, all those things. I do think that the full service, there’s always, there’s great restaurants here. Like I said, I was born in Columbia, I learned how to eat Mexican food at NVAs, and there’s a lot of amazing restaurants here in Houston. People always ask me, well, what do you think about this place? They’re great, dude. We’re blessed in Houston. There’s so much good food. And it’s just, to me, I tell ’em, it’s just an honor to be even mentioned. They say, oh, well I like your food. I compare it to this restaurant. I compare it to that. That’s crazy. Now it’s to think of how it’s scaled and how people know we’re actually starting to go from what the heck is a fajita pizzas to, oh, there’s a fajita pizzas, which is a weird turn. I don’t know how

Chris (14:36):

To find, it’s a different mindset. So you start this new concept, you start to scale it. Let’s talk through what were some of the challenges you faced in scaling the business?

Pete (14:48):

I think it was educating the market, right? It really letting people know because at that time in 2008, you either got pizza delivered or Chinese and that’s it. So really educating the market that we do delivery, they’re like, oh, okay, so for like 150 people or No, no, no. And you would tell the customers would come in, it’s a little room like this. They would come in multiple times and then until while they were there, they saw drivers going. They go, oh, you delivered houses. And it was just an education time because Uber wasn’t really big and no third party platforms. So that was a very difficult thing. I also put the tortilla lady right behind the counter so they could see her hand rolling tortillas. Because also when you go to smaller locations, people assume it’s a lesser product, it’s an inferior product. So I say, well, let’s put the lady right here so they know, because they’re used to going to restaurants and seeing the ladies make tortilla the good ones. And so they were like, oh, I get it. So y’all make your food. So it was just a big education process and educating the market’s always was the hardest thing at the beginning.

Chris (15:48):

Okay. So talking about the tortillas, your quality of food is outstanding in my opinion. I think other people agree. One of the challenges for a restaurant, I would think, and in the scale is maintaining the quality and the consistency. And you talked earlier about putting systems in place, but what are you doing to make sure that quality and consistency is there now all across the state of Texas?

Pete (16:15):

So it was very difficult at the beginning. Like I said, we used to trim and house marinating houses. I mean, we can get into the weeds on processes and procedures, but you would always maybe go to another store where they added sugar instead of salt to the marinate. So you’re like, Ooh, we can’t do that. Very early on I realized that I needed more systems, more structure, and one of my goals was to grow, but I knew I couldn’t do it the way I was doing it. Then we got to the point where we could marinate our stuff centrally and distribute it to our food distributor who takes it to the stores. So that was one thing that saved some concern. The biggest heartache is, the worst thing you can hear is, I don’t like that one as much as that one, right?

Chris (16:56):

It’s just different, right?

Pete (16:57):

Yeah, that hurts.

Chris (16:57):

Yeah.

Pete (16:58):

So it is developing relationships with manufacturers that can actually do your recipe the right way and deliver it to the customers. Sorry.

Chris (17:07):

Yeah, go ahead. You’ve been talking a lot. Hello friends, this is Chris Hanzlik, your building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations, and business leaders. Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm@boyermiller.com and thanks for listening to the show. So let’s talk a little bit about innovation. What are some of the things that you feel like you have done or maybe doing that are somewhat innovative to help your business grow?

Pete (17:51):

Well, you go back to getting a good team around you. So when I started to grow, I ran into one of my partners who’s Joey Igea, who had a lot of operational experience in the industry. He was a franchisee for multiple concepts. And because I don’t want people to think this all came out of my brain, I had a lot of help along the way.

Chris (18:12):

I’m going to stop you. That is such a great point. Rarely has anyone just done it on their own, right? You surround yourself. And maybe we’ll talk a little bit about that in a second, but I think it’s a great point we should pause on because

Pete (18:23):

It is knowing what you’re not good at.

(18:25):

And luckily I’m so bad at so many things that it was just finding people all over the place that could help me. Well, I doubt that part, but I bet. So innovation, so you were talking a little bit about, alright, so innovation was going to these manufacturers and our recipe is citrus based. So technology really caught up to what we do in that, not that we do anything special, but the way we do it was very hard for technology to be able to put it in a stable way that could perform the way we expected it to. So along the way, we got with further processors who marinated our product, and that was a three year process to really get it right. So that’s innovation on their side. For us, it was our technology, our apps, our ability that helped us survive through COVID actually our ability to do curbside, to be quick and responsive, the way we package our things, the way we set up our kitchen, which took a couple of iterations and to really limit steps and increase customer service through speed and convenience. And I tell people the three C’s, convenience, consistency, and quality.

(19:30):

That joke, like my daughter said, dad

Chris (19:31):

Joke, dad joke.

Pete (19:35):

So those three things really helped us to speed up our service and match. So the goal, the problem there becomes matching your service through technology and through your processes on the front end. Really investing into that at an early point helped us keep a little bit ahead of the curve along the way. Okay. Those types of

Chris (19:54):

Integrations, that’s great. As I mentioned started in Houston and one spot in West University, you’ve now expanded throughout the state. What are some of the advantages that you’ve experienced or see in being a Texas-based business and maybe able to spread across the state?

Pete (20:11):

I think that, well, I came to Houston. Being here, you don’t realize how big it’s and how competitive it’s, and I think being in that competitive environment really helped us. I mean, you can’t sell fajitas 23 years in Houston, not be good. There’s 10,000 restaurants that do a great job in Houston. So I think that was one of the things, having access to big providers, the distribution, the ports being closed for our produce, being close to the border. So I think that being a hub allows you to control cost, develop business and really grow strategically. Having so many people here, law firms, business professionals to help you along the way. You have everything you need in Houston, in Texas by default. So I think that was really an advantage, although it’s hard to make it. I think you have the tools you need if lucky enough to run into ’em early.

Chris (21:07):

Okay, that’s good. So when you think about the restaurant industry, what are some of the headwinds that you feel like your company or the industry may be facing today or that you see around the corner that you’re trying to

Pete (21:21):

Right now? I think there’s a crunch. People are spending a little bit less. I think we all see it at the grocery stores, we see it everywhere. So headwind is how do you translate your value proposition to the guest? We’re a community-based business, so we tell people, teachers, preachers, and coaches. So that is part of the value proposition you have as a brand. But people still want to, I mean it’s all about the meat and potatoes. They want to get a good value for their food. So the headwinds are figuring out how to provide value, control, cost, and still deliver the quality that the customer deserves.

Chris (21:57):

Got you. What was one of the, when you think about struggles or lessons learned, what was one of the maybe failures or mistakes you feel like you made along the way in those early days that you overcame but it taught you a lesson that you’ll never forget?

Pete (22:14):

I think it was really, like we mentioned in the beginning, hiring problems. At the beginning it was a lack of maturity. It was lack of having systems like we mentioned. I think maybe underestimating what I did in that, well if I did, anybody can do it and maybe making bad decisions on people, I could put in key situations and those probably came because my systems weren’t good enough also. So I think really underestimating what you do as an entrepreneur is a problem that we all have. Underpricing your services is a problem we all have. And trying to compete with my full service restaurant, trying to beat everything to everybody, having 70 items on the menu, that was the biggest lesson. I said, no, there’s too much waste. It’s too hard to be good at everything else. Let’s just be good at one thing and replicate that. So I think those lessons really got us to where we are in learning how to trust other people in areas that you’re weak at.

Chris (23:10):

Well, going back to being the best at one thing, it’s almost like the GE mindset. Let’s be, if you can’t be the best, let’s not do

Pete (23:15):

It. Yeah, I got any color you want as long as it’s black. That’s the only way I could figure out how to do it.

Chris (23:25):

Going back to the people, and I agree with your emphasis on so much of it is in the interview process, hiring process, usually learn that the hard way and then you get to, what do you do when you realize you made a and what have you kind of learned over the years about when you realized you’ve made a mistake, how to handle that and how to move on?

Pete (23:55):

I think you have to be fair to the person. You have to let ’em go. You have to get rid of the people, inform them of why it’s probably not a good fit. Most of the times people just fire themselves, but in these situations where you make the mistake, you just have to be fair. Let ’em know what their strengths and weaknesses are. So that way I would want somebody to do it to my son, let him know where he messed up so he can be better next time. Say, hey, it ain’t going to be here, but if you get better, you’ll do better there. So having those clear conversations, those are tough conversations to have. Sure they are, but they’re important because they’re part of leadership is not when you’re with the person, good leadership extends to when they’re gone from you in the lessons. A lot of the leaders I’ve come across, I say the things they say still 30 years later because they’re good leaders so they don’t have to be next to you to be a leader. So as people who are in charge of businesses, we have to understand that the leadership style we need needs to be forward thinking,

Chris (24:54):

But it’s a great mindset to share. So let’s talk a little bit about leadership then. I always like to ask people, how would you describe your leadership style? How do you think that’s evolved over the last almost 20 years?

Pete (25:08):

I think it’s like people, I’m very relaxed leadership style. I really not very confrontational. I need to get better at those things, but I take everybody’s opinion. It’s very disseminated the way we make decisions. It’s never, hey, make the call Pete. No, we talk about it. So I involve everybody, people that maybe even ask why are you asking my opinion? Why do whatever? I think it’s very important to always take the opinion of people actually in the front lines. And that’s the reason I like having my store, my original store always because I’m making decisions for a store in Chicago. Well, I need to feel the pain of that decision. I need to feel the weight of it and if I wouldn’t do it at my store, why would I do it at theirs? So it keeps you honest. You have to be with the team I guess is the question for leadership

Chris (26:02):

Sounds like kind of that servant mindset, right?

Pete (26:04):

Yes.

Chris (26:06):

I’m not going to ask you to do something I wouldn’t do myself.

Pete (26:08):

Exactly.

Chris (26:09):

And then once decisions are made, expect everyone to get behind it and move forward.

Pete (26:13):

Yep, exactly. I think that’s an important part of, especially the industry we’re in because people you deal with hourlys salaries now with the franchise and corporate staff is a different employee than at the store level, but everybody has a trigger. You can touch people in different ways, but you have to take the time to know what motivates them. So you have to be in it.

Chris (26:34):

Got to be in it. So we’ve been talking around this, but let’s go right into culture. So all you’re talking about hiring the right people, telling them and being clear about expectations, giving them motivation and incentive to do that job. How would you describe the culture that you believe you have at Fajita Petes? And then what are you doing to make sure that as you scale the business beyond that one location that it is resonating in those other locations?

Pete (27:02):

We need to do a better job of culture building. You always need to be doing a better job of culture building. I think it’s by example, like I told about the leadership style. So we try to communicate directly with the teams. If there’s issues, you communicate directly with the frontline people that don’t expect a call from you, but it lets ’em know, hey, somebody’s watching. And not only when there’s issues, when there’s good things happening, you need to communicate that to them because it’s like putting deposits in a bank account. Every interaction you have with somebody is that you’re putting a deposit, you’re taking a withdrawal, and if you go and only withdrawal, withdrawal, they’re not going to listen to you. There’s nothing there.

(27:38):

So you have to build that up. So those interactions are part of what we do as a culture. We need to incorporate probably more team meetings as we do. We did at the beginning and now as the company grew, we have multi-unit franchisees who kind of have a good vibe going on, good culture within them. But I do think getting back to more scheduled team events is going to be good. We just had one a few months ago. So those things that allow people to see that you’re in it with them, you’re going through the same issues, it’s not just you and you have that support system. I think those things are critical.

Chris (28:11):

I like that. And I think that team building, creating opportunity for them to connect and build relationships so that the team within the team has a connection, feels like they’ve got each other’s back, will end up being a better product for the customer, taking pride in

Speaker 1 (28:29):

What

Chris (28:29):

They’re doing and want to be help each other be successful.

Pete (28:32):

You have to believe your own bs. You know what I mean? If not, because part of the service that we try to teach is genuine service. So you have to have a genuine, I tell people, don’t learn my spiel, but learn it in your words. Say the same things in your words. Because I don’t want it to sound rehearsed true, but it’s a tough thing as we grow so fast to really you go through six months at a time in the blink of an eye. So it’s something that we have to be more intentional. We be more intentional on keep building that,

Chris (29:00):

Right? Right. There’s so many things going on. That’s the point as an entrepreneur, just how you juggle and manage because you’re trying to keep the business going, trying to grow the business, you’re trying to maintain relationships up, down and all around. But got to, I think it comes back to systems and processes to say we’re going to have quarterly team meetings or whatever they’re going to be so that there’s a scheduled cadence to doing the things that help create more intentional about create the connectivity.

Pete (29:32):

That’s part of growth I think is just taking stuff off your plate, putting in the right, because on top of all the business stuff, there’s also life.

Chris (29:40):

You have a family, right? Yeah, exactly. I know. So you think about, you were at great education at U of H and the entrepreneurial program. So what type of advice being where you are now, looking back, for someone out there that may be thinking about starting on their own like you did years ago, what is some of the 1, 2, 3 things you might say as advice to say if you’re thinking about starting your own business, regardless of the industry, what’s something you could pass on to them?

Pete (30:11):

I think you have to go in it with open eyes and understand that it’s going to be, you can have the best intentions and you can do everything and bad things will still happen. So it’s not always your fault, but it is always your problem. So I think that’s having, you have to know that going in and thank God now there’s industry, you hear, hey, I started a business, sold it in five months for X amount. That’s awesome, but that’s not everybody. So be ready to, if you’re not planning on keeping it, don’t start it. Be ready for that. So I buy a couple of little commercial real estate properties, are you going to flip it? If I’m not willing to keep it for 30 years, I’m not going to buy it today. Now will I flip it? Probably.

Chris (30:55):

But

Pete (30:56):

You have to go in with the mentality that if you’re not going to keep it, don’t start it. And the good things set yourself small goals because you always have the big picture as the entrepreneur, as a founder, but set small goals and celebrate the wins. So I think once you achieve those smaller goals, those milestones, you really need to celebrate ’em for you. Because we have, I tell people entrepreneurship is almost a disease, right? And you don’t recommend it to everybody. It’s not for everybody

Chris (31:23):

A hundred percent.

Pete (31:24):

And there’s nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur now there’s a culture that everybody needs to be their own boss and side hustles. And it’s not for everybody. There’s nothing. There’s entrepreneurship that they teach us in the entrepreneurship program. Also how to grow within the company.

Chris (31:35):

Interesting.

Pete (31:36):

How to add value to your boss.

Chris (31:39):

I hadn’t heard of that. That’s great.

Pete (31:40):

So that’s a very important part because not everybody, it’s not for everybody. It’s

Chris (31:44):

Not. And that’s a great point. Everyone thinks and because of those, the things that get the headlines, someone starts a company a year later, they sold it to whatever. It sounds easy. We’re making it the media,

Pete (31:58):

There’s a romanticism about it,

Chris (31:59):

But it’s not for everyone. We’re all different. We all have different strengths. And we’ve said this earlier in the podcast, in this episode, it’s not easy. It’s not for everybody. So just because you can’t do it doesn’t make you a bad person. You could have a very significant role within a company, even if you didn’t found it.

Pete (32:17):

I would think that’s a great thing on your resume is failure, right? I mean that’s how we all learn. Absolutely. And another thing is people who have done things, if you can move one rock out of the path of somebody coming behind you, then that’s also our responsibility. Now will they listen or not? I remember 23, you knew everything, but you have to be available to those people as well.

Chris (32:44):

Okay, so you said you moved from Columbia.

Pete (32:46):

Yes sir.

Chris (32:47):

What’s your favorite thing about Houston or Texas? The event you like to go to every year or sporting sport event or Houston cultural events

Pete (32:54):

About Houston is that there’s a lot of live events. So I like live stuff. I like sports, I love the Astros. Go to Texan games, rocket games. I like that. If you wake up at, if you’re one in the morning and you want to eat food from any country in the world, you pick it. There’s a restaurant here in Houston for it.

(33:14):

I like that there’s a good international community. I mean there’s bad things always the traffic and everything, but that comes with it. So I like the opportunity that it’s there because then you can learn from different things. You can apply what you learned in other areas. So that’s what I like about it. Just the broadness of it, the availability of whatever you can think of and the access to different people that come from, maybe not a similar background, but we all have mothers, grandmas, fathers, brothers, sisters. So you end up realizing that the world is not as big as you think, and we’re not as different as we think.

Chris (33:46):

Very true, very true. So I’m 90 something episodes into this podcast. I’ve asked every guest this question at the end when I ask you, even though it just seems a little bit odd, but I asked my guest, what do you prefer or barbecue you with the fajita restaurant? It seems like it’s not a fair question, but

Pete (34:05):

It’s not a fair question because my favorite type of food is Chinese. Okay. No, but Houston has a great TexMex scene and I think it’s just awesome when people come here, you’ve seen the interviews, they come in for barbecue Tex mix, but there’s so much more in between. Sure. I think it’s such a beautiful,

Chris (34:24):

Beautiful part of town. It’s city. It’s a great city to be a foodie.

Pete (34:27):

Yeah, because it’s also where it’s at on the map you can access different produce products that match other cuisines. So then you end up getting more authentic food like you would if you went there. Now it’s not equal apples to apples, but it’s a very good representation of whatever that culture is trying to portray.

Chris (34:46):

So last question. It’s not being easy being an entrepreneur, running your business. So what do you do for yourself to recharge,

Pete (34:56):

Relax, spend a lot of time in the afternoons with the family. A funny thing is cooking, which we do all day, but go home, clip a branch out the rosemary plant, make some steak for the family, spend time, go to live events. I think recharging that social battery being in crowds. I like that environment. That’s kind of the restaurant gives you that. But going to different live events, concerts and sporting events is really kind of the way to charge up and it allows you to be in the moment. And even though you never clock out as an entrepreneur, it allows you to kind of disengage for just enough until you’re driving out and you’re like, lemme how it went.

Chris (35:40):

Well, Pete, this has been great. Really, your story’s amazing and inspiring. Thank you so much. Like I said, I’ve been a big fan of the food for years before meeting you, so getting to meet you has been a real pleasure.

Pete (35:50):

Thank you.

Chris (35:51):

Thanks for coming on.

Pete (35:51):

Thank you, brother, appreciate it.

Chris (35:52):

And there we have it. Another great episode. Don’t forget to check out the show notes at boyarmiller.com/podcast and you can find out more about all the ways our firm can help you at boyarmiller.com. That’s it for this episode. Have a great week and we’ll talk to you next time.