Ep 93- Culinary Ventures with Molly Voorhees

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 (00:44):

In this episode, you will meet Molly Voorhees, president of Beck’s Prime Winfield’s Chocolate Bar in Agnes Cafe. Molly shares her passion for bringing people together over quality food and service and how in difficult times she looks for the next right thing to do to keep the company moving forward. Molly, I want to thank you for coming on Building Texas Business. Thanks for coming in today.

Molly (01:10):

Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Chris (01:12):

So we have a lot to talk about with you because you cover a lot of areas. So let’s start. Just tell everyone what it is you do, the companies that you’re involved in and what they’re known for.

Molly (01:23):

So we started Buck’s Prime back in 1985. I was just 10 years old, so I did not start it, but my dad, a lawyer, win Campbell and an operating partner, a guy named Mike Knapp, started it together and really, my dad, Wyn loves food and grew up in the burger business in Dallas

Chris (01:46):

And always loved it. What was the burger place in Dallas?

Molly (01:49):

It was golfs.

Chris (01:50):

I’ve had lots of golf burgers,

Molly (01:52):

So he was 14. He tells some fantastic stories about his first day on the job, cutting onions and being a human trash compactor and sort of all of the love and ended up getting a law degree, but always loved the food industry, always wanted to be in it and came up with the concept of Beck’s Prime in 1985. Convinced a lot of people to gamble with him and invest, and that was the very first Beck Prime on Kirby. I was 10, just a kid watching it all happen while I played sports and did all the things you do and went to college, ended up in tech out in Silicon Valley for a long time during the boom and bust period, which was fun. Went to business school and then wanted to come back and be in the restaurant industry and grow it. Food is fun. It’s very personal. I had sold, being in tech, you’re not selling something that brings necessarily as much moment to moment joy as feeding people. And I really felt like with Beck Prime, we had something great and then it was time to grow it. And so we moved back here in 2006 back to Houston and we started growing and building more Beck’s Prime. And then we took over the management five years ago of Chocolate Bar and rebranded that Winfield’s Chocolate Bar and built a factory and new stores, and now we’re selling wholesale and corporate gifting. And then we have a little side concept that I did with a friend called Agnes

(03:41):

Agnes Cafe and Provisions

Chris (03:43):

Overall Binet,

Molly (03:46):

And that was my crazy COVID baby. I thought everyone wanted to get back to work and we needed to create jobs and was desperate for community in the restaurant industry to come back and there was a restaurant that had closed there and decided to open up a neighborhood cafe with a friend who was crazy enough to say yes when I brought her the idea. And we opened Agnes four years ago in June, and it is a local neighborhood favorite.

Chris (04:18):

That’s great. That’s great. So original inspiration, I guess, obviously is your dad and being exposed to the business. What was it that got you to kind of branch into the chocolate? Because that’s much different than a full service

Molly (04:32):

Meal concept?

(04:35):

Well, in theory it was going to be easier. Okay, so famous last words, famous last words. I love how food brings people together and what we do at Beck’s Prime is really hard, which is you walk up to the window or you drive through our drive through and I mean we are cut, grinding and padding all the burgers every day. Nothing’s frozen. I mean, we’re cutting those french fries is busy back there and we’re going to get you a made from scratch meal in eight to 10 minutes and that’s hard. So I thought, okay, let’s be in the food business, but let’s scoop ice cream and cut cakes and sell chocolate. Well, when we took the business over, they weren’t doing the highest quality version of that. So I was like, okay, well I’m going to apply the best prime model to it and I’m going to make it all really high quality and we’re going to make all of our own cakes and ice cream. And so now I’ve made it as hard or harder than go back to your roots. I mean, nothing is easy. But yeah, I think they’re similar in the sense of how you manage a restaurant, all of the different services and how you buy food and how you work on cleanliness and operations. So there’s a lot of similarities

Chris (05:59):

And I would think critically important to people you hire to be customer facing to make that experience. The food’s got to be great, but if the people aren’t great as well, you have to get it both right.

Molly (06:11):

And there’s actually some evidence that the people matter more than the food. So you’ll be surprised the number of text messages I get. And there’s some science behind this too, not just anecdotal, but oh my gosh, that guy over at Memorial Park or the cute drive-through cashier over there at Kirby who always gets my sandwich and says hello. I love her so much. She loves my dog. It’s nothing about what they ate or if they enjoyed their meal or it tasted good. It’s the

Speaker 4 (06:47):

People.

Molly (06:48):

So I think that part we’ve done well, which is why we’re still in business.

Chris (06:56):

So let’s kind of go down that route a little bit. What is it that you have done, I guess first at Becks and now at Winfield Chocolate to focus on getting the hiring, the processes you put in place, what are mistakes you made that you learned from? To me, that is the key to the kingdom, and I think our listeners could learn a lot from what you’ve done to put such a good system in place to get the right

Molly (07:22):

People. It’s interesting. I think the basics matter how we treat people every day. I think we’ve always done that really well inside of our team, how we hire. So when we hire managers, we will never hire a general manager for a store. We will only hire an assistant manager and then they can move up to a general manager. But when we hire, we actually take a team member through a number of different steps. Obviously they interview with our management team, they interview with the other managers, then they’ll do a shadows shift where they’ll come and work a shift with the team. So we’re really trying to make sure we get people who see themselves working in our environment. If you want to be a white table cloth restaurant manager or employee, we’re not the right place. So sometimes people will come and they’ll spend a shadow shift with us and they don’t want to be in the environment. And then we’ll also ask them, we’ll give ’em dinner passes and we’ll say, bring a loved one to lunch or dinner with you here, and that test does somebody who’s close to you see you working here.

(08:53):

So we try to help employees find a couple touch points so that they know whether or not culturally we’re a good fit for them. But from my perspective, it’s really interesting. I think we have incredibly loyal long-term team members who’ve been with us forever. If you ever go in one of our stores, you’ll see these posters that celebrate 5, 10, 15, 20, 40 years with us. People are like, oh my gosh, those people have been with you for so long. And I’m like, well, those are just the people on the poster that year. And really, I think it comes down basic manners, boundaries, respect, helping each other, but just treating people as you would want to be treated goes a really long way.

Chris (09:49):

Yeah, no, like I said, that’s the basics and to have that longevity in your industry is remarkable.

Molly (09:56):

Transparency kind, but also clear, Hey, this is how this needs to happen. Not having policies, we’re not a big policy company.

Chris (10:08):

I love that because I feel the same way that I think as soon as you create a policy, then all you’re dealing with is all the reasons there should be an exception to the policy.

Molly (10:17):

Exactly.

Chris (10:19):

So just treat people humanly and humanely and

Molly (10:22):

Reasonably. And if we need to figure it out, we will. But if we had a policy that you can’t take care of a customer if it’s going to cost us more than $15, let’s say we had some limit or something, and that would just be such a buffer. And it turns out the manager who’s trying to take care of the customer is all of a sudden handcuffed and they just want the ability to do the right thing. They’re in the service business. People don’t go into the service business unless you enjoy serving people.

Chris (10:59):

Right. Well, and I think if you’re watching your business, if someone’s abusing the system, you’ll see it. And that’s not a policy issue or lack of policy issue. That’s a character issue that surfaces that you maybe didn’t catch in the hiring process. I also like what you said, because I think I’m hearing more of this in the corporate world, and that’s the experimental part of the interview process where you put someone in a skills assessment

Speaker 4 (11:29):

Situation.

Chris (11:30):

So you said the shadow session or whatever. I know we’re trying to do that in assessing skill. It’s one thing to ask questions and be in a conversation, but people’s skill sets matter in these jobs. That’s how they’re going to sink or swim. So I think that you’ve incorporated that is something that I see more and more people trying to do. And I love the bring the loved one in. We try to do the same as well. It’s like do something social with your spouse or significant other because you’re going to be away from them with us a lot.

Molly (12:06):

They’re going to spend more time with us than they are with you. So do you see them

Chris (12:14):

Enjoying

Molly (12:15):

Yourself? Are okay with us? Are you okay with Yeah, do you like us? Yeah.

Chris (12:20):

So let’s back up a little bit because you mentioned obviously dad and a partner started Beck’s Prime at some point you come in and kind of take over. What was that transition

Molly (12:33):

Like? Oh, it’s still in transition.

(12:36):

So I would say we certainly do not have a policy of nepotism in our business, but to say that we don’t have a lot of dads and daughters and family members and cousins and aunts and uncles all working together, we would have a long laugh. So my dad is still involved in the business. He’s still a full-time lawyer, and he helps us with all sorts of higher level finance, legal type ideas. I mean, it is all over the map there. Our chief operating officer, Mike Knapp, the original partner, he’s still working and he manages all of our managers and operating team. His daughter is our HR director, and we have a marketing director who’s been with us for almost 20 years, and her husband is a project manager for us. And then on our extended family mean I have tons and tons of family members working together and we actually view it as a real asset because we’re all so passionate and deeply engaged in the business because we’re looking for it to be as best as it can be. But we are also, I would say, have investors from our community and our friends and family. We’ve raised a lot of money, and so we are very careful because we’re trying to make money for all of our investors. We have a fiduciary duty to that. So I think in many ways, part of our culture is we are a family business, but we’re not run a family business at all.

Chris (14:25):

Right. So how was it, I guess

Molly (14:30):

The transition

Chris (14:31):

Then? Yeah, you coming back in and I guess dad and his partner letting go of some things. And I mean, I know from experience, we have clients that go through this and I’ve had some guests on the podcast, everyone experienced a little different. What can you share about maybe some of the things that looking back probably could have done better or maybe or things that actually went well?

Speaker 5 (14:57):

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.

Molly (15:28):

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things, I mean, it’s always hard

Speaker 4 (15:32):

And

Molly (15:32):

I think that there’s an ebb and flow to it. And one of the things I think we did really well, and we still do really well, is we stay in our lane. And I think we’re really good at the active debate and listening and having hard conversations, but listening to each other’s points and coming together to make a decision that is methodical and thoughtful versus, well, it’s going to be my way or the highway. We very rarely would let someone just take something and run with a decision. We’re very consensus oriented, but we also stay in our lane. So if probably my strongest background is in marketing, if I feel really passionate about something related to marketing and I’ve got my reasons and I’m persuasively getting everyone on board, everyone’s going to be like, okay, cool, cool, yeah, you got it. Or my dad’s like, the contract needs to read this way with the Cisco vendor. And we’re like, okay, cool. Great, you got it. So I think one thing we’ve done well is we have a lot of people with very specific expertise and we’re able to learn from each other but not stomp on each other.

(17:04):

And so Mike Knapp, who’s our chief operating officer, and we have got some other great operators on our team, they know how to run a restaurant. Well, if I go in there and tell them how to do it, I am way overstepping my lane. But if I go in there and I’m like, Hey, I noticed this seemed inefficient, what’s going on there? They’ll either be like, oh gosh, we got to go fix that. Thank you. Well, this is why we’re doing it this way and I can learn from that. So I think

Chris (17:41):

There’s a lot of humility in that for the whole team. Right?

Molly (17:46):

Or feedback that happens. No

Chris (17:49):

Egos.

Molly (17:50):

Yeah. I mean, we all have egos, but yeah, I, and I can say to my dad, if we cross that out, we’re never going to make this deal. Stop being a lawyer. I mean, you know how it goes. There’s always the lines there, but I think we do a good job of being honest, transparent, giving feedback, and then when we cross the line, which family members can do, we do a good job of coming back together.

Chris (18:18):

Good. So there’s grace too for

Molly (18:21):

Forgiveness. Grace, that wasn’t my best moment. I’m sorry.

Chris (18:25):

Okay. So let’s talk a little bit about, you’ve grown this business and you’ve added to it. What are you think about technology or innovation? Are there things in that realm that you’ve implemented to help either with the growth or once the growth has happened, helped manage and make it more efficient?

Molly (18:49):

So I came from tech right in Silicon Valley, so I was like, okay, let’s get some platforms on this business, right? 2000 was the year. So I’ve now been through a lot of point of sale changes, QuickBooks to Great Plains Accounting, all these clover, Uber online ordering. And we have tended to actually be pretty early adopters. We probably had online ordering off your phone earlier than most companies in Houston. And it’s interesting because they’re so great and in theory they’re going to make your life so much easier and everything is going to be faster and more efficient. I don’t always feel that it has worked out that way.

Speaker 4 (19:45):

Oh, okay.

Molly (19:46):

I think the layers can add just more work or buffer or time even in how long it maybe takes to place an order. I think we went through, if we go back a decade, I think that was the painful era of technology in the restaurant space. I think where we are now with some of the point of sale systems and how they’re integrating, let me explain this. When a decade ago or even five years ago, you would be in our restaurant and you would see, we’d have our point of sale system, we’d have the drive through speaker, we’d have an Uber iPad, a DoorDash, iPad, a oh wait, favor called in and then paid with a real credit card. So just imagine all of that is just messy

Chris (20:46):

And you’re just trying to keep up. We’re just coming at you

Molly (20:48):

And all we want to do is take the order, take your money, and send you on the way with your food. So that transaction for us that 20 years ago was you walked up to the counter, you paid and you left. Now we’ve got all these things, and if the DoorDash order comes in on this tablet, I’ve got to enter it in this system on the cash register, or it won’t go to the kitchen and then the kitchen doesn’t get a ticket. So it seems like in theory, we should all love all of this, and for the consumer who’s like

Chris (21:26):

On the sofa at home,

Molly (21:27):

Right? Great. It’s great for them. For us, it’s been hard and it has taken a lot of time. And now what my point with technology now is that all those systems are finally talking to each other. And so we are taking more orders through a single unit. There’s less double entry. And

Chris (21:53):

So technology is catching up with the innovation, all the innovation of all that. Now technology is catching up, so

Molly (22:00):

It’s

Chris (22:00):

Integrated.

Molly (22:00):

And then behind the scenes is how our accounting and everything flows over, whether it’s from our vendors that we’re buying food from, and finally everything is catching up. But I think we all take for granted how easy that integration is. And when you’re a mid-level size company are, you don’t have the financial resources to spend money on the consultants that you really need to hire to help you integrate that. And so it just can be hard.

Chris (22:33):

Yeah. Well, it’s a great point I think with aspiring entrepreneurs that you, you’ve got to face these challenges and sometimes the only way through ’em is it’s going to be extra time and hours on you to figure it out because you don’t have the capital to just go hire a consultant to come fix it. And that’s one of those lessons learned. It sounds easy, sounds fun, but when you’re in the middle of it, it’s either you’re going to do it or it’s not going to happen.

Molly (23:00):

Yeah. I mean there’s so many great ideas out there and great technologies and great marketing ideas, but the thought process around implementation and execution typically isn’t thought through by many companies that we’re partnering with. Oh, you just do this, this, and this, which is a trigger for all of us. We always laugh when we’re in a meeting. It’s like, oh, it’s no problem to switch from this point of sale system, this point of sale system. We’re like,

Chris (23:31):

Right. They’re never there.

Molly (23:32):

That’s that sweet.

Chris (23:33):

They’re never there past the sales delivery. It’s just like then they’re gone. They’re off to sell someone else.

Molly (23:37):

I’m like, that employee will quit if I say we’re going to switch.

Chris (23:42):

Yeah. Well, let’s talk a little more about I, you’re born and raised here. Beck’s started here, chocolate bar Winfield’s now Winfield.

Molly (23:51):

Yeah.

Chris (23:53):

What are some of the advantages that you feel like that you’ve experienced as a result of being a Texas-based company?

Molly (24:04):

I think Texans are unique in that we embrace entrepreneurs in Houston. I have in particular found this to be an incredibly warm and receptive and we believe in you, Molly attitude. I’m out there hustling chocolate so hard. I’m out there selling to businesses and people want to see us succeed. It’s not like being in a part of the country where I feel sometimes, well, we’ll see if she can make that happen where they kind of mock you. Whereas here, I feel like people are behind us, and that’s such a positive place to work, whether it’s people who you’re partnering with or buying from you or just giving you money to go make it happen. It’s hard to make a business happen without the ability to raise money. And there’s faith involved in someone giving you their money to go make something happen. I mean, you never know. Right, right.

Chris (25:20):

No, it makes sense. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t think what you described as that spirit of Houston and Houstonian just kind of the very entrepreneurial, very welcoming and supportive community, love to see others succeed. So let’s talk about the contrast of that. As we sit here today and you’re in the middle of it, what are some of the headwinds that you are dealing with or that you kind of see around the corner that you’re trying to prepare for?

Molly (25:55):

I think everything feels a tiny bit chaotic right now. And I think it doesn’t matter where you are on any sort of belief system as a business person, you’re sort of like, what’s happening? And I think our HR director always says this. She’s like, what’s the next right thing to do? What’s the next? And I think with all the challenges and headwinds, which I have to just globally say, I can’t specifically mention, I’m like, oh, I could be like, oh, the tariffs are this or that because maybe the tariff goes away tomorrow. So it’s not really a worry, but it could be a worry. It’s just the uncertainty and can be a significant economic headwind because when we go into uncertainty mode, we are stuck

Speaker 4 (26:54):

And

Molly (26:55):

It’s like we’re all of a sudden we’re standing on the Galveston beaches and our feet are sinking in that squishy sand that’s so warm right now and lovely. And we literally can’t come out of it

Speaker 5 (27:09):

Until we

Molly (27:09):

Don’t do anything.

Speaker 5 (27:10):

It

Chris (27:10):

Creates paralysis.

Molly (27:11):

We just go into. And so I think what’s hard as a leader and as a Texan and as an entrepreneur is to not let that stop us from making decisions and moving forward. So I go back to my HR director and says, okay, what’s the next right thing I need to do?

Chris (27:33):

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it is one good, you have a partner, whether it’s in the office or not, but someone that you can lean on and have that. What’s great about that is it’s simple, right? It’s how you eat the elephant, right? One bite at a time. So big picture can be overwhelming, create a lot of uncertainty, could create paralysis. Okay, let’s go down back to the basics and what’s the next right step? And then maybe with one step, it’s easier to take the second step, which leads to the third step, and all of a sudden you’re built some momentum

Molly (28:09):

And you can do something with that. But it is, and at the same time as you take the next step, you got to kind of know where you’re driving towards.

Chris (28:19):

Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about leadership styles and how would you describe your leadership style? How do you think that’s evolved over time?

Molly (28:30):

I think I’m not very patient, and I think that’s hard. And I think it’s hard to probably work with me because we all have a tendency of, we’ve got a great idea we wanted to have happened two weeks ago, not just an idea. It’s like, oh, that’s a great idea. Why aren’t we already doing it?

Chris (29:00):

Or why is it already done?

Molly (29:00):

Why isn’t it done already? What’s the problem? And so I think one of the things I’ve really had to work on is patience as a leader. And it’s far more fun to be part of a team with a patient leader versus a chaotic always. And I don’t do this perfectly well, so either

Chris (29:22):

I wouldn’t believe you if you said you did.

Molly (29:23):

Yeah, you wouldn’t. You’ve known me for half an hour and you can tell this. But I think I love being a leader that people can say no to. Now,

Speaker 4 (29:37):

I

Molly (29:37):

Think it’s really hard sometimes to be, you can be the type of leader people can’t say no to because they’re scared of you or they don’t want to say no. But when my team has now in a place where we’re close enough and capable enough where they can say, Molly, that is a great idea. And if we try to do that right now, we will fail.

Speaker 4 (30:03):

It’s

Molly (30:03):

Like, okay, I can be mature enough to hear that now, and I appreciate you saying that. So I think I don’t want to stop pushing us, but I’ve tried to learn as a leader where kind of thinking of an organ right now, which pedals I should be pushing harder on or less hard?

Chris (30:29):

I think you raised a great point. I think it’s like anything, I think if there’s too much of one thing, it’s not good. It’s that statement of everything in moderation. And I think one of the challenges of a leader is to know when to push and when to back off. So again, when to be a little forceful versus empathetic and maybe demonstrating some more grace. But every situation’s a little different. So a good leader assesses it and go, okay, what type of leadership does this moment call for? And it is that awareness almost, right? And learning to be a little bit versatile. I think if you’re all one all the time, you’re not going to be as successful as you want to be, right? You will be in some moments, but you’re going to fail miserably in others. And again, that’s much easier said than done in practice.

Molly (31:19):

I mean, it’s much easier said then. I don’t know. I’m so critical of my own leadership skills. It’s hard to even walk in here right now and be positive, and yet I would say am doing so much better than I was. And in part I think it’s having people around me who have helped coach me to be a better leader. I’ve hired coaches or I have people who’ve helped me through how to handle certain situations.

(31:51):

I think tools help. It’s interesting. Six months ago, about a year ago, we implemented this easy calendar tool so we could watch our projects and hold each other a little more accountable. And we got so crazy we got off of using that tool and the team was like, Hey, can we bring that back? Oh yeah. Why do we stop doing that? And so I think when you do have tools that help you as a leader lead, they can be really useful if they become a, for you to stop having, I think the productive conversations and you’re just kind of using it as a checklist, I think it can be dangerous, but there’s ways to use all this technology and tools out there to benefit us as leaders. And I think that’s something I’ve learned to do a little bit better in recent years.

Chris (32:58):

Anything you can point to, I always like to ask, this is not the fun question, but failure or mistake that you experienced or encountered that you learned from, that you’re like, that was a growth moment in hindsight, man, it felt terrible. Whatever. I look back and what a growth moment for me. Anything you can share there? I always find that that’s such a great learning and it hopefully dispels for listeners, right? You feel like you’re the only one out there failing. And he’s like, no, you’re not. You want to learn from it.

Molly (33:30):

And I think there’s so much shame. We only talk about our successes or people only talk about their successes or it’s more fun. I mean, I don’t want to walk around talking about all the things I’ve done wrong. And this was a little while ago, and I rely on it now because not everything we try, we’ve just released product at Central Market in June. We just, yeah, super exciting. A

Chris (34:04):

Chocolate product,

Molly (34:05):

A chocolate bar. We’ve got truffles and boots and some Goed Central market and buy our products, but also at the airports in the markets. We’ve got some great fun Texas themed products at Intercontinental Airport. So if you’re going through the airports, buy some Winfield’s chocolate. So you go out there and I’m so excited right now to tell you about this. We’re in these great new major retailers and we’re in 12 Krogers. Well, what I’m not telling you is I’ve been in 15 Krogers and now we’re in 12 because we only found those. I’m not going to tell you about the three

Speaker 4 (34:40):

That

Molly (34:40):

We’re not in anymore, not the others are doing great. Go find us at the Buffalo Kroger or the West Gray. Go find us at the airport. And I’m not going to come back and be like, well, that didn’t work. They never bought from us again. Which is, you work so hard to make those deals happen and get out there in the world and there’s so much hustle and it may just not work. So going back in time, I had an investor, and this was a decade ago, and we’d opened some stores in Dallas, some Beck’s Prime restaurants, and one of them had failed, and we were going to close it. I mean, I was devastated, ashamed, sad, all of the things. I’d gone out and raised $2 million and I had lost that money. It was over. And I had to call our investors and let them know what had happened. Phil Plant, he says, so you stubbed your toe for the first time. I was like, I did. He’s like, yeah, you’re going to keep stubbing your toe if you keep at this long enough,

Chris (35:49):

If

Molly (35:49):

You keep trying hard enough. If you keep trying hard enough and you keep putting these projects together and businesses, he’s like, you’re going to have some wins and you’re going to have some losses and you’re going to stub your toe, but keep going. And it meant I’m going to cry thinking about it. He’s a really great person. But that meant so much to me in that moment because I mean, I had failed big time. It didn’t work.

Chris (36:20):

Talk about the value of having the right people around you. Right? Wow, that’s pretty cool.

Molly (36:25):

And with Agnes, I mean, that restaurant took a solid two years to take off. I had to go borrow some money to keep it going. And now it is a place where our community meets and people love it. And then it is neighborhood joy and connection. I could not be more proud of it, but I’m telling you, walking into a restaurant on a Friday night that you have opened and convinced people to give you money to open, and there’s not a single soul in the place, not a single soul. It’s very humbling.

Chris (37:04):

You wanted to go walk the neighborhood streets going, come on.

Molly (37:07):

And so I think now with my team, we can take the wins and the losses with a little more grace. Yeah, well that didn’t work. What are we going to try next?

Chris (37:23):

Yeah. Well, I think it sounds like part of the culture is the one thing you said as a leader is people aren’t afraid to tell you no. And it sounds like you’ve created a culture where people aren’t afraid to fail and learn from it and keep going. And that’s, to me, a sign of a really strong culture.

Molly (37:47):

Well, and it’s okay to say, well, that sucked. I screwed that up pretty bad.

Chris (37:51):

Well, we’re conditioned, like I said, we don’t talk about failures. We think we’re conditioned that, oh, don’t talk about that. It’s got to look like it looks on Facebook and everybody’s smiling happy when we know that’s not reality. And so we can get past that and just be transparent.

Molly (38:05):

Be authentic.

Chris (38:05):

Yeah, authentic. I think the better off we’re all.

Molly (38:08):

But don’t you think being more authentic has happened as part of post COVID era? Don’t you think people are more open about their wins and losses? I

Chris (38:19):

Think so. I don’t know. It’s kind of the chicken or the egg. I think Rene Brown started talking about it and writing about it a lot more. And it caught on in the corporate world, and that was happening pre COVID, but close to COVID. And then with that, the world goes upside down. Don’t think anybody knew what talking about uncertainty. No one knew. So I think it did create a feeling of, I don’t know what’s next in this to be authentic. And as we started coming out of that, then there’s a lot probably exposed more in sports world about mental health and all that kind of just built on itself where I think we were learning it’s okay. And it’s more acceptable to be more authentic. Right? It’s a good thing. It’s a

Molly (39:05):

Great thing. It could, it’s way more fun to live in this world, I think. And not fun’s not the right word, just grounding. It’s more real. I meet more real people.

Chris (39:16):

Agreed. Agreed. Well, let’s turn to a little bit more of a light side. So what’s your favorite vacations place?

Molly (39:26):

Oh my gosh. Well, I am a love adventure. So skiing, hiking, Colorado, one of those Texas and Colorado type people for sure. Love going down to Galveston and fishing and being on the beaches down there. And then we love to scuba dive. So

Chris (39:47):

Hit

Molly (39:47):

The Caribbean.

Chris (39:49):

Awesome. That’s all great

Molly (39:51):

Things. I

Chris (39:51):

Can identify with that.

Molly (39:53):

Just stay out of the sun.

Chris (39:54):

You’re in the food business. And so this is my favorite question to ask every guest. Do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue?

Molly (40:02):

Ooh, man.

Chris (40:05):

Hardest question of the podcast.

Molly (40:07):

This is so hard that I might have to, gosh, I’m probably a barbecue person. I think I’m going to go, we have a lot of good barbecue around here.

Chris (40:19):

Okay. It’s a hard question for a reason. We have a lot of good barbecue. We have

Molly (40:22):

A lot

Chris (40:23):

Of good, even had people try to answer it by combining both.

Molly (40:30):

Look at Levi. Good. He’s got his TexMex and his barbecue. He sort doing it right?

Chris (40:36):

That’s right. That’s right. So well, I want to just wrap this up by saying thank you for coming on and sharing your journey. Excited to see what you’re doing. Obviously we’ve watched the Becks on Kirby get redone right around the corner, but what you’re doing with the Winfield chocolate sounds exciting, and hopefully now people hear this, they’ll know more about Agnes and find you.

Molly (41:01):

You there. Come to all of ours. You can do breakfast at Agnes. Lunch at Beck’s. Dessert at Winfield. You hit ’em all.

Chris (41:07):

I like it. Yeah, so there you go. Kind of a full service.

Molly (41:11):

Integrated. Yeah, you can do it ’em all.

Chris (41:13):

Love it. Well, Molly, thank you for coming on.

Molly (41:16):

Thank you for having me.

Chris (41:17):

Really appreciate you taking the time.

Molly (41:18):

Thanks, Chris.

Chris (41:19): Take care.

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.