Episode.Leadership Starts with You: Building a Legacy That Lasts – Christian Fisher
Transcript
Christian Fischer - 00:00.034
Because I honestly feel it's harder to lead myself than a team. And for me, that really became the driving force. And even now, when we have a challenge in our company, I take an inventory. What did I do to create that? Because the end of the day, it's me. It's not my team. It's not the client. It's me. And so taking inventory and looking on, what happened? What was...the decisions I made, what was the actions I took, didn't I follow up with somebody? And when I peel it all back, 99 % of the time it's me. And we just need to pivot and do something else.
Theme Music - 00:51.506
Welcome to the ownership game with Gary Montalvo. What would it take to get into the driver seat of your life and leave your mark? The ownership game starts now.
Gary Montalvo
Most people think that leadership starts with other people, with managing a team, with having a title, with building a business, with showing up as someone who others want to follow. But that's not really true. Leadership, unequivocally, starts with yourself. Specifically, with knowing yourself. Your habits, your fears, your patterns, your blind spots, your values, your vision, your non-negotiables. And that level of clarity requires a great deal of personal responsibility, of ownership. That's something my guest today, Christian Fischer, embodies in a way that almost seems effortless. Christian is a leadership and strategy consultant in the hospitality industry. He has a pretty impressive resume. He launched a successful restaurant chain at 19. A few years later, he sold that restaurant concept to a large hotel chain and then spent the next 35 years in executive leadership roles for various hospitality brands. But perhaps the most impressive thing about him is his embodiment of leadership. Not just in a way that he guides his teams or builds his brands, but in the way that he just carries himself, grounded in personal responsibility, clear on his commitment to empower.
and dare I say love everyone around him, intentional in all of his interactions. In this conversation, we talk about what it really means to lead from the inside out. We unpack why your personal patterns are just as important as your business strategy, how to lead without the mask or performance or perfection, and what it looks like to build businesses that are an extension of your values.
Gary Montalvo - 03:05.068
not just your hustle. If you've ever wondered how to show up more powerfully in your work, your life, or your relationships. If you're leading others, but realizing there's some inner work that maybe you've been avoiding. If you want to create success that's sustainable, not just performative, then this episode is for you. Let's get into it.
The thing was as we did this.
I'm so like, I love connecting with somebody, you know, and create. But doing this on my own, still honestly still struggle when Friday comes. I'm saying, I need to do a single episode. need to I just I it so much. I struggle with it so much because I feel like what are people going to think what I rant about if I have.
Nobody who I can bounce this off on. so for me, what I was dreaming of, what I want to do is I want to do a podcast with somebody. So there's two of us and one other person or multiple people on the other side, because I think they would kind of play off and totally do it on my own. I really, really struggled with that. We're 190 episodes in.
You're really speaking to my heart because I am so glad with this conversation. just had to press play. We weren't even ready to start the interview, but I wanted what you were saying was so good that I really wanted people to listen to that because number one, I'm not surprised that your more popular episodes on your podcast are the ones where you're just kind of like talking honestly and sharing.
Gary Montalvo - 04:51.462
Cause I think it's one of the things about you that's like your, your, your secret sauce. You're there's a way that you're just so authentic and, and open and playful with your truth. And, and you don't, you know, you don't take yourself seriously in, I mean, you, you, you, take the work that you do is very serious. It's very important, but you don’t put yourself in a pedestal. I think that that is so, it's endearing, honestly, and it's easy to connect with, but I think it just teaches a lot of people to do this with humility and to do this with true honesty. And so I'm not surprised that that is one of your- Thank you.
Thank you. And hearing you say that is, I want the listeners to get value out of this. That's my primary, by we doing all of that we do. And my wife keeps telling me, Christine, you need to share more about what's going on behind the scenes. And I was like, I don't know. People want to know. Because you know, like any business, we struggle sometimes. And then there's highs and there's lows. And then also for me, you know, around that whole idea of business is, you know, going back, there's so many people which think, hey, you know, I'm a leader. No, you're actually a renter of your own business and your own life, you know, and for me, yeah, I challenge that because if you don't sit in the driver's seat to drive whatever you want to do,
Say more.
Christian Fischer - 06:40.558
I always said, you are a renter. You are a renter of your business and you're a renter of your life. And for me, the reason we're doing this single Friday sessions, it was actually one of my marketing people's idea. And they said, Christian, why don't you share what you want to do and what are you struggling with that week? And it took me a few episodes because we scripted, we did some of that stuff and then I never stuck to the script. That was the first thing.
And then, and now I'm just going on as of this week, you know, I just as a share with you, there was this client we had, we had for a long time, but he didn't fit who we were. And I needed to fire my client and it's hard to fire anybody, but especially somebody who gives you money, who doesn't think there's anything wrong with the relationship. And that was probably one of the hardest things we did.
I talk about this and I talked about this. I did an honest inventory. This is who we are. This is how we go about. This is what we do. This is who we want to be in the marketplace. This is our message and everything we are for, our client was against. And we were like, we just need to let it go. the greatest thing is, and I know a lot of you listeners and you can relate to that because when you do that,
And you said here, I should have done that a year ago because it wasn't just that I felt like there was this thing lifted off my shoulder. I think it was the right thing for them and for me because I could not support them the way I support other clients because they just didn't fit the mold. And one of the things I originally said as I started out during COVID, I want to partner with people I want to hang out with.
And that's why I always say with you, Gary, I want to do something with you because I honestly would hang out with you. And so for me, if the way we're going about business is aligned, it's easy to go out there and promote somebody, sell somebody and do what we need to do. But it was that client which really made me realize, okay, was a nice chunk of money, but getting, I feel like I have all this free time all of sudden.
Christian Fischer - 09:06.446
And I know a lot of people can relate to that and it's not about a client, it's about a person, it's about an idea, it's about a habit. If I let go of something, I gain something. And for me, that was the biggest win of last week. And for us, when I talk about it now, I feel good about talking about it, but it was really hard to come on.
100 % I get it.
Way that I talk about it, Christian, so authenticity is like oxygen to the fire. know, if you light a fire and you take the oxygen out of the room, out of the space, the fire is going to start to dwindle and eventually burn out. But authenticity, when you give it oxygen, it actually burns brighter. And I think authenticity works that way. When we are...
you know, fully and I think this is true for everybody, but I think it's especially true for a particular brand of person like you and myself who authenticity is part of the brand and part of the like it would it would be virtually impossible for us to sit here and try to pretend to be something else because you just like we would have to be we'll be shaking in our bodies, right? It would be so weird. But so what happens is when you when you start to get on these calls with this person and pretend that everything's okay and pretend that you're enjoying this and pretend that, okay, let me see how I can help them and collect this money, but then you don't feel good about it. all of that starts to suck up the oxygen out of the room for you. And that shows up everywhere. It shows up in all your content. It shows up in all of your other client interactions. It shows up in your personal relationships. So what you're describing is all of a sudden,
Gary Montalvo - 11:02.606
just went back into the room and now you're like, my God, I can breathe. I have all this face that I didn't know. look at that over there. I didn't even know that was there. This is great.
True because now when I look back, everything was a struggle. Conversations were a struggle. When we got paid, it was a struggle. They're always 10, 15, 20 days behind. Everything was a struggle and everybody else seen it. And besides me, because I was said, hey, but the product is great. think the market needs that. It was me. And it goes back to what we teach all the time. If
Your life sucks, okay? It's because of you, okay? If your life is great, it's because of you. And that works the same way if your business doesn't work. It has nothing to do with your employees. starts, everything is about you, the leader. And for me, I talk about this all the time, actually going through it, and I've been in business for a long time and we had fired clients before. It was really hard because they were nice people.
They just didn't fit our mold. And for me, I go back. The end of the day, business succeeds because of you, business fails because of you. If your business goes on a downhill, everything rises and falls around the leader. And for me, I've been talking about this for so long and what I didn't realize, I was actually talking to myself and doing this and
going through this with our client, I should have done it a year ago. And I said this earlier, but for me, doing it now, if any listeners here feel like they need to make a decision, make the decision. I'm telling you, when you close the door, other doors will open. And not only will other doors open, there's people on the doorsteps which are helping you to make the pivot. And therefore...
Christian Fischer - 13:11.464
If there is something you putting off and it's to anybody here listening today, make that decision. It's going to be the best decision you ever made.
Beautiful. Okay. Stop hijacking my show. actually prepared questions for you. So I wanted to get a little bit into, you know, I think one of the fascinating things about you is that you're bringing leadership to an industry, know, the hospitality and restaurant and chef. But before we even go there, I want to just talk a little background because so you grew up in Austria. Yep.
I believe your parents, your family owned a hotel, is that right? So you grew up in hospitality.
Yeah, I would say a lot of people saying, it's so awesome growing up in hotel. It's not that much fun if you have to. And after school, I was free labor. My dad called it discipline. I called it free labor. And the most amazing thing about him was I said, okay, dad, I gonna run the hotel.
You got to move to the side because we got to do everything new. He says, whoa, whoa, your horses. Before I give you the keys, he need to work internationally for 10 years. And then you come back. I worked for 10 years and he says, okay, are you ready to take the reins? I was like, I don't want to. No, I'm all good. Because we were a winter season hodal and he had 400 employees.
Christian Fischer - 14:51.704
I knew exactly when to ask him for something because I asked you in the winter season because I could get anything from him. I asked over the summer when we were closed, we were closed the end May to the beginning of September. And he had to support all of the employees, support the hotel. Money was tight. And if I asked for something, he shut me down. So I learned that. And so I was like, no, I'm good. I don't want to live the life you had. mean, nothing against you, but...
I don't want to struggle in the summertime. I don't want to. And then he sold the Hotel de Miele, the electric company. And now he sold it seven years ago. And when I call home, he says, my God, Christian, they changed the colors of the shadows.
Christian Fischer - 15:42.19
It's not your fault. Don't they know? I'm sure they do, but it still dares. Oh my God, Christian, you won't believe they paved the driver. Don't they? It's theirs. Let it go. And about four years ago, he wanted to buy it back. I was like, you're 81 years old. Do not. Do not. Let me talk to somebody else. Do not buy it back. And he was just like, oh, they're changing this. They changed this, you know, and...
That's how I grew up. My dad is a civil engineer. Amazing, amazing human being. I quote him now a lot, but as I work with him, most stubborn guy I ever met. he, listen, he's amazingly good at what he does. so yeah, I grew up and had my first restaurant. I was 19. That's the… my next question. How did you become passionate about cooking and how did that fit into it?
There's two stories. The first story is, I had my first restaurant when was 19. I had six by the time I was 23 and I sold out to Nestle. And Nestle bought my restaurant concept and it became the restaurant concept for Stofo Hotels in the US. And I worked with them for 20 years. So that's the great story. The honest story was I was in a motorcycle accident. It was, I will never forget it, April.
It was a Friday, April 27th in 1987. And in Austria, you can drive a motorcycle before you can drive a car. So, but I drive from my house back to the hotel. Last intersection in my head, I run through it. Hey, when we get there, we need to do this. We need to do this. Light turns green, I go off. And the next thing I remember lying down, there was bones sticking out and I was in...
Christian Fischer - 17:35.758
The next time I came to it, was in the ambulance and they were saying, do not move, do not fucking move, do not move. And then I broke my second vertebrae and I had my whole upper body in a cast. I was in hospital for a month. on the month, we driving home from the hospital, two and a half miles from the hospital, drunk driver hit us straight on. I was personally positioned, flew out the window. He ran me over, I was in coma for 10 days and in hospital for almost 15 months. What?
So, hold on. On the way home from the hospital from the first accident, you got hit again?
We got hit again and the hospitals that saved my life was because they didn't even erase my name yet. They had all my blood work and everything else. Like I said, coma for 10 days and the hospital for almost 15 months. Had to learn to walk again, talk again and all the other stuff. And there was this guy, his name was Manfred. I will never forget it. He came to me and said, hey, Christian, all of the things you're saying, you...
65 % handicapped in Austria, everybody's union. He said, you have a choice to make. Do you want to retire or do you want to walk away and don't get anything? And I was like, I'm 19, what the hell are you talking about? You know, I'm, what am I going to do? Retire it, you know, make 25,000 a year. And so I said, no. And, and then I was like, what am I going to do? Nobody's going to hire me because I'm handicapped.
Christian Fischer - 19:18.03
I opened up my first restaurant and I opened it up with a friend of mine. And we had an opportunity to do the second one. My friend said, you're more driven than me. You open, you go. And then we had three, four, five. And then we had the sixth one was in hotel. So we had to go to hotel kitchen. This guy comes down and says, I love what you do. Do you think you're willing to sell? I was like, for the right price, I sell anything.
And I should have asked for more money and knowing now what I know now. And he came back two months later, he says, I used to sell selling. was like, what are you talking about? And he says, oh, I'm from a company called Nestle. We have a hotel chain in the US called Stofo Hotels. We want your restaurant to become the restaurant counter for Stofo Hotel. And that's how it started. So that's the real story.
Mm-hmm.
Christian Fischer - 20:13.102
And I always said that two stories, the first story was, I had my first restaurant at 19 and half, six by the time I was 23. But a real story was I couldn't work anymore. that was my...
I'm very, so what I'm trying to like at 19, how do you open a hotel? Like, I feel like there's a lot there to unpack.
And so listen, my first restaurant, was called Schnitzel. Schnitzel is the Austrian dish. Egg is a corner because we we were on a corner of the street and we had seats for 56 people. I couldn't afford staff. I didn't know how to run it. So we made seven dishes, that's it. We were only open for lunch and early dinner. And I put a salad bar out there.
That was my day. I do the cooking. I got up.
Are you doing the cooking?
Gary Montalvo - 21:19.948
Where did that training come from? did you learn how to cook? Like, where did that happen?
So I did a apprenticeship, I started cooking at 12. And so I went to this apprenticeship where I learned how to cook and I actually graduated with five degrees. But we have in this restaurant, so I get up at two, three o'clock in the morning, I went to the butcher shop, got all the meat, went to the produce company, filled up my car, went to the restaurant, made food. And I had a salad bar at the time, you know, and people were saying, my God, this is amazing, a salad bar.
And they were like, oh, you are in front of the line. It's amazing how innovative you are. And I was thinking, oh shit, I'm doing it because I can't afford anybody to be a front. I put this out on. It wasn't a great idea for me. It was necessity. And it kind of took off. And then we had two, three, and like I said, we had a few of them. And it all started..reason I've written create on here, because we were creating conversation. And I was in the hospital, the guy next to me said, what do you do better than anything else? I was like, oh, maybe I make my minas nitzle, which is a traditional Austrian dish. Oh, you know, there's the egg wash and a lot of people just use the egg wash straight. You know what you need to do? You need a little paprika, you need to put seasoning in there, you need to do all of that. And he said, really like what you said, but I want to have it because the way you described it. says, your eyes were dancing as he talked about it. And he says, you need to do this. And I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? Nobody's going to buy just that. And then that's exactly what we did. We did it fried. We did it sautéed. We did it grilled and we did a deep fried. And that was our thing. And it was called schnitzel egg. We had the schnitzel six different ways.
Christian Fischer - 23:16.354
That's all the head on the menu and it was a big head.
My God. you so then Nestle bias your your concept. Yeah. What you what happens? Did you go that's when you went to work for Nestle at that point? You were part of the deal.
Yeah. So they said, Hey, do you want to come to the U S? I was like, yeah, I'm going to the U S. Do you speak English? No, no, don't worry about it. And because at school I took French because of cooking and I took Russian because it was cool. You know, was like, Hey, you know, we want to be cool. And so I come to the U S and at the time Nestle had a chocolate factory in Fulton, New York. And if you ever have the opportunity to go to Fulton, New York, don't.
I'm out.
Christian Fischer - 24:01.71
It's not that great of a place. And I was in New York. was like, this really blows.
We're going to get letters now from all the residents in New York. Thank you. Appreciate that.
The amazing thing is the vacation capital.
The opinions of the guests do not reflect the opinions of the show.
That is so messed up. And I was like, this is not what the US looks like. And then they opened up a R &D center in New Milford, Connecticut. And the gentleman who opened it up and says, oh, when I drive through the valley, it reminds me of Switzerland. I was like, what are you talking about? This is not anything like Switzerland. Switzerland is much nicer. But we had R &D center in New Milford, Connecticut. And that's how I wound up in
Christian Fischer - 24:49.824
And then this guy kept saying, doesn't it look like the Maldon's?
No, it doesn't. It does not. Not at all. No, not even a little bit. So you were with Nestle for 18 years.
Almost 20 years. I always say I had three jobs in my life and I was with them for 18 years. Then I worked for Compass Group. You know, I started reaching out and Compass Group said, hey, you developed this concept. Can you come and work for us? Yeah, I come working for you. I worked with them for 18 years and you know.
You're a long-term guy. You stick around.
Yeah. And I left during COVID and I started on my own thing. And like I said, I had two jobs before in 36 years.
Gary Montalvo - 25:46.016
Now you have 27. Now you wear 27 hats when you're an entrepreneur. How did you start to become passionate about leadership? Like at what point did that start to come alive for you at such an important part?
It really good question because for me, um, it really, I mean, it was always something which was very near and dear to me. then 2008, we started my first nonprofit. was called the culinary leadership academy. And because I lost a few friends to suicide and I always said, why did they do what they did? Why did they look out for themselves at nobody else? And then for me, uh,
What was the driving force? realized that leadership is not just leadership leading teams, it's self leadership. If I can get myself to get up in the morning, if I can get myself to work out, if I can get myself not to drink. And in our industry was that somebody drank two, three bottles of wine at the end of the night just to decompress. That's not normal. And for me, that's where it started. So we started.
what we call the culinary leadership academy, because we wanted to teach people self leadership skills. And I met a few other great individuals, Mr. Maxwell is he always said, Hey, everything rises and falls around leadership. I love that because I think it goes deeper than that. Everything in rice and falls around self leadership because how am I going to lead teams if I can get myself to do what I do? And that's what started it all and started back in 2008.
Beautiful. I mean, you're speaking straight to my heart. That's why I do what I do. And you're right. Often people hear leadership and they immediately go to the images of teams or, know, when I'm speaking to entrepreneurs about leadership, they're like, I don't have a team yet. Or it's just me and my VA. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Your leadership. How are you, you know, moving through the world? How are you moving through the challenges in your business? How are you getting up every morning, as you said?
Christian Fischer - 28:00.46
I love that because I honestly feel it's harder to lead myself than a team. for me, that really became the driving force. And even now, when we have a challenge in our company, I take an inventory. What did I do to create that? Because the end of the day, it's me. It's not my team. It's not the client. It's me. 100
Christian Fischer - 28:29.266
And so taking inventory and looking at, hey, what happened? What was the decisions I made? What was the actions I took? Didn't I follow up with somebody? And when I peel it all back, 99 % of the time it's me. And we just need to pivot and do something else.
Yeah. I love that because I think one of the things that makes, one of the key elements of leadership is the ability to reflect, right? The ability to, cause I think what happens a lot with entrepreneurs is, know, entrepreneurs, you're, when you're, you're mostly failing, right? Like most of the things that you try do not work, right? You're there, there's until your business gets momentum, until you really get
a certain hurdle, you're mostly throwing spaghetti on the wall, trying to figure it out, trying to learn what you need to learn, trying to learn the lessons. But what happens is, human beings, we like to avoid. When we quote unquote fail, we don't want to go there. Or if we do, it's from a place of like judgment and beat up and how could I do this, know, what's wrong with me? And those conversations don't really move anything forward, they don't help.
But what you're really demonstrating is the ability to integrate the lessons that come with all of those failures, the opportunities that come from all those failures. And I think that is such an important leadership skillset, right? That you can say, okay, this got screwed up, right? Or this isn't working or hey, my team screwed that up, but what is there for me to learn?
Right? How can, where's the breakdown? And I always like, whenever I'm in there, I'm like, how did you train them? How did you communicate with them? How do you hold your team accountable? How do you, like every time you dig around, there's always holes in that process, especially when you're a small business and you're moving fast and you're just like, hey, here, here, here, here, you fixed it. Hey, here, you, you do this. I'm like, well, how did you train them? Do they, do they understand how to get this out of your head? You know, all those things.
Gary Montalvo - 30:38.926
So I think what you're modeling for people is such an important skill. The ability to reflect and ask those questions really allows you to integrate the lessons. And when you integrate them, you're not likely to repeat them. When you keep doing the same thing over and over again, it's because you're not really integrating those lessons. You're kind of avoiding them. You're skipping over and you're moving to the next fire. You're moving to the next emergency.
So I love that that's such an important practice. I mean, I'm not surprised. You're incredible leader. So it's not surprising at all.
And for me, I think that's why I connect so much with your message because you constantly talk about, hey, do you want to spot an owner in a room? You can spot them by the language. They say, hey, they showed up early. Hey, they bled accountability. This is the person I want to hire. This is the person which helps me build something. You always say that. And that's for me.
I so connect with that because it's so true. Because if you go somewhere and you meet somebody and he says we, you know, he's inspiring themselves, somebody blinking, he was probably smoking before I got in. No, that's for me a real leader because everything I do today has an impact on everybody who works for me. And that's for me, I'm like that. I use the V language a lot because I can't do it on my own.
Yeah.
Christian Fischer - 32:04.778
And not just I can do it on my own, every decision I make has an impact on everybody on my team. And for me, the reason I do what I do is for my team. And the other reason I always do this program is called Seven Levels Deep. And for me, the other reason I do what I do is because of my kids. You know, you know my story. I have internationally adopted kids which never had a choice. And for me, when I peel back and do what I do is because I want them to have choices because they had their medical challenge and they were kind of abandoned in front of the orphanage gate and they were six, seven years old and nobody wanted to adopt them and being six in China and being not adopted means you will become an orphanage worker or you will just die somewhere else. And for me,
There was people which tried to adopt them and then realized, oh, they have all these medical conditions, so I'm rather not. And then there's this other people coming, you know what? He sounds different than her. They look different, they smell different, they sound different. And, oh, they bringing me on a plane. They're bringing me to a different country where everybody looks different. Now I'm an outsider. So they never had a choice. And for me, when I peel it all apart, reason I do what I do is I want my kids to have choices. I want them to know that what they do matters, the things they have an impact on matters. And for me, I want them to have choices. And then it goes the same in for my employees. I want my employees not just to be employees. And you know that we are in the process of taking 40 % of the company, make it employee owned because I want them to have a stake in it. And the end of the day, that's what drives for me everything we do.
Beautiful. Where did the idea of disruptive come from? This is the name of your podcast, but it's also the the brand, right? Yeah, building disruptive chef like talk to us about that.
Christian Fischer - 34:10.306
That's really, really, really good question. So the disruptive chef was my wife, she says, my God, he's such a disruptor. And I said, no, I want people to think differently. And as I hired my first person and I said, Hey, don't do anything for the first three months, shatter me. And then I said, Hey, what should we call this? She says,
You the disruptive chef. No, no, no, no, no. That's what everybody says. I want you to tell me what I'm really. Now you the disruptive chef. Because for me, thing is really simple. As many chefs as I have met and in my career in the end, at Compass Group, we were a $26 billion company and I was responsible for 40,000 people. And when I walked into a kitchen, as the chief culinary officer at the time, I can tell you people fall in six buckets and they have such amazing skills, but they think because I'm in food, that's all I can do. So for me, the whole idea of the disruptive chef is I want to disrupt their thinking. I want to bring innovative new people to them. I want to do, and you know that, Gary, you won our podcast. I want to make sure I learn as much as I can about you.
We have this term which we need to change, but we have this thing where we kind of follow you and learn about you. And for me, it was important because I want the listeners to think, Christian did his research on Gary. And then I will ask you a few pivoted questions. And when you say that, and with you, I think your episode has 60,000 downloads, something like that, around that. So.
It was crazy. there are 60,000 people which listened to the conversation I had with you. And they saying, oh, Gary is so right. I said it a hundred times before because they don't listen to me, but because I brought Gary on and they said, oh, he's so right. And the way he said it, I honestly feel when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And so for me, I want to bring as many innovative, cool people I can meet to my audience so they can say,
Christian Fischer - 36:25.87
Gary's so right. I know Christian said it, but Gary said it differently. I so connect with that. And that's became so because I honestly feel what we want to do with our show is really simple. We want to disrupt their thinking because when people think different, they have different actions. If they have different actions, they have different outcomes. And that's what this is all about.
Yeah, it's such a good name. I think it's, I mean, I think it goes bigger than just disrupting their thinking. And, know, I feel like in a way you're disrupting the industry and the, I mean, I've never been in culinary arts, but you know, there's the stereotypes, you know, and there's like a lot of, you know, attention that has gotten about the environments and kitchens and and how extremely brutal of a career it can be, you know, to work in some of these environments and in some of the unhealthy behavior. And I really think that the work that you're doing and the message that you're carrying is also speaking on that, right? And I don't get the sense that you're speaking against it. Like, you're not like making people wrong, but you are, the work that you're doing is really, influencing that.
I realized, and by the way, thank you, you spot on on all of that because for me, the reason we have create written on here, it's really simple because we create in conversation. And I say this often and I use this as an example. I'm sitting on this triangle desk. Okay. And somebody at some point said, we need to build this triangle desk. And somebody says, dare you? Don't you know tasks are straight? Nobody's drawing. What are you thinking about?
Christian Fischer - 38:18.382
And somebody said, no, no, no, I think it's great. And you know what we need to do? Be connected to the Apple watch. When the Apple watch says stand, the table goes up and then it's going to be so innovative. And there's a group which people said, this is the dumbest thing I ever heard because they build straight. How dare you build a triangle one? Today I'm sitting on a triangle one, but somebody built it. And I realized the same thing with the people in our industry.
There's so many amazing people out there which have amazing idea, which have an amazing insight. They are so passionate about so many other things, but they feel all they can do is food because that's our industry. But what I want them to do, I want them to realize, listen, you're good in planting flowers, you're good at designing this thing, you're good in customer service, you're good in so many other things.
We want to kind of bring this up to them and we want to teach them that because I want every person in the culinary industry to have a side hustle. And I want something which they are passionate about to do and get paid for it. And if there was one thing COVID did, it showed how fragile the industry really was and is. And I don't want my friends, I don't want to see them struggle. I don't want them to go through what they had to. So for me, we building people's stamina and their thought process for them, eventually they have their own business. And what I learned was people in this industry, amazingly good in so many other things, which lent itself perfectly to have a business. And that's what the disruptive chef is all about.
So you're really out to it. I mean, is it that they have a side hustle or that it sounds like it's more that they are, that they're really fully realized in all of their experiences and talents and desires, right? That they're not just sticking to one lane and that will likely take you to a side hustle.
Christian Fischer - 40:19.758
And me, I, there, and it's not because I'm so great, I came up and asked, what would happen? A good friend of mine owned a landscaping company and he still does. And he said, Christian, I just want to ask you something. Have all these chefs and food service people applying for this position? Should I hire them? And I said, absolutely, should. He hired him. Two months later, he came to me. said, Christian, best decision you ever made.
I didn't do nothing. You he says, no, no, no, you told me I should hire those. You know what the greatest thing is? They are working harder than anybody else. They're really good in dealing with clients because they're dealing with clients all the time in the food service industry. They're amazingly good at it. You know what? They found or they leave the place nicer than they found them. There was, said, Christian, I'm telling you, hire this guy. We're doing mulch and this guy sits there and says, oh, you need XYZ amount of...
of Malt, she says, how did you come up with that? So simple. It's land, but I'm 200. You know, he said he did all of this in his head. It says none of my people, and I owned the business for 22 years and 22 years could ever do this. This guy did it standing there. And I realized that the people in the culinary industry, they work harder than anybody else. If they work 10 hours, it's a half day for them because most of them work 12, 14 hours a day. They were happy to work 10 hours because like, woo, half day. And then
They got one day off because some days I brought him in on Saturday and he says they were all so good. They were so good in talking to people. They were so good in all of the other things. I never realized that. They're the only people I will hire moving forward. And I was like, crap. He said something which really resonated with me because I always felt that people are so good. And so during COVID, my partner at that time, Joe and I, we were 12 hours a day. He was on the West Coast. I'm on the East Coast.
We were on Zoom 12 hours a day. We logged in in the morning, we logged it out. And we just sat down, somebody called in and said, Hey, should I close my business? they said, Oh, you need to know this guy, I heard him make a connection. Hey, you need to do this. You need to do this. And we did this for three years. We were on seven days a week, 12 hours a day. To the point where my kids went to bed, they said to Joe, Hey, Uncle Joe, because I was on him all the time. They never met him in person. But that started it all.
Christian Fischer - 42:43.95
And that disrupt the chef and all of this came out of that.
Yeah. What are the roles that mentors have played in your life? Because you seem to be like just a natural mentor like you.
Thank you. I said, if there's somebody who is looking to scale, you need to find a mentor. And I fell into this. I never really looked for a mentor, but the person who is with me now for 25 years was the former CEO of Cadbury worldwide. And I just seen him on Sunday. And the amazing thing is I think he made $176 bonus.
You know, it's hard to live on 176 million, you know, but it's a good start. And what I loved about him and what I still love about him, he looks at things differently and he says, okay, Christian, you're doing all of this. Have you thought about what is your extra strategy? What are you doing? I was like, nobody ever asked me that. So I, if there's one thing I want you listeners to know, if you do nothing else from what we talked about today, you need to get yourself a mentor.
The mentor needs to do five things. Okay. It needs to have what you want to have. They need to drive the kind of car you want to drive. They need to live in the kind of house they want to live in. have that kind of relationship you want to have. And the final thing is they need to look at things differently. And the only thing you need to do as the mentee, follow up with them. And if they give you something to do exactly what they tell you to do. Because for me, for the longest time, I was like,
Christian Fischer - 44:25.272
Gary just said this to me, this is really, really good, buddy. If I give it my spin and do this, it's going to be so amazing. And it never worked. And then the day I started doing exactly what Gary asked me to do, and I did it exactly how Gary said it. And I said it how exactly Gary said it. I had all of these amazing impacts. I was like, why didn't it work? So it's the holding of what Einstein said. The level of thinking will guide you to the days and not where you want to go. And you need to learn something different and having a mentor, a mentor will help you cut down your learning curve. That's for me, the best thing about a mentor. And if it takes you three or five years to learn something, a mentor, can do it in six months. So if that person charges you $5,000 a month, just calling a number, it's way cheaper than you learning it on your own for the five, six years. So for me, everybody should have a mentor. And I currently have three.
And I just met with, by the way, this week I have a mentor who has been seven times TEDx Talk Master. And I met with him on Tuesday. And he says, Christian, your story is great, but people can relate to it. You need to do this, this, and this. So I absolutely love that. I met with Todd on Sunday who says, hey, do this, don't do this. And then I have another mentor.
Which is my health mentor, because if you don't have your health, have nothing else. And he said, hey, there's this thing. I think you need to be careful with that. You need to take these vitamins. You need to do this. And for me, if there's one thing I would have done a long time ago, I have hired those three mentors a long time ago. So I'm telling you, if you listeners don't get anything else from this conversation, you need to find yourself a mentor because
It's the single best way for you to learn something you never learned before. It's also the single best way to look at things differently because it's hard for you to look at things differently. And then also they hold it to account. And what I promised all of my mentors, I use an app where I record the whole conversation. come back. So I know exactly what I need to do. And then before we meet again, I follow up with, I'm like, I did this, I did this, I did this. You said this, I did this.
Christian Fischer - 46:51.746
Because I want them to know that my relationship matters and the time they put into me is something which has a benefit. And for me, Gary, you listeners, I don't care if Gary is your mentor, I'm your mentor or somebody else. You need to find yourself a mentor today. It's the single best thing for you to scale your business.
Yeah, I love that advice. And I really love the, the, the, the idea that it shortens your learning curve. I mean, it's so true. It really, really is like, I remember, you know, I didn't even understand that you could have like business mentors and coaches. And when I first started my business, I spent five years, I mean, you're talking about 2008. So the world was very different. There was no chat GPT, YouTube was a baby. And I kept like just struggling for five years trying to figure it out, trying to figure it out, trying to figure it out. And just when I was about to quit and go, okay, I need to go back to work because I found my mentor. And within a year, I had accomplished more than I did in those five years, you know, it was like it was an absolute rocket fuel. So I hear that.
I have a little story just to give you audience of what a Mento does. As you know, I have a publishing company where we help anybody write a book in eight weeks because I wrote all the Nestle dollhouse cookie cookbooks and now I wrote 36 books on my own. And I wrote my first book. was Court for the Love of Austria. It was my love letter to my home country. And I was like,
I wrote 14 books with Nestle. I know exactly what to do. Nobody needs to tell me. know exactly what to do. Seven years into it, my wife gets up at four o'clock in the morning. She says, what the hell are you doing up? Oh, I'm just, I try to upload it. It didn't go. I just need to fix it. I need to fix it. She says, when are you going to hire somebody? No, no, no, no. I'm that close. I'm that close. A year later, I hired somebody.
Christian Fischer - 48:55.404
Okay. Because I couldn't get it right. Because he said that my margins was off and I Googled it and he says it needs to be 1.28. I need one to real and it didn't work. I have this guy, his name was Carl. Carl comes on, 15 minutes, cost me $6,000. You know, this is not that long ago. Cost me $6,000. I said, don't tell me anything. My book is done. I just need to upload it. What is wrong? He says, that's easy, Christian. You know what you need to do? You need to go in 1.42.
I said, no, no, no, no. says 1.28. No, no, no. I'm telling you. You have bleed on your thing. You go in 1.42, upload it. 15 minutes, it freaking worked. I was like, Carl, I hate you with a passion. He says, what else can I do for you? I was like, I hate you, Carl. I hate you. I wanted to figure it out on my own, but...
I spent seven years figuring out somebody what somebody told me in 15 minutes. And the power of a mentor is, okay, I paid him six grand, but I wasted a lot more money than six grand. And correct. And frustration and everything else. And if there's one thing, get a client, get yourself a mentor and energy.
Christian Fischer - 50:15.118
And don't get yourself just any mentor, interview them and be committed to them because they might not fit what you want to do. But I always tell them, it's really five thing. They want to have done what you did or what you want to do. They drive the kind of car you want to drive. They're the kind of relationship they want to have. They live in the kind of house you want to live in and they hold you to account. that's...
I love that you included the relationship in that. It's really smart. Really, really smart. Christian, as always, such a lovely conversation. You are just the best. I'm so excited that you are a friend of the show and a friend of mine now because I definitely want to have more conversations like this. I just think you are so insightful and so in the way that you incredibly kind.
You know, the work that you do is, it's really in the background of a lot of kindness. And I don't know, I just think the world needs kindness right now.
So thank you. And, it really means the world to me because, and I'm telling you, haven't told nobody else when we, interview people. No, you said we, we interviewed 196 people. I put them in three categories. Category one is I need to find a way to partner with them. Category two is when I am there, I need to reach out to them because I want to do business with them.
Category three is we got to keep evolving the relationship and see what comes about and see what I can put into them. And you were in the beginning for always on chapter one for me, know, my horse group. said, I need to find a way to do something with Gary because I love how you show up for your clients. I love how you show up for the listeners. I love your message. I love everything about you.
Christian Fischer - 52:16.574
I want to find a way to partner with you. so I, like I said, I have told nobody I interviewed, so I put him into three categories. And for me, doing this, kind of made me realize, I was like, my God, Gary is like me. He's just in a different field. He thinks the way I do. He talks the way I do.
And for me, what's important to me, I realized because now I can tell your audience, we call it ethical stalking. So we stalked you for 10 weeks before we brought you on. I know we need a better name, but I was like, my God, I wanted to find ways for you to kind of contradict yourself. We never did. I was like, And then all of these things we learned about you. I honestly feel there's more people which need to hear you message from Gary Montalvo.
I think there needs to be more people which partner with you. And also there needs to be more listeners which say, Hey, what else does this guy do? Because more people learn from you and live into what you teach. It can change people's lives. And at the end of the day, that's what this is all about.
Thank you, brother. I received that so profoundly. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And I look forward to us discovering how we're going to collaborate more.
this will come and to any listener, hey, let's put a little challenge out to the listeners. think you guys should do this. I know he's better looking than me and that's why I hate him. I actively dislike him so much. He's freaking good looking. It's just...
Gary Montalvo - 53:57.139
Thank you. You're gonna be my new publicist.
Whatever we do, I'm the person behind the scenes, he's the spokesperson. So I want our listeners here to say, hey, what do think we should do? I'm curious as to challenge.
I look forward to getting those messages. All right, brother, have an incredible day. Okay. I'll talk to you soon.
I really appreciate you. Thank you for being on and thanks to the listeners to hang out with us for the last hour. So thank you for that.
There's something disarming about hearing someone speak about leadership without any performance. Not from a title or from trying to prove something or trying to build authority. But as a practice of presence, humility, service, intention. I think that's what Christian just modeled so beautifully.
Gary Montalvo - 54:51.648
And as I sit here reflecting on the conversation, think the threat underneath it all is legacy. Christian is creating a legacy with how he leads, how he speaks, how he listens, how he pours into every person around him so that they too can walk away believing in their own ability to lead, build and create is a legacy. There's a deep care in how Christian moves through the world.
A for people, a care for the space, and a care for the ripple effect that he's creating with every interaction. And that to me is the mark of a true leader. Someone who's not chasing power, but cultivating impact. It's not about the result that he's trying to get from you. It's about the result that he wants you to have for yourself. This conversation to me, it's a reminder that legacy doesn't have to be a big public movement.
It's about how you treat people when no one is watching. It's about how you make them feel, about how you make them believe. It's about how you teach them to take care of those who come after us.
That is our episode for this week. I can't thank Christian enough for being such an amazing guest and a beautiful example of what it is to lead with care, presence, and ownership. If you've enjoyed the episode, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and to share this with a couple of people who need to hear Christian's message. I also wanted to let you know that we're going to be taking a short break here for the summer. We will see you back here with a brand new episode on September 2nd.
I know, I know, I'm gonna miss you too. But think of this as a great opportunity to catch up on some of the past episodes that you may have missed. As always, keep leading with intention, keep planting seeds that outlive you, and keep playing the ownership game. We'll see you next week.
Gary Montalvo - 56:56.846
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Ownership Game with your host, Gary Montalvo. Make sure to like and comment on your favorite podcast platform, as well as subscribe so that you never miss an episode.