DAN SIMONS

Now has got to be the time. That thing that has been bothering you for a while, maybe a long while, that thing you just sorta tolerate: the stiff ankle, your periodic little limp, the pain in your hip... You just accept it and press on, and just kinda ignore it. Or maybe it’s deeper. That secret gnawing at you, the lost relationship with someone close, that underlying feeling of sadness or anxiety that you just can’t shake. But, you push on. You convince yourself it doesn’t affect you, that it’s no big deal. But… if you pause and really take a moment, you know that you’re kidding yourself. You know you need to deal with it. You know it really does matter. Do it. The time is NOW. Let’s stop ignoring stuff. Let’s stop sweeping it under the rug. Let’s stop pretending to be okay when we’re not. Let’s stop feigning fine. What’s making me think that “now” is something that needs to be said and written about now? Not a week goes by that I don’t have a convo with at least one of our 1,500 employees where “now” is part of the solution to a significant problem. Treating the symptoms is futile; discovering, owning, and addressing the cause is where the magic happens. Now has got to be the time. Take care of yourself, now. Your whole self. Your body. Your mind. Your mental health. Make the call, schedule the appointment, take that first step. You deserve to solve the ache, the limp, the pain, the burden. And you can.

The resiliency, tenacity, and optimism that drove you to choose your college or university, and achieve the goal of graduating, are the same exact ingredients that will serve you well as you come out of school into our CovidWorld. While you will hear many voices of doom and gloom, don’t get sucked into that dark, swirling vortex. Shut off the 24-hour news cycle and don’t allow the Twitterverse to become your Universe. There are opportunities. After a forest fire, growth returns. Every. Single. Time. This is your time. You didn’t choose it, but it is yours regardless. Embrace it, make it your own. Find a need and fill it. If necessary, pivot from the vision you had 90 days ago and create a new vision. Invest your energy into what is possible. Don’t allow your energy to dissipate into the morass of the impossible, of visions destroyed, and opportunities evaporated. Believe in yourself. Create a team. Set a goal. Start a company. Pitch your ideas. Network to the companies thriving in the CovidWorld Economy. Come up with ways to compete against those companies. Network to the companies who could compete against those companies or products, pitching yourself and your value to help their pivot. Class of 2020, you have already been making the world a better place. Your commitment to Conscious Capitalism is clear through so many of your actions and impacts during your undergrad years. Now it is time to go out there and be part of this next wave of people ready to re-imagine our world and our society during CovidWorld, and most importantly, in a post-vaccine world. It is your world, your planet, your community. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from re-making it to align with your vision. Congratulations on your graduation.

I’m a restaurateur; my business partners are American family farmers. I am an optimist, and I believe we can substantially improve the food system. Business leaders must shift from a singular stakeholder view of maximizing profit, to a multi-stakeholder view where the planet, the community, workers, and natural resources are valued in the decision-making process. Capitalism isn’t the problem; it is simply deficient when administered with profit as the only stakeholder. We need profit, we need capitalism, we need to do Capitalism, Consciously. Restaurants can make an impact right now. We can put invasive species like Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish on our menus; we can eliminate plastic straws and all sorts of single-use petroleum-based plastics and support manufacturing innovators like NewLight Technologies; we can vote to support anti-trust enforcement in agriculture and food processing; we can name, shame, and create financial downsides for polluters, poisoners, and destroyers; we can reward and incent sustainable practices. We can also acknowledge where we are part of the problem. The status quo feels safe, but it is going be the death of us, as we eat microplastics, contribute to climate change, while decimating farmers’ abilities to grow food. Those who run restaurants with a Conscious Capitalism approach will end up creating more value in the long-run. As this becomes evident, board room leaders will be forced to change because a singular devotion to profit will be a path to corporate failure. Together, we can shatter the status quo and do better. This is the short speech I gave for Food Tank’s interactive dialogue, “Towards A Global Food System that Supports People and Planet,” hosted to collect perspectives as input for the United Nations Sustainable Food Summit. Food Tank President, Dani Nierenberg, convened mission-driven players to share our challenges, opportunities, and visions for the future as part of their United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021. As the world comprehends the significant role our current food system has played in the planetary crisis, food companies around the world are quickly taking steps – some big strides, some early motions – to take responsibility and reduce the impact of their supply chains. But unlike big food, some mission-driven companies were conceived with the very goal of designing a new food system that’s built for planetary and human health.

I was sitting on our patio at Founding Farmers & Distillers, on Mass Ave in DC, talking with two of our restaurant leaders. Listening to them talk about their careers, their journeys, where they have won, and how they have righted themselves through the stumbles and the mud. These two guys have never faked anything. They put in the work. They acknowledge their short comings. They dig deep, they take the pain when they aren’t good enough, and they find a way to get better. They strive for mastery and along the way they are never trying to fool themselves, or those around them, in the areas where they haven’t figured it out yet. Their words were so real, their paths so authentic. It struck me that their winning, impressive careers have no element of faking anything. They are the real deal and it shows in who they are, how they engage, and in their work. So, for any of you out there who’ve been told to fake it till you make it, or for those of you who have flowed these words over your tongue, I say it’s time to self-edit. Delete the phrase, eliminate the concept from your thinking and how you present yourself in the world. Realize faking it is a bad idea, a lame paradigm from the first moment someone uttered the words. Instead, let’s just do the work and tell the truth.

At the recent Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit, I had the opportunity to talk, from the main stage, with a room full of conscious capitalists – CEOs, founders, and presidents dedicated to elevating humanity through business. The video of my presentation below includes how to prioritize mental health in the workplace and ways leaders can embrace vulnerability to build connection with their teams and better operationalize mental wellness. I discuss the potential impacts on a team’s ability to succeed, as well as the financial reasons why mental health should be a priority. I also share our company’s mental health playbook and a starter-kit playbook for others to consider. Thank you to Conscious Capitalism, Inc. for the chance to share, connect, and learn in this awesome community of high-impact conscious leaders. #ConsciousCapitalism

< 168 > < 10,080 > These two numbers should always be at the forefront of our mind. If you don’t know what they represent, then you definitely need to keep reading. How many times do we hear or say life is precious or appreciate the time you have or make the most of it? I invest time thinking about time, how we humans spend it, and how to get value out of time spent. I teach time management in workshops at George Washington University and during what we call "Farm School" in our restaurant company. These classes always start with a series of exercises to illustrate common misconceptions about time and planning. I have my own tricks and I borrow some from experts, including Stephen Covey and Laura Vanderkam. I ask everyone to close their eyes and open them when they think a minute has passed. The vast majority cannot effectively time a minute even when it’s the only thing they are trying to do. How can anyone expect to manage the schedules of their days, their weeks, their lives if they cannot accurately manage the length of a single minute when asked to do nothing else? And look, if you think you manage your time well yet don’t know that there are 168 hours (aka 10,080 minutes) in a week, then how can you possibly be effective at allocating this limited resource? My students expand their awareness of how they spend their time using Vanderkam’s 168-hour spreadsheet. Everyone maps their time, down to 15-minute slots. For most, there are big aha moments. OMG I can’t believe I spent 95 minutes laying in bed watching cat videos. Do I really spend four hours a week chatting after meetings and outside the gym? Wow, my kid-carpooling takes four hours a week? I would’ve guessed it took nine. We also discuss and work to change how humans use technology. Everyone turns off all of their notifications on their smartphones and laptops, for our meetings and hopefully beyond, with guidance to only turn on notifications that we realize we need. We raise awareness about how the default software settings that blast us with constant notification banners and buzzing benefit tech companies, not human users. We immerse into modern day ways of what I call, Shields Up. This obvious nod to the USS Enterprise means we find the equivalent of a protected space, like a library, whenever concentration is required. We discuss the importance of creating this space in everyone’s lives, of making decisions when to check emails, news sources, and social media instead of being manipulated by the constant barrage of prompts from “smartphones.” My work is to give humans – whether students, colleagues, friends, and even my own kids – tangible, useful skills and tools to apply to their own lives, personally and professionally, moving forward into this new age. Creating Your Own Personal Productivity Map One of my big goals in teaching, and one that can be cumbersome to articulate, is helping students define “productivity.” It’s not just about output, doing more or fitting more in. It’s about creating your very own Personal Productivity Map and ensuring it includes value. So it’s not just time. It’s quality of time and related outcomes, with the goal of leading a full, rich life. As defined by you. We consider questions such as: Are you productive because you checked 20 things off your to-do list? Or are you more productive for doing that one thing you have been trying to get to, that you are really excited about, that really matters to you? Which scenario creates a more satisfied, richer, fuller, less-overwhelmed, less-behind feeling? I often liken it to standing in front of the "all-you-can-eat” buffet. You have a choice to stuff your face with everything there is, all of it, thinking perhaps you are getting the most for your money. Or you can pick and choose the food that you really like, that you want to eat and that you know makes you happy and satiated, and just eat those. In the end, which holds more value for you personally? Here’s the thing, you really can have it all. The key is to define your “all” and then ensure you allocate your 168 hours a week and every one of your 10,080 minutes a week, with a priority that ranks your “all” items at the top. When there are things you don’t get to during the week, it doesn’t matter, because you’ll get to your top priorities. This strategy comes in part from Covey’s famous big rocks and little rocks video, which is worth watching if you haven’t. Consider your big rocks first, as your priority, then your medium rocks, then smaller rocks, and then I like to add or filter out the sand, that represents all of the noise that gets no priority and thus very little or no time. For many, the answer is obvious. We know very well what our big rocks are. Still, many of us don’t have our lives set according to productivity maps. We focus on getting our stuff done, thinking if we can just get through it, maybe we can then get to the good stuff, rather than putting that thing we really want to do first, that thing that will likely lead to more happiness. We all have lists with too many things. If you use a Personal Productivity Map in picking through the list, you can edit out the stuff of less value. Of course, there are many things, like taking your kids to basketball practice and paying your bills, that can’t be eliminated, but most of us have a lot of other stuff on our lists that can be removed or at least dropped to the bottom. Then there are the things not on our lists that actually take more time than we acknowledge. They are often electronic. The television was the old one, but now it is more likely your Instagram feed, random Pinterest meanderings, or gamers who just want five more minutes. But there are also simple things like the mindless conversations at the end of a meeting that add little to no value to anyone’s life, or when you run into someone at the gas station and end up talking about a whole lot of nothing. This is not to say, don’t be social or amicable, but unless that chit-chat connects to your “all,” why invest any of your 10,080 minutes in it? With a Personal Productivity Map, we can all approach our time and how we spend it by giving more of our attention to the things that make us feel satisfied, fulfilled, special, even magical. Prioritize your 168 hours. Define the activities, people, and goals that have value to you. Have the courage and clarity to edit out the noise from your life and allocate your 10,080 minutes to your curated list of "all" you care to do. And you’ll be the one leaving the “all-you-care-to-eat” buffet thrilled about your experience and the tasty treats, rather than the one rolling out feeling awful, and stuffed with a bunch of junk you don’t even really like. See related blog: Personal Productivity Map.

Summer is almost here, and with it the influx of teens and young adults behind counters, in lifeguard chairs, mowing lawns, and serving food. Restaurant work is at the top of the list for many as temporary work, for its convenience, flexible scheduling, plethora of jobs, and the potential to make more money than minimum wage. Many people, parents especially, presume these entry-level restaurant jobs are irrelevant in the long-term for personal or professional development. However, these assumptions are flat out wrong. As a restaurateur with a team of 1,200 employees, I see how the high-paced, high-demand, service-oriented environment of many restaurants is fertile soil for the developing brain. While many jobs help teens and young adults learn critical life skills such as timeliness and accountability, numerous aspects of a restaurant environment go well beyond those entry-level lessons. Successful performance in restaurants requires a high-level of cognitive functioning and aligns with what it takes to win in the workplace, from the front desk to the board room. My understanding has come from working with our team, reading research, and talking with several friends who are mental health specialists, including Julie Baron, LCSW-C, who specializes in working with teens and young adults. The Developing & Changing Brain There are neurological reasons for the old saying that “practice makes perfect.” As we repeat a task, whether learning to type, swimming, organizing our schedules, or even knowing how to interact with people and behave in multiple environments, we are building neurological pathways in the brain. These connections are not built in a single event but over time. The more we do something, the better the neural connectivity, and the better we become. Our brains are constantly changing throughout our lives. We are in a persistent state of building and adapting our brain’s inner roadways, fortifying the consistent pathways and branching out with new ones; adapting to our activities, changes in our environments, challenges, traumas, and illnesses. This process is happening at a much more industrious and potentially life-changing pace during young adulthood where the brain connectivity is also “pruned” based on infrequent use, such that resources can be dedicated to connecting and solidifying the synaptic pathways we are frequently utilizing. This means how teens and young adults spend their time directly influences their brain development, which also has direct implications on their future success. Restaurants as Hands-On Learning Centers for the Developing Brain Restaurants provide a live-fire learning environment for the developing brain. I consider working in a restaurant similar to going to the gym – in this case, the brain gym – for teens and young adults. The reps and the workouts are as relentless as they are effective. As illustration, I have broken down five skills developed in restaurants that correspond to what I see as impacting future success. Restaurant Skill 1: Reading the Table & Guest A great server doesn’t only deliver your food and drink in a timely, efficient way. They know and can even anticipate your needs. At Founding Farmers, we call this skill, “reading the table” and “reading the guest.” Guests may be gathering for a graduation or a birthday, having a working meeting over lunch, dining together to commiserate a grave loss, or getting together for one of myriad reasons. In DC, you may have a Supreme Court justice lunching with her clerks, or lobbyists discussing their latest strategy to get a bill passed. Or a family dealing with a recent cancer diagnosis. At another table, there may be a group of tired, hangry tourists, or a group of foodies striving to be Influencers. Each of these scenarios requires a different type of engagement and service that you can only determine by “reading,” which begins as the guest arrives at the front desk and continues at the table. The employee who falls into the superficial, judgmental trap of “profiling” and judging the guest on physical characteristics or attire is in for a rude awakening. “Reading” is the true skill; snap judgment is failure territory. There’s no directional signage to tell the server how to care for a table. Sure, sometimes a guest’s needs will be crystal clear with what they want and how they want it, but way more often than not, the server must be the navigator and the director. A lot of great service comes from being cued into the non-verbals of everyone at the table. A skilled server will assess the group dynamics, the different individual personalities and apparent needs, and then determine how best to customize the interactions to satisfy the guests and accomplish the goals of the restaurant and the desires of the guest. Reading the table means giving the guests what they need, on their terms. Sometimes mirroring works; the guest is exuberant and wants the server to emulate their vibe. But mirroring can also be the exact wrong thing to do; a mad or sad guest certainly does not want a server in one of those moods. The server must be able to absorb and analyze social cues, non-verbals, and vibe, and then distill it down quickly into a conclusion that allows them to determine their guest’s needs, meet them where they are, and then find a way to exceed their expectations. This could be through cleanliness, efficiency of service, kindness, or allowing space and privacy. So, if they are celebrating, the server makes it even more fun. If they are depressed, the server carefully sprinkles kindness in appropriate doses to help the sun shine, even just a bit. If they are mad, the server tries to take the edge off. A table could have one guest that is a tyrant and another who is mortified by their tyrant companion. Then the server needs to navigate, defuse, form alliances, and redirect the overall experience so both guests can settle down and settle in. As the restaurant worker navigates the diner, verbally and non-verbally, not only are they learning better service but the brain is learning more about human interaction, cataloguing the millions of micro-interactions and macro-interactions. The restaurant worker is framing out new, evolved responses and methods of interaction to succeed in establishing a relationship to serve and care for the guest. Restaurant Skill 2: Building Relationships, Social Skills, “Small Talk” One of the ways a server or bartender can get a read on their guests is through conversation. Everyone has had that server who walks up to the table and in nearly-robot narrative, introduces themselves, starts rattling off specials while perhaps looking down at their notepad, and likely doesn’t notice whether anyone at the table is paying attention. They don’t create connection with their guests, and the diners would be better off speaking their order into an Alexa device on the table. In many restaurants, servers are taught specific social skills in how to engage their guests in “small talk.” There’s an art to starting a conversation, especially with a guest who may want a conversation but isn’t comfortable starting one. The right amount of eye contact is magical, too little is odd, and too much is creepy. Servers can start conversations around weather or sports, or even better when there’s a unique authentic entry point: I love your briefcase, my Dad has a similar one; or You look concerned about the battery life on your cell. Would it be helpful if I charged it for you? Entry lines must be genuine, and the server’s goal to connect must be authentic; the guest can sniff out a phony. In my restaurants, we talk about serving from the heart and connecting with guests because it feels good for all involved. With this as the motive, the likelihood of a connection is high. Conversations are far more than words. A server may have good, authentic words and motive, but if they miss the signs of “not right now,” stand too close, talk annoyingly loud or too softly, they will fail in their goal to provide the guest with the desired experience. Restaurant Skill 3: Station Orchestration & Becoming a Master Juggler Being “in the weeds” is a common expression for those working in restaurants. For non-restaurant people, it generally refers to getting into the details, but for restaurant people it means totally drowning under a tidal wave of everything that must be done at the same time, with impossibly high standards and demands. Busy servers, bartenders, cooks, and expeditors are juggling many tasks at once. They are working to sequence and prioritize, manage their time, and create the most efficient path to do all the work so that every guest is provided excellent, hospitable service with timely food and drink...and a side of hot sauce, oh and can I get a refill on my Arnold Palmer, I dropped my fork, my mashed potatoes are cold, can you turn the air conditioning down (and figure out, does that mean make it warmer or colder). A busy restaurant requires its employees to be exceptional at constantly shifting from one task to another in a high-pressure environment. For those in the front of the house, they also have to do it all while smiling and remembering they are on stage. For those in the kitchen, precise movements, teamwork, and high standards are a must. If you stepped into the kitchen with me at my restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown DC, you could observe what is required to serve over 10,000 guests per week and watch humans perform the jobs of dishwashers, prep cooks, chefs, and expeditors, handling endless waves of culinary requirements. A sous chef, with eight burners and a griddle, is literally cooking more than a half dozen things at one time. Meanwhile, the tickets keep coming, and she is coordinating her timing with the cooks on the pantry, grill, and fry stations. It’s hot in the kitchen and sharp knives, flames, steam, and speed make for a potentially dangerous recipe. In the midst, a server will arrive with special verbal requests, eg, “Table 211 asked to hold the tomatoes. Sorry, I forgot to add that to the ticket.” Or “this guest is allergic to mushrooms. Are there mushrooms in that?” Or the returns will appear, “This guest changed his mind, he wants it medium rare not medium well, can you refire?” Or “My guest at 118 says the sesame sauce tastes too much like sesame, can we remake this with a different sauce?” It is high pressure, with tight timelines, requiring high levels of coordination while constantly shifting tasks, gears, and focus. Every station needs to have its ingredients properly prepared, stored, and ready for the chefs. Many restaurants have an expeditor to help this kitchen flow and to ensure the accurate movement of food to the front of the house. The Chef in the expeditor role is both the quarterback of the kitchen – responsible for all the food coordination and timing, food standards, recipe adherence, food safety, temperature – and communication liaison between the servers and the chefs. This Chef in command sets the tone for the shift: calm, steady voice, excellent organizer, ranker and solver of problems, and true leader. The role is the ultimate combination of air traffic controller and pilot, or how I sometimes see it, like an orchestra conductor who knows each instrument, each musician, the music, the right combinations, and has the capacity to bring it all beautifully together. Restaurant Skill 4: Optimize Seating & Working Under Pressure The gatekeepers to the dining experience are the hosts. They receive guests, manage the flow of traffic from door to table and back again, assess reservations, walk-ins, phone calls, and individual guest needs, working to optimize the restaurant’s seats and manage each server’s workload. This is a dynamic set of requirements. Sometimes hosts have sophisticated technology at their fingertips to assist in their seating plans, sometimes they just have their eyes, a table map, and a written waiting list. However they manage it, they are prioritizing, sequencing and, much like a live game of Tetris, puzzling together a complicated seating plan that changes by the minute. When the guest arrives with six people for their reservation for four, or with the infant who needs a highchair as the fifth guest for their reservation for four, no software is going to replace the need for the host’s mental gymnastics, fluency with the floor plan’s unique elements, and calm-under-fire problem solving-solving skills. The host doesn’t have the luxury of sitting in a quiet library to analyze the problem, edit the algorithm, and develop a theory to solve the challenge. All this spatial recognition, puzzle assembly, dis-assembly, re-assembly, is done in public view with the sights and sounds of the restaurant buzzing all around. The guests are right there in front of them, asking how long it will be until their table is ready, some may be frustrated by a wait, others may want to change their reservation from eight to nine, or they want to change their seat, and the phone may also be ringing with additional reservations. As they continue to manage the flow of people to tables and new guests rolling in, hosts have to keep their cool. They also must have some of the highest levels of emotional control, even in the face of other humans who don’t. Restaurant Skill 5: Staying Tuned In & Focused At Founding Farmers, a server manages a four-table station within which they are responsible for the sequence of service for four entirely different dining experiences, which average 75 minutes per table at dinner. Each of the four tables is at a different phase of that 75 minutes, yet the server needs to keep them all running, being attentive to each guest, at a sensible pace, while the clock of the guest, and the restaurant, is going tick tock, tick tock. It’s incredibly dynamic and varied. In addition to all the requirements we’ve discussed so far, the server must stay consistently focused. Six to eight hours (and sometimes more, to which my staff can attest) of intense focus is a must. A juggler who lets his mind wander is no longer a juggler. And so it is for the bartender or service staff member, who cannot keep their mind’s eye fixated on the job at hand. Throughout every step, servers and bartenders have to stay tuned in. This unwavering focus allows for all the ongoing input (verbal requests, non-verbal signals, team support, operational communication) to be processed, ranked, and organized to ensure right place, right time, right way. The restaurant work requires physical stamina, and mental stamina for attention and focus; rather than Siri providing notifications to be dismissed mindlessly, this work environment requires each worker to stay tuned in to their surroundings so they can set their own direction, adjust on the fly, and keep pushing forward. Future Leaders Work in Restaurants From chefs to servers, expeditors to hosts, restaurant work is intense, dogged work that builds neurological pathways for future success. It goes beyond teaching how to work hard. Restaurant work emphasizes how to strive for mastery, be part of a team, lead from wherever you are, and share in the success of something bigger than your particular task. All of that is not only a path to future success, it is leadership in the making. So, as you think about the value of those restaurant jobs, whether for entry-level, or those who make it a professional career, you can now imagine the neural pathways and soft-skill development that these workers are immersed in creating and learning. In 2021, there were approximately 14.5 million people working within the restaurant industry. It is no surprise that eight in ten restaurant owners, and nine out of ten restaurant managers, started in entry-level positions. (https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/industry-statistics/national-statistics/) What we don’t know from the data is how many other successful executives, entrepreneurs, lawmakers, change makers, and other leaders worked in restaurants during their youth. From my anecdata and all the conversations I have with those high-up the career ladder, it seems to me that early work experience in restaurants is highly valuable. Now, as I learn more about brain science, I understand why. I’m always curious to hear from my readers, so if you’ve ever worked in a restaurant or have seen evidence of these benefits in your employees, please share your stories with me.

It’s Earth Day, and our news stories and social media are filled with images and videos of the planet earth. And the news is mostly bad. The Arctic is melting, nasty storms are devastating entire regions and countries, there are miles and miles of giant garbage patches floating in The Pacific and now in The Caribbean, and even the microplastics coming from our cozy, fleece clothing are getting into our food supply chain, our ground water, and our bloodstream. If your feeds are like mine, you’re seeing lots of videos like this (or go to www.youtube.com/floating-trash-island): Instead of feeling overwhelmed, averting your eyes, or sinking into a pile of hopeless inaction, there are some simple, seemingly small things you can do that may actually add up to major change if enough of us do them. 1. Switch (back) to bar soap. No more liquid hand soap, not even your favorite Mrs. Meyer’s, and definitely no more body wash. All of those plastic bottles? The planet doesn’t need any more of them. Even if you can buy them in a cheap two-pack at Costco or in recyclable packaging. Go back to bar soap. Or, depending on your age, introduce yourself to the wonders of bar soap. If you’re a parent, teach your kids about the magical simplicity of a bar of soap. Many of them may have never even seen one, having gone right from the tear-free baby washes to a more grown up version of the same: big plastic bottles filled with phthalates. There’s also a growing movement to bar shampoo and conditioner worth exploring. Be aware though: Not all bars are created equal. Make sure you choose one that is phthalate-free and isn’t surrounded by extensive plastic packaging. 2. Stop buying plastic water bottles, juice boxes, and other single-use beverage containers whenever you can, and start relying on reusables. Reducing your use is way better than recycling, more so now than ever as China has stopped taking our recycling. There are many options. So, sure, it will require some initial investment, but it will save you money in the long run. And best of all? You’ll be doing better by our planet. One of my new favorites we’re using for our kid’s lunch boxes: Drink in the Box. 3. Stop using so many plastic bags and Ziplocs. Stop putting your grocery store fruit and vegetables into a plastic bag; just put them directly into your cart/basket. You’re going to wash them when you get home anyway. (And if you aren’t, you should start.) If you must bag them, find some good reusables. Same with grocery store bags. Same with all those Ziploc bags. Why not invest in some of the many reusable snack and sandwich bags for lunches? Everyday, there are more affordable and convenient alternatives. I think these choices are especially important if you are packing lunches for kids. Teach the next generation a better way. 4. Check out alternatives to tubes of toothpaste. Try Bite toothpaste bits. Seriously innovative and super cool, these chewable, toothpaste tablets are a great alternative to the insanity of all those tubes of toothpaste (to the tune of one billion a year) filling our landfills and oceans. Give yourself a day or two to get used to them, and then you will likely agree, they are great. Or explore the growing collection of other options, toothpaste in reusable jars for example. Even some of the major manufacturers are trying to create alternatives in response to growing customer demand. Right now, some have created at the very least recyclable tubes, which shouldn't be the end goal (since we know that recycling is a bit of myth sold to us by the plastic manufacturers) but may be a step in the right direction. At least it shows there’s concern in the Board Room about brands looking entirely unsustainable. There are also some simple DIY recipes too. Baking soda alone has a lot of fans. 5. Stop using plastic straws (and utensils). Use no straw or seek an alternative. The choices are many – from paper to hay to rice/tapioca to pasta to what we are now using in our restaurants, Air Carbon straws (from Restore Regenerative Foodware). These amazing straws seem like plastic but are actually made from a natural material found in every ecosystem on the planet that breaks down in our oceans in 180 days. (We are currently looking into Air Carbon utensils for our to go food.) There are also long-lasting straws made from metal, bamboo, and even some very fancy, high-end collapsible straws to carry on your key chain or in your pocket book. So, when you are dining or ordering out, ask your server or to go platform to, “hold the straw” and the usual plastic utensils. You can also take the pledge to #StopSucking at OurLastStraw, a non-profit I started to eliminate the use of plastic straws. 6. Learn more about plastic pollution and phthalates. Read Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things by Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie. Or check out my blog on phthalates. Or explore any of the newer research on all of the chemicals in everyday items, like beauty supplies and toiletries, cleaning products, and even our clothes, that are slowly being absorbed into our bloodstreams every day. I bet you’ll throw away those air freshener pods, Axe body sprays, Teflon-coated pans, and so much more. It is quite possible that these six simple steps could actually change the world. As smart choices, stepping stones, and awareness practices on the path to more change. Not only do they create change in your life, they impact the supply chain. If you, and more people like you, seek alternatives to what has become the norm – giant plastic bottles of body wash and bulk boxes of Ziplocs, all of our typical, trash-producing, earth-polluting daily existence – the more demand we will create together for other, better options. And trust me, large corporations are always paying attention. When they start to see the demand driving revenues and taking market share, they will make the necessary investments to meet this demand, shifting the global supply chain towards reusables and more planet-conscious products. There are so many entrepreneurs and environmentalists creating awesome solutions. Let’s support their innovation. The large multi-national corporations are influenced by our choices and those best & brightest change-makers. And for the record, I have zero invested in the products I am suggesting (except my non-profit, Our Last Straw). They are merely examples of innovations and alternatives. I am all for supporting people and companies who are making change. Small changes do add up. If you’ve already done some or all of the ideas on this list, keep adding more to the list, and by all means share it with me, and maybe I’ll write more about it. I always want to know more, better solutions. BOTTOM LINE: Everyday needs to be Earth Day. Do something instead of nothing. Even something small. EVERYTHING MATTERS. Related Blogs: Phthalates: This Stuff is Bad. Learn What They Are, and Maybe How To Pronounce It My Local Town Banned Plastic Straws Straws Our Last Straw

I’ve noticed there’s this thing that seems to predict who will be successful in my restaurants. Historically, I’ve looked for the usual stuff – resilience, grit, talent, work ethic, soft skills. Indeed, these high-value attributes are part of a winner’s recipe. Yet, I still see people with these abilities hit ceilings that seem to be of their own making, or crash into hurdles they can’t clear. He just can’t get out of his own way. She can’t quite seem to connect with her team. All the while, the people I see with perpetual growth – who can move through sometimes even the trickiest quicksand and keep going and growing – have a common capability. It seems to allow them to exemplify that their whole is something more than just the sum of their parts. What’s the thing? The ability to love and to be loved. LOVE, The Verb To really be able to love and be loved means you are functional with love, whether this is due to your upbringing or despite it. Some have called this skill being able to be vulnerable or reflective, but I think it is more than that. I call it love. And I am talking about love as a verb. In this context, love isn’t simply a thing, or the emotions that bounce around in my head and heart, but the action of doing love and of receiving love. And the two-way aspect is vital: to love and be able to be loved. I see folks who can love and care about others, but they can’t receive it. I see others who can absorb it but just can’t project it and share it. And others who can’t do either. I sometimes like to think of it as two compound words and abilities: LoveOutbound and LoveInbound. For some, either can feel almost impossible; for others, one is possible but the other not; and for most of us, this skill needs to be honed. This is why I like considering it a verb and a skill – because that means we can learn it and perpetually get better at it, if we choose to. I believe there should be greater motivation to build these capacities in everyone, in yourself and everyone around you. From what I see, the abilities to LoveOutbound and LoveInbound are some of the greatest determinants for winning at life. Each of us is a whole, and none of us is an island. We can’t travel alone, even if no one is with us. We need each other. Inevitably, things get hard, and we need help. Inevitably, the inspiration to succeed is powered in part by the inspiration to celebrate with others. In our restaurants, we have a team of over 1,000 employees, serving more than 50,000 diners per week. We work with hundreds of vendors, from the farmer to the coffee roaster repair technician, and everyone in between. I work with employees who are finishing law school and employees who’ve spent the last 15 years of their life incarcerated. I see the $15/hour dishwasher with little or no English skills who rises to be the $100,000/year Executive Chef. I see the intern fresh out of prison who commits to an entrepreneurship path and builds a management career en route to starting his own company. I also see the person who has a ton of advantages, socio-economic and otherwise, and yet, hits a wall over and over as their career and relationships never bloom. A Person is an Indivisible Whole I’ve always believed hard skills can be taught and soft skills can be developed. However, I realize that developing these pseudo-invisible love-as-a-verb attributes are complicated. While I do believe anybody can have or achieve them, I also respect and acknowledge that based on upbringing and experiences, each of our journeys to being able to do love both ways is unique. This is one more reason why I am so often talking about mental health, relationships, and personal development as key ingredients for winning. A person is an indivisible whole. Ghandi taught me that. We can put skills, abilities, and attributes into categories, but in a person, they are part of the whole. If the abilities to absorb love and to give love are missing from that whole, limitations are created. Boundaries and restrictions will appear that a person simply won’t be able to push through. This is important to recognize for all of us, especially those who have their guard up, or who play things close to the vest, the ones who say I’m not here to make friends, profess I don’t need to like you and I don’t need you to like me, and those who believe vulnerability is a weakness whether it is theirs or someone else’s. These are the folks that I see over and over again not winning over the long-term in their careers and in their lives. I’m going to keep reflecting on this, looking for it myself and those around me. I’m going to keep talking about it with my teams, encouraging all of us to see that loving and being loved are critical verbs of action, abilities that can be seen, developed, unleashed, and leveraged. I think they can be the fuel to power our whole self to the highest levels of however each of us is defining success. What do you think?

When you hear the word Capitalism, are you triggered? Ready to either passionately indict, or throatily defend? The ideologues and power brokers on the far sides of this debate are as disingenuous and self-serving as ever. Yet the opportunity exists to improve our economic system by developing leaders who work within it. I recently re-read The Wizard of Oz; a dear friend of mine handed me her vintage copy after hearing some of my musings about the importance of having a heart in business. Along with the brilliant, joyful story-telling, I found some interesting connections that can help guide us to a better path where we are always learning, growing, and constantly bettering ourselves and our world: the Yellow Brick Road. JOURNEYING SHOULD BE A VERB Even if you don’t think you’re missing brains, a heart, or courage, the journey – my journey, your journey, not the destination – is where the magic happens. And our journeys are rarely solo ventures; we are affected by the decisions and behaviors of those around us, those both on the journey with us and those we have left behind, as well as the social, political, and economic systems within which we are born, live, work, and wander. Dorothy lost Kansas, the Scarecrow never had brains, the Lion no courage, and the Tin Man no heart… and the Wizard is easily indicted as all bad. Yet, it was not as it seemed, and their journey gained them what they sought, just not how they expected at the start. I found lessons in their journey as I sought to clarify my own beliefs regarding business, society, profits, and where I fit in. UNCONSCIOUS CAPITALISM PULLS YOU INTO LOSTNESS I was born without intelligence and wisdom; as I made my way through school and life, I found myself being tugged in opposing directions, the dissonance so clear in my mind, and so often ignored. The attraction to money and the things and experiences it could provide. Tug. The repressed dismay of walking past and literally stepping over homeless people on the streets of Washington, DC and sorting through the guilt of knowing I saw it and yet would do nothing about it. Tug. Job, career, promotion, money, accomplishment. Tug. Sea turtles with plastic straws in their noses and the garbage patch in the ocean. Tug. Was Capitalism my problem, or were my inadequacies with how I was doing Capitalism my problem? The raw, unbridled Capitalist is missing their heart and the brains to see their existence and contextualize their connection to many more stakeholders than the one to which they have sworn allegiance: profit. And yet, the Capitalist has done some incredible things. The often siloed perspective held by the Unconscious Capitalists doing Capitalism lets us chase and accomplish goals with no awareness (or concern) of consequences to others. It is the classic win/lose, with the glorious blindness that allows the winner to pretend the loser is fine, or simply not their concern. Who doesn’t like to win, especially when we’re absolved unconsciously or consciously of the plight of the loser? The glory of getting rich selling cigarettes, while procuring safety, security, education, and amazing experiences for your family, and doing a few charitable things along the way, (apparently) feels wonderful as it washes over you, while the death and destruction of individual health, planetary health, and the economics of the healthcare system aren’t your concern, right? You’re not breaking any laws, people are free to make their own choices, and you’re rich. Cigarette companies and their unconscious Capitalist leaders are easy to critique. However, it gets less obvious as we get to chemical manufacturers who produce the polymers that allow for the brilliance of single-use plastics. A few people get rich, investors are thrilled, millions of people get the benefit of plastics in myriad ways, and yet a steep, deadly price is being paid by the planet, animals, and human health that’s not as immediately clear – but with a bit of effort and brains, becomes quite obvious. But Capitalism isn’t the problem; unconscious Capitalists are the problem when they use Capitalism as justification to please and serve the singular stakeholder of profit. Capitalism, done with a balanced, multi-stakeholder approach, is a solution that can lift people out of poverty, drive innovation that saves lives, protect natural environments, and reduce inequities. I see that most of business and life is on the honor system. Even where there are rules, there are rarely rule-enforcers of the heft necessary. I have seen many businesspeople lose their way, stepping on the heads of those around them to climb up, relying on the win/lose, singular stakeholder approach to every decision. I made some of these decisions myself early in my career, confusing my wants with my needs, irrespective of the impact of my actions and inactions – on the environment, communities, or individuals. I’m certainly far from perfect at this point, but I am conscious, and on the quest to keep broadening my ability to see the entire system that I’m in and that I affect. I have found positive business outcomes following my instincts – or rather, my brains, heart, and courage – to examine how incorporating the impact on multiple stakeholders leads to improved outcomes for all, including investors, when viewed long-term. I see that raw Capitalism, unregulated and with a relatively unenforced honor system, can quickly pull its participants into a lostness and a disconnection from their own brains, hearts, and courage. FINDING OUR WAY WITH CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM There is a magnetic message that can draw people together, that can be the gravity that replaces the disparate tugging. This source of gravity can be an attraction for the disenchanted, the disenfranchised, and for the current big winners and their profits, and for entities like the planet, local communities, and people as individuals and in their groups. Great leadership, by my definition, of oneself and one’s company, requires balancing the weight of all stakeholders, and the unit of measure for weight is not dollars, but importance, in the eyes of the stakeholders, not in the eye of the dollar. What do we need? The Capitalist is missing vital organs; I’m convinced the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion can help. We need a heart, we need brains, and we need courage. (I’ve left Dorothy out, because we have a home.) There is a way we can keep a democracy and a powerful economic system, and make it work in a balanced way for all its stakeholders. We power our economic system with Conscious Capitalism. We teach it, we train it, we regulate business in a balanced way in accordance with it. We advocate and vote for conscious elected officials. The Conscious Capitalism movement, and its tome – “Conscious Capitalism: liberating the heroic spirit of business” – provides structure to what I, and many, are inclined to do naturally. (See the Four Tenets of Conscious Capitalism to the right.) This structure is valuable, as it gives us a way to teach, a road to reveal and entice. The overarching belief is that people can elevate humanity through business – but this isn’t a badge or label for a business, this is about business leaders. While a business has no heart, no mind, and no courage, a business does have human leaders, and they are my focus. If you have no other reason or tug to Conscious Capitalism, consider your current and future customers and employees. According to an annual poll on Capitalism and Socialism, 60% of Millennials support a “complete change of our economic system away from Capitalism,” and 57% of GenX’ers feel the same. When a population experiences downsides and is given an easy narrative that explains it, it is understandable how these seismic changes in opinion happen. Clearly, we have millions of people in America and around the world, searching for something; something they’ve lost, or maybe more so, something they believe they’ve never had but want. As business leaders, we have an opportunity to earn the trust of these people through our actions – showing how we increase the positive and decrease the negative when we do Capitalism, Consciously. THE CONSCIOUS CAPITALIST’S JOURNEY We each likely have the brains, heart, and courage necessary to (1) create change; (2) see that we are connected and consequential to the world, its parts, and its people; (3) understand what we impact with our words, actions, inactions, and silence; and, (4) realize we are not the sole stakeholder in our life, just as the investor is not the sole stakeholder in our business. Conscious Capitalists are on the road, on the journey – there's no finish line, and there's no purity test for who is, and who isn’t. But there is a starting point: make a commitment as a business leader to understand all your stakeholders, acknowledge your actions and decisions affect them, and weigh them fairly as you go forward. Channel the Lion to drive change and generate long-term successful results for your business, because you have the courage to define success to include outcomes that go beyond just short-term profit. The true magic in the Wizard of Oz is everything they learn about themselves and the world while they are journeying together. So, I say keep journeying; keep adding to your consciousness; keep understanding your stakeholders more deeply; keep connecting your profits (generating them, using them, foregoing the short-term for more long-term) to your stakeholders in ways that drive your decision-making process; and keep honing your definition of winning to include the view through the eyes of those affected. OK, I’m done, and this is a nice place to stop. Although, if you’re feeling sprightly and want to stay on the ride, dive into more thoughts in the Appendix. APPENDIX: A BIT OF NECESSARY BACKGROUND ON CAPITALISM & DEMOCRACY In the US, we have an economic system of Capitalism, and a political system of representative democracy; always imperfect, often unjust and inequal, with levers, strings, and steering wheels that can be pulled and turned to benefit the one, or the few, rather than the many, and can also be turned to benefit the many and not the few. Imperfect for sure, and yet still a democracy, by definition, for sure; and a Capitalist system, for sure. In our system, we have many programs that create social safety nets. We have areas where people can make a case we need more, and areas where people can make a case we need less. No amount of social safety net programs or equality programs would make the US “not a Capitalist system” or “not a democracy.” So, for those screaming we can’t do more to help people because it will be the death of Capitalism – pipe down, you’re lying for selfish reasons, or you’re an ideologue that doesn’t understand the facts of the matter. For those screaming that Capitalism is the problem and profit is the root of all evil – ssshhhhh – you're doing the same thing. Political systems and economic systems are separate but not separated. DEFINITIONS MATTER: Economics & Political Systems I love starting with the dictionary when I’m trying to better understand something with many varying and passionate opinions. As a kid, I loved reading my parents’ dictionary. It was so big and heavy, and the pages were full of exploration. Geeky, I know. I also loved reading our Encyclopedia Britannica set, which yes, was purchased from a door-to-door salesman. I return to both to provide some clarity on the oft-misunderstood, maligned, and misused Capitalism and Socialism. THE BASICS (Some definitions from Merriam-Webster.) Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market. Socialism: 1) any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. 2) (a) a system of society or group living in which there is no private property; (b) a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state; 3) a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between Capitalism and Communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done. Marxism: a theory and practice of socialism including the labor theory of value, dialectical materialism, the class struggle, and dictatorship of the proletariat until the establishment of a classless society. Democratic socialism, aka social democracy: According to Brittanica, a political ideology that originally advocated a peaceful evolutionary transition of society from Capitalism to Socialism using established political processes. In the second half of the 20th century, there emerged a more moderate version of the doctrine, which generally espoused state regulation, rather than state ownership, of the means of production and extensive social welfare programs. Based on 19th-century socialism and the tenets of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, social democracy shares common ideological roots with communism but eschews militancy and totalitarianism. Social democracy was originally known as revisionism, because it represented a change in basic Marxist doctrin, primarily in the former’s repudiation of the use of revolution to establish a socialist society. None of these definitions prescribe specific rules, nor do they say there’s only one way to do it or you aren’t doing it. So, we get prefixes and suffixes as people stake out their views, indicting others and glorifying their own approach. We have Capitalist pigs and we have Capitalist saviors. We have Socialists morphing into Communists and we have democratic Socialists as people confuse economic systems with political systems. It seems that everyone using these terms is trying to prove their point – me good, you bad. Some devout convincers go further, by claiming vigorously what we have is great, such that we must protect it at all costs, even when in reality we don’t have what they claim we have. I want to break down the usual walls between us, the walls that don’t serve their alleged purpose and don’t protect those on either side.

I got to join DC's Conscious Capitalism chapter's monthly discussion, Hot Seat, with my colleague and friend, Stephen Baldi, Founder & President of Baldi Management Group. We discussed the important role conscious businesses have in systemic injustice. Our conversation was moderated by Monica M. Dalwadi, Managing Partner, BakerTilly. Listen here:

This is the story of 2020 for me and some of what I talk about in the video embedded below (around minute 38:00) from a recent virtual conference hosted by Conscious Capitalism. It's my great hope that the lasting story of 2020 is about people and what we do differently going forward. It's inspiring to me, because I know that business is a wildly powerful force for good when conscious capitalism is the lens, the foundation of how to do business, and when profits are a wonderful means to an end, not the end in themselves. Give the video a watch to hear how conscious capitalism has served us and continues to serve us as we move through the pandemic. I joined several others in and around the hospitality industry, including: Karen Sammon, CEO, Next7Gens; Kathy Hollinger, President and CEO, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington; and Fred LeFranc, CEO and Chaos Strategist, Results Thru Strategy.