John Marino (RAK Porcelain USA) & Chef Thomas Mandzik — Leadership, Trust, and the Long Game in Hospitality

With LinkedIn Premium All-in-One, you're 60% more likely to get replies from suggested prospects so you can grow your small business. It cannot give you 60% more time in your day. It can help you sell, market and hire All-in-One product. It cannot find more space for all the files on your desktop. And while it can't close all your open tabs, LinkedIn Premium All-in-One can give you all the tools to grow your small business in OneTab. Try for free at linkedin.com slash all-in-one. is with us in the studio. His story is built from the ground up, operations, manufacturing, sales, leadership and a very clear philosophy that runs through all of it. Solve real problems, build real relationships and play the long game. That's not theory, that's lived. And sitting across from him is Chef Thomas Manzik. Thomas understands what that actually looks like on the other side. He's operating inside a larger organization. He understands standards, volume, consistency, cost, expectation and the reality of delivering every single day. He also understands the play, how chefs, brands and partners align when it's real and when it's not. And that's why this conversation matters. Because this is not about product, it's not about promotion. This is about how the machine actually works, how trust gets built, how decisions get made and what happens when the right people are in the room for the right reasons. Chef Thomas, welcome back again. Yes, I'm right back, man. We did cool stuff today. We have a super awesome guest in-house, which we're going to get to shortly with John Reno. Before we do, let's talk about these dishes. I'm going to go right into it. First, I did a fish mosaic with an infusion of King Oro Salmon. Got some big-eyed tuna loing and I got some squid ink and brushed it with some sea bream on a nori wrap. And then I put it in a pool of apple, yuzu, vinaigrette and smoked olive oil. That was the first dish. We're well into spring. We're coming into summer and this is a perfect dish for this time of the year. Well, it's bikini season, so you've got to eat. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to get there. By the way, I'd lost 15 pounds. Well, congrats to that. Yeah, I'm just saying. How? Is there shots involved? Maybe. I'm not saying it's not, but whatever. I feel good about myself and I don't care what you say. That is a perfect dish for this time of the year. It was indeed refreshing and it looked cool, man. There was the green, you had the salmon color, you had the tuna and you brought sea bream. That's it. Who's using sea bream out there? Well, I was hoping a few other people, but we definitely had to bring it today with rack porcelain. And don't forget to end with that smoke. Good work. You had the dry eyes quasi-innovative, Thomas. I mean, you've really come in a long, you know, it's almost like I hate to see you go. You're leaving. I am. Talk about that. Well, I'm officially, it's official now in the fall, going into 27. I'll be moving to Corpus Christi to start my own place. It's going to be called Black Lamb. It's going to be a 20 seat chef's table. I'm super, super excited. Why Black Lamb? 100% Black Lamb because the way it was brought up is I always kind of felt like I was the black sheep of the family. And then when I was doing some research and asking everybody in Corpus Christi, hey, are you guys ready for a chef's table? And I'm like, no, what is that? And they had no idea what I was talking about. And they said, no, this isn't that type of town. So I figured I'd call it Black Lamb because, you know, I need to ask a serious question. Amen. When they said, this is not that kind of town. And you said, yeah, it is. How did you, how did you arrive to say, I want to pull a trigger? How did you get there? In the end, I knew that they just didn't understand it. Well, then I'll be the first. And I met a really cool guy named David out there. He's been out there for quite a while. He owns quite a bit of property. He's a foodie by heart. And he's super excited to have me come out there. He gave me a good deal on one of his properties. Let's talk about the cuisine. I've decided that it's my time. One thing that I've always wanted to chase was a Michelin star. This is my opportunity to do that. And I really feel amazing about it. I think the biggest thing for me is to cook with my passion and my artistry. Because, you know, first everything has to taste good, but from there, I love putting art on a plate. When you say chasing a star, what does that mean to you? You know, it's not just an ego move or anything like that. For the last four years, having the opportunity to be the executive chef of the Tampa Club, we have an amazing clientele. And the members have always told me, I said, man, if we could just let the inspectors come in here, you'd have one. And it's always just kind of drove me. And at this point in my life, I'm ready to go do it. I think we've known each other now for a good eight years. Ten years. Eight, ten years, something like that. And I remember when we met at the hotel out in St. Pete, and you had a good attitude. Right. And obviously we were all a little bit younger. And you had... Cool head of hair. Yeah, you had hair. You had fire. But you still have the fire. And what's interesting about you is, and I'm not here to toot your horn, especially, you know, as you're on your way out or whatever, but to Texas, but you care about all of the processes involved in creating a dish. And for me, I think that's the first step in your adventure. That's your starting point. It isn't like, well, it's an area that might be primed to learn something new. It's not that. It's the fact that every time you clean a plate, polish your plate, use a utensil, whatever ingredient that you're preparing to create a dish, you're part of every movement. That, to me, is why I think you probably have a shot because your food is awesome. And it looks stupid, beautiful. Like you put out really great plates. I am going to be sad to see you go in one respect, on the other respect, on the other side of that, you're going to become more powerful, right? So there's going to be a lot of stuff that happens between Walk and Talk Media and Blacklam. You better believe it. You know, I really appreciate everything that you've done for me and this company and, you know, Walk and Talk Media, but this isn't the end of me. And then we're just going to be out there in Texas. You're like Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's what I'm saying here, you know? You know, if you strike me down, whatever, what did he say? No? Jon's not talking. Jon's not talking. God. Dish number two, what was it? So dish number two, I was super excited to unveil this. It was a strawberry pavlova with strawberry panna cotta, strawberry balsamic gel, and finished with some basil gelato. I smelled the basil. And again, like this is the time of the year for this refreshing, easy eats dish. What makes it special is that you bring out all the colors, you bring out all the flavors. Naturally, they're on, you know, rack porcelain, so you know, it looks good. Oh, yeah. That goes without saying. I'm staring at you, Jon. The other Jon. Jon Marino. Well, ultimately in the end, when you told me that Jon Marino's coming and, you know, going to be doing the rack porcelain, I had to bring my A game because with me, rack porcelain is definitely the canvas, and it was just my opportunity to bring the paints. It's all about the artistry. And that's what I'm saying. I think that you fit this awarded chef category. That's you. I don't want to say Michelin or beer because I think you possess all of those skills. Obviously, you run a tight ship. It's not just about your food production or food quality or even your conceptual approach to the dish. You have to run your kitchen, correct? And you have to run the front of the house and the whole house. Everything has to be in sync in order to kind of get to that level. But I feel like you have that. You have all the experiences in the world to pull that off. A little bit of transparency is this week I lost my CDC and I lost my grammar's a chef. And it's a little tough right now, but, you know, I had an obligation to come here. I'm going to miss out on being here with Rack Porcelain. But at the same time, the rest of my staff just stepped up and, you know, holding them to a certain bit of standards and accountability has really helped. And for me, that's what matters most. But I didn't know you didn't tell me you didn't. I had no idea that you were in that kind of tight spot. You could have very easily been like Carl, man, I wanted to be there. This would have been great. I can't. You didn't do that? No, no. You figured out the work around and you trust the people that are there and you're here and you exit when you're here, you execute. Thank you. You know, I think in the end, it's mainly because, you know, again, it's the staff, but it's also the obligation and the respect that I have for you, the respect I have for John and ultimately in, if I got to get up at 5 a.m. true story, then I'm going to give a 5 a.m. for the next couple of days and make it happen. I think this is a terrific segue. John Marino, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. I think it's been a long time coming. That it truly has. For those in the audience that don't know, Rack Porcelain USA and Walk and Talk Media are partners. So if you watch our, our film work weekly and you see the photography that we put out weekly, there really isn't a shoot that goes through that doesn't have their product in it, which is amazing. It's a workhorse, but beautiful. I have to tell you, John, sincerely appreciate you making the trip here to Florida from up north. It means a lot. It really does. Sincerely. Thank you. Definitely most welcome. Doesn't hurt to get out of Ohio and come down to Florida. It's been a rough four or five months between the snow, rain, some nice weather, and then back to the snow. So thank you for having me again. Pleasures, hours. I have to tell you, it's been rough here too. The 50 degree nights here have been brutal on us. Floridians, I have to tell you. I think that next podcast is going to have to be in Ohio. What, to make me suffer? Because I was actually, okay. All right. Look, so you're here and you are the president of Rack Porcelain USA. And John, we left off just now with Chef Thomas. The guy's an animal and he's accountable. He's accessible. All these things that make somebody like saw it after, like this is the kind of guy you'd want working in your company. He shows up regardless. You came up through operations, long hours, pressure, real environments. What does that experience teach you about this business that still drives you and how you lead today? Definitely a loaded question. It's one that has taken me years to kind of unfold, build back the way it needed to be built for a rack. The simple answer is it's not an easy industry. And when you start to unravel it, you realize how many layers there are to it. And unfortunately, how many organizations have gaps in what their offense and defense are as they go to market and being able to grow up in this industry. When I was 13 years old, I was an essence, a busboy and worked in the dish tank. I worked on the line. I worked on front of house. Being able to understand how it all kind of came together, I was able to make assessments, understand what was working, what wasn't working and be able to identify that for that specific organization. And it allowed me to kind of grow in the industry in a way that many weren't able to do that. I think a lot of the people in this industry, they find a foothold, they get themselves established and then they realize it's still a lot of hard work to understand how it all kind of comes together. And then they unfortunately leave the industry where I actually kind of rolled up my sleeves. I got more engaged because I wanted to understand how it all kind of came together. And from a operational standpoint, one of the hardest things on that side is just the staff. I was talking about the same where it's hard to find good people, it's hard to maintain those people and build those relationships and continue to elevate them within those organizations. And at one point, I was doing the exact same thing for other organizations. As I was coming up in the industry, thankfully, I was being noticed. I was being kind of sought out to be more engaged in different roles in the companies that I was associated with. And one thing led to another. And eventually, I was able to be in a position where I work for regional chains, I work for fine dining, I work for casual dining. And in the end, I was able to understand and be relatable from a lot of different standpoints. John, it makes sense. Not only did you learn the restaurant side, you have that experience to pull from. But even within your own industry, you made a point to learn every part of the system, manufacturing, design, shipping, and it wasn't just sales. Even though that was your baby for a while. Why was it important for you to understand the entire operation? Yeah, I mean, it came from the operational side of the same equation. I was trying to solve problems. So I would have an account that I would work with and whether it be something from a design flaw or a manufacturing defect or a timeframe to be able to hold ourselves to those standards, I wasn't getting the answers that I wanted to. And so I would go to those different departments and say, why is this not working? Or what can we do different to make this work better for these accounts? And I in essence became kind of a sponge and I wanted to kind of dig in and understand. So thankfully, at the time I was working with another manufacturer that was based in the United States. And I had different department heads that knew if John Marino was working on a project that they would stop what they were doing and support me because they knew I was running hard. And so that way, they wanted to run hard with me. And so I would go out to the factory. I would spend time with the manufacturing team. I'd spend time with the operational team. I'd spend time with the production team, the design team, the lab team, and the shipping departments. And every single department, there was bottlenecks. And what I wanted to do was on bottleneck it in order to do that. I needed to understand that so that I can go back to the management that were still above me at the time and say, this is where we are stuck. And this is why we are still stuck. And here's my answer. I never wanted to be the guy that just complained about why something wasn't working. I wanted to be able to understand why it wasn't working and then be able to present a solution for how it could work better. Not everybody's built to figure things out, to identify what the challenges are, and then create the workaround. Not everybody's going to be the leader. It doesn't exist. You have to have the guy or gal that understands that in each sector of business that you're in, you're going to have your specific challenges that need addressing. Every division of business has that, whether it's on the shipping side, the pullers, pickers, customer service, data entry, sales team, marketing, all of it. And that travels up to the C-suite. It's everybody has their set of problems. But when you go from busboy when you're a kid, and then you work your way through all the ranks and you become president of a fairly large operation, and you're connected to the mothership all the way out to Ross Al-Kaima in the UAE, that's a big deal. And not everybody can do that. You spend a lot of time in sales. And not every salesperson has the capacity to lead. They can take their orders, they can manage their accounts, they can talk about the business. But to make the jump from sales to president, how did that change the relationships and the level of trust that you have with your clients and even the team that you were still working with? That is a great question. Simple answers, trust. I think that everyone that knows who I am, what I'm trying to accomplish, who I'm trying to accomplish it with, with knows I'm going to put the time in to outwork anyone I'm competing against. Simple answers, trust. But I think that going a little bit more depth for you on that, I know enough to know I don't know at all. And more importantly, I try to put the right people in that room with me. Our mothership, as you mentioned, the team that I have at the corporate office, the people that I've worked with throughout my entire career, I've had some very influential organizations that I've had the pleasure of working with. And each and every one of them have helped define who I am in this industry and what I'm able to accomplish collectively with the people that I work with. They believed in me, even probably times I didn't necessarily believe in myself. You have to remember, I'm a kid from Youngstown, Ohio, that was trying to find a way in life. God hooked into some really cool organizations and just kept working. And one thing led to another. And my dream was I've exceeded it. For me to be in this role, to do what I'm doing right now is absolutely incredible. It's fun. I enjoy every day. The people that I get to work with and the things that we get to develop and design, and chefs get to work with what we're producing. And it blows my mind that we get to do what we do and play the way we play and work with the people we get to work with throughout this industry. And it just keeps driving me to try harder. John, I think you're selling yourself a little short because the conversation that we had earlier and then even what I'm listening to now, I've kind of realized that you were the first person in the room and you were probably one of the last people out of the room in every situation. And I think that's really where your success came from being the busboy all the way up to the president in your situation because you were the person that came and grind every single day. Like you're the one that we talk about in the movies and the tales. You actually did it in life. So don't sell yourself so short. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's not short. I'm definitely always trying to be respectful to the people that helped me get here because I wouldn't be what I am without the people that have helped me accomplish these tasks. And it's a collective of us. And even my team that works for me, they know that as much as they would run through a ball for me, I'd run through that same ball for them. Support for Walk and Talk Media comes from Metro Food Service Solutions, trusted by kitchens that need storage and workflow that actually does the job. Learn more at Metro.com. You don't get there by chance. You get there by trial, error, falling on your face, picking yourself up, staying committed, dedicated, all of those things that sound so cliche. But the truth is they're not. Like you have to you have to crawl through the coals in order to learn in order to grow. Well, you have a philosophy that you operate by. Yeah, you're absolutely right. There's been times in my career that there's been one moment that's changed everything, and that's kind of where this philosophy comes from. It's simple. Keep it clean and simple, sustainable and scalable. And in my position in this company, at the head of the Rackport and USA Division, the staff needs to come to me when they figure out how to make it clean and simple. And it sounds cliche-ish to say clean and simple, but there's a lot of work that has to go into something before you can make it clean and simple. And to me, that's where a lot of organizations go wrong. They're looking for short-term games, which gives them long-term losses. And that's not our philosophy here. I want long-term solutions. I'd rather take it longer to get it right than find a quick solution. And being able to make that clean and simple, you have to be able to replicate that. And that's how you get it to be sustainable. So I can make a bunch of silos and solve problems for independent individuals, but that's not making it clean and simple for the organization. So one of the key philosophies starts that if Rack's successful, we in turn will all be successful. If Rack's not here, none of us are here. So we have to make sure that Rack is first successful. And in order to do that, I can't just make it clean and simple for you. It has to be clean and simple for the organization. So when I was in my first year as president, I got very excited. How do you do it? And so I wanted to go out and tackle all these different projects. And independently, I was having conversations with all the key members of our staff. And I was solving those problems, saying, great, run after this. Here's something that's clean and simple for you. Then there's another one clean and simple for another person. Another one for a clean and simple for another person. All I did was make silos. There was no pull through. So what we needed to do was have connectivity in order for me to make that clean and simple for you. Can you tie that back into the company? And that was kind of year two. John Maria was president. So year one, Marina was fired. Year two, Marina came at the helm and realized that this was not sustainable. And that's why it was no longer clean and simple, was no longer sustainable, it was definitely not scalable. So year two, Marina said, OK, we need to be able to have this all tied together in order to be able to do that. I need you to find a way to bring that back to the company, not just for yourself. And that was when we really started to make headway. You talk about staff. We work hand in hand with the Tanya's and the Tina's and the Kaili's, and they're all terrific. You have a solid staff. I don't typically say this lightly. Everybody has their work stresses and stuff. All of us are. And I think your people seem genuinely like happy people in life. That's a big deal. And that's a big statement. Whenever I go to a manufacturer or distribution house or whenever I go on site somewhere, one of the first things I look at is was working the front desk and and what's their what's their personality type? How do they look? Their appearance? Are they happy? That tells me almost everything I need to know about the establishment. When we met Tina and Franz at the FNB at C show a few years back, that was a happy booth. If you remember earlier, we were talking about sad booths, right? At trade shows. Yep. They were a happy booth and they were inviting. You know, they didn't know who we were. They were just representing the brand. And I was like, I can talk with these people. These are good people. And then it just opened up the doors and the communication lines. And then here we are today, right? Fast forward. Kudos to you on the team, man. I just I wanted to take a moment to thank you. I wanted to take a second to kind of point that out because it's a testament to what it is that you're doing up top. It has to trickle down culture trickles down from up top. It doesn't start at the bottom and trickle up. It comes down. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The number one resource this organization has is its team. And you have to have a balance of work, personal life. And to me, taking a specific approach to have a connection with each and every staff member within our organization, understand what's driving them on a personal level and making sure that they're enjoying their life, that things are working out well for them, that we are dedicated to them, both professionally and personally. They are definitely dedicated to us to make sure that this organization is working well. And, you know, that I think is at the helm of everything. And my personal life, I love my family. I could do anything for them. Most families would, most individuals do that are associated with the organizations and they want to make sure that the organization they're working for helps them do what they're trying to do from their personal life. So what I do is try to make sure that I'm engaged on those levels to understand what it is that they're trying to accomplish and make sure that or our organization as a whole helps them accomplish those tasks at hand. Chef, from your side of this, how important is it that the companies that you work with actually understand your world hospitality versus just trying to sell into it? You know, I think the biggest thing with that that you're talking about is the fact that, you know, if they're going to come in and they don't really know what we're doing or what our vision is, then it's kind of a waste of time on both sides of it. And, you know, I love a well-prepared representative, but I also love somebody that has the same type of passion for what we're producing. You know, there has to be a mindset. Let me offer some insight here. So if it's me, I'm coming from the distribution lane. For me, it's more important that the salesperson is accessible over. John, we're talking about this earlier. You can say, yeah, I want to be accountable. Well, that's cool. What does that mean? If you're accessible, if you make yourself available for your client at the off times, five o'clock in the morning, midnight, whatever it takes, that's accessibility. That is what drives relationships deep, far out into the future. And those are the ones that, you know, when chef leaves, you know, location A to location B, they take you along. Correct. You never, you never leave. It's a relationship that never breaks. No, you definitely nailed it because in the end, Carl, I think that's one of the biggest reasons that we've spent so much time together over the years because, you know, I always knew that I could call you. I always knew that I could say, Hey, look, I need to have Boxing Eric Orveres or I need, you know, a case of this or that. And I knew at least I was going to get an answer. Yeah, that's a funny thing when I would hire salespeople. Support for walk and talk media comes from Crab Island Seafood Dip, creating chef driven crab dips made with real seafood and bold flavor. Learn more at CrabIslandSeafoodDip.com. I would, I would do interviews off offsite. I didn't want to do it in the warehouse. I didn't want to be stuffy. It was always like a coffee shop somewhere. And I would dart questions and let them talk. It would go for like an hour. Just, you know, just speaking, I want to hear how you're going to talk. What are you going to say? And when it comes down to one of those darts, and how do you feel about answering your phone? I am absolutely scoping body language, like on fire, you know, in an on fire way. Like I knew at that point, if this person was getting hired or not, because in the sales role, especially in the food industry, where all the hours are, you know, a mess for everybody. If you're not willing to participate in the communication process with your clients, there's no place for you here. That is the the single that is my pet peeve. The single most important thing to do is answer your phone. You don't even your product knowledge from, in my opinion, and I know a lot of people will, you know, fight me on this, whatever, but knowing your product is great, but that's not the most important thing. You need to back up your, you need to back up your clients. That's the most important thing. You could find out an answer on your phone now, you know, you speak it into your phone and you get an answer. All that stuff, it comes, but if you're actually going to be there to support you when you're up against the wall, that's the thumbs up. That's what counts. 100%. You know, it's chefs, chefs naturally don't want to call you anyways, but believe if they're calling, it's a, it's for a lifeline. And the other part too, you know, don't, don't forget this part. You know, you were able to really read people and you also kind of understand a couple of times I wasn't happy and where I was at and he said, let me, let me call a couple of people and see what I got for you. You know, that, that meant a lot to me too, because that wasn't the, that wasn't the professional part of Carl. That was the personal part of Carl and trying to make my life more happy. So you can offer that to everybody. And that's the truth. That, that was part of my personality, but it was also, it's also part of the relationship build. Of the relationship build. If I thought you were a clown, if I thought that you weren't a performing chef, because I'm not going to put my reputation out to try to get you a job that I look bad with, right? But it is part of the relationship build for the right people. Yes, sir. You know what I mean? And I, and I appreciate you saying that you didn't have to bring that up. John, you talked about solving problems for individuals versus solving for the team and, and realizing one doesn't scale. What triggered that shift for you? So when we're in a growth phase and you, you don't see a lot of overlap. Um, generally that's, that's when you're trying to fill those holes. Uh, in the end, what we were actually doing was just creating too many silos. And so that's where we needed to have different accountability. Um, and kind of pull back in, kind of refocus the team. So there's times that you can run hard and there's times you have to kind of pull back and, and that's a hard mix that, uh, you know, when you're always telling your team run as hard as you can, you know, chase as much as you, you can chase, go after every opportunity that's relevant to, to what our brand is strong at, and then telling them the kind of pullback to refocus that take another, another run at it. When you're a mile wide at an inch deep, it's hard to, to really have any sustainable growth. And that kind of goes back to the, my original philosophy, clean, simple, sustainable and scalable. And that's when it kind of occurred to me that we were having certain successes in certain categories of our business performance. We were growing in, say, national counts or we'd be growing in hotel and gaming or cruise line, uh, or street sales, but they weren't running at all the same pace. And so what I'd have to do is kind of pull back, reorganize what, what we were trying to focus on and then go back at that. And that's when we started to finally realize that it was more important to be sustainable than necessarily scalable. And that's why there's some times that I've been challenged on that, don't you want to be scalable more than you want to be sustainable? And the, the short answer is no, because you need to be sustainable before you can start going after it and more depth. Uh, that, that's the, the caveat, I think that most people miss in the industry is maybe they do figure out how to get a clean simple so that it is replicatable. So that when that messaging is getting out to the field, you know, we, we do work with our reps, we work through the reps that go through the distributors, distributors are generally the ones working with the, the end user, the, the national accounts. And that messaging from, in essence, my voice all the way out to the independent operator in, you know, Tampa, I got to be able to have that message get to them clean and simple. And if it doesn't, we have no chance of having a reputation that we're trying to accomplish as, as Rack Porcelain USA. And that's where that sustainability really kind of amps up. And we're now to the phase that we're pretty sustainable in most markets. Now we're starting to skill, skill that approach. If it isn't sustainable, it creates burnout. And if you create burnout, you stymie the whole operation without question. Rack is on a terrific pace and it feels solid. How we work together. To me, it's very organized and you guys have targets and you have goals and you're doing it in a smart way. The one thing that really kind of stands out to me, we're not trying to be anyone else, we're trying to be Rack Porcelain USA. And in my opinion, if you're chasing your competition, all you're doing is reinforcing the right strategy. And I disagree with that completely. We're not chasing anyone. Oh, we are doing it the Rack way. And, you know, in my opinion, that allows us to create the new standards that the market's looking for. And we're trying to find the right partners that want to stand up and stand out and not do things that were done just because it was advised to them that this made sense. And I have to say, I'm going to say something that I don't know. I'm willing to concede. No, I'm not going to say anything. I'm willing to have debate on what I'm going to say. And that is companies that spend too much time in KPI meetings are the ones that have a hard time acquiescing to their market. Obviously, KPI meetings are important. You have to have them. But if that is the main driver for every single thing that the business does, you lose the soul or heart or life of the business and your salespeople, those who are actually out with your clients, they lose the humanity side of what they're trying to do. And I feel like that's where a lot of companies end up landing. I could be wrong and I know I'm going to get flack for that. But at the end of it, what's the you? Yes, I agree with that answer. But I also think that you need to have balance. I think that if you start pushing too hard on any one thing, it's never a good thing. So what we try to do is have meetings that allow us to have longevity. So one of my favorite books is Traction was written by Gino Wickman. This session of Walk and Talk Media is made possible by Citrus America, delivering fresh Florida citrus and juice solutions to food service professionals nationwide. Learn more at CitrusAmerica.com. What you want to track for, say, a 10 year plan. And so that that 10 year plan, you have to have a three year plan that helps you get to that 10 year plan. And then you have a one year plan that helps you get to the three year and then you have a late 90 day rocks that help you get to the one year plan. And and if you're not working towards those goals, you're not working towards anything. And so you need to understand what you're trying to accomplish in order to be able to accomplish it. Most people don't set clear, sustainable goals. Remember when I was my very first class in college, I had a professor that said, you know, if you remember this one thing, you'll have a pretty successful career. And it in essence goes like this, that if you have company A company, B, both are digging ditches, the most ditches you could ever dig was say six. And the goal was seven in order to hit your bonus. You know, the company that set the goal at five, the other one company set the goal at seven, the one that set the goal, achievable goals was the one that was obviously successful, the one that set the goals at seven was never successful. And being able to put rocks in the place so that you can actually have achievable goals because everyone wants to feel good about themselves. Everyone wants to feel like they're accomplishing the task at hand. And when you don't feel like you're you're making those accomplishable tasks, that's definitely the best way to burn out your entire team. You want to be proud to work at the company that you're at. 100 percent. And you can only be proud. Number one, if you're successful at that company, you get successful because of the tools provided to you by the company. Part of the tools package is how they build out the the target structures and the goals and planning and whatnot. If it's done properly, man, you wake up every day and you say, you know what, I enjoy what I'm doing. You know why? Because I can do it. It's a it's a philosophy that, you know, I know from my own experiences that doesn't exist everywhere. Thomas, you've worked in larger operations and in doing that, you have to balance individuality as a chef with systems that have to work every single time. That's an important thing. We talk about that a lot. Earlier, we had a discussion and it was about how RAC has specific operations that do the same thing. Do you remember what that was? I do. And I think that would impress me most when I was kind of eavesdropping as I was setting up is the fact that with the tools that you were talking about, you know, RAC porcelain is we're seeing it in the business now that they're starting to separate themselves from the other competition. The production line and the plants that you guys have. And then the interesting education that you gave me about the fact that, you know, sometimes my plates don't match and there's off color or something like that. And I realized from what you told me is everything you guys can tell me exactly where and when those those products were produced from RAC porcelain and when I've never heard of that before. With us being in essence, the newest dinnerware manufacturer on the planet, our division as a whole is only 20 years old. So when we came online, we had the newest coolest state of the art equipment that any money could buy on the planet. You know, it's like having a brand new task kitchen. They get to work with all the newest coolest equipment that's out there or you can go to another restaurant and be working with equipment that's, you know, 30, 40, 50 years old. And that could be for some of these facilities, even newer equipment. When I was with another company in the United States, they had a piece of equipment that was still working from 1902. So the amount of effort that has to go into manufacturing on a piece of equipment that was, you know, that old, really cool to see, but it's not anywhere near as efficient as what we're doing in today's environment. And being able to say that we are a single source dinnerware manufacturer, that every single piece of production comes off of our lines is quite remarkable. It's unbelievable knowing we have over 10,000 SKUs not counting all the different decorations and patterns that we're making out of that in one facility is quite remarkable. And the technology that that's advanced over the last, you know, 20, 30, 40 years is remarkable. We're able to produce yields, you know, in the 97, 98%, which is, you know, well above standards of the industry right now. Same thing with our dinnerware manufacturing. The cycles for us, the fire or product are under, you know, three hours. The most are a minimum double that if not more. So, you know, being able to say that we are at 97% yield, that we're able to produce a fired product, you know, twice as fast as the industry standard. And then also the actual production, instead of it being, you know, 30, 40, 50 seconds a piece, we're able to actually produce pieces of product on our isostatic machines and under three seconds is quite remarkable. All new standards of the industry. Thomas, if I were in sales for RAC porcelain, I would lead with that every single time when I'm talking to a chef every single time. And you know why, how come? Well, mainly because, you know, when we need something like we needed today's Friday and we need it on Tuesday. And I think, you know, also understanding that we can trust in the fact that when these plates come in, when these deliveries come, you know, just from what John was saying, is that it's all going to be the same. It's all coming from one area and one place. And fast and fast. You can't beat fast, fast wins and just about everything. Obviously quality has to be there. If you don't have the quality, then you're out of, you just out of the game. You know, you can talk about pricing. Pricing is what it is. But if you don't have the quality or that, depending on your brand or whatever that service value proposition, then you're out of luck. You lose with everything being equal, let's say speed destroys everybody. If you can deliver before the other guy, you win period. Which is the way it works, even if you're a little bit more expensive too. And if your quality matches that dollar, you blow everybody up. John, when a chef and a brand really, truly trust each other, what becomes possible that normally doesn't happen in this food industry of ours? Add to me is probably that the, the crocs of this entire podcast, you're able in essence to create the new standards that the market's trying to achieve. When they, when you can have a factory that is, I don't want to say unlimited resources, unlimited creativity, and you get that, that ability in front of the right, right chef, the right influencers, we can create anything that is desired for them, but we need both. It goes hand in hand. If the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing, you're not in sync. If the left hand's not doing what the right hand's doing, it's not in sync. When, when they're working together in unison, that's where poetry comes from. Comes from. And that's what the rack stands for, is trying to set the new standard in all tabletop things. And when we get to work and see what, what chefs can create, it's, it's absolutely remarkable that they take our canvas and, and apply that art to it. Got me. I mean, that's it right there. You nailed it. And, you know, let's take this even farther than just chefs. The entire organization and the entire, you know, hospitality is the fact that you can help us create that identity and what we're trying to produce and what we're trying to serve. So when I say this industry of ours, it's a giant, massive thing. And there's so many different layers to it. Different people, responsibilities, companies, categories, whatever. From where you guys are sitting, what does this industry need more of right now to move forward the right way? This is 2026. We know what our challenges are. What do we do? We need more independent thinkers. What I see happening right now in the industry is the people that have been at the helm have been at the helm for a long time. I think the people that should be at the helm are not necessarily getting as much mainstream attention that we need. And that's exactly where Walk and Talk comes in. I think people don't know the right questions to be asking to be getting the right solutions. And as more and more people are watching what we're doing here, watching what you guys are doing here, looking for solutions outside of the standards that were currently being said, I think that from a marketing standpoint, there are several phases of product introductions or brand introductions. And generally, there's the early adopters, there's the mainstream, and then there's the late adopters. And it gets more complicated than that. But what generally happens for the mainstream is what's established has typically been established, and they fight very hard to stay as that establishment. And generally, the ones that are actually forward thinking, looking, that's where the new trends are set. That's where the new standards are set. And I think in order for things to move in those directions, I don't want to be the standard where 80% of the business is done on 20% of the product. Now, I don't need to be in every market, seeing the exact same thing. I've traveled almost every city in this country and a lot of them look alike. It's the same main players, the same restaurants, the same, the same. What we need to do is be able to be a little bit more unique, stand up, stand out, express yourself and make sure that you're putting yourself in a position that allows you to be an independent thinker. And I think that in the end, if you were opening up a steakhouse and you lived on the East Coast, you're going to Manhattan to see what the coolest, newest steakhouse is, and you're going to try to replicate that. If you're in the Midwest, you're going to go to Chicago, if you're on the West Coast, you're going to go to LA, you're going to try to replicate what those signature brands are doing in those signature markets. And generally the flyover states, middle America, which is where some people think that I live, I still think Ohio is on the East Coast, but that's a topic of another discussion. But nonetheless, it generally takes two, three years for those to be kind of re-in through the entirety of the markets. And what happens is a lot of it kind of gets stale by the time it gets to a lot of the markets. And I think that if they could stand up and stand out and look to see what's actually available, I think there'd be a lot more cool things running across this country. What I think is honestly consistency, being genuine and passion. And, you know, was this 192, the episode 192? You know, if you guys didn't bring those three things into the basket, you wouldn't be sitting here right now getting and setting ourselves up for episode two on it. And I think it's missing, um, generally in this profession. Great experience today. And I mean that between everybody here, even you, John, uh, John Hernandez, John, photographer, John, um, super excited about what's going on here. We got Testo, uh, their new segment coming up this month in April, um, with Eric Moore. It's going to be about food safety, all things food safety. So everybody loves that. It's a great thing. Super excited. John, Maria, you had fun today? Absolutely. It was an absolute blast. It was a blast. I know you had a good time. I saw it on your face. I saw it. How do people, uh, how do chefs follow you? What's the best way? Easiest way to find us would be going on Instagram and just following us on rack porcelain USA. Chef, as always, you, you brought the goods, man. Thank you for having us. And they're gorgeous. This, this is Michelin level stuff. I'm just putting it out there like that. Michael Calantes, eat your heart out. Watch out. He's coming for you. John, baby, you are a genius. I appreciate you so much. Guys, thanks for everything. We are out. I'm in the kitchen with Charlie Bigham. So what have we got here, Charlie? My brand new pan fry pad Thai noodles. Noodles, but your Mr. Fish Pie Guy. Guilty. And while ovens rule at roasting, the pan is king of noodling. Whether it's pad Thai, yaki, soba or laxer, finding that perfect texture is a bottomless noodle rabbit hole. But all I have to do is stir it in the pan for six minutes, right? Bingo. Try the new Charlie Bigham's Asian Pan Fry noodle range handmade in my kitchen. Pan fried in yours.