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All right. here we go.
I got the Robert Irvine Black Polo on.
I love it. I'm ready to go.
it's Halloween and I got my favorite character on.
We are good to go. I thought you'd like that um and then also for me and my wife when we were in grad school, it was wild because your show meant so much so wild cuz I always had dreams about entrepreneurship, and I learned from you.
From a distance. Entrepreneurship is such an amazing thing.
I have now 16 companies, 8 ,000 employees, and it never stops.
It gets more exciting every day.
And the more you get out there, and I know you have a lot of, I don't know, downloads, whatever, but the more you get out there amongst, where do you live?
I'm in Ohio, Columbus.
So we gotta get you down to Tampa to the CEO's Conference, right?
The more that you get around these kind of people that are multi -billionaire people, you're the type of person that they hire to solve problems. I mean, I work for some big companies now, very big, Fortune 500 companies now for the last 10, 12 years.
And they pay ridiculous amounts of money for what I consider simple fixes.
But it's about putting yourself around the people that can't afford you.
But they want to listen to you.
I think that's really important for you.
And for me, and for anybody else that's an entrepreneur.
Yes. And I, you know, and it took me a while to figure that out.
but I finally got a blueprint for it.
So well, let's talk about the blueprint, Robert, because you've had so much success from back in England when you were in the military to being a chef and then having the celebrity career plus all of these businesses.
But you've been able to find success in each and every realm and conversations are an integral part of that process for you.
So in general, when you think about conversations or human interaction, what is your philosophy and your approach?
It's really simple.
I have done most of my business, and you'll laugh when I say this or you'll cry either way.
It's done in a bar, right?
And drinking tequila.
If I do a big dinner somewhere, I always toast the team with a tequila afterwards, and I can tell you, whether it be NASCAR, whether it be USO, whether it be American Airlines, whether it be – I can name a thousand things.
all my deals have been done or at least began in bars by just saying, hey, can I buy you a drink when they say, thank you, chef, for the meal, can I buy you a drink?
Yes. What do you do?
And that's the conversation.
So when I say conversations are important, I would say conversation at the beginning, relationships are the important part.
Right, right. And it's so simple, But at the same time, so many people miss it because they get distracted with other things.
And so for people who are missing this simplicity and are forgetting about the relationship, based on your experience, what are the causes of that mistake?
Well, there's a couple of causes.
I think ego is one.
Right? Because people, they're getting to their own business or in positions of power, all of a sudden feel they are untouchable or unlistenable or communicating both, so a word that was made of it, or can't communicate.
And by that, I mean, if you look, I'll give you an example.
If I have a general in the army, a private doesn't go to a general, it goes to a sergeant, a corporal, a sergeant, a warrant officer, et cetera.
etc. It doesn't go straight to the general.
Well, that's how it used to be.
Nowadays, they start.
When I was in the military, I couldn't go up to a one star and I worked for a two star Admiral.
I couldn't just go out and say, Hey, Bob, hey, John.
Hey, what, hey, sir, you know, what's going on in the military today?
And today's military, you can do that, which is kind of a real 360 from where I grew up in.
So I was always, yes, sir, no, sir in the military.
But when I came out, we were still yes, sir, no, sir.
But then I would ask another question and say, or not another question, a question say, why do you do it this way?
Without being disrespectful because that then garners the conversation.
Right. Then when I got out of the military, it was, oh, can I buy you a cup of coffee or a drink And tell me what you do.
What's the biggest problem?
What's your biggest headache?
Why is that? And the questions and if you look at my shows, there's only five questions I ask in rapid succession and it's based on their business.
Why did you get into it, number one?
What were your visions?
Number two, when you got into the business, was your wife included in that decision or did you make it on your own?
were your children consulted?
And where are you now?
Wow. Oh, that's fascinating.
That's really fascinating.
That's why that's important for me.
It's because we as men in what I consider up until recently, by the way, I'll say that, a male -dominated business world.
That's changed dramatically over the last 10 years.
I'd say more so the last five.
Now we've got female CEOs which is amazing because the women are way smarter than men, believe me.
Really, I'm not kidding.
And I'm not just saying that for you.
And I really believe that women are emotional but they're really smart.
And I'll give you an example in a second.
But the reason I ask these questions even on the show is because by the time I've asked the first question and you're answering the first question and I've already got to the fifth question.
So by the time you're answering me, now you're confused at what I asked you and you're telling me the truth.
It's an old interrogation technique they used in the military many, many years ago.
And it still works this day and I can tell you, I've used it on numerous CEOs of Fortune -Finding companies and got real information in less than 10 minutes than they would never share with their closest secretary of 22 years or assistant or whatever, or their mother.
It's really interesting because then you can start to unravel what's going on with their business.
This is interesting, so you have the five questions, but we also have the setup where we're talking about just breaking down the barriers with food, with drink, creating a true connection with the person.
Let's go deeper into this because I think this would be fascinating for folks because high level people like CEOs.
And I know you've met with all levels of people from small business owners to presidents and heads of state, and you can get them to share.
But especially the higher you get, oftentimes the bigger the ego gets and they come in with this defensive barrier protecting themselves.
They have confidential information they wanna protect.
They have an image that they wanna protect.
They want ideas that they wanna protect.
So let's go deeper.
How do you get them to open up?
Again, trust is number one.
I think they have to trust you.
When you first meet somebody, you don't have that trust. But what you do have before you walk in the door—and let me tell you, when you're going to meet any CEO, or any VP, or anybody of any rank in any organization, they're going to have already done their research on you.
Believe me. They'll have a dossier on you.
Believe me, when you walk in the door.
Now, authenticity is the number one thing I tell everybody.
Don't try and be something you're not when you're not that person.
I'm the same to you as I am to the President of the United States, whoever they are.
I don't mix words. I tell you as it is.
And then I tell you how you're going to do it.
And that's a true story where I'm concerned with food and operational stuff that I do.
I think if you're authentic, authenticity will always ring through.
If you're passionate, you'll see it number one.
It's a thing you can't, you can ask a question of me.
I'm gonna tell you the answer as it is the way I say it.
Almost like, what's the guy I was on watching last night, the sports centers.
So Stephen... Oh, Stephen A.
Smith. Smith, yes. I was watching him last night and I was so, he's not a guy that I've ever watched before.
He's not a guy that, I'm not a sports guy so I would never watch him.
But he was on a political show last night and his answers and his questions were very thoughtful.
But he was very authentic in his answers was when he'd give it to the audience because he didn't know what was coming.
And automatically I was drawn to him because of his authenticity.
When somebody trying to put words in his mouth, he said, no, stop.
This is exactly what I said and how I said it.
And I think CEO of Walmart or the whatever, and I walk in, he knows who I am A, from a TV show, B, because I sell a lot of business, do a lot of business for them.
But B, he knows that on a Saturday when he invites me to a Saturday morning meeting with two of thousand of his closest associates, I'm not going to change.
I'm Robert Irvine. I'm the same.
And I'll give you an example.
Doug McMillan, when I first met him, the Chairman or CEO of Walmart, I'd been on a flight all night.
I'd done a live show the night before somewhere else, 5 ,000 people signing.
It was 6 o 'clock in the morning.
I was dog tired. I jumped in a hotel, shower changed, got to the Walmart place where I'm speaking, and Pally LaBelle was there.
By the way, I didn't even know who she was, and that's a true story.
That's how, you know, like, how I am.
And a guy came up and he says, Robert, thanks so much for coming.
He had a pair of jeans and a tee -shirt on.
I said, oh, nice to meet you.
What's your name? What do you do?
He said, I'm Doug McMillan.
I'm the CEO of Walmart.
And my team just cringed.
He just laughed. And I said, that's a good gig if you can get it, huh?
And that broke the ice, completely.
And from that day forward, we've been friends ever since.
So, you know, I think when you, that authenticity piece is just be real, don't put A .S.
and graces and bragging.
All that kind of stuff that people tend to do when they, you don't need to impress anybody.
You're there already because they want you there for a reason.
They're already impressed with you.
Otherwise, they won't invite you to that.
So you don't need to do all that stuff.
You're right. And it's so funny because at the end of the day, you go you think back to when we were kids, what do our parents tell us?
Hey, be yourself, you know, and be trustworthy.
Someone who's worthy of being trustworthy.
Hard nowadays to do because of social media and trying to keep up with the jonesism.
And I've been there, done that.
It doesn't work. You know, early in my career, I thought once I made TV, I was the biggest guy on the planet, right?
And then you realize that you're just this little guy on a TV show, the end days, that really people can or can't tune into.
Willow won't listen to you.
Now it's very different because you're in 170 countries, you know, a billion viewers, a business, entrepreneurship, you know, people that want to get better.
And I don't think I've changed since, maybe a little softer now, cause I listen to a little bit more.
But you know, I used to go in and just railroad, I don't care what your feelings are.
And that's why I said when I told you about the five things I ask now, they're really important, because, What's the word I would use?
Empathetic leadership, understanding that, maybe your mom has autism or your mum fell down the steps and you come into work and you're having a bad day because your family's had a bad day and you're somewhere else.
I need to know that your son or daughter is autistic, and I'm gonna say to you, hey, Granny, you know what?
Go home, I've got you, take what time you need, go and do your thing, I'm still gonna pay you, just take care of your business first. What does that do?
Number one, it tells them that I care about them, number two, they come back out of this world because you have taken care of them and their family, they're going to be the best associate employee, friend, whatever you want to call it on the planet.
I'll give you an example of that.
I go to a coffee shop, Wawa, in Tampa, Florida.
And I was making coffee one day and I said to the girl, how are you doing today?
And she said, doing great, thank you.
I said, well, how long you work with Wawa?
And she said, oh, four months.
and she could show me the whole life story, literally.
You know, divorced four kids, worked at another coffee shop, I won't say who it is.
But when she came to Wah -Wah at Christmas, she had no money for presents, no money for kids, couldn't pay her bills.
Her manager at Wah -Wah found out, called the corporate office, the corporate office, bought everything on her wish list for her kids, pay the bills, and she'd still, she'd be a lifelong employee of Wawa because of that.
And I think that's what empathy and empathetic leadership is, understanding your people that work with you alongside you.
Mm, that's powerful.
That's powerful. And, and Robert, I cannot let you get away with this.
You just, you just slipped this in because you said now you've become more empathetic, right?
And remember, I watched hundreds of your episodes.
You used to eviscerate people.
And I know even my wife and I, Robert, to this day in horrible British accents, quote some of your zingers.
And... Yeah, there's a few memes out there.
Yeah. So, think about the success you've already had in your career, right?
From the outside, looking in, you have everything, you have the books, you have the businesses, you have the TV show.
You were in the military, you still work with the military.
And yet deep into your career, you made this shift to become more empathetic.
What changed for you and how did you go about making that change?
I think for me, it was an episode I did and my daughter was sixteen at that time.
She's 24 now. So you you know, 8 years ago, 10 years.
There. It was longer than that 10 years ago and there was a young man that was £600 autistic, in a wheelchair, very rare disease, going to die.
And I went in there like a whirlwind because we only have 48 hours and it's tough.
It's real. It's no BS.
It's just get in there, see it, measure it, figure it out and fix it.
Um and it's so funny because uh L .J.
was his name. And we fixed the restaurant and I took a door off a closet or it was a service station because I don't like doors on service stations.
I want to see it clean and all that kind of stuff.
And then just before we opened the doors after 48 hours of real like intense work and I mean really intense I said to Tom my I said, that wall doesn't have a picture.
I need a picture on that wall.
And it was just so people would walk past it and see it.
That's all. And they had to fit the colors of what I just did the restaurant in.
So he went into where we took everything out of, a pod, and he found this picture and he tacked it up two minutes before we opened door.
Literally he says, this is okay, I said, yeah, put it up.
Well, we let the owners in, let the son in his wheelchair, and now he's 300 pound autistic.
He came in the wheel, they came in the wheelchair and then all of a sudden he glanced in this this service station saw this picture and jumped out of his wheelchair and bow I mean grabbed me and took me to the floor.
I mean literally put me on the floor and I'm like I'm like what's up what's going on well you know what's happening?
and they'll become the crew and everybody's going nuts because I'm on the floor and then you're okay." And I'm like, yeah, I'm great.
Don't, whoa, what's it?
LJ, what's this? And his mum piped up and said, that's the painting that he went on a Maker Wish foundation, he painted that picture.
Right, so if that's not serendipity, I don't know what is, or God's interaction because I didn't pick it, Tom dead, because it was the colors of the restaurant.
And just before, so that happened and then just before his mom gave me an envelope and just started to cry and I said, this is unusual, I'm giving you a restaurant and you give me an envelope.
And she opened it I said, what is it?
I said, I opened it and I said, what is it?
She said, it's my eviction notice so my house would be evicted.
And at that moment, I'm like, you have a son who I know is dying.
I have a restaurant full of people, including my 16 -year -old daughter.
We are filming, and this is all live, we don't stop and cut and tape and da da da.
I open it up and I said, okay.
They need 70, 80 thousand dollars, whatever it was.
I said, oh, two, three, my brain kicks in, I pick up the phone, and we're life.
We're doing the whole thing.
I call Mark Summers, my producer, I say, I need $10 ,000 from you.
I said, don't ask why.
And he said why. I said, I told you, don't ask why.
I said, just say yes.
And he said yes. I said, good.
Okay. I wrote a check, right, for $30 ,000.
he gave me 10, and I did 20.
And I said, I'm gonna write this check.
I'm gonna give it to your mortgage company so we can settle everything down so you don't get thrown out, right, evicted.
Then we went on with the show.
Then we like revealed the restaurant, then we were, but all this was before.
The reveal of the restaurant was really secondary to the pain that this family were going through.
Restaurant that I've just fixed, but come in like a whirlwind like, you know, hammer.
A son that's dying, and by the way, LJ died two years after that, and he's on every episode of my shows.
There's a picture of him.
Even in my live shows, which I do in front of live audiences up to 5 ,000.
He's in my video screens.
Because I never want to forget that moment, because in that moment I said, hey, you know, here's this check, it's going direct, something like, here's this check, it's going directly to your mortgage companies, you won't be evicted.
The rest we'll figure out afterwards, and we did.
And that was a chain because I said, family is more important than anything.
And my daughter came up to me.
They were crying. My daughter was crying and I cried.
first time on national television I've ever cried.
And I think that was the change of the listening piece.
We don't know what these people are going through, or you don't know standing next to someone on a bus or a train what they're going through.
You don't know what your employees are going through.
And I think that was the change and I mean, change immediate for me, when I saw my daughter crying, their story, than my story, and you can see it.
You can watch from that show and the rest of the shows I take it too.
There was a definitive moment in that show.
That's incredible. That's so powerful.
And it goes back to what you were talking about at the beginning.
The human connection.
It's crazy. I've always been a god and when I say god, people go, oh, you're one of them?
I'm like, yeah, I'm a god -fearing man.
Absolutely. I am. I am faithful to my wife, I do everything there is to do that I'm supposed to do.
But where I thought being a hammer and getting things done and making it beautiful and teaching them was more important than the humanistic side of things and I was wrong.
I just never changed.
I still have 48 hours but now I have to condense.
So if you imagine I go in a in the morning, I wouldn't start moving out the equipment, their furniture, and whatnot till two in the afternoon.
Cause I really wanted to figure it out.
Wow. And then I still have to open the next night at six or seven o 'clock in the evening with a full restaurant full of turns.
So I learned, I learned to be really good at it.
But it was that moment I would say that changed my life.
That's powerful. And that was, I'm going to say something that is really weird, but God will only give you as much pressure as you can take and get you ready for the next chapter.
And I truly believe that was that moment.
Wow. It's, first of all I'm going to go back and find that episode and watch that.
I'll find out. I'll send it to you.
Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that And the second thing is to I think for a lot of folks who are kind of doing business in the traditional way We're focused on the numbers It's all about the P &L bottom line all that type of stuff driving toward that these stories seem almost fanciful but your career demonstrates the opposite because you've become more empathetic and more successful at the same time and Hey, I think what sort of envisioning you right now with the wisdom that you have right now going back 20 years to talking to Robert Irvine right then when he's hard charging and driving and you're
saying, hey, you can actually be empathetic, you can listen, you can care and connect as a human and still be successful in business.
How would you go back and try to convince yourself back then that it can be done?
I don't think I would have because I just believe that there is a series of steps in our journeys, each one of us.
And that was a step in mine.
People say to me, if you could change anything, what would it be?
I don't think I would change anything in my life, anywhere because they've been stepping stones to get to where I am.
That means the failures and I've had failures, I wrote a book, Overcoming Impossible, The Wins And The Losses, because I couldn't get to everybody that I needed to because we can only do one now, two restaurants a week.
So for me, I wouldn't change.
I wouldn't go back.
I wouldn't say, Robert, you can have all, because I don't think I would have the drive to change.
When you're in the military, you're very hard. You get the stuff done, you do things that you look back on later, and you're like, well, I had to do it because of this, right?
you have to protect people, you have to protect yourself, you have to do all these things.
But I also think if you ask any veteran, that military service sets them up for success, meaning teamwork, excellence, leadership qualities, all the things that we get taught in the military, but when you come outside, it's very different because it's a cutthroat society outside.
Somebody who wants my job, they're gonna tell the boss whatever they wanna tell them about me and step all over me.
In the military you don't get that or very rarely do you get that.
You take your exams, you work as a squad, eventually your name comes to the top of the list and you get promoted.
If you're the right candidate in the outside world it's not like that.
And you have to surround yourself And this is what I said earlier.
Connections are more important than conversations.
Conversations start it, but this week is Buddy Week, Veterans Association Buddy Week, right?
And what does that mean?
Reach out to 10 of your friends that are in the military or veterans and talk to them, see how they're doing.
I do that every week, 20 or 30 or 40 people every week, LinkedIn, phone calls, texts.
That's hard work. believe me, having the time, because we're all busy, you know, I've got a wife, I travel, we've got, you know, 15, 16 businesses, we got 8 ,000 employees, we're all busy, but you have to make the time to keep those relationships tight.
And I'll tell you why.
I was listening to a podcast of a Master Gunnery Sergeant yesterday, his good friend of mine, Scott Stalker, and you should have him on one day.
Amazing guy. He was in charge of a cybercom, spacecom, mean, smartest guy on the planet.
And he had a young lady on a military spouse who was talking about one on one teaching about how to lead people.
I was so inspired by I said like, just give my sender my email, and I'll send it to all my people, right?
Because I have a big network can help her three kids.
And she like, you do that for me?
I'm like, Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, in a nanosecond, and I think that's what's the point of having relationships if you can't use them.
Now, that doesn't mean get jobs.
That means introduce you, get you talking and then you have to sell yourself and what you sell, what your product is or what your service is.
But I think the bigger network you have, the more fun it is because we put it, we do a lot of stuff, but we put people together in a room, you know, every couple of weeks and just let them network and see who can do what for who and why.
And it's just great to see the responses of people just saying, hey, this guy introduced me and he's like, I got my first job.
Isn't it great? That means I'm like a proud dad.
I can't get you the job but I can put you in the room.
Right. So and I think that's, again, it's communication first, hey, ta da.
Then it's relationship driven.
And that the hard work in entrepreneurship is taking the time to keep connecting with new people.
Hello, my friends. Before we get back to today's episode, I want to ask you a question.
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We can use that excuse of being too busy to create new relationships.
We can make that excuse of being too busy to actually create a true connection and we just try to be as transactional and fast as possible so we can get to a desired outcome.
Not recognising the beauty of connection could lead us to synergies that we could have never foreseen.
I go out for dinners with people and I get introduced to people and it's nothing to do with business.
was I started with people in the military, the colonels and our four -star generals, right?
And I've kept those relationships for years.
It seems they do my business relationships because they're not business anymore.
They're friends. I just happen to do business with them.
And I think for me, I wake up every day, I got to tell you, I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. I wake up every day.
I've never worked a day in my life.
And people say that, I'm serious.
I, when I was in a kitchen and making eggs, and you said celebrity, I hate that word. I make eggs for a living.
There are better chefs out there than me, my two corporate chefs, one's being with me 30 years, one 15 years or 12 years, four seasons, 20 years.
There are way better chefs than I'll ever be, ever.
But if you say to me, oh, we're gonna feed 30 ,000 people in the middle of Afghanistan and we have no food, no equipment, and you got to figure it out, but you've got eight hours to get it done.
Guess what, I'll do it.
I don't care. We'll figure it out." And that's been my whole - I built a career on the impossible.
I don't believe in the word impossible.
I believe if you have people, and this is where the entrepreneurship comes in, and your friendships and the communication comes in.
You hire people for your team that are smarter than you and allow them to do their job.
Meaning I can say all I want, I write the checks, this is a cup.
Some of you say, no, it's a plane.
And I say, what are you talking about?
It's a cup. But it could be a plane if we did this, this and this.
And that's how I run my companies.
Each has a CEO, CMO, CFO, they all report up to a 36 year old young man, who is amazing, who used to make my tea and coffee on a TV show, 16 years ago.
Now he runs all my companies and me.
So you have to be able, again, that ego piece, to listen and I'm going to go back to a thing.
I said a minute ago when I said women are way smarter than men.
I've only hired 8 ,000 people in my whole career, in my businesses, not in my whole career.
Three of them I hired from the army, CW5s.
My wife said to me, so basically the team gets to talk to them for us for an hour, and my last one is my wife.
My wife said, oh, I don't think they're going to be good for you.
I don't think they're going to be good for you.
I said, Yeah, they are.
I hired them. $3 million later, two years, lost, by the way, I had to go to her and I said, You know what, I'm going to fire these three people.
She said, I told you, and I said, I will never doubt you ever again.
I fired them, the business went through the roof, and that's my practice.
I never go to kids what my wife says Because she has it women are intuitive of people that are gonna protect you and be with you and and work with you and All the rest of it just falls into place if you hire the right people Mmm, this is brilliant and a and Robert I think well well over 50 % of my team is comprised of women and they will love this part of the show.
And I will make sure that they never see it because their egos are too inflamed.
You make sure they share.
I'm going to go online and tell them.
You're so right. You're so right.
And I see it so many times I don't understand.
I don't fully understand it, but it goes to what you're saying.
It's the intuition.
And I'm learning to trust it a lot more.
And I think that's the benefit of diversity as well.
Different people, different backgrounds different perspectives, and we all help each other in different types of ways.
And then the business advances because of it.
And I only wish our country was like that.
Right. Instead of being so divisive, and I don't get into policy, it's never will, never have. If people could understand, somebody is going to win, somebody is going to lose.
And we have to come together or whoever it is, no matter what it is, to walk across, right?
But our job should be to make sure that we can help those less fortunate.
The people are not getting the healthcare, that are not getting the financial aid they need, not getting the schooling they need, not getting the healthcare they need.
That is what I look at in my daily life, not just for the country, for all my people.
That's what I believe in.
That's what the foundation is about.
That's something that you, I don't think you can be taught that.
I think that comes from your parents, you know, from when you're a kid.
Um, both my girls, you know, one's almost a doctor, one's almost a criminal lawyer, she's already a lawyer, but criminal lawyer, 22 and 24.
Um, and I, and I, I love what they do, which is helping people your whole life is, is meant to be about helping them progress into the next level of whatever that is they want to do with my chefs the same.
I just told you, Justin, my CEO was making my tea and coffee.
At 21 years old, he came to work for me.
He's now 36, almost 37.
I don't know any other 37 -year -old that makes as much as he does, unless you're in Silicon Valley.
Right? But he was in a hallway making 100 call calls a day in between doing a TV show.
So, work is the work ethic, the attitude, and all those other things, the conversations, and the relationships, and something I learned from him.
When somebody gives them a business card, or they don't even do that, and now they've touched phones, and it's all there, but they've got an email the minute he gets there, they've got an email to their office, the minute he gets there.
I've never seen anybody, even with enlisted aides, or executive assistants that do that, nobody.
It pays off so, so much. Immediately, they get an email, you get an response back, that's your communication star.
Hey, I'm flying in next week, you want to have dinner?
Let's have dinner. Then all of a sudden, it may take a week, a month, a year, But if you nurture those relationships, something big comes out of them, and I can guarantee that.
This is such an important reminder.
It's going back to the fundamentals of human connection.
It's so powerful. And I think - I was just asked to give a speech at Harvard. I can't tell you why.
But one of my companies has reached a really big number.
that, really, I mean, in the bees.
I didn't have any money when I started it.
I bootstrapped it credit carded it.
I didn't take any institutional money.
I only use my own money.
And it's got to this humongous company that, at some point you'll hear about it tomorrow.
You'll see how big it is, it will make front page news.
And you got the scoop ahead of time.
I can't tell you what it is.
But again, I was the guy that finished a TV show and go to a store and say, Can you buy this product?
I was a sales guy. I was I was the maker.
I was the recipe guy.
I was the sales guy I was there's nothing when people say to me, oh I can't do that they will they will take my call I've done that I banged on the door I didn't take no and I wasn't a tv super I was on tv I just started um a long time ago and and I I wouldn't accept no for an answer I I've become annoying to the point that they'll say okay yeah come in dude just to get rid of you You know Should have been slept with a stalker sticker.
But But let's put unless you keep persisting You'll never be successful unless you have something that's unique and nobody else does it you'll never be successful and I know it doesn't have to be I is a brilliant female.
She's probably got, I don't know, a thousand, two thousand patents on stuff.
She decided to put a piece of felt on a wire coat hanger to stop the clothes falling off the wire coat hanger.
Made a billion dollars, right?
It doesn't have to be, it's just common sense, nine out of 10 times, it's common sense things, that help and make easier for other people to go about their daily life.
Entrepreneurship is about failing, picking yourself up, try and again, getting a unicorn, if you can get a unicorn on a win, but if you don't and you fail, you go back to drawing board and you keep going back and back and back and back until you have that hit.
One win deletes 24 L's.
Wow. Wow. And it doesn't have to be a big win, as long as it's a win, because that gives you the energy to keep going back.
And I use Jeff Bezos as a prime example, right?
Who would have known 30 years ago that a book, right?
Would turn into a $202 billion empire or Elon Musk, whenever he said he was a nut case.
They told, by the way they said Henry Ford was a nutcase too, right?
and then he puts a rocket in the air two weeks ago and catch catches the rocket booster back in the arms because he had the audacity to try something when everybody told him no and I think that's my biggest when people tell me no it's like red rag to a bull really okay and I've got companies and again I won't tell you where they are but just because of what's happening.
But I've got companies that people told me, don't touch it because they're under the 231 of these.
And I said, oh, but mine's gonna be different.
And it is, and it was, and it worked.
And that blueprint, and we can go into that another time offline, but that blueprint I use in every company I build.
And it works, We know how it works, we know how to scale it.
And scaling a business, this is something, and I do veteran shark tanks, I do...
At a TV show, it never took off, actually, because the MeToo movement and the person that green lit it at CBS was fired because of MeToo, which is fine.
He deserved it, but I had a Shark Tank for Kids.
but I won't tell you what the idea is so I'm going to go back with it soon, but it was helping kids and entrepreneurs as kids start their first businesses, and it was really interesting.
No cash involved. It was all social media and whatever.
Kids are smart. They doodle, and they do things at school, and they come home, and they say, oh, look, Dad, mom.
Well, that's not a bad idea.
And I think that's what we're missing.
We're missing the nurturing piece of the communication.
We have coffee time.
I just started a company called Grubber, which is self -ordering technology at the stand in Florida, but we're all over the world now.
But it's just coffee time and book reading and exchanging of ideas and books, what to read like we do in the military.
And they have a book club now.
And again, it's that communication of sitting down for 10 minutes a day before every restaurant I've ever had, and in the Pentagon, we have a restaurant in the Pentagon right now.
Before we open the doors, six o 'clock, everybody breaks for breakfast at 5 .30.
They eat together, clean up, and they open doors at six.
If We have a school called Glow Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina.
I helped fundraise for it.
400 underprivileged kids, boys and girls that get fed, they get clothed, they get curriculum, 97 % success college graduation.
And yet, and they're from gang families and low income families.
I'm not saying they're all gang families either, but you know, if they can do it in North Carolina, why can't we do other places?
And we can, if we have like -minded leaders and I'm looking at you as a lawyer, me as a chef, you know somebody that owns a gas station, it's just putting like -minded people together to help those that can't or don't have the ability or the finances to help themselves.
You know, I think it's the military does it.
The Navy, our Army, they have a pre -joining because not one one pre -joining school, so not one person or very few in the United States of they're already obese, so 15 to 16 years that you gotta do, I think it's 22 weeks, where they get you ready for you to do your exams and do your physical fitness to go into the military, and they're hugely successful, but why can't we do that with people in general?
Why can't we give them the skillset?
You may, you're a smart guy, I'm not.
When I joined the Navy, I joined because I was a bad kid.
You know, my mother called and I was drinking beer at 11 years old with my buddies in the house and I got caught.
At 15 years old she marched me to the recruitment office, signed away my life.
I took a mass and English test, one being the highest, five being the lowest. I got 5 .5, that's how I became a cook.
By the way, I wanted to become a cook.
But if I wanted to be an aircraft mechanic, another 22 weeks of schooling may have helped that.
I didn't, by the way, I wanted to be a cook.
But why can't we do that with, I was not a good school kid.
I didn't like school.
And there are people like me and there are smart people like you that can do it.
I was not interested in school but a vocational school I would be interested in.
So I look at it again, how can I, I'm going to take, I'm going back to my businesses again because that's where we are.
If I can educate them or get them more schooling and make them more money, then I'm doing my job.
It's not about just employing you, you can have a job anywhere and make money anywhere.
But if I can give you a skill set that now you're making more money or you're getting a piece of a company on a sale of a company, all of a sudden, you're in a whole different world.
And nobody should start a business unless they have a very unique idea, a great business plan.
And I don't even need P &L because P &L is just a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper that you say oh I did I didn't and I can I can say yes we're gonna make you know a hundred million or we're gonna make fifty million or we can make twenty and oh we didn't make it oh yeah we exceeded it because I can sandbag all that you know.
It's not about that, it's about what makes you unique in the business you're going into and how many other people are You're doing it.
P &L, I don't care about P &L, you just tell me you're going to make money.
What the cost of your product is and how we're going to get it to market.
The rest is easy. And keeping it simple.
And I think a lot of times we overcomplicate these processes and that's what messes us up.
Well, that's why I'm going to Harvard and giving this talk about, you know, with MBAs and all these other folks and CEOs, I didn't go to school for business.
I joined the military to cook.
Now I have a, I would say, a pretty big empire.
My empire, which is not big, but it's pretty big, that I love and it grows every day because the people that I have surrounded myself with, take it not only to my senior leadership, take a piece of the company, by the way, that's a big incentive for me to give them after certain points.
It's their business.
When you're invested in something, we have a rule and you can ask any of my guys, if I get a call from DC at two o 'clock in the morning, three minutes past two when I'm finished, my guys get the call.
They have 10 minutes to reply back to me.
That's my rule. I don't tell them when to go on vacation.
I don't tell them what to do.
They know what the vision is because we give them the vision.
If they want to go on four weeks vacation, go ahead.
I'm still going to pay you.
That's what we do. And that's what we've done from day one.
Even through COVID we laid nobody off.
Nobody. And I'm very proud of that.
But that again turns into loyalty.
So. It's powerful. Robert, I appreciate this and I know you're busy.
I know you're on the road, you're on the brink of something big, so I want to be respectful of your time.
I just want to say again, I appreciate you.
I appreciate everything you've done.
I appreciate everything you stand for.
Before you go, I just want to give you another opportunity to let the listeners know again, about there's so many options, the new book and what they should look out for you.
Look out for from you next.
I think that the biggest thing for me now is yeah, if you can get a copy of overcoming possible.
It's on Amazon, I think it's like 10 bucks.
I don't even know what it is.
It's a quick read 75 pages.
But you will be a better family guy.
be a better business person, business family guy or girl, business person guy or girl, because it's real life, and on the people that have done the forward and the back are all CEOs of Fortune 500 companies I've helped and changed.
I would say please check out the Robert Irvine Foundation dot org, that's my passion of changing first responders, doctors, nurses, teachers, our men and women that wear the coordination and our families, that's my big passion.
We have a big event coming up in Philadelphia on Monday called Beats and Eats.
We have some great music and great chefs.
If you look at the one page when you open the book of Overcome Impossible, it says, for all those that have looked to the stars and dreamt and I said one day it's an amazing powerful paragraph because that's what I did one day I want to be this one day I want this and anybody anybody can achieve anything if they have the heart and the attitude to not give up.
That's powerful. Robert, thank you so much for joining us.
Really appreciate it.
Appreciate it. Go out and change somebody's life.
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