The President Who Handed Out Bonus Checks Himself

[00:00:00] Kevin Rice: Welcome to CEOs and ABCs. Real stories from execs who lead at work and show up at home. Career moves, parenting, wins and fails and everything in between. I’m your host, Kevin Rice. Here’s today’s episode. Today’s guest is someone who’s spent the last two decades leading at the intersection of brand, technology and culture. He’s held executive roles across marketing, digital, IT at Brinker International, home of Chili’s and Maggiano’s, and now serves as the president of Costa Vita, where he’s helping lead the company through its most successful chapter yet. But Wade isn’t just a high performing executive, he’s a father. He’s a values driven leader and someone who believes deeply in service, humility and showing up for his people.

Whether he’s hand delivering bonus checks to staff after a record breaking year or hitting a 115 pound push press in his home gym to honor his father, Wade leads with heart and discipline in equal measure. In this conversation, we’ll go behind the title to talk about career reinvention, fatherhood, fitness, faith, and what it really takes to build a culture of trust and belonging both at work and at home. My guest today is Wade Allen. Wade, thank you so much for being here.

[00:01:15] Wade Allen: Kevin, it’s great to be here. It’s great to see you again. I haven’t seen you for a while, but it’s super cool to be on the show.

[00:01:21] Kevin Rice: I know, man.

We used to run in very similar circles.

I feel like you are such a ubiquitous name in the restaurant industry. I’ve seen you speak on stage many, many times in webinars and that’s both in both because you’ve had a just incredible career, but you’re also just an awesome human being. So I really appreciate you being here and having a chance to kind of get to know you a little bit outside of the work environment.

[00:01:47] Wade Allen: Yeah, that’s where I think a lot of people don’t know me. They see me on stage and they see me talking about tech and restaurants.

But there’s a personal side a lot of people don’t see every day.

Yeah.

[00:01:58] Kevin Rice: So tell me about it. So what’s life like outside the office? Tell us about your family, your personal interests, routines, passions, you know what’s kind of bringing you joy and lighting you up right now.

[00:02:10] Wade Allen: Yeah, I mean, I think I have to start with being a father.

Probably the most important role in my life.

Greatest title I’ve ever held. Four wonderful kids. I get emotional talking about them because they’re just awesome.

An older Son who’s in the throes of studying the complexity of mechanical engineering. He’s a brilliant kid. I’ve got a daughter who’s, she’s a graphic design major at Brigham Young University. A son who is just loving pieces. Noah. He deals with mild autism. Graduated from high school just doing such a great job and now working in restaurants and enjoying it. And a young boy now, not so young at 16, who believes he’s going to be the next Fred Warner for the 49ers. We’ll see how he does his sophomore year playing football. But that’s, that’s my four kids and then a wife who I adore.

Been married for 25 years and been my companion, my helpmate and my best friend for, for that entire time. And so just that’s kind of the home life. I got a golden retriever too. Her name is Maisie and she’s a sweetheart.

[00:03:11] Kevin Rice: Nice. That’s amazing. Yeah. So four kids. I’ve got three boys a little bit younger than you, almost nine, five and a half and 15 months. So I’m at a little bit of a different stage of life.

How did you navigate as they were growing up?

You were growing tremendously in your career. It was like you were moving from marketing to it to now being president. That seemed like a very fast paced period in your career. At the same time, your kids were really at those ages where you get to spend most of the time you do get to spend with them really happens at those ages. And now as they move off to college, you don’t get to spend as much time with them. How did you balance the height of your career with some of the most important times in parenthood?

[00:04:01] Wade Allen: Yeah, I mean, I, I, you always look back on these experiences and you wish you would have done things better and you have some regrets and different things. But I did make time for sure for the family. You know, I, I, I did not miss a soccer game or I did everything I could to be a band. I call them porn shows. That’s why. Because you played the horn. But it was basically banned come concerts and, and, and you know, all the sporting events and, and games and stuff for the kids. And my wife was so good to remind me to put it on my calendar and make sure I was there and committed to it.

But look, there was a time in my career early on, even before I got into restaurants, when I was my early 30s, where I spent a lot of time on the road and you know, I, I, I’m saddened by the mist that I had when I was away from those kids and, and my wife during that time.

So you don’t look back at. Well, I think everything turned out in the right direction and I’ve raised those kids as best I can. The thing about parenting is it just continues to get harder as they get older. It’s just a different hard. Right. Instead of being hard and tired when they’re little and you’re trying to get them into a bath and into bed and read them a story and do whatever you’re going to do, it becomes worrying about them in high school and they’re out on the roads and who are they dating and what are they upholding your standards? And then it’s into college. Are they going to launch and are they going to find a spouse? And what does that look like in the city that they live? And so you just have these progressive worries that kind of follow them through.

I think it’s cathartic to hear other people talk to me about their experience raising their kids because it just helps me realize none of us, none of these kids come with a playbook.

We’re figuring it out on our own. And generally the oldest gets the brunt because you as a young parent have no idea what you’re doing, but by the time you get to the fourth one, you’re a pro. Right. But, but they’re so different that even then it’s, it’s a, it’s a crazy dynamic.

[00:05:50] Kevin Rice: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

I certainly am a much different parent than I am like today, than I was with my first firstborn. So you learn a lot along the way. And I think for me, when Hathaway was kind of at its height, I was at my height of my career. I was on the road a lot. I was traveling, I was missing things.

And while I certainly like missed experiences, I kind of now realize the longer term impact of that that I’ve had on my kids not being there, not being that like, strong parental bond that they needed in young days. And so now I’m going back and I’m kind of like redoing a lot of that. My son will sleep in bed with me sometimes, and that’s because he didn’t really sleep in bed with me when he was a younger kid. And so I find myself kind of remedially doing the things that I wish I would have done with them at a younger age. And yeah, it does, it does get harder. It’s different. Just, you know, harder and different in different ways.

[00:06:51] Wade Allen: But kudos to you to. It’s never too Late. I mean, that’s the one thing I think I got some advice from, from an individual who said, even if you’ve had not the perfect relationship with your kids or you’ve struggled or you’ve been gone or you’ve been on the road, it’s never too late to reform that relationship. Show them you love them, show them you care for them, Put your arm around them. Yeah, they.

They are frustrated that those years are gone, or they may be mad, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to continue to love you and lean in. And the more you lean in, the more you heal that relationship. So I. Kudos to you for. For engaging. I’ve done the same thing as my oldest. He was the one that took it. Took it the worst when I was gone and traveling when I was younger.

[00:07:28] Kevin Rice: Well, you recently moved as you went from Brinker to now Costa Vita.

I imagine that was a pretty big change for both you professionally and your family. Tell us about that move. What went into the decision and was there kind of like an impact to the family, both positive, or were there any challenges associated with making that decision in such a, like, big life event?

[00:07:55] Wade Allen: Yeah, it definitely was. You know, that’s a. It’s crazy because those are so. Those personal moments that you don’t always get a chance to share. But I love to talk about them.

You know, that. That was tough. You know, when I. When I exited Brinker and was exited from Brinker. Right. Financially, we were in a great position, but it was. What was I going to do next? And I just didn’t know what that looked like. Finding Costa in this kind of weird, almost directed way from a higher power and higher authority to find. To be at Costa was a really, really personal and unique experience that happened. Multiple events that led me to Costa, but the hardest decision in all of it was leaving Texas. You know, 17 years in that state became. I became Texas. Right. It was who I was in my core.

And to reload to Salt Lake, I think to many, when they saw that, they were kind of scratching their head, like, what’s the connection?

But I. But I grew up here, right? I grew up in this valley. I went to byu and I. And I had a startup early on in the late 90s that I then merged with another company and left. And so for Salt Lake was still home. My mom had still lived here. My dad had passed and my mom was here, and all my siblings and all of the cousins and nieces and uncles were here. And so for me, it was a Draw to come home for a while.

I needed a brand that I could really pour myself into, and this kind of lined up. And so it was a great experience. The toughest part was moving our kids.

My two older kids, not as big a deal. They were graduating from high school. They were both actually going to school. One at BYU and one at Utah Valley University here in Utah. My next son up, who was going to be a junior because of the autism, he didn’t have a ton of friends. And so it was an easy disconnect for him from Texas to go to Utah because he had aunts and uncles and cousins, that younger boy, that. That 14 year old, to pull him out of a nested friendship and a girlfriend that he had just acquired in the last few months. And, you know, that was really, really hard for him. And that was what broke my heart as I watched him go through it. But I also know that you can’t take experiences from kids, even if they’re tough, because they grow from them. And what I’ve seen in the last two years has been remarkable in that youngest, he has thrived. He’s starting on his little football team now he’s a captain. He’s engaged with so many different friend groups. He is thriving.

And he was thriving just like he was in Texas. And so for me, it goes to show that it was the right move. It was going to be okay.

And even though how difficult it was to make the transition, I couldn’t be more grateful to be now in the chair of being a president, because that was a real shift from where I’ve come from and to have the family now in a very stable, happy position. Though we still miss Texas, you know, fiercely.

[00:10:43] Kevin Rice: Yeah. Yeah. And I do want to hear about what that transition’s like, going from marketing to it to now president of an entire brand. But I do resonate with the struggle of making that decision in my career. I probably considered moving to Dallas about a dozen times because we live in this sleepy beach town in California. And it’s a wonderful style of living. It’s a great outdoors culture and community, but there’s no career growth that happens in a sleepy beach town. And so I was on the fence at least a dozen times and never ended up pulling the trigger because for me, it was just more a decision about my family’s close by. Allowing my kids to be close to my parents, their grandparents was a really important, you know, factor. And like, I wouldn’t have been able to raise them without my parents close by. They’ve been a Tremendous help. But, yeah, I kind of just had to accept that if I were to move to Dallas, it would have helped my career, but I just kind of had to find a way to do it without moving to Dallas. And I’m really glad that, like, you’ve seen your son grow through that and you allowed him to experience that struggle. As a parent a lot of times, I know I personally tend to, like, shield my kids, and that’s not always the best thing to do. They need to experience it, and you can be there and you can hold them and support them through it, but you can’t always just take away the challenges and the pain because that’s how they grow.

[00:12:15] Wade Allen: Yep, it’s exactly right. I’ve. I’ve often had long dialogues in my head about wanting to shield my kids from things, and sometimes I do, and it’s the wrong decision. But watching go through pain as every parent is really difficult. But when they actually get traction and they hold their own and then they come out the other side, that joy to watch them overcome a challenge and to do hard things is unbelievably, you know, gratifying.

[00:12:42] Kevin Rice: Yeah. Rewarding. Absolutely. So I knew you when you were running marketing, and then you became Chief Digital Officer and now you’ve made the move not just to a different organization, but into a completely different department and function and leadership role. How did you navigate that? Did you feel your identity change at all as you were moving from those different roles? And did people see you in a different light as you moved through those different roles and maybe even like one more. Do you have any advice for anybody else who’s looking to make a similar change, transition in their career?

[00:13:17] Wade Allen: Sure.

Wow. You know, I. I thought about this sometimes, but I don’t. I’m always not. I’m not always the most eloquent in explaining. Explaining it, but I never felt.

I never felt that the only part of my value add was innovation, technology, and marketing. Right. I think that’s how the world saw me because I actually excelled in those areas or had a chance to excel in those areas with. With Brinker and do some pretty interesting and cool stuff.

But. But I was always felt that I was a whole person, meaning that I understood labor and I understood cost of sales and I understood the P and L. And I.

I never doubted the capabilities I had. I may not have known everything, but I never doubted my ability to learn and assimilate and kind of engage in other departments or understand different topics in the business. So I think the world viewed me from the brand stage that I stood on, which was Zios and Flytrax and drones and robots and virtual brands and those kind of things.

But. But behind the scenes, I had been actively working with Wyman Roberts, who was the CEO of Brinker at the time, on, I’d say, canvassing doors with him and competitioning with him, that I was more than that. And he started to give me opportunities to run. Okay, run a. Run a culinary innovation team, Run an engineering team. Not. Not tech engineering, but like kitchen equipment engineering. Okay, go, go. Run the P and L for virtual brands. And so as I kind of did those and got those experiences, for me, when I came out of Brinker, I. I kind of came out with a skill set that I knew I had a tool belt of a bunch of stuff to use. But I think the world kind of viewed me in a certain way, knowing what I wanted, which was to lead the brand all along.

It was an easy jump to find. What I knew I needed to do is go down market. I couldn’t take the Chili’s roll. It was too big for me. I couldn’t take a 500 restaurant roll. I think it was probably too big, though, if you’d asked me at the time, I was interested. What I really needed was a smaller role, 100 restaurant role that. A brand that I knew that I could actually kind of tinker with and work with and experiment with some of these theories and philosophies that I’d learned to ensure that I could compete at the highest level. And that’s what I got with Costa. And so for me, what I would take, what I give people’s advice, is don’t let the world brand who you are, be who you are, even if you’re really good at something that the world knows. Make sure that you continue to be a whole person and be confident in those skill sets that you’re learning. And then don’t give up on that opportunity to find a way to prove to the world or to prove to yourself that you can do those things. And that’s how I made this transition to president.

[00:15:57] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that’s great advice, and I actually resonate with it in my own way. I had a similar experience within my company, Hathaway. For the first eight years, I ran sales, marketing, client services, partnerships, go to market. So everybody kind of knew me as the sales guy. And then in the last three years, before we were acquired by Bounties, I stepped into a president role, which meant PNLs. It meant taking on operations, resource management, project management, leading our executive Leadership team, a lot of different responsibilities, which, like you said, I knew the business very well. I’d been doing it since the beginning with my business partner, Jesse.

And I think everybody kind of pigeonholed me into the sales guy kind of role. And so I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder, but I had confidence to know, like, I understand this business. And so spending the time to go kind of build some alliances and bringing people along with me in the vision that I wanted to create meant working with our leaders, hearing their voices, and making sure that their agendas were brought forth. And it wasn’t just like me coming to the table now saying, I’m the president, we’re going to do what I say. So a lot of it was kind of that, bringing people along, change management. But one of the things I did learn about myself was it is really easy to dip back down the leadership pipeline when things get difficult.

So if we were struggling and it was a big operational thing, I knew that I could just go down and do some sales and try to fix the problem with revenue. But that wasn’t the actual problem. That’s not what needed my attention. So have you experienced that at all, where you’re now a president and you see problems in digital or marketing or tech, and you’re like, I could go down and solve that.

[00:17:44] Wade Allen: That’s.

[00:17:45] Kevin Rice: That’s my wheelhouse.

[00:17:47] Wade Allen: I think for the first time in a. In a long time, we had a little bit of a dip in sales and kind of this struggle.

I immediately went to the CMO and started telling him what to do. And I caught myself and went, okay, you know, back up. Right. And I said, actually, Jeremy, what do you think? How do you think we should handle this? And I kind of backed out of it because you’re right. I went back to the native language that I speak, which is classically trained in marketing and it. And so.

But. But I’ve learned as a leader, you don’t get anywhere with that. Right. You can give them suggestions and recommendations because you’ve been on this journey, but let. Let them own it. Let them take.

Take the reins, and you’re much more. You’ll be in a much better place.

[00:18:27] Kevin Rice: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, you mentioned you didn’t feel ready to take on this president role at a 500 unit brand, but 100 unit brand, doing upwards of $100 million a year is no small feat either. What is your current role like? I imagine there is a lot of stress and pressure and how do you take care of yourself so that you can show up at work as, you know, kind of the best version of yourself.

[00:18:52] Wade Allen: Yeah, I’m a routine guy. Meaning that I set a routine and I’m just staying. It’s what makes me happy. It’s what helps me kind of navigate the stress.

And there is a lot of stress in the role, right, because you don’t know everything. And a lot of the people, people’s expectations that are create the most stress.

Guests expectations, team members expectations, support center’s expectations, leadership expectations, your team, your boss.

I think the way that I’ve managed it in the past is one, I don’t manage from. I don’t, I don’t operate from a position of fear.

Right. I trust myself and I know I’m going to make some mistakes, but I’m pretty logical and I know I’m going to make, make right calls and I counsel with people. But two, I just take routine. Routine helps me clear my head. So every morning I wake up early, I’m out of the rack by 5:30, I’m in the gym by 6. I give myself at least an hour to an hour and 15 minutes of workout. Then I’m kind of in, in that zone prior to that workout. Between 5:30 to 6, I’m reading and studying and praying. And I have a routine I go through. And then it’s. And then it’s the commute to work and I’m here at work. I take the time to greet people when I come in the door. I spend time, I go to lunch with, with different groups and I take the time to break away from work and have conversations. And then at night it’s a routine where I get home and we eat together as a family.

Even if it’s a crazy night and we have to grab Costa Vita or we grab a pizza or grab something, we eat together as a family. That’s at a point, important time.

And then my wife and I spend the evening together. And usually our kids are a little bit older, so they’re going different places and running around and. But Aaron and I will spend that evening together just kind of catching up on the day and what’s happened in her life and what’s going on with the kids and family and things. But that routine just keeps me whole when I travel or when I’m out of that routine, like the world gets discombobulated, my stress levels go up and sometimes I don’t even know why. And then I go back and realize, well, I didn’t get my workout well, I didn’t read Well, I absolutely didn’t spend time with Aaron today. Like, those are the things that create the wobble. And so I know there’s a lot of people out there who love the dynamic nature of life. I am not one of them.

You could script a routine for me, and I could live inside of that routine and eat the same. I could drink the same protein shake every morning. I can eat the same lunch, and I could eat the same dinner. I would be happy as a clam. That’s just kind of how I roll. Right.

[00:21:10] Kevin Rice: So we’re. We’re cut from the same cloth. I do a 4, 4:30am workout every morning. I’ve got two very close friends who come to my house. I’ve got a pretty robust home gym. We work out hard for like 90 minutes, and then I spend a couple hours with my kids getting them ready for school.

Uh, we’re not great about family dinners, but we’re every morning family. Breakfast kind of sets the tone for the day, and we get some good quality time together. I eat the same meal every day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner. It’s literally the same thing every day. I mean, sometimes I go off track, like when I’m out to dinner with my partner or something, but for the most part, what I’ve found is that allows me to just free up a lot of mental bandwidth for other things. And, like, food for me is not the thing that gives me pleasure.

And by eating the same thing, I know I’m fueling my body with the right thing I need, but it frees up my just kind of bandwidth to focus on the things that do bring me joy and do bring me happiness. So, yeah, we. We have a lot in common there.

[00:22:10] Wade Allen: Yeah, it’s. It’s a learned trade. I think as a kid, I. I didn’t have any of that as I got older. And I realized when I operated better in a routine.

[00:22:18] Kevin Rice: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I went in and back when I was kind of pre Covid traveling conferences a lot. Yeah, I would eat terrible. I was overweight. I probably am £30 less than the last time you saw me. And it was just making a decision that I do everything for my family, my kids, yet I was sacrificing my health. And I knew that if I kept doing that, I wouldn’t be around for them to see them grow up and have their own kids. So, you know, I went in, I did blood work, I got on a routine that was very specific to what I needed to move in terms of, like, biomarkers. I got a nutritionist dialed my eating plan and I’m totally comfortable just eating the same thing every day. And now I have more energy to pour it into things that really bring me joy because, yeah, going out and eating unhealthy food, it just doesn’t do it for me.

[00:23:09] Wade Allen: No, I love it. I think it’s great.

[00:23:12] Kevin Rice: Yeah.

So aside from obviously you prioritize, like your physical well being, but you mentioned faith. How does faith play into who you are as an individual? And how does it help you even show up more for your family or even at work?

[00:23:28] Wade Allen: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think there’s a huge secret in the industry that faith is a part of my life. I mean, just based here in Salt Lake City, people can know that I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and it’s who I am. Right. It’s at my core. I served a mission for that church. My family follows the tenets and beliefs of that church. For me, I know, right. Fundamentally. And there is no, like I think or I hope, like I know that I have a direct connection with my Father in heaven. And when I’m in need of something and I ask in prayer in full humility, he will, he does, bless me, whether it’s financially and mentally or physically or spiritually. Right. And that knowledge of a higher authority and my connection with him and, you know, the, the power of a savior that I believe in, in Jesus Christ makes all the difference in my life. And, and when I’m off kilter on that, when I, when I’m, when I’m not reading and studying like I should, or when I’m not spending time praying and on my knees asking for forgiveness first and then, and then help through my life, I find myself in a sadder, depressed, off kilter state. And so for me, I just, you know, everybody to their own beliefs and then I don’t, I don’t detract from any of them and they, and there’s no judgment on my side on anything that anybody does. But I have a, I have a. This, I’ll call it a channel that I know works. Right. And when I operate in that channel, my life is joyful and happy and I’m engaged and I just, I feel better. And so I think as you get older, you stop searching for immediate gratification and you actually find those moments of joy and then you just hold on to them and you channel them into something that works. And faith for me is a huge, huge part of my life day in and day out.

[00:25:14] Kevin Rice: That’s great.

Spirituality is one of my favorite conversations with people that come from different faiths. Because what I almost always see is that there’s so many similar beliefs and ultimately we’re all connecting at the same place, just from different angles. It’s almost like we’re climbing a mountain and we’re just doing it from two.

[00:25:33] Wade Allen: Sides of the hillsides. Yeah.

[00:25:35] Kevin Rice: Yeah.

One of the things that I, in retrospect realized was while I was still working 16 hour days traveling 50% of the year, I was very disconnected from anything in the realm of spirituality or spirit or higher power.

And it took a lot of work to realize what was keeping me disconnected. But with all that stress, the only way I knew how to deal with it was by kind of suppressing my emotions and pushing it down. And I kind of like jokingly refer to it as like robot mode, which is where I was super high performing in my career. But I wasn’t heart centered. I wasn’t connected with my emotions, which then meant if I’m not connected with my emotions or my heart, how could I possibly have a channel to any sort of higher power?

And I realized that while I was performing very well at work, I’m sure I was missing a lot because I wasn’t getting the guidance that I get today. I wasn’t connected with my intuition. And so there’s a lot of things that I look back on and I’m like, man, I would have probably done that differently if I would have been more connected to my emotions, my heart, my intuition, and my version of spirit.

[00:26:48] Wade Allen: Yep. No, and I think it also, when you, when you’re saying all those things, I think society conditions us and especially as men. Right. And I can’t, I can’t speak from a different perspective from the female side, but from the men’s side, it’s, it’s, it’s almost like there’s a weakness in a desire or connection to have to a higher power. And, and I think sometimes, because that’s not talked about, like we talk about mental and physical and emotional, we always just skip over or bumps over the spiritual. And it’s one of the most important stools in, in that, in that, you know, proverbial stool equation of life. And yeah, I mean, I actually have huge kudos and huge respect for, for specifically men who find a spiritual connection because I think it softens them. And sometimes as guys, we’re very aggressive and we’re very kind of like, it’s, it’s all about this edgy element of being a guy and like the testosterone element, but it is the softening of the heart that when I meet people that I connect immediately with them because I know that they have been a rough stone rolling right. If you will, on rounded edges. So. And that comes from spirituality.

[00:27:59] Kevin Rice: Yeah, definitely. Spirituality, community, fatherhood. These are all topics that we don’t really talk about in, you know, business and career. And that was kind of my inspiration to start this podcast, was to broaden the conversation, have it more inclusive.

I actually did an episode with a really amazing female executive the other day and she was like, kudos to you for adding some men to this topic because they don’t talk about family and parenthood, you know, in the boardrooms. That was, that was all kind of part of the inspiration of creating this podcast.

[00:28:33] Wade Allen: Yeah, it’s very cool. I love it.

It’s why I was drawn to it when we were talking about it.

[00:28:38] Kevin Rice: Yeah. And I really appreciate you joining. One of the other things that I’ve seen you post about and I think just even in passing hallway conversations, remember you talking about is the importance of just like meaningful relationships both in life and career, and that no amount of career success can replace those meaningful relationships. How has that belief shaped the way that you lead both in life and in your career?

[00:29:03] Wade Allen: Yeah, it’s. That belief is. Caused me to.

To pass on certain opportunities. It’s also caused me to stay at certain companies because of the connection that I have with the people and the staff in the group.

One of the things I just, I love Brinker, and Brinker is not perfect. Right. It’s broken in a lot of ways, for sure. One of the things that I learned at Brinker is there were some individuals that I met that I just absolutely loved as people and all of their imperfections and, and, you know, bad decisions and goofy things that they do. But that, that to me was why I stayed, is the love I had for those people and the respect I had for those people and, and, and being in the grip multiple times as I went on this journey with them to see who they really were and as we kind of came out the other side, how much they. They grew from that, that experience. Now as I’ve kind of moved into a president role, I realize every day how important it is to take away, to not take away. But don’t worry as much about the sales and traffic of your business and restaurants.

Spend time with the people, make a genuine connection, shake the hand of somebody who is a general manager who you may not know, or even the connection you have for Just that brief flash of moment was great, but you may not see them again because it has an impact on them. I’ve had multiple people in my life just take a few minutes to shake my hand, recognize who I was, and that changed me. And when I saw them later in life, they. They kind of remembered me. But I’ll tell you what, I never forgot what they told me and the feeling I had when I shook their hand. And I remember that now, how important that is, both in my support center, with people in. In my restaurants, even with guests, right? Because it’s that genuine connection, that handshake, that look in that person’s eyes, that kind of spirit to spirit connection that really matters the most. And so I tried to bring that. Right. We’re really about building culture and really about trying to create one of the best places to work in the restaurant space here at Costa. And it’s because I have that desire to connect, this constant connection.

[00:31:08] Kevin Rice: Definitely. I mean, that’s the purpose of it.

When we started Hathaway, for a long time, my purpose was to just grow a company and sell it and retire. And partway through, I realized that’s kind of a hollow thing, because just like, if you’re climbing a mountain and all you care about is being at the peak, like, you’re kind of missing the journey, and that is the reward. And so partway through, kind of realizing my actual purpose was to be of service and to contribute and to help people and build strong relationships with both my employees and, you know, clients that we worked with.

The wins that I started celebrating weren’t necessarily, like, company metrics, but it was our team members getting promotions or them getting covered in trade publications or speaking on stage or just having their big wins. And then in some cases, our clients. I remember a few clients that we worked with where they got promotions from director to vice president. And we got notes saying, like, hey, I want to thank you guys, because you played a small part in me moving to this next level of my career. And, like, those were the wins that kept me pushing and driving and, like, created a deeper purpose for everything we were doing.

[00:32:25] Wade Allen: So one of the things that, you know, that really impacted me was last year, we had our best year in company history. And I had a chance to shake every person’s hand in the support center and hand them a check, a sizable check. And I can’t tell you how awesomely, just how awesome that was. That was so satisfying to me. And to hug them, shake their hand, tell them how much I cared about them, tell Them that they were part of this team.

And the emotions. Right. I didn’t think there was going to be a huge emotion because it’s a transactional kind of thing. I mean, there are multiple times I got emotional. People that were coming through were emotional.

Lots of hugs at the end. But it’s this idea that we accomplished something together and we made a connection, and that’s what business should be about. You know, that that’s the kind of stuff, like, if I could snap my fingers tomorrow and make a hundred people a millionaire, that’s cool. But what I’d really like to do is work with them for the next 10 years and make them a millionaire over the 10 years and accomplish all these things together. That. That’s the coolest thing of being a leader and being a president of a brand is to be able to provide that. Because I don’t care about. I mean, yeah, I care about the money next year, but I really care about handing out those checks next year.

[00:33:32] Kevin Rice: That’s what was super cool now. And that’s a huge testament to the culture that you are creating at Costa Vita. And until recently, maybe, you know, the last few years, I didn’t realize how impactful and how important culture is to companies, to the brand, to the business. Like, culture fuels growth of organizations. It’s just so critical. And, yeah, by you being on the front lines and having that personal experience with people who probably don’t typically receive too much recognition, you’re building culture from the ground up. And that will show in the coming years.

[00:34:09] Wade Allen: Yep. And you hit it on the head. Culture is built by one handshake, one hug, one conversation at a time. There’s no rush to it. It’s not something you can flip on overnight.

[00:34:19] Kevin Rice: Right, Right.

So just kind of looking at our time here, I know we. We’re kind of getting to the point where we’ll need to wrap up, but you talked about your kids, your family, your faith, how you stay healthy like me, by waking up super early in, work out. A lot of this has to do with your legacy. And when your kids look back at your career someday, what do you hope they see? And what kind of legacy do you hope to create? Not just like the accomplishments, but, you know, how you showed up for yourself and for others. And what do you want them to learn from watching you grow as a. As a father and as a executive?

[00:35:01] Wade Allen: Yeah, man, that’s a loaded question, right?

I hope my kids take from me that I worked really hard, that I wasn’t afraid to work hard, and that they shouldn’t be afraid to work hard. And I also want them to take for me not to fear, not to do something because you’re afraid of it. Like it’s okay to be afraid. That’s part of life. But move forward in faith and go accomplish the task. Have confidence in yourself. I want my kids to have that mentality, want them to see that. And then I think legacy wise, I want them to know that people mattered more than things in my life.

I. I’m not a very materialistic guy. I don’t, you know, as I’ve made money in my life, I haven’t spent it on a whole bunch of boats and RVs and ATVs and planes and all that kind of nonsense that sometimes happens. They don’t matter to me. What matters to me is having experiences with people that, that make an impact. And I hope my kids see that. I hope they understand that. That’s why when we do travel, we take the time to go to these different cultures and engage with people. We lived in London for several years and I wanted them to have that experience, to be in a culture that was vastly different than ours, so they could kind of really have that connection with people. So, so probably those three things I want to work call, I want them to know I worked hard. I want them not to be fearful, but to move forward with faith and accomplish the things they can. And then last, to know that people matter, not things. That would be the legacy I hope I leave.

[00:36:29] Kevin Rice: Beautiful. And I can tell you you’re certainly on your way to leaving that legacy. So, Wade, I really appreciate you being here today. You are such just a fantastic individual human. The way you show up in a very open heart centered way is really beautiful. And I appreciate your candid conversation today and thank you for the support for being here on the show and one of my first few guests.

[00:36:56] Wade Allen: Love it. Kevin, thanks for the invite. It’s been super fun. Very different podcast and I love this format. I’m super excited. It’s going to catch fire and I’m glad I was one of the first.

[00:37:06] Kevin Rice: Thanks, Wade. Okay, if you’re enjoying this conversation, make sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes. CEOs and ABCs is all about helping you grow in your career and show up at home. We’ve got many more amazing guests coming up, so tap, follow and stay tuned.