Heart Leadership: Creating A Workplace People Love with Anthony Lambatos

Kevin Dennis (: 00:39

All right, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I am here with Anthony Lambatos today, and he's gonna be talking to us today about heart leadership, which is something I'm really interested to get dive into. But Anthony, before we do, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?

Anthony (: 00:56

Of course, thank you so much for having me today, Kevin. This is awesome and I'm looking forward to the conversation. So I grew up in the catering business because my dad started Footage Catering in 1981 and I vowed that I would never be in it because that was his thing. you know, fast forward a few years and that didn't work out so well. was 15 years ago that my wife, April, and I, purchased the business from my dad, making that transition to the second generation.

Kevin Dennis (: 00:58

Of course.

Ha ⁓

Anthony (: 01:24

And at the time, our whole focus was just, let's create a great place to work. We didn't care about winning awards or growing a whole bunch. We just wanted to do something that was fun and meaningful and enjoy it. Cause we knew we were going to spend a lot of time at work. And so ⁓ that's what we did. That's what we set out to do. And ⁓ that has manifested itself into something that just beyond what I ever could have imagined of where we are today and where our team is.

And we've gotten a pretty good reputation for what we've done on a national level and that sparked us to start another company called MIBE. And MIBE is the acronym for Make It Better Every Day. And through MIBE, we get to provide education primarily for the hospitality industry and it's all around heart leadership and being intentional about creating a great place to work. And so we do that through workshops and we have an annual summit, we have MIBE monthly program. And it's really what I'm passionate about is how do we help other companies.

⁓ get to a spot where their team members find more fulfillment, not just at work, but also in their lives. Because we spend a lot of time at work and these two things go hand in hand, which I know we're going to dive into today, but ⁓ that's where we are. We still have Footers Catering in Denver, Colorado. We cater a multitude of events, have an amazing team that makes that happen ⁓ every year. And we also have an event center called Social Capital.

vent center that we opened in: 2021

Kevin Dennis (: 02:53

wow.

Scary time to

be opening an event center.

Anthony (: 03:10

Well,

t the building in December of: 2019

Kevin Dennis (: 03:14

⁓ wow.

Yeah. Oh, wow.

Yeah, at least you weren't

th of: 2020

We're moving forward. We're talking about good stuff here today. We're not looking backwards. So, all right. So let's start with like kind of with the basics. What is hard leadership and how is it different from like a traditional leadership style?

Anthony (: 04:00

Yeah, great question. What we talk about is how do we get leaders out of your head and into your heart? And part of this is rooted in emotional intelligence. And if we take a step back, the hospitality industry has not traditionally been known as creating great places to work or ⁓ being, ⁓ you know, the throwing of pots and pans in the kitchen and yelling being the norm and accepting high turnover is just part of like the business.

I think is what we have ⁓ been accustomed to for many years. And so we're on a mission to change that. How do we do it differently? Can we get great results and treat people in a way where they love it and they enjoy it and still get ⁓ that productivity out of them? And so it was years ago that I learned this lesson. I was working for my dad and we had...

you know, it was called the Praetor Home, so was 30 day contract and my dad gave me more more responsibility over time. But essentially we're in high school running a 30 day contract, this huge concession stand, grills, fryer, we had like, you know, portable walk-in coolers, like this was a huge stand that we had and we'd set up and ⁓ there was, you know, we hired all of our friends to come work for us and all of a sudden, you know, we got a line of people that are like, hey, can we come work, can we come work? And it was crazy.

Kevin Dennis (: 05:02

wow.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 05:20

because we created this fun atmosphere where you wore Hawaiian shirts and there was a bell you rang and we'd joke around and we'd have the MVP of the day and there voting and awards and all this stuff that we did. And there was one day I was working the grill and my face is just caked in sweat and I turn around and we got a line like 15 people deep at every register that we have. And if you would have walked up to the stand, I think you would have been amazed at what you saw because it was a group of teenagers.

that are moving around with purpose and this perfect symphony. And what I noticed was that every single person had a smile on their face. And it was at that moment that I realized like fun and productivity actually go hand in hand. That it's not when you're having fun, you're goofing off and it's a distraction that when you're enjoying and loving what you're doing, you're actually, know, food was flying up, drinks are flying, like we're crushing through this line. And so a lot of my philosophy in terms of creating great place to work was rooted in that.

And that is, you know, just looking back, had some other opportunities to work in other companies where it wasn't like that, right? Like it was, you know, a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy. You can't do that. You can't do that. You know, just stripping the fun out of everything. And so as we look at heart leadership, part leadership is, to me, you know, how can you see the best in people and help them reach their full potential and do it in a way where they have dignity.

you have a way of working with them where they know you believe in them, that you know you can help them get to the next level and they trust that you have their best interest at mind. A lot of people ask me, know, like, isn't it just about being easy on people? I'm adamant that leadership is not about letting people off the hook. Yeah, know, there's a lot of people, I've got this person struggling, you know, do I just?

let it go, do I not address it? I think, no, you're doing them a disservice by not addressing it. You just address it in a way where we're looking forward, how do we make improvements? How do we continue to grow and helping them, again, reach their full potential? To me, that's what hard leadership is truly about. ⁓ And I think we can help people reach new levels of success as opposed to the traditional, I yell at you, things get done, but you know.

Kevin Dennis (: 07:23

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 07:43

Am I really excited next time to do whatever you need me to do? Probably not, right? So.

Kevin Dennis (: 07:50

It's funny. I'm in the middle of watching the bear right now and so when you said all that I would immediately think of how they yell at each other in the in the kitchen and then my youngest daughter is Loves Gordon Ramsay and we've been watching what his secret one of the ones where he goes in and fixes the restaurant and the last one is The the restaurant owner that we watched which just would yell and scream and fight with the employees and my ten-year-old looked at me. goes I wouldn't want to work

Anthony (: 07:53

you

Kevin Dennis (: 08:19

there and I'm like, no, don't, you know, so it's kind of those are literally the two things that came into my mind as you were going. I'm like, it's in it's right and it's put out there and that's how I think some of this is portrayed about us in the hospitality world, you know, so yeah.

Anthony (: 08:34

Yeah, because it's true. And,

and, and that's the tough thing that, that I think we're trying to, to combat and just talk about. It's like, it doesn't have to be that way. ⁓ and, that style of leadership, again, if we look back, the problem, cause there's a lot of people, you know, like, well, why is it, why do people act like that? Why is it like that? And then short answer that I have is because it works in the short term. Like yell at somebody, you're probably going to get done what you needed to get done. And so.

Kevin Dennis (: 08:43

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony (: 09:03

all of a sudden I got the result I needed, but it doesn't factor in the long-term ramifications of like, that person doesn't really stay with you very long, because they're not gonna put up with it, or they don't want to, they're not, they're gonna do just enough so you don't yell at them. They're never reaching to new levels or pushing the envelope on what could be done, because they're always in the back of their mind have that idea of like, I might get yelled at, or I might get criticized, I better just stay in my safe zone, so they never take risks. But.

Kevin Dennis (: 09:12

No.

Anthony (: 09:29

People learn from the people that manage them, and that's the tough thing that we see all the time is most people are good at what they do, and you're good at what you will promote you to be a manager. Well, who did you learn from as a manager? Whoever was above you. And if you had the example that when you want something done, you yell at somebody, you raise your voice, and it gets done, that's probably what you're going to do. And so we're trying to break that cycle. ⁓ Because my dad was that way. His nickname was the tornado.

Kevin Dennis (: 09:39

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

really?

Anthony (: 09:55

When he'd come into the office and like no one was there like all of a sudden like, you know, he's yelling at people. He's throwing stuff across the room. He's crumpling stuff up. He's, hey, give me this, get in it, just all through. And then he'd leave and like everybody's like hairs a little disheveled and there's just what just happened, right? And like that was my dad's MO and he has, there's amazing stories. My dad is a hospitality consummate pro just like.

Kevin Dennis (: 10:03

you

Yeah

Yeah.

Anthony (: 10:25

Guests that tell stories to me all the time your dad did this for me and your dad is amazing your day You know and he would go to end of the earth to make people ⁓ Feel incredible in terms of hospitality But a lot of times he'd run over all of his people in doing so and so that that also is I think rooted in in ⁓ Why I do what I do today because I want to do it differently and I want to share that that it doesn't have to be that way

Kevin Dennis (: 10:40

⁓

I love that. All right. That's amazing. So why do you believe a heart-centered leadership is so crucial in the wedding and event industry specifically?

Anthony (: 11:00

Well, number one, the stress, right? Like, I talk about live events, it's hard. we're putting, can't do, have a redo in this, right? Like we talk about that a lot. Like this is your one shot and we got to get it right. And we've got to make sure that it's all button. So the stress is high. ⁓ And for me, when I look at the top performing teams that are out there, it's teams that trust one another.

Kevin Dennis (: 11:03

Yeah.

Anthony (: 11:29

In those situations where things get tough, things get difficult, you're in the trenches, things aren't going... Anytime you're doing a live event, you can't prepare for everything that's gonna happen. There's no way to prepare for every situation. So you have to know that going in, something's not gonna go as we planned. And when that happens, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna band together and figure out how to make it work and put on a great result that the clients never even knew what happened?

Kevin Dennis (: 11:39

No, no.

Anthony (: 11:56

Or are we gonna start fighting with each other and pointing fingers of who's wrong and yelling at each other and ultimately probably having something that's gonna negatively impact the guest experience. And I'm sure you've been in this industry for a few years, so I'm sure you've seen some of those situations where companies and teams that handle it really well and you're like, holy cow, that was impressive and teams that don't and you're like, this is a dumpster fire and I'm just gonna sit over here and kind of like.

Kevin Dennis (: 12:24

But yeah, are, yeah, I mean, I can think back to a wedding where like the photographer was losing her mind, like, because, you know, she was kind of meek and didn't have a commanding voice and the family was a huge family and they overran her and she was just like screaming and yelling, but it wasn't productive. Yeah, just, literally that just happened a couple months ago. So it just made me think of that, so.

Anthony (: 12:24

Try to stay out of the way. Right.

So yeah, I think that's the first part that I talk about. The second is just never underestimating the impact of turnover on your business. Business is so much easier when you've got a consistent group of people that have been there, done that, that have experience, right? If you're always having to train new people, you can get it done, but it just takes a lot of work and it's not very efficient. If you're creating a great environment, you're all of a sudden building a team

Kevin Dennis (: 13:00

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 13:21

that is more prepared, more equipped to do some amazing things and produce amazing events. And instead of focusing on the bare minimums, they're thinking at the next level of what are the guests needs, right? Like there's a difference between somebody that's showing up at an event and knows that they have to set a table and they got to go put a plate down. And then there's that server that's like, that face doesn't look right after I put that plate down.

Kevin Dennis (: 13:33

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 13:47

Right? Like, ma'am, is everything okay? ⁓ I'm a vegetarian. Right? Like, that's the level that a server, you know, in my world and catering might be thinking at. And it levels up from there, right? Just like the more experience you have, the higher level of service you're going to be able to give. So if you're always running through people, because you're not a heart leader, then you're going to have constant turnover and you're going to constantly be at this state of adequate, but not exceptional. And the companies that really truly

care about their people that invest in them and retain them over time, you see them operating at that level where ⁓ it's a much higher guest level experience.

Kevin Dennis (: 14:25

Yeah, and I think that goes overall with just building a team and then having a good set of vendors on the outside as well. So if you have that constant person when you go to that venue, you're like, I'm going to be working with Susie. Susie ⁓ is great. I don't have to worry about everything. And then all the vendors all kind of fall in line and it all kind of comes together beautifully. So, yeah.

Anthony (: 14:46

Oh yeah.

Well, and you think about like, joke about this, but like, when was the last time you had a terrible experience, like service experience with somebody, like a hotel or a server or something, you know, and you thought to yourself, wow, I bet that person really loves their job. Right? And you flip that and you're like, you think about those amazing experiences you have where somebody is just exuberant and excited to do, to serve you. You know, if you...

Kevin Dennis (: 15:01

Yeah. ⁓

Anthony (: 15:13

create an environment that is so fertile and to grow people that love doing that, all of a sudden that experience that they give to their clients is exceptional. It's the next level. And it's what we talk about a lot, that for so long our industry has been serve the guests, serve the guests, serve the guests. And our philosophy is yes, but let's serve our people first. Serve our people, serve our people, serve our people, and then they will serve the guests. And so...

Kevin Dennis (: 15:36

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 15:41

⁓ It's a little bit of a different mindset that we have and that we teach at MIP.

Kevin Dennis (: 15:48

Yeah, I love that serve the people to serve the guests. That's a good approach to do it. And it's funny, as you're saying that, I can think back to some amazing experiences. you could tell, I had an experience at the Michael Mina restaurant in Las Vegas at the Bellagio. And the gentleman literally has worked at that restaurant for almost 20-something years. So obviously, he loves what he does. But it was still to this day some of the best service I've ever received at a restaurant. Yeah.

Anthony (: 16:04

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. ⁓

Kevin Dennis (: 16:17

But it comes back to everything you're saying, longevity, the whole thing. So yeah. All right. So in an industry that's so fast-paced and high-pressured, what are some practical ways our wedding and event folks can lead with heart without burning out? Because I think we all deal with that wonderful burnout word. So something that's thrown out around. I mean, that word, I think it gets thrown out a lot in our industry.

Anthony (: 16:44

Yeah, it definitely does. And it's hard. There's a lot of pressure. There's a lot of stress. It's seasonal, right? I guess California, it stretches a little further than some other places. But in other places I know, they've got three, four months where it's like, you get them done. That's when our wedding season is. And we're gonna be working every weekend. We're gonna be working multiple days. We're gonna crush and crank this out. That's exhausting. And it's tough to do. And so...

Kevin Dennis (: 17:09

Yeah.

Anthony (: 17:12

How do you combat that? do you create something that people love ⁓ being there? ⁓ What we talk about in culture, and I'm bridging a little bit of this culture and leadership gap, because they really go hand in hand, but ⁓ the tech industry is kind of hijacked culture. It's all about ping pong tables and beer fridges and the perks and benefits. And that's fine. Yes, that's part of it, but it's not at the core. And so what we talk about at Footers is at the core,

Do you have people doing jobs they're really good at? I think that everybody has a world-class talent, something you're better at than 80, 90 % of the population. If you get to do that 80 % of the time or utilize those strengths, you're probably gonna be really happy, because this comes back to burnout, right? Burnout's not about the number of hours you're working. This is the mistake that people make, is they think, oh, I worked 25 hours. If you think about a project you worked on for 10 hours straight,

Kevin Dennis (: 17:50

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 18:10

And then like at the end you were energized by it, right? Because it was something you loved, like this is awesome. Like you like time just sped by because you were like, wow, I'm doing what I'm making progress. I'm getting closer to what I wanted to do, but I'm utilizing my strengths, right? 10 hours and you're fired up at the end. And in contrast that with working on a project for an hour that drains you, right? That like is so miserable and you're like time couldn't go faster, right? At the end of that, you feel exhausted.

Kevin Dennis (: 18:33

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 18:40

And so when we put people in jobs where they're utilizing their strengths and even as owners, as executives, when we put ourselves in a position where we're getting to utilize our strengths 80, 90 % of the time, the risk of burnout decreases dramatically. So that's number one that we talk about is putting people in positions where they utilize their strength. Number two is do people believe in what they're doing? Do they have some purpose, right? Like at Footers we talk about the fact like, yeah, we're a cater, we're not...

Kevin Dennis (: 18:56

Hmm.

Anthony (: 19:08

Not doing brain surgery when I'm not rocket scientists, but we got to be part of some of the most special days in people's lives, right? Like if we're not mindful of that, and explaining that to every person that comes in the door, then we're missing that opportunity. And I share a story that, you know, years ago at this event and ⁓ this wedding, and it was, I mean, it was a hot summer day, like just, and it was in this barn that didn't have good ventilation and like the server, you know, he's,

come back, he goes, I just keep filling these water glasses and everybody just keeps drinking them and I have to go fill them up. And it was like a stark moment for me where I realized, I'm like, we missed an opportunity to explain to this young man that his job is not to fill water glasses. Your job is to make sure the guests have an incredible experience. And if they're hot, the more water we can bring them, the more the experience is gonna be better for them. And so I talk about that a lot of like, do they see purpose in what their job is?

Kevin Dennis (: 19:41

Yeah.

Anthony (: 20:04

And do they believe in the company they're working for? Do they trust the company they're working for? So when we can infuse purpose, I think that's another way where we mitigate burnout, right? Do I have to come to work and work another wedding? Or do I get to come to work and make somebody's day the best day that they're ever gonna have and one that they'll remember for the rest of their lives? Like, I'm gonna have an imprint on that. When I have that mindset, I'm coming to work with a different mentality than I gotta go set up tables and chairs.

Kevin Dennis (: 20:12

Mm.

Hmm.

Anthony (: 20:32

Right, like I gotta go play some music. I gotta go, you know, like ⁓ Right Why are you there and when we infuse that purpose? So that's number two and number three is are they doing it with people they love trust and respect? So are you creating teams that are? Intentionally you're helping them to build relationships with one another and this isn't like you have to be best friends with everybody This is more about is there is there common connections among your team because we know

Kevin Dennis (: 20:33

Yeah. Gotta be there at nine o'clock, you know.

Mm-hmm.

No.

Anthony (: 20:59

When you come to work and you're looking forward to seeing and you've got friends at work, it just makes it more fun. It's more enjoyable. And again, our chance of burnout goes down because even when things don't go well, you think about that, like in a day, something's not gonna go well. If I've got a good friend at work that I can lean on, that I can trust, that I can vent to, that they're gonna pick me up, they're gonna support me, they're gonna go to bat for me in that scenario, that a stark contrast between the person that like...

If I don't have any friends, there's nobody helping me out. There's no one patting me on the back. There's no one picking me up. I'm on an island. I'm all alone. And so being intentional about creating those relationships. So those are the three things that we talk about ⁓ in terms of creating that environment. And I think those three things are really key to reducing the impact of burnout.

Kevin Dennis (: 21:28

Mm-hmm.

I love it. love it. And it almost seems like to me it's a mindset. You know, it's your mindset as you go into it. It's what I was thinking of when you were going through that. So, all right. So a lot of people in the wedding and event industry don't have teams. Like, you know, we each have kind of teams to work with. So how can like a solo business owner, like a photographer, a planner apply like heart leadership to principles even if they don't have a team?

Anthony (: 21:55

Yeah.

Yeah, well, I look at a lot of those people that they've got teams that maybe not they're under their company umbrella, but when you're at a wedding, you're part of that team. And so what are you doing to enhance that experience for everybody? You know you've got vendors that you love working with, you, you know, these are the people that I want on the team when we're in the trenches. Okay, so what does that look like? Who are the people that stand out? And I think it's the people that are...

Kevin Dennis (: 22:18

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 22:39

going along this philosophy, we have four convictions that we talk about, that we come back to. And the first one is value people for more than the job they do. So this applies in your, if you have employees, if I've got a server on my team, do I just care that they're there to put down plates or do I care that this young man's going to college and this is what he's doing to get himself through college and he studied to be an engineer or whatever. If I know about him, he all of a sudden feels a little more invested in what we're doing.

Kevin Dennis (: 22:47

Okay.

Anthony (: 23:07

you know, we are supporting each other. But this translates to, you know, do you are you valuing your vendors for more than the job they're doing? There's a lot of people that look down on caterers, right? Like, you're the just a caterer, where's my meal? Where is my meal? That's what I want, right? Like, okay, I Yep, sure. Let me go get in front of the bride and get get it off the buffet for you. Right? Like, they're out there. Yeah, you know, we deal with them. And there's people that are like, Hey, you guys are doing awesome.

Kevin Dennis (: 23:14

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Hahaha!

Anthony (: 23:35

Thank you so much, this food looks amazing. When do know when we're gonna get the meal or is it possible for us? How are you treating, are you valuing the people that are there for more than just what they're there to do? Or are you looking at them just like, that's the DJ, that's the, you know, partners can play in that same vein. that's number one. Number two, we talk about open your heart to be authentic, genuine, and vulnerable. Vulnerability is kind one of those things like, it's not about, you know.

Kevin Dennis (: 23:52

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 24:04

expressing your deepest and darkest secrets with everyone. It's just being honest and being able to have conversations about what's going on. What are you doing? And again, you can do this with employees, but you can do this with business partners too and other vendors and other people that you're working with. Are you, you know, coming to them and saying, Hey, I need help with this. Is there any chance you can help me or Hey, is there anything I can do to help you? Or how are we working together in this? That comes with a level of vulnerability that I think a lot of people don't have.

Kevin Dennis (: 24:16

Hmm.

Anthony (: 24:31

⁓ and aren't willing to express because they feel like it might be a weakness when in reality that builds a stronger connection among the team because we all want the success of this event. So how do we work together to help one another? The third one is MIBE. There's always more to learn and room to improve. And again, this is, know, when people see you striving to be better, they're drawn to that, right? Like we are drawn to people that are doing cool things that are pushing the envelope that aren't just settling for status quo.

And so again, the same thing with with vendors and our partners, when we see them that are see them doing cool things and new launching new products and offering new things or higher levels of service, that's inspiring for us. We want to then up our game because we're like, all right, this is they're doing cool stuff. We want to do cool stuff, too. So these things are all happening within organizations, but they're also happening in in larger communities as well. And then the fourth one is surround yourself with a kickass team.

You there's a lot of, you you're talking about wedding planners. They're, kind of the GM, right? This in a lot of, they're getting put together who their team is that is going to execute with them. So are they putting the right people in? Are they making sure the right companies that are going to fit the vision of this event that are going to play well together? Right? Like it's not just, oh, I'm going to hire the best in everyone. Well, if the florist hates the, hates the officiant, like we're in and the officiant doesn't get well.

Kevin Dennis (: 25:28

Yeah.

They really are. Yeah.

you

Anthony (: 25:57

photographer

and like you're going to have some friction there as opposed to like can all these people work together. So the philosophies that we teach and we talk about I think are well, while a lot of them are centered in individual companies, they translate to larger groups as well and teams that work on weddings.

Kevin Dennis (: 26:00

It's gonna be a shit show.

Yeah, and I think too, it's like even like for the going back to the GM being the wedding planner, if they're the ones out there that is making the caterer's life easier, everyone's life easier, and they take time to understand what everybody does, I think those in my market, those are the ones that are like, my God, you get me, you understand me and you, it makes it easier, it's easier to sell to their clients and they're the first people you want to reach out to and call with, yeah, it's like, hey, you need,

Anthony (: 26:42

Yes. Yeah.

Kevin Dennis (: 26:45

plan or XYZ because they make your life easier.

Anthony (: 26:48

Right? They've coordinated

the fact that like, no, you can't put all the tables and chairs out before AV has come and done all the rigging that needs to be done in the tent. Right? Like, like they think about those things and coordinate that and make sure like, okay, we got, we got AV and at this time catering is coming at this time.

Kevin Dennis (: 26:55

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's that same thing just happened to us this last Sunday and we had, you know, we put a big chandelier up. They had an outside vendor bringing in the dance floor. They were doing a dance floor rap, which is really popular right now. And she's like, Oh, we have the dance floor coming in at 10 o'clock. I'm like, well, our guys are not even going to be there. Can we drive on the dance floor with the scissor lift? No, probably not. we got to, you know, and she goes, well, I don't understand. it's, know, so it's like, how will you have a job if you don't, you know, take the time to coordinate and do everything the right way anyway. So, yeah.

Anthony (: 27:33

Yeah. Yep.

Kevin Dennis (: 27:35

It goes ⁓ so all over the place. So anyway, so how does leading with heart impact client relationships and overall your brand reputation, you think?

Anthony (: 27:45

yeah. Well, from us, we just saw the experience that our clients have had has been tremendous. And I attribute it back to like our team loves what they do. And that translates to the experience that our guests have. You know, our mission at Footers is love what you do, make it better every day and create exceptional experiences. And we want to create exceptional experience and not just for our clients and their guests, but for everybody involved with that event, our team, the vendors, the venue, everybody involved. Like if we're thinking about that.

Kevin Dennis (: 27:52

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 28:13

as a ⁓ part of what we do every single day, ⁓ that makes a huge difference in the service that we provide to our clients. so back to this, when you invest in your people, when you invest in creating a great place to work, it translates to a better service that you offer, a better experience. And people have to have the technical skills to do what you're hiring them to do. You know, can't just bring somebody in like, you're a good heart leader, cook this steak, like, right? You gotta know how to...

Kevin Dennis (: 28:21

Hmm.

You

Anthony (: 28:42

have some culinary education in there. this isn't replacing the technical skills necessary to do a job. It's augmenting that to elevate the experience. And ultimately, what we've seen at Footers, the growth that we've grown over 400 % since purchasing it from my dad without this emphasis on like, we have to grow, we have to grow, we have to grow. We're known, our turnover is I think 50 % less than what the industry norm.

Kevin Dennis (: 29:10

Hmm.

Anthony (: 29:11

So, you know, these things that have worked so well for us and have been impactful ⁓ is what we attribute to our success as a business and has allowed us to expand into, you know, having a venue and growing our company and additional positions. you know, now what we do at my.

Kevin Dennis (: 29:30

Yeah, love it. It makes complete sense. It really does. So, all right, what advice would you give a wedding pro who wants to start shifting towards a heart centered leadership today? Like where do we even start or begin or go to one of your conferences? mean, where you... Yeah.

Anthony (: 29:46

I love it. Thank you for the plug there. Yes.

th,: 2026

of hospitality professionals that come together that have this mindset. So yes, we would love to have people come check it out and see what we're doing at MIBE. But I think the most important thing is to give yourself a little bit of patience. There's an overwhelming feeling that I think a lot of people get when they come see us or they hear about this and like, where, my gosh, where do I start? This is daunting. I'm a big proponent, that's why we.

You know, MIBE is so important to us. It's make it better every day. ⁓ Small incremental changes over a long period of time are very significant. But each day you're not necessarily gonna notice. So if every day you come in and you're making these small changes, know, day after day, you're not gonna notice a big difference in what you're doing. Even after a couple of weeks, you're gonna look back and be like, yeah, maybe it's a little bit better. But the goal is over the course of a year.

If you've done that every day, that you've made something better 365 days in a row, you're going to look back at where you were a year ago and you're going to be embarrassed of where you were. And that is that it's like a little bit intimidating, but then it's like, wow, that's really cool. Like how do I get to a point where I can look back and be like, can you believe that's how we used to do that? Can you believe that's how we used to decorate the tables? That's how we used to, right? Like because we've made so much progress, but it didn't happen overnight, right? It happened in these small incremental things. And so when people commit to that,

Kevin Dennis (: 31:26

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 31:37

and doing one thing every day. All right, what am I gonna do today? That's gonna be a little bit better. That's gonna make my company better. That's gonna make my service better. That's gonna make me a better leader. Then over time you see the impact and results. But it doesn't happen of just like, ⁓ tomorrow we're gonna be a great company. Because what we talk about too, it's culture's something you gotta focus on every day. We got that wrong early on. We focused all this energy on culture. We created this great culture. And then we went back to catering.

Kevin Dennis (: 32:00

Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony (: 32:06

And then, you know, a few months later, we were like, wait a minute, what happened to our culture? Like it's, it's okay, but it's not what it was. And we realized like, culture is not a project. Culture is something you have to focus on every single day. And everybody has a culture. It's just, is it a culture that you want? Or is it a culture that you're designing? Uh, uh, you know, or that you're just getting by your team having been there and interacting with each other. And so we really.

Kevin Dennis (: 32:18

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 32:33

in part on the idea of how do you create this culture by design where you're intentional about what do we want it to look like, how do we want the employee experience to be, what do we want work to feel like when you're here. And when we start making decisions every day that are intentional, it will add up significantly over time.

Kevin Dennis (: 32:50

Yeah, I love it. All right, so what are some common mistakes you see good old wedding business owners make or event folks make when they're trying to create a great place to work?

Anthony (: 33:01

Well, throwing money at it is a is a lazy solve the problem is is what I say a lot of times that there's a lot of people that just want to say, just pay people more or just, you know, give them give them the toys, right? Give them the, you know, we talked about ping pong tables and beer fridges and like all the perks and the benefits and like, yes, those are fine. And but they can't be layered on an empty ⁓ hollow structure, right? We go back to those foundational things I talked about of using your strengths, purpose in what you do and

Kevin Dennis (: 33:04

⁓ OK.

Anthony (: 33:31

⁓ loving the people you work with. If you get those three things right, then you can add to the fund. But a lot of people skip straight to the fund and they forget about this. And so they want to tout that they have all these great benefits and perks, but people hate each other there. There's no purpose in what they're doing. And you have people that aren't doing jobs that they're really great at. And so they're frustrated, mad about it. And so that's a big mistake I see is that this takes time and energy. This is not easy, right? And ⁓ when I say that,

Kevin Dennis (: 33:49

Yeah.

Anthony (: 34:01

People a lot of times like, gosh, one more thing that I need to do, right? And I ask people a lot of times when I'm speaking or audiences, I'll say, you know, think about something in your life you're really proud of accomplishing, that you would hang your hat on. And then I ask that anybody to raise their hand who accomplishing that task that they're so proud of, how many of you was it easy? how many of you was it easy? I've never had a single hand go up.

Kevin Dennis (: 34:28

Really?

Anthony (: 34:28

Never had a single hand go. Because the things we're most proud of in life aren't easy. We have to embrace the challenge. The things that we go through, we wear it like a badge of honor. And we're like, man, that was awesome that we got through that. And so when you get a pick, what hard you want to go through, that's when you come out on the other side and you have so much pride in what you're doing. So when we think about culture, dive into it. Embrace that it's going to be hard. You're not just going to be able to solve it by spending.

Kevin Dennis (: 34:32

Mm-hmm. They're hard. Yeah, it's true. Yeah

Anthony (: 34:56

you know, some money and throw in some money at it, you're gonna have to actually spend your time, your energy, and learn and every single day go through it. And so ⁓ that's one of the big lessons. The other one, you know, I touched on this earlier, but there's a lot of people that just mistake hard leadership ⁓ is making it, you know, fluffy and easy for people. And this comes back to that. people don't want easy at work. They want meaningful. I'm willing to work if it's meaningful. I'm willing to do something challenging if I can say,

I'm proud of myself for doing that. And so let's embrace the heart. Let's talk about how difficult it is. And we're gonna attract the people that are drawn to that, right? There's people that wanna be Navy SEALs, right? Maybe not for me, but there's people that are like, that's what I wanna go do, right? And there's people that are like, wedding industry, that's what I wanna go do. We gotta go find those people, bring them in and make sure that they're loving every single day of this, as opposed to the people that just see it as like, one more wedding, another white dress, you know?

Kevin Dennis (: 35:37

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony (: 35:53

threading it.

Kevin Dennis (: 35:54

Yeah, it was funny you say that because I would just did a wedding like last summer for a bride that was a nurse and and the whole time she was telling me she goes I don't know how you deal with all these wedding people and all this wedding stuff and I was like I love it and I don't know how you deal with blood and we were like going back and forth I'm like give me a crazy wedding any day of the week and I'm I'm happy I can make it I can make it go I can work our way out of it and I'm totally fine but

Anthony (: 36:18

Yep. Yep.

Kevin Dennis (: 36:21

once you show, insert blood into the situation, I'm out. You know, I just can't, so I'm like, admire what you do because I can't do it. You know, it's, yeah, it's hard. So there's always someone out there that is good at something else. You know, yeah, yeah.

Anthony (: 36:36

Exactly, that

wants that challenge.

Kevin Dennis (: 36:39

Yeah, yeah. So, all right, as we wrap up, what's the, like, if we are starting right now, give us one, like, maybe nugget or one step or something that we could do to really embrace it or take it all, you know, get.

Anthony (: 36:57

I think taking time to, are you clear on what your company stands for? You know, there's a lot of people that have a mission statement and they've taken the time to craft this nice, perfectly manicured sentence. And it may be he's in a frame on a wall somewhere, but like no one really knows what it is. And they walk by every single day.

Kevin Dennis (: 37:03

I love it. Okay.

Anthony (: 37:19

Go back to that and say, is this really why we are doing what we're doing? At Footers, we have our three bullet mission statement. We did it intentionally, three bullets, so people would remember it. you, like it's on the back of our setup shirts. Our team knows what our mission statement is. Love what you do. Make it better every day. Create exceptional experiences. And so when we go back to the drawing board and especially for, you know, maybe people that don't have teams, like, why did you start this? Like, why are you doing this in the first place? Why, what is your, you know, why do you exist?

Kevin Dennis (: 37:34

I love that.

Anthony (: 37:49

And we come back to that meaning. All of a sudden we can start to be intentional and crafting the culture and activating it around that. Okay, so what that looks like, love what you do. What are we doing every day to make sure our team is loving their job? Make it better every day. Are we inspiring people to continue improving every day? Are we mindful of that and creating exceptional experiences? Are we highlighting the experiences that people have had with us? And so we're all of a sudden talking about our mission constantly. It's not something that just sits on a wall, it's nice to have.

everything we do is coming back to that of like, this is why footers exists. This is who we are as a company. And that's going to permeate through everything. So for companies that are looking to start to take that step back and say, okay, what's our mission? And you know, the next step is values, because I think these two things go hand in hand. And values is more like, you know, how are we going to operate than the next step of like, how do we integrate with each other? What are what is the, know, the four, five things that are just critical for us as a company that

Kevin Dennis (: 38:20

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony (: 38:46

this is what we stand for and this is who we are and they're gonna be threaded through everything we do and how we do it. so starting with those two things I think are a great place because then you can build everything around it and you have this compass of you know like where's true north? Like this is where we are, this is what we stand for. Okay, I know we're going in the right direction, let's build around that as opposed to just trying to like, ⁓ you know.

we have a company vacation and a lot of people get excited about like, should do a company vacation. It's like, well, if company vacation isn't in line with what you do, like it may work for me, but it doesn't work for you. So.

Kevin Dennis (: 39:20

Mm-hmm. Love it. All right. Well Anthony, I can't thank you enough for everything that you taught us here today. I mean, it's absolutely mind-blowing. think people, one, need to go and subscribe to your newsletter because I read your, I get your little newsletters and I think that's, yeah, it really goes a long way. I mean, that's a good start but also like just, like you said, put the time and look at yourself and take the time with your culture and how can you make it better every day for everyone, you know.

Anthony (: 39:35

My blessing.

Kevin Dennis (: 39:49

everyone around, so I love it.

Anthony (: 39:50

Yeah, well

thank you Kevin. I appreciate that. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber and for having me today. This is something I love talking about and I'm honored to be your guest.

Kevin Dennis (: 39:56

Yeah. Yeah, no.

Appreciate it. how real we'll have it all in the show notes, but how can folks get in touch with you and subscribe or all that good stuff?

Anthony (: 40:09

Yeah, if you check out themibe.com is ⁓ where you can find more information about what we do at MIBE, our events. You can subscribe to the weekly newsletter there. You can find me on LinkedIn, Anthony Lombados. We'd love to connect with you there. And then on Instagram, you can follow us at themibe as well. So those are a couple of ways. And if you want to reach out to me personally, I'd love to have a conversation. ⁓

on LinkedIn, so please feel free to DM me and let's connect.

Kevin Dennis (: 40:44

All right, I love it. All right, Anthony, thank you so much for being here today. Folks, we will see you next time on another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. Thanks, folks.