Scott Stanfield: Pivoting as an Entrepreneur because of Covid

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

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Scott Stanfield, thanks for jumping and learning from others. How are you doing? Oh, I’m doing great. How are you? Good. Uh, you and I know each other out, so we, you know, a lot of these times I have these podcasts guests and when we chat, it’s the first time, but you and I will get into how, um, you and I started chatting together, but not until I ask two questions.

Question number one is what’s your background and why should our listeners be caring about what you have to say today? Well, my background is almost 33 years restaurant management and, uh, the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. And yeah. Went from dishwasher with no experience to manager in a summer.

So 90 days, yeah, it was pretty, pretty wild ride, you know, to go from dishwasher to prep, cook to, um, mind cooked expediter to, Hey, we’ve got a position for you as a manager and, uh, so bye. And, you know, I’ve worked as a restaurant manager more than I’ve done any other part of the restaurant. I know how to do all of those things that I have worked as a server and a bartender, but you know what my background really is, is working in one of the most stressful environments that you can imagine, and really trying to, um, deliver excellence five star reviews with, um, You know, not everybody speaks the same language and you know, not everybody has experience and not everybody’s trained.

So a lot of entry level people that are just passing through and, and so, um, and then how to manage myself and really live the healthiest life is really what I, what I talk about now. And, um, you know, because I did a lot of things wrong. I had to, I had high blood pressure at 1331. Um, I, I was overweight twice, had to lose 40 pounds twice.

So that’s really what, what my background is. And I’m sitting here taking notes. I’ve got a lot of stuff. Uh, I want to touch on, but not until question number two, which is okay. So you told us all these cool things about, ya know, let’s learn more about what you suck at. What do you suck at Scott? Well, I think the reason that I figured out how to, you know, live a really healthy life in a stressful environment, because I really sucked at it in the beginning.

I didn’t know how to do that really. And you know, all things being equal when I was a PE major and athletic training major at university of South Carolina, it was 157 pounds, you know, five foot 10. I was, you know, you know, ripped and, and everything was great. You put me in a restaurant, am I. I gate, I go to 185 pounds, right.

And not sleeping and drinking too much. And those types of things and what I sucked at was, was balance. And I think this is what I’m really delivering, is what I’ve learned through the process of getting balanced in my life. I was going to ask you how you went from, you know, the PE to you saying you’ve been overweight twice, but that makes sense that you already hit that.

So why don’t we just kind of start there? So you and I met because we had a, we have a mutual friend, Sean Boucher is actually been on the show and I messaged Shawn and said, Hey, I’m looking for somebody that knows this and this about, uh, certain types of diets. Sean is a chef as well. And he said, uh, I’d be happy to help you, but I think.

My friend Scott would be better suited. So that’s how you and I got, uh, got connected and we’ve talked a lot. And what I admire about you is a lot of what you touched on is, um, you know, some of the listeners will know that I, I acquired an auto immune condition a while back, and as I’ve tried to explore that and figure out how to make the most of, of life with that condition.

Now I’ve talked a lot of doctors and it’s just kinda like, well, Here. Here’s what you got and here’s the options, the end. And there aren’t really options. And so when I talk to you about it, I was, I was really appreciative of what you touched on, where you set up. I’ve had problems with health, and I just figured it out.

I just delve into it, trial and error, AB testing. And that really resonated with me because that’s what I’ve been doing. Cause I felt like talking to doctors was just like, Very black and white and you know, all, all, all conditions are the same. All solutions are the same. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work the end.

And so I was really drawn to you and I connecting for that reason. So why don’t we kind of start there and is that, that, is that the way that you’ve kind of always been, or because you started realize you’re gaining weight and being unhealthy, he said, shit, I need to do something. And you’re just kind of forced to figure it out.

Well, it’s, it’s an operating system that really came from my childhood and that being okay. Race go-karts, uh, really wanted to be a NASCAR driver. I wanted to be Dale Earnhardt and, um, And so what happens is, um, you know, when you’re a racer and I would, I did, you know, really well. And my parents really, you know, backed me in, in the best I possibly could.

And I was fully sponsored by kart shop that made their own chassies and had engines. And so I had a full ride. I didn’t cost me anything to race for like the last six years of my career, one, you know, national championships and state championships, and other awards in there as well. And. Eraser does AB testing all the time

Right. And you’re also are willing to scrap what was working last week because you got beat this week or adjust it and tweak it and do those types of things. I think that’s one reason why I was successful in the restaurant business. So early is because I came in with this operating system that allowed me to see.

The whole system as a systemically and you make this one adjustment that affects this thing because you change a left rear tire, even when you’re racing ovals, and it could change your track time by two tenths of a second, if it’s two solved or you had to run too much air in it or too little air in it, those types of things.

And so everything’s a puzzle for me. And so I lay these systems over everything that I do, and it happened to be, I did the same thing with my health and. You know, when you, okay. So you’re working at a time when you’re like, okay, I don’t have time to sleep now. I mean, you know, or I don’t have, I’m really busy.

What do I give up? And a lot of people give up sleep, and that’s the worst thing you can give up. And we can talk more about that later, but, um, You know, so I had to like figure out how to make all these pieces work and, and what were the elements in this? Just like, what’s the element and being a great entrepreneur and a business, you got to have a good product and a service and solve a problem.

And you got to have a marketing plan, got to have good SEO. If you have a website, you know, those types of things. So people can find you, it’s the same thing with your health as well. Why? So I already stated, I admire that in you and I find myself to kind of fall under that umbrella of putting everything in life as an algorithm and the puzzle and figuring it out.

Why are other people not like that? I don’t expect you to have an answer, but I’m going to see if you do well. I started talking about Bruce Lipton and epigenetics and, you know, basically what we are as copies of the first six years of our lives. Right. Because our brains are in theta. Excuse me, our brains and data.

When we first are born to the first six or seven years of our life, and we’re seeing what other people are doing. It’s why there’s multiple generations of Irish people in New York that are in the fire department or the police department. And there’s, you know, multiple generations that are doctors or attorneys or truck drivers or those types of things.

And it’s because we see what we see other people and how they solve a problem. And so these, these way we handle problems are handed down to us. Um, generation after generation of generation, just in this first six years. And, you know, I think the only thing that’s going to change the way we think is repetition or desire to be really good at something or an impact, right.

Uh, you know, there’s things like death and divorce. It really changed our personality. You know, that can happen that way, but repetition is a big piece of that. And when you’re driven, you know, to succeed at something, and for me, that was racing, I raced for eight years and I never won a race. I raced for 15 years total and won multiple national championships, eight state championships, and with sportsman of the year for the national series.

So, um, I was put into an element to where. You know, there were no radios in the, in the helmets racing go-carts it was against the rules and way dads couldn’t coach you to block or do this type of thing. So I had to figure those things out at age seven and age 15, I was going a hundred miles an hour, 80 miles an hour, depending on the track size and, you know, age 17, I’m going 110 miles an hour with a, you know, A 20 horsepower, you know, on, you know, sitting beside me, I’m racing on a fifth mile, uh, and going around it.

And I’m like 11.7 seconds, right? Turn in 10,000 RPMs. And I’m 17, 18 years old. So you think differently when you’re put in that situation, on the high level, not racing as people ended up making in the NASCAR. So it wasn’t like, it was just like this. Go-kart that you think of, you know, just at a fun park, right?

Or, you know, K speed on an electric car, there’s a similar, but it was open tracks and, and, and rules and, and I mean, it was just an intense culture to be part of. So I think it is, has to do with striving to be excellent and trying to, I was trying to solve these complex problems at a very young age and it just carried over into my being an adult.

Hmm. So, so you had about a 15 year career span, but the first eight of it, no success. And then it was the latter, the latter half where you started to get some wins. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I. You know, it was all about learning how to do it. Right. And you could only do it. And there was no internet. There was no video games other than pole position in the arcade.

No, it was like, it wasn’t like I was gaming it, you know, on the weekend or during the week. And they go into the weekend and doing it. It was all like old school visualization. Right. You know, and I mean, I was sitting in my go-kart in the backyard, you know, I get my mom to help me pull it out when my dad was at worst, I could sit in it and do that.

And so you’re. You know, and so it was like you had to learn it and you can only do it when you went to a race. And so the scene of that is, uh, a couple of them, as I’ve learned that, you know, life is really more about slow and steady wins the race, right. You know, where you have to really put the time in to learn a skill.

And I had to learn the skill cause I wasn’t as talented as other people and to learn other aspects of it. I had to make the go-kart. You know, be faster than other people because I wasn’t a better driver than everybody else. Another thing is, is my dad understood that how, what he called seat time was so important that we would go to an asphalt race on Saturday morning.

And then at night we would drive over and go to the dirt track. And with the same cart, we would race at two different races in the same day to get as much seat time as possible. And also every condition, if it rained, I was out there drying the track off the, what, the track on the dirt track. I was out there doing that.

So I learned how to drive in all these different conditions. And, you know, I live in the mountains of park city, Utah, and she’ll drive in the snow is fun for me. It reminds me of driving on those slick dirt tracks. And when I was a kid. You know, but, but yeah, it takes time to learn a skill and it took me time to learn how to win.

So it was a gradual progression where you would, okay. I finished last right then I would finish next to last and then I would move up and I’d okay. I finished 15 out of 20 and then I, then I go to a national race and I wouldn’t even make the main event. And then next thing I’m going to, you know, a couple years later I’m going to a national event and I finished in the top 10 and you’ll get trophies back.

Then you’d give trophies to everybody. Right. You know, you would, you would go and I would finish six and a national race and I would finish six, six. So I kinda got to that spot now. And then, and the next thing, you know, I’m qualifying first at a national event. And then we go to like a world championship in Daytona and I qualify, you know, third and finished second in the race and, you know, and then next thing you know, it’s like, um, you know, winning points, championships, and, and those types of things.

And so it just put, progressed up and. And the life lesson in that for me was you have to love something long enough, uh, to, to go through the tough parts to get good at it. So you gotta love it enough to go through the tough parts. Yeah. Do you remember that first win? I remember the first state race win or one of the very first ones.

Um, I’m being chilled thinking about it. Yeah. Um, Oh gosh. Um, You know, I was a junior, I was an older, so it was probably 14. 15 years old. Um, when I won this race, it wasn’t my home track. And the track conditions of dirt, dirt tracks changed, especially when you had the, it depends on how many people came and the weather and how much they wet it.

And if you put calcium in the water and all these types of things. And so yeah, knew the track really well, but it never really got this hard and fast. And so when tracks dirt tracks got hard and fast, a lot of my asphalt road core skills would kick in. And most people specialize. They either race, dirt, or they race asphalt, they re did, did both.

Right. And, um, luckily for me, you know, the team that I drove for, uh, Charlie Sox is the owner Sox racing. They made shadow carts for years. He, um, He was one of the very, he was the very first person to ever win a national championship in both surfaces and, and configurations. That example was set in our shop.

That is like, this is just what we do. And we can, we can move back and forth between those things. And so versatility was a big part of what we did and what we do. And, uh, the guy that I raced with Dan, he still races some and he’s building engines and. You know, he’s got his sons involved in doing a lot of stuff there now.

And so it’s really, and I worked there 30 years ago when I was in high school when Jen just out of high school before college. All right. So I want to jump ahead a little bit. You had mentioned that after racing days, you started in a restaurant, um, or was, was day one in a restaurant still when you were younger and doing a little bit of racing.

I kind of blended them together a little bit, but I, I had retired from racing. Really. I had decided that I w you know, cause you back then you couldn’t make any money, a go cart racing. It was like, it was just a, a hobby that you did. You know, I got a full ride, but I didn’t make money at it. I worked at the go-cart shop making $6 at 50 cents an hour.

That’s when I started there, I was making a minimum wage at $3 and 5 cents an hour. So it wasn’t like breaking the bank in any way, putting in 40 hours working on go-carts and then race working on my personal carts after work and on the racing on the weekends and those things, it wasn’t like I was waiting tables or any of those type of stuff.

So I broke clean of that. And probably about six months just kind of worked at a land surveying company. They really convinced me that I needed to go to school. I had already gone to technical school to be a machinist. I think that’s another piece of me understanding how these pieces fit together, put together.

And, uh, just with a couple of classes left and I decided I didn’t want to be yeah. A machinist. And so I started going to university of South Carolina and I’m like, what are my interests? My interests are business and athletics. Uh, so that’s how I ended up. I flipped a coin when admissions called me, you can’t do both.

I flipped the coin and decided to be a PE teacher. And they talked me into double major. And when I went to orientation, so I was athletic training major and PE, which serves me, serves me well. And so. There was a break. There was a small break in there. And so then what happened is my love has always been racing.

That was my first love. My first passion. And that brought in, you know, working out and exercise and go into the gym because the stronger you were cause there no seatbelts it to hold yourself in the, in the cart. Right. You just pitchers. One side of my neck was bigger than the other holding the helmet.

Right. I was like all set, you know, it was like really kind of, I had a mullet too, which I’ll never show you this. Right. Uh, but, um, it was, it was. Really nice mullet. And I’m telling you this, is there such a thing back in the eighties? Uh, there was, yeah, I was early blonde hair and, you know, hang it. You had to get your mullet long enough to where it hung out the helmet long enough where the girls liked it.

Right. So it was kind of, I’m laughing because I have a brother in law and his girlfriend is just absolutely in love with mullets. She’s posting all the time. Anytime she sees like a mullet meme. That’s her jam, but, uh, so there was a break for me and then I started going to school and then I had, you know, it was a really cool thing.

Um, one of the, the kids that I help, one of the juniors I helped with racing go carts. His dad owned an apartment building was an old mill. That was, um, Down across the street from the engineering building right off the campus of university of South Carolina. And, um, uh, it was mr. Huffman and I helped them at one race and gave them my setup that I had done.

And that was one of the biggest races I ever won. It was really quick that that day. And, um, and I gave them my set up because. The people who were helping them were really good friends of mine. We used to be on the same team together and those things. And so mr. Huffman, let me live in this apartment building for free for my first year of school.

And then he sold a building and I had to start paying rent and all those things. And I’m like, I need to get a job. And I’d always told me, I told myself that if I didn’t make it into a NASCAR, that I wanted to own a restaurant and I don’t know why it was just a draw to it. I don’t have the energy or any of those things.

And. Uh, of it, but we ate in a lot of restaurants that we traveled. So that was something that drew me to it. And I applied it probably 15 different restaurants didn’t get hired. And finally, I got a referral from a guy that I was a bartender at this restaurant opening out on Lake Murray and he was friends with the people opening it, and we were in the same training classes together.

And he made a referral and I got a job as a dishwasher there. And, uh, haven’t looked back, you know, that’s crazy. I was going to ask you, um, you know, if you had an interest in, in the restaurant world beforehand, so that’s interesting. Now you had made a comment when we first started talking that the restaurant industry is the most stressful environment you can imagine.

Why is that, you know what goes on behind the scenes? You touched on a couple about, um, differences in language entry level position, people come in and go on, but us as everyday customers, what do we not see? You? Don’t see. People’s lack of commitment to the job. You don’t see. And so therefore there’s probably in bigger restaurants, multiple call outs every day.

So you write a schedule that with all things being equal, there’s very little padding in it for taking into consideration of somebody calls out because your trial. Uh, most of my calls out sick, right. Or, you know, here in park city call out because was a powder day or, or at the beach, because the surf’s really good.

Uh, you know, cause I worked in Santa Monica, I’ve worked in here in park city, Utah, you know, Hilton head Island, uh, you know, all these different places. And so you’re, you’re hiring people who are, you know, they’re in town for different reason. And so. You know, people may just like try to take advantage of it or another term that we use, they call up because they’re hung over or have whiskey flu as we would say.

Right. Right. And so what you don’t see is that, you know, when you see a manager, that’s actually standing at the host stand. It may not be because that’s where they need to beat us because they have to be because somebody called out of work. Right. And so that’s what you really don’t see there. And you obviously don’t see it for, if it’s a closed kitchen, you’ll see what’s going on behind the kitchen.

You know, someone like me as a general manager may be hosting, you know, and helping we call it, follow the bubble. People come in and you have all these people coming in and you’re helping seed everybody. Then you’re going in your back and you’re helping make waters to get every, all the waters out. And then, um, and then about that time, what’s happening is your pantry station is they’re making cold appetizers.

They’re making salads and they’re also making desserts. They’re getting, they’re making three courses and they’re overwhelmed because it could’ve been somebody called out. It’s just like your staffing is for one person and you’re busier than you expected. So the general managers back there in a suit, a lot of times bailing out the kitchen and making desserts Brulay in your dessert and running the food out, doing all those things and, and that type of stuff.

So there’s a lot of things that go on and it’s a very, this business is condensed in a very short period of time. And. Here’s another really crucial aspect of this. There are micro deadlines for every single table or guest in the, in the building. You know, you can make a reservation for seven 30 and if I seat you at seven 35 you’re okay.

But if I push it to seven 47, you’re upset because you have, why did I make a reservation? There’s a deadline and you get sat down. And then it’s like how long we were judging this. On a micro level, this experience, how long does it take to get you my water or greeted? Get my water, get my drink from the bar, get my appetizer, get my entree was my entree cooked the right way.

How long? All the way down to, like how long does it take to get the check? Right. All those things where the customer is judging this there’s probably. You know, sometimes, you know, 10, depending off as a fast casual walk in, or tend to 40 different micro deadlines that are, that are being happening at all with the same time at different places, even in one server section who has a four or five table section and having to hit all those deadlines.

Yeah. You know, and that person could not get sleep that day could have been working. This is their second job. Um, I got a call from their boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband, or wife or kid texts, and they’re been in dry storage and they got that and they’re emotionally hijacked. It could be hung over. Right.

It could be that too. Right? So there’s all these things that are going on and people don’t really take the job seriously a lot of times, cause it’s not a profession for them. And you’re trying to deliver five star experiences with all of those things going on with hundreds of people at one time, it’s a pretty intense environment.

And um, I guess that’s why the saying is if you can’t handle the, he get out of the kitchen, right. It’s a pretty, pretty intense place. I imagine it sounds like the demographic that makes up a kitchen is, you know, part. Of the people like you that are super passionate about it. And then the other side is just people there temporarily.

And there’s, I imagine there’s not a lot of in between the people that are semi committed, um, may want to pursue this as a career, but aren’t, they got one foot in the door and one foot out is, is that. A fair assumption. It is you have, you have people who are, you know, you, you may have someone, a chef, the super passionate about food, and they may have gone to CIA, the culinary Institute of America.

And, you know, you know, but their job is really more about placing orders and hitting food calls and hitting their numbers and doing those types of things and coaching and training and those things, they may spend some time on the line cooking, but you know, when you get to that level, You know, their, their commitment is not actually making great food.

They may make, they may be in a position to make up specials and those things, it depends on how they structure their job. There are some chefs that they really are in the kitchen a lot more, and they have, uh, their sous chef, which is their under chef assistant to them, do a lot of the paperwork and do those things.

So just, they structure different ways based off their desires and their, um, and their skill sets and those types of things. Um, but yeah, there, there are, when you think about it, you know, it’s like it, you know, it’s interesting level, a lot of positions are, and you work your way up and we’re training people and, you know, they may be commuting from, you know, uh, have a longer commute and they’ll change jobs, jobs for 50 cents more an hour.

Right. That may be closer to them or maybe yeah, not. And so it’s, you know, build team building is a very tough piece of the puzzle and hiring people that have the right characteristics is really a tough thing. And that’s one of the things I really dialed in on. Okay. As I was, um, you know, as I was leading restaurants is how to hire people that.

Um, really have the right characteristics, uh, and asking the right questions and understanding of what the answer to the question we’re in the, to get the best possible outcomes for that. And so, yeah, having the right people in the cultivating the right ecosystem are the really two top things. Yeah. What is one of the most unique slash amazing slash bizarre slash standout memories that you have from the restaurant career?

Uh, I think it’s probably, um, uh, one of them comes to mind is, uh, Um, you know, getting, well, gosh, there’s so many of them, what comes to mind is like getting chewed out by guests and really turning those things around. Right. One of them came to mind actually was this lady was her birthday. She’s 95 years old and really going over and talking to her and her nieces, you know, telling me it’s like, yeah, she’s.

The difference about her. She has a goal. She wants to live to be 105, and really, and really connecting with this lady. Who’s 95 years old and saying that she wants to live to be 105, you know, you know, things go wrong. Right. You know, you think I just explained this whole system, these micro deadlines, you know, that are going on.

I spent a lot of time working in a prime grade steakhouses like classic American Alcart steakhouses, uh, that are expensive and people really, if they’re going to lay down that a level of money for their steak, they want to be cooked the way they want it to be cooked in. And as our job to cook this steak, And it’s 1800 degree broiler to the temperature that they desire.

And I remember this one particular one, this lady steak was overcooked and. Uh, it is really, really a funny situation. I had just finished reading the book by Chris boss, uh, his FBI hostage negotiation techniques, which is called never split the difference, negotiate like your life depends on it. And on top of that, I was the trainer for our hotel and restaurant on how to turn upset guests around.

And there’s really a psychological sequencing in this process. And the first thing is to hear. What they have to say, just listen intently. And it was really interesting. This lady, this takes over cooked is a bonus filet is a $65 steak and is overcooked. And the reason it was overcoats is cause the server mistakenly, um, you know, had, had, had done mistake.

And so it was overcooked. And so I went out to her. I said, you know what? You know, ma’am, uh, I, I came out to talk to her. She was really upset. And, uh, I did everything I could to do it, but she wouldn’t let, let me take the stake and she didn’t want me the cook or another steak. Right. So she chewed me out.

Tableside I’ve ruined. We ruined her, her husband’s best friends, you know? Um, birthday because her stake was messed up. Right. It was really what she believed. Right. It was really odd thing. So we ended up, we did the best we could with it. And she was so emotional hijack. She went to the restroom and in hotels, restaurants, uh, the restroom is in the lobby of the hotel was not actually in the restaurant.

Like it would be in a stand alone. So I’m standing at the host stand checking in with the hostess. She walks back in and she’s. Tune me out again. He goes, I got you out twice for the same mistake that she wouldn’t let me fix, or she wouldn’t let me cook another steak, which when I say she wouldn’t let me, it would have made things worse.

If I would have delivered her another right. She was bad upset. And uh, so. You know, she threatened to she’s in social media marketing, she’s threatened to, you know, like, you know, slander us on social media and all these other things, but it was just the frustrating, most memorable thing with that is that I, you know, no matter what I did, she was unhappy.

And so then I started using some FBI hostage negotiation techniques quarter to really, and it frustrated her and I was able to turn it around at that point. And so a mirroring technique, and then also a labeling technique, which I don’t know if you’ve heard of that stuff and heard of Chris Voss, but it’s super impactful and super, super useful, especially for a leader because you now have these tools when people are really upset and you can help connect them back to reality when they’re they’re hijacked.

I like that. So does she end up chilling out a little bit? She calmed down a little bit. Uh, but I, you know, we obviously comp the entire steak, right? Because she didn’t need it. She didn’t like it, you know, and those types of things, but the unfortunate piece is, is that someone like me who really cares about their job and the service and the product that we’re delivering is I want to get them what they want.

I want to give it and the way they want it. And when somebody get that emotional, they won’t let you do it as hard to, um, feel good about because you feel like you didn’t do something right. Because, and not everything’s gonna be perfect, but, um, you didn’t, you weren’t able to deliver what they wanted. And it did, you know, because of her, the reaction to it or emotional reaction to it.

It did mess up the dining experience for that entire, our family and their friends. Yeah. Yeah. So you’ve taken a lot of what you’ve learned and kind of doing your own thing. Now, doing a little bit of health consulting and growing that. Um, how, how did you evolve into wanting to pursue that more of a one-on-one environment?

Well, Well, I got furloughed from the job I had in Santa Monica back in March. And you know, this is something that has been on the back burner, uh, for me for a long time. I I’m, I’m really spending all this time doing all this research on how to. Nope, optimize my performance day in and day out in a very stressful environment.

I was also inspired by the fact that my, both of my parents are cancer survivors with my parents got cancer in their mid fifties. My dad got prostate cancer, my mom, uterine cancer, and had to have chemo and surgery and go through the whole nine yards. And dad’s 72. Now mom turned 70 in April. And so, um, they’re, they’re still kicking up a ruckus and back in South Carolina and, um, And so I was furloughed.

I was like, okay, what am I, what am I going to do? I’d been doing a brand around being the restaurant GM coach and. Um, my, my life coach, a really good friend of mine said, Scott, modern longevity. Tara is such a strong brand and it’s so needed right now. You know, you should consider it. And it took me like 47 seconds to really say, you know, you’re what you’re right.

And. Because we took me out of the restaurant unless I’m asked specific questions. Like you asked me, I really don’t think about it that much. I don’t think about leadership that much. You don’t think about those things. I’m not trying to solve those problems, but I’ll wake up in the morning. I’m like, okay, what’s my morning routine.

Like I was waiting for you to come on. I did one round of Wim, Hof breathing exercises before that. I, um, you know, I’ve meditated this morning. Right. And I do transcendental meditation. Right. And so I think about. These elements of, of how I can, um, a optimize my performance today. I’ll extend my health span tomorrow.

Like my is obviously my genetic, uh, capability or expression of my genetics in a certain way to get cancer in my mid fifties. Cause both my parents got it. My, my dad’s dad passed away cancer 62. So he probably had cancer in his mid fifties as well, or at least his late fifties. And then. Um, how can I move that out to 85, 95, 105.

Right. So what I think about, so that has expended extending lifespan. So my, my, my dad’s dad, um, pass away 62, my dad’s 72, I’m shooting for 102. Right. So really moving it that way. So how did I get there? A really good conversation with someone who really knew me from the inside out and what I believed in and who I really am.

And I listened to her. Do you think if that person didn’t do that, you might not be pursuing this? I think so. I think I would have taken the easier route and continued with the restaurant GM coach and not taking the time to do this. COVID pivot. Like most everybody, a lot of people are doing. I probably would have still would have been like, I would have gone deeper on that.

And it would, it goes, it would have been easier for me instead of saying and looking inwardly and going okay.

Yeah, you bring up a good point that a lot of people are probably going through, as you said, a COBIT pivot to some people because they have an opportunity to like yourself to pursue something that’s that they’ve had an interest in before other people not really having a choice and. You still hear me?

Yeah, I guess you repeat that last one. I didn’t hear it. Uh, now you’re going to hair hall. Let me make a note to have Kevin cut this out. Okay.

You bring up an interesting point about COVID pivot and some people are kind of forced into that circumstance. Other people have been fortunate enough, like yourself to have a little bit of a passion. Already in mind, on the back burner to jump in, as you started this journey, a lot of other people are a step or two behind you.

Um, do you think that you’ve found enough momentum to carry or your way through to success? You know, what have you learned so far? Anything that helps people that are that one or two steps behind you catch up to maintaining that momentum? Well, I, I think that I’ve built some momentum for sure. And, you know, there’s, I think that there’s a chance that.

I may have to step back into doing something on a smaller scale insight as a job to support my family, because unemployment is going to run out. At some point, I don’t expect, you know, governments from the check checks from the government to keep showing up. And those types of things, which we only got one right back, you know, four or five months ago.

Um, so I it’s, you know, when you’re starting something, you know, uh, it does take time sometimes to really. They’re really gained attraction and the, and get the momentum. You think that, you know, the name of my brand is a word that hasn’t really been use for 150 years. Longevity, Marion people don’t really know what that means.

They know what vegetarian means, you know, they know, um, you know, that someone’s Quito or those types of things, but they don’t really. Uh, and so I’m putting a word back into the English language that’s very rarely used. So that makes it, that’s one of the good things about the brand, but it’s also one of the bad things about the brand.

So I, you know, I know in the back of my mind that because I have a mortgage and two kids, a wife and eight chickens and, you know, two dogs, uh, two lovebirds and a cat. Um, that I got a lot of, a lot of miles to, depending on me to feed them. Right. And so, um, I may have to, you know, someone is single, right? And I’ve been, you know, working in a restaurant, you know, for, for five or six years.

And they have a passion about, you know, about this and they have a low expenses. They could, you know, during this time they could have gotten, you know, personal training type of thing, and then go work in a gym as a personal trainer and transfer some skills that way. And that may be something that I do, but.

I know that there’s, there’s going to probably need to be a bridge for me to make it to where I go full time and continue to do for this full time. But I’m putting up a hundred percent into whatever. Yeah. Why don’t you define longevity Marion for us? Well, as long as you have a tear longevity plus Tarion right.

And you know, for me, it really means it means extending your health span or the prime years of your lives out as far as possible. And. You know what it really means actually, when I searched it eight and a half years ago, when I thought of this word, I found it in a book on Google books and it was in this living green volume, one 24, and it was referring to people over a hundred years old.

And we use that a word now centered in an area and where it’s, you know, these blue zones where people live to be over a hundred years old and in the highest per capita percentages. And so this, it really is just about taking your health and giving it a long view versus like, what am I hacking today to feel good today, but making decisions that are good for the long run, like.

Yeah, I’ve been keto for four and a half years. And you know, this, we’ve talked about this a lot. You’ve been on the keto diet too. When we start looking at blue zones, start looking at longevity diet by Victor Longo, dr. Victor Longo, um, they’re 90% plant based and being Quito and being plant-based is difficult.

I know that, um, you have to we’ll call wrote a book called keto Tarion that has a lot of plant based recipes in there. And we even talked about that as well in it, you know? And so I’m migrating, you know, more, you know, more about being plant-based and now, because I’m really focused on the longevity piece of it versus just, you know, optimizing myself to, to live the best life and being able to skip multiple meals by managing restaurants and those things.

I mean, I don’t know. You obviously got food in the refrigerator, and I know you work from home, but imagine working in a restaurant where you have everything from bacon to cheesecakes and everything in between prepped, and you can eat it for free all day long and you’re working 10, 12 hour days, right?

It’s you there’s no garden is amazing. Yeah,

it is. That’s why I gained 30 pounds in a summer. And that’s why I had to lose 40 pounds twice. Right. I was definitely spoiled. Right. When I wanted to have a salad, I was walked over to the salad bar, wash my hands, put on a pair of gloves. Here’s the salad makes them want. And here’s all these toppings right.

Already prepped and cut. And I could just do this and I had six salad dressings freshly made. I could just put on there what I wanted. Oh, and can you cook me a piece of salmon to go on here? It was just like, it was. Like easy. And then I come home, it’s like, I gotta make a style. This is going to take some time.

Right. It’s a different things. And there’s just the other day at Costco, I bought these pre made beats. Organic beets are pre, pre cooked. It’s been like, it’s been like, it’s like awesome. Cause I just gotta pull them out of the fridge and cut it up, put it on top of whatever. Yeah. It’s convenient. So I’m never been really like, um, A meal prepper or those things, because I could just eat where I go to work.

 

And so I’m having to transition that way there. Well, as we get closer to wrapping up, I want, so you talk about extending life span, going past a hundred, correct me if I’m wrong, but was your inspiration. To be a 95 year old crappy man that complains about stakes. Is that when this all came to peak? Oh no, no, no.

 

Um, initially my first goal was just, you know, don’t be fat. Right. And then it was like, don’t get cancer. Right. That was the first really two things. And I knew I could control I’m going to put in and all my body. So, you know, I’m married. Super smart. Beautiful. I know you talk about your wife being hot, but my wife saw it too.

 

Right. So we’re fine. Yeah.

 

And you didn’t say your wife’s hot or you just said she’s hot, so we’re good. Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t seen the pictures yet. I don’t know. I can’t. I think, I think for me, my wife’s hotter for me. Right. And so, yeah, but my wife had been a pescatarian, vegetarian and pescatarian for a number of years when my parents started got cancer and those things were happening.

 

So I switched my diet and. And then, you know, I was doing a lot of things wrong. You know, I was a fat vegetarian. I mean, when I turned 40, when I turned 40, I’m like, Oh, I’m doing everything right. And what I did is my diet, really, it made some markers better. My blood pressure went down because I had high blood pressure 10 years before that.

 

And so my blood pressure went from one 20 over 80 to like 100 over 70 by changing my diet as I got older, but I was 40 pounds overweight. And then, you know, then I started like, okay, what, what, what do I need to do? And then as like, I’m working at a hospital, um, salt Lake, regional medical center, you probably heard of it, the old Holy cross hospital and the director of food and beverage there.

 

And they do bariatric surgeries there. And one of the doctors said, you know, that. Weight loss is, you know, 70% diet. And I’m like, well, gosh, I’m just, all I did was started doing P90X. I didn’t really change my diet really. Cause I thought my diet was on point cause I’m a vegetarian. Well, then I read this book called the warrior diet on intermittent fasting.

 

Okay. And nobody was intermittent fasting eight years ago, other than the guy who wrote the book. Right. It was like me and him that were doing right. You know, but now it’s like some people who are like, you know, 20 years old are intermittent fasting and it’s like, it’s something new. And, and so as I progressed and I started putting all these blocks together of all these different things and doing, using Bruce Lee’s.

 

Philosophy of absorb everything, keep what is useful discard, what is not, and make it uniquely your own. Because what I need for me is different than what you need. There’s some similarities because to lose weight, your insulin’s gotta be low, right? You gotta be at a calorie deficit at some point, and you can do that with keto.

 

Or you can do that by, you know, just doing calorie restriction. There’s different ways to skin the cat, so to speak. And then as, as I, it became health span. And, uh, you know, in extending to prime years. And then when you a brand on longevity, your whole goal set, your mindset changes around that, you know?

 

And so this is something I plan on doing for another 45, 46 years until my mid nineties and being still being as close to a hundred percent as I possibly can be at that particular age, that’s really the game. How can I be the best, a hundred year old? Yeah. Yeah. I like it. All right, Scott, you and I could go on forever cause you and I have a relationship outside of this podcast and we geek out on health stuff.

 

I’m going to, I’m going to call it a wrap right there and thank you for jumping on learning from others and give you the last few moments to tell our listeners how they can find out more about you. Well, you can try to figure out how to spell modern longevity, marion.com. Right. And do that search my name, Scott Stanfield.

 

And you’ll, you’ll see some, some things there. Um, and I hope that you put some links in the show notes. Um, on Instagram, my handle is @straightcabbage. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Uh, so as a good way to find me, um, there on LinkedIn at Scott R Stanfield and, uh, I, I put out a mix of things on LinkedIn, some leadership stuff, and, and also things about. You know, longevity and sleep and those types of things, um, you know, and health span and diet and, and, uh, you know, and Instagram’s more about sometimes like what workout I’m doing, what food I’m eating, you know, those things I’m making.

 

And we have a private face group, group PI. We have a private Facebook. Book group as well, guys. Why can’t I talk right now? Um, it’s just called, um, it’s modern longevity, Marion as well. So, um, if you want to join that, I asked him questions like Monday, I put, you know, it’s Monday and you have 20% more likely to have a heart attack today.

 

So what are you doing to mitigate stress today? Right. And, and then Tuesday I put, you know, uh, Californians are less likely to barbecue on Tuesday and you know, day a week. And I went, duh, it’s taco Tuesday. Right.

 

Uh, yeah. And really trying to put some cool articles about people who are really living the long Jared Jebbit turn lifestyle. I’ve also a podcast, modern longevity, Marion. Yeah. And, um, I’m, I’m really excited about that because I’m really starting to do some longevity, Marion spotlights, where I’m interviewing people that are really living it.

 

And so really dear friend of mine, that was a mentor of mine for about five years. He’s 78, he’s Quito. He fast for 36 hours once or twice a week. And, uh, we did, we did six mile hikes together and, uh, just really a cool, cool thing to really spotlight people are doing it right at that age. So I’m really excited about school.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Stop. Scott Stanfield, everybody modern longevity. Marion. We’ll put the links in the show notes. Thanks so much, Scott. Thank you. It’s my pleasure.