Dishing It Out: Navigating Challenges in the Restaurant World
In this episode, Mark and Sam discuss cooking, the challenges in the restaurant industry, and the importance of mental health. They also touch on the history of champagne and the benefits of taking mental breaks. Sam shares his favourite method for cooking steak and the importance of allowing chefs to showcase their creativity. Mark reflects on the changes in his perspective over the years, including being more open to suggestions and taking a long-term approach to decision-making.
Transcript
Hey Sam, here we go again on episode 2 on the burnt podcast. How's it going buddy?
sam (:Good mate, how are you?
Mark (:Pretty good, pretty good. We're ready to go for another episode and we have a lot to talk about. Maybe we get started with what we did last time, which I really, really liked. We started with one of your most delicious recipes of all times. But this time, let's talk about what's cooking this week. What are you cooking this week?
sam (:This week, look, you know, on the menu, I've got coming up sometime during the later weeks, the later weeks, the later days of the week, I'm gonna do like a roasted balsamic lamb shoulder. And that's just gonna be like, you know, a nice big lamb shoulder, studded with garlic.
bit of brown sugar, cherry tomatoes and chicken stock with a bit of red wine and balsamic. You're going to throw that into the oven at about 160 degrees for two and a half hours until it's tender. You take it out, get it nice and crispy back in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. And you've got yourself a pretty sexy dish. And just remember you keep basting that as you go. And you'll end up with this amazingly succulent lamb shoulder.
Mark (:That's amazing. That's amazing. I love my meat, man. You know that I do love my meat. So what's going on in the market today? I know we're getting hungry over that recipe, but what's going on in the market today? What's happening? What have you been seeing since we spoke? Is there anything standing out to you? Is there anything changing in the market?
sam (:Look, all I know is I know a lot of people at the moment, restaurants are struggling a lot. Prices as we touched on last time are getting higher and higher and higher each day, every week as we go along. You know, I just don't know how much longer this industry is going to be able to suck up the prices that we're being charged for produce and also for staff.
I just don't know how much longer we're actually going to be able to, you know, cop that on the chin without actually giving it a really, really big price increase, especially for these restaurants, like, you know, especially the higher end restaurants, like we, we, we got to be able to, to, to, to make money at the end of the day, we need to be able to feed our families and all these other things, you know, and it just seems to be every single week.
Mark (:Exactly, exactly.
sam (:The fluctuation in prices is crazy. Long gone are the days where you can say to your supplier, hey, lock me in to $20 a kilo, $26 a kilo for Snapper.
that just doesn't, it's just not gonna happen because every single day they're getting a different price, they're getting stung and then we're getting stung and then that obviously means by the time it gets to the customer's plate and a couple of chefs and staff have taken it out to them and we've paid our electricities and gas and all that stuff, you're paying, you know, $52 for a main course.
Mark (:Yeah.
That's so true. And not including the ongoing reports about consumer confidence, people with mortgages, interest rates. So inflation is one thing and also interest rates has affected a lot of people, disposable income. So it's not only tough on the restaurant side in terms of pricing and managing that pricing and obviously,
making money to pay bills and make a good living for them and for their families but at the very same time that customers are finding it very difficult to support that market condition in terms of pricing, inflation, interest rates it's so much so I know people instead of dining
once a week, they dine out maybe once every two weeks or three weeks. And if they used to dine at fine dining restaurants, that they're now mixing it up between, you know, casual and fine dining. And some people switched from even casual to takeaway. So everybody is finding a way that they can still treat themselves in a in a way that it does it. It's sort of like manageable.
sam (:That's yeah, it's also the sorry to cut you off, but that's also the, the other thing is that I have noticed as much as, you know, things are going through the roof. I, I am noticing a lot of people still love to eat their food. And that just doesn't make any sense to me yet. When they come out to a restaurant, they'll sit there and they'll complain about.
having to pay $50 something dollars for a main course or $40 something dollars for a main course, yet they're quite happily sitting at home, Uber a burger to themselves for 50 bucks.
Mark (:Yes. Well, sometimes sometimes it's so true. But sometimes, like when being in marketing, you're always sort of like, observing, you know, being in marketing, there's one thing that it does to you. Sometimes it takes away all the fun. Yeah. Why? Because you start when you start getting exposed to all that stuff and how things work. You're no longer
sam (:Scoop.
Mark (:you start doing or you start being a lot more self aware about things, how you behave, how other people are behaving, even like the direct contact people like your family or friends. Yeah. Um, then you start seeing, watching, observing where in the past, like I had none of that sort of like observing behavior, but now I do. Um, and when, when we order Uber Eats,
either because there's something happened that we didn't plan for and then obviously we're not cooking today, so then Uber eats. So it's situational and conditional. So people don't go, yeah, it's, yes.
sam (:It's very convenient, obviously, to order. But what I'll never understand is getting the meal,
the meal being stone cold, and people just happily copying that on the chin.
Mark (:Yes, well...
sam (:I
mean, I know they get, you know, I know a lot of people who, you know, they go, Oh, it doesn't matter because I ring up and I get free, I'll get a free delivery for next time, or I'll get a free meal out of it or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that can only go on for so long.
Mark (:But you gotta remember, not not all your customers are local, right? Yeah. So if, like, for example, me and my 16 years old daughter, we might, you know, there's nobody at home and something unexpected happened and just us and there was no plans for cooking. I was working all day. She was studying all day, then we like we got to improvise and there were there weren't there any other plans to visit any restaurant and if there was.
sam (:Of course.
Mark (:During let's say school, school weekdays. It's just not viable to like to go out and you don't even have a booking. So you sort of like think about, oh, it's a school night. We had no plans, don't even know where to go, blah, blah, blah. Then you sort of, oh, so what do you want? And then she's she usually at that age, she'll have like, you know, some certain things that's her favorites. So you end up going with that without
giving it any further thought because you just want to eat and get out of the way, right? So there is a lot less planning and logic going on here because you're just trying to eat and get it out of the way. Yeah, you know?
sam (:You're just trying to feed yourself. It's
not everybody sitting there thinking about, Oh, what am I going to have for dinner? I mean, you know, me, Mark, and I think you're quite the same sometimes, you know, we're eating breakfast and we're talking about what we're having for dinner. You know, we're eating lunch and we're talking about what we're having for breakfast the next day. Um, you know, I guess that's the beauty of hospitality, I guess, you know, you're only surrounded food. Um,
Mark (:Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, so.
sam (:You know, it's just a great, it's just a beautiful thing.
Mark (:Yes. So that's that. Like people or human nature, everybody is different in the way that they behave. And then even though we end up, we think that we're behaving in a logical way, but most of the time we find justifications to a lot of dumb things that we do. So yeah, yeah. Yes. And that's just being, and that's just the part of being human, bro. So.
sam (:Of course, mate. I do a lot of things every day of my life. I think I'm making young decisions like becoming a chef.
Mark (:That's, that's what that is. But yeah, you know what, I think things will start to get better very soon once they either start dropping interest rates. And us as humans, we always find a way either dropping interest rates or something happens in the economy. There's always, there's always movement. Yeah. And people always trying to innovate and try to always see what's the what's the next step? How can we
make things better for all of us. So this is just for now is it's not a long term thing. If interest rate don't drop by mid year this year, or, or at least by the end of the year, the most likely it's going to happen early next year. But it's just being resilient and patient and finding a way to to live through these these times.
and make a good living without feeling so what's the term here? Deprived from leisure and stuff because you still want to live, you know? Still want to live. Speaking of that, I was reading the other day this biography about that champagne.
You know, the village Champagne or an area in France called Champagne. Do you know anything about Champagne? The area?
sam (:Look, I'm not
a very, very big champagne connoisseur. I'm also not a very big wine connoisseur man. You know me, I prefer my Negronis. I prefer my cocktails. There was once upon a time where I used to be like, oh yeah, I'll have a nice glass of champagne. But for me, it's just bubbles, mate. I think champagne's more for women. I'm not really a big champagne drinker.
Mark (:And you're right. You're right.
sam (:I don't know much about it. I think the women
like champagne, but for me, it's just bubbles in my mouth. I would prefer to sit there and have a nice Negroni.
Mark (:nice and and you're right i mean in even in the biography of widow moet and moet is obviously the champagne brand um yeah anyway moe moe or moe how do they
sam (:and I'm out.
Maui Maui
Mate, I've got no idea. I've heard my word. I've heard my way.
Mark (:Okay, anyway,
anyway. So they were they were what they were talking about is obviously champagne is more like it's all about women and and and ladies love their champagnes and their bubblies and all that which is amazing. But they were talking about how they discovered like the bubbles in that champagne like did you know that nobody actually came up with that it came it came up by itself.
Like nobody actually did it on purpose. It just came up by itself in that bottle. In that bottle. The bubbly stuff. Yeah, so apparently at one stage, France was going through the ice age or whatever and it was like so, so cold. So during that ice cold, obviously the champagne they used to put like yeast and sugar and all of that. And at one stage it tasted like Slurpees.
sam (:Absolutely no idea.
Ha ha ha.
Mark (:That's
it. Yeah, it was so sweet. It was like crazy sweet. It tasted like Slurpees. And anyway, and even like the texture, it was like there was a lot of crushed ice in there. Anyway, so during that ice cold weather, the yeast in that champagne would consume the sugar and and then it would turn into carbon
sam (:carbon monoxide.
Mark (:Yeah.
And that's, that's what used to create the bubbles. So one day they they open it and you know, they're drinking the bottle and it's all bubbly is like, Oh, where did that come from? And eventually, obviously, it became like a big deal in them on a global level. That's like after several hundreds of years, not it wasn't instant.
At that time when the bubbles started showing up in the bottle, they worked so hard to get rid of the bubbles. They didn't want them in there. Yeah. Where in Britain, London, they were looking into ways to add the bubbles. At the very same time in France, champagne, they were trying to get rid of the bubbles. In England or London, they were trying to add bubbles to their champagne.
sam (:Okay.
And who would have thought that the bubbles is all that they want these days. Some people don't even say champagne anymore. They go, you want a glass of bubbles?
Mark (:Yeah,
it's like crazy to that and that nobody was like actually created that it was just it was a way of nature. And then from there, it became obviously a big market for in today's world and a big brand and the way that it's branded and framed. I'm still going through the book, the book, the biography has a lot of good, a lot of good history and and lessons in marketing and business.
So maybe next time we might touch on something else. But yeah, that was cool to talk about that. That brings us to speaking of methods and bubbles and things like that. What method or a recipe hack you could add to this episode this time?
sam (:Look, I mean, one of my favorite things to do with steak, I know everybody's like, you know, obsessed with sauces and stuff on their steak, but I've never ever, ever been a big fan of like jus and all that kind of stuff, like red wine jus and all that kind of stuff. It's just never really, really resonated with me. For me, I love a well -seasoned steak with beautiful Mary River sea salt cooked over.
either charcoal or just on a grill, barbecue, has to be medium rare or rare. And then once you take that off the grill and it's cooked to the way you like it, again, hit it with salt. And then I love to finish it with a good squeeze of fresh lemon. It just lifts the flavor of the steak, especially if it's a very fatty steak, like a Wagyu or a highly marbled steak or grain fed steak, you're gonna get...
awesome, awesome flavor from the lemon that was just going to compliment the meat itself. And another great way to, you know, compliment the flavor of steak is with compound butters. You know, I love these things, you know, like a cafe de Paris butter, an anchovy butter, maybe a roasted garlic butter, you know, just a simple herb, you know, herb butter, all those sorts of things.
Mark (:ruling pro -
sam (:compliment steak and go really, really, really well with, you know, a beautiful Negroni. And there's no better way than finishing your day with a big piece of steak and a beautiful, bitter Negroni.
Mark (:I love it. Speaking of steaks, why do some restaurants serve their steak, excuse me, they serve their steaks with some glazing, like they glaze their steaks and so you can't really taste the steak anymore. What's the reasoning behind that?
sam (:When you say glazing a steak, you mean like they're cooking it in a pan with butter. I mean, it's just different techniques, I'd say, Mark. For me...
Mark (:um sometimes
like the steak might taste sweet or might taste or might have that um gravy on top or some
sam (:That's
because someone doesn't know how to cook and they've probably taken the steak, put it into the pan with the jus and then glazed the steak over and over with the jus. Now for me, I think that's just one of the most horrible ways to cook a steak. There's just, yeah, I don't understand why you would take, especially to a jus, something that's just going to get stickier and stickier over time.
Mark (:Okay.
It kills it.
Is it because
they're trying to hide a bloody stake or something? Is there a...
sam (:Definitely not.
I think there was a reasoning in, you know, maybe getting more richness and flavor into the steak by putting the jus all over the top of it like that. I mean, me personally.
Mark (:Not
necessarily like hiding some imperfections or blood spots or whatever. Okay.
sam (:No, definitely not. It's definitely not. No, it's definitely not to
hide any imperfections or anything like that in the steak. It's just pork. Me personally, it's a very, very old school way of cooking steak. And it's a very, very poor way of cooking steak. I don't think we need to be treating our steaks by basting them in jus. The only time I'd ever bast something in jus is if I was cooking a beef cheek and it had been braised and...
Mark (:Hmm.
Mm -hmm.
sam (:that was the sauce that was made from the beef cheek from braising it. And then when we're reheating it, then we would baste that in the jus. Something like a coq au vin, where you're doing a chicken, and you've braised it in there, and you want to really glaze that chicken maybe at the end. You finish it under the salamander, whatever you want to do, and then you reduce that sauce and put it back over the top, if you wanted to go down that route.
I've never been a big fan of those really intense, rich, glazed, heavy sort of juice.
Mark (:Interesting.
Yeah, I find
it very weird when I when I go to a restaurant and they do their steak that way I'm like I don't I no longer taste the steak
sam (:No, because what's happened is you're taking a very, very intensified sauce that may have had red wine added to it. It also may have had sugar added to it. And then they're finishing that also montagne with butter at the very end. And then glazing that over the top of a steak is just so unnecessary.
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
Hmm.
yes so that was good to know that was good to know but definitely gonna start cooking my steak with compound butters i've never done that before
sam (:Yeah, mate. And you know where
you can find those compound butters. You can find them in one of my favourite, all time favourite cookbooks, Neil Perry's The Food I Love.
Mark (:Food I love.
sam (:Yeah, that has got to be my gospel, Bible cooking book. I think for years I have gone and referred back to that book. And you know how much I appreciate it.
Mark (:taking notes.
So this is now
my on my bucket list. Where can I find the book by the way?
sam (:You can go and get it from any good bookshop. If they don't have it, they're a crap bookshop.
Mark (:Okay, the food I love I usually go to Galton readings store, it's Yeah
sam (:Thanks.
Yeah, readings will have it. Dimmix,
readings, or even books for cooks in the Victoria market.
Mark (:Oh,
uh, Books for Cooks. I've heard of that one. I haven't been, but I always wanted to go there. Books for Cooks.
sam (:yeah books for cooks in the tori
market very good i'll definitely have a copy
Mark (:All right, so this is on the bucket list Well now that we're speaking about cooking things properly and methods and stuff like that what about from personal experience after going through all these lessons in life and in business What's your perspective on short short term long term what what?
What have you used to do from a perspective of a short term results that now you work at it from a long term perspective that changed the way that you think or the way that you do some things in your life or even in your professional side of your career? Have anything changed over the years?
sam (:Look, I mean, my, my, my temper has changed over the years. I'm definitely not as fiery as I used to be. You know, I think there was a time where I thought that I knew a lot. And now I'm more open to suggestions. Very, very open to suggestions from anybody. I also think my, my patients.
has become extremely tolerable. Like I have, I think the patience of a monument. And the way that I work these days, I mean, when I started consulting 10 years ago, I used to walk into places and I'd go, here's the menu, here's the recipes, that's how you're going to do it. Now what I like to do is I will go in and I will create the menu with the chef.
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
sam (:let the chef cook the dishes. And from there, we will then look at ways in which we can tweak the menu itself so that the food is really that chef's food and we're allowing him to show his creativity with my little touches.
Mark (:Nice, I love that. Patience, tolerance, temper, all this changes as you mature and age like a really good age stake. Yeah.
sam (:I mean, of
course, I mean, when I started this, I was 25, you know, I mean, I barely knew what I was doing. Um, I mean, I knew what I was doing, but I barely knew what I was doing. And I guess, you know, I'm 35 now it's 10 years on a lot. Definitely does change in the mind.
Mark (:Yes.
What's the benefit of
that? Like, you know, having better temper, more tolerance, more patience. What's the benefits now for these changes in your life versus back in the day? What sort of benefits you've been seeing?
sam (:Benefits are health benefits, mate. Like I'm less stressed. I'm less, you know what I mean? Like a lot of it has got to do with stress and anxiety, I guess. I'm a lot less of that. I mean, you remember you used to say, I used to be all raring to go crazy when you first met me.
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
I love that, yeah.
sam (:And now, I mean, you know, even as we talk these days, our conversations over even on the phone, just us, you can see I'm not as aggressive as I used to be.
Mark (:That really takes us into the culture. Age with age, correct.
sam (:I guess it also comes a bit with age too. You know, it also comes a bit with age too. And the
culture of now, we are not able to discipline the way that we used to discipline. You know, there's not really that drill sergeant sort of thing going on in kitchens anymore. Or with front of house staff, you know, we long gone are the days where you can burn somebody with the back of a spoon.
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
sam (:or turn around and scream or throw a pan. Those days are definitely, definitely finished. And you know what, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. And I think I touched on this last time. It's also a little bit of a bad thing. I'm not saying that people deserve to get pans and shit thrown at them, but I think there needs to be a little bit of discipline because when there's discipline...
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
Yeah, we're so yes. Yes. I know I get what you're saying You're talking about Yeah, you're talking about there should be like some sort of a sweet spot like not not not not being able to discipline someone at all not not even a touch of of Discipline that as soon as you express feedback, even if it's instructive to someone they they're more than happy to just walk out on you on the day
sam (:then come as a schnack child.
It's a chef.
Mark (:Or or find something else as soon as possible because they've got zero tolerance to any sort of feedback or criticism or discipline and that's This is not very very cool to have in this in any business. Not just in the hospitality hospitality business If I hire someone today and knowing that I can't talk to them like if they do something
They did something like really wrong or they didn't consult with me or they could have done something better if I'm not able to provide instructive instructive feedback without them getting offended That's a big problem Yeah
sam (:Of course, man. And I mean, from
the beginning, you need to be able to take constructive criticism, not only in business, but in life. In order for you to grow, I highly, highly believe that you need to be able to take anything that anybody says with a grain of salt at the same time as being able to also take things on board and go, hang on a second.
Does this make me a better this or does it make me a better human being or blah, blah, blah? Does it make me a better business person? I think you know what I'm trying to get at. There's gotta be a bit of a balance everywhere within life.
Mark (:Exactly, exactly, exactly.
I mean, I've learned that in the agents in my agency world, like when we get a client and that client, he has a vision, he knows what he wants. He's got these standards, he's got a plan in his head. And he's like,
all he needs is that support, right? Like you just need support implementation, but he's got he's got all in his head. It's it's it's being drawn to the to the every little detail you can think of these sort of clients. They drive you. They drive growth, they drive innovation, they drive quality. So
you're doing better work because you're working with a client that knows what he wants and he's experienced. He's been there, he's done that and he's got this amazing vision, you know, so you connect with that and you help them and you support them and at the same time you're both growing together and you're kicking goals together. I absolutely love that every time we get a challenge, a client that knows what he wants and he really wants to sort of...
sam (:Push that extra mile.
Mark (:kick things or
take things a notch, yeah, up a notch, not with randomness, but with a very specific structured plan. And goal in mind, this always, I absolutely love this. It doesn't matter how challenging it is. It always takes us and our team to a whole another level of experience and stuff. We love that. So that's the thing. When you get hired at a restaurant or in any other business,
sam (:and the goal of them won.
Mark (:And you find out what they're like way beyond your league. It's it's that's where you learn. That's where, um, that's where you grow. That's where you create your career is in an environment like that. But I also understand it's not for everybody. Some people do not have the mental capacity, uh, to deal with that. So I understand that too. So, uh, speaking of mental health, um, when you look after your mental, mental healthy, become less temperate.
more patient, more tolerable. You do not get stressed or angry at every little issue here and there or imperfection here and there. And you find ways or practices to bring you back to being calm. You make better business decisions. You end up making better business decisions.
sam (:Definitely. Definitely.
And you don't make those decisions quickly and irrationally. I mean, yeah. I don't want to go down that road, but we, you know what I'm saying.
Mark (:You know, some, yeah, sometimes
some look, you know, we work with restaurants, I'm not owner restaurant, but I work with restaurants all the time. So it's, it's very hard not to feel what they go through sometimes. Yeah. Because you're there. It's like your direct contact with them. And sometimes we're under pressure because of we're working with a variety of projects, not a lot of projects, quality projects, but they're also, um,
intense projects, yeah. And you're also working with a team, you're working with people, this and that. And sometimes it's just it gets too much. And what I found that it helps really well, what I call diffuse mode. People say, I've got no time to scratch my head. Even if you can get like five minutes, people five, five minutes to smoke a cigarette behind.
those lanes, I see them all the time. So instead of doing that, find five minutes to completely switch off. You don't even need to do meditation, you don't even need to do to download any app or follow any new age stuff. Just find a way to completely switch off from everything even if you just sit in a room. Even if you go to the core room.
If you go to the cool room with no phone with nothing, you just stand there for like five minutes. Just stand there. Try not to not to think about anything. If your mind is thinking about something, just let it be. You can, if you can take it back to that very moment, like if you're just looking at whatever stuff is in that room and just trying to focus on what's in that room at that very moment, it can really give you a break, a mental break.
sam (:now. What's in it now?
Mark (:for five minutes. Have you have you tried that before?
sam (:Yeah, look, I used to be very, very good at meditation. I used to meditate during my work break when I used to get actually very, very, very angry after a lunch service. I would go and meditate out in the, I think it was just like, it was like a little river. There was a little river back when, you know, it was one of my first sous chef jobs.
Mark (:Yes.
sam (:Um, there was a little river near Arches Creek. That's it. And I used to go sit near that and I'd listen to the water running. Um, and I closed my eyes and not an hour and a half and I'd, I'd sit down and I'd relax on do that these days. Um, not so great with the meditation. Um, as my mind jumps all over the place every single second of the day, but.
Mark (:Yes?
I love it.
sam (:What I do find myself doing is being able to eventually switch off. I can come home, relax, pull up a chair, cook something, read something, play the PlayStation, whatever it is, and completely switch off from what I...
what I have been doing for the day. And I try to always give myself at least one hour a day where I switch off and I don't think about anything else that has to do with work. I also find going to the gym helps with that a lot. Going to the gym gives me a really, really great...
mindset to be able to stop and focus on exactly what I'm doing right then and there and escape whatever troubles or whatever I've gone through for that day. It will allow me to completely shut that out.
Mark (:So
I love that and the science behind it is when you engage in activities that don't require much of a mental effort and then can give you that mental break, what's going on there is your mind or your brain is getting a break so it can just, you know, it can chill but at the very same time your mind or your subconscious mind is working out the stuff that's been
troubling you or intense stuff that's been troubling you or just not really troubling you, just the big stuff that you're working on, your subconscious mind will be working on it while you're taking that mental break. This is why when you come back from a really relaxing long weekend, you find yourself, you make like you're a lot more relaxed and you're kicking goals as soon as you...
sam (:Thanks.
Mark (:get back into business. That's because you were able to truly, genuinely diffuse.
sam (:You know, it's also to, you know, when you, when you overwork yourself and when you overwork your mind and you're constantly thinking about things, you burn out hectic, like, and I mean hectic. When we're talking, you're constantly like, if you can't take, if you, if you work and bust yourself to a point where you're burning the candles at both end, um,
Mark (:You burn out. Yeah.
sam (:and you go, okay, now I'm gonna go and have a holiday for a month, and you go and have a holiday for a month, and let's say you've been working for two years and you've been going intense. When you get back from that holiday for a month, you will be really extremely lethargic and tired still, because you have not given yourself a proper break. Working two years and going on a month's holiday isn't the answer. Trust me, I've done it. It's a nightmare.
Mark (:Mm -hmm.
Correct.
Mm.
sam (:One of the worst things you can do, and I've learned this, is to not give yourself a break. You've got to give yourself a break. You have to. It doesn't matter how busy you get. I don't care whether you've got a million things to do. There has to be a time during every day where you give yourself some time to think about nothing.
Mark (:Exactly.
sam (:and
you got to give your mind some time to recover, give your body some time to recover. You may not think it, you may be sitting there, even if it's an office job and you're sitting there, there's a lot going on in your mind that is enough to drive you insane if you don't allow yourself to get a break in.
Mark (:And that's,
and doing that activity alone, that's, I'm a big believer that's where your career growth lay in. That's where problem solving come from those breaks, those mental breaks. That's where a lot of a lot of secret source of problem solving, career growth, business decisions, life decisions.
every all those things all those big things come from those little mental breaks that you get not from I mean hard work is implementation and so on that's obviously that's part of it but if you're not taking this mental breaks on daily basis or and even like week on weekly basis you also take like a longer ones on the weekend if possible or your days off it's very difficult for you to achieve a breakthrough if you're not doing
if you're not doing that. Very, very difficult. Sometimes we'll...
sam (:There's sacrifice and
then there's being. There's sacrifices because I know you know you listen to a lot of these podcasts and you got people in there going ah you know you got to sacrifice while young blah blah blah blah blah and all this crap. Yeah there is sacrificing while you're young but that doesn't mean you have to kill yourself.
Mark (:But I don't like I am okay. So I'm 40 this year. Yeah, and I do sacrifice I just I still wake up Let's say 4 a .m. In the morning. Yeah, but I do find ways to nap I do find find ways to take breaks I start my days very very early so I can seize the day Sacrifices should always be there
But it's not like you're not sacrificing your life, you're finding ways that you're using sacrifices strategically to help, you know, to give you that edge on daily basis. That's how you use sacrifice. You don't sacrifice yourself that like you're sacrificing your life, thinking, you know, this is a long term or a short term game. That's not, that's not how I look at it. You want to do sacrifices, you do it strategically. And you find ways to...
to compensate on that throughout the day or throughout the week. But that's what I do. 4am start, I find ways to nap throughout the day. By the time people even think about working with me or talking to me, I'm already done with the day. So that's what I do. That's what I do. And that works for me. It might not work for someone else because of their work schedule and so on. But find what works for you.
find those mental breaks, think through that stuff. You'll definitely start seeing very positive results in your life.
sam (:Hey Mark, would you look at that? It's been about 40 minutes, I think, mate. I think it's probably time we should wrap it up, otherwise we're gonna have nothing to talk about next week. Or, sorry, in the next two weeks.
Mark (:I believe so.
We did very well. We did very well this time. Sam, thank you so much for your time and I look forward to next week. Yes. You take care and I'll speak to you soon, buddy.
sam (:Oh no, I can't wait.
You too, mate. Bye.
Mark (:Ciao!
