Christian J. Fischer [00:00:00]:

In our industry, I don't think AI is so in photography and creating context and all of that is really good. What I will have a hard time taking away is our human interaction.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:14]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:00:14]:

And I honestly believe we so overrelated yet under connected that we craving that. So for me, I started about six, seven months ago and I said, why do I go to this restaurant all the time? Why? And then I realize this because of I know the server, I know the chef. Is that human connection, that familiarity.

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Angelo Esposito [00:00:38]:

Yeah, yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:00:39]:

And I think it will be really hard for AI at least for the next year or two for AI to take that away from us or from AI to come in and totally replace that. And so I think in our industry, I go to the restaurants where everything, you know, a server is a robot that food comes on kawea belts. This is all great. It's. But when I really want to connect, I go to the certain restaurants all the time because I know I have that human connection. And that for me is what hospitality is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:01:26]:

Welcome to another episode of WISKing It All. We're joined today by Christian Fischer, the founder of Fischer Research Group. Christian, thanks for joining us.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:01:37]:

I'm excited to be here and I want to learn how to WISK it all up.

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Angelo Esposito [00:01:41]:

So you're at the right place. You're at the right place. We're gonna WISK it all up. So I love having, you know, hospitality professionals on the show. It's, it's, it's just fun. It's so fun to share people's journeys and then lessons and then just help our listeners whether they're using Whisper, not using Whisper, just help them with, with whatever. And so really I always like to start with number one, what you currently do. So it's for you listening in, they're like, oh, what is that? Fischer Research Group.

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Angelo Esposito [00:02:08]:

So let's start there. What is it? And then we'll kind of get into your past.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:02:12]:

It's a really good question. So we started at, oh, 2009. And the idea behind it was I wanted to create a group which, because I always very curious about learning. And that's where the research piece came in for me. I always wanted or was wondering how come XYZ is doing so much better than the other person. I know they have the same background, they have the ventures, the same culinary school, but somebody has a total different outcome. So for me, I was always very fascinated what makes people do what they do? Number one, who did they interact with to learn a lot of stuff. So what I also Found was, with our research was that a lot of chefs are a skill, a network or connection away.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:02:55]:

They have a total different outcome for their business and for their career. So for me, that kind of became our big thing. And then during COVID we went all in. And so we have a gpo, we have some steaks in some restaurants, we have our online platform, so we have a little bit of that. And then we went to a friend of ours, Sean Walshev, and I said to him, hey, how can we bring it all this together? He said, you need to do a podcast. I was like, oh, I don't like the way I look on camera. I don't like the way I sound on camera. And that was on a Thursday night.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:03:32]:

I always tell the story. It was Thursday, 5 o' clock Monday. We had the first episode.

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Angelo Esposito [00:03:37]:

Oh, wow, that's impressive.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:03:40]:

So I always learned, if there's somebody who gives you really good advice, you need to act on it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:03:46]:

That's awesome.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:03:47]:

The other funny thing was we went about 50 episodes in and 50 episode. I was like, I have nothing else to say. And then somebody said, now you just start. So. And then we started something where we kind of want to have different people on our podcast. And then we do what we call ethical stalking. So we checking you out and we following you. And then people write me this, I have somebody here.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:04:17]:

His name is Angelo. I have one and a half pages about Angelo. And then my team tells me, hey, this is what I really liked about him. And so we'll be 160, 170ish episodes in. We pivot a little bit after the new year. So Monday we have a new guest, and on Friday we're trying to do stuff I learned. So the people I spoke to, what I learned, what my clients struggled, what I struggled with. We have a little rant about that and hopefully brings value to the listeners.

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Angelo Esposito [00:04:51]:

Yeah, that's really cool. I'm still just impressed with Idea Thursday Podcast Live Monday. I know it's not the main thing, but. But I want to. I'm just curious to know, how did you pull that off? You just like, record on your phone. Did you have a setup? Like, how did you pull that off?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:05:06]:

It was one of those things. So I. I didn't have a setup. So I had a. If. If people know it. So it's had an eight and mini. And I didn't even want to push the buttons because it was just too much.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:05:21]:

And so we did this call and I did with a friend of mine. His audio went out. He was on a phone. It was terrible. It was terrible. But we said, how can we do better? And then we did another one. And then we did another one. So now we have a full setup.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:05:36]:

We have four screens. I have a full audio, I have a full video. Because I also learned if a client or a listener gives us the opportunity to connect with them by the end of car, they should have at least good audio.

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Angelo Esposito [00:05:51]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:05:51]:

Hopefully don't look at video because I still don't like on camera. But. Right. Good, valuable, actionable advice to them. And not really advice because we don't tell them anything. We just tell them, hey, this guy's doing this. And we want people think, oh, if Angelo can do this, oh, so can I. Oh, I never really thought about it the way Angelo talked about it.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:06:15]:

I want to do this. And so it became the Disruptive Chef because we feel that we want to disrupt the thinking of people which come to our episodes because we know they are an inside strategy, A network away have a total different outcome.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:31]:

I love that. I love that. I think there's a lesson there for sure, which is like, if you're proud of something others, I'm going to butcher the same. But it's like if you're proud of, you know, the, the first version of your release, you waited too long. Right. And whether it's podcast, whether it's a tech product, whether it's whatever, usually it's like if you're super proud, if you're not embarrassed, you waited too long. Right. So I think you did it right.

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Angelo Esposito [00:06:53]:

And I commend you for that, Christian. I know you've been in the hospitality space for, for a long time. You know, you also go, go by, you know, the disruptive chefs. We'll talk about that. But I'm curious, like just going back, I always like to understand when did people kind of get into it. So when did you start your journey into hospitality? When and how? Right. Like what brought you there?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:07:15]:

Oh, it's, it's or my parents fault. You know, parents are the worst. No, my, I grew up in a hospitality industry. My parents owned a hotel and my dad always said, hey, Christian, you need to take over the hotel. And I have five brothers, five sisters.

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Angelo Esposito [00:07:33]:

So my five brothers and five sisters.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:07:36]:

My parents had very few hobbies, so. And then the funny thing is, out of all of the 11, I'm the only one left in the industry. And so I went through a six year apprenticeship and my full transparency, I was like, I'm not going to go in. So we're doing something totally different. I went one year pre med, and we were about eight months in. And I will never forget this. They were like, okay, first time, Christian, did you practice in Sichnin? And in Sichnin, there was this guy, 58 years old. I will never forget this.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:08:10]:

We made a marker on his body, and you need to cut him open.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:14]:

I was like.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:08:15]:

I practiced on my melons and other stuff. I kind of. And I don't know what happened. I passed out. Okay.

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Angelo Esposito [00:08:22]:

Oh, shit. Okay.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:08:24]:

As I came to it, I was in this room, and the guy says, you passed out, so that means wrap up your shit and get out. And I was like. So I came home on a Thursday. My dad said, hey, what are you going to do with your life? I was like, I had to take the summer off, and everything else is okay. You have to Saturday. And on Saturday, he brought me to an apprenticeship to a place where Nobody graduated in 11 years. And it was the toughest place I ever worked. I jumped out the back window, went home.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:08:56]:

My dad brought me back the next morning. This is where you got to go, because this builds a character.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:02]:

And what kind of place was it?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:04]:

It was a hotel.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:05]:

Oh, okay. It was a hotel.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:06]:

In Austria, the hotels are different. So you work for six months. You go to school for six months.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:10]:

Work for six months. Okay.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:11]:

So you kind of learn.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:13]:

It's like a standard. Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:14]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:15]:

So.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:16]:

And I loved it. I started as a full apprenticeship. You go as a cook, and you go as a server. And then I added butcher and baker to it because I love that side of the industry and eventually fell in love with it. And. And I always felt this the only thing I'm good at. And here we are, you know, 30, 35 years later.

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Angelo Esposito [00:09:39]:

Wow. So I think the lesson here is that you couldn't cut open humans, but you could cut meat. If I'm hearing you correctly. I'm just kidding.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:09:49]:

You know what? My wife and I just talked about it. It. I still not really good at it. Even as in a butcher, as I had to go out, and they said, oh, this is the animal you have to kill. I was like, I'm not sure if I can do that. And it was the hardest thing, and I had no problem butchering afterwards. It was so hard for me, and it's even now. And a friend of mine says, oh, Christian, you need to come hunting.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:10:14]:

Because he knows I'm not gonna go out shooting nothing. So I'm back there cooking for her. I realized that, but I'm not good about that. And so yeah, that was my, my step into the industry.

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Angelo Esposito [00:10:27]:

That's amazing, man. That's so cool. And so what did that look like right over the years? Because obviously I want to get into, you know, how you got to the disruption and all that. But what did your general trajectory look like? I know it's 35 years, but love to hear it.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:10:40]:

Really simple. I had two jobs in my whole life. Oh, wow. So I try not to tell people because. But I opened up my first restaurant at 19, at 6, by the time I was 23. And then a company came to me and said, oh, we love this concept. Can you bring it to the US and we want to make it the food concept for Stove for hotels.

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Angelo Esposito [00:11:01]:

Okay.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:11:02]:

Long time ago, I was young and dumb. I was, oh absolutely, you know, sold my company. Should I ask for a lot more money? But lessons learned. And I worked for Nestle for 20 years and then they said, okay, you can move back to Switzerland or move back to Brazil. And then at the time I had my wife and my wife is American, my kids are adopted Chinese. And I was like, I can go. So I went to a client of mine, which was Compass Group, and hey, in three months I have no job. What do you think I should do? And the guy says, you come working for me.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:11:38]:

So a month later I worked as the director of culinary for a division of Compass Group and then became the chief culinary officer for them and you know, managed three and a half billion in in revenue. So. And then Covid happened and I always loved what I did. I just didn't like it anymore who I did it for. And at the time I had a two year non compete. And so I went to them during COVID said, hey, how about I don't owe you time and you don't owe me money? And I walked away. And that was all during COVID And I always did side hustles in, in my life. I owned a magazine franchise.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:12:18]:

I had so many different things I always did on the side. And then a friend of mine came, his name was Joe Rodriguez. He sense passed, but he said, Christian, we need to give back to the industry. He was from California, an amazing human being. We were on Zoom at the time, 12 hours a day, every day, six days a week during the whole timed through. And when people called in, we try to give them advice. I say, hey, if I'm you, that's what I would do. Hey, this sounds awesome.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:12:49]:

Have you thought about this? And it became kind of our thing. And my kids came and called him Uncle Joe, at the time, they said good night to him because we know it's a day on Zoom, you know, and that's what. What really started it all.

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Angelo Esposito [00:13:06]:

That's amazing. I know. I was reading your profile, and one thing that stood out was in your early. Apparently, you were one of the youngest, earned the title of kitchen meister. I'd love to know number one for people that don't know what is. What. What is that award, if you can talk a bit about it.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:13:24]:

Okay, so the the is called Kuchenmeister, and so it's the Ivergrund. It's the same as a MasterChef. And I was the second youngest, and I actually. So full truth be told, I could have been the youngest. I went to the exam, didn't take it serious because the old man made me. And the guy said, after four days, Christian, just wrap it up and go home. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I can't go home, because my dad, you know, tells me.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:13:52]:

And I went home, and, you know, my dad wasn't too happy. So I said, okay, I take it a little bit more serious. I came back and passed it the second go around. But there was somebody three weeks younger than me, and so I was the youngest Kuchenmeister in Austria, which is, like I said, the European MasterChef exam.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:13]:

That's so cool.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:14:13]:

And you know what the amazing thing was, Angelo? I never did it, so I can say I was the youngest. I did it because I wanted to prove myself. Can I do it? Can I do it and be in the stress? Can I do it because I have the knowledge? Can I do it because I want people to learn when they have the opportunity to work for me? So that was really the primary reason I did it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:14:37]:

I love that. Yeah, I love that. And look, the truth is, I know, you know, you've gone from kitchens to boardrooms, so I'm curious to know, is there. Is there a moment that triggered that pivot from, you know, the culinary consulting to the kind of more leadership?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:14:56]:

That's a really, really, really good question. And for me, what started it all was what I learned. So I've been really lucky. You know, people saying, hey, I contribute everything to luck. But I was really lucky that I learned from a lot of different people. I learned about cook gel. I learned about Zooey. I learned about construction.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:15:14]:

I lear of that. And then I seen people really struggled with six things. So that was my thing. I was like, oh, all kind of, you know, one of the things I always said I was really Good at seeing patterns. And so I was like, oh, there's really only six things people struggle with. And I said, I can help them because I've been through it. So the consultancy we have today, we started not because we learned about it or we read about it. You know what, Angelo? I struggled with the same thing that you did.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:15:44]:

These are mistakes I made. And I hope you don't make the mistakes.

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Angelo Esposito [00:15:48]:

You know, learn from my mistakes. You know, like, let me. I want to help you avoid some pain. Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:15:55]:

And that was the idea. We wanted to help people to just shorten the learning curve of the things they went through. And that makes sense.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:04]:

I love that. Honestly, that's. That's half the battle, right? Like, everyone's off. You can't avoid mistakes, period. But the idea is, if you can, you said it best. If you could just shorten the cycle and if you can learn from other people's mistakes, you'll still make your own mistakes. So don't worry. But at least you're gonna.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:19]:

You can avoid some of the common pitfalls because someone else has lived it. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's like, if you're wise, it's like, yeah, please do learn from someone else's mistakes. You know, I. I know.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:16:30]:

Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:16:31]:

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:16:32]:

No, I love that. I love that you spot on. And I still tell a lot of my friends, I'm the guy which probably. You see which I probably made the most mistakes. And I said I was probably the champion of mistakes. And if I look back and I have this mentor of mine, he's my mentor for 25 years. And if I would think back of all the things he taught me, and if I would have gone all in on some of that, if I would listen a little bit more. Yeah, I would say I.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:17:06]:

I was champion of making mistakes. And the great thing is we helping our clients today, hopefully not making the same mistakes and me teaching them to, you know, hey, I've been there. I need this.

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Angelo Esposito [00:17:21]:

Yeah, well said, well said. I know, I know. You know, you go by the disruptive chef. So I have to ask you, what does disruption look like for you in today's, you know, hospitality landscape?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:17:33]:

It's really speed to market. So for me, that if. If you do anything, and that's to any of your listeners, I implore you, doesn't matter what you want to be going into, get micro focused, macro focused on what you want to do, become the champion of whatever it is. If, if you want to be podcasting, podcast all the Time all day long. So you become the best. If you want to do peanut butter and sandwiches, become the best in peanut butter and sandwiches. So for me, I honestly feel the technology is going that everything is becoming micro focused. The days of a 200 menu item restaurants are on.

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:16]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:18:17]:

And so I, you want, except for Cheesecake Factory. Yeah. You want to be known as the guy when people talk about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Oh, you need to go to Angelo's place. This is amazing. It's what he does. And I honestly feel that's where the direction is going and that's where our industry going. And if you hyper focused on one or two projects and do better than anybody else, you will succeed.

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Angelo Esposito [00:18:44]:

I love that. That makes sense. Speed to market. I love that. And, and how do you balance let's say maybe tradition with innovation? Right. It's like, it's a hard thing to do. Curious to get your perspective.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:18:54]:

I always tell the story. About a year ago, I took one of my team members and said, okay, 90 days, you have 90 days, you have $10,000.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:03]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:19:04]:

Let's research every single AI tool that is available. Because AI, you know, I said we need to go all in. And what I realized is that use AI as a tool. And now we're looking at it differently. I said, okay, let's everybody use AI so you can free up at least an hour a week. How upgrade would it be if you do five hours a week?

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:27]:

Exactly.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:19:28]:

And so with that. So if you asking me how balance that I, I think history or whatever you want to call it, leaves clues. So if you look at those clues and overlay what's going on in the industry to make it better.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:43]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:19:43]:

You have a winning formula that makes sense.

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Angelo Esposito [00:19:46]:

It's a good way of looking at it. And then yeah, I'm all about buying back time as well. And for people listening out there, it's like, you know, I know there's so much buzz about AI, but it's, it's. I always, and I tell my team this all the time. Like guys, I know you're busy and you're dealing with clients and this and that, but like, trust me, don't sit on the sidelines because it's like, it's like when the Internet came out, probably even crazier. But it's like imagine the Internet came out and you had someone saying, hey, I think this Internet thing, we could probably, I don't know, do orders online. And you're like, son, I'm busy, you know, running a restaurant. You're like, but I think there's something here.

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Angelo Esposito [00:20:20]:

It's so new that it doesn't feel like it's hard to imagine. But that's where we are with that, with AI. And I keep telling my team and they've gone pretty good at this, but it's like, guys, it could be, how do you make your lives easier? How do you make the customer lives better? How do we focus on less granular things and you focus on more important things. Right.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:20:38]:

Angelo, you spot on. And I honestly believe in hospitality because one of my other beliefs is that as a human society we over connected yet underrelated. And in our industry, I don't think AI is so in photography and creating context and all of that, AI is really good. But I will have a hard time taking away is our human interaction. And I honestly believe we so overrelated yet under connected that we craving that. So for me, I started about six, seven months ago and I said, why do I go to this restaurant all the time? Why? And then I realize it's because of, hey, I know the server, I know the chef. Is that human connection. Yeah.

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Angelo Esposito [00:21:30]:

That familiarity. Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:21:33]:

And I think it will be really hard for AI, at least for the next year or two for AI to take that away from us or from AI to come in and totally replace that. And so I think in our industry, I go to the restaurants where everything, you know, the server is a robot that the food comes on. Kaweah belts. This is all great, it's eating. But when I really want to connect, I go to the certain restaurants all the time because I know I, I have that human connection. And that for me is what hospitality is.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:08]:

Well, that, yeah. And I'm a creature of habit too. It's like, obviously I love trying new places, but there's always those few restaurants in my neighborhood that I go to a lot more often than I'd like to admit because it's like, it's just, it's predictable, which in a good way. It's like I know I'm get food, I. I'm imagining, I know what the service I'm imagining. So there's those less unknowns, which sometimes is nice. You're just like, I'm going in. It's a sure bet I know what I'm getting and I like it.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:22:36]:

So yeah, no, spot on, spot on.

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Angelo Esposito [00:22:39]:

Well said.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:22:40]:

I honestly feel if, if your listeners really ride out why they go to a certain restaurant, they will find, oh, there might be some truth to that. I go here because I'm craving this Or I go here because they giving me something else. Oh, I'm thinking of this place because there's some value for me and.

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Angelo Esposito [00:23:01]:

Makes sense. And, you know, obviously over the years, a lot of things change. You grow, you learn a lot. So one question that comes to mind is, what's a belief that you've held earlier in your career that you've now completely changed your mind about?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:23:17]:

Oh, that's a really good question. That's a really good question. And for me, it was that you needed to know everything about everything. And I spent a lot of time in my youth learning as much as I could. You know, just the name of our organization, Fischer research Group, probably tells you a little bit about it. And we were constantly looking, how can we take the context and stuff we learn and kind of convert it? So I think that absolutely changed. And for me, I always use the story. I don't know if you know, Wayne Dyer.

‍

Christian J. Fischer [00:23:52]:

I went to a conference with Wayne Dyer in New York City. I was actually supposed to go to a different event, but I made a mistake driving. Okay, just. I'm going in with me about 40 minutes late. And Usher comes and said, okay, oh, just go. Just go up front. Go up front. We are on the very front, very first row, des way.

‍

Christian J. Fischer [00:24:15]:

And I. I was like, oh, crap, we went to the wrong event. Okay, we going in there. And he says, oh, welcome. What's your name? I. How. Christian. He said, oh, you're Christian in here? And now can you turn around and look at the people? You see these seven and a half thousand people.

‍

Christian J. Fischer [00:24:30]:

And now the seven and a half thousand people look at Christian. This is what you look like when you don't plan and you come 40 minutes late. I was like, it's going to be a long day. But I fell in love with his teachings. And he said one thing which became one of the things we do all the time. And he said, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. And I'm driving home and I says, what the heck did he mean when you changed the way? I just. It bothered me so much, so I came back the next day to him.

‍

Christian J. Fischer [00:25:01]:

Even though we paid for somebody else, I was like. And then because of. Of what we had, we were allowed to have lunch with him. And I said, what did you mean as you said when you changed where? He says exactly that when you change the way you look at things, the way you came in here, everything changes. If you look at all of the things which happened for you to come to this place, the way you came 40 minutes late, the way you looked at. I asked you to be upfront, changes everything. And for me, it was one of those things was, like, so true. And it became one of our life mottos, if you want to call it.

‍

Christian J. Fischer [00:25:43]:

Because when I get upset with something, I sit here in my office and say, if I look at this differently, what would I see if I think about it differently? So when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change became our driving force for everything.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:03]:

That's really cool. Really cool. And, you know, I want to also get into some of the ways you could help people today, because, like I said, we have a lot of restaurant listeners, bar listeners, operators, chefs, you name it. And the idea is, if I can ever introduce, you know, people to my network, it's like, great. Maybe there's some people that can take advantage and help and. And, you know, get what they're looking for. And so I want to dive more into kind of, you know, the. The Fischer Research Group.

‍

Angelo Esposito [00:26:28]:

I know one of the leadership programs you have is Table for One. So I'd love to maybe know what inspired it and how it's different from maybe other leadership trainings.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:26:37]:

Another good question. And I always at the table for one. The name says it all. Because there needs to be a time where you are honest with yourself and you sit, and I use the metaphor at the table for one, but where you sit by yourself, nothing in front of you. And you said, why am I here? Why or what happened to get me here? And when you realize that you are the combined averages of all the decisions you make, it kind of gets clearer. And then there also needs to be a time where you say, hey, I wish I would be further hit by now. And when that comes, it says, so now, when you realize that, and I always said, it needs to be a table of one, because we are really honest when we buy ourselves. And that's really the metaphor of the table for one, because that's cool.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:27:27]:

I like that the moment you are speaking really honest to yourself, a solution is really easy. And I'm a really strong believer when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And so for me, the table for one became a metaphor, because there was a time I was sitting on a table for one, and I was sitting there, and I was saying, I wish I would prefer to have by now. And it started at all.

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Angelo Esposito [00:27:57]:

That's really cool. And so what can people expect? Like, we talk about the leadership training. Who is this good for? So you Know again, we have a lot of listeners are like, this sounds intriguing. Who's the ideal kind of profile that you guys can help?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:28:12]:

So it's really simple. So if you feel like you're stuck in anything you do, or if you feel like you've been trying the same thing over and over again and just never got the results you wanted, or if you just need as simple as I need to get clear, because I'm stepping back. For me, all of that is, is helping people that get clear. Because when you clear, it's easy to communicate, it's easy to start a restaurant. If you have clarity, it's easy to market. If you are clear, it's easy for you to know what is the next steps. If you are clear, you know exactly who to marry. If you get clear, you know exactly what to do next.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:28:51]:

And for me, the table for one is anybody who is searching for clarity, anybody who wants more out of life, and anybody who knows that they are meant to serv the community in a greater way. The table for one leadership is where it's at.

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Angelo Esposito [00:29:06]:

I love that. And you speak a lot about helping, you know, others find their deeper purpose. So I'd love to know what, what's, what's like that connection between purpose and maybe performance in the hospitality space.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:29:19]:

For me, I honestly believe that purposes the point which kicks you off, okay, and people think it's motivation. I think motivation is something, but I don't think motivation exists. So I think if you know, there's the purpose of what I want to do, if you are really clear of who I want to help, if you're really clear of what I want to do, then it's easier to do it when you figure out what is my purpose. And my purpose for me, what I realized is to help people, which I was two years ago, five years ago. So for me, if you ask him what is the difference between purpose and what is anything else? For me, purpose is who you are, what is, what are you meant to create. And then what you do, the tasks or whatever you call it is what will you do with the time you're given and with the skills you're given. And for me, it all starts with a table for one. And it all starts to get really clear for who you are and discover your purpose.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:30:27]:

And we have this tool we use and the tool is really simple where we asking you, what do you want to do? Give me a name. And then we ask you a series of questions. And then in the end you will say, oh my God, I Never really thought about that. Because when you ask that question a few times, the first four or five times it's you answer from here. And I would say after the fourth or fifth time, you answer from here. And that becomes your driving force. Because when I feel down, if I feel stuck and I go to that, which for me everything it is when I peel the door back is I want my kids to have choices. You know, I have three adopted children.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:31:09]:

They all had special needs, medical wise. They never had a choice. They never had a choice that their parents left them in front of of the orphanage gates. Then you had never a choice that they were moved from orphanage to orphanage to orphanage. They never had a choice that nobody wanted them. Because a kid usually gets adopted within two, three years. The kids are adopted at six to nine years old. So there was a point where they knew if there's nobody coming, I will become an orphanage worker.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:31:39]:

So for me, I want my. Everything I do is for my kids to have choices. And you know, they finished up that the kids never had choices, that somebody looking different, sounding different, smelling different, brings him on a plane, flies 15 hours back and then brings him to home where everybody looks different, everybody sounds different. So for me, if I peel it all back and what is my motivation and if you're asking me what is my purpose is for me to create a platform for my kids to have choices and that drives all of it.

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Angelo Esposito [00:32:13]:

I love that. That's, that's purpose. That's, that's amazing. I know a big thing with, when it comes to leadership is, is, you know, I think about the, the back house. Right. So what is maybe a mistake or comment? It could be a mistake or a few. But what are some common mistakes or mistake that you see happen often in the restaurant world?

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Christian J. Fischer [00:32:36]:

So I, I think there's three things, if you don't mind.

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Angelo Esposito [00:32:41]:

Yeah, please.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:32:42]:

Three things I look at even better. Number one, where people kind of lose what they really all about. And for me, I always use the example. We had this Italian place not far from here. And during COVID by the way, sixth generation, five places in Connecticut, on the other side of the road, there was a barbecue joint. Covid happened. The barbecue joint said, okay, people can come in. I bring him outside.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:33:11]:

He built this hot where four people can park. And then there was a video screen where you could see what's going on behind the scene. He has today four locations. And the other restaurant, which had sex, which was an established fifth generation, is gone. And for me, I would say that.

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Angelo Esposito [00:33:31]:

That'S a Lesson, Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:33:33]:

Success leaves close and history lives close. So for me, that's number one. Because if you didn't catch us because we did it like this all the time, you will succeed. That's my number one. My second one is that we lose focus on how we want to serve our customers. Because it doesn't matter if you have a pizza restaurant next door, if you serve pizza, if you serve your customer like nobody else. I use the example of a good friend of mine. They have an Indian restaurant, then a heart of St.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:34:05]:

Louis, and if you go to their place, and I walked in a few months ago and I said, oh my God, you're still not open with the dining room? He says, no, no, no. You know, I had a hard time finding staff. I says, so what do you do? So he says, I only do takeout. And so I took takeout from him. The box I got, he must have spent $5 just on the box because it was. The knife and fork was the best I had in a long time. I wanted to wash it and travel home with me back to him, I was like, this is the most amazing thing. He said, I knew I spent four and a half dollars a customer on my staff.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:34:46]:

And what I wanted to do is kind of make them realize that they're important to me. So he base the four and a half dollars. His containers are amazing. The forks are nice napkins. And for me, I was like, wow, so true. Just the second thing, and for me, the third thing is you need to have fun. The end of the day, people come to you because they want to escape something. And dining with you, hanging out with you, do something only you can do.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:35:14]:

And it doesn't matter if there's five restaurants with the same ethic background, there's only you can do what you are meant to do. And if you do this one thing only you can do, that's really easy. And for me, just figure that out. What is the way, you know, you can serve people only better than anybody else. And the rest is really simple. So those are my three.

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Angelo Esposito [00:35:40]:

Well said, well said. You know, as. As we're coming up on wrapping up, I want to do two things. First of all, I want to give a chance to. To plug away because people are listing this. We're going to put obviously links in the notes and all that. But how could people find you? How can they find the company? How can. So just go ahead and plug away.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:35:56]:

Yeah. So now, first off, I appreciate the conversation. And by the way, anybody listening to this guy, make sure you Kind of write down what this guy does because he's absolutely amazing in what he does. Not only amazing in what he does is you connect with people like only you can and absolutely love that about you.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:15]:

Appreciate it.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:36:15]:

And so our thing is really simple. Everything starts with Christian Chief Fischer. People think what does the CH do? It's like hey, if you go Christian Fischer, there's a really good DJ with the same name that's very good athlete in Austria, the same name. So I put my chain, everything. If you go Christian J. Fischer, you find all of that. If you do the house of humans, whatever you want to search for any of our programs. But if you go to Christian J.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:36:42]:

Fischer, everything else fill the cells from there.

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Angelo Esposito [00:36:44]:

Perfect. Okay, that's easy. Christian J. Fischer. Cool. And you like for people typically connect with you on link on Insta, you have no preference.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:36:53]:

Yeah. So for me connect with us anywhere. If you come on any of our channels, hey DM us, we on LinkedIn, we have 30 something thousand followers now come and check us out on LinkedIn. We respond back to you, I promise really quickly.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:11]:

That's cool.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:37:11]:

And if we can help you in any way, just let us know. And if we can help you, we find you the right person to help you.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:18]:

I love that. And then last but not least is what's next for you guys. So like if you just think of the next couple of years, like any, anything interesting you want to share.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:37:26]:

So yeah, so if by the way you guys heard it here first. So if you asking me if you want to look behind the scenes.

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Angelo Esposito [00:37:34]:

Yeah.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:37:35]:

It's two things we do. So for me from a personal side, I want to get better and being me and for me I make a conscious effort and doing more athletic stuff, lost 30 pounds. I want to be a better version. So thank you. So that's my personal side from my business side. If you want to look behind the curtains is we took 40% of our organization and we're going to make it employee owned. And the reason we're doing this is I have a really amazing team. I want the team to know that I appreciate them.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:38:09]:

I want the team to stay with me as long as they can. I want the team to know that when you peel it all away, it wouldn't happen without them. And so for me that's what we're working on. That's really personal side and what we're working on, a business end.

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Angelo Esposito [00:38:24]:

Very cool. I love that. Well look, with that said, you guys know how to connect with Christian. So Christian, thanks for joining us. Once again, it's Christian J. Fischer from the Fischer Research Group joining us on the WISKing it all podcast. It was such a pleasure to talk with you and hear your story. So thank you.

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Christian J. Fischer [00:38:40]:

I really appreciate it. And to your listeners, make sure you guys copy what he does. He's absolutely amazing in what he does. And thanks for the opportunity to meet your audience, and I'm really excited for that. So thank you.

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Angelo Esposito [00:38:53]:

I appreciate it. If you want to learn more about WISK, head to Wisk AI and book a demo. Sam.