The Hustle
The Hustle
My journey in the restaurant industry spans over two decades, and it started at rock bottom.
After high school, I had no plan, just a hunch that restaurants could give me a path. I started as a busser with zero experience. Showed up early. Stayed late. Outworked everyone. I wasn’t the most skilled, just the most relentless.
I earned my shot as a server, chased the best shifts, and studied the craft. Hospitality became an obsession, and it paid off.
At my next job, everything clicked. Supportive managers, working systems, a team that cared. That’s when I first experienced what I now call a thriving restaurant culture.
The Fall
The Fall
That's when I became every owner's worst nightmare.
My section. My shifts. My tips.
I was talented, sure. But I became entitled. And that entitlement poisoned everything. My attitude was so bad, it got me fired. No one else would hire me. Word gets around.
I watched my bank account drain to nothing. Then my car got repossessed. I sat in my apartment counting the days until eviction.
Fourteen days.
That's how close I came to losing everything.
The Shift
The Shift
I finally landed a job at a small restaurant. Twenty-four tables. They'd been in the red for three years straight. But I wasn't the same person anymore. I went from entitlement to pure gratitude.
I wasn't thinking about my tips. I wasn't protecting my section. I had one focus: Do whatever it takes to make sure this guest comes back.
That was it. Every interaction. Every table. Every shift. It wasn't about me anymore. It was about them.
And something unexpected happened. Guests started requesting my section. Then they started telling their friends. Then those friends became regulars too.
For the first time, I understood what hospitality actually meant.
The Philosophy
The Philosophy
That’s when I discovered Unconditional Hospitality, giving without expecting anything in return. No scorekeeping. No strings. Just real care for the person in front of you. The moment I stopped chasing returns, everything improved. Better tips. Better shifts. Better relationships. A better version of me.
It didn’t stop at work. This mindset changed how I showed up in every part of life. And when we taught it to teams, everything shifted. We didn’t just serve guests this way, we served each other. Teams dropped egos, built trust, and started working together like never before. All from one mindset: show up with care, no matter what.
The System
The System
One day, my GM pulled me aside and said, “If you can teach the team to do what you do, we’ll be unstoppable.” So we built a system. Simple. Repeatable. Built on leadership, training, and clear frameworks. In 14 months, that 24-table restaurant grew from $500K to $1.2M. Corporate noticed. They sent us location to location, using the same system to drive results. All grounded in one thing: the guest experience. Built on leadership, fueled by culture, and guided by a philosophy of unconditional hospitality.
The Mission
The Mission
Four global brands brought me in to implement this system. Then a friend with a small restaurant called. Same issues, just fewer resources. I shared the system online. It worked. That’s when Thirty Percent was born, a way to give independent operators the same tools billion-dollar brands use. Because no matter your size, the fundamentals stay the same. Hospitality is hospitality. Leadership is leadership. Systems scale if they’re built right.
The Results
The Results
Since then, we’ve helped over 300 restaurants around the world, not with theory, but with simple, proven systems. Check averages rose 21%. Five-star reviews soared. Teams transformed. Managers became leaders. Staff stopped guarding sections and started protecting the business.
Cultures shifted from “me” to “we.”
And it all started when one entitled server got fired and learned what real hospitality means.