106 - 6 Step Roadmap to Success

Learn what have been the key steps to success in my life? What guidelines or rules have I used to build a life that I love? How have I been able to maintain a job in one of the most demanding industries while building a family for over 20 years and volunteering in various organizations all at the same time.

I may not have been able to fully describe these rules until recently, but the concepts have consistently been a part of my life. These rules have guided my decisions and helped me make tough choices. Join me this Thursday at 1PM Mountain where I will go over these rules and how they can influence your life in multiple ways.

Welcome to Thursday's live teaching with cooking physics LLC. I'd like to thank you so very much for everybody coming in. And participating in this, I'm really excited about what I'm going to be teaching today. And I really want to kind of let you know that, you know, these six steps to success have really helped me in my career, I may not have fully understood and and codified and actually figured out the phrasing of each one of these steps. But the concepts and the principles have always been part of my career. And so some of them have been things that I've strived for, and have taken some time to try and get into it. So without further ado, let's go ahead and get started in this.

So we're going to talk about these six steps, roadmap to success. And these are all geared towards cooking and towards being a chef. And so what I'd like to do is, first one is taste everything. Now, I'm sure that you have understood this rule by many other people. And it is a universal rule. When it comes to cooking in a professional kitchen. You need to taste everything, you have to try everything you need to be curious and savor the moment. Whatever it is you're eating.

But this isn't just dealing with working in a kitchen and tasting the ingredients of the food. This also has to do with your life. Tastes your life, experience your life. Feed your career out curiosity, by learning and trying new things, challenge yourself, and look for opportunities to grow. Because as as you're learning and as you're growing, the more that you taste, the more that you try, the more you experience, the more flavor your life has. When it comes to let's say your family life, taste, everything can be enjoy each season of their of your children's lives or of the lives if you have your wife or spouse, or significant other, but cherish that time, spend time, be in the now and don't dwell into the past or into the future too long. But enjoy the what's going on right now. When it can go with your say with your friends and tasting everything. You know, experience your friends, get to know your friends learn their goals, their dreams, their history, everyone has a story to tell. So learn that.

The next thing I want to talk about is focus on mise en place, be prepared, learn, grow, focus on the things that you have control over. So what does that mean? When you're working in a kitchen, you don't really have control over how many people are going to show up in any given time. You can work a little bit with reservations. But if you're the restaurant that you're working at, doesn't take reservations, then it's just run of the mill, you may have all of a sudden 100 people come into the restaurant, and you've got to serve them all. So focusing on your mason plus is focusing on the things that you can control within your own life. And for Make sure everything is ready to go. You are prepared for everything that you need to do. And you need to make sure that everything that is going on is is ready to go. And that you are that things are not being held back because of your own experiences or your own preparation. And then everything can move forward as best as it possibly can.

So let's kind of think about maybe with your family life, so make sure that everyone that you love knows that you love them. Spend the time needed, spend the quality time with needed with them. Show through actions are your words. And like Do you have enough time to dedicate it to building those relationships? That is your mise en place when it comes to your life.

The next thing I want to talk about is maintain a clean and organized area. When you're working in a kitchen, there's a lot of things that are going on. And it's quite easy to start making little messes here. They're in there. And if you do not clean up after yourself, as you're going, at the end of the night, you're going to have a huge mess. And some of those things are going to be very difficult to clean up. Some of those things may cause issues further ins in the night, because you didn't clean up. If you filth spilled something on the floor and don't clean that up, it becomes a slipping hazard.

The same thing happens in our own lives, we need to make sure that we maintain a clean and organized area around us. Your mess your messes yourself, clean up your mistakes, clean up your health and your relationships, really make sure that your life is the best that it possibly can be, because of the actions that you are making.

The next I want to talk about is prepping for three days, but planning for three months. Now this is kind of a mantra that I've had that I've figured out when it comes to your mise en place when it comes to getting ready in the kitchen. When I say prep for three days to the chef's, what I'm saying is make sure that you have enough preparation and planned ahead for the next three busy days, okay? So that when something when something crazy happens, that you're ready, because you have three days worth of prep to make it through. At the end of the night, you may be out of that certain dish or or you know a little bit of, you know, you may be out of a couple of things. But because you prep for those three days ahead of normal service, then you are ready. And you did not have to 86 anything. And then the planning for three months, is thinking ahead three months figuring out what are the special things that you're going to do? What are the special occasions that are going to happen in, for example, Mother's Day, or Christmas or Thanksgiving? What are those bigger things that are going to happen that you need to start to plan for?

When it comes to your own personal life, I want you to think about prepping for three days is making sure that you're planning each one of your days, you're planning a week ahead, you're planning what you're going to do. And you're really spending the time needed to be able to really not be surprised or not be caught off guard by events that you had said that you're going to do and you'd forgotten about. So planning ahead, you know, getting your week, and possibly the next two weeks, really figured out. So that you can spend your time enjoying life. When I put the part about the planning the three months is planning those special occasions, again, you know, working in a professional kitchen, there's going to be times that are really tough, and you've got to dedicate almost all of your time towards your work. You know, the holidays are a big portion of it. And the important thing is, is when you're planning three, that concept of planning three months ahead, what you're doing is you're making sure that your family, your friends, your relationships, that they know that, hey, during this time, I'm not going to be very available for you. But at the end of this time, I will come back and I will spend time and we will you know build those relationships and, and continue the fun that we've had. So planning those three months ahead is there's planning ahead so that you know, and so that they know what is expected. What can happen is that if you don't plan that ahead, and you don't mention that and you don't explain that to your family, or your friends during those three months, there may be difficulties that happen and you lose trust, and you lose the respect of your friends and family. And if they'd have if happens often enough, and they don't understand what's going on because you haven't told them you can end up losing them.

The next thing I want to talk about is surrounding yourself with support. This is one of the things that that I've always struggled with. Okay. I've always been one that's been a go getter that has figured out how to do things on their own figures out you know some difficulty happens. And you know, I'm resourceful and I'll go and figure it out and fix it. But I've never been that great with building that further surrounding support of those around me, like when I'm working with my friends at work and things like that, I'm really good friends with them while at work. But I've never really extended that beyond the working environment. When it comes to your time in the kitchen, part of this is keeping your tools sharp that surround yourself with support, kind of deals with working in a kitchen as are your knives sharp. Do you have the things that you need the equipment that you need? And is it a in working order?

When it comes to your life, do you have that support system? You know, for me, the majority of that support system has been my immediate family. And they've been a huge help to me. But beyond that with the extended friends, they're more of acquaintances. And this is something that I've been striving to become better at each and every single day. Now the last one here, let me switch the way that we've got this screen so you can see the last one.

The last one is serve recklessly. When you're working in a restaurant, you always want to put your best dish forward, your best self forward, there's a saying that you're only as good as your last dish. That in a way is true. Make sure that every single dish that you put out, is on point that the flavors are correct. And that is the way that you serve your customers serve the your your coworkers. The other thing is is with those around you is be a mentor. You know, be an encourager be a supporter, love other people and help them serve them really give them the help and support that you need.

One of the things that I have done is I've always been in volunteering. I've done a lot of Boy Scouts, I've even spent a little bit of time and Girl Scouts with my girls. As well as church callings and, and responsibilities they're serving really helps you understand the importance of getting to know another person and really helping them.

So this roadmap, a lot of it has to do with how to how to organize your life, so that you will be successful. And when I say successful, I'm not just talking about making lots of money. I'm talking about a happy and joyful success, where you have people around you to help you celebrate that you've got the support, that you've got people around you to really blow you up. When things get difficult. In order to become successful in any career, you need to be completely dedicated. But you need to make sure that the reason behind that dedication is there.

What is the reason why you're going to work? What is the reason why you are spending your time working in professional kitchen? It is demanding, it is hard. And it comes with a lot of sacrifices. So what is that reason? What is your why I really want to help make sure that chefs have success, and they're happy and joyful, that they grow and develop. And my goal is to help create a culture of learning and development so that you can work within your kitchen, you can work with your co workers and it is a happy place stressful but it's a happy place and joyful place. So where people actually want to come to work and are excited to work with you as a chef or with you as just a regular coworker and they know that you've got their back and and you also know you know that they've got your back and they know that you have your that you have each other's back.

I've created this course. It's called the accelerate your career course. Now this course helps you build the skills necessary. To be able to really have a balance between what you're doing at work, and the rest of your life. So this course is geared towards those that are in the first few years of being a cook. It really goes over the basics. It goes over the basics of how to prepare yourself, how to organize yourself in the kitchen. And it teaches you the mindsets that you need to have to be able to be successful within the kitchen. It teaches you about mise en place, it teaches you about your prep lists, it teaches a little bit about the jargon that's in the kitchen and the unspoken, and the unwritten rules.

But this course is also for those that are just flat out enthusiastic for cooking, that they have a dedication to build their craft. And especially this course is for somebody who may be tired and exhausted at working each night. Because through the steps that I provide in within this course, teaches you how to maintain the energy that you have throughout the entire shift, so that you get to the end of the night, and you're happy, you've got the energy that you'd need to continue on. And to go out and have fun with your friends.

What can you expect by taking this course you're gonna expect to be able to take control of your day, instead of having and just waiting for things to happen and you're reacting. You are now doing preventative maintenance, you are thinking ahead and planning so that when the stuff comes. And when you start getting in the weeds, that you're only in the weeds because it's busy, and you're not in the weeds because you haven't prepared. It allows you to be able to show up to your shift ready every single day. So when you get there, you're ready to go. It'll give you time to be able to start experimenting again, with with foods. You know, a lot of times what's happening now with a lack of staffing and difficult to find people is that a lot of us are taking on two or three responsibilities. And we're finding it very difficult to find the time to really get back to what we really enjoy within cooking. And that is the experimenting, trying new things.

You know, people ask them, what's my favorite thing to cook and I say something new. Because that really is the case. That's what excites me. And it will, because you are taking control of your day and showing up, you're also going to have time to help out your friends. You know, help out those that are that are struggling as well. I created this to help cooks have that career that is sustainable, and enjoyable. I want to help them to bypass the common struggles that happened in the first couple of years of working in the kitchen. There are going to be some things in here that you have may have already learned. But I guarantee there's going to be things in here that you have never learned they will be new for you.

It will help you maintain that balance of life. And it will help you advance your career, as well as help others advance their career as well. So this course is called Accelerate your cooking career. You're gonna find it at cooking physics.com/accelerate. And I really, I really would like and challenge you to go out and check out this course. Right now I've got it for $150 I'm going to be continually evolving and adding to it. And if you get in now, you'll be able to get everything that that is in the course right now. As well as everything that I add in.

This will be the only time that I'm selling it at this price. As I continue to evolve and and tweak and get your feedback on how this course can be become better, I will begin to increase the prices. So if you want to get in now, at the very beginning, if you really feel like you're struggling, that you don't have enough time in the day that you can never quite get all of the prep done that you need to that you're always feel like you're falling behind. You're tired. This course is for you. It's going to help you it's going to help you organize your day it's going to help you you know, maintain that energy. It's going to help you Whew, to be able to help yourself. And once you're once you figured out how to help yourself, you're going to be able to start helping out your co workers. So, go and go to the website here at cooking physics.com/accelerate and I will see you there. Thank you very much