It’s Not You—It’s Your Hospitality

Preston Lee

It’s Not You, It’s Your Hospitality is for independent restaurant owners, operators, and leaders who want to build thriving businesses without burning out their teams or losing sight of what hospitality really means. Hosted by Preston Lee, founder of The 30% Rule, this podcast dives into the systems, leadership strategies, and culture shifts that separate the struggling 90% of restaurants from the top 10% that thrive. With over 20 years in the industry and a decade spent helping major brands grow sales, Preston shares raw stories, proven tools, and hard lessons learned from the front lines. If you’re tired of high turnover, inconsistent guest experiences, and the endless cycle of training without transformation—this podcast will dive deep into the world of Hospitality and show you how to fix it once and for all. Because at the end of the day, it’s not you—it’s your hospitality.

  1. 2d ago ·  Video

    How I Increased His Restaurant's Sales OVERNIGHT: My 3-Step Blueprint

    Want to know how to increase restaurant sales in 2026—without relying on discounts, gimmicks, or simply trying to get more people through the door? In this episode, Founder & CEO of Thirty Percent, Preston Lee, sits down with Geno McWilliams, owner of Lucia’s Italian Kitchen in Effingham, Illinois, to break down the restaurant sales strategies, hospitality systems, and operational decisions that are helping his 40-seat Italian restaurant create unforgettable guest experiences. Lucia’s isn’t your typical Italian restaurant. Guests sit just feet away from an open kitchen, watching chefs prepare everything to order. There are no freezers, fryers, or microwaves, and the menu changes every three months to showcase different regions of Italy. But the biggest lessons aren’t just about the food. Gino shares how his team has turned "hospitality, culture, upselling, and customer experience into powerful sales drivers." In this eye-opening interview, you’ll learn: - How to map the entire restaurant guest experience—from the parking lot to the dining room - How Luchia’s uses a “10 for 10” accountability standard to build a culture of excellence - Why training your team on hospitality **mindset instead of just mechanics** can transform the customer experience - How “passion selling” can increase perceived value and help guests understand premium pricing - How one creative upsell achieved a **65% attachment rate** - How listening for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and other special moments creates memorable guest experiences - Why experimenting with unexpected menu ideas—like pizza topped with shaved chocolate—can create your next bestseller Whether you’re a **restaurant owner, operator, chef, general manager, or hospitality professional**, this episode gives you practical ideas you can use to increase restaurant sales while building an experience customers actually want to come back for. If you’re looking for the 2026 blueprint for restaurant growth, start with better hospitality, stronger systems, smarter selling, and an experience worth talking about.

    How I Increased His Restaurant's Sales OVERNIGHT: My 3-Step Blueprint

  2. Aug 5 ·  Video

    The Real Reason Your Restaurant Staff Aren't Bought In and How to Fix it

    Your servers’ obsession with tips may be creating a toxic workplace and quietly damaging your restaurant’s culture, guest experience, and long-term success. In this podcast, Preston Lee, Founder and CEO of Thirty Percent, explores why a “money-first” mindset causes servers and bartenders to judge guests, resent coworkers, resist management, and lose sight of what hospitality is really about. Drawing on more than 20 years in the restaurant industry and experience helping scale and turn around hundreds of restaurants. Preston Lee breaks down how leaders can shift employees from chasing individual tips to creating meaningful guest experiences. You’ll learn: • Why tip-focused thinking destroys restaurant culture • The difference between service and true hospitality • How to motivate servers beyond money • Why employees must detach performance from pay • How entitlement affects teamwork and guest satisfaction • Why genuine care often leads to better income • How restaurant managers can create stronger staff buy-in • The importance of purpose, personal standards, and emotional intelligence • How one server can completely change a guest’s day This podcast is for restaurant owners, general managers, hospitality leaders, servers, bartenders, hosts, and anyone who wants to build a healthier, more profitable restaurant culture. Stop letting tips control the attitude of your team. Teach your staff to focus on hospitality, personal excellence, teamwork, and the experience they create for every guest. Subscribe for more restaurant management advice, server training strategies, hospitality leadership lessons, and practical tools to improve restaurant culture and performance. Stop Running the Shift. Start Building the Leader. Download Our FREE Leadership Workbook: https://get.30percentrule.com/leadership-dl?el=ytotoxic Follow @the30rule on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the30rule

  3. Jul 17 ·  Video

    How to Motivate Your Restaurant Staff: 3 Steps to Get REAL Staff Buy In!

    Struggling to get your restaurant staff fully bought in? In this podcast, you’ll learn how to create restaurant staff buy-in through mindset shifts, stronger leadership, clear standards, accountability, and a deeper understanding of hospitality. Rather than simply telling employees what to do, Preston Lee, Founder & CEO of Thirty Percent, works through a real coaching conversation with Adolfo, a bartender and server with 20 years of restaurant industry experience. Together, they break down the attitudes and habits that separate high-performing restaurant employees from team members who coast through their shifts. In this podcast, we cover: • How to improve restaurant employee engagement and staff buy-in • Why restaurant culture requires teamwork and accountability • The difference between A players and C players • How to separate personal performance from tips and pay • Why employees should remove their ego from their job title Whether you’re a restaurant owner, operator, general manager, hospitality leader, server, bartender, or trainer, this conversation will help you build a more accountable, motivated, guest-focused restaurant team.

  4. Jul 9 ·  Video

    How Top Restaurants Create Winning Cultures and Strong Leaders

    We break down why great restaurants are built on more than food costs, labor costs, and checklists. True restaurant success starts with culture, leadership, team development, accountability, and guest experience. From reducing employee turnover to developing Gen Z team members, this conversation explores what separates managers from true leaders and why the best restaurant teams are created through standards, systems, and intentional training. If you’re a restaurant owner, operator, general manager, hospitality leader, or aspiring restaurant manager, this episode will help you rethink how you lead your team, develop people, improve retention, and create a culture that drives better service, stronger sales, and unforgettable guest experiences. Listen now to learn how to build a restaurant team that performs, stays, grows, and delivers hospitality at the highest level. 🔥 Learn how to GROW & Scale Your Restaurant like the top 10% ... 👉  https://www.30percentrule.com?el=leaderformulayt

  5. Jun 26 ·  Video

    How to Create Restaurant Training & Systems That Scales

    How do successful restaurant groups scale without losing quality, culture, or accountability? In this podcast, we break down how to create restaurant training systems that scale—especially when you’re growing from one location to multiple restaurants, managing more GMs, opening new concepts, and trying to maintain the guest experience that made you successful in the first place. You’ll hear a real conversation with restaurant owners from P Hospitality as they discuss the challenges of scaling restaurant operations, building leadership buy-in, holding managers accountable, improving employee training, and creating repeatable systems that don’t depend on the owner being in the building every day. If you’re a restaurant owner, operator, GM, or hospitality leader trying to grow the right way, this podcast will help you understand why training is not just a checklist—it’s a system of accountability, communication, follow-up, and leadership execution. In this podcast, you’ll learn: ✅ Why high-performing restaurants use daily masterminds ✅ How to get your leadership team bought into accountability ✅ Why “messaging” should become a repeatable system ✅ How to build restaurant training that survives busy seasons ✅ Why guest recovery can create loyal regulars ✅ How to create a chain of command as your restaurant group grows ✅ Why “what got you here won’t get you there” when scaling ✅ How restaurant managers can create meaningful guest relationships ✅ Why accountability improves culture, training, and guest experience Scaling a restaurant requires more than great food and good people. You need clear systems, strong leadership, consistent training, and a team that knows exactly what winning looks like.

  6. Jun 12 ·  Video

    Michelin-Starred Chef Reveals What Restaurant Leaders Must Do Differently Today

    What does it take to build a world-class restaurant team? Well...in this video, award-winning chef Philip Tessier shares why the future of hospitality isn't just about creating great food, it's about developing great people. Chef Tessier discusses leadership, ownership mentality, innovation, Michelin-star standards, training systems, guest experience, and why the best restaurant cultures are built by investing in people rather than simply managing them. He also explains how top-performing organizations create environments where team members can thrive, grow, and eventually become leaders themselves. From developing future chefs to creating a culture that attracts exceptional talent, this conversation is packed with lessons for restaurant owners, operators, managers, and hospitality professionals looking to build stronger teams and better businesses. Philip Tessier is one of the most accomplished chefs in America. He made history in 2015 as the first American chef to stand on the podium at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France, often referred to as the "Olympics of Cooking", earning a Silver Medal for Team USA.  He later coached Team USA to its first-ever Gold Medal victory at the Bocuse d'Or in 2017. Tessier previously served as Executive Sous Chef at the three-Michelin-starred The French Laundry and has worked at some of the world's most celebrated restaurants, including Per Se and Le Bernardin. He is also the author of *Chasing Bocuse*, which chronicles Team USA's historic journey to international culinary success. In this interview, we discuss: • Building a culture people want to be part of • Why ownership mindset starts with leadership • Developing future restaurant leaders • Michelin-star standards vs. real-world hospitality • Training systems that create consistency • Innovation and adapting to changing guest expectations • Creating memorable guest experiences • Why the best restaurants focus on people first Whether you're a restaurant owner, manager, chef, or aspiring leader, this conversation offers practical insights on building teams that perform at the highest level. 🔥 Learn how to GROW & Scale Your Restaurant like the top 10% ... 👉  https://www.30percentrule.com/

  7. May 31 ·  Video

    Restaurant Mogul & Top Chef Judge Reveals Training Secrets | Janet Zuccarini

    Most restaurants don’t fail because of bad food, they fail because of bad leadership, weak training, and inconsistent hospitality. So in this exclusive interview, Restauranteur and Top Chef judge Janet Zuccarini sits down with Preston Lee to break down the secrets to leadership, hospitality, and training systems that helped her build one of the most respected restaurant groups. From opening her very first restaurant with zero restaurant experience to building a 30+ year hospitality empire with packed restaurants across Toronto and Los Angeles, Janet shares the real reason great restaurants succeed: culture, systems, consistency, communication, and people. This conversation is packed with practical strategies and tactics for restaurant owners, managers, servers, and hospitality leaders who want to build stronger teams and create successful restaurants. You'll learn how top hospitality brands create loyal employees and loyal customers. Janet also shares how her company built long-term retention, ongoing training systems, leadership pathways, and a hospitality culture that keeps staff for decades. We dive deep into: • How elite restaurants train staff for long-term success • Why most restaurant training programs fail • How to build stronger restaurant culture and staff buy-in • The secret to creating loyal guests and repeat business • How great restaurants handle mistakes and recover service • How to develop leaders, trainers, and managers internally • How top restaurants create memorable guest experiences • The systems successful restaurant operators use every day This episode is a masterclass for restaurant owners, hospitality professionals, managers, servers, bartenders, and entrepreneurs looking to level up their leadership, training, and customer experience.

  8. May 22 ·  Video

    Restaurant Server Success System in 45 mins...

    Restaurant culture is broken… and nobody wants to talk about it. In this server training I break down the detrimental mindset that is destroying hospitality and restaurant culture and instead show how to thrive in the industry. In this powerful training, we dive deep into what real hospitality actually means and why the best servers, bartenders, managers, and restaurant leaders don’t operate from entitlement, they operate from service, consistency, and care. This video covers restaurant leadership, teamwork, mental health in hospitality, guest experience, server training, and examples of how top-performing restaurants build loyal guests that keep coming back. We talk about why toxic attitudes around tips, sections, and coworkers create miserable work environments, and how the best hospitality brands focus on culture, guest retention, and creating unforgettable experiences instead. Christy and I go through her journey from server to manager to shift lead, along with the lessons she’s learned about leadership, communication, emotional control, and leading by example in a fast-paced restaurant environment. I break down how she and restaurants in general can improve training systems, create stronger team culture, and help employees develop a winning mindset without burning out. So If you work in restaurants, whether you’re a server, bartender, manager, or owner, this 1 on 1 training will challenge the way you think about hospitality, teamwork, and leadership and give you the server success secrets to advance your career. 🔥 Reserve your seat at our free training built for the 2026 workforce. Learn how to build simple, repeatable systems that run even when you’re off-site: 👉 https://join.30percentrule.com/training

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7 Ratings

About

It’s Not You, It’s Your Hospitality is for independent restaurant owners, operators, and leaders who want to build thriving businesses without burning out their teams or losing sight of what hospitality really means. Hosted by Preston Lee, founder of The 30% Rule, this podcast dives into the systems, leadership strategies, and culture shifts that separate the struggling 90% of restaurants from the top 10% that thrive. With over 20 years in the industry and a decade spent helping major brands grow sales, Preston shares raw stories, proven tools, and hard lessons learned from the front lines. If you’re tired of high turnover, inconsistent guest experiences, and the endless cycle of training without transformation—this podcast will dive deep into the world of Hospitality and show you how to fix it once and for all. Because at the end of the day, it’s not you—it’s your hospitality.

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