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. 4D AGO

    How to Increase Restaurants Sales Through Maximizing Reviews

    When guests search “restaurants near me,” they’re not choosing the best restaurant, they’re choosing the one with the most reviews and the highest rating.  That's why in this podcast, I break down why Google reviews are one of the biggest profit levers in the restaurant industry and how most restaurant owners are leaving massive money on the table by ignoring them. With food costs, labor costs, and rent all skyrocketing, hoping guests just “show up” is no longer a strategy. Reviews drive traffic, trust, and sales and the restaurants that understand this are winning. I’ll show you exactly how to build a simple system to generate more five-star reviews, without being awkward, pushy, or hurting the guest experience. We walk through mapping the guest journey, training your team to elevate hospitality at every touchpoint, and implementing a repeatable review process that can quadruple your reviews in months.  This is how you turn one guest into three, widen your margins through sales (not cuts), and build a restaurant that’s resilient in today’s economy. If you’re serious about growing your restaurant and playing to win, this is a system you can’t ignore.

    15 min

  2. JAN 2

    This Training Mistake Is Costing Your Restaurant Millions

    After creating training systems for over 300 restaurants and spending more than 10 years building restaurant training programs for groups and corporations, I’ve seen exactly where restaurant training breaks down, and why so many teams struggle to perform consistently.  In this live training, I break down the two biggest reasons restaurant training fails: underdeveloped training that creates chaos and overdeveloped training that becomes impossible to execute. Most restaurants rely on unclear, unstructured, and unintentional training...shadowing someone for a few days and hoping for the best. This approach maximizes trial and error, burns guests, creates inconsistency, and leaves new hires guessing.  On the other end of the spectrum, overly complex training systems overwhelm teams, require constant micromanagement, and collapse the moment leadership isn’t present. The most successful restaurant training lives in the middle ground: simple, intentional, and crystal clear. Training that’s easy to teach, easy to learn, and easy to execute creates buy-in from staff and leaders alike. When training is simple, performance improves, guest experience increases, reviews go up, and revenue compounds over time. So, build simple but highly effective restaurant training systems, because training is the biggest lever to profitability, and brands like IKEA win by making complex things feel easy. If you want better staff performance, stronger leadership, happier guests, and a restaurant that actually scales, this is a must-watch.

    7 min

  3. 12/29/2025

    Why the Best Restaurants Are ALWAYS Packed

    Hospitality is not a soft skill or a “nice to have”, it is the most profitable marketing strategy successful restaurants use!   After working with and studying top-performing restaurant owners, one thing is clear: the most successful restaurants build their brand, culture, and long-term growth around hospitality, not social media ads or gimmicky marketing.  Hospitality starts with the owner’s mindset and becomes the foundation for everything the guest experiences. In this podcast, I share real examples of a family-focused restaurant that stays packed seven days a week by combining high-quality food with a strong hospitality culture. Owners need to understand when employees feel valued and trained, it shows in how they treat guests, handle mistakes, and create loyalty that drives repeat business and positive reviews. Most restaurant owners overspend on marketing while underinvesting in staff training, even though front-of-house teams directly control guest retention, reviews, and word of mouth. Guests must go through the experience to get to the food, and if hospitality breaks at any point, even great food loses value. The most profitable restaurants focus first on hospitality systems and training, then use marketing to amplify a strong foundation instead of trying to fix a broken one.

    17 min

  4. 12/27/2025

    Most Restaurants Get Hospitality Wrong (They Overlook This)

    Most restaurants don’t fail because of bad food, they fail because of missed details. Hospitality is NOT one big moment, but a series of small, often-overlooked details that either elevate or quietly destroy the guest experience. From dirty or creased menus, sticky booths, and slow touch points to transactional service that lacks care...these small mistakes create friction that guests feel, even if they can’t always explain it. When hospitality is strong, it creates emotional padding that makes guests more forgiving when mistakes happen; when service is purely transactional, even small errors feel much bigger. The key takeaway is that restaurant owners and leaders must intentionally map, systemize, train, and manage the entire guest journey so small details are executed at a high level, protecting the experience and driving loyalty.   So if you want to learn how to scale and grow your restaurant the right way.  This video is for you....

    13 min

  5. 12/19/2025

    3 Brutal Truths That Keep Your Restaurant From Growth

    "What got you here won’t get you there” isn’t just a quote, it’s the reason most restaurants plateau. In this podcast, I break down the single leadership shift that separates stagnant restaurants to ones that explode in revenue, culture, and consistency. Because the truth is simple: you can’t run a 2025 restaurant with 2015 leadership. Gen Z learns differently.  AI is changing how teams communicate.  Post-COVID mindsets have changed what motivates people. If you don’t evolve your leadership and training, your operation gets left behind. In this presentation, You’ll learn: • Why the next generation of staff requires NEW training (not more of the old stuff) • The exact reason Chick-fil-A beat the entire QSR industry without being the cheapest or the fastest • How Will Guidara went from a tiny restaurant manager to a multimillionaire hospitality icon • The true competitive advantage in 2025 (hint: it’s not food, price, or speed) • The five leadership moves that elevate your venue forever The demand in the market right now is hospitality, real hospitality. But it only happens when leadership evolves first and I show you how to do that. If you want to dominate your category, build a world-class team, and create a guest experience that nobody else can touch… This is for you!

    10 min

  6. 12/18/2025

    Hospitality Training in 15 Mins...

    Most businesses say they care about hospitality, but very few actually practice it consistently. In this presentation, I go over why true hospitality is rare, why it has nothing to do with tips, pay, or recognition, and why the mindset of “I’ll do more when I get paid more” keeps people and businesses stuck at average results in and out. To this live audience, I go over: - Why hospitality must be selfless to be effective - The quote that changed my career: “The person who does more than they’re paid for will soon be paid for more than they do” - The Lobster Effect and why growth always requires discomfort - Service vs. hospitality and why experience always wins- - How Chick-fil-A built a $25B brand by obsessing over guest experience - Why consistency matters more than talent - Finite vs. Infinite mindset in leadership and hospitality Hospitality today has become a luxury and that’s exactly why businesses that get it right stand out, grow faster, and win long-term.  This is the key to training Hospitality and opporunity for anyone that watches.

    16 min

  7. 12/15/2025

    The Iceberg Method That Fixes Your Restaurant Hospitality Problem

    Most restaurant owners teach hospitality the wrong way and it's why your team never fully buys in. In this video, I break down my Iceberg Hospitality Training Method, the exact framework I use when I go into restaurants to transform culture, mindset, and performance. So, You’ll learn why teaching hospitality is actually the easy part… and why the real work happens underneath the surface. Before you train the scripts, the greetings, the touchpoints, or the “treat guests like family” clichés, you must fix the mindset, the motivation, pride, and internal drive that makes people want to show up at a high level. Inside this podcast, I walk through: • Why most staff already know hospitality but lack the mindset to execute it • The “Iceberg” model for building sustainable hospitality behaviors • How to create genuine buy-in (not forced compliance) • Why “it’s just a job” thinking destroys staff performance • The psychology behind shifting employees from paycheck mentalities to professional pride • How to connect the dots so ANY employee can deliver world-class hospitality • How to coach the three types of employees: Rockstars, Fence-Sitters, and Quiet Quitters • Why great leaders focus on identity, motivation, and long-term growth If you want a team that delivers hospitality naturally without scripts, without nagging, without reminders, start where it matters: under the iceberg. This is the part that actually changes behavior.

    11 min

  8. 12/12/2025

    The Silent Killer of Successful Restaurants

    If your restaurant managers are losing motivation...even the great ones...you’re not alone.  After working with hundreds of restaurant brands and analyzing some of the most successful restaurants  in the world, I’ve seen the same unfortunate pattern: Successful Restaurants that have amazing culture, strong ownership, great venues… Can STILL get managers to burn out. In this podcast, I break down why restaurant managers lose motivation AND how owners can fix it with two high-impact systems. So whether you’re a restaurant owner trying to develop your leadership team or a restaurant manager wondering why you feel burnt out, I go over this in the podcast and i try to give you actionable solutions you can apply right now. Heres what I go over:  · Why even great managers lose motivation · How to increase manager efficiency · How to systematize daily tasks, weekly tasks, and big projects · How to reduce burnout and turnover · How to create long-term consistency inside your restaurant · How to bring back a manager’s drive and confidence · How to become a high-value GM or multi-unit leader

    10 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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out of 5
3 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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