Amy Hom on Team Member Development and Vibe at Barcelona Wine Bar

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity.

My name is Anthony Codispodi and today’s guest is Amy Hamm. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Barcelona Wine Bar. They are a warm and welcoming tapas bar inspired by the culture of Spain. Their ever-changing menu focuses on clean flavors, seasonal ingredients, and rustic small plate presentations. It also offers one of the largest Spanish wine programs in the U.S., featuring award-winning selections from Spain and South America.

Amy has over 30 years of leadership experience in the restaurant and retail industries. She is known for her expertise in P &L management, event planning, and strategic growth. Before joining Barcelona Wine Bar, Amy held executive roles at notable brands such as Bluestone Lane, Reef, and Sweetgreen. She has been recognized in Miami Tech Leaders, named one of the 30 top women in food and tech by Lunchbox.

and honored with a top 25 executive award from Fast Casual. Her passion for inspiring teams and delivering top-notch dining experiences has driven her success across the hospitality sector. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing one of our innovative programs. And results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the COO of Barcelona Wine Bar, Amy. Appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Amy Hom (02:02)
Anthony, thanks for having me. It’s pleasure.

Anthony Codispoti (02:05)
Okay, Amy, so before we talk about Barcelona Wine Bar, I want to hear about some of your previous roles. mean, you’ve held leadership roles at a number of notable restaurant brands like Sweetgreen, Wolfgang Pucks, California Pizza Kitchen. What first drew you into the hospitality industry?

Amy Hom (02:24)
The fact that you can turn around somebody’s day just by interacting with them in a restaurant and deliver that hospitality. So I go to a party every day, I truly believe that, and you get to throw the party for people and hopefully if they’ve had a bad day, you’re giving them a smile they didn’t walk in with and you’re impacting their journey. And so it’s cool that you can have that impact on somebody in that public forum.

Anthony Codispoti (02:51)
I go to a party every day. Party is your job.

Amy Hom (02:53)
I go to a party every day. Party is my job.

Party is my job and everybody on the team that gets to throw the party, they know that they get that opportunity to turn somebody’s day upside down in a good way, not in a bad way.

Anthony Codispoti (03:04)
What?

You’re turning the frowns upside down, not the other way around. Yeah.

Amy Hom (03:07)
Yes, yes, as

they say in McDonald’s on the boards they used to put, I used to work at McDonald’s, they used to say if you see somebody without a smile give them one of yours because they’re free. And I think that was one of the first things that kind of impacted me along the way. It was pretty cool.

Anthony Codispoti (03:21)
I love that. And so what was your first job in the restaurant space?

Amy Hom (03:25)
I worked daytime McDonald’s and nighttime Burger King. So I would run across the street in St. Louis ⁓ from being a crew leader in McDonald’s in the bottom of a hospital in North St. Louis to across the street to running the drive through a Burger King when I was very, very young. And I loved every minute of it. I mean, time flies by. You’re with friends that you get to hang out with. You get to interact with the public and make their day, like I said prior.

you you’re hanging out and it’s super fun work. It really is. Has it changed over the years? Sure, there’s challenges, but that just makes it more interesting on how you can come out on top compared to some of the others.

Anthony Codispoti (04:03)
When did you sleep? Daytime, nighttime, across the street.

Amy Hom (04:05)
⁓

You just, listen, I’ve slept in hospital hallways when you got to get ready for your 5 a.m. shift to make those hash browns, but you do what you got to do. And I honestly never thought about sleep. I just really enjoyed the work. And I will tell you this, Anthony, one of the reasons why is because I worked for really cool people. Like I remember my GM at McDonald’s and the GM at Burger King. And I used to just follow around and tell me more and impact more. And then I moved into full service.

at Hoolahands way back when Gilbert Robinson was around and was there four years. And I said, okay, know, show me the details. There’s a light bulb out. There’s dust on the ledge there. And so I’d follow the GM around and ended up doing the books back when there wasn’t really a computer doom and you had to fill out those big long ledgers of every invoice and produce that comes in.

You know, I just, learned all those skill sets and I just, I’m a learner. So I just would suck in anything I possibly couldn’t. And once I could teach it back, I’d move on to something else so I could become more well-rounded. Still learning, still learning.

Anthony Codispoti (05:07)
Well,

and I’m getting the sense from you that you know how to squeeze every minute of every day. Folks, Amy is doing this interview from an airport lounge as she is in transit from. Yeah, it’s a beautiful background. Looks like you’re in an office environment. I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me. Yeah.

Amy Hom (05:17)
You’re telling my secrets. Nobody can tell. Looks like a cool lounge, right?

the office of the airport.

Anthony Codispoti (05:32)
And

you mentioned that, it’s like, hey, if things change, sure they have. What’s the biggest change that you’ve seen?

Amy Hom (05:39)
I think there’s been a lot of changes. I don’t think there’s a biggest one. I think the way that teams react now, how you have to lead differently. I would say 20 years ago, you could lead with a lot more IQ. Now it’s a lot more EQ and empathy. What’s going on with that person’s day, heart checks, how are they feeling? Can we deliver the news? Do we need to wait if it’s something tough? Feeling the room out and making sure that they’re ready for things before you just kind of bulldoze over them.

It’s all those things and having that trust and transparency with the team that you’re leading is important. You don’t always win. You don’t always win. There’s times where I’ve definitely dropped the ball or failed at that. But every time I do, do a lot of, you know, introspective of what could I have done differently? How does this not happen again? And it still won’t be perfect. I’m aware of that. But you try to do right by the teams you lead. It’s the people business.

Anthony Codispoti (06:32)
Can you share an example of a time where you quote unquote failed and learned something that really propelled you going forward?

Amy Hom (06:39)
Sure. think having thinking somebody’s farther along in their development than they are and possibly over promoting them, they’ll say they’re ready. And then they get into that position and you’re like, shoot, I shouldn’t have done that. They’re not ready. It might have been a harder road to do. ⁓ But it didn’t set them up for success as much as they really wanted that. But how do you make sure they’re really prepared? So now current status, are they really prepared? Do they really understand the work?

do the work first before you actually promote them, kind of old school, rather than they really, really wanted. The generation of I want everything now is not the solve. And so how do you kind of do development planning with them? Let them understand where they’re at. That radical candor book is great. But I was reading an article over the weekend of when do you really give that tough feedback? And there are some people, I have some people on my current team, they can take feedback. I was just talking about this with.

a great director that we have on the team. And it’s not ⁓ somebody can’t always take it. And people do have that capacity. And so you got to recognize that. So now I’m a little bit more keen of are they capacity or can they take it? And if they can take it, they can keep growing. And there are some people that are they’re doing great in the role they’re in. And that’s OK, too, rather than me wanting it. I remember somebody told me once it was leading me, I think you want it more than they do.

And I think at times I have, rather than waking up and smelling the coffee and saying, they’re not going to make it there. So let’s not hurt the company. Let’s not hurt them because it doesn’t end up well for that person that you set up for failure. So very conscious of those learnings.

Anthony Codispoti (08:18)
You’ve mentioned sort of this transition from IQ to EQ. When did you first sort of get the sense that this transition was taking place?

Amy Hom (08:27)
I think COVID definitely, I hate bringing up COVID, but it’s a thing. And I think that generation of working from home, getting those checks, ⁓ then they come back into the workforce because the check stop happening and they’re not used to being in the workforce. have kids that were going through that. so watching them and then leaning into the staff and saying, okay, we need to make sure we’re leading with heart more than ever now and doing those check-ins is much more important than.

than doing the PNL. You can get a really strong PNL result if you’ve got that all set up first. ⁓ But, it’s, it’s, you know, got, I mean, it’s people, you know, they, the mental state really matters these days where, you know, probably the way you and I grew up, Anthony, and years and years ago was you were workhorses, you know, to prove yourself and to get promoted. You had to put the extra hours in and extra not sleep and.

And that just doesn’t happen anymore. And now it’s really how do you develop your team into the next level and give them every single tool you possibly can to make them successful. And then it’s on them. can’t give you as an excuse. You have to help drive that. So the development is on them. And they need to drive their own bus. But it’s also on you to make sure you’re supporting where they want to go.

Anthony Codispoti (09:42)
I have to imagine that this was a difficult transition as a leader for you to make from one style to another. What helped you make that transition and kind of level up?

Amy Hom (09:53)
I think all the mentors I have, I mean, I’ve got a slew of a tribe behind me that ⁓ has helped. I’ve worked for extraordinary leaders and they’ve always leaned in to me and helped me along the way. there’s not a, ⁓ but I invest in the time and I’ll call them and I’ll make time for them. I think some people think it’s just gonna happen for them and it’s not. You do have to put the time in, but ⁓ there wasn’t a moment. ⁓ Definitely when we had COVID.

It was a lot of heart checks and how’s the team feeling? And we need to roll out with hazmats today. And then the next day was, okay, there’s 10 more laws we have to implement today to open for service. Nobody can come inside and you all have to stay 10 feet away and all these things. ⁓ You can’t get any of that done. And we were still doing new restaurant openings at the time. ⁓ So I’d get a bit four or five, make sure you’re checking on the East Coast. I was living on the West Coast at the time and then dig into the West Coast team. But it really is about people.

people leadership. So I don’t think there was a moment. think even when I was at Hula Hands, you’re still in the people business, whether you’re kicking off a pre-shift and you’re motivating and inspiring them and giving goal setting in those pre-shifts to where we are today, which is when you walk into a restaurant, you got to say hi and bite everybody when you walk in the door and when you leave. people want to know who you are. I want to know who they are.

You got to know something about everybody that you kind of come across. How’s your cat? What’s going on with the dogs? know, how are the kids doing? ⁓ It’s important. And I think that’s in any industry. I don’t think it’s just the hospitality industry. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (11:27)
Agreed.

We’re going to get to Barcelona here in a second, but can you maybe pick one of your career stops along the way that was most formidable for you and why?

Amy Hom (11:40)
Gosh, there’s so many, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (11:44)
Okay, so let’s take away the word most.

Amy Hom (11:46)
I’ll

give you a funny one that turned out to be a positive for me rather than it may sound negative. I was working for an organization and it was the only time a lot of people say, they don’t promote women, this whole card thing. And ⁓ I see some of that, right? And I try to make sure I’m an advocate for that ⁓ for women in leadership and making sure they have their voice. Not they get promoted because they’re female, but because they are prepared and they know what they’re doing.

But I had ⁓ a person tell me, well, we’re not going to promote you because we don’t promote females. I, I, mm-hmm. Yeah, but this is, no. Yeah, and so I looked at them and I did not have a job lined up at the time, but I said, I actually have to give you my two weeks right now. And they were kind of thinking I wouldn’t do that or that was such a surprise. And they’re like, well, why are you doing that? And I said, well, I, this is my career.

Anthony Codispoti (12:20)
They said that. Those words came out of their mouth. It wasn’t like hinting at it or the energy in the room. That’s what they actually said.

Amy Hom (12:43)
And I need people that are gonna help develop me no matter my gender. Now, mind you, this is 20 years ago when you could probably get away with some of that. ⁓ And I’m better for it because I walked away and I saw that gentleman years later. I was going to do an inspection on his restaurant at another concept and I sat down with him and I just said, listen, like that was a much younger gender, version of me. But man, what an opportunity you had.

for the industry and to bring other people along. And so we kind of had that conversation. I think it was like 15 years later, but it was a moment for me because I found my voice and I see some people kind of back down to stuff like that, the world is big. There’s a lot of opportunities out there with really cool and great people. And so that was kind of a little bit of one of the pivotal moments for me that was, ⁓ I was young.

And then I went in and I had taken over a restaurant, my very first manager job, and all the employees on the back of the house line had been fired for, I don’t know, I’m not even exaggerating. This is back in the day where you get rehired five to seven times in a concept because they couldn’t find people. ⁓ And I fired the whole line. I didn’t know any different. I just knew that what was going on in that restaurant was wrong. And the guy, my senior GM who had trained me showed up and said,

Did you just fire everybody on the cook line? Now I would not do that. I don’t recommend that now. And I said, I did, but like, no one’s making any money at this location. Have you seen the P &Ls? And he said, OK. So the next day, we got on the line. We cooked out the food. We pushed it out. And the next day, I was clo-pening, for those that don’t know. It’s a close and then open. And I’m thinking, I’m going in. And I said, I’m going to get fired today. And instead, he took me with him. And he’s like, she’s a little spitfire. I’m going to take her with me.

Anthony Codispoti (14:12)
you

Amy Hom (14:36)
And ⁓ those people ended up losing their jobs because this location had been running into the ground. Now, I didn’t know that. I just knew that what was happening was wrong. And these servers were not making what they needed to for their livelihood. So again, right and wrong way to go about things. But there’s a lot of those moments in my career where I just look back and I laugh because I’m like, there is no way I would do that now. You need to make sure you have strategy in place and who’s going to staff the restaurant. But when you are with a larger

Anthony Codispoti (14:52)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Hom (15:04)
a larger organization, you can pulpy from other locations and you can’t keep anybody in a hostage kind of situation. So it’s been a fun ride.

Anthony Codispoti (15:15)
So I want to go back to this, I don’t know how else to describe him, this sexist guy that said, hey, we don’t promote women here. And you’re like, well, I’m going to give my two weeks. I’m assuming you didn’t have anything else lined up. You were sort of just jumping. OK. And then you had this conversation with him 15 years later. like, hey, you missed out sort of a thing. What was his reaction? What was his comment there 15 years later? Had he grown at all?

Amy Hom (15:26)
No.

⁓ We were, we never, I had no idea he was at this organization that I had eventually joined. ⁓ And he resigned after I had that conversation with him and I was in his restaurant. So I’m not sure. I’m not sure if he ever figured it out or didn’t, but I also have to say, you know, it’s not my, that’s kind of not, as people say, not your, that’s not my luggage to carry. And so. ⁓

I am very aware that that does happen to women. I’ve not had it a whole lot. I do think the CEO positions are different now for some of those women versus men, but there’s not, ⁓ I don’t allow that for the, I think the young women that we need to bring along need to understand the financials more, just like men. It’s not an either or, it’s an and, and how do we do it together, and how do we help each other out together, and how are we conscious of making sure that it’s,

that were giving equal opportunity. And that was just, that was a little moment in my career and I very rarely think about it, but when you were asking me and I was reading the questions, I was like, there are some little moments there that kind of got me to where I am because I think if you’re resilient and you’re a risk taker, those things are, those things, you don’t even think about it. You just naturally know that’s wrong and you’re not gonna do it.

Anthony Codispoti (17:00)
It rolls off of you eventually and right. You’re not, it’s not like you’re holding onto it stuck in your craw kind of a thing. It’s just, it, taught you something and you, kind of moved in another direction then.

Amy Hom (17:01)
Mm-hmm.

No.

Yeah, and it didn’t define me and I didn’t want to get promoted to an AGM at that time because I was a female. I didn’t even think anything of it until he’d said that and I was like, we’re different? Like there’s a thing here and then I just kind of, I was like, okay, you think I’m different. I’m really not. So it’s cool. I’m out. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (17:25)
Time to move on. right.

All right, so talking about moving in different directions, new opportunities, how did the opportunity to join Barcelona Wine Bar?

Amy Hom (17:35)
The CEO who is awesome, Adam Halberg, he was reaching out to some peers in the industry and my name came up and he had called and said, well, I haven’t been to one of your locations. So he said, come check us out. And he and I ended up spending two days together. I think we hit like six locations across the country, planes, trains, and automobiles. And you walked in and it really was a party. I was just like, holy cow, this is so cool.

And I loved the opportunity to become a part of it. So we chatted for a while and got to know one another. And now I consider them kind of family with the rest of the crew. So it’s a great concept. We’ve got another concept under that umbrella under the restaurant group, which is Corsica. And we’re opening our second one within 30 days. That’s going to be in Reston, Virginia. First one’s in Denver, Colorado. And then we’re moving out to Connecticut with a third one. But that’s a sister restaurant to Barcelona, but doing incredible things, I get to work with.

Amazing chefs, I eat yummy food every day. I to watch the waistlines. We just won a couple more awards for our wine list. We have a 400 wines. It’s just super fun. And what’s really cool about Barcelona is the chefs can change up to 70 % of the menu on their own. I mean, they get to taste and we make sure it comes in line with Cogs, but it’s a very sexy brand. So I’m just having a blast with everybody.

Anthony Codispoti (18:59)
So from one location to the next, the menu could be very different.

Amy Hom (19:02)
It’s very different. It is, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (19:04)
⁓ So say more about for somebody who hasn’t had the pleasure of you know experiencing Barcelona wine bar say more about that experience I mean you you said this this is a party when you walked in the door for the first time what does that mean are there like streamers and my disco balls like

Amy Hom (19:20)
There could be, you just never know. I mean, there’s

a lot of perroning going on, which is the Spanish, you know, people are standing on the bar doing the perron, but it’s upscale casual. The team there has the autonomy to throw a party however they feel they can connect with that guest. It may just be somebody who’s coming in by themselves and hanging out at the bar and making a connection. Our goal is to make sure that the food and the wine supplement the experience. You’re not coming in for the food and the wine, but you’re coming in for the hospitality.

And so it is literally taking a smile off you and giving it to one of the guests. ⁓ It’s been around, we’ll be celebrating our 30 years next year. And it ⁓ is just this cool secret that for those that don’t know it, you haven’t experienced it yet. And for those that want to come in, let me know. there’s just, sometimes the music is loud and it is crazy and it is literally a party. sometimes…

The music’s loud and people are just whining and dining. It’s different and every location’s got a very different personality. But at the end of the day, it’s did you come in and have a great hospitable experience before you exited the building. And we make you better for coming in.

Anthony Codispoti (20:31)
So I’m trying to like paint the picture in my head a little bit more more of this party atmosphere like is there a dance floor like are people like is it that kind of a party or just like people enjoying themselves like being boisterous and just you know having a good time.

Amy Hom (20:45)
In West Hartford, there’s a DJ ⁓ on the weekends, so they move the tables out and people, that restaurant’s been there close to 30 years, so yes. ⁓ In 14th Street in DC, you can’t really hit the, you can’t make it to the bar, because it’s standing room only, it’s hilarious, then you can go into some of the other quieter locations, but there still is, there’s still a little bit of a party and a positive vibe. It’s everyone is there having fun, just different levels, depending on what those guests want that night.

the team’s kind of trained into feed into what they’re feeling in the restaurant. So yeah, it is a party. It’s not like DJ club. It’s just upscale casual with a really cool vibe and yeah, yeah, no judging. Have a glass of wine, hang out, have some sangria, have some Spanish tapas and you know, just everybody’s kind of talking to each other. And it was so funny. I was sitting with somebody the other day in one of the restaurants and they said,

Anthony Codispoti (21:18)
That sounded like good time.

Yeah, there’s a good energy to it. It’s moving. Yeah.

Amy Hom (21:41)
I haven’t been in a restaurant like this in a really long time where everyone at the tables doesn’t have their phone on, they’re talking to each other. And I said, yeah, that’s the vibe. Like you want to be cool in there. So it’s, it’s, they’ve, they’ve kept it going for, you know, like I said, almost 30 years. It’s pretty wild. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (21:49)
You

So,

I mean, what you’re describing, it sounds like you guys really have the customer experience dialed in to continue to grow and have the success that you have. There needs to be strong operational aspects to it. What is it that you guys are doing behind the scenes that’s working so

Amy Hom (22:16)
Well, I am very proud of people like Matt Travery and Jacqueline Burch and Amber Day. And the folks I’m naming are the regional directors. And we’ve got amazing GMs, Jed Orton and ⁓ gosh, Adriana. I mean, the list goes on. We have not a lot of the industry. We just ran data. ⁓ The sector and the restaurant space is going up in turnover. And there’s a big gap between us and them now when we’re going.

down quite a bit and we are on a four-month trend right now of not having a GM or a chef ⁓ exit. It’s been pretty remarkable and we’re doing that through development planning and giving clarity on where people’s careers live. We also take our chefs to Spain. They just actually got back from Madrid two weeks ago and we’re doing our GM. They get to learn how to cook there and we really wanted to be authentic tapas when they come back and then we’ve got our GM.

retreat coming up very soon. But to have that is something I think the leadership really needs to be proud of because they worked really hard on that. Now we implemented development plans, think about a year ago, and getting them to write SMART goals and sitting down with somebody and saying, Anthony, where do want to go? You’re here. Where do you want to be? Is it not work? Is it that you need to drink more water and work out every day and take care of yourself so you’re a better version of yourself when you show up?

Is it that you’ve got something going on at home? And or is it, do we need to teach you the P &L? So you’re so confident when you get up to do your numbers that you understand the inputs of the party you’re throwing, how it mixes in the P &L and then how you can toss it out for some great results. So ⁓ the teams, I just cannot rave about them enough. They’ve done a really good job of grasping that and getting, now are we perfect? Absolutely not. Lots of things to do there, but it is good.

Anthony Codispoti (24:08)
Yeah. So I mean, that’s critical, right? You’ve got your leadership in place, you want to keep them in place, that continuity really helps. What about when it comes to sort of more frontline? ⁓ You talk about your servers, back of house, like in the kitchen, what kind of things have you guys tried and found success with both from a recruiting and a retention standpoint?

Amy Hom (24:30)
We do heart checks. I’ve talked about that on a couple other podcasts where, you know, where you’re at on a scale from one to five. It’s not so much about the number, but if somebody is a one or two where they just say, I’m not feeling great today, you kind of got to pause and start talking about the personal aspect of it. And then if they’re in a great space, it’s, hey, well, what can we do about to do this, drive this business forward? Or what do you want to learn? And those kinds of things. Or what can we do better as a company? And having those conversations.

We do round tables ⁓ in the upcoming quarter. I’m going to do a round in every restaurant personally, where I just sit with them and like, what’s working, what’s not, what do we need to do better? And I think really just sitting with a listening ear is important. ⁓ So I think it’s critical to hear them because what they need is not what I think they may need or what the board may think that they may need. It’s really like, we need better this or we need… ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (25:17)
Hmm.

Amy Hom (25:26)
larger beverage stations, you know, it’s all these things that I think make up the big picture. So we’ll be doing a big round of that, but the regional directors and the ops leadership team have been doing those round tables that I think are impactful.

Anthony Codispoti (25:39)
I was going to ask if it’s challenging to, like, you sort of have this recognition that this level of communication needs to take place. it challenging to sort of distribute that to the places that it needs to go? But it sounds like, you know, you’ve already talked really highly of these regional directors and it sounds like they’ve kind of got their finger on the pulse too.

Amy Hom (26:00)
Yeah, I think the industry may stretch directors or ops leaders too far where they think more locations is better. It’s kind of like when you have a server and they think they’re sectioned if they have 10 tables and make more tips. It’s actually wrong. If you can give them a five or six or four table depending on their capabilities, they actually make more money because they’re giving more time to those guests and they’re not rushing and they’re making sure that guests.

they’re anticipating their needs. Same for directors, ⁓ four or five, six locations, ⁓ depending on their different skill sets, but also where they live, right? Like how does that look on the landscape? So ⁓ the directors, they got a pulse on them and they’re very close to their teams. And listen, like I said, we’re not perfect, but I do think they’re doing a lot of things great.

Anthony Codispoti (26:49)
Now, Amy, you hold a certificate of finance from Harvard Business School online. How helpful was that in kind of influencing the way you approach decisions around P &L, growth strategies, and day-to-day operations there?

Amy Hom (27:04)
The hard, so one of the things I will say is that if you can’t teach something back, don’t expect somebody to tell you, but go challenge yourself. And so during COVID, I decided I would take some Harvard business classes and I took the Harvard business of finance one. And for anybody that’s taken it, they know that A, it opens your world up to understand, of connecting from people all over the world, which I thought was pretty wild and pretty cool.

Secondly, it’s giving you real life scenarios that were pretty cool that you had to figure out and you’re working with other people and you’ve got homework assignments and all these things. But ⁓ my mentors would tell me that my finance was strong, my understanding of it, and I was good. And then I took that course and I was like, OK, I’m not as far off as I thought. And I think it gave me a little bit more confidence in what I did know. ⁓

But I like a good challenge and I was trying to do that certificate while I was in COVID and my husband’s just like, you gotta slow it down. Because I would come home and I’m like, we gotta do homework. And he’s like, no, no, no, there’s no we. You signed up for the course. You need to go figure it out. But ⁓ I think it helped a lot because it helped with confidence. ⁓ The people that I went to, my brother-in-law was a…

Anthony Codispoti (28:14)
Hahaha

Amy Hom (28:27)
CEO of GMO, which is like an international firm. And he was like, I’ve never even heard of half this stuff. And so I was like, okay, cool. I’m gonna figure this out. So when I did, we had this big party online with everybody I knew, because I was like, we got it done, because it was a community of people helping me. But it was fun. I do think sometimes doing some skillset learning outside of the business.

is really, really healthy because you understand other businesses, not just the one you’re in. And so, and if you can’t teach something back, don’t put it on your leader, put it on yourself and figure out how you’re going to go take care of it and learn it and do it. So that would be my two cents.

Anthony Codispoti (29:08)
It sounds like

the other people in this community that were also taking the course are probably in different industries, right? And so there is sort of that cross learning that takes place, like how they view some.

Amy Hom (29:14)
⁓ all different industries,

all different industries, different cultures, different languages. ⁓ It’s pretty cool that Harvard does that. But I loved every minute of it, and I’m going to sign up for another one soon. But it’s a cool little thing. mean, gosh, there so many courses like that with so many different schools. So yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (29:36)
What is it that you want to learn next? Or affirm your learning zone next.

Amy Hom (29:41)
I don’t think there’s ever enough learning on organizational leadership. I think I’ve got a good gist, but I wouldn’t mind learning how other organizations do it. I’ve been in the restaurant sector most of my career, if not all. So, you know, because a lot of it is transferable, whether you’re running a university or you’re running a restaurant business or you’re running, you know, grocery business, all the things, ⁓ all of them carry different margins. But

But how do you keep doing things like that so that you’re understanding you can help your organization in a different way that maybe you would not have had you not learned those tools and skill sets? So I think everybody should be pushing themselves a little bit. Some people think they’re at capacity and they’re good. And I respect that. ⁓ But in my case, and for people that are at those executive levels, I think a lot of them push themselves. Whether they’re listening to podcasts, where we share all books we’re reading.

how do we spend more time together as execs and learning what we’re doing and sharing and trading ideas? And so not just sitting in an organization and doing that work, but you actually make the organization you’re in better if you kind of put yourself out there in that way. I don’t know. Anthony, are you thinking about picking anything up?

Anthony Codispoti (30:59)
wow. I love, I love being put on the spot like that. it’s not often that I get asked the questions here. ⁓ you know, I have thought about, ⁓ taking some courses or just trying to find like a mentor to learn from in terms of running a better podcast. Are there more thoughtful ways to sort of structure the questions that I asked to help bring out, a better story. And then in sort of my day job.

Amy Hom (31:16)
Mmm.

Anthony Codispoti (31:27)
I have worked with a sales coach to kind of help me be able to communicate ideas better and to better understand the different types of people that I’m interacting with and better ways to communicate with them. yeah, like I’m 100 % with you. Like, you know, and I’ve got two young boys, they’re nine and 11. And I remember a little bit of what sort of my mindset was then because it was that way not too long ago, which was

Amy Hom (31:40)
Yeah.

Hmm.

you

Anthony Codispoti (31:55)
At some point, I’m going to get to a point where I know everything, or I know everything that I need to know at least. ⁓ I can’t wait till I’m done with this grade or this test, or I can’t wait until I graduate from junior high or high school or college, and then I can stop with all this homework stuff. And I try to tell them the same sort of thing that I remind myself of, which is if you’re doing it correctly, you never stop learning. I think when you stop, I.

Amy Hom (32:00)
Mm-hmm.

It’s the growth mindset. It’s a growth

mindset at all ages. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (32:25)
Yeah, I think when you’re doing it right, you’re learning up until the very end. think when you, this is a theory and check back with me in a few decades, hopefully when I’m closer to the end of my life and see if I’ve changed that. But my suspicion is that once you get to that point where you’re no longer interested in learning new things, taking on new challenges, that’s when a big decline really starts to take place.

Amy Hom (32:33)
Hahaha!

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree. It’s the growth mindset versus the closed mindset. And I think that that’s where you see leaders excel and others stay stagnant for sure. Or that they think they’re owed something rather than earned. And gosh, when we were nine or 11 or 18 or 21 or 25, Lord knows we thought we knew everything. And then as you get older, you’re like, I don’t know a lot. There’s a lot I need to learn. And it shifts. It completely shifts. So it’s kind of funny how how that works.

Anthony Codispoti (32:58)
Mmm.

Yeah. If I were this wise when I was 20, wow, look out.

Amy Hom (33:15)
in people’s lives and ages.

Man, I’m telling you, I wish I knew now. Yeah, but that’s part of learning and growing the journey.

Anthony Codispoti (33:26)
That’s

the arc of life. So Amy, I want to hear about you guys being recognized as having North America’s best organic wine list. How did that come about?

Amy Hom (33:29)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

I think that that has just been many, many years and hard work in the making. Emily Nevin and Gretchen Thomas, run the beverage program and it is, they do a lot of homework. They work with very closely with Spanish winemakers and their families ⁓ and outside of Spain. And so we make sure that we’ve got healthy wines if people want it, that we’re following all the processes of

of organic and dynium, all the things. And so we’ve got this extraordinary wine list where you can come in and get a decent bottle for next to, know, if you just kind of want to come in on a Monday night and have a bottle or you can come in and celebrate something really cool and pay, you know, spend a little bit more, but they’ve, they’ve just, we have wine flights so people can taste and see what they want to want to indulge in. But we also have amazing non-alcoholic wines that are super delicious and great cocktails and mocktails. So.

But Emily Nevin and Gretchen, Gretchen’s been with us over, shoot, I think 18 years. so keeping that leadership in place and making sure that we’ve got the people that are the decision rights on those. And she’s master of all wines. Whenever I go to dinner with her, I love it because she’ll pick out the best wine on the menu at a great value. And we want to make sure people come in for great value, that they don’t.

They can come in for an upscale experience, but get great value on yummy tapas and a great bottle of wine. And we’ve really never really raised the prices on our menus. And so we want to make sure people can afford it they can come out as much as they want. But yeah, the wine list has been, that’s been a passion project, I think, for the beverage team for 20, 30 years, honestly. It’s been a pretty cool vision that they’ve put into place there.

Anthony Codispoti (35:29)
Now I’m curious about the non-alcoholic wines because I’ve tried non-alcoholic tequila and bourbon and I think another whiskey or a scotch and not only do they know they were terrible they tasted nothing like the real thing and so that’s my question about a non-alcoholic wine so they actually taste like wine do they taste good? Yeah?

Amy Hom (35:41)
Did you like them? ⁓

They do, they do

taste good. I would tell you they didn’t, I would say don’t try it, I’m very honest. But I think the non-alcoholic wines are very tasty. I I drink them when I go into the restaurants. ⁓ You feel like you’re part of the party without ⁓ feeling like you have to give anything up. And the wines are delicious and very crisp.

Anthony Codispoti (36:12)
⁓ fascinating. Okay. Yes, when are you coming to Ohio?

Amy Hom (36:13)
You’ll have to come and try it, Anthony.

I’m not saying we haven’t looked at Ohio, but I can’t give away our secrets.

Anthony Codispoti (36:19)
Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Well, I do a little bit of travel, so I’ll just have to keep that in mind and check your site to see if there’s any locations that overlap. ⁓ Amy, I want to hear about the non-profit part of this. What is that? What’s going on there?

Amy Hom (36:34)
Yeah.

So we’re part of the Gleam Network and I’m on the serve on the board of the Gleam Network, but we’ve got the LEAD program that is a part of that. And so it’s leadership exploration and development. We started it in 2019 and we were noticing that a lot more mom and pops were popping up and they can’t afford support departments within some of these organizations or restaurant groups. So we started throwing kind of happy hour and ⁓ we call mini conferences throughout the country.

The folks like myself or the director level, they can afford to go to a restaurant conference and experience something really cool and make connections. The emerging leaders, managers, GMs, directors, servers even, captains, back house, sous chefs, ⁓ kitchen managers, know, assistant kitchen, all the things, they don’t really get that. And I think some sex, we lost some sexiness in our business during COVID. so.

We started throwing these right before COVID ⁓ and we weren’t sure who was gonna show up. We were like, I was drinking wine one day with this woman named Karen Stutz. And I was like, we should just throw these little things and see if anybody comes and we’ll put these speakers up. And we were splitting wine and I don’t know how far it got, but the next morning I was like, we should actually go do that. And so now we have a huge group of volunteers. We have a large number of organizations supporting us that help support these. ⁓

events and we just had one in Dallas that was ⁓ every time we do it we try to do one a quarter or three times a year but the ⁓ tickets sell out and we sell them for nucks to nothing because if they can’t if the team member can’t afford it we allow them to come on their own but we have open bar ⁓ but they get access to top leaders in the industry from

Emily Williams Knight, who’s the CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, is a huge supporter. She comes and teaches them on grit. ⁓ We have Jack Gibbons, who is the CEO of Front Burner Society. He comes and says, I was a server that made it to CEO. And I think there’s this thing in the industry right now that thinks that you have to go do all these things to become a Jack Gibbons or all these things to become an Emily Williams Knight or an Anthony. ⁓ But you don’t.

You can follow your passion, get some mentors, do whatever you need to do to get there. It really does come down to the grit. Like, are you willing to kind of do whatever it takes that nobody else is willing to do to get there? And so we go through and people are, it’s so cool because it fills your bucket when people are taking notes and they’re writing feverishly and then they go back and then they’ll send me a memo or, you know, I’ve seen some people that were managers that are now directors since we started the program and we do mentoring out of it. That’s been super cool. So.

We started this and more and more organizations are leaning on us to help ⁓ mentor and help some of their internal promotes. And we’ve had a lot of internal promotes from this ⁓ organization. So really proud of the work we’re doing. That won’t stop. That’s just a passion project behind the scenes.

Anthony Codispoti (39:37)
Uh, so most of the content that’s being shared at these, I don’t know what you call them, meetings, conferences, many conferences. It’s a lot of mindset. It’s not like, um, I don’t know here. It’s not like here’s how to hold the tray or like, like better sort of like coaching on the skills. It’s more leadership and mindset.

Amy Hom (39:43)
Mini conferences, yeah.

leadership.

Yeah, we talk about why financials are important and for you to understand them if you want to get promoted in the workforce, right? How do you learn a P &L? Why does it matter? Why do the details matter in the work? How the input of the shifts run versus what a lot of people just talk about the P &L, nobody cares. Like it’s really the input. How do you bring energy as a leader? How do you lead with a growth mindset like we talked about before? all of those things. ⁓ And then we talk about

personal stories like you’re doing and what’s going to be their story they’re going to tell. And at the end of the day, at your 80th birthday party, what are people going to say about you, Anthony, when you’re standing up in front of the room? Are they going to talk about your P &LU, the numbers you got, or are they going to talk about how inspired they were to work for you? And I think that that’s where we have those conversations with them and remind them of their purpose and why they’re in the industry. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (40:51)
That’s really cool. And where does the funding

for this come from?

Amy Hom (40:55)
We have amazing brands. We’ve got branded hospitality. We’ve got ⁓ Sochati and Jimmy. We’ve got Wow Bow with Jeff Alexander. We’ve got Greg Majewski from Craveworthy Barons. We’ve got the Texas Restaurant Association that supports us with Emily and Joe and the team there. I mean, the PepsiCo with Alison Rook.

She helps us a lot with the refreshments. It’s just, it literally is a community now that has, is putting these things on with all the volunteers we have. It’s pretty wild. It’s been very cool to watch it transition and grow.

Anthony Codispoti (41:29)
And there’s a podcast that goes along with this.

Amy Hom (41:31)
There’s a podcast for emerging leaders if you want to learn a certain skill set. So if you want to learn about grit, we had Emily on. We just had Phil Crawford on, who is the CTO of many, many brands, some of the largest brands in the nation, came on and just talked about leadership and empathy and how that all works with IT. We’ve had PR. We just had Jamie Sharpe on with Frontburner Society, who runs her PR program. And what’s your personal brand?

Who are you? What do people say about you when you’re not in the room and how do you kind of market yourself? So all of those things, we make them 20 minutes so they can listen to them on the way to work. It’s not for your normal listener of a podcast, but it is for those up and coming in the industry. And they just kind of chime in. We’ve gotten really good feedback and the audience is growing for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (42:21)
where can people find the podcast as well as more information about Lean?

Amy Hom (42:26)
It’s on Spotify, it’s on our lead LinkedIn, there’s a lead Facebook, there’s a lead Instagram, all of it is posted there. There’s gleam.com that you can jump on and jump on there as well. ⁓ And then we continue to post them on LinkedIn and other forums as they come out as well. we’ll say, we’re releasing one at 2 p.m. the next Tuesday, and then you see one pop out. So there’s two people that put those on along with myself. So that’s Matt Rolfe, and he’s a

Development Speaker, Leadership Speaker, and then Kelly Grogan who runs CRUMS, which is a catering organization, but she’s a badass in her own right. there’s just a bunch of us that kind of like rally to make this happen. And if we change one person’s lives, then I think it’s worth it. So it’s been good. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (43:12)
That sounds like lot of fun. Very rewarding, I imagine.

And I see at Barcelona Wine Bar that you’ve added some new board members, Katie Grissom and Amanda Hesser. What kind of fresh perspective or ideas do you think that they’re going to bring to the brand?

Amy Hom (43:22)
Yes.

Well, those two badasses separate themselves apart. Katie is end all, be all. I don’t know if anybody’s done any homework on her, but holy cow, she’s honestly both of them. One does real estate, one has a history of marketing, and they work very closely with our teams, myself. If I have a question about something going on in a lease, Katie’s very easy to help present to.

but they’re both always available and very kind. And I think that they’ve elevated the board. We have Andy, who is the founder of Barcelona on our board as well, who keeps us in check and makes sure that we’re still always doing that authentic, you know, back to Barcelona ways. And then we’ve got amazing board members with Andrew and Hutch and some of those other guys. But the ladies that joined us recently have really elevated us. So very lucky to have them both.

Anthony Codispoti (44:21)
I see that you’re also on a number of boards as well, including the Food Tech Advisory Board at Lunchbox. And James Walker, the CEO of Lunchbox, was a recent guest on the show. Why was that? I agree. Why was it important for you to get involved in that?

Amy Hom (44:33)
Great, guys.

Gosh, Lunchbox, I think was two, maybe two and a half years ago when we started that advisory council and board. Nabil, who was the CEO at the time, and I know is still very heavily into the work there, I just talked to him yesterday, but he put together a pretty cool board and he wanted to know what the end users wanted while he was building the plane. And I think that that’s really critical with tech companies is don’t just build a product you think works, build a product that

everyone in the industry wants to use. And then when you have people and you’re taking that feedback and doing it, I think there’s a couple of them. know, KJ with rescue that, that, ⁓ very big learners and interested in how things work and getting under the hood. are also people that, you know, build content and tech, but they haven’t built it. They think that they know, but I think getting some, some smeas as I call them, smudge subject matter experts in the room definitely will help your product. ⁓ and so there’s a lot of us that kind of all.

help and deliver ⁓ on feedback for whether it’s quarterly meetings, if it’s a day to day, hey, can you check this out? Does this make sense checking in on something? But Nabil started that ⁓ and I think he really utilized that. And I think Lunchbox is where it is today because of that council and the board.

Anthony Codispoti (45:56)
Hmm. You’re on several other boards as well. I wish your time is limited being the CEO of large and growing restaurant slash wine bar. Why set aside time for these other organizations? Why is that important to you?

Amy Hom (46:12)
Most of them are startups and I think it’s important to give back. ⁓ I don’t think anybody would disagree with that. And I also know that we need some of these tools in the industry for us to simplify our work so that we can all get better and drive better results and save money or develop systems. it’s not, ⁓ you have to make the time and you have to be intentional about it. And you also have to know your priorities. Barcelona is my priority.

And if it’s a late night session with an organization or like women in restaurant leadership is very near and dear to my heart to see some women and emerging leaders ⁓ excel those things. And I think Adam’s very supportive with the work too. You have to have a supportive board and a supportive leadership group that knows that that’s just as important sometimes as running the business. So it’s important. Are you doing any of that work yourself, Anthony? I think you are.

Anthony Codispoti (47:05)
What kind of work specifically?

Amy Hom (47:06)
the advisory, helping others along, bringing the others that want to do podcasts, all the things.

Anthony Codispoti (47:11)
In probably a less formal way, I’m not on any boards, but I certainly do have some folks that come to me to ask questions about, you’ve done this in the past, whether it’s something that I’m doing now or one of the businesses that I’ve owned in the past. And hey, can you give some advice or would you meet with this person? And yeah, I’m always happy to do that. It’s funny because, and I wonder if this still strikes you because I’ve talked about this with a lot of my guests, is

Amy Hom (47:14)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (47:41)
I get hit with this idea of imposter syndrome. Like really? Like you want me to talk? Right. Like ⁓ and they’re like, well, and they start listing off, you know, my credentials and my achievements to me. And I, you know, and I blush a little bit. I’m okay, sure. I’m happy to do that. But I recently had ⁓ another guest on the show, Brad Feld, who’s just come out with a book called Give First.

Amy Hom (47:44)
Hmm. Why are you asking me?

Mmm. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (48:07)
And

⁓ it’s sort of, it’s similar to the idea of pay it forward. ⁓ give first by Brad Feld. Yeah. And ⁓ pay it forward, I think the idea is more like, hey, at one point somebody helped you out. So now kind of do the same. And his philosophy is more, you don’t have to have had this past history of somebody helping you. Like just take the first step and provide value.

Amy Hom (48:13)
I got to write that down so I can read that give first. OK. OK.

give it back.

Anthony Codispoti (48:35)
At some point, somewhere, maybe not from that person or that giving situation, it will come back to you. You just don’t know from who or when or how. And I had the chance to read the book lately, or more recently, and I’m like, yes, that puts into words kind of what I feel like I’m trying to do. ⁓ So yeah, I’m a big proponent of what you’re talking about.

Amy Hom (48:55)
Mm-hmm.

It sounds like you’re

doing it.

Anthony Codispoti (49:01)
I am, I guess I don’t have anything to list on my LinkedIn page in terms of advisory board for this or that, but when I get the opportunity to do so, I take advantage of it.

Amy Hom (49:10)
I think you can put

that on there. So it’s great. And people call and I know the imposter syndrome you’re talking about, because you’re always just like, why are people asking me that? I think it’s because they see that you’ve had the experience of it. And the other thing I’ve watched people on advisory boards give feedback to the owner or the board or whatnot, whoever’s in the room, and sometimes they don’t take it. And I think that that’s fair, too. It’s just a matter of giving your best advice or addressing whatever you can.

it’s just like a team member or someone you’re coaching. It’s up to them to take it. And sometimes you may not understand the work. So I think also listening and asking a lot of questions is important in those roles. But I think it’s cool that people are calling you. I would call you if I was doing a podcast or I was doing the sales or some of the work that you’ve done, because you only know what you know. And unless you actually reach out and you, know, what’s worse, somebody’s going to say no. I don’t think I’ve ever said no. So and I’m sure you haven’t either. And so.

our job really is to help each other along. We’re people first and we all want everyone to get to the winning line together. So I think that’s cool.

Anthony Codispoti (50:16)
You know, and I like what you just gave voice to there, this idea about, you offer the advice and then what they do with it from there, you kind of have to let go of expectations. And that’s something that I struggled with in the past. It’s like somebody comes to me for advice and I’m like, ⁓ I have been through this exact thing. Here are the four things you should do and the eight things that you should not do. And then, you know, you check in with them a couple of months later and you know, they haven’t sort of.

Amy Hom (50:27)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (50:44)
Heeded the advice that I gave them and it’s frustrating and it’s like why come to me it but I think that’s a great reminder is You know you offer the advice and then you don’t understand all the things that are at play behind the scenes for them So you kind of have to let go of the expectation of you know, what direction they may choose

Amy Hom (50:50)
huh.

Yeah,

yeah. And I think understanding your role for that, it’s not to solve their problems. It’s there to be a listening board and a sounding board and to give the feedback. But at the end of the day, they have you have your day job and you’re helping. But they may not sometimes you may not understand the product. mean, there’s a million things, but ⁓ I think the fact that in even so, it’s still feedback you’ve given that’s in the back of their head. Right. And so I think it’s.

Anthony Codispoti (51:06)
Mm.

Amy Hom (51:27)
It’s part of it and sometimes being on the councils or the boards when you’re listening to other board members, I’ve learned a lot from them as well where I’ll hang up the phone, they have nothing to do with that product. But I’ll call and say, okay, well tell me how you led through this again because it’s super interesting to the work I’m doing. So you’re just kind of connecting in the industry that way. So many positive things that come out of that stuff.

Anthony Codispoti (51:41)
Yeah.

I love that.

Yeah, and you know, as you’re saying that reminded me of another point, excuse me, that Brad makes in his book is that oftentimes sort of the mentor can and should become the mentee. Like the other, the person that you’ve been helping now is going to get to a point where they understand things that you don’t and you should be ready to kind of receive that back from them.

Amy Hom (52:08)
Mm hmm. 100 % 100 %

Anthony Codispoti (52:11)
So let’s shift gears for a moment, Amy. I’d be really curious to hear about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life. Maybe it’s personal, maybe it’s professional, maybe the two kind of intertwine. What was that? How’d you get through it? What’d you learn?

Amy Hom (52:24)
I think that there’s a lot of learnings along the way. think it’s hard to not take things personally. Things will keep you up at night and your gremlin or your inner critic is going off. so trying to manage that ⁓ can be challenging at times more than others. the decision making and leadership roles is not.

is not always fun and leaving is not always fun. will say that you have to make some tough decisions and you have to trust your gut. And most of this is you’ve got the data, you’re making the decision. ⁓ And sometimes people don’t love the decision you’re making, you have to explain the why. ⁓ But it’s kind of, I’ve gotten to a place in my career, I don’t know if anybody’s heard of the Mel Robbins, the let them theory.

I think I’ve had to lean more into that where if they’re in that headspace, I have to let them be in that headspace. ⁓ And that’s happened when ⁓ somebody’s not agreeing with you, pushing back, ⁓ not aligned in your morals and your principles when you’re leading an organization. And I think that there are some tough conversations that have to happen. so…

I think a lot of times right now leaders back away from those tough conversations and you may lose some good talent in an organization from it or decent talent. But at end of the day, I used to take that personally and I used to have some tough days where now it’s you take it personally and you want to say, what could I have done differently? Some of it is on them, though. And I think it’s it’s that let them of they’re in that headspace. You’ve been there for them. You’ve done everything you possibly can. Could you have done some things differently? Yes, I think it’s good to to reflect. But

you know, or make tough decisions on leaving a company ⁓ when it’s toxic for you. ⁓ And having those tough conversations with the leadership and saying, listen, don’t agree with ⁓ the culture and the core values of this of this brand and the way that you kind of sold it to me, because you never really know when you’re taking a job what it is day to day until you’re actually in the job and you’re under the hood. And I think being true to yourself and saying these values are not my values.

and sometimes taking a leap of faith and knowing that you have to take another role.

and not having a job when you should have had a job before ending that job. That’s happened to me twice. And I look back and I’m like, I still would not have been able to stay in that job and put my name on that brand knowing what I know of what the core values are and how they weren’t aligning with mine. I think those are tough decisions because people say for rainy day, make sure you got money. So if you have to make that call, you do. And if you’ve got a job.

Anthony Codispoti (55:00)
you

Amy Hom (55:15)
⁓ We did a podcast recently with Helen Lau, who is a big executive recruiter in the industry. And she said, a lot of people right now think the grass is greener on the other side. And it’s not, you know, and she’ll say, why are you coming to me with your resume? ⁓ What are you looking for? What are you looking to get out of it? And so I think asking and me doing that along the way, I may have had some different reflection moments and taken some different roles and done my homework a little bit more before I took a role.

⁓ I was very careful in Barcelona Wine Bar, making sure their values, the CEO, the board. I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me. It’s all the things, talking to a lot of people in the industry, because I didn’t want to make another bad move, right? And so ⁓ sometimes it happens though, and I think it’s okay, and you just got to forgive yourself. So that’s a long answer to that very quick question, but there’s a lot of learnings along the way, and I think all of that encompasses.

you know, knowing who you are, being authentic to you, you being true to yourself and making sure your values align with what that company is and that leadership is in the world. You know, we only get so many days, so where are you going to spend it? And I think that’s important for me.

Anthony Codispoti (56:26)
Yeah, and that transition of being without a job, you know, if for folks who maybe haven’t been in that position before, that’s really stressful, right? Your life is sort of set up for a certain cash flow. You’re accustomed to this. You know what’s going on. Even if you don’t love what your role is or the group that you’re working with, ⁓ there’s still sort of that comfort in that financial consistency. so having the

Amy Hom (56:36)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (56:54)
strength, the courage to say, I’m going to set that comfort and that stability aside and I need to do what’s kind of right for me at my core. That’s difficult. ⁓ And I think what’s really cool about your story is that you use that as an opportunity to really reflect and say, OK, you you you had a situation that allowed you to sort of compare and contrast what works for you and what doesn’t.

Amy Hom (57:05)
It is difficult.

Anthony Codispoti (57:23)
And so now moving forward for future opportunities, including this one at Barcelona Wine Bar, you’re like, okay, here are my non-negotiables. Here’s sort of the boxes that I need to check before I’m going to be comfortable moving forward in a new role.

Amy Hom (57:38)
Mm-hmm. And I left a previous role and I started my own company for a while. And when I was talking to Adam, it was really funny because he said, well, we’re not really looking to hire right away. And I go, well, I’m not looking to start right away. And then we kind of got to a point where he was like, well, how much longer are we going to do this dance? And I was like, well, I didn’t know we were towards the end of the dance yet. It was just really funny. so it’s some.

I think if you’ve got really strong support around you, you can make some tough decisions that protect your mental space and your wellbeing and all the things. Because I am very passionate about people and ⁓ I love the organization and I’ve loved the organizations I’ve worked with. It all comes down to leadership and how people show up for one another. And that’s important to me. so, ⁓ you know, like you said, it can be your core and it is very…

It is, you put yourself in a very vulnerable spot when you, I always tell people don’t quit your job without having a job, but I’ve done it twice myself. But again, you got to make sure you’re, make sure you’ve got money saved up for a rainy day in case that day comes, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (58:39)
Do as I say, not as I do.

Yeah,

yeah. Okay, so putting humility aside, Amy, what is your superpower?

Amy Hom (58:57)
I’m not good at that one. ⁓ I would say my superpower is giving clarity on where people want to go and giving them a roadmap to get there. ⁓ If they so choose, choose to with with support, depending what role they’re in. ⁓ I think I’m I’m people first. ⁓ And so making sure that their hearts and minds are good before.

And sometimes you got to give people grace. Somebody may be going through something personal on the team and we all need to pitch in and help them out. ⁓ And also visionary. Here’s the end goal. This is where we want to be. This is what winning looks like. And here’s a strategy to get there. And we build it together. I’m also a big leadership styles leader. You know, the five dysfunctions of a team, but also I don’t really make decisions for the team. They decide and then we move a lot faster because they’ve made that decision.

⁓ then I may have the goal in mind and there’s different ways of getting there, but I’ll say, here’s what winning looks like, here’s the goal. How do we want to get there? And then we have a healthy conversation around that. But, you know, it’s the pyramid of building trust and healthy conflict. And then the top of that pyramid is results and also making sure everybody’s having fun along the way. So ⁓ I like to be cheesy and whether it’s hat day or, you know, ⁓ sending out funny…

isms from Instagram, you know, it’s just it’s we all work hard. So why not have fun doing it? So I don’t know that there’s a specific superpower. I think it’s just being in the people business overall and getting results. Listen, no one’s hired if they get shitty results. So I would say most of the places I’ve been, we’ve gotten pretty, pretty damn good results overall. Getting getting. Yeah, the thing’s done in a fun way.

Anthony Codispoti (1:00:32)
I like that.

getting stuff done.

Yeah.

How about some daily habits or rituals that either get you started or keep you on track as you’re going?

Amy Hom (1:00:54)
I was just talking about this with our women and we have a few emerging, I’m sorry, employee resource groups. And I was on the phone with the women in leadership one this morning. We have a wellness one, we’ve got an LGBTQIA plus one, we’ve got all the things. And I was on the phone with ladies this morning and I use, we’re sharing some tools like that. And I use the insight timer every day, every night. For those of you who don’t know, it’s kind of a, I don’t think, I’m not a big meditator per se, but this morning, every morning I try to start off with gratitude.

So many things crazy in the world. My arms and legs work. I’m in a good spot. get to, like I said, go to a party every day and hang out with really cool people and learn. And then I end my night with, you know, putting my pillow on my head and saying, what could I have done better? But also, what did I do well today? And making sure I’m being fair and true to myself. And some days are bad days, and that’s okay. I’m not…

⁓ beyond having a bad day. And I tell my team, like sometimes somebody will come and say, how are you? I’m like, Adam McCall say, I’m maybe like a two today. I’ve had a moment. So ⁓ I think just the insight timer is a big thing. Podcasts. I love the inspired stories podcast. There’s other podcasts that I love. Branded makes me laugh. There’s there’s all the things that I think everybody’s doing, but there’s also stillness. So.

I do believe in sometimes walking out of a restaurant or at home with kids or something, I’m just going for a walk and I don’t need my phone. I just need to take a walk and have some peace because the world is going fast. There’s a lot of noise and we do talk about what the leadership team is, how do we block the noise for the team so they can execute? And I need to block the noise sometimes for myself to execute. it’s one, it can be a really long journey. It can be a short journey for some.

But I think everybody’s got different things they do in the day that works for them and those that don’t, ⁓ I think it’s good to just start somewhere. And so I would advise taking long walks or and with no technology and all the things. Some people want to throw out all this tech that they do and all these things, but it’s not good for the brain all the time.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:07)
I love a couple of things in particular that you said there sort of taking time for a quiet mind. It’s a great reminder for me, especially, you know, with this, you know, fantastic computer that’s attached to my hip all the time. If my brain finds just a moment of stillness slash boredom, what do I do? Like I got the dopamine thing, like I’m picking this. And so I love that you take those walks and you just leave the phone.

Amy Hom (1:03:34)
And you know, our greatest moments are in the shower. I mean, I get out of the shower and I’m like, ping, ping, ping, you know? And so it’s funny when you actually do get a moment by yourself and there is no technology. Some people bring it in the shower, but like, can you just kind of clear your mind a little bit and think through things and make more sound decisions? It’s hard. There’s always a million things coming at you.

Anthony Codispoti (1:03:55)
Here’s the other thing that I love that you said is the part about gratitude. ⁓ And so this is something I regularly remind myself of, including last night, my wife and I were looking at our kids’ upcoming school calendar. So all the days that they have off, all the early dismissals that they have, and my wife is also in a school system, but a different district. So she has different days off. And she’s…

Amy Hom (1:04:08)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:22)
her schedule is really rigid. Like she doesn’t have a whole lot of time during the school year that she can take days off. With me running my own businesses, I have more flexibility. But I like what I do. I want to show up and I want to do it every day. And I want to have my schedule is open to do as many podcasts as possible. And so as we’re going through the schedule and it’s like, OK, Anthony, can you do this day? Yes, I can. Yes, I can.

And I could hear my voice, ugh. And so as I’m doing that, I said, and I love my kids, and I welcome the opportunity to be able to be home with them and support them, and I love that I have the flexibility in my schedule to do that. Even though there’s part of my brain that didn’t 100 % agree with that, I need to say the words, and I need for it to come from my heart a little bit. And it helps. I think that kind of thing helps.

Amy Hom (1:05:17)
I

heard a motivational speaker speak. God, it had been like 20 years ago. And he kept saying, I get to, I get to, I get to. And my husband was in that meeting as well. And so sometimes I’ll complain and he’ll say, but you get to do that. You get to get on an airplane where other people don’t. And you get to.

Anthony Codispoti (1:05:27)
Yes.

Amy Hom (1:05:37)
travel and you know, and sometimes it can go so negative so quickly in your head, but he’s, but it, it’s, true. And as soon as you start telling yourself, get, ⁓ I was, I was talking about this with, with Matt, one of the directors I was raving about earlier. And he, we were talking about, I was reading a book on psychology on the psyche of the brain on how negative negativity transpires in your brain. And once you start that, it’s really hard for your brain to start a pull out of it.

Anthony Codispoti (1:06:04)
you

Amy Hom (1:06:05)
And when you wake up in the morning and you’re doing gratitude and Matt’s one of those guys that like brings the energy, brings the party, fun loving, know, everybody wants to work from kind of thing. And you think about that. And ⁓ we were talking about the difference between how do you show up like that versus we, you know, there’s other leaders in any organization that they don’t get to, they have to. And I think it’s a mindset. And so ⁓ that’s important. And I think we keep.

Anthony Codispoti (1:06:28)
Yeah.

Amy Hom (1:06:33)
that’s that people piece that we need to keep leaning in on. You get to be home with the kids or you get to do all this stuff for your wife. Because the minute that’s taken away, you miss it. And in the moment, you’re thinking you have to. And I think that that’s very different mindset. So we’re still working on training all of our minds to do that, but 100%. But it is always a good reminder.

Anthony Codispoti (1:06:56)
I love that and that’s something I do remind myself of and I’ve tried to teach that to my kids as well and they get really frustrated with it.

Amy Hom (1:07:05)
I think you

tell them now and then it shows up later. Like my daughter, ⁓ dear. And then all of sudden, like in her 20s, was, she sent me, we had to throw my husband a birthday party recently and she’s not this person. She’s turning 23 next month. And she sent me a gratitude message. Like, thank you so much for throwing dad’s party. All my friends had the best time, but when I was like, who is this?

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:09)
That’s what I’m hoping.

Amy Hom (1:07:30)
Who are you? So yeah, they may not take it now, but I think it does show up later. So it’ll happen, Anthony. Give it some time. So you got some more years under your belt before it comes. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:36)
that those are the words of encouragement I needed to hear Amy thank you because I

just use that phrase with them yesterday that sometimes I like to bring them to my office on the weekends and I set them up with something like even during the summer like something to read like a math like some kind of like you know thinking work and they’re like do we have to and I’m like will you get to and they’re like no no no no do we have to go I’m like will you get to

Amy Hom (1:07:55)
Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:03)
And then I finally have to use their verb. Yes, you have to go.

Amy Hom (1:08:07)
Yeah,

yeah, I think my kids are starting to see that now, but now she’s in HR and she gets it. But man, there’s some crazy years in the middle there.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:16)
Yeah,

that’s where I am. So thank you. Thank you for the words of encouragement. Yes. Yes. I’ve just got one more question for you, Amy. But before I ask, I want to do two things. First of all, everybody listening today, pause just for a moment. Open up your favorite podcast app. If you’re not already listening on it, hit the follow subscribe button. I want you to continue to get more great interviews like we’ve had today with Amy from Barcelona.

Amy Hom (1:08:18)
Those are the fun years. Yes, it’ll happen. It’ll happen.

Anthony Codispoti (1:08:41)
Amy, I also want to let people know either the best way to get in touch with you directly to follow your story or that of the brands. What would that be?

Amy Hom (1:08:49)
We’ve got our website of course, BarcelonaWineBar.com. We’ve got, I’ve got my LinkedIn of course and always my email address is ahom, H-O-M is in Monday, at BarcelonaWineBar.com if anybody ever wants to reach out ⁓ for anything ever. Even if somebody just wants to come in for a glass of wine, we’re happy to help and make sure they’re shown a good time.

Anthony Codispoti (1:09:11)
I love that. Very generous. We’re going to make sure we put those links in the show notes for everybody. So last question for you, Amy. A year from now, you and I reconnect and you are super excited because you’re celebrating something. What is that thing that you’re celebrating one year from now?

Amy Hom (1:09:26)
The team and their accomplishments, if we can continue to show and stay on trend of where we are now, ⁓ celebrating them as people and as leaders ⁓ in a year from now will be an extraordinary moment, ⁓ whether it’s with the brand Corsica or with Barcelona or everybody as a team, and that everybody’s had fun along the way. ⁓

I mean, that’s really it and the impact you’ve made and they’ve made on their teams. I think it’s an incredible opportunity that we get to work in the industry we’re in. So yeah, and I don’t want to talk about P &Ls at my 80th birthday, which doesn’t seem like it’s that far away. ⁓ But the journey that you’ve had to get there and how you’ve helped others, whether it’s giving time or mentoring like you’re doing and helping others. ⁓

That’s really what life’s about. So how do you bring others along?

Anthony Codispoti (1:10:22)
And a follow-up question to that, because I neglected to ask about the new concept that you’ve got one location, a second one coming. Tell us, the name is Corsica, and what’s the concept?

Amy Hom (1:10:32)
It’s Corsica from the island of Corsica.

It’s a tapas, it’s sexy as well. Mediterranean, Italian, cacio de pepe, small tapas, de bolognese. ⁓ my gosh, the menu is just incredible. So I’m not gonna give away all the secrets. We’ve got the second opening in Ruston. Amazing wine list as well. Different wines. You can come in and try a sample right off the bat. So you’ve got something yummy in your hand and in your belly.

⁓ And again, great, amazing hospitality where you feel like ⁓ you came into a friends episode.

Anthony Codispoti (1:11:08)
I love it. Amy Ahm from Barcelona Wine Bar. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.

Amy Hom (1:11:14)
Thanks, Anthony. Thanks for having me.