Finding Your Place: William Albino on Career Transitions and Restaurant Management | Restaurants & Franchises Series

Anthony Codispoti: 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 Kodespode and today’s guest is William Albino. William is the general manager at Double Zero Restaurant, which is part of the Castellucci Hospitality Group, a family-owned collection of restaurants in the southeast. Their mission is passionately pursuing the perfect dining experience one guest at a time. They focus on sincere hospitality, attention to detail, and great food and service. Offering diverse culinary experiences, mainly in Italian and Basque cuisines, the restaurants provide high-quality ingredients and wonderful dining atmospheres. Now under William’s leadership, Double Zero has thrived in providing exceptional dining experiences.

Castellucci Hospitality Group CHG has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation and featured in publications like Southern Living and The New York Times for their outstanding restaurants. Williams has over five years of experience in educational and nonprofit settings. Before joining Castellucci Hospitality Group, he worked in management and community engagement, advocating for client success in hospitality and vocational training.

He holds a master’s degree in special education from Florida State University and a certification in project management from Emory University. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add 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 cash flow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. All right, back to our guest today, William Albino, General Manager of Double Zero. William, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today. Yeah, thank you for having me.

William Albino: Very thankful for this opportunity to kind of talk about a lot of things with you about my journey. So, appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti: Absolutely. Let’s get into it. Every story, inspiring story, has a beginning, but yours didn’t start out in hospitality. You came up from a much different field. Talk to me about that.

William Albino: Yeah, so I started off kind of different than you would think. I started off in education and that kind of started with my love for helping individuals with the special needs community. I kind of started off as an educator where I focused on life skills and job training skills for adults with developmental disabilities.

And this fashion kind of started when I started working at the YMCA for about, let’s say, three to four years when I was in high school, transitioned to my freshman year of college. I started working with kids with special needs and kind of seeing that I was really enjoying working with them and really catering to their needs. And after having a conversation with my parents, they actually encouraged me to kind of just go for my dream of working with children with special needs. And I kind of went to college to do that, had a great passion for it. To this day, I still have a great passion for it. There was nothing, there was something I couldn’t do in that because I just loved it, if that makes sense.

Anthony Codispoti: That sure does. And so how long, so you got a master’s from Florida State. How long did you actually operate as a special ed teacher before you decided on a transition?

William Albino: I was doing special ed teacher for about two to three years. I worked for a non-profit local to the area that was really focused on doing job training skills for people who had just either graduated high school or still in high school looking for what the next step was. So it was more kind of like a day program, essentially. It never worked for an actual school. It was more of a non-profit that specialized in day program kind of related skills.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. And so after two or three years, and I’m glad that you clarified that because my wife, she’s a speech therapist in a local school district, she works with a lot of special needs kids. So when I hear special education, I always think the younger bracket that she works with, which is like, preschool, kindergarten.

And of course, depending on what people’s needs are, that those needs go much later into adulthood. So that’s the population that you were serving, making this transition in high school into maybe the working world. So after operating as a special ed teacher for two or three years, what changed? Why was there a transition?

William Albino: I feel like I kind of got to the point where I just, I needed something new. I realized that there was not much career advancement opportunities for me to kind of excel in what I was doing.

You know, there was only so far that you can go. So for example, with this non-profit I was working for, it was just like you either, you were either the instructor or you go up to kind of like the management or executive director role. Those roles were already filled. And I didn’t think those roles are going to be open anytime soon because I mean, the executive director, she owned the company and you know, she was great at that. And it was kind of like her thing.

And then there was a program manager who’s been there for years and she’s not going to leave either. So I kind of felt I just needed something new. And I’m huge about career advancement in any field that I do. So even in education, if there was not an opportunity for me to grow, I kind of just felt stuck and I hate the feeling of feeling stuck. So I kind of was looking at other fields out there that could kind of make me grow as both professional and grow as a person. So that’s kind of what led me to hospitality, but it was also kind of an accident as well. Or I know it was an accident, but it was also something that I just had to do in a quick moment because I needed something.

Anthony Codispoti: And so how did you decide on working in hospitality and restaurants? So it was actually an accident.

William Albino: Well, is this happened during COVID? So when the pandemic hit, I was looking for other jobs because I had just left my previous company and I was kind of looking at other opportunities to grow. And this was all right when the pandemic was hitting.

This was like beginning 2020. And I was, in a way, I was desperate for a job. And so I had a friend who helped was said, Hey, I work at a restaurant. Yeah, I work here as a server assistant. You’re looking to hire another server assistant.

Are you willing to do this? And I said yes, because I needed a job because this was also the time when a lot of companies were not hiring. There was like the big hiring freeze. Again, pandemic. So I needed something. And so I got hired as a server assistant the week before the world shut down essentially when, Oh, wow.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So right at the beginning of March. Yep.

William Albino: March 2020. Right at the beginning of March, I got hired. And then I think a few days after I got hired, but everything shut down. So we had to all the restaurants that found everything had a freeze.

Anthony Codispoti: And so what happened then? You’re without a job again?

William Albino: Well, no, so I still they kept me on. And so even though, even though the restaurants were closed, like for in-house guests, the restaurants are still operating. You know, they were still doing all the to-go stuff, you know, there were still things to be done. And so they asked us to select, they asked all the employees who were working at the time who wanted to work, who wanted to come in and help with all the to-go stuff and everything. And I volunteered myself because I’m the type of person that I cannot stop working. I have to be doing something at all times.

So I volunteered myself. You know, there was very strict COVID protocols. You know, we had to go in more masks. We had to take a COVID test every single day before we went into work. I went to work gloves.

You know, there was very strict protocols for us to follow in order for us to stay open. And so I was doing that. You know, I was the person that was boxing up all the to-go food. I was the one that was helping prepping all the food, essentially. I was doing a variety of roles at that time when the restaurants were completely shut down.

Anthony Codispoti: So it’s interesting to me that, and I understand now what you mean when you say that you fell into it kind of accidentally, like you were just looking for something. You needed a job. You needed to be busy and productive.

You needed a paycheck. So, okay, the restaurant opportunity presented itself and boom, the world shuts down because of COVID. And so now, not only are you learning a new job, but you and everybody around you are learning how to operate in this new COVID world with all these different restrictions and guidelines. And so, you know, the stress of starting a new job on top of doing it, you know, at the very start of the pandemic, at what point during this process were you like, I really love what I’m doing here. This is something I think I could see myself staying and building a career in.

William Albino: It took me a while to figure that out, because immediately when I started in the restaurant during COVID, it was more so, I needed a job. I needed to be working. And I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, you know, what career I wanted to go. And I was still trying to figure that out. And so, as I was figuring that out, I was like, you know, I need to keep working.

I need to really just keep myself busy. But then there was a moment in the restaurants where I actually really started to enjoy it just because of the people that I was working with. So, about, I think it was around May or June of 2020, I can’t remember exactly. When the restaurants opened back up again, you know, when they lifted up all the COVID restrictions, we were able to allow people to come back in at a very limited capacity.

So, you know, still very strict COVID protocols, you know, table spacing, you can only allow like a certain amount of people in the dining room. And at that time, I was still technically a server assistant. So, I was really more so helping the kitchen with, you know, running food out of the kitchen, or helping servers bust their tables, water their tables, stuff like kind of things like that. But in that moment, I kind of enjoyed the interacting with people, both from a staff like staff perspective and from like guest perspective. So, I just enjoyed talking to people. And then I kind of realized at this moment, I was like, okay, maybe I can really see myself exploring a career in hospitality in some way or form.

Now, I didn’t know what that looked like at the time, but I was like, let me stick through this. So, I did that for a little bit, I was a server assistant for about maybe, I want to say six months. And then I kind of went up to my manager team, it’s like, I want to become a server.

And so, they trained me as a server. And serving is where I really enjoyed interacting with people. You know, that was the one thing about education that I enjoyed was, you know, interacting with people. Because I’m the type of person that has to really be talking to people, engaging, you know, I’m all about building relationships.

And so, as a server, I love that, you know, I was building a relationship with guests, you know, I had my regulars that would come in, they’ll like say, hey, can we sit with William, that made me feel good. And that made me realize, okay, maybe there’s something in this, still at the time, I didn’t know what that was. I don’t know if I was like, maybe serving is a, you know, a career for serving is a career for a lot of people and people really thrive in that. So, like, maybe this is kind of where I wanted to lead. So, I was still trying to figure out what hospitality was doing for me. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti: And this first job that you had in a restaurant, was it with double zero or one of the CHG restaurants? Or did that come about later?

William Albino: It was with CHG, it was at Cooks and Soldiers. Okay. That’s where I started. My first restaurant dot ever had no, not even like in high school or anything, have I worked in restaurants, you know, I’ve always worked in non-profit settings. I worked at, like the YMCA, like I mentioned, I used to work for a museum, I worked for a library, you know, all of these are like non-profit settings where I’m not dealing with food. So, I have no experience with like a serving or like, alcohol or beverage knowledge, none of that. I basically had to start for scratch. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So, when did the opportunity come about for you to take some kind of a management position?

William Albino: So, I, as I was serving, I was kind of looking at other kind of career options I was doing. And so, I stumbled upon a project management course through Emory. So, I was like, let me take this out because I was talking to, I was talking to kind of like a career kind of coach in a way to kind of see what my journey was going to be. And we kind of stumbled upon like a project management kind of role.

And I was like, okay, let me look at this. So, I started exploring project management. So, I did, I think it was like a six month course where I did, you know, online training for project management.

I got my certification. So, around this time, I was still working at the restaurant or server. And I was talking to one of the general manager at the time saying, I was doing like project management, you know, I was trying to see what my career would look like. She was the one that told me that in hospitality, they look for project managers, you know, they look for people to help open restaurants, you know, repairs and maintenance of buildings. And I never thought about it like that. I always thought like project management was, you know, either go to the tech industry or construction.

I never thought about doing at restaurants. And so, I was very intrigued by that. I was like, well, if I’m joining working in the hospitality right now because I like interacting with people, maybe there’s a career path for me with project management. So, she was the one that told me like, you should really talk to, you know, the kind of the corporate team and see like what that could look for you.

She told me like, they’ll probably want you to start off as like a dining room manager and then work your way up to project management. And I was like, let’s try it, you know, I’m enjoying serving. I’m enjoying talking to people. Let’s, let’s give it a shot. Let’s, I’m willing to have the conversation essentially.

Anthony Codispoti: It’s so interesting to me, William, that you started this project management course thinking that this is going to open up some doors for you outside of the restaurant industry, right? Yeah. And then this sort of, I don’t know, side conversation that happens. It’s like, oh no, we look for that kind of skill and that kind of experience here in the restaurant business. Exactly. And so, how it just kind of lined up like that seems sort of serendipitous.

William Albino: In a way, it kind of seemed like fate in a way because I was already thinking about how I was enjoying hospitality. And then this opportunity comes up. I was like, maybe it’s something I can consider. So it just felt like in the moment I had to give it a shot, even if it wasn’t for me. I want to at least still have the conversation of saying, I’m going to try it. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: So, okay, March of 2020, you get your first job in any kind of a restaurant setting. When did you actually take on the general manager role at double zero?

William Albino: So that was actually, I became the general manager in August of 2024. So I actually became an actual manager for the company in March of 2022.

Anthony Codispoti: That’s when I started managing. That was the dining room manager position? That was the first?

William Albino: That was the dining room manager at Cookton Soldiers. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti: And then what were the other sort of stepping stones before you got to general manager at double zero in August of 24?

William Albino: I was the dining room manager at Cookton Soldiers, and then I got promoted to the assistant general manager at Cookton Soldiers.

Anthony Codispoti: And so then your first time going into the double zero restaurant was as the GM? Correct, yes. Okay. What was the biggest challenge that you remember going through in transitioning not only roles, but to a completely different restaurant?

William Albino: I just, there’s two answers I’m going to have to have that question. The first answer, I think the biggest transition from going to a manager is definitely going from a line level employee to a manager. That is definitely a challenge because you have to get out of the mindset. It was okay, I am no longer a server anymore. I’m a manager. I have to go in with a different mindset.

There were times where I had to make decisions where I don’t 100% agree with it or I don’t 100% think this stop is going to agree with it, but as a manager, you have to be able to adapt. And so that was definitely a challenge of getting out of that mindset. And then when you transition from like from, for example, when I transitioned from Cookton Soldiers to double zero, I think the biggest challenge that I had was two different settings, two different cultures, two different kind of cuisines. There’s two different styles.

And so it’s like, you’ve got to kind of adjust your thinking from the style of Cookton Soldiers to the style of double zero. So that was definitely the challenge for me.

Anthony Codispoti: Any, as you look back now and what you kind of learned going through each of those transitions, somebody else that’s listening that may have similar aspirations, what would be a piece of advice that you could give to them?

William Albino: I would definitely, the piece of advice I would give is to really, it’s, it’s kind of mentor essentially. I think that was the one thing that I enjoyed having was like, I had people to kind of mentor me into a management kind of role. You know, there was a lot of people who guided me.

There was a lot of people who supported me, either if it is either the previous manager or previous managers or people from my corporate team, you know, they really invested in me. So I really think finding that mentor, someone that you trust and rely on to help you and that you can fall back upon someone’s like, okay, this is hard. Give me, can you give me some advice? Really find someone that you can trust essentially.

Anthony Codispoti: Who are your mentors along the way? Who do you want to give a shout out to?

William Albino: So there were definitely, there were a couple of people. I would really want to thank the manager that kind of guided me into this manager. Her name was Jojo. She’s a general manager over the last few years. She was really kind of helpful in my development into coming into this role. Really the Castalucis as a whole have really been super helpful. They have super helpful. They’ve really invested their time in me and that means a lot. So I really want to kind of just give a shout out to them. Great.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. So now explain to us for those who have never been the 00 brand and the customer dining experience there.

William Albino: So 00 is, I like to describe it as a modern Italian pizza restaurant. So we specialize in our pizzas. We have our traditional pizza elements that come right out of the Naples, Italy. So traditional Neapolitan pizzas.

We use double zero flour. So essentially with that, you get more kind of your traditional Italian dough. I think the one thing that sets us apart with a lot of other pizza restaurants that I’ve been to in Atlanta is, you know, we use our, we use scissors to cut your pizza. Essentially, you know, we hand scissors to the guests because it keeps the integrity of that dough. And I think one of the greatest things I’ve learned so far about the process of making the dough at 00 is they have been using this, what’s called like a wild yeast starter that they used to make the dough. So basically it’s each day when they make it, the leftover dough that they use from the previous night is used the next day to make the dough. And then they speed it every day with like flour and water. And this yeast starter or this dough has been around for over a hundred years.

Anthony Codispoti: And so it’s like it. And so you guys just keep sort of not recycling it, but rekindling it at the end of every day. You feed this wild yeast strain and it fuels the rising of the bread for the next day. Exactly.

William Albino: Yeah. And so I think it’s just a cool process. You know, I never thought about when, you know, how pizza is made until I started working at 00. And now it’s a cool process. You know, to see it going through these ovens to get nice traditional pizza, it’s pretty cool.

Anthony Codispoti: What other kind of food do we find on the menu there?

William Albino: You definitely find your pasta dishes. You’ll have kind of like your traditional bolognese or you’ll have risotto, some sort. You definitely more traditional Italian dishes like chicken parmesan or egg parmesan. But there’s also dishes on there that are more, you know, kind of like a chef’s interpretation, you know, you’ll have kind of like a squid and pasta, you know, something that you don’t see a lot. Or, you know, you’ll have your like a whole, well, not really a whole fish, but you know, you’ll have like your salmon, you’ll have like your steak. I like that there’s variety on the menu.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I’m looking at the website here. And how would you describe the interior? It’s very cool. There’s like a modern feel to it. But the, to me, the colors seem very warm and inviting.

William Albino: Yeah, it’s very warm and environment, environment. I think the restaurant was designed to be more of a neighborhood kind of spot. And so when you come in, that’s, that’s what it feels like. It feels like a neighborhood kind of restaurant. So double zero is kind of in the suburbs of Atlanta. You know, there’s a lot of housing and neighborhoods in the area, but it’s also next to Emory University, which is a local university here in Atlanta. So the clientele over there is very diverse. You know, you get your college students who come in, you get your families who bring in their children.

You also get your business centers because we’re located near Emory. So you have a lot of professors who come in to have like a cocktail or a drink right after, right after work, you know. So the hospital is there as well.

So you would do get a lot of doctors and nurses who come in after shift and just kind of want to relax. So it’s definitely a neighborhood spot. We cater to the families, you know, we do have a foosball table in the area. So we, there’s always kids or even sometimes you’ll see like professors or doctors and nurses playing foosball. There’s always something there for families to do. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: You know, again, looking at your website here, you mentioned the cocktails that, you know, they look beautiful and it looks like you guys are using fresh or like recently dried herbs, like real fruit.

Yes. So these look pretty tasty. And I’m also noticing, and maybe you mentioned this and I missed it, William, but it’s wood fire. The pizzas are wood fired. Yes. It’s a wood fire pizza oven. Yes. And the advantage of that is what?

William Albino: I think you just get more, you know, the kind of like the taste of the oven, you know, you really taste the smokiness. You really taste the grilliness. You really get that dough where it needs to be compared to if you use like a high, like a conventional oven, you know, you don’t get the feeling. So when you get it from a true pizza oven, you really feel that pizza.

Anthony Codispoti: So double zero is one of the restaurants in the CHG, the Castellucci Hospitality Group family. What do you feel kind of sets CHG apart?

William Albino: I think what sets CHG apart is their investment in the staff and investment in their team. I have worked with this company for about five years and many different roles starting as a server assistant to server, not to manager. And I think if there’s one thing that I’ve noticed is they really invest in their team and making sure that they have the correct training, making sure that the staff is cared for, they really think about what the staff needs and kind of plays on that.

Anthony Codispoti: See more about that. Because, you know, a lot of the business owners that I talk to business leaders, you know, they say it’s still a pretty tight labor market in a lot of places. And so finding and retaining good folks is often a challenge.

What is it that you guys are doing there at CHG? First of all, to kind of identify, find those good folks in the first place. And then, you know, you talked about they’re really in tune with giving their employees what they need. Maybe you can say a little bit more about that.

William Albino: I really think it starts kind of with the hiring process. You know, one thing that I’ve been doing lately with the hiring is seeing who fits our mission. And you said it in my introduction, you know, passionately pursuing the perfect dying experience, one guest at a time. And so in doing so, if you follow that mission and your interview process, you’re going to find people. And so anytime I do an interview, I kind of make sure to address that. We have this Mr. statement that we follow. And we also have our values that we follow as well.

A couple is, you know, investing in relationships, really showing grit, you know, checking your ego, just to name a few. And if you do that in the hiring process, talk about that. The people that will come in will really, you know, show their passion. It’s all about finding people who are passionate about really providing a great dying experience.

And then from there, you know, really investing in that person, listening to their needs, seeing what they’re good at playing on their strengths, seeing what they’re not good at, and seeing how can we improve on that. You know, I like to, I always say, you know, restaurants are nothing without the team. You know, if you don’t have servers, if you don’t have bartenders, or if you don’t have cooks or services, you know, you don’t have a restaurant.

You need to have people driving that. So really investing in them, making sure that they’re taken care of. You know, you don’t have to, the guests are taken care of.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, is there a specific innovation or maybe a new approach that you spearheaded that has significantly improved service or made a tangible difference in how guests interact with the restaurant? I’m curious if maybe there’s a specific innovation or a new approach that you kind of spearheaded there that improved service or made a tangible notable difference in how guests interact with the restaurant? Yeah.

William Albino: I don’t know. It’s really a new approach. I mean, it’s an approach that I kind of learned in teaching and my time in educating. It’s what I call, it’s like you model the behavior. So it’s like the, I say, what I call it is the I do, we do, and then you do.

So basically, it’s a kind of three step process. So the I do is I model what needs to be done. So for example, if I’m showing someone how to open a bottle of wine, I make sure I model the behavior for them or not.

Well, I say behavior, but you know, or model the skill for them. And then the we do is we do it together. That can be either, you know, doing at a table, you, you know, well, you shadow me and up, and then you finish it off, or if we’re just still in training, you know, we do it together, we’ll work on it. And then the you do is you do by yourself. Let’s see what you learned and take it upon yourself.

Anthony Codispoti: And then sorry, a sort of a model or a process that you’ve kind of learned from your education background. Yes.

William Albino: That was the one thing that kind of stuck with me in my education background is that three steps that I do, we do, you do. And I try to implement that as much as possible in hospitality. There are times where it is kind of impossible because of what the thing it is. But there are times where it is possible, especially when you’re, you know, doing trainings, when I teach someone wine every day, I want when I try to teach people wine, I, I give them information.

And then I happen to give them give them information back to me either like in a mock server setting or, you know, just randomly like, Hey, what did we just talk about? So I think that’s a model that I’ve been using, or a technique that I’ve been trying to do in the restaurants.

Anthony Codispoti: I’m curious if you’ve found any other ways to sort of parlay your skills and your learnings from the your time in education into what you do now in the restaurant industry?

William Albino: Yeah, I mean, there’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen as both in education as hospitality is training. You know, there’s nothing, if you don’t train, you got nothing. And so if I am my previous job when I was teaching people how to find jobs, you know, I had to do a lot of training. I had to train them how to develop a resume, how to train them, how to conduct conduct themselves in interviews. To this day, I’m I feel like I’m still doing that stuff, you know, in the restaurants, I’m still training people on both restaurant skills, but also on life skills. Because where I’m currently working at double zero, my staff right now is mostly, you know, young adults who are still trying to figure out kind of what they want to do in life, you know, most of them are still in college, trying to figure out what their next steps is. And in a way, I feel like I’m trying to help them train to become what’s going to happen to them, like outside the restaurants, because I know that’s not going to be their full time gig, you know, I got to train them for a life outside the restaurants. And how can I develop them into leaders in the future or whatever they decide to do?

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, just kind of giving them better life skills, just sort of training them to become better human beings. Exactly. So William took the general manager position in August 2024, recording this interview in January of 2025. So still relatively new on the job. I’m going to leap forward, I don’t know how many years, because, you know, you’ve still got things that I’m sure that you want to do there, that you want to learn, that you want to, you know, develop your own skills. But as you look down the road, what is a possible next step for you? Because you’ve said a lot about how you always want to grow, you want to remain static. What could a future step look like?

William Albino: I definitely want to stick in hospitality. I’m feeling that I do want to venture into the realm of helping the open restaurants, whatever that may look like. That’s definitely something that I’m still interested in. There’s always opportunity there. Because I feel like when you help open new restaurants, you’re storing fresh, and you couldn’t really mold something into what you want it to be. So again, it goes back to the training, essentially. And so if I help open a new restaurant, like I could train the staff, it’s like a blank slate and kind of train them to where I think they should be.

Anthony Codispoti: So William, part of CHG’s philosophy involves community involvement, philanthropic efforts. Can you give some specific examples of those?

William Albino: Yeah, so CHG recently, one of the most, one of the most things they’ve done is partnered up with the Giving Kitchen, which is a local organization that supports hospitality workers. So we’ve been kind of, we did, I can’t remember when it was, but we did a day where we do know that each restaurant donated 3% of their sales to the Giving Kitchen. And the Giving Kitchen was one of the organizations that helped during COVID for hospitality workers that were struggling.

So that was definitely one that they kind of took investment in. And then every month, they have like these wellness activities where they go out in the community and they try to get as much employees to come in to kind of go help the community as well. So for example, there were times where they went to go help out a homeless shelter.

There were times where they wanted to go help out at an animal shelter. So every month, they try to do some type of wellness or community engagement with the staff.

Anthony Codispoti: How do you see, I don’t know, that ethos kind of trickle down into your day to day role as you try to inspire team culture there. How do I see that every day? Yeah, how do you, how does that sort of ethos that comes from CHG at the top of community involvement, philanthropic efforts, helping people who need help, how do you, I don’t know, see that sort of trickle down into your work and kind of how the other employees show up?

William Albino: Yeah, I mean, I try to, every time I go into work, I go in knowing that it’s not about me. It’s about my staff and it’s about the guest experience.

And so I try to go into work every day kind of inspiring that I was like, I’m not going to go in thinking like this is all about me. I got to go in thinking about, I got to think about what the staff needs. And I got to think about what the guest needs because we’re in the business of hospitality. So essentially, by us providing food to people, you know, we’re given a service. So I feel like every day, you know, we’re doing that. And so as long as I inspire others is like, hey, we’re doing something for the community, you know, we’re giving people a good time, you know, this is Google Opsie, you know, it’s an opportunity for them to just forget life, you know, at work, you know, just want to come in and enjoy themselves. And so I try to inspire that like, let’s just, you know, put it aside, let’s, let’s think about the guest, let’s think about the staff, you know, let’s see what their, what the biggest need is. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: You know, William, growth often comes from our biggest challenge. What’s the serious challenge that you had to overcome, either in business or your personal life, to be interested in hearing some of the practical steps that helped you overcome that challenge. And then what did you learn from that experience?

William Albino: So the biggest challenge for me is I have a lot of anxiety, a lot of self-doubt. So in me, I am a very, you know, doubtful person there have been times where I thought I’m not good enough, I’m not doing well, I’m just terrible at my job. And I’m, to be, and I’ll be completely honest with you right now, there are times where I still think that to this day, I still think that I still suffer from anxiety, I struggle with it every day. But then I, something that I would tell myself is that you have to, even though I live with this anxiety, you have to overcome it. So in a way, I’m having a conversation with my inner self, he’s like, how can I overcome this? So a couple, you know, a couple of things I’ve been working on is, you know, just taking time to myself, you know, it’s always important to have that work-life balance. And then really just talking it out with people. I’ve been work, I have my family that I can rely upon, I have my friends I can speak to. I’m currently working with like a leadership coach that’s really helping me kind of develop myself as both a person and as a leader.

So really kind of taking time to myself to kind of get this self-doubt out of, not saying out of my body to live with it, but not let it overcome me.

Anthony Codispoti: I’m so glad that you brought this up, William. Thank you for that because it’s, you know, it’s the kind of thing that so many people are dealing with kind of behind the curtain, right, behind the scenes that we don’t talk about because we’re afraid of how we’ll be viewed. You know, we don’t want to be seen as weak. And in reality, you’re not weak.

There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s natural human traits. And so the more that we talk about this kind of stuff, give voice to it. I think it empowers other people to sort of confront the same kinds of things that they’re dealing with. You know, the anxiety that goes on, you didn’t use this term, but you basically, you know, you talk about imposter syndrome. Yeah. And I hear a lot of high performers that deal with that on a regular basis.

And there’s this negative chatter in their heads that says, I’m not good enough. I’m not doing this right. You know, I’m an idiot. I’m going to fail, you know, whatever that sort of sounds like. It’s really talking down and it’s really weighing down heavily on you. And I think, you know, you sort of talked about this inner dialogue that you’re dealing with, right? You got this negative voice and you can’t get rid of it, right? It’s not going away. So how do you sort of quiet the voice? Right?

And how do you tell sort of the other voice in your head that just because you’re hearing these negative thoughts doesn’t mean that they’re true? Right? Is that kind of part of the process? Is that sort of part of the way that you think about this?

William Albino: It is. Yeah. Because because you mentioned saying, how do you quiet that voice? And for me, there’s no way to, there’s no way to quiet that voice. You know, that voice is always taking space in my mind. But the other voices in my head need to be like, shut up, like, you got this.

So there’s just no way to quiet that voice is more so hot. How do I overcome that? And I, there’s don’t know what the answer is because I’m still trying to figure that out, because I’m still struggling with it. Like even in this interview right now, it’s just like, I’m experiencing a lot of, you know, self doubt like, am I conducting myself in a way I should be conducting myself right now? You know, am I saying the right things? Am I saying something wrong? Am I going to leave this interview right now and be, Oh crap, you know, I should have said this or, Oh crap, I shouldn’t have said this, you know, it’s like, did I not convey why I want to convey properly? So, but then I got to think to myself, you can’t take it too seriously. You know, you just got to be yourself.

And so that’s what the other voices are telling me you, you got to be you, you know, be your true self. Everyone makes mistakes. No one’s perfect. It’s you just learn from it.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, first of all, if I can help to quiet that voice in this moment, I will tell you that you’re doing a fantastic job. We’ve really touched on a lot of great topics here. So if, if that voice can hear me, please be quiet. Yeah, yeah, I’m doing great.

But you know, I could maybe offer a couple of suggestions just, you know, for my own experiences as well as the countless people that I’ve had a chance to talk with. You know, I had a guest not too long ago who actually credited this idea of imposter syndrome with being his superpower. He had sort of figured out a way to kind of flip his relationship with that negative voice. And rather than right trying to make it, you know, tamp it down, make it be quiet or you’re fighting with it or you’re wrestling with it. It’s more like this is part of what fuels me to get up out of bed every day and find a way to do things better.

You know, without my voice, without some semblance of that voice there, maybe you just wake up every day and you’re just perfectly content and happy in the world’s perfect and you’re not going to strive for more. It’s theory. I don’t know.

Yeah. With that voice there, you know, if you can kind of, you know, sort of turn it around a little bit and be, oh, a little bit grateful for, okay, thank you for that message. I’m going to process that.

I’m going to take parts of that and see, you know, how I can implement that in my day and find a better way to do my job and to show it better for my customers and my employees. Yeah. Is there any element of that that’s rings true to you?

William Albino: I mean, pretty much everything that you just said kind of resonates with me. You know, I’ve been, I feel like I’ve been going through a little bit of a posture syndrome kind of pretty recently, especially more so now that I am a general manager of a restaurant because as a general manager, you have a lot more responsibilities, you know, you’re, you’re the face of a restaurant. And so in a way, I feel like, I feel like I have to be a different person at times. And I feel like there’s times where I’m not being myself.

And I kind of don’t like that feeling because I do want to be myself because I’m in this role for a reason. This is, this is what the company saw of me. They saw that I have it. You know, they believed in me. Now I just got to show them that now it’s like a question is, did they believe, you know, this imposter or did they believe me? Now I know they didn’t believe the imposter. They believe me because they knew I am as a person. Right. But then my, the, the self down my head is just like, that’s not true. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: It is interesting because you’ve got, you know, several years worth of proof of history that shows your skill and your competence, right? You came in the ground level, didn’t know what you were doing.

Had no background in the restaurant industry, worked your way up to server, then dining room manager, then assistant manager, and then general manager of your own restaurant. Like those things didn’t happen accidentally. Right. Exactly.

William Albino: Yeah. And again, that’s just, that’s what it is right there is like people, you have people who believe in you. You have people who see it, you know, get the self out of your mind, just be yourself. And ever since now I’ve become a general manager, I have to start thinking about, you know, I got, I got to be myself.

You know, I got to be true to who I am. I got to fulfill the mission of what the company wants with restaurant. I got to fulfill the mission of what the restaurant is.

I got to fill the mission of what the staff need. You know, I got to think about the staff, I got to think about the guests. You know, I can’t think about myself truly. I got to think about, you know, everything as a whole. Hmm.

Anthony Codispoti: Shifting gears, William, if you were to recommend one resource, a book, a course, a podcast, something along those lines to help someone grow as a person, grow in their career path, what would that be?

William Albino: So there was this book that I read. It’s called From Good to Great. I can’t remember who the author is right now. But so the CHDG, they had this kind of leadership kind of seminar with managers, where we all kind of got together and we kind of discussed leadership. And so there was a book that we had to read, and it was From Good to Great. And I really enjoyed reading that because it gives you a lot of stories about different industries, not just about hospitality, but like other industries who are developing people as leaders and kind of the steps they took. So the main kind of framework is how do we come from someone who is like a good leader to a great leader? It’s been a couple of years since I’ve read it, but when I was reading it, it really was a great resource for me especially, coming from someone who has no experience in hospitality, who was a leader in a very different field.

I was a leader in education, and now being a leader in hospitality and seeing what now the two industries are similar to, but also very different. And that book kind of put everything together.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, the author, Jim Collins, is the author’s name.

William Albino: I’ll second recommendation for this book. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but it’s a great read, super valuable for folks.

Anthony Codispoti: I think I’ve just got, oh actually, no, but before I do that, let’s do something kind of fun, interesting, maybe a different fact, a fun, interesting fact that people don’t know about you, William.

William Albino: Oh, God. So, I mean, I am very known, I mean, I guess it’s not known to people who kind of work mainly everything, but I am very much into pop culture. It’s kind of like, I’m not saying I’m an obsession, but I can consider myself kind of like a pop culture kind of nerd in a way. I’m always up to date kind of like what’s happening in pop culture, you know, with movies, TV shows and all that stuff.

Every time I go to trivia with my friends, we do it every Tuesday. Anytime there’s like a pop culture around, I pretty much know everything, and they always kind of make fun of you for that because it’s just useless information that you would think no one knows. And I was like, oh, well, you know, this happened in the news, or this, you know, this happened. And so they always kind of joke with me about my pop culture kind of knowledge, like they’d say I need to go on like pop culture jeopardy and that I would dominate it. And I’m like, okay, you

Anthony Codispoti: know, maybe I know that I actually is a thing.

William Albino: There’s a now, yeah, there’s a spin off of jeopardy. It is on its pop culture jeopardy. And I haven’t seen it. So I’m thinking of like, maybe it’s just out for the next season. So maybe you’ll see it.

Anthony Codispoti: Exactly. Maybe you’ll see me on pop culture jeopardy at some point in the future if it continues. Well, one of the reasons I’m laughing is because William, I am at the exact opposite end of that spectrum. My wife rolls her eyes at how little I seem to know about musicians, celebrity. That’s what you mean when you talk about pop culture, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we’ll see somebody in a movie. And I’ll be like, who is that? They’re really good. She’s like, really, you don’t know who that is. Like, they, you know, they’ve won an Oscar, like they’re, you know, they’re everywhere. Right. Like, I’m sorry, I don’t know.

William Albino: I have been called the human IMDB. So I don’t know if you know what IMDB is. Yeah, the movie database. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been called the human IMDB.

Anthony Codispoti: So. All right, that’s fun. One more question for you, William. But before I ask, I want to do two things for everybody listening. Please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app. You love today’s content.

William’s been a great guest. You want to get more content like this. Please hit that follow button that ensures that you will be up to date on what’s coming. William, I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you or continue to follow your story. What would that be?

William Albino: Yeah. So I am on LinkedIn. People want to follow me on LinkedIn, you know, just type in my name, my, my profile to show up. I am on Instagram, even though I barely use it. But to really kind of stay up to date on kind of like my professional kind of journey would definitely be through LinkedIn.

Anthony Codispoti: Great. We’ll include that link in the show notes for folks. Yeah. So last question for you, William, as you look forward, what emerging trends, technologies, new guest experiences, changes in general coming to the hospitality industry excites you the most?

William Albino: I feel like there’s always new, new trends happening in hospitality. You know, one of the newest trends that I’ve noticed recently is keyword codes. Now that people can use to like pay for their bills, so we do have that trend. And I do think I like that because it gives, it’s an opportunity for the guests to kind of just pay through their phone because no one carries wallets anymore or carries their IDs, everything’s through their phone. And so it really is an opportunity for the guests to just do everything digitally. And also it is an opportunity for kind of what we call in the restaurant industry, like training tables.

So there’s a higher rate of people leaving to get the next table to sit down if people are using keyword codes. So that’s definitely kind of a new practice that is definitely interesting. But there’s also new like systems coming out for hospitality, like new POS systems that I’m very excited about learning about. There’s always something new and I really want to see how technology and hospitality kind of coincide with each other.

Anthony Codispoti: Going back to that faster turn over of tables, that’s a big deal in the restaurant industry. It is, yeah. Being able to turn that faster. Do you have any data that maybe specifies like how much faster the tables turn over? Like four minutes or something? Do you have any data to back that up?

William Albino: I don’t have it on me, but I remember when I was, because there’s a company that I came in that was kind of teaching us about it. They said that if people use the QR codes, you know, there’s a higher chance for them to get up the table quicker because they don’t have to wait for

Anthony Codispoti: the server to come grab the car. You’re not welcome to the server. Exactly.

William Albino: So that could take one to two minutes, you know, because sometimes if they’re waiting for the server, it could be like no longer, especially on busy nights. But if they have the QR code, it could take about 10 seconds and boom, they’re gone. And then you have the next table in that seat within a minute.

Anthony Codispoti: Makes a lot of sense. I’m curious if you yourself or if you’ve heard of CHG sort of higher level management employing AI in any way in the company yet?

William Albino: No, and I don’t think that’s going to happen. I mean, I don’t know how AI works in hospitality to be 100% honest with you. Because I feel like when you use AI, it kind of takes the hospitality out of it. Because I feel like for hospitality, you know, the whole purpose is that you’re seeing an actual person. You know, you want that human interaction. So I don’t think AI is going to be coming into CHG or any kind of thing.

Anthony Codispoti: Using it kind of on the back end to evaluate customer data, marketing data, maybe to come up with some of the help to enhance some of the marketing schemes, practices that they’re using. Those are some of the ways that I’ve heard folks talk about it. But I think you’re absolutely right, especially in a nice sit down environment like you guys have with CHG restaurants. We’re not going in there to be served by robots, right? We want that interaction. We want that experience. That’s why we’ve been coming back out of our homes and coming back into the restaurants. We like that.

William Albino: Well, even so, with kind of like AI outside of the whole robots, that kind of wasn’t thinking about that. But I was more so thinking like, you have your kiosk where you go up to a thing and then you place your orders and everything. I don’t think that’s going to be a model that’s going to be happening anytime soon. All right. Great.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, William, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing with your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Yeah.

William Albino: Thank you so much. It was a great opportunity and I really do appreciate you taking your time to kind of learn about me, learn about CHG and 00 and everything we talked about.

Anthony Codispoti: It’s been my pleasure. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.