WOWCast Ep 5 "Embody Humility" (Albert Chapa)

The speaker discusses the importance of learning from mistakes and building trust in relationships. They emphasize the need for leaders to be encouraging and supportive, creating an environment where people feel confident and supported. The speaker also shares their personal background and experiences in leadership, highlighting the importance of humility and reflection. They discuss the transformation they underwent from being focused on personal growth to developing and considering others. The speaker also addresses how to handle mistakes, emphasizing the need for self-reflection and analyzing what could have been done better. They emphasize the importance of being intentional and focusing on the development of others. Finally, they discuss how to handle teammates who may have a lot of confidence or ego, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and collaboration over individual talent. What can we do to learn from it to not make the mistake, right? And that's where it all, and that's where that create that trust comes in, you know, after building the relationship and then being encouraging, you know, like, when we start doing that, that's when you see the fruits of our labors come on, and it gets them more confident because they know that they have a leader that, you know, that trusts them and will support them through the ins and outs, because at the end of the day, in order for us to learn, we're going to make mistakes, you know, we're probably going to learn more from our mistakes than anything else, how many books we read or whatever, through trial and error. All right, everybody, welcome back to episode five, five, right? Charlie likes to, Charlie likes to win in the background. I wasn't looking for applause. Number five. I was looking for confirmation. Yes. That we're on the right episode here. All right, episode number five, we're talking embody humility today, and we have a special guest, Mr. Albert Chapa, coming to you live from the big state, Texas, and we're going to get into a conversation here today, here at Walk-Ons, talking to WOWcast, our podcast where we talk all things cultural, the Walk-Ons way, and we're diving into it with Mr. Chapa now. So, before we get into our topic today, Chapa, can you just kind of give us a little bit of your background, kind of where you came from, how you came on to Walk-Ons, just tell us a little bit about what you do. Yeah, man. So, first, I want to say thank you guys for having me on here. I'm extremely grateful for the consideration to talk about some of my personal stuff and kind of the trials that I've gone through to get to where I'm at. But let's see here. So I started with Walk-Ons back in Lubbock, Texas, back in 2019. I started off as a bar manager. I did that for a few months or so, and then we were transitioning on leadership and was able to, you know, kind of get started as the GM and kind of take over leadership for that location. I did that for about two years, going on three. And I got the opportunity to come out to the DFW area, kind of oversee a little bit more of the DFW area of restaurants. And then now we're really focusing on trying to get the ULIS location open. So, this is where I've been at since the beginning of the year. So, that's kind of a little quick introduction of where I've been with the company. That's awesome. So, when you came aboard, what was your position? Because you weren't GM right away. What was your position that you jumped in on? That was a bar manager, right? Yes, sir. Yeah, it was a bar manager. Mm-hmm. Cool. And did you... Where did you work before that? Before that, it was mostly Buffalo Wild Wings. I got a lot of my experience from Buffalo Wild Wings, you know, really worked up in that company from starting as a server to being a key head bartender, head of training, and then kind of worked as the bar manager for a little bit. And that's kind of where my experience got me to be able to work for Walk-On. Yeah. So, knowing you personally, Chopper, and knowing kind of the things that you were going through when you first became a GM, I also know that you graduated with your degree from Texas Tech while general managing and being a family man. So, I mean, that's pretty impressive stuff. I mean, to those that are out there kind of working through some of those same trials, how did you manage that? If I can do it, then, you know, anybody can do it. You know, my kids can do it. I don't consider myself the smartest person. I don't consider myself the hardest working, but just giving the little bit of effort that I can to be better every single day is, you know, it's much greater than, you know, the zero percent of not doing anything. Right. So, ultimately, what drove me was just to be that example, you know, to lead by example. And hopefully, you know, that could change someone's life to want to be better and kind of, you know, not give up on their goals. That's so awesome, man. And great segue for Lexi to start getting into specifically in biohumility. So, with that being said, I'm going to pass it over to Ms. Gibbs here. Yeah. Chopper, honestly, what you just said about zero percent, just, you know, giving whatever you can to just not, but not giving zero percent, I guess, is what you said. I thought that was really, really cool to highlight and really kind of makes me think, you know, with all the personal, you know, responsibilities you have and then now the position you're in, you know, you've kind of gone up the food chain in a sense. You've really covered every aspect, you know, that there is in the business. And then, you know, just being a family man as well, what type of different, like how would you say you would handle mistakes from kind of a personal aspect and a business aspect just in general? And then, you know, how would you handle them coming from, you know, being a bar manager when you first started to now being kind of that director oversight? Because I feel like there's two separate ways to handle, you know, trials and mistakes when you face them going from, you know, being that manager aspect and then now being in that director mindset. Right, right. You know, just I guess circling back to the first part, the way I kind of handle a lot of my mistakes is, you know, I try to understand where I went wrong or if there was just any I just kind of try to analyze a lot. I analyze a lot of things. I kind of overthink a lot of things. And I just kind of just trying to best way to describe this is every day I just I always reflect. It's a lot of reflection. And whether there's some things that I could have done better, what I could what I thought I did really good at was where I lost some opportunities. And it all starts from within. I just think about just ultimately, how could I be the best leader? How can I how could I've been how could it be more efficient? Just so that I can be intentional towards others, you know, that's the overall goal is to really get people to to believe in the in the in the goal that we have, you know, and, you know, we want to be successful. So what can I do to implement that in my own actions, but also encourage them to do it themselves? And so to transition to the difference, you know, when I was a bar manager, man, I was I was young. I had honestly a lot of learning to do. And at that time, I was very, you know, I could I would tell you, I wasn't humble as what you hear from me now. I was very if you could say I was very proud of myself. You know, I knew that my work ethic could come in and I can you know, I can definitely try to I want to come in here and I'm going to outshine you and I'm going to be the best. But it was with a different perspective and a different intentions in it. You know, like it was more of personal growth rather than actually developing others or even considering others in that in that matter. So when you think about it as that bar manager, man, it was it was me. It was all me. What can I do to be successful? And it didn't matter how I got there. Right. And then so, you know, moving up kind of food chain, kind of learning a couple things, falling a lot and then learning from those mistakes and then getting, you know, getting to the point to where I'm at now. It's my you know, it's it's wow. It's a complete 180 on what I what I look like, what it looks like now in my head. And while I look at that and it's, you know, it's more of just, you know, it can mean now success. It doesn't it's not measured by what I do now. It's measured by what I can do in others. And that now it's honestly that's what I feel like has made me successful and really changed my life and a lot of things. Yeah, I think that's awesome. And honestly, you just summarized it with what you can, you know, give to others and be intentional to others and, you know, what you've learned from your past mistakes and everything. And I think that that's really key, you know, just in what humility is and that is growing from your mistakes. And I think how have you you know, how have you seen your past experiences and the mistakes you have gone through, you know, from being that bar manager traveling up to where you're at now? How has that helped you to navigate conversations with other teammates who are kind of in that same position you were in when you were a bar manager and, you know, as they're working their way up? Oh, man, it's it's helped me tremendously. You know, now I can I can always reference, you know, I can always I'm a you know, I could use my testimonies every single day and relate to people, you know, and you know, when I hear that it excites me when I see something, you know, when I see someone kind of struggling and it's like, man, I really want to get this. And that's it's like I wake up and I open up and I'm like, oh, man, here we go. You know, like I'm excited. So I hey, let me pour this knowledge that I've had in my past. And this is what I had to experience. And I want you to know, like, hey, if you do these things and, you know, maybe it's not even exact, but if I can just kind of point you in the right direction, you know, like, hey, listen, I have what's in my head. I want to just give it to you that here you go. You know, and yeah. And then the best thing about that, you know, is, you know, once I do that, the most important is the follow up, you know, ensuring that like, hey, I like to come back and see, OK, where did it work? Did it not work? You know, because I know everything's everybody's different, you know, and it's important, you know, life is about learning, you know, getting backed up and learning and then continue, continue, continue, continue understanding, you know, like how can we be better and how can we learn from these things? So, yeah, I think that's awesome. Yeah. And that really kind of pinpoints what, you know, a leader is, is, you know, kind of giving what you've gone through and giving it, you know, helping somebody else to get into the shoes that you're in, you know, because that's kind of what you want to do is you always want to be developing somebody, you know, the next person because you also want to be developing into something else. So it's kind of like that chain. And, you know, you want to give your experiences to the next person. That way they're set up for success when they face their trials and their mistakes. And I think that you really, really hit on that very, very well. Charlie, you have anything to add? Yeah. How are you doing, bud? Long time, huh? Yeah. Congrats on your success over the years. So we've known each other for quite a while now, and I'm going to segue off of what you just said. Everyone's different. And, you know, you've also mentioned that, you know, try to be intentional. I think it's worth noting that when we first met, we found you to be very different, Chapa. And we saw initially that you were very intentional with your efforts. You know, we're talking humility here. So we saw the void of arrogance and we saw the void of pride. So, you know, those qualities and characteristics stuck out for you very early on. I can recall David Bruno, myself and Matt Scherer, you know, trying to help in that transition plan with you going from bar management to full time training into the general manager role. You know, and I recall that we put together, you know, more or less a specialized training path, but then a trail train path for you to make sure that you felt comfortable, you know, receiving the amount of training that you did, but then also applying at real time in the restaurant to try to give you that support. It was a special time for us to be able to work with you that way. You know, when Bruno and Matt hear this, I'm sure they're going to smile, you know, remembering back to those times, you know, all this to say you were different from the beginning and you were very intentional from the beginning. How do you teach what it is that you've done to someone else? Because surely this company is going to continue to grow. Right. And you being a great example of offering humility again and void of ego and pride, you know, how do you how do you teach the younger minds who are very eager and want to produce and provide and live by the walk on its way, but maybe are a little bit, you know, antsy in the pantsy or zealous and still still want them to be intentional, but not be, quote unquote, agenda driven. Right. Like, right. Don't want to have an agenda, but still be intentional and full of humility and produce a result. What would you say on how to train some of that to the younger minds? Yeah, man, because I know everybody's driven. You know, we all have our goals and we all want to be successful at the end of the day. And I know everybody comes from different backgrounds. But, you know, when it when it looks like the way I try to, you know, teach my staff and my teammates, you know, just it's going to start from within. You know, we have to understand that, you know, in order for us to be the leader we want to be, we have to give ourselves up to the people that we're surrounded so we can humbly make them better. You know, we always want to go to that next step. Right. Like, so, you know, if we want to move, hey, man, I want to be GM. I want to. OK, so what are we doing now to develop the next person in your to fill your your position? Right. And when we have that mindset of developing and focusing on others, you know, and then then taking what all that is and then focusing in what we can we do to be better at that. That's how I that's how I would that's how I do. You know, I don't know if that's the right answer what you're looking for, but that's what I do. You know, it's thinking of the next person to fulfill my what I'm doing now, because when we're thinking of others, we're putting ourselves last. Right. And then that enables us to go and move up to that next level. Right. You know, like, hey, if you want to move up, like, let's learn about what that next step looks like. But also let's develop that person under you. Let's let's build these people. Let's let's get people to to really buy in. And it's just I believe it all starts from within. We have to let go of all our walls of insecurities and our egos. And to be a successful leader, to humbly impact people, you know, to be intentional, we have to break down those because there's times where, hey, I am wrong. I don't have the answers all the time. There's some times where I may not even be the smartest person in the room, but I embrace that, you know, like I what I put the switch on, like, hey, what can I do to be to impress people? No, I I flip the switch. What can I learn to better myself, you know, to to be able to be the best leader, you know? So I think it's all just within. Yeah, that's great. Great response. I've got one more kind of simple maybe question, a little bit more pointed as maybe like a real real time, real case scenario. We've got an hourly chef on the line, just like Babe Ruth, they walk out, they stick the bat in the air and they go, this ball's gone over the fence, except for grill, grill chef is saying, hey, watch me do what I do. I'm coming for that coat. You heard. Watch me do what I do. I'm going to be a manager here. Hey, I'm going to go open up that restaurant. Let me tell you, boom, boom, boom. I've seen it my whole career at Walk Ons and prior to Walk Ons. And I love the hype, right? Right. I love the hype. I love the belief in self, but I can't stand the jaw jacking. Right. How do you take that same feeling of that just, man, there's nothing that's going to shut me down. Watch me do what I can do. That really jacked up, pumped up feeling. Right. And then use that, use that like clay to where you can form it and help that teammate be just as energized and focused on coming up and help taper that message to let's not jaw jack, let's react, let's get in, be a part of the team. Walk me through what you would do there. Man, to be honest, if it's one of my teammates, you know, at first I'm going to, you know, talk about the way I my leadership style. Right. And, you know, I could come in and I'm the GM of the restaurant. You know, I could come in with my head up high with, hey, man, I've run this place, you know, but ultimately, you know, it's not it's not me, it's the team, you know. And so what I would do, you know, going into that is kind of tell them, hey, listen, listen, like I can I can be that person, but I'm not, you know, it's consider how you make other people feel when you when we have that kind of arrogance and that kind of, you know, mentality of, oh, yeah, I'm going to be the best, blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever it that that creates more of an isolation because nobody's going to want to want to pay for that for you. You know, like nobody's going to want it when it comes down to it, when someone wants to help you, guess what? They're going to look at you and be like, hey, man, I thought you had it right. I thought you had this. You're the best. You got it. Come on. But when we when we flip the script, when we flip the script on that and be like, listen, you know, hey, I what I can do to help the team. Hey, this is all about team here. Then that's when you see the hey, we are going to collaborate. Hey, if you're if you're if you're down, I got your back and advice first. Right. Like that's the way I would look. I would kind of teach that, you know, like, hey, we're all skilled, but there's always going to be someone better. You know, there's always going to continue. We're always going to continue to be, you know, try to grind. But we're going to be more efficient as a team than, you know, than our individual talent. Fantastic. Yeah, I think I have one little thing to add. This is very just a simple question. What do you do? Like, do you have any special, you know, method you go about when you do see one of your teammates, you know, one of your managers who may be kind of really getting on themselves about a mistake they may have made or, you know, like their reaction to something that they may have done wrong? Because obviously we all have that. We all want to do the right thing, you know, especially in restaurants. You know, you want to make the right the right moves, do the right method. But when people when you do make that mistake or when you as a leader see one of your teammates making that mistake, how do you help them to kind of put it into perspective and have them keep going and, you know, kind of brush it off, you know, you know what I'm saying? Right. No, absolutely. It's important that, you know, when, you know, one of our teammates makes the mistake to not, you know, beat them up because they're probably beating themselves up more than anybody, to be honest, especially if it's a big, big mistake, you know. And the way the way I handle those situations is, you know, it's kind of almost like a parent, you know, when you're when your kid messes up and you obviously it's more of a sympathetic, like, hey, listen, you know, we all make mistakes for humans. You know, the thing about it, what can we do to learn from it to not make the mistake? Right. And make it and that's where it all and that's where that create that trust comes in, you know, with after building the relationship and then being encouraging, you know, like when we when we start doing that, that's when you see the fruits of our labors come on and it gets them more confident because they know that they have a leader that, you know, that trust them and will support them through the ins and outs. Because at the end of the day, in order for us to learn, we're going to make mistakes. You know, we're probably going to learn more from our mistakes than anything else. How many books we read or whatever through trial and error. And so that's that's kind of how I that's kind of how I would handle that situation is to be supportive at the end of the day and do what we can to learn from the mistake. Yeah, I think that that nails it. That's awesome. Yeah. So, Chapa, thank you so much for sharing all this, first and foremost. And I actually I have a comment on something you were talking about in relation to to Charlie's question. And. To me, what you were defining is something that I certainly believe to be true, and I know this this entire group does, that there's a stark difference between arrogance and confidence. Oh, yeah. Arrogance is self-centered and confidence, my belief, is that it is most easily identified in humility. Absolutely. One hundred percent. Because I believe that a humble person is very confident in presenting themselves accurately and authentically. And when we look for confidence in someone, I think sometimes we get distracted by, as Charlie put it, the hype, right? When really they could be masking insecurity, whereas a humble person, we can be more confident that that person carries confidence because they have no problem presenting themselves exactly as they are, their flaws and all. I mean, I loved the examples you were giving because it definitely it relates specifically to that. And we should be looking to encourage confidence and, you know, encouragement itself is adding courage to others, which is where that confidence lives. And it's such a it's such a great point. And so I think one that that many, many people could learn a lot from. And then the the question I have for you, so Lubbock, Texas, you know, obviously your baby, you know, I certainly attribute the cultural feel of that restaurant to your leadership. I know you're a humble person. It's probably hard to hear something like that, but I've seen how that restaurant has grown over the years under your leadership, even though now you've gone on to work in the Dallas market, it's still evident your trademark, your stamp is is there in that restaurant. And so much so that we've you're the only restaurant, Lubbock's the only restaurant that we spotlighted twice and amazing stories of, you know, selfless, team oriented culture, a group of people that are just. Just filled with heart and soul, that restaurant, and I really believe that that's a reflection of your leadership there. With that being said, my question to you is. How do you establish a culture overarching? So this is really kind of expanding beyond our specific topic, but how do you create a culture in which when I go to that restaurant, when anyone else goes to that restaurant, it feels different because it's kind hearted in nature and everybody can tell is working together and looking out for one another? Yeah, you know, it it honestly it starts from the top, you know, and what we did over there is a lot of really what I was wanting to do was just really be intentional. I didn't want anybody to see the fakeness in it. I really wanted everybody to understand that. It you know, if I care about every single person in that in that restaurant, it didn't matter what position it was. And when when I started showing that I cared and was willing to go the extra mile to, you know, make sure that someone was OK, you know, that's where I felt like, you know, building the relationship was my number one priority, getting them to trust in me and to the direction that we wanted, you know, that we all wanted to head and be successful. And, you know, just there's really no fakeness to make it, you know, it was just really being intentional, really just trying to make sure that. You know, you literally cared for everybody and when I represent it like I just the team members there were amazing, they reflected off of that and, you know, and they started doing that themselves. And, you know, when when everybody's bought in like that and everybody's willing to go the extra mile and willing just to care because everybody cares, you know, I can tell you there was, you know, you can walk in there and I remember, you know, I could go to someone and be, hey, can you do this extra stuff for me? And they would do it because they know that I would do it if I if it came down to it, you know, and it was just remarkable. That team was amazing. I miss them every single day. And, you know, I know I talk to a few of them every once in a while, but, you know, like this, they honestly, you know, when it comes down to it as well, they taught me so much to as to be a leader. And this wasn't just me. This was this was a team effort all around the board. And I'm extremely grateful for for everything that they were able to teach me to get me to where I'm at now as well. That's awesome, man. So I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Lexi and then to Charlie to kind of round out some closing thoughts here and then we'll end with you and anything else that you would like to share after we've kind of gone around the table here. So, Lexi? Yeah, I think, you know, just just listening to you and your story, you know, and kind of humbly admitting, you know, where you were in your mindset when you were, you know, in that bar manager role, just kind of getting on the scene to where you're at now and the way you're speaking. You can really tell that you took your experiences, your mistakes and you allowed those things to teach you. You know, you didn't beat yourself up about them. You didn't, you know, or, you know, you may have in the moment, but you looked at it as a lesson and you kind of use these tools and the things around you and your experiences, both good and bad, to shape you into a strong leader who wants to teach the next person to come in and, you know, take your place so you can move on to, you know, a bigger thing, you know. So I think that that says a lot about you as a person. It's just you've taken this humble approach to the experiences you've gone through, to the mistakes you've gone through, and you've helped it to, you know, shape you into a successful individual. And I think that's huge, you know, and that's huge for to have you a part of this brand in that role means so much. And it really is a beacon of, you know, what we are and who this brand is and, you know, our culture. And, you know, you are an epitome of that. And I think, you know, that deserves a pat on the back every day, in my opinion. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, so I just want to say thanks again for the time spent, you know, much like everyone else out there in the restaurant business. Sometimes the job doesn't end as soon as you get off of work, right? You go home to family, you go home to, you know, wife and children in your case, you know, and you get right back up, choppa, and you go to work as a very pleasant and humble person that we know you to be day in and day out. You know, I know we might be skipping fast forward, but, you know, that ain't for progress, not perfection piece through humility. It's a pleasure to see you do it. And again, you know, thanks for your your family and your support system at home and that look and that's to everybody, not only at walk-ons, whether it be management, ownership, hourly, that's anybody that this kind of creeps out to in the whole industry. You know, this industry is very different and, you know, the support system at home is a very important thing to me. So again, you know, to your family, you know, moms, dads, wives, kids out there, you know, thank you to everyone there helping us get up and keep doing the great work day in and day out. So thank you, Choppa, for being here. I'm going to pass it back to Chris. Yeah, man. Yeah, I just. In this conversation, you know, so so grateful to have a lot of these conversations with so many amazing people that work with our company and our team here, I think we spend a lot of time measuring the fruit as business leaders, you know, yourself and focused on your business. Obviously, you know, we focus on that here as a support team. But stories like this, conversations like this always point back to the root of what creates that fruit, whether good or bad. And, you know, we spend a lot of time analyzing statistics and things like that. At the end of the day, that's just the fruit. That's just the symptom of what exists within and really appreciate you once again bringing that to clarity, because I think that's a it's a great thing to see. So with that said, I'll pass it over to you for any final thoughts that you may have, my friend. Pretty much. Yeah, I'm just I'm grateful. Thank you guys for having me a part of this. I really, really enjoyed this and I'm hoping that I can motivate the next person or encourage the next person that that's listening to this. Maybe even if it's the people back at home in Lubbock, you know, know that I miss you guys. That's right. That's right. But no, I just again, thank you guys. And I'm really, really grateful for you guys for considering me for this. All right. Well, I think that's that's a great ending again to another great episode here for Lexi Gibbs, Charlie Kelly, Mr. Chapa. For those of you don't know, he just goes by Chapa. I'm Chris Williams, and that was episode five of The Wildcat.