E504 | Business Lessons Learned From Being A Waiter With Ashley Matta

Today, I am joined by a very good friend of mine who happens to be my wife, Ashley Matta. Both of us spent time as waiters prior to starting our careers and we thought it would be necessary to discuss some very important lessons learned while working as servers. We still follow some of these to this day in how we run our business. Enjoy!

• The anticipation of what people want and/or expect
• Knowing how we wouldn't treat our employees
• Don't be an as*hole

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: [00:00:00] So I was having a conversation with one of our staff members about documentation and he had come over from a in-network practice that he was working at and he was talking about just how long it would take him to document and click through and the workflow and how, just how time consuming it was and how much easier it's been with the software that we use, which is PT everywhere.

And I know for us, we're very aware. Sort of time leaks within our staff and our own schedules. And it's just one of the worst things you can do is just waste time on things when you could be doing them more efficiently. One thing for us is we have to document. It's something we need to do and you need to do it as efficiently as you possibly can because that's where you're gonna save a lot of your time.

We were seeing our staff members save upwards of an hour a day as far as cleaning up his documentation, making it more efficient. What if you got an hour of your day back just from documentation? What if all of your staff did the same thing? Highly recommend you take a look at PT everywhere.

It's been a huge time saver for us and really has made a big difference in our efficiency of our practice. You can check 'em [email protected]. I think you're gonna really like what they have. [00:01:00] So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't wanna see 30 patients a day, who don't wanna work home health and have real student loans create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about?

This is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name's Danny Matte, and welcome to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast.

What's up guys? Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast and today I have a special friend, my wife Ashley, is here today we're gonna talk about something that, that we feel like, was a big part of our career. I guess like jobs that we've had leading up to what we do now and lessons learned from it.

And one of those jobs that we both had and actually even got a chance to work. For quite a while. What, how long did we work together? Oh, [00:02:00] maybe a year. A year. Felt like a long time in college. It, I guess it was for the duration of time we were in college, but we were both On the wait staff. We were servers at a country club.

In fact, the Milledgeville Country Club, the most very exclusive, the most redneck country club in the state of Georgia. And we get a chance to work there together, like I said for about a year. Ashe was a waiter for longer than that at other places as well. But we definitely feel like we learned a lot.

At this job in particular and anybody that's been a waiter, waitress, on server staff you probably have as well. And so we wanted to share things that we learned that I think are valuable skills that we use even today within business. In particular, the type of business that we run with a cash physical therapy practice.

So we're gonna kick it off. I have four things. Ashley has three. I have a few. Some of 'em might overlap. Naris, why don't you start with yours?

Ashley: Hard work. It's not easy work being a server. So [00:03:00] when I started working as a server, I was in high school. And so every Friday, Saturday night, Sunday morning through Sunday day, I usually was working and it's, shift work and you're getting there.

If you're getting there early, you're setting up everything, putting everything out on the tables, or at least. Wing and burger joint where I worked. That's what we did. And then at night we were cleaning the floors every night. We were making sure all the tables were clean. And then in between shifts, you're On your feet all day or your entire shift, you're working with people, your coworkers the line staff, and then you are having to communicate with the patrons as well.

So it just, overall, I think it's not an easy job and it's not cut out for everybody. But I also think that it is a really unique skill that you can bring into any sort of job that you go on to take after that.

Danny: Yeah, I agree. I think I've had a few jobs that were pretty hard [00:04:00] and I wouldn't say it's the most difficult manual labor job, but it's a very difficult if like physically it's hard especially if you're setting.

Events like we did at the country club. We, we were constantly like setting up and breaking things down. Let's talk about that. What about it?

Ashley: I'm setting up tables. You're running around on a golf cart With my older brother, just having a grand old

Danny: time that happened one time at a wedding.

The rest of the time I was slinging tables around. There were nothing setting them up. But hard work obviously is a big one. And we. Crown wrote these independently, but we came to the same conclusion on one of these in particular. And that is the skill of communication. When I think of communication as being a, from the lens of being a waiter, it's interesting because.

I feel like it's one of the harder jobs to to do effectively if you do not know how to communicate on multiple levels. So obviously there's like verbal communication. And for us, we always had like specials. We had to relay to people of, oh, it's the, tonight is the blackened chicken, whatever, right?

[00:05:00] And describe in detail. And then they would ask you questions about what kind of seasoning is that? Or what kind of chicken is that? Or whatever. And then you'd have to answer their questions and describe what this special was that you literally learned about, 15 minutes.

So understanding like verbal communication and how to describe things to people I, I think is a huge part of that. But more importantly, I feel like it's table body language or nonverbal communication and how to understanding how to read a room of people and when somebody looks like they need something, when somebody looks like they're having a great time, when somebody looks like they are like upset about something and being able to read those things and.

Show up at their table to solve a problem for them without them having to try to wave you down. I think that's probably the skillset that takes the longest to understand and to read. But it is like such a valuable element in working with people just in general, whether it's an office setting.

Whether you're in a clinic, like what we have, whether it's like working with other people like we do now with PT beds [00:06:00] on, there are other business owners. Just the ability to like communicate verbally, but also understand how to, read people and and read a room and understand body language is, I think a huge skillset that I still use to this day.

That I definit. Learned and sharpened quite a bit in a role as a waiter. What do you have to add to that? Yeah,

Ashley: I would just say I agree with all of that. And then the other thing that I think about in terms of specifically to our practice athletes potential is I've heard Danny and Jacob and our office and our staff meetings talk.

Incessantly about like your patient is coming in and one of the ways that you are going to show them how you are going to be the expert and help them get better is repeating their goals back to them. And it's so similar if Johnny's sitting here and telling me he wants a burger and no fries and whatever, like I'm repeating his order back to him.

So you're just getting into that habit really easily about people's expectations and repeating them back to them so that when you don't deliver on it, [00:07:00] it's pretty clear who messed up. Or you can say that's not actually what you ordered or whatever, but you're just able to communicate with people a little bit more.

Clearly, because you know what they've said, you've repeated it back to them, and you can really easily apply that to cash-based pt, or at least what we do at Athlete's Potential and getting people to realize we are the experts and we're repeating back what your goals are and how we're gonna help you get

Danny: there.

I think as well, the other piece of that as a clinician is also like them understanding what's going on and repeating that back to them and them actually explaining to you what's going on is a big, kind of key indicator of if they understand what you're talking about or not. And then it's a huge area where most clinicians they struggle a little bit there because they're talking about things and the level that a clinician would talk about and not necessarily what a patient would talk about.

And being able to break those. And simplify that is really important and is a very similar, skillset. The other bullet point, oh, I'll just add

Ashley: two. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Like thinking about reading a room and trying to [00:08:00] get ahead, like anticipating people's needs. We try to do that just from a customer experience perspective and athlete's potential.

And it's the same thing that I learned as a waitress. If I see a lady's water glass as half full or empty, that's Almost the worst thing because it never should have gotten to that point, right? If I'm, when I'm going to a restaurant now, if I'm having to look around or ask for water, that's a very bad sign to me.

The waitress was not anticipating my needs that I would be eating this very greasy, salty burger, and I'm so thirsty and I can't find any water. Like you'd never want your Your, I wanna say patience, but whatever you never want them to get to that point. So understanding how to read a room is, I think is really critical cuz there's just so many different areas.

That's just one example of where you can really anticipate people's needs.

Danny: I think everybody's been to like a restaurant or, gone out to dinner in a place where they had a really good experience with waitstaff and the front desk and a really bad experience. And, the, you can take the.

Sort [00:09:00] of lessons back to your own business, right? Oh, what did they do? That was really, Good. What do they do that I like, I would never want to do in my own business. And those are all valuable too. If you're applying them to your own customer experience, cuz that is a huge portion of, whether somebody decides to come back or not.

As well as their outcomes. If they feel like they're in a safe, comfortable place and people are have their best interests, like they're gonna be more willing to do the work and to actually be compliant with what's going on. So I think that's huge and especially the anticipation of what people.

May want or they expect it, they want if you can do that before they ask for it, you're in a much, much better place. I think the other thing that, that you learn and everybody that I've worked with, That has been a waiter of some sort. They tend to be pretty good at sales. They're pretty decent at it because I think I am the exception.

You're like the worst at sales. Yeah, that's true. You just, you made up for it with just sheer effort of getting everybody what they needed when they needed it. You find out pretty quickly that the bigger the dinner ticket, the bigger your tip typically. And that usually [00:10:00] means the more alcohol people.

The bigger your tip is gonna be for a couple reasons. Number one they're, the cost of dinner goes up significantly. And number two, they're typically a little drunk by the end, right? So they're just a little more frivolous with with what they're tipping you. And the difference in $5 from a table, back when we were.

In college, like times, however many tables you had, there is a massive difference. Understanding sales is big. Being able to relay what you have, on the menu in a manner that is consistent with what somebody might want, being able to ask somebody like, oh, cool.

What do you what kind of food do you like? Or what kind of like what do you usually like to drink? And then being able to say, what it sounds like might be a good fit for you is. This, and this is why. And understanding that and being able to relay that to people I think is huge.

And you directly have to have conversations too about just like what things cost and specials and what those cost. And if you're like, yes, the filet Andon tonight is what, whatever, and you're like, and it's, it's $50 a plate or whatever. And you do that in a manner where it's.[00:11:00]

Awkward because you don't even want to tell them what it costs, or you go somewhere where you don't even tell somebody what the special is. That's how you know it's super expensive cuz they don't even bring it up. Yes, I'll have the halibut and it comes back as like a hundred bucks. Like that's not really sales.

I think you, they're getting away from it. You have to be able to explain that stuff and I think it helps you deal with, the Price of things. Sticker shock is sometimes people have with selling things themself, money, mindset issues. And then understanding that the more you help them make the right decisions, the better their meal is, the better their their tip is gonna be, is directly related to, the food and the outcome that they have.

That you're coordinating all of that. So what do you think? Oh, I

Ashley: agree with that. That's my least favorite topic.

Danny: Sales. You don't wanna talk about that. Sales is, but it's, it is a huge part of the of the job and it's something that, it's pretty natural for people whenever they move into something else.

So I think that's a big one. It's something that you have to get, be good at in your practice and something you can improve for sure. But there's nothing like getting thrown into like a decently nice restaurant and then trying to sell a special to somebody that probably doesn't give a, probably doesn't care.

Which brings me [00:12:00] to my, my my next bullet point, which is one of the main things that I learned was how to not treat people. And this is, I feel like at restaurants we are like incredibly forgiving of Wade staff. You have to drop a cockroach in my soup. You and I. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm saying you and I, but something terrible has to happen for me to complain. Absolutely. Or just not even give you like a 20 to 25% tip. Like you have to do something really bad because we know firsthand. Just just help me. Shitty people can be, yeah. Do you have a good example of

Ashley: I have a great example.

Yeah. I don't think it's gonna be as good as yours, but Yeah. I got a good. I worked at a burger joints in our town when I was in high school and Friday nights were always extremely busy families coming in or Saturday nights, cuz Friday nights, especially during football season, weren't as busy anyways.

The family comes in. All kinds of burgers and [00:13:00] like huge burgers and a huge side of fries is what this place was known for. And so this family orders four huge burgers and fries. And then I am waiting on them the entire time, refilling their drinks. At the end of the their dinner, I bring them their check and then I go check on another table.

I come back and the mom of the family. Yeah, this is not the burger that I ordered. She's saying that she ordered a cheaper burger, and I'm not even kidding you, when her plate was completely cleared off. And I had to tell her like, I can't. Judge that because the burger's gone and that's what you ordered and you literally did not say anything the entire time.

So I had to find a way out without getting, pulling my manager eventually into it, telling her like, you are the one that messed up here, not me. You literally ate the entire burger. So it was very interesting and for me to figure out how to be like, [00:14:00] excuse me. Crazy late. I don't know what I can and can't say on here, but

Danny: you could say literally anything you want.

I

Ashley: won't. But anyway, so just, you're a, you learn really quickly how to navigate really ridiculous and weird situations like that.

Danny: Yeah. It's this burger was terrible. I want a refund, but it's gone. You ate it all. Yeah. You should have told me this before. You literally ate everything on the plate.

I, I. Quite a few instances of people that are just, they're just rude. People can just be really rude and they, I think it's easy for people to treat wage death entitled. Yeah. They, you treat people like, they just, I don't know. They have to do everything that you say and there's no there's no thought for how that person feels, or you don't wanna treat 'em as a person, it's just that's just their job. Go do your job. And then lead me. As if they're like, somewhat better than you are. And I think it's a terrible approach to take to anybody, just in general. And as a waiter, what I think you learn is how not to treat people just as much as how to treat people.

Yeah. And I have one [00:15:00] story in particular that this really drove home this point for me of just literally don't be this. And I was relatively new. And I had actually I had no experience as a waiter before this. I was actually the lifeguard at this at this country club. And. When you John Hamed your way straight into that?

What happened was I just showed up every day on time and they were like, oh my God, this is a college student that's like punctual. So when the summer was over, they basically were like, you could you wanna be a waiter? And I said, I have never been a waiter. They were like, we'll train you hired.

They're like, that's fine, we'll train you. They just knew that I would just show up and they were obviously like they had problems with that. Anyway. It's probably like my second or third day of actually being a waiter, not in training. And I'm at this table and I go to go, ask if they got, if they need anything else.

And there was a guy that was drinking like a whiskey on the rocks. So whiskey and ice and Or scotch, so I'm sorry, scotch and scotch on the rocks. And I [00:16:00] go to get his glass cuz it looked very, it looked empty to me. And when I go to reach to get his glass, he slaps me on the back of my hand.

Pop me like a small child that was like reaching for a cookie that they weren't supposed to get. And I was completely taken back. I didn't know what to do. He was very much caught off guard. And all he said was, you never touch a man's, never touch a man's scotch and. And I was like, oh, okay.

Sorry. He like completely flustered me and I, anyway, I went back into the kitchen and I just thought to myself, I was like, this is unbelievable. This guy literally just slapped my hand like a small child and just said like one quick thing to me, and then just went back to his dinner or whatever he was eating.

And like I, to this day, I just think of what a terrible thing to do to somebody. What is, what a absolute. Jerk thing to do to somebody and it's, I think when I think okay, how should you treat people? It's like complete opposite of this guy and many of the people that I actually waited on there.

And the funny thing was, this is a. This is a small town country [00:17:00] club. So this isn't the Augusta National. And even still, you can't be slapping people's hands regardless. But it, what was funny was this is like the most redneck country club I've ever seen in my life.

And they, I, the people who just seemed like they were even more entitled than anywhere else that I've ever been. So for us, I feel like we, we learned exactly. How to not treat other people, especially people that are they're subservient in their role at that point in time.

But this also goes to be your employees, right? Like you can't discipline somebody or make an example of somebody in front of other people. Because you essentially embarrass them, right? And then that, that, that's hard to dig your way out of that hole, right? It's you've literally done something in front of the, in front of other people that you shouldn't have done.

If you're gonna handle something, do it in private, in, in the way in which you communicate with somebody. I thought it taught us how to not treat people, which is a great lesson in how you should treat people. Overall.

Ashley: Yeah, and I would add too, I. 100% judge people on how they [00:18:00] treat people in a how they treat servers in a restaurant.

Definitely. If y if we go to dinner with you and you are an asshole, you're gonna be an asshole in every area of your life because you're showing that person. Exactly what Danny was saying. You feel like you are entitled, you are better than that person. And that person could be a mom, dad, like they're busting their ass just to serve us food and you're gonna treat them like shit.

I don't think so. So that I I put a lot of stock in how people treat servers in any industry because it's somebody doing a job

Danny: well. It's also if you have somebody that's a potential hire. Seeing how they interact with people, whether it's like, how do they treat the barista that you're talking to at a coffee shop, or how do they treat the waiter or waitress at a restaurant?

That tells you a lot about somebody because they don't know necessarily that this is like part of like how you're deciding whether you wanna work with them or not. But it is right, if there's somebody. For instance, maybe we're thinking about doing some sort of partnership with somebody and [00:19:00] I go to dinner with them and they're just like demeaning to wait staff and they, they don't tip anybody anything and they're super short.

You sure it's hell? We believe that I'm not doing anything with you. I don't want anything to do that person because that's the way they're gonna be with you when things aren't perfect as well. And it shows a lot about somebody I think, in terms of how they treat people around them that.

In their mi in their mind they're lesser than they are in terms of that, their current role, right? It's you're serving me dinner, right? So I'm better than you right now. And that's not the case, right? That's just the way that they view it. And I think it's incredibly like bad mindset to, to have.

But it tells us a lot about potential hires as well. So as an employer, this is a great way for you to gauge somebody and their personality. Cause they can tell you all the right. You take 'em to a restaurant and they're like rude to waitstaff, do not hire that person. Yes. Agreed. Okay. Last one that I have is multitasking.

So there's nothing that I've done that I don't know it. One of the most stressful things I've ever done [00:20:00] is get to to the re. It's short staffed. You're picking up more tables than you probably normally would have, and it's busy, and they all sat down at the same time and they all sat down at the same time.

So now all of a sudden you have eight tables and there's. Anywhere between two and 10 people at each of them. And now you gotta get all their orders, all their drinks delivered not mess anything up. Make sure that you're going back to them at the right times. And just it's such a stressful feeling.

I remember when people show up and they'll be like, oh my God, this is gonna be awful. There's so many people at once that you have to figure out and you really have to do is understand how to manage your time and sequence different events out. So if I know. Okay, this big table's here, I'm getting this group their drinks first, and then I'm gonna go over to this big table.

I'm gonna get their drinks. I'm gonna get, make sure they have something to drink before, like they look at the menu and make a decision. I'm also gonna get something on their table that they can start eating so that I'm not gonna have a problem with them, like just being hungry. And then I'm gonna try to bounce back to whatever other tables are gonna be [00:21:00] there in, in a sequence that hopefully.

Puts me in a spot where I can like, keep everybody happy and so like understanding how to manage that and also understanding the certain tables are gonna give you more leeway and other tables are gonna be like very demanding and being able to like, Try and keep everybody happy, but knowing who your tough customers are and the people that are gonna be like, difficult to deal with, that's also really important as well.

So I feel like you learn how to manage your time really well, and also how to like sequence things effectively. And the same thing happened with me whenever I started seeing patients, in our office when now I was in my own business and I had an hour to work with people, which sounds like a lot of.

And it is in comparison, if you're seeing high volume, which this actually probably relates even more to people that are seeing 30 people a day. Cause you probably feel like a waiter, bouncing around, trying to manage everybody. But even managing your time throughout a hour long visit and how you're gonna do that and things that are most important and sequencing those things and making sure you're communicating and someone has a good outcome.

Like all those things I take so much over from being a waiter to what I've now done with serving people in a different manner [00:22:00] that it's just so valuable to me. The stress of managing these big groups of people that would come in at one time has helped me a ton with managing many other things, like on the business side of things as well and how you're gonna compartmentalize those and what makes sense to do first.

What do you got? Nothing. That was great. You have nothing to add to that. You are the, you're like the best at managing tables. You're better than anybody at being able to take on a lot. What do you, what have you found from multitasking, even though people say multitasking makes you inefficient and some jobs you don't have a choice maybe.

Ashley: But I think you really nailed it and then it's just figuring out like what is the easiest thing that you can start with and start there and then work backwards and then think about. You nailed it. If it's a bigger table, get their drinks, start them out with some appetizers, they're probably gonna be talking more anyways cuz they're with a big group of people.

So you've got a little bit more leeway than a couple that might be on like a first or second date in there. Trying to figure out what to even say in between you coming up to their table. Just again, bringing that back to [00:23:00] being able to read a room and where people are on that particular dinner or lunch or whatever it is.

I did have another thought that just

Danny: completely left my mind. I think you're dead on about the first date. Tables. Those are always my favorite because you could always tell this is, man, this is going really poorly, or this is going really well. And it could get like real awkward and sometimes you could like swoop in and try to save 'em, but oftentimes it was just it, it just was a crash and.

Yeah. But enjoyable to watch from a distance. Yeah. As weird as that might sound. Yeah. Yeah. But, so that's what we got for you. This is what we learned from our time as servers, as wait staff. I have a a strong, opinion that people would learn a lot from being a waiter or waitress for a little while.

And you can learn a lot of skills, but also you have a lot more respect for those. Those type of jobs and hopefully, these lessons that we've pulled from this can help you with your practice as well. And in summary it's, learning how to work hard. You're gonna go into business for yourself, you're gonna work really hard for a long time.

If you. [00:24:00] Understand how to communicate with people both verbally and non-verbally. That's gonna help you out a ton with your customer experience, with your interactions with people in the office as well, and making sure they know what's going on and they feel clear on what they're working on.

How not to treat people. Yes. So just don't be an asshole. Yes, that's like really good. Just should just, that should just be something that people write down and they look at every day. Let's not be an asshole today. Yeah. Okay. Let's check that box. And then multitasking. So like doing multiple things at once and not letting it stress you.

Yes. Stress you to the point where you just shut down. Cause a lot of people will. They get, multiple things thrown at them, and all of a sudden they're like, ah, I can't do this anywhere. My head hurts. And then they just quit. Versus understanding how to like, make the best of it and try to manage it as much as you can because in business, you're gonna not have a choice.

Like you're going to have to do everything when, when you first start out, it's yes you're a clinician, but you're also, you're a business. You're your bookkeeper. You're the marketing, you're the, chief marketing officer, you're the operations, chief operations officer.

[00:25:00] You're everything, right? You're doing everything. You're the sales director, you're, fulfillment, customer experience. You do everything. So you have to understand how to manage these things effectively, and then, hand those roles off to the right people, which also goes back to how to not treat people and look for people that treat other people well.

That, that are just like, just good, honest people that are willing to want to help and be a part of a team. And you can definitely learn a lot about people based on how they interact with wait staff in in our opinion. So anything to finish with? No. Nailed it. Don't be an asshole.

That's it. Don't be an asshole. Just write that down on your your mirror every morning when you wake up. It's like, all right, today, let's not be an asshole. And if you get through that, I think it'll be just fine. So guys, thanks so much for listening. I hope you like this one and we'll catch you.

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