Everyone is rushing to automate, and almost nobody is asking what it costs.
In this episode of The Business & Faith Podcast, John Staub talks with Preston Lee, founder of The 30% Rule and author of The Hospitality Handbook. Preston has spent his career in restaurants, and his argument starts in one place: if you need people to execute your vision, you are in the people development business. He walks through how he builds a train-the-trainer protocol, why micromanaging starts with unclear instructions and missing follow-up, and why he would rather promote a hungry, coachable employee than hire a GM to fix everything. He also explains why a sales contest that works on Saturday falls off a cliff by Monday, and why he believes the companies that protect human connection will win as AI spreads.
Chapters:
00:00 What Are You Sacrificing?
01:09 The People Development Business
03:44 Building a Train-the-Trainer Protocol
05:06 Clarity, KPIs, and the What If
08:13 Micromanaging and Follow-Up
12:13 Hired Guns and Soldiers
15:50 How to Reverse Engineer a Feeling
17:56 Relationship Before Job
21:46 Retention Is the Number One Metric
24:24 The Rush to Automate
27:44 The ROI of Developing People
29:35 Selling Without Salespeople
34:56 Everyone Is Trainable
38:46 Forget the Tip
40:19 Where to Find Preston
Links:
John Staub: / john-staub
Travis Hall: / travis-m-hall
Preston Lee: / preston-lee-restaurant-development
Preston on Instagram (@the30rule): / the30rule
The 30% Rule: https://30percentrule.com
The Hospitality Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Hospitality-Ha…
Dataliction: https://dataliction.com
The Business & Faith Podcast—learning from leaders whose experience and faith shape how they grow their organizations on purpose. New episodes weekly. Brought to you by Dataliction. Follow us and keep the conversation going. Enjoy this episode? Leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear it!