Shereen Ritchie: From LEON to Kuvi Hospitality's Coyo Taco UK Launch

0:00And yeah, Koovy Hospitality, it's our first brand. So Koovy Hospitality was formed to bring over brands from America as a master franchise partner. And we look for brands that we just think are special, that are cool, trendy, places we want to be, something that is unique and that we think we could do a great job at bringing to the UK. And I walked into Tea Drive Fridays and I'd never been before and I sort of walked in and was like, I need a job. And the manager stood at the door and he said, how old are you? And I'm like, I'm 16. And he's like, how old are you? And I'm like, I'm 16. And he went, I need to check your passport.

0:37And I was like, I'm 15. But I'll work really hard. And he said no. And I burst into tears. And he was a bit taken aback and he was like, it's a bit of a reaction. And I said, you don't understand. I need to dance. I can't afford my dance lessons. And he said, right, what do you need? I said, I need to earn 20 pound a week. And he went, right, you can do two shifts a week and I'll pay you£20 cash in hand, no more.

0:56Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:So here we are at wonderful Coyo Taco, the place to be, the hottest restaurant in London. And today's episode is with the group CEO, Shireen Ritchie. Now, what a powerhouse of a businesswoman this lady is. We talk all about her early years, starting out in hospitality, doing every single job under the sun at TGI Fridays, becoming MD of Leon. And now here she is building an absolute empire as the CEO, the group CEO of Coovy Hospitality. You are going to love this show. So let's get into the episode. So welcome to Brave Bowl. Brilliant, Shireen Ritchie here in Coyotaco. Thank you so much for having me.

1:44Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:Thank you so much for coming to our bar. Well, it's more than a bar, isn't it? It's more than a bar. It's more than a bar. And actually, in your role as Group CEO of Cuvie Hospitality, we're here in this wonderful venue, which has recently opened, isn't it, Shavine? 12 weeks. Week number 12. I can't believe it. Week number 12. So, yeah, we have the Taqueria next door. This is Bar Coyo. And, yeah, Cuvie Hospitality, it's our first brand. So, Cuvie Hospitality was formed to bring over brands from America as a master franchise partner and we look for brands that we just think are special that are cool trendy places we want to be something that is unique and that we think we could do a great job at bringing to the UK Koyotako the moment we went to Koyotako in Miami which is where it was born met the founders Alan Sven and Scott we knew that we had to bring it over so the deal was done actually really quickly for franchise deals can take quite a long time but the deal was done super quickly um and we've been open 12 weeks we built it in 12 weeks as well so yeah it's been a a busy first part of the year amazing well congratulations thank you so much so exciting but the the best is yet to come obviously you're just on the start of the journey really start of the journey uh we will sign our second site on friday so i can't tell you where it is but we sign on friday a soho location and we start building on Monday.

3:09And we will build it in six weeks. My builder will tell you eight, but we'll do it in six. We'll get it done. And then, yeah, we'll have site number two. How exciting. Well, you are a ball of energy.

3:25Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:A ball of energy. So I have no doubt. I have no doubt that you'll be on that six weeks, six weeks. So it's going to be a really sort of race, actually, isn't it? Because that's a fast turnaround. it's a really fast turnaround and i keep promising the team it will get more structured it will get slower but i just think that startup mentality and it's been and i'm sure we'll talk you know all the way through my career and even in somewhere like leon where we had 100 sites you know eight franchise partners it was still very fast paced and we were still wanting to be nimble and agile and i say it all the time you know we can put a man on the moon you know don't tell me we can't build a site in six weeks of course we can we can exactly let's keep it real Let's keep it real.

4:05Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:I'm not trying to split the atom. We make it complicated sometimes, don't we, in business? Exactly. And this site is 3 ,500 square foot. We're going into like 1 ,500 square foot. Yeah. So it'll be easy. I have no doubt. It won't be easy. So, Shereena, talk about the early years. How did you get into this? Because you've got a really, really in-depth experience in the world of hospitality. You were MD of Leon. You've had loads of time at Costa with a good friend of ours as well, Jason Cotter. And even before that, TGI Friday. TGI's, yeah. I was actually in TGI's. So when I was, I say I grew up on the wrong side of town and I used to bunk off school and dance at Pineapple Studios because I wanted to be a dancer and an actress.

4:55And I thought I was good at it at the time. And they put the prices up and my lunch money didn't cover it. So I remember getting the bus to Lakeside, which is where I knew where I lived, and I walked into TJ Fridays. And I'd never been before. And I sort of walked in and was like, I need a job. And the manager stood at the door and he said, how old are you? And I'm like, I'm 16. And he's like, how old are you? And I'm like, I'm 16. And he went, I need to check your passport. And I was like, I'm 15. But I work really hard. And he said no. And I burst into tears. And I think he was a bit taken aback.

5:23And he was like, a bit of a reaction. And I said, you don't understand. I need to dance. I can't afford my dance lessons. and he said right what do you need i said i need to earn 20 pound a week and he went right you can do two shifts a week and i'll pay you 20 pound cash in hand no more and that person was jason cotter who was general manager of lakes i tgi fridays at the time who then went on to be the legend that is jason cotter um ollie and steen arcturus trice bang costa um his cv is legendary um and yeah he he was a huge part of believing in me and at the time in the 90s he had no idea um you know it wasn't really spoke about how you develop people and tgi has led the way when it comes to development and training and nso's but even then we didn't talk about psychology like the way we do now jason just did it naturally and he is a huge huge part of how i stayed in hospitality and he put up with me um i think he may have fired me a few times but re-employed me um he took me to manchester with him when he moved up there as ops manager and he gave me so many opportunities and I think it really you know I say it now I bleed red and white because I learned so many values and life values through TGI Fridays and Swan Theory walking on water you know and all of those great things that anyone that knows the industry will know when you talk about TGI Fridays you know they really set the playbook back in a day so I feel very fortunate that Faye took me there that day and that Jason paid me cash in hand and then gave me a job and I did everything you know I started cleaning tables and then went on to be a pot wash um and then you know I went on to the bar and I did everything I did the kitchen um and it really was 10 years of a lot of growing up it wasn't all amazing you know I did a lot of growing up in TGR Fridays but I ended up very fortunately where I truly believe I belonged yeah and and it's funny isn't it because sometimes

7:17Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:it's just a serendipitous moment where someone comes into your life and it feels like for a reason when you look back and obviously jason was a key key person for you and jason was on the podcast um brave bob and in fact it was jason that introduced us to each other and he said you have to have to have shireen on the podcast and here we are so i'm very grateful for jason as well for connecting us but when you start out in those kind of roles i started out in a chippy My first job was in a chippy, actually, back in the day. I tell you, that nylon dress and the tabard, whatever it used to be. Yeah, one spark could have gone up like a Roman candle.

7:58Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:But when you do those kind of front-facing jobs, whether it's waitressing, bar work, I was also in the pot washer, you know, it does teach you a lot in those early formative years, doesn't it? Around customer service and, you know, the work ethic, team, all that sort of stuff. You don't realise it at the time. but actually how important was that sort of start for you do you think in terms of where you've grown your career and here you are you know the big boss etc so so important so so important um and it certainly isn't saying going down the route of university or anything like that wouldn't be in education but doing it until you have been on a pot wash doing a 10 grand shift covered in god knows what with a smell there's a unique smell that you only get in a restaurant pot wash that you'll never get anywhere else and maybe in a really bad sluish plant somewhere um until you've done it you don't know how hard it is right yeah and i'm very big anyone that joins the team we work every single station i've worked every single station in this restaurant um and i always would do because you you you can never forget what that's like right and people go you're the big boss you know what you could remove me from this business and it would run day in day out yes the strategy might go off and eventually the wheels would fall off but you remove the people in this building doesn't work at all yeah stops immediately um and you can never ever forget that and i'm very very big and again i learned this from tgis and through other great leaders that i've worked with and through other communities um if you can't sit in the ivory tower right i won't ever sit and go oh i know what the team want you know i have no idea what a 20 year old wants you know when i was 20 I just wanted to go out and drink tequila shots and go out and party you know so I don't know what people want nowadays so it's a team that will tell you so I think it's really important to never forget one you know where you come from as a human but also what the team around you do.

9:52Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:And what talking about early life because obviously you know 40 well 15 sorry going into TGIs but what was life like for you as a kid growing up what was sort of home life like for you yeah so my biological father and i'm really open and honest about this was super violent um so i grew up in what to me at the time was normal he was very abusive to my mum and the only time my mum could leave the house would be to take me to school so we lived down the same like the same road as the school she had to walk past the shop to get to the it would take around three and a half minutes and unbeknown to me he would time her so the only time my mum would ever leave the house to take me to school, primary school, and to bring me back again.

10:32And we were never allowed to go to the shop. And I remember really, really clearly, something had come out, a new suite or something. And I remember it being the summer. And it was just before summer holidays. And all of my friends, I was six years old, were going to get this new suite. And I remember crying to my mum going, please, please, please. And her going, okay. And I remember going to the shop and her going, we've got to be really quick and I've got this suite or whatever. And her screaming, I mean, there was like two people in front of us screaming we've got to be quicker we've got to be quicker and I remember thinking that's a bit weird talking about mum right it's only a queue and when we got home my biological father was at the front of the house and had come out and just knocked her unconscious dragged her by her feet into the house and there was a step that went into our porch and I remember cracked her head cracked her head open and I remember thinking oh god she's died and I remember holding these sweets and thinking I've killed my mum because I've got sweets she's dead and after that she wasn't allowed to leave the house and I had someone pick me up and take me to school and bring me back and this is the 80s this is early 80s so it wasn't like it would be now and on my seventh birthday which is Christmas time so my mum had been around six months she hadn't left the house he had told my mum that he was going to kill her he was going to kill her and he was going to take me to Egypt and he had the flights she had the tickets in front of her so so it's winter it's snowing it's 20th of december my mum wrote on a piece of toilet paper with a lipstick sos um 7 p.m and what he'd done i'd never had a birthday party so he said i was never allowed friends over and i'd been allowed for my seventh birthday friends over to the house which was a deal for me because i'd never had that um and what my mum had done in the daytime was go out into the garden and managed to say she was doing something with the bins and it's the winter right it's the 20th of december it's snowing and she'd got this white piece of toilet tissue with red lipstick and thrown it over the fence of the neighbor and we lived end of terence so there was one neighbor she threw it over the fence now what are the chances of anyone finding that luckily when it comes to seven o 'clock and the party had finished the last person left and as the last person left um police engines pulled up um and they managed to get my mum out the house but couldn't get me out because my biological dad always said he was going to kill my cat Tiddles that I loved so um and I wasn't allowed friends around so that Tiddles was a big deal to me so I ran under the table because I thought he's going to kill the cat so they got my mum out and couldn't get me out and it was a bit of hostage situation and in the end they got us out we got put into the care system and um we went on from there but yeah that was a huge you know part of my life and I think from that moment um I wouldn't change it for me I would obviously change it for my mum but it built me into the person that I am uh but yeah I always say I didn't grow up with a silver spoon I didn't grow up um on the right side of town um I had a troubled childhood but hospitality saved me and I say it so clearly and I think it's so important that hospitality it's I think the only industry in the world that you can come in with no education I had no GCSEs no qualifications I didn't do well at school and if you work hard and you surround yourself with the right people and you've got the

13:43Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:right mentality you can be somebody right you can be so and I'm not saying I'm anything special because I'm really not but I get to surround myself with people that are incredibly special I get to sit with people like yourself Christine Martin is outside who sits on our board and does boardwalk with me and I get to surround myself with brilliance and people that I want to be like and that is a privilege and I get to pass that back to people like I really take my responsibility of people so seriously because if there's someone that is a young me in the business you know or a young Jason or someone I owe that to them and I owe it to the industry and I'm in a position that I can make a difference and it is a privilege and a power that I take immensely responsibly.

14:25Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:Wow I mean gosh there's so much geez so much in there what happened with your dad when when the you know when he got arrested? So uh yeah my biological father he went to prison so unfortunately he really hurt a police officer that was trying to get me out wow um so a police officer was seriously hurt so he went to prison for a fairly short amount of time in consideration there was obviously lots of restraining orders um around around us and my mum my mum had you know quite a hard time you know it was a one-parent mum it was a different world then yeah and my mum is such a lovely person she just seemed to find herself in friendships with people that just weren't great and would you know take advantage of um and I think that's why I'm quite a strong character because I've seen I've seen people um you know take take the mickey out of my mom and then unfortunately my mom got well cracking my mom is the strongest human you'll ever meet but she got terminal cancer twice so my mom actually moved to Spain and then she got breast cancer and then it went into her lymphs so we we fought um you know the worst then she recovered and then just after I had my first child, Mason, she got bowel cancer, got rushed in, got the phone call, you know, 20 % chance that she's going to make the operation and survive the cancer.

15:43She's still with us. She is tough. She is. I am my mother's daughter. She is tough. So, but yeah, again, I wouldn't change it for me, but my mum is my biggest inspiration. And she always said to me, you can change your stars. No one writes your future, but you. And it's

15:58Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:really true right 100 % yeah because you mean we we don't choose the the world we're born into do we obviously you had it like the most extreme tough childhood that you could probably anyone could probably even imagine but yet here you are created this amazing career lovely family great life you know and what I love about you is just this energy and positivity you know so because there's always two sides to every coin isn't it you know you can either walk around with a big chip on your shoulder and I guess the abuse becomes the abuser that that often happens doesn't it where you go well actually no I'm going to choose to play a different role in in in the film of my own life you know and and and I think that's what you've done exceptionally well oh that's it's very kind that I I used to almost think is it's like my life was a film and I think it was a coping mechanism when I was younger like I'd have my own theme tunes I'd be like if even now when I interview someone I'm like if you if you did a movie of your life who's going to play you because that was how I grew up I sort of grew up like if I couldn't cope with something it would be a movie and I'd write my own story right because no one I mean my my pro-ops manager Nick has to deal with me all the time um in the sense of I'm like I won't be held to ransom we write our own stories I'm not accepting it but I think I'm a big believer in manifestation right you'll manifest what you want you write your story you're not held to anyone so talking a little bit about that because i think it's i i'm massive into a bit of woo-woo i love a bit of woo-woo um and it works for me so some people go oh god you know really but i'm like it just works for me works for me what you know might not work for you that's fine you know and that's fine but when it comes to stuff like you know manifestation visualization all this kind of you know positive mindset i mean the word mindset was never a thing certainly when i was growing up and i'm a lot older than you but It just wasn't mental.

17:51Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:I didn't talk about this stuff. Didn't talk about it. It wasn't even a thing. So where did you start to pick up some of these methods, if you like, and manifestation or meditation, whatever it might be, this whole positive mindset piece? Where did you start to evolve that, do you think? I think I've always done it naturally. I was always, as a kid, a big believer that if you can see it, you can do it and you can change your stars. But I think really understanding it, Leon was a huge part of that. right so when i joined leon um we would do wing chung we would do singing bowls we would there was so much focus we would meditate um we had a well-being room in the office we had a gym in the office and that really changed on how you can apply it to business and you're right not everyone believes in it no no but i think there's an element of if you know it's that positive mindset isn't it the glass half full it's half empty you're looking at the same glass yeah yeah you just see it a different way yeah if i write a six you see a nine yeah we're looking at the same thing you're just seeing it in different ways um and i think a big part as well when you add on to that is and i say a lot is it's not about right or wrong especially in business and i think as i've gone into my lazy years of business you realize it actually it's less about right or wrong it's just live and let live but you know what this is what works um and normally in operations especially and i think more and more as it's getting more and more challenging there's less perfect options you just pick like the least bad option sometimes going into situations the least of the bad options we'll pick that one because that's what we're left with um but yeah going into manifestation leon was a huge huge part of that um and the way we would talk and the way we would bring our leaders in together uh and i'm really grateful to what had been created because i joined leon in 2016 i think it was um and i went through a whole journey with them but yeah that was a real turning point and even down to we used insights you know we worked really closely with bane there's an amazing book called founders mentality that was written by jimmy allen um an old book but it's still amazing and if you are a founder or entrepreneur or you work with a founder or an entrepreneur you need to read this book because it's exceptional and it's timeless and I was very fortunate in 2019 Jimmy mentored me so you know you've got a real sort of psychological side of working with Bain of working with Insights, Maya Riggs and doing all the sort of profiling and learning types and really understanding on how creating you know those high performing teams and again it's not about right or wrong you know and it's okay if that's how you manifest but you don't believe in that you're very factual and you know you're pragmatic and it's all the different ways and Leon really was my first proper entry into that yeah we I mean we do a lot of psychometric profile and I like a bit like you over the years I think I've done more you know and with the teams or myself and we use um similar to insights this build on insights um so it still uses the color energies of the red yellow green blue but it's called luminous spark and what lumina spark looks at is your underlying profile so when you're relaxed at home with friends whatever your everyday so how you show up to the world and then you're overextended which is when you're under pressure when you're under stress so when we work with the clients and the teams that we're lucky enough to support we we obviously we do the individual profiling so that you get you know your self-awareness and all of that good stuff but then we look at the team dynamics and we were able to see how it shifts in particularly what's the makeup of the team where have we got gaps where have we got super strength what happens when we're all under pressure because people do move around sometimes yes and it's fascinating I love it and I just I think it's such a powerful way of looking at performance and teams and individuals and communication and how does it link to your business strategy have you got the right you know strengths that you want and the skills it's fascinating exactly and it's your conscious unconscious and it's and i think i remember doing my first ever 360 oh god i was so furious i was so furious and people have said because i you know you just think i it's not true and when you actually look at it and now i just want to know i want to know how to be better you know and you go through and you've got to go through that and you see everyone and when you see you know people coming into the industry and going through it their journeys and you go you're not going to like this but eventually you'll be really grateful for it you know and go through but it is how everyone you know and how you work you know I I'll be honest this year there have been times I have not been my best version this has been the hardest thing I thought the sound of Leon would be the hardest thing that I ever did but this this was the hardest thing I think I've ever done for multiple reasons and the best reasons all good reasons but it was super super hard and I put all my learnings from everything I'd ever done but um you then see the worst of yourself you know and you can see it and I'm very fortunate that our chair and investor, I have a coach that I still work with because you never stop developing, right?

22:37Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:There's never a point that you go, right, yeah, I'm done now. I'm put up, I'm ready. Absolutely not. So I do my sessions and we talk about it. But I think being self-aware, again, makes you a better leader. And it's OK to not be perfect, right? It's OK to have development areas. But also it's understanding superpowers. like i know what my superpower is and i know what superpowers i need you know i've got an amazing cfo um in sarah taylor you know she's amazing my cmo rebecca de manbro is amazing and i need them superpowers around me um because and that's okay right no one is good at everything you've got to know your superpower it's amazing how many senior people i meet and i go what's your superpower they're stunned yeah they can't answer it yeah but it's like you really need to think about right yeah yeah and also your purpose you know you ask people what's your life and what's your why what makes you get out of bed in the morning and it's incredible how many people just don't know because they don't want to know they've just never really given themselves the headspace to think about it and to really hold a mirror up and really dig deep and go you know am i really doing what fulfills me what makes me joyful what really is going to stretch me you know and i think the combination of of that makes for an incredible leader and and so I want to come back to Shireen what why has this year been so hard then what what are the thing what are the elements because sometimes you know I think everyone everyone judges I don't care people do judge of course and they'll see you and you've got this ball of energy and super glam and running this amazing business and the career you've had oh it's all right for you isn't it Shireen it's so so lucky Oh, you look at it.

24:18Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:It's all right for you. I get that. It's all right for you, girl. You don't really know how long it goes on behind the scenes to kind of get to a certain position. But what's been the most challenging for you this year then, would you say? I think it's building it from the bones up. And obviously, my job is to protect the shareholders' money. And before this, I was CEO of a brand called Buns From Home. And I'll be honest, I certainly wasn't perfect when I went into Buns. We took it from six to around 30 within 18 months. But there was definitely some learnings. And I think going into this, I was so conscious of what could go wrong and risk assessing, which is part of my brilliance.

24:55But it's also, it's a yin and yang. um so I was so worried about leaving everything to the last minute and you know our poor long suffering um head of ops Nick got brought in like six weeks before we opened and you know it was far too late um and I didn't bring our executive chef on until about you know I was signing the site so we're then rushing over to Miami to try and learn everything and it's translating a brand over so I think in some ways I'd made life a little bit half myself but it's just it's doing everything and people say it but it's quite lonely yeah we think how can you are surrounded by people constantly i could go to an event every night of the week but it's quite lonely and it's a huge amount of responsibility and look um i have two children and an amazing husband to look after you know ceos don't get fired for not being sustainable enough you know you don't get fired for um not picking the right fabrics on your sofa you get fired for not making enough money yeah and it's a massive massive risk it's a massive responsibility and you've got a duty of care to your shareholders and i take that again really seriously you know and we've got to get the right team in and you've got to get the right site and property is key gone are the days that open and they will come so every little thing matters and where we're adapting it and our partners in america absolutely incredible but their superpower is not writing down what they know their superpower is being entrepreneurial and going out and doing it and you know we cater for david beckham and messy loves us and it's all amazing but when i say okay give me the recipes that isn't their superpower because they just do it because it's natural to them and then i've got to bring it across the pond and translate it and i've got to hit the ground running because i haven't got time you know to get it wrong i don't get to make a first impression twice so just that pressure um yeah it was just hard and again the speed we were doing it at take it to finding the property and getting the right property took a long time and we're inst james's park just down from Westminster and there were lots of people that had said you should be in Soho and I was like it will work this site will work trust me but it's it's you know that's why you get paid what you get paid to do what you do but it's it's it's a lot of stress it's a lot of stress um so yeah it is one of the hardest things and it wasn't the easiest build there was some challenges I walked in two days before we were meant to hand over and the bar had been built which we're looking at now have been built the wrong way um round um and we had to work i think it was around 40 42 hours straight to get the bar back the right way uh because the ball had been dropped somehow um so there was yeah there was all challenges anyone that's built a restaurant or anything

27:30Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:will tell you about the challenges but this is where perspective comes in right and because when you talk when you were talking about i know all of that is absolutely completely understandable that anyone would be stressed with all that pressure right but then I guess when you were talking about your childhood and some of the things that you saw and what your mum went through and I mean you know perspective right it's true so I think that probably allows you if have you ever had a really tough time when you when you are going through stuff in business actually you go well hang on a minute you know absolutely and I don't know emotionally yeah of course yeah it's It's tacos and tequila.

28:11Like, I think, and from being a mum as well, I've really changed. And the team will tell you that, Rebecca De Mambra worked with me at Leon, and we talk about this a lot. When I become a mum, my whole world changed because suddenly everything is about your child, right? And nothing else really matters. So, yes, a restaurant might have put the chairs up half an hour before closing, which is the end of the world. But actually it isn't. you know it's all and even down to this it's it's not a big deal is everyone healthy is everyone well is everyone safe let's not get over carried away um so it's i'm quite good now at having that

28:47Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:perspective yeah and having a mentor coach you know right people in your life that you can kind of go oh god i'm having a bit of a bad day or can i just can i just run this by you and i think you're right you know in the ceo seat or in the mdc well it doesn't matter what the what the title is but if you're running the shop and the book stops with you when it comes to the full p &l it is incredibly lonely but i think the key is to have the right people around you formally and informally obviously a brilliant team but that you you know that you use a safe space to be able to go to and or ask opinions and and some of those people will be people that you've known for decades like jason or they might be sometimes new people that kind of come into your world you know more recently that have just got a different perspective and i think it's so critical to have that isn't it and that is what's great about our industry you know uh the day when i come in here i ran caroline ottoe who's md of watch house and i was like i can't do it we're not going to open we're going to cancel everything oh my god it's the end of the world and she's like no it is you know and you've we're only human yeah people sometimes think you know i haven't got all the answers because i have a job title i'm not better than anyone because i've got a job title you know it's just my superpower and what i'm meant to do but i'm only human and people sometimes forget that right um and again our industry is incredible and what's great is that we can reach out and i reach out to so many people people reach out to me and i'm like i'll have a coffee with anyone i've always got an hour and if nothing comes out of it you make new friends right yeah you make new friends and now we're friends yeah you know and i'm going to introduce you to people and and it's just an amazing community and i'm sure lots of industries and i've only ever been in this industry but i'm sure lots of industries are like it but i really do think our industry is special for that and i are you know incredible leaders and boards and chairs that i know i could ring that would be there or ops managers gms i'll ring up and be like what is this do you use this system does this work have you got an answer to that and we're you know and people like peter and christine martin they've got peach and atlantic club we have this amazing community in atlantic club which is what i mean we first went to croya taco with atlantic club in miami four or five years ago you know there's just so many amazing networks and communities um we founded boardwalk myself and christine which is to get more women on board so we've created this tribe of absolute kick-ass women that are in our industry you know because we want to lower the ladder down and ann and christine did that for me and they are a huge part in my journey and they you know have really been supporters and we're doing the same for other you know amazing women you know lowering the ladder so there's just so much amazing things that happens within the industry yeah you can't lose sight you can't get dragged into is tacos and tequila right it's been a bad shift it's been a bad shift don't worry yeah and tomorrow's another day right so sleep on it sleep on it i would say and you know it's interesting because you were talking about leon so talk about the leon journey because obviously you ended up that business you were there as md when when it got sold for 100 million yeah 100 million but that would have been a journey and and you know a lot of our listeners are either entrepreneurs that sometimes are looking for an exit actually or maybe you know might be in private world of private equity etc so to sort of build a business up and then to sell at a price like that during covid which is no mean feat at all and you said you you really developed a lot during your leon years so just through that a little bit we had just done the sale of lasaguanas um and i then was in cdg and that was a learning and then i'd gone over to leon and and you've gone over in the initial role as what as ops director ops director and then obviously the md so i went into ops director and very quickly was was doing the md role i did the md role for a long time without having the job title but um and in leon we never looked at job titles it wasn't a thing no uh really that anything so went in and it was tough times it was one of their worst trading years in 2016 2017 was all about strategic um how do we reinvent the business how do we get it to where it needs to be because john was this amazing creative leader and he was amazing in the sense he really trusted me um and we created a team and then 2018 2019 were two record years um huge record years i mean we had done in 2019 i remember at the very beginning of the year we had our ebitda target our target for my ops um team and i said to them right um someone made a comment and went i will do it by mid-year i went if you make that target by mid-year i'll take you all to vegas we'd done it i think by april so by april they had made um the ebitda requirement for the whole year so i had to then go to the board and go i didn't approve this with anyone but i'm taking the team to vegas and luckily the board anthony perrin best cfo in the world um let me do it and we all went to vegas but you know and then we went into 2020 we were going to open 22 sites we had america at the time with five sites we'd already i'd led um with the amazing charlotte d 'ichello uh the lead into sainsbury's so we'd launched a retail range we'd done about four more cookbooks we had a merchandise range in john lewis um we'd set up another brand called tuck shop so everything was go and then obviously covid hit yeah and when covid hit john's brilliance was we're not going to lay down and die we're going to start feed nhs um we're getting that's when my relationship with kate nichols sort of started that um you know and brandon from tortilla was a massive part of that i mean there's so many people uh that were part of that um john went to school with matt lucas and matt did the song about the potato um island lead feed um britain where we took all of the food you know we had airlines ringing us up i remember having a call with richard branson and he's like i've got x amount of cheese um in packets that are going to go off in a month what do you want i'll drop them to suffolk and we had we were having trucks from virgin of potatoes and cheese being delivered to a site we turn all of our sites into shops and obviously we did a lot with Henry who was in government at the time we were really just trying to make a difference and trying to feed people because this was a point that people couldn't get food and we had all of this food from supply chain so how can we get it to the people that needed it and that was one of the toughest times and one of the most fun times I've never worked as hard as I did in COVID and then the the sale come about and obviously we were talking and we had to do a CVA so the sale was dependent on a CVA now through our CVA and if you don't know how our cva works and it's done on a voting system but we wouldn't put our suppliers in we never owed a supplier anything so the only debtors were landlords and hmrc and hmrc is never going to vote for you so we had to get all of our landlords to vote um and this is where adam blaker who was our property director and anthony perrin did the most amazing job and you know their relationships and it was six months of hard work and i remember the cva went through on the 18th of december um we then were doing the sale um we all left the business everyone had left the business senior team before the sale actually went through i think the sale went through around the 4th of april um i left in march 21 um and then yeah the sale went through but it was a cumulative effort of some incredible humans believing that it could be done because if you had said to someone at the beginning leon will sell for 100 million to a partner we were partners with eg that we'd never opened anything we're for 100 million pounds in covid and the unknown like we had budgeted i think we were on uh sam mcintyre uh was i think rfd at the time and i think we was on budget 78 i think we've done 78 budgets within a four-month period you know it was an incredible sale but where we were it was incredible so um and yeah the the team that created that need to be massively proud so then that was obviously and then the plan was to take time off and i took no time off at all.

36:53But yeah, it was a great time. But yeah, a lot of learning. I really, I think, there's so much greatness that come out of Leon.

37:01Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:Yeah, and to be leading through that process at such a difficult time, but also giving back to communities and doing everything, you know, that sort of, I mean, that is mad, isn't it? Having a conversation with Richard Branson about cheese. I mean, you couldn't make that up, did you, Richard? Literally. so trying trying to work out where this cheese yeah this cheese is going um but yeah and that was you know the halo effect of leon i think that there's um people very kindly talk about the halo effect of what we're creating here um but you know i think when you look at absolute gold standards of creating that halo effect you know we were doing gut health before gut health was a thing we did a cookbook with megan rossi before megan rossi had done bio me and and obviously she was incredible then but before she's gone on to do what she's doing now but we were always ahead of the curve um and i think having that freedom to be able to say right we're going to do this we're going to do that uh and that is it's special to get that you know and to find investors that will allow that i feel very grateful for where we are now yeah that our investors are very much like we trust you you can do it and i've got a team that knows our executive chef paolo like he goes we're going to do this and we're going to do that and i'm like brilliant i trust you yeah you're the right superpower in the right place yeah well it's innovation isn't it is as well as having the core solid business that you've got it's like that constant evolution to keep the brand relevant and fresh and i want to talk about the importance of brand because leon obviously a massive brand you build an incredible brand here which you've brought over from the states um you know so so what's your approach to building really great brands what what are some of the key things that you think are really important i think everyone talks about culture and values like it's a buzzword but growing up in fridays i mean we lived the culture before i even knew what culture meant yeah you know i think you've got to have it and values aren't something you write on a wall in an office in fact we don't have an office and we probably never will we don't even have an office here we turn it into a tequila store much better use of space but you know values aren't things that you write on the wall i think it's it's how it stems from the top i always believe where the money comes from so it's how you lead but brands it's about being innovative it's about talking to your consumer it's about knowing what you are right and i think we are not confused as a brand we know what our superpower is we know what we do and we do it really well um and i always i'm a massive believer of not worrying too much yes we look at competition but worry about what you're doing look inwards don't worry about what everyone else is doing um i remember a founder for somewhere that i worked ringing me up and going we should do sushi because i've just seen wasabi's numbers and henry does an amazing job at wasabi but i'm not talking about nothing through sushi we're not doing sushi but i've seen their numbers and you know you just got to know what you're doing well and i think again look gone are the days where open and they will come we have brand specialists our partners have cut the ball you know we do have brand specialists you do have to work it social now plays a role in a way like it's never played a role before yeah right influencers you know are the new critics you know whereas back in the day it would be we want and don't get wrong it's still amazing but you want jay rayner to come in right now you want eating with todd to come in you know you want top jaw to come in it the world has changed um and social but that that's so exciting that gives you such an amazing reach you can talk to whole communities so as soon as my nieces found out what I was doing they they rang me and they went crumble cookie you've got to bring over crumble cookie I had no idea what crumble cookie was my niece has never been to America how do you know what crumble cookie is and then they're bringing me about Jersey Mike's again how do you know you've never been but it's a power of social right and you get that reach and it just makes it more relevant what we're doing and I just think people now crave although we're surrounded by a world of AI and a world of digital I think even more and more the counteraction to that and I believe there's always a yin and a yang is people crave that social interaction yeah we are social creatures there is nothing that is ever going to replace that and i just think exciting evolutionary ways of dining and we're not doing anything crazy here but simon sternion very kindly said that he thinks what we've done here is the new wave of casual dining and it is uh we're not traditional casual dining but it is the new wave i think this is how people want to eat you know it is we're value-led yeah um and it isn't about price it's about value we are great value we're not the cheapest um and we're not meant to be but we're good value you can come and eat for 10 to 15 pounds and have a great time get a great frozen margarita uh they're very very good they're excellent in fact i mean we were selling 150 liters of frozen marks uh by by week two a day um so you know build it and people will come in that sort of instance if you stay true to what you are but gone are the days now that you can pull the wall over people's eyes in covid people learn a lot right they learn about food they learn about um where their food comes from we get asked more now than than ever since covid around you know what are your standards what do you do what is sustainability what are you doing what are you giving back and i think it's brilliant you know be best in class and look hospitality is hard i know it's hard but also again with that there are people winning out there be best in class if you are the best latin american cuisine you will win if you are the best at pizza if you are the best you know at burgers you'll win everyone has a relationship with food healthy or unhealthy i believe you know the the day that we go and see our maker um or wherever you believe you go when you pass one of your top five memories will include food it might be a wedding a day the toast you had after you gave birth to your first child whatever it is food or drink is somewhere in our memories yeah we get to be a part of that so i'm not a doctor saving lives i'm never going to say that i am but you know what if you come for your mum's 70th birthday that photo is going to be on your mantelpiece to the day that you die and i was part of that you know i gave that wow i gave your daughter a sticker you know because she was crying because I don't know if you wanted a milkshake and we don't do milkshakes.

43:14You get to make normal moments into something special. You get to bring joy through food and everyone has a connection. And we get to be part of that. How amazing is that?

43:25Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:Oh, so cool. And you're right, it's about experiences. It's about meaningful moments. I mean, my background's in the travel industry, primarily, as you know, Shereen. And travel is similar. You get similar passionate people love to travel, whether you're frontline and you might be a rep in the destination or whatever it might be. But you're creating memories. You're creating beautiful moments for people and experiences. And you're right, you know, those memories, that human-to-human connection cannot be replaced by tech. And AI is great. Tech is great. It allows us to go further, faster. But you have to get the right combination.

44:00Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:If you're in a service industry, it's human-to-human. It's relationships. It's how the waiter made you feel or how the barman, you had a chat with a barman and it was a memorable moment you know it's that isn't it that you can't just replace that you can't it is impossible and again it's yeah it's we get to i used to be at buns from home and we had a site outside a hospital and we would sell boxes of buns that the majority were going into the hospital and it was such a privilege that you don't know you know if it's a birth or if it's something you know more challenging but we got to be part of that and we got to make a difference and someone got to share a bun and smile over a sweet treat um you know and a cup of coffee yeah and we got to be part of that and make that experience a little bit better and that's a huge huge privilege and it's the same around it doesn't matter if your price point is two pounds uh or a pound 30 for a greg sausage roll or you know a hundred pound for a beautiful high-end anniversary meal it's someone chooses to spend that money that they've worked for that they've earned with you every single person that works in here i'm so grateful for it's such a privilege that they want to come in here um and we owe that to them and i think that's where the brands really you know that resonates with them and they really care because you do get it wrong we certainly don't get it right it's how you recover right some of our greatest and loyalist guests even 12 weeks in because of our first weeks you know we didn't get it right are the people that we got it wrong but we recovered you know it's how you recover it's how you bring it back and everyone's only human and people normally understand that right oh 100 and i think there's lots of data isn't there that if you've had someone that's been an unhappy customer an unhappy guest whatever it might be and if you resolve that actually they're more loyal than if they hadn't had the problem in the first place the data is absolutely absolutely true but i think you know this is about being honest isn't it's about saying oh sorry we got you know we didn't we messed up there let's make it right give us another chance and I think if you can have that kind of dialogue with a client with the customer then it just changes the relationship doesn't it because like you say we're human we're all human who go oh great yeah fantastic you know please thank you um and that and that for me is is the joy of hospitality it's a joy of travel it's a joy of leisure you know travel leisure hospitality sex is a special I mean so special even down to i've been talking to travel i took my kids to disney it's fortunate enough you know we went and had a trip to disney and it's like the most magical place on earth and we used to speak about it in lacer grannis a lot moz our old md used to work in disney so we used a lot and i'd never been and eventually was able to go and it yeah it oh you remember it forever right and the person i remember holly from virgin booked it for us you know and she spent all the time and told us about it and she probably had the conversation a million times right but i remember it and it made it's so special and it's stuff like that that you remember totally yeah right so you know uh and uh that that was a change i guess you know big change all of a sudden you're huge you know you've got little humans that are dependent on you and and that relationship is is so is so crucial but you are still incredibly ambitious you're running the business you're going a million miles an hour how do you and i don't i hate the word balance because i don't think it necessarily exists i think you need to be fully present in a moment you know this whole concept of sort of like this i I don't think actually plays out over life, yes, but you're always going to have highs, you're going to have lows, you're going to have times when you've got to be fully with the kids, times when you're fully with the business, you know.

47:33Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:But how do you manage to kind of make it work for you, do you think? Yeah, look, it's hard. It's really hard. And I certainly don't have all the answers. I think I have a saying, don't let perfection be the enemy of good. And I live my life by that. um i am a wife or i'm a mum foremost a wife uh a leader i'm a sister i'm an auntie i'm a daughter i'm a friend um i i sometimes do all of them terribly and if i over index in one something else gets dropped right um and you've just you've just got to manage it and balance it i'm very very fortunate um that i have a husband that is an amazing dad and looks after the children so i can do what I do um I have a four-year-old Tiger Lily and Mason Wolfe who's seven um Mason when he was born I went back to work after eight weeks um which was a challenge I'd set that up myself but I hadn't quite realized um I really changed as soon as I had him even uh being pregnant I remember being massively overdue and being on the floor in Moorgate and like looking under an oven and I don't know it was dirty or something and absolutely kicking off and then just looking at me going, Shireen, like you're, you're heavily pregnant.

48:45Like you should be getting induced. Why are you on the floor in Moorgate looking under an oven? And I'm like, no, it needs to be done. And then when Mason came and I was like, oh, okay, this is what everyone's told me about. And yeah, but I went back to work and, you know, worked super supportive. Then when I had Tiger, I got to take a little bit more time with her, but I am a working mum and that's okay. Right. it isn't about right or wrong um it isn't about you know um it's got to be what works for you and it works you know for us as a family uh but yeah i don't win everything all the time and you've got to be okay with that you've got to set yourself expectations you've got you know be able to prioritize i think i work quite smart i think being a mum makes you be able to be organized even more so being a leader makes you be able to be organized even more so so but it's hard it's really really hard and and something's always got a gift you know what if I'm at that award ceremony or I'm talking on that stage I'm missing a football lesson you know or I'm missing you know putting the kids to bed it's hard but I wouldn't change it for the world and people go can you have it all and I don't know I hate that saying but you know what I will just I'm very very aware internally being happy is what's important right I really want to be successful but as long as my kids my friends and family all right it's just about being happy do what you love and when you stop loving it don't do it anymore yeah i just just don't sweat the small stuff yeah that's and

50:11Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:that's it isn't it you can you can do the best you can and that's it isn't it but a great friend of ours chap called russell amrasekara who's a character and a half he's been on the podcast but he used to um he was in travel for many years he was a comms director for tui but he then went on to present wish you were here with judith chalmers and he's a life coach and he's very flamboyant very flamboyant guy um and he has a saying he's and it's super simple i love it he says just ask yourself is it useful is it joyful yeah and hopefully it might be both and but it's got to be at least one of them yeah whatever you're doing in life and if it's not then you know the answer you need to change and stop doing what you're doing uh but i love that it's so true concepts right i remember emma woods um saying to me a couple of years ago with paul mckenzie um and i was like juggling i was struggling i think everyone could see i was stretching myself too thin and she went let me give you a piece of advice she went saying no to something is saying yes to something else and i use that all the time you know if i say no to that event i'm with my kids or if i say no to this i'm doing this and it's really empowered me and it's saying so simple but i use it over and over and over again um yeah so these these little golden nuggets that just land and sort of resonate and then you go actually yeah i'm going to i'm going to use emma woods actually she's been on the podcast as well of course she's on her conversations in uh confidence yeah she's fabulous and this is this is the joy actually of when you meet cool people doing interesting stuff then you get to you know have amazing conversation like this that then actually helps helps people you know because they listen to this and go god it's given me the courage or the motivation again it's i believe you you become who you surround yourself with i believe you know and like you get to hang out with people at Emma Woods and Paul McKenzie and you know Robin Roland and oh my god these amazing humans um yeah life's good don't sweat small stuff yeah exactly so when you look I mean I'm gonna ask you what are you most proud of do you think when you look back through your your kind of life crikey I know it's a big one family is obviously an obvious one Obviously, yeah.

52:26What am I most proud of?

52:31Oh, God, there's so many different levels. It's so many different levels. The thing I've seen, obviously, other than my children, being most proud of is I did a charity cycle around Taiwan. It was the hardest thing I've ever physically done. And I did it. I did it. So I'm actually immensely proud of myself about that. I don't know. I'm not really proud of myself that much. I think hopefully I'm a good human. My mum, you know, spent a lot of time hopefully raising me well. Yeah, I don't, I think maybe that's that. You've stuck me with that one. I don't often get asked. I get asked a lot of questions, but I don't often get asked what I'm actually proud of myself.

53:03I think I'm proud of Boardwalk that we've created. I'm proud of some of the work I've done with Only a Pavement Away, who I'm an ambassador for. yeah I'm proud of the teams that I create yeah it depends it's lots of different levels but there isn't one for me one particular thing would be the two in the cycle inside one because it's the hardest thing I've ever done I didn't die I didn't die uh I really thought I might at one point um you know and we raised nearly half a million pounds you know that's that's quite impressive and the difference that that made I'm proud of the career I've created for myself I'm proud that because I mean when we talk about only a pavement away I remember Greg saying to me he called it only a pavement away because we are all only a pavement away from a bad move right and we really are and I think the older to get you more you realize that when I was younger there was one or two moments in my life and some decisions that my life could have been very very different and it really could have been and I'm very honest about that and I'm grateful that something guided

54:04Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:me to make the right decision and I am now I'm not in a completely different situation because there was definitely times where I was only a pavement away from being in a very very different place yeah yeah yeah and that's it and I think I think you know as interesting as you I could see your sort of process thing and what am I proud of oh that and then that then as you got going there's a lot there's so much to be proud of isn't it but I think you know who we become on this journey is quite interesting, I think, for all of us, you know. And what's next? Who's the person that, you know, we're going to continue to shape and develop and evolve into, you know, over the course of the next five, ten years, 20 years, 30 years, however we've got, you know.

54:45Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:But what would be next for you, do you think, then, Shireen? For me? Well, day job, build the empire. Yeah. Day job, build the empire. And I guess going into sort of what you said, we haven't really spoke about it, but I talk a lot, especially through ballroom about personal brands and i think when you get to a certain level um in any industry you have a personal brand so i always say to people have you got a personal brand and they go no i'm gonna go you have so you you rather control the narrative or or you're unaware about it so it's making that unconscious conscious um and you know it's exhausting sometimes being the brand you know being the leader you have to go my husband goes mental oh you're out drinking and yeah I'm in a beautiful restaurant drinking champagne it's very very hard but you know what I'm actually knackered yeah I've done 100 hours this week I'd rather be with the kids but this is really important because it's an important part of my job and I think that personal brand side but on the great side of that I joke um around a tv show I joke about a book and when things go wrong I'm always like it'll make a great story in the book but actually they're all things that will happen you know I think our industry people are so interested with it obviously there's lots of tv shows around our industry but you know we've got some great ideas around boardwalk and can we have a tv show and there's definitely going to be a book and a conference and the day job is going to build an empire you know and i've got that duty to the people that have been here from the beginning you know people left amazing jobs to come and follow me when we had nothing i will build them an empire uh and that's so exciting and i will leave a legacy and we will do so much good with it and you know the bigger we get money isn't a dirty word right i'm very very clear on saying that all the time but money will generate opportunities it will generate abilities to do stuff um to give back to work more with the charities to do more things um to be more than bricks and mortar because it's got to be more than bricks and mortar i love this restaurant i love this bar here far too much but it's got to be more than than than a beautiful tequila in a nice bar it's got to be more than that yeah well i have no doubt at all that all of that is going to happen it's already done done there we are it's done there's going to be a tv show honestly prime minister i mean someone's got to do it a little better than what we get anyway but no um there's there's lots of opportunity but i am i'm definitely in that sense entrepreneurial that i would always be be striving to do something amazing and if you think about the best piece of advice you might have been given over the years is there a standout advice that's kind of really stood you in good stead or it was pivotal at a certain moment for you yeah i think for me being told probably as i started going into my leadership journey to be your authentic self uh i as lots of women do their leadership journey was surrounded by a lot of men and i think i used to go into a meeting trying to communicate like a man would communicate what would a man say in this situation how would they behave in this way and i would meet in barriers because i wasn't being my authentic self right you've just got to work out how to evolve yourself um to be your best version because there's no one else available so being your authentic self and again it's a bit of a buzzword be authentic but it's really true and actually there's so many people that look at other people they admire and they try and be them i admire you i admire emma woods i admire kate nichols but i can't be like any of you i've got to be me yeah yeah you know and lean into your authenticity and i'm not everyone's cup of tea you know um but i always say it i made more out of my life by being marmite than i ever would by being jam so you've just got to embrace who you are right yeah i love that more more more i've made more out of my life by being marmite than I never ordered this.

58:32Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:I love that. It's true. I've never heard that saying. I'm going to nick that. It's yours. See, that's the best.

58:42Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:And music. We love music. So we have a Spotify playlist, Brave Bold Brilliant. So we always like to get a song choice from our wonderful guests. What song are we going to add to the playlist? Bon Jovi these days, without a doubt. I went and saw him on Friday, touring at the moment. I'm going tomorrow. Yeah, for me, there is. and he did he did the song uh i actually went to see it with kate nichols and cried like a baby um my mom uh during her challenge when i come in from school i was around 12 years old had um attempted to take her life and you didn't but then i i didn't know how to do cpr and when i called up um 999 they told me to put a song on and this was before do you remember the advert with vinnie jones and stater it was before then they said put a song on and i put these days on and I did CPR to these days and I love the song anyway but I'm not brave enough to get a tattoo but when I am brave enough to get a tattoo and I nearly got one in Nashville in a Bon Jovi bar against just wasn't quite drunk enough I'm gonna get these days the stars ain't out of reach which is a line from the song Tattooed Here but that is without a doubt most people can't tell you a favourite song I can without blinking these days from Bon Jovi what a great choice and you're wonderful mum what's your mum's name Annette Annette Annette big shout out to Annette and my My rock, my world, best person I've ever met.

1:00:01Brave Bold Brilliant Hosts:Oh, that's so nice. And the last question, which leads in nicely from Annette. Bon Jovi. John Bon Jovi. It's a tongue twister. Oh, very slippery when wet. Slippery when wet. I used to dance too. I've still got my vinyl, actually. I've got all the Bon Jovi vinyls on the bar because we're a listening bar. And I've got all the Bon Jovi vinyls on there, yeah. I won't let them take them down. They're like, Shireen, it's not cool. I don't care. Let's have a Bon Jovi night. That's a Bon Jovi night. Let's have a Bon Jovi night. How wild would that be? But the last question. So the podcast is called Brave Bold Brilliant.