Wayne Kent Taylor

Steve Ortiz, uh, met Kent.

They were running a Bennigan's in, in Colorado, uh, Wayne Jones, Steve Ortiz and Kent Taylor.

So he had met Steve and he knew that eventually when he was going to do Texas Roadhouse, he wanted Steve, uh, to be the head of operations.

And, uh, and so after i had been introduced to steve ortiz that's where we kind of connected from that standpoint

I love being with the people.

And, you know, so whether I'm running a store, a market, a region, or a company, it's the same philosophies, right? You lead people, you make decisions, and if you make the wrong one, you change that decision, right? And so I think understanding that I'm the leader of a team of people that are leading other teams.

a team of teams right and so i think as long as everybody understands their role in their job then we will continue to have success but you know like i said i think building off of what ken did 28 and a half years we were led by kent taylor a friend of mine a mentor of mine just if you're a restaurant person you look up to norman brinker you look up to kent taylor you look up to some pioneers in this industry and i think personally ken taylor was absolutely in that conversation and you know I was a roadie I am a roadie I ran a restaurant I was a managing partner so when I stand on a stage and I'm talking to operators I know what they're dealing with to some degree and yet they feel comfortable talking to me so I think I get a lot of cred and I get a lot of cred Gina gets a lot of cred you know for being out there because we've all been in the role of a managing partner leading this company today so there's a lot of confidence in a crazy world that the people that are in charge are we're listening to our operators listening to our consumer and in trusting our gut and knowing what we got to do but the bottom line is you got to treat your employees great you got to create an environment where your your guests want to come in and spend their time and their money and you want to say thank you i mean

the big piece though here managing partners i don't know what's happening in the rest of the industry but A lot of millionaires were created along the way, right? People were getting a piece of the action.

And someone said, "Hey, these are the Biscuit Belly people." And immediately, you know, we, we hear his name.

He had been talked about in Kent Taylor's book, which, little PS, if you haven't read, um, Made from Scratch by Kent Taylor, it is so good.

And it came out really when we needed it.

We had actually shut down a couple stores, but it made me feel, like, safe and seen because Kent Taylor shut down a bunch of stores, too.

Like, he did all these things that were not, you know, did not do well.

But, um, having that access and really being able to see what we could become, I think, I mean, is so important.