The Restaurant Finance Podcast
Sep 16, 2026 · 27 min · 10 segments
How do you take a culture built on radical transparency and high operational standards into an environment where guest stress is high and time is scarce? Michel Falcon, founder of Brasa Peruvian…
Michel FalconGuestJames TiceHost
And the reason I smiled is because I just recorded a piece of content that I'm going to release probably next week on this very topic and getting comfortable with uncomfortable conversations.
And in this piece of content, I draw comparisons to Michael Jordan in the last dance series, uh, Netflix series.
And I'm going to long story short, but in episode two or three, he's getting criticized for being too hard on this team.
And his response was, and I'm going to butcher this, but that's easy for you to say you've never won anything before.
pretty disarming now when you have a difficult conversation or are going to say something that might be draw some conflict number one are you having this conversation in an emotional state if you are sit on it for a bit longer remove the emotion two are you right Like with all the evidence that you have, are you able to handle any objections or rebuttals or responses in a diplomatic way? And number three, are your intentions pure? Are you truly trying to get to a resolution or are you throwing daggers? that ties into the first step of, are you in an emotional state?
So if you go to have an uncomfortable conversation, you have to go through experience first.
The problem is, is that learning through experience, you might hurt relationships along the way as you get past this learning curve.
So the safe bet is is to gear down a little bit, draw back until you're absolutely certain and confident.
And one thing that I have found that works well, whether it's in professional or personal relationships, is James, if you and I had to have a difficult conversation or one that might cause conflict, if not handled well, the first thing I'm going to say is, James, I want to talk to you about something, but just know that it's coming from a good place.
You might be like, what's coming my way? But at least you use language to let James know, like, this isn't coming from a bad place.
We just have to have a conversation around something that might be difficult.
And from there, it's up to both parties to kind of play ping pong back and forth and discuss.
Like for me, one thing I always talk about in leadership is like conflict creates relationships.
And the reason I smiled is because I just recorded a piece of content that I'm going to release probably next week on this very topic and getting comfortable with uncomfortable conversations.
And in this piece of content, I draw comparisons to Michael Jordan in the last dance series, uh, Netflix series.
And I'm going to long story short, but in episode two or three, he's getting criticized for being too hard on this team.
And his response was, and I'm going to butcher this, but that's easy for you to say you've never won anything before.
pretty disarming now when you have a difficult conversation or are going to say something that might be draw some conflict number one are you having this conversation in an emotional state if you are sit on it for a bit longer remove the emotion two are you right Like with all the evidence that you have, are you able to handle any objections or rebuttals or responses in a diplomatic way? And number three, are your intentions pure? Are you truly trying to get to a resolution or are you throwing daggers? that ties into the first step of, are you in an emotional state?
So if you go to have an uncomfortable conversation, you have to go through experience first.
The problem is, is that learning through experience, you might hurt relationships along the way as you get past this learning curve.
So the safe bet is is to gear down a little bit, draw back until you're absolutely certain and confident.
And one thing that I have found that works well, whether it's in professional or personal relationships, is James, if you and I had to have a difficult conversation or one that might cause conflict, if not handled well, the first thing I'm going to say is, James, I want to talk to you about something, but just know that it's coming from a good place.
You might be like, what's coming my way? But at least you use language to let James know, like, this isn't coming from a bad place.
We just have to have a conversation around something that might be difficult.
And from there, it's up to both parties to kind of play ping pong back and forth and discuss.
Like for me, one thing I always talk about in leadership is like conflict creates relationships.
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