Michel Falcon | Why Your Employees Should Come Before Your Customers | ChatGTM S2 E42

Inside The Conversation

*Should employees come before customers? Michel Falcon believes they should, challenging one of hospitality's oldest rules.*

In *ChatGTM S2 E42*, Michael Beck and Chad Horn sit down with *Michel Falcon*, entrepreneur, restaurateur, bestselling author of _People First Culture_, keynote speaker, and founder of *Brasa Peruvian Kitchen*, for a candid conversation about company culture, restaurant leadership, hiring, employee retention and customer experience.

Michel describes Brasa's culture as *“friendly, high performance.”* Kindness matters. Performance matters. Accountability matters. Putting people first doesn't mean lowering the bar.

🔥 *WHY RESTAURANT HIRING MAY BE BROKEN*

Michel believes restaurants often create their own turnover problems by hiring too quickly.

Brasa intentionally makes candidates work for the opportunity. Michel says the company pays approximately *21% above industry peers for comparable roles* and experienced only *9% employee turnover last year.*

One application question says a lot about what Brasa looks for:

*“Have you ever been called kind before?”*

But kindness doesn't replace accountability. Michel explains how leaders can invest deeply in employees while maintaining exceptionally high performance standards.

🤯 *SHOULD CUSTOMERS COME SECOND?*

Michel openly challenges “the customer always comes first.”

His argument isn't anti-customer. If extraordinary customer experiences are created by employees, leaders need to create an environment where employees actually want to deliver them.

The conversation explores *people-first leadership, restaurant hiring, employee retention, hospitality, customer experience, company culture, customer lifetime value* and creating what Michel calls an *“unfair” customer experience.*

🍽️ *BUILDING BRASA*

Michel is putting these ideas into practice at *Brasa Peruvian Kitchen*, his healthy Peruvian fast-casual concept. Brasa began as a small ghost kitchen and expanded into Toronto and New York.

⏱️ *CHAPTERS*

00:00 Welcome to ChatGTM
02:36 Meet Michel Falcon
04:50 Origin of People-First Culture
08:35 Human Relationships at Work
11:06 Employees Before Customers?
12:04 Minimum Pay, Minimum Effort
14:42 Defining Your Company Culture
16:15 Friendly + High Performance
17:40 Solving Restaurant Turnover
20:29 Why Restaurant Hiring Is Broken
21:06 Michel's Hiring Test
24:03 The Biggest Culture Mistake
26:18 Watching His Father Lose a Restaurant
29:26 Michel's Brilliant Interview Question
31:22 Kindness + Accountability
32:36 The “Unfair” Customer Experience
33:31 Stop Nickel-and-Diming Customers
35:01 Building Brasa Peruvian Kitchen
37:36 Peruvian Superfoods
41:08 Designing Great Hospitality
43:58 Rapid Fire
45:32 People-First Isn't Fluffy
46:37 Final Thoughts

👇 *YOUR TURN*

*Who should come first in hospitality: the employee or the customer?*

Tell us why in the comments.

🔔 *Subscribe to ChatGTM on YouTube* for conversations with the leaders shaping restaurants, hospitality, technology and GTM.

🟢 *Follow ChatGTM on LinkedIn:*
https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/chatgtm-podcast/

*Real people. Real conversations. Real insight.*

#ChatGTM #MichelFalcon #PeopleFirstCulture #RestaurantLeadership #CompanyCulture #HospitalityLeadership #EmployeeExperience #CustomerExperience #RestaurantHiring #RestaurantIndustry #Hospitality #IncTankGTM

Put The Conversation To Work

Explore how media, relationships, and go-to-market execution can help your business move forward.